Is there anything I do in my personal life that does not affect you?

[The Straight Story]

My worry is that as science progresses personal freedoms will regress more and more as we tie what each person does to every one else.

Examples: Exercise, what you eat, smoking, drinking, and a host of other health issues are said by some to impact their health care costs. So I how I live each day is hurting you and can therefore be regulated.

Too much tv, wrong light bulbs, bad mpg on the vehicle, too long drive to work, having a campfire, and other things destroy the environment - so all those things I do affect you and can have laws attached.

How much toilet paper my household uses, how many kids I have, size of my house (more house less trees and more energy expended in making the materials for it), my family size and lifestyle will also need to be controlled for you.

Sex? Once they determine that too much masturbation can lead some sort of problem or other, or that sodomy causes some health problems in SOME people (not all people who eat bad or smoke are ill ya know), then we will have to regulate that too so that your health care costs don't go up.

Crime - cameras everywhere, an id with rfid to track you, black boxes in your car, etc and so on can help save a life and solve a crime.

-------

So what sort of society are we headed for?

A utopian dream where a puritanical view of the world based on science of the day versus god leads us full circle to a time of scarlet letters and casting out others in shame?

"Pick up your cross and follow me" is what Jesus said to those who desired to follow - the way would not be easy, and you must be willing to give your all. But you were just as free to live out your own life your way.

OH - and before someone says 'should we not have any regulations?' I would say - well, yeah, there is such a thing as common sense boundaries though. It's all about balance.

Oh and it's not the science that scares me, nor is it religion that scares me (being a christian myself and all) - it is those in power who practice and use their interpretation of things to control my life that worry me.

And those people already started this war with Iraq over how oil over there affects us here. And good lord they have their hands on the nukes. They have killed many already, what's a few more of us who resist?

[The Straight Story]

1. Kicking for the night crew....(nt)

[Bonobo]

2. You know man...

In "Galapagos", another Kurt Vonnegut novel about the ultimate extinction of the human race as we know it, he said it's beacuse our brains are just too damn large.
The book is "voiced" by a ghost living 1 million years in the future, after we have fortunatley evolved into a sort of dolphin-like creature that can do no such harm to the planet because we have lost the use of our opposable thumb and our brains have reduced in size to a resonable level...

The problem with our brains is (at least) twofold, I think.

One is that we have these awesome "godlike" powers to manipulate the world. Think genetics, space flight, energy use, etc. But at the same time, we are still emotionally and in some ways intellectually just about as advanced as the other great apes (of which we are truly just another one). So we are infants with tremendous powers. A recipe for disaster when combined with out proclivity for the common chimpanzee's warlike behavior. Fortunately, though, we also have our "Bonobo" aspect (subject of a whole nother post -suffice it to say that they are a matriarchal society that substitutes genital rubbing for fighting, basically)

The second problem with our big brains is our ridiculous self-awareness. Like Adam and Eve who freaked out when they realized that they were naked, we have become ruined by self-awareness. We are aware of our pain, aware of our impending deaths, etc. THIS AWARENESS is what makes the difference between PAIN and SUFFERING. Animals that are not self-aware do indeed feel pain... like a baby seal getting clubbed on the head feels pain, I suppose, or a dog with a broken leg feels pain. But they do not SUFFER with it the way we do. A dog with 3 legs simply learns to walk that way. It doesn't engage in a kind of mental torture remembering its days of 4-legged happiness or castigating itself for stupidly getting in the way of that car...

Similarly, if this human race IS going to die out -which it will due to its own stupidity and greed it looks like. The question becomes, at some point, "do we continue to suffer our short lives with that knowledge?" Do we teach our kids to suffer with it? Our lives are so short, so fragile anyway... It's easy to see the POV of the "deniers" in this light. They just don't want to deal with the suffering, so they deny. But there is also the zen perspective of doing what you can do to make your own life better and then being at peace with that. A tough balancing act, but a necessary one for a life of happiness. ...And after all, maybe it is that "balance", that "happiness" that is the only meaningful gift we can give to those around us...

Just my rambling... Peace, bro.

[Wiley50]

3. Evidently Not

You Scratched your ass last week
You are in Ohio
I am In TN

The Really Bitchin cold front
that went through here
went through Ohio First

The Nasty Ass Skin Cells
that you scratched off
were picked up by that cold front
and brought your nasty fuckin ass skin cells
(dead, Thankfully)
here

Now I have to scratch my ass too
to get them away from me

I just listened to Malloy
outside of Atlanta
and he was bitchin about how cold it was
and said something about scratching his ass

LOOK WHAT YOU"VE DONE!!