Recently, I've been visited between 40,000 and 80,000 times A DAY on my Blog... Where the visitors come from: Brazil, USA, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, France, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Pakistan, and OTHER

It Appears that Most Visits are from AI Computers that are Scrubbing my Blog to Train their Large language Model Machines... Since I've been writing since the late 1990s there's a lot of language on this blog...  And all of that traffic has got to cost Google a lot of money. They have to purchase servers and electricity and water...  I figure that it's not just my blog, it's everyone's blog, and that's a gigantic amount of pointless effort... 

 Thinking about Brazil... When I went to college one of my professors also taught samba parade drumming as a class... In the music department... And one of the summer school Adventures that he led was a trip to Brazil to See the real Samba Parades Live... 

Brazil has become famous for the Psychedelic Drug Ayahuasca...  It's an organic natural form of the drug DMT... Popular in the 1960s hippie culture as a 30 minute trip... For people that didn't want to take 12 hour LSD trip...  This form of the psychedelic last a long time and most famous for introducing you alien creatures from another dimension... Kind of like a UFO abduction... 

The beach at Rio is the location of some of the world's largest rock concerts... The Rolling Stones' 1.5 million-person gig in 2006, and massive recent performances by Madonna, Lady Gaga, and Shakira.

Most Popular Posts:

Trump: Prison, Mental Hospital or Grave - "Happy Days Are Here Again!" Everybody Sing Along with Mitch Miller - "Dancing in the Street" Martha and the Vandellas
https://youtu.be/tsgw0W1RE5A?si=zdUlWUeL_GWMfGnx HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN - Mitch Miller & His Gang https://youtu.be/M4p9qXIWN2Q?si=kKd...


Trump Fired All His DEI Hires. Kimberly Cheatle, Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, Lori Chavez-DeReme and Tulsi Gabbard... And he replaced them all with men...
Please Share Your Anti-Trump Memes on EVERY Social Media Platform. Especially TwitterX and Tooth SoCal --- Gab, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Minds, T...


Best TV Shows: BATTLEBOTS, Ancient Aliens, Aerial America, JEOPARDY!, Fringe, "V" 2009 - Best TV News: PBS, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC - Democracy Now!
Quest for the The Golden Bolt! On the Discovery Channel Ladies and Gentlemen... It's ROBOT FIGHTING TIME! Here's a Classic Episode o...


The "Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax" WAS NOT A HOAX AFTER ALL! I just got my CHECK from the Facebook / Cambridge Analytica Privacy Lawsuit. They Illegally helped Trump win the 2016 election... And that's why they're paying a massive fine!
Many people have completely forgotten about Cambridge Analytica and Targeted Russian Propaganda but... That check is proof... That Russia re...


End Trump's Crazy Iran War: Oil Tanker on Fire... Ecological Insanity... Please Share These Memes Worldwide... Thank You!
Share this link on social media... https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2026/03/trump-false-flag-drone-attack.html The US navy has announced they ca...


Please Share Your Anti-Trump Memes on EVERY Social Media Platform. Especially TwitterX and Tooth SoCal --- Gab, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Minds, Tumblr, Gettr, Instagram, Blue Sky, Threads, Reddit and Faceborg...
Republicans #Runaway from Trump - "He's incredibly stupid! He's going to take down the whole party!" Before the war with ...


For Maximum Effect, Don't Read This Book. Write Your Own! --- "Lessons Learned" by Gregory Vanderlaan. A Lifetime of Trial, Error and Survival Yielded These Words of Wisdom...
Intentionally Seek Beauty. I Like to Take a Walk In the Garden and Photograph Wonderful Things... That Focuses My Attention on The Positive....


#TACO - Trump Always Chickens Out - The World Cheers as The American Madman Loses Again... Wonderful! - TRUMP AND ALL HIS PEOPLE NEED TO GO TO PRISON...
The 2026 Digital Uprising: Calls for a Complete Administration Reset A vast online campaign is rapidly gaining ground across social platform...


Not Just Trump's Daughters But Everyone's Life Will Be Better When He is Gone... Prison, Mental Hospital or Grave... Just Get the f*ck Out!
TRUMP WILL FAIL TO BREAK THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS, Many Hundreds of Millions of Americans Want to Vote Against Him and the Evil Republican Par...


Trump Said: "Since I Made Gas for your Car is So Very Expensive, Ride in a Flying Saucer Instead! They Don't Use Gas At All! Every Direction They Go is "Downhill" and They Just Coast... Gravity is Free Energy!"
LINK: Click Here to buy a Postcard with the slogan "Defund the Space Force" and the drawing of the friendly alien. <~~~~~~ (...



Popular Posts

The Rainbow Gathering is OVER for 2026 - Pennsylvania... The people that went said it was great... July 1-7 Next year: Wyoming or Nebraska... Ignore all rumors of cancellation or organization...
the latest rumor about the 2027 Rainbow Gathering is that it will be located in a place that has a high fire danger... And so giant bonfires...


Is Trump's Imaginary Staffer that Posted the Racist Obama Video a Totally Fake Person? A Symptom of Trump's Paranoid Schizophrenia?
TRUMP CONFESSES: "@realDonaldTrump" IS NOT REALLY HIM! It's a Mystery Staffer! All Tweets on Tooth SoCal Are Not His Fault! #T...


Question Authority - As Good an Idea Today as it Was 60 Years Ago... Or maybe you'd rather Question Reality!
Click Here for the Bumper Sticker shown above! Click Here to buy the Question Reality Bumper Sticker! You may change the words if you wa...


Trump's Insane Iran War Has Started Again! The Streets of Whore Moose are CLOSED! OPEN! CLOSED! OPEN! CLOSED! #TACO both the USA and Iran are bombing...
Please Share Your Anti-Trump Memes on EVERY Social Media Platform. Especially TwitterX and Tooth SoCal --- Gab, LinkedIn, Mastodon, Minds, T...


It is Difficult to find an ACTUAL MAGA Moron in the Real World. The Vast Majority of the Ones You See on the Internet are Russian Bots or Nigerian Employees... Designed to give the Illusion that they are Human Americans
LINK: Click Here to Buy a Big Number American Flag Yard Sign. You can choose any number! 1776, 1492, 420, 5150... Whatever! Click Here f...


Trump Should FIRE: RFK Jr, Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, Lee Zeldin and Steven Miller... and ARREST Rick Scott for Medicare Fraud... NEXT: May 1, 2026 - No School. No Work. No Shopping.
May 1st Worldwide Boycott https://maydaystrong.org/ On May 1, 2026, workers, students, and families rally, march, and take action across the...


Trump is The Reason Prices Are So Expensive on Everything... Trump's Insane Iran War... Trump Just Keeps on Failing, Failing, Failing and Failing some more...
Melinda Fulton There is a kind of grief that doesn’t come from losing a person. It comes from watching your country become unrecognizable ...


The INSANE ICE KILLERS Have Not Been Arrested. The Main Job of the FBI and DOJ has become Protecting Republican Criminals... Strange...
https://www.uusf.org/hrwg IF THEY CALL ME A DOMESTIC TERRORIST by https://www.instagram.com/michaelfdubois/ If they gun me down in my own s...


Hey MAGA Morons: Trump's High Prices on Jet Fuel Caused Spirit Airlines to Go Out of Business. 17,000 People Lost Their Jobs... And Delta Airlines has decided to stop serving food and drink on flights to save money... How is that Making America Great?
Trump: Total Failure ----> His Economy is a Disaster <---- Remember: TRUMP'S A LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE! "His Big Speech...


Justice Department says it will stop $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" after judge's ruling ----> "OMG! This is Just Crazy!" <---- FORMERLY SPINELESS REPUBLICANS REJECT TRUMP'S Fund - For Not Only Making Crime Legal for MAGA MORONS but a High Paying Career!
Newspaper Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-anti-weaponization-fund-dropped-republican-revolt / January 6th was a Failed Insurrect...



Popular Posts

REFUSE TO TRAVEL BY JET AIRPLANE! They Cause Climate Change! Remember: Burning gas is killing us... Have a zoom family reunion... Stay at home and visit on the computer...
Not only is travel bad for the health of the planet but, it's Astonishingly Annoying too... Getting stuck in the airport... Traffic jams...


My Autobiography: Growing Up in Los Gatos, California in the 1960s by Gregory Vanderlaan - and Living in San Jose, Washington DC, Chico, Eureka and Orangevale, CA.
I Was Born in 1954. We lived Near the San Jose Airport until they Started Landing Jet Airplanes and We had to move... We went to Los Gatos ...


What Ever Happened to Trump's Phony Middle Class Tax Cuts? They Expired... But The Super Rich Got to Keep their Tax Cuts! #ArrestTrump #LockHimUp #InvestigateIvankaGate
During Trump's Time the Federal Government Failed to Collect as Much Money as It Spent... Vastly Increasing the Deficit! and then in 202...


The Rainbow Gathering is OVER for 2026 - Pennsylvania... The people that went said it was great... July 1-7 Next year: Wyoming or Nebraska... Ignore all rumors of cancellation or organization...
the latest rumor about the 2027 Rainbow Gathering is that it will be located in a place that has a high fire danger... And so giant bonfires...


Joe Biden is President. No Longer is there a Need to EXORCISE The White House... GOOD TRIUMPHED OVER EVIL... Here is a Post from Long Ago During The Dark Ages...
EXORCISM at the WHITE HOUSE. A Million Patriots Need To Surround it and Demand That Trump RESIGN NOW! JOIN US For A Spiritual Healing Ce...


Amy McGrath for Senate in Kentucky... Beat #MoscowMitch! He is a Corrupt TrumpNik Obeying His Master, Vladimir Putin - Register and Vote! Throw OUT the Corrupt Old White Men. Like and Share Her Website Address Worldwide! Campaign For Amy on Social Media...
https://amymcgrath.com/ https://store.amymcgrath.com/ Amy McGrath, a retired US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel raised in Kentucky, is ...


RAINBOW GATHERING 2021: Photographs of the Gathering Near Taos, New Mexico...
~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~ Here is What this Blog Post Looked Before The Gathering Happened... Of Historical Value... Helping People Get There....


Photos of Chico, California... Bidwell Park, Butte Creek Canyon and Big Al's Drive in Restaurant on The Esplanade... and My Memories of Going to College there in 1973... Then I Went Back in the Late 1990s...
Bear Hole in Upper Bidwell Park... Basalt - Lava from Mount Lassen... Click Here to buy this image as a postcard! Greetings from Chico! D...


Help Democrats Win Congress by Sharing Their Campaign Websites on Social Media. Here's a List! Simply Copy and Paste the Link and a Short Description..
The LIST! https://www.rebekahjonescampaign.com/ Rebekah Jones is running against Republican Matt Gaetz for US House of Representatives...


Mariia Butina: Russian Arrested in USA for failure to Register as a Foreign Agent: She Was Accused for Infiltrating NRA and Setting up Secret Back Channel for Financing Republicans. Eventually she was arrested, convicted and served time in US Prison... Then She Was Released, Moved Back to Russia and was Given a Hero's Welcome...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Butina In July 2018, while residing in Washington, D.C., Butina was arrested by the FBI and charged with...

Who WAS Ram Dass? In the Sixties, He was a Psychedelics Researcher and Promoter at Harvard with Dr. Timothy Leary. (LSD, Magic Mushrooms and Peyote) Then He went to India Looking for Enlightenment and Met a Guru. Changed His Name and Published a Great Book... "Remember: Be Here Now" - It Has His Autobiography and then Many ART Drawings Explaining Eastern Religion. Real Name: Dr. Richard Alpert...

https://beherenownetwork.com/be-here-now/

and Then he wrote a Dozen MORE Books and Gave Many Lectures... ALL WORTHY... I Especially Love "Still Here" because I'm 67 Years Old and The Question of My Own Death is Important To Me... Now... 

https://www.amazon.com/Still-Here-Embracing-Aging-Changing/dp/1573228710

It's Important to remember that Kermit Michael Riggs Taught Dr. Richard Alpert to BE HERE NOW. He was a Laguna Beach, CA Surfer...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagavan_Das_(yogi)





and Then After Listening to The Saturday Night Alive for the Global Peace Tribe Show...

I Had a Dream: We were walking towards the Entrance of the Los Gatos Library and there was a Thin Old Man dressed in a Small Bathing Suit ahead of Us. He pulled on the entrance to the Children's room and It was Locked... Disappointed, he turned around and I asked: "Are You Looking for the Man Who Works There?" He Said: "NO" and I Motioned towards the Main Entrance. We all Entered. He seemed lost so I asked: "Do you Need Help?" as I would ask any Lost Old Man... He Said: "NO" and then I asked again: "Can I Help You?" He said: "No. I'm Fine." and then we went on Our Own Ways. By That time it was Obvious to Me That he was Ram Dass and That it was a Rather "Heavy" encounter to Ask Ram Dass If I Could Help Him... a Meaningful Event... and I was Shaking... So we went downstairs and I went searching for a Book that I Has Started reading before (about Philosophy) - and on the same shelf was a large picture book of the Grateful Dead's Fare Ye Well Tour with four CDs (that were missing) and My friend asked me why I would want to check out that book and I said: "Too Look for Pictures of Myself." and then I woke up and Typed this Document... It's Best to Type it Up before I forget it... For Certain, I would have tried to help any Lost Old Man but It seems Important that I Offered Ram Dass Help in my dream. That's One Of His Main Teachings...

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

and then... Someone Posted in the Ram Dass Facebook Group:

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

Hello everyone, curious to know where you came across Ram Dass, I found him on Gaia...

and I Replied: TV News was Talking about Dr. Timothy Leary and He was a Part of that scene... Dr. Richard Alpert... and then Later he Wrote The Book: Remember, Be Here Now... and THAT Got My Attention because of the ART! Here are Two of about a Hundred Drawings in that book...






In the Ram Dass Facebook Group SD Posted: Philosophically speaking... Does life fundamentally suck?

SC Said: That’s what the Buddha says! But the good news is that we can rest deeply in that eternal place in our being where it doesn’t suck. The way out is in!


I Replied: MY Life Does Not Suck... Actually, I've always been confused by the Buddhist Teaching that all life is suffering... For Example: Eat a Hamburger with French Fries and a Beer and Tell me THAT'S Suffering... NO, It's Not! Maybe IN INDIA "all life is suffering" but here in the USA... Things are Pretty Great... Hey, I ate LSD and Danced at a Grateful Dead Concert... Does THAT Suck? No... That's Excellent Entertainment! BIG FUN!



Environments Record Album
Human "BE IN" In Central Park NYC


Here is Another Basically False Belief... In Buddhism, desire lies at the root of suffering. By desire, Buddhists refer to craving pleasure, material goods... all of which are wants that can never be satisfied. As a result, desiring them can only bring suffering. I Disagree... UNSATISFIED DESIRE Causes Suffering But Completely Satisfied Desire is GREAT! For Example: I Desired a Hamburger, and then I Ate That Hamburger with French Fries and a Beer... WONDERFUL! Maybe What the Buddha was Referring to is The QUALITY OF LIFE IN INDIA where things Generally SUCK... After All... If Prayer and Meditation ACTUALLY WORKED They Wouldn't Be Dying of Coronavirus... BUT In REALITY... VACCINES WORK.

Q: Why do so many people avoid silence?

I love Silence... Especially Outdoors in the Garden... Because Then I Can Hear all those REALLY QUIET Sounds... Little Birdies Chirping, Bees Buzzing, Th Sound of a Harley Davidson Driving away in the Distance...



Light Pink Rose in the Garden -
Central Valley California - gvan42

A Housemate of Mine was Watching the TV Show "Coach" - Where People were Arguing and Arguing and Arguing... Why Would Anyone Voluntarily Watch That? We Have a Hundred Channels... Many Have ZERO Arguments... and Then There were Many "Jokes" about Athletes being Stupid... I Don't Find THAT Funny... Those Jokes are Just a Variation on Racist Stereotypes... The Underlying Basis is that Anyone Who Plays Football Has to Be an Idiot because of All The Pain... and a Lifetime of Painful Back Problems... Sure, I Played Football for 3 Days Before I Quit the Team... It HURT! But That's NOT a Funny Joke...



Same Grape Plant as The One Over the Gate above.

Now It's Creeping up a Tree


Intentionally Seek Beauty... I Walk Around with my Camera/Phone and Search for Wonderful Things to Photograph... It's The SEARCHING FOR BEAUTY that is Really Fun... That Practice Makes Me More Observant...




If You are Having Trouble with Your Religion, Simply Fire your God and Find One that Works. Why Not Awaken? Why Not Shop Around and Select One That's Better for Your Own Lifestyle? https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/07/if-you-are-having-trouble-with-your.html

Don't let other people ruin your life by filling your head with absurd concepts that benefit Them, not You... I Wrote this Because I Spent Many Hours Listening to Christians Complain about Their Religion in Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings... SAD... Trapped in a Make Believe Cannibal/Vampire Cult... Yep, Those People Pretend to Drink the Blood of Christ and Eat His Body... OOOH! CREEPY! ESCAPE NOW!



~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~

and NOW, Here are some Blog Posts

~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~
Contact Your California State Representative and Tell 'em to DECRIMINALIZE PSYCHEDELICS... If signed into law, possession of LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, DMT and MDMA would be decriminalized. .

LINK TO FIND YOUR REP...

http://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

My Experience: I took LSD and Visited the National Art Gallery in Washington DC... Surprisingly, Picasso "The Tragedy" was My Favorite Painting... I FELT COLD in my Body just looking at the Painting...

Warhol and Lichtenstein all seemed silly and trivial! That Night we all went to the Tangerine Dream Concert... at the Elegant Warner Theater... I was Concerned During the Show About the CO2 Fog that Spilled off the Stage and out into the Audience... Seemed Dangerous to Me... But We All Survived...




Evil Lawmakers Made LSD Illegal. (Donald L. Grunsky & Edmund G "Pat" Brown) Bribed Politicians. Puppets of Big Pharma. However, There is an Unstoppable Movement of Citizen Patriots In Favor of Magic Mushroom Legalization. and Then ALL The Other Psychedelics...

Throw all the Corrupt Weasels OUT of Office...

Be Sure to Contact Your Elected Representatives and Tell them to LEGALIZE MEDICINAL PSYCHEDELICS... Let Doctors and Patients Decide for themselves What the Best Medicine is... Get The "Nanny State" OUT of the Doctor's Office...

HEADLINE:
Brown Signs LSD Bill To Head Off Threat' - 30 May 1966

SACRAMENTO (UPI)- Gov. Edmund G. Brown today signed Into law a bill making it a crime to manufacture, sell, possess or use the dream drug LSD. Brown said the new law would head off "a growing threat to society, particularly to young thrill-seekers unaware of the damage it (LSD) can do.” The bill, by Sen, Donald L. Grunsky, R-Watsonville, outlaws the promiscuous use of the drug which backers of the legislation say is reaching epidemic proportions on college campuses. But it permits LSD to be used in research projects conducted by recognized hospitals and clinics.

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=DS19660530.2.85&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1

The Man Who Made LSD Illegal... Thankfully He is Dead... and CANNOT DO any more Evil. Donald L. Grunsky; Longtime State Legislator... https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jan-18-mn-55108-story.html
The Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 is a United Nations treaty designed to control psychoactive drugs such as amphetamine-type stimulants, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, and psychedelics signed in Vienna, Austria on 21 February 1971. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 did not ban the many newly discovered psychotropics,[1] since its scope was limited to drugs with cannabis, coca, and opium-like effects.

During the 1960s such drugs became widely available, and government authorities opposed this for numerous reasons, arguing that along with negative health effects, drug use led to lowered moral standards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_Psychotropic_Substances


In 1961, a conference of plenipotentiaries (Definition: a person, especially a diplomat, invested with the full power of independent action on behalf of their government, typically in a foreign country.) in New York adopted the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which consolidated the existing drug control treaties into one document and added Cannabis to the list of prohibited plants. In order to appease the pharmaceutical interests, the Single Convention's scope was sharply limited to the list of drugs enumerated in the Schedules annexed to the treaty and to those drugs determined to have similar effects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Convention_on_Narcotic_Drugs

Psilocybin prohibition, however, wasn’t seriously enforced until the passage of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in 1971, which marked the beginning of America’s disastrous War on Drugs. Under the CSA, psilocybin and psilocin are listed alongside heroin as Schedule I drugs, meaning that they have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use—at least, according to the federal government.
https://thehill.com/changing-america/opinion/476968-why-the-war-on-drugs-must-end
Plato's Story "The Cave" is so very Meaningful to me... When I Heard it on the FM Radio in the Late sixties I Said: Hey, That's What Happened to ME!
https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2020/07/platos-story-cave-is-so-very-meaningful.html


A Friend Just Announced that She's Going to Disney World!

Excellent! I spent 5 Days at EPCOT and Still Didn't See It All. The First Day I Took LSD and Rode Space Mountain! Hint: Go Early in the Morning, Go Back to the Motel Room and Take a Nap During the Heat of the Day, then Go Back at Night...



Remember when Vice President Pence Held a Prayer Meeting in the White House to "Cure" Covid-19? A Total Failure... He Did That Instead of ACTUALLY TAKING ACTION... and Half a Million People Died...



Prayer is a Way of Fooling Yourself... It's a Really Handy Excuse for NOT TAKING ACTION... For Example: After ANOTHER Gun Massacre People Send Thoughts and Prayers INSTEAD OF OUTLAWING GUNS.


~~~~~~ (~);-} ~~~~~~


Before Columbus "Discovered" America...
The People Who Lived here Had a Massive Civilization.
Pottery Cups found in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico have Chocolate in them... and Chocolate Was Grown a Thousand Miles South by the Mayans... But... They LOVED That Chocolate! and Were Willing to Pay Someone to Import It!
So there were Roads that Ran Over a Thousand Miles!
https://nhmu.utah.edu/blog/2016/08/04/cacao-chaco-canyon
and The South American Roads Built by the Incas
are Still there Today and Still Work!

https://www.facebook.com/seva.foundation

A clown, a guru, and a doctor walk into a cabin. The clown says, “What I have in mind is eye care for 400,000.” The guru says “See here now.” The doctor says, “Brilliant. We can do that.” What actually transpired in 1978 was the start of Seva led by Dr. Brilliant with an eclectic group including Ram Dass, Wavy Gravy, Dr. "V", and Dr. Nicole Grasset. What came next was the landmark Nepal Blindness Survey using an Apple 2+ computer donated by Steve Jobs and a helicopter funded by a Grateful Dead concert. The story of Seva’s beginning is colorful and quirky, but the results are miraculous. Science, art, and spirituality are a potent blend that can transform lives! Witness for yourself the promise of ending avoidable blindness in Nepal and around the world.

Will the Corrupt Supreme Court Rule that CRIME IS LEGAL for Trump? Question: Would Total Presidential Immunity Allow Biden to Murder Trump LEGALLY?

Remember: The Reason Ford Pardoned Nixon was to Prevent Nixon's Arrest for Crimes Committed While President. 

READ MORE:

https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2024/02/trump-lock-him-up-outlaw-crime.html

Weirdo? JD Vance Was a Hairy KRNSA... Red Dot on Forehead Means: "My Wife Told Me To Do This!" and I'm a WIMP...

Red Dot Weirdo JD Vance

Was Jesus Gay? No Wife. No Children...

The Bible does not explicitly state that Jesus was not gay. Jesus' marital status and lack of children is not a definitive indication of his sexual orientation. According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus was unmarried and had no biological children, but this is not unusual given the cultural context of his time. Many Jewish religious leaders, including John the Baptist and the apostle Paul, were also unmarried and childless. In the case of Jesus, his singleness was likely due to his commitment to his ministry and his unique role as the Son of God. The Bible does not offer any information about Jesus' romantic relationships or sexual orientation, and any assertions to that effect would be speculative and not based on biblical texts.

Captain Beefheart's Ten Commandments of Guitar Playing
1. Listen to the birds. That's where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere.
2. Your guitar is not really a guitar Your guitar is a divining rod. Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one.
3. Practice in front of a bush. Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush dosen't shake, eat another piece of bread.
4. Walk with the devil. Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the "devil box." And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.
5. If you're guilty of thinking, you're out
If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.
6. Never point your guitar at anyone. Your instrument has more clout than lightning. Just hit a big chord then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.
7. Always carry a church key. That's your key-man clause. Like One String Sam. He's one. He was a Detroit street musician who played in the fifties on a homemade instrument. His song "I Need a Hundred Dollars" is warm pie. Another key to the church is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty-making you want to look up her dress the whole time to see how he's doing it.
8. Don't wipe the sweat off your instrument
You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.
9. Keep your guitar in a dark place. When you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure you put a saucer of water in with it.
10. You gotta have a hood for your engine. Keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house, the hot air can't escape. Even a lima bean has to have a piece of wet paper around it to make it grow.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/2024/07/30/republicans-weird/
In the summer of 1946, “The Adventures of Superman,” a popular radio show for kids, began a story arc called “The Clan of the Fiery Cross.” In it, the Man of Steel takes on a shadowy xenophobic organization that, quite intentionally, resembled the Ku Klux Klan. The head of the clan is an evil manipulator, but the rank and file are presented mostly as dopes. In one scene, the Grand Scorpion dismissively refers to his followers as “suckers” and “little nobodies.” It comes out that he’s only after their monthly dues; the racism was the tool, not the goal.

The storyline was suggested by a man named Stetson Kennedy, who had infiltrated the KKK and approached producers with the idea of using pop culture to humiliate the organization. Apparently, it worked. In Kennedy’s memoir, he describes attending a meeting after the Superman episodes began airing, and watching hell break loose: “When I came home from work the other night,” one member complained, “there was my kid and a bunch of others, some with towels tied around their necks like capes and some with pillowcases over their heads. The ones with capes was chasing the ones with pillowcases all over the lot. When I asked them what they were doing, they said they were playing a new kind of cops and robbers called Superman against the Klan.” The man continued: “I never felt so ridiculous in all my life! Suppose my own kid finds my Klan robe some day?”

This story has fascinated me, a former English major, ever since I learned about it in the 2005 book “Freakonomics.” It’s all about the power of word choice, rhetoric and peer pressure. Kennedy’s disgruntled Klan member had presumably joined the group because he wanted to seem powerful and noble to his loved ones, and powerful and terrifying to minority groups. But then he was forced to see his own actions through the lens of Superman, at which point he realized that maybe his fellow citizens didn’t see him as heroic or scary. They just thought that he was kind of … lame.

Which brings me to “weird.”

If you hadn’t noticed, Kamala Harris’s supporters have rolled out a new line of attacks against Donald Trump. Whereas the former president may have previously been heralded as a supervillain and aspiring dictator, Harris’s surrogates are more and more just describing him as a big weirdo.

“He’s just a strange, weird dude,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) told an assembled group of 60,000 “White Dudes for Harris” at an online fundraiser Monday evening. Walz is, if not the inventor of this tactic, its most skilled proponent. “These guys are just weird,” he laughed at another recent speaking event, later continuing: “We’re not afraid of weird people. We’re a little bit creeped out, but we’re not afraid.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on MSNBC commented that vice-presidential candidate JD Vance’s remarks about childless women were “a really strange take,” and said Vance’s “weird style” was going to bring about “weird policies.” Later, Buttigieg went on “The Daily Show” and told Jon Stewart that Vance had “turned out to be,” as he described it, “odd.”

Clearly, at least some of this rhetoric has started getting to at least some Trump surrogates:

“This whole ‘they’re weird’ argument from the Democrats is dumb & juvenile,” posted Vivek Ramaswamy on X. “This is a presidential election, not a high school prom queen contest. … Win on policy if you can, but cut the crap please.”

“I wish [I] knew a better way to describe it,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) replied. “Your party’s obsession with drag shows is creepy. Your candidate’s idea to strip the vote away from people without kids is weird. The right wing book banning crusade is super odd. It’s just so so far outside the mainstream.”

In various television appearances or speeches, Walz has described his word choice as a deliberate way to take the wind out of Republican sails. Yes, Trumpy rhetoric might be bullying and authoritarian, Walz has said, but bullying behavior is often just masking cowardice.

But I think that the exchange between Ramaswamy and Murphy — and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who chimed in with, “Being obsessed with repressing women is goofy” — more accurately gets at the dynamics at play.

A central pillar of Trump’s campaign is the idea that liberals are perverted misfits who want to tear down American values. Married men and women who have children are normal, but couples without children, or parents without partners, or children with two dads, or women who have two children but also once had an abortion — those people are morally deficient. All of this is old-school puritanism, but Trump brought it all into a pep rally atmosphere. Not only was it morally correct to pass judgment, but it was also festive and fun. They were strong; libs were weak. They were right; libs were wrong. They were with the prom king, who was telling them they were awesome, and the libs were outcasts in the library, probably being read to by a drag queen.

“Weird” intrudes on that narrative. It doesn’t entirely upend it, but it does plant a seed of doubt. What if, instead of being admired or feared, they are instead being laughed at? What if, instead of edgelords, they are actually just the kids in the corner eating glue off their hands?

“They called us weird so I’ll call them weirder,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), according to an X post — but “weird” is an insult that doesn’t work both ways. Gay kids, trans kids, cat ladies and horse boys have already spent an entire lifetime being told they were weird, and they have learned to wear it as a badge of honor if they need to. But when your whole political movement is based on a return to some “Pleasantville” vision of American normalcy, “weird” actually hurts. It’s not great to wonder whether, in the eyes of your fellow citizens, you’re just kind of ... lame.

At a broader level, what “weird” does is reject the entire premise of the Republican platform, something that Democrats have seemed to be doing more frequently since Harris took over the ticket. In the White Dudes for Harris online rally, which featured speakers such as Mark Hamill and Josh Groban, one early speaker lamented that, “When White men have organized, it was often with pointy hats on,” and that “masculinity as a trope has been ceded to the MAGA right.”

Other speakers used their time to argue that the most fundamental characteristics of masculinity — strength, the ability to provide and protect — were qualities demonstrated by the left, not the right.

“They have Kid Rock, Kevin Sorbo and a dolphin aficionado,” offered actor Josh Gad, best known as the voice of Olaf in Disney’s Frozen franchise. “We have the Hulk, Samwise Gamgee [and] Luke Skywalker.”

Is any of this going to work? I don’t know. But it seems like a more effective strategy than, say, calling Trump’s supporters a “basket of deplorables,” as Hillary Clinton did during the 2016 election. “Deplorable,” it turned out, could easily be transformed into “badass” in the eyes of some supporters. “Weird” doesn’t work like that. Because it’s not about a collection of behaviors. It’s about an unpleasant fug that gets on you and follows you, one that you can’t even fix because you can’t even smell.

In the parlance of Michelle Obama: They go low, we go “ew.”