Everyones gotta be right...

While I am not free of this little fact, I am aware of it and do my best to avoid it, but why do people always gotta be right about something? Why do we always try to keep on point, even if it is not important? What is it about a conversation that has a statement, counter-statement, clarification and restatement, then firmer reasoning statement, and so forth and so on?

I get discourse, I get commiserating, I get debate, discussion, and so forth, but why is it so rare, so hard, for people to just talk about something? Is conversing for the sake of conversing, or expanding thought, so out of place today? Does everything have to be about being right or wrong, of turning someone to your line of thought, or away from it? What is it about polarization of conversation that is so previlant today?

I remember, when I was younger, that the purpose of debate was about fully examining a topic, of seeing it from multiple sides and viewpoints, however, like many things, it became more about the competition than the discussion. Again, it was more about winners and losers, not thoughts and discourse.

Perhaps it is blind idealism, or thinking complexity into a simple situation, but it would be nice, I think, to just be able to blather on about something, examining all its facets, without a worry about winning and losing.

Modern-Day Piracy...

...and I'm not talking about digital piracy, but the sea-going kind that has been getting more and more play in recent days.

All the romanticized myths and legends aside, especially the good fiction and movies, but the reality of pirates should be quite simple, yet society seems to have forgotten that pirates need to be fought, caught, or slain, not necessarily in that order.

Is it that hard of a concept? Has the modern world grown that soft that the idea of fighting someone who us not fighting under a nation's flag doesn't occur to them? If that's so, you need a reminder about the war on terror, as there are no flags there, either.

The pirates are so brazen, now, that they don't even hide or aim for small targets, so there is no excuse about them being in hiding. While it is understandable to be concerned about the hostages, that concern should be under a reasonable amount, not cripplingly so. If you pay them off, if you let them go, then they see zero reason to not continue what they're doing.

Find them. Sink them. Sheesh.

So Roddy Piper smokes pot...

...but, honestly, why is it a big deal?

Marijuana has been so demonized since it was restricted that folks don't seem to know how to think for themselves, especially when the talking point and misnomer known as "gateway drug" is brandied about. It is so insipid that our society is under the yolk of an ignorant law that is enforcing someone else's morality, or some groups morality, on supposedly free people.

Now, quick point of clarity here, I do not smoke pot. I tried it a couple of times when I was younger and it was okay, did about the same thing for me that beer did, so I did not see the need to risk using it when there was a legal alternative. But, I still think it should be legal, just as alcohol is legal, as well as cigarettes, as neither are all that good for you, yet you should still have the freedom, we should still have the freedom to choose our vice.

Marijuana is only a gateway drug because it is a low echelon, minor substance that is where most folk are introduced to a underground or counter culture environment, but you know what else is a gateway drug? Underage drinking and smoking, yet those are only minor when looked at, in comparison to the life changing event that getting caught with pot in some states can be.

It is bad enough that when pot was criminalized it was done so with ignorance and racism, as well as a pocket full of lies, and was attached to those most idiotic of political movements of the last century, which was prohibition. Not only did prohibition create a niche for an organized criminal element, it romanticised it, as some seemed to forget that our nation normally encourages the rebellious, independent spirit. We like to decide for ourselves, thus when all sort of things that were once legal became outlawed, due to a minority of opinion from some uptight fools, we rebelled and sought out what we could no longer have, right or wrong.

Yet, when the light was seen, only alcohol was decriminalized, which then created a market to keep organized crime alive, as they still had something to push. Billions, if not trillions, of dollars later, as well as tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, lives ruined over the past century because we decided to tell folks what they could legally intoxicate themselves with.

Stupid. Massively stupid.

Free adults in the United States of America should have the right to choose whether or not they want to drink or drug themselves and if they do something criminal while under the influence, then do what is done with drunk drivers, and prosecute them for negligent behavior. But, simply enough, quite shoving your moral thought down other peoples' throats, as it is our choice, nor your choice. Also, before anyone tries that lame duck of a canard about murder being enforced morality, too, you should notice that I'm talking about letting people do what they want to themselves, not to others.

Sheesh, get out of our bedrooms, or smoke rooms, out wine racks, and every other aspect of our personal life. It is damn annoying.

Legend of the Seeker TV Show...

...which is supposed to be based on the Terry Goodkind series, however it seems more like it was inspired by some folks who saw these books on the shelf with some interesting dustcovers, yet only skimmed the books themselves.

You know, how the Texas Chainsaw Massacre is "Based on True Events", yet if you look at the Ed Gein story, which is the true event, there's no skin-mask wearing psycho chasing teens in panties through a macabre farm of cannibalism. Gotta love word play, dontcha?

Anyhow, it's not like I'm a fan of Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, although I might have to give it a second look, one of these days, but I almost feel sorry for the guy and wonder how he feels about the TV series. It is definitely more in the Hercules and Xena vein of fantasy, with the production values only modestly okay.

The casting is so-so, as Richard is a smidge too young, but Zedd is, in my view, pretty spot on and Kahlan's actress, Bridget Regan, is quite a pleasant sight to see. Overall the show is okay, it'd make for pretty okay fantasy, too, but it's not really that Sword of Truth-ish and I find it annoying.

Hopefully it'll get better, but I sort of doubt it, odds are it'll go the episodic route of Hercules, Xena, and Beastmaster, with a consistent metaplot, yet weak execution with sporadic moments of "Hey, that's cool."

Well, hopefully George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series will be a glorious HBO production that'll send geek-gasms through the intertubes.

Small towns are nice...

...and it has taken me quite a few years to remember this fact, but as they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder.

It was the mid-90s when I moved away from Klamath Falls, Oregon, when I followed my heart outward, up to the Portland Metro area before taking a quick sidestep to Boise, Idaho, so I've been gone from Klamath Falls for roughly twelve years. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't regret leaving, nor why I left, not even when I did while I was gone, but a big part of me is realizing that some of it could have been done without leaving Klamath Falls.

There is no real part of the country, just as there is not fake part of the country, everyone is different in the United States and it shows, be it by region or by city. Sometimes you just find a feel that fits and, for me, it is often the small college towns that I feel more at home, as opposed to the dense urban sprawl. It has a feel that is comfortable and almost stressless for me, although I do miss the stadium theaters, dense population of game stores, and other creature comforts, but the stressless life is not too bad.

Klamath Falls is in a really nice part of Oregon, as there are lots of forests, rivers, lakes, mountains, and historical and natural sites, like Crater Lake. Sure, it's about as far from Portland as you can get, while still being in Oregon, but the Rogue Valley is nearby and a trip to Portland can be pretty quick and easy, if you plan it right. Plus, generally, the people are okay too, even if you don't agree with them. I'm, pretty much, a rabid moderate when it comes to politics, thus the far left and right just tick me off, a lot, but even here in Klamath, I'm chill on that, too.

Maybe it's just the right time for me to be here, but I think, seriously, that it's more of a matter of people knowing when they've found the right zone for them to be in and I'm sure I'd get this feeling in the right big town, like Seattle, but I'm glad to be home in Oregon, the weather is nice, as is the wildlife, so it's all good.

Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches...

...are really good, I'm not even out of Strawberry Preserves, yet I felt like trying honey and it's awesome. It does this weird thing with the bread, where it hardens it, sort of, which adds a cool texture that I remember from when I was a kid and I'd put Maple Syrup on bread.

Yeah, I had a major sweet tooth, one that's mostly in control today, as opposed to the days where I'd buy a tube of chocolate frosting and eat it with a spoon.

It's sort of odd the things you find you like, as I'm one of those folks who can stomach a peanut butter and mayo sandwich, which my Grampa Emerson introduced me to, as a kid, yet most people gag at the idea of it. Of course, I hate Lima Beans, as well as Hominy, as they've this odd bloated corpse look to them, which bugs the hell out of me.

I've tried peanut butter and banana sandwiches, in honor of Elvis, and they're okay, but not my cup of tea. But, now, I'm in this odd mood for experimentation, which is most likely due to my odd diet for the past month of eating only Mac-N-Cheese with various marinated tunas.

*shrugs*

Yeah, definitely not a blog about healthy eating here. :D

What a difference a week makes...

...as we went from a nation where it was a radical thought that an African-American could run for the Office of President of the United States to a nation where that thought is now a historical fact and reality.

Barack Hussein Obama, he who will be the 44th President of the United States, has done what many would have thought impossible in less than a generation since the epic speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.. It has been less than a generation since segregation was ended, a handful of generations since the American Civil War, and we have gone from a nation whose honor was stained by the inhuman act of owning a person to a nation where we have elected an African-American man to the highest office in the land.

It is an amazing day, a future fill with hope, wonderful, joyous hope, and the world now sees that the American dream is so much more than it was just one day before. We have elected the son of a first generation emigrant as our President, how much of a epoch changing event is that?

Not only did I vote for Barack Obama, but I donated money and time toward his campaign and I've never been more proud to be an American than I am right now. The stain on our national honor is a little bit less today, our image in the national eye is a little bit brighter today, and the words against us are a little quieter today, and that is a good thing.

We've gone from yes we can, to yes we have, and that is a powerful thing to have done.