6-9-04

In all of the thousands of news accounts and trillions of words about the terrorists since 9/11, there’s astoundingly little about the central issue of why they hate us so extremely as to give up their lives to harm us. Put very simply, the three main reasons are that we are not following their God’s (Allah’s) laws (infidels), we are the main support for “evil Israel,” and we live (and export) a lifestyle of vile behavior, from sexual promiscuity to the way we eat, consume alcohol and let our women run free and wild.

The prison scandal at Abu Ghraib may be fading away in the American media, but you can be sure that those images were widely distributed among not only Muslim radicals in the Middle East but the moderate and pro-American Muslims as well, as proof of the degenerate evil that’s occupying Arab land.




One of the keys to success is acknowledging superiority, when clearly warranted, in other individuals. In fact, for some people, those who were smart enough to hitch their wagon to a rising star, most of the other keys to success became unnecessary.




There are still some idealistic journalists doing “exposés.” Kind of touching and kind of sad, when you consider that most of it never amounts to anything much in the way of meaningful change or reform.




Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams had two things in common. They were among the top 10 baseball players of all time and they were all world-class jerks. This is in contrast to the one-and-only Babe Ruth, who besides being the greatest ballplayer of all time, was a first-class gentleman and generous hero to his legions of fans.




It seems apparent to me that a lot of TV, movie and video game viewing of violent situations is nothing more than surrogate warriorship on the part of the viewer/player. They’re testing themselves, how they would do in such circumstances.




Try getting a person to remember 4 things, whether it’s numbers or food items or directions. For some the cutoff of what they can hold in their little brain is only two, and if you mention a third, they get panicky and say, “Wait, I have to write this down.”




Janet and Christina and Britney all are abusive to the male dancers in their shows. This alone is condemnatory of what product they’re displaying to their impressionable fans. See what would happen if a male performer slapped around (or put a cigar out on the chest of, as does Janet J.) the female dancers in their stage shows.




Another way of looking at America is as an allegorical man, with each decade of its history as one year in the life of that man. He’s good, even generous, much of the time. But every several years, he gets drunk and kills some people. But, because he’s rich and has a lot of armed men in his employ, he gets away with it.




Movie critics are so jaded by the constant violence that their jobs require them to watch that they relish the experience when a movie really ratchets up the blood and mayhem (assuming the movie is “well done”). Reviewer after reviewer has giddily referred to Kill Bill 2 and The Punisher in terms like “great fun” and “exhilarating.” So what does this sort of thing (and it applies also to TV shows, video games, etc.) bode for the future of the American and the Western world's populations, into whose mind and soul these grisly images are sponged? Hint: It bodes not well.




Fact: Only 37% of American corporations paid any taxes in 2000. Fact: That number is a few notches lower in 2004, and still dropping. Question: What can we do about it? Ha-ha-ha!! (That wasn’t really a question. It was a joke.)




In the past ages of humanity, art, culture and historical truths have been lost due to the ravages of war, volcanoes, floods, genocides, etc. But in this modern era, the finer things are being lost, buried by the sheer deluge of crap, whether it’s in print, broadcast media or the Internet.




The virtue of team sports is that of a group working together for the goals of the group. They teach cooperation, team spirit, humility, etc. But the American media, because it “sells” better to do so, creates superstars and celebrities out of the better players, all out of proportion to their contributions to the team, giving the impression that these players are 5 or 10 times better than everybody else on the team. Sometimes a meeting of two teams is referred to in the hype as a match-up of the superstars on each team, as if the rest of the players are superfluous. And many of these stars are paid along these lines, which adds to the resentment of the other players, some of whom may be only 10% less skilled or proficient.




A lot of contrary acts are nothing more than that person trying to establish their own sense of volition and independence. Which is why it’s sometimes best to just let a child or subordinate-type person vent a little on occasion (before you put the clamps back on).




What’s with that weird thing where women who spend a lot of time together have their periods synch up? I mean, how bizarre is that? The only thing I can come up with is that this started in primitive times, when it was pro-survival for the women in a tribe to all have their menstrual (and pre-menstrual) ordeals at the same time, so the men could choose that time to go out hunting or warring. But still, how could it happen? I mean, what's communicating with what? (Seriously, if anyone knows ...)