Esoteric Meandering Shouting Into the Void

Dwain Northey (Gen X)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/naacp-travel-advisory-florida-says-state-hostile-to-black-americans/

Remember the good old days when there were only travel advisories and or ban for, what some would call, third word countries? Well now because of the vile vitriol of one Governor Ron DeSantis the state of Florida, a vacation destination, has received a travel advisory by the NAACP.

The wannabe future President has made the climate so venomous in Florida the anyone who is a part of any minority group does not feel safe in the state. Black, Brown, LGTBQ+, these are all groups that are under attack in the Sunshine State. The majority Republican legislature and their fearful leader has passed laws that make almost everything a jailable offence and the fact that the state has very loose gun laws and a stand your ground law makes it more dangerous than being a blonde female in central America.

Florida residents are able to carry concealed guns without a permit under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The law, which goes into effect on July 1, means that anyone who can legally own a gun in Florida can carry a concealed gun in public without any training or background check. This with their ridiculous stand your ground law, ‘Florida’s “Stand-Your-Ground” law was passed in 2005. The law allows those who feel a reasonable threat of death or bodily injury to “meet force with force” rather than retreat. Similar “Castle Doctrine” laws assert that a person does not need to retreat if their home is attacked.’ Makes it really sketchy to go there.

This in top of the don’t say gay rule and the new trans ruling that just passed.

“Florida lawmakers have no shame. This discriminatory bill is extraordinarily desperate and extreme in a year full of extreme, discriminatory legislation. It is a cruel effort to stigmatize, marginalize and erase the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender youth. Let me be clear: gender-affirming care saves lives. Every mainstream American medical and mental health organization – representing millions of providers in the United States – call for age-appropriate, gender-affirming care for transgender and non-binary people.

“These politicians have no place inserting themselves in conversations between doctors, parents, and transgender youth about gender-affirming care. And at the same time that Florida lawmakers crow about protecting parental rights they make an extra-constitutional attempt to strip parents of – you guessed it! – their parental rights. The Human Rights Campaign strongly condemns this bill and will continue to fight for LGBTQ+ youth and their families who deserve better from their elected leaders.”

This law makes it possible for anyone to just accuse someone of gender affirming care to have their child taken from them this would include someone traveling from out of state. This alone justifies a travel ban to the Magic Kingdom for families.

Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned DeSantis holy war with Disney, the largest employer in the state. I really hope the Mouse eats this ass holes lunch.

Well that’s enough bitching, thanks again for suffering though my rant.

  • Basic

    When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?

    April 30, 1987 first day of basic training shit got real

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  • Think Different

  • Friday the 13th

    Dwain Northey (Gen X)

    Today is Friday the 13th, a date many people associate with bad luck, but is Friday the 13th as unlucky as many people believe?

    Not likely, but don’t tell that to someone who hides under the covers every time Friday the 13th rolls around on the calendar because that person probably suffers from paraskevidekatriaphobia.

    Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the scientific word for someone who has a fear of Friday the 13th.

    The day, for those who fear it, is often riddled with superstition and bad luck, but is it as unlucky as many people believe?

    It’s derived from the Greek words for Friday and thirteen with phobia, or fear, tacked on.

    There are many theories about why Fridays which fall on the 13th day of the month are unlucky.

    Some believe that the Friday the 13th superstition has an origin in Norse mythology. In one story, the evil god Loki is said to have crashed a party with 12 guests and tricked the blind god Hod into killing his brother Balder, the god of light, joy, and reconciliation.

    Also, according to Norse mythology, it was the Vikings who decided a hangman’s noose should have 13 loops and in British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangings, and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose.

    Others believe Friday the 13th has origins in Christianity. According to the Bible, Jesus was crucified on a Friday, and there were 13 men at the Last Supper — Jesus and his 12 disciples. In addition, Judas the disciple who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th to sit at the table and, for that reason, 13 is considered to carry a curse of sorts.

    In some places, it is also believed that it was Friday the 13th when Eve tempted Adam with the forbidden fruit.

    Another significant piece of the legend is a particularly bad Friday the 13th that occurred in the Middle Ages. On this day in 1306, King Philip of France arrested the revered Knights Templar and began torturing them, marking the occasion as a day of evil. Both Friday and the number 13 were once closely associated with capital punishment.

    In Numerology, every number has a particular meaning. The number 13 symbolizes “Death”. It’s a picture of a skeleton with a scythe, reaping down men.

    Tradition also has it that God confounded languages at the tower of Babel on a Friday the 13th, and Solomon’s Temple was destroyed on a Friday the 13th.

    Friday is named for Frigga, the goddess of love and fertility who was exiled in shame to a mountain and labeled a witch. Some believe that every Friday, Frigga held a meeting with 11 other witches and the devil – a group of 13 – and plotted ill deeds for the upcoming week.

    By some estimates, businesses lose millions of dollars on Friday the 13th because people are hesitant to make deals, travel, or shop as they would at other times.

    In France, a dinner for 13 is thought to be unlucky, and superstitious hosts may hire a “quatorzieme,” a professional 14th guest.

    Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue and there is no gate 13 at many airports, the numbers go from twelve to fourteen.

    The state lotteries of France, Italy, and elsewhere never sell tickets with the number 13.

    The fear of 13 has also prompted most high-rise buildings not to have a 13th floor. Hotels do not have room number 13.

    It is interesting to note the contrasting history of the number 12 with the number 13.  We have 12 months a year, 12 zodiac signs, 12 hours a day and even 12 days of Christmas — the prominence stemming from the historical influence of the New Testament of the Bible and other Judeo-Christian traditions.

    But no matter what the origin, the fact is that many people are superstitious about the number 13 and are highly superstitious when it falls on Friday.

    Any month’s 13th day will fall on a Friday if the month starts on a Sunday.

  • Altruism

    If you had a million dollars to give away, who would you give it to?

    One would assume that if you had $1 million to give away anyone in your direct circle of influence would be OK as well so the question is altruism would you give the money to one person and change one person’s life or would you spread it out among many would you send multiple children to college then deserve the money or would you donate to a foundation foundation It’s hard to say but if you had an extra million dollars the altruistic thing to do would be to spread it among many.

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  • Keeping our Seat at the Table

      Others are keeping much closer tabs on the events in this country than I have been so it comes as a shock to hear some of the things that are really happening to our nation.  We have all kinds of efforts being put forth to bring the government to a stop when the temporary   funding runs out. For reasons beyond explanation there are people that feel our form of government needs to change. One group is in favor of a dictatorship. One wants a king and yet another would like it to be more or less a free fall with the richest among us making the rules and everyone else having to live with the consequences. 

      Do we want to live under rule by a foreign power such as Russia or any other power? I don’t really believe that we do but there is not a great deal being presented as a solution to stop such a thing from occurring. Were the initial efforts put in place to make this happen between 2016 and 2020? Considering who was in the White House and his actions it would not come as a surprise to find that support to set up a dictatorship were very much put in place, all that was needed was a win in 2020.

      The states run by Republican Governors and Legislators are very much on the order of going feudal in their approach to leadership. They are pushing school vouchers, limiting women’s health care and other rights. Turning back the clock and hoping to rewind the privilege of the upper classes by grinding the poor into the ground. Destroy the schools, libraries, health care and everything that assists the less fortunate so that people have to ask the very rich for help and that means they get to hold people hostage once again, or in bondage, take your pick.

      Go back to a time when everything was owned by very few individuals and your ability to make a living depended on that person granting you a place to pursue that work, whether farming or making pottery or tools, whatever. To know that you were paying tribute to that family with every breath you took because if they did not allow you the space and opportunity you would have to find another overlord that would. All the stuff you have read in books by Dickens or seen in movies made from books of that era is not fantasy. When power is given to a very few and rights are taken from many you end up with situations that are out of nightmares. That is how groups of people disappear and no one seems to know anything about it. That is when you have the elimination of those that cannot fend for themselves or be productive. Don’t believe it, check out the history of almost any place that has ever had a written history.

      We have laws that allow political lying to be a part of our daily fare on the air and in print. It’s politics and they lie, what else is new. Well if you don’t take the time to look for the truth and you are willing to give the liar power by putting him or her in office then that makes you pretty stupid. The trouble with that is the rest of the world sees it and can not figure out why in the name of whatever do we keep voting these idiots into office or funding them. Most of these morons think that if they tell a lie 3 times it magically becomes a truth.

      As I mentioned recently the first job of our uniformed services is diplomat or should be and it should be the first position we take as visitors to other countries and as hosts to those that visit from other countries. Think about how much nicer things would be if we greeted one another with a smile and a kind word rather than a sneer and a bitch because we did not get what we wanted. In other words “Do Unto Others As You Would Have Others Do Unto You”.

      Our political leaders have chosen people that have not made good impressions on our neighbors around the world in all cases. Not surprising as the people chosen to head some of the agencies here at home have been manned by people that want to destroy that organization, such as the Post Office, and the Board of Education. The reasons for these efforts are again an attempt to remove rights or at least limit rights so that a few are again given power over the many. The real dilemma of this is that the person behind these moves has the backing of some that claim that they are willing to go to war to put him back in the White House to crown him King. Prefer to put him in a sewer and call him turd.

      One of the basic truths about todays political picture is that is contains to many old faces. Behind those faces are some rather dried up brains that do not see anything through the lens of tomorrow but rather the haze of yesterday. We need new, fresher thought and ideas from the generations that are going to pay the bills that are being run up by the current crop of hacks. Far to many are still of the mind set that the exploitation of fossil fuel and the waging of war are the best ways to raise your GDP. There has to be a better way.

      There is a song that says God is watching us, and if he is is he amused or horrified by what he sees. Are we being visited by ET’s and is the reason we are not being contacted is because we are too ignorant to greet without wanting to kill, we are to war like, or because ???

  • HHH Ranch

    Daily writing prompt
    What’s something you would attempt if you were guaranteed not to fail.
    View all responses

    I have a dream to operate with my son a ranch that stables retired horses, uses them as therapy from Autistic Persons, Disabled Veterans. The Horses Helping Humans Ranch would employ veterans and special needs individuals that want to work with horses and have a desire to help others.

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  • Love

    Dwain Northey (Gen X)

    Just a reminder in this world of turmoil and hate.

    Love, love, love
    Love, love, love
    Love, love, love

    There’s nothin’ you can do that can’t be done
    Nothin’ you can sing that can’t be sung
    Nothin’ you can say, but you can learn how to play the game
    It’s easy
    Nothin’ you can make that can’t be made
    No one you can save that can’t be saved
    Nothin’ you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time
    It’s easy

    All you need is love
    All you need is love
    All you need is love, love
    Love is all you need

    All you need is love
    All you need is love
    All you need is love, love
    Love is all you need

    There’s nothin’ you can know that isn’t known
    Nothin’ you can see that isn’t shown
    There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be
    It’s easy

    All you need is love
    All you need is love
    All you need is love, love
    Love is all you need
    All you need is love (all together now)
    All you need is love (everybody)
    All you need is love, love
    Love is all you need

    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Love is all you need (love is all you need)
    Yee-hay (love is all you need)
    (Love is all you need)
    (Love is all you need)
    Yesterday
    (Love is all you need)
    Oh
    Love is all you need
    Love is all you need (oh yeah)
    Love is all you need
    (She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah)
    (She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah)
    (Love is all you need)
    (Love is all you need)
    (Love is all you need)
    (Love is all you need)
    (Love is all you need)
    (Love is all you need)

    Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney

  • Digging my own hole

    What was the hardest personal goal you’ve set for yourself?

    The hardest, personal goal I set for myself, is to stop digging my own hole, and to actually forgive other people.

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  • History +-=?

    Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

      How much of our history and the people that have contributed to it do you really know? It would seem that if some of that history is not of some people’s liking the chance to learn may disappear as the books will be burned and it will be gone forever. Whenever there is conflict and it is written about afterwards the victors are the ones that get to tell the tale and they tell it the way that makes them look the best.

      The public face that is shown of those that are most known to us is not always the true image of the person. The stars of Hollywood oftentimes changed their names for various reasons, not manly enough, or sexy enough or someone else has a very similar name. Fame allows for a single name that identifies without doubt who you are talking about. 

      Other notable figures had names with nicknames attached to tell you a bit about the person’s appearance or tool of choice and things like that. Some of the characters were real and some fictional but all help to blend the history of our country.  Will there be a quiz, only if you make one.

      So let us take a person from our not so distant past, General Douglas MacAuther. Many people do not know that he had served 30 years in the US Army and retired and was hired by the President of Philippines to command his army before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. When Roosevelt declared war on Japan he ordered MacAuther back to serve as the commander of the forces in the Pacific.

      When the General left the Philippines to return to the States that is where the famous comment “I Shall Return” came from. So now he is back and served the US until 1947 or 1948 and got Japan online as a Democratic nation before he and President Truman got into an argument about continuing the war and linking up with Patton in Europe via China and Russia.

      At this time in his life he was not a young man but he did return to the Philippines and he finally got married. He had not married before because no woman he had ever shown an interest in was good enough by his mothers standards so he had waited till she passed before he married. This man had seen war, been recalled after a full career, and then fired by another President and yet the one person that he would not go against was his mother.

      Many lives have twists and turns that are totally unexpected. Relationships occur where none would have been suspected. Watch a few episodes of Finding Your Roots, Who Do You Think You Are, just to name a couple. 

      We have no idea what our ancestors got up to or who they got up to it with. The puzzle of the missing from Roanoke may be found by DNA of some native people that just happened through there a long time ago. As has been said before it is amazing how those people over there, across the tracks, or wherever, are not the kind you would want to marry, but if you happen to get into a fight with them, kill the men and bring the women home to breed with. What the hell have you got now.? The Neandertal were supposed to be below HomoSapien and yet we still find the gene in the DNA . It proves that humans are if anything lustful and will breed with most anything under the right conditions. Hence the saying “They all look better at closing time”.

  • Equity

    Lyle Northey (Silent/Boomer)

    A call to put the American People first from the viewpoint of where. Are you looking at the big picture or through your micro lens of value as you see it? Our nation and the people in it are diverse and they need to be accommodated as a diverse population not as a herd run by either a very liberal or very conservative leader. 

      Government has to span the river, not put up a dam and then choose which gate to open as to which group will butter your bread or kiss your ass best. Just as surely as the desire to have a comfortable place to live in is common to all, so is the desire to have a convenient way to get there. That means public access, not private roads. Public means all of us work to build and maintain these things, schools, hospitals, water systems, electric grids, sewer systems and all the other things that make our nation and every other civilized nation on earth run smoothly. 

      We, that means one group of people can not choose to make themselves exempt from paying their share of the costs of these utilities just because they have somehow managed to control more riches than someone else. Let the system be rated on a percentage so that everyone pays a share and no one feels like they have been raped to do so. When your time on this earth is done the wealth you have earned is staying here, and if you want to know what God thinks of money just look at who he has given it to and more importantly look at who he has allowed to run around telling everyone how well off they are.