Author Archives: Curtiswselby
They say not to write a blog from a tired space, but I suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome, so frankly, everything I do is from a tired space. Likely I'm not doing the greatest job of search engine optimization. But I know there are others like me. Passionate about life.
Kennedy warned us about the military/industrial complex
Paul Tay Explained to Out of Towners
For good or ill, I’m going to do one more about Paul Tay. I figure if the sunk cost fallacy is good enough for the US government, it should be good enough for a Tired Blogger as well. I’m going to go into just a very little more detail about who this dude is, I’m going to explain a little more plainly why I bothered to write about him (other than simply because it was a reader request), and then I intend to compare our eccentric Independent to another politician.
Let’s begin.
I’ll try to find some valid yet entertaining sources that were not in the previous posts.
https://www.newson6.com/story/5e367fb52f69d76f6209384e/paul-tays-anti-war-protest-raising-eyebrows
The internet can be so frustrating. All it really wants to show you is last month’s news. Still, I was able to dig back to 2003 and learn that people were already irritated with his protesting twenty years ago. According to a News on 6 article, “He made a name for himself when he ran for mayor of Tulsa last time around. Campaigning from astride a bicycle and a cart he pulled along behind.
“Well, Paul Tay is on the streets campaigning again. It’s a campaign against the war using an inflatable male genitalia, and naturally, it has folks riled up. News on 6 reporter Rick Wells says Tay’s efforts are difficult to ignore.”
But the US Supreme Court at the time had ruled that his inflatable was protected under the first amendment. He was called in hundreds of times, but “police say he’s legal. So is his inflatable, bicycle ordinances allow him to ride on the streets, as long as he keeps moving and stays on the right, their best advice just try to ignore him.
“Police say, as angry and frustrated as this may make you, there is little they can do. Unless Tay is on private property and refuses to leave or violates traffic laws, his riding on city streets carrying a sign and his inflated display is legal.”
Twenty years later I have the solution. Just tell the police that the inflatable is a protest of the vaccine. Wait what? That is Canada I’m thinking of? You guys really need to start getting me correct information! What about his tag? Is it in the right spot? Because they can bigod pull you over if it is in the wrong spot because some thief (that they can’t stop) will steal it if you have it in the window. What if I put my tag on an inflatable of an erect penis? Would the Supreme Court protect me?
Somehow, I doubt it.
If you watch the video, he actually had a wonderful idea. Let’s make the mayor’s race a reality tv show. Bring in millions of dollars of Hollywood money parading around town with a penis on their forehead. If we elected him, he could do a show where people compete for city positions. Maybe we could get sixteen candidates from the applications sent in and divide them up into two teams, and then they could compete in various different contests, and the losers could be eliminated from the competition, and the winners could become Municipal Treasurers, City Sherrif, Animal Control (to Major Tom). But that is a pretty radical idea. I mean, I can see why people think of John Tay as crazy, not because of the protests and the penis and beating and raping women, but just because that is a crazy idea that would never work.
Tulsapeople.com has this to say about Paul Tay and the time he attempted to bypass the debate moderator in 2016. “Video of the bizarre event was plastered across Facebook, accompanied by Tulsans’ liberal use of the “like” and “haha” responses…The Frontier posted Mayor Bartlett’s 911 call from the debacle. Tay personally commented on the myriad, reiterating his belief that politicians “need to entertain voters.” Local comedian Dan Fritschie asked Tay if his plan was to “fight bullshit with batshit.”
“For Tay, batshit is the name of the game. Apart from running for mayor more times than he can remember, he’s famous for bicycling on the B.A. expressway during rush hour while wearing a Santa suit, towing a giant inflatable penis with his bike, and generally accosting motorists and cyclists in feverish outbursts.
“Tay was far more mayoral than usual when we met on The Hunt Club’s patio. Leaving the Santa suit and dildos in the closet, Tay wore his now trademark cowboy hat, dress shirt, tie, and western duster (despite the 80 degree heat). This new, more reserved look is a nod to mainstream politicians, and his hat was inspired by former OK political hopeful, Virginia “Blue Jeans” Jenner.”
In the years before he was arrested for alleged rape and kidnapping, Paul Tay was actually beginning to grow a small independent following. Tulsapeople.com wrote about him in the years between 2016 and 2020 with much more respect than any other news outlet I’ve come across.
“Tay wants to remodel all of our city parks after the Tisdale Food Forest. “We had a question on Wednesday night,” he said of the debate he interrupted, “where they asked about the mowing cycle. I thought ‘why are we paying to mow our parks when we can plant and let food grow on them instead?’” If elected, he says he would hire a Secretary of Education, and a Secretary of Cyberspace. “We’ve got a super-computer in City Hall, and that thing oughta be cranking out algorithms to make city processes work more quickly,” he said. He’d also require police to carry liability insurance, divert the war on drugs to a focus on rehabilitation, and increase cycling safety.”
Maybe not the most professional platform, but it honestly sounds profoundly less insane than the other things I’ve read about his platform as a candidate for governor of Oklahoma. I began to see why people might actually have voted for him before the frightening allegations of rape.
Two advocacies he stood for more or less disavowed him. The cyclists felt his protests made them look bad, and the marijuana advocates were equally embarrassed.
“Dean Franklin Grove II is a board member of marijuana advocacy group Oklahomans for Health.
“
Though Grove feels Tay’s efforts delegitimize medicinal marijuana in the eyes of mainstream Tulsa, he nonetheless plans to vote for him, “simply to try and force a runoff in this broken electoral system.”
“A growing number of Tulsans have similar plans to Grove’s, and, if not planning to vote for Tay, are at least praising his Discordian campaign. His political piss-take is a growing pastime in an era when the parodic City of Tulsa Parking Enforcement can win “Best Tulsan to Follow on Social Media” from this newspaper’s readership for telling the official @cityoftulsagov Twitter account to “suck my balls.”*
The original article was written in 2016. I wonder if Grove would wish to vote for him now. I wonder what happened to my Agents of Chaos novel?
Why is Paul Tay Important?
There are three reasons I believe Paul Tay is worth looking at.
- First, it should show the level of desperation we have fallen to that he would end up getting 15 percent of the vote (I misspoke in an earlier post, saying he never did better than 9%. He made it to 15 before he was charged with rape).
- Second, is it just me, or did bicycling awareness become a big deal after the Mayoralis Interruptus?
- Lastly, does the whole story that he met a woman on Craig’s List, was incarcerated for a year on her testimony, but yet her testimony wasn’t good enough for a conviction…the story stinks to high heaven.
If you haven’t noticed, your Tired Midnight Blogger (what blogs at midnight) is no fan of either political party. My memory is foggy about who I’ve voted for in the last few mayor’s races, but I know for a decade now my ballets show more and more independents and Libertarians than ever before. More and more of us are so disgusted and weary of the modern political machinery grinding our lives into sausage, we would be happy to vote for almost anyone except the status quo. I know a fair number of my readers are from OKC, so you wouldn’t know, but the election where Paul Tay made his name was so bland, so disappointing, I think a lot of us were starting to feel ashamed of being in Tulsa. Thank goodness though! Harry Potter defeated P. T. Barnum.
As usual though, the parties have taken the wind out of the sales of independents. People were listening to Paul Tay about marijuana? We’ll simply allow medical marijuana, proving there is no need for independent voting. People were listening to him about bicycling? We’ll do these weird new stripes on the busier streets, so it looks like we are helping out the bicyclers. Good job Harry Potter!
And yes, I know the official story is almost certainly the true one…but am I the only one who is thinking “How convenient that right as he starts to get a real following, someone accuses him of rape”? Perhaps my criticism will be too minimalistic, but all I have to say is “the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State” (6th Amendment to the US Constitution). And on the other side, “Women do not get raped because they weren’t careful enough. Women get raped because someone raped them.” One or both of these statements is totally relevant here. One way or another, this was a travesty of justice. Either an innocent man was in jail for a year, or an innocent woman was raped but our system failed to convict the perpetrator. Comments welcome.
The reason I write about this man, besides the fact that a reader wanted me to, is the fact that we independents are lumped together as a bunch of stupid, impractical Paul Tay types. “Oh my Gawd! You vote independent? Don’t you know you are throwing your vote away?” Just what the hell do you think you are doing if you vote for either Democrat or Republican?
Ok, one last little thought experiment and then I am calling it a night.
I want to do a very quick Tired Blogger comparison of Paul Tay, and a true American hero. I would like to share with you…Vermin Supreme.
Sadly, my work computer will not allow me to access most of the websites that talk about this supreme politician. But allow me to make a few quick points.
Both are masters of the art of amazing head gear.
Both demonstrate the absurd by being absurd.
Both have had abysmal campaign success but have also had some amazing political…well…victories might not be the right term, but both have surprised the talking heads a time or two with some higher-than-expected voting numbers.
Both claim to have paved the way for Trump.
Both would appear to be a joke. But one is a finely crafted self-aware joke, the other, tragically, doesn’t seem to understand the lyrics of great BJ’s songs. “Oh, if I’d only seen…that the joke was on me!”
Our Governments See us as Willfull Children
youtube.com/clip/Ugkx9-jHAJSvkkhvv1Unmzrcq68JWYuXUocI
Do they really act any more adult than we do?
Paul Tay’s Guide to Career Success, or Whadayamean HR Wants to Have a Talk With Me?
My second post about the redoubtable Paul Tay begins with what I think is his mugshot. He has truly made it to the big time! He has been written about by the New York Post, and even more importantly, by your friendly neighborhood Tired Blogger (what blogs at midnight).
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/4432
Likely if you are able to read you now know that Paul was charged with assault, kidnapping, and rape. I guess he has been reading the Bill and Hillary Clinton handbook to success…
All right, let’s dive in. In this post I intend to share what happened to get Tay charged but then, almost a year later, released. I’m going to share his campaign platform (hey, even if my bias is against him, you deserve to know what he stands for, right?) And I’m going to share some final thoughts, as well as a special insider quote that may shed a bit of light on the subject.
I’ve already shared that “According to David Van Risseghem of soonerpolitics.org, Paul Tay decided to protest “at 34th and Sheridan on July 3rd in front of lots of traffic with a plastic penis on his helmet, holding a sign that said, quote, “Suck my dick for $1” and he was gesturing at drivers.”
“He was swiftly convicted in a trial by his peers.”
In the world I know, if your friendly neighborhood Tired Blogger were to show up anywhere outside his own apartment sporting latex genitals and essentially propositioning the entire metro area, I can about guarantee it would be a couple of years till my pale face saw the light of day again. What happened to Paul Tay?
He made it to the big time. The New York Post reported on him. He’s hit the big time now baby! New York Post!
“Paul Tay, 58, is accused of attacking the woman on two separate occasions after she responded to a Craigslist ad on Sunday for a job on his campaign team, the Tulsa Police Department said in a news release.
“Later Sunday, Tay picked up the woman, who didn’t have a car, and instead of heading to the intended destination of Oklahoma City, the candidate headed toward Tulsa, according to police.
“The frightened woman tried to escape the vehicle, but Tay allegedly hit her in the head with a pipe and sexually assaulted her, according to cops.
“Tay then ran out of gas, but managed to panhandle for money to fill his tank, the news release said.
“With the woman still inside his car, Tay drove back to his Tulsa home and allegedly raped her, police said.”
The takeaway is…there are still good people in Oklahoma who will give you gas money if you are in a bind.
The redoubtable Tulsa World (to which I now subscribe so that I can get quotes from the fricken blankety blank paper) give what Paul Harvey would call “The Rest of the Story.” (God I miss that man!)
“Paul Cheng Tay, who had been in custody almost a year since his Aug. 23 arrest, posted bond to be released on other unrelated pending charges Monday, according to online jail records.
“Prosecutors charged the 59-year-old with first-degree rape by instrumentation, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon on a woman’s allegations to police after she responded to Tay’s posts on Craigslist.
“The details that emerged over the course of the case made clear that there were severe credibility issues with the accuser,” Assistant Public Defender Janay Clougherty said.” Note to self, take down personal Craigslist page…
You can read the article if you want, but the long and the short of it is (I’m sure Tay would say it was long) there was some confusion about the fact the woman had answered two of his ads, “the first for campaign work and the other for a “sugar baby.” If you don’t know what a “sugar baby” is, look it up on some adult web site. Or look up adult slang terms. Anyway, it is not exactly a s-x worker, but it isn’t exactly not a s-x worker. No judgement here, I just wonder if that status is what led to her no longer being believed. Comments welcome.
“Tay was scheduled to go to trial later this month, but Clougherty filed a list of six witnesses prepared to testify to the alleged victim’s lifelong propensity to lie about many things, including sexual assaults and cancer diagnoses.
“Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Elmore opted to dismiss the kidnapping and assault charges pending further investigation, and he declined to comment for this story.
“The District Attorney’s Office did the right thing in dismissing the case,” Clougherty said. “Going forward, I hope such due diligence is exercised to identify non-credible accusations in every case.”
Paul Tay is now a free man, and thus likely will hunt me down and bust my head open with a lead pipe. To help him out, my address is…(leaning over to whisper to over paid assistant) “What is my ex-wife’s address again? Yeah, I know I lived there for twelve years, but I’ve tried to erase that memory…hey! Why are you on Craig’s List? Um…you found what? Why…of course you can have a raise. And two weeks paid vacation. I’ll even throw in a bonus if you’ll just get me that address…” yeah, my address is 303 W. 1st St. in Tulsa, Ok. Big building. Can’t miss it.
But seriously, I’ve been ranting about this guy, and making him look pretty bad (though some might say he did this to himself, but I digress). In the interests of fairness, what is Paul Tay’s platform? What does he have to say about himself?
The Tulsa World gave him a paragraph for his platform: “Tay’s promises for his performance if elected include replacing Tulsa Zoo animals with livestock that could provide food for north Tulsa grocery stores. He wants to mandate liability insurance for all Tulsa police officers. He wants to decriminalize marijuana use in the city limits. He wants to arm citizens.” And this page also has some items on his platform:
You can read there the whole thing if you like, but I thought I’d share a few salient points:
“Official Statements of The Honorable Paul Tay, Office of the Governor 2022, State of Oklahoma:”
“On the first Juneteenth federal holiday, as approved by President of the United States Joe Biden, under the standard of review posed by the Treaty of Cusseta, the United States acted beyond its jurisdiction when it forced The Muscogee Nation to free slaves and share wealth with Greenwood freedmen.
“The United States did not force France to give up french fries for its support of the South.
“The United States has not force the Embassy of The People’s Republic of China in the United States to renounce its claim on Republic of China (Taiwan).
“The United States tacitly recognizes the tenure of RoC President 蔡英文 Tsai Ing-wen, considered by the People’s Republic as sham illegitimate authority and an act of war.”
A Tired Blogger Evalutation
To begin with, I actually have a little bit of insider information on this one. A lady who was new to the political sphere who ran against him in one of his multiple campaigns but wishes to be anonymous because…I mean…lead pipes and attempted rapes are frankly scary, gave me a quote via twitter. “I noticed he had bad vibes even before he kidnapped and assaulted (allegedly) that woman. He was always a bit off (to put it nicely).” I’m afraid that is the extent of my influence, all the other people involved were allegedly surfing in Qatar.
Personally, I think the guy likely does have psychological issues. But then, many people in politics have psychological issues. Lincoln suffered from severe chronic depression. Ulysses S. Grant was an alcoholic. And I suspect the majority of politicians in the last thirty years are narcissists, sociopaths, or psychopaths of the first order. Would I vote for him? No, of course not. Does he deserve a voice? Better question…who does not deserve a voice.
I’m thinking a very confused man with something that at the least is severe personality disorder, and at the worst could be mild schizophrenia, made one too many Craigs List posts, and a woman who was down on her luck responded, hoping to get some financial assistance one way or another. Since I don’t know all the details, I don’t know if she was raped. On one level I hope not, because frankly, the thought that her rapist walks free, s-x worker or not, is sickening to me. But I also don’t want to Alex Jones this. At the very least, I can’t imagine knocking a woman on the head with a pipe on purpose and getting away with that Scot free.
I was hoping, Mr. Miller, to find a smoking gun on some kind of conspiracy theory. Like, he has dirt on some politician, so they let him go. But if there is anything like that, I have so far been unable to find it. My resources are limited (though for the first time in my life I actually got to do a direct quote from a real live ex-political candidate, and that is cool!) But if anyone would like me to do more digging on this topic, or if there is something else you would like me to write about, please leave comments or contact me at my legitimate locations. But at this point, the case as I see it is, “crazy man assaults a s-x worker, there isn’t enough proof to convict, so we are just gonna let him go and hopefully the behavior doesn’t escalate.”
My next post will likely be Tuesday, as I will be hanging out with friends all weekend.
The Honorable Paul Tay is on his Way to Save the Day!
Some of us love to root for the underdog. We cheer Rocky as he almost wins, or when he does win. We feel the thrill as Inigo Montoya chases Count Rogan through the castle. Our hearts warm to watch Samwise Gamgee pick up Frodo and say, “I may not be able to carry your burden Mr. Frodo, but I can carry you.” Or whatever it is that he says. Inigo’s line is easier to remember. “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!”
You can say whatever else you want about Paul Tay; the guy does not give up! I knew nothing about him till my friend requested this post, so as usual I will cite the three websites, I’m getting my information from, and run a few quotes and commentary.
https://conandaily.com/2021/08/24/paul-tay-biography-13-things-about-tulsa-oklahoma-man/
https://www.soonerpolitics.org/editorial/the-notorious-paul-tay-is-freed-all-charges-dropped
I would also leave his Facebook page, but my work computer won’t let me on it. Let’s just say…if you want some more insight into the mind of this indefatigable politician, look up his FB page and feast your eyes! But I warn ya, it is not for the faint of heart.
Conandaily.com gives a recent political resume for the candidate in question in bullet points. I’ll share the salient ones. His political career began in 2002 when he ran for mayor of Tulsa as an Independent. He received 1.3% of the votes, which, to be fair, is likely more than a Tired Blogger would get. A handful of campaigns ensued over the next dozen years or so for Tulsa City Council (his best performance to date, he received 9% of the vote in that election), and twice again for mayor of Tulsa.
“In 2014, he was the defendant in a protective order case after a woman lodged stalking and harassment allegations against him. On November 4, 2014, he lost to G.T. Bynum in the general election to the Tulsa City Council to represent District 9 in Oklahoma.”
“He was arrested after allegedly going to the Tulsa’s Route 66 Marathon on November 22, 2015 and stealing 20 boxes half full of Mylar blankets with 2,000 blankets in each and 15 bags of clothing meant for homeless people.”
“In 2016, he worked as a handyman and caretaker. On June 16, 2021, he described himself as a politician meant to entertain the electorate like Donald Trump during a press conference in front of the Tulsa City Hall but also said in Spanish that Trump and Trump’s supporters are donkeys and the sons and daughters of the devil. On June 28, 2016, he lost to Bynum in the primary election for mayor of Tulsa.”
After all of these embarrassments, most people (including your Tired Blogger) would give up and just choose a more anonymous career. But not this guy! The honorable Mr. Tay is nothing if not persistent.
“On August 28, 2018, he lost to Ben Kimbro in the general election to the Tulsa City Council to represent District 9 in Oklahoma.”
At this point, the losses do seem to have been getting to him. “He was arrested for threatening a Tulsa city council in April 2019 and for soliciting prostitution in July 2019.”
“In January 2020, a jury found him guilty for outraging public decency. On August 25, 2020, he lost to Bynum in the general election for mayor of Tulsa.”
Wait! What is that all about? Outraging public decency?
According to David Van Risseghem of soonerpolitics.org, Paul Tay decided to protest (I guess, you read it and tell me what you think he was doing) by showing up at 34th and Sheridan during busy traffic, sporting head ware that distinctly portrayed male genitals, and wearing a…oh hell with it, I’ll just quote the article: “Assistant Tulsa County DA Tara Britt says Tay was at 34th and Sheridan on July 3rd in front of lots of traffic with a plastic penis on his helmet, holding a sign that said, quote, “Suck my dick for $1” and he was gesturing at drivers.”
He was swiftly convicted in a trial by his peers (Oklahoma dude, ya gotta go to California or New York if you wanna get away with pulling a stunt like that), but Risseghem state that, since Tay kept his clothes on and neither urinated nor defecated in public, the conviction would be not only easy to appeal, but in his mind, Tay would be doing us all a favor if he did.
” If you read the Walker Ruling of 1977, it’s clear that the appellate courts have a real problem with how the legislature wrote this statute.”
“Section 22 might be labeled the ‘catch-all’ for any rude/crude behavior that the lawmakers didn’t want stipulated in the legal code. But by whose standards should we establish an infraction? that’s where this law can end up costing the state a lot of appellate resources.
Do we really want justice established by who can rent a mob of people who can feign hysterics just to have someone convicted? Last I studied the matter, this is how the Salem courts convicted and executed supposed witches? “
I can’t help it, I’m gonna end this one with a cliff hanger. What was the end of this Quixotic quest of an independent candidate to change Tulsa? And is this man a misunderstood hero, a crazy lunatic who should be locked away for the safety of rush hour traffic drivers who surely don’t deserve to see well-formed male genitals being paraded atop the dashing head gear of one of our own well-meaning denizens?
Read on Friday for the exciting continuation (possibly conclusion) of the Saga of Paul Tay, Tulsa patriot. (Good Chthullhu Matt, what have you gotten me into)?
To Dream the Impossible Dream with Sancho Panzo on the Team and Fighting the Unbeatable Foe
My best friend requested this post. I admit to being both pleased to write this, and intimidated. Likely one of my greatest shortcomings has been that my dreams and hopes all too often just don’t fit with people’s ideas of reality. As a child I was both praised and scorned for having a vivid imagination. But imagination alone, while IMHO it is a gift and source of great joy, can’t accomplish much. You have to have certain skills to even begin to make a dream a reality. And since you don’t have all the skills you often need other people to accomplish very much in life. Somehow, I could paint a picture that people loved with my words, but I was never inspiring enough to get people to act. I failed to convince Dad to stop drinking (though he did do that a year after I ran away from home). I failed to convince my school board to keep the Jet-Nash school independent from consolidating with a school that I felt didn’t share our standards of excellence and valuing education over football. As I grew up, I have attempted fewer and fewer efforts to inspire people to improve the world. But suffice it to say, I’m batting a 1000 as a failure when it comes to true inspiration. Oh, I’ve learned some of the highlights of sales. I can convince a store manager that a profitable product will do well on their shelves. But to actually make the changes to make the world a better place? I’ve not learned that yet.
But then again, I suppose I never will learn the skill if I don’t keep trying.
Rather than just pontificate about the topic, I will share my research on the topic.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/purpose-dreams-and-goals_b_5337787
https://ideas.ted.com/the-science-of-setting-goals/
The first few years after I left my ex-wife, I attempted to share a part of my new won freedom with my friends. I was soaking in self-help books, articles, and videos. I haven’t stopped even today, though I’ve steadied myself as far as buying more books and quit sharing so many videos. One of my best and wisest friends was talking with me, and likely I was being insufferable, because he asked me “What is the goal of goals”? It is a fair question. The short, Tired Blogger answer is that a rudderless ship will likely sink on rocks or run aground. But let’s see if these experts have something to add.
Remedygrove.com shares four reasons why goals are important.
- Dreams bring zest and enthusiasm.
- A dream deferred makes the heart sick.
- Dreams lead to optimism.
- Dreams and goals inspire us.
Essentially, happy people strive for goals, unhappy people just allow life to destroy them. I am myself prone to depression, so don’t think I’m being as vapid as a lot of your PMA types. It doesn’t mean you are good or bad, but there is a correlation (if not a causation) between happiness and having goals in your life.
Sheldon D. Newton, contributor to the Huffington Post, has this advice to give on plans and goals that I think is salient.
“Ensure that you know what you want out of life. What do you want to do? What do you want to attain? What do you desire to experience and enjoy in life? What is your God-given dream? What vision stirs within your spirit consistently, and you dream about all the time? Is it wholesome, descent, godly and possible? Then begin making plans to be that, do that, have that. And begin making those plans now. Refuse to procrastinate. Begin right away.”
He continues with “Ensure that your plans are not beyond your reach to begin to implement right away. In other words, make your plans doable. Set them in such a way that you can start putting your plan into action right away. There is a reason for this: When plans are made in such a manner that they over-whelm you, your energy gets drain just thinking about them. You will find yourself wanting to avoid beginning at all costs and with a whole lot of excuses. Making the plans workable from the get-go ensures that you stay pumped up and ready for action.
“Write your plans down. This is such an important point. Even the Sacred Scriptures admonished a prophet of God to, “Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that reads it.” (Habakkuk 2:2, The Holy Bible) Writing your plans will help to ensure that you remain focus upon your goals. What you write, you can remember, because you can always go back and look it at. Focused people reach their goals, because they refuse to be distracted. They keep their plans before them, day and night.”
Ideas.ted.com has this to say: “
Our brains are wired to love rewards, so we often set simple goals that make it easy to check off boxes. Did you go to the gym today? Check. Did you write in your journal? Check. “It feels really good to set a goal,” says McGonigal. “People often set them just for the burst of optimism they get when they vow to make a change.” But if that’s all our New Year’s resolutions are about, no wonder we end up abandoning them so quickly.A meaningful goal — one that truly inspires you to change — requires going deeper. “Give yourself permission and time to think about what it is you want to experience in your life or what’s getting in the way,” says McGonigal. Think about what you want in the coming year, then ask yourself why you want that — three times in a row. For example, if you want to quit smoking, ask why do you want to quit? Then, if you want to quit for your health, ask why do you want good health? Then, if your answer is to be alive long enough to meet your grandchildren, ask why do you want to meet your grandchildren? “You get to something that just feels so obviously important to you,” says McGonigal. It really drives home why that goal matters, and that motivation can bolster you as you work toward the goal.”
They also advise focusing on what you want to attain instead of what you want to avoid, to focus on the process whereby you attain the goal (planning, dividing the goal up into smaller tasks, etc), and to look for holes in your plan. It isn’t that you focus on how bad your plan is, but what might trip you up? What are the obstacles to avoid?
So then, what is the dream for this blog? My vision is to write inspiring, informative pieces that are impactful on my readers. My vision is to have people read my blogs and fall in love with me, with themselves, with their country. I envision having tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of followers (in time). I envision being able to make a living doing this, or at least substantially supplementing my income. I envision a community online of people changing the world, like the committees of correspondence changed the American Colonies into one of the world’s great Republics. I envision a community large enough, intelligent enough, and virtuous enough to either turn the fall of the West around, or if that is not possible, to rebuild a wiser and more benevolent Republic. I envision becoming a better person, someone who has mastered the ability to achieve goals but yet stay positive. A man who knows why he is here. Who spends his time, money, and energy wisely. I envision writing the books I dreamed of writing, building the businesses I dreamed of building. And yes, I dare to hope that in some way, I may yet have a family (though I’ll admit, I have no idea how that could happen).
Plans and goals to achieve this? Right now, I intend to publish three written blog posts every week (so feel free and comment if I fail on that). Second, I intend to start or restart a YouTube channel to do book reviews, or to discuss anything my readers would enjoy me talking about. Last of all, I intend to build this into an actual, professional website. I intend to figure out how to make an actual menu so people can find this more easily. I intend at some point to monetize, though I’ll be honest, I have only vague idea of how to do that.
I know that likely, most of the things I envision may never come to fruition. It would be so simple, so easy to give up. Get fat. Hate women for not wanting me. Run off all my friends with a negative attitude. Stop writing, start reading b rate escapist fiction. To quote George Michael though…”Maybe…just one more try.” Or, to quote Cyrano when he is asked if he has read Don Quixote:
“Cyrano de Bergerac: I have, and found myself the hero. Antoine Comte de Guiche: Be so good as to read once more the chapter of the windmills… Windmills, remember, if you fight with them… Cyrano de Bergerac: My enemies change, then, with every wind? Antoine Comte de Guiche: No, they may swing round their huge arms and cast you down into the mire! Cyrano: Or cast you up into the stars!”
A
Top 5 Trends Your Tired Blogger Ranted About
We wrote about quite a few things last year, but there were five major trends that I wrote about, possibly that helped the numbers a bit. As another recap of the year, I’ll review five of the major trends that I covered and discuss some possibilities for next year. I base these off both my blog’s numbers, and the presence in the article on googletrends.com year-end review of the most searched terms. Let’s dig in.
5. Uvalde, Mass School Shootings, and Police Actions
2022 had the second highest rate of mass shootings in a decade. Which, if you read some of the posts I wrote about it, scares me to wonder what the worst year was like.
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/1820
“In this particular case, I believe it likely was because of the mass shooting, specifically the one at Uvalde. You can actually take your pick of tragedies, there were eight mass shootings in the US since Tuesday. (Editorial note: the figures climbed almost exponentially as I wrote this post. I’m leaving the figure unchanged to make a point…you can’t even get a fricken blog post about mass shootings finished before there are literally 20 more.) I see the working definition is at least four people not counting the shooter maintain injuries or die from a gunshot. One of these was in my proud red state of Oklahoma, the municipality of Taft was afflicted by a 26-year-old who allegedly fired into a crowded Memorial Day festival, leaving a 39-year-old woman dead, and seven other victims suffering non-life-threatening injuries.”
The shootings were happening so fast at the time, I literally could not keep up with them. We live in dark times. “How to help Uvalde” was last year’s fifth most searched “how to help” category.
I wrote several posts about mass shootings, the next fairly coherent piece was:
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/1937
In that post I stated “You are sitting in your easy chair, watching CNN, Fox News, or whatever other news you watch. And there is a politician giving a harangue about guns. Either a Democrat quacking about the evils of guns, or a Republican howling about how we will be enslaved when the Democrats take away all of our guns. You just can’t help yourself. You lift your remote with dramatic flair….point it as if it were a Star Trek phaser or a magic wand (or a gun…..is that too “on the nose?”) and just before you change the channel to Youtube to start searching for the latest Branden Tenold video or Rifftrax, you shout and spit out “You’re despicable. Just despicable!”
“More and more of us are seeing through this thin charade. The two parties have been in cahoots for quite some time, but they sure had most of us fooled for a long time.”
The Uvalde police were harshly criticized for the way they handled the shooting. And I’m afraid my respect for the institution of American police slid quite a way down this year. I tried not to write much about it, as I have two friends who are police that I have intense respect for. But more and more I see my friends as the exception, and the rule to be to serve and protect the interests of the wealthy elites, and the rest of us be damned. Nothing to see here, stay in line citizen.
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/2818
In this post I shared “I’m not a journalist (but I play one on tv), I’m simply a tired blogger. It would be so easy to take the coward’s way out on this one. I could write about the ten best ties worn by Klaus Schwab, or the top five groups conspiracy theorists love to hate. But to me, this story, even more than all the shit show that is the Trump FBI debacle, is the ultimate symbol of what our society is devolving into.
“An Orwellian dystopia of the powerful pounding a boot into the face of the powerless. Let’s dive in.”
I wrote in some detail about police brutality. Looking back over that post I likely should have stated the police side of the argument more pointedly, if only to placate two of my good friends who are police (and are some of the good ones who don’t deserve all the vitriol that is often thrown at the police). But I have come to believe that the once honorable American police force that “serves and protects” is devolving swiftly into an armed division of paramilitary upholders of a despotic hegemony. I ended the post with these paragraphs:
“I know it is bad form to point out a problem and then suggest no solutions. I’m not suggesting violence or revolution. Even if I did, I am not made of the stuff to lead or fight in such a conflagration. The bad guys seem to have won the war. My fellow Americans, how do we turn this around?
“Honestly! Please send comments. Please share this post. Please discuss how we can prevent or end the tyranny we all fear. While I propose no violence, I do believe that there needs to be action taken. If we lie passively, I don’t think the beatings will stop.
“Do we comply? Do we give up our liberties? Do we decide the struggle is not worth the effort? Do we give in to the despair? Do we allow this present darkness to become the status quo? Who are we anymore, after all? Are we slaves? Are we the dead? What happened to our spirit? Did it die on 9/11? Will our children and grandchildren know even a tithe of the liberties we once took for granted?”
4. Batman and Pope
Yes, I made several references to the Batman franchise. I even use the Joker as one of my profile pictures. (Note to self, when/if I monetize, change the Joker picture). The Batman was the fourth most searched film on Google last year. I combine him with the Pope because, while he was not one of the most searched people last year, he is trending high at this time because one of the Popes (two Popes…so confusing) is ill and the other is asking for prayers. And I wanted an excuse to share last Easter’s post, my twelfth most viewed post: “Holy Thursday Batman! The Pope Washes Prisoner’s Feet!” https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/1379
In that post I detailed my intellectual wrestling with the concept of Christianity and ended it on a pretty neutral frame that confused my ex-girlfriend. I honestly hate pinning down my religion for my readers, because 1) my beliefs evolve with time and hopefully with learning, 2) I’ll likely irritate a lot of my Christian friends by saying this, but I think a lot of us have gotten Jesus’ message wrong, and profoundly wrong, and 3) I’ve read the Protestant Bible ten times through, in King James, New King James, NIV, Living Bible, frankly, I’ve forgotten some of the translations I’ve read it in, but having said that, I am no true Biblical scholar, and I am very far from being a prophet. I think if God is trying to speak to me, likely it is a divine version of Homer Simpson’s “Dote!” Just like I would be extra cautious about writing medical advice on this blog, I am very reticent to give spiritual advice. Consult your pastor (or priest, or guru, or Dude) and take your prayers as prescribed.
But in that article, I indulged myself in some out loud thinking about the topic.
“When I was a child, I really didn’t understand Easter. I knew it was about bunnies and eggs and something about Jesus dying and coming back from the dead. And while it was a great story, I didn’t understand how in the world it saved me from sin. I’ve heard many and many a theory, and I know some are satisfied by this story, and some by that. I’ve done a lot of thinking about it lately. Especially since each passing day I become more and more afraid I will never see my son alive again.”
“Looking up several more websites to corroborate (as best as a tired blogger can) I find there are several verses from the Gospel of John that we have from no later date than 175 AD AD, granted, 140 years later, but still basically written by a scribe who may have theoretically had a chance to talk to someone who had talked with the apostles. This would be less than eighty years from the time the Apostle John died. While this does not prove the Gospels, it does prove that we had the story of Jesus trial no later than 175 AD. The Romans were a very practical people, and the archives of that time would have been easy to look up. The Roman’s disputed Jesus divinity, but not his existence, nor that of Pontius Pilate, who is mentioned in this papyrus. We have here John 18: 31-33, and John 18:37-38, so by this time we have Pilate asking Jesus if he were king of the Jews, and Jesus responding, “A king am I. For this I have been born, and (for this) I have come into the world.”
I ended that post with this:
“The best I can find, the latest we have evidence of the manuscripts [making claims that Jesus is God] is between 175 AD (there is that number again) and 225 AD. I can’t perfectly pin down the other text, but we have the Gospel of Luke complete by the fourth century. So, whether it evolved or started from the beginning, we have the Gospels themselves with the claim in 225 AD, with it being Canonical in most churches by the fourth century.
“So, what are we to make of all this? I cannot tell you what to think or believe. I’m just giving you the very vague scholarship of a tired blogger. If you believe, then God bless you. If you believe something else, then I simply pray that the True God Who is bigger than my beliefs or confusions will lead you on a kinder path than I have walked. And that our illusions of God are shattered and replaced with a greater Truth every day. And if you believe there is no God, we are still children of the same Creation that made us all. Happy Easter to one and all.”
3. Tulsi Gabbard
Once again, I am bending my own rules. No, she wasn’t one of last years most searched, but she is trending again, so I’ll write about her again (and thus my Machiavellian schemes progress). Plus, that post was the eighth most viewed in my blog, so why not keep the momentum going?
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/3489
What I love about this story is someone is actually having the guts to do what I think many more of us should be doing. We need to be leaving the parties. But we are all scared to leave the parties. Because if I leave my party than the other party (who is raw evil) will just be more powerful, and in the end evil will win.
But one of the central themes of this blog is that both parties are corrupt. Neither one cares about you. And I think one of the best things that could happen for America would be for the Duopoly to end. The Two-Party system is broken. Maybe it worked some time before I was born, but all it has done in my lifetime has been to drag this country to her knees.
Tulsi’s words on exiting the Democrat Party:
“I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue & stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith & spirituality, demonize the police & protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war,” Gabbard said on Twitter.
“Gabbard represented Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District from 2013 to 2021 as a Democrat, and in 2020 she mounted an unsuccessful bid for the party’s presidential nomination. In a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday, she claimed that the party she’s exiting stands for the “powerful elite,” not the people.”
Since the time I wrote that post she started trending again because she tore George Santos a new one.
Evidently Santos made several false claims during his campaign. He “embellished his resume.” Evidently, she didn’t see the point in going easy on him when she interviewed him while subbing for Tucker Carlson on Fox News. Instead of towing the party line and cutting him slack because he has the holy “R” by his name, she lit into him for lying. “Have you no shame?”
Honestly, I’m taking it as a breath of fresh air that someone is calling out the politicians. I don’t care if he is Republican or not, someone needs to start holding elected official’s feet to the fire. Well done, Tulsi!
2. Johnny Depp & Amber Heard
‘It has been a long time since a celebrity story had such a profound effect on me. And while I usually just can’t stand our voyeuristic tendency to devour every paparazzi photo of our favorite star, this case had me riveted. This was the seventeenth most viewed post of mine, but it also helped inspire me to write a multi part series on relationships and feminism, leading to the sixteenth, sixth, and fifth most viewed posts I’ve written. I’ll leave the links here. And on googletrends.com Johnny Depp was the most searched person, and Amber Heard was third most searched person last year.
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/2408
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/2481
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/2537
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/2618
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/1655
Ok…so I added a couple I’m kinda proud of. They’re on topic, please feel free to read if you are interested.
I’m only going to share one paragraph from one post, if this interests you then feel free to read more, if not, then likely none of my thinking about the battle between the sexes will appeal to you:
“
“I don’t mean to hop up and down too much here but…poverty makes college harder. You fit in less. The girls are profoundly less interested in you. You can’t afford the best computer. You have to work full or part-time (and the college itself is a full-time job unless you can get someone else to do the work for you…I wonder which socioeconomic strata can afford that?)
“And if you are looking for a mate, a man has to be an economic advantage to the woman, she need not be an economic advantage to him. And the odds of a man accusing you of harassment vs a woman accusing you…In my experience, the biggest barrier was my past. I can’t speak for women, but I can tell you as a man, a college girl is absolutely not interested in your dark past. Maybe in the movies, Anastasia wants to know all about the poverty-laden childhood of Christian Gray, but in real life, I’ve only seen them interested in the past of the rich. The poor are evidently boring.”
1. Politics Could Start a Fight…
The topic that I wrote the most about, and that ended up getting the most views, was politics. There were a profound number of political topics that trended, Uvalde, the midterm elections, abortion debates. “Election results” was the most googled news term of the year. I could site post after post, but I’ll just share the top three viewed that I wrote on political topics.
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/3074
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/4219]
https://wordpress.com/post/tiredmidnightblogger.com/3001
One of the posts is about Mar-a-logo, one is about the Hunter Biden laptop controversy, the other is about Governor Stitt in Oklahoma. And I’ll share what I think is my most salient quote amongst these.
I’ll share a quote, and then sum up and be done with the year.
“As for the investigation, I’m not done with the series so I won’t declare I’ve made up my mind yet, but in my mind (I’ll offend a LOT of my liberal friends here) Hillary Clinton may not deserve to go to jail, but she mishandled top secret information. Don’t get me wrong, I doubt I would have done much better. But…that’s why I don’t go into politics. Both Hillary and Trump felt they were above the law. They both feel like they are better than the rest of us, and the rules don’t apply to them. Both have spent the last 30 years with silver spoons in their mouths, and the FBI comes along (don’t get me wrong, I see the FBI as a bunch of bullies too), and dares to suggest they take the damned spoon out of their mouths long enough to answer the American people.
“Hillary lost the election due to her hubris. Honestly, I don’t hold any ill feelings towards these folks. I hope she has learned her lesson, lives happily ever after as an also ran, and the FBI leaves her alone. But make no mistake, the general Republican voter, right or wrong, sees no difference between what Hillary did, and what Trump did. She was let go, and we are going to charge Trump. Well…again, I’m not going to draw a conclusion yet. I have two (or three or four) more posts to write on this subject. But if the Democrats think the this will do anything for their cause other than to bring hell down around all of our ears, then they are as foolish as Trump.”
Mostly, last year was another year of loss for me, as, I believe, most of us have been experiencing for at least two years now (if not more). If nothing else, this blog is helping me clarify my own thinking. I hope it is helpful and entertaining to all my friends and followers. I love you whether you voted for Trump, Hillary, or Vermin Supreme. Unless you are a Neo Nazi or some other kind of extreme hater, I value your view point and opinion. I hope the next year is a year of growth, of spiritual and intellectual awakening. I hope at least some of you realize some of the silly dreams of your youth. I hope the old age with grace and dignity, and share their wisdom with the young. I hope we draw together in peace and harmony, and may the Hegemony either fall in disgrace, or evolve into something benevolent and truly enlightened. I hope you have wise goals, silly goals, audacious goals, and I hope you achieve the ones that will make you a better human being, and draw you closer to Truth, whatever that Truth may turn out to be. I hope your life is better for having read this. And I hope next year is the best you have ever known.
Please comment kindly, constructively, and hopefully together we can figure this out.
Happy New Year!
What is the Difference Between a Sigma and an Alpha Male?
youtube.com/clip/UgkxAFqwYhCKXeEa5AGskXxYyn6BdtxfWgea
I think I might have been a sigma male had I been abused just a tiny bit less. What are your thoughts about the so called hierarchy of males? Commets wanted.
Year One of Tired Blogging, 2022 in Review
Somewhere toward the end of last year I started this blog. I’ve been a wannabe writer since I was nine or ten, and I’ve always allowed the world to tell me it was impossible. I spent a half century in this slavery of the mind. I’d had a stint of success when a teenager, but even then, I listened to Mom, Dad, the church. People who really didn’t understand me, or how the world works, told me I needed to be practical, and learn solid classes like business, accounting, computer programming. I was asleep one day in my early twenties when Dad was complaining to Mom about how I was taking “a little of this and a whole lot of nothing.”
Anyway, ever since I left my narcissistic ex-wife, I’ve been trying to do the healthy things I should have been doing all along. For about a year or so I went to the gym. I started writing in my journal, trying to get three pages a day written. And then I decided that I needed something tangible to give me incentive to be disciplined. If I had a blog, even if I didn’t have a lot of followers, I could tell myself “I need to write the next post. My followers want content.”
I think I have succeeded on keeping myself at least marginally diligent. All too often I don’t have the post done when I say I will, but I know I’ve averaged three posts or more a week since starting. 269 posts are under my belt. Granted, all too many are just snippets of video with some very minimalistic commentary, but I feel proud of some of the posts I’ve written. My first page, mentioned above, is my most viewed item, I believe, that I have ever posted to the internet, with 292 views. Not impressive, perhaps, but better than zero.
Last year I had 1755 views from 941 visitors. I have 555 likes and 181 comments. 1399 views were from the good ol’ US of A. 41 were from India (and I don’t doubt at least 30 of those are from the spammers who eternally hound me), and 31 were from my beloved Ireland (I’m going someday, if it is the last thing that I do).
I’m afraid the main theme of last year was desperately struggling to make my relationship with my significant other work. Ultimately, I failed. TikTok has a lot of people doing videos about “Who’s going into 2023 single?”. And then the person saunters in as the Justin Bieber song pipes in with “It’s gonna be me”! And the poster points at themselves and smiles or frowns. I’ve thought about doing this, but I honestly am too contrarian. Besides, when a woman announces she is single we all think “all right, she is single, let’s approach her.” Men on the other hand are just assumed to be losers if they are single.
I voiced my regrets in this blog. I talked out loud, trying to figure out how much in general is the current terrible dating world is men’s fault and how much is not. I said I was sorry for the things I’ve done, but I can’t be sorry for things I’ve never done. But in the end, it doesn’t matter. Whoever was right or wrong, it is over. From the post: ” I can promise you, her, myself, and God (or Cthulhu) that from the day I met my ex-girlfriend (and yeah, it hurts like hell to type the two letters “ex”), I neither wanted another nor did I touch any woman that way or talk to one in an intentionally flirtatious or seductive way.” “Well, it is over now. Time to get the detritus of my life out of HERs. Maybe pet the dog for the last time (Oh my god…who can I tell the dog what happened). And ‘watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools.”
Unless you suicide, you don’t get to choose how or when you die. I’d give so much to die in the arms of a woman I loved. Take a bullet for her. Save her life. Have her lovely face be the last thing I see as a leave a cruel world. Well, The Rolling Stones tell us “You can’t always get what you want.”
And yes…many of the 170,200 plus words I’ve typed and edited have had some bearing on politics. What (I hope) differentiates me is, I try to be human (I started that post with a sad, but sympathetic photo of Biden and I relay that I know how hard it is to lose a son, as he did). I try to listen to and state both sides of the argument. I try to point out when my own party has been flawed. And I try to interlace some humor in the hopes that it makes it easier to read.
“Whether any of this is true or not (and the Tired Blogger is too tired to do your thinking for you, agree or disagree with these folks as you wish, but I would appreciate comments letting me know why you agree or disagree), surely even the most radical, hardcore Republican can see why the Democrats at the grassroots level believe what they believe. Assuming that the political opposition only sees this one aspect of Trump, can’t they be forgiven for thinking the way they do? And the more radical and hard-nosed my fellow Republicans act, doesn’t that just feed into the self-fulfilling prophecy? Unless we have written off the Democrats as utterly reprobate (and I fear too many Republicans at the grassroots have), surely we can start a dialogue by damping down on the anger (some of which is justified). Martin Luther King did it with Republicans and won a lot of us over. Are there no longer statesmen willing to reach across the aisle and put country before party?”
“Neither party must believe the other right just yet. But both need to see there is reasonableness in the view of the other. We can both be angry at our leaders in Washington. We can both be angry at the Media and big corporations and globalist neighbors. But we HAVE TO STOP hating our neighbors. There are good reasons why they think the way they do. Accept it. Admit it. And start an honest dialogue between each other. Fuck the two parties. It is the survival of ourselves, our families, and our neighbors we should worry about.”
Last year I had five “tags and categories” tie for top spot. They were journalism, economics, Oklahoma politics, foreign affairs, and oil. Each of those has 26 views. The second “tag and category” is YouTube, with 12 views. And then there is another tie for third place, self-help, self-discovery, abuse, healing, and Christmas tied for third with 11 views each. My blog seems to be part rant, part political analysis, and part relationship analysis. With a weird niche like that, how could I help but succeed?
One last self-analysis, and then I will ask a favor and move on to the next thing. I am my own biggest commenter, as I try to respond to all comments. The next biggest is my best friend, who shows up here as Xman. He has been the most consistent, as well as the most positive of my commentors. Thank you!
What I would like from my readers is to let me know what you would like to read about next year. Is there a topic you want me to write about but haven’t? Is there a topic you wish I had explored more thoroughly? Is there a topic you wish I’d stop writing about? Do you like my efforts at being centrist, or does that make me seem too wishy washy? Do you think I am too harsh on any particular person, or do you think I’ve given a person too easy of a pass. Please comment, and let me know!
Tired Midnight Blogger (What Blogs at Midnight) 