Spirits in The Sky

As a child I was indoctrinated in the Assembly of God church.  Bible thumpers and Holy Rollers par excellence.

Later I was shunted to regular Baptist churches. 

As a fairly bright child who loved to read, I took up the challenge of reading the Bible. 

Without getting into incredibly involved theological discussions of the novel, I learned enough from my  reading to truly question the treatise and its premises, not to mention the multitude of flights of fancy. 

Needless to say, I lost interest in the subject of religion.  The normal result when someone of average or above intelligence actually reads the book.

And here I am talking about just the content of the book, without even discussing the effects of various translations from and to various languages and all the problems inherent with that process.  Woh!

Anyway, over the years the whole premise of a superbeing, omnipotent, omniscient and all pervasive over and around the earth, who created the universe and THEN proceeded to concern itself with actions of individuals on that earth to the point of interfering, i.e., stirring the pot, from time to time with cryptic messages, portents, prophets, miracles, etc., etc., ad nauseum, really got to seeming pretty silly to me. 

The visible evidence of Gawd’s power on Earth is and was always in the hand of pompous sounding men, and occasionally women, who mostly concerned themselves with how other people behaved and offering some sort of hall pass for that behavior in return for a sizable donation. 

Salvation directly related to the size of said donations…. Hmmmm?

Then, in my early adulthood I heard the story of how one science fiction author, at a drunken debauchery (pronounced SciFi convention) declaimed that “the only guaranteed way to make a lot of money without the government taking a huge piece, was to invent a religion.! 

15 or 20 years later, Scientology was born of L. Ron Hubbard.

So, this super being, this Gawd, everyone keeps claiming they personally talked to and who wants us to send all our money to them, has been personally responsible for more death and destruction than any other single cause in the entire history of the world.

From Mammoth stampedes to the Crusades.  From the Conquistadores to the Mujahideen. 

This God keeps telling his true believers to kill somebody else in his name, so  said true believers can get into heaven.  And, after all, they are just Infidels.  They don’t really count as People, right? They will never get into our heaven, so who cares what we do to them, except, of course, Gawd, who wants them wiped out, but can’t quite manage a plague or a flood as the Biblical days.  Hmmmmm?

I truly do not have a problem with anybody’s having religion.  Everybody’s life has to have a structure to hang its premises on.

Everyone has them.  They are just different, right?

What bugs me is when those religious types start to tell ME how to live right.  What I am doing wrong.  How they Gawd is gonna get me. 

Well, fine, then just let your Gawd come and get me.  Being Omniscient, he ought to be able to find me, right.?  And, if he is so Omnipotent, why can’t he do it himself?  Why does he send a nutjob like Achmed, or Bubba Joe to do it.?

He could just send the creeping crud to do me in.  An avalanche of sewage,  a hurricane,  or in my case, a raging semi at 75 mph would do the job nicely, now wouldn’t it.?

And all this is truly irrelevant to those of us who know the True State of Affairs on and around the Earth.  The spirits of the animals, trees and elements speak to us on a daily basis and try to show us the way to Happiness, Success, Wealth, Enlightenment and all those other aspects of the good life that escape most every member of humanity from time to time.

My personal favorite in the Wolf God, who is wholly immaterial in body, yet makes his presence felt every time I get behind the wheel, as his apparent forte is to create openings in freeway traffic whenever I try to merge..

Seriously, it happens that I will start to merge and there will suddenly be a gap or an opening that is the perfect size for my vehicle, whatever size that is.

I can hear you laughing… but you expect ME to show respect for your particular collections of dogma, stories, rituals and beliefs.   Hmmmmm?

aarex@gmail.com                           21/1/12

See, now that is a Wolf God sign if ever I saw one.  Watch for earthquakes, volcanoes, and other natural phenonema coming soon to your neighborhood.

23 Dec 2011

On this the fourth day of our counter-Christian celebration of the oldest of “holidays”, a multi-national protest of the religious hijacking of said holiday, we find ourselves in a dilemma.

We had planned to roast a pig for the festivities, but some idiot oiled the beast BEFORE catching the damn thing and after some exciting interludes, the porker was last seen heading west at a high rate of speed. 

So, we got some bacon from Safeway.

Then we planned to resurrect the Elder Gods with a ceremony found in a crypt buried beneath a temple in the Ancient North. 

Turns out the Ancient North is Del Paso Heights..  We resurrected three Cranksters and a dwarf who doesn’t even speak English.  But then, neither do the cranksters.  We dropped them off at Loaves and Fishes where they met friends.

So, we put up a picture of Elvis Costello, who, it turns out, isn’t even dead yet. 

This just doesn’t seem to be working out the way we planned.

Then we started the Holy Dancing… , couldn’t find enough drums,  Coffee cans aren’t the same.  And the dog wouldn’t hold still.

Put on a video of the Blue Man Group.  Close, no cigar.

Tried a May Pole.  Couldn’t climb the pole.  It’s December too.  No young maidens to dance in circles, either.  No maidens of any kind.

Next was a sacrifice of entrails….

YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCHK!

So, basically what it comes down to is, that since the original celebration went so far wrong, we will now just thumb our noses at Christian churches and fire logic bombs at demagogues and evangelists whenever we get the chance.

Happy Whatever Season you adhere to.. May your year be as pleasant as you deserve.

Christian Holiday

AnarchoLibertarian ViewsSince I have apparently not been as widely published as I might have hoped I plan to assist things just a bit.
With this link I thee read. 
Admittedly Anarcho Libertarian is not exactly Main Stream, but I feel that it is at the core of American values.  The REAL values most Americans treasure.
The right to privacy from everybody, especially the government.
The right to do what you please in the privacy of your own home, without the okay of the government or your neighbor's nose.
The right to conduct business without some agency or bureaucrat taking a piece of the action, regardless of how little action there actually is or was.
The right to educate your children without somebody's dogma or political belief tainting the curriculum or pushing somebody else's political/religious/social/moral agenda.
The right to do your fair share as you see it, not being forced to follow guidelines set down by aforementioned burearcracy/agency/elected official.
Think about it.  Aren't you really an Anarcho-Libertarian???

So, now EVERYBODY is after Joe Paterno. 
Why?  Either because he reported a pederast, or because he reported an assistant coach with a hobby. 
Here is the order of events I got from the media. 
1. Penn State hires a pederast. 
2. Pederast uses Penn State to further his "hobby". Using the usual cover story of "helping kids".
3. A special prosecutor is assigned to investigate allegations that the pederast is a ... Pederast!
   A. Special prosecutor starts on case.  Finds evidence... 
   B. Special prosecutor disappears, leaving an abandoned car and no clues. 
   C. Case fades into oblivion. 
4.  Pederast continues to "help" kids with assistance of Penn State. 
5. At some point pederast is spotted "helping" kids by Joe Paterno.
6. Paterno immediately informs his superiors at Penn State, the way he is/was supposed to. 
7. Penn State rushes to the defense of these poor troubled children by telling pederast he can't indulge his "hobby" on college campus anymore.
8. Penn State tells Paterno the problem is handled.
9. Paterno, being loyal to Penn State, decides NOT to follow up and report to authorities, i.e., cops.
10. Years later, it all comes out.  Press feeding frenzy.  
11. Penn State, eager to cover its butt, points collective fingers at Joe Paterno. (Figuring; high profile celebrity, easy target).
12  Penn State, eager to cover its butt and avoid liability, fires Paterno on the assumption it will drag the media off its doorstep. 
13. Media feeding frenzy II, taking the easy way out, attacks Paterno as if HE was the pederast, or somehow responsible to said pederasts actions. 
Why?  Because it is MUCH easier than actually going after the guilty party. Because they are lazy scandal mongers who have little or no interest in facts or true guilt.  They are interested in sensationalism pure and simple to sell their precious ad space. 
The very few actual fair and balanced media have been pushed far into the background by these low life bottom feeders.  
An intelligent adult reader has to search, I mean really SEARCH, for true information and news nowadays.  Instead of just swallowing the specious crap the mainstream media in continually feeding us.  
Happy searching.!

So, now we have the Occupy Wall Street.  Here in Sacramento.
Woh!
I think grass roots movements are just the best.  Unfortunately, they generally are pretty much useless from a practical point of view.
Many years I got involved in a grass roots movement that swept California.  We had protests which were ignored.  We signed petitions, which were ignored.  We even got an initiative on the ballot, which passed by a 2 to 1 margin.  i.e., two thirds of the voters who actually voted voted FOR the initiative.
It passed... then was scrapped by the California Legislature, because they just knew better than we did, what we ACTUALLY wanted.
Sound familiar?  It should, that's business as usual here in the People's Republic of California.
One pleasant exception seems to be the Tea Party movement.  From the way the mainstream media and the politicos vilify it daily, it is apparently gathering momentum.
They wouldn't be running scared if it weren't appearing viable to them.  The buzz words of racist, fascist, Nazi, anarchist are all being thrown at the Tea Party movement, apparently to which ones will stick long enough to trip them up.
Occupy Wall Street seemed to be following the same route, but then the media, the non-mainstream media, started doing live interviews with those people.
Talk about disjointed, incoherent anti-capitalist rhetoric.
I was VERY disappointed.  Somebody apparently went to a lot of trouble to motivate these groups, because I don't think the ones I saw on the news could occupy a bathroom stall without assistance.
Now the protest in Oakland is turning violent. As has the one in Sacramento.  Protestors have been assaulted, mugged, arrested in violation of their Constitutional right to Free Speech.
More later.  Rx

What the Heck is Facebook Thinking?

So, I am looking at my FB and seeing all my friends and family and I keep getting these invites to add people "I may Know" or may not.
The thing is, as much interest as I have in my friends and their doings and goings on, I really don't know ALL of THEIR friends.  And some names that come up are totally strange to me.  I figure they are either Phishing or friend of a friend of a friend, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
Those people won't know me either, right? So, why would I.??
Well, FB is just offering options, I understand, but stay with me a sec..
Some of the people I DO know.  They are people I have great affection, or admiration, or respect for.  And I enjoy keeping sorta tabs on them from a distance.  But, I am sure they are not interested in Friending ME.  I was not a real nice person to be around in the way back when. 
I think some of y'all can identify with that. 
The point is why would I embarrass myself and discomfit them by foisting myself on them claiming "friendship" from that long ago association that very well could have been as uncomfortable for them then (or now) as it is for me now.
Why bring up bad memories? 
Obviously, you don't have to... the point is that FB is constantly  putting it right there in front of me. 
Reminding me what a shit I have been in the past. 
I just hope I continue to have the good taste and courtesy to refrain from imposing  on those good people, again.
And, incidentally, I apologise for all the nasty, creepy crap I pulled, pushed, snuck in on all those people who went so far out of their way to help and/or be nice to me. 
And thank you for it all.  From my saintly brother and his wife to all the friends and girlfriends I was so bad to and ungrateful for.  Thank You!                  H. Rex Lesly. Shithead.

Undocumented Opinion

I have to admit I don't have all the documentation for this that I wanted to get together.
The fact is I am woefully unprepared.  I will try to fix that. but I must comment on the events of this past or rather the news of this past week.
It seems that a certain police department shot and killed a man who was already in custody and in handcuffs in the back of a police car when an officer shot him with an AR-15. 
REALLY!
Then another department had its officers arrest a man and then after he was down on the ground and, again, in handcuffs, they proceeded to beat him to the point that he required hospitalization and later died from the beating. 
AGAIN the officers were cleared of any wrongdoing.
Cal State University administrators have managed to keep their salaries and bonuses secret by a bureaucratic two step worthy of Tammany Hall.  Apparently the way they spend our money is none of our business.
As well as the Cal Legislature budget... They are claiming that THEIR budget is none of our business.
In a recent example of in-fighting between members the majority leader, who controls the office budgets of individual members, slashed the budget of a member who didn't toe the party line and when said member balked and spoke to the press the Iron Curtain fell, "privileged information"  or some such legal fiction to prevent the public from getting any ideas about actually seeing what is going on in Sacramento behind our backs.
More stories in that vein, but I will get my facts and documents together before continuing.
Thank you...