Ironically it is time to come together...

Hello faithful readers,

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking, my mind has been brewing with random thoughts and ideas and I've always meant to come back here and write some of them down.  It's funny how life always gets in the way sometimes.  The last time I wrote it was 2014, and I was complaining about gay marriage. 

I'm not sure what these people are doing, but it looks like they are plotting something.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Same-sex-marriage-taiwan.jpg

I'm happy to say, while it's not perfect yet we have come far in abolishing the idea of gay marriage.  Many people have finally decided that it's just marriage after all!  Yay some of society!

Other things that have changed...

Follow me on Twitter....
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gageskidmore/5440390625

The Americans have managed to elect one of the most polarizing politicians in recent history.  I mean maybe I'm just naive, or never looked at politics as seriously as I do now, but it's absolutely nuts the way this guy divides his country.  (On a side note, I've started following politics seriously.)  The thing that worries me is not so much his policies, or non-professional antics is that it feels like he's always playing the "Let's point out the differences between us and them" game.    If you're not with me, you're against me.  You're either good or you're bad.  There is no middle ground...

Only the Sith speak in absolutes
https://www.flickr.com/photos/the_armory/7561591378

The truth is however, absolutes are very rare, to the point where they are almost absolutely impossible to find.  There is no person or thing that is absolutely and totally wrong nor is there anything that is absolutely and totally right.  No matter how much you look up to a person, they still occasionally rip a bad fart.  No matter how completely vile and evil you think a person is, they at one time in their life have made someone happy.  

And with that in mind, we need to understand no matter how polarized we seem, there is common ground.  There are things we can agree on.  There are places we can come together.  I mean who, regardless of their political leanings or beliefs, doesn't find this baby hippo cute?

I will grow up to become a human killing machine.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/15337812362

If you said "No Matt, I find that baby hippo absolutely repulsive, and I think it deserves to die in a fire." then I think you are a monster, but I will still bet, if I take the time to understand you, we can come to an agreement on something.  Maybe the BBQ hippo tastes good?  Maybe a raging hippo killed your entire family while they were sitting in your backyard sipping margaritas and you are traumatized.  Maybe you are a lizard person with no soul, and don't have the mammalian disposition to love all babies with big eyes.  

The point is, it's much easier to drop a person you don't agree with in the "them" bucket than it is to try and understand why they don't agree with you.  You don't have to like "them".  You don't have to be nice to "them".  You don't have to help "them".  "They" are barely human anyway, why don't "they" do things MY way.  MY way is right.  MY way is moral.  Everybody ought to be like ME!

I'm telling you Who's on first!
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jeff_Isom_arguing_with_an_umpire.JPG

  This is how wars start.

Speaking of war...  Let's take a journey back about 100 years ago and have a little chat about this invention...

You will listen to me!
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=110708&picture=single-red-loudspeaker

The loudspeaker was invented in 1924, and allowed a single person to broadcast easily to large groups or even stadiums of people.  This, of course, led to rock concerts, and everyone lived happily ever after.  The End.

What the hell was that about?
https://www.pickpik.com/doe-hirsch-female-oversleeping-confused-prick-ears-8971

Ok, well that's not the end of the story, but I always try and look for the good in everything....  Anyway, a young charismatic speaker by the name of Adolph found that if he used this new technology, he could get his message of German nationalism out  much more efficiently and whip people up into a patriotic frenzy.  Before the loudspeaker and radio (which he also used liberally), a person could talk to about 20 people at a time at best.  Now, with the power to reach 1000's at a time.  A single person could influence a country, and influence he did with his message of us vs. them.  I think we all know where this led...

Joke caption omitted intentionally
https://pixabay.com/photos/world-war-2-cemetery-netherlands-4736381/

Look, I'm not trying to compare Trump to Hitler.  That's not the point of this blog at all.  Odds are you already feel that way, or you don't....  Like I said, he is polarizing.  What I am saying is when communication technology increases it becomes a powerful tool that we need to learn to manage it appropriately.  When we don't, bad things can happen.

Social media is one of those huge evolutionary leaps in communication technology.  All of the sudden, everyone has a voice.  People that have never been heard before can be heard.  What's more, it is accessible enough, that the majority of the world can use it like their own loudspeaker.  Anyone can broadcast any message to millions of people, and whip them up into a frenzy if the speaker is charismatic enough.  Unfortunately, since it's easier, and dare I say it, and even a part of human nature to go to 'us vs. them', we are seeing gaps grow pushing people apart, instead of bringing us together.  This divide has been happening and growing for years now.

Trump is not the catalyst of 'us vs. them', he is the result of it.

I approve of this message
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vladimir_Putin_20090128_2.jpg

No matter what way you want to look at this, however, I think one thing is clear.  It can be a dangerous thing to create divides, and this has been amplified by the current pandemic.

Ah man!  I came here to escape from more COVID-19 talk!
https://www.needpix.com/photo/416505/boy-sur-disappointed-black-white-free-pictures-free-photos-free-images-royalty-free-free-illustrations

Of course half of you are saying that you don't want to hear anymore about Corona talk, and the other half are eating it up, and can't get enough.

It is truly an awful thing that people are dying over it, but in a weird way it is bringing us together by keeping us apart.  In recent memory, I can't think of a time when people all over the world are so united in the fight against something.  It effects the rich, the poor, men, women, old and young.  Some more than others, obviously, but all somehow.  It has mostly agreed upon that the best way to fight it is to #StayTheFuckHome, and to wash your hands while singing.  As well as not touching your face.  (I'm talking to you, above pictured disappointed black and white boy.)

And while it is hard for us Canadians to see the sun and warmth peek out from its long winter's slumber, and not head down to the patio for a pint with our friends.  We understand that we cannot, for we don't want those same friends to get sick and die.  We are disappointed, but we are all disappointed together.  The left and the right alike.  

NO BEERS FOR YOU!
https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-oxofn

Social Distancing is an easy thing to say, and a hard thing to do.  This means of course, we can chose to do the hard thing if we are motivated enough.  Maybe we can continue to do the hard thing when this is all said and done.  Maybe we can continue to come together instead of spread apart.  Maybe we can learn to understand people, instead of pushing them away.  Let's learn our lesson from being kept apart.  Let's come together.

HEY!  SOCIAL DISTANCE YOURSELF!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/klemenz777/1464597658

Stay safe!

Love Matt

Sick of the gay.

Alright, I've had enough...  I'm so sick of this gay rights thing.  It seems like all I hear about lately is gay marriage, and people getting ostracized for using derogatory homosexual terminology.

An opening picture of lesbians guarantees blog hits.

So let's start with gay marriage...  It's just plain wrong.

I am completely opposed to gay marriage, why you ask?  It says right in the Bible....

Men shall not marry men, because...  ummm, wait.  It doesn't say that?  Errr, OK.  Well, what the hell?

My way or the highway!

As I understand it, and I'm not a Bible scholar by any means, but Leviticus condemns men lying down with men.  (It doesn't really talk about marriage.)  It also condemns a whole bunch of other things to, like trimming your beard or the hair on the sides of your head or letting your hair get unkempt, wearing mixed blend fabrics, eating seafood without scales, tearing your clothes, and your not allowed to sell your countrymen as slaves.  (Feel free to sell foreigners.)

Also, it's cool with lesbians...  It talks about men lying down with men, but women can lie with whoever they want to.  Which is why the picture above is totally cool with the Bible.

What's more, as I understand it, many of the rules set forth in the beginning of the Bible, were specifically designed to keep the Israelites healthy and fruitful.  You see back in the days of the Old Testament, they didn't have a lot of medical know how like we have today.  In 3400 years from now when we are growing new skin to replace the cancerous cells, they will wonder why we used sunblock, as such, we have to wonder why 3400 years ago they were told not to eat pigs or shellfish.  They simply didn't have the refrigeration systems to keep food fresh like we do, and the chance of food spoiling, then you getting sick and dying was much higher.

And no delicious cocktail sauce either....

The other part of that was a civilization would be more powerful if they had a greater population.  This is so they could produce more warriors to defend and take resources, and more labour to help tend the land.  (As well as to capture foreigners to help out for rock bottom prices.) So it was crucial for the people to stay healthy and multiply often.  

To that end it kind of makes sense to ensure that every "delivery of DNA fun gravy" was delivered to a waiting woman, so she could do her evil woman magic and make a baby.  There were also rules against spilling your seed, and not sleeping with "unclean" women.  (Unclean is a un-nice way to say on the rag.)  All the rules were designed to ensure a big, happy, population.  This is the reason they didn't want men wasting their seed on other men, and that women could happily do whatever they liked.

Quick reminder:  The rules say 'Totes awesome sauce!'

Hey!  Check out my sombrero!

So if the rules were put in place to keep a specific group of people 3400 years ago healthy and multiplying, one has to wonder why we would still follow the same rules when the population has raised from 7 million to 7 billion!  Currently the earth is quite over populated, and sustainability of resources is a major issue.  Continuing being fruitful right now will probably lead to a huge Malthus population check.  (In essence a famine or disease caused by over population that will kill off enough people so that there's enough resources for everyone.  Like the Black Plague.)  So if the rules are unhealthy for humanity, it does kind of make sense to disregard them until our population is down to 1/10th its current size.

So lets put those rules aside, I still have to say I'm against gay marriage, and I'll tell you why....

A while ago I met someone.  Upon first meeting him, he appeared to be an effeminate man.  I made the assumption that this person was a gay male.  It may very well have been my personal bias and stereotypes taking over, but that was the assumption I made.

And you know what happens when you make an assumption right?  (Everyone recite the cliche now...)

No, you make an ass out of you and mption...

You form an opinion based on observable data and experience, which you can then test out to ensure accuracy.

However, it turns out this person was not a gay male after all.  This person physical female who was on hormone therapy and living the life of a male.  This is considered transgendered because she/he emotionally has a personal sense that they are a male.  

OK, so fine...  So this person is transgendered, I can handle that, I'm a man of the world.  No judgement.  However, I couldn't help but wonder, does that make them gay?  So they are physically female, and act like a stereotypical gay man, so maybe he sleeps with other gay men?  But wait, since he feels like a man, wouldn't that indeed mean that he should want to sleep with women?  But since he's pre-op, and technically physically a female, doesn't that mean that he's a lesbian?

Or I had lice, I'm not sure...

Needless to say, trying to figure it out my head started to spin.  This whole situation didn't fit into any of the normalites of my pre-conceived notions of what straight and gay were.  

After struggling with this in my own mind, I came to a conclusion...  WHO THE HELL CARES!!!!  This person seems happy doing what they are doing, so why do I have this stupid desire to label them and put them into a bucket.  We are all individuals, and we do whatever we do to get by in our lives.  People don't have to be in buckets because buckets separate us.  When we are separated we can exclude those of us who don't fit in our little bucket, but there's no determination that one bucket is right or wrong.  Providing your not harming anyone, I'm good.  Do what you want.  Be gay!  Be straight!  Be mixed!  Just be human, or don't...  It doesn't matter to me.  In fact most people shift on the Kinsey scale throughout their lives.  (A recognized rating system between 0-6 determining complete heterosexuality to complete homosexuality)  So there's not even a black and white answer.  Most people are a little Dusty.

I'm against gay marriage, because I'm against putting people in buckets.  Marriage is marriage regardless of who's involved.  If you love someone, and they love you back, and you feel that you want a governmental piece of paper to prove it?  Get one.  Hell, ask me, I'll do the ceremony.  (I'm free on Tuesday nights).  Just take the word gay out of it and start seeing everyone as people, not as a sexual preference.

So what about the words gay and all the other term associated with homosexuality?  I'm tired of them being used as negative words.  I'm taking them back.  Just because society sees the straight white male as normality doesn't mean being gay is bad.  When you use the word gay, use it as a positive thing...

I'm gay for ice cream!

I'm queer for beer!

And I'm a total fag for lesbians!