GOOD BY AND GOOD RIDDANCE

 From Miami  columnist Leonard Pitts yesterday. He's saying what a lot of us are thinking only better. And I will add "don't let the door hit ya where the Lord split ya."

This is for those of you who've chosen to quit your jobs rather than submit to a vaccine mandate.

No telling how many of you there actually are, but lately, you're all over the news. Just last week, a nearly-30-year veteran of the San Jose Police Department surrendered his badge rather than comply with the city's requirement that all employees be inoculated against COVID-19. He joins an Army lieutenant colonel, some airline employees, a Major League Baseball executive, the choral director of the San Francisco Symphony, workers at the tax collector's office in Orange County, Fla., and, incredibly, dozens of health care professionals.

Well, on behalf of the rest of us, the ones who miss concerts, restaurants and other people's faces, the ones who are sick and tired of living in pandemic times, here's a word of response to you quitters: Goodbye.

And here's two more: Good riddance.

Not to minimize any of this. A few weeks ago, a hospital in upstate New York announced it would have to "pause" delivering babies because of resignations among its maternity staff. So the threat of difficult ramifications is certainly real. But on the plus side, your quitting goes a long way toward purging us of the gullible, the conspiracy-addled, the logic-impaired and the stubbornly ignorant. And that's not nothing.

We've been down this road before. Whenever faced with some mandate imposed in the interest of the common good, some of us act like they just woke up on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall. "There's no freedom no more," whined one man in video that recently aired on "The Daily Show With Trevor Noah." The clip was from the 1980s, and the guy had just gotten a ticket for not wearing his seatbelt.

It's an unfortunately common refrain. Can't smoke in a movie theater? Can't crank your music to headache decibels at 2 in the morning? Can't post the Ten Commandments in a courtroom? "There's no freedom no more." Some of you seem to think freedom means no one can be compelled to do, or refrain from doing, anything. But that's not freedom, it's anarchy.

Usually, the rest of us don't agonize over your intransigence. Often it has no direct impact on us. The guy in the "Daily Show" clip was only demanding the right to skid across a highway on his face, after all. But now you claim the right to risk the health care system and our personal lives.

So if you're angry, guess what? You're not the only ones.

The difference is, your anger is dumb, and ours is not. Yours is about being coerced to do something you don't want to do. Like that's new. Like you're not already required to get vaccinated to start school or travel to other countries. For that matter, you're also required to mow your lawn, cover your hindparts and, yes, wear a seatbelt. So you're mad at government and your job for doing what they've always done.

But the rest of us, we're mad at you. Because this thing could have been over by now, and you're the reason it isn't.

That's why we were glad President Biden stopped asking nicely, started requiring vaccinations everywhere he had power to do so. We were also glad when employers followed suit. And if that's a problem for you, then, yes, goodbye, sayonara, auf wiedersehen, adios and adieu. We'll miss you, to be sure. But you're asking us to choose between your petulance and our lives.

And that's really no choice at all.

MOTHER EARTH STILL DOESN'T GET MUCH RESPECT

This is an older one. The scary thing is that nothing seems to have changed. Except me. I don't get quite as upset as I used to. I think it's the pain meds. 

 I’m going to post a warning on this entry. I’m royally p***** off. So yeah, this is a pretty in your face entry. But, after this I’m going to be writing about what people, lots of little people are doing to take on the control freaks the strip mine mentality. And winning more often than not. The conservatives blather about the short comings of the main stream media. And they do go on about that "socialist" in the White House. News flash boys and girls. This oligarchs in this country have done a fantastic job of privatising the profits and sticking the rest of us for the cost of cleaning up their messes.

Well, the local paper didn’t give more than two sentences to the Monsanto protests here and around the world. So I have to turn up a few rocks. And bite back the urge to heave them through a few windows.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at the belittling attitudes women face. Or the absolutely entrenched attitudes towards sexual assault. Remember it’s not about sex. It’s about control. And we’re up against a group of extraordinary control freaks.

What’s the cheapest way to get to the coal and other ores we want to mine? Rip up the mountain and dump the debris over the side. Too bad about the stream, the fish, the other wild life that depends on that watershed. And really too bad about the folks living downstream that have use that water for their kids, their farms and their gardens.

And it isn’t a strip mine but the front page of the B section of the local paper headlined a superfund site in Douglas country south of Springfield. The mine was operating from 1990 t0 1993 when it forced to close for violating just about every environmental rule in the book. The Formosa mine was operated by a Canadian company backed by a Japanese company. The Canadians are out of business, the Japanese can’t be touched and there’s no money to clean up the site. The debris field is leaching heavy metals into the ground water and the flooded mine is draining into a creek that feeds into the Umpqua river. The creek used to host salmon and Chinook runs. It’s pretty much dead now. So sorry about that. It's the Formosa Mine. As of 2018 the corps of engineers and other groups were still trying to close off the mine drainage. There are fears that the contaminated ten mile streatch of precipitated metals will take decades even begin to clean up. It's only one of twelve potential superfund sites in Oregon. The dark underside in a beautiful state. 

What’s the cheapest way to grow crops? Genetically modified monocultures engineered to be poisoned and still survive. Too bad about the loss of genetic diversity. Too bad that more than one study shows that the engineered crops don’t have the same mix of nutrients that their unf***** up relatives do. (sources Animal Vegetable Miracle, Wendell Berry and various Vendana Shiva essays). Too bad the herbicides screw up the mix of microbes and insects that allow the plants to absorb nutrition. Too bad about the loss of topsoil since we keep taking without putting compost back or giving the land a chance to rest and recover between crops of subsidized corn, soy or cotton.

Too bad about the falling water tables as we try to grow water hungry crops in semi deserts. Barbara Kingsolver finally decided to move her family to land her husband owned in Tennessee. The deal breaker? Tucson built a new canal (open canal not a pipeline) to bring in a new water supply. Users were warned that while the water was ok for human use don’t use it for your goldfish. It’ll kill ‘em. Ugh.

What’s the fastest, cheapest (up front at least) way to grow beef, chicken and pork? Stick ‘em in feed lots or warehouses, stuff them grain and ship them to the slaughter house as quickly as possible. Too bad the high grain diet isn’t what cattle are adapted to eat. Some studies suggest that we didn’t turn them into roasts and steaks they’d probably die anyway.

And you have to wonder what the stress hormones due to overcrowding do to the meat. And I wonder how we’d like standing around in our own s*** for the six months or so it takes to get the critter to slaughter weight. Too bad that the manure that would have helped replenish pasture is now sewage that we can barely handle. Too bad about the spinach crop that was contaminated by feed lot run off a few years ago. What were the final death toll and hospital costs for the e-coli outbreak?

Then there’s the low dose antibiotics meant to counter disease brought on by over crowding. Guess where the majority of antibiotics used in this country end up. Hint. It isn’t in the people.

I could go on. The collapse of the fishing industry as we strip mine the ocean the same way we’re strip mining the land. And too bad about the environmental damage done by fish and shrimp farming. Funny how critters that are used to swimming around in the ocean don’t take to being penned up any better than steers or chickens do.

The control freaks are raping Mother Earth in search of the quick buck every day. I suspect that Her daughters and sons shouldn’t be surprised when get the same lack of respect. Physical rape is just the tip of the iceberg. The destruction of traditional, sustainable ways of living in search of the almighty dollar, yen and Euro is rape too. But, with no police reports to fill out.

IT'S FOR THE BIRDS

 It's a sleepy Sunday. The birds seem to be snoozing or off visiting someone else's cafe. I had a quail on the balcony rail this morning. I seem to be firing on about five of my six cylanders. So here is a hummingbird courtesy of Jim Wright over at Stonekettle Station. 

Retired navy Warrant Officer with an intelligence background. Write great political commentary. He has some FB pages but he's pulling back from FB except for his great photography. He does not suffer fools, any fools gladly and has found himself in FB jail more and more often, usually scratching his head trying to figuare out why. Truth to tell I had one mine "flagged" awhile back. Still trying to figure out why since it was actually a share from a friend's page, not anything original to me. And hers was still up with no little "provisos." 

Anyway here is a hummingbird from Florida. 

IT'S ALL A GREAT CONSPIRACY

 

These are the basic ingrediants of a Morning Star Farms veggie burger. These are all food items most of us eat almost every day. Either Rick Wiles is still the anti semitic, lizard people fearing, anti vax conspiracy pushing, pastoring a church without any kind of seminary training, blithering idiot he always has been or the majority of us have already had their DNA altered. 

Water, carrots, onions, soy flour, egg whites, mushrooms, whole grain oats, wheat gluten, water chestnuts, vegetable oil (corn, canola, and/or sunflower oil), green bell peppers, calcium caseinate (from milk), cooked brown rice (water, brown rice), red bell peppers.

To be honest I have never had a veggie burger but I ahve eaten all of these ingrediants in one combination or another. I don't really like bell peppers. I mean I like them the first time. I just don't like being reminded that I ate them a couple of hours later. 

Sometimes I think these nutcases check the calendar "I haven't honked of the universe for a couple of months, what can I use this time?"

Oh, and somehow I believe that Jesus can see past the DNA. Altered or not. 

A FURRY CATACLYSM

I guess you could call this a story of untintended consequences. Since this story was posted in 2011 I'm assuming that little Cataclysm is waithing patiently at the Rainbow Bridge. It wold be interesting to be watching if the loser who threw her away made an appearance. "Hi, you probably don't remember me. I'm the kitten you left on a windowsill to die.With a lot of love and help I had a pretty good life with wonderful people and other cats. How did your life turn out. loser?"

From the net.

Cataclysm's Story
August 17, 2011 at 12:29pm
Today is Cataclysm’s 12th. birthday. In her honor, I’m telling her inspirational story to those who have not heard it. Not to mention that she has also gained a certain amount of a FB cult following due to her OCD sock fetish, which is shown in her album....

It was a very hot day, even for August. Katie and I were staying cool by working as volunteers at the local Humane Society. We had spent most of that day working in the cattery – our favorite location. We had, in fact, taken a cat home a couple of weeks before, to foster until her kittens were adoptable. Cheetah had given birth to 5 in our little home nursery. Being in one of those moods that day, we had dubbed them “Catillac, Catamaran, Catmandu, Catatonic and Catapult.”

It was late that afternoon when one of the animal officers came into the cattery with a shoebox. He took it to one of the vets and said sadly, “It’s too small, there’s nothing we can do.”

“What’s in the box?,” I asked, always curious about anything new. He paid no attention.

“We have no nursing mothers and it can’t stay here,” the vet said. “We may as well just take care of it now.”

“What’s in the BOX??,” I was becoming more insistent.

“It’s a kitten,” the vet responded, “it can’t be more than about a day old. Someone left it on a hot windowsill to die.” We were horrified at the cruelty with which people treat defenseless animals, and this was such a bitty baby.

Katie and I looked in the box at the tiny blue-cream baby. It was not even wiggling or making a sound. It was soooo small. We had always been animal lovers but babies of any kind, especially kittens, were a real soft spot for us.

“I heard you say something about a nursing mother. What if you had one?” I asked.

“Then there’s a slim chance that the mother might accept the kitten, but we don’t have one.”

“We’ve got Cheetah,” Katie reminded them, “her litter is only 2 weeks old. Can’t we take her home and try?”

A tiny ray of hope came over the workers. They said that we had nothing to lose. We asked what to do and were told to rub the baby up against the other kittens to try to cover her with their scent. If Cheetah tried to nurse her or bathe her, we MIGHT have a chance. But they made it clear that it wasn’t a good chance.

We immediately took the box and headed out. When we got home, we headed straight for the nursery and sent Cheetah out for a walk. While she was out of the room, we took out the new baby, naming her “Cataclysm,” since she was having that kind of day.

We picked up each of the big kittens, they were about 5 times the size of the newcomer. We rubbed them each fairly vigorously all over her tiny body, she should be good and “scented.” Then we put her on the floor of the nursery and sort of piled all of the big ones on top of her. It was time to let Cheetah back in.

The mama cat sauntered back in, going immediately to the pile of babes. She pushed them around with her nose until they were all spread out. She suddenly stopped and just looked at the newborn. She nosed them all some more, like she was counting and was understandably confused. She started arranging them to nurse, finally picking Cataclysm up in her mouth. This was the moment that made us hold our breath. Would she kill the teeny stranger with one bite or go ahead with the feeding? Our tension was palpable.

She held the baby gently and pushed her into her abdomen, licking her gently, we breathed a huge sigh of relief. But nothing happened, the infant was too weak and dehydrated. We tried to help her latch on to a nipple, but had no success. After 20 min. or so, I told Katie that we were going to leave the nursery; it was out of our hands.

We waited about 2 hours and couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. Down to the nursery we went. Before we even got close to the door, we could hear kittens squalling loudly. That had us wondering! We opened the door and peeked in cautiously. Cheetah had taken the 5 big kittens and piled them in a corner. She was in the opposite corner with a tiny bundle. Slurping loudly and kneading Cheetah’s belly with minuscule paws was Cataclysm!

In just a couple of weeks, “Catty” had almost caught up with the others in size. Her eyes were open and she was beginning to walk around. She had overcome all odds and was firmly entrenched in her new family. When it came time to adopt out Cheetah and the babies, we couldn’t part with her, she has been with us ever since.

Every month, the Humane Society wrote a newsletter for the volunteers. I gave them a copy of this story, figuring the other volunteers would like to know about our determined little cat. To my surprise, instead of going into the newsletter, it was given to the person who wrote the monthly fundraising letter. Our chapter of the Society made about $98,000 during that year. Unbelievably, Cataclysm’s story had raised almost half that amount. Who would have thought that she would become a “$50,000 throw-away?” 

COMMUNITY SERVICE

 

I believe the cartoonist's last name is Fairrington. But I'm not betting the farm. A FB friend posted one today. I can thnk of a few but their governor or special election replacements might be worse. It'll do until I get some handle on Oregon AKA the state put together from bits and pieces. Literally. 

Anyway I had to chuckle when I saw this one. 

THE VACCINE TALES

 

The cartoonist goes under the name of ClayToonz. He can be funny as hell. Here is a link to the blog entry that goes with the cartoon.

Nicki Minaj, a rapper from Trinidad, made a claim about a side effect her cousin suffered after receiving the Covid vaccine. A claim that just about everybody who is anybody who knows how vaccines actually work has shot down her claims faster than a snowball would melt on the Fourth of July Texas. I know next to nothing about who is hot in just about any musc genre. I had to look Ms. Minaj as in who is this person and why would or should give a Flying Fickle Finger of Fate (anyone out there remember Laugh In) about her opinion on vaccines. 

I have two years of basic biology, HS and university, and one year of HS chemistry under my belt, my senior science class in HS basically semi advanced bio and chem. Based on what we knew in the late sixties. The genetics classes I took for Anthropology. Again the science we knew in the early seventies. I know that viruses and bacteria aren't the same. I can read SOME of the texts and just about understand what they are saying. And that's it folks. If I presume to comment on anythng to do with viruses or vaccines it will be within those limits.

On the other hand we have Fox and Newsmax and Lord knows who all. Sometimes the cartoonists are the brightest bulbs in the room.

SIXTY MAY BE THE NEW FORTY BUT...

 Laughed my ass off. I haven't done squats for a good forty years. 

I laughed so hard I think I think I hurt myself. That hasn't happened in a long time.

MISS CURIOSITY

 

A change of pace

Midge AKA Little Miss Curiosity at about four weeks old. You can barely see her white "socks" on her hind legs agaist the white floor. She's lookds like she's wearing knee socks. I think the bath mat weigh more that she did. 

That spot normally had bath towels. It was fairly empty that morning.The little bath mat ws bigger than she was but that didn't slow her down. 

After she pulled those down she managed to get herself up on the shelf. After she explored the shelf she was on she looked up at the next shelf. The one that isn't in the picture. She looked real, real hard. The first couple of years she was always looking up, as if she was looking for a way to get to that shelf, the cieling fan, The top of the computer desk. 

New Albion

Sir Francis Drake's the Golden Hinde as imagined by an artist. Sir Christopher Hatton was Drake's patron and one of the sponsers of the voyage that began in 1577. By sponsor I assume he put up some of the money needed to get the ships out of port. So was the Queen and her share of the profits was fifty percent. 

The ship was originally named the Pelican. Drake renamed the ship midvoyage in honor of Hatton. A hinde is a red deer doe and was part of Hatton's family crest. There is a full scale, sea worthy replica of the ship moored in Soutwark, London. Built in 1973, the vessel spent the next twentry years or so making good will tours, circumnavigating the globe, used in the miniseries Shogun (as the Portuguese Man of War I assume). Since 1996 the Golden Hinde II has hosted tours and edcational programs. 

OooooKaaaay. Mild case of where in the heck are all the puzzle pieces or where is the end of this ball of string. I've finally realized that I have this weird brain. The world is either a giant puzzle box and I'm trying to fit the pieces together or the world is a giant ball of string and I'm searching for the end of the string. 

I am assuming that some of the folks who drop by to visit this blog don't know much about Oregon. That's fine by me. Most of what I know about say, Wisconsin is they make cheese and my grandfather was born there. What is really kind of embarassing is that I was born in Oregon and I really don't know a heck of a lot about my home state. The Willamette Valley, a section of the coast, and some driveby's through the Gorge ending in Hermiaton. So I'm going exploring (gotta love the inernet) and you folks are welcome to come along. 

1577. English sea captain and privateer (the Spanish called him a pirate) Sir Francis Drake, was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth to sail into the Pacific and raid the Spanish settlements on the west coast of New Spain. The raiding expedtion was successful. He sacked Valpaariaso and captured two Spanish treasure ships. Very profitable the reuslts were too.

Now Drake was down to one ship renamed the Golden Hind. There is some evidence that Drake had another mission. To search for the semi mythical Northwest Passage. A sea route in the north that would allow the English to sail into the Pacific bypasing the Spanish ships and settlements. And here we enter into the realms of the "maybes." And there is a whole list of possible landing sites from Drake's Bay north of San Francisco, California to Vancouver Island in British Columbis. 

Map of Drake's three years voyage around the world

Possible Oregon sites in Oregon include Nehalem Bay, Whale Cove, South Cove, and Port Orford. The arguments are mostly polite. Drake landed somewhere north of the territory claimed by Spain. He drew a map that resembles several possibilities and called the site New Albion, New England. His log goes on to state that he erected a post claiming the territory for England in the name of Elizabeth. The first English to set foot on the western coast of the so called New World predating Jamestown by twentynine years. The first English to circumnavigate the world. 

I would love to see his log books for this section of the voyage. How did he resupply for the voyage across the Pacific? They spent five weeks hauling the ship on to the beach to clean and repair her hull. Did put the crew to boiling sea water for salt? Send out hunting expeditions for meat or fish to salt or smoke? Make contact with local Native Americans to discover what local vegetables or nuts that would could be salted or dried.? I'm a long term friend of jars and pressure cookers and that crew had to eat until the Golden Hind made it to the Spice Islands, the Cape of Good Hope, west Africa and home. The second ship to sail around the world and the first captain to complete the voyage. 

The Golden Hind made port on September 26, 1580. Half the cargo was claimed by the Queen, the logs and other records were basically classified top secret, Drake and his crew sworn to secrecy.

 

MY IGNORANCE IS AS GOOD AS

Isaac Asimov. I think I cut my science fiction loving teeth on his stories along with Campbell and Heinlein.

 There is, and has been, a strain of "my stupid is just as good as your smarts" in this country." And to be honest it's killing us. It got a boost with the Palin candidacy back in '08. It really reared its ugly head in 2012 with the candidates who went on and on and on about whether or not a woman could get pregnant if she was "really" raped for example. It really became totally weird in the last elections with a candidate who finally picked up her GED when she decided to run for congress representing a district in Colorado. 

Then there is the rep from Georgia, real estate broker and life coach, who is comparing the upoming federal vaccine mandate with the Nuremberg Code that was drafted after the Nuremberg trials in an attempt to define medical ethics. Especially in response the the medical "experiments" conducted in the concentration camps without the consent of the victims. These vaccines are not experiments. Most were already in the pipeline when the Covid SARS varient kicked the world in the ass. While no one is going through the streets ringing a bell and calling "bring out your dead" ICU's are filling up again. I don't know much about other states but last I heard Idaho was at maximum and the doctors were looking at triaging care.  

We also saw it during one of the forced budget shutdows with the congressman from I forget where (and I decided to no waste my time looking him up there was probably something better I could do with that five minutes) who wasn't really sure what it was all about but he knew that he and his fellows wanted to get some respect. For what? Breathing? Existing? Waking up in the morning, being a total embarrasment to the folks who voted for him? Actually I'm not sure about that last one since some of these "reps" keep getting reelected. 

And if you don't mind feeling like you took a dip in the moat during high summer you can find sterling examples in the comments section of just about any story about science (especially if evolution is involved), gay rights or religion.

One of the best examples I can still find is this story on HP. The original comments seem to have disappeared from the original article so the one that triggered this set of responses is no longer there. It would be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. One commenter claimed that he was studying anthropology (admired Louis Leakey) but ran across information that made him question what he was being taught and he dropped the field. 

I FINALLY got him to provide some links. What shook his faith in Anthropology? The Piltdown Maa and a story about how early modern humans aren't being called Cro Magnon anymore. Cro Magnon referred to where a set of fossils were discoverd in France. At the time these fossils were just about all we had for modern humans. We have many more from amost all over the world. I really didn't want to pursue that line any further. Hell I've known Piltdown was hoax for like forever. As for changing the names give me a freakin' break. I suspect the author of the comments doesn't really know too much about Anthropology.

Actually I first learned about the Piltdown forgery in a comic book. A comic book. The publisher's used to stick a one page prose article in with the picture story. Fossil hunting was in its infancy and the serach was on for the so called "missing link." To be honest the "is that a pebble or a tooth" crowd are still searching and sifting. If I wanted to update my seventies's era Anthro degree I would have to start from scratch that's how the fields have advanced.

Now we come to the really fun exchange. I guess it was fun. Again I don't know whether to laugh or cry. The fundies were out in force and for folks who demand we respect them? Well, you gotta give it to get it and calling people names while you prove you don't understand what in the H E double tooth picks you're talking about is a strange way to go about it.

What follows is a prime example. And yes, I'm being extremely sarcastic. When you find yourself on the north side of sixty you start losing the incentive to play nice in the play ground. Anyway the other guy's comments are bolded. Mine are in italics.

"Our belief is a lot solid compared to the "might have come, possibly, maybe, could haves, probably, possibly gibberish theories you people keep holding on to. At least our faith is unshakable and rooted firmly in God. You people believe and trust uncertainty. Now that's funny. No wonder science always comes up short of answers and falls flat when proving the source of life. To believe in evolution is saying, you're one big accident. A BIG MISTAKE. I regret wasting my time talking to you fools because you're just one big mistake in your own hearts. From now on, live a meaningless life without purpose, without a plan, without desires without creation and without dreams because your source has none of that. Living any other way would be going away and contradicting the source which you came from." Notice that there's a whole paragraph that doesn't say a whole heck of a lot actually. And science is all about uncertainty. You describe a problem, do the research, design experiments that may give you an answer, present it to your peers for approval (or "we believe you need to go back to the drawing board"), publish your findings and hope that you have found the answer. At least until someone finds a better answer. 

Me "Depends on your vision of God/Creator/Singer/harp player - however you see Him/Her. If your vision is closer to that of the old Irish, the German mystics;Hildegard or Eckhart, the early Quakers then the Creator and the universe are one and the same. The question becomes how you treat the universe. If the Creator is continually singing the universe into being then you are walking on sacred ground no matter where you are. Best to step softly and carefully."

"You're either insane, a monkey or out of this world. Are you still evolving into something we don't know about. If being a monkey is not good enough for you, let me know, I'll wait till you become an octopus with legs." Now I ask you, what the heck is going on here? Anyway I thought of and discarded at least a half dozen possible responses and settled for this. 

“Don't spend all those nickels in one place. Curious. How did you get from my comment, which reflects a perfectly good view of the universe, to yours? Check out half the Irish monks that made their way down to the heel of Italy's boot, Saint Francis, Meister Eckhart and Hildegard of Bingen. That'll do for starters.” And that was the end of that thread. 

I did not mention the obvious. About the only thing we have in common with an octopus is the fact that a humna and an octopus are both animals. An octopus is a mollusc. Even if what is left of the original shell is buried deep in its body. Humans are chordates. We have more in common with a rainbow trout or a cobra than we do with an octopus.  Even if humans did branch off a a being that made its home in the seas and rivers we would still be air breathing mammals with backbones. 

What's scary is that I believe this is the real deal not just a troll. The threads go on for too long and the entries are too consistent. And a prime example of the folks that don't seem know how evolution by natural selection works but don't seem realize why an octopus and a human have so little in common. We both live on the planet earth and we're both animals and that's just about it. 

 And even if I could pull it off  I still have absolutely no desire to become an octopus with those eight tentacles. Too damn much trouble. 

THE CHURCH FREEDOM OR CONTROL

I wrote this a few years ago and it's only gotten worse especially in the last four years. Bishops apeaking of denying the president communion. Evangelists being caught with their pants down, LIterally. OK this is an on the weird world tree image. But who to choose to grace this retread. So I didn't choose anyone I went full out pagan. 

 It’s been years since I’ve watched the film Beckett. There’s a scene early on where Henry II is meeting with his bishops and announcing new taxes. The archbishop demurs and it’s a matter of principle. Henry’s reply runs along the lines of “I’ve hired three thousand Swiss mercenaries. I can’t pay the Swiss with principles.” Henry II didn’t pay them with money from the church either. It was left to Henry VIII pull the church in England away from the control of Rome.

In some ways we’re still living with the fallout. Can a religious organization headquartered half the world away call the tune when it comes to local politics. Yes, the bishops are US citizens. But, they owe their power and rank to Rome; not to any American institution. Members of the church accept this situation, but I’m not a member of the Roman Catholic Church. Aside from a custom of tolerance what gives Rome the right to call the tune for me?

It’s been custom more than anything else that has exempted the churches from taxation. The first amendment says that congress can’t pass any laws establishing (favoring) one church over another. Doesn’t say anything about taxes.

And I’m not sure if certain congregations are more involved with politics than ever. The Catholics spring to mind. But, what used to be handled behind the scenes is out in the open. And with national media and the internet what’s going on is a hell of a lot more obvious. If you want to play in the political arena it’s long past time to pay. A comment on the failure of a “religious freedom” ballot measure in North Dakota ran along these lines. “What we have isn’t religious freedom, it’s religious privilege.” Certain groups, because they claim to be churches, are exempt from obligations the rest of us have to fulfill.

Would it hurt congregations that have shrunk over the years and still have large buildings to support? Probably. The church mom attends has been getting very creative. They’re currently renting kitchen and dining room space to several groups that offer community meals, that sort of thing. Ebbert is a big, beautiful, century old building with an aging congregation. And I suspect that tax laws could be tailored to protect smaller congregations. But, we’ve got two hospitals in our area and Sacred Heart (non profit, Catholic) doesn’t charge any less than McKenzie Willamette for its services.

The truth is this isn’t about religious freedom. It’s about control. It’s about defining who is truly a citizen of this country and who isn’t. It’s about who makes decisions when it comes to women. It’s about the law. The Bible and other religious documents are not the law in this country. The constitution is the law. It needs to be said loudly and often. And repeated until it finally sinks into some very thick skulls.

NO SHIRT NO SHOES

Should go right up with No Shoes, No Shirt. I mean I haven't heard anyone complaining about their right to demand service in their bare feet and without a shirt. And a lot of the world isn't laughing so much as shaking their heads "how in the hell did this happen?

What is happening is a prime example of one definition freedom in this country. It runs like this. "My freedom is the most important. You have to respect MY freedom no matter what. I will respect your freedom when or if I feel like it. I have the right to get in your face. call you names, refuse to get that vaccine and encourage my friends, my family and people I don't even know to not get the vaccine. Until I get sick, end up in the hospital relying on the science I mocked. Then I will probably admit I was wrong and encourage you to get vaccinated." 

Too bad the the conspiracy science was on the front page. Your retraction will probaby end up on page eight. Unless you die. Then it just might make the front page.Too darn little and too darn late in my humble opinon. 

Right now states like Idaho with a forty percent vaccination rate are facing overflowing hospitals and how are we going to ration care. Look up the word triage. It should scare your socks off. If you are wearing any. 

Preudoscience

The old brain box isn't working very well the last couple of days but I did notice this little gem. 

 Pretty much straight out of Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit.  Some observations. Ever ask for proof, Youtube videos excepted,  and you never hear back? If you can't disprove a claim you probably can't prove it either. And lately everything is a conspiracy. We've been up to our necks in conspiracy theories since long before the pandemic started. 

NOT TOO COLD

Faux Noise has been making claims about sustainable energy. Again. Multiple hits on Google. 

THE WAITING ROOM

 

I really do hope that the hereafter looks something like this. The Gatekeeper seems a cheerful sort. The cartoonist is Wiley Miller for Non Sequiter. The way things are going They may never get in. My heart bleeds for them. Not.

Amost all the new patients are unvaccinated, their families were unvaccinated.At the rate things are going it will be months until we get a handle on this. We're no better off than many third world coutries. Difference is that they can't get the vaccine. We have it and too many of our fellow citizens for reasons I totally cannot understand are refusing to take the vaccine. 

THAT LAST NERVE IS READY TO SNAP

 Idaho now has the dubious distincton of having the lowest Covid vaccination rate in the country. As September unfolds at least one expert is predicting 30,000 cases a week. Hospitals are overwhelmed and health care workers are dropping out from physical and mental exhaustion. 

This is just one of the shots accompanying the article. The patient is probably on a heart monitor. Oxygen levels are monitored. Probably is on oxygen in one form or another. I hadn't thought about it but, that fuzzy white on the lower leg with the tubing is probably pulsing to keep the blood flow up in the legs to prevent blood clots. Up at the elbow is probably at least one IV line. Perhaps more than one. Below is my comment on the article. I'm still dong deep breathing excercises. The comment on Russian Roulet is an addition.

When I was a kid we all lined up for both polio vaccinces. We'd seen the wards full of iron lungs. Back in the day I've heard you couold SMELL the whooping cough ward before you arrived. Kids died of measles or were left with damage to their hearts or secondary infections. We almost lost one of my nephews to meningitis. He was eight months old at the time. 

To those who sat by and watching this horror unfold and still didn't get vaccinated. I have a suggestion for you. If you come down with the virus sit down with a bottle of your choice and a revolver with a single bullet.  You're already playing Russian Roulet. Might as well make it official. I am beyond sympathizing with your so called rights. refusal to take responsibility, and apparantly really not caring about anybody else. Ok. Ok. I'll take some deep breaths and calm down. But damnit all we didn't have to end up in this place and this time.

CUTTING THROUGH THE LAW

Porttrait of Sir Thoms More as Chencellor of England.

Too many folks keep going on about the country following "God's law" over the constitution It's an old, old story.

This is a wonderful passage from A Man for all Seasons. This one has to do with the law. The characters include Sir Thomas, his wife Alice, his daughter Margaret, future son in law William Roper (in the course of the play he goes from enthusiasticCatholic to enthusiastic Lutheran back to enthusiastic Catholic), and Richard Rich. I’m not sure if the actual Richard Rich was quite as morally slippery as he is portrayed in the play. Here he is a young academic seeking preferment and not unwilling to sell out a friend to obtain it. Sir Thomas is still Lord Chancellor and could order someone arrested. Or at least very strongly suggest it. Rich is looking for some political perferment. Preferably at court or in the household of a powerful noble. The duke of Norfolk for example. 

 

Rich: I would be steadfast!

 

More: Richard, you couldn’t answer for yourself even so far as tonight.

            (Rich exits)

 

Roper: Arrest him!

 

Alice: Yes!

 

More: For What?

 

Alice: He’s dangerous.

 

Roper: For libel; he’s a spy.

 

Alice: He is! Arrest him.

 

Margaret: Father, that man’s bad.

 

More: There’s no law against that.

 

Roper: Yes there is. God’s law.

 

More: Then God can arresthim.

 

Roper: Sophistication upon sophistication.

 

Me: (I think he’s referring to philosophical hair splitting. In fifth century BC Athens sophists were known as itinerant intellectuals who used verbal arguments to convince people of their arguments. Some have come down in the writings of their antagonists as using verbal trickery to achieve their successes).

 

More: No, sheer simplicity. The law, Roper the law. I know what’s legal not what’s right. And I’ll stick to what’s legal.

 

Roper: Then you set man’s law above God’s!

 

More: No, far below; but let me draw your attention to a fact-I’m not God. The currents and eddies of right and wrong, which you find such plain sailing, I can’t navigate. I’m no voyager. But, in the thickets of the law, there I’m a forester. I doubt if there’s a man alive who could follow me there, thank God.

 

Alice: While you talk he’s gone!

 

More: And go he should, if he were the Devil himself, until he broke the law!

 

Roper: So, now you’d give the devil the benefit of law?

 

More: Yes, what would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get at the Devil?

 

Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that!

 

More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you-where would you hide Roper, the laws all being flat? This country’s planted thick with laws-man’s laws, not God’s-and if you cut them down-and you’re just the man to do it-d’you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the devil the benefit of law, for own safety’s sake.

 

It’s that last sentence that’s stayed with me since I read the play for the first time. And doesn’t the “cut down all the laws that keep us from…….” sound painfully familiar?