I guess I'm getting too old.

1
Thirty years or so ago, I would have gladly been frozen for a hundred, so as to bypass all the stupid.
Each week brings more racial division, more political division, less certainty that we'll get another hundred. A few work to find ways to feed the billions of additional mouths the next decades may bring, others seek the power to incinerate the billions here now. And for what?

There have always been despots, we just fired one. Democrits and Rethuglicans play tit-for-tat, fast and loose with the operating system code of government. Like a Tim Taylor house re-wiring for MORE POWER! What could go wrong?

High stakes poker, I'll see your 9 Justices and raise you 4.

Raised Catholic. Didn't stick. I worry about Biden. I guess I'm an atheist, though I don't know why there has to be a special name for non-believers. What do you call an adult who dose not believe in Santa? An adult. For decades I thought that practically no one actually believed this stuff. Just were in it for the spaghetti dinners, (and Irish whiskey).

Then 9-11 happened.

The Right insists that religion should inform public policy. The Left has some equally dangerous ideas as well. I know now why so many long for a Messiah. We're able, we just don't seem willing to get our shit together.

It was once the thinking among many in the astrophysicist community that this galaxy must be teeming with life, given its vast number of stars. After some decades of SETI, it seems nothing has been found when logically there should have. One hypothesis for this lack of evidence is that by the time a civilization becomes technologically powerful enough to be noticed by someone who could be looking, they blow themselves up. We've one-upped the dinosaurs with their little asteroid and figured out how make a star fall from the sky and land on the earth. (A Biblical reference.)

SETI was founded in 1984. (An Orwellian reference.)
This isn't going well, is it?

Re: I guess I'm getting too old.

3
We've been so comfortable that we forget what life was like from the time we evolved as primates, to breaking away from our Chimp cousins 6 million years ago, down the millennia. As recently as the 1930s America was a tough place to live if you were White, yet even today it's VERY hard if you are Black or Brown.

OMG WE HAVE TO FINALLY CONSIDER FACING WHAT THE REST OF THE WORLD HAS FACED FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS!

There have always been bullies and thieves and murderers. The OT is FULL of "God" commanding the destruction of whole societies--men, women, children--even their domesticated animals (how idiotic is THAT?) We actually started to believe those days were finally OVER for Western Democracies, but we are learning the hard lesson that they are not only not over, they never were, and are coming back.
Last edited by YankeeTarheel on Thu Apr 15, 2021 9:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: I guess I'm getting too old.

5
Unless they are trying to kill you for being Black, Brown, AAIP, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, an immigrant, Democrat, Progressive, Liberal, LGBTQ+, an honest election official, former VP Pence, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, AOC, the Squad, BLM, anti-fascist, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, an athlete for fair treatment, Justices Breyer, Kagan, Sotomayor, and Chief Justice Roberts, The Lincoln Project, Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, or any other Representative or Senator who voted for Impeachment, etc, etc, etc.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: I guess I'm getting too old.

6
People across the spectrum claim victimhood and how legitimate the claims are depends on where someone is on the spectrum. MSM eats it up, they love running the "someone has done me wrong" stories. And those who feel they have been wronged want changes NOW. Every slight doesn't require a full on Twitter campaign that spreads across social media and into MSM. Most people aren't struggling to meet their basic needs and many have become "me centered" and social media feeds it. As long as people are pawns of political parties, MSM and social media it won't change.

Take a break from all of it,
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: I guess I'm getting too old.

11
YankeeTarheel wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:51 pm
wings wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:04 pm Some of us are dimmer than others!
:roflmao:
Some of us need a flashlight to find our glasses but can't find the glasses without a flashlight.

Makes one consider the acquisition of proper life skills, such as being able to open a bottle of beer in the dark while wearing gloves using only a Swiss Army knife which is in your pocket under six layers of clothes. Don't ask how I know.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: I guess I'm getting too old.

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CDFingers wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 9:26 am
YankeeTarheel wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:51 pm
wings wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 11:04 pm Some of us are dimmer than others!
:roflmao:
Some of us need a flashlight to find our glasses but can't find the glasses without a flashlight.

Makes one consider the acquisition of proper life skills, such as being able to open a bottle of beer in the dark while wearing gloves using only a Swiss Army knife which is in your pocket under six layers of clothes. Don't ask how I know.

CDFingers
Over 40 years ago I learned how to do it with a hammer--and NOT break the glass! (You use the claw to lever it off). Something useful I learned from the NC partners I worked for back then.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: I guess I'm getting too old.

15
papajim2jordan wrote: Tue Apr 20, 2021 10:19 pm
wings wrote: Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:10 pm We survived the Cold War. We're not dead yet.

Okay, only on the inside.
Yes, we have survived a lot. Ice Age, Bronze Age, Middle Ages. Revolutionary War, Civil War, I, II, hot and cold. Maybe we can do better than just survive.

Didn't realize it read so gloomy till I read it.
Gloomier? Democracy is NOT a natural way for humans to live. Tyranny, ruled by cruel strong men is the norm. Whether called kings, emperors, generalissimo, Secretary General, President for life, tsar, Kaiser, or Khan, that sadly iS the norm and has been since the first ape-man brained his rival with a rock.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: I guess I'm getting too old.

17
I don't believe it's getting any worse.

What I believe is changing is communications; I believe that now, every day, you hear about hundreds (if not thousands) of things that you wouldn't have heard about thirty years ago.

The new barrage of information, with its standard percentage of bad news, makes it seem like there's more bad news than there was thirty years ago.

Looking at "strategic", long term issues, a lot of things are better. No more slavery. The most exclusive club in the world, the club of ex- U.S. presidents, was forced to admit a black man. Hitler is dead. We don't burn people at the stake anymore.

And so on.

Some of those things, we won't have to do again.

The "good old days" weren't that good. The very fact that today we face some of the things you mentioned is better than it used to be.

Re: I guess I'm getting too old.

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OTOH, states are still allowed to treat prisoners as slaves. The ex-presidents club was also forced to admit a Nazi. Hitler might be dead, but his ideas are still shambling across the landscape muttering 'brains.' Burning at the stake takes too long, so we let law enforcement strangle people in the street, or shoot people for being the wrong color to carry a gun, or break into their homes in the middle of the night guns blazing. Insurrectionists are allowed into the Capitol bearing the battle flag of traitors in the attempt to overturn the certified results of the presidential election.

Some things are better. Human nature is not.

Re: I guess I'm getting too old.

19
Trying to get away from one another. That seems to have worked, for a while anyway.
We've started running into each other all over again. Where to next? I don't think I'd make a very good Martian.
Unfortunately the present Administration is more concerned with disarming it's subjects than addressing those pesky nuclear tipped missiles pointing every which way.
Prohibition v2.0. When beating their own heads against the wall fails to give the desired result, they'll turn to beating ours.
So long as when pushed, we retain the means to push back, there is hope.
This isn't going well, is it?

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