Tell Me It's Not So ~ I've Turned Into My Parents

Unthinkable for most of my life, but now it has happened. Yesterday I awoke to find that I had turned into my parents. It ruined my entire day. I was so depressed that I drove to town (15 miles each way) so I wouldn't have to cook dinner. When the dinner was served, I couldn't eat it. I asked for a "go" box and returned home. It's in the refrigerator now, so I'll try to eat it tonight. Thanks to fate, I had beer in the fridge, so I survived the night without eating. How does something like this happen? And to an Old Hippie no less! The overwhelming sadness and utter disillusionment of this realization has shocked me to my foundation.

My Mother and father were divorced when I was in the third grade, and she didn't re-marry until I reached Jr. High School. Soon after the divorce, my Grandfather died. Grandma came to live with us, and helped my Mother with me and my younger brother. He is five years younger than me. Growing up, I suppose that I was much like most kids of that era. Mom and Grandma didn't like the way I wanted to dress. They didn't like the music I liked. They didn't like the TV I wanted to watch. They didn't like the slang that I used, nothing dirty, but very improper language in their opinion. But it was no different for my friends. All of our parents were pretty much the same. But, in spite of it all, I grew up, and when I finally left home at eighteen, I swore that I would not be that way. And I wasn't, until now!

Maybe that is one of the reasons that attracted me to the Hippies. They had that "live and let live" philosophy. And when I had children of my own, I didn't do many of the things my Mother did. If my kids did something I didn't like, I talked to them and told them what I thought, but I always left the decision to them. And they turned out good. But, yesterday, I realized that all of that had collapsed. The sudden realization of that hit me like a torpedo striking an unsuspecting ship. I never saw it coming, then "BOOM"! The water rushes in, and the ship sinks beneath the waves, and a few minutes latter, it is as if it was never there. What happened?

Early yesterday, I was on the Netflix site, looking for some movies. I was getting frustrated, and then it hit me, I simply don't like some of today's most popular stars. I don't like Will Farrell, I don't like Ben Stiller, I don't like Jack Black and I don't like the "Teen Queens" of today. But don't like is OK, because everyone has likes and dislikes. What shocked me was that I was CRITICAL! For some reason, I didn't just let it go with that "live and let live" attitude I had always had. I was sitting there criticizing the movies! And I thought about it, and I was shocked at the discovery that I felt the same way about music. I hate rap and hip-hop. And the way kids dress. And the way they speak, with so much disrespect and false bravado. And I realized at that point that I had become just like my Mother. But when did this happen, and most important, how did it happen? To ME!

This thinking consumed my day, and all of the night. I didn't go to sleep until well after four this morning, thank you "Spirits of the Barley Nectar" for getting me through the night. Now, after so much thought, I have concluded that there are only two possibilities for this unthinkable tragedy to have happened to me. First, there is the possibility of an as of yet undiscovered gene in the DNA of human beings. One that lays dormant for many years, and is mysteriously activated at some point that changes us into our parents. This appeals to me on one level, that being that if this is the case, then there is a possibility that science can isolate this gene and develop a cure, thus saving future generations from having to endure this happening to them. But, there is another possibility, one far darker, one with no hope of a future cure.

Scary as it is to think about, the other possibility is "Paranormal"! Could the ghost of my Mother and Grandmother have visited me in the night? Could they have invaded my often muddled mind? Could they have reordered my judgement process? If not DNA, this is the only other possibility! Damn, sometimes I hate it when I am right! But what I fear more is that they may change something more. What could be next? Will I crave watching old episodes of "The Lawrence Welk Show"? Will I become a staunch Republican? Will I find religion and go on retreats? Oh, please tell me this can not truly be! I feel like "Scrooge" being visited by the ghosts of Christmas! My world has been thrown into turmoil, I've fallen and I can't get up!

So, today I am going to listen to all of the music I have from the 60s, the Folk Music, the Protest Music, the Rock and the Country Music. I am going to nothing but concentrate on thinking about the philosophies of the Hippies, thinking about live and let live. Maybe it will work. Wish me luck. Have A Great Day,

The Old Hippie

TAPS 18+ ~ Great Website

I recently joined http://www.taps18forum.com, a website from TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) when I was looking for information about things paranormal for this BLOG. Yes, I am interested in the paranormal and the unexplained, but that was not why I joined. This website is unexpectedly diverse. It is a forum based site dealing, naturally, with paranormal subjects, which I had expected. But it offers much more, including to my surprise, a very lively political debate section. I urge you to take a look at this site. The political views are astute in many instances, and the general discussions are interesting and loaded with humor. Time on this site is, in my opinion, time well spent. All sites are not created equal, but this one is high quality. Have A Great Day,

The Old Hippie

New Support For My Candidacy ~ Celebrity Endorsement

TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) has endorsed my candidacy for President! ~ This is of course a LIE! THEY DO NOT SUPPORT ME!  And as far as I know, they don't even know about me nor do they care if they do know. But, every one of the other candidates is creating lies and no one seems to pay any attention. They make stupid remarks, make historically inaccurate statements, claim they didn't say things in the past that are on record and make promises they can never keep. But YOU are going to vote for one of them, and that is a very sad commentary about you. Why is this sad?

You will eventually vote for the person who has the best MARKETING CAMPAIGN, and not the person with the best ideas and approaches to problem solving. Your criteria is about looking good, not intelligence. You will choose, not on ideas, but on presentation. You will choose appeal over substance. You will choose appearance over capabilities. And you will get more of what you have been getting for years. You will get more war, more debt, more tax burden and more jobs being sent to foreign countries. Your tax dollars will be increasingly spent on foreign aid, and less on deserving Americans. And, you will cry and complain.

You will blame the Government for these problems. You will blame the wealthy for these problems. You may even blame one God or another. But they are not the problem. You are the ones who vote people into office. These problems are, and have always been, caused by you. If you want to change the problems, you have to change the way you vote. And, to make positive changes in the way you vote, you need to change your criteria, and vote for SUBSTANCE, not marketing hype. I'm just an Old Hippie, and this rant is only my opinion, but think about it. Have A Great Day,

The Old Hippie

Prison System ~ It Makes No Sense

America seems to have a very strange idea of prisons if you think about. Since I am "Old", I have way too much time to think, and being an "Old Hippie", well, often those things that I think about seem to take on a life of their own. So, I have asked myself a question, "What is the purpose of the prison system"? On the philosophic level, I think it is to segregate those people who can not live by the rules society has implemented. I think that this boils down to keeping convicted criminals somewhere separate from those who are law abiding citizens. But there is more to it, because people are sent to prison for different lengths of time, so they are reintroduced back into society at some point, at least the vast majority are. But inside the prison, it seems that they are treated very much the same way. For instance, prisoner A who is serving 5 years for car theft may be in a cell next to prisoner B who is serving 3 life sentences for 3 different murders. This doesn't seem right to me. So, the question of rehabilitation comes into this murky picture.

Prisoner A is scheduled to be reintroduced to society. He should be in a place that prepares him for this reintroduction. He should be in a place where he is given special education designed to make him a functioning member of society. He should be in a place that gives him the training needed to develop the job skills required to make a life in normal society. And his reintroduction into normal society should be dependent upon the success of this training. Isn't this what rehabilitation is about? Isn't rehabilitation about both teaching a person how to act and live in society, and giving them a skill set that will allow them to succeed? As for prisoner B, why wast time and taxpayer money on him? Put prisoner B in a place where there are nothing except those like him.

Interesting, in 2 paragraphs I have made an argument for 2 completely different types of prisons. Like discovering a new star, I'll name them. Prisoner A should be in what I will call the "Rehab Prison", and prisoner B should be located in what I am calling the "Lost Cause Prison". Cool names, yes? Both of these prisons should be totally new, not the structures, but the systems. First, the Rehab prison.

To begin with, it has to be DRUG FREE! America has been fighting the "War on Drugs" since the majority of Americans have been alive, and what has that accomplished? Simple common sense will tell you that if you can't keep drugs out of a prison, you will never keep them out of schools or the rest of society. So, fix the problem! Second, don't allow people in the Rehab prison to be screw-ups. Punish them for breaking the rules, and if they continue to break rules, use your heads and recognize that they are not capable of living in normal society. Ship them off to the Lost Cause prison and be done with them. Getting out of Rehab Prison and getting back into society should be a reward attained through personal success, not a foregone conclusion. Society does not want people to leave the prison system simply to be sent back because they go back to a life of crime. That is a big part of the problem with the current system. A prisoner is sentenced to 10 years, served 6 years, gets nothing more than an advanced degree in criminal activity, then gets out to become a smarter, more effective and efficient criminal. Where is the benefit to society with this?

The Lost Cause prison should be a very different place. These are people who will never be allowed to join society again. NEVER! So, send them to a place where they will never be a threat to society. Send them to a place where they can not escape from. Don't spend money on facilities, guards or support personnel. There are some islands in the Aleutians called the "Rat Islands". That sounds like a good place to put these people. Build the initial facilities there, supply the place with the things people need to survive there, drop them off there, and send a supply ship or plane there once a month to deliver food and other supplies. They can't be part of normal society, so let them develop their own. Their lives, their island, their rules, their society. Some of you will see this as inhumane, maybe not Christian, or too extreme. But, war is inhumane, not Christian and extreme, and America has never had a problem with going to war!

The point is that the current prison system does not work. Prisons today are rife with drugs, ruled by violent gangs and education centers and recruiting grounds for criminal activity. And, they cost a lot of money. Spending money on people is not a bad thing, but the taxpayer should benefit from the money spent. So, spend it where it will do the most good, and STOP spending it on "Lost Causes". But, I'm an Old Hippie, and maybe we don't think alike. Let me know how you would solve this problem. The problem is a real one, and someone needs to fix it. Have A Great Day.

The Old Hippie

Truth vs. Fact ~ Paranormal Reports

Truth vs. Fact? Seems like one of those "Chicken or the egg" things, but there is something here that has always bothered me when I try to get my mind around certain things. Websters New World Dictionary says of  "Truth": "suggests conformity with the facts or with reality, either as an idealized abstraction or in actual application to statements, ideas, acts, etc.". Interesting I think, and about "Fact": "a thing that has actually happened or that is really true; a thing that has been or is.". This definition has always been as confusing to me as the argument. They are close to the same, but, at the same time, they are not the same. This is really not much help for an Old Hippie, one who enjoyed possibly a little too much of the 60s.

In my own mind, I have separated them like this. A "Fact" is something that is verifiable and can be proved repeatedly by specific tests. Like the boiling point of water. The "Truth" is something believed to be fact, and sometimes is fact, but can not be proved. Still, confused, OK. The moon circles the Earth. That is a fact, because it can be proved mathematically. God created the heavens and the Earth. This is a truth because it can not be proved, but it is a truth because nearly all religions believe this to be the fact. Well, science doesn't accept this as fact or truth, but there is a rumor that scientists are a little different anyway. Still a little fuzzy? OK. So for the purpose of this insignificant little piece of writing, I will say that facts are provable and that truth is something that is generally accepted.

For most things in our lives the difference between fact and truth is of little difference. The sun will come up in the morning, fact or truth? No one cares because we all accept this. When you think about it, our lives are filled with things we simply take for granted. Our lives are governed by things we never question. We are truly creatures of habit. So much so that we miss seeing things that happen because they don't fit into the neatly arranged little box where we live our lives. Enter what we call "The Paranormal". The things we have no answers for. The cluttered box where all of those things we can't explain get thrown into.

If you think about it like this, paranormal it something beyond normal that we can't explain, no one will dispute it's existence. But there are things in that box that have seeded questions in my mind for a long time. One of these is "Spirits"!  What are they? Something must exist here that science has never been able to explain, probably because there is no money in finding an explanation, but that is something different. Throughout both the oral histories and written histories of man, there have been references to Spirits. Gods, angels, demons, devils, fairies and ghosts. Every culture has written about them, talked about them, sometimes with love, sometimes with hate. They have been both admired and feared, both sought out and hidden from, they have been part of the lives on men since the beginning. But, are they real?

Yes, I think that the existence of Spirits is real! But, since there is no PROOF, I can't state that their existence is a fact. And the question is very clouded by the simple truth that where there are unprovable things, people will find a way to make a "Buck" with wild theories and theatrical gimmicks. We all know of those like "Madame Empty Your Wallet And I'll Contact Your Dead Husband", (Tough name to fit on a business card.), side show mentalists and others like them. But there are so many reliable references throughout our collective history, that it must prompt me to believe that there is something real here. What it is I have no idea, but I know that there is something that makes me believe that there are Spirits.

Unfortunately, "Hard Science" ignores this topic. But, recently there have been private groups who's goal is to find proof. Some are trying to make money doing this, which is neither good or bad. If you can make money in today's world, you need to do it. As long as what they report is not faked, bringing this phenomena into mainstream consciousness is a good thing. Personally, if I had the opportunity to join such a group, I would. Maybe someone reading this can give me some recommendations, (I have my own transportation.). And I would like to hear stories from you. did something happen to you that changed your mind? Write and tell me. Or, tell me about a book on this subject. I am an avid reader. I'm just an Old Hippie, and this is my opinion, right or wrong, good or bad. Have A Great Day,

The Old Hippie

Paranormal & Unexplained Mysteries ~ A Believer?

Paranormal phenomena and unexplained mysteries are rife throughout both the written history, and the oral history of people from every corner of the world. From cave drawings to recent reports, there has been a never ending tide of reports of ghosts, spirits, mysterious creatures, aliens, UFOs and personal encounters. The phenomenon is certainly not new, but is it real? Is there validity to these reports? We can all agree that there is more than the average number of "Charlatans, Fakes and Frauds" associated with this subject. But there are also some very believable people who have come forward with reports. And current reports are world wide. I can't seriously believe that someone from a small village in China, or India is trying to get publicity in America. This has been one of my interests for a very long time, and, I really want your opinions about anything having to do with this general subject. Give me your comments, and let's generate some discussion!

I'll start with "Bigfoot", after all, I was born and raised in California, and stories of him have always been very common there. But, similar creatures have been reported in Borneo, Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia, Russia, Canada and most states in the US! Stories from ancient history to recent sightings, Bigfoot, or his relatives, has been seen in many places around the world. If there is no basis for this, how is it possible for prehistoric people to have such similar descriptions in their oral histories? Granted, there is no smoking gun that gives proof positive that such a creature exists. There has never been a skeleton discovered, no one has ever shot one and put the stuffed thing in their den and none has ever been captured. But there is a ton of circumstantial evidence to support his existence.

Some video evidence exists that can not be proved to have been faked. Castings of footprints that have been proved to be real exist from the University of Idaho to universities in China. Credible accounts have been given from people all over the world. Audio recordings from animals or creatures that can not be identified by today's experts have been collected, hair samples from unidentified and undiscovered species have been found. People facing trial have been found guilty with less circumstantial evidence. And good old Bigfoot is not alone. The Loch Ness Monster has been reported for a very long time, but so has some relative in Lake Champlain, and another in Turkey.

There are too many related subjects for me to write about in a single post. Ghosts, spirits, angels and demons. UFOs, Aliens, alternate dimensions and psychic abilities. My questions are endless. Please tell me what you think. I always publish comments, and if you ask for it in your comment, I will email you. If you email me something worthwhile, I'll publish that also, the more the merrier. Have A Great Day6,

The Old Hippie

Socialist America ~ Yes or No

People are calling Pres. Obama a "Socialist", which is neither here nor there, really. Obama is one man, and one man can not change the political and economic structure of a country the size of America. But when these same people call America a "Socialist Country", I have to sit back and laugh. Laugh at the gullibility of people, because they obviously believe everything they are told. But it is not a laugh conceived in mirth, it is a laugh stemming from sorrow, the type of sorrow born from desperation. Before you use words, I think it is important that you know their meaning. But in the America of today, words like Socialism are NOT used to tell the truth, but to SCARE people into voting one way or another. America is not Socialist, far from it.

Socialism, according to the definition in the "Websters New World Dictionary" is as follows: 1. any of the various theories or systems of ownership and operation of the means of production and distribution by the society or the community rather than by private individuals with all members of the society or the community sharing the work and the products.  You may want to read this and learn it before you apply this word so quickly. Since America is solely based on private ownership of business and property, and since people in America have the opportunity to have a business, or to invest in another's business, and since the government is not the owner of business nor the distributor of the products of private business, America is NOT a Socialist Nation, not even close. America is Capitalist to the core!

Socialism does not work, as evidenced by a quick look at history. But, if you look at the problems in America, and the rest of the industrialized world today, you will see that a pure Capitalist system is not perfect either. Beginning with Regan and continuing through Bush "The Lesser", government regulations were reduced and eliminated in this country. The result was the near collapse of the financial industry during the Bush administration. The truth is that the recession happened during the Bush administration, and the repercussions are still being felt today. You can't blame that one on Obama, sorry, but you can't blame it on Bush entirely either. Clinton had his turn before Bush, and his administration also fueled the collapse. How did these administrations cause this collapse?

The collapse was fueled by the gluttony of the banks and insurance industry. In an effort to make more money, the banking industry convinced the government to reduce various banking regulations, and to hedge their bets, they bought insurance against defaulted loans. The banks made record profits, the insurance industry sold millions of policies which made them money, and like anything built on a foundation of sand, the whole thing began to collapse. Another example of the government working for the rich and powerful and not for the people.

If the United States and other major industrial nations are going to survive the test of time, they must find a balance that will allow business to grow and flourish, and at the same time protect the citizens. Easy to say, but difficult to accomplish. To do this, a government must develop "Regulations" that protect the people from the avarice of big business, but at the same time, allow business to grow and expand. Not an easy task, but I think a doable one.

Not everyone is good at everything, and this holds true for society as well. Government is better at some things than private business. Here is admittedly an extreme example. You can't privatize defense! Would you feel safe and confident in your lives if the military was made up of private businesses, competing with each other for the defense dollars? A Military consisting of forces controlled by GE, General Motors, Bank of America and a bunch of insurance companies? Obviously, the answer is no! But the government is not best at everything either.

We wouldn't want the government to take over the auto industry in America, we would end up with cars so safe and so poorly designed that they couldn't get out of their own driveways. Look at things and decide whether it is something best done privately or centrally, and and put it in the right place. But many things are not so easily placed. One of these is transportation. America needs a modern passenger rail transportation system. Amtrak is a joke and an embarrassment. America needs this, but private money is not interested, so I say that this is a good candidate for nationalization. The big one is health care. Many in this country have no health care. Employers who offer health care all do it differently. Insurance companies charge a fortune for individual policies. The rich will always have access to the best health care, but the average American is left hanging, and the poor are swept by the wayside. Every major country in the world has a national health care system except America. We need to join the rest of the world and develop a national health care system that works. We can send a space craft to Mars, I think that we are smart enough to develop health care.

I'm just one old guy, and to tell you the truth, I don't care who is responsible for something as long as it works, works well, smoothly and consistently. There is nothing wrong with nationalizing things that are best done centrally. Doing what is best for the people is the job of the government. But getting a health care system, or a national passenger rail system DOES NOT MAKE AMERICA SOCIALIST. There are too many "Fear Mongers" today who intentionally lie to the American people. Educate yourselves before you jump on the bandwagon of fear mongers. But, I'm just an Old Hippie, but an Old Hippie who can think and make up my own mind. Who are you, and what do you think? Have A Great Day,

The Old Hippie