David's Rant

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

 

Life - what does it all mean??? - Life doesn't 'mean' anything. It just goes along whether you get involved or not - it doesn't wait for you to figure it out, holding it's breath until you 'get it', hoping you will finally find the answer, the one true answer. Life has managed to get along without yours or anyone else's understanding since the beginning of time, and it will continue long after you and your kids their kids are gone.

There is no one answer - or at least there is no one singular 'truth' that is sought by those who ask the question. You are not looking for an answer, but a decision to a difficult choice, a motivation to empower you towards change. Every day, every morning, every moment, you are faced with the choice - keep doing what you are doing or make the hard choice to find a new path, away from the comfort you find in your misery, towards the unknown. But, fear keeps you from taking that first step forward...

So, instead of making the decision, you sit there and ask yourself and the universe 'what does it all mean' - dream 'what does the universe hold for me'. You don't really long for understanding, but for freedom from the fear that keeps you from taking a step on that new path, away from where you are, and towards your 'answer' to the question.

That is the root of it - your answer - it is unique to you and only you can find it. The answer is in you, waiting to be discovered, waiting for that moment when the epiphany can reveal itself to you. And when it does, embrace it, take it, devour it - don't question it or analyst it - just accept it, because epiphanies don't need to explain themselves to you, they are you, revealing to you a small part of your authentic self.

Unfortunately, most of wait for a crisis to make these decisions - loss of a job, injury, sickness or death - or someone else makes the decision for you. Someone you depend on has their epiphany before you, or gets tired of waiting for you to have yours. So, they take action, they make a choice that today is just one day longer than they are willing to sit idly by, making the same choices they always do, but expecting different results. And then this happens, and it will happen, you are left there to pick up the pieces and face the consequence of your choices to do nothing.

So, get up this morning, have your coffee, read the paper, watch the morning news, do what you do every morning - but, when you step out of the shower, naked, cold and dripping, and you see yourself in the mirror - bare in both mind and body, to the universe and all – then ask yourself 'what does it all mean' - you may find you already have the answer.

Don't wait for the proverbial bus to hit you - put the fear aside and live the life you want to live.

David 10:27 AM

Monday, December 25, 2006

 

Back in 1983, I think, my mom took me to Hawaii for Christmas. I knew it was special, but being 17 and not knowing what things cost, I didn't realize how expensive that was.

Like all trips with my mother, it wasn't without drama, and the the drama started early on this trip. On the bus from the airport to the hotel, she left behind the folder with all of the vouchers for our trip, for all the activities that she pre-paid in the package. That meant that some thing were just not going to happen. Somethings, like the airline tickets to the big island, we were able to get replaced by AMEX, and still others we did anyway, and she had to pay twice for.

I remember being at an outdoor mall in Honolulu, and a school choir sang Christmas songs. Just didn't seem right, with it being in the 70s. It was a cold December there, as I remember, and it was getting down into the low 50s at night. The locals where wearing heavy coats - I laughed out loud at this when I got off the plane in my shorts. But, still, it was no white Christmas.

Then came Christmas day, on the big island. It rained all day long. Something like an inch an hour for 24 hours straight, as I remember - pretty insane. It cleared up the next day, and we spent two days driving around the big island, taking in the sights, going up to the volcano's rim, and pretty much trying to get off the beaten path when we could. I wish I knew where the photos were from that trip. I remember seeing them after we got back, but not since.

All in all, it was a good Christmas trip, even with the lost tickets, and the last one I remember spending with my mom as a kid. I will take my children to Hawaii for Christmas at some point, both to remember and to pass on that very special gift my mother gave me.

Merry Christmas, mom, wherever you are.

David 5:09 PM

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

 

Wow, I really have been slacking here lately. Well, I will continue to slack here and elsewhere, of that you can be sure, but starting on March 30th, and for the next 20 days, I will attempt to lose 20 pounds. I will not starve myself, although I will cut back on the crap I eat on a daily basis, drink more water and exercise much more than I have in the recent past. Water weight will drop fast, but I am sure that the last 10 pounds will be more difficult, especially if I start to build any muscle. Anyway, you can track my progress here...

http://www.mrandmrsgrizz.com/20poundsin20days/

I will post updates everyday for 20 days, with photos.

GRIZZ

David 5:09 PM

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

 

Smokers

What is it with smokers and the trash from their disgusting habit? The second-hand smoke is bad enough, in public, but if you are smoking in your car, I guess the only ones you are killing are you and your kids, so that is just natural selection at work. That really isn't what this rant is about.

It's about the trash. If you are a smoker, please try to help me understand this. What makes you think it is alright to throw your butts out the window of a car? We are talking about a little piece of non-biodegradable fiber wrapped in paper, that only moments ago was on FIRE! What the hell are you thinking? And not only that, but it is litter. Would you throw your candy wrapper out the window when you are done? Or that McDeath bag, full of spent wrappers? Would you? Probable not. And why not? Because you know it is WRONG and ILLEGAL. So, tell me, when you add DANGEROUS, as in 'On Fire', to the that combination of 'WRONG and ILLEGAL', somehow it then becomes OK.

How do you rationalize this? OK, OK, I know you already rationalize the addiction, and make no mistake, it is an addiction. You already rationalize the average $1600 a year you waste on this addiction. And the health risks to you and those you love, because it is those you love that get the worse end of this habit, that suffer the respiratory problems such as allergies and asthma. Somehow, and believe me, I have no idea how, you rationalize this too.

So, tell me, how do you rationalize throwing a burning cigarette butt out the window of a moving car? Oh, OK, you never throw a burning butt out, you always extinguish it first. Well, I won't even get into how many fires are started every year from a butt that someone swears was 'out', but just for the sake of argument, you never throw a burning butt out the window.

Sooooo.... that's OK then, right, because now you don't have to deal with all that trash in your car. After all, you also flick the ashes out the window, so you don't have to worry about your ash tray getting full and your car stinking. News Flash: your car stinks anyway. And we don't want the filth from your disgusting habit on the sides of our roads. Or in our parks, or our lakes or rivers or anywhere else.

Here is a quote, to illustrate:

"Each year more than 1 billion pieces of litter will accumulate on Texas highways. Of those, 13 percent are cigarette butts. That means 130 million butts will be tossed out in Texas alone this year."

--Texas Department of Transportation

And, that is just Texas!

I know you don't care, because if you did, you would stop this worthless addiction, but just in case you want to learn MORE about how you impact everyone else in the world with your disgusting habit, go here:

http://www.cigarettelitter.org/

GRIZZ

David 8:07 AM

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

 

This is the second email I sent to Bush today - sent this one to the 'Ask the Whitehouse' portion of the website. I plan on sending these on a regular basis.

-----------------------------------
I really enjoy the fact that my family now makes 60% of what we made in 2000, the year you stole the first election. Oh, and I was out of work for a year and had to move half way across the country, away from my family, to find a job that paid 70% of what my last job paid. If I am really lucky, I might be able to pay off all the debt I had to go into just to keep a roof over my families head and food on the table, by the time your next, and thank god, last term as president is over.

Oh, but don't worry about me. That $800 you sent me from my big tax break wasn't entirely swallowed up by the higher local and state taxes I have had to pay to make up for the monster deficit you have put the country into. Wait, no, it has. And more. Too bad I am not a member of you 'base', I might have enjoyed paying $320,000 less in federal taxes too.

Are you going to find new ways to screw me and the other middle class families or are you just going to focus on what has worked for you so far? I would really like to know, just so I can be prepared.

I really don't expect any more/less out of you, but I thought I would ask, are you going to be as big an asshole for the next 4 years as you have been for the last 4?

Sincerely,
David Griswold
"The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over" -Joseph Goebbels (or was that Karl Rove?)

David 9:20 PM

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

 

Damn, I am such a slacker. What the hell do I put here after 7 months? Not like anyone will see or read this. Do me a favor, if you do see this and read it, send me an email to prove me wrong.

So, Pam and I have been running the BMX track here in Omaha (well, Council Bluffs, IA, really) for the last 6 months. Been a lot of work, but I enjoy it. So, 6 months later, we find out today that we are losing our lease, so we have 90 days to get out. Sigh...

But, we have a lot of networked people in our organization, so we will be sure to find a new location. Just a big pain in the ass to have to do it. But, just as well. At least if we get into a public park, we won't be worried about the owner selling the land out from under us. It will be more permanent, hopefully.

So, what else? We had layoffs here at work today. 130 out of jobs. Fuck big companies. I will just cruise here until the end of the year, then I will start looking hard for something new.

But then again, cruising is nothing new for me. More like my MO. That's what I seem to do best. Take the path of least resistance. I never follow through on anything difficult. Like finishing this post. Bah.

David 4:47 PM

Sunday, February 22, 2004

 

So, this next post is long. It is an email exchange that I had with a friend about the MoveOn.org call for congress to censure Bush. I did not include my original email, but if you would like to read it for reference, here is the link.

First off, here are my beliefs on these subjects:

• We could have prevented 9/11.
• Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.
• We do not know the whole truth behind 9/11 and may not for years.
• When we do know the whole truth, it will make Watergate and Clinton's blow job seems like traffic tickets.
• The US planned the ousting of Saddam since 1989 or earlier, during Bush Sr's presidency.
• Saddam's WDM program was at it's highest before the first Gulf War.

And if anything I write seems like an attack on you, it is not meant to be. See my responses below.

-----Original Message-----
From: Pam [mailto:XXXX@XXXXXXXX.XXX]
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 1:59 AM
To: Grizz
Subject: My Side

What if a war had NOT been declared on the premise that there are WMDs in Iraq and it turned out there were? Or what if it were not declared for any particular reason?

Bush and his administration have been plotting the removal of Saddam since before he was elected. This is clear and has not been refuted by the administration. The motives for this are the only thing that are not clear. Was it to revenge his father, or to control oil, or to distabilize the middle east to ensure our continued military and corporate presence there or some other reason? No matter, it is clear that the stated reasons in the 2003 State of the Union address were at best overstated and more likely an outright lie, designed to foster the same 'Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD)' that have been used since 9/11 to justify the war in Afganistan and the erosion of our civil liberties.

If there were no 'war' in Iraq, where would Hussein be right now? What would he be scheming? Who would HE be killing and robbing?

Well, it is likely he would still be in power. There is no reason to believe that anyone within Iraq would have done anything to take him out. What he would be scheming? What kind of question is that? One based in FUD. Saddam is the bogeyman, and if he was still in power, ninja trained paladins of Allah himself would be raining down on our neighborhoods in stolen airliners, stealing our wives and daughters for there sex slaves! Run for your nukes and kill them all first before they can kill us! Yieeeeee!

As for who he would be killing and robbing, I am sure it would still be the people of Iraq. But, if we are going to rail against injustice and crimes about human rights, where is our indignant cries for justice in Saudi Arabia or North Korea or Iran or one of dozens of other countries that do not guaranty the same rights that we enjoy in our country? It's not there, because for the most part, Americans are complacent in their comforts. I can promise you that had President Bush tried to get us to go to unilateral war against Iraq based on human rights and that 'Saddam is Evil' he would have never gotten the support of the congress or the people. But, now that the 'WMD' have not appeared, he is trying to say that 'Saddam is Evil' was enough. I am sure it would not be considered enough to the families of the 500+ service men and women that have died over there fighting Bush's war.

If we did not go over there...how long before they would be here?

Wow, more FUD. Well, if the administrations version of 9/11 is to believed, they have already attacked us on our soil. But just who did the attacking? They say it was Al Qaeda, and maybe it was, but when was the last time you heard a report that things happened as the administration said they did? Why did the administration see the need to remove 23 pages from the congressional report about the 9/11 attacks that referred to the Saudis? Why, when 19 of the 21 people directly involved in the attacks were Saudis, did they say it was 'terrorists' and not 'Saudis' that attacked us? Why where hundreds of Saudis and over 20 members of the Bin-Laden family allowed to leave the country on chartered flights in the days after 9/11 when American citizens were grounded? Why the need to protect the Saudis? The Bush families ties to the Saudi families are long and strong, and go back several generations. Do you trust him to tell you the truth when his daddy's or grandpa's reputation is at stake

And to answer your question, Saddam knew better than to go after America. He was perfectly happy in his little piece of power. Even with economic sanctions, he was still rich beyond his needs and still ruled with an iron fist. The only reason he ever went to war with Iran and invaded Kuwait, was because the US convinced him he as at risk from those states, and that he should do something about it. Iran was a real threat to his power, because they wanted to export their Islamic Fundimentalist rule to Iraq because he was 'oppressing' the majority Sunnis in his country. The invasation of Kuwait was because Saddam believed that Kuwait was stealing oil from his Rumaylah oil fields.

The US has been planning on unseating Saddam since the late 1980s. There where massive changes in our doctrine in the region in late 1989 and we were actively working towards distabilizing Iraq and Saddam. We pitted Kuwait against Iraq in a oil price war where Kuwait was driving down the price of oil and had many wells very close to the Iraqi border. The US was very close to Iraq for as much as 6 months before this all began, then, in an about face, we lead a defacto 'embargo' of Iraq that included many other industrialized western countries. Hundreds of major scientific, engineering, and food supply contracts between Iraq and western governments were canceled by 1990.

We didn't 'finish' Saddam then, because it was decided in the administration that it would be better to use international pressures to oust him, and that coming off the 'victory' in the Gulf War, that Bush Sr. was a shoe-in for reelection. If all had gone as planned, Saddam would have been out of power 10 years ago. And then Clinton won the election. Damn Democracy...

If you suspected your neighbor across the street had a hidden arsenal in his basement and was fighting with his adjacent neighbors all the time, how long would it be before he would be on YOUR side of the street destroying your property and killing your family?

Do you close your eyes and pretend the rumors are just that? Or do you approach him and find out for sure? Do you go over to HIS house and face him eye to eye and let him know you are not taking any crap from him or will you wait until he comes to YOUR house? By then, it will be too late. You see, it is obvious your neighbor has no value of life, he does not care what your culture or beliefs are, he wants to rule your neighborhood, then his city, then country ...then....?

No, and neither would you. If you suspected or knew that some nut job like this was in your neighborhood, you would call the police, they would investigate, and they would get warrents to search his house and arrest him, if needed. This does not happen in our society.

When do we retaliate? AFTER they have invaded our country? Wasn't 9-11 enough warning of the horrors from the East?

More FUD. Invade our country? Horrors from the East? Did you even read that first? Tell me, did you run out and buy plastic sheeting and duct tape too?

We retaliate when we have correctly identifed the people responsable for the attacks. If we can find them, that is. Do we then use that as rationalization to 'clean house' in a region of the world that we don't understand or control, because they don't eat bacon, wear reveling clothing or buy into our culture in general? Sure, if you are the power hungry neo-christian conservatives in the Bush administration. And since the Bush administration has never underestimated the American public's 'just below the surface' hatred for anything alien or misunderstood, they have done a great job of whipping the majority of them into a post 9/11 frenzy. (see above mention of ninja trained paladins yada yada...)

You are definitely entitled to your opinions, David, and I respect that. Just keep in mind I am entitled to mine, also. I have never been one to believe what I read. All articles are biased as are any statistics.

One year you read everywhere that eggs are bad for you. Several years later you read that they aren't so bad for you after all. There is more good than bad in eggs. So, do you believe what you read, or do you experiment and make your own conclusions

I make my own decisions. But, just like I didn't believe Clinton, I don't believe Bush. We all start from fundemental assumptions. I at first suspect all as being false, investigate, and then I decide what I believe to be true. Your fundemental assumptions seem to be that if Republicans are saying it, it is true.

I think the ones to be censured are the media...NOT Bush. AND...Bush does not act alone. He has to hear from and answer to lots of people. So, I hope they DO censure them...Bush and all of them. Then maybe we won't be reading all this crap in the newspapers and hearing it on the nightly news.

BZZZZZT! Wrong answer! You have obviously never been in the military or in management. Bottom line is that Bush is responsble. That is why we 'elected' him. He is the chief Executive of this country, and he is ultimately responsable for all those that report to him, that he hand picked, which includes deciding what is truth and what is fiction. A true leader takes responsabilty for the failings of his subordinates, and a politician passes the buck. He is not a true leader.

The media only reports what is made public and then not even that. Do you think that the big business owned media in this country is really 'free and independent'? Do you? No, they are beholden to people they finance to put into office.

I don't include references to articles in Billings, Montana newspapers or exhibit petitions signed by people who most of them probably don't know what they are signing. And I don't pass on the quotes of politicians from other states that I have never even heard of. I count on my own conclusions, my own beliefs and my own understanding of ALL sides.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But at least all of my convictions are my own. Not someone else's.

I never assumed that your convictions are anything but yours, but is it easier for you to dismiss 538,000 people by accusing them of blindly signing a petition than for you to examine your position? Is it easier for you to assume that 538,000 people are blindly NOT following the collective concience of the country? People do not blindly go against the 'popular' or 'majority', they do it because something in them tells them that something is not right. They do it with conviction and a desire make a difference, not because of a desire to 'conform'. These are people that went out of their way to find this petition online and many of them included their own thoughts and opinions with thier signature. Then these petitions were delivered to their elected officials with purpose, with a desire to make a difference, with a desire to participate in the process that our freedoms guaranty.

*S*
Sincerely,
Pam

PS...If the Iraqis have nothing to hide, why did they fight us when we entered their country to investigate?

I don't even know how to answer this. This is like saying that people that don't have anything to hide shouldn't be worried about violations to their 4th ammendment rights. Yeah, that is until they come for you, then where are your rights?

What are you referring to here anyways? The UN weapons inspectors or our illegal, unilateral invasion of their sovereign country? First off, I am making no excused for Saddam. He is who he is, and I don't think that he would even have cooperated fully with any outsiders interfering in his domain. He ruled with absolute power in Iraq, and any pressure from the outside made him look weak to his country. He feared his own people more than he feared the world, which was ultimately his undoing. Secondly, aren't the Iraqis allowed some pride also? Why do American's assume that patriotism is in the sole domain of them and the anyone brash enough to 'defy' our troops are 'terrorists'? I am sure that they see themselves as 'freedom fighers' trying to rid themselves of an oppressive occupier.

I have sources to back any of the information that I provided here, if you desire that I back up my position.

David 11:49 AM