encourage people to question everything

I had a meeting with a pretty cool guy today. I say this even though his political beliefs are on the opposite end of the spectrum to mine. But we both agreed, between vents about gas prices, worthless politicians and the ailing economy, that a lot of our problems are based on fear and speculation.

In the past week, I’ve actually heard two people say that they think the world is closer to ending. Huh? You mean after all these billions of years, it’s going to pick my short 70-plus-year lifetime to implode? What are the chances? Pretty damn slim, is what I think.

It’s almost as if some people feel more comfortable living in fear – and spreading it. Strange how that works. I’m not immune to it at times myself but I don’t think that all of humanity is going to be extinguished just because Americans are now having to cough up an extra $2 per gallon of gas.

Good Lord. Just as I was wincing and imagining all the possible things that could go wrong with such a meeting, I read this:

—-President George Bush elicited unexpected laughs Monday as he welcomed the Queen to the White House, misreading his speech and putting her age far beyond 81.
He said the Queen had personally met 10 U.S. presidents and had “helped the country celebrate its bicentennial” – almost saying 1776 before putting the correct date at 1976.-

I’m surprised he didn’t refer to her as Queen Helen Mirren.

It’s a shame I can’t muster a laugh, though, thanks to all the damage he has done. Only 623 days left. What else could possibly go wrong?

of obnoxious T-shirts … surprisingly by accident. I owe this jewel to Jesus and his pet brontosaurus, Lizzy. You guys rock! Also, thanks to Al Gore for inventing the Internet. I couldn’t have done it without you.

So I followed this link from a 43T post about the Creation Museum which is set to open near Cincinnati this month. I wasn’t sure if the poster was serious when she referred to this as “truth” because most people nowadays don’t argue with evolution. Er, by “most people” I mean people who don’t spend $27 million on a museum that has Adam and Eve sharing an exhibit with a T. rex.

Anyway, while perusing the site for laughs, I read about Project Pterosaur, which touts plans to capture living “pterosaurs” in Africa and bring them back to the U.S. and breed them as proof that they lived alongside man.

This could not be real, although the intelligence of some can never be overestimated.

A search found this, which mentioned that the site was a hoax made by the creators of the satirical Landover Baptist Church site

Thank God.

It was also there that I found a cornucopia of T-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons and skimpy underwear boasting such novel phrases as: “Jesus is Watching You Poop” and “Holy Bible Gun Camp.”

Nice. Finally I have something decent to wear on Sundays.

“Genchi Genbutsu” basically means, “go and see for yourself.” I discovered this novel phrase when reading about Toyota’s success in America. The company applies this philosophy when solving problems and it seems to work. I think it would be great if everyone did the same instead of relying so heavily on second-hand reports that over time separate them from reality. Before long, you have one giant game of Telephone and the initial message is lost in translation.

We should be our own curious investigators, experiencing the world for ourselves before judging it from afar.

“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.” Gertrude Stein

Some people have said I’m hard to understand, cryptic and confusing. More likely they don’t want to hear the truth-. Such as when I say things like:

-‘Stop, that bothers me.’
-‘You’re wasting my time.’
-‘Would you please not do that again, you’re making me sick.’
-‘If you keep doing that you’re going to be sorry’ (and not in that sing-song tone, either).

If they don’t get that, what else can I say? No wonder they’re confused.

My friend, who has apparently ignored the above phrases and/or is deaf and blind, sent me another three goading emails today that included such topics as: ‘Clintons murder friends and former coworkers,’ ‘The decline of America’s Judeo-Christian culture is turning us into French people (the unabridged version)’ and ‘References to ‘the Eagle’ in the Qur’an offer proof that Muslims want us dead.’

Despite expensive formal schooling, he spends no time researching things before mass mailing them to people. But unlike him, I do read things other than Globe Magazine, so it was easy to write a response using the common sense I’ve tried to retain since third grade….something along the lines of ‘think for yourself’ and then a bunch of stuff a third grader would get in trouble for saying.

-key word