Month: May 2016

Science and Religion. Part 1

Religion, Science / August 14, 2019
Since the beginning of civilization when men learned to till the soil, domesticate animals,  and construct the first large urban centers made of mud bricks they were usually led by a charismatic individual who showed natural leadership skills. later becoming know as “Kings”.  When enough food was available for everyone this gave people time to “think”. And what they thought about was the things they saw everyday. That bright glowing ball of fire that rose in the east and set in the west.  The less bright orb that lit up in the darkness. The twinkling lights that all seemed to move in unison except for a few that wandered.
A certain cast of the tribe took on the task of observing the sky and over many generations learned  that the movements of the sun, moon and stars followed the same patterns year after year.  Calendars could be made, Solstice’s could be predicted and  most importantly times to sow and reap. The people who had the knowledge to make these predictions over time morphed into a priestly class, becoming trusted advisors to the ruling elite or even becoming rulers themselves.
Of course some things couldn’t be predicted like droughts. When it didn’t rain for a long time crops failed and people starved.  Unfortunately the weather channel was 3000 years or so in the future. Things that could not be predicted or explained were the venue of the gods and their whims.   So the problem must be that the gods were displeased. Those gods who were responsible of the sun in the sky. Who sent bolts of lightening and roared with thunder. and who sent or withheld the rain.  What could be done to please the gods?
Pyramids were constructed, alters were built and what was required from the masses was…sacrifice,  blood sacrifice,  animals, and in some civilizations,  human sacrifice.
But certain people were blessed with curiosity and intelligence.
Mathematics,  geometry in particular seems to have been developed in varies cultures. This aided in the building and alignment of those  pyramids and temples. In ancient Greece Euclid, and Archimedes among others brought great advancements.
The Greek astronomer Eratosthenes of Cyrene in 240 B.C. came remarkably close to figuring the circumference of the earth through observation and geometry.
Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, pillars of philosophy, There names are well known today.
The Greek Hippocrates and Galen who practiced in Rome  brought advancements  in medicine.
An understanding of the workings of the natural world was taking it’s first small steps. How but not so much why.
There would be a long ways to go.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Memorial Day weekend.

Uncategorized / May 28, 2016

Remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve your freedom and the freedom of others.

With the path were on someday soon you may awake to find your freedoms gone. Turned over to a leviathan government that will regulate your entire life from the cradle to the grave.

Then they will have died in vain. And only ourselves to blame.

A few technical difficulties

Uncategorized / May 25, 2016

My apologies to everyone who takes the time to read my blog.  Been having a few problems getting my comment section better situated. Hopefully  things will start working a little better now. Thank you for your patience. will be adding more posts on various subjects soon.

A visit to the Big Apple’s rotten core 1972

personal history / March 2, 2019

A short time prior to my graduation from boot camp I learned that my request to attend ET (electronic technician) school had been approved. That training school along with several others was located on Governors Island. A 172 acre island with a rich history dating back to colonial times located 800 yards off the southern tip of Manhattan where the East and Hudson rivers flow into New York Harbor. It had become the largest Coast Guard base in the country in 1966 and would remain so until 1996 went the Coast Guard moved and  was turned over to the City of New York. A very good description of the island can be seen here. http://www.andrewcusack.com/2005/governors-island/

After a brief stay at home I boarded a bus for NYC. This would be my first experience of the “Big Apple” .  I Arrived at Port Authority bus terminal  and looking at my map I had to walk to Times Square and get on the Red line Subway that would take me to South Ferry. Well as some may remember Times Square then, the “crossroads of the world” was located on the corner of Sodom St. and Gomorrah Ave.  It was like this.

I made it to the subway and headed to South Ferry I arrived on the Island, a bucolic oasis surrounded by the polluted waters of New York harbor My education would start soon, technical and social. I would make several close friends. It was an exciting time.

 

 

 

What in the world happened?

Uncategorized / May 20, 2016

Was it something I said?

For the past few days the visits, hits and comments to my little blog have increased exponentially. Certainly not a bad thing but still I’m surprised.

I began this blog with very low expectations. I read lots of other peoples blogs and websites.  Things that people were able to do and say fascinated and intrigued me.  A platform that didn’t exist twenty years ago, now provides untold thousands the ability to advertise, buy, sell, correspond, and allow ordinary people to tell their stories, rant their opinions, and develop a following of people who think well enough of your efforts to take the time to read and comment. My blog is only one of thousands. But perhaps this may turn into more then just an experiment.

I try to devote as much time as I’m able to keep my blog current. I do have a day job and other responsibilities that must take priority.  In the beginning I was averaging maybe 15-30 visits a day, now it’s a bit overwhelming.  Visitors to the site come from all over the world. (Well DUH!  What does the www stand for.)   Thank you everyone who take the time to comment. Of course with so many comments there is always some SPAM.

Therefore some slight changes will be coming within the next day or so. Like at many other websites and blogs I will be asking people to register in order to comment.  I will also be providing an e-mail address for the site itself.  Hopefully this will help streamline things better so that perhaps it will be easier for me to make replies, bask in your praise, and wince at your “constructive” criticism.

Again thank you all.  Stay tuned.

deepred

 

 

 

High times in the military (67-75) A Preface

personal history / March 2, 2019

From  Wikipedia:

On 25 May 1981, a Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler assigned to Carrier Air Wing 8 (CVW-8) crashed on the flight deck, killing 14 crewmen and injuring 45 others.[7] The Prowler was fuel-critical after a “bolter” (missed approach), and its crash and the subsequent fire and explosions destroyed or damaged eleven other aircraft.[8] Despite having no connection to the accident, the media focused on the autopsy results of several members of the Nimitz‘s enlisted flight deck crew who were killed, who tested positive for marijuana. As a result, President Ronald Reagan instituted a “Zero Tolerance” drug policy across all of the U.S. armed services, which started the mandatory drug testing of all U.S. military personnel.[9]

Thus ended an era which likely began sometime in the mid. sixties when our solders fighting in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam discovered that Thai sticks and black hash made their down time more enjoyable then Budweiser and Lucky Strikes. At the same time the other children of the “greatest generation” who were listening to Bob Dylan and Jefferson Airplane and going to music festivals like “Woodstock” discovered that weed didn’t turn them into drooling psychopaths like in Reefer Madness.

And then there was the draft, and can you imagine that if all one needed to avoid it was to have some THC in your system. They wouldn’t get hardly anyone. You wouldn’t  have to pretend to be a faggot gay person or have to lie about being a “conscientious objector” or being the sole support of your aged mother or anything.

But even those guys who joined willingly for various  personal reasons were not going to stop using what they enjoyed, despite some pretty sever consequences if you were caught. If you didn’t know where to get it you always knew someone who did or they knew someone.  Of course not everyone did drugs, but even those who didn’t indulge were tolerant of it.  Of course you didn’t want to be a “squealer”.   You would be fortunate if you were simply  “shunned” by your shipmates. Worse things could and did happen.

What used to be the standard military vices, booze, tobacco and caffeine gave way to pot, speed, hallucinogens,  and then booze, tobacco, and caffeine.

Yes it was a strange era back then. But not nearly as bad as the insanity today.

 

I was right! Imagine that

Climate Change / May 17, 2016

From my post of April 26th

“I fully expect that NASA and NOAA will declare that this past April the “warmest” on record.”

Well, here we are. The hottest on record.

Hit the link and behold.

There was snow on my car yesterday. My maple trees are just starting to bud. It’s probably warm somewhere, but not here, not yet. Maybe June.

Meanwhile down in Venezuela

Articles / May 16, 2016

Bernie likes to refer to the Scandinavian countries as “socialist democracies” that we should emulate. Their present problems with their “immigrants” notwithstanding. He talks on occasion about Cuba and it “free” healthcare its rule by iron fist not so much.

It end game might be commencing in Venezuela. A hell hole that has been in development over the last decade. The President of Venezuela blames the U.S. for all his problems. Gee,  Bush hasn’t been in office for 7 1/2 years. Who could he be talking about?

Either there will be a “crackdown” with mass arrests, imprisonment, and maybe more then a few people shot, or they government will be overthrown and a new day will dawn for the people of Venezuela.

Venezuela’s Socialist rulers were elected by the “poorer” masses through the politics of envy. People who worked hard and/or had talent, needed to have the wealth they had earned redistributed to the people who didn’t work hard or had no talent. This worked in the beginning, during which the rulers and their minions, the late Chavez, and now Manduro over time took control of the military, the courts, the civil police and of course imposed gun control

Read the following from American thinker. http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/05/venezuela_seizing_factories_arresting_owners_.html

 

To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher.  Socialism works until you run out of other peoples money, or beer. Which ever comes first

 

 

 

 

Waiting for the other shoe

Social commentary / May 16, 2016

Just happened to be watching “Sportscenter”.   they had a short feature on a former basketball star from UCONN who is turning professional with the WNBA.  Women have more “leagues of there own” now then anytime since WW2. The level of skill and competition has grown tremendously, and with that more money is involved.

Now that “Dear Leader” has decreed that men who identify as women (and I assume women who identify as men) are free to utilize the public restroom facilities they feel comfortable with, what is to stop men and boys who identify as women and girls (MABWIAWAG) from joining female sports teams at any level.

George Washington University briefly had a transgender athlete on the women’s basketball team who was transitioning from a woman to a man.  The reverse would have to be allowed. Now athletes professional and college are routinely tested for performance enhancing drugs (PED’s). Would the male hormone testosterone be considered a PED? Apparently not now.

Professional, college and high school sports are suppose to be a the ultimate meritocracy. The best players make the team, all other are cut. This I know from personal experience. You want to win or at least be competitive.  The days where everyone has fun, play to a tie and all go out for ice cream are over.  If a team can obtain an edge and still be within the rules, well you’d be crazy not to exploit it. So if a big strapping “male” athlete who has excellent basketball skills announces that he “feels” like a women and is in the process of “transitioning” [He/She?] still has the male plumbing, that transition will (maybe) come later. There is nothing to prevent [him?] from trying out and if [she?] is good enough making the team.

A Billie Jean King in her prime could easily beat an over the hill Bobby Riggs. A college women’s basketball team would likely beat a boys high school team. But a equal contest between the best teams of both genders would be no contest.

For the first four seasons the NBA was (with the exception of one Asian- American) an all white league. The color line was broken in 1950. today the NBA is 74.4% African-American. Why is that? Well, there is no affirmative action involved, no quotas. It’s just that the majority of the best players happen to be black. If a transgender player gives a women’s team an edge, why not have two or three. And if one team does it the others will have to do the same. So this means fewer slots for real 100% women.

Now someone may say that they’re not enough transgender athletes that it will make a difference. Apparently they’re enough transgender people that they have to be allowed to used the “ladies room”, along with the nearly 750,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S.

I would highly recommend my readers to visit the bookworm room for more excellent essay’s on this subject.