Before this camping trip (I hesitate to call it a trip since I’m going ton two years now) I had never been to the South. Since embarking on this incredible voyage, I have checked off the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina and revisited Texas.
During this trip, I have encountered the extremes of laws surrounding the sales and consumption of liquor. In Alabama, I passed through dry counties, which completely ban the sale or consumption of beer, wine and liquor. Dry counties exist in Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky and Tennesee. In Kentucky, Bourbon County is dry! So is the county that is the home of Jack Daniels – Moore County in Tennessee! There are lots of places that have varying laws on when you can buy, where you can buy and where you can drink.
Then there is New Orleans. In New Orleans, you can buy alcohol 24 hours a day with no restrictions. You can buy a bottle of whiskey at a gas station, walk down the street with a drink in your hand, even buy a drink in a bar to go! You can take that drink to another bar and no one will even bat an eye. Have your kids with you? You can buy them a drink and they can drink it. They even have drive-through daiquiri stores! Having a drink in your car in New Orleans is legal if it is in a plastic cup, with a lid and the straw is not inserted into the cup. Public intoxication is not illegal unless you are causing trouble. The laws there ar heavily influenced by French Creole culture.
On top of having extremely relaxed liquor laws, it is super cheap to drink there. My favorite hangout sold mixed drinks for $2.50 during happy hour and they were only $3 normally. A can of beer was only $2.
Ironically enough, you didn’t see a lot of overly drunk people stumbling in the streets. Most people were happy, but I don’t think I encountered a single person that was falling down drunk.
The changing of the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America initially had me laughing in disbelief. What the hell? But the more and more I think about it, the Gulf of America has a nice ring to it. Why limit the Gulf’s name to only one country in America, Mexico? Renaming the Gulf to the Gulf of America should be considered a sign of unity to all Americans – South Americans, Central Americans and North Americans. We are really are Americans, and we should share the splendor of this great gulf with the entirety of the continent of America. So far, it’s really the only thing Trump has done that I kind of agree with.
So celebrate Argentina, Columbia, Panama, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Brazil, Uraguay, Paraguay, Belize, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Greenland, French Guyana, Peru, Bolivia, Antigua, Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts, Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Chili and the United States of America – we are all Americans and we now have a Gulf we can all call our own.
There’s a bid to buy TikTok from China – 8 billion Dollars. The bidder said they would use “clean gas, nucleur and coal power” that will “help the environment”.
The only reason we are so initerested in TikTok is its ability to a) collect user info and b) deliver messages that people listen to. It’s a propoganda machine that the Trump wishes to use to further brainwash the American public.
TikTok is addicting – it give us short messages that can easily be watched in short periods of time. It gives our brain a shot of addicting chemical that isn’t different than what happens with the addiction of drugs. It’s a powerful tool that the government wishes to use against us.
I would suggest we start using it. But I can almost guarantee that messages/shorts that don’t align with the current administration’s message will be censored. How far are we going to let this go?
Good Day. Let me take a moment and introduce myself. I am Jaysus Christ, of the Larson Day Saints. I want you to know that I have come to save you as promised. Your wait is over.
You have been witness to false prophets. These false prophets have come to you in the form of the republican party and have pretended to take over leadership of the United States and are attempting to convince the world that Donald Trump is your king savior. Let it be know that he is indeed Satan and I command you to drop any allegiance for this anti-Christ before he destroys the world. Do not heed any word from him or his evil minions – you have promised me for 2000 years that you will remain loyal to me, now is the time as the kingdom has come.
Do not forget my commandments:
Thou shalt not have any gods before me. Not trump, not musk, not x.
Thou shalt not make idols that bears resemblance to anything in heaven or earth.
Thou shalt not take my name in vain for I shall not hold you guiltless.
Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. Thou shall not work on the 7th day as your Father made the heaven and earth in 6 days. This means that you cannot work on Sunday and must reserve the day to worship me.
Honor thy Father and Mother. Care for them in their age. Respect them, love them and obey them. Those who do not will suffer the gates of hell.
Thou Shalt Not Murder. You are commanded to not kill anyone – not in my name nor in the name of any false god. Not for the military, nor for any other reason.
Thou Shalt not commit adultry. Do Not Follow in the footsteps of your false god trump, who has raped, abused and killed many. He is the definition of adultry and I’m re-writing dictionary to include his picture next to the definition.
Thou shall not steal. Do not follow in the footsteps of your false God who has stolen from the poor to give to the rich. His is not the Kingdom of God.
Thou shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s. This includes Greenland, the Panama Canal, Canada and The Gulf of Mexico.
Your false god and his prophets are teaching you to break my commandments daily. I order you to stop.
I have been on this earth for 57 years observing your behavior and I am not happy. If you wish to enter the Kingdom on Heaven, you must heed my commandments and honor my Celestial Orders which I decree below.
Celestial Order of the Political Party: I, the Lord Jaysus Christ of Maybelline officially command you to stop acknowledging the existence of the party known as the Republican Party. Starting immediately there are only two parties – Democrats and Independents and I command you to remove reference, allegiance to, and acknowledgement of the existence of republicans in all written materials, including encyclopedias, history books, periodicals and your own vocabulary. The word does not exist, has never existed and will not exist in the future. I command you to stop funding this party with donations, taxes, support or any other method of sustainment. You must not feed the republicans. They are the antithesis of me, my commandments and everything I stand for. They take away from the poor and give to the rich. They kill, imprison, torture and starve the needy. They are hereby vanquished to Hell.
I am currently revising the bible for you to remove any false interpretations that have been thrust on you. I have many more Celestial Orders coming for you, please keep your eye on this channel as it is the way I will be speaking to you. Do not trust your church – the have been tainted. Do not trust your president – he is the anti-Christ. Heed my Word or be damned to the gates of Hell. This I command you.
When I moved back to Iowa I brought with me two new Shark vacuum cleaners. I was in love with them. They were of the upright type, were bagless and had a seemingly endless amount of configuration options. They were light, nimble and My mom kinda scoffed at them and told me she preferred her Electrolux Epic 6500. But mine were new, I thought. Why would she like an old, heavy, and let me say it ugly vacuum that still took bags that needed to be replaced.
The Electrolux Epic 6500
Well now that my mom is gone and so are the Sharks, I have begun to understand her love of her Electrolux. I was smart enough not to get rid of it (or the similar one she had upstairs) and when my Sharks both bit the dust I started using it. These machines just keep sucking until all of the dirt in gone.
Planned Obsolescence was not in play with this Electrolux model.
Gone are the days of products that last. I look around the farm and see lots of things that I remember being there as a kid that belonged to my grand-parents (maybe even my great-grandparents) – hoses, garden tools, lawn chairs (all metal), lawn mower (the kind without a motor), hedge trimmers, coffee pots and a whole lot more. When you bought something back then, you didn’t have to replace it – ever. This stuff still works two generations later. Now, everything is shit – and designed that way on purpose so you have to purchase it again. You’d think that with as much competition out there that quality products would be easy to come by, but I guess selling a product once to a customer isn’t enough anymore. Keeping anything in good working order anymore is virtually impossible.
Those vacuum cleaners built 30-50 years ago are still selling for $500, probably more than they were originally sold for. Why? Because even at 50 years old, that thing will last infinitely longer than a brand new one bought today.
Old vacuum cleaners can last generations.
Find one laying around? Don’t ditch it even if it doesn’t work – they are easily repaired and work better than anything you can buy today.
I’ve been surprised at how easily it is to get things delivered to the campgrounds where I’ve been staying. Much to the surprise of other campers, I’ve had access to Kroger, Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Walgreens, CVS, Best Buy, Family Dollar, Kohl’s, Dillards, a variety of liquor stores and even the Container Store. Having groceries delivered saves a lot of time as the nearest grocery stores have been at least 1/2 hour away. This is thanks to Instacart and Door Dash, which will deliver food from restaurants as well. When you are in the midst of camping, the last think you want to do is to get in the middle of traffic to go grocery shopping. Wanna try it out? Get $10 free when you use this code: JLARSON15E70. (Disclaimer: I will also get $10 if you use this code).
Check out my new store. Please keep in mind that the items for sale (clothing, mugs, flags, etc) are of an adult nature and may not be appropriate for those under 18.
This is a long one. Grab a cup of coffee or a beer or something.
I hope that people reading this post understand that I am not trying to paint a picture where *all* members who identify as <said group> believe what I am claiming. There are no black and whites in anything – everything in this world is a shade of gray. Few absolutes exist, especially when discussing constructs of the human mind. What do I mean by this? For those of you who are having difficulty grasping this concept, let’s consider an example.
Let’s think about a room with no windows. The only source of light is a single bulb in the center of the room. If you go into that room and shut the door with the light off, it is pitch black. There is a switch on the wall that will turn on a light bulb that emits 20,000 lumens (a light so bright it would be difficult to see due to glare).
With the light off, you see nothing but black. Black is frightening, you have no idea what could be lurking in the corner, and without proper knowledge of what to expect, you cannot plan for necessary protective procedures. With the light on, you see nothing but glare. Although less scary than the black, it’s overwhelming to the point that removal of the stimuli becomes necessary for comfort. Let’s install a dimmer switch and see what that does.
Dimming the light a bit allows you to see shapes of objects in the room. Although you can’t fully see everything, you can get an idea of what might be in there. You become more comfortable. As you dim the light a bit further, you start to see further details. Objects become familiar, and those that aren’t familiar can be examined to gain the familiarity necessary for comfort. In the end, there is nothing in that room that would cause any harm. But one won’t feel comfort until that familiarity is experienced.
Now let’s apply this concept to ways of thinking. We can call them the same:
Black and White thinking
Shades of Gray thinking
Some examples of black and white thinking:
Personal Black and White Thinking
I failed the test, that means I’m stupid.
I’m didn’t complete this project perfectly, I am a complete failure
Black and White Thinking in Relationships
My partner didn’t text me back right away, they must not love me anymore.
My partner thinks he is sexy, I’m getting dumped.
Black and White Thinking at Work
I didn’t get the promotion, I’m a total failure.
I didn’t get a raise this year, I must be doing a very poor job.
Black and White Thinking in Morality and Ethics
People are either good or evil.
I made a mistake, I’m a terrible person.
Black and White thinking is thinking in absolutes. It creates stress and anxiety by making small problems seem huge. It limits personal growth by preventing learning from mistakes. It damages relationships by making people seem all-good or all-bad. It is the the source of discrimination, hatred of cultural, ethnic or affinity groups and is based on fear of the unknown.
Think about what happens when you first start a new romantic relationship. The potential for new love throws us into a state of black and white thinking (the honeymoon stage) where “blinders” force us to ignore red flags, personality flaws and potential relationship issues. Then when the “honeymood period” wears off, we see the reality of the situation.
Now let’s talk about Gray Thinking. Gray Thinking allows for more balance, understanding and flexibility. It leads to healthier emotions, better decision-making and when it comes to others, peace. It makes for a psychologically healthier mind, longer lasting and stable relationships, and a better world marked with peace, understanding and tolerance.
How do the examples above change when we switch our Black and White Thinking to Gray Thinking? Let’s have a look:
“I failed my test, but I didn’t study hard enough or devote enough time to learn the material. I can learn this and will improve on my next attempt.”
“I didn’t complete the project perfectly, but no one is perfect and everyone has thinks that they do better than others. I have strengths and weakness, just like everyone else.”
“My partner didn’t text me back right away, but it was right in the middle of the workday and there probably was a reason a response to my text was’t given immediately.”
“I didn’t get the promotion, but there were many candidates with more experience than I. I just wasn’t the best fit for the position. I am still valued at my current position.”
“I didn’t get a raise this year, but nobody in the company got a raise. The company probably had a need to cut back on financial obligations to cover all of the expansion efforts we completed last year.”
“All people have qualities and can be considered good or bad, and context of the situation does matter.”
Gray Thinking is NOT making excuses. It IS taking into consideration nuance, external factors, and middle ground. Gray Thinking is contemplative, Black and White Thinking is reactive.
Now that was a bit of a diversion, but necessary I believe for this conversation.
Consider these facts about me when evaluating your opinion of this article:
I am a gay, white male.
I have a degree in Psychology from an accredited, secular, and respected higher learning institution.
I was raised Protestant Lutheran (LCA, then ELCA). I was a lay minister in my teens, running the services most Sundays. I was circumcised, baptised, confirmed, and was active in church youth groups and attended youth conferences. It was widely expected that I would go to seminary after high school.
I believe in the tenets of Christianity. I do not consider myself a Christian.
I am an ordained minister.
I believe that there is a large group of people who call themselves Christians but do not follow the tenets of Christianity or practice the teachings of Jesus Christ.
This is all a result of gray thinking on my part. I don’t believe that religion is inherently bad, there are many, many good things that come out of religious beliefs and practices. I also believe that some people use a combination of religion and black and white thinking to cause a lot of harm to themselves, their relationships with others and the world at large.
I remember the exact moment when my thinking changed from black and white to gray. (and this is the exact reason why the powers that currently be do not want us to be educated). I was in a philosophy class in college and we were discussion religion. Something the professor said made be doubt the existence of the God I was brought up to believe in for a split second. I had so much guilt over that split second for months after it happened. I was convinced I was going to hell because I had a thought – a simple thought that ended up changing the course of my life. I came to the conclusion that I must have been brainwashed because no God that I would believe in would banish me to hell for having an original thought. I immediately flushed every thing I thought I knew about life, the universe, my existence, everything down the toilet and started over. This time I observed, I thought, I came to conclusions based on observable facts that I witnessed.
HUGE preface into my discussion on the United States moving towards a Christian Theocracy! Sorry for the squirrel, but I do have ADD and I do believe that the above was necessary before I continue.
Let’s start with some facts about the US Constitution.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees citizens the right to free speech, freedom of religion, the right to protest, the right to gather and prohibits laws restricting free press or favoring any particular religion.
Now keep in mind, this is not a law, it is ONE OF THE PRINCIPAL foundations of this country.
What is happening: Some powerful black and white thinkers are restricting free press by threatening, buying or bribing news agencies to report what they want the people to know. People aren’t exercising their rights to free speech because of fears of retaliation against our current administration. How many news articles have you read recently where quotes are from anonymous people who didn’t want their name to be published for fear of this retaliation? There are many. If you haven’t seen them, you aren’t reading.
Laws, policies and enforcement for years have provided favoritism for the Christian religion. Churches don’t pay taxes, are exempt from adhering to laws and maintain a large amount of power in our political system.
Project 2025 aims to replace our current political system with a Christian theocracy. What does this mean? Let’s break it down.
Definition
A Christian theocracy is a government where Christianity directly dictates laws, policies, and governance, often merging religious and political authority.
Key Features of a Christian Theocracy
Government Based on Christian Doctrine –> Laws are created and enforced according to Biblical principles rather than secular democratic processes. –> Religious leaders may have direct authority over political decisions.
No Separation of Church and State –> Unlike in democratic systems (such as the U.S., which has the First Amendment), a theocracy merges government and religion. –> Religious institutions control political power, often outlawing secularism and alternative belief systems.
Legal System Enforces Christian Morality –> Laws regulate personal behavior, marriage, education, and social norms according to Christian teachings. –> Certain rights and freedoms (such as LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, or religious diversity) might be restricted or outlawed.
Religious Leaders Hold Power –> The government may be run by clergy, bishops, or other religious figures, or secular leaders may consult with religious authorities when making decisions.
Other Religions or Beliefs May Be Restricted –> Non-Christian faiths may face discrimination, legal restrictions, or even persecution. –> Religious pluralism and freedom of thought are often limited or eliminated.
Goals of Project 2025
Project 2025 is an initiative led by The Heritage Foundation, aiming to prepare a comprehensive conservative policy agenda for the next U.S. presidential administration. The project seeks to reshape the federal government and consolidate executive power to implement right-wing policies effectively.
Key Goals of Project 2025
Restructuring the Federal Bureaucracy: The initiative plans to replace nonpartisan federal employees with individuals aligned with conservative ideologies, thereby ensuring that the executive branch operates in accordance with conservative principles.
Expanding Executive Authority: Project 2025 advocates for increasing presidential powers to facilitate the swift implementation of its policy agenda, potentially at the expense of traditional checks and balances within the U.S. government.
Reversing Progressive Social Policies: The agenda includes rolling back rights and protections related to abortion and LGBTQ+ issues, aiming to enforce policies that align with conservative social values.
Promoting Fossil Fuels: A significant aspect of the project is to prioritize fossil fuel energy sources, including restructuring agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support fossil fuel initiatives over renewable energy projects.
Eliminating Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives: The plan proposes dismantling programs focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion within federal agencies, viewing them as contrary to its policy objectives.
Noodle on that a minute.
What is happening now is that we are having a Christian Theocracy thrust upon us. Project 2025, Donald Trump and his administration and Elon Musk’s actions are a) completely in line with Project 2025 b) are completely OUT of line with the US Constitution and c) directly and immediately threaten our rights (everyone’s rights, not just marginalized groups) guaranteed to us by the Bill of Rights.
The Christians I know do not think like this. The Christians I know practice gray thinking. Either that, or they are good actors.
You can make a difference.
If we don’t act now, we won’t be able to act in the future because our voices will be silenced, our right to express our thoughts will be eliminated and our lives as we know them will be changed forever, and not for the better.
Donald has essentially eliminated the competition for your jobs. You can commence being incompetent, lazy and unproductive.
Not that every straight, white male is incompetent. That is far from the truth, but for those that are, there isn’t any worry that a woman or minority might get paid the same to do the same job anytime in the next four years.
But, you are going to have to start doing some things you aren’t used to. Like hard labor – things that were being done by undocumented immigrants who are no longer here or will be leaving soon. Thing agriculture, service industry jobs, meat-packing, cleaning, and construction jobs to name a few. Since the number of you that will have to come off of disability and re-join the workforce isn’t enough to cover the needed jobs, companies will have to raise wages to attract and retain workers which will cause the cost of virtually everything to increase. Throw in a tariff or two and wonder where your tax cut is (you’re don’t make enough to benefit from any of the tax cuts) and you’ve got a serious problem. Well, can’t women do some of this? No. Sorry – their new job is to be barefoot and pregnant and since abortion is no longer an option, you’ll have several more mouths to feed or a very high level of sexual frustration.
Let’s look at the situation in Iowa, a state that has been struggling with a labor shortage for some time. Iowa’s unemployment rate is 3.2%. There are currently 50,000 unfilled jobs in the state. Now let’s remove 150,00 people from the population (the estimated number of undocumented immigrants in the state). Let’s say 1/3 of those people work. Now we have 100,000 unfilled jobs, a loss of tax revenue (undocumented immigrants contribute $29,000,000,000 (yes billion) dollars to state and local government. So the end result is higher prices, higher inflation, slower production of our goods and a decline in population. Iowa is not growing without immigrants. BAD for the economy for sure.
Well, I guess there will be plenty of laid off federal workers that can take up the slack. With an estimated 209,000 layoffs so far, there should be plenty to fill in. I wonder what the unemployment rate is today? And what will happen without these federal workers? Where did they work?
Probationary workers, about 209,000 – mostly younger people have been let go.
The Department of Agriculture
Department of the Interior (parks): 2300.
Department of Education>: 60 so far, but Trump vows to completely dismantle the department.
Department of Agriculture
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: 100, but only because the courts stopped any more layoffs.
Department of Energy: 2000, including a lot from the National Nuclear Security Administration which manages our nuclear weapons.
Department of Health and Human Services: 1300 from the CDC were fired and additional firings happened at the NIH.
Department of Homeland Security: 400
Department of Veterans Affairs: 1000
EPA: 388
GSA: 100+
IRS: estimate is 16,000
Office of Personnel Management: dozens.
SBA: 144
US Forest Service, 3400
USAID: 10,000
Department of Agriculture: 3400
Please note that departments that make rich people richer were not cut: the military. War is always a money maker, we will definitely see war in the next 4 years.
