Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

The apparent paradox as to why bad things happen to good people puzzled me, coming from a Christian background. Often in the media, one finds this question being posed by traumatized people who have lost a loved one. At an early age, I learned that God runs the Universe, and God is omnipotent and omniscient, and God is Good. Why would such a God allow bad things, such as death and suffering, happen to good people? This does not seem reasonable.

I believe the only way to resolve the paradox is to depart from Christian thinking and to accept that our lives do not have quite as much significance as we think they do. Perhaps they are not altogether meaningless, but we are expendable, and I think that is self-evident, with an overwhelming abundance of evidence. All of us die. Our species could fairly easily be wiped from the planet altogether, perhaps through self-destruction, as seems likely at this point, due to our propensity for tribal warfare and our advanced military technology. Would that we had remained with bows and arrows! Think for a moment about the many species that preceded us. Where are they now? There has been a lot of bloodshed and a lot of death to get to us through the long process of evolution. There were a lot of false starts.

If there is such a thing as God, then he has demonstrated utter indifference to our fate throughout the course of history, and why should he not? Our lifespan is brief, and we are fragile and succumb to a myriad of genetic abnormalities, microbial diseases and accidents that have no relation to our moral conduct. From our design, we are meant to be temporary, disposable, expendable, and readily replaced. Those who do not accept that are thinking in childish and selfish terms and can be excused for doing so, because of course, we all would prefer to live forever without pain and suffering. I don't think that God condones death, pain and suffering. I think instead that he is removed from the equation. Those things are not considered important or are a part of the cycle of life.

The idea of living creatures as temporary avatars of the One Unifying Force appeals to me, although I don't know how it works exactly, but computer games offer a glimpse into the system. To think that all matter, everything we see and everything we are, derived ultimately from stars is a deep thought. What naturally follows from that is the observation that everything has a sameness about it, being constructed of the same material and coming from the same origin. The atoms of my body could have, but for random chance, composed one of the many layers of the Sun or the Moon. In our lives, we express a consciousness that may exist only as a potential, dormant and unexpressed, in inanimate things such as the Sun or the Moon. In time, we too lose our consciousness, and our atoms become like the Sun or the Moon, incapable of giving voice to ideas or thoughts. Our atoms are only capable of consciousness for a very brief amount of time, and for the rest of eternity remain silent as the grave, unless they become absorbed into another living being--much recycling takes place on this Earth. Why should mankind be so different, so divorced from nature, from the cosmos? I think instead we express cosmic forces that already exist in the universe, and that darkness and light, good and evil, destruction and rebirth, are expressions of those cosmic forces.

To speak of things in metaphysical terms is to simplify and concentrate the accumulated hard-won knowledge of science, in all its complexity, but we should always stay grounded in science, lest we stray into error. Scientists such as Feynman scorn philosophers in general but perhaps reserve a special scorn for those that stray far away from physical science. I would not say, for instance, that there is a God that will intervene in human affairs, because I have not witnessed that, and it seems to me if there were such a God, he would have intervened long ago to stop various atrocities and right all of the things that are wrong in the world, from North Korea to Iran to Russia and even here at home in the United States. Surely a just God would not have suffered countless injustices to go unpunished upon this Earth, were he at all concerned with the doings of humankind. There are many paradoxes in the mainstream religions that remain unresolved and point to their falseness. Also, I would not say that we have eternal life in Paradise awaiting us, because I have not seen this Paradise, and all the evidence of science points toward the cessation of consciousness at death; therefore I believe, for now, that my consciousness and individuality will be annihilated at the moment of my demise. Although that is a point of intense regret for many people, I am philosophic, because it cannot be helped, and because everyone else in the same boat, and after all, wasn't I lucky even to exist in the first place and to survive for as long as I did? Isn't it ingratitude and selfishness to demand more from the Universe? Even a moment of consciousness is more than many collections of atoms ever experience. All the atoms of the Sun--when have they possessed a single thought? Yet the atoms of the Sun outnumber the atoms of the Earth, as we have been told by our scientists. Others will inherit the earth, and let us hope that they improve the condition of the ones that follow them, as we have tried in our own ways to improve conditions in our times.

Turkey is a Middle Eastern Country

The idea that Turkey can belong to the European Union is a joke. They even arrested a 16 year-old boy for insulting their President. Turkey looks a lot more like Iran than any European country. Maybe after about a hundred of years of self-improvement and reform, they may be able to join the EU on a probationary basis. They need to learn how to run a republic before pretending they can join the other European nations.

I Want to See "The Interview"

The only movie I'm interested in seeing is "The Interview," because I'll be damned if some two-bit North Korean dictator is going to tell me what I can and cannot watch. You go ahead try and bomb the theaters or whatever, and maybe North Korea will cease being radioactive after a couple hundred years.

Of course Putin ("Putrid") would hate the movie. Dictators gotta stick together, ya know. What that old rotten egg Putrid needs to understand is that Russia would be a lot better off if he had drunk some of that KGB poison, the stuff he uses on his enemies, a long time ago. The reason Russia's economy is going down the tubes is because of Putrid. There is really no other reason. Who invaded Ukraine? Putrid the stinker. Who neglected Russia's economy? Putrid. No other individual. You can't blame the West for everything. The only thing Putrid did during his time in office was eliminate Russia's civil liberties and rape her Republic and install a morally bankrupt dictatorship. He hates Russia with a passion and is fanatically dedicated to the destruction of Russia, and to that end, he seems to be doing a pretty good job. Hey, Putrid! Just because you annoy the other nations around you with your stench doesn't mean Russia is strong. Strong under the arm, maybe, but not strong.

The Scum of Mother Jones

One thing that disenchants me about Mother Jones is that their readers and writers have no manners. Everything to them is bullshik this, motherfuch that. They love profanity and ugliness and vulgarity. They hate refinement and civilization. They want to burn the whole world down. Mother Jones has no soul. It is completely grounded in tribalism. It is really no different from Fox News. Everything to them is us versus them. They hate white people, they hate police, and they hate the United States with a passion bordering on fanaticism. Meanwhile, they love tyranny, anarchy, and chaos. They don't understand science and only interpret issues based upon their own selfish needs. I can't really trust Mother Jones. It really should be renamed. Instead of Mother Jones, how about Mother Fuch? I resolve in 2015 to stop reading that site. I'm removing it from my favorites. I need to read something a little higher-level on the intellectual scale.

I deleted all references to Mother Jones that I made in cyberspace. At least I will not be contributing anything to that entity, and that makes me feel better. I don't like contributing to evil in any way. I'm  glad that I never actually contributed any money, even in the form of a subscription, to MJ over the years, at least that I can remember. I can be forgiven giving them links on a temporary basis, due to my incomplete understanding of their moral alignment. Now that I know they are evil, I have removed all links to their site.

Enthusiasm tends to be a problem. Perhaps objectivity is better in the pursuit of truth. However, we are after all animals, and we are subject to passions. To be passionate about something is not necessarily bad. It is, instead, human. I am lucky in that my passion for what is good exceeds my passion for tribal loyalty to any particular brand.

What Mother Jones really needs is a good trojan horse to permit an inside look at the emails and internal documents revealing where their funding is coming from. Unexplained is how that outfit is able to produce so much reporting without much of a subscriber base. I've never known a single soul that reads MJ, let alone subscribes to it, and I seldom find it in grocery stores. I guess screaming "Bullshi-" every other sentence is a turn-off to more people than just me.

Perhaps the editors of Mother Jones suffer from Asperger Syndrome. They lack essential social skills. They think they're fine, but other people, their potential audience, perceive their lack of civility, their rough manners, their ugliness. And that is why Mother Jones speaks to the few rather than the many, and why this will always be the case, until the management of MJ is replaced by competent management.

Effortless

I used to become attached, to love in the old-fashioned romantic sense, which is an immature manner of relating to beautiful and superior beings. It is instinctive, for obvious reasons, but it is primitive, and one must progress past that infantile stage.

The perfect being does not attach in such a way to others. He may admire, respect and even love others. To become completely and utterly attached and thus bound to the material world, to the chain of karma and the cycle of life, that is a vice. He should not become attached. So it is that I do love the beings I encounter, even as I love myself. But they may come or they may go, and I may come or I may go, in life or in death, and all is well, just because. All is well, always and forever, because the cosmos is ordered thus, and it is not even necessary to understand why.

When I was very young, people broke my heart by forgetting, ignoring or otherwise excluding me from their society. How many tears I shed, how much my heart trembled, and life seemed unbearable! Now I smile like the crocodile, because that is no longer possible. Lucky me. I have known and been loved and desired and admired by beautiful and bright superior beings, captains at the very forefront of the Host. So I am thinking, "As good as you are, you are not even in the same league as so-and-so." I have already lived, and now is merely the bonus round, where I might pick up this or that without moving my overall score that much. Humans I understand fundamentally to the core. I have seen it all and known it all before, and nothing is mysterious or strange, and everything is very familiar to me.

Of my sensitivity, it was a disguised gift, and I thought it a curse in my younger days until I learned the shaman's way. Sensitivity is a rare, powerful and useful tool. I have learned to filter my sensitivity and not be overly affected by the things that I perceive. Of course, that is necessary for survival.

Even people's bad manners and petty cruelties and negligence offer insight into the workings of their minds and assist one in the reconstruction of the all-encompassing reality. With such insight, I can construct a more accurate reality based not only upon my own limited perceptions but upon the perceptions of others, so that I perceive more and am not left in ignorance. With such resources, drawing upon what others reveal to me, I can accept what is so and discard illusion.

ISIS and Sex Slavery

There is an article on the revolting sex slavery practiced by ISIS. Because ISIS does not abide by the Geneva Convention, basic morality, nor any of the rules of war, it is morally acceptable to use any means against them, including chemical, biological, and psychological. If an agent can be induced to spread disease among the ISIS fighters, that would be ideal. The savages are lower than animals, worse than any member of the animal kingdom, and make the Nazis look better by comparison.

It's a very good thing they are Muslim, though, and representing Islam to the world. Let the world know Islam through ISIS and only through ISIS. That is the only positive out of their existence. I regard ISIS as the official ambassadors of the Muslim community to the rest of the human population. This is what you get when you follow that path. Death, torture, violence, war.

The Western countries have a responsibility to reduce asylum and immigration from Muslim countries at least ten-fold. The West does not need more Muslims. The Muslims should stay where they are and try to educate their brethren and lift them up from savagery. Learning about morality is a start. That is something they need to learn in their own country, at their own expense and not ours. Their coming over to the West to earn money in low-wage jobs or practice terrorism is not something the West should support. I think our politicians need to be a little bit wiser in terms of immigration policy and exclude those that adhere to primitive and violent cults.

There are enough problems in the world without the distraction of ignorant savages blowing things up and shooting people for no reason but their primitive cult. They remind one of cockroaches, ugly and purposeless. They hate education, hate freedom, and want to turn back the clock to the Middle Ages. At the same time, they breed like rabbits and do not understand the concept of birth control. It's a perfect recipe for the destruction of naive Western societies.

America's Unlikely Defenders

The most devout guardians of our homeland are North Korea and Iran, or had better be, regardless of their bellicose rhetoric to the contrary, because were we ever attacked by nuclear arms, then there is no question but that N. Korea and Iran would cease to be inhabited by human beings within twenty-four hours, and that would be right, and the American public would approve of that response. The idiots heading those incompetent dictatorships may delude themselves all they want, but the instinct for self-preservation may yet stay their hand, as anyone can guess what lies in store for them in the final analysis.

When dealing with such regimes, they are guilty until proven innocent beyond any shadow of a doubt. And even if they are not guilty of a particular crime, they are already proven guilty of other crimes and deserve what they get.

Cheap Oil

Cheap oil is the best thing to happen in the world for years. Let Russia and Iran suffer, as they so richly deserve. Iran spends all its money pursuing a nuclear war with Israel, while Russia spends all its resources invading neighboring Ukraine. Neither country is responsible in terms of the environment, civil liberties, or neighboring countries. Both countries oppress their own citizens most of all.

Mass unemployment and social unrest are perfect medicines for those countries, which labor under totalitarian regimes. The people in those countries need to acquire firearms and use them on State security forces. That is their duty as human beings and that is what they are on this Earth to do. I hope that oil stays at $35 a barrel for the next ten to twenty years. Then Russia and Iran will be forced to confront the reality that they are completely incompetent to do anything. The only reason their people did not starve in the first place is that they happened to score big on the geography lottery and find a hoard of oil under their feet. Lucky for them, but they are stupid and ignorant and lazy, and without high-priced oil, they're sunk. Time to drink the coffee and face the music.

I'm a Socialite

I'm a late bloomer as far as socializing goes. I was withdrawn as a kid, more confident as a young man, but now that I'm in old fart territory, I feel comfortable chatting with anyone. I'm simply not afraid of anyone or anything, and I'm not intent on selling anyone anything, either. There is the sense of, "Been there, done that, survived it all."

Death

Death places a halo on the head of the dead, because they are blameless. To blame them is as pointless as blaming a rock, tree, or river--they are inanimate. Only the living may be blamed for the problems of today. With the dead, in most cases one thinks, they did the best they could with the resources at hand. Indeed in some cases, it is fantastic they could do what they did do, while laboring under such tremendous handicaps. It is important to forgive and forget whenever possible. To brood upon the past makes us vulnerable to the powers of darkness that are so eager to gain a foothold into our world. Some of those on the global scene that brood over the past are those Republicans who want to do no trade with Cuba, even though our dispute with them is fifty years old, and Cuba is no worse than China, objectively--in fact, China is far more a threat to us. North Korea and Iran brood over the past. Putin broods over the past. Those who idealize the Southern Confederacy, they too brood over the past too much. Live in the present.

Although forgiveness isn't necessary, by any means, I do forgive my dead father all his real or perceived faults without exception. He was more than good enough. He was wonderful, judged in the context of his burden, and that is the only way we should judge other people. It is easy for strong people with sound minds to be proud and powerful when put to the test. They do not have to make as much effort. They do not suffer as much. To be mentally ill is a tremendous burden. Just imagining it is frightening. Living it is worse. I read the list of side effects for his medicine the other day and that helped me understand a great deal.

The reason I have never taken acid or any powerful drug is that I fear the loss of control, the giving of the self over to the Random, to evil spirits, psychosis, or self-hypnosis, or whatever takes its place. This is also the reason that other people abstain from powerful drugs--and also heavy drinking or heavy pot smoking, because even the milder substances, when taken in great excess, can impair our sense of self-control. We do fear the loss of control and are wise to do so.

My father had many good qualities, and most importantly, he intended to do good. Conscience was  powerful in him as it is in me, and this, I think, is the seed of goodness, for without conscience, what guide have we? There is no invisible guardian standing ready to cast black magic upon us, should we do ill to others, although I think there should be. We refrain from evil not so much out of fear of the law or of societal disapproval or for our own insignificant lives, but rather out of fear of committing Sin, which alienates a human being from communion with the consciousness that pervades all things, the Force, as Obi Wan-Kenobi and Yoda described it in "Return of the Jedi." Perhaps that is indeed what God is, rather than a single being. And, perhaps we are not single beings either, and individuality is an illusion, but we are all avatars of the One, and all of us are interconnected, whether we know it or not. Those that are evil delude themselves in thinking they are separate. They are wholly sold on the illusion of individuality. After the brief span of a man's days, the illusion is dispelled. What remains of an evil-doer's savage individuality is a rotting corpse, food for worms. Those that are good perceive, maybe dimly, but they perceive an invisible network connecting all living beings. They exist not only for the benefit of self, but for the benefit of others as well, because the self is transitory, and others will inherit the earth.

Dr. Oz Looks Like The Grinch

Dr. Oz peddles miracle weight-loss products on his show. I think the guy looks like The Grinch, that villain created by Dr. Seuss. Some doctors go into medicine because they want to help people, but a lot go into medicine because they want to make a lot of money. Raspberry ketones, indeed, Dr. Oz.

Sadness

I hate when good people squabble for silly reasons. Mainly due to miscommunication, I think. Tribalism, racism, homophobia, sexism, politics. It makes me sad when they cannot get along. I haven't the power to make them. If I had the power, I would make them. I would bring their heads together like in the Three Stooges. Clonk!

Would that Jesus had summoned the Host and ruled the world as Emperor eternal, wise and just. I always thought the crucifixion made no sense at all. I cannot accept such a sacrifice. Better by far to remain in the world. To ascend into Heaven and sit on the right hand of the Father is laziness. We needed you, and you left us. How is that right? So I do not believe in any of that.

My Stick Figures

The trouble with my writing is the same as with an amateur artist. I write in stick figures. My characters aren't fleshed out, not really, not on the page at least, though they are in my mind. When I read my story, all kinds of images float through my mind, but they have not all been translated into words like they should be. Instead, the characters look like stick figures, just rough outlines. There is too little description, too little detail, and far too much dialogue. Indeed, my stories read like plays. But who really wants to read a play? Not I. I would rather read a story. I need to convert my plays into proper stories, I think. Perhaps it is simply a matter of filling up the bones with flesh.

Sick Actor

Why does Hollywood hire a violent, psychotic and cruel actor, like this piece of work, when there are plenty of good actors to go around? Talent is plentiful. I can attend any play put on at the local college and observe actors who are just as good as the ones I see on television. I don't think there's any room in the cast of any show for someone who would even pretend to skin, kill and eat someone's pet, whether rabbit, cat, or dog. I think such crimes should be prosecuted as felonies, at the very least.

Conservative Liberal Democrats

In Japan, the Liberal Democrats are the conservative party. I'm not sure in what way they are considered conservative, but it probably has to do with the age-old debate between social welfare programs and whatever the opposite is--giving money to the rich, I guess.

Japan also has a Buddhist Komei political party. I don't know what a Buddhist would have to do with politics, but I guess they would favor more temples and less sexual openness. Most religions seem down on sex for some odd reason having to do with our primate origins.

The Liberal Democrats want to expand nuclear power in Japan. I approve in general of nuclear power, but think that Japan should not use it, because that island is so vulnerable to volcanoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes. I think the U.S. should certainly use nuclear power in order to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases. Yes, there is danger in nuclear power, but our options are limited at this point in time. I believe the U.S. has adequate supplies of uranium in order to fuel nuclear reactors. Most of our major cities, especially those located safely away from the ocean, in the interior, should derive 100% of their power from nuclear reactors.

CEO's

The Sony hack came about because some high-powered CEO opened an email and executed code written by malicious hackers. Why am I not surprised? Now Sony loses millions of dollars, all because of a CEO earning millions of dollars a year for inhabiting a suit and talking BS all day long. CEO's are not worth their coffee mugs, and yet in the U.S., they earn hundreds of times more than the hardest-working employees at their companies. The easiest way to bring a company down is by targeting its weakest link--the CEO, who knows nothing about anything other than the buttons to speed-dial their massage therapist.

Where Republicans and Democrats Differ

The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans are for torture. Democrats believe torture is morally wrong. That single issue defines the political parties better than any other. Nothing more really needs to be said about politics in the United States. If you vote Republican, you believe it is OK to torture a prisoner. Plain and simple, open and shut, end of story.

I believe some issues are pretty simple. Either you possess one moral alignment or another. I think it is evil to torture prisoners for whatever reason. It is distasteful and unworthy and low. It makes us like the stinking Nazis or the filthy Communists. I think that people who would do that, would do a lot of other things as well, and therefore cannot be trusted. If moral considerations of grave consequence can be so easily set aside, if one can so readily inflict immense suffering upon a defenseless human, then one is aligned with the darkness, and evil will result. The servant of darkness may not understand and may think they know better, but that is nevertheless the way.

The issue of torture presents a particularly thorny problem for Christians and may make them quite cross, but perhaps some of those who profess so loudly their religiosity in public, praying and speaking of God at every occasion, perhaps they reason their way around the problem, thinking that after all, they're always right, and God is always on their side, just because they believe such-and-such, and therefore, and what not. They have not reasoned their way out of a paper bag. They are still in the bag.

Cheney defends torture on the basis of its supposed effectiveness. I'm amused that he never really comes right out and says he supports torture. All of these right-wingers are using mealy-mouthed terms like "enhanced interrogation techniques" which sounds like so much BS. Just say torture. Cut the crap, tell it like it is. We will respect you more for 'fessing up. You tortured helpless prisoners, okay? Just say so. Either these torturers feel guilty, which seems doubtful, or they're playing word games for political reasons, which seems likely.

I don't care whether torture is effective or not. It's just ugly. It's going a step too far, and one always wonders, what if the tables were turned? Who among us would want to be tortured? To be killed is one thing. Death does not seem so bad by comparison. I can accept death better than being kept alive only to experience indignities, agony and misery. I have to wonder how Cheney would feel being subjected to the very same torture he assigned to his helpless prisoners.

There is value in maintaining the moral high ground. Cheney sacrificed the moral high ground readily for almost no return. It is as though he sees no value in morality and does not understand why other people do. Perhaps Cheney thinks Democrats are stupid for caring about torture. If good is stupid, then stupid is good. I rather think that Cheney is stupid for failing to comprehend the greater good.

Where I Get My Traffic

You may wonder where Glorious Igor gets all his traffic. Like for instance if you have no life and actually give a hoot about some over-the-hill blogger.

The answer is like I said before, 99% of my traffic is spam and malware sites from Russia that target and want to infect me and probably other bloggers. I don't know whether the KGB is still in business these days or whether it was renamed to some other acronym, but Putin's a bad actor and certainly spreads evil tentacles through cyberspace trying to infect, annoy or otherwise harm perceived and actual enemies.

A dumbass novice blogger or technically unsophisticated blogger would out of vanity click on one of those sites and expose their computer to a malware attack and also reveal their IP address, so that even if their computer is not compromised, their identity is, at least in part. Once someone has an IP address, they have a pretty effective way to determine who is who, unless the visitor is using a proxy or public wireless, etc., but even then, there are trails and there are trails...

I never click on such sites. If I don't recognize the site, to hell with it. I am somewhat interested in the search terms that lead people to my blog. That is perhaps the only valid and useful stat. I know that people read me because of dungeon crawl, solydx, and to a lesser extent other linux thingamajiggies. I know that people could not give a damn about my opinions on philosophy, my stories and my opinions on politics, but I also know that I don't give a damn whether they give a damn, and I write what I please anyway. Sometimes people do read my stuff by accident no doubt and once in a blue moon, I think when someone is under the influence of a substance, they will leave a comment letting me know their reaction. That can be fun, although a lot of comments have spam links or are left solely for the purpose of promoting another site.

Into the Calm

The best advice an old friend ever gave me was about self-control. He said if one is aware of a fault, that is, one that cannot be entirely eliminated, then besides reducing its frequency, for instance by abstaining from alcohol, there is yet another trick. When the inner eye observes the faulty logic executing, much in the same way an anti-virus would apprehend malware, one seizes the runaway process and stops it. "There I go again, so unnecessary and pointless," was the phrase he used. I find this an effective technique to defuse anger, for instance, which is such a negative emotion of limited utility in our modern world, although it may have had a purpose long ago. There are individuals that try their darnedest to provoke us into anger, because they feed upon that much as the dung-beetle feeds upon its chosen meal. I think avoidance of these types of people and ignoring their provocations may be the best strategy. When they do not get any notice of their remarks, then they do not get any satisfaction. The entire reason they provoke is to receive drama that is lacking in their lives, because no one with any sense wants to be around them for any length of time.

Fatal Error in Zot Defense

Before you ask, I already reported this bug or one like it many moons ago. I have no right to complain about a free game really, so this isn't a complaint per se, just a wailing to the gods. Perhaps Kikubaaqudgha, in my case. Oh Kiku ! Why hast thou forsaken me? And devs, please tell us, why must there be a fatal error that crashes the game and stops the show? I was having fun. . . I do so love Zot Defense! Well, I don't really know any way around this error, and it always without fail pops up in Zot Defense, so there we are.

The monsters should be smart enough to figure out that they can fight their way through apparent obstacles such as plants and fireballs, and that those obstacles do not block their path. So if no other path is found, then let the algorithm choose a less desirable path that requires removing a removable obstacle.