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Saturday, April 21, 2012









Woke up in a dreadful mood today. Wil Woods, Tyrine the rest of their crew and I went to the Feedlot last night: Golden Corral, and a good time was had by all. I love them dearly. No, the issue was one of input. The food was pretty good, but one must be aware of intake. Hot fudge sundae for dessert. 'Nuff said. I DID eat salad, however. Not with hot fudge. The aftermath was one of Not Feeling Good, and then I started thinking of the state of the world. Again.

I am becoming incredibly weary of Stupid. To say "stupidity" would dignify it all. Just "Stupid". I don't care what sector of society, the world is rife with Stupid, from "scientists" who insist on economy and culture-busting change for an unproven theory whose major proponents have been shown to be frauds, to people trying and convicting a man over the color of his victim (if victim) rather than from the evidence (especially when they weren't there ), to people whose sole identity devolves to which orifice they prefer. And the list goes on. Andy Rooney, where art thou? Militant atheists who, grinding their teeth at a culture consisting largely of Believers of some stripe or other, insist on evangelising people away from faith with snarky billboards and jackassy Facebook pictures. People who believe that "A" and "not A" are both true.

Angry Birds.

People at the con who photograph shirts without asking to send to friends 'cos "that's their favorite character" (If they ask, I have no problem). Churchy people who go beyond instructions (or example) and insist on punching people's tickets for Hellville (whilst conveniently forgetting that Jesus' strongest indictments were leveled at the hidebound religious of His day). Other religious types who, forgetting trivialities like "love your neighbor" and "do unto others as..." choose to disrupt others' mourning to give a hateful message more suited to Mohammed than Jesus.

Yeah.
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Sandy Shaw and Dirk Pearson were at the forefront of the Life Extension in the 1980s. The programs consisted of taking cocktails of mega-supplements to stave off the ravages of aging. Given the price of those nutritional cocktails, one would need a longer life so as to pay off the mortgage necessary to buy the stuff. Nutritional and other research continues apace to find a way to get beyond the threescore-and-ten barrier, which leads me to a troubling thought. Why should we want to live so much longer?

The most chilling Bible verse I know is the reason given for the Flood. 

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5 ESV)

I started thinking  about the wording ages ago,and was disturbed by my musings. Not merely every thought, but every precursor to every thought was evil, and life extension was a major factor. Because of various factors (a water-shell around the planet that filtered out cosmic rays and UV) lives were 7,8,900 years in length. No truncated telomeres or other genetic badness to shorten lifespans so soon after the creation ("And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so." Gen. 1:7) Lesser lifespans and mutations did not begin until after the Flood, and even then, it took generations for humankind to learn to die quickly. 

The upshot is, before the flood, people had a lo-o-o-o-o-ong time to get very good at being very, very bad. Consider where we have come technologically in 200 years, from sailing ships and horse-drawn conveyances  to rockets, supersonic flight, and bullet trains. Imagine if Einstein or Tesla had enjoyed a 900-year productive lifespan? (It is my personal belief that the antediluvian world was also advanced technologically- they certainly had the time and resources- and that any artifacts on the Moon or Mars exist because mankind made it there before the Flood, and before society devolved enough to require one. Again, it is a personal conceit, not to be mistaken for doctrine.) Auric Goldfinger's bleat makes a great deal of sense:

Man has climbed Mount Everest, gone to the bottom of the ocean. He's fired rockets at the Moon, split the atom, achieved miracles in every field of human endeavor... except crime!

Given our current culture's moral and ethical zombification, the thought of significantly longer lives does not sound a good plan.