Other Stuff
2019-11-06
Wild Wooly Band October 18, 2019
2018-03-22
Rushmore Revisited: a Rock-n-Roll Roundtable
2018-01-20
Slack Chat: Get on the Donkey
2018-01-02
I See Dead People: Dirt Naps of the Rich and Famous
2017-11-18
Slack Chat: Filmy, Blank Eyes at Eleven
2017-11-02
Election 2016: Message Board Musings
2017-11-02
Town Hall – Single Payer Healthcare Ideas
Random acts of willful obtusity
Strangeland
Steamer Trunks and Ink Stained Bloomers
Her life story fails miserably as a work of fiction. No self-respecting publisher would buy it. A would-be Shakespeare, spinning her tale in a local theater, would get laughed off the stage. Her story had to be true, because it was too pat, too dramatic, too epic to be made up. One of 15 children, uneducated and […]
On the Current State of Evolution
I think our current state of evolution might best be described as early adolescence. In my way of thinking the beginning of domestication, with the resulting push towards civilization, symbolizes the time when a child would begin school. The Industrial Revolution symbolizes the beginning of puberty, and our current state of high technology and power […]
On the Meaning of Life
I think life itself is the meaning of life. Moments of pleasure, like spending time with family and friends, eating a good meal, seeing a good movie, even something as banal as the satisfaction we feel when we cut off a toenail are small prizes for living. I also think life’s meaning is everywhere, but maybe […]
On the Need for Government
How many people does it take to need a government? I see attention as the key. In pairs, each member can give virtually full attention to the other. Nobody is ever more careful to act in the larger interest than someone who feels as if he or she is being watched. The need for governing […]
Sorting and Collating “I Heart Huckabees”
I took an introductory course in chemistry at the same time as I took Philosophy, so the concepts of attraction and repulsion were hanging out together in my cerebral cortex at the time I watched the movie and wrote this report. I originally thought Albert, Brad, and Tommy were all one person metaphorically fragmented, but […]
Signing Nature
Calvin and Hobbes were arguing about whether nature is art or not. Calvin wrote his name in a big field of snow — with his hand, it’s a kid’s cartoon — and asked Hobbes if he wanted to buy his ‘art.’
Hobbes said he already had one, and Calvin looked through the fourth wall at us and said, “the tricky thing about art is knowing who is putting who on.”
This picture Val posted sort of expresses a similar sentiment; the person who put that sign on the tree was “signing” nature. Literally in this case, but that’s not what I mean.
What I mean is, that every time a liberal takes credit for something natural — people being gay, people being brown, people being poor, dogs being rescues, etc. — it sort of sounds to me like somebody trying to take credit for nature.
Some people are gay. Some dogs need rescuing. Lots and lost of people are brown — way more than are not brown, incidentally — and if you look around you can always find someone who is poor and/or hungry.
That’s nature. Human nature. If a human being can imagine something, chances are it exists. But it’s itself, it’s own thing. A gay person is just gay. Not PRIDEFULLY gay, just gay. Don’t judge the person for it, don’t celebrate the person for it. Just respect the person for it. Enjoy nature. Don’t sign it.
Does this make any sense? I mean, I get the joy and all the good feeling a person gets from rescuing a dog from the pound. It’s a nice thing, and a beautiful illustration of human kindness. Human nature.
But if you put a bumper sticker on your car that says “my other dog is a rescue, too” or “I live to rescue” or something like that, you are signing nature. You are like a guy who brags about giving to charity.
But that’s just me. Not all gay people want to march in parades and wear rainbow shirts, and not all dogs have to be sick and damaged to be worth adopting.
So when I saw this sign, I thought to myself, “what kind of selfish prick would put a sign like that up in the middle of a field? Who would sign the world like he owned it?”