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.

Culture Has Declined

In the past, the music world bestowed upon posterity Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. Now they give a Pulitzer to a rap crooner (not musician and not singer, nor artist). Culture has declined a great deal since the 1800s.

So-called musicians of today merit no more than tavern singers of yesteryear: a meal, a drink, a few coins here and there for a good performance, if the audience is well-to-do. Anything more is pelf. Their stuff isn't likely to still be played a hundred years from now. Their frequent protestations about deserving more money are preposterous. What they need to do is work harder, compose and edit their existing compositions to be better.

Popularity is based upon sexual urges and aspirations, that is, what folks want to become. Rap deals with stealing, rape, and murder, so one can conclude what the listening public wants to do based upon that.

Rather than give a Pulitzer to a rap crooner, the award should be given to a teacher. Teachers work really hard and have to deal with all kinds of criticism, disrespect and long-term liabilities in today's society, one of which involves being underpaid for the work they perform.

Times Past

Used to be, the arrogant, stupid leaders of the world could throw a hissy fit, launch a bloody war, off a couple million folks, and call it a day. Now, all of a sudden, a world war results in Nuclear and/or Biological and/or Chemical Apocalypse. Are we to presume, that following the year 1945 and the advent of the Nuclear Age, H. Sapiens has evolved morally and ethically to the point where our leaders will abstain from world war and bloody conquest?

Not at all, not in the slightest; our leaders are just as stupid as before, if not more so, but their weapons are awesome and far beyond anything their predecessors ever dreamed of.

The only possible conclusion is that history will repeat itself, and world war must come again, and in fact, is long overdue. Putin wants war. He thinks he and a small group of cronies can survive the Apocalypse by hiding out somewhere far away from civilization, in the mountains of Siberia, deep underground, with plenty of food and medical supplies stockpiled, and even a generator or nuclear reactor to provide electricity. He figures he can repopulate the world in his own image: ugly, evil, and stupid; something along the lines of what Sauron wanted. Unfortunately for everybody else, his plan is just within the realm of possibility.

Our intelligence apparatus, instead of wasting time on the ragheads of the Middle East, should be focused with laser-like precision upon Russia and China, the real threats, as opposed to the ever-reproducing ragheads, who should be contained, not by American forces, but by other ragheads. Resources spent upon policing ragheads are resources wasted. They will never amount to anything and will always destroy whatever is built in their region of the world, because that is in their nature. It is pointless to expect the raghead to do anything other than have a strong man operating under the cloak of Islamic legitimacy. The past several decades consisted of opportunities and resources wasted by the U.S. foreign policy due to the false expectation that the Middle East would have its share of Thomas Paine, George Washington or Benjamin Franklin. Fat chance of that. All they have is a bunch of lunatics with scimitars, grenade-launchers and automatic assault rifles.

Alexander is laughing at us. "Did you learn nothing from my war against Darius?"

But of course, the Americans do not read history.

Occam's Razor

In the recent Russian nerve agent assassination, Occam's Razor indicates Russia is culpable. The nerve agent was manufactured by Russia and is only known to exist in Russia. Putin is a liar; to lie is nothing to him. Putin controls Russia as a de facto dictator. Putin wanted the ex-spy living in London to die of spectacular and macabre symptoms. Thus, the simplest, and therefore most likely, scenario is Putin ordered the poisoning. Any other theory relies upon further complexity and far-fetched possibilities. All the lies being generated by the Russian state may be ignored without further consideration. Russia can be assumed guilty, under any circumstances, until proven innocent, because Russia under Putin is evil.

Putin is playing with fire, skirting along the edge of war. The fool may miscalculate at some point, to his peril. It is unfortunate that the rest of us have to live on the same planet as Putin. He is in a similar category as Hitler and Stalin, his two heroes. That such a fool is in charge of a nuclear-armed state is a big reason to be pessimistic about the future of H. Sapiens. The odds that H. Sapiens will survive the nuclear age are about one in a million.