Touring the Valley: thoughts

Showing posts with label thoughts. Show all posts

Random Thoughts

Prophecies of Apocalypse (ca. 1861), Raphael’s Almanac

Wastefulness, destruction, and vandalism are not traditional conservative values.

Rudeness and vulgarity are not traditional conservative values.

Many who label themselves conservative are the kind of people their genuinely conservative predecessors would have found disgusting.

Once upon a time, the world could count on America to be American. No matter who the president was, or who got elected to Congress, we knew who our allies were, and they could count on us. We knew who the bad guys were, and we were on the side of the good guys. And then...

Here's an idea for a law that will never pass. Require the top executives of industrial corporations to drink the water where they dump their chemicals.

I am so tired of women's stroke and heart attack symptoms being labeled "atypical". No! Women are half the human population. Our health issues are a normal part of human life. Our symptoms are typical. Start calling men's symptoms atypical, because they aren't the same as those of normal women.

Terrorists want the population to be frightened, uncertain, and constantly on edge. It's working. Millions of seniors and disabled people are terrified of losing their financial support; whole communities fear that their neighbors will be disappeared; anyone with investments is on edge, expecting a crash any day now; people in general are outraged to see history purged from government websites; veterans are losing their jobs or expecting to lose them; families are stunned to see parks closed; and everyone is reeling from rising prices, the threat of government-sponsored identity theft, despair over the end of medical research, and the realization that we are now ruled by a regime that defiantly ignores the will of the people and would gladly see us all die.

Random Thoughts

After a while, there were so many mass shootings, the news media lost interest in reporting them. I expect that's going to happen with plane crashes, too.

I'm so tired of all the entities that want me to download their app just so I can shop / read the article / get past the popup. I don't need 5,000 stupid apps all over my phone!

King Charles I of England believed in the "divine right of kings", meaning he thought God want him to rule. When he was put on trial for treason and other crimes, he claimed that no court had jurisdiction over him. He was found guilty and executed.

I miss the days when U.S. presidents used to at least pretend to have dignity.

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” - John F. Kennedy, January 20, 1961

Firing large numbers of people doesn't just affect the fired workers. It doesn't just affect their families. It affects all the small businesses around their homes and workplaces. Fire 500 people, and that's 500 people who don't need to get anything drycleaned any more, 500 people who aren't stopping for coffee on the way to work, who aren't going to that little deli for lunch, who won't impulsively stop to buy flowers on the way home, 500 people who aren't able to pay for daycare now, who won't go to the car wash every week, who can no longer afford the farmer's market on the weekend, who won't be replacing the old couch after all, who start cutting their own hair instead of going to the salon, who decide to cut back on Christmas presents this year.

When I was a kid, I learned not to give bullies what they want. If you comply with them, they come back for more. If not, they go away.

Random Thoughts

"The Deadly Sins Dominated by Death" (1904), James Ensor

I don't want it to make me stronger.
I don't want it to make me a better person.
I just want it to leave me alone.

What if we could actually love each other as well as we promised we would?

Nothing ruins a lovely Saturday afternoon like realizing it's Thursday.

When your only tool is a sledgehammer, everything looks like a demolition project.

I still think love is better than hate, even though hate is more profitable.

In junior high, my friend Jeannie was baffled when the math teacher said "show your work". Jeannie had a natural talent for math, and didn't have to work hard at the stuff we did in 8th grade. She would look at a problem and understand it in her head. No calculations needed, apparently. Some teachers suspected her of cheating. (As if she'd be foolish enough to copy a lesser person's answers). I showed her what I did, working it out on paper the way we were taught back in 3rd grade. "Oh, they want us to do it the hard way!" she said.

Thousands of businesses perform internal audits on a regular basis. They do NOT shut down the business while the audit is happening.

Random Thoughts

Charles Babbage's Brain (1909), V. Horsley

Law enforcement should not be afraid to pursue a case against criminals, out of fear that political hacks who don't like the outcome will punish them for enforcing the law.

Sometimes I feel an urge to water the artificial plants. I resist it.

Whether a person is making sandwiches, putting electrical wiring in your home, or investigating crime, it's better to have someone who knows what to do and does it well, without worrying about being fired for political reasons.

I'm baffled and annoyed by the vast numbers of people who write "pun intended" or "no pun intended" when there truly is no pun (or joke of any kind).

If you have to use lies to promote your cause, your cause isn't worth promoting.

It is painful to admit that you were deceived and betrayed, that your loyalty was misplaced. A common reaction is denial - you just don't want to believe it. You look for other explanations for the things that have happened. You feel anxious, wary, confused. When you finally have to face the truth, you may feel incapacitated by depression. You may react with rage. You feel that you can't trust anyone at all, ever again.

Random Thoughts

Image from an alchemical manuscript by an unknown author, ca. 1725

Sadists will not protect us.

It's amazing to see how many infectious disease specialists and Constitutional scholars have suddenly become aviation experts.

I want an app like Shazam, but for faces.

We are the descendants of the survivors.

Even the Twilight Zone never had an episode when all the criminals were turned loose and all the law enforcers were fired.

If I had marched into US government offices with some buddies and taken over the computer system, my friends and I would be sitting in jail right now.

Random Thoughts

Illustration: "Hospice for the Incurable" (ca 1764), Anonymous

A lot of parking facilities are designed with no awareness that, once a car is parked, the occupants need to get out and walk somewhere.

The WWII generation believed the U.S. could and should be a force for good in the world. That belief carried over into the Cold War and justified, in some minds, questionable things that were done to "fight communism". But eventually the belief in supporting "the greater good" was replaced by "greed is good", whereby affluence was widely perceived as proof of moral superiority. Eventually, the goal of having an affluent society that benefited nearly everyone was abandoned, and affluent individuals who benefitted no one but themselves became role models.

Most people aren't as funny as they think they are. Some are unintentionally funny. Many aren't funny at all.

No doubt, corporate executives do important work. They have to wear suits, go to meetings, have lunch with important people, attend banquets, and, um, make decisions. I was working for a big corporation at one time. My boss, the head of the department, needed back surgery, so he was absent for a few weeks. The company just kept rolling along, as everyone else kept on working as usual. Then one day it was time for the department head to make some decisions about how products would be allocated to various distributors in the region. He was still absent! So his assistant and I sat in his office, went through the list, and made the choices. There was no disaster or failure, and no more complaints than usual. Eventually, the boss came back to work, feeling better, and we all just kept on doing what we did.

Random Thoughts

Illustration: The Effects of Chloroform on the Human Body (1912) by Richard Tennant Cooper

Being young is great, but it's not sustainable.

Even if our government had the power to rename the Gulf of Mexico - what a waste of resources that would be. The expense and time-waste of reprinting maps, changing signs, retraining meteorologists to use the new name, etc.

A few years ago, I had a conversation with the plumber who was unclogging the toilet in our vacation rental. He said he used to work for a big hotel. They were using low-flow toilets, and they to deal with clogged toilets daily, at least a dozen per week. When the hotel weas refurbished, they replaced all the toilets. The new ones were also low-flow, but of a different design that flushed more efficiently. They went from a dozen clogs per week to less than 5 per month.

I've seen this effect in my house. When we had to replace a toilet, the one we bought had a promotional sign and video claiming it had the power to flush a bucket of golf balls. I happen to own a bucket of golf balls, and I don't plan to flush them. Even so, it is obvious that this one is powerful. The design matters more than the amount of water. I've seen high-volume toilets that could barely flush a single sheet of toilet paper, and new low-volume models that could do whatever was needed.

I used to be funnier, but the times have worn me down.

I will speak up in defense of paper maps. When we took our big trip around the country, we didn't use paper maps for navigation, but we used them to get the "big picture". We would spread out a map of a region or state (or the entire country) and say: We're going from here to there. What cities and points of interest are on the way? What are the potential side trips? Where will we want to stop for the night? Where are the rivers and mountain ranges? That's information you don't get from the GPS device in your car or phone.

Once upon a time, each U.S. president saw himself as serving or leading ALL citizens, not just small factions of extreme loyalists.

Shorts

One time I was shopping for a party dress, and they didn't have the one I liked in my size. So I decided to just try what they had, a size 12.

I got part way into the dress and found myself stuck. My head and arms were trapped. I couldn't get it on, and couldn't get it off. I had to call the saleslady to pull it off me.

I said, "Wow, I've never seen a size 12 that tight."

She looked at the tag and said, "It's a 2."

They aren't healthcare CEOs. They are insurance company CEOs. Their business isn't providing healthcare. Their business is restricting healthcare.

The problem with the never-satisfied, ultra-greedy oligarchs is that they don't just want a lot, they don't just want more, they want EVERYTHING. Anything you have, no matter how small, is something they don't have. They want it. This is why a man with $300 Billion will take away a grandmother's $1200 pension check. If she has it, it's not in his pocket, and he wants it.

I spend too much time trying to fine-tune the thermostat. There is no perfect temperature.

I entertain myself by looking up my symptoms online. Well, that's entertaining in the same way slasher-horror movies are entertaining, which is to say, it's alarming. I follow the links and make sure I'm looking at legitimate medical sites. Apparently, I'm doomed. The good news is, it's never as bad as a thorough web search indicates. Even when I had cancer, my case wasn't as bad as the stuff I found online. Being prepared for the absolute worst has the interesting effect of making me quite calm when I talk to the doctors (I know they can't tell me anything worse than what I'm already expecting. And when the diagnosis and treatment aren't quite that bad, I end up feeling almost cheerful.

Whenever I suggest moving out of a horrible state, people say, oh, but folks can't afford to move. If they're trying to kill you, you can't afford to stay.

Illustration: Mad Fashions, Od Fashions, All Out Fashions; or, The Emblem of These Distracted Times (1642)

Random Stuff

In algebra class we used to get problems like this: A 15,000-gallon water tank is 1/3 full. It is leaking two gallons per hour. It can be filled at five gallons per hour. How long will it take to fill the tank? I know how to do the math. But the real solution to this problem never appears in a textbook: Repair the tank.

I'm fed up with "safety" caps that can only be opened by a magician or a contortionist. Squeeze here while twisting and pressing there. Push down while pulling up....

Some people seem to think that any well-known abbreviation is an acronym. Actually, an acronym is an abbreviation that is also a pronounceable word (not just pronouncing the letters of the abbreviation). NATO and FODMAP are acronyms. FBI and NAACP are not.

I am really tired of packaging that is deliberately designed so that it can't be opened, but must be destroyed.

Sometimes when I'm ripping and cutting a package, I remember an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" where Larry complained about items that were sealed in plastic clamshells. His friend said he should use a box cutter. He bought a box cutter, but couldn't use it because it came sealed in a plastic clamshell.

Please stop putting peanut butter in everything.

Still Thinking

Eat the rich, and you feed your family for a day. Tax the rich, and you feed them for life.

Imagine you can go back in time and talk to a Republican from the 1950s or 1960s. You tell him that there are some politicians who want to prevent large numbers of citizens from voting, and they also want to throw out election results that don't favor their party. Further, they would like to eliminate the FBI. Would he exclaim, "What a wonderful group of Conservatives!"? He would not. To the traditional conservative, those people would sound like a bunch of Communists.

If the CEO is out of town for two weeks, nothing changes, everyone keeps on doing what they do, the company keeps running. But if the janitor goes AWOL, trash piles up , the bathrooms become unusable, people start calling in sick, and pretty soon nothing is getting done.

In a couple of months the White House will just be QVC on steroids.

Will Donald's "inaugural address" be sponsored by a reverse mortgage company? Will he interrupt the speech to do a promo for trump support hosiery? If Mel attends the inaugural ball, will she be interviewed about her new line of South African emerald jewelry?

Random Thoughts

My daily life got easier when I stopped fighting with my hair.

No matter what you do, there is always someone who thinks you should do something else.

Imagine thinking the actor who played a surgeon on TV is really a surgeon who could operate on you. Dumb, huh? Yet many people still think the actor who played a businessman on TV is really a businessman who could make good decisions.

Ableism is expressed mostly through architecture and interior design.

I was just a kid playing the piano. They never taught me that music is mathematical. I still remember the moment I saw it. My playing got better after that.

Sometimes I think I'll never need to blog again because "they" can't come up with anything more ridculous or evil than they already have. And then....

You never really know what someone will do until they do it.

Random Thoughts

I want a President who loves this country, not one who thinks America is a garbage can.

People are so angry now, they will curse you for agreeing with them.

One of the ways Pol Pot undermined his country's economy was to deliberately assign people to work in jobs they weren't qualified for.

When we get our voter pamphlet in the mail, I go through it, research the candidates and issues, and then circle my recommendations. Hubby is, of course, free to take my advice or not.

I'm old enough to remember when people expected Presidents to be role models for their children, and every candidate behaved accordingly.

Can you imagine George H. Bush making a series of speeches and repeatedly calling his technical crew stupid? Can you imagine Gerald Ford in an interview suggesting his political opponents should be shot in the face? Can you imagine Ronald Reagan having microphone problems and then threatening to beat up the tech crew?

Stop putting bacon on everything.

Random Thoughts

The great thing about landlines was that you always knew which room the phone was in.

People say that as we get older, we start turning into our parents. I seem to be skipping them and going straight to my grandparents.

It's great to know that all the former infectious disease specialists and Constitutional scholars are now disaster relief experts.

This'll never happen, but I would LOVE to see both candidates on stage in soundproof booths taking a standard IQ test, results to be scored and revealed immediately.

I'm waiting to meet an American citizen who really wanted a job picking fruit in the heat, and lost that job to an immigrant.

Random Thoughts

Young women who want their tubes tied are often refused by doctors who tell them that their future husband might want children. So their lives are being controlled by the imaginary preferences of an imaginary man.

A lot of people think they know things.

If Republicans succeed in eliminating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which includes the National Weather Service and the National Hurricane Center, they'll be able to deny disaster relief to communities devastated by disastrous storms by claiming, "It wasn't a hurricane, it was your fault for leaving your sprinklers running."

All those prescription drug ads on TV are required to mention possible side effects. Essentially, they end up saying, "This may make you feel better for a while, but it could ruin your life and end up killing you." So, not much different from heroin?

My favorite prescription drug ad is the one where Mom has Alzheimer's and gets angry when people push her around, as anyone would, so they decide to drug her into submission.

Every opinion (even something as innocuous as your favorite ice cream) has the potential to infuriate someone.

I have two known ancestors who fought (on our side) in the American Revolution. That doesn't make me a hero. I also have one known ancestor who owned slaves. That doesn't make me a villain.
I didn't get to pick my ancestors, and they didn't get to pick me.

Random Thoughts

One thing I've learned from social media is that there are a lot of people who think jokes need fact-checking.

trump could go to Arlington, dig up JFK's grave, gnaw on the bones, and then post the video in an ad on Tik Tok, and his cult would argue that it was okay because nothing he does is ever wrong and their grandpa never really liked the Kennedys anyway.

I don't believe in ghosts, but I have met perfectly sane people who saw *something*

Mainstream news outlets declared Joe Biden unfit to run because he spoke complete sentences in a very soft voice. They do not question donald trump's fitness, even when he quite loudly speaks nonsense.

People who insist on talking to you through the bathroom door.

The "spoils system" was a corrupt tradition whereby government jobs were given to people loyal to the party in power. It led to incompetence, waste, damage and chaos. In the US, it ended after the Civil War. trump's Project 2025 plans to bring it back by firing thousands of civil service employees and replacing them with party loyalists.

Do you like having a device in your car that can tell you, turn by turn, exactly how to get where you're going, while keeping track of traffic incidents and offering alternate routes? Without educated people who took science classes, you'd still be using paper maps.

Certain politicians blame lax border security for a flood of fentanyl entering the country. They seem to have forgotten that most fentanyl is brought in by US citizens at legal ports of entry. People choose to take drugs. Without the demand, the supply would end. But addressing the causes of addiction is more complicated than just blaming the border, so it's beyond them.