Convalescence 2007

Frog

There’s a war on
and people
are concerned about a cat
eating a chipmunk.

Cats, Capitalism and Mental Disorders:

The Truth about the Iraq War

The "Chewy Crunchy Chunky Yummy Chippy" video here was censored on YouTube. (It can also be found at left, at the bottom of the column.) That's right, censored. So I'm offering it here.

I hardly see the offence. I mean, yes, it is disgusting. But that's nature, sometimes, if you choose to view it that way.

I think most of the people that take offence to the video, though, are the same people that take offence to the idea that vegetables come from the ground. And, really, there are much more offensive things to worry about, many other things to take offence at, if that's something you're looking for.

The war in Iraq, for instance. Iraq, where the U.S. is empiring the ass out of innocent Iraqis for capital gain. The cancer of capitalism needs more flesh to feed on, needs more land, more everything. It can't be sated.

Watch out for "star wars" and the impetus to buy up space, which the U.S. knows would be a boon. Can you imagine the slavery they could impose from up there? Enough are already enslaved.

The final frontier is right.

So, please, people, take a look, a good long critical look at what's really happening around you, and maybe you'll learn to appreciate nature even.

* * *

The reader may now be wondering what the Iraq war has to do with a video wherein a cat, quite naturally for its kind, eats a chipmunk.

One could argue that war is natural to humankind. A propensity for violence is inherent to all things in nature, all living organisms, all animals such as humans. (Yes, humans.) Yet this is the point at which the delusional among us raise a hand and a stink.

"Nah-ah," they say, "humans, animals? Not a chance! Descended from monkeys? Preposterous! For we (i.e. American Republican God-fearing citizens) are made in God's image, and God is not violent."

The point, however, barring any dramatic discovery, such as that cats kill chipmunks out of malice, is that war is fought between governments, ideologues, groups, tribes, who have devised a definition for themselves, or have had a definition ascribed to them, either from within or without, a definition which raises them above the rest, in their view. Everyone else is defined, they admit, but no one's definition is as good as theirs.

George Orwell, Animal Farm: "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."

George Washington, similarly, espoused freedom for all yet had slaves. (In other words, some people are more free than others.)

Who are these Kings and Queens, these superbeings, these Gods?

It may be natural for us to fight wars, but this doesn't excuse it. Paranoia is what breeds war, after all, and against this we have Reason.

Warmongering, therefore, is a perfectly natural mental disorder in humans, and war is a mental state.

So for those who have commented on the "Chewy Crunchy Chunky Yummy Chippy" video by use of an ad hominem argument,* namely that I am "mentally deranged" (which I'll assume is meant disparagingly in virtually all occurrences and variations), you need to reconsider where you're putting your energy (more on this later). For if you believe me to be mentally deranged for posting the video, and mental derangement is something you feel strongly against, and, further, you incline toward ad hominem arguments, there at least is a mental disorder that deserves, and needs, your attention -- namely warmongering.

* An ad hominem fallacy occurs when you reject your opponent's argument because of some characteristic of the advocate that is irrelevant to the content of the argument made.

The dandelion pictures were taken in the latter days of my convalescence, May 22 to be precise. (Click to enlarge.)

Well this one maybe May 23.

The Dandy Bee pictures were taken in the order they appear. If you can, click on them to enlarge them and check the accumulation of dandelion dust on the bee and the ant.

This is a hallway, a passageway, and we're headed for the door at the end.

We make it.

Inside we have scotch. One of us wants more than another of us would rather he had. (Uhhh ...?)

This also is a passageway.

The pictures say it all. Some manner of machinery in the basement of a barn. No longer operational. The machine or the barn. Don't even know what the machine was for. Food maybe? Looks almost organically pendulous, anyway, doesn't it?

That's what I did to convalesce following a hernia operation: went into barns and wondered at the machinery there.

There was lightning one evening. I happened to take a picture just as it struck. I was struck, too, though not by lightning but with a thought. I thought: If lightning strikes just as I press the button, did I cause it?

What a difference a month makes!

Back in T dot O dot. I was away a full two (2) weeks following surgery. Things change in two weeks. I came back and everything was growing, had grown. I don't have a picture from right before I left my place for the farm, but here's how things changed over the course of a month. The first picture was taken April 23, the next picture was taken May 24.

April 23

May 24

More Entrance Ways, Passageways: