ZOMBIE FRIDAY

Do you want to know one of the reasons we have preppers in this country?  It's called Black Friday, which is now really Zombie Weekend since it begins on Thanksgiving.

I slept in, though not as long as I would have liked, this morning.  My dad woke up first and kept opening the front door, which sets off the alarm.  Damn rude, Alzheimer's or not, if you ask me.  After the fourth time he did it in about 30 minutes, I gave up, got up, got him his breakfast, took dog for walk, picked up his dog crap, fed dog, and thought at least I don't have a wife dragging my ass to shopping malls at 1am.

I made myself a tall cold glass of Nestles Quick, the choice breakfast of people suffering a nervous breakdown everywhere,  and sat down at the computer to watch the video of all the moronic zombie shoppers shoving, punching, pulling, pushing, stabbing, and shooting one another over a toy, a phone, or some other piece of Chinese made crap that will probably give the winning Zombie cancer.

Dad is walking around right now picking up a pair of pants, a book, or something, wanting to take it to the car for his trip back to Princeton, MO; except we aren't going back to Princeton or anywhere else today.  Does anyone know what a stroke feels like?

But the shopping mania is why preppers prep.  We see the shopping mania and know all of these people will not have months of food, ways to get good drinking water, stay warm, or anything else in an emergency.  What you see on the TV right now, these shopping maniacs are the Zombie apocalypse who will mass rush stores and homes searching for food until they turn on each other and start eating the weak.  You really think I am kidding?  One solar flare, one nuke 20 miles above Ohio, and our whole electrical, electronic, "don't do anything without an app telling me to" society comes instantly to an end.  And one of the keys to survival will be to be able to withstand the initial rushes of the Zombie Black Friday Shopping Morons who think anything and everything belongs to them because they want it.  Hmm.  Maybe for Xmas this year I'll order a couple hundred more rounds of 357mag.  That was a lot of zombie this morning at the mall.

What happened to us as a people?  Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day use to be days where nothing was open and everyone had a day with themselves, their families, etc.  On the day after Thanksgiving, the stores opened at 10am, people went shopping, music played, and people were nice to each other, wished each other Merry Christmas.

Now the corporations have mindless drones, formerly known as middle level management in companies that were moved to China and no longer exist in America, working for minimum wage to sell and stock the formerly made in America stuff now made in China shit to those fortunate enough to still have a chair in this game of musical chairs from hell, all working on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Years Day; so moronic zombies can push, shove, trample, stab, and shoot their way to that special toy for their special kid or most likely that special toy for themselves.

Well, I don't like it.  I'm not romanticizing the past.  I like change when change improves but change for the sake of change sucks and we are changing in ways that are not good.  It's like that new Apple podcast app that doesn't improve anything but seriously screws up your iPhone and your playlists and made me have to reset the damn phone yesterday just to get it back to what it was.

This country needs to reset or reboot.  I'm starting to think not only do we need to break up Goldman Sachs and other banks, we need to break up the whole damn corporate system.  Walmart, Target, McDonalds; break them all up into state or regional corporations.  Or maybe we should start a union.  The American People Union.  No corporate sponsors, no teaming up with corrupt unions like Teamsters, SEIU or UAW.  An American People Union who says NO to businesses being open on holidays, NO to businesses creating zombie hangouts, well, except Starbucks, NO to businesses moving overseas, NO to foreign imports made by slaves, NO NO NO.  Okay, I feel better.

Zombies.  We are nothing but mind numbed brain dead zombies.  I don't know if it is the food, the water, or the television, but we are a nation of brain dead go along with anything zombies.  Even the Alex Jones crowd are Zombies to whatever Alex says.  Followers.  We get up to go shopping in massive crowds at 4am then bitch most days getting to work by 8.  And pity the poor workers who have to put up with all this crap for minimum wage.  I think all employees of Walmart and Target and other such stores, if they have to work these insane hours with these insane crowds, should be issued handguns and be allowed to shoot any shopper that pisses them off.  Thin the herds.

For some reason, this reminds me of the old story about a small town that was having lots of problems with wild pigs.  Everything they tried didn't work.  Town Council held a meeting and were going to hire some big firm, probably chinese, to come in and solve the problem and some old geezer in the back stood up and said he would take care of it for half of that.  Everyone laughed at him, but they said sure, if you succeed, and we will give you thirty days.  The old guy left, went out to the street, got into his old pickup an drove off.  One month later he collected his check and they asked him what he did.

"Well,", the old man began, "first you put some food out for the pigs.  They smell it, get real suspicious, but after a couple of days one of them tries it and then the rest dive right in and eat it all.  The next day, you put some more out and the pigs come right back again for the free food.  And you do this everyday for 30 days."

"But how did you capture the pigs?"

"Well, after a week, you slowly start building a cage.  Floor first, put the food on top, the pigs get nervous about the new floor, but eventually the thought of free food overwhelms their better sense.  Then you slowly add the walls and the roof at night over the next three weeks and finally a gate.  And the pigs just walk right in for their free food one day, you spring the gate, and all the pigs are caught."

There is a whole lot of lesson in that story for a whole lot of us.

Christmas time was approaching, the snow is starting to fall,
Shoppers choosing their presents, people filling the mall,
Children waiting for Santa with excitement and glee.
A little boy tugged my sweater, looked up and asked me,

Where's the line to see Jesus? Is He here at the store?
If Christmas time is His birthday, why don't we see Him more?
Where's the line to see Jesus? He was born for me.
Santa Claus brought me presents, but Christ gave His life for me.

As I stood in amazement at this message profound,
I looked down to thank him, he was no where around.
The little boy at the mall might as well have had wings
As the tears filled my eyes, I thought I heard him say,

Where's the line to see Jesus? Is He here at the store?
If Christmas time is His birthday, why don't we see Him more?
Where's the line to see Jesus? He was born for me.
Santa Claus brought me presents, but Christ gave His life for me.

In the blink of an eye, at the sound of His trump,
We'll all stand in line at His throne.
Every knee shall bow down, every tongue will confess,
That Jesus Christ is Lord.

Where's the line to see Jesus? Is He here at the store?
If Christmas time is His birthday, why don't we see Him more?
Where's the line to see Jesus? He was born for me.
Santa Claus brought me presents, but Christ gave His life for me.

Becky Kelley

KIERKEGAARD, TOLKIEN, AND PETRAEUS

My dad, it appears, is losing all control of his bladder and other evacuation sources which I recall to be a sign of the coming of the end.   I wonder if he will make it to his birthday in April.

I wonder if I will make it to New Years.  So I wish to talk of other things.

The Danish philosopher, Kierkegaard, tells a parable of a theatre where a show is proceeding. Each section of the show, the music, the comics, and the dancers is more fantastic than the previous, and is enthusiastically applauded by the audience. Suddenly the manager comes forward. He apologizes for the interruption, but the theater is on fire, and he begs his patrons to leave in an orderly fashion. The audience think this is part of the evening show, and cheer thunderously. The manager again implores them to leave the burning building, and the crowd laughs and cheers. At last he can do no more and runs out of the building. Then the fire races through the whole building burning it,  and the fun-loving audience, to ashes. "And so," concluded Kierkegaard, "will our age, I sometimes think, go down in fiery destruction to the applause of a crowded house of cheering spectators." 

I think Kierkegaard pretty well captures that feeling many of us have had since Wednesday morning, the sadness of understanding the country is burning and our  incredibility that so many are laughing and cheering, thinking it is all part of the show.

Here is one thing I don't understand about youth.  They grew up on the Star Wars movies and the Lord of the Ring movies and it's become blatantly obvious, they missed the point.   Remembered the Portman line about this is how freedom dies, to thunderous applause?  What do you think just happened this week?  And did you catch the Executive Orders signed?  The EPA regs announced?  The banning of oil drilling in the west?  All since the election?  Oh, and the best, the TSA is unionizing.  Welcome the new Brown Shirts.  Should we just go out and start breaking windows now?  Which reminds me, isn't this about the anniversary of Kristallnacht?   Why do so many dream of being heroes in youth and then allow themselves to become the goblins and orgs in adulthood?  People don't understand evil always disguises itself as good.  No one says "I'm evil" or "I'm a liar" or "I'm a thief".  They pretend to be something good, but are not.

The problem, may stem, from the fact that two generations watched Lord of the Rings rather than actually read the book.  Or take an English/Philosophy class on Tolkien rather than a film class.  More of the style substance thing.

History is rare with dictatorships coming from small government Christian conservatives and almost always grow from liberal left wing ideology.  That was always the problem with V for Vendetta, but then it is a fantasy, that the leader was a right winger conservative.  It made the whole movie hard to believe.  Okay, that was probably too subtle a joke.

Oh well, never mind, it is academic now.  Life plays out at God's plan and speed.   I will probably hear in a couple of days from the International Brotherhood of Bloggers and be fined for mixing Kierkegaard and Star Wars in the same blog.

Why did Petraeus have to resign?  Didn't he once work for a commander in chief who got blow jobs in the oval office and we were told that was private and nobody's business and not his professional life it's his personal life and so it's nobody's business?  Wasn't that the drumbeat of the liberal media for three years in the late 90's?  I'd like to think Petraeus just did the right thing, but I suspect there is much more to all of this than meets the eye.  In fact, it smells.

Fact:  The justice department was spying on the director of the CIA's emails and discovered the affair.  When was Obama told?  Then Petraeus and the CIA unload a timeline right before the election that seems to try to cover their ass and throw Obama under the bus on Libya.  Then, after the election, Petraeus is forced to resign just before he was scheduled to testify before congress.  And, since the affair took place when he was the general, he could be brought back into the military, charged with conduct unbecoming of an officer, and stripped of his pensions.  So resign, don't testify, or you will lose it all.

Which brings us back to Lord of the Rings and the lessons.  Good never defeats evil in a straight on fight because Good will always fight by rules that Evil will not play by.  The only way Good defeats Evil is with patience, playing your part in the play, and letting evil defeat itself.  Good cannot use evil for good, it will always corrupt the good.  But the one thing Evil is always caught off guard by is Good that doesn't fear.  Evil lives and feeds on fear and never sees coming someone who is good who won't live in fear and regardless of the threat against him or her, stands up, tells the truth, does the right thing, and takes the punishment.

I wonder if Petraeus understands that little factoid.  If there is something wrong and evil, if something bad went down that night four men were killed, he could take the stand, lay it all out on the table, and evil would never see it coming because evil would never suspect any person would throw away their military pension.

Petraeus made a mistake.  He is human.  No indication of being a serial adulterer like Clinton.  It happens to all of us, here or there, in life, we make a poor moral choice. The two most common areas for careless mistakes are math and morals.   And why is the guy the only bad person here?  What about those equal rights ladies?  What about the biographer, who is married, hitting it up on a guy in a war zone?  Who was the aggressor in the relationship?  Sounds like, via what emails have been read, it was she who started it, she who ended it after the book was done.  Bedding a guy, ruining his career, just to get a story?

Goblins and orgs, wildly applauding the flames of our destruction.


So you speak to me of sadness
And the coming of the winter
The fear that is within you now
It seems to never end
And the dreams that have escaped you
And the hope that you’ve forgotten
You tell me that you need me now
You want to be my friend

And you wonder where we’re going
Where’s the rhyme and where’s the reason

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO....

Well, my imaginary readers, some of you find yourselves in quite the quandary.  You blamed George Bush for the aftermath of Katrina, blamed him for the lack of food, water, shelter, and general response.

Now we watch NJ and NY about to implode and I don't see my imaginary readers blaming Obama, why not?  It's a brain teaser for you I am sure.  Do you give up blaming Bush for Katrina or do you now blame Obama for the lack of response to Sandy?  Or is this one of those relativistic Dali jigsaw puzzles where it is Bush's fault for Katrina but not Obama's fault for the other.  If only you could blame Bush for both, huh.  Somewhere in New Orleans, there is probably a good blues tune being jammed about New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut being the new New Orleans.

While you are at it, not to confuse you, but have you started to blame Obama for Libya?

And where are all those FEMA camps we created after Katrina EXACTLY for this situation, a place to relocate hundreds of thousands of people when something like a hurricane hits.  Why did we build those things?  I wonder what they are really for?  Heck, maybe we will all find out after Tuesday.

When it comes to elections and candidates, the issues we differ on, I understand two reasonably intelligent people having different views on a topic.  What drives me nuts is the total fracking idiot like the one who said to Michelle Obama that she hoped her husband was reelected because if Romney wins we will all be picking cotton again.

Frankly, if I had a cotton farm, I wouldn't hire someone that stupid to pick the cotton even if it were free labor.  And no, I'm not racist, there are white people as stupid as that woman.

It looks like Obama's plan is going to work, he, with the help of his public relations firm, otherwise known as all the US media not Fox News, are going to cover up the deaths in Libya and not require the president to answer any questions before the election.  Shame on the media, you have become useless to democracy and freedom.  The press is AWOL on their constitutional responsibility.  Might as well cross that 'free press' thing out of the constitution along with everything else being crossed out.

Cool picture here I swiped off of www.standeyo.com, not sure who original artist is but if I find out I will credit.

Think about this picture before you vote on Tuesday.  The requests for more security for months, denied.  The calls for help, denied.  The CIA guys being told to stand down three times before they disobeyed the rules and went to help, saving 3 lives.  Then hours later when the annex comes under attack, their calls for help being ignored and military units being told to stand down.  And all captured on drones with live feeds back to the situation room where the president sat and watched.  Sat and watched them die.

Think about that when you vote.  And if you can still vote for Obama, shame on you. This isn't disagreeing on health care, economic plans, or wind mills.  These are men left behind, sacrificed, for a political campaign.  For the memory of these four men, it's time to tell President Obama to stand down.

 I was drawn by the sirens of Titan
And so I came in the end
Under the shadow of Saturn
With statues and birds for my friends

Finding a home at the end of my days
Looking around I've only to say
I was the victim of a series of accidents
As are we all

Al Stewart