THE TIME EATING MONSTER

Thirty days has September, April, June and November…

Another fucking month slips by.   When I was younger time seemed to drag, but the older I get the faster time seems to move.    So here I am speeding toward the end of time.

Yes, I am sorry, but as my time speeds up to the instance that my reality shrinks into a black hole so goes the universe.  When I am no longer here there is no existence.  You’re all gone.  Everything is gone.  If I can’t perceive it, it doesn’t exist.

Time was invented by man and refined by the railroads.   Before the railroads, clocks were set by solar time: a stick in the ground would determine the shortest shadow as noon.     This meant that clocks in a town fifty miles to your east might be ten minutes later than your clock and clocks in a town fifty miles to your west might read ten minutes earlier.   This made scheduling train arrivals and departures impossible, so the railroad led the charge to standardize time.  

The concept of time was designed to regulated human life.   It has placed us on a programed treadmill.  Time regulates our every action.   It makes us productive; but robs us of serenity.   

And now for me time is no longer a linear path of infinity; but an ever shrinking trail to the end of time. 

DID I RUN and

AM I TIRED?

the Ol’Buzzard

MY GOD - WHO'S CRAPPING IN THE NEXT STALL?

I feel sorry for this boy.   A liberal living in Mississippi.   The things he is saying I can relate to personally.    Potluck suppers that always begin with a prayer.  When you first meet people they want to know what church you attend.  People calling on the phone and wanting to pray with you.  Religion permeating all aspects of life - accompanied by the narrow minded bigotry that religion spawns.    

The total ignorance is suffocating.  

So here’s to The Liberal Redneck.

the Ol'Buzzard

MAINE'S GOVERNOR DOES IT AGAIN

Pepe Le Page

The University of Maine at Farmington has been listed in News Week as one of the best small colleges in the US for over a decade. 


The past president Theodora Kalikow was honored yesterday by having the Student Center named in her honor.   Maine's controversial governor Paul LePage was the invited speaker.

   

A few minutes after the Governor took the stage two student held up signs stating: 'LePage Main's Shame,' and 'On environmental issues Theadora Kalikow - A, Paul LePage - F.'   

The Governor saw the signs and said "I can't do this."  He walked off the stage and on his way past called the students "Idiots."

Paul LePage was twice elected.  Both times a liberal third party candidate split the Democratic vote.  

 This has always been the danger of third parties: they tend to take votes from one side more than the other.   A multi-party system is healthy, but it should be more than three choices.   A third party run usually ends giving victory to the party most opposing its views. 

The thing most disturbing is that in the local e-newspaper all the comments (except mine) were negative toward the students.  Being a college town most residents are liberal, but almost all the political comments and letters to the editor or always by angry conservatives.    

There is a correlation here on the state of the nation.

the Ol'Buzzard

YIN AND YANG

Regardless of who we are, we all see things in black and white, good or bad, right or wrong based on our own experiences and background; when actually everything in this world – every belief and action exist in some shade of grey.

 The Chinese symbol of Yin and Yang shows white and black in equal proportions, but each side should exist in different proportions according to the issue.

We all are guilty of fallacious thinking, that everything we reason, everything we believe is factual and everything opposing our view is false.   A twenty-year-old can tell you in one sentence how to solve all the world’s problems and strife; but, as we age the grey seeps in.  

Like Jurassic Park there are always two scenarios.

Saddam Hussein is a bad guy; lets remove the bad guy and all will be better - equals simplistic thinking.

As a liberal I am against war.  I would like to downsize our military and drastically cut our military budget, transferring our spending to social programs.   Great idea, but….     About one third of our manufacturing base depends directly on military contracts and millions of people's jobs depend on companies depending on military contracts. 

Yin and Yang in different proportions. 

 

Even daylight and dark vary according to the seasons. 

Health care and pharmaceutical companies are leaches that will eventually suck everyone’s blood.   They are companies for profit not for health.   I would like to see Medicare for all and government control of pharmaceutical products.   But this would mean the end of health insurance companies and the socialization of pharmaceuticals.    Again, Yin and Yang in different proportions: millions of people would lose their jobs and their retirements. The eventual outcome might be better, but it would be disastrous in the short term.    Billions of dollars of profits curtailed – I am not sure it can ever be done.    

I have life insurance, most people do: what happens to the security of our love ones when insurance companies go under – like the environment everything in the economy exist in a web, you destroy one link of the web and the whole web can be effected. 

 

Where am I going with this: the Ol’Buzzard is riding the updrafts and passing the time with contemplation while waiting to discover the next piece of carrion…  oops, a dead skunk on the road – let me take a look.

Yum yum

the Ol’Buzzard

SUNDAY MORNING

Sunday morning and people get dressed up and go to church to worship their respective god; they sing and prey and put money in the plate when it is passed around.  They feel self-righteous and  pious as they interact with others of their congregation. 

The rest of the week they swim in their prejudices and bigotry, more concerned about politics, money and station than about the people around them. 

If they were serious they would just look out for other people.  

And realize that we are not special - we are all in it together.

the Ol'Buzzard

A TRIBUTE TO CHARLTON HESTON

"You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hand."

Charlton Heston

The video was blocked by funny or die so click

HERE 

to see it. 

I'm just saying
the Ol'Buzzard

BOOK YOUR CRUISE TODAY

By 1969, Exxon had found and leased the large reserves of crude oil under Alaska’s North Slope.  The problem was how to transport the crude from Alaska to refineries.  Exxon decided on two possible scenarios:  A tanker through the North West Passage to the East Coast refineries, or build a pipeline to a port in southern Alaska and transport by ship to west coast refineries. 

Exxon decided to try the transporting through the Arctic Ocean, as that would not require the difficulty of obtaining a costly right of way and permission for a pipeline across Alaska.

The trip was made with the help and assistance of U.S and Canadian ice breakers.   The Manhattan, a retrofitted oil tanker/icebreaker, left the East Coast and arrived in Prudhoe Bay where it picked up one barrel of oil and then made a return trip to New York.

It was later found that the winter weather would make the trip impossible and the North West Passage oil rout was scrapped.

Back in the early 1970 I was attached to a Navy special projects command.   One of our missions was to provide an airborne platform for scientific measurement of ice thickness in the Arctic Ocean above Canada; again looking for a possible North West Passage.   It had been proven that passage through the Arctic Ocean was possible, but would it be practical to try to maintain an open passageway.?  

Now that is a moot question.   The Arctic Ocean is open thanks to global warming and we are about to see a commercial exploitation of the area.  

In September of this year the Crystal Cruise line is offering a thirty-two day trip through the North West passage.   The cost will run from $28,000 to $46,000 per person.   Soon we can expect other cruise ships and even commercial ships to sail this route.   

This new intrusion of man into the arctic will negatively affect the breeding ground of whales and eventually effect all arctic wildlife in that ecosystem.   These ships burn dirty fuel that will produce carbon emissions that will result in increased melting of arctic ice.  

Again, the avarice of mankind trumps protection of this fragile planet we live on.    At some point mankind will have caused the sixth extinction.    We are proving to be the most destructive life form produced on this planet.

Have a happy Monday

The Ol’Buzzard