NON-LIFE THREATENING INJURIES

We h ave all heard the media describe some injuries as non-life threatening.  This is a relative term (life in this context simply means being, clinically, in a state of being 'not dead'.)  How one might describe life can be far more detailed.  Does non-life threatening apply to the father of four, with a wife who relies on his paycheck, who is injured by a bullet in the spine and is a paraplegic who still lives?  Does it apply to the person who uses their hands for their livelihood and has one blown off in a hand grenade attack?

Non-life threatening is really a euphemism for we can't really hold our audience if we describe the many more gruesome injuries than to just brush it all with a single statistic, the number who died.  Gone, we can wipe our hands off that life unless the relatives choose to put up a shout ads Trayvon Martin's parents did to the dismay of many who complained. 

Life is run on odds, law of averages, and chance.  Being in the wrong place, being unprepared for danger, putting one's self in danger by impulsivity, using poor judgment, and many other reasons determine our fate. . Those who believe that God decides everyth8ing for all of us let their lives be ruled totally by chance rather than trying to maintain some for themselves.

As unpleasant as it may be, we cannot think of only the people in the military who were killed, we need to think of war as the ultimate destroyer of lives, especially to those who came back home clinically depressed and suicidal, brain damaged, without limbs, with no means of support, and to a society that has, for all practical purpose, abandoned them.

Don't let yourselves be fooled by the term 'non-life threatening'.  When you hear a casual X# dead and 50 injured, think of how many of those 50 have also lost their 'lives'.

RUPERT MURDOCH'S NEWS CORP NOW BEING TRIED IN THE US AS WELL AS UK

A British lawyer, Mark Lewis, wrote:  "The News of the World had thousands of people they hacked. Some of them were in America at the time, either traveling or resident there," he said.  The legal suits are being taken to the US on behalf of three alleged victims of phone hacking by the News of the World. To read more on this, click here.

Americans treasure their privacy.  Having someone breach the security of their cell phones is very close to what raped women report. It is most uncomfortable to wonder what strangers out there who have tapped your phone might know or think about you..

It is believed that there were thousands of people who got hacked.  In a world of pickpockets, identity theft, corporate espionage, and an atmosphere full of distrust and paranoia, going into other people's private areas is one large NO-NO!  Perhaps it is time that Murdock's ruthless style is a problem best solved by many.  We can try to be as cautious and careful but there will always bring out wonderful people who can not tolerate their privacy being invaded not the sense that they have no control of whether it is or not.  Distrust and fear makes a lot of unhappy campers.  Have you noticed?

CRIME PREVENTION AND JUSTICE IN THE USA TODAY

Florida has never been a state in which I have ever wished to live.  Its cockroaches, alligators, bugs and other things are too daunting for me.  The politicians  are worse than all the natural predators to man put together.  The elderly who move down there seem somewhat clueless to it all as they dip in the pool, drink their cocktails , and talk about their ailments and what clever and useful things they did in the in their working lives 15 to 30 years ago when they retired.

50 or so days after Trayvon Martin was shot to death by a self-appointed vigilante, excused by the equally racially prejudiced local, Sanford police department, behaving like the old sitcom Sanford and Son. We hear today that charges will be pressed to the shooter, Zimmerman.  Mr. Zimmerman is lawyerless and, from what is reported, turned himself in put into custody.   The eggs are getting fried by the Florida sun on the faces of the local law 'unenforecment' department.

Mr. Zimmerman has now been told he will be charged with second degree murder.  It will not be a jury trial but will only be before a judge.  Without a jury trial, proof is handled quite different with evidence.  Most agree that it should be a jury trial because of the questions and do not feel that one person, a judge, should make unilateral decisions.

Yahoo News reports that Zimmerman is emotionally crippled by this whole event (which must never be forgotten is entirely by his own actions and instigation).  If justice and police departments with integrity are to be believed, this should be handled in the fairest and most judicious way possible.  Every person should be entitled to a jury trial, isn't that what we have been advised for many years?

THE REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN JUST BOWLED A SPARE; ALL DOWN BUT ROMNEY

Santorum finally bowed out.  It is strange how they all seem to blame the other guy for not being in touch.  Santorum is about as far out of touch with the majority of the American people (51%, I'm told, who are female).  As far as I can see, he came too close to being president.  It frightens me that there are so many supporters  (at least the media makes it appear that way until one looks at statistics.  First of all, not everyone who attends some of the meetings held by candidates can vote for all the candidates who they were feeling out.

We are in frightening times.  When a political party (though there have always been dirty fights and lies in campaigning)  tells lies so outrageous and on aid and video all the time, it is difficult to know which party is speaking the truth.  With the instant replay  we now have available, and the great archive search engines, no one can hide from that they previously said and there have been a great many gaffs during this campaign season.

Some people truly believe that baseball is the great American pastime. How can it be?  we know it is sexual activity.  It begins early in life that children enjoy genital manipulation.  They haven't read the Bible and do what comes naturally.  When Santorum preaches there should be sex only for procreation, he might as well tall the 'poor folk'  they will have to stop breathing or eating.  In our family, little boys played with the one toy in front them, attached, which they could not break or lose.  Society has not developed only sin for pleasure, but has become realistic enough to recognize pleasure as provided by the Lord who planned the body, if that is what you believe started us all..

 

WHY EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE FRIENDS OF ALL AGES

As you get older, childhood friends predecease many of us who tend to be genetically programmed  to linger longer.  It is painful enough not to have people around with whom you can share the past and which can only be somewhat alleviated by all the Internet friends who send "Do You Remember These" pictures and songs .It isn't as much fun as having someone with whom you can share what you did yourself as a kid..  Grandchildren don't want to hear that it was exciting to make tunnels in two stories of hay, or that it snowed deep enough and stayed cold enough that our snow tunnels lasted most of the winter. 

One generation younger is not too bad.  A senior's memory usually goes that far and can relate to what was endured with their offspring from Sesame St though adolescence and now these offspring are in middle age, married with children hassling them, and talk of retiring soon while my senior friends and I are just now considering that move. 

Two generations gets into the grandchildrens' lives.. The number of things with which one can identify has now exponentially gone down.  At this age, they are too interested in themselves to even think about seniors who are more frequently viewed as the beneficent bankers.  A problem is that the seniors can relate to them but they have no way of relating to the senior.  They've never been there and can't imagine that they ever will be. 

We are aliens who lived in an ancient past without DVDs, DVRs, iPhones, texting, iPads, Kindles and iGotchas.  I grew up learning the words of Webster not the Urban Dictionary.(though the Urban is much more fun.)  But I now live in a world of Facebook and share with 'friends' of all ages.  We mostly share today and not the yesterdays.  Relevance is relative there.  If seniors can stop telling younger people what to do and let them live their own lives, the world would be a happier place.  At least family holidays would be more fun.  Seniors must pioneer their own lives as most outlive their parents and have no guide for getting old, especially in a world that doesn't even vaguely resemble what their parents had lived..

Happiness in old age is what you make it to be.  'Aged Whine' is not appreciated in this venue, not even by one's peers.  A belly laugh a day helps keep depression away...Anyone  who has a phone, neighbors, and a computer can be in touch with people..  One really never need to be lonely as so many people fear.  Learn to be happy that there will always be a new day if you wake up.

SPECULATION REIGNS

Everyone speculates, but there are more who are now read and heard.  Even Al Jazeera talks about the spectacle of Democracy in the US.  Republicans are busy trying to find a way to stop anyone from voting who might vote for Obama instead of Romney.  I heard a call the other day for Eric holder to be impeached though I never heard the why of it

The world is in chaos.  Historians can contradict that it is worse than ever as they cite more violence and terrorism in the past.  Quite likely so but sensibilities were better prepared for those conditions in the past.  Romans could see men killed by lions as though it were one of today's movies (which it has become in our era).  We punish more for hurting animals today than we punish for cruelties of man to man.

Is the world really worse today?We'll never know as we have not lived in times gone by.  We only know the, perhaps, romanticized and edited versions that have come to us over time through the eyes of the authors.  I worry about the poor losers who try to win with lies and cheats, total distortions, and using the 'tool' of blaming others for the faults you possess within yourself.  If people though that Reagan was a great actor, have they watched Romney lately?.  Once again, I'm turned away from religion when I can watch this man who tithes thousand (if not millions) to his church and can and can open his mouth to millions of people and mouth the most ridiculous lies about his opponents, Obama, let alone his Republican opponents as well. More impressive is his ability to do it with fire in his eye and a straight face, as though he believes what he is saying.

Since most voters tend to listen to their own party, the people who should hear the truth are unlikely to listen to her nor believe it because of all the con artist strategists out there telling the candidates what to say.

Alas, I've already counted many out there who will negate my vote in milliseconds of its being cast.  Nevertheless I will vote and hope for the best, that we cannot live in a totally dumbed down society.  Can We?                               

HAPPY HOLIDAY, WHATEVER YOU MAY BE CELEBRATING

For reasons that are still not entirely clear to me, Easter seems to be a very important Christian holiday  \It is also one of the Jewish religion’s most sacred and widely observed holidays, Passover (Hebrew: Pesach) commemorates the story of the Israelites’ departure from ancient Egypt, which appears in the Hebrew Bible’s books of Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, among other texts. Oddly, many of us who celebrate holidays do so because they are there to be celebrated, not because we are aware of the history or cling to it.  Let's face it, it is a day off from work and time to be spent with dear family or friends.  (often times friends are dearer than family.)

With that, explore the history if that is what interests you....Google is full of references.  I for one will enjoy a great meal with people who want me with them and with whom I wish to be. You might also check out the History of the Goddess Ostara and Easter Eggs.

Have a wonderful day regardless of whether you celebrate one of the many things to which the day is dedicated.  I rather like the Easter Bunny, chocolate versions included, and the thrill in the faces of children when they receive their Easter baskets loaded with goodies.  For too short a time their brains allow them to fall for those adult fabrications like the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, and man in the image of God.