I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity. Edgar Allen Poe
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. - H. L. Mencken Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so -Bertrand Russell 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 ... -James Branch Cabell
March 29, 2017 - 11:45 a.m. I started today with a mitzvah. I opened Facebook and found one person littering my feed with annoying posts and I didn't insult him. They weren't evil or mean, just annoying and egocentric so I restrained myself. Know what's wrong with the world? If you ask for sainthood, it's considered annoying and egocentric so you won't get it. I didn't do some important things yesterday but I did one thing that sounds simple but was challenging; checking to see when my therapy appointment was this week. I do not have a regular schedule yet with my new therapist. Why was it a challenge? I started imagining that I missed the appointment or it was too late to get to it. Logically that's a reason to look immediately but anxiety is not logical. But I did it and then called and made future appointments and I still don't have a regular appointment schedule. I'm working on it. Here's my culinary discovery of the day. When you make microwave popcorn there are always a significant number of duds left in the end. Keep them in all in one bag. When you finish the box of six bags you then pop the duds. Add a little oil to the bag and shake it up. All you want to do is coat each kernel. Then fold over the end and put it in the microwave and pop them. They came out a little burnt but I like burnt. I could have popped it for less time and leftover more duds but I went for maximum poppage. When it's done melt some butter add some salt, I used garlic salt of course, and pour it on top and shake it up. I got seven servings from a six serving box. I'd say I was proud but pride is one of the seven deadly sins and there's that whole sainthood thing. I'm going to go back four items in my ideas bin because even though I thought about it weeks ago, it's in the news today; Trump Signs Order Dismantling Obama-Era Climate Policies. We are all on outrage overload. Trump is doing or threatening to do so much damage. Most of the activism has understandably been focuses on his threats to human rights including health care. It's what I've written the most about. It's the immediate crisis but it's not the greatest threat, that's climate change. His unrolling of the already insufficient actions Obama took to limit CO2 emissions are not temporary. We can never undo the damage that is being done. Muslims, immigrants, gays, women, and all the other people whose rights he is threatening will get their protection with a change of administrations but we can't get the CO2 out of the atmosphere. It is going to create long-term climate change. If it upends or weakens the Paris Accords it will do even more damage, it won't be just the US adding more greenhouse gases it will be China and India. Climate change doesn't pack the emotional punch of refugees and immigrants being treated like threats not human beings. It feels remote and academic but that's a fault in the way we perceive things. Climate change can cause far more death and suffering than Trump will even inflict directly unless he starts a nuclear war. Climate change increases the number and severity of extreme weather events. Of the ten greatest natural disasters since 1900 five are related to weather; 1,000,000 to 4,000,000 people died in the 1931 China Floods. 375,000 died in the 1970 Bhola Cyclone in what is now Bangladesh [Wikipedia: List of natural disasters by death toll]. Droughts kill slower and with more suffering. The United States might be rich enough to mitigate the worse effects of rising sea level, at least in limited areas like New York City. That's not true of third world countries. Forty-six percent of the Bangladeshi population lives within 10 meters of the average sea level [Study: NPR: 634 Million People at Risk from Rising Seas]. We let a political party that is in denial of climate change gain control of all three branches of the federal government and the majority of the state houses. No party that denies the reality of a grave threat should even be viable. We have to make our voices heard; let politicians know that there's a political price to pay for letting the world slip into a disaster. The climate devastation won't happen all at once. It will just be a slow increase in the number of disasters none of which can individually be blamed on the greenhouse effect. This is what allows the GOP to get away with it. We have to let them know those days are over. I'm proud and impressed that Folk Fight's Back's first event was to raise money to protect the environment. We need to follow their example. There are many environmental issues but climate change is bigger than them all. No local problem can compare. It's where we need to direct our energies. I'll get off my bandbox now and my eyes should stop glowing soon. Too bad, it's a good look for me. Now I'm going to go back and fight the battles in my head. I'll start by calling the MTA lost and found and see if they found my backpack. I won't let myself eat till I do. I should have this covered. I called them before but it was too early. I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge: please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
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