Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Shoot to Maim, and Catholic Guilt

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The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.

Oprah Winfrey, of all people said that. I like it, but being away from work is a strange deal. It gives you more time to consider such statements. And to consider other things as well, such as the elimination of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" gays in the military policy. Now it's dangerous to make a call on either side of this argument, but it sort of seemed a flawed law to me anyway - sort of a small way of handling the issue. Not sure what openly gay soldiers has to do with fighting in a war, but never been there either. We needed to evolve there, I suppose.

What seems even crazier to me is the bill in New York State where they are asking police officers to shoot to maim when involved in a fire fight. Are they going to ask the criminals to do the same thing? I'd probably shoot my own foot off before hitting someone else, but it seems to me that if both people have guns they should be able to use the same sort of force. Cops have a difficult enough job - asking them to train for something else seems illogical.

Speaking of illogical I was considering the Catholic guilt that has plagued me all my life. I was wondering about the string of tragic luck the family has had, and I wondered what the hell we did to deserve it. Of course, its an irrational thought. If God doled out punishment because of bad behavior wouldn't the jails be filled with people suffering from horrible cancer.

Yet that is the real kicker I suppose because as humans we tend to internalize it all and figure that we deserve our fate because of how we drank too much one night, or swore in church or something.

Growing up I think back to some of the nuns who beat the holy hell out of me for being my usual witty self. I wonder if they suffered the wrath of the Lord because they jammed a nine-year-old into a doorknob for laughing at a fart joke.

My feeling is that God doesn't strike you down for the things you've done. There are choices to be made, and when you make a bad one, you don't suffer the consequences, right?

Aren't we to be judged later on how we evolved as a person? Isn't that the purpose for being alive?

See how I swung it back to Big Ole' Oprah?

Have a good day. I have to clean the house and do some yard work.

Don't want to suffer the wrath of the god who keeps watch around here.

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