Opus 2018-141: A Pseudotweet

It occurred to me this morning that I have developed the strange habit of “making” my bed each day.  Something which I resisted with all the fervor of youth has now become second nature.  The first miracle is that I notice it isn’t made.  The second is that I straighten it up without an inner struggle of my spirit of liberty yearning to live free.

I don’t know when the change happened.  I am wondering why?  Is my wife a better nagger than my mother?  Did an alien possess my body?  Is it a sudden need for islands of order in my life?  Is it because I am getting old and losing my mind?  I am going to go with modern culture and claim to be the victim.

I am the victim of the modern casual approach to life.  The last wedding I attended had me standing out as one of the few men who wore a tie.  Most guests were dressed like they were going on a date to a local bar.  At church last Sunday the uniform was some sort of worn looking denim and a shirt that was not tucked in.  That spirit has embraced my inner bed maker.

For those of you who are new to this world the making of a bed used to be an arduous task.  The corners had to be neatly tucked in.  The top sheet was to be evenly folded back over the blanket, even though it would be covered by the pillows and bed spread.  The pillows were neatly arranged across the top of the bed and the bed spread was brought up over them and tucked under the front.  The bed spread had to be evenly draped on all sides.  It was quite a procedure.  No wonder I hated it.

Now I just kind of pull things up until they are generally neat.  The pillow goes wherever it ends up and since the bed spread is really a down comforter it covers a lot of uneven sheet wrinkles.  It takes a few seconds.

Am I getting better or are the expectations worse?  Is it a victory for sanity or a sign of disintegration?  This sounds like one of those stereotypical tweets that share how many squares of toilet paper you used this morning. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-140: Headlines: The New Lottery

The Miss America Pageant has decided to do away with the swim suit competition.  If they had just gone ahead and done it with no announcement I would have never known because I don’t think I have ever watched it unless my wife wanted to sometime in the past.  Long ago I found that walking through an expensive bakery was not a good idea for an overweight diabetic. 

What I think was interesting was the idea that the women in the competition should not be judged on looks.  Okay.  Then to be consistent we would need to bring out the burkas and hook up those machines that disguise your voice.  If we are really concerned about doing away with physical responses then we can expect to see further announcements. 

Of course if we are trying to level the playing field we will also need to do away with other areas that some might have an unfair advantage.  Since some people are born tone deaf we could not have any musical talent displayed.  Some people do not speak English so there could actually be no verbal responses possible if we want to be fair.  To be complete we need to do away with anything having to do with intelligence also. 

As we continue down the road of the absurd we need to consider the comments by some that we must be sensitive to those who were born male but identify as female and have not gone public.  In fact, maybe limiting the competition to just women seems to be a bit discriminatory.  It should be open to all 49 gender identifications, or whatever the current number is. 

I would suggest that the only logical future for the Miss America Pageant is to become the Ms/Mr America Lottery.  If that ever becomes a reality and the rewards are good enough I might be inclined to sign up but only if there is no age discrimination.

What a world we are living in.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-139: Japan: Paying the Bill, Part 10 of ?

In Japan you do not hand anyone money directly.  You always lay it on the counter for them to pick up.  Everywhere you go they have these little trays like you get in fancy restaurants.  You put your money on the tray.  They carefully count out your change.  They bow.  All is good in the world.

I understand that it is considered an insult to hand them the money directly.  It has something to do with prostitution.  It seems strange to us but that is the way they do it.  Some accommodations are not a burden, just hard to remember. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-138: On the Street: The Return of the Longhorn

The sign said, “Registered Longhorns for Sale”.  It is amazing what happens when society becomes so rich they don’t have time for standards.  If you ever watched cowboy movies in which they were driving cattle to the railhead you know about the role of the longhorn.  The longhorn was a type of cattle that strangely enough had long horns.  The reason the long horns were important is that they became deadly weapons when the animal felt threatened and even more deadly when they were in a bad mood.  That was all the time.  They had run wild and survived in the wild.

Longhorns were noted for their bad attitudes.  It was almost as if they knew they were born to be the central feature at a barbeque.  They were also noted as having tough, stringy meat.  It was considered a great day for steak lovers when the longhorns were cross bred with other breeds of cattle to produce more tender steaks and roasts. 

Now for some reason things come full circle.  What would be considered a cull is now “registered” as if they were really special.  Maybe they are now considered pets.  They do look majestic when the horns spread six feet or more.  Some might even consider them a romantic figure but that is beyond my ken. 

It will be interesting if Longhorn Steak ever becomes an item in expensive restaurants.  My guess will be that they can only be eaten in rooms with no air conditioning.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-137: I Find a New Author

How do you know if a writer is a liberal?  There are lots of clues.  I am recently working through the novels of David Baldacci.  He writes an entertaining story.  The first couple I read I enjoyed with no qualifications but as I began to read through the different series he is working on I began to see certain patterns.

In one book he continually used the acronym ISIL instead of ISIS.  As far as I know President Obama is the main one who used this term in trying to push the legitimate cause of Islam in the Middle East.  ISIS stand for “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria”.  ISIL stands for “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant”.  To geographically challenged Americans the question is, “So what?”  Using the term Levant is granting that the Islamic state has a legitimate claim to the land of Israel.  If you question this, Google “Levant”.  When the results come up you will see some maps on the right that include Israel.  When you look at the major cities of the Levant you will find Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  Obama was making a political statement by his choice of words.  I have to feel Baldacci was doing the same.  The other possibility is he only reads the New York Times.

There are a lot of other clues.  The tone he takes on issues like business, medicine and such.  So far the balance between irritating liberal doggerel and a good story are coming down on the side of the story, so I will continue reading.  He seems to have a theme in some of the books.  He dealt with human trafficking in one.  The one I am reading now seems to highlight the problems in foster care.  Another dealt with secret government programs that seemed to be developing cyborg soldiers.  Good topics that need to be highlighted.  Somehow I don’t think he will ever deal with the Planned Parenthood scandal of selling baby body parts or the lack of credibility in the media.  That would be too much to hope for but I will hope anyway.

I continue reading with my baloney meter turned on and my mind in gear.

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-136: Questions

I have been reading in Judges.  It was a bloody time.  There are chapters that have no purpose or teaching that I can see.  Does that bother me?  Yes, but it is so far down my list I don’t think about it much. 

Some people approach the Bible with the doubt of pride.  They are committed to tearing it apart and proving it wrong.  So they focus on things like the massacre of Ai.  Others approach it from the questioning of faith.  They are looking for answers to life.  I count myself in the latter.

Do I have the answer to some of your questions?  No, not yet.  I will someday.  Until then I am too busy trying to understand the rest.  I may not get to your questions until I have been resurrected for a few millennia.  Of course, by then I might already know the answer from something else I was studying.

Are questions good?  They can be.  They can also just be an expression of a desire to agitate.  What is the difference?  When you tell your children to take out the trash and they ask “Why?”  It might be genuine curiosity about why you want them to empty something they just took out without you asking.  It could also be nothing but rebellion if things are running over onto the floor.

So ask away.  Question.  And be satisfied with a frequent “I have no idea” and an occasional “Because I said so.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2018-135: Headlines: Who Is Tommy Robinson?

If our Progressive (Liberal, Democrat, Socialist, Elite, RINO) leaders have their way the experience of Tommy Robinson will soon come to a community near you.  If you don’t know about Tommy Robinson then you either are not paying attention or their plan has already isolated you in a Nanny State cocoon. 

Tommy Robinson was standing outside a courthouse in England where some Muslims were on trial for rape and assorted other crimes.  He was using Facebook to report on what was happening.  He was arrested for “breaching the peace”.  That sounds pretty serious.  Evidently he had done such a heinous things before and standing in public making comments on his Facebook page was a violation of his parole.  Within five hours he appeared before a judge and was locked up again for thirteen months.  It seems he was locked up in the same prison that contained the Muslims.  Then the judge passed down a gag order telling the news media not to tell anybody about it.  In this country you don’t have to do that because the media is so one sided, but London still has competing newspapers that like to get a scoop.

This is what the English system of justice has become.  It is what the Progressives want to see in this country.  I have often noted that our basic Bill of Rights is based on the English Declaration of Rights of 1689.  One noticeable difference is in the right to what we call Freedom of Speech.  It contains a mention of such but it only applied to members of Parliament.  The common, every day, man on the street had no such protection.

Our Founding Fathers made it clear that they were determined to break from the European model.  Today’s Bumbling Bureaucrats are doing everything they can to repair the damage.  The European Model involved hereditary class systems.  The European Model made common people subjects more than citizens.

Which brings us to the case of Tommy Robinson.  He is in jail because he spoke out against the politically correct desire to cover up and protect the atrocities being unleashed on the British people my the growing Muslim minority.  With his incarceration we are slapped up side the head with an awareness that England is not the land of the free.  It isn’t now.  Maybe it wasn’t then. 

It is time for the United States to renew its commitment to not being like Europe.  If we don’t then many of us will be facing jail time and a lot of misery.  Elections are coming.  Don’t vote for anyone who is not proud to be different from the rest of the world.

homo unius libri