And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder...

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

~Revelation 6:1-2 (KJV)

As the name of this blog implies, I have ferrets.

Last week, the local pet store got this little Cinnamon Sprite kit (A Sprite being a spayed female ferret.) I had got there just as the delivery guy was dropping off the weekly critter shipment Wednesday morning. As usual, that shipment included a couple of baby ferrets. My friend Tyler got the ferrets (This one and a little red-eyed Champagne/Sandy Gib kit...a Gib being a neutered male ferret) out of the shipping box. She immediately latched on to his fingers, jaw-locked and hissing in that sort of way only an enraged weasel can. I helped disengage her, we put the other kit in the ferret cage and I took little miss bitey back to the cat towers to work with her a bit. I grabbed a squeaky toy on the way.

When I got back to the cat towers I put her down on the shelf in front of the cat tower, let her bite and grab my finger, then pulled her off and scruffed her saying "No bite." Next, I offered her the toy, squeaking it a couple of times for emphasis. (The toy, since you can't see the whole thing, is a little green dragon.) She immediately grabbed it and started to back up into the lower section of a cat tower. I held fast, so a tug-of-war ensued between me and this ferret. I let her have it a couple times, offered her my hand (she bit) scruffed her again and then offered the toy. This went on for about 20 minutes. A couple of times she bit hard and drew blood, but she was slowly getting the idea. Finally, I just held her down and started petting her, and she seemed to calm down and recognize that I was something other than a threat or a giant chew toy. By the time I left the store, we'd made friends. It might not seem like much, but it was a small victory. Last Friday I brought her and her cage-mate an old dog toy (same brand as the dragon, but it was a Triceratops dinosaur.) It lasted the weekend before the two teething baby ferrets destroyed it. (This toy had previously survived the jaws of 32 other ferrets, but I digress.) The little Sprite has since gone on to a new and happy home and the little Gib is my pet store buddy.

What does this have to do with anything? Nothing, really, but also everything.

Ferrets are fearless little critters, for one.

In my experience, a good act, or a positive accomplishment or the completion of a project makes people feel good (self included here) whether it's getting out of work after a busy shift, helping somebody, paying my bills, or even something as simple as bite-training a baby ferret so they'll go to a good home. In my experience also, knowledge...real knowledge...translates into power. Knowing the history of the Antebellum era, and of the Civil War...indeed having been raised on it...gave me the capability to say that the President was wrong to say the dumb shit he said about Andrew Jackson and the Civil War...and to know I was right because I've been studying this history since I was learning to read in the first place. Knowledge reinforcing values prevents one from being lured into the catatonia of groupthink, or from being moved by popularity and going along with the crowd. In the world today, believe it or not, that matters. As I have said many times, I started out as a Christian and as a conservative. It is precisely for those reasons that I didn't go with the crowd and support Donald Trump.

With all that in mind, it never ceases to amaze me that people would choose the societal heroin of racism or sexism as the means to feel good about themselves, or chase after stupid and often blatantly false conspiracy theories above actually seeking knowledge (and remember folks, I started out as a conservative. Facts are nonpartisan, and stubborn things. They are true whether one believes in them or not. A solid baseline of facts and reality was once a part of conservatism.) It blows my mind that young men...and even some my age...will go on living in their Mom's basement, angrily spewing all sorts of nonsensical invective, racism and whatever else at the world because they're angry that they can't find a girlfriend, or their job sucks, or they don't have a job...and to a great extent these are the people who supported Trump, either because they wanted to make the rest of us miserable or (and worse, in my opinion) because they thought it would be funny.

Well, roughly two-thirds of the rest of us Americans aren't laughing, Pepe.

Like I've said, if you want to defeat terrorism...don't be afraid. Don't allow yourself to be terrorized. If you aren't happy with your life, you can go out and change it. You. YOU, YOUR actions are always the key here. If you don't want to be afraid all the time, instead of wishing for a government that will kill all of your bogeymen and/or "protect" you from the things you're afraid of...why not just try not being afraid in the first place? Be fearless like a ferret. If you want your country to not get laughed at or taken advantage of, well, don't do stupid shit and allow yourself to be taken advantage of.

We are all responsible for our own actions.

A large number of Americans have proved the veracity of the old adage that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

It's just not the particular people I thought it would be 20 years ago.

I saw earlier today that FBI director James Comey testified before Congress today, and the lack of interest from some Republican Senators was pretty ridiculous. I mean, come on, people. This is our country we're talking about. Now I know that American conservatives are suddenly in these last couple of years butt-buddies with the Russians. Hell, once upon a time we were that way with Saudi Arabia too...but goddamn it, if we'd been taking orders from or our politicians had got elected with the aid of the House of Saud there'd have been hell to pay at the ballot box the next cycle, if not blood in the streets. This is where we're at right now, Comrades. It's coming down to "Do something, preferably the right thing, or face the consequences.

Because that's just what happens.

Change is coming, and they can blithely ignore it all they want, but whether by ballot or revolution, it's coming. We the People are no longer asleep at the switch. The middle has moved on, while the majority of Trump Supporters are either angry poor whites or rich old white men, the majority of us took our campaign signs down last November. So, sooner or later these idiots are going to walk into a buzz saw. Smart Republican strategists know it, and they are already worried about 2018. They know people are pissed. As Trump daily proves himself more and more unfit, and demand for impeachment grows...well, the current behavior of Congressional Republicans and the assholes who constitute the majority of Trump Supporters these days...that's exactly the type of shit that sparks revolutions.

When you have Congressman Mo Brooks (R-Redneckistan) saying shit like "Good people don't have pre-existing conditions" well that's when a hell of a lot of the people who agree with him on a lot of beliefs...but have preexisting medical conditions for which they need health care...well, he just probably lost those people. It amazes me that people say shit like this in a world where firing squads, Guillotines and revolutions of all kinds exist.

It amazes me that here we have all these people, who were presumably taught some kind of values at some point...who could use the positions and power they have to effect good policies and positive change and in so doing become great...settle for at best mediocrity and at worst self-destructive short-term thinking where all they care about is "What can I get out of this Right Now?"

It amazes me that for all their big talk, these people's vision is so small. Like with the budget stuff last week...after all this crazy talk over nothing...the current budget looks an awful lot like that of last year or the year before...and as usual there's no direction from the White House, only the threat of a government shutdown that Trump isn't the one who has power to effect. This guy can bluster and "look into" and "Review" all the stuff he wants. The constitution and the law are what they are, and everybody else in the system but him knows it's dangerous to set the precedent of doing a lot of tinkering with it for the benefit of one man. After all, the next Democrat in office could then turn around and do the same...and eventually we end up with a bipolar and ineffective government that tries to reinvent the wheel every four years. At this point, as several people that I know have said, these people's incompetence is the main thing protecting us from their malice.

Hell, yesterday I watched a video of Trump giving a speech with the US Air Force Falcons football team standing behind him...and all the cadets, from the most Republican of our Armed Services, were either failing at game faces or trying not to laugh (and failing) and one cadet looked like he hid behind another to facepalm a couple of times. The speech was intended to honor the team...but Trump made it all about himself.

This is what we're dealing with here. I often think getting through all this will be easier than I thought. But at the same time, overall the situation is more of a train wreck than I ever thought it could possibly be. I guess I was expecting a smarter wannabe-autocrat.

Things are holding, the situation seems still in hand, but barely. We're all just going to have to keep doing the best we can and we'll all get through this together.

In the meantime, we need to be as decent to each other as we can be. Ignore the pop-culture bullshit and stupidity...because those things are a big part of what got us here. Count up the small victories, and keep the tide rolling, because that's how you make a tidal wave, eventually.

Change is coming, very likely it's going to look like the Apocalypse for somebody...and it looks increasingly likely that it's going to be the people who have it coming.

The only thing that worries me is that they'll probably take a lot of the rest of us down with them. That's why we have to be prepared. The afterlife is only a heartbeat away, and what we do in life echoes in eternity.

Be ready, just in case. Be strong. Master your fear and reach for the stars.

There's a man goin' 'round takin' names
And he decides who to free and who to blame
Everybody won't be treated all the same
There'll be a golden ladder reachin' down
When the man comes around

The hairs on your arm will stand up
At the terror in each sip and in each sup
Will you partake of that last offered cup
Or disappear into the potter's ground?
When the man comes around

Hear the trumpets hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singin'
Multitudes are marchin' to the big kettledrum
Voices callin', voices cryin'
Some are born and some are dyin'
It's alpha and omega's kingdom come
And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It's hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

~Johnny Cash, the Man comes around.

First World Problems

Last week, on Twitter, Convicted Felon Dinesh D'Souza made a stupid comment about the new Nike Sport Hijab. It was something to the effect of "I hope Nike isn't saying to Jihadis and suicide bombers 'Just Do It." He was rightly put through the wringer for it. I have to say I think that's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. If he can't tell the difference between a Hijabi and a Jihadi, Dinesh is dumber than I thought. Note I thought he was pretty fuckin' dumb.

Look here, we live in a global society whether we like it or not. Our markets are likewise global whether we like it or not, and it's actually been that way as long as this country has existed. If Nike has decided that the Middle East is a big enough market that it should be specifically marketed to by them, then that's their decision. Sorry, but I started out as a Free Market conservative. I understand you don't get to have a free market when you like it, and a not free market when some corporation does something you don't like. It's their company, they're going to do what's profitable for them. Personally, I think These Fucking People are just pissed off because we live in a global society and the Middle East has become a big enough market for American companies to specifically market consumer products there in a visible manner. Of course, I'm sure the Sport Hijab will get marketed lots of other places too, like here or in Europe or Australia. Personally, I think it's a great idea.

I don't even get why this is a problem, we've been buying Arab oil and selling at least some of those people weapons pretty consistently for longer than I've been alive. How is a Hijab or a pair of expensive basketball shoes any damned different? Capitalism. If there's money to be made eventually somebody's going to give it a shot. If there's a market for it, hell, maybe in a year or two, Nike will make sport Turbans for Sikh men? Perhaps Buck or Gerber or K-Bar will start making Kirpans (Sikh daggers or swords) with some particular American ingenuity? For that matter, with Baptized Sikhs now able to observe the tenets of the Khalsa (the "Five K's") without a waiver while serving in the US military (and for that matter, with female Muslims also able to wear Hijabs now) I wouldn't be surprised if digital camouflage Hijabs (or at least the black form-fitting ones) and Turbans according to the different services digital patterns are already being manufactured.

This is no big deal, this is normal. This is how American tradition works.

Of course, it's also tradition that people bitch about it. That's just how this country is.

In some countries, like Iran or Saudi Arabia, a Muslimah might not be able to go jogging or train for an athletic event or play association football or whatever without her Hijab. Wouldn't one that fits and is designed for that type of activity be appropriate? Nike being an American brand...it might just be a big thing to be able to have.

And that, too, is just how those countries are.

Doesn't make it right.

In the era of Trump, those people have been sounding pretty damned "First World Problems" to me.

You know, like when you get the wrong food item at the Drive Thru at MacDonald's or when your battery is dead on your phone or when your WiFi is out?

Never mind that even though something as simple as a Mobile Phone weather app can literally be a lifesaver for a subsistence farmer in Niger, not very many people have Mobile Phones. Often, there's no electricity so maybe charge it in the car if you have a vehicle (Most people don't) and certainly outside of the cities and more populated areas, fuck 4G LTE, you're pretty often lucky to have any "G's" or service on any level at all. Yet to a subsistence farmer, largely dependent on the weather...a cell phone weather app or access to the internet (through the national ISP, SONITEL if they can afford access and live where it's available) and a website that shows longer-range weather forecasts can affect planting and watering schedules and can literally make the difference between survival and maybe even having a little money...or poverty and starvation.

Actually, given the country's low literacy rates, Radio is the big medium for news and weather. The BBC's Arabic and Hausa services, which also cater to Nigeria...are pretty heavily used in Niger. How many Americans even bother with the radio anymore? I know I sure don't.

Think about that, for a second. Something we take for granted or might not even notice or use here, can be a literal lifesaver in other parts of the world. Something ubiquitous here, like cell phones with internet access, is rare as fuck over there.

One of the feeds I follow on both Facebook and Twitter for news is Al-Jazeera English. Last week I read a couple of articles about the East African country of Benin that really got me thinking about these kinds of things and fed into me writing this post.

The first one was about parents (and other people) selling kids into forced labor. So, basically, it was about slavery. These kids are being sold sometimes for as little as $30. A kid might get told they're going to go away and get some great job, and end up performing agricultural work, working as a shoe-repairman/kid or working in a grocery store in Nigeria. If a parent or guardian is poor, they may feel like they don't have a choice, or they might simply give a kid to the village shoe repairman so the kid can learn a trade and they have one less mouth to feed. Did I mention that a lot of these countries do not have (and cannot afford to have) much or even anything at all in the way of social safety nets or social welfare programs? The article I read went into some depth about various non-governmental organizations and individuals that work with the Beninese government and law enforcement (or on their own) to bust these kids out of slavery.

The second article that I read was about Voodoo in Benin and how children, if they are believed to be possessed by an evil spirit, are often exiled to Voodoo convents where they are given a new name and all they get to learn is Voodoo songs and dances to try to "cure" themselves. (Note that "Possessed by an evil spirit" may be the local interpretation of some kid's medical problem that no one around has the capability or the knowledge to deal with.) Also, note that a vast majority of these kids would rather be going to school and doing normal kid stuff. The article talked about NGO's trying to shorten the time these kids were exiled, and getting them into school instead of doing crazy woo woo religious hokum. Funny thing, at the end of the article, the President of all the Voodoo priests in the area where these NGO's were working spoke with some of their people and, saying that "Where others can't, I can, I am the god of the thunder, of the lightning, and of snakes" he admitted he'd been ignorant, he apologized and agreed to reduce the time that the kids were exiled to three months (where before, some of them might be locked away for up to ten years) and to help get them into schools where they would get caught up on learning.

If an old Voodoo Priest in a country most Americans have never heard of and can't find on a map, can admit to error and make amends for previous mistakes, why can't so many Americans do it?

The next time somebody bitches about illegal immigrants or refugees...and remember, there's more than just Mexican illegal immigrants and there's a lot more people besides Muslims who become refugees...

Some of them, too, might be fleeing from religious persecution or slavery...

And people here want to complain about people who come here to do the jobs that they literally Will. Not. Do?

First World Problems. Seems kind of fucked up, I think.

If we don't get over these entitled attitudes, and this country comes flying apart or people like Paul Ryan get their way and get rid of the social safety net...we're absolutely going to find out what it's like to live in a country that's like Benin. We already have enough problems with crazy religious woo woo shit here already.

We live in a global society, with global problems, which will require global solutions. Like the man said...injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

We'd better start acting like it.

As long as we are ruled by others we shall lay our mistakes at their door, and our sense of responsibility will remain dulled. Freedom brings responsibilities, and our experience can be enriched only by the acceptance of these responsibilities. ~Kwame Nkrumah, 1st President of Ghana.

Chlorination Nation.

To recap (and I'm sure this is not all of what JonTron said), JonTron said, in what he thought was perfectly fine for a debate:

- Foreigners dilute the gene pool
- Black crime in America is the same as in Africa (like, he fuckin' brought this up TWICE)
- Racial issues can be summed up via mixing different colors of paint
- Statistical data means nothing because Clinton lost the election
- Destiny wants to kill black people
- Black Lives Matter is a violent organization
- the richest black man commits more crimes than the poorest white man
- Tribalism is a valid theory
- Immigrants are destroying every single country they are let into
- America is gonna become Mexico
- Racism is over
- Muslims are organizing to make it seem like Christians are protesting abortion clinics

And Destiny didn't even fucking ask the most obvious fuckin' question: "If you're so concerned about immigrants, why do you keep bringing up blacks?"

"Foreigners dilute the gene pool."

That's some straight up Nazi shit right there. Sorry, but I thought that Eugenics was pretty much discredited by the fact that most of the only people who actually tried to put it into practice ended up dead.

Also "I'm going to show that 'racism is over' by saying a bunch of racist shit?" What kind of fucking logic is that?

This shit was brought to my attention by my co-worker C.J. last night at work. (The original thread being here.) My basic response is "Fuck this shit, the gene pool needs Chlorine at this point, BAD!"

Each of you owes me 100 Nazi scalps...and I want my scalps.

But I digress...

 I'm going to be crude and probably pretty damned offensive here, and if you don't like it, too bad.

Seriously, I'm just sayin' here but some young punk ass gamer geek (I'm assuming that's what this little Jon Jafari/JonTron asshole is) who's sexual choices at this point most likely consist of Right Hand or Left Hand has one hell of a lot of nerve complaining about anyone, much less foreigners, diluting anyone's gene pool. If there's one thing that seems to be a common thread with these angry alt-right Nazi racist basement trolls who seem to spend all their lives on the computer, it's that they #1 haven't been laid yet. #2 they resent this fact, and #3 it's everyone's fault BUT theirs.

Just sayin' if running out of whack-it lube or shitty bandwidth denying access to your porntube subscription or Hentai videos is a tragic event, you might want to get out of the house.

Turn the computer or the console off, go outside, and talk to some real live human beings.

Like I told my friend Aaron awhile back, every last one of these motherfuckers ought to get smacked right in the mouth. At this point I'll add, preferably by a woman of color.

This guy sounds like he should be a member of Milo Yiannopoulos little retinue of sheltered-white-boys-who-need-an-ass-whuppin.' AKA "Alpha Males" who come off like their job is to be boy toys for the Gay Nazi or at least Faggot eye-candy so Milo can feel good about himself. The article I read about that made me think of how, back in the early 1990's Michael Jackson always seemed to travel with a retinue of young boys...which somehow seems less weird now.

Most of these people who go around claiming the "Alpha Male" label strike me as the type who are one Felony conviction away from knowing what another man's penis tastes like. Most of these motherfuckers are sheltered, weak-minded dudes who think their penis is some kind of magic key that unlocks money, power, and the secrets of the universe and entitles them to have sex with attractive women. No, It Does Not Work That Way.

Listen, people, I was taught if you wanted something you went out and earned it. You whether black, white, male, female, Christian, Jewish, Muslim or some rama-rama-ding-ding shit you had to have been to India to hear about and whether you came from a poor family or a rich one, aren't entitled to one goddamned fucking thing. Or you shouldn't be, anyway.

Doesn't matter if your parents are rich, once you leave the house, go make your own money. Yes, occasional family support is fine but once you get past a certain point, maybe a couple years out of college or so...you should be in a position where you don't need it too often.

Yes, everybody needs help now and again (and our society makes people jump through sometimes-ridiculous hoops to get it, and often in so doing helps the wrong people, while not helping those who are actually trying to accomplish something. That's not an argument against the social safety net...I'm saying we need a better one than we have and we need to apply intelligence to it and do the best we can to weed out the malingerers) some people have money and some people don't. Some people are good at this or that, some people are not. That's just life. Nobody wins at everything all the time and anybody who tells you that you can or gives you a trophy just for showing up is a fucking liar and needs to be punched in the face.

That's a lot of the problem. People have grown up not being taught that Action = Consequence, they are not being told, "NO!" They have been taught that their "feelings" are paramount, that their "individual liberty" is more important than anything, up to and including the freedom and rights of our whole society. People need to be told "No" sometimes, period. For some reason, most of the people who get this shit the worst are men.

Some people are socially successful and some people aren't, some people gamely try and don't quite make it, but still end up on your good side or are tolerated because at least they're trying.

I'm just gonna throw this out here right now, that the absolute last fucking thing any Man worthy of the name is entitled to is to get another person, whether male or female, to share their body and their soul with you. It's not about money, it's not about power, an awful lot of the time all it takes is not being a dick, having some mutual interests with a girl, a little courtesy and some common fucking decency.

Unless you've got a thing for mercenary gold-diggers who'll stab you in the back or women with a raging mental illness, guys, absolutely nobody is going to give a shit about how much money you make, or your I.Q. or the length of your penis. It just Doesn't. Work. That. Way.

Then of course there's the entitlement, and the racism. Jafari...not a very WASP-y sounding surname, that, just sayin.' Is this kid trying to out White-Man the White Man? That doesn't usually seem to work.

Instead, no, a lot of males have this idea that "Oh, she thinks I'm a dick." Hmmm, "Well, I guess I'll be an even BIGGER dick and then maybe she'll find that interesting?" I suppose it's not a big leap from that to thinking that Black folks will give up their rights and all they've fought for, for 150 years, in exchange for a job?

Of course, this also seems to be the governing philosophy of the Trump administration. "If we're big enough dicks to everyone else, and show our power by sheer ham-fisted obnoxious stupidity and unnecessarily hurting enough people, everybody else will get out of the way or submit and we can just do what we want!"

I'm here to tell you, that's also the lizard-brain mentality of the average 13-year-old boy. Acting like that, though, would tend to get me a hard backhand across the face from my Grandma. Old ladies especially usually aren't having it when it comes to that kind of crap.

I'm here to tell you, neither the ladies, nor those that certain people judge as less-than, nor the rest of the world is going to keep putting up with this bullshit forever, and those who practice it are going to be made to pay. If we Americans don't get this shit under control, and fast, our country is going to be made to pay. This glorification of crazy assholery for the sake of crazy assholery and the biggest dick bag wins is going to be the death of us.

You know how we fix this problem? We bring back the ass whuppin.' Full stop. Start beating the shit out of these motherfuckers. Hell, we may have to just straight up shoot a few of 'em. (I say start with the guy who said "foreigners dilute the gene pool" but that's just me.) We make this shit...entitlement, poor treatment of women, racism, and general shitty behavior both socially and otherwise unacceptable by inflicting as harsh as possible of consequences on people who act like that.

Richard Spencer (for example) seems to be keeping a much lower profile after getting punched in the face a few times. Do your civic duty, punch a Nazi. If you don't believe in violence...stand up, refuse to put up with this bullshit just the same. (Oh, and by the way, Fuck You Geert Wilders.)

Actually, the hell with that...

Forget punching Nazis...

Kick a Nazi in the balls, HARD. That'll chlorinate the gene pool real fucking quick.

Maybe if there's some risk to the dick, these guys will stop thinking with theirs.

Do your civic duty, kick a Nazi in the balls. Chlorinate the Gene Pool.

Fuck you, Steve King.

Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on a race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength of the world. That is the American way. ~Ronald Reagan

So, yesterday, Iowa Representative Steve King tweeted this:

For any who don't know, Geert Wilders is an Atheistic dick bag of a Dutch politician who's made a career out of hating on Muslims for no fucking reason that I can figure out. I don't know what the fuck any Muslim person ever did to him, but he's basically such an asshole that nobody wants to work with him so even if he wins the upcoming election in the Netherlands, he loses. He is the only actual member of his own party and so far as I understand it, none of the other parties want to work with him. So he can't become Prime Minister. Christ, how much of an asshole do you have to be for the famously tolerant Dutch to tell you to go fuck yourself?

As regards King; Before we move on, I'd just like to say "Fuck you, fuck you, and oh yeah, fuck you." As I've mentioned before I'm of Scandinavian descent. If culture and demographics are my destiny, well fuck it all then. I'm going to get a crew together, some kind of a boat and some weapons, and sail down the Missouri River to go a-Viking in King's district, because fuck him, that's why. But, ya know, this is America and he's lucky I ain't gotta be like that. I'm so sick of this right-wing shit by now though, that I might just get around to pillaging somebody's village yet.

The goddamned Fascist moron with the corn-cob up his ass Also said:

"We need to get our birth rates up or Europe will be entirely transformed within a half century or a little more. And Geert Wilders knows that and that’s part of his campaign and part of his agenda." 

Okay, so more of the usual "OhMyGod, Brown People are coming and they're going to fuck your daughter!" Racist bullshit.

Sorry if you don't like it, you sheet-wearing cow-fucker, but if I had a daughter and she got with a black person, or a person of any other non-white ethnicity, well that'd be her goddamned business so long as they have morals and treat her good. I say "Person" because if I had a kid (or have one that I don't know about...a real possibility given my own unfortunate sexual history...but in my defense I was trying to piss off my nut-bag ex-wife) I don't care if they're gay. If their partner happens to be religious...great! If their partner is Muslim? I'd probably actually be encouraged because I have quite a bit of experience with Muslims and know pretty well what I can or can't expect in terms of behavior. See, a little knowledge about things other than bestiality, cousin-fucking, horse cock porn and right-wing bullshit actually comes in real handy for reducing the amount of stress in one's life.

...And then, in response, This happened:

As I've said before regarding Trump, when assholes like David Duke are supporting your dumb ass, it's probably time to rethink your life. Duke has falsely claimed to be a Vietnam Veteran (he's not a veteran at all) he was part of a plot to overthrow the government of the Caribbean island nation of Dominica (supposedly to establish an anti-Communist government, but in reality there were extensive financial motivations) by American and Canadian white supremacists. The plot was foiled by the FBI and pretty much everybody but Duke went to prison either in Canada, Dominica or the US. Then eventually, he became a (basically hated, and ironically replaced by now-sitting US Senator David Vitter) one-term member of the Louisiana house of representatives and he eventually was kicked out of the Klan for stealing money from them. David Duke is such an all-around loser with enough of a rep for doing dumb shit that I'm surprised he hasn't pissed off the wrong person and been chopped up and fed to alligators by now. A compliment from this dude should end one's political career. I hope (and given his record, I wouldn't be surprised) that some day a cache of gay porn featuring black men is found in the possession of this Nazi shithead. I'll laugh like a motherfucker.

When pressed about the issue, King said:

"I'd like to see an America that's just so homogeneous that we look a lot the same, from that perspective,”

No, dude, just No. That's not how this works, not even close. Maybe you want to live in some kind of weird Stepford-America where everybody acts the same and goes to the same kind of church and looks the same and shit but I don't. I'd find such a country to be pretty damned deadly boring, you know, kind of like Iowa. I've driven through that state quite a few times and I can't say I've ever done anything more than stop for gas and take a piss now and again there, it's pretty much several hours of nothing between Illinois and Nebraska...and Nebraska is of course even more of nothing but miles and miles and miles, of miles and miles and miles of nothing! But since I legitimately don't consider the smell of cow manure to be attractive nor do I regard a picture of cow udders to be pornographic, I think I'll pass on your idea of what America should look like, Representative Ass Wipe.

Funny thing, but it's a good goddamned thing that for him that I've had some positive experience of Iowans and don't actually regard Gauleiter King to be all that representative of the people of his state. That might've changed since I was in Mrs. Nitz's 4th Grade class at Peace Lutheran School in Tustin, California...but if that is so, you can count on me to be even more pissed off. That teacher and her class is exactly why books like Pilgrim's Progress, James and the Giant Peach, Where the Wild Things Are and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory became relevant to me in the first place. She was a mean old lady originally from Estherville, Iowa, a devout Lutheran and a retired secular teacher, who was fiercely committed to education. What she'd say about Steve King, I don't know. My guess is that it'd probably involve the wooden paddle she kept behind her desk. One of the few times she ever used it was when one kid called another one a racial slur.

This is America, a country of stolen land with assimilated, borrowed and stolen culture, partly built by literally stolen African people who were in part freed by German and Irish immigrants impressed into the Union Army fresh off the boat. After that war (which Duke's side lost) we that replaced THAT source of agrarian labor with immigrant industrial labor from even more other countries to fuel our industrial revolution. Our car and consumer cultures were largely established by Henry Ford, an arch-conservative (and anti-Semite) who brought Arabs-both Christian and Muslim-over here to work in his factories, with the goal of establishing them as a constituency to oppose the Jews. That's why my own home state has the largest percentage of Arab Americans in the United States. We won a war with and have defended the post-World War II liberal democratic order mostly with technology created by emigrated or yes, stolen Austrian and German scientists. and I sit here typing this today on technology that is what it is because of a Lebanese immigrant and an American college dropout who started out with basically nothing who between the two of them, founded rival companies and got our modern computerized technological age going. Can't restore our civilization with somebody else's babies? 

In the immortal words of Barack Obama (himself the son of a Kenyan immigrant who along with Obama's Kansas-born mother, was a college student here, I believe) Yes we can.

This is America, and restoring and rebuilding and reinventing our civilization with "somebody else's babies" is exactly how the fuck we do it. It's the only way we ever have. Americans aren't like the Arabs or the Dutch, or the Japanese or the Russians or the Swiss. We aren't a people based on the land we live on and one unified culture. We don't have a common religion like the Greeks or Laotians or the Saudis or even my own Lutheran Scandinavian ancestors did. We're Americans, all we have and all we are...is what we want to be. Somebody else's babies? Well if they're here, they're ours, because their parents wanted to be Americans. Guess what? That's Okay. Unless you're Native American, your ancestors were once in the same boat.

If you don't like that, fuck you.

I'll say this much with certainty, if people from the rest of the world stop wanting to be Americans? People like Donald Trump and Steve King will be exactly why that happens.

And it'll be a damn shame, too. 

This is what we came from:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
MOTHER OF EXILES. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

~The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus

That's the America I want to live in, and I'll fight to keep it that way and don't you forget it.

#Top20

The Heart Attack Burger and the Orange Man.

Are you going to eat that?
 ~Brooks Hatlen, to Andy Dufresne, the Shawshank Redemption

I was at work last night (I work in a kitchen at a casino) and I happened to be the trash guy last night. That's about as fun as it sounds. After I get done working I want to brush the crud out of my green fur, go home, crawl in my garbage can and go to sleep. Yes, it really is a job tailor made for Oscar the Grouch. It's also one of those jobs where one isn't assigned to a particular area. I was on this particular job for a number of years in my workplace because I'm one of the people who gets shit done instead of fucking off all night.

Along the way, I've observed a lot from the small-but-diverse slice of humanity that I work with.

Last night as I'm making one of my rounds I observed that the cooks for one of the restaurants were making up these burger patties that had big chunks of butter in the middle. I asked a couple of questions, got my answers and found out in the resulting back-and-forth that one of my co-workers wanted to eat one of these monstrosities. Me and the other guy from my department who was right there both thought the same things; Who'd want to eat such a thing, and how quickly would one have a heart attack after eating it? If I ate a burger like that, I'm quite sure that I'd find out I could rap (or at least beat-box rather well) with my behind. I say this as somebody who's worked consistently in various jobs in the food service business ranging from dishwasher to line cook and all the way up to manager in a cafeteria...the burger...and the idea of me eating it...are ridiculous.

Who would find such a plated monument to culinary excess appetizing? For the record the guy who wants to eat one is the young, socially awkward Libertarian on our shift. He has a good heart and an idealistic nature as people his age who take up such philosophies often do. So, I won't hold it against him...but I had to give him some shit about wanting to eat what sounds to me like Death on a plate, or as I had tentatively christened it "The Heart Attack." As I'm leaving the kitchen to go out to dump my trash the little old Japanese-American bakery lady (who'd heard the conversation) had to add that "Yes, you're right, that IS heart attack burger." So, I got to thinking about it. Why does this exist?

It exists because people's souls are empty, so they compensate by filling their bodies.

It exists because delayed gratification, let alone self denial, have become foreign concepts to many Americans. It exists because we have no problem with establishments like the one I work in throwing away enough food to feed a respectably-sized African village on a daily basis (although I'm pretty sure that Africans have more sense than to eat some of the kinds of food we serve.) Anyone familiar with the term MRE (Meals Rejected by the Enemy/Everyone/Ethiopia) and the culinary quality thereof can imagine what I mean when I say that I refer to the food we get in the break room as "Meals Rejected by the Customers."

It exists because we're Americans, Excess is what we DO, Excess is what we've become. Excess and the glorification of it for its own sake is why anybody at all in this country would vote for a man who feels the need to have a gold-plated toilet be something that he owns.

It wasn't always that way. Grandparents on both sides of my family were all children of the Depression, they taught me to not waste food. They taught me values and work ethics that I have always relied on. My religious views (including respect for other people's religions) and work ethics trend old-school small-c conservative. My social views? I'd have been a New Dealer if I'd been alive back then because that's what my grandparents (conservative Democrats and liberal/Rockefeller Republicans respectively) either were or understood the need for. Only in recent years have I come to fully appreciate all this, even as my body starts to break down and my health gets worse because of my own accidents and chemical and culinary misadventures and drinking and ridiculous behavior and sexual stupidity (and I was taught better than that) which could be ascribed to youthful dumb shit. Note the "Could" honestly the worst of it hit in my later mid-twenties after my own life had gone to shit not once, but twice and I'd gotten divorced AND the Divorce (from my Pentecostal religious nut ex-wife) had damned near made an Atheist of me.

Nothing wrong with Atheists, but I probably wouldn't be a good one.

I'm a stubborn son of a bitch, I tend to learn things the hard way. I've also tended to need something greater than myself to look to when things go sideways. and another human being just won't cut it. My own spiritual beliefs are thus a pretty agnostic form of Christianity.

So, yeah, while I'm not necessarily a Big-"c" conservative nor a Big-"l" liberal and I'm not sure if it's because of or in spite of my lack of conventional religion, I look with equal parts genuine alarm and unapologetic disdain at what American "Conservatism" has turned into.

Oh sure, we've always had nuts. We've always had greedy power-mad shitheads and old motherfuckers whose main, if not only, concern was staying in office, and/or staying in power. But, we're at the point now where it's either Far-right or Left, with no real middle of the road. We've reached the point where Republican Representatives and Senators are literally running away from their own constituents and where even moderate and sane Conservatives like David Brooks and Evan McMullin sound like liberals compared to Congress and Trump. A hell of a lot of Republican voters are having second thoughts (and worried about their health care, among other things) with many more about to be left behind...and what's the main thing Congressional Republicans seem to care about? Staying in power...

Meanwhile, even their own voters are getting pissed off...

The rest of us are going to have to start finding ways to work with those people, to allay their constant, often unfounded fears (or as I keep telling people, turn off the damn TV) before we end up in the position of having a competent, focused, intelligent autocrat taking over who isn't obsessed with how he looks to the media and his personal popularity. Like I've said before, Trump is in the position of being very unpopular and looking like a weak autocrat...and few things have a shorter lifespan than an unpopular and weak autocrat.

But, once the Trump mess is over with (and I don't have any idea how, at the rate he's going, he's expecting to serve a full term) we'll likely have to deal with the Pence mess and/or the Ryan mess. In both cases, those guys are a lot more conventional/predictable and thus easier to oppose, and I don't see either as inspiring the same kind of fanaticism that Trump does, but still each caters to different, solidly entrenched aspects of the Republican Party (Fundamentalist Christianity and Ayn Randism respectively) and each one would likely have their own strong base...which would likely be stronger, or at least smarter, than Trump Supporters, and probably not the flash-in-the-pan that Trumpism is likely to be. I can't help but notice that Milo Yiannopolous appears to have dropped off the face of the earth...and minus Bannon, many of the alt-right Nazis have done the same.

It's not just reaching out to the other side that's going to be needed. We've got to come up with somebody that's worth following and likely somebody new or at least not that high up on the seniority list...kind of like how things worked out with Obama, in point of fact. It's not like the other side hasn't made it easier. One by one, the right-wingers have conceded belief in a decent environment, civil society, common decency, facts, reality, patriotism, policy, truth and even standard conservative traits like religiosity and support for the military to the other side, as if they are irrelevant.

Maybe they are, if you're one of those people who thinks giving the rest of the world a giant middle finger out of hate and rage is some kind of wonderful thing. I've seen videos of these Trump rallies where people act as if being able to express hate or say racial slurs is the greatest thing ever...and so far as I know such things haven't been socially acceptable for at least as long as I've been alive. Yeah, the crowds are getting smaller, have been for a while. But, the fact that this garbage ever appealed to anybody in this day and age should give people pause and cause us all to re-think some things.

For fuck's sake, as another friend of mine pointed out at around six this morning "Fox News is engaging in rampant self-abuse (i.e. Masturbation) because the President used the words "Radical Islamic Terrorism" in a sentence. He then added that this is apparently code for brown people. I pointed out that there are plenty of white Muslims out there...

He remarked that I'd have to turn off my brain if I wanted to think like these people do...

And that's it, right there, isn't it?

I've said more than once that when this is over we might have to send a lot of these people back to school, and bring back the ass whuppin' too. 'Cause if I acted like that, that's what I'd expect to get even today.

We might have to go 'old-school' in some other ways too.

There's a lot of people who have qualities that might appeal to displaced conservatives feeling buyer's remorse: conservatives like former CIA agent Evan McMullin might be able to be recruited, people like Senator Tammy Duckworth (Army Veteran) or Rev. William Barber (African American Pastor) or even unaffiliated but well-known people like Jesse Ventura or Mark Cuban. If I were the Democratic leadership, I'd be making an effort to reach out to and recruit moderate and sane conservatives, and to promote Democrats with the type of qualities that right-wingers say they want to have in terms of leadership. The Democrats themselves are in a position where (Bullshit-ass, Man's Approval-seeking Evangelicals and Melania Trump's leading the Lord's Prayer aside) at the rate this is going, give it a few more weeks or months of this crap and they'll be able to claim religion (as well as religious tolerance) as a defining value...while a lot of people are already wondering just what the values of the Republican Party even are anymore, aside from money and staying in office.

Damn it, we can do better.

The Republicans are basically in the same position the Democrats were in 20 years ago, but without the ability to coast on popularity.

We have some real problems in our society these days, up to and including that a lot of people have fallen through the cracks and even more are being marginalized and of course the leadership either doesn't care or is actively encouraging this crap. The golden toilets, heart attack burgers and in many ways even Trump's traveling clown show are nothing more than a distraction from that. The real problem we have right now is Congress, that can be a pretty damned local issue. If we don't find a way to impeach Trump, we may have a revolution in this country. Once that happens, this country is probably going to fly apart like the old Soviet Union did.

If you want to stop that, put down the cheeseburger, turn off the TV, and go outside into the unseasonable climate change weather and get to work.

I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days. ~Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Inaugural Address, 1933.

In defense of Saint Milo...

He has better hair than Trump?

Oh, come on, who the fuck am I kidding? I couldn't even type that with a straight face.

No, seriously. I want you to take a look at something with me. We're going to take a look at a favorite Evangelical/Fundamentalist chapter of the Bible, kind of in chunks. Please bear with me.

Romans 1King James Version (KJV)

1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,

2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:

6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:

7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established;

12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.

14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

See that last bit? Multiculturalism, it's in the Bible, folks.

But seriously, this section right here lays out the Pauline framework that overlays much of modern Christianity, meaning that it's a religion about Jesus rather than an effort to emulate the conduct or teachings of Jesus. Still, this section has to be fired for effect, as it's basically the kind of framework and requirements I was brought up with in terms of doctrine.

We'll come back to this later, it's important.

17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

OK, as the last section laid out the case for Paul's missionary journey to Rome (Sorry, can't help it, most of the Biblical exegesis I've been taught sets Romans up like Paul is a lawyer making his case in court. Like I said, bear with me for a moment) this section lays out the spiritual requirements for what he is trying to accomplish with said journey. In shorter, non-Elizabethan English, what Paul is basically saying here is ya'll have seen the evidence. Now you're supposed to act. (That the 'Evidence' Paul provides basically boils down to "Because I said so" is also important and indicative of the authoritarian nature of the Pauline framework, but that's another article for another time.)

Now, where was I, ah yes...

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Consequences. Can't have the Pauline, nor the Evangelical nor Fundamentalist interpretations without consequences...which is funny in a way. We'll shortly get to why.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

This is kind of self-explanatory but:

'Why Do I Have to Repent or Ask for Forgiveness If I Am Not Making Mistakes?' ~Donald Trump

This is just one example. The traditional Christian doctrine of Original Sin states that all human beings inherit the sins of Adam and Eve. Effectively making Sin a part of the human condition, and as Trump should know from his own actions, we all have the capacity to commit evil to do wrong. That is what Sin is. If Trump has the vast depth of experience with mainline Christianity going all the way back to Reformed (Presbyterian) minister Norman Vincent Peale, that he claims, he shouldn't need to be told this and as Reformed theology is the modern incarnation of Puritan Calvinist theology then the concepts of Sin and Repentance should not be foreign to him. Yes, yes I know, Norman Vincent Peale is more known for "The Power of Positive Thinking" than his ministry but the point remains. If you fail to communicate the theology you're attempting to teach properly, from a spiritual standpoint the Bible says you get to own it when the people you taught miss the mark.

I didn't make the rules, but effectively it's a spiritual version of Command Responsibility. You are responsible, therefore it is important to teach the Truth.

23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

I have literally seen several articles with my own eyes where people said that Trump was a god. I imagine he'd fail at the "Make your own Earth" test if God put him to it, though, just sayin.'

(Make your own Earth test: An example my friend Tim Wong came up with for a theological argument we were having with somebody, wherein a person claimed to be divine by large numbers of people or their self is at the moment of crossing over into the Afterlife transported to a place of nothingness by God and given six days to conjure a world from it.)

24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Funny thing but several of these last verses read like an alt-right Nazi manifesto. Which brings me to the subject of my smart-ass title, Milo Yiannopoulos or as I prefer to call him (simply because I detest the man) Milo the Fag. See, here's my thing, if you're a gay person who doesn't believe gay people should have rights...well then, I'll do you a favor and treat you the way you want other people like you treated. Fuck you. Milo said some dumb shit about Pedophilia and in defense of pedophiles and that perhaps sounded more like something an unusually candid member of the Taliban might say (that is, that it's perfectly fine to use boys sexually for pleasure, which it is in Afghanistan...but we ain't in Afghanistan.) Then he followed that up by saying that he sucked dick better because of a Catholic priest. 

Ironically, before this he was scheduled to speak at CPAC 2017 (CPAC = Conservative Political Action Conference) before all this got out. Now as I've said a dozen times this week all the old Republicans I used to know would have had some words for Milo and "Conservative" wouldn't have been one of them. They'd have called him a faggot and told him to get the fuck out. Why? Because there was a time when most Republicans understood that small-"c" conservatism was never going to be an edgy or popular philosophy, and even when they did have popular (more Movement Conservative for example) leaders like Ronald Reagan, they also understood that some things were not done in the better places. They understood that sometimes the price one might pay for popularity could be too high. Fascists, Misogynists, Nazis, racists and reality-show freaks usually fell into the category of "too high." I was taught to treat gay people the same as everybody else, but a lot of people weren't.

Anybody here read the Left Behind Series? For the record, they're some truly awful books, although they have their moments in a few spots. One thing that always bothered me about those books was the author's bad stereotyping and shitty treatment of gay people, minorities, non-Christians and women. The last of those books that I read (a good portion of it in Borders books in Traverse City, MI during several hours in the book store on my first date with my ex-wife) was called The Indwelling. One of the characters in that book was this dude, Guy Blod, who was a bad stereotype of a flaming gay artist. That's when I gave up on reading those books because I thought LaHaye and Jenkins were just mailing it in. Honestly, Milo the Fag meets Robert Mappelthorpe would probably describe the character better than this but I'll still link to it to describe the situation. The difference of course being that Robert Mappelthorpe had issues but probably wasn't that bad of a guy, and while I thought his art sucked, conservatives still occasionally bring him up like it was the worst thing ever. A lot of their animus against the National Endowment for the Arts comes from his work appearing at an NEA funded event back in the 1980's.

...And now an online equivalent who's also basically a Nazi is a conservative darling??

Fuck you, conservatives, this shit is indefensible.