Here Ye, Here Ye...

From time to time, I set my foot down and make an insane Pronouncement, an event wherein I make a decision about something in my life, set it down in stone, and never waver from it again. And before you ask, yes, I really do have it set in stone. My personal assistant happens to be a dwarf, and he doesn't mind carving me a tablet or two on occasion.

The last Pronouncement I made had to do with watching Nancy Grace. That woman would make me flipping crazy, to the point I was yelling at the tv set at her one sided, condescending, holier than thou attitude and dismissive blather. So, I made a Pronouncement, announcing that no one in the house was allowed to have her on ever again. She is persona non grata and her poisonous words are not welcomed here at the Sanctum.

The Pronouncement before that, I resolved never to set foot in a JC Penney store ever again. They angered me to the point that I paid off my credit card balance with them, cancelled the card, and have not been in a JC Penney store for over 4 years.

And before anyone thinks about commenting, I realize I am insane. I don't need you to tell me.

Well, my new Pronouncement: I hereby resolve to not follow any new blogs or get to know any more people online. It just gets to be too much for me. I fear that I am a highly emotional person, and I get attached to people too easily. Now, not the creepy "stalkerish attached" where restraining orders have to be brought to bear. Rather, I like the people I meet in blog land, worry when they worry, feel sad when they are sad, and flare up when I think they have been treated unfairly or badly. I put myself out there to help people who I have never met and fret when I can't. I don't really know why I do this; it is rather silly when you think about it. Unfortunately, it is not something about myself that I can turn off at will.

And so, since I can't turn the emotion off, the only other defense I have is to pull my attentions back into my shell.

To quote Douglas Adams, I fear I must say, "So long, and thanks for all the fish." I will remain here at my blog, of course, at least for as long as it gives me a place to escape, but my presence elsewhere will be severely diminished. Fewer comments, fewer references to other blogs, and absolutely no new friends.

The Doctor has decided. Start chiseling, Brom Belfast, my vertically challenged old pal, and set the tablet with the others.

We All Need a Bit of Fantasy in Our Lives

Ruby Bridges

Why is it that people seem to think that it is okay to look down upon others? Why do they think it is okay to disregard the feelings, the opinions, the rights, the very humanity of other human beings?

There are those who sneer at others because they have faith in the Divine, and they rattle off witticisms and snarky remarks to prove how much more clever and wise they are than those who believe. There are those who turn up their noses at the homeless, disregarding the fact that there is another person in a terrible situation. I am not suggesting that they have to give the homeless anything, but don't think you are better than they are, more worthy, or in a position to judge. There are those who still spout vitriol at other races, those who feel anyone who does not look like themselves is to be hated and vilified.

Take the case of Ruby Bridges.

Ruby was 6 years old and living in New Orleans in 1960 when her parents decided to send her to an all white school. They felt the opportunity would afford Ruby a better education and would be an important step for all African American children.

Ruby had to be escorted to school daily by Marshalls since the ignorant and racist white people of the area threatened her life, yelled insults at her, and protested with signs along the path to the school. Does anyone take offense at my calling those people ignorant whites? Too bad. That is what they were. Adults screaming and threatening a 6 year old child. Do you have a more sanitized word for that type of behavior? I don't. And if I did, I wouldn't use it anyway.

Teachers refused to have her in their classrooms. Parents removed their little white dumplings from the school in protest. But 1 teacher didn't have a problem with Ruby's enrollment in her classroom. That teacher treated Ruby just like every other child who entered her room.

In our present day, we frown at such ridiculous and racist behavior from our institutions, yet so many individuals still carry that coal of hatred in their hearts. Even worse, they pass their racism along to their children, ensuring that another generation will be sent out to continue the crusade. Hatred of minorities, hatred of homosexuals, hatred of those who do not look/act/think like they do.

So when will this cycle of hate stop? When will humanity finally come to accept others? My own pessimistic view is that we never will. After thousands of years of civilization, we are in the exact same place we have always been. We still war amongst ourselves. We still are territorial and greedy beings. We still hold the "us versus them" mentality. We are still locked in "me me me" mode. We have experienced advances in medicine, in technology, in mathematics. Where are the advances in self? In enlightenment? In humanity?

And so, we see kids beaten to death on the way home from school because they are not the right color. We see police abusing their authority as they crash through gay clubs, pounding on patrons heedlessly and needlessly because they can. We see the same ignorance over and over again, year after year, century and century. It seems to me that if mankind was going to learn to rise above our baser instincts, we would have done so by now.

It reminds me somewhat of the movie The Forbidden Planet. In this film, we are introduced to an extinct race known as the Krell, a race of enlightened, peaceful, and vastly intelligent people. We discover in the film that the Krell disappeared one night, all of them killed. You see, they had invented a machine that allowed them to amplify their thoughts, have their imaginations brought into reality through this miraculous device. Unfortunately, despite their advancement and their peaceful natures, they all still contended with their ids, that deep dark bit of the psyche that is selfish and hateful and animalistic. As the Krell slept, the machine read their darkest thoughts and manifested them into reality, the resulting ugliness killing them all.

That is mankind. Despite our towers, our vaccines, and our outlet malls, there is still a lot of darkness in each of us. Some hide it better than others, but it is there. And it shall always be so.

Marshmallow Madness

Argh! Are ye ready to take a plunge into the drink, young scallawag?

Young marshmallows go camping for the very first time.

(I don't think they know what happens next.)

It's hip to be square.

Reason #12 why marshmallows should not sunbathe.

Aww. How sweet!

Literally.

And All the People Said....

Rain

I opened my eyes

And looked up at the rain,

And it dripped in my head

And flowed into my brain,

And all that I hear as I lie in my bed

Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,

I walk very slow,

I can't do a handstand--

I might overflow,

So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said--

I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head.

by Shel Silverstein

A Storm Is Coming

A storm is coming.

As I sat on the porch this evening puffing on my pipe and

enjoying the sounds of the birds, I thought I heard the rumble of far off thunder. I could smell the ozone in the air, its crisp scent overpowering the more familiar smells: the freshly cut grass, the last of the Texas Mountain Laurel blossoms, the vanilla cherry tobacco smoke.

The sky above and before me is a bright blue, wisps of clouds floating far far over my head. As I stand up and leave the cover of the porch, I notice that the sky behind me is not blue, but rather, it is dark and ominous. There are flashes of lightning illuminating the bank of dark clouds from within, the source of the deep rumbling.

The rumbling continues, growing in volume and frequency, the deep throbs pounding against my ears like base drums beaten by a drummer in a marching band. As I watch, the last of the blue sky is overwhelmed by the swiftly encroaching darkness. The air turns cooler, moister, heavier. Before I know it, the rain begins to fall.

I wasn't ready for this. Several windows are open; I was letting the house air out. The barbeque pit still has a few pieces of meat in it, the coals now getting wet, the drops of water washing off the carefully applied barbeque sauce. My Boston Terrier is still in the backyard; she was getting her daily exercise by chasing after squirrels and blackbirds, all come to steal the food form her bowl.

Rushing inside, I close the windows before too much water has had a chance to make its way inside, open the back door to let my unhappy and wet dog back in the house, and pull the meat off the fire.

I am now sitting in the den, listening to the rain patter against the roof, watching the water run down the street and into the drain. And it occurs to me.

Isn't this what so many people experience everyday? We go about our daily existence. We enjoy the fruits of our labors, the company of our friends and family, looking up towards the bright sky. And while we remain unaware, dark clouds gather, sneaking up on us from the

rear, drenching us in misfortune. Suddenly we have to rush around to protect what we have, what we've worked hard to buy, to give shelter to those we care about. The unexpected hits hard and fast. But then it moves on. Perhaps there is lasting damage. Perhaps everything was saved. Either way, the storm has passed, as all storms do.

A storm is coming. Are you ready?

Now, If Only It Had a Buffet

I love reading stories about the ancient civilizations that preceded our own. The technology and engineering of the Greeks, the Romans, and the Egyptians never cease to amaze me. The following story from the AP News Wire describes the latest archeological find attesting to their building skill.

Emperor Nero, it seems, was the first ever to have a rotating restaurant, and it was completely powered by moving water. Talk about a green solution.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nero's Rotating Banquet Hall Unveiled in Rome

by Marta Falconi

ROME (AP) - Not only was Nero a Roman emperor, it turns out he may also have been the father of the revolving restaurant. Archaeologists unveiled Tuesday what they think are the remains of Nero's extravagant banquet hall, a circular space that rotated day and night to imitate the Earth's movement and impress his guests.

The room, part of Nero's Golden Palace, a sprawling residence built in the first century A.D., is thought to have been built to entertain government officials and VIPs, said lead archaeologist Francoise Villedieu.

The emperor, known for his lavish and depraved lifestyle, was born in 37 A.D. and ruled from 54 A.D. to 68 A.D.

The dig so far has turned up the foundations of the room, the rotating mechanism underneath and part of an attached space believed to be the kitchens, she said.

"This cannot be compared to anything that we know of in ancient Roman architecture," Villedieu told reporters during a tour of the cordoned-off dig.

She said the location of the discovery atop the Palatine Hill, the rotating structure and references to it in ancient biographies of Nero make the attribution to the emperor most likely.

The partially excavated site is part of the sumptuous residence, also known by its Latin name Domus Aurea, which rose over the ruins of a fire that destroyed much of Rome in A.D. 64.

The purported main dining room, with a diameter of over 50 feet (16 meters), rested upon a 13-foot (4-meter) wide pillar and four spherical mechanisms that, likely powered by a constant flow of water, rotated the structure.

The discovery was made during routine maintenance of the fragile Palatine area, officials said.

Latin biographer and historian Suetonius, who chronicled his times and wrote the biographies of 12 Roman rulers, refers to a main dining room that revolved "day and night, in time with the sky."

Angelo Bottini, the state's top official for archaeology in Rome, said the ceiling of the rotating room might have been the one mentioned by Suetonius, who wrote of ivory panels sliding back and forth to shower flowers and perfumes on the guests below.

"The heart of every activity in ancient Rome was the banquet, together with some form of entertainment," Bottini said at the dig. "Nero was like the sun, and people were revolving around the emperor."

That part of the palace - which sprawled across nearly 200 acres (80 hectares) occupying parts of four out of Rome's seven ancient hills - offered a panoramic view over the Roman Forum and a lake, later drained by Nero's successors to build the Colosseum, Bottini said.

Described by Suetonius as one of Rome's most cruel, depraved and megalomaniac rulers, Nero often indulged in orgies and, fancying himself an artist, entertained guests with his own performances of poetry and songs.

However, Nero did not enjoy the frescoed halls and gold-encrusted ceilings of his Golden Palace for too long. It was completed in A.D. 68 - the year the unpopular emperor committed suicide amid a revolt.

Wallpaper Wednesday

The Touch of the Master's Hand

"Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer

Thought it scarcely worth his while

To waste much time on the old violin,

But he held it up with a smile.

"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,

"Who'll start bidding for me?

A dollar, a dollar - now who"ll make it two -

Two dollars, and who"ll make it three?

"Three dollars once, three dollars twice,

Going for three". . . but no!

From the room far back a gray-haired man

Came forward and picked up the bow;

Then wiping the dust from the old violin,

And tightening up the strings,

He played a melody,pure and sweet,

As sweet as an angel sings.

The music ceased and the auctioneer

With a voice that was quiet and low,

Said: "What am I bidden for the old violin?"

And he held it up with the bow;

"A thousand dollars - and who'll make it two?

Two thousand - and who'll make it three?

Three thousand once, three thousand twice

And going - and gone," said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried,

"We do not quite understand -

What changed its worth?" The man replied:

"The touch of the Master's hand."

And many a man with life out of tune,

And battered and torn with sin,

Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd.

Much like the old violin.

A "mess of pottage," a glass of wine,

A game and he travels on,

He's going once, and going twice -

He's going - and almost gone!

But the MASTER comes, and the foolish crowd,

Never can quite understand,

The worth of a soul, and the change that's wrought

By the touch of the MASTER'S hand.

Myra B. Welch

_____________________________________________________________________

How many of us are covered in dust and feel discarded by life? How many of us are beaten down by circumstances, by errors in judgement, by the disdain of society? How many of us see each new day not as a blessing, but as a burden?

The motivational speakers tell us that we are the pilots of our lives, that we make the choice to be happy or to be sad, to be positive or to be bitter.

I disagree.

If we were able to fix everything ourselves, then don't you think everything would be fixed? We would need no doctors, no therapists, no medications, no spiraling thoughts dragging us down into darkness. But we can't, and so there are.

For those with faith, though, there will always be someone to watch over us, to dust us off, tighten our strings, and make sure that we know our worth again, make certain that our heart is perfectly tuned, to make us whole and soulful again, no matter how worn we may be.

The Master is there if you choose to acknowledge him.

________________________________________________________________________

Ye of little faith will be engulfed with faith when your mountain of a burden becomes a mere pile of dust that will then be carried away on the wind, and makes a fool of the man that thinks faith exists only when it is tested.

Practice patience for My WILL can be revealed in due time. Until then, My son, allow your spirit to rejoice and your heart to feel My presence. For I dwell within you. Do not fret on the day's events, but rather embrace them as they are a part of My plan to make you one with Me.

Be happy, be free.

Allow your spirit to connect with others that lead you to Me. Be at peace, my son, for I am always with you.

The Word of God as delivered to me by a prophet

Tuesday's Grub

I copped out today. I didn't feel like cooking so we got fish from a local restaurant instead.

fried fish

french fries

cole slaw

onion rings

heart disease

Mmmmmm! Heart disease!

The Death Star Versus A Borg Cube

I saw this debate yesterday over at one of the Chans I visit from time to time. The responses from some of the posters were hilarious in that some of those people were really getting upset with each other. I saw arguments about the physics of FTL drives, how far a Sith's mind control can be exerted, lasers versus phasers, deflector shielding versus armor shielding, and others.

So, I thought I would pose the question to Sine Logicum readers. In a battle between the Death Star and a single Borg cube, who do you think would win?

Feel free to write comments in the comment box.

Girls Are Evil

This is something that I have said for years. Girls are the embodiment of Evil.

During my thousands of years of existence, I have seen children/teen/adult males and females, and have noticed that the genders handle stress/strife/relationships in different ways. Let's take friendships, for example.

Boys tend to hang out with whoever happens to be near them. Yes, boys have friends they gravitate to more often, yes, boys will even form a "best friend" relationship with another boy. But, by and large, boys will not cut another boy out of the group just to me mean. There will, on occasion, be some poor fellow who is just "different" from the group and will not be invited to play with the larger boy collective, but there is generally a few other nonconventional boys who he can hang out with.

Girls, on the other hand, form cliques at a very young age. Their goal is to gather sycophantic friends around them. The group, then, makes it a point to ostracize other girls not in the group. Or, the group will expel a member who has upset someone. I have even seen girls talk to other non-group girls into not being "so-and-so's" friend because the group was mad at her for some stupid reason. I actually had one girl come crying to me, saying that I just didn't understand what it was like having to fight for friends every day.

Boys generally include other boys; girls generally exclude other girls.

In terms of handling issues, boys and girls approach this differently as well. When two boys get angry at each other, they will physically fight, each throwing a few punches before the other boys pull them apart. Once that is done, within 15 minutes, the matter has been resolved, and the boys are friends again. Girls, however, get mad at each other, and the anger seethes within them for weeks. The insulted party will sulk and plot and plan, gathering her little minions around her who also get in on the action. They pick and poke and insult and backstab the girl who angered them for weeks. Very often the adults around them are not even aware that there is an issue at hand, or that the girls are "fighting", because girls do it in such a sneaky and underhanded way.

This is exactly what my poor 17 year old niece is having to endure at the moment.

My niece has always been very active and involved in groups and causes since she was in elementary school. She likes being busy and she likes doing things to help other people. Well, since her freshman year in high school, she joined the dance team at her school since she didn't make it to cheerleader, and she was fine with that. She helped out with yearbook, she joined clubs, she mentored junior high aged girls through an organization, she pushes for recycling at her school, she has appeared in 3 of her school plays, etc.

Her first three years in high school were fun for her.

Now that she is a senior, she decided that she wanted to try some new things. She ran in a local pageant and won. She was crowned Miss Insert Small Town Name Here. So, she qualifies for scholarship money, and she has parades to attend, etc. This causes her some grief, because a "friend"of hers came in 4th place. Well, this friend was caught drinking at a party and had some very tacky photos of herself up on her MySpace. The pageant people caught wind of this, and stripped her of her position on the court. This "friend" then started telling people that it was my niece who turned her in and got a few girls to start being ugly to my niece.

Then, my niece decided to try out for cheerleader again, just to see of she had it in her to make the squad. She made cheerleader and also made Captain because of her tumbling ability/leadership skills. Well, 2 girls were mad at that because they wanted to be captain and had been on the squad for 2 years already. They have been making my poor niece's life hell. They have sent her nasty text messages. Their mothers have sent my sister nasty emails. They have been putting trash on and around my nieces vehicle which she has to push aside every day after school before she can leave.

There have been multiple incidents already, and I am not going to list them all, but my poor niece has taken hit after hit. As of today, Monday, the main instigator is being suspended from all cheerleader activities for 1 week due to the latest thing she pulled against my niece, and now my niece is convinced that the instigator will get the other cheerleaders to turn against her.

I think what bothers me the most about all of this is that, before my trouble began a year and a half ago, I was in a position to be able to do something to help her out. Until I get my current troubles settled, though, I am powerless to move a finger to help out, and I just have to sit here and watch her struggle and wilt just a little more every time a new assault comes her way. And it sucks watching this happen.

My sister has taken steps already to make people aware, my niece is well known and liked by the school administrators, so it's not as if there aren't other people who can help. In fact, one of the football players last week cussed out the girl thrown off of the pageant court (and is also a cheerleader), telling her, "Stop talking about (My Niece) already! You're nothing but a fucking drama whore!" in the hallway between classes. Now, if the football guys are starting to grow tired of it all, you know the girls are going at my niece nonstop. That says quite a bit about the situation.

As I said earlier, girls are very sneaky and underhanded in how they go about bullying other girls, so I'm not sure how effective adult help/boy help is going to be here. My niece is one tough kid, though, and she is weathering it well, but I fear her senior year is not the fun-filled experience she was hoping for.

She came by yesterday for my birthday, and I gave her the benefit of my accumulated years of experience. I told her, "Now, Sweetums (my nickname for her), if you start feeling stressed at what's going on around you, just remember what your uncle said. Fuck those bitches."

My sister gasped and shook her head at me, but my niece laughed. I think she'll remember.

Monday's Repast

On the menu today:

New York Strip

fideo

green beans

Not what I was in the mood for, but my brother and nephew came by for dinner, and this is what they both wanted. Oh well.

A Public Service Announcement

Found at WWdN:In Exile

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to me.

Happy birthday to me.

Happy birthday dear me.

Happy birthday to me.

Perspective

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate

of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

C. S. Lewis

Friday's Dinner

I was in the mood for a little Italian tonight, but Danny DeVito was otherwise engaged.

I had to settle for making a fettuccine alfredo with peas, bacon, and grilled chicken.

Having a serious addiction to sweets, I also decided to usher in the Fall

with some pumpkin bread for dessert.

Mmmmmmm!

And The Morans Take the Offensive

And when I say offensive, I definitely mean offensive.

I was really hoping I would have reason to write another post about the "English only" jokers who themselves can't use English, because I forgot to include this picture ---> with the previous post. So, yay!

According to the following article from The Sun, a man named Raymond Herrera is complaining that his local bank has placed billboards in both English and Spanish. Mr. Herrera feels that advertisements in Spanish are an insidious assault upon the language and culture of America and, in an attempt to protect his motherland, is circulating a petition amongst like-minded folk. Said petition will be delivered to the San Bernardino city council asking them to require all billboards be written in English only.

Now, rather than my rehashing all of the pertinent facts, the original article appears below. I have inserted a bit of commentary here and there which will appear in italicized red.

___________________________________________________________________________

Group Takes Offense at Spanish Billboards

written by Stacia Glenn

Two signs in Spanish that advertise banking services to the community's sizable Latino population are being derided by a group that claims the signs pander to illegal immigrants. That's right, because as everyone knows, only illegal immigrants speak Spanish. Legal immigrants receive a cranial implant giving them instant command of English.

Raymond Herrera, who first noticed the signs last month, has asked the City Council to require billboards in the city be in English.

Herrera is circulating a petition that will be delivered to Wells Fargo's corporate offices.

"It is incumbent upon all Americans that when you see a decadence arise that will threaten our language and culture, our national identity, to rise to the occasion and push the awareness button and alert the people," Herrera said, speaking both as a resident and founder of We the People, California's Crusader. I think someone just bought a new thesaurus! And since when is knowing a second language considered "decadent"? Eating two servings of chocolate mousse is decadent. Attending a sleepover at Neverland Ranch is decadent. Knowledge and understanding are never decadent. Mr. Herrera is obviously descended from the men who burned books in Germany. That sentence, by the way, is a horribly constructed mess that I am not even going to go into; I haven't the strength.

We the People's Web site says the organization seeks to influence "institutions of political corruption" and "the corporations and employers that unlawfully hire and exploit illegal aliens." So Wells Fargo hires untrained and illegal immigrants who don't speak English and then exploits them? How? To serve as tellers with no coffee breaks? Or perhaps to run one of their branch offices with no 401(k) contributions? Damn the illegal immigrants! They are taking all of our Vice President of Banking jobs!

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman said the banking giant is reviewing the two billboards posted on Hesperia's Main Street.

"It's important that all our customers understand our company communications - including our advertising - which is why you'll discover we advertise in multiple languages," spokeswoman Edna M. Silva wrote in an e-mail. "We use marketing and advertising to build awareness of the

products and services we offer to meet our customers' financial needs and help them to succeed financially." What? A business who's goal is to help people manage their finances? No wonder Mr. Herrera is outraged. Since when should Spanish speakers be able to manage their money responsibly when Americans haven't been able to do that for decades now? Damn upstarts!

Of the nearly 90,000 people who live in Hesperia, 46 percent are Latino and 34 percent speak a language other than English at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The city's demographics show 23 percent of its population is Latino.

Raul Martinez, a 20-year resident, said he is offended by We the People's opposition to the billboards and asked why Herrera is not complaining about Taco Bell's "Yo quiero Taco Bell" signs. Yo quiero Taco Bell......... Really? That's your response, Mr. Martinez? You aren't helping the cause here, you know that.

"I'm proud to see (the Wells Fargo) sign up. We've come a long way," he said. "This sign is not hurting the city. It's trying to generate money for the banks." And this is true. When my parents were kids in elementary school, children were punished for speaking Spanish. They could be spanked or suspended if they were heard speaking to each other in their native tongue, though it was far more likely they would simply be embarrassed and humiliated by the teacher in front of the class. So, the fact that businesses are recognizing, respecting, and reaching out to those members of our society that speak another language is laudable.

Several identical signs are posted in other cities in San Bernardino County and throughout Southern California.

____________________________________________________________________________

I am often struck by the number of Hispanics who try to bury the fact that they are products of another culture. They mispronounce their own last names, they attack Hispanics who honor old traditions, or as in the case of Mr. Herrera, they look down upon those who speak Spanish. I also don't understand those people who talk about America's culture and America's language. America's culture is a mixture of everyone else's culture since America is made up of all the different ethnicities who came here from other countries. Sure, some family lines have been here longer than others, but that fact doesn't make them more legitimate, more real, or more "American". America has been an ever changing society that accepts and adopts people of all races, creeds, and languages, and to marginalize a population is unacceptable and, dare I say, unAmerican.

Thanks to the blog Joe.My.God for pointing out this story.

Braised Brisket Strips FTW!

On the menu tonight: brisket strips braised in a tomato/onion/jalapeno salsa, Mexican style rice, and pinto beans.

The Zombie Infiltrators Grow Evermore Insidious