Chamblee54

The night before, the Atlanta Bloggers had met at the Bone Yard Cantina. It was a bright space, in a new building. The area is called Midtown West. Those realtors have a way with words.
There were six present when PG arrived. He ordered coffee, which was good quality, plentiful, and had a tab of a dollar seventy five. Two of the others had food. The table kept the server busy with beer. Discussions included twitter, the greatest cd of all time, and something unintelligible (but funny) at the other end of the table.
It was team trivia night. After intense competition with Mrs. Paul’s home for battered fish, the Atlanta Bloggers had the most points. One of the bloggers…a work neighbor of the BYC… took possession of two certificates. The papers, complete with crimp stamp, were good for a twenty dollar bar tab.

There is a blogger named Scent. He writes a space called Centurion. PG is banned from commenting at this place, which might be a good thing. This does not stop PG from following the discourse , and sending appropriate emails. Today, the subject is abortion. It should be noted that Scent is a Jesus Worshiper, and does not like abortion.
Abortion was a big deal in the last election. BHO got tagged a baby killer, despite his loving relationship with his own daughters. Those girls will be teenagers while daddy is in the white house. At any rate, BHO did not condemn abortion in terms strong enough for the wingnuts, and this became a loud issue.
This also may have helped BHO get elected. While abortion is an emotional focus to the right wing, it is a source of …negativity…to the center and the left. Very few people are really happy about the fact that millions of babies are murdered. It is just that many see the shades of gray. Once you get past the shrill speeches, there is a lot of discordant emotions in play. While the right wing likes spout the rhetoric, the rest are just a touch uncomfortable. After all, this is human life.
Another thing that complicates the matter is denial and compensation. No one really knows what women have been to a clinic, and even fewer know the men that sent them. PG suspects that a lot of the more shrill “pro life” people have in fact been party to an abortion. This is one reason why these converts are so obnoxious.
Scent is having a discussion about abortion. In the comments, Scent says ”There is no question that all sorts and types of murder are illegal in our country — but two kinds of life-taking are not: capital punishment, and self-defense.”
PG see this, and sends an email with this commentary “I am following your discussion about abortion from a distance.
“There is no question that all sorts and types of murder are illegal in our country — but two kinds of life-taking are not: capital punishment, and self-defense.”
You forget a third form of life taking…war. As we speak, we are killing men, women, and children abroad. Maybe the war is justified…it might even be classified as self defense. But the fact remains we are killing G-d’s children in a foreign country, and losing our own people in the process.
How can we claim to be “pro life” when we support the killing of human beings in a foreign country?
I don’t have any answers to the issue of abortion. Believe it or not, I like it about as much as you do. However, I don’t think the politicization of abortion reduces the number of procedures.
And maybe, just maybe, if we have more respect for human life in a country eight time zones away, maybe we will have more respect for human life here.”
The candidate, who was hailed as pro life, once dropped napalm on women and children. Forty one years ago, America was involved in another war. It would soon get tired of this war…many never wanted it…and spend the next few years looking for “peace with honor”. At the time, abortion was illegal. Within a few weeks of the Paris accords, which ended one phase of the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court issued Roe vs. Wade. Abortion was now legal. The debate over Vietnam was never tainted by those who claimed to be pro life, and yet wanted to drop napalm on Asian women and children.

PG thinks about the three part advice…pray, vote, don’t worry. The second part is over. When PG walked out of the building at 7:42 am last Tuesday, the election was history. The wawuh is ovah. La Guerre est Fini, or whatever the title was of that movie at the Film Forum thirty seven years ago. That was about the time of the first election for PG, when Tricky Dick whipped George the dummy. Tuesday was the ninth time PG has cast a presidential ballot, and, if the polls are correct, will be the third time he voted for the winning candidate.
Don’t worry is phrased with a negative, and might work better with a positive verb. The first thought is Have Faith. Or maybe Think Well, or Think Good Thoughts. Alfred E. Neumann made a good career out of the phrase “What me Worry?”, even though he was just a cartoon character. It is easy for cartoon characters not to worry.
Having Faith for a living human being can be a bit tougher. PG has always tended to pessimism, and his default face look is sadness. This causes problems, especially with a certain former employer who would harp on PG’s “negative attitude”. When you tell a person often enough that he has a negative attitude, it is the lie that becomes the truth.
The truth is, the future has always looked bad, and turned out to be good. PG is 54 now, in good health below the neck, and has a few things going for him. Once this job thing is straightened out, PG can go back to working most of his waking hours for another ten years or so, and enjoying life as best he can along the way.
As for America and the world, they are more intertwined than ever before. BHO seems to understand this, while JSM is of the old America first school. The national debt is greater than ever, a war rages on eight time zones away, and we are no closer to energy independence than we were when Tricky Dick was the President. This was the time of the OPEC embargo, when America began to realize it’s addiction. We have done nothing since.
PG remains optimistic about the future health of the planet, but wonders what it is based on.
Which brings us to the third leg of the stool. Prayer is an essential part of many religions, and works for many people. PG has a problem with prayer. It is connected to Jesus Worship. PG does not get along with Jesus.
Prayer is talking to G-d. Meditation is listening. Prayer is active, meditation is passive. Prayer appeals to type A americans, who tend to do what they want, and fight those who get in the way. Most of these people are Jesus Worshipers. This is what PG sees of when he thinks of prayer. Not only are they loud and selfish, but they are proud of it. They are loud and selfish for Jesus.
The first commandment says to have no other G-d before thee. This does not make an exception for books about G-d, or for the so called son of G-d. When you get away from this common sense rule, you are going to have problems. Maybe if you pray to G-d, and leave Jesus and the bible out of it, you will be ok. As long as you shut up, and listen to what she has to say.

A feature of the digital era is something called a meme. It rhymes with dream, and no one is sure where it came from and what it means. In practice, a meme is a series of questions that are sent out chain letter style to different people. Since PG is not connected to people that would tag him, he is not required to answer memes. ( The spell check suggestions include mimes, mites, meres, and memos). The mothers of mighty memos.
PG sometimes does dim sum with a man named Xwinger. (The spell check suggestion is swinger) This person has a Live Journal, under an alternative identity, Sffilk. XW goes to festivals, sets up a table, and sells cds of folk music. Folk which was misspelled as filk. XW is the source of today’s meme. The question will be in gray. The answer from XW will be in purple. The answer from PG will be in blue.
1. Do you have the guts to answer these questions and re-post as The Controversial Survey? Yes. Yes. I also have the toenails, eyebrows, and lumbar discs. Guts are overrated, and more plentiful as we move into middle age.
2. Would you do meth if it was legal? No. No. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean you need to join the crowd. Voting Republican is legal.
3. Abortion: for or against it? For Like the lady said to the Pope,if you don’t play the game,then you don’t make the rules.
4. Do you think the world would fail with a female president? There have been female presidents before, like Indira Gandhi. It might, but would pass again soon. Fail and pass are part of the cycle, and should be accepted and embraced.
5. Do you believe in the death penalty? Yes, As long as it is not too severe.
6. Do you wish marijuana would be legalized already? Yes. That should have happened a hundred years ago. Reefer was legal a hundred years ago, and should have remained that way.
7. Are you for or against premarital sex? For. I can’t get married, so any sex I have would be premarital. See answer to question 3.
8. Do you believe in G-d? Yes. This is not a believe kind of thing. PG suspects that G-d does exist, although the semantics of the issue are sticky.
9. Do you think same sex marriage should be legalized? Yes. Yes. However, lawyers and Professional Jesus worshippers should not be allowed to reproduce.
10. Do you think it’s wrong that so many Hispanics are illegally moving to the USA? Yes. As the grandson of immigrants who came here legally, I don’t exactly tolerate the fact that so many people are coming here illegally. If they want to come, let them do so legally! This is a toughie. As a person whose families have been here hundreds of years, this is getting into question 3 territory. If PG was a poor mexican, and the barriers to legal immigration were steep, He might see things differently.
11. A twelve year old girl has a baby, should she keep it? I don’t know. It depends on where she finds it.
12. Should the alcohol age be lowered to eighteen? I think it’s 18 here in Georgia. . It was 18 when PG was a kid, and he spent many a happy evening in bars. However, in the eighties, big brother federal government said to the states, if you want federal highway money, then you need to raise the drinking age to 21. In asphalt happy Georgia, that was a no brainer. To get back to the question, yes, the drinking age should be 18.
13. Should the war in Iraq be called off? I’m not sure “called off” is the proper term We have dug ourselves a deep hole in Babylon. Even if we were to start to withdraw today, it would take a year or so to get everyone out. There is reason to believe that forces would attack our troops during this withdrawal, and that we would have to fight our way out. There is also the matter of the sunni tribes that we are paying to help us fight foriegn fighters. What will happen when we introduce these guys to the American concept of the layoff? It is a lot easier to start a war than it is to finish one. This is one reason PG was opposed to the start of this one.
14. Assisted suicide is illegal: do you agree? I’m not sure. It does seem to be illegal. As to whether it should be legalized…why does a person need help? Shouldn’t it be fairly simple to off yourself?
15. Do you believe in spanking your children? Yes, if they did wrong.? see answer to number 3.
16. Would you burn an American flag for a million dollars? Considering the fact that the proper way to dispose of a worn flag is by burning it, Flag burning was a non issue until 1989. Somebody took a case to the Supreme Court, and there was a ruling made. At that point, flag burning became a “hot” issue. This is similar to what is happening with Gay Marriage now. There is little grass roots support for same sex marriage, but a court ruling has forced the public to decide. While the media account execs in California are getting big commissions now, the rest of the population has been dragged into a divisive battle that few wanted. Maybe we should burn the Supreme Court instead.
17. Who do you think would make a better president? McCain or Obama? Honestly? Neither one. What does honesty have to do with presidential elections?
18. Are you afraid others will judge you from reading some of your answers? Yes, but at least I’m being honest. What does honesty have to do with the internet?