I love doing “random thoughts”. No pressure to get it right, or stay on topic. Just whatever floats around in my unpredictable head.
Words Have Meaning And Politicians Know It
Words have meanings and politicians who want to control your life know that.
The switch from using “global warming” to “climate change” was not a coincidence. We are experiencing record cold temperatures across the country. In Oklahoma City, we recently had -15 below windchill. In the airport, I heard a bunch of people blaming “climate change” on the cold weather, something unthought of just a couple of years ago.
People forget that 20 years ago the government wanted to grab power over the economy because we were headed into a new ice age because of man made pollution. Then 10 years ago, since the temperatures were rising, we switched to “global warming” and declared it was being caused by human activity. Politicians rushed to grab power because we were going to “destroy the Earth within a matter of years”. DOOM was on the horizon unless sweeping economic and political changes were not made immediately.
Fast forward to today… most people don’t realize that we began a cooling trend almost ten years ago, unreported by the media of course. That is when the government and environmental activists realized they were going to have to change the term” global warming” because it would no longer be applicable once the American people woke up. So we adopted the term “climate change” which is a credit to their shrewdness and ability to manipulate the masses.
I saw the proof of it the other day listening to a group of people talk about our “weird extreme weather”, how all of it was caused by “climate change” and if we don’t do something about it “the world is going to come to an end”.
When are people going to wake up and realize this is about grabbing political power and making money. If you don’t believe me, check Al Gore’s bank account.
A Change In Attitudes
Have you noticed that nowadays kids, teenagers and college aged young adults are very publicly affectionate with full body hugs, lingering physical contact, and generally speaking, a high amount of physical affection? I don’t mean girlfriend/boyfriend PDA… I’m talking about just a general group dynamic.
It struck me most when I kept seeing over and over the kids at church, youth groups and Christian events hanging all over each other, embracing one another in full body hugs, kisses on the cheek and arm-around-waist contact. Don’t get me wrong, hugs and kisses are great… but let’s not be naive. Our kids are much more sexually aware and exposed than 50, 20, or even 10 years ago.
Twenty five years ago when I was a teenager, a full body hug and having a girl “hang” on you, or stand around with your arm around her hips, would have been something that would have at least been reserved for your steady girlfriend… not for every young lady in youth group.
I’ve been noticing this trend for the last couple of years, and most notably, wondered if our Christian kids were immune to it. They are not. And I mostly hang out in pretty conservative churches. Again, don’t be naive… this “uber-affection” is all part of the process of being sexual. I would urge youth group leaders and parents to give some thought and effort to teaching their young adults about what all this means concerning guarding their purity for the future.
Maybe I’m just getting old.
Small Town Stuff
I love living in a small town were you know people. You go get a haircut you say hello. Go the post office and you know the clerk by name. Stop to get gas and ask the clerk how their families are.
Go to kids sporting event, and catch up with neighbors and people you actually know. The sheriff drives by and you wave at him.
Of course, the gossip mill is pretty effective and it stinks driving 30 minutes to buy a head of lettuce in the “city”. But all in all, I’ll take the small town life any time. It’s not “better” than city life… just a personal preference.
Marketing Gimmicks
Every time I go to the grocery store and the clerk says “you saved $24.00 on your purchases today”. I did?
I got a basket full of stuff, with prices clearly marked on them. I made a silent agreement to pay that amount for those items. How did I “save” money? I knew the price, I agree to pay it. I didn’t “save” anything…
Who cares, right? No one probably, I just like to observe how the marketing media has trained all of us to think. We see commercials for products that are “$199 but today only, it’s $29, you save $179!” Really? How’s that? It’s for sale for $29, I agree to pay $29. That’s not saving anything… that’s buying at a certain price.
Now, if something has been for sale for an entire year at $179, and for 1 day only, it went on sale for $29, then returned to $179 the next day, I might agree I “saved” some money. However, in reality, I still didn’t “save” anything since I spent $29.
Watch commercials, especially infomercials… listen to retail and grocery stores… watch how they condition people towards believing they are smart shoppers and intelligent for “saving” money by shopping at their location. It’s all about marketing and manipulating consumer processes.
Not that any of it matters… I just get tickled when I realize how much they treat us like “sheep” on Madison Avenue.