Driving and Cell Phones

Wake up and smell the blood 

Of all the selfish actions

I witness every day,

We have to find a way to make

These guilty parties pay.

It’s not the politicians

Their lies and glad handshake.

Nor the fat cat lawyers

And all the fees they take.

It’s not the oil executives

Monopolizing fuels.

Nor the striking teachers   

Closing down our schools.

It’s not my fellow bipeds

Spitting out their gum.

Nor the cheeky youngsters

Swearing at their Mom.

It’s not the transit riders

Blasting out a tune.

Nor citizens of countries   

Electing a buffoon.

It’s not the big brave hunters

Slaying innocent prey.

Nor multi-million athletes

Whining for more pay.

I could write more pages

About bad deeds and crooks.

With subjects who are human

I could fill ten books.

I’m sure you are impatient.

Good - that’s how I feel,

And totally frustrated

Making this appeal.

The subjects of these verses

Care not for you and me.

So if you know you’re guilty

I hope that you’ll agree.

I speak of lame brained drivers

Who won’t stay off their cell.

Such idiotic morons

Deserve to be in Hell.

Alone or with their children

It matters not the sex.

Disaster in an instant.

It’s really not complex.

What call or text can matter

More than another’s soul?

I hope you see there is none.

That is my hope and goal.

The Brewster

UFOs Yes or No?

Are there ETs out there and have they visited?

This topic is guaranteed to get a discussion going almost anywhere so why not here?

For my part I fully believe in aliens and visits to earth would not surprise me at all. How's that for an opening?

Regarding their existence, to me this is the same debate as its cousin about the creation of humans and Earth itself. Most people either believe in a theory based on physics or one based on religion. Unfortunately some of those in the religious camp are probably angry already because for the most fervent of them you can't even question this. I disagree as I do with most things about religion. Neither of the theories has actually been proven, so I go with my gut and what makes common sense to me.

When I hear estimates of the numbers of stars and other objects that exist in the universe, my eyes gloss over. I can't even appreciate numbers that large. They are like the number of grains of sand in the Sahara Desert, Myrtle Beach, or the floor of the ocean. It is difficult for most people to get a feeling for such quantities.

Permit me to assume that people on both sides of this divide would agree that there are vast numbers of "heavenly" bodies out there. The exact number doesn't really matter. What does matter is the analogy that Earth probably represents only one of those single grains of sand in any of those places mentioned above.

So if a Supreme Being or deity - male, female, or something else we can't even comprehend, created Earth and us then why stop at one? Anyone or any thing with such capabilities surely would conduct more than one such experiment.

On the other hand if a natural and more physical formation took place then I can't possibly accept that whatever happened to form earth and all of its inhabitants did not happen elsewhere or at least something very, very close to it.

So:

Religious Theory? There must be many more supreme creations out there. Maybe there are even millions of deities as well all doing similar things. That would make us mere laboratory rats in a heavenly contest. The belief that there is only one all powerful God in the universe only exists because some men wrote some books. They just happened to be the only ones at the time who knew how. They could have written anything they desired and for any number of reasons - selfish or not.

Physics and Natural Selection Theories? Same argument. If a Big Bang created our galaxy and everything in it there are likely huge numbers of other galaxies out there.

Here is an often overlooked point. Both of these theories are based upon the published personal thoughts of a relatively few male scholars - women were not taken seriously at one time or even permitted higher education. The masses really didn't have the means of launching counter-arguments. Even in the time of Darwin in the 1800's higher education was probably the preserve of men. Copernicus in the 1400's envisaged our first notions of earth travelling around the sun. Not many could challenge him. Imagine many centuries before that how someone teaching from their own writings could convince the less educated..

People believed what they had been told and that most often came from written theories or at least powerful orators. Look what happened in more modern times at Jonestown. A single man lead many people to their own death.

Now for visitation. Based once again on sheer numbers surely there are creatures out there more advanced than we are. That is difficult for many earthlings to accept. You can find on the internet alleged witnesses to the little man at Roswell. I believe something did indeed happen.

Perhaps there are logical reasons why there have been so few visits. We face the same challenges in space travel. Firstly the ability to travel such great distances is a huge problem. How are the craft powered? Secondly, those on board have to stay alive with basic food and water. The odds of aliens visiting our little grain of sand out of all of the others are small.

I leave you with this. Do you believe in time machines like the ones you have seen in movies? Why not? Walk outside tonight and look at the stars. Your earthly perception called vision is taking in events that happened many millions of years ago. That last part involves our sense of time and people like Einstein thought we have a very limited understanding of it. But there they are - those stars are captured in your brain now but what you are seeing happened a very long time ago. If you could possibly see an image of people on that star which was formed 200 million years ago, they will never be able to see your image by the time your images reach them 200 million years from now. In our terms that would be 400 million years into their future!

Are your eyes glossed over yet? Join the crowd. We are only Earthlings. 

A belated welcome to our visitors,

The Brewster

Ideal Politician - an Oxymoron?

What makes a good politician?

Is this the oxymoron of oxymorons? Some people would say yes - right up there with an honest oil CEO, tobacco executive, or a helpful tax collector. I am trying to give the lawyers of this world a break and leave them out of this, but since many political figures have legal backgrounds, they can't escape entirely.

It seems to me that there are three major characteristics of politicians that most people dislike. I say most, because there are many people who have simply come to accept politics for what it is - dirty - so what is to dislike? Needless to say a lot of them are politicians - or wannabes.

1. The first is simply that lying is perfectly acceptable. You lie during a campaign to get into office. Then if you win you lie to stay there. Once elected there will always be extenuating circumstances which you could not have foreseen that rationalize any broken promises. If you lose and are in opposition, then you spend all of your time trying to expose the leader's lies and imply that if you are voted in next time you would never be guilty of it yourself. Liar!
2. The second is that in order to get into office you need a fortune to run your campaign (of lies.) It makes you totally indebted to the very wealthy people who finance you. This will obligate you to do the things that they want which include of course making them even richer and even more privileged.
3. The third is again accepted as part of the game. You find as much dirt as you can on your opponent and make the most of it. If you can't find it then a healthy show of characteristic number one will suffice. Lie! If you have lots of number two then you can pay someone to find the dirt. Let's face it - we always hear a lot of number two in most campaigns even without donors. You must as well, claim that you are only responding to the opposition for indulging in this practice. They did it first! Sounds just like a kid in the school yard. No surprise there.

The acceptance of all of this was particularly noticeable in the many people with whom I worked over the years who came from much older countries abroad. Europe and Asia come to mind. I understand this. Their ancestors have experienced governments and leaders who have been guilty of horrific acts far worse than lying, taking bribes, and mudslinging.

They thought that I and my countrymen were simply naive children with our lofty ideals. I am beginning to think that they were right. One man from the Ukraine would not buy lottery tickets. Since they were government run, they must be rigged. Shortly after that there was a big scandal over retailers cheating on lotteries!

How do we remedy this? That's a question that's as old as time.  If we fix these problems we can then move on to world peace and the origin of mankind - sorry "personkind". I must be politically correct. The whole idea here is to attempt to level the playing field. Joe or Susie Average should have just as equal an opportunity to run for office as Mr. or Mrs. Millionaire / Billionaire.

I invite you to read my article on "Politics - New Ideas to Try". See link below.
New Political Ideas

Pet Peeves

What are some of your pet peeves?

Here are some of mine to get things going:

OFFICE LUNCHROOM PIGS

Do you think that those who share your lunchroom, leave a mess on the counter and in the microwave and never throw out their garbage get away with that at home? I doubt it.

You know all of those lunch bags packed into the fridge where your fresh food is? Think about where they have been sitting:
- on the floor including washrooms, cars, and public transit to name a few
- on the ground or sidewalk
- on the dirty countertop
- on car and transit seats
- up against other filthy bags in the fridge and on its dirty shelves

Also they are way too big to fit in there - it leaves little room in the fridge. I know it is inconvenient but shouldn't people really unpack them and then place their contents in the fridge?

When is the last time you washed and sanitized yours thoroughly? (I meant your lunch bag!)? 

OFFICE BATHROOM PIGS
I don't know about the ladies but I have to wonder if many of my male colleagues were born and raised in a barn.

There is often: human waste of both types on the seat and on the floor. Certain types and faiths are so hung up on hygiene they cover the seat with tons of tissue or paper towels and then either a) leave it there or b) try to flush it and plug the toilet. You can just imagine the mess that causes. Then there are the constant wads of gum and wrappers in the urinals; paper towels all over the floor; and flooded countertops which no one will soak up. Lest I forget whiskers and spit in the sink.

And yes, guys still exist who do there seated business and then walk straight out without washing their hands. This happens at the office and the gym and the scary thing is, they probably DO get away with it at home!

CHEAP SCENTS

Ladies and gentlemen: More of a cheap scent simply does not make it better. A little dab of expensive perfume or after shave (if any men still use it) is WAY more sexy and alluring then splashing on or bathing in the cheap stuff! Sometimes it is even worse than a very minor, musky scent of perspiration. A damp finger tip merely touched to a few other places is all that is needed. Please!

IN YOUR FACE PEOPLE

A good, spirited, face to face conversation can be very enjoyable. Not so when the other party is constantly in your face. They can't make their point without being a foot from your face and probably do a lot of touching and shoulder tapping as well. Back off bud! If I have to wear my reading glasses to see your blurry face or if I smell your coffee breath you are too close!

ALUMINUM FOIL AND CELLOPHANE ROLLS

Don't you just hate those foil rolls that don't peel off the roll evenly? By the time you realize there is a strip of missing foil from what you tear off it is near impossible to strip it away. Likewise at the end of the roll you would think they could find a way to wind it without gluing the last bit to the cardboard. 

The same goes for cellophane. It would also be nice if what you tear off does not cling to itself. C'mon engineers and chemists!

SLIPPERY MATTS

Shouldn't it be mandatory that all floor matts are non-slip? These can be very dangerous. I can buy rubber pads to place underneath but why should I have to?

SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE DEATH

Come again? Which of these companies actually think I will buy and try their product? I know - talk to my doctor first. You mean the same one you pay for recommending your product? 

ONLINE ADVERTISING

What are some of the worst types of unsolicited ads online? One of my dislikes are those which have video and sound but they only start when you scroll down and they are in view catching you by surprise. Hint to Advertiser: I can't name ONE of these because I can't get rid of them fast enough - you are wasting your time. They usually stop once you scroll past them. On a positive note I credit the ones that say you can SKIP the ad in so many seconds. Some tell you how long the interruption will be so you can decide to go elsewhere or wait.

Let's face it - advertising just like TV and radio pays the bills. Just stop trying to fool be with pop-ups I can't avoid. 

VISCIOUS TOILET LID COVERS:

As a man whenever you are visiting someone and try to do the right thing by lifting both the toilet lid and the seat there it is - some cutesy freshly laundered lid-cover that causes the seat to come crashing down in the middle of nature’s call! Ladies, if you are going to cover the toilets with fleece or whatever, let us first give it a test run. Besides, toilets are full of dampness and odors. Toilet covers absorb both. I know it must be a total shock if we leave the seat and lid up and while you are texting, or drinking, or thinking, you end up (OK end down actually) with your tush on the cold porcelain and then in the water. But what about us? Things just get flowing nicely and BAM – down crashes the seat. If our plumbing is still intact, we just woke the entire household and went all over the seat anyway when we tried to avoid it! Bad idea ladies.

METAL COAT HANGERS: 

They ALWAYS get tangled. You can put them back as neatly as possible. It is inevitable however that when they hit a certain critical number - the empty ones - they will get more inter-twined than snakes in a pit. I used to collect them for recycling at the cleaners. I’d lay them all out in a row in the car, but upon arrival they would once again be tangled up. I’m sure the cleaners just tossed them. I even resorted to tying them with twist-ties. This worked, but it just simplified the task of tossing them for the same cleaners. They are impossible to fold up neatly for disposal and always poke their way through the side of a garbage bag. 

MOVIE SOUND EDITING 
You would think with all of the technology and special effects in movies today that a producer or editor could find a way to create the subtle effect of a whisper in a film without making it impossible to hear the actor. I hate having to constantly replay something just to hear a couple of sentences that some director thought was a cool bit of dramatic effect. It is inevitably a critical bit of dialogue when this happens. Then you have to crank the volume back down again. How about displaying text when the dialogue is too soft to hear? In a theatre there is no replay.

While we are solving this problem, could you solve the reverse - TV commercials which are broadcast at twice the volume of the program they are supporting. If they can bleep out live expletives before they are broadcast then they can monitor pre-recorded commercials and do the same thing.

PLASTIC CONTAINERS 

I don’t know if this is the right term but I am referring to those clear, thin, rigid plastic containers used most frequently in the baking departments of supermarkets. They usually contain muffins and cookies. This has to be one of the worst contributors to environmental waste.

Firstly, they are not tightly sealed so they really only act as a means of conveying or containing the goods, not keeping them fresh. Secondly they are impossible to crush. I try to do so under my foot several times. In addition to spreading crumbs all over the floor, they always manage to slowly rise partially back to their original shape like the villain in that Arnold movie. The worst thing is that they make a horrible crinkle sound as they rise and usually do so in the garbage bag in the middle of the night! Many is the time I have thought there was a burglar in the house. 

Another of course is the tough plastic wrapped item like a toothbrush or a piece of electronic equipment. You need bolt cutters to get into these things. Most people use a sharp knife often cutting themselves

BIRD DROPPINGS

There is a kid’s rhyme which goes: 

          Birdie Birdie in the sky

          Dropping whitewash in my eye

          But I’m not worried, I don’t cry

          I’m just glad that cows don’t fly! 

How do bird’s always manage to hit your car from on high? Why is it always right after you wash it despite weeks of reprieve in the bombing raids? Is it deliberate? Are gulls protesting the fate of their barnyard cousins? These are questions of deep import.

I do wonder however if they have some inherent technology which enables their astonishing accuracy just as bats have radar. If you saw the movie “The Dambusters”, you will recall the simple system of two angled spotlight beams converging on the ground to indicate the correct drop altitude of a low-flying bomber.

This analogy has more significance than you think. My bungalow has a 3-4 foot overhang around it and several floor-to-roof window panes. Birds still manage to hit my window at the top. It has to carry several feet laterally. I would love to capture this on video. No, I would love to capture the perpetrators.

LITTERBUGS 

Few things demonstrate the selfish, lazy, inconsiderate, swine like behavior of humans more than these people. Top of the list are gum chewers who just spit it out anywhere but most commonly on walkways. Just look on any public sidewalk in a downtown area and you will see tens of thousands of round black spots – dried gum. It is near impossible to remove it from the concrete. Usually this is in sight of a litter container. As most of us know – good luck if you tread on it and try to remove it from your shoe or clothing. These people should be shot on sight. 

On my way to work one morning on a road that quickly entered farmland north of a housing area, I turned a corner an found an entire wooden rowboat on the shoulder. Barely out of sight someone dumped it. Near it were garbage bags, leaf bags and many other things. What pigs live among us.

SEAT HOGS 

Funny – there is another pig reference. When did it become acceptable to stay seated on public transit when right beside you is a pregnant woman, senior person having trouble walking or standing, handicapped person etc.? If you are able bodied, offer the seat. End of conversation. Not quite. Selfish bastards!

SELFISH / BAD DRIVERS

This one deserves its own book. Those of us who drive know that we are all better drivers than everyone else with whom we share this privilege - and it IS a privilege.
I have already written about cell phones and driving under "Social Issues." Here are but a few of the most aggravating for me:

- refusing to use turn indicators for anything
- turning left or right from your current lane into another one two or more away. Staying in your right or left lane is the rule no matter whether you want to take another immediate exit or not. If you miss it too bad. Come back.
- selfish people who refuse to let you in to merge, even at high speed. This is gambling with peoples' lives.
- essentially ignoring STOP signs or right turns on a red by just slowing down rather than stopping.
- ignoring pedestrian crossings or pedestrians in general
- idiots who think they are skilled high speed drivers. Unless they have been professionally trained, they are not.
- tailgaters - a must have on any such list.
- one of the most dangerous other than cell phone hands on users is the red light runner. For these people there is no yellow light.
- winter drivers who just don't understand that perhaps 4-wheel drive allows you to accelerate faster but it does not allow you to stop any faster.

SCREAMING ON FEMALE TALK SHOWS

There are several talk shows my other half enjoys - a few Canadian and a few more American. One common element is the ear-piercing screaming that seems to be mandatory to attain a seat in the audience. She was in attendance once and confirmed that there were signs held aloft to stir applause at appropriate times. However these shows sound and look like teenyboppers at a rock concert - or a war cry as the battle begins. I live in fear that our windows or crystal will shatter any moment! It carries on for ages. In addition whenever a panel member makes a contribution to a particular topic however inane, there is another huge round of clapping. These panelists are paid to be there - to talk! Give us a break. It is seldom profound.

Now let's hear from some of you.