I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
May 26, 2013 - 1:01 p.m.
I talked to Lena right before I went to sleep and I said, "I can't sleep till 10. I never sleep more than 8 hours usually 7�. So what happened? I slept till 10. Now I did get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom but that shouldn't have had that big an effect. I'm a bit concerned. I've learned to observe my body. It's not a big deal. One shot things rarely are. But it's a data point.
This should be an exciting entry. I did not leave the house yesterday. I did reach the front porch. I never got dressed. I live an active life and a day of total sloth is a great luxury. Oddly I do that more on Saturdays the most often.
I finished watching Firefly so I finished the saga by watching Serenity. I had my usual love/hate relationship with the show. It infuriated me at the very start when you find out that Simon was briefed on what they did to River before we ever met him. Did anyone else notice that the climax was just like a Bond Film? The army has a big fire fight while the hero has a one on one battle with the super assassin henchman. I was glad to see someone actually die but their enemies rival Imperial Storm Troopers in being bad shots. Shouldn't River have simply killed people with her mind, as she said she could to Jayne, rather turned into a super ninja?
So now I stared on Dollhouse. How did I never watch that. Forgot how good or bad it is. It starred Eliza Dushku. I even watched True Calling. What's with Joss's obsession with super powerful organizations that think they are doing good but are arrogant and use people:? Think the watchers, the Alliance, and the Dollhouse. Does he believe the Illuminati are running everything?
I love Joss Whedon. How come my only insights about him are negative? It must be the curmudgeon gene.
Oh actual insight. I was weaned on written science fiction from the "Golden Age." That imbues the way I watch science fiction as does lots and lots of actual science education. So when a space ship stops dead because the engine is out My reaction is "Who repealed Newton's first law of motion?" It isn't a matter of thinking about things. It just looks wrong. It's as if someone in something wasn't science fiction just placed something in mid air and it didn't fall. You'd go "Huh?"
In the depths of the night I planned on writing something very personal. Somehow by the light of day that doesn't seem like as good an idea. I'll be honest, it's because I can't remember the insight that makes it more than "It's so hard being me."
I just deleted over 400 words on religion. There were against it of course. And then I got to the end where I summed up what I wanted to say and realized that everything I said before was not the way to promote what I wanted. What I want is for people to not equate goodness with godliness. The causality doesn't run either way. Being religious doesn�t makeit more likely to be good and being good doesn't make it more likely that you are religious. The only other point that I made that I'd like to repeat is that you don't find virtue by following a person or belief system. Comrade Napoleon is not always right. Not even Paul Kruman is always right. He's just right more often than the other pundits (Wyckoff et al). Most of My Gentle Readers know this but they might not know how important it is. So much of the evil in the world is done by people thinking they are doing good but are arrogant and use people. That part is true, where Joss gets it wrong is thinking of them as secret cabals. For the most part it's done in the open for the world to see because the people think they are being virtuous. There's a section of Myanmar where they made it illegal for Muslims and only Muslims to have more than two children. These are Buddhists. People think of Buddhists and gentle and in harmony with the universe. Buddhists in power do what too often people in power do, confuse their beliefs with what is good and act on them. There are even monks leading massacres of Muslims.
OK I got the Krugman factoid and what is happening in Myanmar in. But I'm still not happy because the best way of making people to not equate goodness with godliness is for atheists to be good and to let people know they are atheists, but not at the same time. I got annoyed when I read of someone bragging that some atheist group sent aid to victims, maybe it was Oklahoma. No need to give as atheists. Just give.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
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Horvendile May 26, 2013
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