We've Moved

This blog has moved to The View from Eureka Springs Hope to see you there!

FALSELY shouting 'FIRE'

 The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks',meaning 'blood sucking parasites'. 

Larry Hardiman

I saw my friend Daniel B., who manages the Twilight Terrace, out at Harold's Storage the other day and he wanted to know why I had not written anything on my blog in awhile.  I told him I had been in a true dark funk.  Black cloud syndrome.  And I just didn't want to write because I was so pissed about the whole health care issue.  Dan said why not write about it?  Duh?  Most of the time I just do not want to expose my dark side.  My Jungian Shadow.  "All the more reason to write about it," Daniel replied, "Deal with IT or IT will deal with you!"  So, this is my Shadow creating.  This blog is a rant.  A scream.  An dark indulgence I do not usually allow myself to have since the primary function of my writing was originally intended to talk only about Eureka Springs and the Magic that engulfs this area.  So what does the old SNL vid have to do with my rant?  It reminds me of how health care companies are behaving regarding Health Care Reform.  They will say anything to prevent reform of the status quo.  You cannot really blame them, it will certainly hurt their profit margins, even though Congress has bent over backwards to help them, including the administration.  It's almost like Congress has to apologize for meddling with, dare I say it, 'Capitalism'.  God knows there is no greater sin in this country than politicians messin' with 'bidness'.  My question is 'How in the hell did we get here?'

It seems totally insane to me that we have to have health insurers to begin with, I mean why?  There was a time in this country when you got sick, you went to the doctor and you either got well or died.  So, where did the health insurer come from and how did we allow them to take over our health?  There is a lot of history about it out there and reading it you can see how health insurers got their foot in the door.  But the BIG LIE is that we need health insurers.  There are some in congress that realize that health insurance companies do not provide any added value to our health status, of course these are 'communists' according to the health insurers and their cohorts in congress.   These dances of 'hysteron proteron' by both sides of the aisle only serve as a political smokescreen that conceals a greater problem in our country and in no way succeed in answering the question, how the hell did we get here?

Some say it's the lobbyists, you know the old maxim at work in the nation's capitol, 'money talks and bullshit walks'.  But would the money talk if those elected to represent the people actually did so.  My daughter, the political science major, says there is money available for all forms of belief.  So is it really about the money?  I'm prone to think it is about the power you can accumulate through the acquisition of wealth, the power to maintain your seat in Congress and the power to effect the business of the the country.  We have become what the founders of this country warned us against, Corporate Owned Government aided and abetted by our banking system.  How did we get here?

It seems to me that the road we traveled to get to this point in our history has been paved with lies and falsehoods.  Politicians and lying go together like Romeo and Juliet, Tom and Jerry, salt and pepper, light and dark (did I mention I was in a dark mood?), Batman and Robin, Yin and Yang, ad infinitum.  I know, I know...my naivete is exceeded only by my gullibility.  But is it my imagination or has a lie become an acceptable form of opinion?  How does a nondescript section of the Health Care Bill dealing with Doctor/Patient end-of-life-counseling become 'Death Panels'?  Why is it acceptable to call the President of the US a terrorist, a Nazi, a Communist?  When does an 'opinion' violate the First Amendment?  Is it only when it causes harm?  Are our courts so inept that 'defamation', 'slander', and 'libel' lawsuits can no longer be won, because it's just someone's opinion?  What if their opinion makes me feel like whoopin' their ass, is that OK?  How did we, as a people, get to a point where we are so divided?  Where it's acceptable for you to speak derogatorily about anyone or anyone's ideas and hey, you are protected by the First Amendment?  

Of course, I believe there are solutions to all the problems that confront our country, I am the eternal optimist. I'm also pretty much of a realist.  And I know that many of these problems will not be solved in my lifetime.  I am just concerned that it is now permissible to FALSELY shout fire in a crowded theater.

Until Next Time,

I Remain...

Just another Diogenistic Zoroastrian looking for a little light on a cloudy day...

Geezeracity Manifestations

If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made.

Very few people die past that age.

- George Burns

Why is it our children are constantly complaining that we are 'too old' to understand, then with the next breath telling us to grow up? More than likely they are going through that phase where nothing we do is right! Of course, I never complained as a young adult (wink, wink, nod, nod) so it is difficult for me to understand where they are coming from. But for a moment let's focus on people who are growing older, say past sixty at least. (Of course, this won't make much sense to a 15 year-old who thinks a 25 year-old is over-the-hill or a 25 year-old who thinks 35 is ancient!) What is it that gives folks like those in the video such a passion for life at age ninety, while we all know people that act like they may not make through tomorrow and they are only fifty? Is it nature or nurture or some combination of the two? There are older folks I love to be around, because of their positive outlook on life and the zeal they have for adventure. My wife belonged to book club where the she was the youngest member, the rest of the group was in their 70's and 80's. This group of women enjoyed every minute of every day and when they got together they knew how to party. After a book review they loved to share a glass of wine or two or three and could easily go through two cases of Chardonnay. They broke all the familiar stereotypes of old people.

Stereotype 1 - Od people smell badly. Not that I have noticed. Rest Homes smell badly, basketball games smell badly, motorcyclists, babies, homeless people, congressmen, garbage dumps (P.C: Landfills), anyone in an occupation that requires strenuous outdoor physical activity, and young people that think it is healthy to bathe only once a week smell badly. To generalize that all old people smell badly is grossly inaccurate. O-o-o-o-oh, what is that smell? Do you have moth balls in your pocket?

Stereotype 2 - Old people drive slowly. This is a generalization that has more evidential support, however it does not approximate any truth. The ladies in my wife's bookclub (bookclub ladies) all felt like they were in training for NASCAR and that it was a sin to be the first in line at a stoplight. Young people should be aware that they must yield anytime they see someone with grey in their hair driving down the middle of the road at an excessive speed. On the other hand those olde farts weaving down the road and being passed by snails should be reported immediately to the old people police, they are giving the rest of us a bad name.

Stereotype 3 - Old people are always complaining about their physical ailments. True, some old people gritch (a hybrid of gripe and bitch) a lot. But what makes you think hypochondria and complaining are the domains of the elderly? You might even be thinking at this juncture that I did a little gritching of my own in my last blog. Not true, i was just 'splainin' croquet. My daughter has a friend that ALWAYS has the symptoms of whatever designer ailments happen to be in vogue at the time. Trust me on this one, gritching is not the sole province of old people, but I will concede that if you gritched a lot about your physical ailments (or anything else for that matter) when you were young, you will probably be gritching as you grow older. Truth is none of us want to hear it but all of us want to let others know what is bothering us, the problem is some people make a religion out it. Am I gritching too much here?

Stereotype 4 - Old people can't see, hear or remember a damn thing. Actually, this stereotype could have been combined with Stereotype 3, because there are old people who do complain about these things, only they just can't remember any of it. Sure there is some eyeball distortion as you grow older, and you may need reading glasses or surgery to correct visual problems (unless you are still driving), and yes their is definite loss of hearing for some folks and a highly developed sense of tuning out the noise that causes so much distortion in the lives of others. My wife says I'm a tuner inner/outer, but it doesn't bother me all that much because one of my daughters is a fine tuner, also. A humorous note here, why do young people think old people don't like loud music, but then accuse us of being deaf? Truth is, the music that is being played so loudly at every stop light I come to just SUCKS! And Alzheimer's and senility are certainly not conditions that we would wish on anyone, no matter what their ages. As a former high school teacher and coach, I can tell you it was very distressing for me to see so many young people with symptoms that could only be described as the early onset of Alzheimer's. But a friend of mine told me that there is a positive side of Alzheimer's, you get to sleep with a new woman every night!

Stereotype 5 - Old people are wise. Some are, like the folks in the vid, most are just marking time until they die and I wouldn't give two cents for anything they might have to offer. When I was younger, there were old people that I knew that could bore the bark right off a Dogwood tree, and others that I could listen to for hours on end. The wise ones involved you in their tales and remarkably, never repeated themselves. But the stories they told remain with you forever. Guess which one I chose to spend time with? Spend time with?

The problem with stereotypes or forming a hardened view about old people is usually that if you think old people behave a certain way, then the odds are that you will act that way when you are older. If you have a negative view of growing older, then you will have a negative experience as you age. However, if you have a positive view of growing older, your personal experience should be much more positive as you age. The psychology of how we view the world has been exploited successfully by advertising for generations. Even today, I can't tell you how many of my friends think they have to take medication to stop going to the toilet so much! Flomax, was originally developed to lower hypertension, NOT to reduce the number of times you have to go to the toilet. Now they even have a Flomax for women! Hell, if enough people said they had a particular symptom, there would be a pharmaceutical company selling a quick over-the-counter fix for it within the week. I'm not saying 'having to go often' is not a problem for some people, I'm saying that it became a much larger problem when the drug companies started advertising that it was a problem! Same with stereotypes. As long as older people are portrayed as 'smelly', forgetful, hard of hearing, nearly blind, idiots that repeat themselves and need drugs for erections and peeing too much, what will the future be like for younger people who never see anything different? Where are the Golden Girls now that we need them?

Until Next Time,

I Remain,

Just another Old Zoroastrian Cowboy looking for his glasses and his hearing aide so he can mount old whatshisname, and hunt down those young heathens playing their music so damn loud...