Samstag, 30. Dezember 2023

100 Years Ago- Rolling Stones


My father born 100 years ago today, died aged 87
 

A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas - Plot Breakdown


So Guinevere is kidnapped by Agamemnon and Don Quijote swears revenge but is thrown into the dungeon of Monte Cristo for decades until he escapes to find his time machine broken and he is stuck on Treasure Island with Robinson Crusoe and his good man Friday.
 

Mad Max - Fury Road Trailer


And after living in Europe or the States there is everyday life in Australia!

I watched this yestterday on Bluray with my family over Christmas dinner after me and my wife went to church for the first time in years. Quite a change from the children's nativity play!
 

How I See the US After Living in Europe for 5 Years


I suppose a longterm American feels it differently than I did, as my Mom was born and raised in England. I never felt quite at home in Alaska, which was frontier anyway, with a train station feel of people coming and going from everywhere. This lady seems to have come from a very settled, conservative middle class midwestern small town settled a couple hundred years ago. I left mad max territory after feeling more home in European grottoes. Settling virgin land takes time. Siberians, Australians were convicts settled forcibly. Chinese who settle in the far West have higher suicide rates.
 

Would You Love the Same Man on and off the Pill?


Like couples who meet in a bar and relax through alcohol. The hidden 3rd partner. Medication, chemistry changes relationships.



 

Sonntag, 24. Dezember 2023

Liberal Jews Turn Conservative After Gaza


I was thinking about the Southern States realignment to Republican party after Democrats took up civil rights in the 60s. Jews felt oppressed due to pogroms, Holocaust. Now they have arrived as a privileged white minority and have lost their oppresed identity, have become part of the establishment and have to behave conservatively. I read once that they vote schizophrenically, being rich like episcopalians and voting like Puert Ricans. It seems that this is going to change. Rich Jews will not be woke but will sed their interests in lily white conservatism and God fearing Christians as their allies. A historic realignment is coming. What will Zuckerberg, Hollywood directors, CNN, NYT do? Switvch over to Trump? If they were a normal minority in the USA, Europe it would be unimportant but they have strategic power as a group. Maybe liberal Jews will go antizionist, antiisrael and the Jewish people will split their vote, influence. My wife and I were generally in agreement politically until Gaza. But now we had heated embittered arguments. She is proisrael and I support the gazans. I say my Irish ancestors were similarly oppressed by imperialists and she feels her german - russian people's were oppressed like the Jews. She watches Russian language videos of Russian Israelis. Maybe lits of Jewish or mixed blood families with Jewish and non Jewish background have similar internal conflict. I recall Kanye West being cancelled recently but now a black Harvard leader supporting antisemitism with massive support and being attacked by the NYT, presumably led by Jewish editorial and ownership. When the civil rights, movements, blacks as oppressed minority lose Jewish backing in press, Hollywood then oppression by average whites like Trump will be easier. If pogrom against Jews is threatened by blacks then they will side with Christian whites. Apparently a Civil WarII is happening in America. What effect will such a realignment have on foreign policy. Neocons, led by Jews in important positions wanted to defeat Russia, Arab countries, China. Will that position remain tenable? If BRICS wins the big game and the Middle East realigns in their favor, making Neocon, proisrael policy impossible then peace will be necessary. This will all take time to sort out and is anything but simple. It is like being best friends with Erdogan. Is he with Nato or Russian bloc and which day of the week is it?
 

Ejaculation Frequency and Cancer


Reminds me of the arguments on breast cancer and having breast fed.
 

Finding Meaning in a Doomed Universe


So on first day of Kindergarten class this lady comes in and explains that in X billion years the universe will end meaninglessly and that we are mere specks. All the kids start bawling and hang themselves in utter desperation. One kid in rebellion curses God, the teacher and society. She is struck down by lightning(God), arrested (society)and gets an F for misunderstanding the class lesson(teacher).  
 

Feminism vs. Patriarchy Discussion


In certain situations this sort of balances out. My wife is more mechanical, technical getting this from her father obviously, while I am inept mechanically. She expects me to repair things but I demur and my son, who shares her traits, takes it on. I see the whole subject in more complex ways. She is oldest daughter, therefore is more assertive, self confident and has greater leadership capability. Also personality in terms of horoscope or however one wishes to analyze it plays a role. My pisces softness is not good at STEM subjects but rather arts, sports. Virgo for example might be good accountants or similar. This male/female dichotomy is very limiting. My Mars is in virgo so I like to do cleaning, office work, organize things like my books. Mars placement might indicate career choice and then sex could limit this( female bricklayers?). Perhaps examine parental careers and birth placement( youngest, middle, single child). IOW people nowadays are totally fixated, at least public figures, on arguing about a couple issues, race, sexual equality and equity ad infinitum. We have to go beyond all that, namely legislating quotas based on this to other background issues. Maybe if one examined jobs, one would find that those employed in certain areas had certain characteristics. Doctors had parents who were doctors or mechanics were scorpios. Stop hitting your head against a wall and think outside the box. 
 

Billie Eilish at SNL - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas


I kept expecting humour or irony but it was absolutely traditional.
 

Big Cats But No Big Dogs?


Chihuahuas are small. Others are quite large.
 

Hindu Denominations


As a practicing yogi I must be a Shivaite.
 

Donnerstag, 14. Dezember 2023

Thai Massage

This type of massage is more than in the West, a pressure placement, rather it is body manipulation, yoga done to you by the masseuse.
 

Why Buddhism Declined in India


This is similar to European reformation causing a Catholic revival. Buddhism caused similar in India. Also later on Islamic invaders massacred buddhist monasteries killing millions. Together these two did the job. 

 

Israel Kills Gaza Poet


I find it heartening that the Jewish state has become like every other, namely, corrupt, brutal, power hungry. If there ever was any naive innocence in the saying "Next year in Jerusalem" then it is now gone. I remember the joy of German reunification, of the fall of the wall, of the excitement in all the East bloc countries, then Mother Russia to see the fall of communism. However, quickly reality set in. Much of communist propaganda about the West had a seed of truth, poverty, crime, disorder awaited many. Similarly the dream of a safe haven, a country of their own, brings with it the burden of making very hard decisions, like a parent with children having to mete out severe punishment, set rules, give orders. Eventually one can become obsessed with being right, make severe mistakes, become disillusioned with one's original dream. This is a natural cycle of anyone who starts into almost anything, job, marriage, political or religious affiliation. In short, this war could " Israel's Vietnam" to use a well understood American metaphor. Lt. Calley and his " burning down the village to save it" awaits the IDF. 
 

Gay But Religious


People just did not talk about it but it always existed and people married even or just remaiined single. This is in all cultures, religions and depending on how traditional the culture is, the more taboo it will be. Considering this from a biological, sociological perspective where basic survival is a matter of family and community cohesion then differences such as left handedness, atheism, homosexuality are very disturbing to societal structure and massively repressed from earliest age. Obviously in a society where resources are plenty and freedom for all is real then freedom of choice is more. Choice however has its own problems as we see nowadays where teens are so identity confused they change sex. The more choice one has the more paralysis ensues. For example an arranged marriage can be liberating or imprisoning depending on one's viewpoint. Endlessly searching on one's own for Mr. or Mrs. right can lead to failure and bitterness or magical happiness. This is sort of like the theory of choice in shopping. In practice one does not look at all possible options but tries out a couple and is ok with it after a while. 
 

Freitag, 8. Dezember 2023

How to Escape Mediocrity and Mental Illness - The Road Less Traveled


https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
 Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Ancient Mayan Sport Comeback


Long since cancelled as the losing side gets sacrificed to Quetzlcoatl