Marching On

Things seem to get backed up, somehow. Or, perhaps, that is not the right word, perhaps "crowded together, all at once" or "bottlenecked" might be better descriptions, but it has happened over the past few days to me, in a manner of speaking. Perhaps it is just news overload. Case in point; a small boy from this area has died after falling from a third floor window, the released journalists' claims make one wonder just how complicit at least the local governments of that part of China and North Korea may be in the human trafficking the women were investigating, Michael Jackson's family has finally been able to lay him to rest (I am glad they chose Forest Lawn), the more we learn about the universe the more hazardous our existence seems to become, Afghanistan is becoming akin to a funeral pyre, and now they have discovered a way to deep fry butter (gag!). Perhaps the way to deal with all of this is to discuss it here, thereby letting go of it; setting it free, in a manner of speaking.

First up is the five-year-old boy who died because he was doing what children do - testing his boundries while his Mom was busy somewhere else. I cannot imagine the intensity of the pain and loss that family is going through right now even though pain and loss are not unknown in our neck of the woods. My heart goes out to them all.

Next is the issue of North Korea's kidnapping of the two female journalists from Chinese soil with the cooperation of their Chinese guide. It is obvious there are many particulars here that are unknown, but I am not disinclined to believe what these women have had to say. Nor is it beyond imagination to realize that the local governments, at least, were complicit in the kidnapping and may have done it in an attempt to prevent the story of human trafficking in the area from being more fully revealed. I'm afraid I feel rather cynical here which is definitely coloring my perspective, however both North Korea and Chine need to make sure the local bureaucrats are not taking advantage too seriously of any autonomy they may have or feel they have, it does not look good for either group if they want to continue to be taken seriously on an international level.

The reason I mention Michael Jackson at all is due to the fact that it is not often such a delay occurs between memorial service and interment, although it is not unheard of, and the reason I am glad his family chose Forest Lawn over Neverland Ranch has to do more with my distaste for those who would desecrate his grave in order to take some piece of him away as a souvenir, which I find rather loathsome although I keep some of my mother's hair in my possession to be buried with me when that time arrives, so I do understand the sentiment attached to such mementos. I think his family will be able to rest more easily with Michael in a more secure spot and, as their peace of mind is of the most import right now, I personally feel they made the only right choice. They will also be able to have more privacy this way if and when they choose to visit the site. ENOUGH of the gawking people!

As if all of this local and national news is not enough to try our patience and frazzle our nerves, we continue to learn how we are surrounded by galaxies each centered by an enormous and deadly black hole, to include the enormous and deadly black hole at the center of our own galaxy! Goody! No one seems to want to interrupt this amazing flow of knowledge with any rhetoric about the fact that this earth has always been in that particular circumstance, that without the black holes it is likely that the galaxies could not exist in their terrifying and stunning beauty in the first place, and that there is not one blessed thing any of us can do about it except to perhaps allow ourselves one brief moment of cosmic level fear and, for those of us who do not wet ourselves during said moment, taking a deep breath and then getting back to our lives. I realize most people do not allow themselves to become so worked up about this that they literally panic, but such are the weaknesses of the species I feel obliged to rant about the issue at least once here in my blog.

I have also been wondering, as I hear of all of this via our ever expanding communications media, if "they" are correct about the light from far flung galaxies being as old as it is by the time we see it here on earth because if, as they proffer, its true that gravity effects the passage of time (A), and (B) that there is little or very disparate gravity between us and these galaxies (i.e. "space"), perhaps the time-lapse is faster moving than light speed where the gravity does not affect it??? This would mean there may not be a difference of quite so many years between us and the sources of light from distant galaxies. I also wonder if the problems with Einstein's Relativity Theory isn't more a matter of some missing exponential equation or component rather than not actually applying to things too subatomic for it but, as I am a history and English major and have very little knowledge of such things, I must merely be left to wonder rather than to ever really know, besides if I knew everything I would not be able to stand myself and would likely consider myself the most intolerable bore of my acquaintance, so it's just as well the way it stands.

Jumping from the cosmic to the merely international is not some feeble attempt on my part to denigrate the issues or importance of what has been taking place in Afghanistan over the past several days. People are dying, the Taliban is likely responsible for the majority of the deaths, just as they are blatantly and consciencelessly responsible for intimidating women and voters, and it seems unlikely that this nation will ever be capable of emerging from their primitive mindset into one of more modern tolerance and progressive thinking and action, which may have its bad points but is, overall, a true positive when given the current circumstances the country exists with and faces for decades yet to come. How many more of its people must Afghanistan lose before it finally realizes the resources and treasures that have been lost, destroyed by religious intolerance and base ignorance? It would also do well for those perpetrating all of these crimes against their own people to question whether their motives are not merely fodder for the plans of others who may be manipulating the situation from on high, never getting dirty or into danger themselves, and seemingly supportive of the simpler reasonings that often populate the minds of those at the lowest ranks of these situations, but whose primary interests actually have absolutely nothing to do with those motivations and will, ultimately, betray those working for them anyway. It's called government, diplomacy, politics and profits.

Finally, we come to perhaps the most tragic news of the day - deep-fried butter. Just the sound of it is artery-clogging. Don't we have anything better to do than find even more ways to destroy our health or kill ourselves? If certain religious groups who hate the United States will just have a little more patience they should have an entire nation with intact infrastructure (sort of) to inherit just as soon as the last of us keel over from hardening of the arteries.

There you have my rants but, at least on my end, the bottleneck no longer is a problem and I breathe easier having dissipated my burden sufficiently to any readers who happen this way in cyberspace. Hopefuly whatever is keeping your attentions focused is less problematic and just as easily resolved.

Blessings and peace despite any potentially cataclysmic events we have been hovering on the edge of for the past hundreds of thousands of years.

Izzlebug