Knocking Over Gravestones

I'm glad that they're taking down the bad monuments- the ones that loomed over people everyday, a constant reminder of past and present struggles. Where do we draw the line though? Some of the people memorialized are only famous for doing bad things, but some of them did very bad things and very good things. 

I hope that my descendants don't knock over my gravestone over because I ate meat, drove a car, or just generally didn't do enough to rid the world of suffering. They might! But I did some good things too didn't I?

Future generations could look back and think we were all positively evil, the same way we look back at past generations that wouldn't even recognize the concept of Human Rights. Our descendants could wonder how we all didn't dedicate our lives to the concept of Human Flourishing. Ironically, this is how moral progress works, and their descendants might think the same of them pertaining to concepts we can't even comprehend yet. Virus Rights???

On the positive side, by the time somebody knocks my gravestone over, I will certainly no longer care.

June 30, 2020

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Susan Hayward was born on this day in 1917 and died when I was one.

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I was literally laughing out loud about 3 seconds in.

John Denver- War Pigs

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/yzxyrDM9Fnum3AL2/

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I haven't driven through many rural areas recently, but I'll bet there are a lot fewer Trump/Pence signs these days. It seems like over the last week or so, two camps have emerged- those still 100% loyal to Trump, and those who DON'T believe Pence should have been murdered for refusing to single-handedly overturn the election.

June 30, 2022

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Socrates Memes

300bc- Why do we want to be a good person?

1100- Why do we desire the truth?

1700- Why two objects fall to earth?

2019- Why does ha make hot and hoo make cold? I'm talking about mouth wind. (Chirpy on Twitter)

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We just drove past the graveyard and Zuzu told me, "that's where you're gonna live." Not too bad for 2 years old, pretty close to accurate. Then Gretel asked me if I hope that I will never die, which is a great question. Then Zuzu remind me that if I do die I will "get a lot a lot of dirt." Thanks for reminding me of my mortality, kids!

June 30, 2018

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A pundit suggested the president is mentally ill, and it made him so angry he decided to prove it.

June 30, 2017

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When the Millennium Falcon gets captured by the Death Star, Darth Vader thinks they must be trying to return the stolen plans to Princess Leia. That is the single stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life.

June 30, 2016

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Five years ago the conservative members of the Supreme Court divined out of the Constitution that corporations deserve the same legal protections as people. Whoever could have guessed that such a short time later the right to marry would be granted to same-sex corporations?

June 30, 2015

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Research suggests plants have a form of intelligence foreign to our own- most can smell, taste, touch and perhaps hear. An entity doesn't necessarily need a brain to possess intelligence, and if it possesses intelligence it could sense pain. If plants can sense a form of pain, does it make a difference whether we eat meat or plants?

June 30, 2013

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If Paula Deen doesn't want people to think she's a racist she should stop talking with that racist accent.

June 30, 2013

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A baby girl fetus has its lifetime of eggs around 20 weeks. Hypothetically, one could be taken out, fertilized, born prematurely, and guess what- a grandchild could be born before the child!

June 30, 2013

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I know this is a controversial opinion, but of all the frybread I've ever eaten I have to say the Victor's mom's was the best.

June 30, 2011

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If you haven't heard, Sloth has been in and out of the hospital all week. First they thought it was heat stroke, then Lyme's Disease. Today he got a spinal tap and now apparently they think it's West Nile virus. Everything is to the extreme with that guy.

June 30, 2010

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On this day in 1859, French acrobat Charles Blondin crossed Niagara Falls on a tightrope. What used to pass for entertainment in the absence of TV!

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Preacher and lawyer, Charles J. Guiteau, was hung in Washington, D.C. for the assassination of U.S. President James Garfield on this day in 1882.

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On this day in 1905, Albert Einstein sent the article On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, in which he introduces special relativity, for publication in Annalen der Physik.

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On this day in 1934, in South Bend, Indiana, the Dillinger gang robbed Merchants National Bank of $30,000, killing one officer and wounding four bystanders. To my knowledge that's the only person who was ever killed by the Dillinger gang. I think about that a lot.

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Also on this day in 1934- The Night of the Long Knives, Adolf Hitler's violent purge of his political rivals in Germany. Saddam Hussein did the same thing. Trump can barely wait.

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On this day in 1956, two planes collided above the Grand Canyon in Arizona and crashed, killing all 128 on board both airlines.

53 days later to the day, in 2009, Yemenia Flight 626, an Airbus A310-300, crashed into the Indian Ocean near Comoros, killing 152 of the 153 people on board. A 14-year-old girl named Bahia Bakari survived the crash. A superhero origin story!

June 30, not a great day for air travel. Or car travel, where hundreds die everyday.

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On this day in 1986, the Supreme Court ruled in Bowers v. Hardwick that states can outlaw homosexual acts between consenting adults! 

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Peter Gray left us on this day in 2002. He somehow played outfield for the St. Louis Browns for one season in 1945. With one arm.

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The economist Thomas Sowell was born on this day in 1930, still alive. 

“It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.”

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Vincent D'Onofrio was born on this day in 1959. He gained weight to play Private pile in Full Metal jacket. Afterward he lost the weight and his ass only looked like a few pounds of chewed bubble gum.

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Another notable deathday- Chet Atkins (2001)

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George Carlin:

When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims: religion. No contest... Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of 10 things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these 10 things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning... and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer... and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, [but] somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy shit!

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Sam Kinison died at my exact age. Nooooooooo!!!! Noooooooooo!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

http://dead.atyourage.com/

June 30, 2012

Postscript- I miss this site! Everyday it would tell you if somebody famous died that your exact age. Not a great day when you realize that you are the exact age that Martin Luther King Jr. was when he died, and you haven't even inspired more than half as many people.

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Mike Tyson was born on this day in 1966. Here he is with his buddy Joan Jett.

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The world's most creepiest abandoned insane asylums... weak in my knees.

June 30, 2012

Link broken, try this:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/abandoned-asylums

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TED Talk- My Stroke Of Insight by Jill Bolted Taylor

If a brain scientist has a stroke and witnesses first-hand the deterioration of her own brain and then lives to tell about it, her story is probably worth hearing.

https://youtu.be/UyyjU8fzEYU

June 30, 2012

Postscript- I still think about this talk all the time.

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I'll never make sense of the fact that empathy the way we currently define it has only been around 70 years. And that's nothing, romantic love has only been around since the 12th century. Impossible right? What will humans be like in a thousand years?

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/10/a-short-history-of-empathy/409912/

June 30, 2018

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Buddy Hackett left us on this day in 2003. Here's a joke:

Joe had suffered from really bad headaches for the last 20 years. He eventually decides to go and see a doctor.

The Doctor said, 'Joe, the good news is I can cure your headaches. The bad news is that it will require castration. You have a very rare condition which causes your testicles to press on your spine and the pressure creates one hell of a headache.

The only way to relieve the pressure is to remove the testicles.'

Joe was shocked and depressed. He wondered if he had anything to live for.

He had no choice but to go under the knife. The surgery cost him $15,000.

When he left the hospital, he was without a headache for the first time in 20 years, but he felt like he was missing an important part of himself.

As he walked down the street, he realized that he felt like a different person. He could make a new beginning and live a new life.

He saw a Men's clothing store and thought, 'That's what I need... A new suit.'

He entered the shop and told the salesman, 'I'd like a new suit.'

The elderly tailor eyed him briefly and said, 'Let's see... size 44 long.

Joe laughed, 'That's right, how did you know?'

'Been in the business 60 years!' the tailor said.

Joe tried on the suit it fitted perfectly.

As Joe admired himself in the mirror, the salesman asked, 'How about a new shirt?'

Joe thought for a moment and then said, 'Sure.'

The salesman eyed Joe and said, 'Let's see, 34 sleeves and 16-1/2 neck.'

Joe was surprised, 'That's right, how did you know?'

'Been in the business 60 years.'

Joe tried the shirt and it fitted perfectly.

Joe walked comfortably around the shop and the salesman asked, 'How about some new underwear?'

Joe thought for a moment and said, 'Sure.'

The salesman said, 'Let's see... size 36'.

Joe laughed, 'Ah ha! I got you! I've worn a size 34 since I was 18 years old.'

The salesman shook his head, 'You can't wear a size 34. A size 34 would press your testicles up against the base of your spine and give you one hell of a headache.'

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Mobius bagel.

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Albert Einstein- "Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it."

But can that be a universal principal?

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A heckler told Bill Hicks, "I don't come here to think." Bill responded, "Well tell me where you do go and I'll go there."

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Jung- "Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other."

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Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary- "Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel."

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Ricky Gervais- “Same sex marriage is not a gay privilege, it’s equal rights. Privilege would be something like gay people not paying taxes. Like churches don’t.”

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Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh- "A sigh isn't just a sigh. We inhale the world and breathe out meaning. While we can. While we can."

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Jean Jacques Rousseau- "The truth brings no man a fortune."

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Aldous Huxley- "The greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled.

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Bertrand Russell, An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish: A Hilarious Catalogue of Organized and Individual Stupidity (1943)- “Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.“ 

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Socrates- “Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.”

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Alfred Hitchcock- “One must never set up a murder. They must happen unexpectedly, as in life.”

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I'm going to start posting a series of funny gravestones. I love the contrast of solemnity and hilarity.