Is personally opposed really that personally opposed?

It's quite fashionable these days to say you're personally opposed to abortion, wouldn't have one or be a party to one yourself, your personal position so to speak but then say the government has to stay out of the Woman's Decision, your political position. Here's why I don't believe these people and it has to do with the psychological aspect of human emotion. ThruMyEyes recently commented at my own blog that she is against abortion herself on a moral level but then engaged in your typical pro-abortion argumentation and pushed the line that women's lives would be at stake if abortion were made illegal again. So here's where it gets questionable and murky at least for me, there seems to be no feeling or real passion behind their "personally opposed" position, it's more a technical line you'd find in a DVD manual otherwise why adopt the talking points of the abortion lobby? TAO does this too all the time but this begs the question if they feel as they say that abortion is the taking of an innocent human life then what does it matter if the taking of that life be done in a safe and legal manner or not (safe for whom?)? I remember years ago when the godfather of this argument, former NY Governor Mario Cuomo, appeared at some pro-abortion conference or other and stated from the podium "everyone here knows my position" but this begs the other question if pro-life has any emotional or spiritual resonance with you from a purely psychological standpoint why would you even associate with such people? This is not the same thing as judging them or getting personal but it'd be like if I as a pro-lifer were seen hobnobbing with the choicers at some Planned Parenthood conference having scones and tea people would question it and with good reason, I'd be on PageSix for cryin' out loud.

Today is strictly a no TV day for me, I'd sooner meditate on the grease spot on the ceiling. OK, I get the coverage today but all day yesterday too on the Eve? They finally pulled that plane up from the Hudson River and so I popped on the Today show yesterday before heading out to work but it was all about the Preparations. I don't think any other president in recent memory got this kind of treatment. Since I have today off they asked me at work would I watch the coverage and so I gave a polite answer which was basically no, I'm not a stay-at-home person anyway. Come to think of it I have to get a pack of gum in Poughkeepsie.

How laws are made in this country

Now here's my beef and I'm not crapping out on the digital TV transfer to take place on Feb. the 17th. I along with millions of other Americans probably had no idea this was even coming but we shouldn't be at all surprised as that's the way most laws are passed in this country these days. There really is no input from the public who put these rascals in office, they legislate everything under the sun often in the dead of night and I just want to be able to put my two cents in before they pass the next batch of laws is all. NO, they just go ahead and do it anyway. In a fully-functioning prime democracy the way it would have went is send letters out to your constituents first explaining why analog sucks or whatever and so then we can give our input in shaping the very laws that effect our everyday lives. THAT'S ALL, is that too much to ask?

The case might be made...

...that divorce is more damaging to the social fabric than abortion in this sense. Abortion imo effects our views on things like the sanctity of human life and it's safe to say it's pretty polarizing but with divorce it's, you know, put it this way, conservatives get divorced probably at roughly the same rate as liberals. Most folks might say it's

a bad thing

but I lost track, Rush might soon be nipping at Larry King's heels in this dept. You can make the case that divorce is more damaging to the social fabric because by its very nature it's more insidious than abortion, it's subtle though but far more folks rationalize it than abortion, there are many people who'd sooner see a divorce lawyer than be a party to an abortion. A word on the gay marriage. Advocates most often bring up how does legalizing gay marriage pose a threat to hetero-marriage but they're missing the mark imo. It doesn't of course but what we are talking about is our cultural preferences being democratically written into our laws at least until recently before the Judiciary became the supreme branch of government. I still remember my history class at Mt. St. Michael in the Bronx and right there in black and white it said there are three, count 'em three, co-equal branches of government - the judicial charged with interpreting our laws, the executive charged with enforcing our laws and the legislative branch whose job is to make those laws.

You might even make the case that divorce is a more sensitive issue than abortion since so many conservatives partake going all the way back to Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman. IMO it's as bad a social trend as abortion so if I've ruffled any feathers you can send any complaints to.....Beth, lol.

Sully rocks!

Should be a postage stamp after the guy but I was thinking. I'm no aviation expert so I'm sure there's someone out there to shoot down my idea but the way things are going why not have a few inflatable life rafts on board next to the fire extinguishers? In my view it was a kind of a miracle and since everyone else is using that term I'd be hard-pressed to go the other way and how ironic since this was a theme of mine of late. New York definitely needed a counter-9/11, a shot in the arm and their police/fire/rescue services are second-to-none imo. Now it's been said the guy is humble so he probably wouldn't go along with this but if I were Obama I'd instruct the IRS in no uncertain terms to lay off this guy's ass for the rest of his aviation career.

Lifestyle choices

or why maybe Dan Quayle had a point

It's kind of a basic tenet of modern-day social liberalism that everybody has the freedom and right to make their own lifestyle choices. OK, this is true as far as it goes but it's also not true that people's lifestyle choices never impinge on others. Out-of-wedlock births, now let me be very specific here. I'm talking about a social trend I've picked up on beginning many years ago, not the woman who finds herself in the dilemma of an unplanned pregnancy but those young women who either plan it or else expect that it can happen and so no big deal being a single mom. The situation I've narrowed down here because I need to be careful as a pro-life advocate but I have heard of this Murphy Brown-type lifestyle choice if you will and seen it firsthand. I worked with one young woman many years ago who had two kids this way, pretty much planned the whole thing or else didn't really care about taking the proper precautions to the point where she didn't care that it happened (the two are somewhat interchangeable in my mind) and so this woman got offended when someone suggested she marry her boyfriend of longstanding: "I'm not going to let society dictate my life." So here's where the imposition of one's lifestyle choice has an effect, right there in the workplace. They call out sick a lot, come in late a lot and generally throw a wrench into the whole workday because everything revolves around their own personal schedule which in turn is dictated by finding a babysitter and other social issues relevant to them, their agenda. So the other workers tend to get annoyed and resentful over time, there's no real search or need for a man in her life (modern-day feminism, who needs a man?) and so while the gay man can come to work everyday and really pump it out (poor choice of words, lol) some lifestyle choices pose a bigger burden on others. OK, I'm sure I've offended someone out there.

thoughts on 24

Watched the first two two-hour installments of the new season of "24" and it seems back on track but am kind of surprised it's become the big right-wing hit it is, after all it's heavy on the government conspiracy theories especially this season. Maybe in addition to a God gene we have a conspiracy gene and the conservatives can secretly indulge themselves here when they're not reading books "disproving" the various JFK conspiracy theories, chalk it up to a guilty pleasure and besides conspiracies make for good drama on TV. O'Reilly recently blasted Matt Damon and "Bourne Ultimatum" in a column because in his view it put down {gasp} our own CIA, NEVER!!! so why is "24" OK? I've said this before vis-a-vis Charlie Sheen and Rosie O'Donnell, conspiracies give our lives a sense of adventure, mystery and meaning and if every once in a while one happens to be true so much the better. Jack Bauer, we'll see where it goes.

The msm, at best they're annoying

I was working yesterday so I only heard about this. I have an elderly neighbor and she was watching "The Price is Right", it was about 10 after 11 in the morning and in comes Breaking News, A Special Report and so your first reaction is a building just fell, a bomb hit, Jimmy Hoffa's final resting place was found, O.J. pulled a prison break. Seems our Savior was giving some major speech on the economy at some college and ALL the major stations did the same thing. Now when this story was first relayed to me my first comment was "he ain't even president yet" and turns out my neighbor said the exact same thing. Imagine this with any other president, let's say the media broke into regularly scheduled programming to report what George Bush just said even before his first inauguration, why Al Franken would be hog-tied, Julia Roberts would demand equal time. Don't get me wrong, the msm, they're not biased, they just seem that way. Their bias is an illusion but a good one, it's all in your head just don't get too involved in Judge Judy or House is all I'm saying.

Why aren't there more miracles?

I kept nodding off at around 9:30 last night but I really wanted to stay up. I persevered and caught the first half of the Patrick Swayze interview and whenever I hear these things in the news I say a prayer of course like everyone else. I believe in God but I'm curious about Him, He seems so laidback. Let's say you're God and so naturally you have the divine power to cure people if you choose but in the vast majority of cases you decide not to, WHY? Just look at the history of the power of prayer and you wonder at the aloofness of it all. Now there are cases compiled by the Church, documented miracles but these seem to be blue-moon moments and why them and nobody else? if nothing else more miracles would certainly mean a revitalization and reinvigoration of faith no?

OR is this a false criticism of God, a false reading?

Why is everything so gangster in this country?

I'm really getting into the dining experience of late. Yesterday hit this place in the sticks with my friend and we got this real old friendly waitress, real Lauren Bacall smokey voice like she might wind up in a casket in two weeks, it was definitely something out of a movie, oldtimers rapping about Obama and the economy and the fact that they were out of seafood even added a nice touch, it was all so human but anyway noted a couple things at some diners recently. One I've gone to a few times now and don't get me wrong I like speedy service but your food comes out way too quick. Say you order their big breakfast the waitress gives you USA Today or something to read and you see that Bill Richardson just withdrew his nomination and out she comes with your sunnyside eggs, whole wheat toast, sausage, Canadian bacon and hashed up potatoes the way I like 'em all IN 5 F'N MINUTES, no less even so what do they do nuke everything? They must have the components already as soon as you walk in the door but you like to think that at least your eggs are cracked fresh, hell I can do that at home. Then at another diner the food was ok, 1/2 a chicken but I could tell what kind of gravy was on the mashed potatoes, some chef who obviously hates his job poured a jar of Boston Market on top and didn't even bother to heat it up like he didn't want to go to work that day, didn't feel well that morning, didn't wipe enough and he's gliding and sliding all day but that ain't my problem. Basic Thuganomics. PAGING GORDON RAMSAY!!!

This begs the question

I was waiting for my friend yesterday and got talking to his brother, big Irish family, very churchgoing and I mentioned that at our parish they eliminated the 5PM Mass on Sunday, convenient for me anyway since I work Saturday and usually part of Sunday. So he goes "what are priests doing that they can't say the 5:00 Mass?" Are they going to a club? Went to a baptism recently and they now do them in groups, the ceremony's longer too as a result but that's ok, I can swing with the times but at this baptism a deacon baptized the kids so my question is what was the pastor doing at 2:00 on a Sunday afternoon that he couldn't do it himself? He doesn't have a woman in his life, at least not theoretically, God is their life so is one too many Masses or sacraments too much of an effort for them? Technically speaking priests don't have to even take a vow of poverty. When I was a kid growing up our pastor owned condos in Florida but imo this goes against the image of a man devoted to God. Had to help move things in the convent once and the sisters had this huge stereo TV system for starters, I never even had that and my Mom and Dad busted their humps their whole life. Whassup guys?

Anyone care to discuss Gaza?

I really don't see how Israel is doing anything wrong in trying to obliterate Hamas, a country has the right to defend herself. It's a choicy kind of subject so feel free.

It ain't Merry Christmas but it'll do

Instead of starting a blog about quasars or the Gaza Strip or wallpaper or God forbid Happy Holidays and having it turn into some pro-abortion cistern of bad feeling I wanted to say something about my fellow Social Conservatives here. I don't see them poking their noses into people's lives. They live by broad social conservative principles, let's say they don't have sex outside of marriage and this covers a lot of ground I never heard of a group of them conducting surveys in their local neighborhoods on your sexual habits. The chances are very very good indeed they don't know anything about what Bob or Collins are doing or what Myself is up to (if anything, I think they talk big and wouldn't surprise me if one is 18 and blogging in his basement when he needs to be cleaning his room). In my neck of the woods I have absolutely no idea who's had or been a party to an abortion and I don't see myself trying to find out. Honestly I don't think conservatives as a rule conduct sex surveys at all, wasn't it Kinsey and Masters & Johnson who wanted to know what we were all up to? I always thought the man in the M&J team looked like that guy in Phantasm with the killer ball which brings to mind what one young wag once said on the Phil Donahue show: "how come most sex therapists look like you wouldn't want to have sex with them?" Dr. Ruth may be a veritable fount of sexual knowledge but let's pretty much keep it on an intellectual level. So besides social conservatives having a broad set of philosophical and moral principles they live by or at least try to (nothing wrong with having goals) I don't see how they're poking their nose into People's Business. I'm hearing a lot of talk of late but not much backing up. Now watch this blog get a big fat goose egg for comments and I'll start a blog about stamp collecting and everybody will unload. Fair Warning though, if you want to be an asshole and post about abortion on a totally non-abortion related topic I'm gonna delete your ass as in permanently.

I can't put my finger on it

There's a rather sizeable subgroup of people out there, they're not bad people by any stretch, you don't hate them, they don't deserve your opprobrium but there's just something about them, they're vaguely annoying, irritating in some way. Worked with a young guy once, didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't even drink coffee because it has caffeine. He came to work every single day always it seemed with a good night's sleep under his belt. I talked about it one day with someone how he's always so highly alert, efficient and she said "he doesn't abuse his body" but I found him annoying anyway with his energy/vitamin drink he always carried around with him. He seemed too perfect, the kind who lived a perfect life, never even uncorked one in a pinch, probably has a minor fortune in the bank because he always did the right thing and saved his money, never went out on New Year's and got hammered. He never came to work complaining of a poor night's sleep and for that reason alone you can't relate to him, you begin to think he's hiding some vast and dark secret, dust off the skeleton in the closet oh boy! as my friend said some people will put down gays but they'll be living weird lives themselves. I remember reading a newsletter from Fr. Bruce Ritter of Covenant House fame and how he was driving one day and on came Dr. Ruth with her "evil little chortle" as he put it (good line though) but look what happened to him. So the guy always did the same thing everyday, he'd sometimes go without his lunch maybe not so much to impress but because virtue demanded it. As a Religious Extremist I should have liked the guy but he was so perfect you began thinking if you hired a crane and tore down his house somewhere beneath the ruins would be his scat video collection or hire a PI and you'd find him going into some dungeon. You don't drink you don't smoke I'm cool with that, you don't have your cup of coffee or tea in the morning and you got my curiosity up bossman,

what's your story?

As a person...

...who feels that the majority of us do not wind up in Hell as a religious extremist I'm somewhat of a disappointment. I've always maintained it's a theological mystery and have a problem when priests or ministers go out on a limb here in their sermons. I'm not dogmatic either, it's none of the pastor's business imo how many times Lino circle-jerked on a Friday night. I find it hard not to be spiritual though and if anything anti-religious extremism is a problem. When Michael Schiavo forbade the hospice chaplain from giving Terri a drink of wine as part of the Last Rites that's pretty creepy in my book but anywho let's get to the nub or the hub shall we and define this case known in the lefty blogosphere as Religious Extremism, as it stands now it's a little vague and I invite as much bloviating and ranting as possible. If you don't believe in mermaids then why do you obsess about them?

Someone once told me the brain is like a computer

sometimes it needs to be reprogrammed. From drug abuse to disease you need to have the software put in again from time to time and maybe this will be the key to understanding modern medicine in the future. Might be a better pro-choice debate as well, had to have been some acidhead to come up with a rationale for partial-birth. Some people never sleep they're so wired, you have to shut the computer off at night you know and even then dreams are Nature's way of working out issues while you're asleep. Looking at some old black and white photographs is like googling your memory or mindbank, it's a wealth of data and I've been wondering of late why so many TV series having a new season start showing repeats about half way through, shouldn't be unless the writers are on drugs, Life gives you too much material I would think. People who masturbate your mind.

The thing I find annoying about smokers

Has nothing to do with the morality or health of the issue but a woman came over for Christmas and I'm watching her. Just in the door and she lights up and I'm fine, immediately after that she lights one up again and barely ten minutes go by and she's on her third one, another guest doing the same thing. It ain't the second-hand smoke either, I allow guests considerable social latitude it's that they ain't even enjoying it like you would a fine cigar or a pipe. Chain-smoking, hell why don't they just eat them? shove 'em in their mouth for lunch, have one coming out of the nostril and both ears while we're at it. It's a vile habit in the sense there's no sophistication involved like seeing a Cannon (William Conrad) fly-fishing in a trout stream with some apple tobacco wafting out of his pipe -- now that's living.

thoughts on a cold winter's night

musing while under the influence

They say you need to get that piece of paper to make it in Life but the real problem with Higher Education is not liberal college professors indoctrinating their class in the ways of radical leftism, WGAF?, the eggheads have a right to think and talk but the real issue is the typical liberal arts curriculum is so impractical. IMO you can't force someone to like the Bard or learn calculus and I've as yet to use higher math in my day-to-day affairs. You need to hone in and zone in on what truly interests you and that's where your trade or technical school is far better. Two years of college was enough for me, I now know who Jean-Paul Sartre was so I can now drop it in my blogging and impress everybody, yip-tee-doo! Like my chef friend says in France someone who knows how to cook is revered, over here you're kind of considered a failure, you're not up there on the same par with a clinical psychologist with a built-in pool in his backyard and a tennis court. People like you, oh you can cook? but like THAT'S IT??

Thoughts during Catholic worship. Nowadays practically 95% of the congregation goes up to Communion. Me? maybe half the time, the other half I don't feel worthy, there's something about the slime of sin, nothing major mind you but these folks who go up every Sunday without fail, are they that good?? I'm not buying it. Now the ones who sit it out, the few in the back who stick out like sore thumbs, the 40-something guy in the rear, you can't help but wonder what he did. It's none of my business but I think it involves a porno.

I have a beautiful view from my window during those bone-chilling winter nights. I can see downtown Yonkers and parts of Manhattan and there's just a gorgeous view of the GW Bridge. Life is good but I don't know why.

Seems to me they should have a system in place, some kind of heating cables under our roads right now so driving in January and February would be a breeze. Futuristic you say? well we found time to put a man on the Moon but we're like supposed to be some advanced civilization no? Of course this would cut into bailout money but you know at least have a theory in place by now.

Reminds me I have to get some eggnog, special blend later.

Buffers or the value of bad workers

EVERY place needs at least a few bad workers, there shouldn't be too many of them in any one workplace of course just one or two mind you and here's the reason why. They're buffers, let me say that again, you're working with a couple of buffers. A buffer is a bad worker but who is beneficial to you, he/she takes the boss's mind off what you're doing and onto what they're doing and it's always fun to talk about the buffer anyway, it's water cooler talk and would you rather they talk about you? The buffer just called out sick and threw a wrench into the whole work schedule so the boss starts talking about Ray as usual and you put in your two cents "yeah that Ray, what's up with that? calling out sick at the last minute. In my day..." so everybody likes to complain about Ray. What you want to do is never ever see the buffer(s) get fired, you certainly don't want to be instrumental in their firing yourself, you'll come to regret it later. Yeah the buffers get canned and you're all happy the next day but then the boss starts noticing more of what you're doing, those minor mistakes they always pick up on and you don't know what you had 'til you lost it, them were the days. Once worked with a kid, annoying as hell, always coming to work late with the most flimsy excuses but over time you find you can't hate him and that's the key to recognizing good buffer material, you don't know it yet but something tells you he's valuable as long as there's not too many of them and that's also pivotal to Z's Buffer Theory as long as they're not overly common their value actually increases. You actually become very tolerant of them whereas in the past you hated their guts, I mean it's not like the whole workplace sucks and once you recognize the practical reality of the situation you can more than deal with it, hell you might even buy him a beer. So never underestimate the value of a bad worker.

travelblogging, my landmark is the trump building

Had the day off yesterday and we went to the Yonkers Raceway Diner, had the Irish Breakfast and he had the Country-Style. You always have to have a cup of joe in a diner, it's mandatory and so I suggest we go to the newly renovated Greenburgh Public Library which just reopened yesterday. We work our way there, it's a meandering roadtrip as always 'cause that's how we like to do it and we pass the porno guy. He's a little shop on a busy, heavily traveled commercial thoroughfare and my friend goes "what's up with the main entrance? People go to this place, people they know can see them going in. It should have a back entrance or something, you have to go to the back of the hardware store first and then go through the sewer system." "Yeah, he can meet you midway in the ventilation duct." On the way to the fresh SuperLibrary, you can feel the pull of the magnetic structure at this point and I have a slight problem with our celebrity culture and media overexposure: "Jennifer Aniston does nothing for my life, how does it help?" We go inside the library, it's modern and hip architecture all the way, a corporate look, more spatial dimensions than anything else and it's so damn quiet. I know libraries are supposed to be this way but it's more than a tad eerie. You get that very strong futuristic sense "like some android or cyborg in a white lab coat asks if he can help you" - "I'm not John Connor." Great computer lab here though, a guy can blog his heart away. The main goal of our trip now over he says let's go over to the White Plains Mall. It's easy to go to from here, just follow the Landmark. I'm not too thrilled with this place, it's rundown and doesn't even have a FYE store but he tells the story of it's one of the original malls in the country. I think it's gangster but we go anyway. The comic and graphic books store is closed though on Tuesdays, must be the dork's high holy day or something so we hit the Japanese supermarket instead. Great seafood area, a big squid on ice with its eye looking at you, 10+ lb. bluefish, red snappers, Chilean Sea Bass, blue-claw crabs. Not too keen on the butcher section though, there's some cow tongue on display, some stomachs but I'm told it's a cultural thing, the Japanese use every part of the animal, it's their way of honoring it. That's nice but I think I'll pass on the chicken feet. We were barely in the mall for half an hour, maybe a little more and the municipal parking cost us 3 dollars!! (thuganomics). Now we're right up close to the new Trump Building in White Plains, a monstrosity, a beacon, a landmark, a tribute to EGO and my friend says he can see it all the way from the Palisades Parkway in Jersey. No matter where I drive I can see it for literally miles, it could even pass for a navigational marker for extraterrestrials. We drive past the wholesale flower place we used to work at, it's a nostalgic thing but it's now an electrical supply company, nothing lasts anymore it seems, New World Order stuff. We head on home, we could get a porno air freshener but we pass. It was a good day and you kick back and you smoke your Gispert that you bought the other day at Mom's Cigars and you ponder it. The stars are out now as it's unnaturally pitch black at 5 in the evening. Goat testicles?

Before I blog about OTHER things

some final thoughts on the issue (for now). Reading through the latest rantings of the choicers it's become fairly obvious to me at least that the issue of when human life begins is not a part of their moral calculus. No this is not being uncivil just an analysis on my part and so for them the value of choice trumps the value of life, in other words it is vastly more important to exercise your liberty in the form of choice even if that choice may involve the snuffing out of a nascent human life. For the RTLers life of course is the overriding concern and it is this very stark simplicity that most offends the choice crowd. They seem to revel in ambiguity and moral ambivalence, to say the issue is complex is to show one's mental sophistication and to oversimplify the issue in their view shows the mind of a social Neanderthal. Theirs is the intellect and ours is the narrow mind even after a lifetime of thinking to yourself you happen in the end to come to the pro-life conclusion. Abortion will for the foreseeable future be a tremendously polarizing issue simply because for the choicers it is factors other than pure reason that decides the issue for them (e.g. the woman's financial straits, is she really in love with him? can they make a go of it? etc).

Now there are some choicers, they may be in the minority, but you can say they're pro-life in the latter stages of the pregnancy and so if they don't find fault with the pro-life position here why is it problematic in the beginning unless to provide the woman with some sort of "window of opportunity"? So with these people you might say choice is not the overriding principle or it is at least tempered with other considerations. The abortion lobby and Obama's 100% rating from them is unique in being so outside the mainstream by adopting the mantra of choice throughout the pregnancy or most of it so why should fiscal conservatives adopt the same position at least in terms of the political strategy of never talking about the issue (but I'm repeating myself here ain't I)?

A final thought, speaking totally candidly here for the moment I honestly don't respect their position so why should I expect them to respect mine? As Joe once said abortion is a non-compromisable issue and I would add once an issue, any issue becomes debateable at least in terms of its underlying philosophical concepts it's only a matter of time before the act in question becomes morally approveable, we don't discuss the pros and cons of rape after all. For me civility means you're polite to other people as human beings although you can take issue with their positions. We're talking over each other as is often said because we adhere to different philosophical principles, for me I can't imagine believing the fetus is a member of the human species and then advocate for its destruction or at least the liberty to do so, the value of choice loses its luster for me at that moment. Post what you will but try to address the points (I know I know, I'm a comedian).