I think the same thing applies to right and wrong. Having grown up in fundamentalist Christian churches and school, I was exposed to lots of people who had a clearly defined sense of right and wrong. I also have many non-Christian friends, and their ideas of right and wrong are very different.

For example, the people I grew up with would be mortified at the thought of listening to “secular music,” having long hair (for guys), showing cleavage (for girls), going to see an R rated movie… and the list goes on. The basic things like not killing and stealing are universally accepted. But it’s all that other stuff that seems to be gray area.

I think that people’s sense of right and wrong sometimes get magnified in certain areas that they personally struggle with. For example, someone who can’t stop thinking about women might decide that all women should wear burkas. Oh wait – that IS what happens in Muslim countries. But also it happens here in America. Not the burka thing… but forcing women to dress a certain way so that we men won’t have dirty thoughts. That’s a very normal fundamentalist Christian thing to have as a standard. And even the Bible debunks this idea – “All these rules do not restrain sexual immorality…” In other words, making up a bunch of arbitrary rules will not stop people from thinking whatever they want.

But I would contend that it’s the man’s responsibility not to be a cretin, not the woman’s responsibility to make herself unattractive. Don’t you agree?

I recently posted some new photos on Facebook in my Barrett Graphics album. There wasn’t anything nude or lingerie… just sexy. They were pictures of an attractive young lady in sexy outfits. I immediately got a frenzy of emails from several of my fundamentalist friends asking me to remove them.

Out of respect, I did remove them. I can understand that Facebook is a very public forum where people of all types hang out. But that got me thinking…. why do I have to? These photos, although sexy, were not inappropriate in my opinion. The model was perfectly comfortable showing the photos to her friends and family. I was and still am very proud of the quality of the photography, which was what I was trying to show off.

Thus I’m left wondering why several people were offended by the photos I posted. Is this back to that “higher standard” crap that I hate so much? Do I have a duty to make sure nothing I do offends anyone? Or even more importantly, if someone looks at a photo I take and they decide to lust, does that mean the photo is inappropriate?

I would contend that people can lust over just about anything. Like a Sears catalog for instance. Shouldn’t the standard be “does this make ME lust”? (I’m making the assumption that we all agree lust is wrong – you know – one of the 7 deadly sins.) Or is taking that position abdicating to moral relativism, which I also detest?

There’s a verse in the Bible that is often quoted in fundamentalist circles: “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.” – Romans 14:13

This verse was used to justify a laundry list of rules that aren’t in the Bible. Don’t drink, because you might lead an alcoholic to fall off the wagon by your example. Don’t hold hands with a girl in public, because people will assume you’re having sex and they will have sex too. Don’t wear a short skirt, because you might cause a perv to lust over you. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Is this actually what the Bible means or are we just using it as an excuse to be legalistic? I think that what the verse REALLY means is: DON’T TAKE YOUR ALCOHOLIC FRIEND TO THE BAR AND DON’T TAKE YOUR PERVY FRIEND TO HOOTERS.

Gluttony is also a sin, but you don’t hear many people talking about that one in church. That’s because we love our potlucks and picnics just a little too much. That’s one sin we Christians just aren’t willing to give up.

So here’s my conclusion. I won’t live my life trying not to offend people. People will always find a reason to be offended. I will let my conscience be my guide because my conscience is just as good as anyone else’s. Starting next week, assuming I have time to edit it this weekend, my photography website will contain PG images.

Commence to being offended. (By which I mean, admire my talent as a photographer, for Pete’s sake!)

My line if thinking is far more advanced than that, and I think once you think about it, you’ll agree.

As citizens of the United States, we are all raised to believe that every individual is special and has a voice in how the country is run. On it’s surface, that sounds good, and we even have a political system that claims to do that through representative government.

However, the two party system has destroyed any chance of Joe Sixpack having any influence on the direction of the country (just as George Washington predicted).

That leaves three kinds of people.

First, there are the powerful. They aren’t necessarily rich, but chances are they came from money and bought their way into a position in government. These people have one agenda – stay in power. They are willing to do that by any means necessary. These days, all that requires is a good PR firm to market you. Yes, there’s a “struggle” between the two parties that constantly jockeys back and forth, but when was the last time you could tell the difference between a Republican and a Democrat? I don’t mean based on rhetoric – I mean based on their actions.

There’s no real difference, and that’s because both parties want one thing – to be in charge. He who is in charge gets to hold the country’s wallet. And that’s a pretty good gig. I wouldn’t want to give it up, either.

No one reading my blog is in the first category. People with that kind of power don’t care what the proletarians think.

That means you fall into one of the following categories.

There are the politically astute person without any power. That was me until recently. I thought if I educated myself and then educated others, engaged in grass-roots political action, etc. that I could impact the direction of the country… at least on a local level. I honestly believed I had a voice. Then I’d watch the news every day and it would make me angry, anxious, and generally disillusioned. It didn’t matter what logic and common sense dictated… the government did the opposite. It didn’t matter how much people in Washington lied (of both parties), they kept getting elected. It didn’t even matter that Washington politicians promised one thing and did the opposite. We blindly put them back into office over and over.

I finally realized that the first group of people have 100% of the power. It doesn’t really matter what the other 95% of the people in the country do, think, or fight for. It’s really moot.

That’s when I decided I need, for the sake of my own health, to move myself into category three.

These are the people who ignore politics altogether. They have a vague notion that we have a President who occasionally gets replaced, and if they can name him, they’re doing well. They don’t know how Barney Frank contributed to the mortgage meltdown while claiming it was George Bush. They believe everything the media spoon feeds them.

But what I realized is that the ignorant people and the powerful people are the only ones that are happy. Ignorance really is bliss, because there’s no downside to being ignorant of things that only have the potential to upset you, and that you can’t affect or control.

I was losing sleep over the crazy things people were doing in Washington. The lies they were telling, the hypocritical finger pointing. The double standards. It really did upset me.

About a month ago, I switched my radio away from the news and politics and put the dial on 610 Sports Radio. I stopped reading political news. I don’t even listen to the local talk show that focuses on Kansas City politics. I cut myself off completely.

And guess what… I’m happier, less stressed out, and less anxious.

I used to think it was awful that people were willfully ignorant. Now I know THEY were the smart ones all along.

If a tree falls in a forest and kills a mime, will anyone care?

This phenomenon is so common I now assume the sales weasel is just telling me what I want to hear.

I was filling out a corporate credit application and asked sales weasel who needed to sign it. He said “you can just sign it.” Partly, he may have assumed that was sufficient given my title at the company. However, I think the main reason he said it was I was the only person standing right there at the time, and it meant instant gratification for him.

It turns out this thing actually has to be signed by all of the corporate officers, the Pope, Bullwinkle the moose, and all of the deceased members of The Who.

Theoretically this sales weasel sells thousands of his products every year, and they aren’t the type of thing people pay cash for. So I’m guessing he’s seen at least… 200 of these applications in the past month. He MUST have known that the form required Bullwinkle’s signature (I didn’t even know a moose could hold a pen, but whatever).

But this happens all the time. “I need a product that can ________” Whatever you put in that blank, the sales weasel will tell you his product can do it. I used to think that sales weasels were just morons who’d never used the product, but now I’m quite sure they are weasels trying to scam customers.

When I bought my water heater, I told the sales guy I needed a water heater that could supply two showers, the washing machine, and the dishwasher simultaneously for 4 straight hours. I like long showers and so does Jenna. Don’t judge me… it’s my house and my money, and I’ll spend it on a monster water heater if I want.

The sales weasel promptly showed me three options that would do the trick. They were all uber-expensive, but I figured a once-every-10-year purchase was worth the money. However, not trusting the sales weasel, I met the actual installation guys at the door.

“I need my water heater to supply two showers, the washing machine, and the dishwasher simultaneously for 4 straight hours.” They both looked at each other, and then at the water heater they’d brought.

“Well sir, this isn’t going to do the trick.”

So I showed him the quote with the three options from the sales weasel.

“Ummm, sir, none of those water heaters will do what you need.”

So they proceeded to get their catalog out of the truck and pointed to the unit I needed. It was $400 LESS than the three options the sales weasel had presented.

Either the sales weasel didn’t know what the heck he was talking about (probable), or he was trying to scam me (also probable).

Never trust a sales person to tell the truth.

Today, Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison. He’s 71. So he can get released when he’s 221.

Am I the only person who finds this completely stupid? Can’t we just sentence him to life in prison? Isn’t that basically the same thing without the moronic element of poor math?

We do these types of stupid sentences all the time. Someone gets 5-15 years in prison. WTF is that? Can we just make a danged decision and commit to it? How about 5 years. Or 15 years. How can we be so unsure of ourselves that we have to give ourselves 10 years of leeway in a 15 year sentence?

“Good Behavior”? Again… WTF is that? By definition, aren’t the people in prison being punished for BAD behavior? How does not stabbing people in the joint qualify them for early release?

Can we agree that if someone is sentenced to more years than they could possibly live, we should just execute them to make room in jail and save taxpayer dollars? What’s the difference? They aren’t getting out anyhow… they must have done something pretty messed up to get 150 years in prison. The electric chair needs to make a comeback.

Bernie Madoff might live another 10 years. I don’t think a 10 year sentence is sufficient for someone like him. He’s a perfect candidate for the chair. He’ll die in prison either way. The chair is just quicker and cheaper. The last thing society should have to do is pay another red cent to feed that man.

In my world, there’s not such thing as good behavior or parole. If you deserve 10 years in jail at sentencing, then you deserve 10 years. Period.

I have a blinding headache so I’ve only bothered retouching one so far… here it is!

Sorry to disappoint you. Why?

Michael Jackson was arguably the most influential musician of our generation, perhaps even of all time. The only people who could give him a run would be Elvis and John Lennon. I have a soft spot for Michael though. He was the first “secular” musician I can remember. The year Bad came out, my neighborhood friend had a copy (on vinyl…) and we would listen to it over and over, all day long.

The moment when MJ first did the moonwalk during his performance of Billie Jean, I remember staring in awe and getting goose bumps. No one, and I mean no one had ever seen anything like that before. It was reported that Fred Astaire actually called Michael after that performance to tell him how amazing he was…

And can we all remember the Superbowl where he performed at halftime? It’s BY FAR the most memorable halftime in my lifetime. Yes, better than Prince. His grand entrance for that performance included dancing on top of the scoreboard and then “magically” popping up on stage. Do you remember that?

In recent years, the focus has been taken away from his amazing musical and dance skills and put squarely on his strange personal life and his frequent run-ins with the law regarding children.

He was clearly a tortured soul for whatever reason. His plastic surgeries gone wrong were a real shame. If he was guilty of touching kids, then I guess he’ll have to deal with that now. But for US… Michael was NOT GUILTY.

Remember, he was acquitted? I remember when we used to value the decision of a jury. Could he have been guilty and got acquitted anyhow? Of course. But that’s not for us to decide. The jury made their decision, so he was not guilty.

Think about if you were one of the most rich and influential people in the world… don’t you think people would be gunning for you and trying to get a piece of the pie?

I do.

Michael will and should go down in history as one of the most amazing performers to ever live.

(3:40 – the birth of the moonwalk)

I love it when polls come to brilliant conclusions like this one. First of all, if black people thought that Obama getting elected would end racism, that’s just stupid and naive. I realize that Savior Obama made a lot of promises and made a lot of legs tingle when he spoke, but Dr. Martin Luther King he is not.

Racism is a contentious issue in America, which never ceases to amaze me. I’m not going to use the cliche’ of “I have black friends….” argument (although I do), because that’s… well… cliche’. I’m still going to say it like I see it, because that’s how I roll.

There’s a financial component to racism. Poor whites and poor blacks tend to be more racist than financially secure whites and blacks. I’ve never seen a racist act, comment, or any kind of discrimination occur in Johnson County (KS)… well, aside from the police pulling over beat up cars with Missouri plates… It’s an affluent area with people of all races living here. Every person living in this county is an up-and-comer, and a vast majority of the people here worked hard to get there… they didn’t necessarily come from money.

If I drive to downtown Kansas City, MO, I not only get to observe racism, I can actually be a victim of it. See, that part of town is a poor, depressed ghetto, and that kind of environment breeds ignorance. If a black person were to drive to Kansas City, KS, they would undoubtedly experience racism there, because a lot of that area is made up of poor white people.

Racism is just a form of ignorance. Ignorance breeds ignorance. People who think “poor” (i.e. drop out of school, don’t work, etc.) are ignorant. We shouldn’t be surprised when they act like they’re ignorant, should we? Racism will always exist where the residents have given up hope for a better life. It’s simply a side effect of poverty and hopelessness.

The good news is, for those who decide to leave the life of ignorance, they can escape racism permanently. I know for a fact that (responsible) white people accept black people who are intelligent and hard working. I believe that black people accept white people who are intelligent and hard working, although I don’t want to put words in their mouths.

The key to ending racism isn’t electing a half black president. The key to ending racism, unfortunately, would be to end the “poverty culture” that perpetuates itself through things like welfare, drugs, gangs, and alcoholism.

Unfortunate because that’s a problem that can’t be fixed.

The swelling and bruising on my wrist is completely gone now. It’s also stopped hurting. The guy who gave me the second opinion told me it would stop hurting and I’d be tempted to stop wearing the splint, but that I should wear it anyway. He was right. The splint is the most uncomfortable part of the injury at this point. It gets in the way of everything I do, and if I don’t get it just right, my fingers tingle.

I admit, I have taken it off to do a few things… like washing dishes. Hey, I’m supposed to keep it dry, right?

At the behest of my beloved bride and a few other friends, I did do some research and found an attorney. I wanted to find a legit attorney, not one who chases ambulances. That’s actually a bit of a chore. If you do a search for “personal injury attorney” you get all of those people. You know… the ones who have their own ambulance.

Anyhow, I found a good one after talking to half a dozen. He’s both tough and rational, which is perfect. He’s also willing to work on contingency, which a lot of the legit attorneys were not. He seems to think there’s a pretty good chance of a monetary settlement out of court.

We are starting with simply sending a menacing letter from the attorney to the doctor. In the letter, it’s going to demand that he pay for all my future treatments plus some money just for the principle of it. And it’s going to imply that failure to act reasonably out of court will result in us suing his proverbial pants off.

The attorney is still drafting the letter, but having met him, I’m sure it will be menacing and scary. I doubt very much that the doctor wants this to go to court. In fact, I doubt he wants his malpractice insurance provider to find out about it. I’m guessing he’ll roll over pretty easy.

In the meantime, I get to go for x-rays every two weeks at my NEW orthopedic surgeon. He is doing all of my “due diligence” to make sure everything is documented.

Even if I don’t end up getting cash out of it (I’m assuming he will pay for my treatment), I hope it scares the bejeezus out of him and makes him lose sleep. Jerk.