Troubling Thoughts by "The Geek"

with respect to SNL's Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy ....

i'm a bit worried. On things i would normally be in favor of, i see great potential for abuse and a trending toward a slippery slope that i'm not sure we really want to go down in the long run no matter how advantageous it might be to us in the short-term benefits-wise.

For example i believe that a president (any president) should be able to put people in positions of responsibility that he trusts and knows will be effective; however, i am not sure that i can support the call to eliminate the filibuster either. The slippery slope of "majority" rule running roughshod over the minority is one that personally worries me greatly. One of the reasons a republic was selected as our means of governance was to protect against tyrannical despotism and unfettered popular democracy both. The personal freedom each of us has to think, say, and do as we believe right even when no one else does was so important that it merited its own resolute and permanent section of our founding documents within the Bill of Rights.

For this American NOTHING ELSE and I DO MEAN NOTHING ELSE is as important to a person then their personal freedom of thought, speech, action .... NOTHING. Everything we do to try and improve on our way of life and how we will try to govern ourselves MUST take this into consideration and in no way abridge upon its sacredness to the individual -- or as the attributed quote to "Gray Grantham" from the movie "The Pelican Brief" so distinctly put it ... we must protect to the greatest extent possible the "rights of the individual above all else".

in the same vein i am greatly troubled by the current trend especially among religious leaders that we should "forget" those things we DO NOT have in common and come together for the good of all by focusing only on those things we DO share in common. To me this appeal strikes my heart as being akin to ... stand by for the SHOCKER ... communism where every one is treated the same and everyone has the same ideas and acceptable thought. To ask for example a Seventh-day Baptist to ignore the differences between themselves and Southern Baptists or Lutherans and come together and concentrate only on what they share in common (or vice versa) is to deny the validity of those differences and in actuality eliminate those differences despite the fact being that those DIFFERENCES are what makes a Seventh-day Baptist who and what they are just as it makes the Lutheran or Presbyterian different and in effect what they are. At what cost do we value our sincerely held differences of opinion? How much does our individuality really mean to us ... if, in order to have peace among our neighbors, we must agree to be the same as everyone else then our principles truly do not mean what we think they mean -- in fact if we sell our individuality and principles for such a cheap price as "convenience" or "security" or even "temporary peace" then they really are not principles worth having are they.

I believe that Sir Winston Churchill said it best in his speech to his alma mater, The Harrow School, in 1941 when he spoke thusly:

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. "

Our individuality of thought, word and deed is without doubt the MOST PRECIOUS of all rights granted to man by HIS CREATOR. Nothing else should ever get in the way or be allowed to weaken that right.

In closing i will submit that the opinions expressed herein are my own and that they are not necessarily those of the management and staff of blogspot.com or of anyone else. I am reminded of the words written and sung by Billy Joel ... "You may be right ... i may be crazy. But it just may be a lunatic you're looking for."

As always rebuttal opinions are graciously accepted here at The "Geek Files" ... you have 10 seconds to respond.

A Few Words of Explanation ....

As some of you may have noticed it has been almost a month since my last blog entry .... my how time flies when you are having fun NOT!

i thought it might be prudent to give my loyal readership some insight to my blogging habits ...

first of all, i NEVER blog if i am on a house-sitting job ... something about using someone else's computer to spout my own personal opinion of things just strikes me as somewhat strange ... so i dont.

secondly, i NEVER NEVER blog if i am not feeling good enough to finish what i might start ...

thirdly, i only blog if something catches my eye or ear that is of tremendously vital interest to me....

so there you go .... three rules of blogging from your friendly GEEK.

However since i have started this blog let me just say a few words about some recent and extremely important (to me at least) events ....

to wit .... i have found myself unable to stop the aging process and discovered this past April 2nd that it has been 25 very very short years since i graduated from High School and having never been to a single class reunion since that time i did indeed choose to go and see a few of my fellow young classmates. It was a beautiful day to be in Healdsburg, CA .... perfect weather and so great to see all those faces with whom i spent time so long ago. Tony and Karen if you ever read this just let me say for the record that you both did a FANTASTIC job of making everything work; and for the rest of my classmates who were able to attend ... it was great to see you all again and relive some of the experiences we shared back in our wilder and more reckless youth ... for those i did not get to see who might , just might, read this ... see you in 5 ... and Steven ... thanks for insisting that i had to go.

The cool thing about reunion weekend was that it so neatly coincided with the start of my very favorite time of year in all the world .... thats right BASEBALL SEASON!!!! ... and while i know that some 11-13 games have now been played let me just say that my predictions are as follows ... AL: Red Sox, Twins, Athletics and Angels will make the playoffs this year ... sorry Yankee fans i think this year is gonna be a downer .... i also think the Twins will break through this year to be AL Champs. In the NL i see the Braves, Cardinals, Astros and unfortunately the Dodgers making the playoffs with the Cards winning the NL crown and beating the Twins in 6 games for the Title ... oy vey ... whats a Giant fan to do not only do we NOT make the playoffs but our sworn arch-rivals will do so at our expense ... gonna be a long summer Boomer .... especially for the orange and black.

On an even closer to home note though, i do forsee that the Sacramento River Cats will again win both their AAA division and also the PCL Championship despite having to give 7 or so of their players to the BIG CLUB again this year ..... but things could always be worse ....

BTW if you have never been to a minor-leage baseball game and you live either in a town where one plays or you have one in a nearby town take advantage of that and take a trip to the ball yard nearest you ... its GREAT FAMILY entertainment and at an excellent price in most cases ...

PLAY BALL!!!!


i fear that the time has come for this edition of "THE GEEK FILES" to quote the immortal words of P-P-P-orky P-P-Pig and say "That's All Folks" ... for today ....

i hope you tune in aqain next time when you'll hear my sister Melissa say "What???? You're quitting already? Are you Nuts???? You haven't even written a thing about the new pope or the ethics hearings or the filibuster in the senate ... What kinda political and current events blogger are you anyway? Get back in there and BLOG!!!!! ... BLOGGGGGG!!!!"

Good night folks ... its been fun .... thank you thank you very little .... i'll be here through Thursday .....