Abortion

 Under any traditional code, abortion is immoral and so can be made illegal. Throughout human history, traditional moral codes have fallen or been reimagined as a consequence of the living experiences human beings.

We are now in a globally connected world struggling with poverty, hunger, war, overpopulation, disease, large migrations, brutality, degradation and gross inequality in wealth, education and opportunity.

How can abortion be a hot legal issue when the same system of laws does not adequately attack the problems of poverty, discrimination and education that many children would face were they not aborted. 

The other aspect of abortion is gender. Men make up the larger portion of those who draft and support abortion laws. Making a baby is a team effort, but abortion laws are often quiet or soft on the role of men. A child who is not aborted would likely be raised by a single mother with limited resources.

Beyond abortion, many elderly are living lives that are empty, meaningless and without hope in nursing homes. Others are living in extreme pain that will never abate. 

There is a bigger vision of life that needs a new moral code, a code that makes sense of life in terms of its dignity, its quality and its humanity.

If we come to such a code, then we may also be able to consider the destruction of species, habitats and the environment. A moral code for all of life.

Hard Man

 New products for the manly man from HARD MAN, Inc.

BEAR TATS

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PEC PUMP

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Sex abuse

 OK. I freely admit it. I have a penis, and I’ve had one for a long time. I know how it can behave and how it can misbehave.

That is why it sickens and befuddles me to learn of the sexual abuse in Olympic female gymnastics, the extensive child pornography on the Internet and the fact that the sex trade is a $150 billion a year operation.

What is wrong with these men? What is wrong with contemporary culture? How can such abuse be so compelling beyond all morality? Of all the ugliness and brutality that humans are capable of, this seems the worst.

Politicians

 Most politicians aiming for Congress, driven by a set of political principles that guide them, genuinely want to serve their constituents. What they confront and must regularly deal with in getting elected and in serving are issues of power, party loyalty, complex problems to solve and a system that requires demanding skills to navigate it.

Even as they talk of serving their constituents, they primarily have to serve their political contributors. We hope for them to be individuals of integrity and honesty, but the party exerts great pressure to conform to the party line. We wish that they would educate their voters, but they want to bend them to the party will, often with misleading or false campaign rhetoric.

The job of politician is not an easy one. But it’s the job they chose, just like we all work at the jobs we chose. If we do our jobs with integrity and competence, we can surely expect them to do the same.

A quiz for parents

 A quiz for parents

1. At what age will (or did) your child first turn on you?

2. At what age will (or did) your child make the first escape attempt?

3. What is the ratio of “yes” answers to “no” answers you give your child?

4. How many generations back in human history does the “ride the horsey” game go?

5. Which has the greatest potential for childhood creativity: a stick or a computer?

6. What percentage of your child’s toys is made of plastic?

7. What are the three greatest parental fears when a child reaches puberty?

8. Which has a greater impact on your child’s values, your values or TV values?

9. Which embeds deeper in a child, “I love you” or a sharp criticism?

10. Can a father do mothering and visa versa?

Black history

 1001 Things Everyone Should Know about African American History

Jeffrey C. Stewart

Sam Hose had killed white farmer during an argument and was brutally lynched and burned to death by a mob of over 2000 people. After his charred body was dragged to the ground, men, women and children struggled with one another to take home pieces of his burned flesh as souvenirs…Hose had been barbecued and …his burned knuckles were on display in a shopkeeper’s window in Atlanta.

As a result, W.E.B. Dubois began to pen is landmark book, “The Souls of Black Folk.”

Human

 If we believe that we are human, then we need to act like it.

Two thoughts on art

 

God

 God the Father

God the Son 

God the Holy Ghost

God of Thunder

God of Rain

God of Goddess

God of Creation

God Our Mother

God of Making

God of Vengeance

God of Grace

God Our Friend

God the Judge

God of Mystery

God of Redemption

God, King of Heaven

God Who Answers Our Prayers

God We Kneel To

God Who Demands Sacrifice

God of Floods and Natural Disasters

God Who Punishes Sinners

God of the Apocalypse

God of Duality

God the Omnipotent

God of Love

God of Life

God Who Speaks Creation into Being

God of Ecstasy

God of Ages

God of the Harvest

Bundling

 Bundling in marketing has reached new heights.

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Buy her a diamond that is not only forever but has multiple uses. The new Uni-Diamond is not only beautiful, but has a tiny built in solar battery. It functions as a flashlight, tracking beacon and the mounted diamond rotates to make a fine pedicure tool.

Those of you who are suffering from botched knee surgeries, mesothelioma and find yourself with a drunk driving charge can call Gitcha, Gotcha and Feinberg Lawyers.

They are experts in packaging your legal problems to save you time, money and incarceration time.

Looking for a new car and other services? Well, Total Delivery, Inc. can meet your needs. Go online to find the ideal car. Select the additional services you want, and your car will arrive with persons delivering food, weed, alcohol and a sex worker. It’s quick, easy and fun.

Black History

Black History Month

 We continue to confront the implications and consequences of slavery. But we must realize that this horror was the result of the economic requirement of cheap (free) labor. Profit and financial comfort, and even excess, for the few and products for the many made slavery acceptable.

Slavery needs to be seen in the context of the building of the pyramids, the enslavement of indigenous peoples, the feudal system, the peasantry, sex slavery, sweat shops and more. 

Black history is really everyone’s history.

Black History Month

 

Black History Month

 Black History Month

From “1001 Things Everyone Should  Know about African American History” by Jeffrey C. Stewart

The bodies of those executed (in the rebellion), with one exception were buried in a decent and becoming manner. That of Nat Turner was delivered to the doctors, who skinned it and made grease of the flesh. Mr. R.S. Barham’s father owned a money purse made of his hide. His skeleton was for many years in the possession of Dr. Massenberg, but has since been misplaced.

--William Sidney Drewry

System

 We talk of justice and the rule of law as bedrock to the system of American government. And then we watch as party politics quashes those ideals at the highest levels government. We hope for courage and integrity, and we get cowardice and party pressure. We listen for the application of the law, but we watch the search for loopholes.

When this is the way things are done, we can’t live in the delusion of American ideals. We have to acknowledge a system of party politics, fractured and divided, driven by money and influence. We have to acknowledge a system where integrity and honesty account for little to the individual and to the constituency.

We have to confront a system where power falls into the hands of men like Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, where power is an end in itself and not a means of effective leadership. Where January 6, 2021 is the fruit of MAGA.

Our eyes must be wide open to the America we have now, the America that no true patriot would want.

Happy Valentine's Day

 

Valentine's prep

 It was probably a wise choice to make the heart the symbol of love instead of the genitals.

Let’s take sex off the pedestal and replace it with love.

Valentine is on the way

 Sex is love. But love is also:

A warm hug

A peck on the cheek

A pat on the fanny

A compliment at just the right time

A single rose

A gentlemanly act

A choice not to have the last word

A rub on the tummy

Picking up the dead squirrel

A sweet word at bedtime

Watching the kids all day

Making breakfast in bed

Respecting the quiet space

Being OK being second

A kiss on the hand

Laying together quietly

Valentine is near

 Love is not a greeting card, but it does sometimes get sweet and sentimental.

Love is not an orgasm, but it does build slowly and require the intimacy of two.

Love is not a string of presents, but it is a gift.

Love is not frivolous, but it is often playful.

Love is not a smooth road, but the bumps are the important lessons.

 

Love is not a steady flame, but it is eternal.

Valentine warm up

 

Cherub

 

Heading to Valentine' Day

 Heading to Valentine’s Day

There’s pleasure in the past of love, but memories can’t be trusted.

There’s pleasure in the future of love, but dreams don’t always come true.

So take pleasure in love now. In the small surprises, the faithfulness, the little failures overcome, the meaning in the meaningless conversations, the intimacy, the pleasures of familiar flesh, the presence in the absence of the other, the gift of always being there.

Trust

 Every major social problem in America is complex and nuanced and boils down to the experiences of a single person—addiction, homelessness, poverty, incarceration, all of it. To be a critic of possible solutions is different from being an informed critic of possible solutions. And here is where the hard work must be done to find individuals to trust.

Trust is a rare commodity in these times of spin, marketing, social media and biased news. Before we can support the organizations and institutions that are given the task of solving social problems, we have to believe we can trust them. Before we believe we can trust them, we have to believe there is even such a things as trust.

Back to the single individual. Perhaps if we put ourselves in a place where we find one human being whose problems have been understood, who’s been treated as a human being and given the support to be healed, we could begin to trust.

National Enquirer

 Now in the National Enquirer on news stands near you;

Rent boy reveals details of Donald Trump/Jeffrey Epstein love nest

Melania now has more pairs of shoes than Imelda Marcos

Trump women plan “Desperate Housewives of Mar-a-Lago”

Don, Jr. auditions for a role on “Plumber’s Apprentice”

Eric Trump asks Biden to appoint him US Ambassador to Disneyworld

Rudy Guiliani takes one-year appointment as Vladimir Putin’s reputation manager

News Headlines

 Headline News

News Headlines

Melania’s wardrobe now worth more than Trump Tower.

Ivanka and Jared offer to fund statues of themselves for Central Park. Offer turned down immediately.

Rudy Guiliani given lifetime membership to Mar-a-Lago as a caddie.

Donald Trump has nominated himself for the Nobel Peace Prize, Time Magazine Man of the Year, the Medal of Freedom, the Legion of Honor and a Wheaties Box.

Don, Jr. has signed a contract to be a Calvin Klein underwear model.

Conversations

 These days we build our picture of the world on sound bites. We talk at one another and over one another, but not to one another. We hear but don’t listen. So I’d like to sit in on a conversation between:

God and evolution

Benjamin Franklin and Ted Cruz

MLK, Jr. and the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan

Ghandi and his assassin

Putin and Rasputin

Prince Harry and Alexi Navalny

Melania Trump and Michelle Obama

Cecily Tyson and Regina King

Martin Scorsese and Jesus

Mother Teresa and LeBron James

An injured combat vet and his daughter

Galileo and Stephen Hawking

Harriet Tubman and Abraham Lincoln

Vanessa Redgrave and Meryl Streep

Wendell Berry and Mitch McConnell

William Kentridge and Nelson Mandela

Other

 You know you are human when you see yourself in the other and the other in yourself. This is not love, but it’s the place where love takes root.

Decency

 It seems to me that these days in America we have come to believe in freedom without responsibility. We become convinced that whatever we want we can have without considering the impact on others. In a globally connected world, we are always at the center. The main purpose of education is to secure material comfort. 

To solve problems like addiction, mental health, homelessness, poverty, incarceration rates and family dysfunction, we throw money at them after the fact.

Maybe I’m naïve, but I believe that if a primary social goal were to build productive,  educated, decent human beings, this would address many of our nation’s problems at their roots.

We don’t talk much about decency these days. But I believe a decent person lives by a conscience, respects others and gives back. Certainly lots of people like this would come in handy.

I like art

 I like art because its doors are always open, welcoming you, your son, your granddaughter, the 4th grade art class and anyone else who’s created something to come in and mingle with Horace Pippin, Edgar Degas, Fra Angelico, the Van Eyck brothers, Henry Darger, Leonardo, Ai Wei Wei, Faith Ringgold, Nan Goldin, Kara Walker and countless more. 

Everybody there has something interesting to say and says it with passion. It’s never boring, and you can stay as long as you want and come back as often as you want.

You can even spend your life there if you so desire. That’s why I like art.

 This is a poem

It does not require references

Or footnotes or a works cited page

Or statistics or fact checking

It only requires

Thoughtful and passionate attention

To something

And words that become more than words

And rhythms in them

And sincerity