"G.O.D."

Just as IBM stands for International Business Machines, GOD stands for the Grand Omnipotent D.N.A.  The Grand Omnipotent DNA is the system of the universe, just as your DNA is the system or blueprint of your individual being.  So, GOD is the system of the universe and you Atheists might as well throw in the towel.  After all, there is a system.

“Dark Matter” is the scientific terminology for “we don’t understand it.”  The formulas that deal with dark matter are constantly changing, being modified and none move to the level of scientific  law. Twenty years from now, many scientists will laugh at today’s scientific theories.  There is nothing wrong with that.  I applaud a belief system that corrects itself as it accumulates knowledge.  Too bad that our most popular belief systems don’t do that.

Enough reason (anti-religious babble).  Our free market system and uber-capitalism is bringing an end to our society.  I don’t wish to sound like Chicken-Little, but we are running out of fresh water.  In California 2,700 farms have been threatened, by the state, to stop allowing the pumping of river water to irrigate their crops.  This short term bandage will help Californians with their bathing, drinking and landscaping, but it will raise the cost and lower the availability of food, in California and all over the nation.  How could this happen?  We have known about the water shortage in the Southwest and elsewhere for decades.  We presently have the technology to solve the problem.  It is called desalinization.  An atomic aircraft carrier produces 400,000 gallons of clear water from sea water a day.  Saudi Arabia and Sydney, Australia both get their water from the sea.  Desalinization can be powered by solar energy, without polluting the air or using up fossil fuel.  Then why aren’t there modern desalinization plants strategically located along our ocean and gulf coastlines?  Well, our utility companies are generally large corporations.  Their decisions are not based on the common good, but on quarterly profits and presently it is cheaper to pull fresh water from ground water and rivers than to build and operate desalinization facilities.  This will of course change with improved technology and scarcity of available clear water, but short term profitably will still not call for the capitalization to build the facilities.   Sorry you utility stockholders, all utilities need to be nationalized.  They are a natural monopoly or oligarchy and neither works well in a “free market” system.  “Give me water, or give me death”.  A reasonable quote and so true.

Where does G.O.D. come into the picture?  Well, presently we and many other nations of the world are spending huge sums of national wealth on studying the Higgs Boson, commonly referred to as “The God Particle”.  The budget for this program is 5.1 billion dollars.  It is the study of a particle that exists two dimensions away from our awareness.  It is a sub-atomic particle.  Our transgression into the atomic world has thus far given us a dangerous source of energy with unmanageable byproducts and a weapon system that we have used to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and is scheduled to murder many more and perhaps to end civilization as we know it.  I think we would be better off staying in our own dimension.  Below the atomic dimension, lives the sub-atomic dimension and this is where the God particle resides.  The Higgs Boson has 126 times the mass of a proton.  Not important to you and me, but it is a balancing factor involved in the gravity of our universe.  The experimentation on Higgs Boson involves firing the particle, at the speed of light, down a 17mile tunnel, into another Higgs Boson.  The exact result of the collision is a bit of an unknown.  One unlucky quantum fluctuation, or a change in energy, could trigger a process called, “quantum tunneling”.  This quantum fluctuation would likely cause a chain reaction that will destroy the universe.  Not to worry.  There will be no pain.  The “God Particle” will simply turn off your lights.

You live in a democracy.  It isn’t presently working.  Did you ever vote to use tax dollars to support Higgs Boson research and facility construction rather than on desalinization research and facilities?  Do you have any real interest in Higgs Boson?  What are the benefits?  For that matter, what are the benefits of sending a man to Mars, as opposed to desalinization of water or improvements in education, or improvements in healthcare?  We have limited funds and that implies choices.  Yes, I love science and the possible increase in knowledge that it brings.  But when the benefit is to the scientist and not to the population in general, then I want a vote in how my tax dollars are spent.  I will vote for vocational and preschool education over playing two dimensions out of my awareness into a realm that may usher in the end of our universe.  And, let’s solve the water shortage.  It is time to get out the pitchforks and torches.

Cheers, Old Buz   
comments are welcome     

"An Easter Blessing"

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”  -John 3:16

This quote is taken from The New International Version of The Holy Bible, but it reads pretty much the same in any Christian bible.  It describes the sacrifice of an innocent for the saving of sinners.  Why would anyone suggest such a twisted moral value?  The people of The Book did their sacrifices with innocent lambs before God ended that practice with His Kid.  This single act ended the shortage of mutton in the Holy Land.

What lesson can we take from this mythology?  That … the concept of “sacrifice of the innocent” is both insane and immoral.  Does this prove that God does not exist or is immoral?  No, it certainly does not.  What does God have to do with a bible?   It does tend to indicate that bibles are mythology and give a mixed message on morality.  Islamist fanatics are presently sacrificing innocents, they call them infidels, in the belief that the act will send them to Heaven, when in fact, if there is such a place, they have their direction confused.

So, how do we resurrect God?  The first step is to free the Concept from the various fantasy books called bibles.  The next step would be a better definition of God that most could accept: “God is the system of the Universe”.

 

With that concept as your personal foundation, you can move forward without having to apologize for your belief system and its irrational, immoral concepts such as, “The only way for you to go to Heaven, is by believing what I believe”.  That belief sets the mark for self-centered, delusional beliefs.  Many religions have it at their center.

 

Next, after “God is the system of the Universe”, might be the idea that Humanists suggest, that being the best you can be is making the World as good a place as it can be, both for your fellow humans and the environment you live in.  How is that for an unselfish, reasonable concept?  Go ahead, if you wish and tell fairy tales to your children, but at a young age tell them that they are fairy tales, or they will be passed on to future generations as truth.  A fairy tale held as truth is not good for the brain.  It inhibits reason and logic and may well lead to immoral acts, such as war.

Happy Easter and a Happy Passover.  May this year bring you happiness and thoughtfulness.

Cheers, Old Buz The Curmudgeon

Comments are welcome.

"Selling Drones, The World Over"

The Obama administration is amending its regulations for weapons sales to allow the export of armed military drones to responsible, “friendly nations and allies.”  Truth is: we will always sell any weapon to any nation that has the money.  We are in the arms business.  Olin Industries (Winchester) sold cartridges to the Italian army when we were at war with them in the 40s.  We sold and supplied arms to a terrorist rebel force in Afghanistan, who were attacking Russian troops.  We cared not how they treated women or that they believed in Sharia Law.  Bin Laden was a hero then.  Today that “friend” is called the Taliban or al-Qaeda.  My point is, “friendly nations and allies” change with time.  Japan and Germany are another good example of the principle of enemies in time.  Iraq was a friendly nation, until they frightened the Saudis.  Our government takes orders from oil rich Saudi Arabia. Please try not to mix moral values or the common good with the business of arms sales or our oil industry’s needs.

How does our nation responsibly use drones?  We bomb in nations that we aren’t actually at war with, such as Pakistan.  We bomb the homes of “suspected” terrorists.  To hell with collateral damage.  Criminal justice and international law are not really an issue.  We will sell these military drones to other nations along with a set of rules for their usage.  Rules that we ourselves do not adhere to.  When another country has purchased drones from us, as the rightful owner, they will determine how and when the drones are used.

Drones are not a bad thing.  When I was growing up in the 40s and 50s, they were called RC (radio controlled) model airplanes.  The nerd next door had one and I would go to watch him fly it.  The nerds of today have cell phones, as do the rest of the humanoids.  The German Luftwaffe had a different use for RC airplanes at the time; they used them as winged bombs, for targeting Allied ships.  Radio Control has been with us for some time.  Nikola “Tesla” (a brand name on some rich folk’s cars) demonstrated a remote control boat in 1898.   In a better day, during the 1930’s, the Good brothers, Bill and Walt, pioneered RC models for hobby use.  I guess you could conclude that Good intentions are often put to destructive use.  Drones will be used for killing in future wars, by all nations, whether we export them today or not.  We will simply make a buck and save our present friends some R&D expenditure.  So, “Let the Good times roll.”

Comments are welcome, Old Buz 

"SNL Feed: AZ Gov. Doug Ducey"

For many years now, the Arizona Governor and the Arizona Legislature that he or she leads, has been a great potential source of material for Saturday Night Live.  The humorous buffoonery supplied by George Bush, Jr. has been nicely replaced by the antics of the Arizona Ultra-Right, which controls Arizona government.  Governor Doug Ducey has started his term in office with the same type of hilarity as his recent predecessors.  Recently, he has done away with his office’s visitor log.  Our newspaper quoted him as saying, at a recent news conference, “Our review said that those logs were incomplete and inaccurate.  So we didn’t want to present something that was incomplete and inaccurate.”  The Governor’s response to the problem was not to improve the accuracy of the log, but to get rid of it.  A Ducey spokesman said, “No logs mean a savings on paperwork and better efficiency for the office.”  A better punch line could not be written.  You Arizona folks can kiss your transparency in government goodbye.  Doug’s corporate sponsors’ visits to the governor’s office will go unnoticed by you.  Probably the simple majority of Arizonans will like it that way.

   

When I go for an annual wellness visit at my doctor’s office, I have to sign in on the log.  The secretary greets me at the desk, marks me in on her computer calendar.  The doctor’s assistant calls me in and takes my blood pressure, my pulse and my height, each of which she records in my file.  The doctor then sees me and asks a myriad of questions, which he duly records in my file.  Each visit involves a HICFA form to be sent to my health insurance carrier.  You don’t see the doctor, without signing in on the visitor’s log.  “So what?” you might say.  Well, all that I am saying here is that something as unimportant as my annual check-up is pretty well documented, including my signed admission that I was there, but if the CEO of a coal fired power supplier or their lobbyist visits our Governor, “it is very expensive and exhausting” to record those visits.  The governors who preceded Doug Ducey were able to do it, with much less technology at their fingertips.  In the interest of transparency, I believe that our governor should walk the extra mile.  I don’t mean to limit his freewheeling capitalist spirit.

Our Arizona public schools normally fall in about the 48^th position in the state ratings for educational excellence.  The Governor might see the system as “incomplete and inaccurate”.   I would hope that Gov. Ducey would not see the solution to the state’s education problems solved by ending public schools.  Doug Ducey has served as a board member of the Arizona State Charter School Board.  Hopefully, as an ultra-conservative, he doesn’t see excellent education only for the children of the wealthy as a “savings on paperwork and better efficiency” for the state, versus a better education for all.   Doug Ducey, in the private sector, has been a bright and effective manager.  Let us hope that he is able to come out of the conservative fog and stop the State of Arizona from supplying material to Saturday Night Live. 

  

  Comments are welcome, Old Buz

"NRA: Any Gun, Any One, Anywhere"

The National Rifle Association’s mission, in our Nation today, is just that:  “any firearm, in anyone’s hands (sane, violent criminal or not), to be taken anywhere” would equal Freedom in America.  The people who run the NRA are not insane; they are owned and guided by the dollars of munitions manufacturers.  The NRA functions just as our government does.  When the battle lines are drawn between the common good and large dollar interests, it is the power of money that always wins the day.  It isn’t just your elected representatives that are owned and ruled by large corporate dollars.  The appointed U.S. Supreme Court is also (example: Citizens United Decision).

“Two years ago last week, President Obama ordered the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get back to studying the causes of gun violence.”  - The Washington Post.  This order was issued by Obama in response to the massacre of children at Sandy Hook Elementary.  Congress responded to the order by not funding the research, due in no small part to NRA influence.  I’m not sure that I would support such a study myself.  You can easily predict the study’s outcome.  It will show a bell curve of the American population.    A couple of standard deviations to the right of this violent population, will be the mass murderers, who would like to shoot up large numbers of innocent students and at their tip, the few who actually do so.  At the center, or top of the curve, is the simple majority (you and me).  We enjoy violent video games, violent TV series, violent films and read the stories in our newspapers of our Storm Troopers of The American Empire vanquishing “the others or the terrorists” in lands far, far away.  We each own one or more deadly weapons.  On the left of the curve, are a tiny number of pacifists (these are the people who think), they don’t belong here in America any more than the psychopathic killers on the far right side do.  The right and left indications mentioned are not political beliefs; they are positions represented on a bell chart.  The Political Right might tend to align with the NRA, but that is a topic for another day (you dumb-ass Ultra- Right-Wingers need not take offence).

In today’s paper, there is also an editorial written by Fareed Zakaria in which he quotes Andrew Bacevich, military historian, in pointing out that before Syria, Washington had already launched interventions in 13 countries in the Islamic World since 1980.  Zakaria wonders if one more intervention, into Syria, will really do the trick of stopping terrorism.  You do wonder if the U.S. interventions aren’t part of the cause rather than the cure.  There seems at least to be a positive correlation.  The munitions manufacturers and the NRA would certainly not like to see the killing stop.  Can’t make any money if that happens.  That concept is our Nation’s true moral guide.  God Bless America’s Corporations.

Comments are welcome, Old Buz

"Religion, The Mother of Satire"

The first woman, who liked to play around and told her gullible husband that his new born son was the child of The Sun God, was a pioneer in religious thought.  When Mr. Gullible told a friend, an early Satirist, of the blessed event, the Satirist said, “Why don’t you name him Sunny, after his Father?”  This joke wouldn’t have gotten the Satirist a writer’s job on late night TV, but it invented that form of Satire.  A modern day example would be the bumper sticker that says, “Honk, if you love Jesus.  Text, if you want to meet Him.”   You see, the form is the same.  Start with a stupid statement, like the use of a warning signal to show that you love a myth and then show how absurd it is by adding a thought that is even dumber, by advising texting while driving.

It has long been popular to murder folks for not believing in your mythology of choice.  The churches have supported it, from the stoning deaths depicted in The Old Testament to the Jihad of the Koran.  We people of the Bible, in the U.S., just murdered over one hundred thousand innocents in Iraq.  No creditable reason has been offered for the “mistake.”  Being a Satirist, I am still looking for the punch line for that one.   Do you have any suggestions?

The great Satirists of our time, like Lewis Black, George Carlin, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, are not listened to by the Ultra-Right.  The Ultra-Right simply doesn’t see the humor in the Satirist’s humor.  T-shirts and bumper stickers might be a better vehicle to reach them with, but the same problem in communication would exist.  I saw a t-shirt the other day that said, “When you stop saying stupid things, I will stop answering you with satire.”  This would be the view of a pompous ass, that is, your average Satirist.  God Bless the pompous asses.  If joy is the goal in life, a study of the lives of Satirists will show you that satire is not the path to take.  Being a religious gullible is a much better path to happiness.  That is, unless you are a radical Islamist martyr.  Their world has little room for humor in it, as was shown recently in Paris.  If you can’t laugh at religion, what besides government is there to laugh at?  … War?

This blog spot is really written to my fellow People of Satire.  If you Satirists are reading this, remember to respect and be kind to your Mother.

Comments are welcome, Old Buz The Satirist

(The term “Satire” is capitalized in the text, because I believe it becomes a religion to its frequent user.)

"Packing in Fry's Market"

I was at a gun violence prevention meeting today, discussing a posting of “No Firearms in Premises” when a member of the group raised the question, "Should I approach a person packing a gun in a supermarket and ask them why they have it with them?"  This is my written answer to her question:  It obviously would create an awkward moment and they may well respond that it is none of your business.  No matter how tactfully you ask the question, they may feel that you are not entitled to a response.  Most who wear an exposed, holstered gun are not aggressive, but there are exceptions.  As you know, there are dogs that you don't want to walk up to and pet, especially if you don't know them.  I like dogs and have only had two try to bite me, out of hundreds petted.

When I was a Harley-Davidson dealer, I had contact with many gun carrying customers.  They were a large percentage of my patrons.  It was generally very easy for me to ask your question and I did ask it, because it interested me, just as it does you.  A Harley rider is in church when in a Harley store and I was the minister there.  The question was easy for me to lead up to.  We first discussed the motorcycle that they were looking at, and then I would make a knowledgeable comment about the handgun that they were carrying.  As I have mentioned, in the “One Shot” post, collecting guns and target shooting are hobbies of mine.  The most common gun being carried by a Harley owner is a Colt Military .45, semi-automatic.  This is a classic military handgun used by the U.S. forces in the First and Second World Wars.  Out of the many times that I discussed the motives behind packing with my customers, only once in ten years did it lead to a mild confrontation and the guy didn't shoot me.  We did step outside and I would admit equal responsibility for the confrontation.  It was mild. No profanity used.

Most of the customers implied that they carried a gun because of fear.  They didn't come right out and say that, but their reasons given fell into that category.  The gun is also part of a uniform for the hard core biker.  He puts it on just as he puts on his black Harley T-shirt, his leather jacket, his knife, and his wallet and chain.  A quality handgun and holster, is a status symbol, just as his motorcycle is.  To understand this you would have to compare it to a large diamond on a woman's hand or a man driving a Porsche.  We are talking about different and unique social circles here, but they are very real icons to each group.  You or I may not care to drive around in an old beat up car.  But any car will get you there.  Women wearing Berkas, on a hot day in Southern Arizona, seem crazy to me, but I don't need to ask them why they wear it.  The guns aren't as simple.  There are many reasons possible for wearing one, but don’t ask.

A six foot, six inch tall customer, weighing well over 300 pounds came into the store with a little .22 caliber pistol on his hip.  I asked him why a big man, like himself, carried such a small weapon.  He was as much of a force, without the gun.  His answer was, "It draws heat."  I didn't understand the answer, so he further explained that he enjoyed being stopped by the police and being hassled.  He liked to banter with them.  Some folks are lonesome.

The funniest response I ever got to the question of why carry, was, "You would be surprised how many violent people there are out there."  The man was wearing a large gun and a long knife.  His answer, while funny, was actually a short form of the most popular reason.  They are afraid to walk this Earth without a sidearm.  In my decade at the Harley store, only one of my customers murdered someone.  It happened at a drug and booze party.  In the Harley store he was always sober and a very pleasant person.  Perhaps Fry's Market shouldn't sell liquor.  Wait a minute!  Haven’t we tried that?

Comments are welcome, Old Buz