NEPArtisan Posting: Gary Johnson on the Marriage Pledge

My latest contribution to NEPArtisan can be found HERE.

Complimenting a Republican on the "Progressive" NEPArtisan blog may not endear me to some, but so be it.  I gotta "call'm like I see'm".

Science "vs" Faith

I received an invitation to attend one of the NEPA Freethought Society's meeting, and while it sounds intriguing, I will respectfully take a pass at attending.  Why?  Well two reasons mainly:

1. I don't especially like parties & mass socializing.  Being an extreme introvert, having a lot of people around me creates so much pressure that it becomes more "work" than "play".  Now this has nothing to do with the freethoughers, who I am sure are a great group of folks.  Instead, this has everything to do with my psychosis de-jour.
2. I don't do "Sciences vs. Faith" discussions.

To point #2, I am absolutely convinced that people at extreme ends of the atheistic and religious spectrum simply don't get it. What is "it"?  Well it is the very notion that faith, by its very nature, almost has to preclude proof.  Look to the Gospels where it talk about the disciple Thomas to see what I mean.  Religious folks that try their best to find proof for their faith in the natural world will almost always come up short, as it simply IS possible to explain HOW many things happen in natural systems.

On the other side of the coin, the atheistic crowd may be able to explain how certain things happen...for example, sub-atomic particles form atoms, atoms come together to form molecules, molecules come together to form complex systems...but at the end of the day they simply can not answer the very basic question of WHY things happen in the natural world.  In my humble opinion, the notion of faith helps to answer the "why" question...or at least helps to frame the "why" question.

I don't want or need "proof" to justify what faith I possess.  That's not to say that my personal faith is completely void of markers in life that tell me I am something greater than basically a collection of organic molecules held in a water bag, because there have been situations, happenings, "things" in my life that point to something more.  I have not seen the Virgin Mary is pasta, I have not been spoken to by a burning bush and I don't need a book that proves that it is the divinely inspired word of God by saying that it is the divinely inspired word of God (circles anyone?) as justification for my personal faith.  My faith is a result of my knowledge, experience and some "other" factor that tells me I am not fully capable of understanding and explaining it all.

At the end of the day, I firmly believe that the existence we all enjoy has to more than just the result of some cosmic burp in a stellar nursery.  The fact that we can even have this discussion lends credence to this point.  The ability to reason...to question...to try and understand...these have to be more than just biological processes.

One final point:  in the past I found that when I prayed for something I almost never given what I asked for in prayer.  As I've grown older and had some difficult experiences (particularly over this past year), I've discovered something that has, more than anything else, enhanced by faith...namely that I am not given what I want, but I am given what I need.  When I do pray now...something I do with some degree of regularity at certain situations...I basically just ask for guidance and for what I need, even if it isn't what I want in a particular situation.  That, to me, is faith.

NEPArtisan Posting: The calm before the (political) storm

My latest contribution to NEPArtisan can be found HERE.

Road Apples, #107

Mayor Leighton...see my postings as a "substitute blogger" on NEPArtisan that chronicle Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton's asinine hiring of his daughter and niece.  To be blunt, I thought this guy was better than this kind of stuff.  Guess I was wrong.  Speaking of all things "hayna"...

Hayna 500...I recently discovered what was once called the "Hayna 500".  Interesting stuff.  For the uneducated (or those from north/east of Avoca), this was a cruising circuit in and around Wilkes-Barre and Kingston.  Actually I just think the term "Hayna 500" is funny.  Kudos to Ms Rivers for that one.

Casey Armstrong...I do think that it is horribly tragic that a little girl is dead and an accused murder may have gotten away with the crime, but seriously, where is the uproar when any number of actually more pressing issues come up for public debate?  If half the people who followed the Armstrong case also followed, for example, developments in educational policy in this country, then I'd think there really would be a ground-swell for real change. This is, in a nutshell, what is wrong with Americans today:  we pay attention to the wrong things.

Kennedy Home Movies...I've been watching a History Channel show on the home movies of the Kennedy family.  Fascinating stuff.  It really does make you believe that the Kennedy clan was "America's Royal Family".  This was a clan full of beautiful people that had the world by the testes.  Well everyone except Rosemary.  Ouch.

Facebook Etiquette...At what point do you decide that those people you don't know really shouldn't be your "friend" on Facebook?  I do an every once in a while purge of Facebook, but I still have a few people that I don't actually know listed as a Facebook "friend".  All this modern technology does come with its challenges.

My Cat...had a few visitors today, and I have to say he was very well behaved.  Actually he is more of an attention whore than Lady Gaga, so his good behavior shouldn't have been much of a surprise.

Independence Day...a belated "Happy July 4th" to one and all.

NEPArtisan Posting: NEPOtism...the story continues

My latest posting on NEPArtisan, which you can link to HERE.

Casey Anthony Verdict

Disclaimer:  I didn't follow the Casey Anthony case, not for one moment.  I did, however, hear that...

...she allegedly killed her daughter
...she was found innocent of murder charges this afternoon

...and now there is an uproar.  Sign-o-the-times?  How the "Casey Anthony is Guilty" Facebook page?

I don't know if Casey Anthony is actually guilty.  Certainly it seems like she could be guilty, but that isn't what the jury determined, and in the end that how the system works.  Failed?  I think that anyone who looks for perfection in anything created by man is always going to encounter that which fails.  We are, it seems, perfectly incapable of perfection.  At best, let's hope that we get it right most of the time.  Maybe this just wasn't one of those times.

For now I say leave Casey Anthony alone.  Her trial wasn't an election and we didn't get a vote on her guilt or innocence.  The jury did, period.

NEPArtisan Posting: NEPOtism (W-B Style)

My latest "substitute blogger" posting at NEPArtisan can be found HERE.

New York Times - OpEd, Defense of Marriage Act

Worth reading...

July 3 2011 NYT Editorial.

As an extremely heterosexual male, I know that people don't "choose" to be homosexual.  Who would? I know I never would, but that fact alone tells me that being gay is more a notion of who someone is at their core, not a flippant "choice" that is more a kin to trying to determine what flavor of soft-serve is tasty at the moment.  If we accept the fact that for the vast majority of homosexuals it isn't a "choice" in as much as it is a matter of nature, then why deny them the very basic notion of determining a legally recognized partner?

I don't favor any religion being forced to recognize gay marriage, but then again I don't favor any religion being forced to recognize any form of marriage that differs from their specific dogma.  This is no different that Catholics not recognizing the religious aspect of a Protestant wedding.  What we are talking about here are basic legal rights, not infringement upon religious practice.

Time to end DOMA, once and for all.

Oh, and a final note:  It's also time for President Obama to get off the legal and moral fence on this issue.  Come out strongly against DOMA or don't come out at all.  Enough with the "I'm against this but I won't say how I feel..." nonsense.  His wishy-washy fence sitting is nauseating.

Thought Worm (follow-up)

Well the thought worm is gone, but I do find myself thinking about why it appeared in the first place.  I also sit here in amazement that I have the kind of life whereby I can actually move beyond these kinds of things.

To the former, I think I have it figured out:  I was simply mentally exhausted after a few days worth of extroversion and, being a dyed-in-the-wool introvert, the effort required to be so "on" simply took a toll.  The result was that something which really doesn't deserve "front of mind time" actually got that kind of time.    Yes, there are some weights that we carry for a long time (to borrow a line from an Abbey Road song), but that doesn't mean we have to focus on that weight.  Hell, we all carry some emotional weight with us, and who is to say that mine is any heavier than that of anyone else?  Thoughts of anger, questions of "why?", trying to understand why you allowed yourself to get so exposed, all of these things take effort but yet produce nothing in the final result.

Sometimes it helps to just say to yourself "get the f&$k out of my head".

Yes, the above is a perfectly valid strategy for dealing with the errant thought worm.  That, in and of itself, isn't enough though, at least not for me...not all of the time.  No, I'm far more blessed in that I have a wonderful support system that miraculously allows me to both give and receive when it comes to taxing situations that life brings.

Ah, giving and receiving.

I've always been good at giving...so much so that it became a kind of cover for not dealing with the real challenges facing my life.  It's been the receiving...receiving support in this specific case...that's been something of a challenge.  I've always had this "balance of payments" concept in my head whereby I never wanted to "owe" more than that was "owed" to me.  This comes from an innate fear of not being quite good enough (and therefore somehow needing to draw on that positive balance of payments).  How pathetically sad! Life isn't an accounting ledger.  Life isn't about counting your chips so that one day you can cash it all in.  Life is missed, in part, when you constantly have to constantly think though the balance of payments.

In the end this whole episode has been very, very instructive.  I've learned to accept the weight that I will be carrying.  More importantly, I've learned that for the first time in my life I actually feel supported.  There will be future stumbles, but I don't have to face them alone.

NEPArtisan Posting: Matt Drudge's Jungle Fever

By way of preface, I am acting in the capacity of "substitute blogger" for NEPArtisan blogger Tom Borthwick while he is on a well-earned vacation.  As a result I'll be adding (strictly) political content to that blog during the month of July.

My first NEPArtisan post, "Matt Drudge's Jungle Fever" can be found by clicking on THIS LINK.