Its Official, The US Is An Absolute Shit Show!

 First off, no one can challenge my love of this country. I do love it so. I defended it. I will defend it. 

Now that we've got that out of the way, let me make fun of it.

Trump is a nutjob.

Biden is a senile nutjob.

RBG was a great woman who did a lot for the law, for women and for the country. (I don't pretend to know what order those should be in) But the woman is dead. A direct quote from her, in 2016 after she was asked if the Senate had an obligation to assess Judge Garland's qualifications: 

"That's their job," she said. "There's nothing in the Constitution that says the president stops being president in his last year."

Then this year before she died, she said: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."

The first she was answering a question. The second she was declaring her own personal preference.

The first was based her understanding of the constitution. The second was based on her feelings about the Orange man in the White House.

I don't give one single solitary shit how you feel about Trump. It doesn't matter how you feel. The man is the president, and as such it is his job to nominate justices to the supreme court and its the senate's job to either confirm them or refute them. I guess its refute. What is the opposite of confirm as it applies to supreme court justices?

Then we've got the riots, which have become for most of us...Tuesday. 

Political division, we've got that in droves. I especially enjoy the people taking to Twitter, which is about as American as it gets. Don't actually do anything, bitch about it on the internet.

Rioters all over the country are throwing bombs, fire and anything else they can get their hands on at cops. Rioters are being exposed for being snot nosed, fuck face rich kids who are out having fun before they run back to the gated community with the armed security guard dressed just like a cop. Who interestingly enough can only afford to live in the neighborhood that they just helped destroy.

People are stealing Trump signs out of people's yards? Yeah, this actually happens. What vapid, empty headed fucktard said, "Hey, if I grab this sign maybe I'll stop someone from voting for Trump" Do they actually think that works? If anything, it works against you. The sign owner catches you on his Ring Cam and then you're all over the internet firing up Trump supporters because they think liberals are coming to their neighborhood to steal all signs and then they'll come for our daughters. Next thing you know they're doing an interracial gang bang for Brazzers and the world as we know it is over.

Both sides have all but said explicitly that whatever the outcome of the election they don't really care. They're not conceding and there's going to be a court battle over it. Which will most likely turn in to an actual battle in the streets between the supporters of nutjob 1 vs the supporters of nutjob 2. 

In any case, we might be able to balance the budget if we set up some cameras and put this shit on pay per view. I think people all over the world would pay to watch us tear ourselves apart.

And that's the worst part, we're doing it to ourselves. We created this shit show and we've allowed it to continue and we've fed the fire and fanned the flames. Any semi-sentient being would swear we wanted this. A nation of morons yelling at each other. 

If I Don't Control What Happens To Me, What Is Left?

 Good question, unfortunately for the length of this post it is a very simple question to answer. The only thing that you really do control is how you react.

Doesn't matter what it is, what happened, who did it or any of that. The only thing that matters is what are you going to do with it, or about it? Its the only choice you have, how you react.

Wife/husband get in your face with some intractable nonsense that you know is complete hogwash? How are you going to react to her/him? Are you going to defend yourself vehemently and most likely make it worse? Or will you ask them what's really going on? Will you probe until you find what the real problem is? Or will you just realize that they may just need someone to vent to and they're reaching out, in their own jacked up way, to you?

Boss a dick? 

Are you going to let him get you down? Let him ruin your day? Let him ruin the day of everyone around you? Or are you going to say, he's just a guy like me, he's going through something that is making him act like this. Or will you realize that whatever he's pissed about, you did, and are you going to own up to it and make damn sure you do better from here on out?

The examples are literally endless. The alarm went off, what are you going to do? The power just went out, what are you going to do? Kids are screaming, what are you going to do?

That's the question, and that's the only thing left for you to control. 

The quicker you realize that, the better off you're going to be.

Now, will I do that? I'm going to fall on my face, no doubt about it.

Daily Stoic: What Am I Addicted To?

 Cigarettes, can't get away from that one.

Gambling, maybe. I do place bets almost daily, but they're for $5-10 per game. I make north of a 100 grand a year, I can afford it.

Porn. That's an iffy one because I've been fighting it lately. What's the criteria?

Addiction.com says...

1. Preoccupation to the point of obsession with sexual imagery. Porn addicts typically spend at least 11 hours per week searching for and looking at pornography. Sometimes they dedicate double or even triple that amount of time.

2. Loss of control over the use of pornography. Porn addicts often try to quit or limit their use of porn, but without success. They may stop for a day or two, often discarding their entire collection and stopping online subscriptions, only to quickly return to it.

3. Negative consequences directly related to the compulsive use of pornography. Porn addicts eventually experience many of the same adverse consequences that alcoholics, drug addicts, compulsive spenders, compulsive gamblers and other addicts deal with.

Using those I'm going to stick with a hard no. Ha, hard no. LOL.

But you know what I really think I'm addicted to? Planning.

Not actually doing anything, but planning. Daydreaming, thinking about doing, something. Whatever it might be.

I saw a little hunting cabin nearby me today that I could live in, and obviously hunt out of and there's a trout stream on the property, it juts up to state land and there's a lot going for it. All for the low, low price of $99,000. Which around here is pretty damn good. Now will I do anything about getting the place?

Truthfully, I couldn't say for certain, but I know which side I'd bet...

Yeah, simply running things around in my mind and not committing to anything. Thinking of this, and not doing it. Planning that, and not following through. That's my biggest and most problematic addiction.

Lovely, step one is always admitting that you have a problem.

Daily Stoic: How Can I Keep My Mind Clear of Pollution

 Not on this planet anymore. 

I'd have to say that's about the only thing I could do to keep my mind clear of pollution. Now I am going to alter that statement just a bit and say, "How can I keep my mind as free from pollution as possible"

I mean I have to use the internet to write this bullshit, so just on the strength of that alone I've already been sucked in to a meaningless pile of human drivel that is the blogosphere, not to mention I like Twitter, cuz its funny to watch people argue with other people they've never met over shit they can do nothing about.

I like Instagram because well let's be honest there's hot women all over there.

I like Pinterest because I always want to know how to DIY my own "insert useless thing here"

Facebook? Hate it but all my friends love it so if I want to keep up with them, I basically have to otherwise they'd get lost to the ether. Maybe not such a bad thing.

Method 1: Do not pay attention to the news. There is no such thing in today's day and age. Everything is opinion. Not one of the 24 hour "news" networks does anything but spout opinion. Newspapers if you still do that are the same just a little slower and they use bigger words. I think because they have a crossword puzzle they think they're better than the TV zombies. Fuck the news. That will minimize pollution.

Method 2: Pretty much have to stop watching TV altogether. Which not many of us are gonna do. I know I'm not. But entertainment is so weird now. I mean everything is getting remade. Its like a conscious effort to rewrite history. But what do I know, I mean for heaven's sake they're going to remake "She's all that" with the guy being the ugly duckling?

Method 3: Move next door to the Unabomber's cabin and live just like him, except for any and all lunatic conspiracy theories and keep your explosives to yourself.

Method 4: The only serious one of the bunch, think about everything that you put into your mind. Don't flip on the TV and channel surf. Don't surf the internet. Get on there for a reason, do it, then get off. Don't mindlessly scroll through your phone. Don't "mindlessly" anything. Think before you let something in your brain. Think before you let a feeling change your mood. Think before you get mad at the congressional asshat that did something stupid.  Think before you believe every bit of nonsense that gets spewed out of a talking head's mouth on TV. Better yet, don't even expose yourself to it. 

Read real books. Don't read this mass produced drivel online. Don't read this. This is just me running my mouth for my own benefit. It has nothing to do with you, and if it does, I didn't mean for it to do so.

Between stimulus and response there is a gap, that little gap is freedom.

Daily Stoic Day 5: Who Am I And What Do I Stand For?

 Well holy hot shit on toast as my lovely wife might say. That's not a heavy question at all. Not a bit.

So let's pick it apart shall we.

Who am I?

What roles do I have? Son, citizen, father, brother, husband, soldier, employee, boss, friend, colleague, enemy, and a myriad of others that are not coming to me right now. 

Son was the one I got first. It came with the conception. Did I do a good job of it? That's a War and Peace sized book answer in and of itself. So let's go with, "it depends on who you ask". 

Which I think would be the answer to that question for all of the other roles as well. Which sounds like one giant cop out. To a point it probably is. On the other hand, it is most certainly true. I suppose what I'm getting at is it is really a fools errand to try and get at who any person really is in a blog post that I'm trying to write in a half hour session before I go to bed tonight. I'm a man, who in his life has filled many roles, has done well at times, has royally fucked them up at others, but has always tried to at least make things right in the end. 

Now the things I stand for, these are easy to come up with...at least I thought they were until I started to think about them for a minute. Most people can think of the things that they hope they stand for. Honesty, integrity, freedom, fairness, hard work, insert whatever positive attribute or outcome you can think of and its easy to say you stand for that. Now try to think of a time you have stood for that. Now after you've done that try to think of a time that you've stood for that on your own....

This is what I'm struggling with. As I'm thinking especially now with all this BLM and Antifa bullshit going on with all these people running around basically cowing people into doing things have I actually stood up in any real way? Nope. I've written a few inconsequential words on the internet. Maybe posted a humorous meme or a clever picture on social media, but I haven't actually done anything about what is going on in the world and this country today. I'll admit, I live a fairly insulated life in a fairly out of the way place that won't get a lot of attention from anyone. So I probably won't ever be confronted with these situations, but could I go there? Sure. Will I? I sincerely doubt it. Should I? I don't know. Would there be any real point to it? 

But the question remains, can I name a time when I stood up for something that I believed in on my own? With no support, when something I knew was right was challenged, was I able to stand up to the mob, and like Captain America said, NO. YOU MOVE. 

Mighty Mighty Bosstone's Lyrics keep running through my head, "I'm not a coward, I've just never been tested. I'd like to think that if I was I would pass."

Daily Stoic Day 4: Am I Seeing Clearly, Acting Generously, Accepting What I Can't Change?

 I'd certainly like to think so. But if I'm being completely honest the answer has got to be no. At least in part. I mean to a point I am seeing things clearly. But completely clearly, I don't know. I couldn't be sure. I don't think I'll ever be sure. Can we ever be sure that we are seeing things 100% clearly? 

Acting generously. That's one where I think its safe to say that I fall short. I'm not particularly generous with anyone. If we're talking about money or time I'm pretty stingy with mine. I like to keep as much of it as I can. Or at least use it for selfish purposes as much as I possibly can. There's some room for improvement there.

Accepting the things I can't change? Lately, I've been giving a lot more space to people since I have been able to actually realize that I can't control them. Regardless of how badly I want to. So my biggest hiccup on that front is trying to control other people, which is a fools errand. However, I've been able to keep that fact in the forefront of my mind and keep myself from getting wrapped up in trying to control them when I can't.

Daily Stoic Day 3: What Can I Say No To So I Can Say Yes To What Really Matters.

 This is probably a never ending question. Right off the bat, I think I need to say no to the things that I have been doing in my life that haven't been working for me thus far. And that list is long and distinguished....yeah and so is my Johnson. Couldn't resist. Forgive me.

Biggest thing on my list is this hermit thing I've been doing. I've basically sequestered myself into my apartment and hid out for about a year now. Sure there's the COVID and to a point that has limited the amount of things I can do but I've used it as an excuse to not do anything. I need to say no to that. I need to get up every day and no matter what get my ass out of the house and go do something, anything. Find shit to do, interact with other humans. Build a social circle. Make some friends here. Build some kind of life. Say no to the hermit.

What's next? I'm gonna try to keep this manageable today. My mood, I'm in a bad mood most days. I don't show it to most people I do interact with but I am. I don't really have a lot of happy go lucky time in my life. Which would be nice, but I think its something that I could say no to every now and then. Fuck being in a bad mood. Say no to Mr. Moody.

Last one for today. Laziness, I imagine this just is a natural outgrowth of the other two. If you're just sitting at home doing nothing, in a bad mood, why on earth would you be working hard at it? I mean it isn't really that tough to sit at home and be pissed off. As a matter of fact, its pretty easy. I mean yes being angry is exhausting but it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to sit in your apartment and marinate in your own pissed offedness. But I don't work out, I've just started writing again, 3 out of the last 4 days, I don't do much other than work. I do enough laundry not to offend my coworkers but other than that its pretty well sitting on my chair watching Netflix or YouTube. Which if I imagine myself on my death bed is a pretty pathetic way to have spent my time. 

So gonna start with no's to those three. No to laziness. No to the hermit. And no to Mr. Moody.

Let's see how that goes.