Author: Stucky

I'm right, you're wrong. Deal with it.

SHOULD JODI ARIAS BE EXECUTED ?

I say emphatically, “No!!”

Murder is murder …. even if the State does it.

Life in prison without possibility of parole is just as bad. It’s a living death. But, it needs to be done correctly; 23 hours a day alone in a small cell. No amenities such as a TV or books. Just let the evil little bitch sit there and think about things for the rest of her natural life.

I could be talked into exceptions for assholes who hurt children (kidnap, murder, rape, etc.). They probably should die. I know that’s inconsistent as hell.

But I’m OK with Jodi getting life in prison.

Stucky BUYS A BUSINESS !!

Yessiree. Last Saturday Ms. Freud’s best friend Broomhilda (name changed to protect her identity) came over for a visit. She told Ms Freud that she came across this “incredible” business “opportunity” that she just “had” to share. We said ‘yes’ because this dear friend is a dear friend who helped Ms. Freud a lot when she had chemo.

I shall start with the conclusion. I am now a proud Amway Business Owner. The details ..

It’s all about “control”, Broomhilda said. Don’t I want to be in total control of my time, she asked? Fuck yes! Don’t I want to decide when I work (fuck yes), how long I work (fuck yes), how hard I work (fuck yes). Don’t I want to be in complete control of my future (goddamn, right I do.). My enthusiastic responses only encouraged her.

It’s also all about “family”. Do I want to work in a cubicle and the rat race or do I want to work where people care about each other, encourage each other, help each other, and make each other wildly successful? (At this point I’m wondering; “Why is Broomhilda throwing me these fucking softballs??)

It’s also all about “Financial Independence”. This part lasted almost an hour and I shall relay only a couple highlights.

One of her charts had a bunch of people on the bottom row, fewer people on the next row, and so on until there was just one person (ME!!!) on the top row. I said, “Hey, that looks like a pyramid!”. This startled her momentarily, but she recovered nicely; “Yes, it is. We call it the pyramid of success.”. Fucken A, this chick is quick on her feet and I got so excited that I noticed a slight movement, you know, down there.

So she tells me ALL I need to do is get seven people to join my business … (it’s soooo easy she said cuz the products are “world class” … and then all I gotta do is train those 7 people how to get their own 7 people. She said that with my “outgoing personality” (really) that I should be able to accomplish this in just 4-5 months. (I suspect she’s bullshitting me because when I first met her she later asked Ms Freud “What do you see in him?” … which is not, IMHO, a sign that I could get even one person, no less seven.) Anyway, she said I should be making $20,000+ per month in no time at all. Selling soap and shit.

Nevertheless … seven. Such a small number, really. I told Broomhilda that I was a Big Dog on a website that gets 10,000 hits a day. I think she had an orgasm right on the spot. She wanted to develop a “business development strategy” right then and there on how to “seed” the business. I told her the site Admin only makes $45 a year on Ad revenue clicks and that you all are generally a bunch of cheap-ass tightwads, and that I would get back to her. She then helped me understand my “circle of influence”, and told me start there.

I hit up my sister first. It was a short meeting. She told me to fuck off. I love her for that .. for not beating around the bush. I really didn’t want her to be part of my group anyway. She whines and bitches too much … plus she voted for Obama twice. I just wanted to sign her up so that I could fire her … like llpoh does. Everybody should be able to fire someone once in their life.

I can’t hit up my parents. My ex-wife is already in Melaleuca. My youngest son has two full time jobs. My oldest son is nuts. And, so, my “circle of influence” is drier than Joan Rivers’ vagina. And we got over a hundred bucks invested …. yeah, we bought some fucking products. Shut the fuck up.

So, that’s where you guys come in. WHO WANTS TO BE PART OF MY TEAM?? Fuck gold. Fuck silver. Fuck guns. Amway is the way to go!! I’ll get you stuff at wholesale. We’ll gang up on the Newbies and sign them up. We’ll all be rich in no time at all. What could go wrong?

Who will be first?

10 FORECLOSURE HORROR STORIES

Keep the following stories in mind the next time you see yet another insane Bank commercial telling you how much they care.

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During the last housing crash, the big banks begged the federal government for help and they received it, but when average Americans ask the big banks for help most of the time the banks show no mercy whatsoever. If you fall behind on your mortgage payments, the big banks have shown that they are willing to be absolutely ruthless. They will change locks in the middle of the night, they will toss disabled veterans and families with children out into the street in the middle of winter, and sometimes once the foreclosure process has begun they will not even allow someone to come forward and offer to pay off the loan if they think that they can make more money by selling the home. The big banks will often string homeowners along for months or even years with loan modification promises, only to drop the hammer on them at the most inopportune time.

Over the past several years there has been case after case where mortgage documents have “disappeared”, where big banks have “manufactured” missing documents out of thin air and there have even been cases where big banks have tried to foreclose on homes that do not even have a mortgage. Once in a while, the big banks get a small slap on the wrist, but nobody ever really gets into much trouble for any of this. In fact, the big banks just continue to gain even more market share and even more power. Hopefully when some of these foreclosure horror stories start to become publicized more widely we will start to see some real changes in the marketplace.

The following are 10 foreclosure horror stories that will blow your mind…

ONE ========================================== =

If you get behind on your mortgage, your family might be tossed into the street at gunpoint in the middle of the night…

http://www.alternet.org/story/155292/dozens_of_police_evict_georgia_family_at_gunpoint_at_3am/

“This week, Christine Frazer and her family were thrown out of the Atlanta home they’d lived in for 18 years, at gunpoint in the dead of night. They were not set upon by robbers, but by the Dekalb County Sheriff’s department, which evicted the family at the request of Investors One Corporation. As Steven Rosenfeld reported for AlterNet, it was the fourth company to buy the family’s mortgage in eight months.”

TWO ========================================== =

Time after time we have seen authorities show absolutely no mercy when conducting these evictions…

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2010/sep/17/neighbors-aid-disabled-veteran-ripped-off-during/

“It was bad enough when 62-year-old disabled veteran Ramsey Harris was evicted from a foreclosed house on Jamaica Lane where the former owner had been letting him live. Then it started to rain as all his worldly possessions sat in a heap by the side of the road and Harris noticed some of his valuables were missing. “It was just ugly,” Harris said Friday. “I was just broken-hearted. I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. I ended up standing, watching all my life’s work go down the tubes.”

THREE ========================================== =

Sometimes financial institutions will promise you a loan modification for many months and then turn around and foreclose on you anyway…

http://100storiesofwhatwallstreetbroke.tumblr.com/

When the economy crashed and his business slowed down, Wells Fargo offered to modify Steve Bailey’s loan to lower his payments. After making a series of trial payments, Wells Fargo notified Steve that his modification was on the way. A few days later he received a letter stating that his modification had been denied. The Wells Fargo representative he spoke with reassured him that they had made a mistake and that he should keep making the payments, which he did for seven months. Steve then started to receive foreclosure notices. Again, the bank representative assured him that the notices had been sent in error. Then Steve checked his credit. Wells Fargo had reported him delinquent on his mortgage for the last six months. The reduced payments that Steve had agreed to pay for the previous months had been put into a separate trust by Wells Fargo, and they had not gone towards his mortgage. Steve took the case to court but lost despite mountains of evidence in his favor. He lost his home and his business.

FOUR ========================================== =

Other homeowners have found themselves trapped in loan modification hell for years…

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37142297/loan-modification-hell—the-horror-stories-continue/?tag=mwuser

“I am self-employed, have been all my life and have owned a home for 30 years. When I started my Loan Modification process in August of 09 I WAS NOT behind on any payments. I sent full documentation, over 150 pages, with the things they needed to verify my income. I am now 2 payments behind and I am getting nowhere. They keep flipping me between Loss Mitigation and Imminent Default, back and fourth month end month out. I made a habit of calling every week, then every two weeks just to be sure all was moving forward. From the middle of November I was told my file was with the underwriter and it would only be 30-60 days. I began automatically updating my income verification, verification that I still resided at the property and an updated 4506-T every month. In the middle of April a rep finally told me I was not in the loan modification process. In fact, that I had been denied on March 2. Keep in mind, I’m talking to these people every 2 weeks. She did a financial interview and sent me a new packet so that I could start all over, resubmitting all the documentation yet again. She told me she was my Account Manager. I completed the packet, called with a question (2 weeks later – over a week to receive the packet and another few days to complete it and gather all my documents again) and learned that my “Account Manager” was on maternity leave and I now didn’t have an account manager. Also, I was told that I had received the incorrect packet…it was the old version rather than the updated version. She asked me to fax four or five pieces of information in the hopes it would, quote, “jump start my file back into the process” and said she we send me another packet. That was mid April. Here we sit, 2-1/2 months later, I have still not received anything in writing about my rejection. And, though I’ve now had people tell me on three separate occasions that I would receive a new packet, it has yet to show up on my door step. I asked several times why my application was denied and the answer I finally got last week was that it was because I was DELIQUENT in my payments. Call me crazy but I thought that was the whole point??!! I almost hired a third party but am so hesitant to take that step. Every time I get on the phone with them it takes an hour out of my day and I am usually so upset I find it difficult to work, so I just don’t call. I’m going to sit back and regroup and decide what I need to do next.

FIVE ========================================== =

Sometimes a big bank will kick someone out of their home and then never actually take possession of the house. As a result, many former homeowners now find themselves stuck with thousands of dollars of unpaid bills. For example, a recent CNN article told the story of Rose Nathan, a 37-year-old office manager…

http://money.cnn.com/2013/02/20/real_estate/zombie-foreclosures/index.html

Nathan lost her South Bend, Ind., home in January 2009, after working out a deal with CitiMortgage to voluntarily walk away in a “deed in lieu of foreclosure.” “On Christmas Eve, the bank called and told me a sheriff’s sale was coming and I had to move out right away,” she said. “So that’s what I did — seven days after New Year’s.” She sold her belongings and moved to Hawaii. Nearly two years later, she received a property tax bill from the City of South Bend for $5,000. The bank had never taken possession of the house. These unpaid taxes that she didn’t even know about have absolutely destroyed Nathan’s finances… Meanwhile, the unpaid debt has crushed Nathan’s credit score. The deed-in-lieu alone lowered her score by 80 to 120 points, but the unpaid debt meant her credit kept taking a hit. Eventually her credit card companies cut her off, even though she said she was making her payments. Her auto loan now carries a 25% rate. Her car insurance premiums have skyrocketed. She can only afford a one-bedroom apartment where she lives with her three kids. And forget about buying another home. “Nobody will give me a mortgage,” she said.

SIX ========================================== =

Sometimes a big bank will decide to foreclose on you even when you have been making all of your payments. Just check out what real estate agent Mark Conca went through with one major bank…

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2011/08/homeowner_says_bank_of_america.html

He decided to approach his lender, Bank of America, to see if he’d qualify for a modification. After he applied, many months passed and Conca heard nothing from the bank. Knowing lenders had huge backups in modification requests, he remained patient. Conca, 41, continued to make the full payment on the mortgage for his Caldwell home, on time, every month. But that’s not what Bank of America said when it sent Conca a letter about its intent to foreclose. “I would have been better going to a loan shark and borrowing all that money,” Conca said. “At least with the street mafia, you know where you stand.”

SEVEN ========================================== =

Sadly, the customer service at many of these large financial institutions is almost non-existent. In fact, sometimes representatives from these companies will literally tell you that they won’t lift a finger to help you…

http://www.alternet.org/story/155344/7_foreclosure_horror_stories_%28and_one_possible_win%29?page=0%2C1

After a car accident Kathryn Nava wound up on disability and had trouble making her mortgage payments. She had a friend who was willing to help her make her back payments, but that friend wanted to see a payment history before giving her the money. Nava called her mortgage lender to request that history—and was told it would cost her $50 per hour, and take 90 days to receive it. So she tried again, calling the president of the company. She got a voicemail response that shocked her so much she recorded it and saved it. “Let me enlighten you, Kathy. First of all, there’s nothing in your contract with us says we owe you any history, now, next year, five years from now or the next time…I’ve begun foreclosure today. I bet you’re sorry now that you made that phone call. I don’t need to put up with your crap, OK?…Bottom line, I’m doing nothing for you now.” Indeed, she did end up losing her home.

EIGHT ========================================== =

Sometimes the big banks will try to foreclose even when you paid cash for your house and you don’t even have a mortgage…

http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/bank-of-america-forecloses-on-house-that-couple-had-paid-cash-for/1072632

Charlie and Maria Cardoso are among the millions of Americans who have experienced the misery and embarrassment that come with home foreclosure. Just one problem: The Massachusetts couple paid for their future retirement home in Spring Hill with cash in 2005, five years before agents for Bank of America seized the house, removed belongings and changed the locks on the doors, according to a lawsuit the couple have filed in federal court.

NINE ========================================== =

Dealing with these big banks is so incredibly frustrating that some homeowners have completely snapped. For example, one very frustrated homeowner in Ohio decided to crash his SUV into his own home…

http://www.foreclosurebusinessnews.com/facing-foreclosure-some-homeowners-take-drastic-actions-to-save-their-home/

30-year-old Steve Doak told deputies he was recently served with foreclosure papers and wanted to destroy the house rather than turn it over to the bank. The sheriff’s office says Doak drove the vehicle into fencing and then into the rear of the house.

TEN ========================================== =

Another very frustrated homeowner literally bulldozed his own home…

http://www.infowars.com/man-sends-message-to-bank-irs-with-a-bulldozer/

“The average homeowner that can’t afford an attorney or can fight as long as we have, they don’t stand a chance,” he said.

Hoskins said he’d gotten a $170,000 offer from someone to pay off the house, but the bank refused, saying they could get more from selling it in foreclosure. Hoskins told News 5′s Courtis Fuller that he issued the bank an ultimatum. “I’ll tear it down before I let you take it,” Hoskins told them. And that’s exactly what Hoskins did.

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Meanwhile, the big banks that are doing all of this continue to receive billions of dollars in assistance from the federal government. The following is from a recent Bloomberg article…

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-18/dear-mr-dimon-is-your-bank-getting-corporate-welfare-.html

“When JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon testifies in the U.S. House today, he will present himself as a champion of free-market capitalism in opposition to an overweening government. His position would be more convincing if his bank weren’t such a beneficiary of corporate welfare. To be precise, JPMorgan receives a government subsidy worth about $14 billion a year, according to research published by the International Monetary Fund and our own analysis of bank balance sheets. The money helps the bank pay big salaries and bonuses. More important, it distorts markets, fueling crises such as the recent subprime-lending disaster and the sovereign-debt debacle that is now threatening to destroy the euro and sink the global economy.”

Sadly, when the next wave of the economic crisis strikes, we are probably going to see millions more foreclosures and thousands upon thousands of more stories just like these.

So what do you think about all of this?

 

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-banks-show-no-mercy-10-foreclosure-horror-stories-that-will-blow-your-mind

WILL GOD BLESS AMERICA? SAVE US FROM DESTRUCTION?

First of all I am an Agnostic, but one who is open to some Christian beliefs. Second, I do NOT want this to become a debate whether or not God exists. So, you rabid atheists can go pound salt. But feel free to participate if you can suspend your disbelief momentarily, and accept the premise, “God is.”

I have pondered the idea of whether or not God blesses nations for decades, even before I wandered away from the faith. What brought the idea back to my mind’s eye more forcibly again was Obama’s recent trip to Israel. He closed his ridiculous pontificating with, “May God bless you. May God bless Israel. May God bless the United States of America”. (To hell with the mooslims, I guess.) Obamadevil calls upon God to bless America constantly. Will God answer, “OK!”?

According to Barna Research about half of all Americans consider themselves “born again”. I know how these people think. They believe God is involved in all things America; from its past glory to its future redemption. Perhaps that’s why we have so many sheeple …. it’s pretty damn easy and convenient to not do anything when you believe that God will sort everything out.

I’m not going to examine the hundreds of applicable scripture verses. (Thank God!!) Just two of the more popular ones will suffice. It sure seems like God, indeed, blesses America.

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“Blessed is the Nation Whose God is the Lord” ———— Psalm 33:12

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” ———— 2 Chronicles 7:14:

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The other side of the coin question is, “Does God curse nations?” Various born-again preachers have pronounced that God has cursed America for a variety of “sins”. Jerry Falwell said God cursed America because of abortions. Others give popular reasons such as; Sodom and Gomorrah-like promiscuity, taking prayer out of schools, homosexuality, worshipping money, and, well … the list is nearly endless. Like, this one from Pat Robertson, who after Haiti’s devastating earthquake said it was God’s curse on Haiti …. for getting rid of the French!! You can’t make this shit up. (I know for a FACT that God hates Frenchies. It’s in the Bible. One of God’s plagues upon Pharaoh was what? Froggies!!! Case closed. )

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story. And the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

Again …. from the perspective of a non-believer, talk of God cursing or blessing people or nations is absurd. But for genuine Christian believers … (those who believe the Bible) … there is nothing absurd about the idea of God blessing or cursing nations.

Some believe the Founding Fathers established a Christian nation, which God then blessed. For example, John Adams cautioned that our government is wholly inadequate for a people who are not moral and religious. However, the degree of liberty Americans have enjoyed is dependent on a government that treads lightly … not on a certain group of people praying on their knees. Adams believed a government can tread lightly without inviting chaos and license only in a society where the majority of the people obey the law voluntarily, not simply from fear of punishment. His error was that he believed only Christians can obey laws voluntarily because only they are aware of their accountability to a Higher Transcendent Moral Order (God) for the way in which they live their lives.

Even if Adams was right, what does it actually mean to ask God to bless America? What “America”? Is it a piece of geography? If we invade Mexico and basically exterminate them (like we did Native American Indians) does that mean God blessed America … even though most all of Mexico is also Christian? Aren’t we asking God to treat America better than other nations, especially other Christian nations? Why would He do that? On what basis?

I think the story of Sodom & Gomorrah better exemplifies what most Americans think God’s Blessing means. Abraham was able to bargain with God to spare the city. God agreed to spare the city if even only 10 righteous souls were found therein. Archaeological evidence suggests the population to have been around 1,000 souls, give or take a few hundred. So, it’s safe to say God would have spared S&G if the righteous in the city was only 1%. Yes, that is the Christian hope for America. The verse from Chronicles listed above is often used as further proof for it reads … ““If MY people, who are called by MY name …”. You see, it doesn’t matter how many heathens inhabit America. As long as the REAL Christians, even if they number as few as 1%, turn to the Lord we shall all be blessed.

Unfortunately, this belief ignores a pretty major biblical truism; GOD HATES COMPETITION. This pretty much puts the U.S. Constitution at odds with the Biblical command to put God first. We pride ourselves (rightfully so) regarding our religious liberties; Christians, Mooslims, Joos, Buddhists, Satanists, Atheists … ALL are welcomed in this land, a land Christians expect God to bless.

Now put on your thinking caps and recall your Old Testament knowledge. Recall stories such as when the Jews left Egypt and very shortly thereafter worshipped a Golden Calf. Did that please God’s multi-cultural heart, or did he strike dead 3,000 Joos on the spot? Please tell me the number of times God says; “Oh, yeah. You wanna let any religion into the land of Israel? Sure, I’m cool with that!”. Did you come up with …. zero? Good for you. BTW, Jesus was even less tolerant, casting forth curses and promises of hellfire to even Joos who didn’t believe his story. So, people can claim this is a Christian nation until they are blue in the face. But when one looks at the ONLY nation in the Bible ever called “God’s people”, and the requirements thereof, then you will see America is no more Christian than Outer Mongolia, and both nations can expect similar “blessings”. None.

To which a Christian might respond; “Well, so what! Whether or not God blesses nations is irrelevant. God can and will continue to bless ME, no matter where I live!!” I won’t argue with you. I just hope for your sake that you do not equate biblical blessings with American prosperity; your mortgaged house, your cars, your toys, your job, and even your security; do you think God will send down angels to minister to you? Why, you? Wouldn’t God owe an apology to the millions who have died a martyrs’ death? So, as God looked down as Roman lions ripped into the flesh of a first century Christian perhaps He thought to himself; “Sorry Zachariah. That’s got to hurt! Haha. But, don’t worry, I’m gonna bless Mary Jones in Iowa in a couple thousand years. She’s Amurrican, ya know! I owe it to her.”

Here’s what I believe. America is on its own. YOU are on your own. God isn’t going to save you from the coming destruction. Go ahead and trust God to send your soul to heaven, but here on earth you alone better take care of your sorry ass.

THE MENTAL DISEASE known as CATHOLOCISM

Ms. Freud is home today and has refused my pleading to not turn on CNN. However, as a lifelong Catholic (barely active) she flat out insisted on watching the Select-A-Pope spectacle on CNN.

Now, I was raised Catholic also (lapsed over 30 years), so the pomp and circumstance rituals were of no great surprise. What was surprising was my tremendous revulsion at their Other Worldly fantasy … almost to the point of throwing my glass of lemon-carrot juice at the television screen.

A bunch of old fuck men, mostly white, all serial masturbators (unless God changes males hormones to become less horny when faggots devote their lives to Him), wearing funny hats, and …. dresses, acting all solemn and important, as if God gives a fuck who THEY elect as the next Dope …. Errr, Pope. Kind of mind-blowingly absurd once you realize God can’t even hook up two normal humans without the benefit of ChristianMingle.com.

It’s just an all-boys club … complete with secret handshakes, secret oaths, and performing The Nasty in secret with little boys all over the world. It truly reminds me Jackie Gleason’s Moose Lodge on the Honeymooners, … they had secret handshakes too, as stupid little boys are wont to do. Only, these ass-clown Cardinals have an audience of about a billion people waiting to see the results of their secret balloting …. whether or not black or white smoke wafts from their little chimney.

Seriously, this religion has such a Comic Bookish feeling about it. A crappy Comic Book, at that.

Select-A-Pope … that’s the main thrust of this thread. Won’t spend too much time bashing that religion except to mention 5 other beliefs, plus a Bonus, that live on the Edge of Ridiculousness ….. things that make me wonder why there are any adult Catholics at all.

1– Papal Infallibility — assholes!! He’s a human being. All humans make mistakes. A quick and cursory glance regarding various popes will clear up any doubt how fucked in the head they are.

2– Indulgences —- aka, Let’s Make A Deal with God regarding how long someone gets tortured. Listen up numnuts, a God who takes pleasure in torturing the shit out of his created beings, isn’t one who is going to bargain. You’re pretty much fucked.

3—Transsubstantiation — the utterly childish belief that fermented grapes (bought at a store) magically and LITERALLY becomes Jesus’ actual blood …. and that a cracker (bought at a store) becomes literally Jesus’ body. I couldn’t believe this shit if I was high on two ounces of LSD.

4– Joseph never fucked Mary —– not once, not ever, even though the Bible says Jesus had brothers and sisters.

5)– Intersession —– the idea that a Priest is even needed as the link between you and God. Utter and total horseshit found nowhere in Scripture.

Bonus: The Doctrine of Look Away and STFU …… the principle whereby a Man of God can suck little boys dicks to his delight, and if he gets caught, merely gets reassigned to another parish.

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The scary part of all this is that hundreds of millions of people believe this shit. You might even be one of them. (Don’t take this rant personally.)  Cockroaches don’t believe this shit, and that’s why they’ll survive our demise.

Stucky’s MYTHBUSTER Episode

“What is history, but a set of lies agreed upon?”
————– Napoleon Bonaparte (supposedly)

Needing a break from the doom and gloom, I hope this is a fun and educational post. Then again, most people hate if their favorite myth is challenged. So, I expect some “you’re full of shit” responses … as if I care. I didn’t verify the stories. Do your own homework. I’m not providing links. Do your own homework. Besides, maybe only 5% of you click on them anyway. So, let’s get going.

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AMERICAN MYTHS

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GUN FIGHTS WERE COMMON IN THE VIOLENT WILD WEST

We believe this myth because of one reason only; the power of TV to create perceptions. How many murders do you suppose these old western towns saw a year? How about five? That was the most murders any old-west town saw in any one year. Ever. Most towns averaged about 1.5 murders a year, and not all of those were shooting. You were way more likely to be murdered in Baltimore in 2008 than you were in Tombstone in 1881, the year of the famous gunfight at the OK Corral (body count — 3) …. and the town’s most violent year ever.

As for the traditional Western gunfight as depicted in movies, the inaccuracy of handguns at the time would have made quick-drawing skill irrelevant: It was simply so unlikely you’d hit a guy on the first, second or third shot that it didn’t really matter which guy got out his gun first. Forget about “fanning,” rapidly cocking a single-action revolver between rounds like Clint Eastwood does in A Fistful of Dollars. You’d be lucky to hit a henchman if the duel took place in a closet.

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“WAR OF THE WORLDS” – WHEN AMERICANS WENT BAT-SHIT CRAZY

How stupid do we think Americans were back then? Orson Welles’ radio production supposedly plunged millions of Americans into mass hysteria, as frightened listeners overloaded phone lines, fled cities, rushed to warn their loved ones, rioted and even attempted suicide for fear of the alien attack. Life Magazine even ran a photo of a farmer defending his land against the Martians, shotgun in hand. Newspapers happily jumped on reporting the panic in the days and weeks afterward, and even Adolf Hitler commented on the supposed hysteria. Something to the effect of, “An army of futuristic war machines trying to take over the planet.”

The reality? Total bullshit. Life Magazine just had the Mr. Shotgun Guy pose for it. Most of the War of the Worlds freak-out was exactly as fake as that photo. There’s no doubt that SOME people thought the broadcast was real. Radio was still new and a fake news broadcast had literally never been done before.

Reports of people immediately flying into a panic–attempting suicide, hallucinating alien death rays or fleeing to the countryside with guns in hand—were all anecdotal stories told second hand with no names attached. And although the phone lines to the studio were unusually busy that night, mixed in with the people asking for information, were people praising or complaining about a show that seemed like it was clearly designed to create a mass panic. FACT is; people back then would have reacted in exactly the way we would today: flipped to another station, called somebody to ask what was going on, or just looked out the damn window. Why did this myth take hold back then? Same reason 9-11 Truthers exist …. a good portion of the populace thrives on Bullshit.

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“NO IRISH NEED APPLY” SIGNS WERE COMMON.

There is a core of truth to this, but it is exaggerated in collective memory. Yes, Irish Catholics faced discrimination. “No Irish Need Apply” newspaper advertisements existed. Workplace signs were not common, but Irish were effectively barred from “better”occupations and shunted into low-paying factory work and domestic service.

Well know historian Richard Jensen stated in “The Journal of Social History”; —- ““The fact that Irish vividly ‘remember’ NINA signs is a curious historical puzzle. There are no contemporary or retrospective accounts of a specific sign at a specific location. No particular business enterprise is named as a culprit. No historian, archivist, or museum curator has ever located one; no photograph or drawing exists. No other ethnic group complained about being singled out by comparable signs. Only Irish Catholics have reported seeing the sign in America—no Protestant, no Jew, no non-Irish Catholic has reported seeing one.”

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AMERICA BECAME INDEPENDENT ON JULY 4, 1776

Probably not 1 in 1,000 Americans knows the following. The American Revolution raged for another seven years after July 4, 1776. Independence from England was finally granted on September 3, 1783 when Britain’s George III and US leaders signed the Definitive Treaty of Peace.

[Bonus: During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress in 1774 chose Peyton Randolph as the first President. George Washington was actually America’s 15th President, albeit the 1st elected by the people.]

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BUNKER HILL WAS ONE OF THE KEY BATTLES IN THE REVOLUTION

Bunker Hill had no major effect on the Revolution. The battle was small, involving only a few thousand men altogether, the battle didn’t change the war in any particular way or introduce some new way of warfare. The British were about to withdraw from Boston anyhow even before the battle.

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BENEDICT ARNOLD HATED AMERICA

He loved America. His betrayal was tit-got-tat, because he felt America betrayed him first.
He was arguably America’s best general. On numerous occasions he saved America from total defeat. The most notable being the Battle of Saratoga where he disobeyed orders and turned defeat into victory. That victory turned the tide of the war and led France to ally itself with America.

He never received any credit for his achievements. Lies were spread about him throughout the army and scandals erupted. Even George Washington, whom Arnold thought was his friend, abandoned him and gave credit to Arnold’s victory at Saratoga to Horatio Gates, a man who nearly lost the revolution at Saratoga had it not been for Arnold. Arnold was demoted to a small garrison post The sense of complete betrayal and insult angered Arnold, and led him to betray America.

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BEN FRANKLIN FLIES A KITE IN 1752

No. The experiment was done by French scientist Jacques de Romas in 1753. When De Romas asked the Paris Academy of Sciences to acknowledge that he had been the first to successfully complete the experiment, the committee agreed, provided Franklin didn’t provide details demonstrating that he had priority. Franklin was uncharacteristically silent on the subject.

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THERE WERE 13 COLONIES

As settlements were founded, each new city was recognized as its own colony: for example, Connecticut contained 500 distinct “colonies” before they were merged into one in 1661. Sometimes colonies were mashed together into mega-colonies, like the short-lived, super-unpopular Dominion of New England, which incorporated Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine, plus New York and New Jersey for a couple of years. Colonies also split, like Massachusetts, which spawned New Hampshire in 1679. And some colonies weren’t colonies at all: while it’s often listed as one of the

But on to 1775. There weren’t even 13 colonies then. Delaware wasn’t technically a colony or a province. Designated “the Lower Counties on the Delaware,” it had its own assembly but fell under the authority of the governor of Pennsylvania until it declared itself an independent state in August 1776. So technically, there were just 12 colonies in 1775 and 13 states in 1776.

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LIZZIE BORDEN – AMERICA’S FIRST WOMAN AX MURDERER

Do you have to be over 50 to recall this childrens’ poem? — “Lizzie Borden took an ax/ And gave her mother forty whacks / And when she saw what she had done / She gave her father forty-one” — First of all, the father was axed 11 times, mom 19 times. Lizzie was found innocent of the crime after a mere one hour of jury deliberation. Folklore says the rhyme was made up by an anonymous writer as a tune to sell newspapers. Lizzie was relatively well off when she died — $50,000 in the bank in 1927 — but the community ostracized her even after the trial, and only a handful of people showed up at her funeral.

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EVERYONE WAS KILLED AT THE ALAMO

The official Alamo website tries to correct this persistent myth: “It is true that nearly all of the TEXANS UNDER ARMS inside the fort were killed in the March 6, 1836, attack. However, nearly twenty women and children, who experienced the twelve days of siege leading to the final assault, were spared and allowed to return to their homes. The survivors also included Joe, the slave of William B. Travis. The best-known Alamo survivor, Susanna Dickinson, was sent to Gonzales by Santa Anna with a warning to the Texans that the same fate awaited them if they continued their revolt.”

[BONUS: The Americans who died at the Alamo weren’t defending liberty— they were protecting slavery.]

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EDISON INVENTED THE LIGHTBULB

No. It was invented a full 40 years earlier, in 1840, by British Astronomer and Chemist, Warren de la Rue.

Edison was actually a nasty and ruthless little fucker … a Bill Gates type. Edison did not invent many of the things attributed to him. He was very good at stealing, improving, and patenting many ideas before their original inventors were able to. He expended much effort discrediting other inventors in order to gain popularity for his own.

[BONUS: In 1862, at the age of 15, saved the life of a 3 year old boy playing on train tracks … right in the path of a runaway freight car. The boy’s father happened to be the station’s telegraph operator. He was so grateful to Edison that he took him under his wing, and trained him in telegraphy, sparking the inventor’s lifelong love affair with all things electric.]

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WITCHES WERE BURNED IN SALEM

Only in the movies. They were all hanged, except one, who died while being tortured. The wide-spread knowledge of the event is somewhat unusual considering how few died, only 20 (of about 150 who were tried) —- 14 women, and the oft forgotten 6 men.

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WALT DISNEY DREW MICKEY MOUSE

Actually, Walt was a rather poor artist. Mickey was the vision of Disney’s number one animator, Ub Iwerks. He single-handedly animated Mickey’s first short film, Plane Crazy (1928), in only two weeks … a remarkable 700 drawings a day … before computers. However. when sound films began later that year, Walt Disney played Mickey’s voice.

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MYTHS OUTSIDE OF AMERICA

LADY GODIVA RODE NAKED

Zero evidence for this. The myth is that Godiva pleaded with her husband, Leofric, to relieve the heavy burden of taxes he had imposed on the citizens of Coventry. Leofric said he would grant her request if she would ride naked through the town. She agreed but prior to her bare-assing he ordered the people to remain indoors with their windows and doors barred. Loosening her long hair to cover her as a cloak, she mounted her waiting horse. The people obeyed her command because of their respect for her. However, one man did not …. a man called llpoh …. just kidding … his name was ‘Tom’ …. who just couldn’t help peeking at her fine titties …. and, this is the origin of the term “Peeping Tom”.

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NERO FIDDLED WHILE ROME BURNED

Poor Nero … always getting blamed for shit he didn’t do. If anything, he played the lyre — as the violin needed another 1,000 years to be invented. According to Tacitus, upon hearing news of the fire, Nero rushed back to Rome to organize a relief effort, which he paid for from his own funds. After the fire, Nero opened his palaces to provide shelter for the homeless, and arranged for food supplies to be delivered in order to prevent starvation among the survivors. In the wake of the fire, he made a new urban development plan. This wasn’t the first time “Rome burned”. The old city was a perpetual fire hazard of extremely crowded housing build of wood. Houses after the fire were spaced out, built in brick, and faced by porticos on wide roads.

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GALILEO DROPPED OBJECTS OFF THE TOWER OF PISA

Universally discredited by historians. Scientists had been dropping shit from the Tower for as long as 50 years prior to Galileo. The source of this myth is easy to trace. Galileo’s biographer and pupil, Vincenzo Viviani, mentions the experiment in his account of the scientist’s life. The lie has been repeated ad nauseum ever since.

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MYTHS ABOUT VIKINGS

—– Vikings were a nation. No. The Old Norse word víkingr denoted not a nationality, but occupation: a Viking was anyone, from any nationality, who took part in an overseas expedition.

—– Vikings wore horned helmets. Totally false.

—– Vikings’ preferred weapon was a massive double axe. No double-headed axe has ever been found from early medieval Europe. Viking axes were light and used single-handed. The most common weapons found on Viking sites are spears

—– Viking armies were huge. Based on archeological evidence for the size of their boats … 50 or so men … Viking armies numbered in the hundreds, at most.

—– Vikings were exceptionally cruel and bloodthirsty. Vikings were sometimes very violent … BUT they were not substantially different from their contemporaries. For example, at Verden, Charlemagne, ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxons. Furthermore, plunder was only one among many other goals of their overseas expeditions. Vikings peacefully colonized Iceland, Greenland and many smaller islands. As explorers they crossed the Atlantic and reached America 500 years before Columbus. As international merchants of their time, they also peacefully traded with almost every country of the then known world.

—– Vikings don’t know shit about football. True.

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VAN GOGH SLICED OFF HIS EAR

Partially correct. Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime. He only spent eight years of his life painting. He spent most of his life teaching and dealing art. Van Gough attempted a partnership with the post-impressionist Paul Gauguin. But Van Gogh had a mental breakdown which led to an incident where he threatened Gauguin with a razor blade. Later on that night, while brooding over the attack, van Gogh took the razor blade to his own ear …. but only a portion of his left lobe.

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NAPOLEON WAS A LITTLE SHIT

Napoleon was 5’7” …. actually taller than the average 18th century Froggie. True, Napoleon was called Le Petit Corporal (“The Little Corporal”), but that’s because early in his military career soldiers used it to mock his relatively low rank, not his stature.

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GANDHI LIBERATED INDIA

Partially true. Most historians agree that Indian independence was inevitable. Gandhi was just one of several independence leaders. The Indian National Congress was founded as early as 1885, when he was only 16. Many historians believe that India would have achieved independence sooner if they had focused on the more forceful methods that they had used 50 years earlier, rather than the slow process of Gandhi’s ancient ideals of ahimsa (non-violence.

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MISH MASH POTPOURRI

MAGELLAN CIRCUMNAVIGATED THE WORLD Nope. He only made it halfway. He was killed by natives in the Philippines. His second-in-command, Juan Sebastian Elcano, completed the circumnavigation

Helen of Troy was from Troy. No, she was actually a Spartan, who probably never set foot in Troy.

The Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure that can be seen from space . No, it can’t.

Jesus spoke Hebrew. No record of that. The Bible specifically says he spoke Aramaic. Greek was the secondary language of the region, it was the language of the common version of the Bible used by the Jews at the time, and since the NT teaches that Jesus read from the OT … it is very likely Jesus also spoke Greek.

Amazon women cut off their titties. Hellanicus, some Greek dude, started this rumor. He incorrectly imagined Amazon was derived from the Greek prefix a- (“without”) and mazos, a variant of mastos (“breast”). That’s like saying the word ‘addict’ means a man without a dick …or, dictionary.

Slaves built the pyramids. The number of historians who still believe this is virtually zero. Excavated skeletons show that the pyramid builders were actually Egyptians who were most likely in the permanent employ of the pharaoh. No evidence of Joo builders, either.

Pythagoras discovered the theorem bearing his name. Nope. It was known to the Egyptians and the Babylonians long before he was born

Ancient Greece was a great nation: Ancient Greece is not the name of a nation – it is the name of the region in which up to 1,000 individual cultures lived and worked alongside each other. Each culture had its own rulers, its own armies, its own independence from the others

“Thumbs up” meant a gladiator would live. Quite the opposite … ‘thumb up’ meant kill him! There was no ‘thumb down’ signal. If the thumb was concealed in a fist it meant let him live.

Henry VIII had syphilis. Unlikely. 16th century standard treatment for syphilis was mercury. Lists of money spent on medicines for Henry VIII exist. Mercury is never listed.

Baseball is a true American sport: No. Baseball was derived from “Rounders,” a game played in Ireland since the 15th century, which contains most of the basic elements of modern baseball

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POPULAR SAYINGS NOT IN THE BIBLE
—— A fool and his money are soon parted
—— God helps those who help themselves
—— Cleanliness is next to godliness
—— God works in mysterious ways
—— Spare the rod, spoil the child
—— Money is the root of all evil
—— Moderation in all things
—— Pride goes before a fall
—— Charity begins at home
—— This too shall pass

EVE ATE THE APPLE

No! She ate from the “fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil”. That means it could have been any fruit whatsoever … or not a fruit at all, but more of an allegorical meaning. The most likely origin of the belief has to do with Latin …. the Latin ‘malum’ means BOTH apple or evil. [Apple Story Bonus: Newton was not hit by an apple. The story was first published in an essay by Voltaire, long after Newton’s death]

Stop eating Tuna …. Unless you like flirting with death

Fukushima. Such old news. Yesterday’s news. From a place far away. Fuckem. Everything is under control. We have enough shit to worry about. Why am I such a doom and gloomer?

Research I’ve done and found today. I think Fukushima is still a problem. Judge for yourself.

We often/usually buy in large quantities when items are on sale. So, a few months ago we bought 20+ cans of tuna for about a buck a can. I have since, even before this latest finding, thrown them all away. I won’t be eating tuna again in my lifetime. Seriously. Or, sushi. And I’ll be checking if the rice I buy comes from Japan, and if so, no sale.

You might consider likewise. That’s why I’m posting this.

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1) — 38,000 children under the age of 18 in the Fukushima prefecture have been examined.

2) — An unheard of 36% have thyroid nodules, cysts and nodules ………. doctors say thyroid nodules in children are as rare as hen’s teeth … doctors there state they have never seen thyroid lesions such as they are seeing

3) — theta pollen in Fukushima was so full of cesium it was almost unbelievable ….. and it’s everywhere … a month ago some dust was found in a 10th floor apartment in Tokyo …. dangerous levels of cesium 137, 134, uranium 238, and 235 …….. did I mention 10th floor?

4) — the food is radioactive …. much of the rice grown in Japan is grown in the Fukushima prefectures ….. it is being harvested with cesium ………. It is being mixed with non-radioactive rice

6) — spinach and mushrooms are full of cesium and other isotopes ……… but they’re only just measuring cesium

7) — 63% of the fish caught within 60 miles from Fukushima have cesium in them

8) — tuna caught off the coast of California is carrying cesium from Fukushima

9) — Yes, the cesium is quite dilute ……. but it doesn’t fucking matter ……… if you eat tuna with some cesium in it, the cesium goes to one of your muscles or into your brain. …… “cesium is the potassium analogue, so it’s like potassium and our bodily cells are reaching for potassium” ….. so you ONLY NEED A SINGLE MUTATION IN A SINGLE CELL induced by a very small amount of cesium to induce cancer ……… the incubation time is around 5 -17 years ……. so one day you get these terrible headaches and the doctor says you have a cerebral tumor …. and you won’t remember the tuna you ate 15 years ago.

10) — building 4 is still very delicate and damaged ….. on top of it is a cooling pool of spent fuel rods over a hundred tons ……. if there’s an earthquake greater than 7.0 Building Four will collapse … down will come the cooling pool ……… the zirconium clouding of the fuel rods will burst into flames reacting with air at very high temperatures ……… TEN TIMES more cesium and radioactivity will be released from that cooling pool than from Chernobyl …. Tokyo will be toast ….. a good portion of the northern hemisphere will be contaminated.

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CONCLUSION: Everything is A-OK!!! The EPA has stopped testing your air and food. “Trust us, you’ll be fine.”

No thanks! NEVER trust our government …. in ANYTHING. Take matters in your own hands. Do your own research. And act accordingly.

My Boomer Life and the Greatest Generation Parents Who Raised Me

I won’t be posting a Quinn-like masterpiece with lots of graphs and statistics. First, I don’t have that ability. Second, I am not a statistic. I am a person … so this will be a personal story with anecdotes about my achy-breaky Boomer life. Mostly, I just want to address the following question;

“ARE BOOMERS RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING WRONG IN AMERICA TODAY?”

First, let me whine a little.  A number of folks here (you know who you are, lol) answer that question with an emphatic “YES!!”.  I find it incredulous that otherwise very smart folks can say such things. I don’t know if it’s said just for effect to “piss off” Boomers such as myself, or if you can really attribute this country’s Great Malaise to such a simple theory.   It is also rather dismaying that whenever ANYTHING positive is said about the Boomer generation, then that person is accused of being in “denial” or an “apologist”.  It’s almost as if the quest for knowledge ceases when it comes to Boomers … a really surprising turn of events considering the large number of INTJs here.

Others will say we Boomers shouldn’t take it “personally” — which, really, is like calling a black person “nigger”, and then exclaiming, “Oh! Please don’t take that personally”. Tough to do! Accuse me of whatever you wish. I simply cannot wrap my tiny mind around the Broad Brush Approach — lumping an entire generation of 76 million people  as the cause of Everything Evil is not wise, helpful, applicable, or even possible, imho.  You might as well say, “Humans caused all our evils” … which would also be equally correct, and equally useless since the classification is too enormous.  But if one is looking for an Easy Unified Theory of Everything Wrong With America … “Boomers Did It” … well, have at it.

I cannot identify with the rich Boomers, because I am not rich. I cannot identify with the rich Greatest Generation , because I am not rich. I cannot identify with the rich of any generation, because I am not rich. Without advocating a class-warfare approach, I must maintain that a far greater divide in America is along Class — not, age.  The mega-rich, the mega-powerful, the ultra-elite — yeah, the 1% — as George Carlin says, THEY are your owners! Redirect your anger accordingly.

I am NOT against the younger generation. I love ‘em. I feel I have more in common with my emotionally troubled son than with most Boomers in my life.  Unlike what happens to many old farts, he at least he still questions everything, still wonders what this crazy life is all about, still wonders how he “fits in”.  Just like I did when I was his age, and actually, still do to some extent.  \\end:whining//

STUCKY  CONSIDERS HIS PAST WHILE AT A CHRISTMAS CONCERT

A couple Sundays ago I went to my Dad’s Christmas concert.  He sings for The Plainfield Gesang & Turn Verein, a German-American heritage club that was founded in 1886. There were about 200 people in attendance.  I would say that 90% of demographics were Boomers such as myself and our parents, The Greatest Generation.

I not only listened to the music, but as I watched my dad singing so proudly, and as I glanced at my mom who always gets weepy at this event, my mind also grew nostalgic, as it is prone to do at such holiday occasions.

It is only in the past few years that I have seen my parents as “whole” persons. What I mean by that is that their whole existence on this planet, as far as I was concerned for most of my life, only started around when I was 5 years old … my earliest memories of them. That means about 30 years of their lives — while they did start to tell me bits and pieces once I turned 17 and thereafter — well, for all intents and purposes it simply didn’t exist. What a damn shame, to my own detriment, that I didn’t even care about the great fountain of experience and knowledge I so easily dismissed. The major event that shaped my parent’s lives was WWII. With apologies to all those here who know this story, I shall very briefly summarize it for those who don’t, for context.

My dad was a German living in Romania.  One day, when dad was a teenager, the German Army came sweeping into his village, yanked him from his home, told him he was in the German Army, sent him to the Russian front, where he was captured, spent time in a Russian prison camp, and upon release was not allowed to return to Romania and never saw his family again, but was instead sent to England to work in the coal mines for several years – a form of ‘reparation’, before he made his way to a refugee camp in Austria.

My mother was a German living in Yugoslavia. One day, when she was a teenager, the Russian Army came sweeping into her village. They shot a lot of older German men – the young ones were all off to war — on the spot. Virtually all the women in the village were promptly sent to a Russian gulag, where she was raped, saw her mom raped and then murdered in front of her eyes. After the war ended only she and her brother remained alive, they were not allowed to return to their village, and they walked to a refugee camp in Austria.

I don’t relay these events for pity. Screw that. They are just one of millions of German families who suffered in WWII … just as millions of Americans have suffered in WWII, with only the details changing. I just have a story to tell, and my parent’s story is a huge part of my story. Of course I can’t speak for 76 million of us except in a general sense.  For example, I graduated from a high school of about 2,000 and I feel comfortable in saying we all share the Same Boomer Story, generally speaking.

THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING BOOMERISM

The point is these are the people who raised my fat Boomer ass … which they did not do in a vacuum, independent of things that shaped their lives.  The picture in your mind’s eye of a “Boomer” is quite incomplete if you forget, or misunderstand, our Greatest Generation parents.

So, I’m watching my mother as she watches the concert, I put my hand around her shoulder as I see her eyes well up with tears. What is she thinking?  What pains are still so real to her today .. that I can’t help her with?  I start thinking about my own 59 years of living … how crystal clear certain events of my own teenage years still are … as if they happened yesterday. And then a feel a certain shame that it took me so long to see my parents as whole persons.  I suddenly feel despondent that I so despised several aspects of my upbringing that I couldn’t wait to join the military, even in the midst of the Vietnam war, just to get the fuck out from under my parent’s thumb.  Before taking a look at how the Greatest Generation raised us, let’s quickly take a look at another key to understanding Boomers;  the world in which we lived

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY ??

The Gay 20’s really weren’t all that gay, just as  the world Boomers inherited wasn’t only the fun, Hippie, pot-smokin’, LSD trippin’, rock’n-roll groovin’, free love image that is remembered today. Two big events and a ton of smaller ones helped turn our once pure souls to the Dark Side.

First Big Event: Da Bomb. Russia. Nukes. Commie bastards. Ka-BAM! All gone. Nuclear winter. Dead. Why??? Nuke drills!! Little Boomer children hiding under desks for protection. Little Boomer children watching gub’mint movies showing homes blasted to smithereens. Little desk hiding Boomers not stupid, “We gonna die under this desk!!”  Was I forever traumatized – some prepubescent PTSD – by these drills? No. Did it affect my perception of what the world was about and that just maybe it made no sense at all and that the grownups were idiots and that since tomorrow may never come so I might as well live just for today … even though I was just a kid at the time?  You better believe it.

Second Big Event. Vietnam. Dirty, nasty, disgusting, vile war that killed 60,000 of us and maimed hundreds of thousands more. What was it good for? Absolutely nothing.  Did it affect my perception of what the world was about and that just maybe it made no sense at all and that the grownups were idiots and that since tomorrow may never come so I might as well live just for today? You better believe it.

Not to mention in no particular order;  civil rights ….. riots …. . corrupt government openly lying ….. a disgraced president ….. dead soldiers faces broadcast on TV every night ….. Kent State …..  double-digit unemployment ……. Midnight Cowboy ….. 25% interest rate for a home loan ….. gas lines ….. shitty cars that exploded ….. S&L crisis ….. Bay of Pigs ….. nukes in Cuba!! …. Abortion …. JFK ….. and, MLK …. Jimmie Hendrix and Janis Joplin …. Gloria Steinem and  woman’s rights ….. no more prayer in school ….. the Ayatollah ….. Supreme Court turns activist all over the place …… Korea ….. school integration ……………….

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Did we shape the times, or did the times shape us? I think it’s the latter. Simple math. 

The first Boomers were born in 1946.  How old are the people-in-charge, the leaders, the CEOs, the 535 politicians that rule our lives … i.e., the people who actually make things happen?  Let’s be conservative and say that it’s 30 years old.  So, the first Boomers with power to affect the status quo  arrive on the scene only in 1975.  I  would say Boomers  took the helms of power around  daddy Bush’s presidency in 1989 – when the first Boomers were 43 years old.

The “ME Generation” —- A MISNOMER

We are … and you may add the adjective “most” to many  of these descriptions;  selfish, self-indulgent, unwilling to sacrifice, politically correct, drug addicted, material minded, entitled, liberal or commie shits, bad parents, lazy, humans to ever walk the earth. And to top it all off we invented Afro’s and disco (actually, two legitimate reasons to hate us).  Amazingly, we accomplished all this because of the year in which we were born.  And because of our sin of ‘The Year Of Our Birth’, you can go to literally hundreds of blogs other than here and find the admonishment that Boomers should “just die already”.  The implication being, that once this happens, pretty much everything will return to bliss, prosperity, and overall happiness.  I read that we Boomers only cared about only three things;  1) Me, 2) Me, and 3) Me.  Just like the “love of money” is the root of evil,  our preoccupation with “Me” is the root cause underlying our evilness.

BUT — the ME-Generation was raised by the Greatest Generation.

How would YOU like to be born following that moniker?  Imagine you have just one older sibling, and your parents referred to him/her as “The Greatest Kid”.  It just might fuck you up!  Lol   Boomer babies didn’t drop out the shoot and at the moment of birth become The Most Selfish Bastards ever.  We did not raise ourselves. Somewhere along the line, some person(s) and some event(s) helped us along into becoming selfish pricks.  Cause leads to effect, nature abhors a vacuum.

What do you THINK you know about The Greatest Generation?

Unless you’re a Boomer, what you think you know about the Greatest Generation is likely inaccurate.  The people you know as grandparents are NOT the same people who raised us.  Some kind of Weird Assed Transformation took place from the time we were born to the people you know. Maybe it has to do with the aging process – whereby one becomes more introspective, soft hearted, and most importantly – accepting of Things As They Are … not, What They Should Be, a mantra us Boomer kids heard a million times if we heard it once.   Maybe it was the realization that their own Materialism was a big mistake … and trust me on this, in many ways they were much more materialistic than their boomer children.  Maybe they didn’t ‘change’, maybe they just ‘adapted’ – but, the Metamorphosis into A New Life Form –one that is NOW loved and revered —  is and was spectacular.  

Let’s take a look at what Boomer kids heard growing up

“ I’m not buying you a new pair of Converse sneakers. You think money grows on trees?”

“You’re not going out dressed like that, are you? What will the neighbors think?”

“I slave all day to put food on the table, so you damn well better eat all of it!”

 “You don’t know what hardship is all about.  WE had it rough.”

“Kids in China are starving. Learn some gratitude, dammit.”

 “You see all the stuff we have?.  We did all this for you.”

“Turn off the damn lights. You think electricity is free?”

 “You don’t know the meaning of sacrifice.”

“Cut your hair!  At least look respectable.”

 “You don’t know how lucky you are.”

“At least you could show some respect.”

 “You don’t know the value of things.”

“Why don’t you appreciate anything?”

 “Quit acting like a bum!”  KaPow!!  (We boomer kids got wacked …. A LOT)

If you don’t see a significant amount of materialism in those statements then, I’m sorry, you’re just not being perceptive enough.  Materialism is largely a state of mind.  Bertrand Russel said,  ——- “It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else that prevents us from living freely and nobly.”

HANGING ONTO WHAT YOU GOT LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT

It’s not about how much stuff you own. It’s about the stuff you own that eventually owns you.  A middle aged man attempts to reclaim his youth and buys a vintage Harley, just like the one in Easy Rider. He owns the bike.  Before you know it he’s spending all weekend polishing every nut and bolt.  Then he decides it needs some restoration, and he spends a few grand doing that.  Then he spends more and more time away from his family and with his fellow enthusiasts, riding around town, showing off like a peacock. Then one day his teenage son accidently puts a small scratch on the fender.  He hurls a string of expletives at his son for committing this unforgiveable sin.  The bike now owns HIM.

Although I lacked nothing growing up, my pre-boomer angst was fueled by the ever present possibility that all the blessings bestowed on me could be lost at any time. From scarcity we came, and to scarcity we could return.  This pretty much fulfills Bertrand Russels’s  materialism “preoccupation” criteria. Our stuff, meager as it might be, owned us.  The resultant activity of the scarcity meme, in terms of materialism, is that my Greatest Generation dad worked his ass off to make sure scarcity would never rear its ugly head. This is admirable and not to be condemned.  Don’t you, and I, do the very same thing for our children? 

But, it did have unintended consequences.  Growing up I couldn’t help but feeling that material gain was more important than anything else. Our parents did work their fingers to the bone.  But by the time they dragged their tired asses through the door, they were too tired to hug us.  They were too tired to have any really meaningful conversations, especially about sex.  “Children should be seen, and not heard.” , I swear was God’s eternal truth scripted somewhere in the Gospels. So, we spent a great deal of our time out of our parents’ sight.  That was great for both of us … far less arguments.

We even had our own special place to play in the house.  The basement. We sure as hell never romped around the main level, especially the living room;  “Don’t sit there!  That’s GOOD furniture!!”.  Our little boomer minds duly noted; ‘furniture more important than us’. Watch reruns of ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ and Marie’s living room to see the hilarious abortions  our parents resorted in order to “save” the good furniture;  they covered everything in plastic! Lol  All of us immediately identified with the advice Dustin Hoffman received in The Graduate;  “Plastics, my boy. Plastics.”  Eventually we got the last laugh when all that plastic shit turned a putrid shade of yellow, and the cushions smelled like skunk ass when the plastic was removed. Meanwhile, we were banished to the basement where we could destroy nothing of real value.

FROM DEPRIVATION TO EXCESS TO REBELLION

One of the most common reactions to deprivation is excess.  For example, people who have faced starvation will often, once circumstances have changed, become gluttons.  This was our parents’ response.

Then, as time passes, a typical reaction to excess is rebellion. This was our response.  For example, on a grand scale a Colonist eventually  rebels against the excesses of his British masters, and dumps tea in the bay.  On an individual scale, children (of any era) eventually rebel against their parents’ excessive rules by doing the exact opposite. The goal of the Rebel, whether a nation or a child,  is always to starve the master of their power.

This dynamic plays out predictably well in the Greatest Generation / Boomer relationship.  The Greatest Generation faced deprivations in spades; from the Great Depression to Dust Bowls to World War II. The end of the Big War ushers in the greatest economic boom in American history, or something like that.  Remembering their deprivations the Greatest Generation becomes as materialistic as any in recent memory.  Some of you folks err when you compare that materialism back then with what we have today.  You look at countless graphs, data, GDPs, debt, one financial ratio after another … compare the two eras … and somehow conclude that the Greatest Generation were ‘savers’.  The “numbers” don’t look so bad back then only because the whole shebang was just getting started.  Some shit just takes time to get stinky.

What was this great economic post-war boom about? Was it not the beginning of Consumerism? What do you think this is all about;  … getting that little starter house, then upgrading to the bigger house with the nice white picket fence, movin’ on up to a good neighborhood, getting that  fifty cent promotion, replacing a literal ice-BOX with a real refrigerator, getting a nice big Dee-troit car or two,  the explosion of corporate TV shows like the Colgate Comedy Hour … if not consumer fueled materialism? Excess folks, excess.

“Oh Yeah?  Well …. fuck you!!”

The Boomer children, mostly neglected as daddy –and soon, mommy – pursued the Good Life (FOR us, naturally) reacted in a way that shouldn’t be a surprise …. we rebelled against our oppressor for their real or imagined sins.   Only we did with much greater aplomb than ever before ; we didn’t fuck around, we were all in. 

They had short-haired geeky musicians, we had long-haired hip rockers.  They had booze, we had drugs.  They had rules – lots of them —, we had none. Free Love, baby!  If it feels good, do it. Love the one you’re with.  They worked hard, we went to Woodstock. They had a lifeless church, we had the Jesus Movement.  They followed the call of  Madison Avenue,  our hearts  hung out at Haight and Ashbury. They liked Ike, we preferred Dylan.  They wore penny loafers, we had sandals and a bandana (and other ridicules articles of clothing). And so it went at every turn; right or wrong, a repudiation of ALL that came before.  So people  look back on this crazy-assed behavior and label us the “ME” generation.  I’ll grant you that there is some truth to that.  But, it falls far short  of what was really going on. It wasn’t “me, me, me” as much as it was; “fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you”.

BTW, isn’t that EXACTLY what the younger generations are saying about us Boomers; “Fuck You!”?   History rhyming yet again. Solomon correctly wrote; “Vanity of vanities, there is nothing new under the sun.” I don’t know what dumbass mistakes this younger generation will make — I sometimes feel they think they’ll make none, the first Perfect Generation — but trust me on this one thing oh Young Ones, you too will blow it … and your offspring will mock you as well.

BOOMERS NEVER EARNED ANYTHING — EVERYTHING WAS HANDED TO THEM

Nothing quite baffles me like this accusation.  I shake my head wondering exactly what was given to me. I started out getting a fifty-cent allowance, back when fifty cents could still get me into the movies (double feature plus cartoons, a soda, and a popcorn and get a nickel back). It wasn’t “free” either … it came attached to doing chores.  Mow the lawn, take out the garbage, do the dishes when asked, and keep my room clean.  This our parents called “learning responsibility”. All for 2 bits … good thing we weren’t Unionized.

But for real money to get real stuff — like those Converse sneakers — we had to work.  So, I got my first job at around 13 selling subscriptions of the town newspaper door to door on Saturdays.  I got a dollar per new subscription.  Some Saturdays I’d rack up 20 plus bucks and back then that was living large. My first real job was in high school. I worked in a lasagna factory, stirring lasagna in a huge vat of boiling water … for $1.35 an hour. And I never stopped working since.  We worked hard all our lives. My friends all did likewise.  So. Pardon me if I am offended at being called “selfish, greedy, and entitled” as I refuse to accept that label.

Speaking of “entitled”, perhaps this is what people mean; all those juicy gub’mint entitlement programs, especially SS and Medicare.  First of all, social security was NOT created by the Boomer generation. So, solly.  Try the generation before us. Medicare was NOT created by Boomers either. Sure it was enacted in 1965. The oldest of the Boomer generation would have been born in 1943 … making that Boomer just 22 years old in 1965. The voting age was still 21.  Please don’t tell me Medicare was voted into being because of then 22 year old Boomers!

I know people just hate it when us old farts “expect” to collect on SS. Can you walk in my shoes for a moment?  Let’s say you paid $50,000 into some account set up by the gub’ment. It is money you earned by the sweat of your brow.  You didn’t ask the gob’ment to do this for you.  They took it by force and promised to give it back to you later. Much later. That “much later” is now here, and some people want to tell us, “Hey, you can’t have the money. The gub’ment spent it and you can’t have it.” We used to have a word for this: Theft.  Look, I can understand that I may not be able to collect SS forever until I die.  But, can I at least get MY $50,000 dollars back?? You don’t even have to pay any interest, if that makes it better.

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SINS OF MY BRETHREN

I won’t cover any of the other Entitlements / Social Programs.  All I  can tell you I voted Republican most of my life, and I cannot ever recall voting based on getting free shit.  Foreign policy, wars, and character where my usual hot buttons. I don’t know how other Boomers voted. I don’t care.

I don’t care because I don’t believe in the idea of Collective Guilt. Google that term and the first page will show articles on “German collective guilt over Nazis”, so this is a topic I personally know something about. It is a heinous principle first found in the Old Testament that — “The sin of the fathers He punishes on the children to the third and fourth generation.”  A monstrous mockery of justice!! Collective guilt refuses to acknowledge the INDIVIDUAL. Evil regimes and their dictators (Stalin, Mao, Marx, etc.) love collective guilt as they collectivize individuals as “the populace” or “the masses” or “the workers” and then enslave or execute them as it suits their purposes. That’s why I have often said here that the demonization of Boomers may one day logically lead to Death Chambers for us old farts.

You, dear reader, don’t believe in collective guilt either. Do you find yourself guilty of the crime of slavery? No.  Do you find yourself guilty for the genocide of Native Americans ? No. Do you find yourself guilty for Mai Lai? No.  Do you find me guilty for Buchenwald?  No.  So why do you throw all Boomers in the Collective guilty pot?  It is said ‘people get the government they deserve’.  If that’s true then I should find YOU guilty for the current mess we’re in. But, don’t worry, I won’t because that entire argument is specious.   Here’s one way we should follow in the footsteps of the Greatest Generation; they didn’t blame their own parents for their youthful excesses of the ’20’s which then led to the financial ruin of the Great Depression . They just pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and made the best of a bad situation. So should we.

“YOU MADE PROMISES TO US ………. AND YOU LIED!!”

Another common theme amongst disgruntled Utes are the broken promises we Boomers made. When I went to the Occupy Wall Street demonstration in NYC I saw more than a few Utes displaying  posters about Education  … “$60,000 in Student Loans and No Job”, and several variations thereof, including demands to forgive the debt.  For change of pace I will number my responses.

1)— Guess what kids?  Your generation isn’t the only one that was lied too. We were lied too, also. So, welcome to the real world.

2)— Guess who told us that education was the path to a better life?  That’s right, our Greatest Generation parents.  We just passed what we learned in OUR youth, onto you. By and large that’s how parenting works. Again, welcome to the real world.

3)— Our parents valued education because they were mostly blue-collar workers toiling away in factories (remember those?). They saw first-hand that the “higher-ups”, the folks in the office, the guys in white-collars made significantly more loot than they did.  So, putting two and two together they came up with the brilliant conclusion that education pays.  And that’s why I got my ass kicked whenever I brought home a bad Report Card. The first question at the dinner table was, “Did you wash your hands?”. The second and usually last question was “Did you do your homework?”  Study, study, study was drilled into our mush brains until the cows came home. It is really no more complicated than that.

4)— What’s wrong with furthering your education anyway? Did we commit some Mortal Sin in telling you to study? Don’t you know that we “pushed” this Horrible Thought on you for a reason?  Don’t you know that with knowledge you’ll learn how to think and analyze. Don’t you know the value of  using logic and rational thought, and how that will benefit you throughout your life?  Don’t you know we wanted to give you a foundation that would allow you to filter through all the bullshit the world tries to feed you? Apparently, not.

5)— Regarding not paying back your loan.  Where did you learn that from?  Certainly not from us Boomers when you were young!  Again, we taught you what was taught to us. And here’s one thing I can guaran-damn-tee you our parents showed us; paying one’s bills was a Badge of Honor.  It wasn’t God, country, and apple pie. It was Pay Your Bills, God, country, and apple pie. My parents would sacrifice a meal in order to pay a bill.  We taught you to do the same when you were little.

Here’s what Boomers and the Greatest Generation did wrong.

6) We monetized “value” when talking about “the value of an education”.  Did the Greek philosophers value education to make more money? No.  Did the great men of the Renaissance era value education to make more money? No. Did our Founding Fathers value education to make more money? No.  The “value” of an education is more than exploiting it for financial gain (see #4 above).  But, clearly, modern America is all about the Almighty Dollar.  So, I went to college pretty much in order to make better money. And I told my kids to go to college to make better money. Guilty as charged. Money, it’s a gas. I suppose what pisses off Utes is that Boomers were actually able to get jobs when they graduated, while they can’t. Which leads me to my final point.

7) Tough shit!!  And please don’t tell me us Boomers “guaranteed” you a good job upon getting an education. First of all if you actually believed such a statement you need to recalibrate your Bullshit Detector. They never has been and never will be any guarantees in life, except death, taxes, and obese fat women pictures from our own beloved AWD.  Secondly, it’s a lie from hell.  Our Greatest Generation parents were keenly aware of the possibility of losing it all … again.  

They even coined a unique phrase to drill home the concept of no guarantees; –“you never know”. For example, “Put down that stick! You could poke your sister’s eye out, YOU NEVER KNOW!” (In my childhood there were apparently about 845 ways to poke out my sister’s eye.) Or, “Put on clean underwear before we drive to church.  We might have an accident, YOU NEVER KNOW!”.  Or, “No, we’re not joining the community swimming pool.  We need to save every penny, YOU NEVER KNOW when we’ll need it.”. 

Lastly, Utes also blame Boomers that they can’t get married,  they have to live with their parents, will never be able to start a family, buy a house, etc. etc.  It all boils down to “life isn’t fair”. Well!  1) we Boomers used that phrase on our own parents a million times.  Please come up with something new.  2)  In what fairy-tale are you living where ‘fairness’ is the rule of the land? 3) Stop emulating Gordon Gecko. Try, Tim the Toolman. 4) My parents taught me this and I pass it along to you.  Perhaps the Ten Best Words Of Advice you will ever hear;   “Life isn’t fair. Get over it. DO something about it.”

FINAL THOUGHTS

In closing, let me say that I’m not trying to change the real Boomer Haters. It was downright depressing doing some research for this article. I don’t know exactly how widespread this hatred is, but what is out there is savage, vicious, and said with such ferocity that I wonder when, not if, the loathing for my generation  turns into violence against us.  Every revolution has at least one scapegoat. The “Boomers Suck” meme is paving the way towards acceptance of  our destruction, should it go that far. How does one change such a person’s opinion?? But, there are folks out there who have yet to decide if they shout hate/blame Boomers for everything.  I hope this article reaches those.

I also hope this does not come across as either making excuses or rationalization.   It’s just my story, and I assume it’s similar to millions of others in my age group unfortunate enough to be labeled a Boomer. All I tried to do is tell it as it is … yes, as I see it with my Boomer-tainted goggles … and in the telling I know I barely scratched the surface.  

One thing I know is they we are ALL in this together. When I see a homeless man in NYC, he may be a Boomer … or, very well be a more recent generation. I often drop a few dollar bills, but I don’t first verify his age, because I don’t see a GenX or Boomer … I see only a homeless person, a human being who is worthy of compassion because I realize “there but for the grace of God go I”. 

I think it’s a fact that most of us Boomers have seen our savings, our assets, our net worth dwindle before our eyes and most of us are not well off. I think it’s a fact that most Boomers still work, and probably will need to work —- either until we die or the ravages of age incapacitate us.  And if we are incapacitated … and if the timing is such that all the Free Shit is no longer available … then don’t worry about killing us, as I believe many will commit suicide.

Lastly, I am fully aware I have my own biases, and as we discussed in another thread from last week, “total honesty” in the trillion plus connections  organized by our highly fallible brains may not even be possible . Not only might I “not know” the truth, it is conceivable “I don’t even know that I don’t know”.  In other words, yeah, I could be full of shit. (If so, I’m sure you will inform me thereof. Lol ) But, I doubt it.

Peace

Herr StuchenBoomer

If I, Stucky, were made King

With all this new talk of secession … even here in Noo Joisey there is supposedly such a movement … SOMBODY will have to be Ruler Over All. It might as well be me. However, I am not running unopposed. My arch nemesis, The Mighty Quinny … rumored to be an Eskimo by birth … doggedly follows me around like the Prophet John the Baptist in the wilderness crying “Bullshit!”, to my various promises to my people the sheeple.

I promise that I will do much good, if only given the power to make things right. I will do only good things for my people, and they would love me. Fairness, justice, and security will be a right bestowed by me, upon all. “Forward!”, I say, as all will be well in the world. Here is my overall agenda;

1)- HELPING THE POOR

I say unto my people; ‘I AM The Benevolent One’. So, I will give the poor stuff to help them. Who could possibly be against helping the downtrodden? It is my belief that this is a noble thing to do and will make society better. Right?

Quinny immediately cries “Bullshit!”, and says thusly:

“Whether a King, a Parliament, a Congress, or whatever … government doesn’t create any wealth. Any wealth it has to “give away” it must first take from somebody else. As King, Stucky will have no choice but to take that wealth from you … people like llpoh. But suppose llpoh, cheap bastard that he is, doesn’t want to hand it over? Maybe llpoh wants to keep it all, or maybe he wants to give his money away to whom he chooses? What will King Stucky do about it?

“I’ll tell you. Since Stucky is King he is not going to kindly ask llpoh to fork over the dough. Anybody can just ask, and no one would have to listen. That’s not what Kings do. As King, Stucky would be COMMANDING you to fund his ideas. And those commands, if they are going to be anything more than suggestions will be backed by PUNISHMENT for those who disobey him. He has no other choice. Should he allow a disobedient follower to just ‘do his own thing’? If he does, where is his power? If you just ignore King Stucky without any consequences, then he has no power.

“So, llpoh must be punished and made an example of. Now you see that King Stucky is no longer so benevolent. He has to hurt people who don’t do things his way. He has no choice if he wants to stay in power. Whether King Stucky takes away llpoh’s house, or puts him in jail, or even executes him … llpoh must be harmed simply because he didn’t agree to have his money taken. Suddenly, being King isn’t about being caring, or benevolent, or helping … it’s now also about controlling, punishing, threatening, and hurting people.”

2)- SERVING THE COMMON GOOD

I say unto my people; ‘I AM The Great and Magnificent Builder of Things.’ I will build Public Schools so the children can get a world class education. I will build libraries and museums and zoos. I will build a great Road Systems so commerce can flow. And Hospitals to cure the sick. I will build only things that benefit the people in general. And everyone will love me and society will be better. Right?

Quinny immediately cries “Bullshit!”, and says thusly:

“Again, HOW will you pay for it? Kings don’t get castles and money by working hard. They only get those things by taxing their subjects. Every penny he spends on himself or so-called “public projects” , he first has to take from his peasants. In reality, he’s not giving you anything; he’s just spending your money for you. What if you want to spend it some other way? Well, if he lets everyone spend money their own way, he would have no power. If some peasant wants to build a bigger house or buy some land, rather than have a library, what will he do? If he does nothing and lets you get away with that, all his power is gone. Again, to remain King, he must punish those who don’t fit his agenda. Once again, he will send you to prison, or worse.

3)- ENFORCING GOOD CHOICES

I say unto my people; I have tried to be a Benevolent King by buying you things I first took from you, but you did not appreciate it. So, now I say unto you; ‘I AM The All Knowing Wise Knower Of Fruitful Living. I will provide guidelines on how to live; how much you should exercise, what you should eat, and this will improve your health and well being. Surely, you can’t complain about that. Right?

Quinny immediately cries “Bullshit!”, and says thusly:

“What a dumbass maroon. Yet again, one must ask, ‘What will the king do if a peasant doesn’t want to eat his veggies? Ask nicely? Being in charge is never ever about asking. It’s about telling and commanding. And a command isn’t a command if there are no consequences for disobedience. So the noncompliant veggies eater will have to be punished also; a fine, imprisonment, public flogging, or whatever … he must be intentionally and publically punished simply because he failed to follow the King’s advice. This goes for anything the King decrees; banning smoking, limiting the size of your coke, eating too much sugar, … such disobedience will always be punished. Disobeyers must be made an example of. Thinking for yourselves, making your own choices … actually signals the end of his Kingdom and will never be tolerated and allowed to spread.

4)- PROTECTING THE INNOCENT

I say unto my people; you are complainers and whiners one and all. A stubborn people with a heart of stone who refuse my Goodness and Generosity. What shall I do with you? I will not build you great buildings and works. I will not help you make good and health choices for living. For you only want your own way. I shall try one last thing for you ungrateful bastards. I say unto you; I AM The Protector Of The Innocent. So I will protect you from Evildoers who wish you harm. If there is any way to use Power for Good, it has to be protecting the good from the wicked. Surely, there can be no possible objection to this! Right?

Quinny immediately cries “Bullshit!”, and says thusly:

“I grow weary of saying the same old shit over and over again. No one listens. No one learns. I think I need to blow this popsicle stand and go on a baby boomer cruise.

“Follow the money, assholes!! You people once again will have no choice in funding the King’s decisions. What happens if the King’s enforcers are abusive or corrupt? What if you think the King’s view of justice is skewed? What if you think the King’s protection services aren’t worth the price? What if you want to protect yourself, or hire someone else to protect you … will the King let you do so? The King will hire Mercenaries, raise police forces and armies, and build prisons. Will you have your voice heard if you don’t like what he does? Will you be able to opt out? You already know the answer, don’t you? The King will force you to follow his interpretation of security, and once again, he will be forced to punish you at your slightest disagreement … if he wishes to remain King. And the King will punish you in the very name of defending you against thugs and thieves!! He will arrest you, to save you. Giving the King power over you always leads to threats and violence to those who won’t bend their knee.

Upon hearing Quinny’s irrefutable logic, Stucky who would be King, could only retort; “Blow me, Quinn!! And, go fuck yourself while you’re at it.” The people booed and jeered and posted nasty stuff on the internet. Colma called Stucky, a StuchenNazi. AWD posted pictures of Stucky’s massive pimpled boobs. SAH wrote a 666 word post calling Stucky a fatphuck Demonic Boomer who got his throne all sticky. Then the people did the worst thing possible to Stucky the wannabe King … they voted down all his posts. And, Stucky left TBP … for the 23rd time.

Meanwhile, Quinny’s reputation and stature grew and grew to magnificent proportions. Upon his return from the High Seas, he was met by a throng of TBPers who cried mightily; “QUINN FOR KING!! QUINN FOR KING!!”. For the people believed that HE would be The Benevolent One, who would rule over them justly and fairly. After all, he said all the right things. But, the Mighty Quinn would have none of it.

He said thusly; “Power via brute force cannot fix the world. Authoritarian control whether wielded by a King, or a so-called Democracy, or a Constitutional Republic , or one called Socialism, or any other “ism” cannot improve society. That’s because ALL such Power by its very nature is nothing more than the ability to threaten people and hurt people. Whatever my good intentions may be before taking office, I know I can’t improve society nor create peaceful civilization by threatening and hurting people. You people think human society can be made more moral, more civilized, by taking a few (or, just One) human beings and giving them permission to threaten and hurt … to forcibly rule and control everyone else. This is nuts! Authoritarian power, in any form, regardless of goals or motives , is nothing more than the addition of many rules and laws that must be enforced by punishments . The power that comes with Ruling is diametrically opposed to Liberty. Give me this Power, and I become less human. You want to fix the world? Don’t try to do it by choosing someone else. Do it yourselves. Change your own lives first. Then treat your neighbor as if he owns himself or herself … because they DO!!

“No! I will not be King. And if someone ever want to make YOU king, the best thing you can do is to say, “No Thanks”.

============================================================== =

Epilogue: The Federal Register is 70,000+ pages. The IRS code is 70,000+ pages. Each and every law results in yet one more way to punish you. You may not know it, but you commit at least three felonies per day. This has gotten out of hand. Do we need government? No, not really. Not even one led by Ron Paul. That’s the whole point of this retarded thread.

For further reading, see “The Most-Dangerous-Superstition”;

Obama wins. Say SOMETHING, goddammit!

I actually went to bed at 9PM last night. Didn’t want to deal with the blow-by-blow bullshit. So, I just found out a few moments ago that Obama won a 2nd term. Un-fucking-believable.

Was surprised to not see any new topics about the win. Maybe everybody is too depressed to post. Maybe no one truly gives a shit … but I kinda find that hard to believe.

Anyway ……. let’s GO!! Say something, goddammit. So, ….

1) This vote was as much about WE THE PEOPLE as it was about the Presidency. WE, the people, voted for failure and more free shit. The values of the original republic are officially dead.

2) Exit polls show that the majority of Obama voters STILL blame George Bush for their economic malaise. Stupid stupid motherfuckers.

3) Romney won the real estate. Obama won the cities. Thank you, Negroes, for giving us four more years of your Free Shit Messiah.

4) Start PREPPING!!! Make sure you buy guns and bullets first.

5) We’re fucked six ways to Sunday. The next four years …. I am afraid.

Stupid Tips and Other Sh*t I Learned From Not Having Power For Eight F***ing Days

I sent Obama an email last night complaining about the hardships we’re suffering due to the lack of power since last Sunday. Today, at 9:21AM, the power came on!!! So, I’m voting for Obama …. he makes shit happen!!

If you’re looking for an intelligent post, you should stop reading right now. Google has millions of pages regarding tips when the power goes out. For example, I found this gem …. “When power goes out drive to the nearest home improvement center and buy a generator.” No fucking shit, Jose’!! The power of the internet, truly awesome. No … you won’t find this kind of incredibly useful stuff in this post …. just mundane run of the mill bullshit observations I experienced firsthand. OK then …

The Weather Channel news anchors —– if you’re too fucking stooopid to get a job on CNN, Foc, etc., …. if you’re retarded beyond belief …. we have good newz for you!! The Weather Channel will hire you. Typical scenario: they show a family whose house is destroyed and the owners are worried about freezing their asses off. Typical comment: “You know, John, people really need to try to find shelter and stay warm.” Yup, stupid cockfucks, every one of them.

The Weather Channel, just like other cable newz, only has about 5 hours of new programming per day. The rest is the same old shit over and over and over and over. Commercials every 6-7 minutes. TV is worthless bullshit. The internet is the ONLY real source of real news.

Gas Generators use a shitload of fuel!! My two 5-gallon containers just didn’t cut it. I had to refill one every single goddamn day. I estimate that if I were to run it just 12 hours a day it would cost about $500. And don’t forget to stock up on oil …. needs to be replaced every 50 hours. And don’t forget an extra air filter, and a spark plug. Generators eat shit.

I used all my Bruce “I love Obama’s Cock” Springsteen CDs for kindling. Bad move. Had to call a Hazmat Team to remove all the toxic bullshit that filled the house.

I’d rather eat a skunk’s ass than eat canned vegetables. We’ve been buying all our fruits and veggies at a local Farmers Market. Obviously, they don’t last long. So, we bought about 30 cans of various veggies. So around Day 3 of the great blackout I decided to make some buffalo burgers on the grill, make some homemade fries on the stove (we still had gas), and opened a can of asparagus. Good Lord!! What a tasteless, texture-less, colorless, oder-less pile of shit. I spit it out of my mouth. The next day … as I was searching for generator gas … I dropped off the remaining 29 cans at a Salvation Army drop off point. I think they only take clothes. Fine. Let ‘em make shoes out of the asparagus. They’ll probably last longer than anything imported from China.

I discovered that I can live a whole week off one gigantic head of cabbage. I made cabbage soup in a gigantic pot. Ms Freud hates cabbage soup. I’m German, so I love it. But the ensuing farts made even my eyes water. One day someone is going to invent a device to capture all that wasted energy. They’ll make millions.

While I’m on that topic, taking a shit in total darkness is no fun. I like to look at my Lincoln Logs before I wipe my ass … so that I can determine how much toilet paper to use. It’s all about conservation. So I played it safe and used a shitload of toilet paper after each movement. I probably killed one extra tree as a result. Damn shame.

You’re never as prepared as you think. Supplies don’t last as long as you think. You will inevitably forget something … and that something will be critical. For example, we had an entire crate of candles … hundreds. We had one book of matches. We realized we had just one book of matches when we used up the last match. I then had to go to 3 stores to find matches. Another lesson learned: people will hoard exactly the very shit YOU are looking for.

Sex is total darkness can be tricky. I remarked to Ms Freud, “I didn’t realize you were so flat-chested, or so damn tight.” She said, “Turn me over, asshole!”

Chris Christie is an asshole. I’m done with him. Bring back Corzine … I know he’ll fuck me … but, at least he’ll say “Thank You” when it’s over.

I discovered that Scrabble is one way to keep Ms Freud from talking.

I swear to God, I think Mayor Bloomberg and all his hangers-on jerk each other off before appearing on air … seeing how they blow each other when they are on air. Everybody thanking and praising everybody else on what a great job they are doing. Talk, talk, bullshit, bullshit, more talk, more bullshit. I wish these guys would just die, every fucking one of them.

There is always at least one asshole per hundred people. They should be shot on the spot. Ms Freud and I were on our way to bring some food to my parents. We suddenly came upon a gas station with a pretty short line for gas-cans. I quickly pulled the car over so I could quickly get in line, and told Ms Freud to drive up the street to the Walgreen parking lot. The switch took less than 45 seconds. But the car was blocking the gas station exit, and 30 seconds into the switcheroo some dumb cunt in an SUV starts leaning on the horn. Krist. I give her the finger. She rolls down the window and starts yelling at me … calling me a ‘selfish prick’. I tell her to go fuck herself. At this point the crowd gets involved. Lol Some are yelling at me to move my damn car, and some are yelling at her to have some patience. At this point I am no longer pissed off. Rather, I am greatly amused at the ridiculousness of the entire affair. So, I decide to take another two minutes before I let Ms Freud drive off. I only let Ms Freud drive off when SUV-woman actually started crying and punching her windows. I know … I’m a prick, but even Ms Freud was laughing at the end, and that made my day.

I don’t know what to think about utility companies. I have nothing against the grunts in the field working their asses off. But … the front office? Bah!! For eight days we got eight different updates on when to expect power to be restored. Even yesterday the forecast was for a Friday restoration of power. I’m not an electric-guy … but it doesn’t seem like fucking rocket science to be a little more accurate.

I will NEVER donate even a penny to the Red Cross again. People in need don’t need coffee and doughnuts … unless you’re a useless fatfuk dumbass cop.

Fuckme. It looks like a Nor’easter will be here tomorrow. But, I’m well prepared this time. I’m gonna make sure Ms Freud is turned over.

A Stucky Poll: What do you like or don’t like about TBP?

First of all, what my intent is NOT about. This is not about Administrator, the great things he has done. This is not a “tribute” thread. Leave direct references to him out of it, if possible.

WHAT PROMPTED ME TO START THIS THREAD

To a lesser degree, this post from a newbie, Alan McCracken:

“I wanted to drop a note before I deleted your blog from my favorites for good. I’m taking advice from the Silver Shield and am dumping toxic people and things . I agreed with virtually everything that you wrote about financially and politically. I was willing to overlook the racist crap because it didn’t directly affect me. Then comes the gays and other fringe freaks comment. When you attack people for who they are and not what they do or say, YOU LOOSE ALL CREDIBILITY. We are around you at most times. Be careful since we might “convert” you, asshole.”

To a much, much greater degree, this comment from Big Dog, Muck About.

“My conclusion, maybe it’s time I moved along and leave the arguing and bickering and stupidity to the late Boomers, tattoo’d Millenniums and just bow out.”

What we have here are two people fed up with TBP; one left for sure, another might. Both are just too fed up with the bullshit; the name calling, the slurs, the bickering and stupidity.

Admin’s general stance has been that if you want to leave, then do it and don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out, no one cares. But, I know he does care, not always, but often. He was sad when Smokey and I left at the same time. I’ll bet he’s at least a little sad Howard doesn’t post here anymore. I know he’ll be sad if Muck About leaves, as will I. I don’t care much when a Newbie leaves. I am almost always sad when a Big Dog leaves, even if I didn’t agree with their views. People leave for all kinds of reasons. I just hope we can stop or slow down the reason being …. us.

WHO and WHAT THIS IS ABOUT

This is about all of you, and me. Long timers, often known as Big Dogs, and newbies alike. It’s mostly about We, the People; what we post, how we post, how we interact. What turns you on. What turns you off. It’s pretty wide open.

You can be general; “I hate dopplegangers.” Or, you can be specific; “I hate Stucky’s doppleganging habits”. I do realize naming names can turn this thread into a real shitfest. But, we like that too! Or, don’t we? Anyway, let’s be real. If you simply say, “I hate dopplegangers”, we all can figure out that it’s mostly Stucky we’re talking about. Might as well be specific in the first place.

This can also be about policies. Some might say there are no policies here, that it’s wide open. Well, “wide open” is a policy, is it not? I don’t want to make more work for Admin, and he may not even have the time or inclination to implement new policies. And that’s fine. Policy comments are a good way to “get things off my chest”. For example, I think we need a Banning Policy. Posters who attack a family member should be banned. It doesn’t need to be permanent; maybe 1 week, 1 month, or such.

WHAT I HOPE THIS ACCOMPLISHES

1)- “laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.”

Metaphorically speaking, I think a lot of us here are “crying alone”. I am hoping there some catharsis if we can cry together. Get things off our chest.

2)- If nothing else, to restore sanity to my TBP life. The level of shit flinging has been unreal this past week, especially the tone, which has traversed from “fun” to downright vile and mean. I’ve been throwing around words I normally abhor; cunt and nigger, and even wishing people were aborted. I wrote (but won’t submit) something called’ Stucky’s Grand Apology and Fuck You Tour” — about using the power of hate to thrive and motivate.

Ms Freud rarely reads this site, but I forgot to close the TBP window when I went to bed. The “Should we be Optimistic / Pessimistic” shitfest thread was open. She gets up earlier than I do. She read it. I get up, do my thing in the bathroom, go to the kitchen, say “Good Morning”, and she responds, “What the fuck has gotten into you?” She only uses the f-word every 6 months, so she was a bit overdue. She was aghast, asked me to explain myself. I told her about Stucky 2.0, how I was going to fling shit nonstop, fight hate with hate, that I was joining the Dark Side, that being nice was just to fucking hard. She laughed, literally, and said, “What a crock of bullshit.” She was overdue on that word too. But, she’s also correct. It just isn’t me. I can count on one hand the number of enemies I’ve made in my real life. I tried real hard to be something I’m not. I just can’t continue down that road.

3)- I am hoping for better understanding and maybe some changes in behavior.

No, I’m not so dumb to believe we’ll all be holding hands around the campfire singing Kumbaya. I honestly don’t want to hate SAH. I let my emotions get the better of me. I should have done a MUCH better job trying to understand her, to find some common ground, instead of only differences. If people say they really hate doppleganging, I doubt I’ll cut it out altogether. But, I’m will to curtail it, if it means TBP will be a better place. That kind of thing.

4) – To stress that for us TBPers there is more that unites us, than divides us. The 3 shitfest threads I participated in the past week — Boomers, Creation, Truthers — don’t amount to a pimple on an elephant’s ass in the big scheme of things. We are so fucked as a people and nation, and we’re (me) getting too sidetracked by the incidentals.

5)- I hope no more Big Dogs leave.

6)- To issue a sincere and heartfelt apology. To SAH for calling you a despicable name and wishing you dead. I was wrong. To Colma for calling you a despicable name, and shitting all over your post. I was wrong. (I might even try to like Bad Religion). To everyone else who was turned off by my bullshit and whom I may have offended, I’m sorry. I hope we have a “Do Over” button.

Stucky Ponders The Meaning Of Life For The Millionth Time

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PART ONE – TRAVAILS
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Out of the clear blue, SJ (my schizo son) decided Michigan was no longer a good place for him to live.

He decided to go back to Bellingham, Washington. He took his back-pack, filled it with some fruit and granola bars. In terms of clothes, he had nothing except what he was wearing. A not-so-warm leather jacket, no hat, no gloves, no scarf, and no sweater to keep him warm.

He also didn’t have a dime in his pocket. And I mean that literally. He does have a credit card but it has a limit of only $200 … and it was maxed out. In terms of getting money for the bus ticket from MI to WA ($250), he used his mother’s credit card. I guess that’s called stealing.

He did take his cell phone. He is not aware that his mother is able to track his location if the phone is on. He didn’t call for a few days, so his mother called him. When she saw he was in Chicago, she panicked, and called him while being careful not to disclose that she already knew where he was. He said he was walking around Grand Rapids. I guess that’s called lying. Anyway, she was able to track his westward travels… from Grand Rapids, to Chicago, to Minneapolis.

He called me about a half hour after his mother called him. By then I already knew where he was. But I pretended I didn’t. He lied to me also. But then I heard a voice in the background …. “I’m sorry sir, but your bus leaves at 9:30PM.”. When he got back on the phone, I told him that I heard the background voice. I finally got him to admit that he was at a Greyhound terminal and that he was heading out to Bellingham, Washington. “What will you do for food??”, I asked. “Beg, or play my guitar.”, he said. I tried not to cry.

The next day we see he’s in Minneapolis. We call constantly. He doesn’t pick up. Then around 2AM we get a phone call. I see from the caller id that it’s the Minny police department. This can’t be good. It turns out the Minny Greyhound station does not stay open all night. SJ’s bus doesn’t leave until the next morning. The Greyhound station is in a very bad neighborhood. SJ was just walking aimlessly around. The police tell us he was mugged and beat up. The cop wouldn’t give me ANY more information other than the hospital they took him too … and he said he shouldn’t have even told me that. Nice. I call the hospital. The ONLY info they give me was confirmation that he was admitted. They give me absolutely nothing else, despite my pleadings as his father. Tough shit. Something about confidentiality laws. The government can spy on me with impunity but I can’t get even basic information about my son’s condition. Amazing.

I fly out to Minny within 48 hours. By the time I get to the hospital, SJ has already left. He snuck out. No one is willing to give me information. Again with the privacy laws. I told the doctor that if he didn’t tell me right then and there what SJ was treated for, that I would rip his heart out and stick it in his mouth before he could even dial 9-1-1. I’m pretty sure I meant it. Apparently so did the doctor, so he gave me some info. No major injuries. Lots of bruising, minor lacerations, swollen face and some treatment for minor frostbite. (What the fuck is “minor” frostbite?). The nurse actually asked me where she should send the bill. I told her to stick it up her ass and walk the bill to New Jersey. Then I left. Quickly.

I hung around Minny for another half a day because the phone showed he was there. I kept calling the number and finally it is answered … by a voice I don’t recognize. It was a teenager. Turns out SJ sold him his very expensive phone for $40, so he could buy food. The kid was very apologetic and worried that he did the “wrong” thing and he was scared he’d get in trouble. I assured him this was not the case. I asked him if I sent him the $40 bucks would he please send the phone back? He said “sure”, and we got the phone back.

Fast forward. Several days later we hear from SJ. He borrowed someone’s cell phone. He’s in Spokane, WA. He says he made a big mistake. Can he come home? We immediately go online and get him a ticket to Grand Rapids. Another $250. It’s 2PM. He’s supposed to leave at 5:30PM. We get a call at 7PM. He says he fell asleep and missed the bus. The next bus doesn’t leave until the following morning. Fortunately, that Greyhound bus station stays open all night.

We call the number back about an hour later. A black man answers. We ask if SJ borrowed his phone, and if so, in what kind of condition did SJ appear. The man’s name is Kevin. “Yes”, he says, SJ borrowed his phone. He looks pretty tired and “lost”. Kevin says that SJ is sleeping nearby and that he (Kevin) is “watching over him”. It turns out that Kevin is traveling to Cleveland, so he’ll be on the entire trip with SJ. He tells us “not to worry”. He says he is “a god-fearing man”, and that he’ll watch over Sam the whole trip to Chicago like “he was my own son”. I thank him profusely and offer him money for his troubles. He will hear none of it. I hang up and I cry like a baby … amazed and overwhelmed at this incredible act of kindness from a total stranger.

Very fast forward. SJ is back in Grand Rapids. About 6 days ago SJ calls me to tell him he is “disappearing”. He sounds very sad. As always the phone “conversations” — if you can call them that — are very short before he hangs up. I take his statement about “disappearing” metaphorically .. as in, the real me is no longer here, I don’t really know who I am anymore — that kind of thing. Nevertheless, I call his mother. His mother calls SJ and get’s him to agree to meet her in a coffee shop. His mom gets there. They talk for a while. Then she asks what’s in the brown paper bag (like a brown grocery bag with handles) he’s carrying with him. He doesn’t answer. She says, “let me look”. He just shrugs his shoulders. She looks. In the bag is a bunch of fruit and granola bars. Goddammit!!! He meant “disappearing” literally!! This time he is going to San Francisco.

His mom calls me immediately. She’s freaking out. Understandable. Hell, I’m freaking out. What can we do??? He’s 6’2 and muscular. His mom sure as hell can’t hold him there. And we sure as hell can’t let him leave … again … with no money or clothes or anything. One of these days the call from the police will be, “Stucky, your son is dead.” Soooo … loathe as I am to do so …. we decided to have him committed. I stalled him as long as I could, then his brother showed up and stalled him. They were able to convince SJ to stay for the evening at his mom’s house for “just one more day”. Meanwhile, his mom was making phone calls to the judge (she knows the judge personally), social agencies, hospital, etc. In short, she was able to get a court-order to have SJ committed in less than 24 hours.

They picked him up at the house in the morning. SJ went peacefully …. in handcuffs. But he looked at his mother and said, “Thanks mom. I can’t believe you did this to me again.”. His mom said she cried as she watched the police take him away. But the facility is nearby and top notch. I told her at least we can get a decent night sleep for the first time in a month knowing where our son is and that he’s in the best possible care. Oh, if only that were true.

He broke out of the facility that evening. Threw a chair through the 2nd floor window and jumped. The police came … with dogs. SJ even got his 15 minutes of fame. He made the TV News!! Woohoo, my son made the big time! Well, about 12 hours later they caught him. So, this time they put him in a room with bars. When did their 1AM bed-check they found SJ trying to escape again …. He already had two of the metal bars removed. He’s very persistent. Maybe they’ll make a movie about him some day.

Anyway, he’s now safely tucked away in a room with no windows. I keep having this fear that I’ll be getting a phone call; “Mr. Stucky, you son escaped by eating through the concrete ceiling.”. He’s very resourceful when he needs to be.

He calls me several times a day. Sometimes the phone calls are kind of funny. Yesterday he tried to talk me into helping him escape. He wants me to help him escape to Austria to live with my relatives there. I told him he can’t even speak German and his Tante Linde doesn’t speak English. “No problem”, he says. He feels he can learn German in the next couple weeks before I help him break out. That’s some funny shit there.

I live in terror of the telephone. I now consider it a terrorist device, like an Iraqi IED. What horrible new revelations await when I pick up? I didn’t have to wait long for the latest bad news. Just this morning I was informed they’ll be releasing SJ. They can only hold if they feel he’s a danger to himself or others. And since he hasn’t threatened to kill himself or others they have to let him go. I’m tempted to call and let them know this kid is ripping my heart out and doesn’t that count for something?

I’ll probably go out to Michigan soon. I’m guess I’m going to wow everyone with my personality, cross my arms and blink like I-Dream-Of-Jeannie and make everything better. Ms. Freud suggested I just stay out there. I think she was only half-kidding. This has been quite a strain on our relationship.

But mostly, the phone calls are sad. He blames me for turning him in. Says I’m a traitor. Says he would have never taken drugs in the first place if I were a better father in the first place. Says he hates me and never wants to talk to me again. Says who the hell am I to give him advice considering how I messed up my own life and the family. Says I’m a huge failure, and a hypocrite. Then he hung up.

Well, I know that this isn’t the real SJ talking. It’s the drugs. It’s his own anger and issues. But, it still stings. And I do believe – as I suppose any parent does — that I could have done a better job, and that maybe, indeed, I have failed him to some degree. It wouldn’t be fair for me to tell HIM to accept responsibility for his life while at the same time denying that MY parenting skills had nothing to do with his life today.

I wish I could do things over again. I have all these regrets. I would be a better dad the 2nd time around.

But we don’t get 2nd chances, do we? So I’ve been thinking …. what can I do so that whatever remaining years I have left aren’t filled with even more regrets?

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PART TWO – PESPECTIVE
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Have you ever had one of those life-altering events that make you suddenly realize what’s really important in life vs. the triviality we THOUGHT was important? Quite often those type of moments are the result of a near-death experience. Perhaps you narrowly averted a head-on collision by mere inches. Or, perhaps someone you love is suddenly diagnosed with a horrible disease.

It seems people grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality, or the mortality of a loved one. There was a study done of 50 people over the age of 95 who were asked what they would do differently if they had life to live over again. I think we can learn much from older folks. Here are the common themes.

1. “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

This was the most common regret. When people realize that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honored even half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. It is very important to try and honor at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realize, until they no longer have it.

2. “I wish I didn’t work so hard.”

Not one person in a billion on their deathbed regrets that that didn’t work a few more hours of overtime or take a 2nd job. Quite the opposite is the case. Most people deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence. That is not to say working or making money is unimportant. Clearly, that’s an idiotic statement. But these people realize the even more idiotic thing was working to acquire so many “things” … the very things they would soon leave behind. It just wasn’t worth it, they say.

3.”I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.”

There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying. They regretted becoming so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip. A common theme starts to emerge here ….. that is, it is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks — love and relationships.

4. “I wish that I had let myself be happier.”

Many did not realize until the end – until it was too late — that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content. But deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

5. “I wish I looked for more opportunities to truly live more.”

How long have you lived?

In Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town”, Emily, the main character dies given birth to a child. In the afterlife the Spirits allow her to return to earth to relive one day of her life. She chooses her 12th birthday. She goes back and watches herself and her family live out that day. They warned her not to do it but she does it anyway. She soon finds out why they told her not to do it because as she watches herself and her family live out that day she is shocked by the fact that they do not enter into the day’s experiences with sufficient appreciation and awareness of how precious this moment is. They just basically go through the motions. She yells at her family (of course they can’t hear her) and she yells at herself and asks … “Don’t you understand?? Don’t you understand you won’t have this moment forever? Don’t you understand that?!” And then she yells at the audience; “Do any of you … do any of you ever really live life when you’re alive?!”

So, “How long have you lived?” is not a question of how many days have gone by since you entered this world. These older folks are talking about those precious times – we’ve all had at least a few – where they felt really … REALLY alive!! All your senses were extra sharp. Reds were redder and blues were bluer. You were totally aware of .. and IN, your environment. You feared nothing. You could conquer anything. In other words, those moments that literally take your breath away. Of course, no one can live every single day like that. But then again, how long did you have to think about your own take-your-breath-away moment? How many do you have? One? Two? A handful? And that’s a shame. These folks realized they could have had many many more such moments, and also let the good feelings last longer, if only they looked for them and let them happen.

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PART THREE – THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF FREE ADVICE
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So, I’m mulling over all these things in my tiny brain trying to figure out how I should live my life moving forward. And while there are only five measly little concepts listed above, and none of them all that earth shaking, I still find myself a bit overwhelmed. What I need to do is to simply it even further. I want to discover a single Unifying Theme. A simple sentence to live by. Maybe even just a word, or two. I need a Stephen Hawking-like Theory Of Everything that packages all of life’s complexities in a nice little box. This is what tiny brains need and want.

Faith.

I need to let Jesus in my heart. That’s what SJ’s mom, the ex-Mrs. Stucky, says I need. Every single phone call ends the same way. A little mini sermon. “We serve an awesome and mighty God.” “SJ is in God’s care.” “God knows even the number of hairs on SJ’s head and He surely knows where SJ is and how to take care of him.”. I just listen politely. That is, until I hear this one, “This is all in God’s plan.”. Oh, really? Sooo, billions of years ago when God formed the earth – or was it just 6,000 years ago — God had this plan to allow my son to have the gift of schizophrenia, and then in his 27th year of life he would get the shit kicked out of him by some thugs in Minneapolis? Is that the plan, Stan? If so, count me out. I am not anti-Jesus – if she wants to believe that I don’t care – but, it’s not for me. I’ve been there and done that. You can’t put toothpaste back in the tube. There’s no going back.

DN – SJ’s brother – suggests a different kind of faith. While still having religious overtones, it’s more a “spiritual” type of faith without a personal deity. Destiny. A Higher Power. It’s kind of like The Force in Star Wars. There’s Good. There’s Evil. We just need to believe that Good will prevail. The only problem with that is …. Darth Vader is my favorite character. I can’t be relying on some nebulous esoteric “force” to give me answers. Not unless Obi Wan Kenobe comes walking through the door.

Ms. Freud – my psychologist significant other – has even more ideas regarding the faith I need. Faith in myself. The Power of Positive Thinking. Building up my self-esteem. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. And all other kinds of psycho-babble crapola. But doesn’t faith require at least a little bit of “mystery”? The Bible tells us faith is hoping for things unseen. The problem with the “believing in myself” line of thinking is that I have seen both the light AND the blackness of my soul. There is no mystery there. It ain’t a pretty sight. In fact, believing in myself is the very thing that got me to the point where I am now! I’m stuck in an endless loop. No! I need a better god than myself. Trust me.

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PART FOUR – EUREKA!!
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The ex-Mrs. Stucky was giving me one of her mini-sermons, one I heard a thousand times before …. how SJ won’t find any peace in his heart until he stops running from God. Much to my chagrin I actually thought about that for quite a while after we hung up. A million seemingly random thoughts were swirling around in my head until they gradually coalesced into one single word.

Surrender.

I am not talking about surrender in terms of “giving up”. It doesn’t mean lying around in bed all day or moping around the house.

I am not talking about surrender in terms of its religious connotations, even though the general concept is somewhat similar to that old-time religious hymn, “I surrender all”. (That hymn talks about surrendering all to Jesus.)

So, what is surrender? It’s a prayer and a state of mind.

The prayer goes something like this; “I surrender. But, I’m going to do everything that I can do. And when I’m done doing all I can do, I will leave the result in your hands. It’s OK!”

So I will continue to talk to SJ a thousand times a day, about the same topics, and with the same advice until I turn blue in the face. That’s OK. I will continue to talk to his doctors, and nurses, and his mother, his brother, Ms Freud, his grandparents, and all the people in the state bureaucracy doing all I can to encourage and motivate until I’m blue in the face. That’s OK. I’m going to continue to support SJ financially whenever I can even though I’m pretty sure the money is often pissed away. That’s OK. And, if, ten years from now he is still in the same state of mind that he’s in today, well … that’s OK too. I did all I could. I surrendered.

It doesn’t matter who the “you” is in the prayer above. The ‘you” isn’t key. Surrendering is. Is there a Higher Power, a personal one (like Jesus) or impersonal one (like The Force)? Who really knows? I’m not really concerned with what “name” is given to this “you”. All I know is I can’t control everything. My “prayer” is simply my reminder to me to do all I can … and then let it go.
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The other liberating aspect of surrendering is that it totally frees me from the prison-chains of expectation.

Looking back on my life it seems a huge portion of it was driven by expectations. I was expected to get good grades in school and go to college. There was the expectation to get a good paying job. Get married. Have kids. Get a house. Acquire stuff. Pay the bills. Save for retirement. Be fulfilled with all of this. Live a “normal” life. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that.

But I wonder how much did I limit myself by having these expectations … these mental constructs of how life “should” turn out? I wonder who imposed these expectations on me? Myself? My parents? My teachers? Society? I actually achieved most of my expectations, but at what cost? Did I chain myself to a way of living that didn’t necessarily suit me? Am I more unhappy with expectations not met … or those that I did meet? Don’t expectations inevitably lead to disappointment?

And now I suppose I have expectations that SJ will get better because, dadgummit, we’re doing all the right things to make sure he gets better!! But what if SJ himself doesn’t want to get better?? Doesn’t a mentally ill person have the right to stay mentally ill, or must they conform to society’s expectation to conform and “get better”? It seems SJ is hellbent on living the life he CHOOSES. I can’t force him to meet my expectations. He has a right to his own life choices. I just need to find the grace, and power, to accept his choices. I’m tired of fighting the heartache.

You know what? I am friggin sick and tired of all these expectations imposed on me and that I impose on others. So, I am going to liberate myself from them by throwing them ALL out. I’m not going to live up to SJ’s expectations, Ms. Freud’s expectations, the world’s expectations, or even my own expectations. Screw that. I’m going to do all that I can and then simply allow each day to unfold however it may. One day at a time, Stucky. One day at a time. For the first time in my life I’m going to live the life I want, without expectations. It’s all I can do. I surrender.
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In closing, I hope it’s obvious that I’m not trying to convince anyone that I have “arrived” or that I have the answers … or, that I’m even correct in my thinking. I’m probably full of shit and mentally ill myself. I mostly wrote this for myself. It’s cathartic. Writing helps me slow down my mind. It helps me “see” my brain. I probably would have written this to myself if I didn’t have my TBP friends to share with. Many of you have been wonderfully supportive. I can’t thank you enough.

Lying on TBP may soon be a FELONY!!

You think I’m exaggerating? Just read some of the case examples below.

In America we prosecute people who post fake Facebook pictures, and not those who loot billions.

God, I fuckin’ hate this shit.

Oh … by the way … in case you didn’t know …. Muslims hate us because of our freedoms! bwahahahahahaha!!

Oh … by the way … Smokey is going to prison for bragging about his 11 1/2 inch schlong!!

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SHOULD FAKING A NAME ON FACEBOOK BE A FELONY?

Congress contemplates draconian punishment for Internet lies.

By ORIN S. KERR

Imagine that President Obama could order the arrest of anyone who broke a promise on the Internet. So you could be jailed for lying about your age or weight on an Internet dating site. Or you could be sent to federal prison if your boss told you to work but you used the company’s computer to check sports scores online. Imagine that Eric Holder’s Justice Department urged Congress to raise penalties for violations, making them felonies allowing three years in jail for each broken promise. Fanciful, right?

Think again. Congress is now poised to grant the Obama administration’s wishes in the name of “cybersecurity.”

The little-known law at issue is called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It was enacted in 1986 to punish computer hacking. But Congress has broadened the law every few years, and today it extends far beyond hacking. The law now criminalizes computer use that “exceeds authorized access” to any computer. Today that violation is a misdemeanor, but the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to meet this morning to vote on making it a felony.

The problem is that a lot of routine computer use can exceed “authorized access.” Courts are still struggling to interpret this language. But the Justice Department believes that it applies incredibly broadly to include “terms of use” violations and breaches of workplace computer-use policies.

Breaching an agreement or ignoring your boss might be bad. But should it be a federal crime just because it involves a computer? If interpreted this way, the law gives computer owners the power to criminalize any computer use they don’t like. Imagine the Democratic Party setting up a public website and announcing that no Republicans can visit. Every Republican who checked out the site could be a criminal for exceeding authorized access.

IF THAT SOUNDS FAR-FETCHED, CONSIDER A FEW RECENT CASES.

In 2009, the Justice Department prosecuted a woman for violating the “terms of service” of the social networking site MySpace.com. The woman had been part of a group that set up a MySpace profile using a fake picture. The feds charged her with conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Prosecutors say the woman exceeded authorized access because MySpace required all profile information to be truthful. But people routinely misstate the truth in online profiles, about everything from their age to their name. What happens when each instance is a felony?

In 2010, the Justice Department charged a defendant with unauthorized access for using a computer to buy tickets from Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster’s website lets anyone visit. But its “terms of use” only permitted non-automated purchases, and the defendant used a computer script to make the purchases.

In another case, Justice has charged a defendant with violating workplace policies that limited use to legitimate company business. Prosecutors claimed that using the company’s computers for other reasons exceeded authorized access. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently agreed.

The law even goes beyond criminal law. It allows civil suits filed by private parties. As a result, federal courts have been flooded with silly disputes. In one recent case, an employer sued a former employee for excessive Internet usage from work. The alleged offense: visiting Facebook and sending personal emails. In another case, a company posted “terms of use” on its website declaring that no competitors could visit—and then promptly sued a competitor that did.

Remarkably, the law doesn’t even require devices to be connected to the Internet. Since 2008, it applies to pretty much everything with a microchip. So if you’re visiting a friend and you use his coffeemaker without permission, watch out: You may have committed a federal crime.

Until now, the critical limit on the government’s power has been that federal prosecutors rarely charge misdemeanors. They prefer to bring more serious felony charges. That’s why the administration’s proposal is so dangerous. If exceeding authorized access becomes a felony, prosecutors will become eager to charge it. Abuses are inevitable.

Real threats to cybersecurity must be prosecuted. Penalties should be stiff. But Congress must narrow the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act before enhancing its penalties. There’s no reason to make breaching a promise a federal case, and certainly not a felony crime.

Mr. Kerr, a former federal prosecutor, is professor of law at George Washington University School of Law.

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