Zoos

Zoos have been in the news recently, and by now you've surely heard about the death of that gorilla. If you haven't well here is the quick story: A child fell into the gorilla pit at a zoo in Cincinnati. The outrage over both the zoos actions and the "negligence" of the mother has been huge. Like the popular meme says, everyone has become an expert in zoos, parenting, and tranquilizer shots. 

I've always been uncomfortable with the concepts of zoos. I admit it's a catch-22. You have all your needs apparently taken care of-food, shelter, security-but the animals do really lose their freedom. The natural world is apparently thought of to be "peaceful" by some people (idiots only). In reality, the natural world is incredibly violent. Most animals die before their first birthday and many are killed by their own species. In other words life in in the wild is truly solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and most importantly-short. We look at a cute little puppy or kitten and think "cuddly pet" while a bald eagle or an alligator looks at our cuddly pet and thinks "lunch". 

In life, you often are presented with two unpleasant outcomes to your choices. Accidents happen and sometimes you really do need to accept that the "least worst" option is the best. Once that baby fell in the gorilla enclosure, there was no other option. The gorilla had to be shot. A quick note on guns-aiming for the "leg" or "arm" only happens in the movies and it would have made the gorilla furious, thus putting the baby at an even greater risk. Animal life is important, in fact some of us are vegetarians and support animal rights charities as much as we can-but human life must be viewed as more important. 

Social media and catching you at your worst

I love social media. In fact, I've defended it several times against attacks from people who don't understand it. Generally these are people who post about how bad Facebook is from their Facebook page, or post about their kid having too much screen time from their own iPads. I know I've said that phrase or something like that many times and I apologize, but it's still one hundred percent true. 

I was reading a post in a baseball group where a mom posted about another women making a rude comment towards her apparently special needs son. The mom was understandably upset and she took a picture of the women who was apparently acting like a mega bitch. 

But we don't know the entire story. For all we know maybe the woman who said something regrettable was having a terrible day. Maybe she had gotten into an argument with her own kid, husband, boyfriend. She might have been late to the baseball game, stuck in traffic and the kid behind her might have been acting obnoxious. Look, if you've never been frustrated by a kids behavior-in particular a total strangers kid-you are either lying or you don't get out much. 

Even though it sounds like I am, I'm really not justifying being a nasty person to anyone, especially a child with special needs. If I captured your behavior twenty four hours a day and seven days a week, put it on camera and had emotions and personal feelings involved, I could make you out to be a monster too. Social media is a truly wonderful thing and I absolutely love it, but the dark side is that it can capture you at your worst and make you out to be a psychopath. 

Of course the best way to avoid being portrayed as a bad person is not to act like one. Remember that agenda of rage former CFO who berated the poor girl who worked in the drive in at Chick-Fil-A? He was a condescending arrogant bully, and his behavior cost him dearly. 

It can happen to anyone, really. 

Scripture Sunday 1 Nephi 22:26

Righteousness is a very important topic in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. What kind of behavior is righteous, how to be righteous, righteous anger (ever seen Jeffery Holland lay the smack down on sinful behavior? It's a blast). 

You'll often hear the saying "The devil made me do it." It's just a saying of course but in reality the devil has absolutely no power over you whatsoever. I do believe in the reality of devils. I see many Christians who apparently believe in God but they choose not to believe in devils or sin. I don't get it. 

This verse also talks about the rightenouss of the people. Many believers feel that America has fallen into an irredeemable situation, but I don't believe it. First off to feel that way is to turn your back on God because even if America has fallen, there is always redemption available and second America really hasn't fallen in the first place. 

Muhammad Ali

Rest in peace eternal champion. 

This is a tough day for all of us. Muhammad Ali, warts and all, will always be one of my heroes. His arrogance was never based in cruelty. It was based in the simple fact that he really was the greatest. It's hard to be humble when you are the greatest. Believe me, I know. 

He crossed generations. My Pepere was a huge boxing fan and my father was a fan as well. They'd tell me stories about the style of Muhammad Ali. He was the first heavyweight who had the agility to dance around the ring like a flyweight but he had the strength of a heavyweight. 

Defensively he was brilliant. He created the "rope-a-dope" defense. Where you leaned against the ropes and got the stuffing beaten out of you-then hoped/waited until your opponent got tired and proceeded to then knock him out. It's still used today and Ali invented it. 

We all know that Ali had trouble outside the ring. In the Vietnam era he stood up against the war, and it cost him several years in his prime. The true fight of the century will never be Mayweather-Pacquiao, it will always be Ali-Fraiser I. 

And Ali lost fights. He lost to Ken Norton, Leon Spinks, Joe Fraiser, Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. Even the greatest of all time lost sometimes. 

The world lost the first modern sports icon today. 

RIP. 

Album of the Weekend

Metallica-St. Anger

St Anger is better than Load/Re-Load. It's not the best Metallica album but it's the most underrated and over bashed album I've seen. St. Anger isn't a passionate album-I totally disagree with the critics that say it "brings back passion" to Metallica-but that just shows how good they were at one point. Imagine if they released St. Anger in the early 80's when they still had the edge and hunger. That they can do this good without those factors shows how good they were. 

It's hard to sing about anger and rage when you live in mansions. No, that doesn't mean rich people can't write great music. It also doesn't mean that you shouldn't be compensated for your artistic production. What it does mean is "What do these guys have to be angry about? That their housekeeper didn't dust the the ivory fireplace?" 

Oddly though, this album still has some really great songs. "Some Kind of Monster", "Frantic" and "Invisible Kid" are pretty good. They have the longer style thrash metal sound that is certainly adequate. While it's true the album misses Jason Newstead badly, their longtime producer Bob Rock fills in for him. As a metaphor for the entire album-Bob Rock is no Newstead but it's the best they can do at the time period.

The Dali Lama and the Pope

Recently I posted a story on Facebook about the Dali Lama, a man I've always had great respect for. I referred the Dali Lama as "His Holiness", which is the proper title for him. I am not a Buddhist, obviously. 

I should have known better, but someone was offended/confused/having a bad day and said "Uh, Tim, his holiness?" Yes, that's what I called him. I also think the Pope should be addressed like that and a Jewish Rabbi should be addressed like that. Same goes for Hindu ascetics and Muslim clerics.  This man was also a Mormon but sadly a much different one than I am. 

I am fully confident that if anyone said anything negative about Smith Jr, this guy would be mortally offended. However he doesn't see that basic respect goes a long way. If you want people to respect your beliefs (respect doesn't demand agreement) you need to respect theirs, or at least fake it. 

It's cool and hip to say that you "don't care" what others think of you. To a small degree I understand that and I used to think the exact same way. But if you don't care what others think of you, why should they care what you think at all? 

People moving to Canada if Trump is elected....

First off, this isn't about idiot celebrities. I highly doubt that 90% of them will leave America if Trump gets elected. Celebrities are usually deeply deluded people. When they achieve great success in one field, they think their opinion on everything carries huge weight. It doesn't. 

Your eighteen year old nephew who thinks that Trump is "rich and mean" and that "Canada is so peaceful man" won't move either. One-Canada probably doesn't want him. In order to emigrate it's actually somewhat difficult. You need to be a "skilled worker" or a wealthy investor/entrepreneur type. Most 18-24 year olds aren't either one. 

I'm no expert in Canadian immigration law, so I don't know how everything works. Oddly though, most people who aren't experts in Canadian culture and immigration law are incredibly naive about both. Canada isn't a paradise where there is prejudice and everything is wonderful. Granted, it's more politically liberal than the US, but original sin ins't political, and even liberal countries can have serious problems. 

The spectacular website Listverse says it much better than I ever can. This list explains some of the misconceptions about Canada.