LifeItself

We are in the western part of Turkish Anatolia, which in Greek means "East" or "Sunrise."  Suddenly, we are inside of many of the oldest human stories that are particularly dear to my heart. The ancient city of Troy is here.  Around 1300 B.C., when Troy was almost 4000 years old, the mother of all Greek wars was fought there, and immortalized by Homer five centuries later in probably the most important oral stories and later texts ever conceived by rational men: The Iliad and Odyssey.  Some of the Greek Gods were born here, many other dueled with one another for power and revenge, or gave birth to the heroes and heroines who determined fate of Troy and future of mankind. My favorite scary goddess, Nemesis, who is reputed to have been conceived by the primordial Goddess of Night, Nyx, played a pivotal role in the fate of Troy. Her name was derived from the Greek words nemêsis and nemô, meaning "dispenser of dues." This full size statue of beautiful Nem...

We live in the Big Country Ranch neighborhood, south of the Austin City boundary, and five miles from a major road. It is safe to say that we live in the middle of nowhere.  The southwest side of our 15-acre property touches at least 500 acres of undamaged ("undeveloped") land that is one of the last refuges of wild life in this part of Texas.  We can hear coyotes, many coyotes, howling in the evening next to our home, and we get visits from the numerous wild turkeys, quails, armadillos, racoons, deer, lizards, tarantulas, scorpions, and snakes.  In fact, an armadillo family lives in a small cave next to our house, and a family of six or so racoons lives in the attic of a small utility house nearby. The smart racoons scoured a 7 inch round hole in the siding under the roof and adopted the attic as their family residence. We hear about sightings of mountain lions. I own three guns: a handgun, a hunting rifle, and a pump shotgun.  I bought the handgun after my house ...

Rush Limbaugh is a drug-infested, lying high-school bully, who - for the reasons explained below - has been getting away with uncontrolled outbursts of hatred and verbal abuse of others. Recently, I watched a video tape of Rush drowning in self-importance, while dreamily talking dirty about a young woman, who dared to assert that she was in control of her body and destiny. He reminded me of a teenager who was jerking off while cursing. But Rush's age is 61, not 16, just like 1984 is not 1948. On a fourth wife, roughly half his age, Rush still seems to be incapable of controlling rage when he senses a challenge to his male dominance. I would advise Rush to work out issues with his snow white manhood, drugs, and aggression towards women with a psychiatrist or psychologist. The whole world doesn't need to participate. I wonder what the three earlier wives would tell us about Rush's brutality? How often did he hit or abuse them? If we paid these three wretches as much or ...