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

The Dirt, Pre-dug ("Interruption Of Service" Posts Nutshelled and Replaced)

https://allthingslearning.wordpress.com/tag/malcolm-gladwell/

Hey Kids.  Yeah, it's me again.  Hey, look.  A lot of you probably remember the "Interruption of Service" posts I put up a while ago, detailing every second of my sordid torrid life, from inception till 5 mins. ago?  Well, as you might imagine it sort of just had to come down.  It was just too much for people!  For one, as trained Sheeple, you're just not ready for that much truth out of any one human being, and I can get that.  For two, who wants to read 11 posts about my crappy life...it's just not fair to you!!  S'ok, though, because this is gonna be SO much better...as well as so much more condensed!

As the lot of you already know (if not, or if you new 'round these har pahts, please see "A Solemn Moment - The Death of the Dishonest Politician", "Day #23 - War", and "Political Views and How They Just Suck"), I plan to run for the office of The President in 2020, regardless of the cat calls about how nuts I am; or how there's just no way I'm gonna win.  Make no mistake, I will run, and I will win, with the majority of America at my back, regardless of race, color, creed, origin, sex or religion...you hear me?

You also already know, that I have plans to have everything out there for everyone to see before it comes to anyone trying to dig anything up on me from my past, at least those things that matter.  Whereas I used to have it all out there as it was, no one was ready for that kind of honesty and that kind of detail.  So instead of those, well, you have THIS POST.  This one though, is gonna go a little bit more on an unusual path.

I'm going to answer questions that might come up, and with it, all reference needed.  The difference will be a "Why" (when needed), and a "How it's going to help qualify my leadership ability" line as well.

So, whaddya say we get started, hmm??

Born - 1960, Age 53
How does this qualify me to lead (heretofore referred to as HDTQMTL)?  I've watched us mess up over 5 decades of our existence as a nation, and experienced a lot of the fallout firsthand.  What else could a country ask for?

Ages 0-8:  Born into a family of 4 (One mother, father, and brother), parents divorced at the age of 4, moved from the jungles of L.A. to Ida Grove Iowa, then Cherokee, IA.  Was in both private and public schools during this time, and the private ones still had corporal punishment for students, and had religion as their base.  Father disappeared out of my life at 7.
HDTQMTL?  Urban experience, divorce and broken family experience (therefore am aware of why it's important for us to bring back and restore whole families quickly), knows our broken school systems.

Ages 8-15:  Attended both public and private Christian schools, have been through 3 foster care families, was involved in agriculture for 3 years, and the Christian religion for 4, from the perspective of a minister's child.
HDTQMTL?  The agricultural experience, for sure, and this helped shape me morally as well as diversely.

Ages 16-21:  Dropped outta school and took on two jobs and my own apartment.  At 18, I got in trouble and joined the Army to get away.  I got to see over 20 countries and experience their cultures.  I tried 2 drugs during this time, pot (which I immediately gave up after I dropped out of school), and acid (sure, I tried drugs...I was a child of the 70's, and kind of a messed up kid, so of course I tried 'em, but nothing stuck for a very long time)
HDTQMTL?  The military service, of course...and the experience with more advanced European cultures.  As to the pot, my best friend's brother was the biggest pot dealer in our school, and we must have smoked every brand breed and strain of every pot there was.  By the time I got outta high school, I was so tired of it I never smoked it again.  As for the acid, I was a turtle in high school, I couldn't talk to anybody, especially girls.  Every trip I took I was the person I wanted to be, and I took pieces of that with me every time I came out of it...and now, I'm ME!!  Mr. Social!  A good thing for America, I'd have to say.

22-30:  Went  to jail twice...for one day each, and both for misdemeanors, one for possession (the acid thing, long story), and once for prostitution (in this state, if you're the prostitute and you come on to a John who's a cop, you're guilty of solicitation.  If you're the john, and you come on to a female cop, it's prostitution...go figure).  That was a long-time prank gone bad, another long story.  Had a child with a woman who wanted nothing more to do with me, and she fooled me into signing away the rights to Nicholas, who would be my eldest, as well as the one to provide me with a first grandchild.  Would learn about major scam artists and my affinity to business all in the same two years, as well as get offered, then subsequently denied a position with  Drake University, spoiling me for going to college for a very long period of time to come.
HDTQMTL?  Qualifies me as a NOT PERFECT person...a real human being.  A man of the people, from the war trenches, just like the rest of us, as well as primed me for being "The Un-Politician".  Brought out my people skills on a much higher level.

31-42:  Married for the first time to a maniacal woman who wouldn't let me be.  After I proved to her that marrying me wouldn't work any better than the relationship, she raped me for son #2, just to pay me back for spoiling her dreams of me being the perfect man for her to spend the remainder of her days with.  Moved around a lot during this period, including the deep south, where I spent time going through my first hurricane, and learned a lot of new skills as well as improved the ones I had.  Wanted to marry for real during this time, and found out that the woman I wanted wasn't the kind to settle down.  I had sons #2 and #3 during this time as well, but never got to spend any time with any of them.
HDTQMTL?  Got to know a lot about family, friends and life in other areas of our country.  Business relationships were made and improved, and I began to learn that life and all involved wasn't all peaches and cream like I had formerly thought it was.

43-50:  Went to jail 2 more times during this period, once for shoplifting and once for non-payment of child support for child #2.  I began fighting the system and fought for my life more than once.  I married for time #2 to my current wife.  We had a son, but she wasn't ready for kids at the time, and she chose to put him up for adoption.
HDTQMTL?  It really doesn't...however this period of time did a lot to shape me for what I am now.

51-53:  You know the story.  It's the one I've been explaining in great deal for the last 6 months.  Attended law school in the para-legal program...not to become a paralegal, however, but to run for office.
HDTQMTL?  All you really need do is read.  I'm done with all those negative forces in my life, the friends circle has narrowed itself down to a very select few, and my wont to continue being an American was in serious jeopardy.  Law school was never to play ball and learn a new trade in order to make money, it was only about fixing the way the law is, and so I wouldn't make the same mistakes that all former (and championed) politically corrupt Presidents have made in the past.  It was to understand how many holes our law has of late, as well as how to make it more accessible to us, the people.

And there ya have it.  What more could a people ask for?  No BS, no lies, cards on the table, heart on my sleeve, the stars and stripes at my back, and America in my sights, with truth in my hand as a two handed sword, ready to slice open and dissect our corrupt and oppressive government, expose it for what it is, as well as hand it back to where it belongs.  In your hands, America.  Let's take it back from those who would steal from us our rights, our freedoms and add the hammer and the scythe to our flags design, tattered and torn with every lie told, every secret kept, and every senseless war fought.  :D

The Orginial 7 Deadly Sins +3, Part IV - Envy

Add cahttp://dantecyberman.deviantart.com/art/Seven-deadly-sins-442680725ption

"Saaaayyyy....that's a really nice computer you got there....Ok, no, I LOVE that computer you got there....dammit, I JUST GOTTA HAVE THAT COMPUTER YOU GOT THERE...Didn't you say you were going on vacation pretty soon?  You wouldn't be taking that computer along for the trip, wouldja?"

Yeah, you guessed it, we're gonna talk about the Deadly Sin of Envy today flokes.  You know what envy entails, dontcha?  See paragraph 1's blatant example, if'n you're not quite sure.

Now, I just gotta say it, we people (yes, and myself in particular) suffer from the essential effects of envy every day.  See, envy, some people believe, is just possession-driven, and just means you wish you had what the Jones's have.  If this were all it meant, and it was a sin we couldn't practice, or we'd suffer dire consequences due to just that part of the definition; capitalism, the driving force of any free-market society, would not exist.  No, in every sense, the true and full meaning of envy, unfortunately also involves the wish to deprive the other of what they have, since they can't have or can't afford to have what the first person has.

Because of the 2nd part of the meaning of the word, I would just have to say that an awful lot of my problems of late have stemmed from this very sin.  That whole ordeal with Jacque Karlson:  one could even go as far as to say that 9/10 of my problems I'm experiencing as of today stem from her envy of everything I had.  A great solid relationship with my pretty, younger wife.  Good friends.  A solid place to live.  Our newly acquired newborn.  A good and faithful following on Twitter, that was fast catching hers.  Mutual good friends on Twitter that she didn't care for me to have, once I had asked her to go.  Which, in turn caused her to try and cost us the baby, our friends, my Twitter friends and following, my place to live, my relationship with my wife...all because we just didn't have room in our very small apartment for 4 adults and a newborn.

Now, try and remember, envy is not only a distinctly different thing than jealousy; it comes in two very different flavors:  Benign and Malicious.  The benign style is the kind that we experience as a democracy and in our capitalistic behavior.  The malicious style, of course, include the wanting of others to suffer as the first suffers...the one who is envious of what we have, the things (and relationships, of course) that cause us to be happy.  They wish to deprive us of those things and people; so that, without those, well, we can be miserable as the first people are; thereby depriving the victims of their happiness.

With the exception of the wonderful relationship and friendship I had with my wife, envy was the better portion of what happened in Jacque's case.  The relationship emotion, of course, was sheer jealousy.  Her relationship with her husband was nothing and in the toilet compared to mine, which would explain why it was the first thing she tried to ruin.

The "grass being greener" on the other side of the fence, that's envy.  Some people are CONSTANTLY in that mode; no matter what they get, or acquire, no matter how many friends and good relationships they have, it doesn't matter....they're in a constant state of envy, and are therefore NEVER happy.  Narcisism also involves envy; generally these people believe others are envious of them, or are always in a state of envy involving others.  This sin serves a needed service with competition, but is deadly with malice at its roots.  Keep a close eye on those who constantly express envy of you, these are the ones likely to be trying to rid you of your happiness....which tends to lead to their twisted happiness.  Right Jacque?  Yeah.

Now, make no mistake, envy and jealousy, they shake hands too, along with other sins of their magnitude and ilk.  And it doesn't take a whole lot to upgrade from envy to jealousy.  If your wife is gorgeous and has great legs, whereas mine is pretty, but just a bit overweight, well, it's possible that I might envy you at first, more than likely in a more benign sense.  However, it wouldn't probably take me long to take the next step up and start flirting with her, should she give me an open door.  Given the proper amount of envy, it might even go to the malice-filled level, taking us into a physical affair; and, because she's SO GOOD at what she does, I might just start discussing how I could get her from you for real.  But, as she says "Oh, I don't wanna lose what I have, this was really all just for fun"....well, then I might just get jealous, which usually means I'm gonna be adding in a little hate and anger into the mix, mostly due to her ability to dismiss my feelings so easily.  Then because she doesn't want me, even though I want her, well, the next best thing might then be to tell her husband about our little afair, just to break them up.  This tends to be where a lot of your sex crimes and possible murders begin to take shape.  Envy can lead to a real bad bunch o' issues, practiced regularly, trust that.

These emotions can easily consume us, and cause us pain, in more than one fashion.  I suggest just foregoing this sin, it's really pretty pointless.  I'd prefer not to have most of what you do, believe that, I've come to discover that with more stuff and more money comes a whole lot more issues, and a lot more worry.  I think I'll just stay over here on my side of the fence...it may not be your color of green, and I might have a few more weeds in my lawn, but at least I don't have to spend as much keeping it looking as nice as yours...:D

So It Begins (The B&S Railroad Job, Part III)

http://www.pbase.com/csw62/image/82895299

Well, I'm doing it again, kids.  I'm sorry, but the BS just continues, and you KNOW how much I love the BS.  This has got to be fought, here and now, at every expense, even if it means a free (for a month anyway) home that was offered to be paid by the Veterans side of Primary Health Care, for me, the wife, and, if all goes according to the plan of DHS, the baby as well, though I find this to be hard to believe; at least not without a lot of hoop jumping and out-of-pocket funding for the state of Iowa, and all involved in our little fiasco.

Three distinct things have happened since the last post, that have brought out the General in me, where this war is concerned.  This, unfortunately, has to involve a bit of memory jogging where you're concerned, as well as a bit of rehashing and post referrals.  Fortunately for you and all readers are concerned, most of these posts are named after this one...only as part I and II.

As was related, in these posts:

http://themightyswordamericas26deadlysins.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-drug-thingymabob-part-i.html

and

http://themightyswordamericas26deadlysins.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-final-chapter-hell-no-part-iii-b-s.html

Named The B&S Railroad job parts I and II,  I lay out everything that has happened since the day they came to find out what was going on in our evil drug infested home; before they railroaded us and took our baby.  In part II., I play out, in great detail, the entire drug test for both me and the wife, as well as the suprising, yet ludicrous results.

After this morning, and the results thereof, it would seem I can no longer expect help from the veteran's side of Primary HealthCare, as far as getting an apartment...so they're out.  They haven't even contacted me today, after this morning's fiasco, and will probably be even more upset with me after I get done blogging today's post.

So, more than likely, will be the lawyer who had been court appointed for me.  I left him a message first thing this morning, and he has yet to contact me as well.  So be it.  Looks like I'll be representing myself, as I thought I just might be anyway.  It's just as well; not only will he not like the fact that I will NOT be taking my funding site campaigns down (it's not like DHS is giving me anything but free food anyway...and me and my wife are both homeless, and quite broke, so what am I supposed to do here?   The baby's foster family is getting all of the money we're supposed to...and I'm sure that's the way DHS wanted it).  I'd have to say it's not only not DHS's business what I do on and with those sites, and it most CERTAINLY isn't the JUDGE'S business either.  Guess I'll be asking for a new judge in this case; I'm not sure why he'd have a bug up his butt about it, but it really shouldn't matter.  Let him live on what food stamps we get and nothing else, and let's see how long it would be before he starts asking for money, after being homeless a while.

Also, after telling us that the amount we tested positive for was so ridiculously low that we probably weren't going to have to endure any treatment hoops, suggested we pay EFR $25 each anyway, just so they could tell us that they wouldn't be recommending treatment, more than likely, because it was so low (??).

Nope.  Sorry.  Not going to be donating to the state via that avenue either, thanks.  GLWT.  And, if it is such a miniscule amount anyway, why is it that, when we had our little meeting with DHS on Thursday, last week, to see if (because we had missed so many visitations already) we would still be worthy to receive any more such visitations; they said, "Any amount over the 500 mark can only be registered if people actually ingest the drug they're showing positive for.  It's in our experience that it can't possibly be environmental with that much of an amount showing positive."  My lawyer said to me, prior to this, that actual users came up to 2000-3000 in their numbers...so how does 550 and 863 (still impossible where Liz is concerned...and, remember, both her and the baby had come up clean not a week prior to this when the baby was born) make us users?  Who knows...RAILOARD JOB, RAILROAD JOB!!

So evidently, I do them, whether I do or not.  Same applies to the wife that I KNOW does NOT DO DRUG ONE.  F*** you DHS, and the horse you rode down on.  Call my wife a drug user again, and hell will have no fury like ME, on your ass.

Oh, and Katie?  I recorded that meeting, and will, of course, subsequently be recording AND BLOGGING ABOUT EVERY SINGLE MEETING WE HAVE FROM HERE ON OUT.  There's another thing.  My lawyer called me the other day to inform me that DHS, in their requests from them and FSRP as to what was to be expected (and not expected) in any future meetings or visitations; stated, as a condition, that we were not, under any circumstances, to record them in any way.  WHY??  Sounds to me like they further intend to say and do things that are untoward, as if what they had done thus far wasn't nearly untoward enough.  And, since they refuse to give a good reason as to why they would unusually request such a thing, or refuse to budge on it being a condition, let it be known, heretofore, that ALL meetings and visitations will be duly recorded.

Oh, and as for food stamps, we may not be getting those for a while (if ever again) anyway...so now it's EXTRA important we get money.  No, according to DHS (the food branch...like we didn't have enough troubles with the one we're dealing with), now we may be coming up for fraud charges.  Last month after the baby was born, we applied for FIP, after which the worker told us, I would probably be getting cancelled on my ffood stamps....and added to my wife's received amount.  We received what could only be construed as a combination amount on her stamp card ($280...she'd been getting about $80 worth, and I'd been getting around $190).  We called DHS to see about getting an increase for her (we were hoping for about $110 more, since she hadn't worked for around six weeks).  Jeff, the worker for Elizabeth, then informed her that since I had received stamps for August (which I knew nothing about....I thought they had been cancelled), and she had received $280, that we had somehow misrepresented the true facts, and were to be investigated for fraud, as soon as possible.  Not sure how that is, since we represented ourselves fine, put in for the change, and it should have been duly implemented, what do you think??  This is our fault how?  Wow.  And, should I spend any of the food stamp amount that I received...justifiably, Id say...that I would be forced to pay that amount back, or imprisoned for fraud...BECAUSE DHS DIDN'T DO THEIR JOB CORRECTLY, I ASSUME....Good luck with that, as well.

I just wanna take an extra moment to thank the HUNDREDS of new Twitter followers I've acquired of late, and to issue yet ANOTHER raspberry in the face of ....ok, you all know who by now, surely.  Burn in hell NRA JACQUE.  With my blessing, of course.  The picture below is solely for those of you new follows, and, of course, the hundreds of loyal readers I still have, even after the Jacque Karlson debacle.  In case you didn't or don't know it by now, this woman was responsible for all of this, after I forcibly had to remove them from our premises, after they got upset that I asked them to make other arrangements because there would be a newborn residing in my place.

Until THE B&S RAILROAD JOB continues, or until the court date of September 12, 2014, continues...I'll be seein' ya soon, kids.

The Original 7 Deadly Sins + 3, Part III - Gluttony

http://www.deesillustration.com/artwork.asp?item=674&cat=satire

Ahhhh....Back to the Good, the Bad, and the Deadly.  Today's issue?  Good ol' Gluttony.

Notice how alot of these sins tend to shake hands with each other, with a vengeance?  This one, along with sloth and greed, makes for one big one.  A triple threat.  We could call it Slutreed.  Might as well, saves on words and breath.  Believe me, my fingers could use more of a break.

By the way, for those of you who aren't really familiar with the extent of this particular sin, it not only involves what you ingest, it also involves what you withhold from those in need as well.

Being on the lower end of the sheeple scale, I see gluttony at work daily.  What's more, I see waste galore.  Now granted and given, there are reasons for some of this, but you can trace it all back to greed, which is our biggest crime here in our country.  What am I referring to?

Waste.  A 50% subset of gluttony.  Every day I watch so much food get tossed, it makes me ill.  With all the ways we've invented in our country to store and keep food, there's just no excuse for this.  We could not only feed our country with our waste, we could feed all the starving countries of the world as well.

Of course, the fault hardly or completely lies with the companies you work for.  You may have noticed, of late, the propensity for workplaces to not allow you, an employee, to take their food home, food that they're going to throw out anyway, at the end of the day.  In  my days of food service, I was always able to take home free food, no problem.  You always got free meals, if you worked at these places.  Just like every nicety we Americans used to enjoy once upon a time, some money hungry fools ruined things for the rest of us, during the course of time passing.  The late 70's and 80's were decades filled with legal stupidity, when it came to lawsuits, as well as the judges who ruled in favor of them.  I actually knew one couple who spent their entire lives just suing people for various things.  They never worked, they just waited to be awarded the next upcoming judgement they were expecting.  With every stupid lawsuit they awarded money to, it was like a fatal disease...more cropped up to copy the original, or different spins were put on the first, or new ones that were just as ridiculous came out to follow-up.  Pretty soon, litigation was a household word, and suing became a national way of life.

So I would imagine that there was a rash of food poisoning lawsuits that probably caused these food service companies to say "Screw it then!!  No more taking food home that we're gonna toss at the end of the day!  And since you're gonna be buttheads about it, and we have to toss out so much damn good food, well...you can just pay for your damn meals then.  We gotta cover the cost of the food we throw out, as well as pay for those lawsuits you keep winning."  See how the greed just weaves its way through every iota of this scenario?  Wow.

I really love days like Thanksgiving, where we serve up about 12 different plates chock-full of holiday goodness...and after we fill ourselves to over-flowing, we chuck about half of it right into the garbage can.  Now there's both sides of gluttony hard at work.  Happy Thankgiving and Merry Christmas you fat fool-hardy citizens.  Hope you can sleep at night after that crap.  Thank God my family is as disconnected as it is, or I'd have to participate in that hypocratic behavior as well.

Not that anybody with any sense would wanna eat this food anyway.  It's pretty damn obvious that not a one of us has any sense.  Not unlike the medications we take everyday, we're fully aware of  how dangerous a lot of this stuff is, yet we continue to eat it.  Really though, even if we had sense, would we really have a choice, but to eat it?  Aspartame is everywhere.  No other living creature will touch the stuff, yet we ingest it daily.  MSG's are impossible to avoid, yet the number of burgers McD's sells grows by the hundreds of thousands, daily, all over the world.  Genetically altered fruits and vegetables are the norm; we accept it, and chow down like it's goin' outta style.  We've been told (after five or six decades, finally), that flouride is actually bad for our teeth, and that our water is chock-full of it, yet we still drink it.  Doctored meat, various dangerous sugar substitutes (some of which we still aren't quite sure of the dangers of), preservatives, food dyes....the list is ridiculously endless and really scary...and yet we continue to eat, and eat...like we haven't a clue.  Why?  Well kids...we're just greedy, slothful gluttonous fools.  That's why.

Hell in a handbasket.  Someday we'll surely know what it means.  Till tomorrow.

http://www.deesillustration.com/artwork.asp?item=143&cat=satire

Homelessness Part II

http://www.exposingtruth.com/utahs-plan-eradicate-homelessness-actually-working/

Hey Kids....sorry I blew ya off, been a b-b-b-b-bizzay boy yannow.

So let's get ourselves back to the subject of homelessness.  By the way, should you notice another tweet of this day for another such named post in my new Des Moines, Iowa blog, found here:

http://desmoinesandiowathevenusflytrap.blogspot.com/

just blow it off.  I decided this would be good for both blogs, and is pretty much the same, maybe with a tweak er two.

Now, it was said...more than likely in the first post on this subject, the fact that there is five times as many empty places as there are homeless people.  For those of you reading that fact for the first time, I'll give you a minute to let that sink in...

(Time has ticked away)....So how did you like that one, huh?  Nice?  Well, here's some things I believe that are even nicer.

Every day, more and more apartments are going up in the downtown area of my hometown.  Lofts, mostly.  Meant to be attractive to white collar young folks just looking at Des Moines for the first time.  Now, if you go back and forth between the Des Moines blog and this one, you'll note that the focus of this town, which is pretending to be massively bigger than it really is, is to attract people to the city itself, as well as rejuvenate the downtown area.  The problem is, as they do this, there are things that they're doing at the same time that absolutely make me ill.  I'm pretty much certain that they're doing this in every metro area over 100,000 folks, or my name isn't...uh...isn't....oh, never mind.

The only really efficient homeless shelter in this city is right smack downtown...has been for ages.  CISS (Central Iowa Shelter and Services) started out here in the old Trailways bus station.  I remember driving by it in the 80's wondering why it was that 50 or so people were asleep on mats on the floor.  They then relocated a little bit south and west of downtown, to a much bigger building.  Later on, that one would be deserted due to bedbugs, and the obviously growing homeless problem, forcing them to build up a new shelter, one that wouldn't take any more females, but would house 2x the male population.  It didn't do a lot of good.  Why, is obvious.

1.  There are 3x as many people that are homeless in this country than there was 10 years ago.  I'm afraid you're gonna have to get a much bigger shelter.

2.  The people that were homeless to begin with...are still homeless.  I used to work at this shelter back in the day...and because I've been homeless a few times since then, I've had to utilize this place's services for myself a few various short periods in my life.  The thing I loved about is was, the same damn people that had been there 10 years prior to that, while I was working there, were still coming there to stay!!!  The same men, women and vets were still utilizing the system.  That's really helping.

3.  In an attempt to attract more professionals to the city, you're just going to attract the attention of the more undesirable types as well.  The homeless, allowed to reside indefinitely at CISS, call their homeless friends and homeless relatives.  "Come on down you guys!!  This city'll take care of you!"  Then when the days they're allowed to stay (90 days, but longer with special circumstances) run out, well, guess where they're gonna camp?  As close to downtown as they can, til they're allowed back in, 90 days later.  Downtown, of course, where all the free meals are served too.

Worse yet, they bring all of these events downtown to get in the way of everyone going everywhere in the city, and they put them up around the same area as the shelter...as well as build the majority of the lofts in the same area; and build a whopping block-long sculpture park just 3 or so blocks away from it...then call the police, hire security, and physically patrol all areas around it in an attempt to chase them away from it all; all the while wondering why it is they have people passed out drunk in the sculpture park, hiding out in the parking garages close by, and camping under the bridge of MLK Pkway (East/West) and caught stealing things at the events.  Geeeeee........I wunder why??? errrrrrrrr........

What you don't seem to get, America, is that the problem is growing, and will continue to grow.  Not because you're not chasing them off well enough, but because MORE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE HOMELESS EVERY YEAR.  The problem isn't solely how we help these people out, which by the way is a problem too, but because of a lot of different things that we didn't have before.

1.  A much bigger population.

2.  The highest unemployment rate...well, EVER!!

3.  Affordable housing...

I really don't think I have to rehash every single reason again, do I???  Just See "Homelessness" in this blog, if you're really and truly lost.

One problem I did mention just a couple of paragraphs ago, and wanted to but didn''t cover in the first blog post, is not only our attitudes towards the homeless, but the most obvious problem of social disconnection we have today.  Gone forever, I'm sure, are the days when we helped each other in times of trouble.  You people are, quite simply, ASSHOLES when it comes to people who need your help.

Think I'm joking? Try a little experiment in your spare time.  Call all of your best friends.  Tell them you just lost your job, and it looks as though you might not make your next house payment.  Oh, you'll get all the sympathy you could ever want...but call them a week later, and tell them you lost your home, and you have no place for you, your wife/husband and two kids to stay...and watch how quickly they scatter.  You'll be amazed how little help you're offered or actually receive.

Selfish, immature, close-minded, and closed-doored.  As long as everything is going swimmingly, you're my best friend, but when times are hard, and I really need your help?  You couldn't run far enough.  I'm lucky to get you on the phone, at least not until until enough time has passed in order for my troubles to possibly be fixed again.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't need friends like that in my life.  That's probably why I don't have but one or two anymore.  :D

P.S. - By the way, Utah has a plan to eradicate homelessness entirely....that's WORKING.  You guys might wanna check it out, HUH???

http://www.exposingtruth.com/utahs-plan-eradicate-homelessness-actually-working/