Population & Compassion

At a conference today I was talking to a speaker. He said the economy is slowly going to get better simply because the population is continuing to grow. He said the foreclosed property is beginning to get sucked up and new construction is emerging again. According to the speaker, we'll see a long span of growth followed by another sharp recession. My only response was, "I hope I retire before that happens."

Really, right now I am just hoping to stay employed until I can grab on the government safety net. At least I'll be able to buy food, and I'll have Medicare! I know the Big Hand that's providing these things is slowly going bankrupt, but maybe I can eat from Uncle Sam's trough just long enough to meet the Grim Reaper.

I do know the current world economic system is totally unsustainable, and sooner or later the entire thing will come crashing down. My hope is that humanity will enjoy a soft landing, but more likely we'll see a lot of starvation and extreme violence. All the while, we'll still get to switch on our TVs and see pastors with bad haircuts, who will be waving Bibles and muttering something about Armageddon.

Population

Back in 1997 I had this crazy idea that I would try to save the world. I did some research and felt that slowing the human population explosion was the best way to help the Earth. So, for years I became a tireless population activist. Last year, for instance, I tabled at a population event and gave three slide shows. On average, I do one population event per quarter.

But you know what? I don't worry about it any more. I know that humans are a fragile species and it won't take much to hinder our reproduction. Fresh water and oil are already a scarcity, and we need both to support the 7 billion of us. Plus, more people means more demand for essential items, which creates higher prices and scarcity. As prices go up, the general cost of living goes up, and kids must stay at home longer. Plus, in a super-expensive world, young couples wait longer to have children, or they don't reproduce at all.

Add to this the past-due acceptance of women as equals. As women are treated with more respect and given more equality around the world, they have more options than motherhood. Many will choose careers, while others will still prefer to be stay-at-home moms, but ultimately, there are less babies.

Compassion

Population sustainability is an emotional and controversial issue. I've come to think of it as a beautiful humanitarian effort. As an activist, all I advocate for is universal access to contraception. This simply means that poor women who WANT to have no children, have FEWER children, or who want to SPACE their children farther apart, can have the power to do so. Contraception gives a woman freedom and the ability to choose her destiny. But this freedom threatens the old world order. Many men prefer that women stay subservient, and they use religion or tradition to keep women "barefoot and pregnant," as they say. Religious groups scream that contraception kills babies, but remain silent on all the trillions of potential babies killed every day by, yep, the masturbators. What the religionists are really doing is practicing "womb control" on women.

For years, I've fought the religionist in the United States and their elected officials in Washington. I've gone to our nation's capital several times to lobby. Republication politicians seem to feel that their constituents are so dumb that they'll confuse "contraception" with "abortion," and, thus, they fight against domestic and international family planning. After years of banging my head against the right wing wall, I got tired and gave up. YOU WIN, GUYS!

Cynicism

So, by around 2003, after 6 years of activism work, I was slowly getting jaded and sinking into cynicism. I wanted to say, "Okay, I told you so, see for yourself what happens." However, in my heart I know that cynicism is just an excuse to give up. It's easy to be a jaded cynic, but what I really need to do is keep ramming my head into the conservative wall until little cracks develop. If anything, I owe it to the millions of women in the world who cannot afford or cannot easily access contraception. I also owe it to the world, which is rapidly being polluted and stripped of resources and tree cover.

One of the biggest myths, hell, I mean LIES, is that contraception is bad. To the contrary, it saves the lives of women who are at near exhaustion from having children in rapid succession. The pills or shots are simply giving the woman a rest and a break. Despite the misinformation coming from Rome or Redstate.com, contraception is not "population control" and it is not "abortion." Rather, it is an act of humanity. It is using technology to give women freedom, power, and more control over their destiny. I think this is only fair, moral, and just.

Photo credit: NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Pondering Humanity

As I grow older, human society seems crazier and crazier to me. I'm wondering if I'm changing, or becoming more aware, or if people are just becoming more dysfunctional.

The biggest and saddest comedy act is the U.S. Congress. I like the idea of democracy, but our elected officials have shown us that it's all a facade, a big joke, and an idealist's pipe dream. Has our government always been so broken and corrupt? I know that in the old days people like Teddy Roosevelt actually fought the greedy political bosses, but now everyone's in the same bed.

Then there is the total brain-screwing on climate change. The Big Oil-funded think tanks have done a splendid job of confusing the public and throwing doubt in people's minds. In reality (whatever THAT is these days) the evidence that humans are warming the Planet is overwhelming. But every time there is a cold snap people start screaming, "Global warming is a hoax."

Food Supply

I have this theory that our weakening food supply is what is melting down the brains of our elected leaders and the general public. Instead of eating nuts, veggies, fruits, and wild meat like our ancestors, people today are stuffing Little Debbie's in their mouths. We are becoming a nation of giant people who spend countless hours watching reality TV and reading gossip tabloids. Our brains are weakening, and our test scores are falling. At least the Romans could blame it on incest and lead in their pipes, but for Americans we have nothing to blame except for our laziness and lack of discipline. As the nutritional quality of our food weakens, so do we. And so does our will.

Gay Marriage

The Christian fundamentalist surge seems to be weakening, foaming, and receding back into the sea. Gay marriage laws are being passed around the country. I am delighted. It shows that all the pew hoppers aren't jumping much any more. I thank Westboro Baptist Church, the Rev. Harold Camp, the Rev. Terry Jones, and all the other nuts for showing us what religion really is — just absolutely nuts. Of course, if you're nuts and rich, you can be a Scientologist, which will increase your "cool factor" in Hollywood.

Trash

The other thing that's nuts is our throwaway society. We absolutely can't be throwing all the trash and plastic in the landfills indefinitely. It's a simply unsustainable practice. If all that plastic you throw away takes 500 years to deteriorate, people 500 years from now are going to hate you. There is going to be plastic buried everywhere by then. And as that stuff does slowly rot away, do you think it just disappears? Nope. It turns into methane gas and rises into the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming. Every plastic cup you toss makes the Planet a little warmer, and a little nastier. At least recycle the damn thing.

I'm totally tired. I've been blogging now for nine years, almost to the day. I've written about 380 some entries. Think of them as my gift to future generations and my contribution to society. One day people will read my posts and say, "Wow, the Green Goose really had his head screwed on nicely." But, then again, maybe not. I'm convinced that no one really cares about anything, except maybe their little pet causes. Where's the love, baby?

Photo credit: seanmcgrath / Foter.com / CC BY

Christmas 2012

Not that I'm a Grinch, but I've always seen Christmas as environmental genocide. People pack the stores to buy imported Asian junk, which they give to their friends and loved ones. It's usually stuff they don't need, and ends up in drawers, closets, or landfills. Once in the landfills, the junk deteriorates, gives off methane gas, and further warms the planet. However, the good part about Christmas is getting to be with loved ones.

As I look back on this past year, there's plenty to be happy about. I love the positive things I'm seeing:

• Trend toward "buy local," humane, and organic farming.
• More solar panels and wind turbines.
• Advances in gay rights.

On the downside, I'm saddened by:

• Continued extreme violence everywhere.
• Our dysfunctional and impotent U.S. Congress.

My hope for 2013 is that we all muster the political will to fix our broken Congress. We can start with:

• Term limits.
• Removing the "personhood" from corporations.
• Removing the lie that cash is "free speech."
• Stopping the gerrymandering.

One ongoing problem in our society is the domination of cults, which promote irrational thinking. The religious cults are perhaps the worst, and should always be met with facts and reason. Most cults have doomsday scenarios, but my future will always be one of hope. I know that people have within them the ability to do the right thing. It's just a matter of shaking off all the stupid memes and cultural baggage, and having the courage to think rationally, even when it flows against the grain.

What entertains me about cultists is that they are so confident that what they believe is "the one right way" that they don't even question it. Perhaps the one positive thing I can do in life is to put cracks in their hard-held beliefs. Just letting them know that everyone doesn't agree with them serves a purpose.

Hurray for the two states that passed gay marriage laws in November. This is a sign of hope. The entire War Against Gays is completely made up from nothing. When people cherry pick verses from the Old Testament to justify their war and hatred, I simply retort by saying, "You either have to accept all of the Old Testament or none of it. God don't like cherry pickers." That would mean you can't eat shrimp and would have to put adulterers to death, plus dozens of other dumb rules.

To all humans, if Christmas means "hope," then I'm all for it. Let us hope for peace, social advancement, and environmental sustainability. 

Photo credit: ~jjjohn~ / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Ending the Violence

A consistent theme of my blog is that peacemaking is an essential part of sustainability. The most recent mass shooting of school children in Connecticut is so vile and unthinkable that I'm now wondering if we're going in the opposite direction.

Maybe, overall, we are moving to a more peaceful society, but we seem helpless when it comes to mentally sick, rage-filled humans who want to randomly kill others. As far as the social ills that cause this phenomena, members of the U.S. gun cult are quick to blame video games or the lack of mental health facilities for the problem. In truth, the massacre problem is caused by a collection of social failures, including the easy accessibility of brutally deadly firearms.

While I have no qualm with rifles used for hunting or target competition, I do think a handgun purchase should include a rigorous background check and mental health screening. Extended magazine clips, silencers, and semi-automatic weapons should be outlawed.

Unfortunately, the NRA has forced the door open on deadly firearms for so long that it's necessary for many to own a gun just to have protection against criminals. Often, legal guns are stolen and enter the evil underworld, where they are used to commit crimes.

I imagine one day some PR hack at NRA headquarters had a brilliant idea. "Let's just start a campaign to say that more guns are needed to protect us from all the guns." This policy, which is wonderful for gun manufacturers, is simply a violent race to the bottom. So, the suggestion here is that if you gave everyone in the U.S. a gun, we would have a safer country. And let's have guns at churches and schools to protect us from the wackos who indiscriminately murder. But then the bad guys will start getting bigger, more powerful guns, so the good guys will need to get more deadly weapons. When the U.S. economy starts seriously melting down and people become hungry and desperate, what is going to happen then?

Solution

The only solution I can see to this madness is to change the culture and our attitudes toward violence. People who are at-risk need to be better identified and given help. Often, just a little love or attention can keep someone from going down a bad path. The violence in the media and in video games needs to be shunned. And those who boast about their gun collections need to be shunned as well by the more peaceful members of society. The memes and cultural ideas that we have about violence simply needs to shift.

Christianity

Ahhhh, excuse me but I have read the New Testament several times and Christianity seems like a pretty pacifist religion to me. Of course, in the Old Testament, God was a more butt-kicking, violent being, but he suddenly gets warm and fuzzy in the gospels. Yet, some of the biggest pro-gun advocates I know are also very Christian. This tells me two things: First, you really don't have faith that your deity will protect you, and, secondly, you are cherry-picking what you want to follow in the Bible.  In regards to the people waving a Bible in one hand and a gun in another, your credibility is lost with me.

Oh, and I need to comment on the crazy things religious people have said since the shootings. I've heard things like "it's because we took God out of the schools," or "it's because of gay marriage, abortion, and our turning away from God." It never enters their mind that the problem could be the easy accessibility to assault weapons, or the NRA's ability to control Congress. No, that has nothing to do with it — God is simply PISSED at us because Jim and John got married.

The Hope for Common Sense

I watched part of the NRA press conference given by the organization's CEO, Wayne LaPierre. The organization has become so brazen and delusional that it's mind-boggling. Essentially, the NRA is wanting us to have an armed guard at every school in the nation to protect our children from the very policies that the NRA promotes.

The NRA is a powerful organization now, but I think as these mass murders continue there will be more anti-gun advocates, and eventually organizations promoting peace and reasonable gun laws will break the back of the NRA. My hope, as with everything else, is that good will simply overwhelm and overtake evil and violence.

Conclusion

Now that I'm totally disgusted with the NRA's Mr. LaPierre I am going to start giving money to the Brady Campaign. I do not know how we are going to move to a truly peaceful society because it appears that we are going in the opposite direction. But if we could trade guns for hugs and love, I know that would go a long way. Handguns simply have one function — killing. They have no place is a peace-loving society.

I have only personally known one person in all my life who was murdered. As it turns out, he was murdered with his own gun. I'm sure he felt his guns would protect him, but in his case things didn't work out as expected.


Photo credit: h.koppdelaney / Foter / CC BY-ND

Reflections of A Madman

Luz Adriana Villa A. / Foter / CC BY

I have no complaints in life and I have received some wonderful, unexpected blessings. I still yearn to put my life to good use by doing some great accomplishment, but I remain burnt out.

If I were to do something great I'd probably go through the same routine that I did in 1997. I would sit down and say to myself, "What is the one issue where I can make the greatest impact with my life." At the time I determined it would be "human overpopulation," so I set out on a course to flatten the growth curve. I started a statewide coalition and we had meetings, tabling events, hosted forums, visited schools, and travelled around giving presentations. Fifteen years later I'm still at it. This year, I've done one tabling event and given three Powerpoint presentations on population. You know, I still enjoy it. I mainly love hanging out with the intellectual people in these groups. These are the people who give me hope and energize me.

Until I figure out what to do I feel that at least I can put myself to good use by making the lives of others a little less miserable. I try to do this daily with little kind comments to people at stores and restaurants, by making calls and sending cards to the sick, and by just trying to lift others up.

Most importantly, I am dedicated to peacemaking. When there is conflict I do what I can to make peace between the opposing parties. This is often difficult because sometimes one side will do something really crappy, and in their perception they are completely in the right, and they show no willingness to compromise. Often, these types of people don't realize they are being the antagonist. In their eyes they are completely innocent and everyone else is at fault.

Split
Our entire nation is divided between the angry white people on one side and the people of color and granola-eating hippies on the other side. Our country is divided into two distinct camps and every issue or incident in the news is viewed completely differently. When President Obama visits Middle Eastern nations one side calls him a "peacemaker" and the other side labels him a "sellout" and "weak." Obviously, that whole "blessed are the peacemakers" thing got flushed down the toilet.

Admittedly, I do lean a little liberal and a little libertarian, but I will always hold an olive branch and reach out to my brothers and sisters across the aisle. Not really. Actually, I'm sick of their shit. But I will at least hear them out and try to figure out where they are coming from on various issues.

Onward Bound
So, I'm still looking for that one issue, perhaps environmental or social, that will energize my passion and get me excited and going again. So far, I don't know what it is. I've become totally cynical, jaded, untrusting, and perpetually melancholy. I actually like living in a state of mild depression because it feels good. I did some acting in school and it's fun "acting" happy and cheerful on the outside, when, on the inside, I'm thinking, "I'll actually be glad when this three act play is over and I can get back to what I was doing for billions of years — making stars."

But I do feel that I have one last calling left. I am eating right and exercising and keeping myself in good physical condition for when the time comes. I am standing "on deck" and waiting for destiny to call me as I enter the final phase of my life.

I am human 3,004,232,541. I am a small speck in a massive see of humanity. We seem to be a wildly successful species, but our Planet is too small to handle our exploding population and destructive ways. Maybe I will simply go over the waterfall to extinction like everyone else, or maybe I'll be able to slow down the inevitable by a few years. Who really knows.

Consumerism, Again

sylvar / Foter / CC BY-NC

Gather around because it's time for my annual rant on consumerism. Here is how the story goes: Asian factories, which generally treat people like dirt, pump out millions of cheap goods. These products are then transported by container ships, which burn heavy diesel, to the U.S. Once in America (which is blessed by God because we are nice to Israel) the goods are then sold in retail stores. These stores typically pay workers below-poverty-line wages, so the employees must either live with mom and dad or get some type of government assistance.

On Thanksgiving Day, happy Americans give long, rambling prayers about how they are thankful for all the crap they have. But by 6 p.m., in a ritual now known as "Gray Thursday," they are in the stores buying more crap, and are helped by retail workers who are paid crap. And the point of this? Because buying and hoarding crap gives people a momentary high. But the high quickly goes away and then people need MORE CRAP. And meanwhile, there are prosperity preachers that give fiery sermons about how God wants us to have crap because that's how he blesses us. Never mind the fact that we are going to have plenty of CRAP waiting for us in heaven if we say the three-sentence salvation prayer. What a good fuckin' deal.

Religion

This leads to my second favorite rant topic, which is religion. Now, for the record, I will say there is nothing wrong with pure deism, which is to believe in God, and that's it. The problem begins when people wrap a story around their God and everyone starts saying their story is the only CORRECT story.

Every day I read the newspaper and every day I find several articles related to religious conflict. Thus, I cannot help but believe that if you take away the religion you'll take away a great source of adversity in this world. Maybe, then, we could have more peace.

Furthermore, when I think about the totally needless and pointless war on gays, I can only come to one conclusion: RELIGION IS ALL ABOUT ENFORCING CULTURAL CONFORMITY. Or, put another way, religion is simply a form of social control.

Cigarettes

When I see smoke billowing out of cars, I know what will happen next, and, sure enough, it always does. The window goes down a little more and I see a cigarette butt flung into the street. Then, if I'm behind the same car long enough, I'll see more smoke coming from the cracked window.

Smoking harms in four ways — people are littering, polluting the air, harming themselves, and hurting others with second-hand smoke.

There is one absolute about smoking — it's impossible to smoke without being stupid. This is a nonnegotiable statement, without exception.

The biggest challenge for me right now is to deal with the anger I have for smokers. When I see them flick their butts out on the road, or when they are at a store entrance and I can't avoid their smoke, I just have to relax and not think about it. Most of these people will die prematurely and painfully by their own hand. Some will say the three-sentence prayer and at least get a mansion in their next life, but in this life all they've succeeded in doing is adding to the litter and air quality problems and maybe giving a few people cancer (maybe like their own children). It's not much of a legacy.

Ahhhhh.....

Okay, I feel better having ranted about three of my top pet peeves. I feel relaxed and happy again. I shall now fly to the nearest pond and have a few minnows for breakfast.

Note: I have vowed to no longer use copyrighted photos in my blog. All images are either taken by myself or used through a Creative Commons, non-commercial license. Photographers are always credited and I thank them for allowing me to use their work.

Animal Compassion

27147 / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Among the many things that keep me melancholy is our horrific industrialized food system. Chickens, pigs, and cattle live short lives in concentration camp like conditions and then face grim deaths.

Now, I am not a vegetarian by any means. I am an evolutionist and appreciate the role we all have in the food chain. However, I believe that the animals we eat should be treated with respect and compassion. After all, they are giving us protein and keeping us alive.

Chick-Fil-A

Now, if I were a Christian, and thank God I am not, I would see my compassion for animals as a natural extension of my compassion to fellow humans. You can't have compassion for one group and not the other without having a major disconnect and moral lapse. So, in the case of Chick-Fil-A, here is a Christian company that is so upset about those kissy, smooching guys marrying one another, but they don't seem so worried about the savagery of industrialized chicken farming.

Millions of chickens destined for one of the more than 1,600 Chick-fil-A outlets [Cathy] controls will spend the day packed wing-to-wing in dark, stifling warehouses, wallowing in their own excrement and bred to grow so fast that some of them can’t even support their own weight.  — Christopher Moraff

Now, respectfully shoving Christianity aside, I do not see how you can be a complete, balanced, and moral human being without giving compassion to both your planet and fellow animals, in addition to fellow humans.

And do conservative Christians really give compassion to fellow humans anyway? Well, not if you are a Palestinian, gay, immigrant, food stamp user, environmentalist, Democrat, liberal, etc... And when compassion is given, it is often because "God likes it" instead of "it's the right thing to do." Or maybe people just want a three-car garage in their heavenly mansion instead of a two-car garage.

Turkey Day

Our culture is full of traditions that we practice regularly and rarely question. As for Thanksgiving, it is one of those WTF holidays. Even Christmas makes more sense than Thanksgiving. So, here we are in 1621 enjoying the first Thanksgiving with the native Americans, and soon afterwards we are killing them, giving them diseases, stealing their land, swindling them, giving them firewater, and then shoving the survivors in an unwanted territory called Oklahoma. Let's be thankful for the few Indians who survived, for they provide us with something to name our sports teams after.

Oh, and why do Americans need a feast once a year when we feast every day? For the most part, Americans are disgustingly fat and feast regularly thanks to drive-thru windows. The medical industry has MUCH to be thankful for because they make millions treating all the diabetes, heart disease, and other obesity related illnesses.

Last but not least, am I the only one who finds the president's annual pardoning of a turkey just totally fucked up? I mean, hello, is just everyone gone crazy in this country? What about the millions of turkeys who are raised in brutal conditions, like the poor chickens mentioned above? Is anyone going to pardon them? No, we just run into the grocery store two days before the holiday and expect one to be in the open freezer. And sure enough, there they are, all shrink wrapped in plastic, and ready for the gravy and stuffing. If you want a turkey, go hunt it or buy a free range animal. And when you are at the dinner table saying grace, don't thank God for the meal. Thank the turkey. He's the one who gave his life for you — not some imaginary, mythological deity.

Post Industrialism

Brandon Christopher Warren / Foter / CC BY-NC

Even if we stopped polluting the Earth today, the artificial poisons we've placed into our air, soil, and water will haunt us for milleniums. Our planet is a rare, pristine jewel, floating through space, and we've already fouled it, perhaps forever.

So, no wonder I go through life melancholy. I have to live with the guilt that I'm part of the problem. Although I've tried to become part of the solution, I'm sucked into and enslaved by this industrial world and I can't seem to escape it.

I think about all the shampoo, household cleaners, and other chemicals that are going down my septic tank and straight into the soil. Yes, I do try to buy plant-based cleaners instead of petroleum-based products, so maybe I'm helping a little. But then there's shaving cream, face cleanser, and dozens of other products we all use — going down the drain where many of the artificially made chemicals will remain forever.

Do the Evolution Dance, Baby

Since I began my blog in 2004 the dominant theme has been environmental sustainability, but lately I've expanded it to the topic of social evolution. The subject fascinates me.

First and formost, I see religion, the turning of mythology into hard beliefs, as some sort of odd byproduct of our evolution. Somewhere in our early development religion must have provided some evolutionary advantage. For instance, maybe the social order provided by religion provided tribes with a stronger hierarchy and gave them an edge in war or general survival.

But the great irony of religion is that while it helped us get through the early years of our development it's now on the verge of destroying us. This is quite possibly why our radar satellites are not picking up intelligent life in the Universe. For, the religion that evolves us and leads us to intelligence ultimately kills us.

The daily newspaper is full of articles about religious violence. The Big Three religions fight one another, and even factions within the same religion, such as Shiites and Sunnis, kill one another. Religion is synonymous with violence, but then I have had Christians and Muslims look me straight in the eye and say they follow a religion of peace. What the fuck? Our only hope is to eradicate this destructive social disease from our culture.

New Beginnings

I'm hopeful that with the election behind us we can begin focusing on our environmental problems like global climate change. Reducing our carbon emissions will require a major realignment in the way we live. We simply arrived to where we are at today through a sort of industrial evolution, with no plan or thought for how we would impact the future. We just started driving cars in the 1890s with no worries that there would be billions of them 120 years later. We had no idea that our global population would jump from 2 billion to 7 billion in just a handful of decades. It all just happened. We didn't think it out. And now we live in a totally unsustainable world. There is NO WAY we can continue dumping all sorts of crap into the trash, flushing chemicals down the toilet, and then expect to live like this indefinitely.

It will be exciting as we re-engineer our lives and find a way to live peacefully with each other and our world in the post-industrial age. I envision a slower, quieter world with lots of small, local farms, solar panels, and wind turbines. People will get out and start walking again. Right now, the obesity epidemic should tell us something is deeply wrong with our society. I hope I don't offend too many folks by saying this, but I'm tired of looking at fat people — they are a living symbol of a society gone totally bad. In the new, green world people will again be walking and working with their hands. And they'll be eating healthier.

And as for the end of Hostess Twinkies -- good riddance! The old age of obesity, laziness, and stuffing whatever tastes good into your mouth is going away. And a new, healthier, happier age is arriving.

Right Wing Fear

seyed mostafa zamani / Foter / CC BY

As Ronald Reagan's America continues to unravel I am finding deep satisfaction. Those with rational minds are finally making progress against a generation that holds onto their childhood lies rather than embracing the future. My gut feeling is that logic would always prevail, and this prediction appears to be coming true.

The "conservative right" is a euphemism for fear. The breadbasket folks of America are afraid of change, afraid of the future, and afraid of what might happen if they let go of their mythology. These people still remain the guardians of the dominent American culture but their "base," you know, the one that propelled George W. Bush into power, is shrinking. Now, they are freaked out.

There are always "fear" tools that are in style, which the right wing places into their own mental psyche because being afraid of something is the only way they know how to live. After Obama's reelection last week I heard from some relatives who said they were going to "buy a gun" or get a "concealed weapon permit." For, without fear they could not function as the victims.

First, let me address their favorite "fear of the week," which is the Muslim plan for world domination. As for me, I don't worry about this at all. I know that ALL religions are invented by men. I know that as humanity continues to socially evolve, Islam will lose steam, unravel, and go away just like all other religions. Islam and the Arab nations are simply behind the cycle. Christianity has already gone through its angry, reactionary, violent phase and is now in deterioration. In many Western nations only its shell remains. And Islam is simply a couple of decades behind.

I predict that religion will simply evolve away ....

But there are other fears. The one that makes me laugh is the fear that God is going to take his "blessing" away from the U.S. because of abortion and homosexual marriage. My first question is, why did God "bless" atheist Russia with so much natural gas and Muslim Saudi Arabia with so much oil? I thought God didn't like those guys. But this gets back to the point — when you follow religion you CAN NOT follow any type of logic.

Then, there are more fears, like the fear of crime, so all the Christians, who follow the teachings of a pacifist Christ, go out and buy guns. Then, the deaths by gun accidents and "moments of rage" actually become greater than the deaths by evil gunmen who break into your house late at night wearing Obama masks.

There are actually so many fears that I can't discuss them all now. All I can say is that I'm deeply happy that I don't live a life of fear. I am glad that I am not haunted by imaginary enemies. I don't believe that hippies and occupiers are going to hand our country over to the communists. I don't fear that the socialists are going to take my gun away, brainwash my children, and turn us all into pot smoking heathens.

So, for all of my fellow Americans, who happen to be paranoid, Fox News-addicted gun fanatics, all I can say is "let go." Besides, your God is supposed to protect you anyway, so you are simply not showing enough faith. Yikes, once again I bit you in the ass with your own circular logic. Sorry, guys.

Vanity

I've been obsessed with watching WWII documentaries and clips on YouTube. The German army particularly interests me. They had all the training, political indoctrination, cool uniforms, and best equipment. Yet, they were fighting a war on three fronts and were simply swarmed by the greater numbers of their enemies. Their factories were simply outproduced by the factories of their opponents.

First of all, during my Christian upbringing I was told several times that the Nazis lost because they were evil. But I have been fascinated with WWII nearly all my life and have studied it since age 12. The fact is that the Nazis won battles and lost battles. Ultimately, they lost due to poor strategic decisions. I can't say that they lost due to "luck" because both the Allies and Axis had good and bad "luck," as well as unintended surprises during their campaigns. In key campaigns, both sides often failed to think far enough ahead, and in war, it's simply impossible to factor in every conceivable contingency. So, God didn't have to help beat the Nazis at all. Their own mistakes and the vast industrial capacity of their enemies defeated them. It's all about the matériel that you can bring up to the front line for a given battle — that is ultimately the bottom line.

Second, the vanity of the entire war amazes me. All those young German men, in their sharp uniforms, were simply slaughtered on the massive Eastern Front. Their impressive Tiger tanks were simply swarmed by the less expensive and more numerous Soviet T-34 tanks. These men were marching for an evil cause to begin with and were fighting an unwinnable war. I can only imagine the hopelessness that they secretly felt inside.

Such is my life. There is the vainness of seeing the climate behave exactly as climatologists predicted, yet there is little political or public will to do ANYTHING about global warming. There is the vainness of seeing the prophesy-obsessed fundamentalist Christians whoop and hollar about the "last days," as they create their own, self-fulfilling prophesies.

There is the vainness of unrequited love. To love another with passion and ferocity, in a love that's so logical that one is confused when the love is not reciprocated. It is like the knight who loves the damsal, and then gallops off to the next battle to face his death. While the poets call it beautiful, it's not beautiful at all. It is simply vain.

Perhaps all of life is vain, and we simply have a problem admitting it. We fight on, all knowing the inevitable outcome. Despite our nice outfits and neat appearance, despite the smiling, chipper facade we can muster on the surface, we are broken on the inside. Why, because some of us are cursed with too much intelligence and a forever pondering mind, and we've figured out what no one else wants to admit —it's all in vain. 

Waffling

Life is like a big war, and I'm in the 52nd year of this great struggle. The struggle is not to survive, but to simply figure out what this massive, complex thing called life is really about. I am but a fragile mammal that could die at any moment, but while I am here, I will ponder.

Since I started this blog in 2004 I've gone through many phases of personal evolution. Life got a little harder when my work situation became difficult due to the recession. Since 2009 I've been in survival mode, and I'm beginning to tire.

My cynicism has gone to the next level, to the point where I just like to laugh and say, "See, I told you so." The global economy, climate change, and social deterioration are all going in the direction I predicted, in fact, exactly as I expected. What a hilarious irony that U.S. conservative Christians completely deny global climate change, and when the warming creates the more extreme weather events, they jump up and down and scream, "This is God's punishment for murdering babies and accepting homosexual marriage." So, this begs the question: Why does God get pissed off when two people of the same sex get married? I'm sure he's up on his throne saying, "NO, NO, guys, you have it all wrong. You were both suppose to marry girls. Shit, now I'm pissed off and I'm gonna send a hurricane to New Jersey, why, I don't know, I just hate the place." As for murdering babies, the GOP, you know, the Party of God, wants to starve them anyway once they're born, so why does it matter?

But I digress ... the point being is the daily grind, the continual fight to bring in income, the misery of living around illogical people, the constant witnessing of species suicide, well, it's all had an effect on me. On the surface, I want to be a happy, smiling little environmentalist and say, "Whoopie, yessiree, SURE, we can save this planet." But in my heart, I know that every day people are flushing all sorts of chemicals down their toilets and throwing all sorts of toxic substances in their garbage, and all of this is going out to the environment, where it mixes with other chemicals, and where it festers, and stays, and slowly destroys the Earth. There is no way that our planet can endure the savagery of industrialization indefinitely. We are simply bringing our world to its knees.

Yeah, but look what the immediate past generations brought us — lots of wars, in fact, WORLD WARS. And what did we, collectively, as a species learn from them? Nothing. The fact is that if you recreate the same extreme social conditions you'll get the same extreme results. Look at Greece, for instance, which has a political party that is strikingly similar to Nazis.

My frustration is always WHERE do I put my limited volunteer time and energy to make the greatest different for the planet. Well, I THOUGHT I did that back in 1997 when I became a global population activist. I thought, hmmm, I can just get a movement started again, we can flatten the growth curve, and save our species and planet from death. But then came the bitter in-fighting over immigration, and then came the resurgence of the Republican Army, who felt that birth control was in some way connected with abortion, and did their best to stomp out everything related to it — contraceptive insurance coverage, emergency contraception, teen health clinics, and the list goes on. What's more, they had to vilify Planned Parenthood, and put it on their "let's galvanize our movement around this enemy" list. You see, they do that sometimes when they get tired of beating up on gays, which is their standard target, but pounding on gorgeous male hairdressers all the time gets old, and even the righties themselves get tired after a while. The hate sort of digs at their last remaining pulses of guilt, and they give it up, as they kiss the head of their Mitt Romney statues, and renew their effort to destroy Planned Parenthood, Big Bird, and all other sources of evil.

So, so, I really don't know what to do. Why do I have this desire for self-preservation of the human species and the flying rock that sustains us. Is it important? Does the Universe really care? If we turn Earth into Venus is some astronomer a 100 light years away going to just say, "Oh shit, they actually did it?" Why would I care about what some green, three-eyed creature thinks. I'm sorry, man, maybe our amino acids will make it to another Class M planet, and we can try again. Maybe we'll just keep up this evolving-into-intelligence routine until we create something that is really beautiful and perfect, and they can be the gods that everyone keeps looking for. 

As I grow older, I find life more and more boring. Even the things that were exciting have lost their zest. I remain simply because I've put children in the world. I remain simply because I might be able to make someone's life less miserable one day, but is the carbon footprint I'm making worth that benefit? Are all those hectares of land that are sustaining me WORTH IT just so I can make some restaurant server smile on occasion? And, hell, the only reason I'm doing that is so they won't spit on my food. So, really, as I look into the eyes of little Alfie, I say, is it really WORTH IT?????

Animal Cousins

I see all of my pets and every animal in the forest as a fellow Earth Citizen. They have just as much right to live on this planet as we do. They should receive rights and our respect.

Although I feel we must minimize meat intake, I don't advocate vegetarianism. Rather, I respect the food chain. It's okay to eat a little meat on occasion.

For thousands of years we were the ones who lived in terror of faster and stronger animals. Somehow, we got smarter. We created tools to defend ourselves and to buffer us from the other animals. After a few milleniums this got out of control. Most of us have now forgotten where our McNuggets come from. We now live in this sheltered world apart from most animals. We move into the deep forests and when an animal frightens us we kill it. If a snake crawls into our McMansion garages, we whack its head off. What the hell, we are humans -- we are the bad asses of the planet.

Unfortunately, the "have dominion" lie has gone way too far. If we lived in harmony with our fellow creatures, we would likely better learn to live in harmony with each other. Instead, we call pest control companies to zap them, not realizing that we are destroying a balanced ecosystem that would survive on its own if left alone. There are birds and other bugs that would keep the annoying bugs in check. Life is all about balance and equilibrium, and evolution ensures that we will reach that point.

Strangely, we keep cats and dogs in our homes to, well, give us something to love. Cats are warm and soft and nice to pet and hold. Dogs are always loyal, which gives us an ego trip. How can these animals be loyal to us when few of our fellow humans are? We hold them and love them, and instead of sending money to starving people in Somalia, we spend billions on pet food. We ensure that they have yummy food snacks because we imagine we are enriching their quality of life, while we ignorantly desecrate our plant and lower the life quality for all living things.

A friend once told me that if I studied my pets I could better understand people. After all, we are all mammals and we all came from the same marsupials 150 million years ago. So, we are bros and sistas with the cats and dogs, and all other mammals. So, be nice to your cousins. We are all one -- we are all inhabitants together on this incredibly beautiful planet. Let us learn to live together in a respectful and harmonious way.