and the problem is, like so many other words, a single definition isn't accepted by all those who use it, and those who hear it.

Plain and simple, our language is to blame for much of our social discourse. Until we all agree with the meaning of a word, when used in any conversation, we aren't communicating if both the speaker and the listener don't understand and accept a common meaning.

Like so many in our English language, the definition of a word requires context, can be different by geographical region or social membership, or even usage. Take the word peruse for example. The historical definition of the word, straight from Webster's Unabridged copyright 1983: 

1. to read with attention; to read carefully or thoroughly; to study. 

Surprised? I'd argue most people hold the definition of peruse to mean to scan, or read over quickly. If your boss handed you a 100-page legal document and asked you to peruse it for tomorrow's meeting with the CEO, what would you do? We have collectively come to enjoy the latter meaning. So much so that the third definition in the same 1983 Webster's Unabridged is simply: 3. to read.

Take a look at today's Webster's online definition:

1 a : to examine or consider with attention and in detail : STUDY

   b : to look over or through in a casual or cursory manner

2    : READ
      especially : to read over in an attentive or leisurely manner

attentive OR leisurely? Aren’t those terms contradictory in this context? So, what do we mean when we say peruse? It's anyone’s guess, and that's the problem.

Okay, so what about this word gender? Do you know what it means? Do you? Are you sure?

In the case of gender, it’s so much worse; and iGanja has caught you! Kudos to those who have orchestrated this bit of social discord. The left is having a real field day (and a laugh at the right's expense) with this one. I too was caught up in this ridiculous argument over how many genders there are; knowing all too mater-of-fact(ly) there were only two. How could any reasonable person claim any more than that and keep a straight face. But they did...keep a straight face, and omg how stupid are you? and how stupid must you think the rest of us are?

There are only two genders when using the word to denote biological sex. <- that’s a period.

Anyone who honestly thinks differently need not read any further. You are too stupid to have any meaningful conversation.

However, the word gender is very interesting, and yes, a fluid defined word that requires context, and an incontrovertible understanding of what the subject or topic of conversation is, to know its meaning.

Again, Webster’s Unabridged defines gender:

And Webster’s Online:
1 a : a subclass within a grammatical class (such as noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb) of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics (such as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex) and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms
     Latin has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.

  b : membership of a word or a grammatical form in such a subclass

  c : an inflectional form (see inflection sense 2a) showing membership in such a subclass

There you have it. The primary definition of gender clearly states it as grammatical construct. Plain and simple. It denotes subjectivity and requires agreement by the users of the word as to its meaning in any context.

To be fair, Webster’s Online does go on to include a second definition, much like Peruse.

2 a : SEX sense 1a

   b : the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex

   c : gender identity (a link to an entirely new word [phrase] which Webster’s defines as)
        : a person's internal sense of being male, female, some combination of male and female, or neither male nor female

Nothing to do with biology, only an "internal sense". Interesting how this word has evolved, like peruse, into something completely different, and conveniently obtuse, yet used today to denote a strict definition for all based (incorrectly I might add,) on the sixth derivative. And now we fight, like the left and right love to do, over this sixth derivative definition as if it was the first, and only. No reasonable person would fall into this trap, would they? Well, most of us did. Kudos again to the woke left.

And now iGanja’s take:

A few decades ago, when America was still relatively conservative, and the “moral majority” was censoring everything from how many times the word “darn” could be used in a 30-minute sitcom episode to what color hair your children could go to school with, some church group – I am imagining – decided the word “sex” on a DMV form was just a little too risqué. We needed a different word. We need one that denoted sex without actually using that word. Enter, more pleasing to the conservative world, gender.

Form, after form, after government form, quietly changed over time from Sex: “yes please!” to Gender: That’s it! And you thought it was a conspiracy. Nope. Just the radical conservative right forcing a watered-down word on us to uphold morality and quash a funny joke, for good.

Enter 2020, and the great woke take over. Gender means Sex! Don’t believe us? Why does it say that on our birth certificates? Why is it on our driver’s license? We are assigned our “gender” at birth, and since gender is – by definition – a fluid construct that can change over time, so it is with OUR SEX. Viola! It’s all a matter of how you feel that day. You can be a boy, or a girl, or as my son (youngest offspring) would say, an “attack helicopter”, anytime you want.

So yeah, there is a problem with gender – the word – and it’s the Right’s Fault that it is now a problem for all of us.

"oh I Ganja!"

and NEITHER DO YOU!

Not a single one of you, claiming to "Stand with Ukraine" will change the evil that is going on there!

Not a single one of you, displaying a Ukrainian flag on your social media profile will make a lick of difference to the people of Ukraine!

Not a single Facebook, or Instagram post, Twitter tweet, or TikTok video will save a single beautiful soul in Ukraine!

Your self-serving, narcissistic social media feed claiming you "Stand with Ukraine" only serves as evidence that our society places more importance on the overall meaningless drivel people type with their thumbs, while lying in their warm beds, after reading someone else's meaningless, narcissistic, self-promoting, blathering. It's time to grow up! Life is REAL, not a fairy tail where we all get to choose our genders! Grow the fuck up!

The woke generation seems to think using the same mechanism to show we will "Never Forget" the tragedy of 9/11 is tantamount to professing their support - or in this case their fickle opposition - for an ongoing tragedy, all in the safety of their entitled situation. All without recognizing for a second what it is that affords them that safety.

The Black Lives Matter movement had an effect because people actually got off their asses and acted - all be it sometimes in destructive ways - but "Standing" with our black brothers and sisters meant actually Standing! Simply posting the latest fad phrase for all to see on your Facebook feed was simply a feeble attempt to look cool, but really who were you kidding? except all the others who "shared", or "forwarded", or "thumbed up" your weak-ass proclamation.

This is no different, and at the same time, wildly different. You are NOT "Standing with Ukraine"! anymore than you stood with Afghanistan when we let the Taliban literally roll over the beautiful and FREE people of Afghanistan. And excuse me for saying it, but you pathetic woke cowards! We were already there! We were charged with protecting the people of Afghanistan when the Putin of that area - the Taliban - flat out told us, once the US leaves, we will turn Afghanistan back to the stone age. And we left, with barely a word from you social media zealots! Shame on all of you for not "Standing with" a people that needed us!

Is it your shame and embarrassment that leads you now to "Stand with Ukraine" or is it - as I have already theorized - just the cool, woke thing to say, so your "followers" continue to think you are influencing? What a crock of manure. "Standing" with Ukraine means getting off our collective asses, firing up a few B1 bombers, and flying over the Russian front lines and dropping a few well intended messages on them. "Standing" means acting - with more than your fucking thumbs! Standing with Ukraine means literally standing right next to a Ukrainian who is about to be shot for no other reason than they exist. No, YOU are NOT standing with Ukraine!

Standing with Ukraine or Afghanistan, takes guts! Guts our leaders simply don't have, and no amount of social media profile posts and Ukrainian flags will change that! All of you who voted for our current Vice President and her running mate, thought you were going to revive America by getting rid of the President who would never have allowed the Russians to give us the finger in Ukraine. All of you were dead wrong! What's worse, you haven't the guts to even admit it. Instead you will "Stand with Ukraine" in a wasted and misdirected attempt to support a people our country's leadership - the cowards you all voted for in record numbers - has failed to do.

You really want to "Stand with Ukraine"? Impeach the current administration - every single one of them - and elect leaders who will LEAD and STAND for what is right! You want to "Stand with Ukraine"? Stand first for a strong, purposeful, and principled United States!

I'm not going to waste my time "Standing with Ukraine". I'm going to Pray for Ukraine and the people of Ukraine, the same way I Pray for the people of Afghanistan and all those persecuted for simply being pawns in some crazed lunatic leader's power game. 

And I will vote for leaders who will Make America Great Again! This "woke" experiment has gone way wrong, and needs to end! This pacification of our men and women into pussies who actually think positing some trite phrase on the Internet will stop gun violence, create true equality for people of color, keep abortion legal, or save the people of Ukraine, has weakened us to the point of losing our freedom to a foreign aggressor. Will it take being literally attacked for you people to wake the fuck up? Your woke-ness is old, and tired, and gonna get us learning to speak another language, or worse.

And just so we are clear, I was never a fan of President Trump, and less a fan of the man. But at least he was not a coward, and truly believed America could be great again. Right now, because the rest of you hated the man even more, we are at a tipping point in our country's history, and where we go from here will have nothing to do with how "woke" we are and how many people "Stand with Ukraine" on their social media outlet. It will have everything to do with what we DO and how we ACT and who we ELECT to LEAD our great country in the future; not for the 5% outspoken and misguided souls, but for the 95% of us who are just normal, binary, God fearing humans!

oh, iGanja, and it's fucking sad and frightening!

My beautiful, better half made the most amazing observation this morning. She said, the reason we never seem to have anyone worth voting for, is that the truly great leaders in our country don't want the abuse that will be heaped upon them by the media. The constant barrage of insults and castigations by our first amendment entitled resident terrorist hatemongers is more than most sane intelligent people would volunteer for. So, what do we get?

Narcissistic blowhards who really enjoy the public spotlight no matter what the media or anyone else says about them, and literally relish the idea of acting in outrageous ways to develop buzz. Sound like any Trump you know? Do you want this kind of person as the President of your country?

Egomaniacs who are only interested in their own self-serving power position, and really could not care less what anyone says about them. Again, sound like any Hillary you know? You want this person as your President?

Mental incompetents who are nearly oblivious to the rhetoric around them, seemingly able to let the corrosive water run off their proverbial backs only because they have no idea they are actually being shot at? Sound like any Bush or Biden you know? You want this person as your President?

Idealogical zealots who are used to having their views mocked by literally anyone with an ounce of logical sense? Sound like any Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez you know? You really want this nut job "representing" you?

The past few Presidents, both democrats and republicans alike, have undergone more media and public scrutiny than nearly any other persons on the planet. They are attacked from nearly every angle on a daily basis. Nothing they do is not over-examined by anyone and everyone with even an inkling of political interest. Like every episode of the Bachelor or any other "reality" show, we the public have some unhealthy morbid interest in it.

No, the most intelligent, well qualified people in our Country are simply too smart, and not interested in the kind of spotlight our current media-driven, socio-political system has evolved into. In short, they don't want any part of it.

We the voters have done this to ourselves. We complain that we only have a choice between a "giant douche" or a "turd sandwich"; that neither party can present us with a candidate worth voting for, but I say, they give us exactly what we want. Not a President despite all the odds against, but an egomaniacal, misogynist, reputed pedophile to counter the other side's narcissistic, racist, mental midget.

Good job America! No matter how this election goes, we are in for another four years of petty bickering, accusations, fighting, and stagnation. If you want something different in 2024, you better start now. And the place to start is the largest terrorist organization in the Country...

The media.
(I was going to write news media, but seriously, who are we kidding?)

Oh, I Ganja!

Write something.

Stay tuned...

Oh, I Ganja!

I’d love to be an atheist. I could say anything, do anything, my promises would mean nothing, and I’d never be held accountable for anything. Unfortunately, I live in a society of free people, and having no moral compass is a bad thing for such a society. Allowing everyone to choose their own – however idealistic even seemingly benevolent – leads to multiple definitions of right and wrong. A society must have at least the basic precepts of justice and equality, and without a supreme force of guidance, where does that to come from? Are we to rely only on human nature – since most atheists subscribe to the theory of evolution – when human nature is so contrary to the idea of civilized society? Are we to rely only on laws, when laws are simply made by other men, and when those laws at some point violate our rights as free people? Quite the puzzle, isn’t it?

Take for example the concept of fidelity in a relationship – a cornerstone of trust between two people in our society. Human nature finds no need for such silliness; survival of the fittest requires promiscuity. Although laws have been created by religious zealots in the past to dictate fidelity and even prudence, we as a society have since demanded that our individual moral compasses dictate what is right and wrong with regard to fidelity, not our government. So, where do we stand? How are we to know right from wrong when we each have our own compass and each point in its own direction? Well the fact is, as a society of people, we can’t.

When we are all floating around in this huge universe with no god, who the fuck cares? Although I do not belong to any established religion, I choose to believe in god (little g,) or at least that there is some reason for our existence beyond our pathetically meager understanding, or short-sighted belief that we just are. Many physicists theorize that over 83% (some say as high as 99%) of the matter in the universe is unknowable to us – it is simply invisible. If this is true, how could anyone be so arrogant as to say there is no god, when we know so very little? Would it not be better to simply accept that we know no god, but that knowledge does not preclude the existence of one?

All academic arguments aside – and in the end that is all they are - it’s fun to be an atheist, but it’s hardly worthwhile. 

If ever asked to choose between hearing it sung well, or on key, or loud, or long, or by a 12-year old prodigy, or by a famous actor or singer or Cuban or Canadian, straight forward, or with artistic license, and getting the words right; I choose the later.

Our National Anthem is the horrid adaptation to song, of the poem “Defense of Fort McHenry” by Francis Scott Key. I say horrid because, it is actually set to the tune of “The Anacreontic Song” – a popular British drinking song of the time. There is practically no measure – which makes sense for drunk people singing it, no harmonies, no rhythm, the tempo changes drastically – especially when [insert name of pop diva here] sings it, the melody is challenging – at best – for the average person to sing, and you can’t dance to it.

Still, even to this day, after attending thousands of baseball games and other sporting events, and hearing it butchered on television by many more over the years, whenever I hear it, I get goose bumps. Not because it’s a great song – no – because of the words, and what those words mean and represent. It is not just a song, but a call to patriotism. A call to every American to remember why we are, and what it truly means to be an American. Every time I hear it, it is a one and a half minute history lesson.

The poem is four stanzas, and though very rarely all four sung completely, our National Anthem is officially only the first.

Our National Anthem is – literally – a question; actually the same question asked twice in slightly different context. The first; can you see it? And the second; can you still see it? The flag, that is.

O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
[In the first light of day, when the sun is just rising, can you see [it]?]

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
[We could see [it] yesterday, just as the sun was going down, in the last light of the day.]

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? [We saw a beautiful striped flag adorned with stars, flying above the walls of the fort. This is the end of the first question. Can you see it?]

And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
[Through the dark night, the light of the fight gave us glimpses of it. Think of it like CNN today giving us minute by minute accounts of the fight. Imagine this is your only way of knowing if your side had fallen or not; every few minutes a bright blast of a bomb would illuminate the top of the fort and we could see what flag was flying. Imagine your excitement every time you could see it was still stripes and stars!]

O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
[The true start of the second question; a question for all time. Replace the word “yet” with “still” if you need a more modern day version]

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
[Seems the only part of the song we think we understand. Interesting how someone belting-out and sustaining the first part of this line while singing it can produce such a passionate response from the crowd – boy how we love that. Interesting to also note how quickly and willingly we give up our freedoms to the government or suppress the freedoms of others when it suits our needs or beliefs, but I digress. The point to be taken here is that Key himself considered America – even though an infant as a sovereign nation – “the land of the free and the home of the brave”, and he was quite right. The question is, does the flag still fly, and are we still? That is the question you are being asked, every time you hear the song; so ask yourself. Can you still see it?]

Love the picture provided by our beloved AP... No one is saying you aren't human dirtbag, of course if YOUR country had provided you an education, you might see that your status as a human is not the issue. What is at issue is the unbelievable pride those fleeing an oppressive, corrupt and lawless country have for where they came from...

"Immigrants have built this country," we all have heard this shouted at the tops of lungs by those denouncing our struggle to continue to provide for our own when it has become nearly impossible as is evident by California et al going broke trying to support the endless social welfare necessary for an ever increasing entitlement mentality by an ever increasing population of people who have nothing to offer but want. YES! Immigrants BUILT this country, the operative word being BUILD!

Polish, German, Italian, Irish, Russian, Japanese, and many many others, all came here for the promise of opportunity and to produce and build America, NOT simply consume and be a drain! Notice, not a single classroom in America where we teach our kids in German or any other previous immigrant language = drain; not a single standard government document printed in Italian = drain; no pressing #3 for Polish = drain; All these past immigrants came to America to become Americans not to be Russians living in America, or Irish living in America, but AMERICANS.

So, as you who are sympathetic to the current Hispanic immigration might say, America is prejudice toward Hispanics - total an complete utter bull! America has done nothing but welcome immigrants from the south, but at some point, even America cannot provide for a constant flow of want and demand (and blind patriotism for the country they fled) across our border.

The MOMENT Mexican - and all other - refugees from Hispanic countries embrace the country they now call home; learn the language of their benefactors like ALL other immigrants before them, adopt the culture, and truly become Americans in their hearts, only then will they understand our anger over the current invasion.

Yes, America is a melting pot! It is NOT a place for foreigners to call home and demand we accept them as side dishes with separate and accomodating rights.

North Korea today launched yet another missile test in a clear attempt to, um, well, um, provoke a response from the rest of the world that would otherwise forget they even existed, and then had the gall to say 'it would take "self-defense measures" if the U.N. Security Council punished it for this week's nuclear test.'

Self-defense measures huh, wha, against further U.N. Security Council sanctions? OH! I get it now; you will start to feed your own people then? Because seriously, the only thing we can do now to further push your fucking piece of shit country, ruled by the most moronic gadfly in human history - seriously, not even Fidel Castro is as much of a lunatic as this imbecile - back to the Stone Age, is to STOP GIVING YOU FOOD!

Of course, that will never fly in the U.N. with China having veto power, and it ain't because they are even close to allies mind you, it's that China just doesn't want a mass of starving fucking refugees flooding into their country from the Stone Age.

I'm wondering if anyone - save maybe South Korea - would have even the remotest problem with China just moving in and taking over. Yeah, the US would squawk a little, and demand they retreat, and China would basically tell us to go fly a kite or shoot off some fireworks or worse, threaten to stop making shit for us, and in a few months we would all go back to our more important items of business, and eventually nobody would even remember there ever was a North Korea.

Or better yet, fire up the ol' Enola Gay boys, we got on last encore performance!

oh, i ganja!

Okay, just a quick note here on, um, special election day - a day where nobody is running for office, yet we are asked to go to the polls and basically stab ourselves in the neck. 

Propositions 1A thru 1F are Sacramento's answer to our state's financial shortfalls. Cleverly worded initiatives designed solely to get us to vote yes without really disclosing what a yes vote will mean, as tons of legislation has already passed in the state legislature that will go into effect if these propositions pass. None of this is spelled out in the text of the propositions. Of course, this is my advice to everyone:

Force the politicians to FIX the system; don’t let them RAPE the tax-payers yet again. I am so angered by the fact that our government has tied it's hands for so many years that the ONLY discretionary funds left are those for essential services like public safety and education, but that is what you get when you continue to vote for earmarked bond initiatives. Eventually you have NO MONEY for anything else.

It is time to tell Sacramento we will not bail you out any longer. I empathize with the teachers and other public sector employees that may be destined to lose their jobs, but thousands of private sector people have lost their jobs already. We all need to share in the pain and stand in solidarity AGAINST this spend, spend, spend and tax, tax, tax mentality. All these bail-outs do is encourage politicians to continue with business as usual. We have the power to make it STOP!

The only viable fix to this is to FORCE government to hold education and public safety funds sacred over all other earmarked non-essential programs. That way they can NEVER again use these scare tactics to manipulate the voters into agreeing to more taxes. The fact is, there ARE alternatives to cutting public safety, healthcare and education, but the politicians will have you believe there is no other way, and will put teachers and nurses and firefighters, et al. on the chopping blocks to further their agendas.

Send a harsh word to Sacramento that they cannot hold teachers and public safety hostage!

VOTE NO on ALL bail-out propositions! Tell the politicians, NO MAS!!!

We ganja!

So, I found myself on Amazon.com recently and persuaded by something there to write a review on a D-Link DIR-655 Wireless Router I had purchased a few months back. I happened to be very pleased with the product and planned on giving it 5 stars, but I noticed – although 4 and 5 stars heavily outweighed the others – quite a few 1 star reviews so I wanted to see what the others were saying. After reading review after review by unsatisfied customers complaining about technical support offered by the company, and a few legitimate beefs with the product, I wrote my review:

I can't help but laugh every time I read a review of a tech product by someone who has no business trying to do what they are trying to do. This is, for all intents and purposes, a router! with all of the big boy features that a router should have, BUT yes, in a consumer product, and Amazon will and does sell it to anyone with the cashe to purchase it. Unfortunately there is no aptitude test to keep most of you from buying it. So, "caveat emptor" but NOT because this is a bad - or even potentially bad - product, but because it does a lot of stuff that the average joe blow computer user hasn't a clue how to use or why.

I cannot comment on the DLink customer support, but can only imagine it is probably as bad as all the complainers have said, maybe worse. Again, you are talking about a piece of technology that companies offer full blown college courses and credentials to learn how to configure properly, and trying to explain these concepts over the phone to an obliviate can be somewhat taxing if not impossible. And yes, I can see where a support person would just eventually get fed up with you.

In DLink's defense, they have tried - best they can - to develop a "plug and play" solution to get this configured for you. But here is the bottom line for those who have written something like "it works with Vista!" or some other such moronic thing. A router doth not care what operating system you have, and you doth not need to install ANYTHING on your computer to make this thing work! It's a router! It simply routes packets from point a to point b. If your computer isn't configured properly, you may have problems, but don't blame the router. It's more than likely doing EXACTLY what you told it to do!

That said - [stepping down off the milk crate] - I bought this router because I was thoroughly pissed off at Linksys/Cisco for making a competing product that truly does NOT work, but that is a different story. Once I got this router, I have NEVER had a bad thing to say about it. I run anywhere from 4 to 7 computers through it, both wired and wireless, running Vista 32 and 64, XP, Windows 2003 server, Linux, open BSD and yes, even a flippin' Mac on rare occasions when I really need a hair-cut and simply don't have the time, so I figure I’ll just pull my hair out one strand at a time for a few hours while struggling to find the right mouse button.

Anyway, this thing is rock solid, has great wireless range, and is easy to configure (when you know what you are doing, or at least have some technical aptitude.) I won’t say you must be a tech geek, but SOME aptitude will greatly help you during your travels through wireless security options, port forwarding, and firewall settings. This or any other product like it, simply isn’t made to be “plug and play” those that have given this anything less that 4 stars either got a bad one – not out of the realm of possibility – or simply have no business trying to do this themselves. This is a prefect opportunity to hire the geek squad if you don’t know what you are doing, but don’t blame the product if you have trouble. In the immortal words from the movie, Mr. Mom, “You’re doing it wrong.”

Oh, I Ganja!