Y'know, I've been really trying to stay away from politics and culture.  It's been difficult, but I did make the promise to myself.  Success has been hit-and-miss.  This time it's been a BIG miss.

I'll begin with this:  Everyone (at least everyone I know) gets pretty rankled when someone proposes to make a choice for them or to speak for them.  "Everyone" includes me.  I don't care much for people preaching at me either, most especially when they insist that what they're proposing or doing is for "my own good".  I'll make my own choices, thank you.  You get to make your own choices too. We're responsible.  Aren't we?

In a much earlier post, I opined that the Age of Majority should be taken more seriously; that it may prove out that treating minors as "full citizens" has been unwise.  Kids/children know what they're told, and understand what they understand through the filter of experience and their interpretation of the outcome of that experience.  Interpretations of the young are derived from an incompletely formed and uninformed understanding of the greater world, how it works, and their relationship to it.  It's okay if you laugh, scream, cry, or whatever at my having said that.  Freedom of Speech, remember?

There's a link to a story that troubles me.  The State has acted to remove a child from the home of her parents because of the views that she's adopted from them.  It takes place in Canada, whose constitution is very much like ours with its rights and guarantees.  It's not much a stretch for me to envision something like this occurring in the USA, and perhaps it already has.  The subtext (to my perception anyway) is that, without regard for various prophecies, it appears that we're en route to self-annihilation.  The prospect of destroying the Earth is ludicrous, but the possibility of destroying the Earth's capacity to support us is very real indeed.  If we do go farther down that road than we already have, the outcome will present from not only the contents and meaning of the attached story, but also thenature of the response, the counter-response, the counter-counter-response, etc.

I think I'll take up regular naps, because I may not get another decent night's sleep for a while.

and there will be a few who may take issue with it.  Follow this link.

holy smokes! These guys come from Slovenia, as I understand it. Terrafolk. A cool, fresh breeze in a stuffy, smoky room. Dig it!