New Year's Resolution

With the new year upon us, I decided what better time to start a new reading plan, so I purchased a new Bible, called the One Year Chronological Bible, NLT. I'm already familiar with the NLT (New Living Translation) as it is what I currently use, but what makes this Bible unique is that it is arranged in chronological order - in the order the events actually occured. In addition, it is divided into 365 daily readings, so you can start and finish the entire Bible in one year, in the order the events actually happened, without having to flip back and forth between passages. Although I've read much of the good book, I can't claim to have read it cover to cover, so I'm hoping this will aid in my desire to do so.

Chronological or not, if you're unfamiliar with the NLT version, I highly encourage you pick one up. I am not particularly good at deciphering a lot of big words, or ancient sentence structure as found in some of the other traditional versions, so the NLT, in today's language, is the perfect balance for me of readable, understandable text and biblical integrity. I often cross reference between the NLT version and a New King James version, and I'm always amazed at how much more the NLT actually makes sense to me.

"To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell."

I recently rented and watched a movie called Beyond the Gates. Admittedly, I am a little behind on new releases, so forgive me if this is old news to you.

It doesn't take much of a movie for me to be entertained, but this was much more than just mindless entertainment. If you have any conscious whatsoever, this movie makes you question a lot of things. It was definitely one of the best movies I have ever seen.

At the end, I found myself wondering "How does this happen? How can I be so oblivious to the goings on in the world? I was one of the binge drinkers of the General's previous post while this stuff occurring!" My wife looked at me and exclaimed, "we were in college when this happened!" ...yes, unfortunately we were.

Now, I had heard of Rwanda before, but I never took the time to fully comprehend what had taken place. This film opened my eyes, in a fantastically disturbing way, to what truly went down. From how evil humans can be to one another, to the sad effects of a broken government system (theirs, ours, and others), and to the horrific decisions that people had to make.

I strongly encourage everyone to watch this movie. In addition to the movie's website, PBS Frontline has a great site for information regarding the events.

In a Rut? Can't Change?

I just finished a disturbing article in the NY Times that gave me reason for pause. It also seemed apropos considering New Years is right around the corner. The main thrust of the article, based on studies on lab rats, is that those of us who binge drink/drunk during adolescents and early adulthood are likely handicapped with a reduced ability to deal with, and adapt to change. "The binges activate an inflammatory response in rat brains rather than a pure regrowth of normal neuronal cells. Even after longstanding sobriety this inflammatory response translates into a tendency to stay the course, a diminished capacity for relearning and maladaptive decision-making." I can definitely see this effect at work in my own life. The good news is they found that exercise and, of course, sticking to one or two rather than 10 or 15, can significantly reduce the effects. Sarge, you willing to sell the Bowflex?

Danger Zones

Between this and the recent tiger attack, I'm reconsidering my Friends of the Zoo membership.

Christmas at Bronco's

Shopdropping

Karl Marx, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin and Che Guevara adorn a shirt slipped onto a rack at a Target store in California.

While reading this article in the New York Times on the recent phenomenon of "shopdropping" by Anarchists and their religious counterparts, I thought of Sarge's Majority Rights group. Could this be a tactic to get the word out? I don't know boys, it just might be high time to get out of the Lazy Boys and get the creative juices flowing. Barnes and Noble, Target...where ever consumerism takes place is the battlefield. Hooah!

Cloaca

Several years ago I visited New York to see my old roommate, David. We went to school together in London. He's a very talented artist, and as artists tend to do, he keeps up with goingsons in the art world. During my visit David shared with me a book of Belgian artist Wim Delvoye's art installation, Cloaca. Cloaca is a mechanized digestive system that essentially mimics how food is broken down within, and excreted from, animals including humans. Unfortunately, I missed the show by a week. David said the aroma in the room was pretty ripe, so maybe that's a good thing. Local restaurants sponsored the show by donating meals. Although I couldn't find images of them, Delvoye also creates beautiful poop mosaics from Cloaca's waste.

Hell Yeah!

I thought many of you might find Monster Trucks.net a useful website. Merry Christmas.

General Ursus Goes to Vegas

In front of Binion's
You know how the General Rolls

I'll never find love again.
Hoover Dam

Advocate for Majority Rights

Since politics didn't seem to get a rise out of anyone (except for a Hillary supporter) I'll try a different route.

I've decided to become a Majority Rights Activist. I haven't determined exactly what this means yet, but thought maybe some of the other canteen soldiers would be interested molding the definition. Basically, it's standing up for the shrinking rights of the emasculated majority. This has nothing to do with race, sex, or age, the typical things one thinks of when minority rights are considered, but rather just simply calling foul on the ridiculousness that occurs every day in our society. A few examples to better illustrate my point are as follows:

Our city is trying to pass a new development code which includes a clause that all multi-family residential and commercial buildings are required to provide for both long term, and short term, bicycle parking. This includes a specific type of rack, and an enclosed, lockable space for the long term parking. Since when did the majority of our streets have adequate bike lanes, and since when did even a small fraction of our population commute by bicycle? Last I checked, bicycles are not considered vehicles, at least not by the tax assesors. Currently, places are not required to have a certain number of motorcycle parking spaces - which is a far more common means of transportation. What happens if I decide to skateboard to work one day, must my employer provide a designated spot to store my board as well. This is ridiculous.

To date, my office has recieved 38 "Christmas" cards, yet only 8 of them actually say "Christmas". The rest are the typical watered down Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings, Happy New Year, or any number of other PC phrases. This is an argument that I won't bore you with the merits of because we've all heard it before, and everyone seems to agree with it - yet still only 18% of the Christmas cards sent have the courage to mention Christ. True, not everyone is a Christian, or believes in the true meaning of Christmas, and to them I say, "have the guts to admit that you don't believe by simply not celebrating."

Ameristar Casino, and many others, offers hourly childcare. Yes, hourly childcare at a casino. Amazingly, these services are offered under the innocent guise of family friendly, educational opportunites, just like your typical Small World Montessori. But let's call this what it is, a spot for neglectful parents to drop their kids off while they gamble away their paycheck. I don't think any of its patrons will be winning the Parent of the Year Award anytime soon. Someone has made a fortune off this concept - theses particular facilities are located in casino's across the country, and amazing only in casinos. This is ridiculous and crazy. They would probably claim that they're providing a safe venue for these children that might otherwise be left in inadequate conditions, but I say they are enticements to weak minded parents.

The above are just a small sampling of the different types of issues that a Majority Rights Activist could embrace and challenge. Really, it's just asking "says who?" when something silly arises, relying on old fashioned common sense, and determining between right and wrong as God defined for us.

Ironically, I googled majority rights activists and got nothing related, but found all sorts of things when I changed to minority.

Just think, the Canteen Soldiers could be pioneers in a whole new movement. This just may be our ticket to success! I call dibs on the patent and trademark for the concept and name.