Teacher Discussion

 I sat and watched a video of a teacher (probably in her 20s) hyping up how she was so open with her relationship (with another woman) and lifestyle with her fifth grade kids.  After about four minutes of this chatter, I turned it off.  This has been on my mind for about three weeks now.

Growing up in the rural south of the 1960s/1970s, you basically got two elements of information out about your teachers: (1) they were mildly Christian (lite view of evolution) or extreme Christian (evolution could not be openly discussed), (2) they were married, but never mentioned the name of their spouse.  

Beyond that, you knew nothing of their politics, their past twenty years, or their social life.  Most would openly share their vacation from the past summer....where they went off to the Rocky Mountains, or camped out in some state park in Mississippi.  

Personally, the political, religious or social views of the teacher ought to rank with their position on NCAA football, Snickers versus Mars Bars, or best episode of Get Smart.

If you've got some dim-witted teacher who is wasting eight hours a month talking about sexuality or fantasy-sex stuff....it just begs questions.  Do they even know anything about the topic they've been hired to teach?

Where this is going to lead to?  You set some trend through high school and college....to arrive at your first real job....to discover that sexual chatter and lifestyle stuff....just isn't that approved in regular society.  You will start to imagine that they are 'stuck-up' and not your peers. 

It just begs the question....how will this trend-out in twenty years and if mental help will be required for some of these kids?

Three Bull-Shit Things

 1.  I read this AM....both CBS and NBC are in talks with Prince Harry.....if he's not invited to the King Charles Coronation (6 May)....that they'd cover this Coronation (live) and Harry would be the commentator.  

First, this would occur around noon (UK time), and be at 3 AM California time.  My guess....fewer than 1-million Americans would be watching on this Saturday morning.

2.  It just appears that with outside influence....Atlanta is on the verge of some type of civil war, with Antifa in the middle of this.  The comical thing....Antifa is purely white guys in modern black hoodies resembling a polar-opposite Klan 'klub'.  

3.  Some kind of secret documents got found in Joe's house in Delaware....that appear 'aged', and going back prior to 2008 (his VP start-date).  It won't surprise me if they eventually get to some secret document dating to the 1990s.  

Yet....no one goes to jail?   

Five Realizations in the New Year

 1.  I've come to realize every time that VP Harris speaks....I continually think of myself with above average IQ...maybe even in the 120 range.

2.  There's hardly a day that goes by in 2023, where I don't see cult-like behavior on TV or in social media.

3.  I truly believe that the Philippines can conduct a better election than the state of Arizona.

4.  I generally believe by the end of 2023....a Bible will be produced with gender-neutral pronouns, and God as a female (she).

5.  Alec Baldwin probably will get convicted, and sent off to a year in prison....later saying it was the best experience in his life, and he lost 25 pounds during the 'stay'.  

People Who Intentionally Develop Mental Illness

 Many years ago, I lived in a barracks that had some kind of bug problem, to which the Air Force sprayed down the place with some new and fairly odd smelling scent (I'd describe it as ultra citrus....to the extreme...like you squeezed a lemon over your upper lip every 3 minutes).  

Then they brought us all into a TV room and explained it was ultra safe and nothing unsafe at all.  Over the next six hours....probably five guys presented themselves at the base emergency room and hyped-up that they were about to collapse or faint.

I should note...whatever it was...marginally took care of the bug problem, and we thought the five guys were aiming for some disability situation later on in their career.

So today, I noted some report from Comprehensive Psychiatry (a monthly medical journal)....where "social contagion” through prolonged social media use can explain why some teens, mostly adolescent females, self-diagnose their purported rare mental illnesses and personality disorders online. “

In simple terms...teens were getting some type of information via social media, discussing it with other teens....then doing a self-diagnosing session over a mental illness invention. 

Yeah, they were making themselves mentally unbalanced.

So when you think about this...after they were artificially reaching a stage of unbalanced....then they had to go over to a mental health clinic....to recover from their personality disorder  that they invented.

Social media bombarding them constantly?  More or less.

You could easily be convinced by age fifteen that you were heavily into bondage or some real kinky stuff, and need serious intervention to reach reality.

What's interesting here....for those of us over sixty.....the worse you usually worried about was acne, crappy food at the school cafe, or some kid throwing up in a classroom.  A whole new world of being mentally unbalanced opens up.  

Another VP Harris Quote

 "The issues that are present in the climate crisis are varied and it requires us to be present and to be in front of each of the iterations and variations that include extreme weather that produces a lot of water and extreme weather that produces drought."

In other words....some days it rains, and some days it's awful dry.....you ought to stand and appreciate either/or.  

Explaining Peru's Recent Chaos

 Over the past three months, Peru's stability situation has moved from a page six story....to page one.  There's a lot of news chatter....which seems to be BS....so a moment of introduction:

1.  Peru for the past hundred years, economically and politically....has revolved around mining and bulk agriculture production.  Those key groups maintain the economic stability (control) and whatever political power developed...was 'blessed' by the 'boys-in-the-back-room'.

2.  In modern history....the 'new' Peru came about in 1968 with a coup d'état organized by a number of military officers, led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado.  Their label?  Well....they were going to bring "social progress and integral development".  

To pay for the benefits gained?  The General dumped the owner of the oil industry, and the state took over....using the cash flow for improvements.  It was during this era that major ownership of farm-land ceased, and the gov't started to hand out individual plots to farmers.  

3.  During the 1980s, economic chaos was a daily thing.  The currency reached a point where it was necessary to dump the Sol, and going to the Inti.  At some point...the Inti was going into failure....so they invented another currency out of thin air....called the Neuvo Sol.  In simple terms....nothing much that the government did....resulted in economic stability.

4.  To fix the 1980s issues....the military stepped in again, and drafted up more 'control' measures.  Censorship and a mandated economy (run by the military officers) became the solution.  Behind this....came the 'Shining Path' terrorist organization, which was a big deal for most of a decade.

5.  In the early 1990s...Fujimora came to be the President, and introduced more control measures....favored by the military.  If you were in some opposition group and raising 'hell'....you probably got a visit by the police.  Judges?  They were routinely put into place or 'fired'.  There's hardly a day in this era when you didn't hear about some Shining Path terror action going on.  

6.  Peru goes through the 2000 to 2010 period....with a series of new political figures....who are mostly retreads of the 1990s, and simply re-inventing themselves.  By 2009, the corruption trial over Fujimora has concluded....deciding he was pretty 'bad', and giving the guy 25 years in prison.  The true side to his case?  His police were involved in kidnappings and murder....sponsored by the state.  It was an effort to clear the slate and say that the government could clean up its mess.

7.  In 2011, you had the case where the President came from one party and the congress were Fujimorists in nature.  Impeachment chatter often came up.  They had a unique feature in their Constitution....where you could impeach a President without cause. Yes....nothing illegal or such....or even incompetence.  Based on this threat....President Humala left office (just the threat was enough to clear the house).

8.  The Covid era (2020 on)?  Well....politics ends up as a front page story....day after day.  President Vizcarra....walking in with marginal support in 2021....was 'fired' a week later.  Some folks say it was a coup by Congress, but it really doesn't matter.

9.  So we come to President Castillo.  He was the clear winner of the July 2021 election....no argument.  His party's control in the Peruivan House?  Around 25-percent....so nothing much was being passed, and it was mostly political theatrics for months leading up to December.

Then Castillo does something unique.....he's decided he will 'fire' the House and run the control by mandates from his office.  This set off alarms in the capital, and on the 7th of December....the House removed Castillo.  

What's generally laid out by news media sources is that Castillo is left-wing and the House is right-wing.  

It's safe to say the Castillo appeals to the bulk of lower-class voters (probably 20-to-30 percent of the country), and his promises rely upon a lot of 'gifts' coming down for this society of Peru.

The House vote to remove Castillo?  101-to-6.  

Who became President then?  Well....the VP....a woman by the name of Boluarte.

Castillo?  He's now been arrested/detained....on charges of rebellion.  Yeah....if it sounds like the 6th of January stuff in DC....you might be grinning.

Castillo like a charged-up and thrills-guy, who is anti-capitalist....a bit Trump-like character?  Some Peruvians would gleefully suggest that.  

Where things stand since mid-December?  Boluarte is basically running the country with the support of a right-of-center House and the full support of the military.  On the negative side....if you were to poll the public....probably half the country is shaking its head and in some state of anti-Boluarte behavior (meaning riots are occurring nightly).

A lot of this anger resulting from Castillo's promises?  That's the odd factor....he was absolutely a Marxist and doubling down on nationalist 'gifts' to the public.  He did actually promise a new tax on the rich of Peru....his big aim was to finally nationalize Peru’s mining industry (the real money-maker for the country presently), and there was that idea of writing a whole new constitution.

For reference, the Constitution presently....is the 5th since 1900....freshly drawn up in 1993.  Oddly enough, the key feature delivered out of this....the old Congress (made up of 240 folks) was reduced to 120.  

If you start at 1823....there's been a dozen Constitutions....most barely lasting a decade.  So it'd be truthful to say....things are always evolving there.

If you were looking for a great example how politics is a 'show'....Peru is the place to review things.  

Fires in the capital city, and riot police out in the past week?  Yeah....that's the action going on.  A lot of this is simply Castillo-supporters...disturbed that he didn't get a chance to fire the House and run things on his own.  

The odds that President Boluarte will be gone in three years?  Pretty much guaranteed.  Odds of another Marxist political gimmick already in the works?  Pretty much guaranteed.  

My advice....if you were a high school civics teacher and wanted a project for class development....assign a week of reading over Peru, spend a day talking about the value or lack of value in having a Constitution, and the chaos attached to politics.  

20 Things I Think Of

 1.  Every time I see a FBI official speak....I sit and contemplate....what's the odds of a false narrative that might fit into his 'talk'.

2.  Each time I see any politician promise something....I'm wondering how many lobbyists paid to influence him.

3.  Each time I see George Bush, I tend to wonder if he was ever fit to run a Burger King.

4.  Each time I hear Benghazi mentioned....I wonder....why would there be forty-odd CIA guys/contractors....sitting less than two miles away from the Ambassador's house?

5. Every time I see Bill and Hillary Clinton, I contemplate how many women 'serviced' Bill (BJ-wise) over the past forty years, and if Bill was given the 'green-light' back at year one of the marriage.

6.  Every time some PhD guy/gal indicates to me their position in life.....I kinda feel sorry for them, and contemplate offering them a coffee or a shot of cheap whiskey.

7.  When I get moral lectures from Christian folks (ever since age 12)....I tend to sit there imagine if Moses got these lectures over and over, and he walked off into the desert mostly because he was tired of the lectures.

8.  When I tend to see four policeman at the same time...standing there.....I size up the guys and figure the donut count to reach 250 pounds each.

9.  When I watch CNN (ever so rarely)....I'm continually counting the seconds before I either mute the sound or change the channel.

10.  When I (rarely) fly these days...I tend to sit and count the folks in the aisle yet to come....who are fifty to one-hundred pounds over their weight and require 1.3 seats to really sit comfortably, and hope none of them sit by me.

11. When I notice a gal wearing a pair of pants that are two sizes too small for her 'build'....I often wonder if she's so poor....she can't afford to buy the correct size.

12.  When I'm talking to a college graduate (four-year degree) and they seem to be eighth-grade high school material.....I'm wondering if I should recommend they seek part of their tuition back.

13.  When I'm in conversation with someone who seems to have paranoid schizophrenia (they actually describe imaginary people).....I tend to view and develop an escape plan.

14.  After I get home with a new TV these days...it's around day two that I realize there's around 600 extra functions....I didn't ask for....and contemplate if I should read further into the manual, or just stick with the dozen things I really asked for.

15.  I've come to realize that any conversation on the porch in 1975....centered on a dozen simple topics and you could engage without being embarrassed or put on the spot.  Today, there's likely 3,000 different subjects, and a quarter of them are pretty hot-topics that you'd rather not discuss....even with your barber, your wife, or the landscaper guy (Pedro).

16.  When I'm sitting in a ultra-modern car, it pains me to admit that there's probably six hours of training required to use all of the functions within the car.

17.  When I pull into any gas station in a highly urbanized city....I'm evaluating the lighting, security and my safety situation.

18.  When VP Harris speaks....I tend to wonder how she made it past the 8th grade.

19.  When I'm at a doctor's office and they hand me some interview-letter...asking me my feelings over X, Y and Z.....I tend to want to write that I feel great since I developed a relationship with my invisible friend (Marvin).  

20.  When I board a plane....I'm often wondering....from the 300 folks who are doing their best to make sure it runs perfect.....the movie mechanism works, the bag is there, and that the drink cart is full.....will any of them fail on their one vital task?