Tengu Power

The optimal class for Tengus, I'm convinced, is Wizard, and the god to worship without a doubt is Vehumet, who seems tailor-made for Tengus. I finally won with one of these "glass cannons."

Courage

I don't know whether my courage has increased as I've gotten older or I've gotten short-tempered in dealing with fools. Probably the truth lies in the middle. I've faced down many a fool in the last decade, for better or worse, and many times I've been right, but sometimes I wish I had let the fool pass and get his lesson from someone or something other than myself.

When I was a boy, I scared easily, because I was ignorant and woefully unskilled in the social arena, which drew bullies to me. Nowadays I am stronger and taller of course, which matters a great deal in a pragmatic sense, and I have street smarts. Also, I am not very afraid of death, because I feel like my best years and our country's best years are behind me anyway. There isn't much that can scare me in a physical sense. The thing I really fear the most is being in the wrong. I certainly don't like the idea of being a bully myself. I like to think of myself either as a force for positive good in the world, or if compelled by the worst circumstances, at least neutral. I don't have any illusion that it is possible for a living organism to be absolutely good in every single possible circumstance. One tries to do the best one can given the available options.

What seems to provoke me the most is obnoxious, aggressive, bullying behavior, usually from men, not often directed at me due to my size and bearing but at gentle and kind people that I care about. I will assume the role of protector and accept any darts or arrows, in fact I wish to divert them all to me. I am a shield and around me in safety dwell those that I love. So I believe that courage, if not innate, can grow from a contempt of death and the placing of honor and loved ones above personal survival or enrichment.

Islamists Don't Understand History

Islamists in Mali are burning a Muslim Saint's tomb, which makes about as much sense to me as it might to you. You read that right, a Muslim Saint, not a Christian Saint. Setting aside history, aesthetics and scholarship, from a purely pragmatic perspective, destroying a historical site harms the lucrative tourist trade. I don't see a reason wealthy foreign tourists will visit Mali if not for its history or natural resources. Tourists aren't going to visit to see the ignorant barbarian Islamists, that's for sure. One can see apes at any zoo.

Death

I don't know why but I have had a morbid cast of mind for a long time now and it is increasing. I have the feeling that death is in the future, but I'm not quite sure how far away it is, yet. It can't be this month, I don't think, but could it be this year? How would the scythe connect with me--by car, stroke, heart attack, or bullet? I don't know. Perhaps I am mistaken and this morbidity is a manifestation of fear for the economy and of my future financial prospects, which have an influence upon one's health. I do feel older, it is true, and I feel acutely aware of aging, but I'm not aging any faster than most of my friends. Perhaps it is a natural part of the aging process to contemplate death and to think about what will happen after one is gone. I've always given thought to the future, even to the distant future, and I plan in advance for possibilities as well as certainties, so it is natural for me to think about the end. There are little signs and signals that let one know that the end is approaching, such as silver hairs, arthritis, bodily aches and pains, intolerance of alcohol and sugar, and fatigue. It would be foolish and short-sighted not to prepare and not to contemplate the meaning of existence.

I have no patience with theology, which seems like the outgrowth of egotism. We should be humble, because we are humble, and it is arrogant to suppose there is an afterlife reserved only for us, and that all other living organisms are condemned to be ephemeral. Our intelligence permitted us to construct an imaginary solution to the terrible problem of death, (and death really is terrible and horrifying) but whatever solace the solution offers, it remains imaginary.

I feel like I am compost, that my body is just a rental and after I'm dead, that's that, and some other life forms will feed upon my body, or if I'm cremated then most of me will transform into gas (ashes constitute only a small portion, since we are mostly water, which converts to steam during incineration), which will also be used by other creatures, inhaled by them. I suppose each of us has breathed the same air molecules that once composed part of the body of Buddha, Jesus, Shakespeare, and Mark Twain.

I don't expect to be mourned by more than a few, and don't really have a lot of regret about departing, as it is part of the deal for the human existence. I have no ambition, or only modest ambition, because the things of this world besides necessities do not interest me, and the barriers to the occupations I really would prefer to occupy, like doctor, writer, programmer, scientist or professor, are insurmountable, in today's market, to someone of my age and means. I've accomplished about what is possible given who I am and my environment.

Life is a roll of the dice. We are humble, feeble creatures, which we forget, or don't even understand when we are young, but we are temporary and our grip upon existence is tenuous at best. Life is just a series of probabilities that we will survive each successive day. Notions like justice and goodness and love are rather abstract and when we are gone they fade away from us, because we become part of the stage where other actors get to play and think about justice, goodness and love and make their own decisions about such weighty matters, decisions which have nothing at all to do with us, because we are dead and gone, part of the soil that their feet trample over, as the living think about each other without any thought to the irrelevant dead.

There is a bittersweet sense of equality that I feel with everyone, low and high, great and humble, ancient and modern. Because in the end we're all the same, aren't we? We're tilled under the soil and consumed and the earth doesn't remember who we were. What remains is the earth, for a time, and then the earth will be gone too, and the Sun as well, and the Universe. Just like that. Blip!

It is not given to us to know the meaning of existence, no more than it is given to ants to understand the secret of combustion. We are not advanced enough, not smart enough, yet, as a species, I think, to understand the reasons for our existence, for the existence of the Universe and of all things, assuming that there are reasons, and I hold out the possibility that there are, and that there may even be some kind of Creator that is unknowable and mysterious and perhaps not at all like us, but far more advanced than us, just as we are more advanced than ants. So that is why I think atheism is an appropriate description of my philosophy, because all the conceptions about God that I have heard are probably false in one way or another. If there is a sort of God then it seems probable it is unlike anything that men have described so far, and it may even be something that encompasses the totality, or a portion of the totality, rather than being a singular Being. God is probably more like gravity than a human being.

By describing God in this way, all of the common ideas about God are rendered moot, and God becomes a rather abstract thing indistinguishable from natural forces and natural law, and religion becomes superfluous. So it is possible to believe in this kind of God and be described as an atheist, because this kind of God is pretty much a phantom God that doesn't fit any of the world's major religions, but is perfectly compatible with Science and reason, and it also follows that advancements in those areas help one to understand the ways of God.

How to Get Along with Neighbors

I like my neighbors, and as far as I know, they like me too. We all follow a simple and easy protocol based in common courtesy and common sense, which is:

1. We don't play loud music. I never do, party or not, because of personal preference, but my neighbors don't play loud music more than once in a blue moon, and I can accept that very rare occasion, especially since it is always during the day and never at night.
2. We keep our animals out of each others' yards, with the exception of cats, which are welcome to patrol our yard and keep the chipmunks, birds and squirrels in check, and the occasional straying of a family dog, which is understandable, dogs being dogs. The dogs are non-threatening, friendly dogs, which is a key factor.
3. If the mailman screws up and puts the neighbor's mail in my box, I deliver it to my neighbor. I don't know whether my neighbors return the courtesy or not, but I haven't been missing any mail to my recollection.
4. We try to keep the front yard, with its high visibility to the neighbors, in good shape, although we don't mow every week like many uptight people do, because to me it seems like a waste of time, gas and constitutes a moderate level of noise pollution. If my neighbor wants to mow every single week or even twice a week then that is his business, not mine, but I don't plan to copy his behavior.

Of the above list, #1 is by far the most important. Loud music is the most effective way to transform a harmless, neutral, or even friendly neighbor into your worst enemy, even a deadly enemy in one recent case in Texas.

I used to live in an apartment complex, and the fellow that lived above me played extremely loud music on a daily basis, from the time he woke up to the time he went to bed around nine in the morning, which caused me to hate him, because one of the things I value is peace and quiet. It took a while, but eventually I succeeded in getting that SOB evicted from his apartment on an unrelated transgression--his littering of the apartment complex. His trash was blowing over into a nearby homeowner's yard, and the homeowner knew the landlord, so on my prompting she called him up and complained. Problem solved for me. Bad neighbor moved out, and new neighbor moved in. The new neighbor was quieter, although they too played the loud music about once a week. But once a week is better than every day. Eventually I saved up enough money to move the hell out of the apartment, and I bought a foreclosure. In today's economy, I feel sorry for anybody renting who can't take advantage of the low house prices of the many foreclosures on the market.

Fast and Furious

I disapproved of "Fast and Furious," a botched law enforcement attempt to track down Mexican drug cartel soldiers. Obviously it was foolish and ill-conceived, betraying a lack of understanding as to how technology works. I don't think it was the brainchild of Attorney General Eric Holder, however, and it is ridiculous to think Republicans require almost a year's worth of private emails from the White House in order to investigate the matter. The Republicans seem to be on a fishing expedition during an election year to discredit Obama, nothing more and nothing less. The NRA is clinically paranoid in raising the fear among gun owners that the White House launched "Fast and Furious" in order to pass gun control laws. NRA members need to be treated psychologically with anti-psychotic medication if that is what they truly believe, but I give them more credit than that. I think the NRA leadership is lying and just wants to help the Republicans any way they can, because they are right-wingers and like the Republicans for reasons not having anything to do with firearms.

The real lesson behind "Fast and Furious" is that law enforcement in this country is out of control, and more oversight needs to be put in place to eliminate the many abuses. Chiefs need to be fired when they make serious errors, instead of permitted to stay on the job, as is currently the practice. Republicans complain about tenure for college professors, but the reality is that law enforcement has tenure and gets away with anything at all under the Sun in many agencies, as long as they do what their bosses want, which is what the elite believes to be useful. The rights of common citizens are viewed as not as very important, something that can be ignored if an individual officer is in a bad mood or if there are other priorities, like career advancement, at stake.

Equal Opportunity Haters

It is consoling, I suppose, to know that Republicans don't just hate gay people. They also hate the workers, defined as anybody who earns under $1,000,000 a year, and anybody who goes to public schools. I was amused looking at what the Republicans have done to the public school system in Texas. Of course, Republicans destroy government institutions whenever they can. They're trying to dismantle the Post Office, so that it will cost $5 to mail a letter across the country instead of forty-odd cents. They hate Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and anything at all that helps working people. They love disease, poverty, prisons, and automatic machine guns. The only government institutions Republicans like are related to weapons and security forces, to keeping the workers down, unemployed, diseased, dying and in prison where they belong according to Republican ideology. Kill the poor and repopulate with rich people's children is the Republican way of thinking in a nutshell. If you work for a living, you are automatically worthless, because working is a sign of inferiority. If you don't work, but fight with weapons or by proxy through your henchmen, then you should make all the rules and control every single thing that everyone does. This ideology dates back to feudalism and is basically the root of Republican thought today. People that vote Republican get what they deserve, but unfortunately those who don't have to adapt to the insanity that Republicans always bring to society. Republicans break down government, because the ideal is anarchy, a state where those with the guns make all the rules.

If Romney does win in 2012, as some seem to believe, then the world will be a much less safe place, America in particular.  But I don't think that he will win, because Obama is the stronger man by any measure that one would care to apply, and this is obvious to anyone with eyes to see. Those among the Republicans who believe that strength is all, and there are some, this faction will not support Romney against Obama, because Romney is weaker. So I predict Obama will win in 2012, but the outcome of other races remains unclear to me. I hope that he carries many Democrats with him in his victory, but I am not familiar with those cases. The best scenario would be a Democratic landslide victory in 2012. Under those circumstances, the future of the United States looks brighter.

Assad Gonna Be Sad

Assad is playing the fool. Messing with Turkey is not a wise course of action during Syria's civil war. I think that Turkey has a right to and will exact payback along the border in a way that Syria's dictator won't like. Assad should be sending Turkey valentines and roses, not any heat-seeking missile. They found the heat, alright, and it's going to be breathing down their necks.

Overbearing Government Agents

One of my pet peeves is government agents that act like bullies. I think that if TSA agent, or any government agent for that matter, disturbs human remains, as in this case, then an arrest and prosecution should follow, as it would if any one of us had done the same. "Searching for drugs" is not an adequate justification for poking a finger in a man's remains, especially when X-rays and other technological gadgets are available.

Felids

I'm pretty conservative in most things outside the political realm, so that may be why I haven't tried Felids until now, but they are an interesting species. I never cared for Vampires (too much bother with the blood), but Felids seem low maintenance. One needn't even bother with weapons or armour.

Precipitous Actions in Paraguay

I don't like it when people or nations act in a precipitous manner. That is how the South behaved after Lincoln won the Presidency, and it is how Paraguay's Senate behaved in ousting President Lugo. To give the man only two hours to prepare a defense was simply ridiculous, no matter what he was accused of (incompetence? who knows?). Clinton was given ample time after the Lewinsky scandal to prepare his defense against impeachment.

The world is complicated, and people need time to consider all the details and facets of a situation before leaping to a rash conclusion. Chessplayers, at least, understand the value of taking one's time before making a decision.

The Sandusky Case

This writer for USA Today seems to suffer from Histrionic Personality Disorder himself. I agree with the verdict that Sandusky is in general guilty of the crimes for which he is accused, but I think some voices in the media are blowing the case out of proportion. No one was murdered, maimed, or wounded. All over the world, worse things are happening to people and to children than the disgusting things that Sandusky did (now after the guilty verdict, it can be said he did these things). I would like to see such words spoken for victims who are bullied, beaten, driven to despair and suicide or even killed. No one spoke up for me when I was getting bullied in high school, and I thought suicide was the only way out. Is it because sex was not involved? Is sex the magical ingredient that makes people care? I don't see why sex is worse than bloody beatings.

It is reasonable to assume that some, though not all, of the victims who came forward were motivated by the benefits of proclaiming their victimhood, in terms of future financial rewards and also the ability to blame all their misdeeds, past, present and future, on Sandusky, and also the sympathy they are bound to receive from all quarters. However, they need not be "scarred for life," a common mantra repeated by too many people. The idea that one is scarred for life is harmful and should be rejected. People are more resilient than that or should be. If I were scarred for life by the tortures I endured as a young man, then I would prefer not to think about it, even if it were true. One has to move on. An uncouth, horny, sad old man who couldn't control his urges will be punished in due course and that should be the end of it, but it is likely that some people will sue Penn State to enrich themselves. I would have liked to have sued my high school for a million dollars for all the bullying I endured. As for my gym coach, there has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that he deserves a life sentence for what he did to me. I would stand in the jury box and I would testify and I would attend every court hearing and every parole hearing in order to see justice done.

Target Shooting

When target shooters cause wildfires, they should be held liable for all property damage caused by those fires. Target shooters are also guilty for littering when they fail to retrieve a bullet casing or bullet.

The Witch

I encountered another ex last week and again felt relief at having dodged another bullet. I do regret my last and final sowing of wild oats, but the blood must out and there's nothing to be done about that. To be born a man is to feel instinct about certain things at certain times of life and at such times instinct can overpower Reason. At any rate I am on civil terms with all my exes and that is the best to be expected, all things considered. But when I embraced this individual I thought to myself, now here is a real witch, and thank the Heavens my destiny did not intertwine with this one.

I'm at peace with not procreating, but I notice many people don't have the same kinds of qualms that I do about it. It does seem to me that there are a lot of people procreating that haven't given very much thought to the future for themselves or their offspring or considered whether the time, place, and most especially the choice of partner is right or wrong. I don't know whether this practice is for good or ill (and it could even be for good), but in any case it doesn't matter to me as an individual, since my remaining lifespan in this world is limited. It may or may not be a problem for future generations. Of course if the race is diluted very much, then the ancient corrective methods will emerge to reset the balance, but that unpleasantness is for others to worry about. The question of right or wrong in this area is very contentious and hypothetical, although I am in favor of birth control and family planning and careful selection of partners, more careful than I ever was.

Kaspersky Labs

Since Kaspersky Labs aids and abets Iran and its acquisition of nuclear weapons, it may reasonably be regarded as an enemy of the United States. Any firm in the United States that purchases products from Kaspersky Labs may be regarded in a similar light.

Friends That Are Not Friends

I remember when I was a youngster, there were boys that would point a gun at their friends, supposedly in jest. Let me be clear: anyone that points a gun at another person is not a friend, but has become exposed as an enemy. Guns and other weapons are not toys and anyone who thinks they are is a damned fool and an enemy of the human race and all that is good. I was at a friend's house one day when his friend pointed a rifle at me. Afterward, I slipped away without a word and did not return. It is unwise to associate with fools. I have made it my lifelong policy to avoid fools. This recent news article is illustrative of my point.

Liberal Scandinavia

In modern times, Republicans in the U.S. scorn Scandinavia (as "socialist"), because it is highly educated, healthy, wealthy, and not involved in continual warfare. One thing Republicans are correct about is that Scandinavia has had a liberal and inclusive thread in its culture for a long time. Scandinavia was liberal many hundreds of years ago, when peasants were permitted delegates in the early parliaments. At that time, the only other European parliaments to permit peasants' delegates were Switzerland and some areas in France. I am sure that Republicans, if brought via time machine back in time, would have disapproved of peasants' delegates.

McCain

McCain looks sillier than ever for his foot-dragging on letting gays in the military. I will always remember his silly and illogical remarks and objections during those hearings on Capitol Hill. Turns out that there have been no problems as a result of "gay being OK" in the armed forces. The experience of other military forces, such as Israel, should have made it obvious that there would be no problem. Once again, McCain got burned trying to cater to the dwindling number of religious right bigots. If he had only listened to the more enlightened and charming members of his family then he would have been better off.

Stanford Goes to Jail

The sentence of 110 years for yet another business criminal was exactly right. Stealing millions from little investors all over the world is a crime that does untold damage to people's lives. It also shakes the confidence that people have in our financial system. The reason our economy is in such poor condition is because of all the business criminals selling out workers and middle-class people. Through their actions, it is quite clear they care about no one and nothing save themselves.

Putin, the New Soviet Dictator

Looks like Russia is sliding back into Sovietism again under Putin. It's no surprise really, coming from a former KGB officer. To work in the KGB, one basically had to have no conscience. So Putin fits the bill on that count. He's a psychopath who has no problem trampling on the flower of Western civilization. Once again, George W. Bush's blunders in Iraq and Afghanistan are clear. Russia, China, Syria, Iran, and North Korea are the new Axis Powers, sworn to evil and nothing but evil all the time and everywhere. North Korea in particular is so evil that it is comically and ridiculously evil.

 I think evil has a lot to do with stupidity. Stupid people and stupid leaders tend to be evil, because they fail to understand a great many things about the world and about human beings. Evil and stupid leaders tend to be boring, predictable, and very narrow in their interests. Certainly the leaders of Syria, Iran, North Korea, and Russia fit that bill. I don't know about China, because their leaders tend to stay in the shadows or else do not get much press in the West.

I never understood the fascination that certain people have with Hitler. To me, he seemed boring, bland, and tasteless. Just because a human has great wealth or power does not make him interesting. A toad with a crown is still a toad. In the case of Hitler, the toad was particularly loathsome.