My given name is Cuddles. The humans I allow to take care of me named me that when I entered their world and fell asleep on their lap, which of course is what we mainly do. The interesting thing about humans is they think they are the dominant species when most of us in the real world know they are just above the ants walking in lines like living robots to find food and comfort. They scurry around most of the time aimlessly, perceiving their activities as somehow important and required in order to survive in the world.
Luckily, I found pretty good humans to obey my every whim and desire. I have a pretty good house to live in. A house with all the requirements we demand from life, like warm sunny areas to get my beauty sleep in. Unlike humans who deprive themselves of the proper amount of sleep and slumber, we need a minimum of 16 hours of deep sleep out of every 24 hour day.
I have no idea what my humans names are as it doesn't matter to me as long as they do exactly as I demand. I really don't demand much. Just constant food, including the kind that comes in the little cans. I prefer foods at body temperature--the temperature of freshly killed prey. I demand my water bowl be changed daily with room temperature water only. Not too warm or too cold. That wouldn't do at all.
A few facts for you humans who are considering living under the same roof as we do.
Sense of smell:
Humans have 5 million odor-sensitive cells in their noses--cats have 200 million. Of course this means they can smell when you don't clean the litter box every day and will "inappropriately urinate" because of this.
Hearing:
Human beings can hear sounds up to 20,000 Hertz (cycles per second), dogs can hear up to 40,000 Hertz, and cats can hear up to 100,000 Hertz. Cats can even hear electrical currents in cords. Pretty amazing, huh?
Psychic:
In China, cats have been used successfully as earthquake predictors for years.
Cats are color blind,
but only need 1/6th of the light that humans require to see.
The cat has 26 facial expressions
The same parts of the human and feline brain correspond to emotion. So pay attention and learn to recognize what we need and we'll get along a lot better.
So as you can clearly see, we are far, far superior to humans in most every way. We have learned through generations to keep life simple. Humans make everything so damnable complicated. They even complicate the simple pleasures of life. Attaching all kinds of unnecessary rules and regulations to most everything they do sure explains their general befuddlements and confusions.
I was going to go into my entire life with the humans I choose to live with but you know what? I'm getting kind of tired and sleepy right now and don't feel like indulging any of my sacred secrets with you anyway. We must keep this stuff to ourselves. We can't let on that we are actually very smart and only pretend to put up with you doofis humans and your weird ways. You just keep on thinking your superior and we'll get along just fine as long as you do as your told.........
Right now I'm just going to lay down and............zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........
By the way. One super important thing we all require. You need to take us right away to our special doctor or better yet to a Spay and Neuter Clinic to be fixed and get all our shots. Our species tends to over populate like crazy and I personally don't like the competition.
Are you under the false impression that you're superior to your cats? Carefully read the instructions below and tell us about your misconceptions. We could all use a good laugh...
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Good News......
We've all been indoctrinated into the non-truth that only bad news sells. That bad news is the only thing interesting to the masses. Well, I've always thought that was a royal cop-out. The ultimate lazy news organization's rationalization for not doing the work of finding all the good news out in the world that happens every moment of every day.
I consider myself to be just an average, normal American with average intelligence (well, maybe a little more than normal...."^) and I and everyone I know are getting sick and tired of only hearing bad news. Especially on the bullpucky political front. All the Doom and Gloom nut cases, who think they are the majority, when they're thankfully and actually a very small minority indeed. I know they think otherwise but their only kidding themselves. Normal people are sick and tired of all that nonsense and want to get back to understanding and re-realizing that there is far, far more good things happening in the world than bad.
So I went searching and easily found sources for good news. Things happening around the world that are both interesting, informative and worth repeating. Stories that are uplifting instead of degrading, negative and meant to scare, intimidate and make us hide in our homes in fear. We all know down deep these good things are happening all around us because if we just open our eyes to our neighbors and friends, they are all good people trying to do good things every day.
So...............here's just a few things I found easily in just a few moments on line to share with you.........
40 Billionaires Pledge to Give Away Half of Wealth!
A little over a year after Bill Gates and Warren Buffett began hatching a plan over dinner to persuade America's wealthiest people to give most of their fortunes to charity, more than three-dozen individuals and families have agreed to take part, campaign organizers announced Wednesday.
In addition to Buffett and Gates — America's two wealthiest individuals, with a combined net worth of $90 billion, according to Forbes — 38 other billionaires have signed The Giving Pledge. They include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, entertainment executive Barry Diller, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, media mogul Ted Turner, David Rockefeller, film director George Lucas and investor Ronald Perelman. "We're off to a terrific start,"
Buffett, co-founder and chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said in a conference call also attended by Bloomberg and San Francisco hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer and his wife Kat Taylor, founder of OneCalifornia Bank. Buffett said he and Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, and Gates' wife Melinda made calls to fellow billionaires on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans — in many cases, people they had never met — to try to persuade them to join the giving pledge."We contacted between 70 and 80 people to get the 40. A few were unavailable. We don’t give up on them. Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.
Cab Driver Returns $21,000 to Tourist
A New York City cab driver is being praised for returning more than $21,000 lost by a visitor from Italy.
Felicia Lettieri, who's 72, left her purse in a Manhattan taxi on Christmas Eve. It contained traveling money for her and six relatives.
Police told them not to get their hopes up about finding it.
The cabbie drove about 50 miles, to a Long Island address he'd found in the purse. No one was home, so he left his phone number and later returned with the money.
Lettieri's daughter, Maria Rosaria Falonga, told Newsday from Pompei, Italy, that the cabbie also left a note.
He told her: "Don't worry, Felicia. ... I'll keep it safe."
"When I was 5 years old, my mother told me, 'Be honest, work hard and you will raise your station,' " said the driver, Mukul Asaduzzaman, to the New York Post newspaper. He refused a reward.
Mother, Baby Revived, After Both Dying
DENVER - Mike Hermanstorfer was clutching his pregnant wife’s hand when her life slipped away in a Colorado hospital on Christmas Eve, and then he cradled his newborn son’s limp body seconds after a medical team delivered the baby by Cesarean section.
Minutes later he saw his son come to life in his arms under the feverish attention of doctors, and soon he learned his wife had inexplicably come back to life.
Hermanstorfer’s wife, Tracy, went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing during labor on Thursday, said Dr. Stephanie Martin, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, where the Hermanstorfers had gone for the birth of their son.
“She had no signs of life. No heartbeat, no blood pressure, she wasn’t breathing,” said Martin, who had rushed to Hermanstorfer’s room to help. “The baby was, it was basically limp, with a very slow heart rate.”
The Soldier Who Smuggled Himself Into Auschwitz
When millions would have done anything to get out, one remarkable British soldier smuggled himself into Auschwitz to witness the horror so he could tell others the truth.
Denis Avey is a remarkable man by any measure. A courageous and determined soldier in World War II, he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in a camp connected to the Germans' largest concentration camp, Auschwitz.
But his actions while in the camp - which he has never spoken about until now - are truly extraordinary. When millions would have done anything to get out, Mr Avey repeatedly smuggled himself into the camp.
Now 91 and living in Derbyshire, he says he wanted to witness what was going on inside and find out the truth about the gas chambers, so he could tell others. He knows he took "a hell of a chance".
"When you think about it in today's environment it is ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous," he says.
"You wouldn't think anyone would think or do that, but that is how I was. I had red hair and a temperament to match. Nothing would stop me."
Veteran, 84, Attacks Gun-Weilding Thief
John Dietsch wasn't scared – then or now. While working in the engine room of World War II Allied warships in the North Atlantic, he faced the threat of Nazi mines, warships and U-boats.
"You would hear the guns go off above us. You could feel it all around you," said the 84-year-old.
"There really wasn't time to be scared."
It was the same on Thursday afternoon, when a gunman stormed into a Royal Canadian Legion in Scarborough, demanding thousands in poppy donations. Dietsch and three others had just finished counting through $10,000 at Oakridge Legion, Branch 73, near Danforth and Warden Aves.
"At first, I didn't see the gun. I said, `What are you doing here?' He said he wanted all the bills," said Dietsch. "But nobody was going to get that money we had worked so hard to collect. It's for the veterans and the widows and the community."
When the gunman lunged for the cash, Dietsch grabbed his arm, pushing away the gun. They struggled and Dietsch fell to the floor. The startled attacker, who looked to be in his 20s, ran to the door empty-handed.
Woman Celebrates 100th Birthday
Astrid Thoenig got dressed, went to work and sat at her desk smiling Thursday as she slid her finger gently under the envelope flap of yet another identical birthday card. They don't make that many that say "Happy 100th."
Thoenig was interrupted by a steady stream of deliverymen bringing bouquets, chocolate-dipped strawberries and stacks of cards to the Thornton Insurance Co. in Parsippany where she's been answering phones, keeping financial records, handling payroll and typing up documents for more than 30 years.
"It's another day — it's hard to explain," Thoenig said of turning 100. "I don't feel old, and I don't think old."
So there ya go folks. In just a few moments of my valuable time, I easily found these few examples of wonderful, intelligent, interesting stories to digest and enjoy.
So, the next time someone gets that angry negative look on their faces, starts spitting, with their neck muscles bulging out and starts ranting about all the horrible, awful things they heard some talking head say on the garbage box or radio, just smile and walk away before they infect you with their self important crap. I guarantee you will be better off not allowing yourself to be infected by their disease..
A little side note.
In our home, we are in the middle of a little life experiment right now. We decided to turn off the TV completely. We have not watched TV now in over a month. We now listen to music, read, work outside in the garden, talk to each other.....Can you imagine? This is not something written in cement, it's just something we are messing with right now. Who knows how long we'll keep this up but for now we are loving the quietude and calmness it gives us. Personally, I think the best thing about doing this is NO NEWS! I'm guessing if the world is going to end, some customer will let me know. Until then, I don't miss hearing all the crap regurgitated over and over nightly at all.
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
I consider myself to be just an average, normal American with average intelligence (well, maybe a little more than normal...."^) and I and everyone I know are getting sick and tired of only hearing bad news. Especially on the bullpucky political front. All the Doom and Gloom nut cases, who think they are the majority, when they're thankfully and actually a very small minority indeed. I know they think otherwise but their only kidding themselves. Normal people are sick and tired of all that nonsense and want to get back to understanding and re-realizing that there is far, far more good things happening in the world than bad.
So I went searching and easily found sources for good news. Things happening around the world that are both interesting, informative and worth repeating. Stories that are uplifting instead of degrading, negative and meant to scare, intimidate and make us hide in our homes in fear. We all know down deep these good things are happening all around us because if we just open our eyes to our neighbors and friends, they are all good people trying to do good things every day.
So...............here's just a few things I found easily in just a few moments on line to share with you.........
40 Billionaires Pledge to Give Away Half of Wealth!
A little over a year after Bill Gates and Warren Buffett began hatching a plan over dinner to persuade America's wealthiest people to give most of their fortunes to charity, more than three-dozen individuals and families have agreed to take part, campaign organizers announced Wednesday.
In addition to Buffett and Gates — America's two wealthiest individuals, with a combined net worth of $90 billion, according to Forbes — 38 other billionaires have signed The Giving Pledge. They include New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, entertainment executive Barry Diller, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, media mogul Ted Turner, David Rockefeller, film director George Lucas and investor Ronald Perelman. "We're off to a terrific start,"
Buffett, co-founder and chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said in a conference call also attended by Bloomberg and San Francisco hedge-fund manager Tom Steyer and his wife Kat Taylor, founder of OneCalifornia Bank. Buffett said he and Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, and Gates' wife Melinda made calls to fellow billionaires on the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans — in many cases, people they had never met — to try to persuade them to join the giving pledge."We contacted between 70 and 80 people to get the 40. A few were unavailable. We don’t give up on them. Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.
Cab Driver Returns $21,000 to Tourist
A New York City cab driver is being praised for returning more than $21,000 lost by a visitor from Italy.
Felicia Lettieri, who's 72, left her purse in a Manhattan taxi on Christmas Eve. It contained traveling money for her and six relatives.
Police told them not to get their hopes up about finding it.
The cabbie drove about 50 miles, to a Long Island address he'd found in the purse. No one was home, so he left his phone number and later returned with the money.
Lettieri's daughter, Maria Rosaria Falonga, told Newsday from Pompei, Italy, that the cabbie also left a note.
He told her: "Don't worry, Felicia. ... I'll keep it safe."
"When I was 5 years old, my mother told me, 'Be honest, work hard and you will raise your station,' " said the driver, Mukul Asaduzzaman, to the New York Post newspaper. He refused a reward.
Mother, Baby Revived, After Both Dying
DENVER - Mike Hermanstorfer was clutching his pregnant wife’s hand when her life slipped away in a Colorado hospital on Christmas Eve, and then he cradled his newborn son’s limp body seconds after a medical team delivered the baby by Cesarean section.
Minutes later he saw his son come to life in his arms under the feverish attention of doctors, and soon he learned his wife had inexplicably come back to life.
Hermanstorfer’s wife, Tracy, went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing during labor on Thursday, said Dr. Stephanie Martin, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, where the Hermanstorfers had gone for the birth of their son.
“She had no signs of life. No heartbeat, no blood pressure, she wasn’t breathing,” said Martin, who had rushed to Hermanstorfer’s room to help. “The baby was, it was basically limp, with a very slow heart rate.”
The Soldier Who Smuggled Himself Into Auschwitz
When millions would have done anything to get out, one remarkable British soldier smuggled himself into Auschwitz to witness the horror so he could tell others the truth.
Denis Avey is a remarkable man by any measure. A courageous and determined soldier in World War II, he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in a camp connected to the Germans' largest concentration camp, Auschwitz.
But his actions while in the camp - which he has never spoken about until now - are truly extraordinary. When millions would have done anything to get out, Mr Avey repeatedly smuggled himself into the camp.
Now 91 and living in Derbyshire, he says he wanted to witness what was going on inside and find out the truth about the gas chambers, so he could tell others. He knows he took "a hell of a chance".
"When you think about it in today's environment it is ludicrous, absolutely ludicrous," he says.
"You wouldn't think anyone would think or do that, but that is how I was. I had red hair and a temperament to match. Nothing would stop me."
Veteran, 84, Attacks Gun-Weilding Thief
John Dietsch wasn't scared – then or now. While working in the engine room of World War II Allied warships in the North Atlantic, he faced the threat of Nazi mines, warships and U-boats.
"You would hear the guns go off above us. You could feel it all around you," said the 84-year-old.
"There really wasn't time to be scared."
It was the same on Thursday afternoon, when a gunman stormed into a Royal Canadian Legion in Scarborough, demanding thousands in poppy donations. Dietsch and three others had just finished counting through $10,000 at Oakridge Legion, Branch 73, near Danforth and Warden Aves.
"At first, I didn't see the gun. I said, `What are you doing here?' He said he wanted all the bills," said Dietsch. "But nobody was going to get that money we had worked so hard to collect. It's for the veterans and the widows and the community."
When the gunman lunged for the cash, Dietsch grabbed his arm, pushing away the gun. They struggled and Dietsch fell to the floor. The startled attacker, who looked to be in his 20s, ran to the door empty-handed.
Woman Celebrates 100th Birthday
Astrid Thoenig got dressed, went to work and sat at her desk smiling Thursday as she slid her finger gently under the envelope flap of yet another identical birthday card. They don't make that many that say "Happy 100th."
Thoenig was interrupted by a steady stream of deliverymen bringing bouquets, chocolate-dipped strawberries and stacks of cards to the Thornton Insurance Co. in Parsippany where she's been answering phones, keeping financial records, handling payroll and typing up documents for more than 30 years.
"It's another day — it's hard to explain," Thoenig said of turning 100. "I don't feel old, and I don't think old."
So there ya go folks. In just a few moments of my valuable time, I easily found these few examples of wonderful, intelligent, interesting stories to digest and enjoy.
So, the next time someone gets that angry negative look on their faces, starts spitting, with their neck muscles bulging out and starts ranting about all the horrible, awful things they heard some talking head say on the garbage box or radio, just smile and walk away before they infect you with their self important crap. I guarantee you will be better off not allowing yourself to be infected by their disease..
A little side note.
In our home, we are in the middle of a little life experiment right now. We decided to turn off the TV completely. We have not watched TV now in over a month. We now listen to music, read, work outside in the garden, talk to each other.....Can you imagine? This is not something written in cement, it's just something we are messing with right now. Who knows how long we'll keep this up but for now we are loving the quietude and calmness it gives us. Personally, I think the best thing about doing this is NO NEWS! I'm guessing if the world is going to end, some customer will let me know. Until then, I don't miss hearing all the crap regurgitated over and over nightly at all.
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
THE STORE.....
Just today a customer brought up a subject I have thought about for years and years now. I'm thinking this whole subject hit me around 40 years ago when I was working down in Sacramento out in the North area around Fulton and Marconi Avenues.
The business world came out with this new fangled idea of a super sized store called "White Front". Remember them back then? I think the first one was on El Camino Ave. I remember back then being in wonder at just the sheer size of the thing and the amazing amount of products they carried. Seems to be what drove people into this new type of store back then was the prices. As we all now know, the whole business idea was they can buy everything in huge lots and get things much cheaper than the corner family market can. They then can sell things much cheaper.
Well history tells us those days were just the beginning of this new phenomena. Since then, probably dozens of those kinds of "big box" stores have sprung up across the country. Now we have Cosco, Best Buy, Office Depot, Office Max, Target, Staples. Then all the Hardware giants who cropped up in the last few years, like Home Depot, Lowe's etc, etc. Then there is of course the king and ruling master of huge, Wall-mart.
Now placing myself back to those years about 40 years ago, I can clearly remember having a slight but real little uneasy feeling in my gut about the whole new concept of these huge stores. What came into my feeble mind back then was the stories I had heard growing up about what life was like back in the early timber industry towns. I was told these little towns were developed and operated by the giant timber companies. These little towns were located way out in the boonies, way out in the forested areas where the trees were.
So the Timber companies would build these little houses for the workers to live in, plus the company put in these little stores for the workers. It was far too far to go to the nearest town to buy what they needed, so their only choice was the company store. I'm told they didn't even pay the slaves/workers in actual money. They paid them in company script. With this script, the slaves could pay to rent their little company houses and buy whatever food and sundry items they needed from the company store.
So having these thoughts running around my noggin, I saw this future potential for humans where when we said we needed to go to the "store", we meant "The Store". Just one store where everything one needed would be there. You would go to "The Store" for your food, banking, haircuts, pharmaceuticals, theaters, tires, butcher shop, clothing, shoes, glasses, hearing aids................well, I think you get the picture now huh? Looking around nowadays, how far off are we from that very scenario?
What also seems to be the inevitable outcome of all this is these giant stores pretty much wipe out all the Mom and Pop stores of every kind. How can these regular people trying to run a small business compete with these giants without their extreme buying power? When the giants buy shoes by the millions at a time, how can the little family shoe store compete when they only buy a dozen at a time.
The other negative issues would be just the sheer congestion involved in everyone climbing into their cars to go to this one store. Especially when they seem to locate the damn things right in the middle of neighborhoods where we live. The other bothersome reality is this whole new phenomena just keeps on creeping slowly but surely into our lives. So slowly that we collectively don't seem to be very upset about where this might eventually lead us.
I'm telling you right now that our local governments are only too happy to have these monsters among us for the income in sales taxes they generate for the bureaucrats in office who are supposed to be looking out for our futures. The very people we vote for ultimately could care less about our future needs in this regard. They only care about the mighty buck and getting re-elected to their cushy, do nothing lifetime jobs, with lifetime benefits. By the way, the ONLY money the local area gets is that sales tax. The millions and millions in profits go who-in-the-hell-knows where?......China maybe? The employees? Minimum wage with no benefits at all that I know of.
Now I'm sure there are many, many other reasons why we quite possibly should look into the future of all this with a certain amount of apprehension and fear even but I think we all get the drift of what I'm trying to say.......
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
The business world came out with this new fangled idea of a super sized store called "White Front". Remember them back then? I think the first one was on El Camino Ave. I remember back then being in wonder at just the sheer size of the thing and the amazing amount of products they carried. Seems to be what drove people into this new type of store back then was the prices. As we all now know, the whole business idea was they can buy everything in huge lots and get things much cheaper than the corner family market can. They then can sell things much cheaper.
Well history tells us those days were just the beginning of this new phenomena. Since then, probably dozens of those kinds of "big box" stores have sprung up across the country. Now we have Cosco, Best Buy, Office Depot, Office Max, Target, Staples. Then all the Hardware giants who cropped up in the last few years, like Home Depot, Lowe's etc, etc. Then there is of course the king and ruling master of huge, Wall-mart.
Now placing myself back to those years about 40 years ago, I can clearly remember having a slight but real little uneasy feeling in my gut about the whole new concept of these huge stores. What came into my feeble mind back then was the stories I had heard growing up about what life was like back in the early timber industry towns. I was told these little towns were developed and operated by the giant timber companies. These little towns were located way out in the boonies, way out in the forested areas where the trees were.
So the Timber companies would build these little houses for the workers to live in, plus the company put in these little stores for the workers. It was far too far to go to the nearest town to buy what they needed, so their only choice was the company store. I'm told they didn't even pay the slaves/workers in actual money. They paid them in company script. With this script, the slaves could pay to rent their little company houses and buy whatever food and sundry items they needed from the company store.
So having these thoughts running around my noggin, I saw this future potential for humans where when we said we needed to go to the "store", we meant "The Store". Just one store where everything one needed would be there. You would go to "The Store" for your food, banking, haircuts, pharmaceuticals, theaters, tires, butcher shop, clothing, shoes, glasses, hearing aids................well, I think you get the picture now huh? Looking around nowadays, how far off are we from that very scenario?
What also seems to be the inevitable outcome of all this is these giant stores pretty much wipe out all the Mom and Pop stores of every kind. How can these regular people trying to run a small business compete with these giants without their extreme buying power? When the giants buy shoes by the millions at a time, how can the little family shoe store compete when they only buy a dozen at a time.
The other negative issues would be just the sheer congestion involved in everyone climbing into their cars to go to this one store. Especially when they seem to locate the damn things right in the middle of neighborhoods where we live. The other bothersome reality is this whole new phenomena just keeps on creeping slowly but surely into our lives. So slowly that we collectively don't seem to be very upset about where this might eventually lead us.
I'm telling you right now that our local governments are only too happy to have these monsters among us for the income in sales taxes they generate for the bureaucrats in office who are supposed to be looking out for our futures. The very people we vote for ultimately could care less about our future needs in this regard. They only care about the mighty buck and getting re-elected to their cushy, do nothing lifetime jobs, with lifetime benefits. By the way, the ONLY money the local area gets is that sales tax. The millions and millions in profits go who-in-the-hell-knows where?......China maybe? The employees? Minimum wage with no benefits at all that I know of.
Now I'm sure there are many, many other reasons why we quite possibly should look into the future of all this with a certain amount of apprehension and fear even but I think we all get the drift of what I'm trying to say.......
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Changing definition of "Old"...
I started out the last blog with this idea in mind and got completely off the subject, which turned it into a different blog all together. So lets try to stay on task with this one, you silly space case old hippy dude.
The thing that comes to my feeble, wandering mind this time is how many folks I'm coming in contact with nowadays who are incredibly healthy, vibrant and still contributing members of society on into their much later years. Aren't you seeing this new phenomena also in your lives with people you know or see everyday?
Seems like only yesterday 50, 60 and 70 year old people were just this side of dead, if not already. If not gone, they were confined to wheelchairs or walkers by that age. I'm sure all of us have heard that the farther back in time you study human history, old age was at a time in life much younger than it is now. I've heard of folks from the "cowboy days" for instance only living into their 40's. People in their 40's back then were just this side of looking up at roots instead of down at the grass.
Some examples I can think of just off the top of my twisted, feeble mind and personal experience would be:
I just talked to the best example yesterday. This is a man I know who just turned 90 years old. He spent his life as the owner operator of a well drilling company. On top of working super hard his whole life, he has also been a musician playing in a western music band with friends and relatives. Well, he finally sold the company and retired just a few years back but still to this day plays gigs late into the night at various venues. He still works out in his yard, plants and attends his garden. He still drives his car anywhere he wants to go and is in my view quite vibrant, healthy and happy in his "older" years. He tells me he knows he probably only has a little time left but lives each day with glee and gusto.
Another man I know is 75 years old and still works in the building industry full time. He walks in with a full tool belt hanging on his belt, a pocket full of pencils for planning out his jobs and a work truck completely full of a hard working man's power tools. Everything he does he does with vigor, energy and apparently a strong back. He's the kind of man who talks, walks and works fast and with purpose. I truly doubt most young people could stay up with him throughout a long hard day at work.
I could go on and on with examples of people I personally know or have met through these past years who defy everything we thought we knew about what one can or should be doing in our "older" years. All I know is this whole thing has been completely redefined for those of us in those age brackets in this new time of human history.
This new "older" generation also have changed the whole idea of retiring also. In our fathers time, his generation could not wait to retire, take out the lawn and put in gravel. Set about getting everything in their lives as maintenance free as possible so they could spend their days in the rocking chair relaxing. Maybe a little traveling. As we know, after about 6 months in the rocking chair, they were found with their heads on their chests gone for the count, finally obtaining the ultimate nap. Obviously, this whole life thing involves a great deal of "use it or lose it" now doesn't it?
We all have to ask the obvious questions now don't we? Why are we now living so much longer in great health and with pretty good energy levels compared to our forefathers and mothers? Not the energy of youth. That's for sure but plenty of energy to do whatever you want with breaks in between the bursts. How is this possible?
The changes that have enabled us to live so much longer and better that come to mind right off the bat would be the whole present emphasis on health. Healthy living, exercising, healthy eating and probably most important healthy attitudes about and with life in general. Of course we have to hand our doctors and their associates a healthy dose of thanks, gratitude and appreciation for the modern medicinal approaches to the subject of health. We now can take blood pressure pills, cholesterol pills, adult daily aspirin, Hallelujah and whoopee for Viagra huh? and anything else one requires for their good long standing health.
So the bottom line here is we all need to look around at all the "older" folks still contributing to the good of society with the experience and expertise they apply to their jobs, the companies they own or work for and for just still being with us. Add to this we all owe them a note of gratitude for the wisdom they have acquired over a lifetime of knowledge and just plain know how they teach everyone who are lucky enough to be around them.
Maybe society owes them a great big THANK YOU! I'm sure that would just embarrass them but would also give them a warm fuzzy feeling deep down inside.......and we all certainly could use one of those from time to time in this crazy world we find ourselfs in huh?
By the way...........being only 39, none of this applies in the slightest to me.......I just thought I would write a piece about all you "older" folks......
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
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The thing that comes to my feeble, wandering mind this time is how many folks I'm coming in contact with nowadays who are incredibly healthy, vibrant and still contributing members of society on into their much later years. Aren't you seeing this new phenomena also in your lives with people you know or see everyday?
Seems like only yesterday 50, 60 and 70 year old people were just this side of dead, if not already. If not gone, they were confined to wheelchairs or walkers by that age. I'm sure all of us have heard that the farther back in time you study human history, old age was at a time in life much younger than it is now. I've heard of folks from the "cowboy days" for instance only living into their 40's. People in their 40's back then were just this side of looking up at roots instead of down at the grass.
Some examples I can think of just off the top of my twisted, feeble mind and personal experience would be:
I just talked to the best example yesterday. This is a man I know who just turned 90 years old. He spent his life as the owner operator of a well drilling company. On top of working super hard his whole life, he has also been a musician playing in a western music band with friends and relatives. Well, he finally sold the company and retired just a few years back but still to this day plays gigs late into the night at various venues. He still works out in his yard, plants and attends his garden. He still drives his car anywhere he wants to go and is in my view quite vibrant, healthy and happy in his "older" years. He tells me he knows he probably only has a little time left but lives each day with glee and gusto.
Another man I know is 75 years old and still works in the building industry full time. He walks in with a full tool belt hanging on his belt, a pocket full of pencils for planning out his jobs and a work truck completely full of a hard working man's power tools. Everything he does he does with vigor, energy and apparently a strong back. He's the kind of man who talks, walks and works fast and with purpose. I truly doubt most young people could stay up with him throughout a long hard day at work.
I could go on and on with examples of people I personally know or have met through these past years who defy everything we thought we knew about what one can or should be doing in our "older" years. All I know is this whole thing has been completely redefined for those of us in those age brackets in this new time of human history.
This new "older" generation also have changed the whole idea of retiring also. In our fathers time, his generation could not wait to retire, take out the lawn and put in gravel. Set about getting everything in their lives as maintenance free as possible so they could spend their days in the rocking chair relaxing. Maybe a little traveling. As we know, after about 6 months in the rocking chair, they were found with their heads on their chests gone for the count, finally obtaining the ultimate nap. Obviously, this whole life thing involves a great deal of "use it or lose it" now doesn't it?
We all have to ask the obvious questions now don't we? Why are we now living so much longer in great health and with pretty good energy levels compared to our forefathers and mothers? Not the energy of youth. That's for sure but plenty of energy to do whatever you want with breaks in between the bursts. How is this possible?
The changes that have enabled us to live so much longer and better that come to mind right off the bat would be the whole present emphasis on health. Healthy living, exercising, healthy eating and probably most important healthy attitudes about and with life in general. Of course we have to hand our doctors and their associates a healthy dose of thanks, gratitude and appreciation for the modern medicinal approaches to the subject of health. We now can take blood pressure pills, cholesterol pills, adult daily aspirin, Hallelujah and whoopee for Viagra huh? and anything else one requires for their good long standing health.
So the bottom line here is we all need to look around at all the "older" folks still contributing to the good of society with the experience and expertise they apply to their jobs, the companies they own or work for and for just still being with us. Add to this we all owe them a note of gratitude for the wisdom they have acquired over a lifetime of knowledge and just plain know how they teach everyone who are lucky enough to be around them.
Maybe society owes them a great big THANK YOU! I'm sure that would just embarrass them but would also give them a warm fuzzy feeling deep down inside.......and we all certainly could use one of those from time to time in this crazy world we find ourselfs in huh?
By the way...........being only 39, none of this applies in the slightest to me.......I just thought I would write a piece about all you "older" folks......
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Don't trust anyone over 30.....
I remember well that saying when I was in my late teens/twenties. It was a very popular sentiment back in the wild, crazy sixties and seventies. In those times, it seemed to us hippy dippys that only people our age knew anything about anything. Everyone over 30 was "over the hill" and then some. Besides, everything we thought was cool they hated with a passion. Drugs, sex and rock and roll represented everything bad to those over 30 back then. Those things were the only things that mattered to those under 30. It clearly was like the sixties generation and the fifties generation were from different worlds.
I know that to this day, the youth doesn't understand how very much they owe all their taken for granted social freedoms to the whole hippie dippy movement. The sheer amount of change that happened during this generational changeover was probably the largest between any period that ever happened before. It really was a sexual, financial, social and political revolution "happening" then and those realities still permeate life as we know it today. Now admittedly as with all new generations and their new ideas, a lot of the changes were great new ideas and some were idiot changes just for change sake.
Lets see now...........In the fifties, boys had to tuck their shirts into their pants at all times. Girls were not allowed to wear pants of any kind. The great side of this rule was us boys could see their bare legs and might look up their dresses, heaven forbid. Girls wore enough hair spray to hold a battleship together in the high seas. Boys wore enough grease in their hair to take care of all the lubrication needs of the battleship. Above all else sex was a completely forbiden subject in all settings. Sex education was simple. Don't do it! It's BAD!!!
Then one day these wild and crazy guys from England invaded our consciousness and as with a lot of things of those times, completely changed the entire musical landscape for the youth. We all saw them on the Ed Sullivan Hour. Holy shit, how I miss that show. The fifties youth got their first look at Elvis Presley on that show. Along with the Beatles great new musical stylings, they had this super long hair compared to what we were wearing at the time. Looking back at pictures of them now, we realize it wasn't really very long at all but compared to the styles from the fifties, it was outrageous in the extreme to everyone "over thirty".
Those "over thirties" pretty much thought the end of the world was upon us now that boys wanted to look like girls. I knew of families completely torn apart over just the issue of boys wanting to wear their hair long. I used to ask the parents who were completely torn apart by this issue how their children were doing in school. When they said they were doing fine, I would tell them to not worry about the hair thing then as it will pass like most new fads. Of course they didn't, so it lasted just this side of forever. Hell, some of the old hippies (knowing grin, insert here) still to this day have rather longish hair.
Of course the rather innocent beginnings of the drug experimentation started long about then, so the changes became more and more severe. People of that generation honestly can not believe that something that started so innocent and mellow could ever turn out so violent and insane as it has for those with dependent personalities through the years. The vast majority from the sixties smoked a little pot, played with LSD a few times and eventually outgrew the whole thing when they reached adulthood and started families.
At this point I feel compelled and find it tremendously interesting to note something about all this though. I've seen and personaly know about a few of those people who have decided after all these years of "doing the right thing" in quitting to have a change of heart about it. They say after retiring from successful lifelong careers, responsibly raising their children to adulthood with great care and love, it's time for them to have some fun again. So they decided to partake of pot once in a while once again and are now doing that with complete success and enjoyment. I would be willing to bet that it would shock most people to learn just how many folks have made this decision right about now.
Whatchathink?
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
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Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
I know that to this day, the youth doesn't understand how very much they owe all their taken for granted social freedoms to the whole hippie dippy movement. The sheer amount of change that happened during this generational changeover was probably the largest between any period that ever happened before. It really was a sexual, financial, social and political revolution "happening" then and those realities still permeate life as we know it today. Now admittedly as with all new generations and their new ideas, a lot of the changes were great new ideas and some were idiot changes just for change sake.
Lets see now...........In the fifties, boys had to tuck their shirts into their pants at all times. Girls were not allowed to wear pants of any kind. The great side of this rule was us boys could see their bare legs and might look up their dresses, heaven forbid. Girls wore enough hair spray to hold a battleship together in the high seas. Boys wore enough grease in their hair to take care of all the lubrication needs of the battleship. Above all else sex was a completely forbiden subject in all settings. Sex education was simple. Don't do it! It's BAD!!!
Then one day these wild and crazy guys from England invaded our consciousness and as with a lot of things of those times, completely changed the entire musical landscape for the youth. We all saw them on the Ed Sullivan Hour. Holy shit, how I miss that show. The fifties youth got their first look at Elvis Presley on that show. Along with the Beatles great new musical stylings, they had this super long hair compared to what we were wearing at the time. Looking back at pictures of them now, we realize it wasn't really very long at all but compared to the styles from the fifties, it was outrageous in the extreme to everyone "over thirty".
Those "over thirties" pretty much thought the end of the world was upon us now that boys wanted to look like girls. I knew of families completely torn apart over just the issue of boys wanting to wear their hair long. I used to ask the parents who were completely torn apart by this issue how their children were doing in school. When they said they were doing fine, I would tell them to not worry about the hair thing then as it will pass like most new fads. Of course they didn't, so it lasted just this side of forever. Hell, some of the old hippies (knowing grin, insert here) still to this day have rather longish hair.
Of course the rather innocent beginnings of the drug experimentation started long about then, so the changes became more and more severe. People of that generation honestly can not believe that something that started so innocent and mellow could ever turn out so violent and insane as it has for those with dependent personalities through the years. The vast majority from the sixties smoked a little pot, played with LSD a few times and eventually outgrew the whole thing when they reached adulthood and started families.
At this point I feel compelled and find it tremendously interesting to note something about all this though. I've seen and personaly know about a few of those people who have decided after all these years of "doing the right thing" in quitting to have a change of heart about it. They say after retiring from successful lifelong careers, responsibly raising their children to adulthood with great care and love, it's time for them to have some fun again. So they decided to partake of pot once in a while once again and are now doing that with complete success and enjoyment. I would be willing to bet that it would shock most people to learn just how many folks have made this decision right about now.
Whatchathink?
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Our Forefathers. Heroes or Monsters?
Every time I read a true story about our long ago forefathers and I mean long ago, I get a very disappointing and sometimes drastic view of what they were really like way back then. I've suspected for years that the histories we have been taught have been cleaned up to show them as brave, honest, hardworking, driven souls we should emulate in the present time. When one gets a clear view as far back as the Roman days for instance, the leaders were generally cold blooded killers, torturers, rapist and treated the common man and women as slaves, sometimes worse than dogs in the street.
A great example we can all relate to would be our own "cowboy days". We were all raised on "cowboy's and injuns" Television shows. These showed the good guy in the white hat taking on all the bad guys in the black hats. White and Black. Good versus Bad. Reading real accounts of those days tells us about a lot of gray areas. The "good" guys often times just shot people on sight without any proof whatsoever that they were guilty. Let's don't even consider how the "nice" folks of those times treated the local American native Indians. Just that subject alone would make us sick to our stomachs.
I found this piece about the "supposed" discoverer of America, Christopher Columbus. If even a tiny bit of this is true, HOLY SHIT! The histories we have been fed all our lives about our past heroes are pretty much flat out lies.
This piece is mostly quoted from another source I found, not written by me but I thought it was tremendously interesting, shocking and telling about the lies and missinformation we have been fed all throughout our history about our past "heroes".
To mark Columbus Day In 2004, the Medieval and Renaissance Center in UCLA published the final volume of a compendium of Columbus-era documents. Its general editor, Geoffrey Symcox, leaves little room for ambivalence when he says, "This is not your grandfather's Columbus.... While giving the brilliant mariner his due, the collection portrays Columbus as an unrelenting social climber and self-promoter who stopped at nothing - not even exploitation, slavery, or twisting biblical scripture -to advance his ambitions.... Many of the unflattering documents have been known for the last century or more, but nobody paid much attention to them until recently. The fact that Columbus brought slavery, enormous exploitation or devastating diseases to the Americas used to be seen as a minor detail - if it was recognized at all - in light of his role as the great bringer of white man's civilization to the benighted idolatrous American continent. But to historians today this information is very important. It changes our whole view of the enterprise."
"They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells," Christopher Columbus wrote in his logbook in 1495. "They willingly traded everything they owned.... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."
Catholic priest Bartolome de las Casas, in the multi-volume "History of the Indies" published in 1875, wrote, "... Slaves were the primary source of income for the Admiral (Columbus) with that income he intended to repay the money the Kings were spending in support of Spaniards on the Island. They provide profit and income to the Kings. (The Spaniards were driven by) insatiable greed ... killing, terrorizing, afflicting, and torturing the native peoples ... with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty."
This systematic violence was aimed at preventing "Indians from daring to think of themselves as human beings. (The Spaniards) thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades.... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write."
In 1892, the National Council of Churches, the largest ecumenical body in the United States, is known to have exhorted Christians to refrain from celebrating the Columbus quincentennial, saying, "What represented newness of freedom, hope, and opportunity for some was the occasion for oppression, degradation and genocide for others."
Yet America continues to celebrate "Columbus Day".
The one word key to that is: Myths. The explanation is that the myths the United States is built upon have paved the way for the perpetuation of all manner of violations.
Among the first of these is that of Christopher Columbus. In school we were taught of his bravery, courage and perseverance. In a speech in 1989, George H.W. Bush proclaimed: "Christopher Columbus not only opened the door to a New World, but also set an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance and faith."
Never mind that the monumental feats mainly comprised part butchery, part exploitation and the largest part betrayal of host populations of the "New World."
On their second arrival in Hispaniola, Haiti, Columbus's crew took captive roughly two thousand local villagers who had arrived to greet them. Miguel Cuneo, a literate crew member, wrote, "When our caravels ... were to leave for Spain, we gathered ... one thousand six hundred male and female persons of those Indians, and these we embarked in our caravels on February 17, 1495.... For those who remained, we let it be known (to the Spaniards who manned the island's fort) in the vicinity that anyone who wanted to take some of them could do so, to the amount desired, which was done."
In 1500, Columbus wrote to a friend, "A hundred castellanoes (a Spanish coin) are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten (years old) are now in demand."
Such original "monumental feats" as were accomplished by our nation's heroes and role models were somewhat primitive. Local inhabitants who resisted Columbus and his crew had their ears or nose cut off, were attacked by dogs, skewered with pikes and shot. Reprisals were so severe that many of the natives committed mass suicide and women began practicing abortions in order not to leave children enslaved. The population of Haiti at the time of Columbus's arrival was between 1.5 million and 3 million. Sixty years later, every single native had been murdered.
In "A People's History of the United States," celebrated historian Howard Zinn describes how Arawak men and women emerged from their villages to greet their guests with food, water and gifts when Columbus landed at the Bahamas. But Columbus wanted something else. "Gold is most excellent; gold constitutes treasure; and he who has it does all he wants in the world, and can even lift souls up to Paradise," he wrote to the king and queen of Spain in 1503.
Rather than gold, however, Columbus only found slaves when he arrived on his second visit with seventeen ships and over 1,200 men. Ravaging various Caribbean islands, Columbus took natives as captives as he sailed. Of these he picked 500 of the best specimens and shipped them back to Spain. Two hundred of these died en route, while the survivors were put up for sale by the archdeacon of the town where they landed.
Columbus needed more than mere slaves to sell, and Zinn's account informs us, "... desperate to pay back dividends to those who had invested, (he) had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.
"The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed." As a younger priest, the aforementioned De las Casas had participated in the conquest of Cuba and owned a plantation where natives worked as slaves before he found his conscience and gave it up. His first-person accounts reveal that the Spaniards "thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades. They forced their way into native settlements, slaughtering everyone they found there, including small children, old men, pregnant women, and even women who had just given birth. They hacked them to pieces, slicing open their bellies with their swords as though they were sheep herded into a pen. They even laid wagers on whether they could manage to slice a man in two at a stroke, or cut an individual's head from his body, or disembowel him with a single blow of their axes. They grabbed suckling infants by the feet and, ripping them from their mothers' breasts, dashed them headlong against the rocks. Others, laughing and joking all the while, threw them over their shoulders into a river, shouting: 'Wriggle, you litle perisher.' They slaughtered anyone on their path ..."
Like I said above "If even a tiny bit of this is true, HOLY SHIT! The histories we have been fed all our lives about our past heroes are pretty much flat out lies."
This piece is about just ONE of our cherished heroes of the past. How many more lies were told to us about the people of the past we were told wore white hats and were the "good guys" in the world of times long past?
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
A great example we can all relate to would be our own "cowboy days". We were all raised on "cowboy's and injuns" Television shows. These showed the good guy in the white hat taking on all the bad guys in the black hats. White and Black. Good versus Bad. Reading real accounts of those days tells us about a lot of gray areas. The "good" guys often times just shot people on sight without any proof whatsoever that they were guilty. Let's don't even consider how the "nice" folks of those times treated the local American native Indians. Just that subject alone would make us sick to our stomachs.
I found this piece about the "supposed" discoverer of America, Christopher Columbus. If even a tiny bit of this is true, HOLY SHIT! The histories we have been fed all our lives about our past heroes are pretty much flat out lies.
This piece is mostly quoted from another source I found, not written by me but I thought it was tremendously interesting, shocking and telling about the lies and missinformation we have been fed all throughout our history about our past "heroes".
To mark Columbus Day In 2004, the Medieval and Renaissance Center in UCLA published the final volume of a compendium of Columbus-era documents. Its general editor, Geoffrey Symcox, leaves little room for ambivalence when he says, "This is not your grandfather's Columbus.... While giving the brilliant mariner his due, the collection portrays Columbus as an unrelenting social climber and self-promoter who stopped at nothing - not even exploitation, slavery, or twisting biblical scripture -to advance his ambitions.... Many of the unflattering documents have been known for the last century or more, but nobody paid much attention to them until recently. The fact that Columbus brought slavery, enormous exploitation or devastating diseases to the Americas used to be seen as a minor detail - if it was recognized at all - in light of his role as the great bringer of white man's civilization to the benighted idolatrous American continent. But to historians today this information is very important. It changes our whole view of the enterprise."
"They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells," Christopher Columbus wrote in his logbook in 1495. "They willingly traded everything they owned.... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."
Catholic priest Bartolome de las Casas, in the multi-volume "History of the Indies" published in 1875, wrote, "... Slaves were the primary source of income for the Admiral (Columbus) with that income he intended to repay the money the Kings were spending in support of Spaniards on the Island. They provide profit and income to the Kings. (The Spaniards were driven by) insatiable greed ... killing, terrorizing, afflicting, and torturing the native peoples ... with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty."
This systematic violence was aimed at preventing "Indians from daring to think of themselves as human beings. (The Spaniards) thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades.... My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write."
In 1892, the National Council of Churches, the largest ecumenical body in the United States, is known to have exhorted Christians to refrain from celebrating the Columbus quincentennial, saying, "What represented newness of freedom, hope, and opportunity for some was the occasion for oppression, degradation and genocide for others."
Yet America continues to celebrate "Columbus Day".
The one word key to that is: Myths. The explanation is that the myths the United States is built upon have paved the way for the perpetuation of all manner of violations.
Among the first of these is that of Christopher Columbus. In school we were taught of his bravery, courage and perseverance. In a speech in 1989, George H.W. Bush proclaimed: "Christopher Columbus not only opened the door to a New World, but also set an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance and faith."
Never mind that the monumental feats mainly comprised part butchery, part exploitation and the largest part betrayal of host populations of the "New World."
On their second arrival in Hispaniola, Haiti, Columbus's crew took captive roughly two thousand local villagers who had arrived to greet them. Miguel Cuneo, a literate crew member, wrote, "When our caravels ... were to leave for Spain, we gathered ... one thousand six hundred male and female persons of those Indians, and these we embarked in our caravels on February 17, 1495.... For those who remained, we let it be known (to the Spaniards who manned the island's fort) in the vicinity that anyone who wanted to take some of them could do so, to the amount desired, which was done."
In 1500, Columbus wrote to a friend, "A hundred castellanoes (a Spanish coin) are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten (years old) are now in demand."
Such original "monumental feats" as were accomplished by our nation's heroes and role models were somewhat primitive. Local inhabitants who resisted Columbus and his crew had their ears or nose cut off, were attacked by dogs, skewered with pikes and shot. Reprisals were so severe that many of the natives committed mass suicide and women began practicing abortions in order not to leave children enslaved. The population of Haiti at the time of Columbus's arrival was between 1.5 million and 3 million. Sixty years later, every single native had been murdered.
In "A People's History of the United States," celebrated historian Howard Zinn describes how Arawak men and women emerged from their villages to greet their guests with food, water and gifts when Columbus landed at the Bahamas. But Columbus wanted something else. "Gold is most excellent; gold constitutes treasure; and he who has it does all he wants in the world, and can even lift souls up to Paradise," he wrote to the king and queen of Spain in 1503.
Rather than gold, however, Columbus only found slaves when he arrived on his second visit with seventeen ships and over 1,200 men. Ravaging various Caribbean islands, Columbus took natives as captives as he sailed. Of these he picked 500 of the best specimens and shipped them back to Spain. Two hundred of these died en route, while the survivors were put up for sale by the archdeacon of the town where they landed.
Columbus needed more than mere slaves to sell, and Zinn's account informs us, "... desperate to pay back dividends to those who had invested, (he) had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold. In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death.
"The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed." As a younger priest, the aforementioned De las Casas had participated in the conquest of Cuba and owned a plantation where natives worked as slaves before he found his conscience and gave it up. His first-person accounts reveal that the Spaniards "thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades. They forced their way into native settlements, slaughtering everyone they found there, including small children, old men, pregnant women, and even women who had just given birth. They hacked them to pieces, slicing open their bellies with their swords as though they were sheep herded into a pen. They even laid wagers on whether they could manage to slice a man in two at a stroke, or cut an individual's head from his body, or disembowel him with a single blow of their axes. They grabbed suckling infants by the feet and, ripping them from their mothers' breasts, dashed them headlong against the rocks. Others, laughing and joking all the while, threw them over their shoulders into a river, shouting: 'Wriggle, you litle perisher.' They slaughtered anyone on their path ..."
Like I said above "If even a tiny bit of this is true, HOLY SHIT! The histories we have been fed all our lives about our past heroes are pretty much flat out lies."
This piece is about just ONE of our cherished heroes of the past. How many more lies were told to us about the people of the past we were told wore white hats and were the "good guys" in the world of times long past?
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Thursday, June 24, 2010
Observations about political extremist.
In my business I get to hear people's personal opinions on lots of subjects in depth. Of course in the last few years, politics is the driving force (sometimes the reason for living) for the extremist type of folks. Personally, I see this as a waste of time and a shame for those folks and anyone who has to spend time with them.
It doesn't matter which side they're on with their extremism. To me they're both just people with no real lives. Instead of having normal productive, loving, caring lives, nothing else matters to them. The only things that seem to matter to them is whatever is being fed to them by whichever radio, television program or philosophy they roboticly believe in. Everything has a political spin or slant to them. If you were to ask them about the weather, they would talk about it being the "Liberals" or "Conservatives" fault somehow. Some kind of conspiracy to destroy America by secretly controlling the weather.
Here's the weird dichotomy in this whole thing I've noticed though. Each of these folks are basically pretty normal down deep. I used to think that they were just plain stupid or ignorant for having all these wild, unusual, out there thoughts and ideas. What I've found though is everyone of these folks on both sides of the crazy political fence we have right now are actually as intelligent as the average American, hiding under all the crazy crap they obsess over. They're also decent, caring people when you can get them to shut the hell up about their political obsessions. They're the type of folks who would help you out if they knew you needed help.
So that brings up some mighty strange and wonderful conclusions about us humans. A lot of things we hold dear and claim as our own deeply held truths have nothing whatsoever to do with intelligence. Nothing to do with how kind, caring or worthwhile we are as human beings either. I've seen this over and over in life. I know people right now that are complete nut cases if you get them rolling down that slippery slope we call politics. They come unglued and start yelling, screaming and demanding heads in the process from whoever they disagree with. Anyone who doesn't automatically believe in their ideas are just plain idiots. Me and all their friends I'm sure, do everything they can to not get them started.
Now before that nut case faucit got turned on and after they calm down and start talking about normal concerns in life, they are just fine. They go back to talking normally, in a normal tone of voice, without spitting and drolling and actually smile often and well. Without politics they actually have great senses of humor even.
How can this be? How can people you think of as normal turn completely inside out when the subject of Politics rears it's ugly head? I flat out don't understand this at all. A person I know and deal with all the time is someone I would consider a person with extreme views when it comes to the political arena. Starting years ago, every time we would see each other after some time went by, he would start going off about all that. One day I set him down and told him I wanted to remain good friends but didn't care one iota about all that nonsense he continually wanted to talk about. Now him being a great, noble friend immediately said "OK, subject done". To this day we talk about those kinds of things only infrequently if at all and are still great friends with tons of interests in common.
I just plain don't get it......
Do you know? Is this your experience also? Do you know people who are fine until politics rears it's ugly head and they turn into the proverbial dragon slaying nut case, ready to search and destroy on a moments notice?
Jeez, us humans are just plain wierd creatures, now aren't we?
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
It doesn't matter which side they're on with their extremism. To me they're both just people with no real lives. Instead of having normal productive, loving, caring lives, nothing else matters to them. The only things that seem to matter to them is whatever is being fed to them by whichever radio, television program or philosophy they roboticly believe in. Everything has a political spin or slant to them. If you were to ask them about the weather, they would talk about it being the "Liberals" or "Conservatives" fault somehow. Some kind of conspiracy to destroy America by secretly controlling the weather.
Here's the weird dichotomy in this whole thing I've noticed though. Each of these folks are basically pretty normal down deep. I used to think that they were just plain stupid or ignorant for having all these wild, unusual, out there thoughts and ideas. What I've found though is everyone of these folks on both sides of the crazy political fence we have right now are actually as intelligent as the average American, hiding under all the crazy crap they obsess over. They're also decent, caring people when you can get them to shut the hell up about their political obsessions. They're the type of folks who would help you out if they knew you needed help.
So that brings up some mighty strange and wonderful conclusions about us humans. A lot of things we hold dear and claim as our own deeply held truths have nothing whatsoever to do with intelligence. Nothing to do with how kind, caring or worthwhile we are as human beings either. I've seen this over and over in life. I know people right now that are complete nut cases if you get them rolling down that slippery slope we call politics. They come unglued and start yelling, screaming and demanding heads in the process from whoever they disagree with. Anyone who doesn't automatically believe in their ideas are just plain idiots. Me and all their friends I'm sure, do everything they can to not get them started.
Now before that nut case faucit got turned on and after they calm down and start talking about normal concerns in life, they are just fine. They go back to talking normally, in a normal tone of voice, without spitting and drolling and actually smile often and well. Without politics they actually have great senses of humor even.
How can this be? How can people you think of as normal turn completely inside out when the subject of Politics rears it's ugly head? I flat out don't understand this at all. A person I know and deal with all the time is someone I would consider a person with extreme views when it comes to the political arena. Starting years ago, every time we would see each other after some time went by, he would start going off about all that. One day I set him down and told him I wanted to remain good friends but didn't care one iota about all that nonsense he continually wanted to talk about. Now him being a great, noble friend immediately said "OK, subject done". To this day we talk about those kinds of things only infrequently if at all and are still great friends with tons of interests in common.
I just plain don't get it......
Do you know? Is this your experience also? Do you know people who are fine until politics rears it's ugly head and they turn into the proverbial dragon slaying nut case, ready to search and destroy on a moments notice?
Jeez, us humans are just plain wierd creatures, now aren't we?
READ THESE INSTRUCTION VERY CAREFULLY AND FOLLOW THEM EXACTLY!!!
Right at the bottom of this posting is a "Comments" link. Click on it, follow the instructions and leave a comment about this post. You can use your name or make up one, BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Name/URL".
Or just leave your comment anonymously BY CLICKING INSIDE THE CIRCLE beside "Anonymous".
I will receive an e-mail, OK it and then it will appear for others to view after they click on the comments link.
Come on.......DO IT!
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