Ten Random Thoughts

1.  If you uttered the phrase 'dark ages' to someone....how would they define it?

(probably a response about the last power outage they had)

2.  If you had to deal with someone who you absolutely knew they had a mental disorder....what's the odds that you'd skip the meeting entirely?

3.  Have you in the past decade met anyone that you would truly classify as a 'hippie'?

4.  In an average day of bumping into 100-plus people....how many are what you'd classify as freaky or radical beyond belief?

5.  If you walked into a shop and needed customer assistance....then the front-desk lady appeared helpful but had six obvious tattoos and four piercings on her nose and lip....is there a slight chance you'd just walk out?

6.  If you were the 'boss' and there's a $300 weather balloon floating around and your chief way of 'getting' it....is a $350,000 missile....would you sign off?

7.  If you laid out $22,000 for the first year of college for your 'Wanda', and she arrived back home after 12 months...seeming more stupid than before, what are the odds you won't pay for another semester?

8.  The odds that in the basement of the Pentagon....there's a two-man-shop with experts on weather balloons?

9.  If you could sneak around to 12 states and register to vote in all of them....without getting caught....would you do it?

10.  Is there any chance that your 7-year old son may walk up to you and ask for verification that you are....who you say you are....indicating he wants to see your blue-check mark (like Twitter)?

The Thing About Serfdom

 Officially, on the books.....most of civilization (in the UK) saw serfdom dismantled in 1789.  It was a long and slow process....but the general public...between the colony-turned-into-America, and the United Kingdom....saw the future, and it didn't involve serfs.

In France, the end came around 30 years later.  For Germany....around the 1830s to 1840s.

Being a serf?  It usually meant that you were given a fake piece of property by some deeded guy (someone with a title), and you were his hired 'help'.  You weren't supposed to move....you weren't supposed to improve your life or welfare....you weren't supposed to have beliefs other than what you were given by the deeded guy.

A lot of what was written into Das Kapital....by Marx....in 1867....was geared to a world of serfdom, which was already in a death stage by this point.  I've always questioned the value of the book and that maybe his judgement and harsh view....was maybe 30 years behind the times.  The fact that Das Kapital (your introduction to Communism) was more of a intellectual-introduction situation....rather than for the common guy who'd left the serf world and gone off on his own.

Serfs being brought up a good bit today?  This is an odd thing....at least once a month, I'll be reading some essay or article, and some individual wants to stir up serfdom once again.....trying to suggest that x-group of people are herded-up to be serfs once again.

The problem with this discussion?  You end up, if you admit you might be a serf....suggesting that you are happy being controlled (either by the gov't, some authority, or some fake-degreed 'Lord')....happy over never leaving the dwelling or current dump....and happy over some doom/gloom scenario.  It would make little sense to stay.

Observations

 1.  Noted this AM....US Navy came out with a physical fitness optional-plan.  What they say...in certain words....if you failed the annual 'test', instead of the bad-boy reports, you'd just get encouraged to improve.  All the current bad-boy reports in the system?  They'd be yanked.

I had a conversation with a Navy guy back in the 1990s, and he simply noted while at sea....if you were persistent....you might have spent an hour in the ship's gym once a week....mostly lifting weights.  

Why the change?  Well....lot of guys getting previously encouraged to leave the service over the fitness agenda.  

2.  How I see Senator Fetterman for the remainder of 2023?

I will suggest that he exits the hospital by late March, and does a month of home-rest....returning to work in mid-May.  By the return from summer recess....around late September, he'll have fresh problems, and return to the hospital by early October.  You won't see him in the Senate office more than five days for the last two months of 2023.  

3.  On changing names 'games'?

If you look at the current high school kid agenda....we've left the gender business to test the next trend....changing names.

I'll predict by early 2024....more than 20,000 kids under the age of 18....will changed their names.  Some will be taking up Klingon names....some will select robotic angles (Borg-One-of-Twelve).....some will select 'Clever', 'Winkel', or 'Pussy'....some might even select 8th century Roman empire names (Crispin, Kenric, or Eydis).  

4.  To be a Starsky and Hutch new series...using females as the two?

Yeah.  For some reason, I'm just not buying into the concept.

5.  Ever noticed....about 90-percent of the stuff on late night 'comedy' shows....isn't that funny (like Johnny Carson-funny)?

6.  After CNN fires Don Lemon (any day now).....should Fox come up and offer the guy a second chance in life, and let him confess he's always been a conservative?