Power of Math

 

WGAF

 

Absurdity World

 Come visit the newest Orlando attraction: ABSURDITY WORLD

You’ll be greeted by mascot of the Trump family. Ride the Elon Musk roller coaster. Test your skills as the Mitch McConnell look-alike tries to block every move you make. Take the Republican Fright Ride with the scary Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor-Green and Herschel Walker figures. Play games on the midway, where you can win Ron de Santis and Marco Rubio bobble heads and Ak-47’s. Win prizes if you guess Clarence Thomas’ weight. And, of course, the Second Amendment Turkey Shoot.

ABSURDITY WORLD is good family fun.

Reality Shows

 New Reality Shows for 2023:

Real Housewives of the Daughters of the American Revolution

America’s Got Talent in the Shower

Orgasms of the Rich and Famous

Desperate Nursing Home Widows

Lost: The Island of Ordinary Looking People

Dancing with People with Two Left Feet

Naked and Enjoying It

Nature

 Nature gave birth to us. We called her mother, goddess, healer, teacher, sustainer and disciplinarian. We lived in nature and were intrigued by her beauty, wealth and power. She was our home, our source of renewal and our guide to living.

Language was the way we understood ourselves in nature—images, metaphors, music. The most profound language for the task of understanding nature became science. We understood how we came from nature. We understood that we were symmetrical like the leaves on a tree. We understood our cycles in nature’s cycles. We understood that we were the most complex of the animals built on evolution’s bony skeleton.

All this knowledge was astounding, but it became the trigger for greed and arrogance. We came to believe we were in charge, living outside of nature. This is where we are today. What we do to nature can be absorbed by nature. But eventually we will be brought down like all tyrants

Universe

 The universe gives no thought to you

Though you are its child

A long ,painful, glorious pregnancy

You are forever tethered umbilically

You turned the universe into heaven

Goddesses, foreteller of your fate

Only to discover it was made

Of the same molecules as you

You kept searching for God

Everywhere except inside you

Blame yourself, except for evolution

The Big Bang, the Periodic Table

The one sperm that beat the odds

None had your name on them

With this wisdom you must see

That hate and pointing fingers

Have never really worked

Look up at the pillars of creation

Look down, your feet on the ground

Doesn’t that astounding distance

Make love the most significant thing

Sales

 Large corporations pay massive amounts of money to celebrities to wear their shoes, clothes and watches. Profits are a much more important concern for them than character. In fact, maybe we should replace “In God We Trust” with “Sales before Character.”

Character

 

Getting old

 I’m getting old.

The sprinter stands at the starting line, visualizing the race. He sets and explodes off at the gun. I hope I won’t fall or be too dizzy to get from the bed to the bathroom and back at night.

The dancer leaps and spins to Tchaikovsky. I fall on my ass trying to twerk.

The basketball pro jumps, turns and dunks with lots of flair. I stand up, concentrate and hope I can get my legs in my pants without falling over.

I’m getting old.

What a day

 

I dived off Kim Kardashian’s butt into George Clooney’s palatial pool. He gave me a towel of the finest Egyptian cotton to dry myself. Melania was visiting, and shared a beautiful cashmere suit for me to wear. The sleek white limo pulled up, and I got in, my thin spike $2000 heel catching on the carpet of the limo. I was greeted with a glass of the finest champagne, handed to me by Jake Tapper. Jake was about to interview me for his new show. I had prepared myself since I had already been interviewed by Whoopie Goldberg and the virtual reality version of Barbara Walters.

Before the interview, Jake took me to lunch and suggested the raw oysters and the Chinook salmon fish sticks. The wine was exceptional. After the interview, in which I was witty and scintillating, the limo took me to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop Deluxe Spa. I had a manicure, pedicure, avocado oil bath and a massage by a young, fit Asian man. A nap in my suite at the Hilton was absolutely necessary.

I dressed for the evening in a backless silk gown loaned to me by Tyler Swift. I did have to rent the ruby neckless. It was a dance beyond my expectations, decorations lavish and beyond imagination. I danced with many partners. In the end, it was Justin Bieber who asked me home to his penthouse. As you’d expect, the sex was incredible…every time.

What a day.

Putin

 I’m voting Vladimir Putin off the island of human beings. He’s a rat, a snake, a cockroach. No, that’s not fair to those creatures. They’re just doing what evolution programmed them to do. Putin has peeled off every layer of his humanity. What’s left? Is there even a name for what he is? Ukrainians aren’t just Ukrainians. They are human beings. Putin has betrayed any humanity he has because he has so denied their humanity.

But isn’t this the same story of Hitler, Duvalier in Haiti, Madero in Venezuela and all the other dictators across the world and time. Beyond that, though at another level, we can’t escape our own disastrous engagement in Vietnam. Maybe it’s hopeless because this is something human beings can’t escape.

Hey you

 Hey you! Yes, you. Art is looking for you. It has things it wants to tell you, so don’t try to hide. It wants to penetrate deep into you to uncover things you never knew were there. It wants to pop your eyes open to reveal the beauty all around.

Decency

 Life is failing and achieving. If you think of yourself as someone who travels this path aiming to be a decent human being, you wonder how the world got so fucked up. What did you contribute to this? What did you do to unfuck it? How can a small number of dictators, power hungry thugs and greedy bastards take life and liberty from so many? How can the voices of the compassionate, the moral, the loving be drowned out so effectively by the deceivers, the influencers, the moneyed and the little men with armies in their pockets?

Most of us are not saints or martyrs, but our cumulative decency does count for something. But so far, just not enough.

Silence

 

Menopause

 So, today is World Menopause Day. Menopause is one of the many gifts given to humans by evolution, gifts including the brain, DNA, genetic diseases, mental illness, a range of body types, libido and more. Menopause, like all these gifts, collides with human civilization and its inventions and conventions. Menopause is a factor of consequence in the historical treatment of women and the misbehavior of men. It’s one of those natural processes that humans have trouble talking about. When menopause evolved, biological evolution had no plan for cultural evolution. We have not always been good at reconciling these two evolutions, as the history of gender roles and gender conventions shows us.

Football

 Football is essential, but art is not.

Bling is essential, but poetry is not.

War is essential, but peace is not.

Fear is essential, but love is not.

Popularity is essential, but integrity is not.

Spectacle is essential, but intimate conversation is not.

Marketing is essential, but truth is not.

Privilege is essential, but equality is not.

Wealth is essential, but equity is not.

And of course,

I am essential, but you are not.

Monty Python

 The other night I was watching Monty Python, and realized that their comedy was just one step away from the daily life of human beings. We think we are rational creatures with absurdity on the side. In fact, we are absurd creatures with rationality on the side. Just take the blinders off and look at the world. Absurdity makes us laugh and cry and hate and kill. It comes out of a world of randomness, twisted power, libido and greed.

We need to respect the significance of absurdity and acknowledge its presence in our lives, because it points to the rational brain that will save us.

Tired

 I don’t know about you, but I’m tired…

Tired of interviews with celebrity pretty faces, their life dramas, their endless awards, gushing over their philanthropy and their fashion statements. Give me Michael Fanone, Theaster Gates, Kara Walker and Adam Kinzinger.

Tired of political campaigns that are full of mudslinging and cheap marketing tricks and never get around to competence, character and problem solving.

Tired of news reports that go right to race and ethnicity and rarely see past that to character and context.

Tired of popularity, and its revenue generation, pretending to be excellence.

Tired of dancing football players who get more attention for one touchdown than dedicated public servants get for a lifetime of work.

TV

 Some questions about TV commercials

1. Should commercials for medications be longer so there’s time to list all the side effects?

2. If no one is dancing in the commercial, does that mean the product is really not effective?

3. Is there anything that Shaq isn’t able to sell?

4. Is the Mesothelioma Book in the Library of Congress?

5. Why aren’t ugly people allowed to sell us stuff?

6. Has Kelly Clarkson ever appeared in your living room or your bed?

7. How much does Steph Curry earn for saying one sentence in a Subway commercial?

8. What should I do about my list of 97 medications I should ask my doctor about?

9. Is there any life disaster that Elk&Elk can’t help me with?

10. When she’s fallen and can’t get up, is she calling just to get the handsome firemen?

Nikolas Cruz

 Nikolas Cruz, the man who killed so many at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, has admitted his guilt and will be imprisoned for life without parole. The jury has affirmed his culpability but did not give a verdict of death. But as these kinds of mass killings continue, American society from top to bottom has to look at itself. What did his mother do to him? How could he be allowed to get this weapon? How can government at all levels lack the courage to pass laws necessary to control guns and gun violence? Why do Americans consume so much violence in the form of sports and entertainment?

It may be one young man, but it’s all of us, too. And it won’t stop until we build a society that has no tolerance for guns and the violence they create.

78 years

 In my 78 years on Earth I have seen many movements in the USA—Communist scare, sexual revolution, Vietnam War, civil rights, feminism, Roe vs, Wade, gay rights. Confronted with every one of these movements, America responded in a way that affirmed the deepest values of our country, moving to a more just society. Now we are confronted with MAGA/Trumpism, which built on fear, lies and the abuse of power. For the first time in my life I’m living in an America moving backward, disrespecting truth and tramping on personal freedoms.

Nature

 In the dark evening, pick a star and name it after yourself. Pick two. There are plenty enough.Pick a flower and follow it from birth to death. How did it accomplish its cycle?

Collect a shell at the seashore. Study its architecture and geometry. What would deserve a home like that?

an ant and track its movements for a while. What is its mission?

Nature is not just for snapshots and calendars. It’s full of lessons.

Doggie

 Exciting news from the Daily Doggie Gazette

--Panera will soon open a chain of doggie restaurants called Canira. These dog-only eateries will feature fresh meals for your best friend. Eat in or take out are options, with meals for your meat eating or vegan dog. A selection of dog treats is also available.

--Is your favorite doggie pet pregnant. Let us at Canine Creations plan your dog’s gender reveal party. We will plan snacks and beverages, party favors and decorations. We will also invite friends, family and potential puppy adopters.

--You know attending military boarding school made you the man you are. So why not send your beloved dog to a one-month boarding experience at Barksdale Academy. We will train your dog in security procedures, to follow commands and to stand on his hind legs and salute.

Love

 Nature expresses itself in diversity and possibility. Anyone who fears or condemns that diversity and possibility in sexual expression is guilty of a sin against nature. More important, anyone who fears or condemns sexual expression is guilty of a sin against humanity. In the end, it’s not the sexual act that’s the issue but presence of love and respect. The absence of love and respect is the measure of harm and perversion.

What kind of society are we if we believe we can tell citizens what love is for them and prevent them from affirming that love to one another.

Beautiful

 We admire the beautiful body and the effort that goes into creating it. It entertains us and wows us with its capacities. We dress it with flamboyance and excess and put it on parade. We drape it with bling or show it off with scanty outfits. We even assume that the beautiful body contains a beautiful mind.

But the beautiful mind is a different thing. It’s not as easily seen or appreciated. The work to get there is hidden, and what makes it beautiful is not always appreciated. It can be dangerous when it’s at its best and dismissed when it should most be valued.

The beautiful body can lift great weights, but the beautiful mind can move civilizations.

Mental health

 

Brains

 Scientists have learned a great deal from studying the brains of deceased professional football players. Now scientists want to study the brains of deceased Trump supporters.

Justice

 The ideal of justice too often falls short of the daily practice of justice. This is inevitable in the human world. The justice system is composed of judges, court workers, lawyers, law enforcement, district attorneys, legislators and us. We’re all in it and affected by it. It’s a complex system, often pushed to the brink. Pushed into politics, the system unable to work for the people it serves.

Most who work in the system are dedicated and committed individuals. They believe in the ideal and are agents of the poor and disadvantaged, even with limited resources. Others are all about milking the system, defending the corporations and the wealthy and filling their own pockets with cash.

The justice system is built to serve the society in which it exists. When the society is poisoned by violence, lack of responsibility, excessive litigation, corruption and the lack of legislative will to address the problems, justice can be hard to find.

Justice should be there for all, but some have a lot more resources and power to buy it.

Recent science

 Recent scientific breakthroughs

--Scientists report that they are close to a breakthrough in identifying the gene that turns men into assholes. It is located on chromosome 19 and is linked to the gene that controls penis size.

--Scientists discovered that Viagra does not work as effectively across the sexuality spectrum. Recent research has produced an ED product for bisexuals, called Biagra. In the works is an ED product for those who enjoy group sex. It’s called Trialis.

--The Human Sexuality Institute has produced a free CD on VD and ED for anyone with a GED, a JD, an MD or works for a PD or an FD.

Truth

 The only people compelled to tell the truth are buffoons and artists.

Educations

 Because of our educations, we trust teachers to guide us to what we need to learn, not necessarily what we want to learn. Our educations aim to prepare us to be productive, thinking, flexible human beings. Once we enter the adult world, our educations are what help us navigate the messaging of poll results, social media, entertainment and marketing.

Our educations help us make room for the voices of poets, the wisdom of the courageous, the experience of elders, and those who tell the hard truth--the very voices that keep us from becoming sheep. We should make certain our educations never stop.

Duty