Hindsight Is 2026

January

Are formal college level courses in logic required in order to become a cop, soldier, first responder, or anyone in the judicial or legal system? I hope so. The thought of them not being there is like the thought of understanding of basic hygiene and handwashing not being required in order to become a doctor - 1/3/26
We are not going to overcome unhelpful -isms (sexism, racism, ageism, etc.) by having a shouting match, a pissing contest, or a power struggle. Those things should be reserved for the list of people I think need to die. We will overcome these things one friendship, one relationship, one marriage, one discussion at a time, one on one and from the heart, gradually building solid strong families, interfamily collaborations, then communities. - 1/3/26
Every human is born with a mom, but not everyone has a mother. Amma's right about this: the world needs more mothering. Black Eyed Peas said in their song Where Is The Love "People acting like they ain't got no mamas," well, a lot of people really don't have a mother figure at all. At least not one worth the title. Think of all the help it would give everyone if each and every person had someone in their lives like that. Seriously - 1/4/26
There aren't just five love languages. There are a whole bunch. Every kind of the fine arts is one, and if you think about it, the definition of what falls under the heading of "fine arts" expands to include more stuff every day. In fact, consider that "words of love" are one of the love languages Gary Chapman talks about in at least one of his books. Therefore every language and means of communication that exists can also be a love language if you make it one. Acts of service is another he mentions, and that means you can express love through anything you make or do, as well as at work, no matter how supposedly humble the physical object you create or service you provide. Physical presence can also mean "showing up" for a person in other ways, such as via internet communication, so long as you do it regularly. Consider that "love" has a variety of different meanings also, ranging from care and concern to romantic passion to how you feel about your religion. Every different culture also has different ways of communicating these things, each with their own nuances, and every person has their own way of expressing love. Also luckily for us, love is a renewable resource. It never runs out, and the more you give the more you can give. - 1/4/26
As a general rule of thumb, if you have no idea why - specifically and in full detail - you are fighting a war or fighting for a cause, you shouldn't be doing it. You'd be a child playing a deadly game in a game of evil full-grown people, and that would make you a pawn. As another general rule of thumb, if you do know why, specifically and in full detail, you are fighting for a cause, and see avoidable civilian casualties as acceptable, you're on the wrong side. - 1/4/26
As a species, beyond the purely medical definitions, we have absolutely no idea what "gender" means. Each culture, religion, spirituality and tradition of people not to mention each individual expresses gender a little to a lot differently. Shouldn't we be trying to define it as per scientific analysis instead of fighting over it without any evidence? Also, has anyone not LGBTQ realized that the Bible (most common English translations) doesn't actually say anything against being gay - just about having gay sex or sharing a bed with another man? Yes, specifically man. Doesn't say anything about lesbians. I swear, stuff like this is why I tell younger generations and anyone hating a specific religion of a caretaker to read the sacred text of that religion. People bullying you in the name of their religion tend not to have actually read what they're talking about. - 1/4/26
Everything Ayn Rand said in The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged can probably (ok not really, but here's a mega Cliff's Notes version) be summed up in three words: think for yourself. Same message, not created by me, said in another way: free your mind. - 1/4/26
It probably wouldn't surprise you if I said that I've decided to not waste my time or energy on anyone freaking about about Trump's declaration of "no more Midterm elections" now, after all this time. No more help, no more sympathy, no more hope for the "dramatic turnaround in personality and life choices" for anyone who has buried their head in the sand that much. What I really want to know is if I'm the only one who feels that way. - 1/7/26
There is a necessary evolution of the American higher education system. I'm talking colleges, universities, institutions of higher learning. Were you aware that more often than not these businesses (and they are businesses, all of them) are run by a de facto dictatorship where the higher echelons of people running the whole thing either are hereditary or got their jobs by getting college degrees in "Business Administration" if you're lucky or "Leadership" if you aren't? And that most of these idiots consistently run their businesses into the ground in terms of inefficiency but keep the whole thing going despite their ineptitude with the necessity of people needing to go to college to get a job, so they can jack up the costs for the students and let the students and student loan companies keep footing the bill? There is a better way. Have you heard of a B Corp? Have you heard of an employee-owned company? Bob's Red Mill did it. So can you if you are a college professor sick of this. That way the bottom line can include actual learning instead of nothing but profits and networking. There are other business models that you can look into also, but I'm not savvy enough to know them - but business professors no doubt are. - 1/7/26
There is such a fine line between pride in your ancestry and racism. That line is whether you think your ancestry makes you somehow better than anyone else, which would be racist. Such folly considering we're all a more "glorified" version of a monkey, except monkeys don't create massive machines that destroy their own habitats and render the land infertile for subsequent generations. - 1/17/26
This will be the first year in more than 7 years that I'll be excited to celebrate the 4th of July and here's the reason. The slim percentage of the United States that wears yellow and No Kings and Pride gear and so on and actually fights this bullshit. Or that at least fights this bullshit, even if they don't have the cojones to wear the stuff. Also the kids and teens who can't vote yet. (There were movements like this before then but most if not all of them were more interested in parroting far far left talking points like Communism than actually helping the United States or doing anything truly practical beyond asking for more money from strangers, or far far right talking points that are now the major problem, one side too cowardly for virtue, one side too blind for it) The way I see it? They're the only Americans here. And now that I think about it, all anti-Trump people among our troops also count cause if I remember right they can't publicly wear political movement gear. But hey, I didn't see 'em previous to now. Now I do. That's worth celebrating. - 1/23/26
As I said above, I see only people wearing yellow and No Kings gear - or at least those who fight this bullshit even if they don't have the guts to wear the gear, those under the age of 18, and people among our troops who are anti-Trump as American. No one else. See the thing is, a lot of people in the U.S. haven't traveled outside of it so a lot of them don't know there really are places for them. You want to complacently go along with whatever the monarchy says? There are plenty of countries to choose from. You want to be racist and terrorize people of color? Try Russia. You want to live in a Communist place? There's Vietnam, Cuba, and China. Want a super-religious place that's Christian or any other religion? There are a rainbow of places for you. So many different countries where the religion is the state religion, for almost all religions there are. Want somewhere to be sexist as much as you want? Again, try Russia. China's also one of those. You can go to those places. They're suitable. You want pure Socialism? Many European countries get kinda close. Want pure anarchy? A lot of places in Africa and some of the Balkans are close. You can have it all, and you can live in any of those places. But if you aren't on board with an egalitarian democracy, you don't belong here. That's just how it is. - 1/24/26
To make this super clear: people who are racists or other -ists are very often that way because they have nothing else left to live for. And if you don't watch out, they'll make you just like them. - 1/27/26

February 2026

Reading a happy pregnancy announcement in a romance novel today jogged a memory. Where I grew up, which is some nameless place in the Midwest, it was as pro-Life as the usual. But pregnancy announcements were treated with sly smiles and disgust. People who got pregnant or were obviously pregnant were treated with fear and disdain and the general expectation was that they'd just be ashamed of a. being pregnant and b. a post-pregnancy body and c. any children they had whether they were married or not. Or, people got pregnant as a status symbol, and their kids were expected to prop up the "Christianity" or social status of the parents. You were off the "wanted" market once you had kids and were therefore undesirable and worthless. Your kids likewise were worthless. They knew it. I saw how we all got treated there, too. The usual attitude: "Sex is GOOD. Children are BAD. Pretend you're Christian or otherwise mainstream." Perhaps because of the amount of sexual abuse and marital abuse going on there, not to mention the drug addictions and the strip clubs (which by the way contain women I really respect, along with the art they make there) and bars. I am not familiar with a pregnancy announcement with happy people, joy, screaming excitement, any of that. Just fear, trepidation, and overall failure at parenting. LOL. Pro-life. - 2/1/26
You know what? I gotta explain why I really hate it when religion gets into politics. Let me illustrate a probable outcome of what could happen if my religion, Paganism (Celtic Wiccan Paganism heavily accented with Goddess worship) became the most prominent one in the country. Several genuinely evil Witches would get into power in several states, in Congress, in the Senate and in various places in government because power is pathologically attractive to the worst people. Good ones would get into power too, and neutral ones, but that would be expected. Science would be slightly less emphasized than it is now, sadly, because that's the state of the Craft and the Occult these days. Marijuana would be legalized in a heartbeat, but many many other drugs would also be legalized because there is a really hands-off policy between people and the things that could destroy them in this subset of religions... it's so pro-personal-free-will that it can go too far. Chopping down a tree could land you in prison for several years at least, or possibly get your house seized by the government. Feminism could run rampant but not in a good way, in that women could wind up in all sorts of government positions they would not be qualified for and subsequently could screw up the country in ways we can't even imagine now. And so on, and so forth. There are reasons this country was founded to foster religious diversity and encourage it. Good ones! - 2/1/26
Copypasted from Wisdom Teens section: Have you ever made rock candy? You supersaturate water with more sugar than it can hold by heating the water, then you suspend strings or sticks with seed sugar crystals put on them in it and let it sit there covered with a dust cover for a while until the sugar crystallizes out of solution and onto the sticks or strings? We're reaching that point with regards to people seeing who their true allies are. Everyone's been in a pressure cooker for a while, with tensions building, building, building. Now all you need to do to find out who is actually real cool is look around and observe - who's in your corner? Who's not? Who's just plain weird? There's a Japanese saying: "The wind will take the leaves, and swirl them about, and they will land in a pile." It may be a good time to try to make new acquaintances. Try some in other countries too. - 1/2/26
Residual habits I will probably have from the pandemic til the day I die: 1. Each time an ice cream truck passes on the street, yelling "BRING OUT YOUR DEAD!!!!" like that guy in the Monty Python movie 2. A yen to make every "died of corvid" joke I possibly can 3. Eh fuck it, YOLO - 1/2/26
What, it took you guys this long to get angry? What's it take to get you to understand that some people fuck kids and that it's fucked up? Being raped as a kid yourself? I was! I "lucked out" in that my family didn't know about it but some people didn't have that either! And at this point I have no sympathy or patience left for anyone who's only angry NOW - 1/2/26
You have no idea how happy it makes me to hear people calling ICE the Gestapo. Little more faith in humanity. Feeling little less alone and singled out for having a Jewish family, after all this time being lambasted by both far right and far left wing people saying Israel is the evil, Jews are the evil, and everyone in Palestine and Hamas is friggin Jesus Christ or something. - 1/6/26
From the outside looking in, but having an Israeli family that's all ex-military since everyone gets drafted there (for reasons), here's something to ponder. Military service supposedly changes you and forges strong brotherhoods from loose affiliations. How do you think that plays out with people from different backgrounds? Of different genders, skin colors, religions? Cause I have a strong suspicion our troops and veterans have things they could (and probably should) tell the rest of us about bonding across so-called boundaries to fight things like oh, you know, Nazis and terrorists - 2/8/26
Gee, Trump supposedly converted to Judaism? That pedophile is as "Jewish" as a side of bacon. My apologies to all pigkind for the comparison. - 2/11/26

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