Where Have I Been?

I was in Europe for a while, then I got the flu (the regular kind, not swine) and was laid up in bed for a while. Now I'm home and better and full of ideas for blog posts.

Meanwhile, I have often heard it said by world travellers (which in British Airways lingo means "coach", by the way) that the US of A is the best place in the whole world to live. They must not have been to Barcelona.

From Whence Do Rights Derive?

What gives me the right to express my stupid opinions on this blog? My right derives from the fact that neither the state nor anyone else with the ability to do anything about it gives a rat's patootie about my opinion or whether and how I express it. The state does not at present have any particular interest in my speech acts. Why would it? I can't really do the state any harm, and it may even score legitimacy points by ignoring me, especially in the case of states such as mine that claim to protect their subjects' freedom.

Other folks who might disagree with me don't care enough about it to try to punish me for my opinions. Part of this stems from my use of a nom de blogge. It isn't as easy to mess with me if you don't know who I really am. Besides, interference by a private individual or entity probably wouldn't be considered as a violation of my "rights". We have come to think of rights as deriving from the Constitution and applying only to state action. If I had some God given inalienable rights, wouldn't I be able to defend them against all comers, state and non-state actors alike?

Whatever rights I have I enjoy at the sufferance of my conspecifics.

Aspects of Popular Culture That I Just Don't Get

Vampires. Kids want to be vampires or date vampires. Vampirism seems like it would be a huge disability what with not being able to eat anything but blood or to come out in the daylight. Believe me kids, you'll know enough toxic psychic vampires in your life without wishing to meet some mythical ones.

Flavored martinis (except as starter drinks for junior high schoolers). These are nothing like actual martinis and are far removed from the martini experience. After age 25, these should not be permitted. Men of any age should never order these. These are girlie drinks.

Kardashians. Why do I have to know who these people are?

Shredded jeans. In my day, shredded jeans meant you were trash. Decent folks would patch the holes in their jeans.

Facebook. I spend enough time in front of a computer without corresponding with my long lost grammar school classmates.

2012. What makes anyone think the Mayans knew peedoodlysquat about anything? I don't think they even predicted the precipitous fall of their own civilization, so I don't put much store in their prognosticating abilities. Show me some shit they got right, and I might take them seriously.

We Need a Better GOP

Some of my conspecifics of the Democratic persuasion are glad that the GOP has gone completely over to the dark side and is now almost exclusively the party of batshit. Its leaders are the likes of Limbaugh, Beck and Palin so my conspecifics reckon that the GOP will be too scary for most people now.

This is not a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Since we have two party system, it is never a good idea to have one of those parties committed to insanity. Americans are so stupid that they might just vote the maniacs into power. They did it in 2000 and 2004, although in those days we couldn't be sure that the crazy wing would take complete control of the party.

A healthier American political system calls for two parties that are pretty much the same and both of which are capable of actually governing when in power.

Makes You Think

I went to the Wikipedia and looked up mass murderers. They have lists of shooters by hate crime, workplace shootings, school shootings, slaughter of families. Based on the names of the killers in the US, it looks like the Ft Hood shooter was the only one that was a Muslim. So if I call for special attention to be paid to Muslims as potential spree shooters, what does that make me?

Tim McVeigh was a Roman Catholic. I didn't hear a whole lot of talk about screening Catholics after he blew up a building. After all, there have been lots of Irish Catholic terrorists, mostly in Ulster, so the Oklahoma City bombing could have been seen as par for the course. Why wasn't it?

Eric Rudolph also identified himself as a Roman Catholic. When he murdered folks based on his religious beliefs there was no call to monitor Catholics. Why not?

Ft Hood Shooter

Know what I'm going to say about the Ft Hood shooter before the facts come out? Nothing!

Know why? Because I am self aware and would be ashamed if my dumbass speculation turned out to be wrong.

I wish more people were like me.

Lay Off Pit Bulls

Mrs Vache Folle and I are big boosters of pit bulls. Now that I've lived with one for a few years, I don't think I'll ever get any other breed. We get annoyed when we hear folks say things like,"Little Timmy McCracken was bitten by a pit bull." Why mention the breed? Most of the time the dog in question was not, in fact, a pit bull. Nobody ever says "A golden retriever attacked Granny!" or such like even though every breed of dog is liable to attack someone under the right circumstances.

It's analogous to including a reference to a person's religion or ethnicity in a statement about their alleged crimes. "Robin and Holden McGroin of Brewster were swindled by a Chinaman last month." "A Negro driver struck the sign post, causing damage estimated at $800." "The Roman Catholic gunman was killed in a shootout with police." "Scotsman arrested in bribery case."

TV Watching

We left season 4 of Weeds on a cliffhanger, and season 5 is not yet available from NetFlix. We've moved on to season 1 of Big Love. I had only seen the most recent season before and was hoping for some background. Season 1 was pretty much the same as the last season but with more multimarital sex. You'd think old Joe Smith would have come up with a way to mandate a four way, but I reckon he was killed before he had that revelation.

We haven't watched much regular TV since we got the NetFlix subscription. The only show we catch by appointment is The Biggest Loser where morbidly obese people compete to lose weight. Each week, two contestants who lose the least percentage of body weight are liable to be voted off, and each week the voting contestants vote off the wrong person. The right way to vote is to get rid of the fatter person who is apt to lose more weight and put you below the yellow line in a future weigh in. If a superfat guy has a bad week and is up for a vote, that's your chance to eliminate a real competitor. But no, the contestants always vote based on other idiotic criteria and screw themselves. Great fun.

The Daily Show repeat moved to 7 pm so I don't catch it as often as when it was on at 8. I watch documentaries on The Science Channel or Discovery. The History Channel seems to have turned into the crazy hokum channel with a fixation on Nostradamus and Gods from Outer Space and Atlantis.

I Am Apathetic

I voted yesterday, but I'm not sure why I bothered. It was easy since all I had to do was pull the lever on every Democrat on the ballot. I vote entirely based on spite and self preservation, although our Hudson Valley Republicans seeking local offices (a) aren't as batshit insane as their copunterparts in other regions, and (b) can't do much harm on the East Fishkill town council or Highway Department.

I just don't give much of a shit about politics these days except to keep one eye open for incursions by the wingnut Christianists and those in their coalition of crazies.

Eschatology

I have been thinking about eschatology lately and have decided that it's a mystery. We don't have enough to go on to know when Gotterdammerung will come about or what it will look like. Maybe we won't even know that it has happened. One day we'll be plugging away as usual and the next thing you know we're living in the Kingdom of Heaven.

I'm not afraid to speculate, and I have some eschatological suspicions that I'll share now for what they are worth. I have not had any special revelation from God, nor am I trained in theology, but I do have some completely irrational beliefs about our ultimate fate that I reckon are as authoritative as anyone else's.

Judgment Day is billions or trillions of years away, and we will have become a class 3 or better galactic or intergalactic civilization by then. The teachings of Jesus, as practiced by those who actually understand them and in whom the Spirit dwells, will be the characteristic of humanity that permits us, among all the intelligent species in the universe, to avoid destroying ourselves and to go on to the next levels of civilization. Our technological advancement will go hand in hand with our ability to love. Love will inspire us to occupy the whole universe. We will be a blessing to the universe, and the Kingdom of God will encompass everything.

Earth will be long gone by then, and I can't imagine what kind of beings our descendants will be by then. They may not even be flesh and blood.