Claim everything or claim nothing 5

There are people, the cop murderers come to mind, who believe that we should hold an entire group accountable for the actions of a few.

Stupid? I am not going to make that judgment. I am going to apply daffodils.

Those who want all police officers held accountable for the actions of a few should be held to the same standard.

Those who hold the LEOs accountable are then accountable for every rape, murder, attack and every other criminal offense committed by their group. Hold them accountable to the point of death.

"And yes, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, black offenders committed 52 percent of homicides recorded in the data between 1980 and 2008," says this report.

A certain ethnic demographic is killed by police disproportionately more than other demographics. Empirical evidence exists. This demographic also has disproportionately more contact with LEO. This demographic also has disproportionately more calls to LEO for assistance, help, contact, etc.

Some years back I tested this hypothesis of who calls for LEO most often. I divided my town into quadrants, which roughly broke the city apart by demographics. NW, NE. SW. SE.

Over a 6-month period, the SW quadrant of town accounted for just over 75 percent of the calls for LEO assistance. NW quadrant was next in line followed by SE. The NE quadrant, during this 6 month period, had exactly 1 (one) call for LEO. That call went to the alternate (special services) school because of a fight between two students.

This blog post makes this point even as it attempts to divert attention from the proportional spread of crime.

What about overall crime? Again, the proportions are heavily skewed. More data.

#BlackLivesMatter. Absolutely. Is this why that demographic calls on LEO more often than other demographics?

My good friend Paul Hodges says "baby steps."Absolutely. Gotta start somewhere. Yet, I suggest that if you have a person on the ground bleeding to death from a severed leg, focusing all your attention on a gash in the other leg doesn't make a lot of sense.

I could be wrong. I hope I am wrong. Can someone point me to mass demonstrations against gang violence? Can someone show me where the #BLM founders have held press conferences and vigorously demanded changed in their own communities? When was the last time a grieving parent said "Burn this bitch down" because a child was killed in a gang shooting?

Apply daffodils. If you intend to hold one segment of society accountable for doing something, then you must hold other segments accountable. Hold them accountable in direct proportion to their contribution to the entire situation. All of it.

Daffodils. Because when the truth hurts, yer living wrong.

But hold everyone accountable? "An eye for an eye" and everyone is blind and a one-eyed man rules the kingdom of the blind.

I have another suggestion, but few people will like it. Oddly enough, this idea is endorsed by #BLM founders. Do, as this #BLM founder suggested and defund the police in those areas where the #BLM operates. I saw the unedited interview. I heard her words. The context was: get rid of the police department.

Unleash the hounds of Social Darwin.

Alternately, #HumanUp.

Your call.

Claim everything or claim nothing 4

Writing pieces like this series engender a lot of hate mail. Why? How is that showing support for #BlackLivesMatter?

Go back and read the earlier posts. You'll find a plea for information. A request for explanation. A prayer for enlightenment.

Some will complain about the way the questions are asked.

Then, how can I better frame the questions? How should I ask for information? How do I go about understanding?

There are, then, a few ways to go from here.

1) Explain. Help me understand. Ignorance is curable. Do you have a cure for mine?

2) Go Ad hominem. "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." Issac Asimov. Impugning a person's character, slinging insults and degrading a person is violence. Go there if you need to.

How does that help me or anyone else understand? How can we understand if people hurl insults instead of offer explanations?

3) Say, "The information is out there. Go educate yourself." Where? How do I find it? How do the articles, studies and opinion pieces relate to you? Do these other people speak fully, wholly and 100 percent for you? Should I take everything these other people say as absolutely you? If these other people say one thing you disagree with, how am I to know? How do I know which you agree with and which you don't?


If you tell me I can't understand, then demand that I understand, how can I understand? How is this fair to me?


If you intend to beat me up over things I do not understand and if you will not explain when I ask, then do not be surprised if you come to beat me one day and I fight back.

3) Say "you can't understand." This may be the case. Perhaps it will be impossible for me (and so many like me) to understand. If that is the case, then it's time to quit shoving it in our faces. A dog cannot do calculus. If you beat the dog for failure to do calculus, then the dog will not understand, will grow to fear you and some day may decide it's had enough and turn to attack you.

An unexpected rant

Good morning! Today I come to you mad as insert the demesne of your choice.

At myself.

Lemme splain. People who won't make their own phone calls, get their own coffee, make their own copies and etc. They torque my sphincter. (HUZZAH! Found a use for it, Tom.)

Get off your lazy, sorry excuse for a human being butt and do it yourself.

I have seen far too many people get someone else to make their calls, fetch coffee and etc.

Last night in the shower I imagined a future POTUS might want to speak to me. The POTUS would have someone else call me on his behalf.

I'd hang up.

I will hang up.

I do hang up on people who feel they are too important to make a phone call for themselves.

You wanna talk to me, YOU call me. Or come by.

So what is causing my posterior constrictions this morning?

The (insert string of expletives) fax machine. I cannot make it work. Can't. I drop the paper in. Punch in the numbers. Hit send. Maybe 1 out of 10 times it goes through.

So, I have to get someone else in the office to send the fax for me.

A simple, basic office machine and I cannot get it to work. It's no harder than making a phone call. Yet, I can't.

Eventually, I will take an axe, a shotgun and a blowtorch to the fax machine. That way, no one will be able to use it and I will have satisfaction, however petty it may be.

Rant over. Resuming good mood and happiness immediately.

SCIENCE! v. choice and the joys of a well-connected punch

Anybody remember when Mike Tyson turned cannibal?

Know anyone who is a kleptomaniac?

Howzabout someone with CDO? That's obsessive-compulsive disorder, but the letters are in the correct order. Check this research out.

Anudderun for ya, Clinical Depression.

Run this train back to Mike Tyson. Mr. Tyson also remarked, after landing a haymaker on his former wife, that he enjoyed hurting people. Some folks recoiled in disgust. Some other folks just nodded their heads because they too enjoy hurting other people.

Wanna know something else? I will tell you. It's normal.

Yes huh. According to the latest DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) it is normal. This is SCIENCE! Ok, so it is SCIENCE! that a bunch of shrinks vote on and whatever gets the most votes is the way it is. Still SCIENCE! You don't get to decide what is SCIENCE! and what ain't SCIENCE! unless you are one of the people with a Ph.D. and years of experience in that specific field.

Unless you are a true skeptic and say "this is what we know right now and it may change by the end of the day, which means we'll never know absolutely." 


Now that I thoroughly shocked, annoyed and irritated both of my readers, lemme get to the point.

Most intelligent people don't look at someone with Clinical Depression and say "You just need to lighten up." Or get over it, find something happy, etc. etc. Most intelligent people don't tell someone with CDO that "it's just a habit you need to break."

Most intelligent people understand these are deep-seated issues found within the brain. Most intelligent people understand all the will power in the world ain't going to change things.

Unless it can, but that's another story and involves monks wearing wet bed sheets sitting in 0° temps on the side of the mountain in the snow. But that's also not SCIENCE! according to the people who believe SCIENCE! is the word and the only word.

Recently, SCIENCE! announced a lot of behaviors are genetically linked. Ah so. We've known, excuse me, SCIENCE! has known for a lot longer that certain behaviors are absolutely linked to the brain. The late James Brady is the most famous case of this. In both cases, all the will power in the world ain't gonna change things.

The mountain of evidence grows that humans are hard-wired in certain ways.

Yet, we still have people who demand the hard-wiring be accepted and then turn around and demand someone change because they should be able to. Violence and the tendency to violence come to mind. Sexual habits also come to mind.

Some people will say sexual choice is hard wired, but the tendency to violence is a personal choice.

SCIENCE! increasingly says this is such a hard and fast decision, but is leaning seriously toward the hard wired part. Some SCIENCE! says we are definitely hard-wired and choice is not going to change things.

If we side with SCIENCE! then people who act in serial ways (serial killer, serial rapist, serial politician, etc.) cannot do otherwise. They are going to be that way and nothing short of confinement away from victims will stop this. Well, short of brain surgery (see Mr. Brady above) or extreme chemical manipulation, things won't change.

If we side with the will power crowd, then anyone can change. Your choice to be gay, straight, a thief, a liar, etc. Tighten up or loosen up, but quit whining either way. You decide who and what you want to be.

Pick a side. I'm good either way.

If you insist both modalities are correct, then how can you reconcile them? Sure, some "tendencies" can be overridden. Addicts can walk away from their addiction, but the urge will always be there. But what about the other stuff? If sexual orientation is a choice, then so is the orientation to hurt people. If sexual orientation is not a choice, then the drive to see people hurting is not a choice either.

Add to this, what happens to a person who denies their fundamental nature? If that urge is seated deeply enough, it's going to be expressed anyway. SCIENCE! says so anyway.

THIS JUST IN! http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/found-vessels-that-let-your-immune-system-control-your-personality

Claim everything or claim nothing 3

Part III

#BlackLivesMatter. Yes, as I have repeatedly said, they do.

However, #BlackLivesMatter seeks to put the burden of the problem it identifies on society at large. Good enough. That may be where it deserves to be.

However, #BlackLivesMatter is steadfastly ignoring the problems within the community it claims to represent. Nowhere near good enough.

If #Blacklivesmatter is serious, then it needs to start taking ownership for the problems created by those it represents.

How is it fair to raise hell about someone else's actions when your own actions are worse?

How is it fair to blame others and not accept your own shortcomings?

How can a person ignore his own faults and trumpet the fault in another?

Is it fair to kill a person simply because of their chosen and legal career? Did the officers who've been recently killed mistreat anyone? Or, are they guilty by association? If we are to declare guilt by association and execute people, where does it stop?

This article purports to explode some myths about #BlackLivesMatter.

Call me whatever you like, but Lil Ed and I have the same opinion on this one "First I Look at the Purse." In other words, "Follow the money." Where the heart goes, the body will follow.

Myth 1 addressed: Then where are the protests? Where are the mass demonstrations? Where is the retaliation against gangs?

The point about racially segregated housing is absolutely valid. It also goes the other way. White neighborhoods are also segregated, but have less crime.

Why? How do you account for this disparity? Where is the difference? How does this disparity happen?

How can we change this?

Myth 2: No argument, but questions applied to No. 1 apply.

Myth 3: Ayup. Agreed. See questions on No. 1.

Myth 4: Concurrence. See questions on No. 1.

Checking in

Except for the very end, this one is about religion and faith, so if this does not appeal to you, skip it and you will not hurt my feelings.

Much.

Anyway...

Sunday night's sermon in prison was one Shag passed along - We Need to be More Like Demons. I will be glad to send the sermon notes to anyone who asks.

One of the points is: Demons have to check in with God before they can do anything. We need to be the same way. We need to be sure what we do lines up with the will of God. If what we're planning does not line, up should not do it. If we are not sure if it lines up with what God wants, we should wait.

After the sermon during a young man came up, obviously confused. He wanted to know if he had to ask God's permission before doing anything.

Wow. This kid (and he is a kid to me) was really listening.

So, I 'splained. No. It's not necessary to check in with God for absolutely everything.

You don't need to ask God if you need to get out of bed. You need to get up, I told him. When you get up, you can sit on your bunk and read your Bible for a few minutes. You can pray. You can sing a hymn. You can be a witness in a very quiet way right there.

Cleared that point.

But what, he asked about other stuff. What to wear, where to go. The myriad decisions we make every day without giving it any thought. I was still not completely clear on what he was asking, so I gave more examples. You don't have to check with God every time. You know what clothes to wear. You know you need to eat lunch.

He narrowed the question down even more.

Then, I got it.

No, you do not have to check in with God before you make every single decision that comes your way. The Bible offers instructions on what to do in every situation I've encountered. If you know what the Bible says, then you know what to do.

He got that. He asked for yet more information. What if it is something that's not covered in the Bible?

Then wait. God will tell you.

But, he asked, how long do I have to wait? How do I know when God tells me something, he asked.

"You a dad?" I asked. Yes, he is. A 4 YOA. Ok, no help there. "Mom still alive?" Yep. "She ever tell you to stop?" Yep. "She ever tell you to stop or you are going to jail?" Yep. "That was God speaking through your mom." The prison I go to is a substance abuse treatment center. Everyone incarcerated there was sentenced on some substance-abuse related charged.

Yeah, but, he went on.

Now, I figured it out.

Sometimes God doesn't speak in a voice that everyone can hear and understand. Sometimes, He takes action. "What you need to do, if you have a choice, is ask God to close the door you don't need to go through. Ask him to open the door you need to go through. Then, you just have to pay attention to pick the right door."

"What's important is that others see God working in and through us in everything we do."

He said he got it then. I sure hope so.

I'm still working on it. I need to do better. A lot better.

So you, my reader, if you are still here I tell you this is not just a God thing. This is a human thing. In everything you do, people need to see the real you. They need to see how everything you do is trying to make this world a better place. You need to be this way even if you are by yourself on the side of a mountain.

When you try to do better, you will do better. Make sure everything you do is a guide for the rest of the world to follow. Make sure you are being the kind of leader you want to follow. Make this a habit. Grok.

#HumanUp

Claim everything or claim nothing 2

Part II

The #BlackLivesMatter movement is demanding society at large take ownership and responsibility for LEO killing people.

Tell me how. Me. Not society, me. Me. Tell me what I can do.

How can I help?

Claim everything or claim nothing

#Blacklivesmatter.

Yes. They do. Here's a pretty comprehensive report on law enforcement shooting. Devastating.

Here's something to think about. If we are, rightfully so, going to raise justifiable hell about this, then to apply daffodils we must also be raising even more hell about other far more serious matters in this same vein.

This article tackles this very issue head-on. And gets flattened to one atom-thickness by the steamroller.

We can see grieving mothers whose son was killed by LEO. We can see grieving mothers whose son was killed in gang violence. This author refuses to admit the greatest threat to a young black man's life is another young black man. Refuses to admit that exists. Eh. You can read the article.

Anyway, we do not see stunning calls to "Burn this bitch down!" when gang members kill each other. Why?

How is one murder different from another?

Well, yes, an LEO-committed murder is done by the very people who are supposed to protect us from violence.

And yet, two people on opposing gangs have no problem killing each other. These two gang members are the very people #BlackLivesMatter is trying to save.

How is one death different from another when bodies are on the ground? Is the death less permanent, less painful for the family if the deceased is kill by a gang member v. LEO? Does a person killed by a gang member get different treatment in the hereafter v. one killed by LEO? Is a life taken by a gang member less important than a life taken by LEO?

How is one murder different from another? If a person is murdered, how does the ethnicity of the killer? Frame your answer based on the fact that one young #BlackLivesMatter man is far far far more likely to kill another young #BlackLivesMatter man than an LEO.

Where is the outrage? Where are the demands for FBI and Justice Department investigations? Where are the people who will take to the streets and riot? Where are the people who will cross the country to participate in the demonstration?

I ain't seeing any.

How is this fair?

Lemme use an analogy.

Imagine 1 person. Age, race, gender, all that is irrelevant. It is a human being.

This one person is covered with melanomas. This person also refuses to admit melanoma exists and so, will not seek treatment.

This person also gets heat stroke; no AC in house. The person dies from heat stroke on the way to the hospital.

The family goes into hysterics about the lack of airconditioning, the injustice of the power company, the refusal of the community to help, the ambulance service and on and on and on.

Melanoma is never, ever mentioned.

#BlackLivesMatter. Beyond question, yes. That segment of our community has higher history of mistreatment by LEO than other segments. This is absolutely wrong and must be addressed.

Let's get back to the heatstroke analogy.

Heatstroke can kill a person. Heat stroke usually does not kill a person. Most people who get heat stroke get over it.

Melanoma, left untreated, is 100 percent fatal. It can be treated and removed. The person so treated can go on to live for decades.

We must address the problem of heatstroke. It will save lives.

But the far bigger problem is melanoma.

#Blacklives matter. They certainly do. But that's not addressing the bigger problem, a worse problem.

Critical hits

Gotta question this bright and shiny Friday moanin' for all you Walking Dead fans and pursuers of the macabre known as zombies.

Accepted dogma has it that a zombie has to be shot in the head to be permanently killed.

In the Sandman Slim series, a zombie hunter says the only way to kill one is to rip the spine out.

I suppose other accepted methods include complete burning, (but what about the smoke? Is it a contagion?), a nuke which shreds the zombie into subatomic particles, immersion in acid and other forms of total destruction.

But what about less critical damage.

Say you shoot both arms off at the elbow and both legs off at the knee? Go for the shoulder and hip, then. Or maybe you go full Conan the Barbarian and cut it in half.

At what point do you do enough critical damage to end the zombie without affecting the brain? If the central nervous system is what matters, imagine this: An intact head and intact spine. Nothing else. Torso and legs ripped away. Is that enough?

Inquiring minds and all that.

Colquitt County's coach "The Win Doctor" as I call him, got his one year suspension reduced to a reprimand.

Coach Rush Propst head butted a player last season. Player was wearing a helmet. Propst wasn't. Coach got a slight cut on his forehead.

Some people went ballistic.

It's football. Get over it.

Shag, my brother continually says every time this comes up that Propst is a teacher, an educator first.

Yeah, he is. What does he teach? At Colquitt County he is paid to coach football. Nothing else. No classes. Football coach.

"Propst is a teacher, an educator first."

What. Does. He. Teach.?

Football. What is football? A sport in which players run as fast as they can and slam into each other.

"Propst is a teacher, an educator first."

And how many other classes at the high school teach students to run at full speed and slam into each other?

How do teachers most effectively communicate? Lead by example maybe? Wow, what a concept.

If you expect a math teacher to teach math without showing how to solve equations, you are delusional.

Propst is an employee of the Colquitt County Board of Education. He is employed to teach football. That means he is employed to teach kids how to run at full speed and slam into each other. You can argue things like sportsmanship, life lessons and whatever else you like. I'm OK with that. It still comes down to running into people.

Football is violence. Argue whatever you like and however you like. Teaching people to run at full speed and slam into someone is violence. If it ain't please explain to me what that action is. I may be confused.

I'm going with reality here, not what should be, what might be or what some people may want.

Propst is hired to teach kids to run at full speed and slam into each other. He keeps this job by making sure these kids do it better than any other high school football team in the state.

If this happened in ANY other class (well, boxing, martial arts and stuff excepted), students would be sanctioned.

He wins. He keeps his job. Period. End of story, end of discussion where reality is concerned. If you want to discuss flights of fantasy, that's different.

Football coaches make physical contact with players regularly. Watch ANY high school football game on the sidelines. Watch what the coaches and players do. What they do on the sidelines would result in charges being filed it if happened in Shag's Latin class. What they do on the FIELD would result in charges being filed in Shag's Latin class.

Propst got singled out because he wins games and he leaked a little blood. Jealousy and some disgust.

Kids get on the field and break limbs, tear connective tissue. Protests? Hello?

Here comes that f'dangin' annoying thing that keeps getting in the way - reality.

Football players play football and expect physical contact. It has to happen. Some of them (like me when I played eons ago), liked to get to a full run and slam into someone. Get knocked down, get up and do it again.

If you played and love the game, you understand that. If you played and loved the game, what Propst did was absolutely, positively and without question, unremarkable.

Yes, "Propst is a teacher, an educator first" but don't lose sight of what he teaches. He is not teaching kids how to do quadratic equations. All the rules of History class cannot be applied to football, nor can the reverse happen. Quit trying to do it, unless you want to eliminate football.

It is a different world.

One more point and I'm out. This whole thing, all of it from Shag's Latin classes to the football games is about the kids. Period. If the kids didn't like and respect Propst, they wouldn't be on the field. He has got to be teaching them something they want to learn. Now you can discuss sportsmanship, rules and etc. because he teaches that too.

By the standards of what Propst teaches, he is one of the most successful teachers in the nation. Think about that.

Livin' la vida reality

Today's mindless blathering was inspired by this article.

Disclaimer: Didn't read the whole thing. Not gonna read the whole. Not interested in reading the whole thing.

So.

One of the things I do is teach 10th graders in our school system. One lesson, once a year. Hit every 10th grader, or at least those who show up for class that day.

The Real Game of Life.

I could not find it online, which is not surprising. The other RGOL is a board game. The version taught here is not a parody or a board game. It's an in-yer-face explanation of what life is. The school system here may be the only one left that still uses it. (Side note: If you'd like me to come teach this at your school, message me. We'll work it out. Depending on the distance, I may need gas money, but that's all I will take.)

Does it work? Dunno.

Students have run out of the room crying.

Students have gone home and talked to their parents about the class.

Students have talked about the class two weeks later.

Does it work? Dunno. Make the effort anyway.

What do we talk about? I tell the kids they have choices once they leave high school. Among the choices:

• Dark street corner pharmacist.

• Stripper.

• Graveyard shift motel clerk.

• Military.

• Registered nurse.

• Aboveboard business owner.

In. Your. Face.

Another thing I tell the kids, the world is run by old fat white guys who hate tattoos. (and now you may know why the story linked above inspired these ramblings).

"You don't have to like it. It is true," I tell 'em.

I point to millionaires from ethnic minorities. "Where do you think they got the money to start their businesses?"

Then, I point out the world's richest man is an ethnic minority, at least he would be in the US. Certainly on the global scale, he is a minority. Those millionaires I mentioned a moment ago? They are still millionaires.

If the truth hurts, yer living wrong.

At some point I tell the kids to go forth and fail. Fail often, I say. Because when you fail, it means you are trying. Those who never try, never fail. Babe Ruth is remembered for his home runs. He also ranks high on the list of All Time Strikeouts.

The central message is: YOU control your life. Go forward. Do. Accomplish. Fail and get up and do something else. Succeed. Never quit pushing.

#HumanUp

4

It's a be-damned uncomfortable feeling the words are there but dance just out reach. Can't grab one for nothing.

Sure, had this before, but never with this kind of pressure behind them.

Urgency? Sure. Had that. Deadlines and urgency are opposite sides of the same coin. Siddown and pound that stuff out, Baker. Get it right. Don't worry about anything else. Get. It. Right.

Can do, Muse O Mine. Watch these fingers fly.

But this won't.

Stuck, but not writer's block. Had that on occasional too. Uncle Homer Circle said he never had it. Not entirely sure I believe him, but he said so.

The words are flowing. You are reading this so something had to come out.

But it ain't right write. It's there. Won't move. No, not correct. It moves. Slips aside to let something else out. A poor facsimile. A malformed doppleganger. Can't even be called a carbon copy.

Can't even get a grasp on it to pry something loose, knock a chip off.

Keep seeing images of a man on a front seat of car dying. Laying on the ground dying.

That's real blood. A real person. A real death.

Didn't need to see that.

Didja know I can't watch war movies any more? Can't. Well, at least the ones that are realistic. Can't SF, can do. Distant. Imaginary. More than a step removed from reality.

Whatever won't come out, that's it. What these words refuse to jell into, yeah, that's it.

Tried over and over and over and over and you get the idea. Got blogs loaded here as drafts. You won't see 'em. Maybe never see 'em. Kids might choose to release 'em when I'm gone. Might let this account die and the words expire.

Words have an expiration date, doncha know? Sure they do. Got written words on the planet now no one can understand. No Rosetta stone. Big mystery. Colossal joke, maybe, nothing more than some puns or knock knock jokes. Could be.

See, too many trains of thought leaving the station all at once. No trafiic jam because they all truck right on out of the station while the dispatcher stays behind in the yard inside the communications shed. That's where I need to be. Gotta get in there. Gotta find a way to get in.

Maybe then the words will come. Maybe then we'll both find out what's really inside.

Sure hope so. Gotta get this stuff out. Can't just continue to sit there.

This helps. Like the train whistle, let some steam off so she don't blow. Except this is a different pressure. If you ain't a writer, you can't understand. If you ain't an artist, you can't understand. If you've never been driven in a way I can't explain (AGAIN!) you can't understand.

But if you've been there, done that and saved your sanity by setting it free, you understand. You understand part of it. Maybe not all. if you ever had one that was like a shadow out of the corner of your eye, yeah, you get it. Most folks won't get it. Can't get it. Never had to do something they (...hateloved...) to get back to reality. Never had to worry about a balancing act and finding an ever shifting line in a target that keeps moving.

Mark Twain knew. Ambrose Bierce knew. Kurt Vonnegut knew. Too many of my brothers and sisters in ink also know. Too many are going to find out. Some figured it out and released the demon? kraken? beast? angel? spirit? nirvana? joy? sorrow? Whatever, they got it. They won.

"You won't like me when I'm angry," said Bruce Banner. Stan Lee got it. He won.

For now it's tamed. For now. But for how long.

As Danny Joe Brown asked; How many times must good men die? How many times will the children cry til they suffer no more sadness. Stop the madness. Oh stop the madness.

Make it stop. Make it go away. Maybe then I won't have to write it.

#HumanUp

Too many thoughts. Too many words. Swirling masses of concepts that make sense only in my head.

Put them down. Get them out. Express yo'sef! And when the synaptic impulses travel to the fingers and strike the keyboard, it's still clear in several pounds of nerveless supercomputer in a bone case, but on the screen...

no.

NO!

no?

Too many dead. Too much anger. Too many striking out in blind rage against a machine that will trundle over them through Tiananmen Square in front of the house. Like so much bubble wrap.

"Tone that one down ya arrogant bastich! Showing off again, that's what yer a'doing there."

But it won't simplify.

Writing for me, anyway. Just inviting you in to look around.

But. Well. Hell yes, it will simplify.

#HumanUp

#Whatlivesmatter to a suicide attacker? Blow some Muslims onto the roof of Mohammad's tomb. He's dead, what does he care?

Take out The Man, never mind he grew up around the corner from you. Sold out to the power structure. Reason enough. Doncha know that power structure that keeps you from dying in agony as your body digests itself in a last ditch effort to stay alive?

"Well, sexually express yourself with yourself. You part of the problem too."

Yeah. Shoot the messenger and that'll teach 'em to try to share the truth. Stay happy in Plato's underground retreat and watch the show.

Maelstroms swirl. Tangents erupt. Mandelbrot just left, staggering and reeling. Fractals lined up to take lessons in complexity.

"yer doing it again."

Yea verily, a hit, a palpable hit, easy enough to do when the target is locked in a cage. Cheap shots are too easy. Dammit.

"then don't do it."

But gotta get it out. Don't have to go home, but can't stay here and home is the one who opened the door in the first place. And carpet bombs take out everything. Boomerang carpet bombs REALLY take out everything.

Moving on to the next agenda item-

Climb a clock tower to sit on a grassy knoll in a school and turn the valve for the gas chamber in the garage.

Kill 'em all. Let God sort 'em out.

How about doing some sorting now? Eh? Come down here and shew thyself in thy majesty and might 'cause we f'danging well need some intervention. No show? That pesky free will thing again?

<insert string of profanities of your choice here>

Too much hate. Gotta stop it. Get off this whatever you wanna call it. Gotta get back, except back never existed. Figments of an imagination is all.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

What's it gonna take?

Fall of the Peacemakers 

#HumanUp

And make sure that song is played at my funeral. Do that for me wudja please?

An application of daffodils at the point of a AK Muzzleloader

Because that may not make sense, read about daffodils (not the flower).

Just to make a point, let’s say I agree with the idea that the Second Amendment says we’re allowed to have muzzleloaders and not AK47s and the like.

This means interpreting the Constitution in a historical context and exactly what is written.

Making a point aside, I now tell you I am 100 percent willing to go with that interpretation. Really. Not kidding. Give up my pump shotgun. Give up my lever-action .22 rifle. Truly I say to you I am willing to do this.

Willing, provided the rest of the Constitution is treated exactly and 100 percent the same way. You hear me? We treat every single line of the historical context in which it was written. It cannot consider the world of today, except that it dictates what may and may not happen. It must be applied at the world existed when that part was written.

Wanna go there?

Let’s take a look at what this means.

Open right up with Article 1 Section 1:

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Judges cannot legislate from the bench. Can. Not. Judges must decide disputes. If they do not like the law, tough. If there is a problem with the law, judges CANNOT do anything about it from the bench. This becomes vastly important under the Amendments.

Section 4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

Anyone remember the 1965 Civil Rights Act? That act required the 13 Southern States and some other places to get pre-approval by the Justice Department for any changes to the elections process. 

Congress can’t delegate its authority.

Second, Congress cannot tell states where US Senators may be selected. States have the absolute right to set locations of polling places without federal government oversight.

Article 2

Section 10. No State shall … make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts…

Each state can mint its own money in silver and gold. Well now. Mebbe “sovereign citizens” have something on that one. (as for the rest they are delusional).

Section 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States…

So the POTUS is in charge of the Army and Navy and National Guard. He has no authority over the Air Force or the Marines.

Article 4. Section. 2 The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

Marriage licenses cross state boundaries. Driver’s licenses cross state boundaries. Hunting and fishing licenses also have to. Firearms permits, like concealed carry licenses, also have to.

This is backed up in Article 1 Section 8 “The Congress shall have Power To…regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;”

When you get to the Amendments it gets REALY interesting.

1 - Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;…

Applying this in historical context, you have no freedom of speech online or any electronic medium. Your free speech is limited to what you can physically say or write down on paper, vellum, parchment or other 100 percent natural surfaces. An exception is made for a traditional print publisher working with cold type sheet-fed presses.

2- Already discussed

3 - No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

We are at war. Have been since 1954. Congress can, at any time, order you to start housing and supporting soldiers. (Never mind we don’t do enough for our veterans).

4 - The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated (and so forth)

No Miranda rights warning. None. Get an officer of the law to testify something is wrong and you get arrested and searched. Miranda is a judicial convention. A judge (The Supreme Court actually) handed down this bit of law. Nope. Can't do it. Such warnings did not exist in 1790 and cannot be retroactively inserted.

6 - In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed (and so forth).

Change of venue? Nope. Tried where it happens. Speedy and PUBLIC trial. No more closed trials. Juvenile court? Open to the public.

7 - In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved (and so forth).

$20. Double sawbuck. Pissed off about what the restaurant charged you for supper? You can sue over a $21 tab. This stuff about raising the monetary limit, clearly unConstitutional. 

8 - … nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

I love this one. Let’s bring back hanging for stealing things, like cars. Let’s put people in stocks and flog them for a traffic ticket. 

Dig this. “Often the pillory was just part of a package of punishments. On April 23, 1771, the Essex Gazette of Newport, Rhode Island, reported that ‘William Carlisle was convicted of passing Counterfeit Dollars, and sentenced to stand One Hour in the Pillory on Little-Rest Hill . . . to have both ears cropped, to be branded on both cheeks with the Letter R (for Rogue), and to pay a fine of One Hundred Dollars and Cost of Prosecution.’ It could have been worse. Continental paper money usually carried this line: ‘To counterfeit this bill is Death.’”

13- Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Commit a crime? You can be enslaved, not just tossed in jail. Made into a slave. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to the states which stayed in the Union, so that piece of work did not end slavery.

Daffodils. If you insist on setting the 2nd Amendment only in the times it was written, then do the entire rest if the Constitution the same way.

Will of the minority

Do you want rule by the majority or rule by a minority?

Lemme make this clear - a majority is 50 percent + 1 of the people. If there are 100 people, 51 is a majority. If 1 million people, 500,001 is a majority. Majority means everyone. Nobody left out. That baby just being born, he counts.

"But babies can't make decisions," you say.

The people means everyone.

"What about people in this country illegally?"

What part of everyone is so hard to understand?

"You are insane."

May be. But you just said, no, you do not want rule by a majority. Instead, you want rule by a selected group.

Which group?

"Registered voters over 18 and older."

What about a 23 year old man with an effective IQ of 30. Can't speak. No control over body functions. Born in Denver to parents also born in Denver, tracing a complete family history back to the American Revolution. Does he get to vote?

Ah. The debbil is in de details!

Poll tax anyone? Constitution comprehension test anyone?

DEMOCRACY MEANS EVERYONE HAS A SAY

Great Britain let came close to letting democracy rule yesterday. The Brexit let the registered voters determine the course of a nation. Go UK! RULE BRITANNIA!

When was the last time our Congress let the nation's registered voters decide an issue? Never. The American Revolution came before Congress, so that doesn't count.

Why?

To preserve rule by a minority. Like it or not, the US Constitution was specifically and intentionally crafted to create rule by a minority. Under the Constitution, the mass of voters are specifically and with intention aforethought prevented from having a direct role in statecraft.

I have yet to meet anyone who truly favors complete democracy. You do not. Not entirely sure I do.

If you celebrate ANY decision by the US Supreme Court you clearly show you do not want majority rule. You want 5 people to decide the course of a nation. Short of a single-person dictatorship or the triumvirate that once ruled Burma, I don't know of a smaller majority that runs a country.