Tuesday 7/28/20
* I would find it terrifying to go somewhere where people are walking around with AK-47s. I would never do that. Reading about this guy who was shot in Texas. Man gets his AK-47, posts on social media about how people he does not care for are pussies, takes to the street for a protest, which is often about so many other things for the people at them than actual justice, equity, or amity, is clearly truculent, and another person with a gun shoots this person with a gun, seemingly with everyone making threats and trying to be intimidating. I just can't imagine going into the Starbucks and seeing someone in line with an AK-47. That just seems like utter lunacy to me. I'd leave. People are often insane. And often angry. And all it takes is for them to decide to make a squeezing motion and you could be dead? You want a rifle to go into the woods and shoot some ducks, fine. But all of the rest of it is madness to me. Without guns and the internet the world is a far better place.
* This is also scary. I just saw it. Was over something stupid, people carping on Twitter about Ellen, who I am sure is intolerable, and every time I used to see a commercial with her I'd start to get a headache coming on. People like to think about karma. I believe it comforts them. The idea of karma. There is no karma. Bad things happen to great people, and evil people get to have easy, bountiful lives. That's life, unfortunately. There's not some tally sheet reckoning where everything evens out in the here and now. Maybe in the hereafter, if there is one. I don't know. I'm just someone focused on trying to get to where he's trying to get to. But I saw this comment, regarding Ellen: "I guess she pissed off the big guy............Recompense from God hurts and is relentless." That makes God sound like an abusive, alcoholic husband, doesn't it? And kind of a rape-y one, like he'd use the word "painal" a bunch. Relentless hurting. Awesome. I have a complicated relationship with God right now, as I don't understand why so much would be given to one person, so much ability to do so much good, only to put stone after stone after stone in each and every last passway, in what has been a tragic existence that is almost impossible to endure. I have an ability that comes from something beyond myself. I understand that. But I ask--so many times, millions of times now--what is the point? What was I given that ability for, if this is what is happening? But I still don't believe in some "big guy" who gets "pissed," and then serves up wrath. Maybe I should. I do wonder if maybe I was the worst person who ever lived in some other life, and now I'm here in another form and paying the price for that. But I get the willies when people describe God this way, because I think that kind of person can do a lot of damage in this world, only they call it something else. To use a Biblical image, I think they have extreme scales over their eyes. But, then again, that's probably most people.
* I am confused as to why North American pro sports leagues are trying to keep going right now. Or re-start going, as it were. People will continue to test positive for COVID-19. Every day there will be athletes who test positive. You are not not going to have that right now. So, you can either shut it down, or you can move forward knowing people will be sick, and they'll just have to be sick. Play sick, spread sickness to their teammates, to people out in the world. You can't have it both ways. I am expecting baseball to shut down for good for 2020 any time now, I don't think there will be NHL and NBA playoffs, nor football seasons. What can change? Hockey will start, then four Bruins will test positive, a guy on the Hawks, two Rangers, half of another team. Then what? You can't control this virus the way they seem insistent on wishing to control it. Now, if you want to argue that it's time to just move forward, let Darwinism do its thing, that people's mental health is the larger health issue in our society, by far, and let come what may, I think there's a case to be made there. I certainly have approached COVID-19 in a way that others have predominantly not. You also cannot trust the athletes. They will be at strip clubs, they will be bedding lots of random women. A lot of these guys are uneducated people who are young and with lots of money. A lot of them think they're invincible. They are with this virus. But they will test positive, which is clearly different than being sick. More and more players are also opting out. Dont'a Hightower for the Patriots today. You can't blame him. Has a new baby. Plays a violent, brain-damaging sport, has for a long time, has made his money, won his championships. Hard to be invested in the game right now when you know you're also in for a season that feels off, won't feel like the real deal.
* I also cannot believe how much mileage is got out of the whole flag thing. Stand, don't stand. It doesn't mean much either way. Not standing is not this flagrant act of disrespect. Standing isn't this amazing act of love for fallen people. It just is not. Neither is. Go help homeless vets. Help them with money, food, addiction issues they may have. Real respect isn't based on the position of your body. As for disrespecting a flag, that would be like if you pissed on one, or set it ablaze. You are respecting the principles behind a flag when you kneel, as what that flag symbolizes is freedom. Same as when you stand. Freedom of expression, thought, and what should be seen as a kind of invitation to be a critical thinker. Which, of course, is about the worst thing you can be in America in 2020. (Critical thinker is lower than racist right now, on the totem pole of society.) But flag discussions always remind me of things like people who put up a filter on social media telling you that they are saving lives because they sit on their ass on a couch and eat frozen yogurt. We will try to take credit for anything and everything, without doing a single real thing of activity, time, purpose, effort, hardship. The microwave approach to morality.
