Invincible Ignorance

Why do some of us take such pride in our own stupidity? Some people insist that scholarships are only for the needy, not the gifted. That women are not sexual, but only victims. That older relatives always know best. That all men are predators. That women can only be victims. That religion supersedes morality. That Christianity is the true religion.

I have now met a swath of people who are invincibly ignorant. They are not idiots, but they choose to be shallow and uninformed. Why? There is an arrogance to unyielding dumbness. That arrogance is the product of lazy and fearful solipsism.

If I really don't know something -- nothing can ever change me. Stupidity is then it's own reward, it's own endpoint.

How Trump Lies

Make something up, no matter how extreme. Send your ridiculous theory to Fox News via a tweet. Then "quote"  the theory adding "many people are saying." Then
issue a statement descrying the very lie you made "hoping it is not true but..."

Then tweet that "something needs to be done about ..." that same lie. Then insist that the "evil Democrats are responsible for all of it."

Flack of Flacks

Rudy, America's mayor, is the worst kind of Flack --- the lying kind. His current position is Prevaricator--in-chief. He lies for Trump.

He is not the only one, of course. Just the biggest current name. Include others such as Paul Ryan, all of Fox news, conservative apologists of all shapes and sizes, crazed and compromised Evangelicals, right-wing Catholics, white non--supremacists, and many many corrupt non-thinkers in America.

No longer a leader of anyone, Rudy is now a follower of a No-one, Donald Trump.

Hyper-secure is Wasting Time

Because I have been traveling so much the past two months, thanks mostly to my sister Linda's unfortunate passing, my Google accounts have been accessed in many unusual places and in many near-impossible situations (borrowed computers and tablets, several different phones, and numerous stressed situations -- [ how can you forget your password just because you are weeping in the middle of a funeral? ].

Google --- we consumers, your loyal customers, need a simple failsafe recovery mode. Not a 5 step process --- but a one-word recovery, such as "rosebud" was for Citizen Kane!

Do it now -- Google -- do it now!

Sex and the American Mind

America is a Puritanical country. Thank you England, for sending us you most sensually-inhibited people -- the Puritans, to begin our country in the 17th century in Massachusetts. The Colonial History of the US also brought the French and the Spanish empires into conflict with what amounts to  by then established populations of religious refugees from across the world.

What that really means is that even in "sun country" areas of the US the body shape is hidden, skin is covered, and sexual practices were tightly controlled. Pornography is some people's only access to sensual living -- hardly a smart way to be. The intimacy and balance that comes with living a sexual life complementing every other aspect of life: family, fellowship, friendship, mores, education, knowledge, compassion, love, concern, etc. is lost!

One could argue that the soul of America shifted during the "sexual revolution" in the 20th Century but you would be mostly wrong. Why? The old Lutheran, Calvinist, Catholic, and even biblical religious traditions continue to descry sexuality as sinful, and desire as morally wrong. Amazing!

Thousands of years after man's appearance in the "thinking world" and Americans are still confused about what sexuality is all about. We are still afraid of it. We still punish it. We still brandish "hell" as the ultimate payment for being sexual, for being "loving."

So even as you summer "sun worshipers" ply the beaches, lakes, and streams of America consider that seeing so much skin in America makes you teeter on the edge of total immorality.  So say the aged prophets of sin. And they are everywhere around us.