Category: Fourre-tout

A little bit of everything

Pedestrians’ arrogance

When crossing the street, they are so imbued with their righteousness that they are even willing to risk their lives to make their point.
They will step in front on a moving car and cross the street with a deliberate slow pace while giving you a telepathic finger.

This is why I hate pedestrians. Bullfighting pedestrians that is. I stop for animals and considerate citizens, but I’d rather not stop for “agents provocateurs”.

pedestrians runningWhen a bull snorts, it is far wiser to pause than to taunt him. And so should a pedestrian when he sees an approaching car. If you show the bull respect, he will respond in kind. And so will drivers.
But if you are disrespectful, the bull is likely to be offended. And an angry bull is not something to be trifled with.

I don’t care for violence, but (just once) I would love to see one of those arrogant bastards sent flying across the hood of a car.

The pedestrians’ implied threat is always “If you even graze me, I will sue the pants off of you”, but what good is the suit going to do for somebody with multiple fractures, internal bleeding and twenty-five minutes left to live?
You need to be physically and mentally fit to enjoy the fruits of your “righteousness”.
You should therefore never step in front of a moving vehicle. Regardless of what the law says. Duh!

I love the Pamplona Bull Run.
It is a place in Spain where bulls have cojones and where stupid pedestrians get their comeuppance. If they don’t get out of the way, the bulls will do it for them.
A 1500-pound bull will show a 150-pound weakling who has the right of way.
And sue me says the bull, but before you do that, I’ll stick my horns in your butt to remind you that “might makes right”.

If you crave excitement, join the marines or bungee jump from the Golden Gate Bridge, but stop harassing already overstressed drivers.

Alain

 

 

Of people and clerics

Egypt has a new (interim) president. Good.
Good riddance of those two-faced Islamic Jesuits who ruled the country for more than a year!
Their legacy: disenchantment and alienation from all major segments of the population.
It is a good thing that the opposition managed to overthrow the Islamists before they had the time to completely stifle dissent and enslave the entire country.

Most politicians are demagogues… that is the only way they can get elected.
Always talking out of both sides of their mouths… telling people what they long to hear.
They will advocate different agendas when addressing different audiences.
Soothing when talking to Jews, rabidly anti-Semitic when talking to Muslims, enthusiastically Buddhist when addressing Buddha’s devotees, etc.
Politicians let’s face it, are nothing but a whoring lot!

Mohamed Morsi was no exception. Sounding conciliatory when talking to some and rabidly intolerant when talking to others.
And one more time, as it is common in Muslim countries, Morsi had religion infringe on the life of its people.
Religion’s motto is and has always been: If you are not with us, you are against us, and if you are against us you don’t deserve to live!
What kind of insanity is this?

But we might have seen the dawn of a new era in Egypt where common sense is finally starting to prevail over religion.
Young men and young women are rebelling against backward traditions and calling for secularism and fairness in government.
No more arbitrary fatwas by out-of-touch clerics!

Any kind of dictatorship (religious or otherwise) will eventually fail, and when this happens the end is often gruesome (see Mussolini, Ceausescu, Khadafi or Saddam Hussein).

But revolutions can be notoriously fickle and unpredictable and nobody knows how it will end.
In order to prevail, the Egyptian “Bolsheviks” (“majority”) need to be fair and pragmatic, but it is always difficult for the victors to be moderate.

The Muslim Brothers had their chance. They blew it.
Time to go! Period!

May Egyptians never let any “pious” bigots ever rule their country again, and may they finally enjoy the proven virtues of secularism.

Amen!

Alain

 

Body conditioning

A few days ago I watched a video-clip featuring a woman gymnast. She was pretty good.
But what impressed me the most was the fact that Johanna Quaas was 86 years old. She did things at the parallel bars that I probably couldn’t have done when I was 30.

Johanna-Quaas-1

But Johanna is no ordinary person. In 1954 she was a member of the handball team that took the Eastern German championship and in her advanced years she collected 11 medals in senior gymnastic.

So basically she never stopped pumping iron and that’s why she is in such a great shape.
And that’s my point. If you keep exercising regularly throughout your life, you will be able to still tie your shoelaces when you are 90, and beyond.

Many people exercise when single, but it seems that they stop when they tie the knot. Maybe it is the ensuing amount of sex that leaves them exhausted and unable to pursue the Holy Grail of body conditioning.
But I doubt it. After many years at the Playboy Mansion Hugh Hefner is still pumping.

“If I’d known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”
So said Eubie Blake (1887-1983).

The old dude was right!

Body maintenance should start at an early age and never cease.
Most of us stop exercising when we become “responsible” adults with a demanding job and a wife and children to feed.
We stop doing regular body maintenance and we treat our cars more lovingly than our own human machine. We start by skipping an oil change, neglecting the air conditioning and not replacing the tires when we should.

I have always been in awe of old Asian people would can squat like babies even in their eighties.
They can do this, because they practiced all their lives and never stopped doing it. If we never stopped exercising we would all look like Sarafian and hit “carreaux” at least once a week.

Popular wisdom says it plainly “don’t use it, lose it”.

If you want your children to be in great shape in their eighties (it is too late for most of us) tell them to never stop exercising, even when the wife nags them to spend more time taking care of the children.
Because who will take care of the children when like Tony Soprano you get whacked by a heart attack at the age of fifty-one?

Be selfish, it is good for you!

Alain