Welcome to the second half of 2015 and Happy Independance Day my fellow Observers! Even with accepting that the clock moves faster as we get older, it's hard to believe that six months has passed by so quickly. And what an entertaining 6 1/2 lunar cycles it has been. However, for as much jaw dropping antics we have all witnessed since the ball dropped in Times Square, the past week has had more news activity than the last 26 combined. It was enough to make any current event columnist, including yours truly, scream "Uncle TMI!". The first half of 2015 defiantly went out with an Star Spangled, human rights, water and fire, Diamondback, racist flag flying malcontent, homophobic bang! In the past seven days we've seen:
* A massive fire at a water park in Taiwan... Yes, all you oxymoron, irony fanatics a fire at a water park that injured 519 people.
* Same sex marriage was legalized nationwide.
* Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood invoked a civil order against it with Texas and several other states at the ready to do the same. Speculation by conservatives predicts that the fight will get ugly. Like it isn't already.
* The Dukes of Hazzard was dropped from nostalgic TV lineups due to the confederate flag controversy riding on the coattails of NASCAR's ban. Next up... the AutoTrader.com commercials.
* We had a Leap Second on Tuesday and a Thunder Moon on Wednesday.
* A billionaire is running for president.... again. And despite what Macy's says, he's rising in the polls. Besides, immigrants can't afford to buy his clothes anyway.
* Russian city Nizhnevartovsk (Gesundheit) has banned yoga because the local legislation believes it could "spread new religious cults and movements". Now what are they gonna do with all those pants and mats? Not to mention the extra Kool-Aid.
* A 73 year old retired minister in Ohio rode his favorite roller coaster "The Diamondhead" at King Island for the 12,000th time and claims he will continue to add to his record. I guess god wasn't his one and only commitment, since he hasn't retired from riding the coaster.
* And.... Josh Duggar has 19 counts....and counting.
Now, I'm going to focus on a couple of these highlights of the week, but my thoughts will also encompass most of them. To start with, I'm sure that everyone was hoping that this years halftime show and activities were going to include Rick Scarborough, the preacher who threatened (promised) to set himself on fire if the Supreme Court legalized same sex marriages, showing us a little smoke. I, personally was looking forward to breaking out the marshmallows and Hershey bars for some good old fashioned summertime self righteous s'mores, but alas, he's decided not to self immolate and spoil everyone's cookout. Although we all heard what he said on the National Emergency Coalition Show, he claims that we all apparently misunderstood him when he said they would "burn if necessary". Undoubtedly he is staying true to America's National Destiny but not his word.
I, for one, am so glad that we have all these holy men and women around to tell us how to live our lives all snuggled up under the warm comfy blanket of divine morality. So many to thank from past to present. Jim Baker, Tammy Faye, Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Phil Robertson and let's not forget Harold Camping, whose billboards predicted the end of the world on May 21st 2011, then again on October 21st 2011. These two dates came after his first mathematical error in 1994. Well, if at first you don't succeed.... make stuff up! What bothers me the most about these fire and brimstone bozos is not them fleecing their followers for all they've got by using their "donation" money to their "churches" to buy mansions, Maserati's, build theme parks and advertise the "Rapture" on billboards and car flyers, but rather trying to make us believe that if there is a higher force at work, it's just as prejudice as they are. I guess god created other religions, homosexuality, atheism, along with quite a few other heathen practices (apparently yoga is one of them) just so these jesuit jerks could point them out to all of us unenlightened ones. It makes you wonder if god is as offended by his or her own creations as much as the collective Christians seem to be. Far be it from me to point out that any idiot with a $5.00 bible from the Barnes and Noble Bargain Book Bin, preaching to anyone within immediate earshot is just as offensive to a vast number of "thinking" people as two guys or gals kissing is to them.
For a country that prides itself on being built upon the foundation of diversity, it appears that our differences are equally our greatest attribute and our worst flaw. Our society can't seem to take one step forward toward any kind of benevolent progress without some low brow ruminating moron shooting his or her mouth off from the moral majority's hip trying to drag us back two and unfortunately, usually succeeding. People like these are the reason why I don't place all the blame on politicians like Jim Hood. He's only doing what his constituents are requesting of him. As misguided as it is, at least he's dong his job.... this time anyway. Take for instance Mississippian bible thumper Cynthia Jackson, who when asked her opinion on gay marriage said, "It's a question of god and what god wants for us. He says marriage is for procreation and that's something only a man and woman can do. If gays want to live together as couples, nobody's stopping them, but don't let them steal marriage away from the rest of us.".
As ridiculous and unbelievable as that statement sounds ("he says"? "steal marriage"? Seriously? ....don't even get me started!) don't think for a minute that these type of people are uneducated hicks. Most of them have some type of degree and it's their intelligence that makes them the most dangerous. They are lucid, methodical, have the savvy and the connections to manipulate the system and shape it to their will whether the rest of us like it or not.
Next up, all the hoopla over the Confederate flag. Look, I'm going to tell all you "Ban the Flag Doris and Dudley Do Rights" out there a little secret. Come closer.... closer..... the flag is not our problem. Nope.... not even close. Your also getting cold if your blaming guns or current gun laws, too. For those of you that are oblivious to the obvious, I won't make you hold your breath any longer as I tell you that the problem lies with the degenerated dirtbag that used the guns and wrapped himself in the flag afterwards. The flag had nothing to do with any of it or what people think it stands for. It stands for nothing besides a remnant of what we overcame. It's a symbol of an age past and a reminder of what we do not want to become again, nothing more. What about white supremacy followers wrapping themselves in or displaying the American flag at their demonstrations? They do that all the time. Should we ban it as well because people are using it to express their views as it conflicts with what we feel the flag stands for? As ugly as it looks with white sheets and hoods, our flag does stand for freedom of speech. It all just adds to the ludicrous debacle that has us placing blame for what troubles our society within inanimate objects.
What we should fear is the mentality shared by the people involved in both situations. The common factor I wish to convey on these matters, my loyal reader, is tolerance. Tolerance for our differences, individual lifestyles, for things we don't understand or think are a waste of time. I do not mean to say that we should tolerate atrocities like the one that occurred in South Carolina, but rather tolerance in the acceptance that no matter how much good we create, bad things happen. The mistake we make is in letting it undo the progress that we have made. We have to continually remind ourselves that no matter how small, each achievement matters. We should also tolerate (but be very cautious of) all the "right thinking" radical halfwits that actually believe our society's problems lie within a certain race or group and will do anything to protect those ideals. That's the reality.... That's the threat. People who think that they are on some kind of mission from god or constitutional quest. Trying to save us all from the Big Bad Gay Men in their purple pumps, Caitlyn Jenner chasing our children down the streets of America with her chartreuse javelin, liberals offering us affordable healthcare, TV shows featuring things that are deemed no longer acceptable, exercise, or all the non-white people inciting a race war in Anytown, USA. These cretins believe that we all must be protected from these things but put no credibility into the notion that most of our problems are caused by the people who think like they do. Strictly an Observation. If you'll excuse me, I have to Google a "Leap Second".
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