Balance? What's that, Daddy?

         

          A wise man once told me that there are two sides to every argument and that the truth generally lies somewhere in between.  Humans are creatures of extremes.  We very rarely meet the truth in any subject in its own territory.  No matter what the subject is, there is Their side vs Our side and never the twain shall met (or is that the mane shall tweet?  I always get those two mixed up.) and both sides will call the other side liars, bigots, heretics etc as loud as they can.  If Side A has facts, Side B ignores them and vice versa.  Doesn't matter if the facts are correct, cause "they" are preaching them.

          Instead of delving into politics or religion, lets take a purely hypothetical situation.  The Proposition?  Gamma Rays from Planet X cause mutations in mushrooms that cause them to become ravenous monsters that eat red headed politicians.  Now Side A receives huge funding from Planet X in return for them lobbying to allow X to beam its Gamma Rays into Earth's Atmosphere.  They preach that the rays are completely harmless and the giant mushrooms rampaging in the streets are some form of mass hallucination.  Side A receives huge amounts of funds from Red Head Politicians who quite rightly fear for their lives from the rampaging mutant meat eating mushrooms.  Side B preaches that X is evil and plans on conquering the Earth once the Mutant Mushrooms devour our last line of defense, Red Headed Politicians.
          Now a small group of independent and very dedicated scientists discover that the aforementioned Mutant Mushrooms aren't actually devouring Earthly Red Headed Politicians but snarfing up evil shapeshifting invaders from Planet Y who have been sent down here to infiltrate and destroy our way of life.  The Mutant Mushrooms aren't eating people, they are eating evil alien invaders.

          So here you have a situation where both sides have some of the facts.  X Gamma Rays are indeed mutating Earthly fungus and the Fungus is indeed eating red headed politicians.  Both sides are missing the information that the Middle Group has so one would think that when the MG reveals their facts, both sides will rejoice.  Side A could rejoice in the fact tha X Gamma Rays aren't doing any damage to the Earth and Side B could rejoice that actual Red headed Politicians aren't being eaten.  However, as history proves time and again, what will happen is that both A and B will renounce MG's findings because those findings contradict their own.  MG will be belittled and reduced to a laughing stock that is completely ignored.  Man would rather go down the proverbial crapper than ever admit that he or she could be wrong.
          Things are never going to be fixed on this mudball until all sides can stop, look around and realize that they don't have all the answers.  No great project or problem in the entire history of...well history has ever been solved without everyone working together.  It is possible for us to fix pretty much every problem faced by the world today if we all just step down from our high horses/soap boxes and listen to one another.  I pray to God in all of his kindness and wisdom that we can do that, because if we can't we are royally screwed.

         

          Since I think that I completely lost the train of this blog somewhere along the line, I will apologize by showing you a picture of a puppy.  God Bless Everyone.

Where did it all come from?

 

Crash, bang boom!

           So I was watching a science video by a "Prominent Harvard Astrophysicist earlier (Yes I watch science videos, get over it) and he was speaking at great length with excellent visual aids about how Scientists are 99.99999% certain that all life on Earth arrived here in the form of tiny little microbes.  These microbes arrived on one of the uncountable number of meteorites that bombarded the newly forming planet way back when.  These hitchhikers would later evolve into the myriad number of plants, animals and insects that we know today.  He stated quite categorically that once the final tidbits of proof had been found, the "fantasy" of a Deity would finally be eliminated from our minds.

           Now this got me thinking which as anyone who knows me can tell you is a dangerous thing.  I had to ponder a very important question.  What if he is right?  What if instead of God coming down, making a nice comfy place to hang out, making animules and plants to enjoy and some homies to hang out with, Magic Microbes from Outer Space (Hey there might be a movie in that) made it all happen?  What if all the stories from all the religions and their varied texts are nothing but nifty tales we made up to understand the world around us.  In short, what if all the religions in all the world were basically wrong?

 

          Pretty heave stuff, right?  Let me tell you it made my headparts hurt something fierce.  I have my own religious beliefs and anyone who knows me knows what they are, but I admit that I have had doubts time and time again.  So here I was pondering this very learned man's idea that everything I believe in was wrong and I admit I am man enough to face this very depressing idea.  So I did.  For all of ten minutes I pondered what he had said and I found myself thinking that it at least a plausible idea.  However I did find one teensy weensy flaw in his excellent reasoning and its the same flaw that has come to me every single time I have heard this tripe before.  And like it always does that single thought made me feel better and I went back to working in my new garden.

          You ready for my thought?  Are you sure?  Think hard cause there is no turning back.  Okay here it is.  I believe, at least in theory, that Science may one day disprove Religions.  After all, Religions are just the transcribed words of God that we have formed into a codified belief system.  I mean, think about.  God himself did not write the books of the Bible (Torah, Talmud, Necronomicon etc)  He just hung out with his creations, talked to them and told them the way that he thought things should be.  The Holy Books of Man (with the possible exceptions of the Ten Commandments being blasted from stone and the Silver Disks arriving engraved and ready for shipping) were all written, rewritten and translated God only knows how many times over the Millennia.  Somewhere, someone had to have gotten it wrong.  Hell, by the very nature of the beast (Pun intended) only one of the religions on Earth can actually be right.  The rest have to be either misinterpretations or outright fabrications.  That is just the way it works.  So it is possible that everyone got it wrong and life began just the way this man said it did.

          Now that said, I come to the question that makes me smile when these know it all Atheists claim that there is no God.  If life here or anywhere else in the universe came from microbes raining down from space.  If the entire history of our world was never gifted with divine guidance.  If indeed all of the religious beliefs  in all the world are wrong.  I just have one question for you sitting in your air conditioned office with your snarky attitude.  (Ready for the question?  Its a doozy!)

Where did the Microbes come from?

To quote the great Stan Lee, "Nuff said."

 

Blessings, all shapes and sizes

     So as part of my morning routine, I logged onto FB and one of my many friends had posted a video about a mother and the child people thought she should have aborted.  The boy aptly named Christian was born with severely cleft palette and literally born without eyes.  She talked about how most people told her she should have aborted him because, I am sure, that they felt the child would never lead a normal life or accomplish anything worthwhile.  I am proud to say that she had the courage to ignore the hate and love her son and now her son serves to inspire others.
     Of course, as most things do, got me to thinking.  (I know that it is a bad habit that gets me in trouble, but I am trying to cut back I promise.)  This isn't the first story I have heard where people share the attitude that just because someone isn't "perfect" that they can't contribute to the world and make people happy.  The whole attitude that disabled children and adults are nothing more than a drain on resources is so Medieval that it's disgusting, but it's a belief system that simply won't die.  These kids can do just as much in their own way for the world as all the Jobs, Gates and Buffets ever could.
     I use and I hope my brother Benjamin will forgive me, an amazing young man named Jessee.  Jessee is "disabled" and I put that in quotation marks to show just how inaccurate it is.  Because of circumstances beyond anyone's control, Jessee will probably not ever be a doctor or some great scientist.  (I say probably because every time I spend time around him, he always amazes me so whose to say what the future might hold.)   So many people will look at Jessee and list all the things that he will never do.  Well, let me list the things that he can do just to be spiteful.
     1.  Jessee can hunt and fish.  He often spends time with his family doing just these amazing things.  His skills can actually put food on the table.  How many "normal" people can say that.
     2.  Jessee can run and play just like everyone else.  The sheer joy I see every time I see him do this is breathtaking.  We could all learn a lesson or two from him on having fun.
     3.  Beyond anything else he can do, Jessee can make you smile.  His boundless enthusiasm and love lights up any room he is in.  The joy he brings his father, mother and sister is like a warm fire on a cold day.
     A friend of mine in college got pregnant because of rape.  She was encouraged by everyone to abort the baby. She refused because she believed that it would wrong to punish an unborn child for the sins of the father.  When Sera (Short for Seraphim yes my friends were all Geeks) was born she had a laundry list of health issues not the least of which was a congenital heart defect and Down's Syndrome.  The Dr.s told my friend that she probably wouldn't live more than a year and would never make it to adulthood.
     Now in a perfect happy world this is where I tell you that Sera grew up, lived to a ripe old age and became President or some proud thing, but this isn't a perfect world.  Sera lived exactly 11 months and five days before she moved on from our lives.  She never ran a marathon.  She never discovered the cure for Crow's Feet.  In most peoples' eyes, she probably never accomplished anything at all. but they'd be wrong.
     In her short life span, Sera smiled and made people feel good.  Sera brought joy and peace to everyone she met.  She loved unconditionally and gave everyone around her hope.  She enriched her mother's life and her "Uncle's" too.  She made the world a better place.  How many "normal" healthy adults can make that claim.   
     I have known lots of kids and adults like Jessee and Sera.  I have also seen how so many people look down on them.  I accepted a long time ago that I can't change ignorance and hatred.  It is a much a part of human nature as breathing.  So instead of hating these people, I just feel sorry for them.  Because of their ignorance, they will never know people like Sera, Jessee or Christian.  Maybe one day the human race will move beyond cookie cutter attitudes about people.  When that day comes, if it comes they will find the rest of us already there waiting for them.
    

The Muppet Menace!

      (Okay don't ask what inspired this bit of insanity because I have no idea. It just seemed to leap into my crazed brain sometime last night and won't go away until I write it down.  As an Author's note please let me say that (For once) this is a blog that is not a dig against Republicans and Fox News.  Yes I still have issues with both, but this is simply meant to be funny.  Relax and enjoy the insanity and don't read too much into it.)

(Impressive music plays in background as the Faux News Logo dances on the screen)

     "Good afternoon and welcome to Faux News, I'm Ked Topple.  Today we have with us the Reboobican Candidate, Mickey Buckmann who is with us to discuss the issues that she believes are the most important ones facing America today.  Thank you for meeting with us today, Ms. Buckmann."

(Camera pans to show wild eyed woman dressed in a Nun's habit and a Witch's cap)

     "Thank you, Ked and let me say it is an honor to be back on Faux News, the first television network to broadcast the truth and nothing but the truth so.  I appreciate this chance to talk to the American people on the greatest threat to our nation since the German's bombed Pearl Harbor during the Revolutionary War!  My 'opponents' talk about unimportant subjects such as taxes and jobs, completely ignoring, probably deliberately, the larger threat.  But as your next president, I promise you I will deal with this danger."

(Topple nods sagely while adjusting the live hedgehog he has on top of his head."

     "And what might this huge menace to the American Way of Life be, Senator?  The rising threat of a nuclear armed Iran?  The instability in North Korea?"

(Buckmann throws back her head and cackles and tosses a hex sign at Topple)

     "No, Ked.  While I admit those are kind of important issues, the one I am speaking of is here at home.  I am talking about...THE MUPPET MENACE!

     "While others focus on events abroad, these evil and oftentimes not even human creatures tempt and corrupt our youth away from the natural way of God and Man.  They tell our impressionable children that it is okay to do radical things.  Here are some examples."

      "Muppets ate strong supporters of Same Sex Unions/Marriages.  A prime example of this are the infamous same sex couple, Bert and Ernie.  This Bromance has been going on for decades right under the noses of caring parents, teaching children that it is okay for two men to cohabitate while raising a rubber ducky."
 
      "Next we have the so-called Cookie Monster (Real name unknown).  In a time where childhood obesity is at an all time high and the First Family are holding barbeques this creature continuously sends our children the message that it is okay to binge on sugar laden junk foods."
 
      "Then there is Count Von Count, an obvious non-American who is probably also a Communist from the USSR.  A prime example of OCD, he lives in an opulent castle while obsessively counting anything that he can find.  With the multitudes of children struggling with disorders that range from Anorexia to Lycanthropy, do we really need a charismatic vampire adding to their troubles?"
 

      "and finally we have the most damning evidence of these Muppets attacks on our children and way of life.  Kermit and Piggy T. Frog.  Not content with simply forcing same sex unions down our throats, the Muppets want to make our youth believe that it is alright for entirely different species to marry and raise young.  God only knows how Kermit's 'nephew' will turn out after being raised in an inter-species family."
     (Camera focuses on Buchmann who is foaming at the mouth and jumping up and down on the desk.)
     "Stand with me America and make me your next president so we can stop the Muppet Menace before we are surrounded by Obsessed, Binge Eating Frog Monsters!  I am your only hope!  What a world what a world!"
     (Buckmann leaps on her broom and flies off cackling at the top of her lungs.  Topple readjusts his hedgehog and looks back at the camera.)
     "That's all for Faux News at 12 today.  Join us tomorrow when candidate Paul Runs talks about how a dinosaur invasion is a very real threat.  Have a great day, I'm Ked Topple."