Right or wrong? Who makes the rules?

The name of a movie once declared that "The world has gone mad!" Various reasons behind that statement are what made up the plot. Mostly it focused on how individual perspective determined opinions of right or wrong. Some perspective was based upon fact, some perspective was based upon limited observation. Everyone acted on what they deemed as truth with outcomes sometimes humorous, sometimes nothing short of disaster. The movie highlighted how ignorance can rule people and even entire societies.

Fact: Reality/truth exists regardless of what you say or believe.

Listening to news of changes in long held rules regarding morality and law lately reminds me very much of that movie. Hollywood once again predicted the future. Reality/truth no longer prevails. Life changing decisions are now based upon perspective. And, this is the really silly part, it is the perspective of a self-indulged few that rules the majority of those who view reality as, at the very least common sense. The weapon of choice to empower ignorance is guilt. It works, big time!

When I was a kid, the neighbor kids never got treats from their folks. The family had way more money than my family but for whatever reason the parents did not spend money on treats of any kind. No popsicles from the popsicle guy, no ice cream or cake on birthdays, no candy bars from the corner store bought with allowance money on Saturday afternoons like the rest of the kids in the neighborhood. However, whenever any of us other kids had treats the kids from that family would be right at our sides with the phrase: "Jesus says we must share!" To load us up with guilt if we didn't give them some of our treats. As kids we wanted to do what Jesus did so we shared. We couldn't hold up to the guilt. That is until us other kids realized that those kids weren't Jesus, they never shared anything with us. They just wanted some of our stuff and used the Jesus guilt trip because it worked.

Now I'm all growed up and I find that some of those kids are still around loading me an millions of other people up with guilt so we will give them what they want. There are no limits as to what they want either:

 "I broke the law but you only want me to be held accountable because you don't like me or anyone like me."
"I can do this, even though it disgusts you because I was born that way. Accept it or you are old fashioned."
"I am special and don't have to work. You have to do with less of your hard earned money and support me or you are selfish."
"I decoded, all by myself what God really says and wants. You are out of touch with the modern concept of God."

Guilt is a huge weapon against good minded people. Nobody wants to feel guilty do they? Maybe it's this unfounded guilt that has made the whole world go mad. Are you guilty of allowing guilt to overcome your better judgement? Perspective, ours or theirs?

Pet peeves in the middle of the night

What ever happened to visiting a library or grocery store to meet someone of the opposite sex? Right now there are so many dating sights on the Internet the advertisements overwhelm the average mind. No, I'm not on the dating scene. That's not the issue. It's the torrent of those advertisements and the claims they make that are a real pain in my book/backside. Some sights are brazenly racist while others appeal to a person's faith life or heaven knows what. One of those places goes so far as to speak for God! Hey folks, pay us money and find out who God wants you to be with. Huh? Who made them spokespeople for God? I guess I missed that part in the bible.

Who decides how many pieces or pounds or ounces of a certain product get put into a container?: Six donuts, Ten hot dogs, Eight hot dog buns, (that one really gets me.) Fifteen and a half ounces of peaches in a can, .05 ounces of seeds, and then the ever decreasing size of what once was a three pound can of coffee, now?: 869g, in other words 1lb, 14.6 ounces. Yup! That's how higher prices sneak up on us. Rolls of toilet tissue are made over an inch narrower than only a few short years ago. Truthfully I don't get that one, people are getting heavier with each generation whilst TP is getting smaller.

There is an attack being formed to eliminate cordless microphones and turn the airwaves spectrum over to telephones or TV or radio. I guess it'll be back to those megaphone things. Nah, not really. We will simply return to the days of yards upon yards of lines leading to microphones in churches, auditoriums and the sidelines of football fields. American Idol will have to have those people audition wrapped in wire and the TV news reporters will have thick wires hanging down their back. We did it all before, we'll deal with it again I guess.

The new health care system is a point of contention for a lot of people these days. Something that people have always aspired to get as a part of a good employment package or earn enough to afford is health insurance. Not everyone has health insurance and that is the issue being dealt with politically right now. Realistically what is being done, be it right or wrong is: some health care is being taken away from those that have it and given to those that do not have it. It's such a hot topic not because any of us want anyone to go without health care, it's because we really don't want any of the health care we worked so hard and sacrificed so long to obtain to be taken away. It's not that something shouldn't be done, it's how it's being done by people that aren't being affected by it.

Products being made in China are a source of contention to a huge number of folks that blame our high unemployment figures on imports. Not so long ago Chinese products were called junk and sold in novelty stores. The same with other imports. There was a time when Japanese cars were the laughing stock of the world of transportation. The manufacturers around the world felt no competition or need to be concerned. Today a Japanese car manufacturer sells more cars than any other manufacturer anywhere. And, the loyalty of it's customers is incredible. Thanks to the work and ethical standards of the Japanese they have an excellent standard of living. The Chinese are attempting the same climb to the top. Other countries are making stuff we want for cheap to get the money to make stuff we want that is higher quality than we make here. Is the answer to stop buying from them or is it to make some stuff they want cheap and sell it to them and use the money to make even better stuff and get even more money and everyone winds up happy. Is that possible? Besides, who is left around here that needs to do the manual labor when they are given for free what the people in most Asian countries have to work for? In India they make a new car that will sell for around $2000. Now that is something to think about. At one time the Americans were the innovators.

This pet peeve thing is what goes through a person's mind when he can't sleep I think. During daylight hours there are so many other distractions and input of information that one's innermost thoughts are suppressed to the point of boiling over into the night. That's where I'm at now. Not that any of this stuff is really any more important than anything you can think of. We all have our own perspective and opinions. All equally valid. It's just that at this particular moment everyone else is sleeping and I get a chance to express myself and air out my mind to make room for other stuff. It won't be long and the pressures of the day will take the place of anything as trivial as a pet peeve. Actually it'll be seven minutes from now. That's a whole nother story, er peeve of mine. Later.....Joe

Kids, aliens, werewolfs, vampires and cowboys

Listening to young kids and their logic can be an enlightening experience. As adults most of us have forgotten our youthful perceptions of reality. TV shows and fantasy films had a profound affect on our impressionable minds. Why, far into my adulthood I still entertained thoughts of riding the open range rounding up steers or capturing rustlers. Although perhaps the particulars of childhood ideas may have changed, the line between reality and fantasy is still as blurred as ever.

While discussing the upcoming Halloween activities with a couple neighborhood boys I found out a thing or two that I hadn't realized: Ghosts don't exist. It is ridiculous to even think that something can be made out of thin air. That only happens on TV. Zombies and aliens are real though. Zombies can pop up out of the ground or the side of a building. Aliens can hide inside someone Else's body or a dog or other animal. Aliens hide their spaceships in houses a lot and pretend to be regular people so they can spy. Werewolfs aren't really people. Werewolfs are actually dogs disguised as people in order to get people so they can eat them. Another thing, werewolfs sometimes just bite and chew people for fun. Centaurs live by the mountains only because anywhere else people want to fight with them too much and they don't really like to fight that much. They like to run more because of their horse feet. Vampires are scariest of all. Vampires fly at night looking for people to suck blood from. If a vampire sucks blood from your neck you turn into a vampire too. But, and listen carefully, if a vampire bites you anywhere else you can get away and not be a vampire. So make sure you put up your arm for them to bite and when it bites you hit it hard and run away. You'll be OK then and not a vampire too.

I was left with one more bit of juvenile wisdom: Cowboys can kill vampires, werewolfs and aliens with their 50/50 guns and sometimes they train centaurs to ride them. Cowboys can do almost anything and they protect us just like the Army. I guess some things only change a little.