"9/11 ... Miracle or Demolition?"

I recently had lunch with a friend, a couple of days after September 11^th.  My friend is a Republican and a conservative Christian.  He also happens to be a construction foreman for commercial buildings.  He seemed to be the right man to ask the opinion of, about the falling of The Twin Towers, on 9/11.  My friend said, “When I saw the plane hit the first tower, then the building go down, I thought those terrorists won the Lottery (about a 800,000,000:1 chance), but when I saw the second building go down, my thought was demolition.”

When I saw the towers go straight down onto their footprints, at the speed of a freely falling body, my first thought was, “Impossible.”  I’m not a gambler.  Bin Laden gave a speech shortly after the event in which some say he took responsibility for the aircraft, but he thanked Allah for taking down the buildings.  In other words, he thought it was a miracle.  Too bad we shot him through his Teddy Bear, and then dumped his body in the ocean within 24 hours.  It would have been interesting to see him tried for the crime.

We all saw the two airliners slam into the two towers.  Most, if not all of their fuel ignited at the time of impact.  A short time after that, each building fell straight to the ground, as fast as a freely falling body and landed right on its own footprint.  Miraculously, there seemed to be no iron beams to slow down or tilt the fall.  This is a problem.

Two explanations have been offered for the event.  One is that each floor would not support the weight and force of the floor above collapsing on it.  This would have resulted in: “plop …… plop ….. plop …. plop … plop .. plop . plop . plop . plop . etc.”  The problem with this theory is …  it went, “whoosh”  with no hesitation.  The second theory offered is that fuel from the aircraft flowed down the beams, lit then instantly melted them.  Lots of problems here.  How much fuel was remaining after the initial explosion?  How could the fuel remaining flow evenly down the beams, in order to ignite all of the way up and down the beams, so that the building would go down as straight as an arrow and all at once?  The buildings were hit from the side.  Why would they not fall to the side?  This jet fuel can burn in an engine all the way from New York to California without melting the engines.  It is mixed with oxygen in exactly the right amount to give the most heat and energy to the explosion.  These engines are made of pretty much the same material as the beams in the Towers.  How did that fuel melt those beams?  The building’s floors are fastened to the beams.  How did the fuel flow so quickly past the floors in order to remove the beams from top to bottom?

I don’t see Bin Laden’s miracle happening.  And, I have trouble with the government’s explanations.  No miracle took place on 9/11 in New York, but there was some excellent quality demolition on that day.

“It is easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.”  - Mark Twain.   There is a disagreement on Twain being the source of this quote.  From my standpoint, that is of little importance.  The quote is a true statement.

Cheers, Old Buz

Comments are welcome.

"Born An Agnostic

“Born an Agnostic and with God’s help, I will remain one.”  I would like to have that on a T-shirt.  For those who would smile, hello.  For those who would look perplexed, the thought could offer a tiny step out of the fog of religion.  My quote is a statement that contradicts itself, as The Bible often contradicts itself.  An agnostic has questions, but few answers.  The religious have answers, but few questions.  I would contend that a questioning mind is a healthy one.  It is less judgmental and more open to new information.

The Atheists that I have encountered contend that there is no God.  I find that statement as close minded as, “There is only one God and He is The God of my bible.”   Intelligent design makes sense to me.  Not the Intelligent Design of the Right Wing Christian, but the idea that the systems that we see in action in our universe, are not random.  A good example of this is DNA, found in all living things.  Even a quick look at this system indicates that it is not random and that the DNA system preceded the survival of the fittest theory.   The DNA of a critter was in place long before it had a chance to survive or fail.  It couldn’t have existed without it.   The word “Intelligent” is problematic.  I think that to the “Intelligent Design Folks” that the word somehow relates to human intelligence, as it does to the Gods of the bibles.  The Gods that I have read about in the bibles don’t have the brain power to design the universe.  They take advice from the tiny human brains that wrote the books. Moses: “God, I don’t think that you should kill all of your people for worshiping false idols.  It will make you look weak when compared to other gods.”  God:  “Yup, Moses, I guess you are right.  Can I just kill half of them?”  You see, Bible Readers are as gullible as Atheists.  You folks who have Faith in your Bible, but haven’t read it, should read it.  There are some good laughs in that book.

So, God did see me born an agnostic and gave me a questioning mind that, I expect will keep me an agnostic.  And if God has chosen to bless America, above all other nations, why didn’t he write His instruction book in English?

 

“We are all living in a miracle.”  “See what is plain to see.  Doubt what is not.” - Daniel

Cheers, Old Buz The Agnostic

Comments are welcome.

"When Money Talks, Democracy Walks."

The United States of America has officially passed fail-safe in terms of turning its governance over to financial interests.  When our Supreme Court determined in the Citizens United Decision that a corporation could remain anonymous while donating unlimited dollars to a political action committee, five of the nine justices sold our democracy to the highest bidder.   The PACs (political action committees) own both the Democratic and Republican parties and the parties control the representatives.   This control is exercised on the representative through disbursement of campaign funds and committee assignment and the position on the assigned committee.  As you know, the committees rule the game.  If you watch CSPAN, you know that the representatives don’t listen to floor debate.  They only show up when a vote is called.  The work, debate on, and form of a bill, is determined in committee and if you watch the floor votes, you will see that the representatives pretty much vote along party lines.  All of this is nothing new.  It simply became official with Citizens United.  All three branches of the government answer to large dollar interests.  Both parties do.

This subject was brought to my attention this morning when I read the headline of my newspaper.  “Water does flow on Mars.”  That’s nice, I thought.  I wonder how many tax dollars were spent in order to obtain that bit of information.  Had to buy space ships, an orbiter, telescopes and to pay all of those brilliant minds to work on the project.  I have to admit that I would vote for using those funds for developing desalinization plants to flow water here in the United States.  I never did get to vote on that, but I can guarantee you that lobbyists had some input.  We are talking about major tax dollar expenditures.  Science is great.  I like it better than religion, but there is a water shortage and we have known about it for some time.  Spend the money for the greatest common good, not for the enrichment of the vendors.

Another example of large money being more appealing than the Country’s needs is Donald Trump’s candidacy.  He is right now the leading Republican candidate for President of The United States.  It can’t be attributed to his political abilities.  He has offended every group of American voters, other than white males.  It isn’t his family values.  He is on his third wife.  It isn’t his physical appearance.  He has a silly looking hairstyle.  He pouts and gets a dumb look on his face when proven wrong.  It isn’t his business ethics.  He claims that he has never gone personally bankrupt, but anyone who has owned a closely held corporation knows that the corporation is you and that the only reason the business is owned as a corporation is to shield personal liability and for tax advantages.  So when closely held corporations of yours have gone bankrupt four times … you have gone bankrupt four times and when you have done that profitably, you are a thief.  I say that because the simple way to a profitable bankruptcy is to borrow, then move assets elsewhere, losing only a shell of a corporation, but canceling its debts.   Trump can do this more often than once every seven years, because each of his corporations is treated as a separate entity.  When Donald said that he did this to bankers, everyone at the first Republican debate laughed and applauded.  That is a gullible crowd.  A bankruptcy doesn’t cost a banker a dime, but it does cost his depositors millions.  In some cases billions.  Who are these “depositors”?  Try retirement funds, corporate deposits, and personal deposits … that is, all of you.   The purpose of bankruptcy law is a shield for the poor and financial failures, not a sword for the wealthy.  Trump says that he follows the law.  No … he abuses the law.   Trump says that he has bought favors from politicians.  Bribed them that is, but legally.   Do you think that his morals will change in office?  Why does this man lead the Republican polls?  He won’t win the general election and perhaps not the Republican primary, but he is a dangerous sign of the direction of our moral values as a nation.

“When Money Talks, Democracy Walks.”  What are we going to do about that?

Comments are welcome.  Cheers, Old Buz.

Windows Gives You "The Cloud"

Perhaps “gives you” is not correct wording.  You are being forced into The Cloud.  Ask yourself, “What is The Cloud?”.  To start with; it is obviously not a cloud.  A cloud sounds so nice.  Heaven is just above the clouds.  The Cloud is a giant data base, which is being joined by the information from your computer, as well as everyone else’s.  This giant data base falls under the oversight of NSA (a government institution).  With all computer data joined in The Cloud, this data can be searched by our government, our corporations and hackers.  As we saw with the introduction of ObamaCare, a large government database can fail and it doesn’t quickly jump back up.  I have an inexpensive desktop computer, which cost $299 and operates on Windows 7.  It has a 450 gigabyte information storage system.  This is more storage than I would use in two lifetimes.  I have no need or desire to put my computer information in The Cloud and my present operating system does not require it.  You folks with MAC need not be smug about Windows users being forced into The Cloud.  MAC users have been there for some time.

How is Windows forcing me into The Cloud?  They are presently offering me a “free” upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.  Windows 8 was a disaster, hated by most Windows users.  Windows 9 never was marketed.  When a large corporation offers you something for free, you can be fairly certain that the benefits from the gift are mostly theirs.  The Cloud, on the Windows website, describing 10, tells you that The Cloud is an available feature.  Outside evaluations of 10, tell you that The Cloud is a required portion for the operation of Windows 10.  I will not choose to switch to this gift offering.  I believe that In the near future, Windows will inform their Windows 7 users (and previous operating system users) that they will no longer support systems that preceded 10.  I will risk it without their support.  Windows’ next step will probably be to introduce a virus, over the internet, that disables pre-10 systems and offer out of the goodness of their corporate hearts, a free installation of Windows 10, which will be able to cure the virus.  At this junction, you will either try to get all personal information (Hillary it) from your hard disc and join the system, or toss your computer in the trash and move back to the 1960’s.

George Orwell wrote in his sci-fi novel, 1984, that the government will step into our personal lives at that time.  We need to be thankful for the 30 year reprieve. 

Cheers, Old Buz

All comments are welcome.

"Andre Iguodala, God's Warrior"

Andre Iguodala is the MVP of the Warrior’s winning of the 2015 NBA Basketball Championship (the honor was well deserved).  In an interview, right after the game, the MVP credited God for the win.  Who am I to disagree with an MVP, but the assumption does raise some questions in my agnostic mind?  Like, why does God favor Oakland over Cleveland?  What has Cleveland ever done to Him?  There is probably a higher percentage of drug abuse, gay marriage and reason, in the Bay Area than there is in Cleveland.  Aren’t those traits that The God of The Bible opposes?  Why did God punish those poor Cleveland bastards?

Perhaps the answer lies in the actions of Lebron James, earlier that day.  James was quoted as saying that his Cavaliers would win the sixth game because he is the best player in today’s game of basketball.  This is a clear example of the sin of Pride.  It happens that he is the best there is in the game today, but saying so, even if true, is a sin.   Now, my question would be, “Does Stephen Curry (another of God’s Warriors) think he is the best in the game?”  Curry certainly performs way above his physical stature.  I’m not sure that an athlete doesn’t have to have that self-confidence, in order to perform at that championship level.  Curry is a quiet sort, so he wouldn’t do the bragging that James does.

There was a stadium full of people and a large group outside of the stadium, praying for the Cleveland team to win that game.  That is a lot of focused praying.  Did God pay no attention to all of that praying, because Lebron ran his mouth?  Are 50,000 prayers less important than one slip of the tongue?  Could God not have broken James’s leg on the first tip-off and yet let the home team win?  He could still allow the Warriors to win game seven at their stadium, if Andre is correct.  Something is wrong here!  I hate to give God advice, but that never stopped Moses.

Iguodala, God’s Warrior, could not hit a free throw to save his soul.  It was like God was teaching him a lesson at the foul line.  God’s Lid was on that basket.  What is the message here?  Was it for Iguodala not to get a big head to go with his big arms?  I suspect it was a lesson in Pride.  “Andre, you will not hit a free-throw unless I say so.” – God  (When I played basketball at Loyola University, Los Angeles, most members of the team crossed themselves before shooting a free-throw.  We still only hit a normal percentage.  Go figure.)

I think The God of The Bible screws up the game.  He should keep his nose out of athletics and schools.  I would like to see us living with an awareness of the miracle of existence, not national championships or men sharing the Earth with Dinosaurs.  Life is so much simpler if you try to stick with reason.  Or, is life “beyond the human intellect”?  What do you think?

Cheers, Old Buz The Agnostic

Comments are Welcome

"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.