Maybe good, maybe bad

I agree again with Old Dog that the reason sex is such a big deal is that it is disruptive.

Mr. Beagles gets the credit for that thought, Uncle Ken, but he didn't say that it is disruptive.  He said that it has the potential of being socially disruptive, and don't give me any of that scourge business on this one but the distinction should be made.  Anyhow, our society is really goofy when it comes to appropriate sexual behavior and expression.  We are taught one thing but shown another; sex sells.  I'm going to leave this can of worms alone for the time being.

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I suspect than an expectation of a banana split or other type of reward or prize for doing the right thing will lead to a life of disappointment.  There is no contract that states "if you do this you will get that."   There are many good things that are done, purely through an instinctual reaction, or so it seems to me.  If someone trips and falls you don't usually ponder the situation but instead you help them up and see if they're okay.  Not a lot of conscious thought is involved, it's just something we usually do.

Maybe karma is factor in this, and the reason that we are the recipients of a good action isn't because the other guy is expecting a reward but that it's because of something good we did previously for someone else.  But since bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people this is obviously a weak idea.  And then you have the problem with what was once good is now bad and now we're scurrying down another rabbit hole.  Maybe religion was invented to deal with such issues; you got to start someplace.

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I've forgotten the exact context of the previous discussion regarding language and speech but I was thinking of how easily we adjust to new groups. We have a facility to subconsciously adjust speech patterns, even syntax, of the majority and mimic and copy gestures of people we like without knowing it.  I think Mr. Beagles mentioned something about having to tone down his "army speak" when he returned to Chicago, and he may have also picked up a few Teutonic pronunciations along the way.  I think it happens to all of us and is an innate human trait to enhance social bonding; just another thought to throw out there.  We do a lot things without knowing why we do them, don't we?

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There has been a lot of talk about international trade agreements lately, what with NAFTA, TPP, etc., but I think in the final analysis markets want to be free.  There is a black market in smuggling cows from India to Bangladesh and another black market in Russia for cheese.  Why would you need to smuggle cheese if you have dairy cows?

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Trump has been compared to a lot of people, like Nixon ,Mussolini, and Hitler, but there's another guy he reminds me of, Huey Long, who had a simple tactic of "firing every government employee not personally loyal to him."  He was quite the populist, too.

There's a funny video clip that hit the interwebs today, original footage courtesy of Fox News.  As Trump was alighting Air Force One recently, a gust of wind lifted his carefully combed coif, revealing a less than hirsute pate.  It looked real creepy and something that cannot be unseen.  There's not a lot going on at the back of his head.  I bet he never goes swimming.