What's Up?

     "I took Pogo over to the office building, and he pooped on the back lawn. I didn't have a bag so I kicked a cave into the snow and kicked the poop into the cave. Then I told a neighbor about it at my apartment complex (poor people have no money, hence no new experiences, and nothing to talk about but where your dog pooped last!). Lo and behold, in a day or so, one of the apartment staff came up to my apartment and chastized me for not having a bag. That neighbor had reported me to the apartment staff!"
     This sounded to me like the secret police in a dictatorship like Communism or Sharia Islam, and I responded, "She had no business talking to you about what you did off property. Clear and simple. Tell her so, say good-bye, and shut the door."
     Upon reflection, I realized that it was not that simple because our apartment complex depends on the the office building staff to allow our cars to park in their parking lot once in a blue moon for such occasions as when our parking lot is re-surfaced. We have a fence between the two properties but maintain an open gate. It is important that we be good neighbors, and there is justification for our staff to talk to tenants. But it's still unpleasant and intrusive. And who would report that to staff?
   

What's Up?

Brattleboro, Vermont, USA
     "Then you're a conservative."
     "No, a conservative wouldn't support the right to take drugs. I'm more a libertarian except the idiots don't believe in a national defense [proactive]."
     "Did I hear you say someone was an idiot?"
     "Yes."
     "You can't say anyone is an idiot because that means you are smarter than they are."
     "I am, at least in national defense."
     "You don't mean any drug, like heroin, do you?"
     "I do. If you're free to kill an unborn baby, you're free to take anything you want, including poison."
     "That's absurd."
     Dear Reader, do you see the hypocrisy? I can't call people dumb, but she can because she's right. She's the authority, not me. Authoritarianism, not reason, is the basis for collectivism and political correctness.
     Here's another this week: "I found it obscene that this lovely, very submissive eleven year old child was in the pulpit reading something from the Bible about the Jews getting discouraged about wandering in the desert for forty years and having the courage to complain about it. And then what does God do? He sends poisonous sea snakes to bite and kill many of the Jews.
     "Well, you don't have the context."
     "Context is everything," I agreed.
     "If you had read on, you would have learned that God had erected a monument, and if you looked at that monument, you would have been saved."
     This woman described herself as a Christian Counselor who worked with people every day. We discussed evidence versus faith for religion, and next time I will say,"You know, if you were born in Somalia, you'd be a Sharia Muslim for the very same reasons you have become a Christian in Vermont: Faith. And you'd be defending an evil religion that wants to kill the infidel, clothe women in tents, cut off their genitals, and keep everyone in mind-control on pain of death. You'd support all that evil because of your faith, just as you're doing with Christianity now. That's what happens when you don't use the reason we have evolved to have. You believe in magic. And you should think about that when you counsel people because they are at a fragile point in their lives, and what you say to them has a big impact. You owe it to them to be reasonable."
     Peter Nickerson, Philosophy Major
"The measure of a man,
  Is not what he says,
  But what he does,
  And what he allows others,
  To do in his presence."
   - USA Navy Seal Instructor

What's Up?

     In order not to listen to collectivists on the radio here in the Far North,
I began listening to sports radio. It was a relief to hear things judged almost solely on their merits and not to have to hear humans trying to force other humans to think and do the same sexless, joyless way. That has all changed with Trump. Suddenly sports is completely political at the insistence of the collectivists. The hysterics du jour is about how many Patriots are going to boycott with White House reception. Collectivist politics has become totalitarian:
collectivists are insisting that everything you do is political. It is totally political. You can't go to the White House to be received by the president because you are saying you are a sexist, a racists, and everything else that is bad. Of course, collectivists are also hostile to tradition except the Soviet May Day Parade. I implore the Patriots to ignore the crazies and honor the tradition of winners being received at the White House. Of course, the collectivists are against anyone else winning but them. Such crazy children!
     Peter Nickerson, Philosophy Major
     "The measure of a man,
       Is not what he says,
       But what he does,
       And what he allows others,
       To do in his presence."
        - USA Navy Seal Instructor