“PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!”

In a Twitter posting the evening of March 21st, President Trump said,

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Here’s my reply.

Since the Russians help you win the Elections2016, I can see why you think this. But, to say you are “smarter”, more “energetic”, or charismatic than the previous POTUS not illustrates your ignorance of history and politics but you naivete in diplomacy. 

Don’t take credit for achievements you have yet to accomplish. So far there’s no non-nuclear proliferation treaty with either North Korea or Iran, no plan with Russia on ISIS or the MiddleEast. And at home, you are claiming economic boon without policy.

You claim victory without achieving anything. “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!” you dare to claim Reagan’s words and policy? How dare you. POTUSTrump, you are not and never will be a Great Communicator, you will never be a great anything.

-A. M. Holmes

Why I Remain on Facebook

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I thought about it as well, weighing the security breaches against staying in touch with people, and concluded that whatever I am worried that someone would get has already happened. Therefore, I’ve taken some steps to prevent any further excursions by outfits like Cambridge Analytica into mine and my friend’s lives. I’ve cut down my number of contacts down to a small, manageable number and of people I can control. Removed any pictures of my children and be careful of what I post in the future. I’ve also made access to certain information more restrictive. I won’t participate in surveys, test, and any of the other distractions FB had provided in the past. Note: I never understood why some of these would ask for a login to post on your profile if you were already logged in. Always seemed like a security violation.

Anyway, to keep in touch with family, former classmates, co-workers -friends, I will remain on FB. I will also remain to do so more carefully.

Post #SOTU Commentary

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‘s speech was more of symbolic testaments than of real substance. Other than the brief mention of rebuilding our infrastructure and his most of the speech was about what others, his invited guest in the chamber, had done and empty words of rhetoric. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the speech had not clocked in at a whopping 1 hour and 20 minutes! The first 35 minutes was all about how he had created jobs, increased employee earnings, and help break Wall Street records. The rest of the speech was an artificially overly sweetened piece of fluffy confectionary Americana that leaves nothing but a bitter aftertaste. No real new DACA deal was offered, he wants the building of our defenses by returning to the days of nuclear annihilation, and told Congress he needs trillions of dollars for infrastructure rebuilding without defining what it is exactly and how it’s going to get funded. All I can say about this speech is that that’s 80 minutes I’ll never get back. 

On the Eve of President Trump’s State of the Union Address

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The wife is out doing the thing that she does to uplift and benefit the community, she is seamstress and customer for a local junior high school theater production company, leaving me to my own device. So, enjoying a couple of hours of solitary bliss I do as most in this modern age do and surf the streaming channels looking for entertainment. I finally settled on ‘Ken Burns: American Lives’ and specifically chapters 7 and 8, the life of Mark Twain. Now, as I was watching the program, I began to wonder what this magnificent genius writer of the American culture would have said of our times, and specifically, the 45th President of the United States. Challenging Google to find me an answer I came across the above quote from his “The Character of a Man” that, to me, fits best to what he could have thought. Of course, this could be argued as conjecturable and so I would need to press those who disagree with me to find confirmation as to the meaning of Twain’s quote by going to the source itself. If they chose to do so in order to make their point, who am I to question their absolute dedication to their cause. On the other hand, if some lack conviction in their own assumptions, and thus fail in their pursuit for the truth, they will undoubtedly continue to be the gadflies that they are and some other means will have to be found to deal with their pestering. It’s a shame tar and feathering has gone so out of vogue in our times. Maybe someone can come up with an internet version of it, perhaps?

-A. M. Holmes

Answer to a Facebook Friend Inquiry

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Author Note: I was asked once by an FB friend what it’s like to have ASD.

One of my Facebook friends asked me what it’s like to have Asperger’s. I replied as best as I could and liked it well enough to repost here.

It’s like being hyper-focused and easily distracted at the same time. I read at a minimum three books at the same time (my Kindle has made this easier for me, and less awkward) usually 2 fiction and one non-fiction. I’m at present reading ‘Dune’, 2 short story anthologies ‘The Robot Megapack; Astounding Science Fiction Stories, and a non-fiction about the early life on our planet called, ‘Life on a Young Planet’. I have to keep my mind constantly active so when I get bored reading one I switch without losing where I was before. I usually finish 1 or 2 300 page plus books in a week and a half. The internet is NOT good for me and t.v. can be impossible unless I find a show or 2 I can binge otherwise I go nuts because nothing is interesting. Talking to people is weird. I can listen better if I don’t look at the person because looking directly at that person is distracting (facial movements are distracting and I don’t hear everything. On the upside, I make a good listener if I just focus on the words). The world can be boring, boring, boring but if I have something to focus on I can watch something for hours. One time on my job I sat for 4 hours troubleshooting the operation of multiple relays until I found where an intermittent problem was occurring! Conversations are horrible because I tend to skip around a lot and digress quite a bit (it drives me nuts when I’ve moved on a subject my wife is still talking about). When I’m really bored I do “thought experiments” like imagining the path of a photon from its creation (the product of fusion within the Sun’s core) through its 93 million mile journey in space until it hits and excites the outer electron of a surface molecule which then we perceive as color. Touch is uncomfortable unless elicited. In other words, if I or someone like my wife wants a hug I can (and it feels good) but if someone were to touch me without me expecting it I flinch.

Upside: I know a lot about a lot, I can focus intensely on an activity without being distracted, I can discriminate sounds and inflections in voice quality better than most people, and I have a great imagination.

Downside: I’m easily bored, having and keeping relationships are difficult (making those I do have very special), I lack patience, and I have problems finishing tasks especially if they are not very stimulating and are repetitive.

 

Note: I can relate to cats.

-A. M. Holmes

How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love My ASD

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If anyone would have asked me in the beginning if I would like to be set down in a world among the idiots my answer would have been a firm “No“. Since no one did, here I am. If my answer seems to be insulting don’t let it bother you for it’s not meant for anyone specifically and applies only to humanity in general.

Still perturbed? Okay, I can say that there are exceptions and that you are one of them but then you’ll realize I don’t know you so how could it apply? Or, I could say the problem is not in you but in me but that is a copout because I really don’t think it and so the statement loses all its earnestness. Fine. So, let’s just say, as the saying goes, agree to disagree. What? Still not happy with the “world among the idiots” part? Fine {again}, prove to me we don’t live in a time and culture where stupidity is normal and exceptional is viewed with suspicion? For evidence of the culture of stupidity, one has only to look at the warning label of any product with the insight that at some point someone did attempt to blow-dry their hair in the shower or use bleach as a mouthwash. As for the attack on the brilliant how about the way we are training our children to believe “everyone is the same, everyone is a winner”. Really? Mediocrity as a life’s goal!

I predict that future historians, after a long ‘Dark Age’ recovery period, will call our times “The Meh Epoch”, or M.E.

Okay, so fine, a flatline baseline is what we in the Western world are shooting for, a world where “I am entitled to everything that is coming to me as long as no one I don’t like gets any of it then it’s not fair” populist politics of both the Left and the Right lower the bar to the point where only flatworms can cross. Yeah, that’s sounds like a stable place to be. A society where factcheck fake news to exhaustion because people’s perceptions rather than truth feeds the greedy media. A culture of the damn that blames physical ills on the genes inherited from the parents that are no different than the “sin of the father” reasoning use 200 years ago but with a misconstrued scientific twist. Oh, and then there the Western elitist point of view that the world will be “a better place if only we allow {fill in the blank: God, Nature, Socialism, Capitalism, Nationalism, Skepticism, any kind of “ism”,  Science and Technology (yeah, capital letters), Boomers, Gen-Xers, Millennials, Gen-Zee, The U.S. Congress, The Donald, The Fed, Wall Street, PETA, Hollywood, Bollywood, The United Nations, NATO, UNESCO, EU, PU (just kidding), Ahura-Mazda, ComCast, Apple, the “Spaghetti Monster”, Organic Farming, Anti-Vaxers, Anti-science, Moe, Larry and Curly, etc., etc., etc.} to do its thing in peace”. That will so not happen if there are sane people on this planet.

But, enough of my rant.

Wondering what the title has to do about this all of this? Nothing at all unless you consider for a moment that’s it’s a peek into the effed-up process in which my mind works.

It sucks, and I used to let it frustrate. Now, thanks to those that have made autism chic, I have embraced my mental “quirkiness” in the form of Asperger’s syndrome and see the world in my different way.

Frustrating? HELL-YA! Can I do something about it? Might be the point of sharing these private thoughts of mind. Is this my “Dark Manifesto”? Please, that’s for the truly psychotic. Is there hope for our screwed-up world? Sure, there is. There’s always that.

 

If you indulge me on one final note, my other reason for doing this. I see the beginning of 2018 with renewed possibilities one of them being the completion of several writing projects I will be sharing here. Some are good, some need work, as fiction and commentary, all I hope will entertain and maybe provoke some discussion.

Why Am I Here

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Who am I and why am I here?  For what purpose has my Creator made me? Am I a phantom presence to the events around me, lacking substance and presence? Or am I flesh to do as I please, to seek and to influence? If neither, then who am I?  What do I know that will help me answer this?

I know that I am lesser than an angel, yet not so fallen to be a devil.

I know that I am the son of Humanity, with all its strengths and weakness.

I know I was born cold, blind, helpless into a harsh world, yet I live.

I know the pain and scars of youth, to expose it as an adult as trophies.

I know disappointment, I know loss, I know fear, I know doubt, I know hate.

I also know hope.

I know that I a father, and not only to my children.

I know that I am a friend, to all who accepts me as one.

I know that I a lover, and more than in an intimate way for love is boundless.

I know that I am wise, at least enough to realize how much of a fool I can be.

I know I have strength, for I will not give in to defeat.

I know I have faith in who I am, and in knowing who I am-

I am.