Category Archives: Deep Thoughts

I think…therefore I’m dangerous.

Hurricane Norbert

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Too weird for words.

You might think that Norbert is a pretty unusual name. In this country, it is. But it’s also the name of my father and brother. In the tiny NJ town where I spent many of my early years, there were four Norberts — two pairs of fathers and sons — among the 2,000 or so residents.

But that’s not what I’m blogging about. I’m blogging about Hurricane Norbert, which is currently off the west coast of Mexico, heading north. It’s a hurricane with the same name as my brother.

What’s weird is that the previous Pacific hurricane was named Marie, which is pretty darn close to my name.

Okay, you’re saying. That’s an interesting coincidence. But it’s not exactly your name so it really isn’t worth blogging about.

True. But an earlier Atlantic hurricane this season was named Laura. That’s exactly my sister’s name.

So you tell me: what are the chances of three named hurricanes, all happening one after the other, being named almost exactly for all three of the kids in a single family?

Too weird for words.

Team Earth

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I really don’t understand.

I like to think that I’m a “citizen of the world.” To me, that means that I feel that I (and my country) should be a team player on Team Earth.

Team Earth is the team that works together for the benefit of our world. When we see a crisis looming — global warming comes to mind — we work together to try to prevent it. When we see drought in one part of the world causing mass starvation, we step in with funds and technology to help the victims. When we see genocide killing off huge ethic groups in a country or region, we take action against the murderers.

The players on Team Earth do what’s right for the world. They don’t do just what will benefit themselves, especially at the expense of others.

So I can’t understand it when I hear the comments of some Americans — especially those living the good life — when they talk about “bombing the hell” out of one country, stealing the oil of another country, and ignoring the serious problems of yet another country.

I can’t understand why people would rather set up oil rigs in a pristine wilderness to provide just 5% of our country’s current oil use in 2020 or beyond when they could be spending the same money developing alternative energy sources that don’t destroy the planet — or simply act responsibly to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels. (Do we really need to commute to work in vehicles like Hummers?”)

I can’t understand why people who have health plans (today) are so opposed to a universal health care system that would protect those who are less fortunate from financial ruin in the event of a catastrophic health problem.

I can’t understand why any American — other than a very wealthy one — would support a candidate who would give a taxpayer earning more than $2.9 million per year a $269,000 tax cut (on top of the tax cuts already handed out by G.W. Bush) while cutting the taxes of folks making less than $19K by less than $20 — all while the government is funding an expensive War in Iraq and bailing out financial institutions. (The numbers are summarized here, and here’s a video for those who struggle with tables of numbers.

I know I’m not the only player on Team Earth. But am I the only American player on the team?

Note to Religious Fanatics

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You are not welcome here.

I am not a religious person. In fact, I’m an atheist.

I don’t use this blog to promote my religious (or non-religious) views. While some of my comments may reflect those views, I’m not trying to convince anyone that they should change their views. Religion (or lack thereof) is a personal choice.

By the same token, I don’t expect or want any reader to use the comments feature to try to convince me or any other reader to change their religious views. If you want to preach, go bother some other blogger. Don’t bother me.

Read this carefully: I will delete any comment that attempts to communicate what I or any other person should believe about a higher being. This blog is not a forum for religious debate. Period.

I just had a four-comment exchange going with a reader who found God and evidently looked down on me because I hadn’t. When I told him I wasn’t interested in a religious debate but offered to leave his comments online for others to discuss with him, he wasn’t satisfied. He wanted a debate with me. His final comment — which never appeared here — was a condescending jab at me. I’m inferior in his eyes because I don’t believe that his god is watching over me and controlling my life. This same god, I should mention, is also just standing by while innocent people all over the world suffer from illness, starvation, and the cruelty of others.

God is all powerful and all good? Give me a fucking break.

In the meantime, I think this guy is an idiot for wasting his time preaching religion to the non-religous on the Web.

Well, he blew it and he screwed it up for anyone else with the idea of talking religion here. I won’t tolerate it any more. All of his comments have been removed and you won’t see any others.

You don’t like this policy? Don’t fool yourself into thinking that I care. There are millions of other blogs out there. Go bother someone else.

No Need to Bash Sarah Palin

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Why I don’t need to bother.

It might seem as if I have it in for Sarah Palin. I do. She’s severely under-qualified for the position they’re placed her in. As a woman, I’m insulted that they obviously thought they could put any woman who looked good in a skirt in this position to capture the female vote. I don’t agree with the few policies she’s voiced — for example, anti-abortion, even in the case of rape — and I certainly don’t want to see another Evangelical “Christian” anywhere near the White House.

And doesn’t having an unmarried, pregnant teenage daughter say anything about her failings as a mother? (I know it says a lot about abstinence only sex education, as I pointed out here.)

Yet I’ve personally said very few things against her in this blog. Why?

Because I don’t have to. Everyone else is doing it for me. All I have to do is link to the articles, jokes, and videos I find on the Web.

And I’m not even looking for them! They come to me from my friends — including folks who live in Alaska — via e-mail and Twitter. They come to me from as far away as the U.K., Portugal, and New Zealand!

I just sit back and follow the links I get. If I find something I think is worth sharing, I pass it along.

So I have no need to bash Sarah Palin. I’ll let the rest of the world do it for me.

Best Palin Pre-Debate Quote

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This was so funny, I had to blog it.

In surfing around the Web this evening, I stumbled upon a comment from Tom Wright on a Talking Points Memo reader post regarding tomorrow night’s vice presidential debate:

Beware, Palin’s infuriating verbal squirming may cause Biden’s head to explode.

People making the mistake of trying to understand her unparseable constructions suffer greatly. Only by matching her smile and blank cheerfulness can one withstand the sucking black hole of unreason that is Palin attempting to communicate with words.

He was referring, of course, to all interviews done so far — yes, all three of them — in which Palin has proven again and again that she is completely clueless.