Boy Scouts of America BSA

They Knew...
The BSA knew all along about the abuse that was happening within its ranks. They even had a secret list known as the “Perversion Files” or “P Files” that included names of sex predators going all the way back to the early 1900’s. Tragically, the BSA did everything in its power to conceal these documents, allowing the abuses to go on. Instead of rooting out abusers, the BSA, like The Catholic Church, systematically protected pedophiles by allowing them to move from troop to troop.

When I lived in Alexandria, VA  until 1962/1963, prior to my leaving I was a Boy Scout, receiving my Eagle Scout and God and Country Awards that were later presented to me by the US Ambassador in Cairo, Egypt.  If I was abused, I don't recall and one would think that if there was abuse, one would never forget...  but abuse is not always physical...  and, there is probably a good possibility that one of those leaders during a camping trip in the Appalachian Mountains could have showed me photos and could have had conversations with me that I really don't remember because nothing physical happened...  and my leader was just more apprehensive about following through with something physical...

NONETHELESS...  it is disgusting what was happening to boys my age by leaders we grew up trusting to make us better people through Scouting.  And, I have always enjoyed my camping experiences...  

OFTENTIMES... I wonder about his contradiction...

After spending over 3 decades (at least) attending Church Services on Sundays, I pretty know the MAJOR SERMONS that are typically preached even though some ministers approach them a little differently to target either an older or younger congregation.

But, I did not get a full understanding of what was going on with these sermons until I read the Bible from cover-to-cover, taking notes and writing down questions along the way.

One area that still causes me concern is the way we PRAY.

Jesus told us to use THE LORD's PRAYER when praying to HIS FATHER.

St. Augustine gives the following analysis of the Lord's Prayer, which elaborates on Jesus' words just before it in Matthew's gospel: "Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then in this way" (Mt. 6:8-9).  SOURCE:  Wikipedia

SO...

why then do so many ministers, pastors, and priest pray differently than what was asked of them, especially when THIS ASK was ASKED BY JESUS???

That has always bothered me...

But, no one has provided me with any plausible explanation.

Our FAITH is CORRECT but WRONG: Trinity Part II of III

 As you recall from Part I,

The 12 Major religions are:

1. Christianity
2. Islam
3. Hinduism
4. Buddhism
5. Sikhism
6. Taoism
7. Judaism
8. Confucianism
9. Bahá'í
10. Shinto
11. Jainism
12. Zoroastrianism

What if these 12 Major Religions and/or philosophies operating in the world today were not by coincidence but by design, in that there were 12 Tribes of Israel mentioned in The Bible; and...   what if, it is from those 12 Tribes of Israel that these 12 Major Religions were created? 

Sounds impossible?

Perhaps...

But, not improbable...

And...  if probable...  then it is also probable that each of these 12 Major Religions could be designed by our CREATOR with the understanding that each one of them bring some CRITICAL ISSUE OR BELIEF that and if brought together, could be the basis and foundation of ONLY ONE UNIVERAL OR GLOBAL RELIGION.

Let's explore what that might look like, shall we?

1.     From Hinduism - “The concept that the world (& man) reincarnates in life after life.” Similar to the physics theory of energy.

2.     From Judaism - “The existence of ‘free will’ and in using that ‘will’ to accept the sacredness of life as the good creation of Yahweh (God).”

3.     From Buddhism - “Through the practice of meditation (a philosophy of hope), one can acquire the Insight Knowledges and attain Nibbana (awareness).”

4.     From Jainism - “Have a respect and an appreciation for all life.”

5.     From Confucianism - “Development of the human character (duty and moral obligation); an inward quality is created from which all actions take place without ulterior motives.”

6.     From Taoism - “An assertion of truth, a way of life, a moral force that should be present in those who govern and in all governments.”

7.     From Zoroastrianism - “The concept that God would send messages to mankind through messengers.”

8.     From Christianity - “The idea that God sent His son Jesus so that man will find God through Jesus and his resurrection.”

9.     From Shinto - “The physical act of ritual purification in water.”

10.  From Islam - “The idea that the Koran supports the notion that all things (both good and evil) are the direct result of God’s will.”

11.    From  Sikhism - “A new way of looking at self, creation, and the creator and merging the three together.”

12.  From  Bahai - “Humanity is one single race and that they day has come for its unification into one global society.”

 

Komic Korner Kartoons

 

THE LIST

I would suspect that we all make lists...  and... as we get older, we intentionally make lists to keep us from forgetting the obvious like toothpaste and toilet paper and oil for the lawn mower.  At 73 (well almost, 28 more days) I am one of those people who tends to forget shit so I write stuff down as a JUST IN CASE...  and, like the alarm beside the bed, always seem to wake up just before it goes off...  but know that if I did not set the alarm I would not have automatically woken up...  and, my lists are no different.

Every Fall, we pretty much do the following:

1.  trim up bushes and trees

2.  cut all returning flora to the ground

3.  winterize the pool

4. Put all water hoses inside the garage

5.  Put all deck furniture inside downstairs storage

Winterizing the pool and dealing with hoses and deck furniture takes place either Oct/Nov and the other two items take place around Dec/Jan or earlier if we know it is going to get cold and remain cold earlier.

As part of winterizing the pool, we cover the top of the pool with a tarp and then hold the tarp on the deck with heavy landscaping bricks and rope tied to the deck railing where appropriate.  In the past, those landscaping bricks got dirt and mud all over the tarp and found its way into the pool when removing the tarp in the spring so we have been encasing the landscaping bricks in Walmart grocery bags.

We need a total of 24 landscaping bricks so today, we enclosed 24 landscaping bricks in Walmart grocery bags in preparation for our pool closing in a couple of weeks.

This item was actually on OUR LIST or what my wife refers to as THE LIST...  or, a list of MUST DOs at the exact time that THE LIST indicates that we are to do them.

Lists and Wives seem to be necessary evils, especially as one ages...  LOL

Away From the Violence of the Big Cities

One of the KEY FEATURES of living in East TN is the fact that there is minimal crime being perpetrated on individuals and families and there is absolutely NOTHING going on in Knoxville that resembles anything like we hear about in Washington DC, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, or Las Angeles...   and, it is highly unlikely that anything like that will ever happen here.  

WHY NOT?

1. People who live in East TN just are not like that
2. We honor the right of law and order
3. We proudly support the Second Amendment
4. We care about our faith and the Church
5. We have better things to do with our time

Saturday morning and the temperatures are in the 70's with just a slight breeze in the air and my neighborhood is quiet and calm as there are no people outside working in their yards, allowing me unfettered access to my screened-in back porch as I enjoy the afternoon sun warming everything around me.

NOW...  don't get me wrong about how absolutely great it is in East TN because we have plenty of problems with illegal drugs in our elementary schools and in our high schools.  And, there are an enormous amount of people who like to drive faster than the posted speed limit signs...  and, there are a few people who like to steal from others who they think might be too stupid to realize what is going on...  and, our hospitals and cancer centers are full with patients all the time.

BUT...  it is still better than living up NORTH where all them millionaires live and expect people to bend over backwards because they are wealthy...  there are wealthy people down here too, but they are not as arrogant.

PLUS...  it is a hell of a lot cheaper to live here than anywhere else...   ON AVERAGE that is...

THIS and THAT

All Creatures Great and Small

I Done Had Two of Them Thwangs...

Being an English Major in College, I pay attention more than normal I suppose to how people talk and sometimes how they write but since talking is more readily available than writing, it is more on my mind.

Today, at the doctor's office, patients were asked a series of questions before they were allowed to enter and one of those questions was:  Have you had a COVID test?  And, the following response caught my attention...  "I done had two of them thwangs."

I did not eves drop on the rest of the conversation because my name was called by the nurse and I left the lobby, heading towards one of their exam rooms.  But, the comment remained on my mind which prompted all kinds of other thoughts and recollections regarding:

• this person's appearance
• how this person was dressed
• was this person clean shaven
• did this person have long hair
• did he appear to have followed proper hygiene
• how old was this person

My thoughts changed to being a doctor and having to deal with all sorts of patients in all sorts of situations day-after-day, week-after-week, month-after-month, year-after-year, and decade-after-decade...  I am not sure if I have or would have had the personality to deal with something like that for 45-50 years and more.

AND...  to be quite honest, it is difficult not to see yourself as BETTER THAN THAT when one comes across another person who talks like that.  Of course, in God's eyes we are all equal or at least that is what is stated in the Bible and yet, I also have come across some "holy rollers" who consider themselves to be better than everyone else because they are "holy rollers."  I doubt if God would have approved.

BUT, outside of GOD'S DOMAIN, it is obvious that we are not all EQUAL and will never be EQUAL simply because of the various combinations of our DNA.

• We have tall ones and short one
• We have thin ones and fat ones
• We have smart ones and dumb ones
• We have athletic ones and non-athletic ones
• We have musical ones and non-musical ones
• We have sick ones and healthy ones

NO MATTER WHAT THE CONGRESS LEGISLATES AND THE GOVERNMENT MANAGES AND THE JUDICAL RULES OVER, WE WILL NEVER BE EQUAL IN MAN'S EYES...

GREED: America's Downfall...

In the summer of 1967, I was working as a laborer for a Road Construction Company called Regal Construction up Upper Marlboro, MD that was building a new stretch of Interstate Highway in that area. and had no desire to know if the company was building other highways or not because I was ATTENDING COLLEGE so that I would not have to work as a laborer at $2 per hour.

My reason for attending COLLEGE was personal and selfish:  I wanted a better job and more money...

Little did I know that this was the foundation of our economic free market enterprise system... to continue to make as much money as one can arrange over a lifetime of work and use that money to buy bigger and better THINGS over one's lifetime of work...

As one gets older and wiser and accumulates more wealth, one learns to shelter that money away from taxes even though one knows that taxes are used to provide services to those who are not wealthy and support our government's growth.

In addition to providing for the national defense and negotiating treaties and deals with our countries, our government provides PUBLIC;

• education
• transportation
• highways
• parks and recreation
• welfare
• medicare
• housing
• unemployment
• social security

Each one of these governmental services is a FORM OF SOCIALISM and in order to increase the payouts to any of these services, the government MUST increase its base of TAXES or borrow money from FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS...

DATA FROM 2020

Currently, ONE THIRD of our NATIONAL DEBT is owned by CHINA.

As the wealthy become more wealthy, they shelter away from taxes more and more of their money knowing that the government needs those taxes to pay for increases in those services...  so, the tax burden always falls on those who cannot shelter their taxes like the WEALTHY.

While this is not FAIR or EQUITABLE, it is the AMERICAN WAY which is protected by the AMERICAN LAWS...

Illegal immigration consumes more and more of those services (as well as the low paying jobs) as their numbers increase to the detriment of the American People who also need those services and jobs.

Some of our DEMOCRATIC PARTY citizens want to provide FREE COLLEGE EDUCATION to everyone including ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS which will, over time, INCREASE GREED EXPONENTIALLY and our Businesses and Industries who are also facing increases in taxes and fewer profits to pay for new product research, have NO REASON to provide employment to these EDUCATED AMERICANS.

Our Government CANNOT FORCE business and industry to HIRE WORKERS unless our government OWNS these businesses and industries which under our current governmental law is not possible or permissible.

THEREFORE and in order to increase the services to Americans, our Government will need to ACQUIRE all of America's Businesses and Industries in order to provide employment to all the college educated citizens so that they can enjoy greater income and enjoy the pleasures of GREED by buying more and more.

AND...  it is these actions...  that will cause America's Downfall...  as our free market enterprise system begins to bite itself in the ass...

Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist and socialist revolutionary. Born in Trier, Germany, Marx studied law and philosophy at university. He married Jenny von Westphalen in 1843. Due to his political publications, Marx became stateless and lived in exile with his wife and children in London for decades, where he continued to develop his thought in collaboration with German thinker Friedrich Engels and publish his writings, researching in the reading room of the British Museum. His best-known titles are the 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto and the three-volume Das Kapital (1867–1883). Marx's political and philosophical thought had enormous influence on subsequent intellectual, economic and political history. His name has been used as an adjective, a noun and a school of social theory.

Das Kapital means capital and capital is different than capitalism according to Marx with the understanding that capital is simply money and as everyone knows ALL SOCIETIES need some form of capital to exist in that they exchange capital for goods and services.

Capitalism on the other hand, uses capital in such a way that the accumulation of capital is what drives capitalism not just using money to purchase goods and services.  Capitalists want to generate more capital than is needed in order to create a profit.

Marx believed that each person generated capital according to his ability and received capital according to his contribution...  this means that if you do not have much of an ability then you cannot make much of a contribution but you get something which is better than nothing.

An International Perspective of Our Presidential Debate

Again, when preparing this article, I chose to go to the BBC rather than CNN, CBS, MKSNBC, or ABC because of extreme mainstream media bias...

You will be amazed at how bad it made America look in the eyes of the rest of the world...

            

So...

From the BBC...

UK
The event "was not a debate in any meaningful sense" but rather "an ill-tempered and at times incomprehensible squabble between two angry septuagenarians who palpably loathe each other".

The Guardian described it as a "national humiliation".

"The rest of the world - and future historians - will presumably look at it and weep," the paper wrote, adding that Mr Biden was the only man who looked "remotely presidential" on the stage and saying that if Mr Trump was re-elected in November, "this dark, horrifying, unwatchable fever dream will surely be the first line of America's obituary."

FRANCE
"Chaotic, childish, gruelling" - that's how French newspaper Libération described Tuesday's debate. Le Monde agreed, calling it a "terrible storm", and saying that the president had sought to "push his opponent off his hinges" with constant interruptions and by mocking his answers.

Le Figaro said Mr Biden had "systematically refused to play his opponent's game". While Mr Trump tried to directly confront his challenger, pointing at him and addressing him directly, the Democratic candidate spoke more to viewers and looked directly into the camera.

GERMANY
Der Spiegel's analysis of the debate is headlined "A TV duel like a car accident".

In a piece titled "Part fist-fight, part play", Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: "Both Trump and Biden could go home satisfied because as far as the theatrical performance is concerned, both did their job properly. Donald Trump played Donald Trump, Joe Biden played Joe Biden, and fans should have liked it."

Die Welt said the debate had revealed very little about policy. "Most importantly, it showed that America has a president whose behaviour stands out and who lacks self-control - but that's not exactly news," it wrote.

Mr Biden in contrast was not an exciting candidate but "at least someone with common sense and a stable personality" who would "bring something like normalcy back to the White House".

ITALY
"Never had American politics sunk so low," La Repubblica's US correspondent wrote, describing the debate as "Chaotic, rowdy, and based on mutual contempt".

Il Corriere della Sera meanwhile said President Trump's refusal to condemn white supremacy was "a message for Black America".

RUSSIA

One broadcaster described it as a "one and a half-hour exchange of insults", while another said there was "no constructive dialogue".


"The rivals kept interrupting each other and instead of a balanced discussion they chose the path of mutual insults," pro-Kremlin NTV television said.

Mr Biden's description of President Trump as "Putin's puppy" also generated comments on Russian social media. One Twitter user said: "Two old men are figuring out which of them is more worthy to become the president of the United States, but without Putin, you can't boost your rating."

CHINA
Chinese official media sites broadly ignored the US debate although some wrote about how both candidates had used China to attack their opponent.

The state-run Global Times called it "the most chaotic presidential debate ever" and noted that Mr Trump had taken "aim at China by blaming [it] for the raging Covid-19 epidemic and US economic woes".

Editor-in-chief Hu Xijin wrote on Twitter that the debate reflected "division, anxiety of US society and the accelerating loss of advantages of the US political system".

INDIA
Hindi-language news channel AajTak accused both candidates of "mud-slinging", while broadcaster Times Now said the debate was "marred with personal jibes and political barbs".

But the strongest commentary came from The Times of India, the country's largest-selling English-language newspaper, which compared the debate to "mud-wrestling".

"The US embarrassed itself before the world for 100 minutes," it wrote.

BBC Monitoring contributed to this report.

Last Night's Presidential Debate

FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, the debate turned into a verbal brawl by two grown men whose testosterone levels were higher than normal.  Personally, I was embarrassed by both candidates and felt sorry for Chris Wallace who was forced to contend with two idiots.

President Trump has NEVER been a very good speaker but last night he was the worst that I have ever seen him and more incohesive than usual in the way he strung sentence phrases and fragment together.  It was also clear that he lost his "professional cool" and was "rattled" several time by Biden's comments and attacks.  President Trump failed to answer several important direct questions and it was unclear if he did not want to answer or did not know the answer.

Former Vice President Biden, was NO BETTER with his comments, although he did answer questions directly, acted more professional than Trump (which is not saying much) and talked to the American People by looking directly into the camera.  All of this was the result of being a politician for 47 years and had nothing to do with any potential President abilities that he might have.

Personally, I am a former DEMOCRAT and while I do not considered myself a REPUBLICAN, I do dislike the Democratic Party very much because of the way that they have attacked the President from the very beginning since they refused to accept the results of the 2016 election because it was decided by the Electoral College and not by the POPULAR VOTE.

Because of the constant and relentless attack on President Trump and his family, I will never step over the line and support the Democratic Party again, nor will I ever have respect for the mainstream media who have turned a blind eye to the Trump Administration and wholeheartedly supported the Democratic Party even when the Democratic Party was WRONG.

I have been around for several Presidential elections and terms of office and one issue is decidedly clear, if there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court, that vacancy is filled as quickly as possible to keep the opposing party from filling it after an election.

And, when the Democrats state that President Trump is being UNCONSTITUTIONAL, they are LYING to themselves and to the America People.

WHEN POLITICIANS PLAY POLITICS THE AMERICAN PEOPLE LOSE...

Starbucks Coffee Deception

Ever since the late 1990's, I have been drinking Vanilla Cappuccino from Starbucks since my brother purchased a cup for me at the hospital in Norfolk, VA when my father was hospitalized there for a few days.  I cannot remember what size it was, but since that experience I always get VENTI or large when I am ordering.

I don't purchase Starbucks Coffee very often because it cost more money than I would like to pay for a cup of coffee, especially when I can purchased an equally delicious cup of coffee at Panera Bread for less than half of what I pay Starbucks.

Recently for my Christmas and Birthday Presents, I have been receiving Starbucks Gift Cards so I have been purchasing more VENTI Vanilla Cappuccinos from Starbucks than normal...  and today, my wife went to the Mall in Knoxville to look around and to get out of the house a little, so I asked her that if she passed a Starbucks to get me a cup...   which she did.

The coffee was cold by the time she returned so I had to heat it up a little in the microwave after which I removed the top...   AND, not only did I notice that the foamed milk they put on top had liquified, I also noticed that my cup was only HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY depending upon your perspective.

HALF...  FRIGGIN...  FULL is a disgrace...  and deceptive to say the least when ordering a VENTI cup of coffee...

In reality, I got a small cup of coffee in a large cup...

Once my gift cards are empty...  NO MORE STARBUCKS FOR ME...

A Reason to Invest

from www.investopedia.com

What Is the Rule of 72? 

The Rule of 72 is a simple way to determine how long an investment will take to double given a fixed annual rate of interest. By dividing 72 by the annual rate of return, investors obtain a rough estimate of how many years it will take for the initial investment to duplicate itself.           Jun 20, 2019

from www.thebalance.com

If you're looking into investing in mutual funds, you'll want a sense of the average return before making any moves. In 2019, mutual funds in seven broad categories have averaged a return of roughly 13%, more than double the average annual return over the past 15 years.        Oct 21, 2019

SO WHAT DOES THE ABOVE INFOMATION TELL YOU?

Well...

the first thing we must do is divide 13 into 72.

the answer is 5.5 

In other words,

whatever money you have in a MUTUAL FUND will double in value every 51/2 years...

 

Is this important information to have access to?

Well...

let's run the numbers

Year 0               $5,000

Year 51/2          $10,000

Year 11             $20,000

Year 161/2       $40,000

Year 22            $80,000

Year 271/2       $160,000

Year 33            $320,000

Year 381/2       $640,000

Year 44            $1,280,000

So, if you put $5,000 into a Mutual Fund at the age of 25 and kept it in that Mutual Fund with no withdrawals for 44 years or age 69...  you will have over ONE MILLION DOLLARS...  This age is only 2 years over the government required FULL RETIREMENT AGE...

A General Rule of Thumb is that you will receive $400/month for every $100,000 invested...  so, you would have 12 - $100,000 invested or you would be receiving $4,800 each month and you would never be drawing down on the over ONE MILLION DOLLARS...

PRETTY COOL SHIT RIGHT?

Life Eternal

 If religious people believe in eternal life, then what is the real purpose of life here on earth from some 80-90 years?

The average life expectancy in the US is 78.87 years...  (2019 data)  However, on average people live longer in the UK 81.16 years.

So, if you are a religious person, then you can spend (ON AVERAGE) more time here on earth if you live in the UK than if you live in the US.

That should please religious people...  RIGHT?

If one had to ability to read every single book that was ever written and/or published regardless of language, then one would be able to easily surmise that the purpose of life here on earth is 

SURVIVAL,

and, if this is the case, then religious beliefs are only good for life eternal...

Life eternal makes more sense anyway after the concept of survival is fulfilled because it seems completely ILLOGICAL for mankind to live 80-100 years IF all that happens to them after they die is that they are simply put into the ground or cremated.

It is also highly unlikely that mankind is the only living race of people in our ENTIRE UNIVERSE...  especially since there are over billions of billions of solar systems in our UNIVERSE.  Unless I am mistaken, that's PRETTY DAMN LARGE.

And...  if you are a religious person then you will use your basic instinct of SURVIVAL to live as long as you can on earth so that you can DIE and live for all eternity in a location called HEAVEN...  As illogical as this sounds, it makes better sense than just dying.

FURTHER, in every single Global religion there is a GOD or some form of superior being around which their religion revolves...  this cannot be MERE COINCIDENCE...  the question is whether or not this is God or some form of ANCIENT ALIEN...

Defund The Police

One of the major reasons why I like driving in the State of TN is because there are LESS HIGHWAY PATROLMEN in TN than there are in the States of:  NC, VA, and MD in which I have driven and been awarded SPEEDING TICKETS being an out-of-state driver...

REASON:  MORE COPS IN THOSE STATES THEREFORE ODDS INCREASE...

And, while Highway Patrolmen are not City/County Police, they are still part of law enforcement and the more COPS you have, the LESS CRIME IS COMMMITTED...  it's just logical.

Defunding the police movements are currently underway in several cities in this country and if those police department are in fact defunded, then crime will increase...

WHY DO I SAY THIS?

Common sense is the answer...

Americans CANNOT REGULATE THEMSELVES to follow the LAW.

We can easily see this when it comes to voluntarily wearing face masks in public during the COVID-19 Pandemic...

Once local authorities made it mandatory, people when being observed followed the mandate but if there were no monitors around, their masks were removed...

Americans buy more illegal drugs than any other country in the world.  It is a FACT that people under the influence of drugs commit more crimes.

You are being silly and foolish if you cannot see this...

Americans need law enforcement otherwise they will not obey the laws...

Nasty Weather

I knew there was a reason why I HATE/DETEST winter and that is the COLD WEATHER returns...  and, while it may have only dropped 20 degrees, it is still friggin' cold to me.  This type of cold does not hit our part of the country until November and/December and typically it arrives after a gradual cool down of several weeks...  not over night as it has done today...

It is not my older body that dislikes the cold because I have not like the cold ever since I spent my high school years in Cairo, Egypt where the coldest temperatures are usually 10 degrees above what the temps are here today.  Ten degrees may not seem like much but it can easily be felt by me...  and, it reminds me of a scenario I used  when teaching variation associated with Statistical Process Control that went something like this...

When looking at and explaining variation it may not be easy to grasp without using some sort of visual model and in this case, I will be using temperature.  Now, let's suppose that the ideal temperature in a classroom according to the experts is 68 degrees.  If that temperature went up to 69 degrees or down to 67 degrees, it is doubtful that any of you would notice a 1 degree change in temperature...  but, if that temperature increased to 78 degrees or decreased to 58 degrees, I am confident that each and every one of you would not only notice but feel that drastic temperature change at some point-in-time if not immediately.

And just like the change in FONT SIZE, when using visuals it is easy to notice and/or detect VARIATION.

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers. It has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. His best known works include "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis"), Der Process (The Trial), and Das Schloss (The Castle). The term Kafkaesque has entered the English language to describe situations like those found in his writing.

Kafka was born into a middle-class German-Jewish family in Prague, the capital of the Kingdom of Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today the capital of the Czech Republic. He trained as a lawyer and after completing his legal education was employed full-time by an insurance company, forcing him to relegate writing to his spare time. Over the course of his life, Kafka wrote hundreds of letters to family and close friends, including his father, with whom he had a strained and formal relationship. He became engaged to several women but never married. He died in 1924 at the age of 40 from tuberculosis.

The Metamorphosis which was first published in 1915. is one of Kafka's best-known works, The Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and his subsequently struggling to adjust to this new condition. The novella has been widely discussed among literary critics, with differing interpretations being offered.

Not truly knowing what Kafka was trying to get across has bothered his critics for decades from thinking Kafka had a father complex, to thinking he was referring to the plight of the Jews, to being seen as an Existentialist and not just the absurdity of life but its pre-determined nature.

After Dark

It is 9:20 pm on the lower right hand corner of my YOGA Lenovo...  and, I am sitting outside in my screened-in back porch listening to the rain, sitting on a cushioned chair that we brought in from the outside deck when we purchased new deck furniture last year.  The rain has been consistently pouring down mildly forceful for the last twenty minutes when I first came out here to write a little before going to bed since I love listening to the rain...  therapeutic and relaxing as it rams itself into the ground or whatever objects with which it comes into contact.

Across the way (directly in front of me)  I see only darkness and six lights, three of which are street lamps and three of which are lights attached to a house.  I can tell this because of their brightness and proximity to the ground as I have perceived it to be in my mind.  The brighter lights have three to four rings around them and banners of faint light shoots out from both sides, top and bottom, giving me the impression of a cross.  And while the less bright lights have this same light configuration, it is not as bold.

Together, all six lights look like some kind of star constellation if they were only much higher in the the perceived sky... and all around everywhere else except inside my screened-in porch, there is complete and eerie darkness as the rain continues to fall and hit objects.  The temperature on the clock like thermometer reads just shy of eighty degrees but that must account for being somewhat inside and protected because I can feel the chilly air move through the screen like plant osmosis.

It is now 9:37 and I have had enough of my writing for this day...

What Does It Matter Anymore?

I gave my opinion to management and was fired for taking that kind of initiative

I divorced my first wife because the love was gone and my college age daughter never forgave me

I quit smoking, exercised, and ate health and with no key factors still had a serious heart attack

I am the only sibling in my family to be diagnosed with cancer

I am the only conservative liberal in my family

I am the only sibling to be unsuccessful

I am retired with no interests

Without my the TRUST FUND left to my sister and I, my retirement would not be spent on the back porch writing words that few will ever read, but I would be up and about working for someone because Social Security is not enough to pay the bills and I have very little savings.

With the TRUST FUND, I am able to pay all my expenses and save the rest to use in about 5 years when the TRUST FUND is financially depleted.

To make a long story short, I am a simple man of simple means who is living a reasonable life with his wife during our retirement.

I am bothered by the LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC party and I really should not be because at my age it really does not matter because:

• I don't need to work
• My health is covered by Medicare
• I have saved enough money to live to 95
• My taxes are relatively low
• My expenses are minimal
• My needs are few
• My remaining life is short

As I look at my life and review what I have done, what I have not done, and what I want/need/desire to do, there is no list at all for the latter two points as I have done everything that I want to do...  other than live a better life WHICH IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN...  and, if it did, what the hell can one enjoy at 73 years of age?

• SEX
• EATING at expensive restaurants
• SLEEPING in expensive hotel rooms
• FLYING first class
• CRUISING in luxury
• WEARING expensive clothes
• DRIVING expensive cars
• DRINKING expensive wines
• TRAVELING

YOU on the other hand, do have something to gain/lose depending upon which POLITICAL PARTY gain control of the Presidency and/or the Congress, but not the SUPREME COURT because it is set for 2-3 decades in the future.