Jesus as Han Solo

 I always think of Han Solo as the ultimate independent. You have the Empire and rebels with all their rules and procedures and prejudices. Han is just trying to make a living, trading on the fringes with whoever and whatever. Like in our world, there is a lot of cross-border stuff that goes on because countries with their capitals far, far away have no idea how to make things work in the borderlands.

I was reading this book the other day, The Idolatry of God by Peter Rollins. Most of it is just drone-on to up the word count, but I deduced a few things about Jesus and the Resurrection. 

Jesus was the ultimate outsider.  He just wanted to make things work for everyone, without regard to party politics. He gave up any identity he had in his own religion and the dominant Roman culture and government at the time, because there were just too many rules. Of course, he ran afoul of the Empire. And unlike Han, with the Millennium Falcon, it's hard to do warp speed in sandals on a dusty road.

Crucification was the ultimate identity eraser. The ultimate ghosting. The culture is saying, you're gone, you never were, you were never any good, we won't remember you, you won't be missed. And Jesus decided that it wasn't worth the trouble to resist, so he went back to the ex nihilo, the nothingness, that he came from. 

But he resurrected. Because he had no identity, he could come back. Creatio ex nihilo, creation from nothing. And this happens. Cosmologists have found there are virtual energy fields, even in a vacuum.

So Jesus, the ultimate outsider, can do anything, help anyone, because he has no identity. And hopefully, people learn that lesson. Don't waste the energy to set up and fuel a cultural identity. Just use what energy is available to you to do something, anything. And in the end, you, too, go back to nothingness, the ultimate power source.

Fresh and locally sourced food.

 It's nice when you go to local coffee shops and delis, to have fresh food and pastries. But when they run out, they need a backup. There's a coffee shop in downtown Portland who has run out of pastries twice when I've gone there. I need some pastry with my coffee. That's how I get my sweets instead of sugar in the coffee. So if you run out, just send someone down to a convenience store and grab some Lil' Debbie's or Hostess stuff. A couple twinkies or cupcakes aren't going to kill us.

80-20

 80% of the sentient beings in the Universe are the doers: they manufacture, operate, serve. They keep things going day in and day out. 10% are the ego leaders. They haven't a clue. I'm not saying they don't do stuff. They drop bombs, make speeches, etc., but don't do anything worth doing and the doers usually have to clean up the mess. The last 10% are the activists who actually think they can changes things. 

And it's always been like this since we lived in caves. And I'm pretty sure it's like this throughout the Universe.

College coaches

 So Trump has a new executive order to reign in new-found player freedoms. His buddy, Nick Sabin and other rich coaches rode the gravy train for decades while the players got nothing. They want a return to the old days with a federal anti-trust exemption to restrict player eligibility to 5 years and only one transfer. 

They'll never get this because players will sue against anything to block their freedom. My opinion is any student is enrolled in at least one class at a college should be eligible for as many years as they want to play. My opinion, also, is that no adults should be involved with sports until the pro level. Players should run everything through college. Adults ruin everything good about kids sports.

War is all about the money

 There hasn't been a war in history that hasn't been about someone making money. All that patriotic stuff is BS. Even WWII, our business people didn't want to get pushed out of exploiting the Philippines and Asia by the Japanese, so FDR put the screws to them until they attacked us. 

Now Trump is letting Russia deliver oil to Cuba so his buddy Putin can make some rubles. And Trump will bomb Iran's power plants and bridges so guess who can sell them the parts to build them back, Putin. It's just all a racket. Now Trump wants a $1.5 trillion military budget to replace all the hardware he's wasted on Iran. 

Opening Day

 I know there's a lot of crap going on in the world, most of it caused by the crap master himself. But it's opening night for the Mariners and I'm going to enjoy it.

Slanted stories

 The Oregonian had a story today comparing different grocery stores for the cheapest prices. But it was mostly based on name brands, except for Trader Joe's which mostly has their in house brand.

But if people are worried about high prices, why would they buy name brands? Why didn't they use house brands for all the stores. Costco gas their Kirkland brand, Safeway has their Signature brand, Target, WinCo and Kroger have their own brand. 

It looks like the Oregonian wanted to make it look like things are worse than they are. I buy 95% WinCo brand and most of my income is Social Security and things aren't that bad. And if most people are still buying brand names, things are definitely not that bad.

Also watched an ABC news show today hosted by Martha Radditz talking about tariffs. She was asking the administration spokesman why Trump is keeping to tariffs when the polls say Americans don't like them. Now I have no love lost for Trump and I'm sure he should be in jail for something, but some of the stuff the administration is doing make sense.

Now as for as imports go, no one is forcing people to buy anything or companies to import anything. So if they are, that's on them. Also, Congress should be setting tax and tariff policy, but Speaker Mike Johnson is a wimp. So the country has to get the money from somewhere to pay the bills. If Congress isn't going to balance the budget, Trump is getting money from tariffs.