03-15-22: this post isn't thorough or exhaustive by any means, whadaya expect, i'm not a professional anything, but i think the simple message is about done for now... but i'll try to offer some logical insight, and might help to clarify/set some faulty assumptions straight... i gotta level with you, i write pretty harshly and directly and occasionally ignorantly as well :-), but with that said, i don't really feel a need to explain my writing style or perspectives as harsh or as gentle as some folks may interpret it/them... but today is different... today i want to take a little time to explain a bit more about me, or maybe you'd prefer to call it 'explaining myself', or maybe it's just a temporary olive branch of sorts, or maybe i'm just taking-up some time just making some more noise in an already noisy world... anyhow, yesterday was a day that wasn't much different than most yesterdays typically go, it was just a 'normal monday' with normal monday routines... kids are off to school and work, and one is away, and the wife is currently working in her gifting at a local daycare at a big non-profit, but i'm a bit different in that most if not all of my routines have changed since the early days/onset of covid spread into the USA (you could call me 're-set'), i could go on to expand on some reasons as to why i have new routines now, but i'm adapting to a changing world, evolving in some respects, i certainly wasn't living a sustainable lifestyle with a sustainable job just prior to covid, so i was rocked and shaken like many other folks, and now i seem to have new routines with different and variable employment and making several other lifestyle changes (yep, i was re-set alright), but that's not the point of this post, this post is just explaining that part of my 'new routines' includes regular types of household chores and family priorities/responsibilities, and a bunch of reading and writing and even a bit of thinking in between all of that, i'm not much of a writer in any proper sense, and i'm not terribly interested in trying to write all proper-right anytime soon either, sometimes i do for certain projects/endeavors, but otherwise i'm just simple and plain-spoken and find it easier to express myself and communicate in my most natural and imperfect and improper language and wording and writing style that i have at my immediate disposal, but i'm learning to hone my new-found hobby/job/journaling/anaylizing some of the world from my perspective, i think that's all that a diary or journal or blog or communication really is (to one degree or another), but i'm writing enough to challenge myself to learn how to express and articulate my perception of the simple world around me based on the information that i consume and process, and then my out-put (words/shit/logic, you be the judge) is applied with an equal but opposite reaction/force to much of today's public communication... i suppose you could say that i write as a bit of antithesis/ballast to some of the communication/words/actions/deeds/behaviors of many of today's influencers and those who they influence... i don't much care for the words and actions of many professional politicians on both sides of the primary clubs, or some of their closely networked associates, it ought to be obvious to any previous reader as to which ideology and political institutions that i most closely align/identify with... it ought to be obvious because i'm always right ;-) ... i invite the reader to tell me otherwise and help me to grow and learn, just please formulate your ideas beyond a meme or fortune-cookie or campaign slogan or a re-post, please use your creativity and most natural vocabulary to persuade me if you don't care for my perspectives and opinions, most professional smart folks can formulate their criticisms and cases far better than you and i can, and they do, but i encourage the reader to persuade me with a bit more than an emotional reaction but to the best of your ability in your most comfortable writing language and style, you don't have to be fancy or as simple as me, just simply articulate/express yourself based on the information that you have consumed to tell me why i'm as much of an ass as i present myself sometimes, i write a bit harshly but i don't really bite unless you become an obvious threat... i promise... i'm more of sheep dog and less of a predator than some of my words might suggest, some readers know that and others don't, and i have thick-skin (usually), so i take your reasoning and push-back with a grain of salt and trust that you will help me face my ignorance so i can grow and learn like we are all expected to do in our lives... i have the task/responsibility to protect an immediate family, protection is part of a parent's job, some parents understand that, others clearly don't, it's not the only responsibility, but it's a primary one for parents... i also served in full-time military for one-point-three enlistments a bunch of years back (enlistment + stop-loss nine months for ODS and brief deployment), so the protector/sheepdog facet of my former employment has carried over to current responsibilities as far as parental requirements are concerned, the sheepdog mentality (in my own terms/words) goes something like this 'i am willing to protect others that might be too distracted or less capable of protecting themselves', it might be something like that, it's sort of like knowing about and having direct experience with some nasty deviant predators and being willing to protect some other normal people with the use of violence if/when necessary, and with enough violence to subdue or dispatch such critters as dictated/required by their deviant actions/behaviors, that's a bit of a difference from being a predator that operates on different instincts and lack of morality and self-control and can't help themselves from harming others, some people call the difference between sheepdogs and predators 'sanity', other people try to blur the line based on their motives/deception-methods/excuses... why do i mention that, because having a bit of a sheepdog instinct in combination with much of media/news/information that i've been consuming combined with an exertion of equal but opposite force all equate to much of the reasons as to 'why' i write 'what' i write and 'when' i write it, most of the words and actions that i detest is what some folks consider to be an 'art' or 'practice' of 'deception', i really have little respect for folks that knowingly deceive for a living, some people knowingly deceive others far more than just a cute or loving joke or cool trick, and then they hopefully regret it at some point as quickly as possible after blatant deception, but some folks do it for a living and it's pretty detestable as far as i'm concerned... the resulting emotional and persuasive reactions from many other people are sometimes an indicator as to the motivations and goals of predatory communicators, sometimes the truth hurts and you get strong reactions from some folks, but other times it's deception that gets strong reactions based on it's intended manipulation, some people know how to screw with the heads of other people and apply their knowledge to manipulate different people with proven and trusted efficacy/science, and psycho head-fvckery, and folks that practice that sort of thing really bug me to a big extent, i don't mind professional news or media folks that try their best to report facts in most truthful words without using emotional-triggering, and i don't mind folks with the audacity to think that they are capable of fairly representing a constituency and do so with integrity and conviction and logic as decent and useful policy-makers, but i have little respect for professional social-fraternity members that use government for parasitic manipulation and benefit, those folks bug me to no end sometimes... so i said all of that to make the case for why i direct much of my writing toward pointing out the manipulation and exploitation of many public communicators and 'influencers'... i lead with the above statements to simply try to explain something to the reader, something that might not be very obvious based on my writing style and content, there is a distinction that i hope to express to the reader, and that is based on some news that i got today... the news that i heard today was that of a death, the death of a man that i met on a few occasions, it turns-out that he lived not too far from me, he lived on the bend of the road... i heard that he passed-away last week and it just sort of surprised me to hear that... because death is not something that i take lightly or insignificantly, but with mass deaths in viruses and other wars and then the news of death hitting closer to home has got my thinking about the gift of life, and everyone's eventual death... i appreciate life, and i know that death is the only other natural guarantee if we think entirely on the physical/biological sense, life and death are as real as it get's, but i consider life to be a gift/endowment from our creator, not just a natural reaction/consequence of biological male/female intercourse... there are plenty of folks on the opposite side of the political aisle of Big Tony and i, many of them view life differently than i do, some of them believe in some type of God/Creator, others miss that aspect of reality completely, many consider creation as something to not just be appreciated and respected, but worshiped... rather than directing their energy and thoughts and priority to learning about God's nature and possible expectations... some folks admire creation without ever considering the creator, if you appreciate creation without acknowledging/considering the creator then you already have a missing variable from your equation of life... some folks are so 'complicated' that they could fill a room-sized chalkboard with fancy math and symbols and letters and earn fancy degrees and celebration from their peers, and many of those folks don't realize that 1 + 2 = 3... they are so busy making over-complicated equations to 'solve problems' without understanding that they don't know what true problems really are, they don't realize that they are missing the simple math of considering God when experiencing and reacting to our life/environments... some folks do the same thing with human deviancy and dysfunctions, they go out of their way to come up with fancy equations and excuses as to why right is wrong and wrong is right, some folks view excuse-making for dysfunction and devolution a profession and art... look, i'm not just making a distinction between theology or ideology or lifestyle or decision-making, but something stirred my gut when i checked the facebook page of the recently deceased, i read the words 'i hate liberals'... so the goal/nature of my current post is to let the reader know that you can be just as dysfunctional and depraved as you want to, but i don't actually 'hate' you, i hate deception and deviant influencers and communicators that justify and spread and incite it and other hurtful time-wasting words, some professional communicators and influencers have passed their 'usefulness dates' and could really use a time-out for some serious reflection... that's all i'm sort of complaining about, i guess... but i don't hate liberals or progressives or democrats or other folks that i disagree with, sometimes i might sort of for a second or two before i calm my ass down and collect my thoughts and sanity, but really, well, i really don't care for the inciters and deceivers and folks that use their intellect and gifts and talents for habitual deception, they come from all political affiliations, deviancy exists closer to home than most of us care to admit... but look, many liberals and progressives are aspiring or actual paradoxes between 'hippie freedom peace and love' and 'we need a totalitarianism government to guide us through life', and i know and love many liberals and progressives and democrats and i don't mind mentioning that fact from time to time and challenging them a bit here and there, you know, tough-love and helping each other remain grounded and such, i don't mind adding some conservative ballast to the progressive conversation from time to time... but i don't hate folks that label themselves or identify with the democrat network or liberalism or progressiveness, i think i sort of push-back with an equal and opposite force as i get a litmus on policy and political contributors and commentators and other communicators and influencers and professional smart people, but i certainly don't hate the folks that i disagree with... look, i could certainly read into some of the power and political posturing in recent history and was frustrated beyond belief by some of it, and i don't really like what i've been hearing/seeing/reading, political stuff may seem less frequent because folks aren't advertising for candidates and policies at the moment, but the banter and inciting language word-salad and manipulations are very active nonetheless, and the mid-term campaign spending spree and advertisements are right around the corner and the sh1t is getting deep... i'm still continuing to follow professional bull-shitters and policy-makers with interest and some passion, and will continue to write about them until the cows come home, so don't take this peace-offering or olive-branch sitting still if you don't care for my perspectives, but i certainly don't hate you, and i thought that it's important to make that distinction and clarification to the reader... the guy down the street that was on the same 'political team' as i happen to be on had some embedded hate going on, and that's not necessarily what's going on in my noggin and heart and soul, and i just wanted to make that clear to the reader... thanks for your time, and may God bless you, and may God bless America even if we don't necessarily deserve it... that last sentence was my state of the union in a nutshell, take it for what it's worth. -- ct