Silver Bullion

Confession: I love silver.

It's probably all psychological poppycock revolving around vampires-and-werewolves' bane, and magic, but nonetheless, the heart wants what it wants, and blood will out. You know that, don't you? Blood will out. That simply means, that the blood has a Will of its own, quite independent of the mind. Perhaps in ancient times, silver had more purchase, and spirits of old treasured it oh, so much!

At any rate none of the bullion nor the U.S. Mint's productions moved me, but the Silverbug line beguiled me. It is some kind of Reddit community I know nothing of, but whoever did it, for whatever reason (lucre), fired their arrow true.

The only bullion worth more than its weight is the Silverbug line. The rest seems pretentious or vulgar. And who exactly is Amy Brown, and why should I study her name on a coin for the rest of my life? The masters, DaVinci and the like, were content with tiny scribbles, or nothing. Amy Brown needs a quarter of the coin surface to establish her brand? Bah! And why are her fairies heroin chic?

So yes, silver is probably a poor investment, in general, but at least in the Silverbug line, it is more pleasing to the eye than stocks in Wells Fargo or whatever.

Desecrate the Saints

When I was young and foolish, I placed the basest rascals upon silver pedestals, superior to all other mortals, elevating them to an exalted God-like status in my stories. I remember writing, night after night, deluded obviously, with even self-awareness of being so due to my Guardian Angel, but defying the Angel and creating demigods, Saints clad in white, mimicking in my fevered reverie the romantic poets like Tennyson, Shelley, Byron. Mortal clay cannot withstand such elevation; laughter, derision and mockery are the inevitable result. In the first place, I was mistaken. Those I thought were High were Low. In the second place, they loved no one but themselves, and to worship such as they is to place a crown of thorns upon one's head. There is no percentage in making oblations to an ambivalent or indeed hostile Deity. This Truth, if accepted, solves half the world's problems, but remains unseen by most, and so they persist in self-destructive behaviors, the mindless infected of viral memes. We do see in this world as through a glass darkly.

The Law is so. Think first upon serving thy Self. Then think of others. Because they will not think of you.

Now I am old and wise, I think of the same godlings with derision and contempt, and only feel wonder and amusement that I ever saw anything at all in them. In cold blood, the only right blood, I evaluate their decrepit ancient mortal forms and savor Time's rue, a punishment far surpassing any I would have contemplated. Surely some infernal spirit played tricks with me, led me far astray, and it was only Grace that kept me from getting entangled with these low creatures.

I think that rock-n-roll music is the culprit, the gateway that leads many folk to look for the divine in base mortal clay, so convenient, right at hand and so wrong. I hear some songs today and think, oh, that is a spell, and to listen too closely is to be taken.

Death for Drugs

I read with interest the WaPo's analysis of Trump's desire to impose the death penalty for drug traffickers.

Meth traffickers (just to name one variety) certainly have zero concern for the well-being of humankind. I kept reminding myself, while watching "Breaking Bad," that there were no heroes. It is improper to root for Heisenberg. He was as bad a villain as any of the others in the show, and in reality, it was a show about villains. Really the only good guy was the D.E.A. agent, Hank, a sympathetic figure.

I think the death penalty does have a spiritual component to it, though, and there is something ancient and venerable about a life for a life. If a crime does not result in death, then perhaps, the death penalty should not be applied. I suppose in the case of drug trafficking, the outcome of the crime is not fully known, and death might be assumed.

However, the law should not be promiscuous in assigning death for crimes. I think Trump reflects a widespread dissatisfaction with the current system, in which we have a large population of prisoners that are hard to manage and expensive to manage. That is a complicated problem, but not every complicated problem has a simple solution, as Trump and his followers would prefer. My own solution to the problem is prevention--prevent people who commit crimes from ever being born. Eugenics. But, that is politically incorrect, condemned by both left and right, and associated with the most unpleasant regimes. I think that society is certainly moving, rapidly and inevitably, in the direction of eugenics, however, and anyone paying attention must agree. Eugenics will come about, not because of politics, law, or force, but because people simply want what is best for themselves and for their children. Self-interest will ensure that eugenics is practiced--voluntarily. And that will result, hopefully, in a reduction in crime.

NPR Comedy

I heard a great comedy show on NPR yesterday. They were asking listeners to contribute money to NPR. I never laughed so hard. I tried to think back to a single show I have heard from NPR that in any way seemed interesting, and I couldn't think of a one. The entire radio spectrum is just a wasteland now. NPR has been taken over by relentless, monotonous knee-jerk liberal talking heads, hostile to science, hostile to history, and suspicious of anything remotely educational. All they ever want to do is talk bad about the Republicans and talk about how terrible things are, all the time. NPR should pay me for ever tuning in. I tune in out of a faint hope that NPR will revert, at some point in the day, back to the sort of public radio that brought good shows, about science or history, shows like what the BBC has produced. The BBC is an example of high-quality radio programming.

Assumed Racism

The brouhaha over two black men arrested at Starbucks seems much ado over nothing. It is well-known, at least by anyone with experience in the world, that coffee shop owners are not in the business of providing a free meeting space or, for that matter, free restroom facilities to the public. No, they are in the business of selling coffee. No one, black or white, who sits at a table without buying anything is going to be welcome, ever. Of course, the two black men, instead of acknowledging this obvious fact, have opted, quite naturally, to maximize their media exposure and, hopefully, profiteering over the whole incident, which was entirely their own fault. Had one of them simply purchased a $2.85 coffee, none of this would have happened. The manager would have perceived them both as paying customers and ignored them. Instead, they opted to freeload off Starbucks and exploit it as a meeting place, without paying a nickel for anything. Of course, their self-inflicted problems are all the fault of bad, racist whitey. Close 8,000 stores nation-wide immediately to scold the baristas and teach them not to expect blacks to pay for anything. Yes, that's the way to handle it. This is exactly the type of thing, incidentally, that causes white folk to vote Republican in large majorities. Punish white people for being human, for expecting paying customers in their store.

Racists used to be a really bad word, back in the day. When whites are castigated as racists on the national media every day for quite ordinary and common-sense activities, the term "racist" loses its cachet. In today's society, "racist" simply means human. What we have learned from Starbucks is that expecting people to pay for services rendered, that is racist.

The A is Out

For the gay male community, what was true in 1979 remains true today. The A is out.

Not a lot of intelligence is required to deduce that the HIV virus is something one does not want to get. It is survivable, perhaps---with money and a great deal of effort and inconvenience, but it is highly undesirable, both for the individual and society. Probably hundreds of thousands of dollars are lost for every new HIV patient.

The main reason the gay community was and still remains a favorite target of the HIV virus is due to the ancient and traditional practice of anal sex. Therefore, any intelligent and self-respecting gay must refrain from anal intercourse, even with a condom, even with a supposedly monogamous partner. This seemed obvious to me back in the day and remains so. Abstinence is best for gays, regarding that one act, although everything else remains on the table. This is a sacrifice that must be made by any living gay today that wants to keep on living and pursue serious goals. On the one hand, it may seem a humiliating concession to the misguided fundamentalist Christians, but so what? Survival trumps meaningless pride. Science cannot be defied by the wise. The A will be back again when an HIV vaccine gets mass-produced.

There was a case in the U.K. recently involving a sociopath that intentionally infected other gay men, then taunted them with the fact afterward. This insect is by no means the first and will not be the last. He deserves death, swift and soon, but was instead sentenced to a lengthy imprisonment, owing to the U.K.'s ineffective legal system that coddles criminals and saddles their taxpayer with enormous costs, that murderers might pick their noses for many decades. At any rate, there are some men that will infect others intentionally, out of malice, because they are wicked spirits. There are some that will do so out of negligence, because they are fools. There are some that will do so due to pure blind chance, because no condom will ever be entirely effective in all cases, no matter what. For all of these reasons, the A is out.