The Original 7 Deadly Sins + 3, Part VII - Pride

http://www.peripheralperceptions.org/2012/05/01/p-is-for-pride/

Finally!!  We saved the best for last, right?  Oh...no....wait...I forgot I told you +3...and those are still yet to be discovered....at least by you, anyway.  But, of the original 7, they say?  This be the baddest of  all.

So what about it?  What is the absolute definition of the word?  Vanity and pride are often used synonymously, but are by no means the same thing.  And is all pride a bad thing??  Nooo...no, if you're proud of the way your car looks after you detailed it for 5 hours, that's not a pride to be worried about.  If you're proud of how well your kids are doing in school, that's not really the pride we mean here.  It's when arrogance enters into your pride, that's when the problems begin.

If you're proud of the way your kids are doing in school, great.  If your kids are better than everyone else's kids, you're in need of a good head pop.  If you have pride in your country, that's ok...it's when you think you're the world power, and no one is able to take you, that's when your pride needs to be brought down a peg or 1000.

The thing to remember here is that #1 can become #100 in no time at all.  You may be the S*** of computer graphics this week, but next week there might be 1000 more just like you, and ten of those will have you beat by a mile.

Everything you do changes when arrogance enters the picture, you notice that?  When you first win the football championship, you can't hardly believe you finally did it, and you're grateful to those in your team...that you worked together, and your work paid off.  The next year, it was no surprise, we did it last year.  Then you start bragging the next year.  Then it gets old.  Then others get tired of your boasting...then people start rooting for the underdog; they almost secretly start wishing you'd lose so they don't have to put up with your attitude the rest of the year.

It all comes around, trust that.  Those who think they're irreplaceable, get replaced.  Those who're making $100,000 this year get fired the next.  Those with homes get foreclosed and are staying at the homeless shelter the year following.  And the number one biggest country in everything gets brought low when they start thinking there's no better.  We Americans are, all in all, arrogant and ignorant when we talk about ourselves.  We are some of the more guilty of all when it comes to national pride. Fame is fleeting.  Money isn't everything, and usually ends up costing you more than it helps.  Friends are fair-weathered.  We often make the mistake of thinking that quantity beats out quality, this is a real issue in today's age.  Also, holding on to your glory days is a sin all in itself.  It's hard to move on or to improve yourself, if you keep re-iterating how great you once were.

As for vanity, well, you can be proud without being vain...so that creates a bigger gap between the two words.  There can be vanity involved, sure, when we talk about your haughty pride, but vanity isn't the same thing, not by a mile, and most certainly barely covers even a quarter of pride's definition.

Humility, the exact opposite of pride, or, rather, the lack thereof, is where pride...at least the SINFUL type, enters in.  Going back to the pride in your children thing, if you say "I'm so proud of Johnny, but he couldn't have gotten to where he is without Ms. Shalin as a teacher"; you give some credit to others, therefore don't suffer from the destructive type of pride.  It's when Ms. Shalin is incidental and had no part in how well Johnny did that your pride may very well be your downfall.

Remember America, no matter how well you've done, there's always someone out there that does it better.  We may not know it as yet, but you can bet that someone's out there.  If you're good at something, someone has you beat...someplace.  If you have gorgous hair, someone has more of it with more shine.  And if you're adamant about how great you are, then watch out, because someone, albeit full of humility and graciousness, may just opt to best you, in order to bring you back down to earth with the rest of us earthworms.

The Original 7 Deadly Sins + 3, Part VI - Wrath

http://s579.photobucket.com/user/george1138/media/sin/wrath_5.jpg.html

Two more Original Sins to cover kiddies, and it's just now getting pretty good, huh?  I'm tempted to start over, just for job security....but naw, I wouldna wanna do that sorta thingy.

So here we are at Wrath...another one o' my all time favorite Deadly Sins, of the Original Seven that is.  Why, should be pretty damned obvious.  You see, There's an awful lot wrong with our America of the...what's the official term for this decade?  I didn't know the one for the last one either, I just called it OhOh's, and hoped I was close.  Oh well, you get the idea, right?  Anyway, I'm a bit wrathful as it is.  Add  to that the 100+ things wrong I've already dreamed up in this blog, the DHS war I'm in the middle of, stir in a dash o' Jacque Karlson and her puppet husband Morten, sprinkle in my continued (and probably semi-permanent) unemployment issues, a rather large order of Mock-President Obama, ObamaCare, War, my stress levels over homelessness, animal abuse, greed, corruption, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., OMG!!!!  How is there any UN-wrathful stuff left to enjoy?  Where did all the good times go, HUH????

All you gotta do is watch the news or follow your Twitter feed for 3-5 minutes, and your fists ball up, your blood vessels burst, and the smoke begins rolling out of your ears.  Next thing you're fuming over your choice in wallpaper for your kitchen last month, and you begin ripping it off of the walls with a vengeance.  It's all you can do, when your wife comes in and screams "What in the HELL are you DOING?", to not throw a barrage of pans in her general direction...and all because you just don't understand what's going on anymore.  Welcome to the American Nightmare of 2014 and the years to come my friend, and join the club.  In case you've yet to notice, there's an awful lot of currently wrathful Americans out there right now...and I'm afraid it's only gonna get worse.

Ya, we're in a bad spot, a rock in a hard place, if'n you will, about to jump off the cliff into a place that sports a year 'round balmy 400-500 degree temperature increase over what we have currently, all because we're just plain pissed off...about EVERYTHING...shoulds't the tale be true.  But really, I gotta wonder, is it really wrathful if it's JUST wrath...should there be such a thing?  Don't we have a right to be truly angry about this stuff?  I really don't know about that one, America.  I'm not sure I'll ever know.  You see a lot of examples of JUST anger in the scriptures; and not just Christianity, in all religions.  And God wreaks wrathful havoc a lot, it would seem, should you read up on it.  Is it the JUST kind of wrath if it's God's wrath?  Who knows.

I'm afraid I'm just not too sure about anything concerning not only the true definition of Wrath, or if it comes in leaded and unleaded flavors or not.  All I know is that it can't be good.  Wrath, in and of itself causes quite a few heart attacks and strokes, should it be over-dosed on, as for us human types anyway; so it can't be too just, at least not for us anyway.  Again, who can say.

All I really CAN say is, that as we get more and more upset, nothing else seems to matter much, and it carries out and rolls down into small things that we really shouldn't be bothered about; it consumes us, as well as everything that happens in our daily lives, and believe me when I say that it most certainly isn't a good thing.  Left to its own devices, wrath can grow into big kids like murder, or settle into lower lying chunks like depression, self suicide and mutilation.  Be mad about the shape of our country and the people that destroy it daily, sure...just don't get wrathful about it if you can help it, OK?  Try something new, like, oh, DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THE THINGS WE GET MAD ABOUT...either that, or invest in as many hobbies as you can to take your minds off of those problems.  I rarely recommend the 2nd part of that suggestion, however, only because that sort of behavior seems to more promote the "spectator" effect in us, where we just ignore what's going on and hope it doesn't affect us in the process.  I hate to say it though, there doesn't seem to be a hole we can possibly dig that's deep enough to hide our heads into anymore, America, just about EVERYTHING affects us anymore.  Believe me, I get that.

You want to avoid wrath, for no other reason, that it will destroy you, all those around you, as well as everyone you associate with, and no one knows that better than me.  You know what I used to do?  I used to smile whenever I got mad....and that always tends to make the mad-maker mad instead of you.  I remember I used to get kind of a perverse satisfaction out of that.  I think I'm going to bring back that solution where I'm concerned.

One more Original Deadly Sin to go.  See ya soon y'all.  :D

http://wp.patheos.com/community/jesuscreed/files/2011/03/Wrath.jpg

WTH???? Selling America Off Piece By Piece To The Highest Bidder???

Express-Times File Photo | SUE BEYER

I just can't believe this one kiddies...I literally almost stood up in my local library and screamed!  I couldn't believe my eyes.

We're so bad off we have to sell our interstate roads to the French now???  Unfreakin'believable.  If you don't know about this, you just gotta read it.  I'm still stupified!  My mouth has been open for an hour now, easily!

And so, just you can be sick too, here's your link:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-15-u.s.-highways_x.htm

And if you knew about this, why didn't you freekin' tell me????  Why, I oughta....

And what's more, I'm reading this in an article of USA today (on their website), and they're talking about how this encourages higher tolls and higher taxes on Americans....like this is normal and a good thing!!!!

And what's more, to FRANCE!!!!!!  This is a country that HATES US!!  That's like selling the stock exchange to Iran for Chrissakes!!  Or better yet, Better Bombs Inc., huh?  Are we nuts???  What economic genius thought this winner up?  THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE THE FIFTIES BEFORE I WAS BORN AND I'M JUST NOW FINDING OUT ABOUT IT?

It truly amazes me America, the amount of things I'm just finding out about that have been going on for years and years and years and...well, you get the picture.  Sheeple.  Trained Sheeple who know NOTHING about the kind o' crap we put up with everyday....that we have no idea of, or how it came to pass.  No wonder today's America is screaming transparency!!

I'll get back to you people, you can bet on that....SHEESH!!  :D

Selfishness - The "Mine" Virus

http://redeemed.kansascitybob.com/2009_04_01_archive.html

Wow, what a ride!  Just when I think I've written about everything that's wrong with this big ol' free (or so they say....whoever THEY are) country of ours, well, I think of about 20 more.  Call it writer's security, s'pose.

The big sin o' the day?  How's about all this rampant selfishness we enjoy daily, hmmmm????

You may just be a wonderin' what the hell I'm talkin' 'bout.  Well, we wouldn't wanna leave any of you in the dark, surely.  Not that you don't have a clue what I'm speaking of.  If anybody knows, you just have to.

One thing I remember loving about your average 2-3 yr. old was the MINE phase.  I don't care what it was they had in those itty bitty hands of theirs, if you tried to take it from them, their little hands went into the air, opening and closing their fingers, and the word MINE (oftentimes MINE, MINE, MINE) became a word we all cringed at.

I'm not truly sure why we would cringe at it.  This is the new most used thought, and sometimes new most thought ideal in this day and age.  Possessiveness is the new rage in our country, concerning just about every possession we own.  Sometimes, even the ones we don't.

Here's the one I love the most though.  Losing things.  And never in life seeing hide nor hair of them again, in our lifetimes.  You want to know why that is?  Has anyone noticed this, perchance?  Lose something.  Then wait, while it never comes into play in your existence...waited long enough?  Give it up pal, it's not coming back, I promise you.  Nobody's planning to write you to tell you where it is, no one's going to call your friends to see if they can locate the owner of your cell phone, and no one's going to Fed-Ex you your wallet, knowing full well you're going to need the stuff in it.  And you can most certainly count on the fact that it's not likely any one will take it to the coffeeshop cashier and say "Hey, I think someone may have left this behind accidently."  And even if they would, it's probably not likely that the employee will take it to his boss and say "Put this iPad in the lost and found, wouldja?'

The reason?  Because when someone sees something lying around that possibly has any value...just about anything now-a-days, it's "Hey look!  A free wallet!  It must be MINE!"  This is our new take on found objects.  Screw the other guy, I lost mine, and no one ever brought mine to me, why should I do it?  Nobody ever turns my stuff in for me to come back and get, to Hell with THIS guy!

How do I know this?  Let's start with the bus system in my state, the one I've been riding on and off for over 35 years.  I'm a bit on the ADD side...oh Hell, I'm MASSIVELY on the ADD side...so I'm forever leaving things on the bus.  You know how much of it I've seen in the lost and found?  One thing.  One crappy pair of reading glasses.  They must not have been able to sell them, or must not have needed them.  That was a one-time lucky break.  The countless gloves, hats, phones, chargers, wallets, notebooks, school books, sunglasses, pills, umbrellas...you name it...I've never seen any of those things again.  The "MINE" virus spreads once again...

I remember getting on one bus once, and a guy got up and his cell phone got left.  I remember a girl picking it up...she was around 22 or so.  I said "Hey, I think that belonged to that guy that just got off", to which she replied "Oh, yeah, I was gonna give it to the bus driver when I got off."  She put it down beside her, and when we arrived at the main station, she whizzed right by the driver, and didn't go inside the station, but jetted off in a direction to the east of it.  I yelled after her, only to be answered by her back and her silence.  Nice.

We're not talking about Chicago here for chrissakes...we're talking about a mid-sized city in Iowa; one that shouldn't have too many infected people where this whopper is concerned.  And God forbid I should leave a computer or something, oh HELL no.  That one I will guarantee I'll never see again; unless of course I visit the local pawn shops in the next month.  Wow.

Here's what you can pretty much count on happening to your lost objects today, as compared to yester-year, when honesty was a way of life, and the honor system was taught in your schools...

Wallets/Purses - Cleaned out for whatever cash or useful items there are in them and then thrown away. Credit/debit cards are used for gas and for credit purchases, until they're called in and rendered useless. Bus passes, punch cards...anything that can be sold or used without consequence are kept.

Briefcases - Same thing

Sunglasses/reading classes - Sunglasses, if they're cool, are moved directly from where they're found to the top of the finder's head.  If it's hard to tell, they may try them on, and if they don't look all that great, they're tossed till the next pair gets left behind.  Reading glasses are generally gonna get tossed.

Umbrellas - If it's a rainy day, fahgetaboutit.  It's MINE.  If it's a sunny day, it MIGHT get brought to the counter to be put in the lost and found.  If it's their color, you can forget about it as well, more than likely.

Phones - Used until they're reported stolen, then used to get on the internet utilizing the built in wi-fi.  Could be pawned or sold too, if popular enough.  If it's a coveted phone, it could feasibly be unlocked for continued use, depending on the company that serviced it.

Pills - Why, taken or sold, of course.

Gloves and hats - MINE if they're cool, TRASH if they're not.

Anything else - If valuable, pawned, sold, eaten, used; if they're not, TRASHED.

Now, I just gotta be fair here.  There are still, at the very least, 3 generations of Americans, and 100 or so good people that still turn things in.  Also, if you're a person who has, and the amount of money in the wallet doesn't exceed $1000, they probably will turn it in upon finding it.  But with nest-eggs disappearing; jobs lost more everyday, rip-offs abundant, and the government getting greedier and greedier, well, the YOURS generation is becoming more MINE-like everyday.  God forbid I should see the day everyone has the MINE virus.  What A Wonderful World This Will Be, eh?  :D

The Original 7 Deadly Sins + 3, Part V - Lust

http://dantecyberman.deviantart.com/art/Seven-deadly-sins-442680725

Hey kids!!  On we go again, eh?

Now, it's time to move on to my favorite of all the deadly sins, Lust.  Lust, as defined, is simply an intense desire for something.  Or someone.  However, Lust, unbeknownst to most, is not only a sin of the flesh, other things can be lusted after as well, such as power, money or fame.  Well hey, no shortage of lust around these parts then, eh?

Just for something a little different., though, I just thought...since it's obvious that we all believe that lusting after one another is the biggest side of lust, that I'd do just a little digging into what might just be causing this little overdose into one of the more deadly of our sins.

Our number of porno-style magazines we herald as being our biggest most widely purchased mags?  Around 42 well-known ones.  Human trafficking is horrendous in our country...as well as with Americans traveling to other countries.  The average age of women in the U.S. to enter prostitution?  13.  Men?  12.  Video and Internet porn and prostitution are among the largest money-making professions online.  Gee, maybe that's it, right?  As for the ages we're introduced to sex, well, for most, there isn't a number anymore.

As for lusting after power, you know we can't be beat.  Money?  Ask Greed and Gluttony if they're not getting enough to feed on in our country; you should get a goodly chuckle.  Fame?  Illegal or not, you know us Americans just LOVE the spotlight.

I dunno about you all, but I fear for the safety of every new generation more and more with every passing decade.  Humans are getting more and more destructive, more lustful every year.  It's not dog eat dog anymore, it's dog consume, boil, hang, electrocute burn, and stomp-on dog these days.  It's no good anymore to just ruin others or bring them down, we have to utterly destroy them too, or its just no fun anymore.

Wow.  I can just SMELL that fire and brimstone mixing with my burning flesh....Mmmmm....YUMMY.

Well, really though, I feel this is just one of those sins that we can make fun of; in only just a little, just to shake off that doomy feeling, huh?

Since men are the worst offenders of Lust, just for fun, here's a little test you're more than welcome to take if you really want to know if you are, indeed, a lustful individual.

1.  If, late at night, as you start thinking about your neighbor's wife, your best friend's girlfriend, or Jesse's girl, do you:

a.  Burn yourself at the stake for even thinking such thoughts, or
b.  Molest yourself anyway.  You might have said no, but you knew you wanted it...

2.  Your dog is:

a.  Your best friend, or
b.  Your last resort

3.  The number of sexual partners you've taken part with since the beginning of time is:

a.  1 or
b.  2 or more.

4.  The perfect music for seducing my partner is:

a.  Glenn Miller or
b.  Nine Inch Nails

5.  I would describe an orgasm as:

a.  The frooits of the Deveel, or
b.  The most incredible thing or feeling that I have ever experienced.

6.  The best position I've ever held at any job was:

a.  The sitting up-right position as an Accountant for Microsoft, or
b.  The 69 position as Office Gigolo for Accounttemps

7.  Your children should be allowed to date at age:

a.  51 (After you're dead)
b.  15 (As long as they practice safe sex)

8.  Select the line that best describes how you feel about sex:

a.  I have to know a person well and date them for a couple years before I can have intercourse with them, or
b.  I have to know a person can breath before I can have intercourse with them.

9,  When I was younger, I strived to:

a.  Know every verse of the bible, or
b.  Masturbate to images of all my female relatives and neighbors who even looked in my direction or with every item in the house that was soft, furry or warm and fuzzy.

10.  When I'm downtown on my lunch hour I:

a.  Drool over the amount of meat and veggies in my Subway sandwich, or
b.  Drool down the blouse of every women within 5 feet of me showing cleavage as they walk by.

If you answered 5 or more questions with the letter "b", you are a sick twisted pervert who shouldn't be allowed to roam free in public anymore.  You should immediately turn yourself in to the nearest office for sexual predator processing.

If you answered 3-4 questions with the letter "b", you are in serious trouble my friend.  I would suggest hooking up with a sinfully plain/ugly therapist on the double before you burn in Hell.

If you answered 1-2 questions with the letter "b", you haven't gone too far as yet, but you can bet it wouldn't take a gorgeous or sexy member of the opposite sex long to take you where obviously desire to tread.

If you answered all the questions in this test with the letter "a", breath a huge sigh of relief, you are saved.  However, I would seriously question yourself as to why you felt the need to take this test at all if you were well convinced of your absolute purity in this matter (??).

That's it for the fun deadly sin today.  See you soon!!  :D