Celebrity

Celebrity is capital. Integrity is how you invest it.

Kavanaugh hearings

My take on the Kavanaugh hearings:

They were political from start to finish. The scheduling of the meetings, the process of investigating the issues, the responses of the senators in terms of blaming and self-justification, the incremental approach to investigation, the memory loss regarding the treatment of the Merritt Garland nomination. In the end, 21 intelligent individuals, hearing the same thing, made their decisions completely on party lines.

This is an excellent example of why Americans must educate themselves in how government works and believe that that’s their duty. That their voices count.

Issues of sexual impropriety will continue to come fully to public attention until there is a consensus that this issue will be dealt with in a fair way on a consistent basis.

There will be a vote to approve Kavanaugh, while the sexual issue may never be resolved.

Voters have probably never heard their senators speak as directly as they have in these recent hearings.

News media show themselves packed with correspondents ready to show their stuff. News media show how good they are at quickly getting the “right” interviews with the “right” people even to the point of sheer exhaustion.

Truth, whatever it is, is getting bullied.

Poverty

Bill Gates has said that poverty is one of the world’s worst problems, and that it is a consequence of the world’s civil wars and conflicts. While there is truth in that, I believe this comes from an approach which is economic and political. And it let’s him off the hook.

 say this because I believe it is first a moral problem. How can morality not be a fundamental issue in a world of so many dictators, plutocrats and autocrats and corrupt bureaucrats? How can morality not be fundamental when laws are made through the support of monied interests? How can morality not be fundamental when a handful of people hold most of the world’s wealth.

Many ordinary people give 10% of their income to charity, with no acknowledgment, and often out of their need. Wealthy individuals don’t so often do the same, yet have celebrity, naming rights and publicity. And it’s after they have met all of their needs to excess. CEO’s make exorbitant salaries while workers can’t live on their wages.

It’s common to justify these discrepancies on economic/business grounds, and morality gets swept under the table.

So kudos to Bill Gates for all his charitable work, but at least let’s be honest about the fundamental causes of poverty.

The privilege of Brett Kavanaugh

Why do I keep talking about this stuff? Because the country is.

I am white, but I grew up poor. So I only had advantage, not privilege. My education was good because I worked at it. Public schools all the way. I went to a respected university on scholarship. I had the character to control my sexual impulses and drinking. Nothing to hide, no one hurt.

This is why I am in no mood to go easy Brett Kavanaugh. He had a privileged education, which obviously did not provide him with the character to resist excessive drinking and dick wagging. In fact, it was probably his privilege that made him believe he could behave this way dismissively and without consequences.

I abhor recent sentences for rape by young white men who are given a slap on the wrist simply because of white privilege. One of the highest government positions in the land should be given as a consequence of the highest behavior in the land.

Buffoons

Everyone needs a buffoon in their life. Buffoons make us laugh until we realize we are laughing at ourselves. Buffoons remind us how we get caught up in overwork, too much stuff and unnecessary anxiety over trivial things, and neglect the important things in life. Buffoons make truth palatable and expose the unauthentic in our lives. Buffoons show us the freedom possible in pure play. Buffoons are the alter egos we never knew we wanted.

So run out and find yourself a buffoon soon.

Libido

God gave you a libido, but told you how you were supposed to use it.

Nature gave you a libido so you would use it for reproduction.

Society recognized you had a libido but sent you a whole bunch of confusing messages.

Culture acknowledged your libido, but threw on taboos to serve its own multiple purposes.

Marketing was excited about all these libidos and figured out how to make money from them.

Entertainment needed all these libidos so they could pay the bills, so they put titillation, fantasy and adult themes out on the airwaves.

Pure Romance realized women had libidos too, and made lots of cash.

Pornography is pure libido and money, money, money.