Old Age Habits

I used to smile and say to myself, "I hope I am not that way when I am old, whenever I would see my parents exhibit those all too common old age symptoms. But ow, I am old too and I am imitating (unwillingly) some of the physical and mental decline they showed when they were elderly. We have no choice in the matter, as aging is beyond human control. Therefore, it's probably healthy to think at age 15 that you won't be like mom and dad.  Today I mention some of those symptoms, and perhaps you may already have the same today.

My dad used to lie on and fall asleep on the coach in our living room. No matter how we tried to convince him not to do so, it happened almost every night. I remember awakening him past bedtime to send him to his bedroom.  He always told me the couch was more comfortable. I now agree with him. Now, I sleep as much on a couch or chair as in my bed. It really is more suitable for sleep. I suppose their is some physical reason but I think we don't feel as much pressure to fall asleep on the coach than we do in bed. That has something to do with it.

Another old age habit is ritual behavior. These are harmless to us but they annoy the young people watching. My mom used to have certain ways of cooking, decorating, reading etc. They never varied. If, for example, she was going to decorate the house for Halloween, it always was done on the same day, October 1st. As we age we find comfort in the familiar. That's why "old people" have so much old furniture in their houses. They care less about style or fashion and more about the message their familiar furniture sends to them. I am now the same way. My house somewhat resembles a museum.

Yet another old age habit I now have that my parents modeled for me is the never say no mindset when asked by others for help in some matter. I suspect as we are older material things have less value. Thus, we donate more, give more, and extend whatever skills we have for the benefit for others. I remember my father telling me, when asked what gift he wanted for his birthday or some holiday. 'I don't need anything," he would say. Never mind wants. He was passed the want stage, preferring his family have things and he supply them.

Among the other old age habits I now display are the universal ones; sore muscles, ligaments and bones; no interest in TV or in modern music; a declining interest in traveling abroad; ignoring almost all new technology and being puzzled at the attraction it has for others; sitting and thinking often; forgetting and needing to write lists to remind me of what I intend to do; loving nostalgia and boring younger people with stories of it; finding excuses to cook less and clean the house less; wanting more and more to spend the day "doing nothing"; scheduling many more doctor's appointments.

That's a few of the future of being old. But it's not so bad. Not having to work anymore, having no child care responsibilities, being financially secure all help make being an old fart not such a bad thing after all. Now....let's see if I can take a nap on my favorite couch.

Thou Shalt Not Drive.....In Saudi Arabia

I am both baffled and amused by the phone contention of left wingers her that the United States is conducting a "war on women". Huh? I have noticed that. I have a daughter and neither has she. Maybe the war is in the bubble in which the leftists reside. They often cite pay disparities, using phony statistics, as a basis of their concern that there is some kind of discrimination against females here. That kind of nonsense is the red flag that the issue is not a real one.

Therefore, I suggest those war on women types shift there emphasis to where women really face unfair and unequal treatment..Saudi Arabia. Oh, wait! The left says that all Muslims are perfect and above criticism for anything. So I guess that shift in War on Women tactics won't happen. But in Saudi Arabia itself there is starting to be recognition of the War on Women there, a war started and continued by Islam itself and a resistance for some Muslim countries to resist the modern world. Saudi Arabia  has just announced that women have the right to drive for the first time in the ultra-conservative kingdom.

In a royal decree signed by King Salman bin Abdulaziz, the order on the right to drive said it will be effective immediately but the roll out will take months, according to the Saudi government. The decree said that women would be allowed to drive "in accordance with the Islamic laws." (Whatever that means) Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to bar females from driving, has received negative attention for years for detaining women who defied its ban, though one would never know that if listening to a member of the Democratic party here in the U.S.

Saudi Activists are celebrating the news as a major development in a country where women face extreme social and personal restrictions as a result of the Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of the religion of Islam. Women have not been not allowed to travel without the permission of a male guardian. They also must cover their hair and bodies in public under the law. Change in Saudi Arabia for women has come with more Saudi women working in retail jobs and being appointed top executive roles at the Saudi stock exchange and at the Saudi airport. Women can now also be appointed to the Shoura Council and run in municipal elections.

Some women in Saudi Arabia who have recently challenged the ban on driving a car defied the accepted norm of their gender not driving have not fared well. Manal al-Sharif was arrested for breaking the law in 2011 when she filmed herself cruising behind the wheel of a car and uploaded the video to YouTube. Eventually she was released from jail after international outcry. But Saudi Arabian policy still was that women who drive become immoral.  Democrats in the U.S. have raised only a peep about it, instead focusing on the imagined War on Women here. But then, the left wing bubble rarely includes reality.

Among other problems for women in Saudi Arabia include:
1. Women are not allowed to travel without the permission of a male guardian, usually their father or husband.
2. They are not allowed to "dress for beauty" and must cover their hair and bodies in public under the law.
3. Women are required to limit the amount of time spent with men to whom they are not related.
4. A Saudi woman can not open a bank account without her husband's permission.
5. Women can not eat freely in public. They must eat under their face veil.
6. Women must limited physical closeness with other men and are segregated from the opposite sex in most offices, banks and universities.

Uh...cancel my vacation plans if they include Saudi Arabia.

Meteorologists And Stockbrokers Are The Same People

I was thinking the other day that if I were a young man who was about to attend college, what field would be the best to prepare for. I am not interested in which field offers the best pay, rather, I would want to find the field in which it is the easiest to get by. This reflects my limited talents and the fact that I would just want to have an easy day at work, not be bothered by high expectations. And after ruminating about this I concluded that meteorologists and stockbrokers have it best.

Just think about your local weather person, or a broker who advises you. In both cases we have low expectations for their correctness. On average, both of the two is right about 50% of the time. Hmmm I think that's the same as flipping a coin before deciding what choice to make. I could do that! Sign me up to be the weather forecaster. Perhaps the guess ratio in the weather field is why so many meteorologists have great skepticism of the "global warming" theory. The idea that climate can be predicted so precisely, as the global warming advocates contend, while humans can not even predict what the weather will be like 30 days from now.

Meteorologists and stockbrokers deal not only in the scientific, but also in the abstract and guessing field. Stockbrokers are like the global warming crowd that is so sure that humans can control climate. It's a false bravado based on the idea that the rest of us are just as clue less about which stocks to buy or what controls weather as are those two professionals. We listen to the meteorologist and stockbroker because we want to have someone to blame for our own lack of awareness about climate and the financial markets.

Some enterprising grad student should do research on this. Perhaps 1000 meteorologist could switch places with 1000 stockbrokers for a month or so. A comparison of their accuracy in their new position to what they predict after the switch would give us an idea whether my contention that both are about 50% when predicting. Hmmmm Maybe I can take an online meteorologist course and get my degree........

Thousand Dollar Phones

I recently read that the new iPhone costs $1000. Can you believe that a telephone costs more than many people pay their government in taxes? I am not sure why they call it a "phone" because those gadgets long ago made calling on them a secondary function. It's because the inventors of all the new apps and features of those cell phones have to keep adding useless junk to them in order to charge idiots $1000 to buy them.

Amazingly, people seem to wait in line hours before a new phone is launched, somehow deluded enough to think they need the latest edition of a new phone or that they may not be able to purchase one if they are not first in line the first day it's sold. Since I have never owned a cell phone of any type, I don't feel the irrational attraction to it that owners have to it. Maybe those phones have a"nicotine" somewhere in them as do cigarettes. I wonder if any studies have been done to rate the addictive quality of a cell phone to cigarettes to heroine or even more powerful substances that take control of human willpower.

Too, I wonder when there will not longer be any new apps and features to add to those phones, so that the phone itself will be replaced with another communication technology that is more appealing to humans. They did try to do that already when Apple released that Apple Watch  that users wear, supposedly to replace of the cell phone. It seems to have been a dud. If there is a new communication device that makes the cell phone addicts throw away their cells, I will be a happy man.

It might mean that can we return to the simple device called a telephone, a one use product that makes and receives calls and is located in a stationary spot in one's house. Long live the Land line! Bring it back and civilization will soon follow.

Growing Up Slowly

Here's an interesting result from a study of teenagers today, this according to psychology  professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, the lead author on the study published in the journal 'Child Development'. She says that compared to teens of the 70's, 80's and 90's, today's teens are not concerned as much about being adults. They are creeping rather than wild and crazy,  putting off risky behaviors like drinking and sex, but also delaying jobs, driving, dating and other of the usual developmental steps teens have long taken towards independence.

“The whole developmental pathway has slowed down,” she said, with today's 18-year-olds living more like 15-year-olds once did. The study relies on seven nationally representative surveys repeated with 8 million teens, ages 13-19, over several decades.  It documents and combines several trends often explained as separate phenomena. People in their early 20s now often act more like teens, young teens often act more like children, and I guess children act like children because there isn't a lower level of development for them. But why are kids maturing more slowly now?

Some of the changes recorded among younger teens surveyed in 2010-2016, compared to those surveyed in the early 1990s. Here are some of the study's conclusions, and they are seen among all economic groups in every part of the United Sates.

• 29% of 9th graders had sex, down from 38%.
• 29% of 8th graders drank alcohol, down from 56%.
• 32% of 8th graders had worked for pay, down from 63%
Among 12th graders, data on most behaviors goes back to 1976.  In 2010-2016:
• 67% drank, down from 93% in the earlier era.
• 55% worked for pay, down from 76%.
• 73% had drivers’ licenses, down from 88%.
• 63% dated, down from 86%.
• 62% had had sex, down from 68% in the early 1990s, the earliest that data was collected.

According to the study these trends are not explained by the demands of homework and extracurricular activities, which have not significantly increased. But the Internet is a different variable and the authors of the study feel it is a main driver of the crawl to adulthood today. The study also feels that more parents who are super protective of their kids also encourages the lack of rush to adulthood.  We now have a culture in which parents invest more attention in fewer children and life expectancies are longer. Perhaps the Internet shows kids today that being an adult is not the ideal fantasy previous generations thought it to be.

Growing up is undoubtedly harder to do today. There are more places to hide and more reasons to stay a child. The question that the study and no one knows at this point is whether growing more slowly as kids do today is a better or worse model for making them more competent and happy adults.

250 New Words

Merriam-Webster has added 250 more words to the dictionary. Ugh...just what we need in this age of misunderstanding what others say and mane. More than one thousand new words have been added to the Webster Dictionary since it's inception, proving that English lives and thrives because it is a changing and accepting language. New words come about naturally through public use, and they disappear when no longer used by the same public that introduces new ones.

The new words including terms from recent advances in science, words from foreign languages that are quickly introduced and accepted aided by the rise of the Internet communication system, and words associated with technology, medicine, pop culture, sports, and from misuse of or improper understanding of current terms.

Webster's is the classic dictionary used for so long in the U.S. and it says that when it changes its word listing it merely reflects the breadth of English vocabulary and the speed with which we seek information. The new words, says Webster, also highlight the old fashioned skill Webster employs of creating useful and readable definitions.  This year new entries range from ‘alt-right’ to 'ransomeware', which show that the words in many cases are a reflection of trends and changes in society. Here are a few of the new ones you may recognize or use.

*Troll- It used to describe a dwarf or giant in Scandinavian folklore. The new definition that Merriam-Webster added is a verb and means,  "to antagonize (others) online by deliberately posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content.  Wow! I think I may be a troll.

*Dog Whistle- It once referred to what you blow to attract attention of Fido.  Dog whistles now refer to "coded messages political parties that will be heard one way by their core supporters and another way by everyone else." Just listen to Hillary Clinton whine about why Americans rejected her in the last election and you will be dog whistled to death.

*Sriracha- With the craze for Asian food imbedded in the U.S. food chain now Webster added this to its dictionary It defines it as, "a pungent sauce that is made from hot peppers pureed with usually garlic, sugar, salt, and vinegar and that is typically used as a condiment." I always leave Sriracha on the table because I like to actually taste the food, not fiery spices added to it. A lot of bad food has been disguised by Sriracha sauces.

*Bibimbap- another food entry that Webster defines as, "A Korean dish of rice with cooked vegetables, usually meat, and often a raw or fried egg." Hmmm I know quite a few other Asian foods with the same ingredients without the fancy name Bibimbap. I suspect this one will eventually fade from popularity.

*The Internet of Things- Webster says it is, "The networking capability that allows information to be sent to and received from objects and devices, such as fixtures and kitchen appliances, using the Internet ." Didn't we used to just call that "hardware"?

*Hive Mind- It used to be defined by Webster as "The collective mental activity expressed in the complex, coordinated behavior of a colony of social insects (such as bees or ants) regarded as comparable to a single mind controlling the behavior of an individual organism." Now it is also defined as meaning, "The collective thoughts, ideas, and opinions of a group of people (such as Internet users) regarded as functioning together as a single mind.  Society is indeed now a herd of sheep that bleats in unison whatever propaganda is fostered on it by the extreme liberal elite. And we are as busy as bees complaining about fake issues instead of the real. It's stinging.

* Working Memory- Webster says that it is, "Memory that involves storing, focusing attention on, and manipulating information for a relatively short period of time, such as a few seconds." Wait! I thought that was my attention span.

Anyway, you can see from these few examples of the new 250 that we are creating more new words because of the technology that assumes, dominates and destroys us. Maybe there is a term that describes that kind of self slaughter. How about "techno suicide"?

Scottish Links

A year or so ago I took a DNA test on Ancestry.com and enjoyed learning my "heritage" (no crazies showed up in my family history...but the, maybe I am the crazy). It's fun, if not important, and that was the end of it. But about one month ago another genealogical site, myheritage.com, sent me a message informing me that if I uploaded my DNA test result from ancestry.com, that it would give me a free trial and show me more about my ancestry. I did so. myheritage must want me to join their site because they are sending me so many interesting links to check on my ancestors, and now I finally have some information on my father's mother's paternal side.

Originally, I thought my father's mother's side of the family had roots in Ireland. But  from the information about the Lockharts, their surname, I learned that they were Scottish. Oh my. I need to buy a kilt and some bagpipes. The Lockhart hat immigrated to the United States (to Virginia in the late 1600's) apparently was Scottish. His family then moved to Northern Ireland and then that relative moved to the U.S.

More than 100,000 Scottish Protestants migrated to Ulster in Northern Ireland, but by 1717, conditions had reached such a point that many Ulster Protestants began a new migration; this time to the American Colonies. And one of those was my father's mother's family. It is estimated that more than a quarter million Scotch Irish immigrated to America between the years 1717 and 1775.  So I have an ancestor who was in the United States before there was such a country.

It makes sense because the Scottish word for Lake is Loc, as in Lockhart. The fun part was finding out who some of the Lockharts were and what they did during their lives. One was Sir Robert Lockhart the 7th of Cleghorn, county in Scotland, a prominent royal. Hmmm Maybe you should start calling me "Sir Stupid" to give some respectability to my rants here. I also found that former President Bill Clinton was spawned from a Lockhart. I am not happy about being related to Bill Clinton, but relieved I am not related to horrible Hillary Clinton.

The rest of the ancient Lockhart clan were an assortment of every possible social and economic class and of many different occupations. One relative is June Lockhart, the famed actress of the 40's and 50's. Another Lockhart was described as "Britain's greatest elephant trainer in the late 19th century. I also had Lockharts who both died and survived the famed Titanic sinking.

I hope that I didn't bore you with my genealogical report, but it was fun for me to read that information and pass it on to you. Sir Stupid has an urge to eat haggis now, and wishes that you have a Bonnie good day. Slainte sonas agus beartus (Health , wealth and happiness) to you.

Never Too Young

And they shall be led by the children, or something like that. Guess what? Those horrible politicians we love to hate have a new opponent in the state of Vermont. A 13 year old has announced he is running for the office of governor of Vermont. Every state except two set age limits for their governors. By oversight no such provision exists in Vermont

Town officials in Vermont must be legal voters, meaning they have taken the voter's oath and are at least 18 years old.  But that was omitted for the governor's office. Ethan Sonneborn, 13, of Bristol, announced that he's running for governor. If elected, and I hope he is, Ethan will be the youngest ever governor of Vermont. Previously, the youngest governor to lead Vermont was F. Ray Keyser, Jr., who was 34 years old when he took office in 1961. Since Ethan is only an eighth grader is doubt he has yet been corrupted by politics. Hmmmm It sure would change things around the governor's mansion if he is elected. Instead of the sate song, Ethan might want a Beyonce video at his inauguration.

Ethan says he has always been a political junkee, that he follows the news closely, chooses his words deliberately, and has a ready response when asked about such trendy political topics as marijuana legalization or racism. He supports marijuana legalization, and he says he's running to ensure legal protections for minorities and LGBT Vermonters amid what he sees as increasingly common white nationalism.

 "I am running to win, but I would very happily settle for sending a message about young people in politics." He says he hopes to combat cynicism and apathy. But wait! Ethan also sounds a bit naive. "I don't have a lot of experience in being politically apathetic," Ethan said, "but I think that people young people hear older people complain about politics a lot. And I think that there's this idea that there's no such thing as an honest politician, and I'd say that’s part of why I'm running." I suspect the sharks in Vermont government will devour Ethan if he is not careful.

His mother, Jenna Sonneborn, described herself and her husband as non-political people. She said her son has had a "voracious interest" in history and politics since early childhood. He spoke with his kindergarten teacher about becoming president some day. When Ethan was in sixth grade at Bristol Elementary School, the school banned talking for most of the lunch period. Ethan and his friends launched a series of peaceful protests: They held signs and refuse to eat lunch until the silence was lifted. Adults in the community took notice, and the policy came to an end. I wonder if he could hold up a sign to make Hillary Clinton go away? I hope so.

This leadership by the very young might be a trend. It seems that Ethan has also been talking with a 16 year old who is running for governor of Kansas, the other state without an age requirement for its governor. I guess he is getting some sage advice from the elderly. But Ethan says the Vermont politicians in his party, the Democratic Party are not taking him seriously. They better beware. Few took Donald Trump seriously we he also ran.  The current Vermont governor, Gov. Phil Scott, said he is glad to see Ethan as a candidate. Hmmmm Governor Scott is overconfident. It's a good sign we may soon see a 13 year old in the governor's mansion. Click below to hear candidate Ethan.
 
 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/videos/news/2017/08/28/thirteen-year-old-runs-governor-vermont/105048124/

Dialogue Is Dying

And now, theory on one of the reasons why people seem to be so disconnected in our understanding of each other these days. How ironic, in the age of the Internet, of instantaneous communication, so few are listening or understanding what is communicated to them. No doubt many of the changes in societies today account for this, but I posit that the Internet is a big one. Unlike in pre Internet days, we use this medium to get in touch with each other via many the "languages" and dialects.  That is, the diversity of the net is killing our understanding of what we are telling each other.

>From the mysterious "lol" to a treatise on the philosophy of conduct, we speak and write to each other in more forms than ordinary spoken and written communication, pre Internet. No wonder people are polarized. You write to the person, he or she reads it, and interprets it far differently than you meant it. And even if the interpretation is correct, there is always some site on the Internet to verify that your aright and the communicator is wrong. When we are challenged in our belief today, we don't consider the other opinion. Instead we search for a web site to verify our current ideology and write "See this! It, I proves that you are wrong".

Dialogue is disappearing. citing reinforcement for our belief as "proof'" is replacing the normal communicative exchange. And every theory, crazy to correct can be verified by citations from an online that agrees with the person using it. What is particularly sad is that we don't seem to know this is happening us. We are unaware that we have suspended reason, analysis, synthesis and conclusion in favor of a copy and paste that agrees with our sentiment. When people become too comfortable in their enclaves, they stagnate. The division in politics is a prime example of this.

I am hopeful that the suspension of dialogue between humans is temporary. The Internet is new and we haven't had time to think about it, much less whether it is clouding our judgments. Perhaps we are like novice skiers who need time to learn how to ski. When the novelty of Internet technology wears off , perhaps we will use the medium more prudently and positively. But in the meantime understanding and compromise will be little used here.

Halloween Season Starting

Fall officially starts this week on September 22nd,  and the weather finally changed here to more autumn, with some much needed rain and cool weather forecast all week. I love that. In fact, it motivated me to spend some time on one of my favorite holidays that arrives on October 31st, Halloween. It isn't just the ending of hated summer weather that got me up and into Halloween. The stores already have their Halloween merchandise for sale, including decorations, candy and assorted "stuff" that is quite clever if not something one needs.

That would includes things like the talking eye flashing witch I found at a thrift store for a couple of dollars months ago. Goodwill, Am Vet and other thrift, charity stores are treasure troves for finding decorations for Holidays. People sometimes discard their decorations when used only once or not even at all, so the condition is pristine in many cases.

I think most of the many Halloween decorations I now have were obtained that way. My house will  again this year display many sound and animated Halloween characters along with standard decorations that have been in fashion for years. There are both some new and old decorations in that mix

I like to decorate form the holidays because my mother always did it. The tradition was passed down to me, and now my own daughter, always enthusiastic about decorating the inside and outside of the house when a child, does it for herself in her own home. New Orleans is a city that loves to decorate and most people there do. Here in Portland, it is much rarer, but I still have the desire to decorate. This weekend I hauled the Halloween decorations from my attic and have set up (too many) of them. Though decorating is time and energy challenging, I always feel reborn after doing so, The house looks different and I suspect it feels the same way.

This weekend I also went shopping for Halloween candy and I made my first fall dessert, a pumpkin cake. Baking can be a chore most times but for holidays it is fun, a catharsis of sort, releasing in me many comforting thoughts that remind me of the joy I had during the holidays when I was a child. I am sure my own daughter will make Halloween cookies as she did when she was also a child.

Indoctrinating Youth Into Leftist Hate

It appears to me that this is the age of indoctrination. In particular, young people, even small children are bombarded with agendas, mostly leftist oriented, from nonsense about global warming to the idea that capitalism is evil to racism is what all whites feel to all non whites to why men allegedly hate women is preached by the left in schools, on TV and in films, in print mediums and particularly by celebrities. I wrote "preached" but I mean brainwashed.

Most humans do not change their minds much after the age of 18 or so. That makes the brainwashing of kids so dangerous to society.  When the majority accepts false narratives, never daring to challenge, it produces much less freedom than a democracy wants. It's why , for example, 10 years olds declare they "are the wrong sex and will change their sex", why 18 year olds lacking the most fundamental education about democracy and capitalism declare it evil and discriminatory toward "brown people". It's why children sue their local government for abusing them because they are allowing fossil fuels to be burned that destroy the world".

Those are just a few examples that illustrate that our kids are not taught reasoning, problem solving, evaluating data and other basic learning skills. Instead, they are indoctrinated into the leftist ideology. Indoctrination of the young can be either good or bad.  But there is too much indoctrination of agenda and too little with passing on cultural norms. Teaching a child a religion in a way that allows the child to accept or reject that teaching is good indoctrination. Teaching a political agenda, as in white males are evil and the cause of the failure of anyone who is not one of them, as a fact that one must never challenge is bad indoctrination. It doesn't take much for most of us to know the difference between the good or bad.

When the culture brainwashes its youth, that indoctrination usually lasts for life. That's because so little of the thinking skill process comes with education today. Today's teachers are more apt to say, "These are the facts I was told are true. Now it's your turn to accept them or you are a hater, a racist, a misogynist or worse. And we will ostracize and scorn you as a result." Kids are not born to be sheep. They are "educated" to be so in order to push the agenda.

A great peril for our civilization today is the hatred that is taught by the leftists against the establishment that they see as too successful to have earned their success fairly. But what can society do about leftist hate that is the mainstay of some of the culture's political, social, and celebrity elite that the nation's youth admires? Uh, I do not know. The question is for you to answer

Naming The Kid

I am having a "what's in a name" moment because I was thinking the other day about how first names in the United States have changed so much. What was most popular then is now not even on the radar. Female names seem to vary wildly in popularity, while many of the most popular male names over the years stand the test of time. Why is that? Obviously, people do not name themselves. Mom and dad are giving out the names. Names Like Mildred, Ethel, Dorothy and Florence are rarely given to female babies now. But the names of trendy social media favorites from pop singers or other entertainers are the rage.

Hey! Maybe that's it. Maybe we name our kids something "new" or "modern" now because the age in which we live is so fast changing. Perhaps in the first part of the 20th century when names were traditional, parents of newborns never thought much about a different kind of name for their baby. Instead, they were traditional and followed the tradition of the older names. Now we get "Beyonce". Sigh. The kid named that may get stares of "what is that" when she is an old lady of 70 on 2087 and Beyonce' the entertainer is long forgotten.  I am almost certain no one will remember Beyonce' in 2087 (And that's a good thing).

I have a common name "James" and my brother was also named the common "Bill". I never gave my name much thought because I had no control over it. Besides, in my youth, James was common, a sense of belonging was attached to it. It's legally possible to change my name, but I would still be my common self if I changed to an uncommon name now. I surely won't rename myself  Bevonce'. Psychologists say that your name is a crucial factor in developing your sense of self, because it helps propel you forward on various paths of life and career. I once remember a kid who was cruelly named "Sterling" by his parents. It was cruel because the kid's last name was "Silver". 

Being named Sterling Silver will definitely make you a conversation piece. Sterling got plenty of snickers when the teacher in school called out his name when checking class attendance. Sterling was screwed up badly, perhaps partly because his parents named him a name that sounded like a joke. One time there was a fire in a trash can outside our classroom. Sterling's reaction was to toss his books into the fire. He did not want to be with the normally named peers of our class. I wish he would have thrown his parents into the fire with his books.

Our given first names name can have leave a long-lasting imprint on our lives, for better or worse. One's name holds the power to shape a child's self esteem and his identity and influence how he's seen and treated by others. Names do stereotype us and create images of us for people who are just meeting or who know us. People who particularly dislike their name or who think it's an odd and unlike able name, can develop some problems from their naming.

I think I shall stay with  the name James for the time being., but you can call me Beyonce' if you want.....

Neighborhoods

It's over! I now declare the old style neighborhood to be dead on arrival. When I was a child everyone in our neighborhood knew everyone else. We related to each other daily, visited each other in our homes or on the front porch or backyard. We were a neighborhood, a community. Kids in the neighborhood didn't even have to knock before entering a neighborhood home. Doors weren't locked and everyone in the neighborhood was welcome. That neighborhood made us all much happier and safer. Friendly neighborhoods do produce better schools, better local government, much lower crime, better care for the aged and disabled, and less movement in and out of neighborhoods.

People often stayed in their neighborhood homes much longer in that age. They saw less reason to move because their neighborhoods were more satisfying. They were more often satisfying places for them to live. Now, we move constantly. One reason is to escape today is that we see our neighborhood as un satisfying or in decay. People don't care as much about the neighborhood when they move into it today,  because they are so disconnected from people and connected to electronic communications instead. For them, the neighborhood is the Internet. How sad.

I remember the many neighborhood groups of my youth. The Neighborhood Watch was one. It didn't just keep an eye on potential crime, it took care of a neighbor's property when he or she was out of often on vacation. We didn't worry about our homes being broken into by thieves because we knew the neighbors were taking acre of our homes while we were away. Now we think crime or property damage to our homes can or even will happen, and we worry about it much of the time we are away from our homes.

The concept of "social connectedness" is enhanced by the neighborhood community. It's destroyed by substituting our real neighborhoods with an internet neighborhood. We used to have community newspapers when I was a child which told us news about our neighborhood.  Those papers gave us a spirit of connectedness. Now we have on line national newspapers that give us vacuous information that if not wholly untrue is completely irrelevant to our lives. The neighborhood church, once a center of the community, has been closed  today and replaced with a car wash or fast food restaurant.  But I think we need a cleaner soul and nutrition more than we need burgers and a wax job.

I do not even know the names of my neighbors now. They are rarely seen outside, and when they go out it is to drive somewhere in their car. Some do not even wave to their neighbors when they see them. They don't wash their cars or mow the lawn outside anymore. It's also rare for neighbors to sit on their front porch, so there is little chance for even the polite wave of acknowledgment from and to them when we see each other. What a shame! I find the community sprit of the old style neighborhood far more comforting and fulfilling than all those Internet web site "communities".

In The News

Some thoughts about today's news as reported by the mainstream mediums. First, I must remark that I sometimes have trouble telling whether a news story that I read or saw is real or merely a spoof of reality. I think we have reached the depths of pondering and checking, using discrimination to ascertain whether what we are informed is real or not. It shouldn't be that way. When society functions normally, the news about what is on going in society should be normal and easy to interpret. That's one reason so many of us today ignore "news" altogether and escape into our own limited world where we fell more secure and in control.

If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly. The problem is they don't. We need not more good or bad news stories, but rather more real ones. Because we are fed pabulum and agenda, instead we run away from it and seek silliness we find in cell phones, computer games, dumb movies and more. Despite the 24 hour news cycle that bombards us, we are less uninformed than we were before the invention of the radio and TV.

Debate is almost non-existent and no one is apparently accountable to anybody apart from their political party bosses. It is bad news for democracy in this country.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/h/helensuzma323832.html?src=t_news

Debate is almost non-existent now, as we spout the propaganda fed to us by whatever view is most trendy. Today few are apparently accountable to anybody, and that is bad "news" for democracy in this country. More information is better than less, but the more has to be real, not the fake news we get in copious volumes today. Much of the fake news we are presented with is actually advertising for an agenda. But few seem to realize they are being tricked into being fake news advocates and real news clue less.

One problem accelerating the death of real news is that everyone is a news reporter. Armed with a cell phone camera and Twitter, the platform is easy to use to promote fake news. Another is the news announcer in our mainstream mediums is often not a newscaster but a celebrity claiming expertise in climate or social justice or some other airy subject that the celebrity has no working knowledge of beyond his or her (mostly uninformed) opinion. We now have sportscasters doing political commentary, disk jockeys promoting a social cause instead of spinning records, talk show hosts talking too much about their views and listening too little at their callers' opinions. And yet most of us listen and accept them all.

If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomassowe440790.html?src=t_reporting

If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly. Right now, they are not doing that.

Labor Day Non Celebration

Since another Labor Day Holiday has comea nd gone I shall reflect briefly about that holiday. I wonder why that is a holiday in this country anymore.  Fewer and fewer people work and those that do work shorter hours and work in jobs that most of them hate.  I suspect we all like the idea of a day off work, but one to honor labor might be an anachronism. Anyway, there are few celebrations for Labor Day anymore, few parades, even fewer commercial  TV ads announcing a Labor Day sale at their stores. The apathy about Labor Day is so large many do not even know that the holiday exists.

I think Labor Day is now just an alert that summer, and much of the heat that comes with it, may be over. It also tells kids to go back to school. Hmmmm Maybe a holiday celebrating the return to school of those spoiled brats is more appropriate than a Labor Day for workers. But then I have been retired for many years. Now I am one of the non workers who should care one way or another whether there is a holiday for those who work.

 I prefer a holiday for the workers who pay income taxes. Over 50% of American workers today are excused from taxes. They are defined by politicians who seek their votes as being "poor". Most of them surely are not. It's shameful that those don't support the programs the government provides for their use. How about an Income Tax Holiday, only for those workers who pay income taxes?

Maybe we should get rid of most of the holidays on the calendar. An easy way is to make a list of the real holidays, ones that we all relate to. The federal government has only 10 holidays on it's day off list. That's a good start in whittling away holidays like President's Day or Cinco de Mayo  It's not a long list when I compose it. I would list Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Thanksgiving Day and.....that's it for me.  Some of the hundreds I left off the list might merit consideration too, but the three I choose are celebrated by all and are important to most.

Oh, by the way.. a late Happy Labor Day to you!

On Misleading Media Coverage Of Hurricanes

Hurricanes are in the news again, and that's a bit of a problem,. It's great that media, even  the monster of all  word storms we call social media, reports on them. But the exaggerations, inaccuracies and deliberate lies about them are injurious to us all. Why can't our communications about hurricanes be honest and non hysterical. Now they  are a part of why the taxpayers in the United States are robbed by the same uninsured property owners each hurricane season, as the media demands "the government" pay for all of private damage from the storms.

For me, the carnage of the media reports of them is as large as a...well.,. a mini hurricane itself. I spent most of my long life living in ground zero, the New Orleans area. So I feel entitled to mention some of the communication untruths that have the whole country in a twitter about Hurricanes.  Here are some observations and warnings about some of the untrue media obsessions with hurricanes.

1) "The Global Warming did it" nonsense- Spreading a lie through pontificating on the theory of global warming is the cause of all aberrations in weather is the norm today. Those who spout "It's global warming and we are all going to die"' get their way, for opponents to such stupidity are demonized as "climate deniers". Who wants that label? Some of the untruths spread via those cell phones, TV's and the rest of modern media platforms that promote a false idea that "storms are bigger and more destructive than ever because of global warming". How ludicrous! Hurricanes have been with us since men and women first breathed. They are decidedly not any bigger or more frequent than in the past. In fact, during the past 50 years hurricanes have been less frequent and less large than a century ago. Science tells us that a hurricane can only get so large. After it reaches the maximum it must down size or die. Too, temperatures have a limited affect on storms. You need heat, but once you have heat the storms will form and live independently as to whether the temperature is a few degrees higher that day.

2) "Hurricanes are causing more destruction today because they are more powerful". - One part of the equation is true, but the other is not. We have more destruction from storms today, not because hurricanes are global warmed monsters, but rather because more people live in the path of the storms. With more people and more buildings, more destruction happens. But it has nothing to do with today's (smaller) sized storms.  Most of the damage from the storms is from excessive rainfall that can not drain. Why? It's because what was grass and other vegetation is now a mass of concrete that will not drain. Too, modern drainage systems, pumping stations etc., are woefully less adequate for the large population today. If you reduced the Houston, Texas area population to what it was 50 years ago (much less than half the size Houston, is today) the damage from Hurricane Harvey would have been minuscule.

3) "I heard on the news that this storm will be massive"- Rumors started by medium and non mediums alike have always been a part of hurricane warnings. But most are false. Mediums that are mainstream and those awful social media news reports are unaccountable for their lies. It seems we are sheep today, accepting what we are told emanating  from our medium sources and rarely reprimanding those who spread gossip through the channels. I remember living on the same block in New Orleans as a popular TV weather guy. He always told me to ignore most of what was broadcast about approaching hurricanes because his station and others report storms based on the Scare em principle. "The station wants us to report the hurricane from the worst possible stand point, even if we know that scenario is highly likely. Ratings are better when we scare em."

4) Reporting the size of the storm while it is afar as if it will remain that size when landing on shore- The trend today is for reports on storms to be based on their biggest size at any time during their life span. But hurricanes always down size as they come ashore. The friction created in making landfall immediately starts killing the storms as they make their way into the affected area. Thus, a huge storm one day from landfall often is significantly smaller when making landfall. To pretend that the hurricane will always be as large as it once was, days before landing, is a great disservice to people who need accurate warnings.


5) "The government is responsible to pay for my damage to my home"- This myth has come about in the U.S. because we have become a social welfare state, one in which the individual feels entitled to financial "help" from the government for every problem large or small. Most homeowners in the path of hurricane have a mortgage loan financing their home's purchase. The mortgage company requires the homeowner to verify each year that his home is fully insured. That's great. But many people own homes without a mortgage, do not buy home or flood insurance. When their property is damaged by a storm, those people claim "I didn't know I needed to insure my property for damage" or "I can't afford insurance". No politician will refuse their phony cries, and money is always given (never loaned....just given) to the irresponsible uninsured property owner because to not pay their bills is to lose the next election. Too, the reason so many live so near water these days is because they build with the knowledge that the government will rescue them if their property is damaged by flood or wind.  What should be in place instead is a mandatory proof of insurance requirement to be checked by the local government each year. Those without insurance should be given a written statement that the government will give no funds to them if their property is damaged due to a storm.

I trust these points I made today will not make you label me a "Hurricane denier" or some similar left wing title. But if you do I will remind you that calling me names for reporting the truth about hurricanes makes you as big bag of hot air....

What Name To Call Those Who Illegally Cross Borders

The illegal immigrant question is big today in most wealthy nations. That is, there is debate about whether open borders is a good or bad idea. I think if you ask most Western Europeans, who opened there's to millions of illegal immigrants to so-called "refugees" from the Mid East and Northern Africa, they would mostly argue against it. The European culture and safety of Europeans from terrorism , the welfare expansion there after the flood started has changed m any minds. But what obscures the issue is language. That is, the vocabulary that has been invented for one who breaks into a country without permission , claims the right to stay and resists removal.

In this country if one calls an illegal alien (the U.S. government's own official term for people in the U.S. illegally) an "illegal immigrant" he or she will immediately know whether the other party in the debate favors open borders and illegal entries or does not. "Illegal immigrants" is regarded as a "racist"" term by proponents of open borders. I find that odd. Yet  because so many terms have been invented by the proponents (to hide the fact that the entrant is here illegally) that everyone here is confused by the terminology used to label those illegals. Here are some of the ways a person who is breaking and entering into a country are defined by both proponents and opponents of open borders.

They are said to be: alien absconders, alien residents, asylum applicants, border crossers, border jumpers, entrants, foreign nationals, foreign born newcomers, guest workers, illegal border crossers, illegal entrants, illegal newcomers, illegal residents, migrant workers, newcomers, out-of-status migrant, paperless immigrant, residents, Undocumented Alien, unauthorized workers, under-served population, undocumented,undocumented citizens, undocumented foreigners, undocumented immigrants, undocumented workers, and visa over-stayers. There's more. But you should get the idea.

Language is meant to change slowly and naturally, not by fiat to create truths out of falsity. When a few change the language to impose their belief in others the devious wins over the straight-forward.  When ever I am in a debate (I oppose open borders on the lack of fairness and the non benefit to the country basis) I to ask the user of the euphemism whether they mean legal or illegal. The open border people will most often refuse to do that, given they want the subject defined on their own terms before discussing the legality and necessity of it.

The irony of the Illegal document person is they most often have many documents, false ones created to hide the fact that they are not legally in the country they occupy. The official definition of an immigrant to the U.S. that is used by the federal government is  "An alien who has been granted the right by the USCIS to reside permanently in the United States and to work without restrictions in the United States."  It's clear but does not make room for someone breaking and entering.

Thus, new evasive terms for illegal immigration are created and championed by the advocates of illegality. I suspect the United States will never come to terms with the 10-20 million or so illegal immigrants currently here until it agrees on a name for them. But then, that's what advocates of open borders want.

Grocery Store Sights

I shop at grocery stores at least fours times a week.  Since I often cook, I like fresh ingredients, and I don't hate grocery shopping, as I hate all other shopping tasks. And there is more to see than the broccoli and steak. I pay as much attention to the shoppers as the fare inside. It's because the grocery store is the great equalizer of us all. Everyone shops there, rich, poor, straight laced and odd. You can learn a lot about the society by observing the people who shop for food. To back up that claim I'll tell you about a few sights that I saw on my most recent shopping excursions.

There was the tattoo lady I almost ran my car into the other day. This woman was covered with tattoos, almost a sign that read "I am not a conventional person".  But when I glanced at what I saw in her basket I found every normal and trendy item one could want. Can it be possible for a person who is covered with tattoos to be so conventional and in step with what is fashionable as she? I suppose so. Otherwise the gluten free bread and low cholesterol margarine spread would not have been staring me in the face. I thought tattooed ladies only shopped for beer and cigarettes.

Another interesting reflection on society was shopper who used her cell phone to ask her "honey'" what she should buy....on almost every item she purchased. And there was the cell phone nut who screamed her most intimate stories into her phone so all the other shoppers could all be annoyed and embarrassed. Of course, most of the teens who were dragged to shop with mom ignored the shopping process the whole time and texted whatever it is they text into those phones. It was a slow day at the store last week, for I noticed only about a half dozen cell addicts blocking aisles of the store as they chattered their lives away on their phones.

Another thing that I noticed is the oblivious attitude of shoppers today. It's probably because humans can't focus their attention on any single activity for more than a few minutes at a time (thank the electronic revolution for that). I always compare items for price and content, but it seems that old time habit is the exception these days. Though I hate those COSTCO stores, I do obtain the one medication that I use (an eye drop) there because the price for that prescription happens to be lower. What I don't do is shop for groceries there.

COSTCO is very expensive when purchasing food items. Yet, the shoppers never seem to compare prices to other stores by breaking down the cost by unit. Maybe the size of the packages (one must by big volume when shopping at COSTCO) make the shoppers think they are getting a bargain. They are not. Perhaps their mathematics teachers should be found, arrested and shot for not teaching such a simple skill.

I also notice that people are not cooking food themselves as much as in previous times. The number of mixes, frozen prepared foods, and other convenience foods far out number staples such as flour, butter, and other unfinished food items. Oh, I forgot......they don't cook because they have to spend all their free time chatting on their cell phones. What's particularly discouraging about this trend is the people who are living off welfare payments like food stamps seem to cook the least. they use their food stamp assistance for very expensive convenience foods.

Yesterday, I saw a couple of young able-bodied shoppers use food stamp cards to pay for expensive deli food items that had been pre cooked. But then, the government here hands out so much free stuff to people, without any requirement that the recipient use them responsibly, that it isn't  unexpected.  The entitlement, welfare state can best be viewed in any supermarket checkout line.

Finally, the times I see in grocery stores are becoming more cost oriented and less quality based. Grades of meat are lower, dairy products are "low fat' instead of natural, and in general, both the sellers and the consumer are more interested in saving money than in eating a higher quality item. I am not sure if the bad economy can explain that or simply the lack of interest in quality in this fast food oriented world.

My advice to you is to observe others shoppers next time you shop (Hmmmm But don't stare at them. They're crazy). It sure is more entertaining than the blabber you'll over hear from them as they scream into their phones and block your shopping cart.

Repairing Or Junking The Car

We all have special relationships with our cars. Some people treat their cars like or better than they treat other people. I don't. But I appreciate that my car runs reliably and that it has been more dependable than most human I know. My car, a Honda Odyssey I bought  new way back in 2003 is old now. It has 156,000 miles on the odometer but is in great shape except for the transmission, which is worn and I have decided to replace before it refuses to shift again. That car has been more dependable than me. You might wonder why I would spend so much money (a new transmission is about $3000) on an old car. Well, it think my car deserves more time on the road . Besides, I am too attached to it.

Well, would you junk grandma if he hip was failing and she would soon be immobile without expensive hip surgery? Surely not. Grandma and my Honda have been faithful and still have many years left. Neither should be junked. Besides, grandma and my Honda are both irreplaceable. They have endearing qualities that "new" doesn't. Too, both have many more years of service once repaired.

I think more people buy a new car rather than repairing a new one because society says they should if they are to be viewed as successful. Also, advertising makes buying a new car at exorbitant cost seem more sexy than repairing the reliable one already owned. That makes little practical sense, but then, we are not practical when buying cars. Then there are those people who are addicted to buying a new car every two years or so as the cell phone addict is addicted to buying the latest cell phone issue. I suspect they rarely even think or evaluate why they are buying new. They probably rarely think about anything. They are robotic products of the consumer age.

As the saying goes, "They also serve who sit and wait," as I wait for my Honda's new transmission to be installed. I think I'll continue to drive my Honda for as long as either of us lives, but it might not be bad for my Honda to outlive me.

Hate Speech By University Professors

How unhinged are some of the Trump haters here in the United States?  There is no end to their lies, half truths, irrational conclusions and delusions ab out Trump. Need an example? Here's one from an alleged educated citizen Trump hysteric. A University of Tampa college professor, Kenneth Storey, boldly Tweeted (anyone who Tweets nonsense and is clue less that he or she could be held accountable for the Tweets is an idiot) that Houston, Texas got Hurricane Harvey's devastation because Harvey was "instant karma" for Texas since the state voted for Donald Trump for president last year. The good news is the University is not a leftist supporter of anti Trumpism and has fired him for off duty speech that it says sends an implication that the university endorses stupidity and hate from the crazed anti Trumpers.

The university was mostly motivated by altruism in firing because parents of University of tampa students, who pay the tuition for their kiddies, immediately demanded that the school act responsibly to remove haters like Storey instead of being a leftist refuge. "Don't think this is a school we will be looking at for my daughter anymore," one commenter said. An alumnus wrote, "Good thing I already paid you, because I'll never send the school another dime again." Seeing the power of the tuition paying parent lobby,  the university fired him. "We condemn the comments and the sentiment behind them, and understand the pain this irresponsible act has caused," spokesman Eric Cardenas said in a statement.

Storey says that, while saddened, he understands UT's decision. He got caught up in today's political climate, he said, and knows now that he is responsible for all his Tweets. "What they see in those tweets is not who I am," he said. "How I worded it was wrong. I care about people. I love this country. I would never want to wish harm upon anyone." Maybe Storey should stop imagining and start rescuing some of the people in Houston he seemed to want to "punish' for voting for Trump. Meanwhile, a leftist "I hate Trump"  group that fights for civil liberties in academia has taken up the issue, disappointed that UT "caved" to the pressure of "outrage mobs" online. But a private school has the right to discipline faculty members who embarrasses the school with posts on the school web site (where Storey posted his).

How can anyone defend what Storey wrote? "I don't believe in instant karma but this kinda feels like it for Texas. Hopefully this will help them realize the GOP doesn't care about them." Further, he said that "good people" in states like Texas  "need to do more to stop the evil their state pushes. I'm only blaming those who support the GOP there." Storey's name was added to a web site called Professor Watchlist, a project to "expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom."  Eventually Storey removed the entire list of Trump/Republican/conservative hate speech, as well as his profile photo. He posted an apology on Monday. But too late to save his job.

Hysterical hate by left wing professors against those who do not agree to leftists agendas is common in American universities. Recently, for example, professors from California to New Jersey have been fired for social media posts and speaking appearances. At Fresno State, a lecturer tweeted that President Trump "must hang" to "save American democracy." A professor at Brigham Young University wrote a private Face book post supporting LGBT equality. Both lost their jobs. It's a sign that at least some reason remains on some college campuses.