Trying to Stop being Clever

How could so much of the media be so far off that we have absolutely no idea what's really going on? The people essentially drive what makes it to the media with their dollars. Sure, there are a lot of things left out, but if the people care about it, the media covers it, and there are far too many people out there looking to call "bullsh*t" when they see it for the media to get away with too much. Redirection, distraction, one-sided reporting? Yes. Absolute flat-out lies? Rare. Underground and "revolutionary" media do exist, and they do have an impact on mainstream media. If there is a legitimate problem, it will be called out and recognized. People who tend to believe in the conspiracy theories seem to buy into them wholesale. If you believe one, you likely believe a bunch more. So these people will refute pretty much any claim made by the mainstream, the same as they jump to extreme conclusions as "evidence" that we are being lied to and fooled mo...

She sits on a corner with buckets of flowers. It looks as though she is a vendor, selling the flowers to passers-by. If you come through the intersection, either from the north or from the freeway offramp, you pass her on the right side, on the far corner. If you think about it, it’s not a good place to stop. Just as you’re leaving an intersection with a signal. The light is green behind you, traffic is coming through fast. There’s virtually no foot traffic. It’s on a hill. It’s just not a practical place to set up shop. Picture this: a relative, probably a child or grandchild, was killed in a traffic accident at this corner. The family’s custom is to leave flowers and decorations at a spot where a loved one dies in traffic. Then picture the city not wanting those decorations on this corner, and they quickly take them away whenever the family leaves them. The family then finds out that it is not against ordinance to set up as a vendor on the sidewalk. So the lady sits th...

I guess it’s human nature to never be satisfied. It’s what causes us to create & invent, to strive to improve our lives. Unfortunately having millions of people all striving to make the world better in their own opinion causes a lot of clashes with other members of the human race. One idea might get a large group of followers, but that group, as they move forward with their plan, will soon run into another group whose ideas don’t fit with theirs. That’s when wars happen. In any case, this striving for improvement begins at the individual level. The result being that if you can’t find a group who agrees with you, chances are you’re going to sit around miserable & unsatisfied. Consider this scenario: A man gets a job. It’s an entry-level position with minimum pay. At first he’s glad to have a job. Once he’s settled in, he starts wondering why he has to do all the dirty work. He wants a better position. If he works hard enough he moves up a notch. He’s happy for a mi...

There are things wrong with our country. There always will be. There are a number of reasons for this. Foremost is the reason that "wrong" is subjective and someone will always be dissatisfied no matter what we do. Beyond that, there are just so many different things happening at once in a thriving and evolving nation such as this. I only want to touch on a couple of the items that are disrupting the happiness of our citizens right now. First of all there is the income inequality and the fact that the big money basically owns the government. This is a status that we cannot easily overcome, largely because of the truth in the old adage, "money talks..." It's hard to compete with the loud mouth of money when the people who stand to gain from corporations maintaining control have most of it, and the majority of Americans, who would benefit from a more equitable arrangement, have less money than the few doing all the talking. It's a hard nut to crack, especial...

https://youtu.be/tAYX4jqJG_g?t=2m14s I wrote a song a few years before this which said, "there's room for one more, and it's not gonna be you." I couldn't tell you who that was about because I just don't remember. This one, based on that idea, is clear. I had a girlfriend, and I usually take that pretty seriously. I've always been the sort who knew he'd eventually want to settle down. I had one ex-girlfriend tell me that I "see everyone as a potential mate." Over the years of reflection I think I know what she meant, and I think she was right. So I was seeing this woman, and one day she said she had a video for me to watch. Without going into details, I found out that day that I was not the only man she was seeing. She told me as though it was pretty matter-of-fact, and that's just how she does things. But I had to wonder, if she thought it was all routine and acceptable, why was she hiding it from me? So I told her I would try...

There are more than one hundred billion stars in our galaxy. There are over 100 billion galaxies that we are aware of. 100 billion squared gives an awfully big number. One thing we've seen is that the laws of physics result in the same processes happening throughout space as we know it. Matter and gasses coalesce and create stars, some additional matter of much less mass accrue to become planets and moons. Seeing the recurring patterns of stars, systems and galaxies, we know that the same kind of things are happening throughout the universe. Just look at our solar system. Consistencies, such as planets orbiting the star in the same direction, moons around those planets, terrestrial inners, gas outers. Where there are over ten sextillion stars, there are going to be other instances of them having planets. We have begun to see evidence of that, measuring dips in stars' brightness as planets pass in front of them and eclipse them; the "wobble" of a star being influence...