Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

Yesterday I was talking to one of my classes (I’m not sure how this conversation got started, but they are a bright group and I can talk to them about almost anything) about how scientists still do not understand how flies can walk on the  ceiling and how much, therefore, we still have to learn from the animal kingdom and what kind of inventions that will spark in the future and then today, just a couple of hours ago, I saw a program (Weird Connections, on Discovery) that discussed precisely that topic.  Well, maybe not precisely.  I did learn that flies wings employ three entirely separate laws of aerodynamics, which is an amazing evolutionary coincidence, but if they explained the ceiling walking thing I missed that.

An outpouring of pink

Then, the program after that was about Flamingoes congregating on Lake Ubuntu in Africa and Helena said “I wonder how many of them there are?” and the  very next sentence out of the announcers mouth was “Up to 2 million of them are gathered….”

Of course, the answers usually aren’t that immediate, except in the movies, but the point of tonight’s blog is that the answers are out there.  The universe was formed by  certain physical laws, and since it was formed without specific regard for men, none of those laws have been deliberately hidden from us.  We have to be smart enough to figure them out, but we’re getting there.

Our evolution on planet Earth has followed certain patterns and left clues embedded in the rocks, which we are beginning to be able to read.

Everything that can be seen, or heard, or smelled, tasted or touched is giving off clues as to its origin, its character and its place in the universe, and we are learning more and more every day.

Questions have answers, and problems have solutions, just like feet have shoes, cups have coffee, and the rising sun is an absolute sure fire indicator that the sun will set, approximately 12 hours later.

We just need to keep looking.

Sometimes you read an opinion piece that is just so incredibly lame that it convinces you of the opposite, and I read one a couple of hours ago.  I’m not going to try and find it just so I can link to it, but the argument was that Hillary has got the Democratic nomination all locked up.

It Ain’t Gonna Happen

The author based this on two things.  First, that Elizabeth Warren is not running.  Second, that she’s got the support of a lot of the party’s inner circle.

I’ll take those one at a time.  Elizabeth Warren is not running, which is a disappointment but nothing new.  She never said she was running.  So, that hasn’t changed the odds from whatever they were last week.  Also, just because Elizabeth Warren is not running doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of Democrats who will run.  I’m not going to get into the name game too much, but anybody who is a Senator, Representative or Governor has enough credibility they could jump in, and that’s about 250 Democrats, at a quick and dirty estimate.  Add in all former Senator’s, Representatives and Governors, and you’ve got a pondful of very big frogs.  Not all of them have great name recognition or easy access to huge amounts of money, but none of them have Hillary’s baggage.

Name recognition is not really a necessity.  Whoever opposes her (and as soon as there is one, there will be 5 or 6) has a natural advantage, because their big sales point will be simply that they are not Hillary.

Then, the author said that big names in the Democratic party are flocking to her campaign.  As an example, he cited John Podesta.  Who?  If she got an endorsement from Joe Biden or Al Gore, or even Barack Obama,  I might start to change my tune.  That hasn’t happened yet.

I have no idea what I want to write about but it’s 11:24 p.m. and my first class tomorrow is at 7, I quite enjoy my Thursday schedule but it’s definitely the busiest day of the week and i want to get to bed soon.

That Dog Lives in Fear

So much going on in the world, the massacre in Nigeria is horrifying but I don’t agree with the people saying it’s some sort of scandal that the press has ignored it after paying so much attention to the Charlie Hebdo massacre.  It’s a scandal that they ignored it, for sure, just like it’s a scandal that they ignored the bombing of the NAACP office in Colorado about a week or so ago, but one thing’s got nothing to do with the other.

The problem in Nigeria is that the Nigerian government, apparently, doesn’t give a shit, they are making no effort to go after these guys or to enlist international help to go after these guys, it’s sort of like “Hey, that’s clear on the other side of the country and there’s jungles and stuff, we don’t go up there.”

Another thing I’d like to weigh in on is Mike Hucklefuckle’s statement that the Obama’s are bad parents because they let their kids listen to Beyonce, i.e. “The Devil’s Music.”  This from the guy whose kid got fired from his job as counselor at a summer camp for torturing and killing a dog.

If he’s going to criticize the Obama’s over listening to some fairly harmless music – seriously, Beyonce is not Eminem, she is not even Miley Cyrus, then it’s game on.

Huckster McFatboy is actually kind of a good indicator of what kind of a Republican primary season we’re about to see.  It will be the same clown car of candidates that we had in 2012 and 2008, because that’s who they’ve got.  Mitt Romney might run again, but he’s done nothing to distinguish himself since the last election, Jeb Bush is almost definitely running but, you know, Bush.  Paul Ryan, the guy who lied about his marathon time, might make a go of it, and Rand Paul, who will have exactly the same number of supporters as last time.  In fact, they will be exactly the same supporters as last time.

I suspect that whoever the Democrats nominate will win, but I certainly hope it’s not Hillary.  For one thing, she is far too close to Wall St. and insider politics and, for another, she’s a crappy campaigner.  She might  be as sincere and genuine as any politician anywhere, but the crowd doesn’t feel it.  She’s smart but she doesn’t have her husband’s charisma and political instincts.  She is the one Democratic candidate who I fear could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

That’s 500 words and good night.

Christians have Pat Robertson, Ken Hamm and Fred Phelps.  Muslims have this guy: Mohammed Saleh al-Munajjid.

Je Suis Charlie

In response to the fact that they have snow on the ground in parts of Saudi Arabia now, which is really weird as we don’t have any snow on the ground in Prague, and that seems like proof positive to me that the global climate is going wacko and something needs to be done about it, the Imam M.S. a-M felt compelled to remind his people that the building of snowmen is a sin and forbidden by Islam.

Right up there  with drinking alcohol, eating pork or, if you’re a woman, letting anybody see what you look like.  Of course this has led to severe mockery, even among Muslims, but the weird thing is, it’s consistent with the religion.  They aren’t allowed to make images of ‘anything that has a soul.’  So, no paintings or sculptures of people or even animals.  It’s a weird prohibition, for sure, but if you look around the Islamic world, you’ll see it’s observed.

Christian churches have images all over the place.  Jesus on the cross right up there over the altar where everybody can see it, and plenty of statues and paintings of Mary and other sainted figures.  Buddhists have massive Buddhas, covered in gold.  But mosques have no such thing.  You’ll see plenty of intricate, colorful patterns but that’s about it.

It is, like so much  other stuff, against their religion.  Snowmen.  Seriously.  It seems that Islam is as anti-art as Christianity is anti-science.

The way I see it is this:  Any  religion which tells you what you can and can’t eat, whether or not you can  drink alcohol, what you should wear, and whether or not you should  work on Saturday, is a bogus religion.  These rules were not written by God.

Not that I even believe in God but if there were such a being, I can’t imagine he/she would  really  care what people eat, what people wear, which day of the week they choose to take off, or whether or not they choose to make a snowman.

None of that has anything to do with whether or not you are a good person.  And that is all that really matters.

Just got back from the Alchemy Poetry reading and, as always, it was sort of a mixed bag.  The feature reader, Hans Fellman, is an open mike regular and, to tell the truth, I often find his work embarrassingly  scatological – he loves to say fuck and talk about his dick a lot.  But, he read 3 short stories and they all held my  interest from beginning to end, which is the best thing you can say about a short story.  They had interesting characters and interesting dialogue (which particularly impresses me, because I can’t write dialogue for shit).  They were all autobiographical but that’s O.K.  I’d just as soon hear about a real person’s life as a fictional person’s life.  And now I feel I know a lot about his life.

Alisdair Bouche sang a couple of beautiful, original love songs and a guy named John I’d never seen before (and may never see again – a lot of people pass through Alchemy, dip their toes in the water, and never return) read a couple of very nice poems.

On the negative side: people giving long and rambling introductions to what they are going to read.  If the introduction is so long that interest starts to flag before you even get to the poem, that is a bad thing.  If a poem needs an introduction that’s longer than a sentence or two, then the poem probably does not say the thing it was intended to say.

Overall, it was a good night.  My  poetic battery has been recharged, and I’m ready to write something brilliant and spectacular for next month.  What, I have no idea.