Category: Murder

Back to Bed

It’s become one of those days. I started off optimistic and energetic. Despite the leaked SCOTUS decision regarding Roe v. Wade and the various responses to it, I thought, it hasn’t been finalized. It may have even been floated by Republicans to see gauge reactions. Maybe, right, fingers crossed, etc.

But then I go on to the news. Ohio elected a guy, a Qanon promoting individual who thinks Joe Biden is tearing this country apart. He says, “Our grassroots movement across northwest Ohio intensified with every terrible mistake the Biden administration continued and still continues to make. I am more energized than ever to unite the Republican base.”

What terrible mistakes have been made? That’s not specified. I’m sure he’ll point to oil and gas prices, inflation, ignoring, of course, the global view of what’s going on in that realm with supply lines, Trump’s contributions to the problem, and the war. Perhaps, being a QAnon’er, he’ll point to the ‘COVID-19 Hoax’ or ‘the stolen 2020 election’, ‘illegal mandates’, or other things already proven to the contrary. How they hold on to the lies and disinformation that’s been spread. This man might well end up in the U.S. Congress, alongside Boebert, MTG, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Ron Johnson, and that ilk.

Then I see headlines about a few more murders and news about Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. All of it drains and angers me, but also frustrates me. It’s sad to read of people’s behavior and thinking. In many ways, when I think of the net, that’s one of the things that comes to mind: TMI. But then a friend shares information about AI testing bees and their networking processes, and I think, see? Technology is also good.

Yes, science and technology can be wonderful, when used right. Perhaps, that’s what bugs me: we have so many undermining technology and history, twisting their narrative to promote themselves as saviors of freedom and progress. 1984? Oh, yes. Often, the motivation behind these people and their movements turn out to be the ancient problems of racism and greed.

Instead of going back to bed, I’ll deep back into my writing world. Got my coffee. It’s time to write like crazy, at least one more time.

Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Welcome to As The Planet Turns. Today is August 26. 2021. Thursday. Cats are fed. One sleeps. Two others wash and supervise human activities. Breakfast is et. Coffee is brewed. Sunrise was at 6:30 AM. Sunset is planned for 7:55 PM. It’s about 62 F now. We expect a high of 81 to 84 F.

Blue skies are out there! Huzzah! Smoke has finally dissipated. Happened last night. I crept out, blinking at the sun, mask in hand, sniffing for smoke. A wind blew The sun was visible! And white and hot instead of orange or red. Windows were opened. Fresh air flowed. Well, sort of fresh. Fresher than it had been in weeks.

Today, even better, at the moment. Air quality hovers in the low sixties! We can see the mountains. But, yes, smoke is starting to screen the scene. Windows are open now but we’ll remain vigilant.

Vigilant is today’s key word for COVID-19 efforts. We’re back to masking outdoors in Oregon as of tomorrow, along with indoors. Had to be done. Hospitals are full. The crises grows like a mushroom cloud over a nuke. Too many are dissing the vax. Refusing to do it because…take your raison de jour. Religion. Philosophy. Politics. Ignorance. Freedom. Whichever it is, the majority who end up sick eventually flip. They wish they had received the vax and regret past actions. They were wrong, they’ll tell you. Too late for them. They’re hoping to save other anti-vaxxers.

The numbers tell it all. 10,000 unvaccinated, 500 will die. Along the way, ICUs and hospital beds will fill. The economy takes a hit because workers and customers are sick. Healthcare workers are exhausted.

With vaccinations, the infection rate falls. So does the death rate. Try .0046%. Which means, with vaccinations, one in 434,000 dies. Much different isn’t it?

“Murder by Numbers” comes to mind today. The 1983 song by The Police has lyrics by Sting, music by Copeland.

Now you can join the ranks of the illustrious
In history’s great dark hall of fame
All our greatest killers were industrious
At least the ones that we all know by name
But you can reach the top of your profession
If you become the leader of the land
For murder is the sport of the elected
And you don’t need
To lift a finger of your hand

h/t to Genius.com

That’s what I think of the governors in several states such as Texas, Florida, and North Dakota, along with other leaders who shout, “No mask! No vax!” These aren’t leaders. They are murderers.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Hello, good morning, good afternoon, good day, and good night.

Today is Easter Sunday, April 4, 2021, the ninety-fourth day of the year. Sol stepped up at 6:49 AM in Ashland. We expect her to do a fade at 7:40 PM. The hours in between those times are expected to be brimming with sunshine that warms us to the seventy degree F mark. We’re at 54 now, but it doesn’t feel that warm as a cold mountain breeze with a wintry grudge scraps the edge off the sun’s heat.

Today’s music choice is an old Spinners song with Dionne Warwick. “Then Came You” was released in 1974 (hey, my high school senior year) and reached number one. Infused with a little disco vibe into its R&B structure, it stayed popular in dance clubs for several years. As to clues about why it’s in my head this morning…there are none. The little neurons responsible for orchestrating recollection of this tune are staying incognito.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers, all.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Good morning. Welcome to the day after the previous day. Today is Saturday, March 13, 2013, which means it’s SATURDAY THE THIRTEENTH. That aside, Solup was at 6:26 AM in Ashland, and Soldown is expected at 6:15 PM. Then we’ll spring ahead in most parts of ‘Merica, losing an hour of sleep but putting soldown an hour later. I’ll welcome that, as I can take early evening walks.

Clear skies, cold nights and bright sunshine currently rules these parts. A cold 32 degrees was the low last night but it’s already mid-fifties now. Got to use this good turn of weather now because it will change next week. Of course, it’ll then change again the day after that.

Stone Temple Pilots, aka STP, provides the music in the stream today. “Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart” came out in July, 1996. I contemplated that a bit: that song is a few months short of being a quarter-century old. Now I’m trippin’ on how much time has slid since that song first broke the calm.

The song was in my stream for the lyrics, natch.

One more trip and I’ll be gone
So keep your head up, keep it on
Just a whisper, I’ll be gone
Take a breath and make it big

h/t to Genius.com

The lyrics came as I finished re-arranging the hairs on my head and gave myself a final look in the bathroom mirror before sliding out to brew the day’s first cup of coffee. So, why? Why that song today? It’s the frequent question, is it not? There’s no answer on this day.

Get the vax, wear a mask, test negative, and stay positive. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Our winter snow has passed, leaving us with one inch on my yard, walk, drive, etc. Mostly blue, a gray haze veils the blue. Sunshine washes the snow, drawing up a picturesque scene, and flurries still fall. The snowplow is scrapping the road, dropping red cinders in its path.

Sunrise was at 7:29 AM on this Wednesday morning and sunset will be at 5:19 PM. It’s 34 degrees F outside, and we’re not expecting to advance much higher on the thermometer. It’s January 27, 2021.

Our state and county continue heralding a trend of lower coronavirus positive case numbers. The first wave of county vaccinations are completed; more are being planned. Mine is somewhere in the future.

Although “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd kept playing during one dream, after thinking about the dreams, “My Own Worst Enemy” by Lit (1999) entered the scene during the morning’s reflections. After the plethora of bizarre dreams featuring deceased family members, cigars, pies, and jigsaw puzzles, I started remarking to myself and the world (strictly rhetorically, right?), please tell me why I’m having these strange dreams.

“Please tell me why,” is featured as a refrain in “My Own Worst Enemy”, so my mind, acting like some mis-programmed Alexa, began playing the Lit song.

So here we are. Enjoy the video; I’d never seen it before. The bowling alley setting intrigued me. Be safe, test positive, stay negative, wear a mask, and vaccinate. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Back to life for today’s music.

Reading, hearing, and thinking about many black people’s comments yesterday and this morning, I realize (again, sadly) how often they live in tension and fear.

Yet, so many whites do as well – as witnessed by them recorded on videos calling police on blacks just because they’re black.

Blacks have a foundation for their fears; we’ve seen too many videos of police applying unnecessary force and violence on black people, or white people getting away with violence against black people, because, white…black.

As we watch and protest, counter-protest, or hold our breaths and wait, I thought about people and praying, and stumbled into Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer” (1986). The song is about a couple who have nothing but each other, who are hoping to make it together. As noted many times, the song was written during the Reagan era as trickle-down economics were touted. As we know, trickle-down is a bullshit theory that enables the wealthy to get wealthier and provides a cop-out to others, permitting them to issue tax cuts to the wealthy without remorse. (Yeah, and it certainly worked during the coronaivirus in America, as the wealthier managed to increase their wealth while a huge swath of Americans struggle between buying food or paying rent/house payments.)

Anyway…

Seems like, with high-unemployment, a corrupt Republican administration, continuing police brutality and militarization, protests, looting, riots, and then natural disasters AND the novel coronavirus, many in the United States are living on a prayer.

And that’s why it’s today’s theme music.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Watching the riots remind me of my youth. Born in 1956 in the U.S., we had riots frequently in the sixties.

This month’s riot began when George Floyd, a black man, was apprehended by police, and died, allegedly for something involving forged documents.

Death by police officer is surely the response for such a heinous suspicion, right?

Watching police brutality in 1971, Obie Benson questioned what he was seeing. With Al Cleveland and Marvin Gaye, the thoughts were put into a song that became a Marvin Gaye hit. At that time, protesters were standing up against the Vietnam War. Police, demonstrating the restraint that we’ve come to know well from them, waded in, resulting in what became known as “Bloody Thursday”.

We’ve seen it many times; protests arise. Unless you’re white and armed (see Michigan this year), the police are gonna come hard. (Didn’t help that the POTUS (ever thoughtful and considered in his response) said, “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” quoting the Miami police chief from the 1967 riots).

The government is by the people and for the people, until the people speak up against the government (unless, again, you’re armed and white in the woke United States) (witness the frequency of armed white males killers with automatic weapons being peacefully apprehended), then look out, people.

Marvin Gaye’s song says it well:

[Verse 1]
Mother, mother
There’s too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some loving here today, yeah

[Verse 2]
Father, father
We don’t need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some loving here today

[Chorus]
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what’s going on
What’s going on
Yeah, what’s going on
Ah, what’s going on

h/t Genius.com.

BTW, this post was created with the new WP editor. Initial question: WTF did it need to change? Evolutionary improvements, I understand. I thought the other was an intuitive system. Now they want me to ‘insert blocks’, which include such common blocks such as ‘paragraphs’. Christ.

Their little floating block editor jumps in front of text, forcing you to navigate around it to see WTF is going on.

Grrrr.

Here is “What’s Going on”.

2

Thursday’s Theme Music

Walking après writing yesterday, I was thinking of words and their meanings. Words’ meanings, especially when used in expressions, often lose their original meaning or intentions. Sometimes they’re literal for some while they’re meaningless to others.

“Thoughts and prayers” jumped into that category. Politicians are often saying, like a jerk reflex, “Our thoughts and prayers are with” some victims of murder or disaster. It seems like an expression they can use without thinking or doing anything else. Meanwhile, thoughts and prayers are powerful to others.

“I love you” also jumped into my thinking. I was reminded of a sitcom called King of Queens. It was on for a while years ago. While it ended production, the show can probably be seen in syndication. I confess, I’m a sitcom addict. Most make me wince but I still watch them, hoping for one that’ll satisfy. Admittedly, I watch less of them now than a few years ago. They’re too insipid. While I’m fond of shows like The Kominsky Method and Grace and Frankie, I’m instead turning to darker comedy like Barry, The Boys, and Stranger Things. 

But there was one episode that came to mind from the King of Queens. The main characters were Doug and Carrie, a married couple. Carrie worked for a boss for a while whose name also was Doug. Once, when she was saying good-bye to him to end a phone conversation, she said, “Okay, Doug,” and then, saying Doug, automatically added, “I love you. Bye.”

 

“I love you,” became the pivot for my thoughts. That finally brought me to today’s music. “More than Words” by Extreme (1991). The song is a ballad about wanting more demonstration of a woman’s love than just the words, “I love you”. When I first heard the song on the radio, I wondered who was singing it, and was really surprised to learn it was Extreme. Later, I saw the video, and enjoyed how the bass and drum players are just sitting to one side, variously reading books, holding up lighters, etc., since the song doesn’t require anything on their part. That cracked me up.

So, here it is at last. Sorry for the long intro. Cheers

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