Senile Texas Aggie - comic relief for the rest of you

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

We went to visit family in NE Texas Friday morning and returned Saturday evening. All is well there.

This morning there is no sign of the pig having been around, so I suspect she went off into the woods and bled to death. In case I have something like this happen in the future, I am considering buying a higher powered rifle. Can anyone recommend where I can learn more about such rifles?

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[CntryBoy777]

Local game, fish, and wildlife office....hunter safety course...gun range....google....youtube....

 

[farmerjan]

A .243 doesn't have too bad a kick, I have shot one occasionally. Also a 30-30. I mostly just use my .22 but I don't try for long distances. Mostly ground hogs, coons, possums and such. I would suggest finding a gun club and maybe doing some practice shooting.... most are SAFE places to do shooting. Try a sportings good store or a local gun and firearms shop for info.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions. Now onto the next topic.

This post is a review of the book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff. This post is going to be a bit different in that I will first share an anecdote about what my wife and I did years ago that I think you need to know about in order to assess the influences of our past upon this review. I apologize in advance in that it's going to be a bit long, so if you want to skip it or save it for later, I understand.

Personal Anecdote
Back in 1979, when both my wife and I were deeply involved in fundamentalist Protestant Christianity, we both read a book titled How to Prosper in the Coming Bad Years by Howard Ruff, a fundamentalist Christian. The book foretold of really bad economic times about to hit the United States and how to prepare for it. Since my wife and I were both Post-Tribulation Premilennialists (see past my signature for an explanation of different Christian eschatologies), and we both believed that Jesus' return was imminent, we really took this book to heart. One thing that the book predicted was when the prime interest rate hit 20%, that was the signal that the beginning of the end had started. Later that year or sometime the next, the Fed Funds rate did hit 20%, as the Fed chairman Paul Volker (sp?) fought the inflation in the late 1970's and early 1980's.

While we didn't quit our jobs, we did start preparing for hard times, namely The Great Tribulation, so that when it finally started, we would be ready. We stockpiled food, gold and silver, guns and ammunition, and other essential items, as much as we could afford on our salaries. (I was 4 years out of college and my Beautiful Gal had just graduated nursing school, so money was tight then.) Then we hunkered down and waited. And waited. And waited. Later, as I described before, I started having doubts about Christianity, eventually losing my faith. I learned later that many such doom and gloom books, magazines, and newspapers have been published, many of them by sincere people, but many of them by crackpots and con artists. I learned about urban legends and conspiracy theories and how they are spread, often by well meaning people. For example, the books The Encyclopedia of Urban Legends and The Big Book of Hoaxes both went into detail on many different urban legends and hoaxes. After having read all of that, I finally realized that not only had we been hoodwinked, but that a person has to be on their guard not to be hoodwinked. I have been a skeptic of such claims ever since.

Review of the book
We decided to read the book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff after having watched the documentary The Great Hack on Netflix, since Facebook was mentioned during the documentary as having been a large source of information for political groups to run disinformation campaigns against key voters in close elections.

The book goes into great detail about how, first Google, then Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and later many other companies such as Verizon and AT&T started collecting data on individuals for the purposes of knowing what each person wanted, and then trying to meet that need. Later, it transitioned into understanding how each individual thought, their values, likes (such as using the "Like" button) and dislikes, their political and religious attitudes, their health, their financial stability, etc. For example, Google (and probably Apple) tracks the location of every Android phone while it is on, thus providing the patterns of life for the individual who owns that phone. Google will sell this data to other companies, such as insurance companies, restaurants, clothing stores, etc. The gathering of data has penetrated into the home, with Alexa and other such devices listening into conversations that go on in the home. Thermostats, kitchen appliances, TVs, etc., are also able to listen in. They provide this information to any and all companies that may be interested in it. All of this goes on without your knowledge.

All of the above is rather creepy, but considering that the government could start collecting this data as well, then we have reached a society that has in place everything needed for total control by the government. It is already occurring in China, where the use of social credits and demerits can cause individuals to succeed or fail, and these credits and demerits are not understood by the populace as to how one earns credits or demerits.

It was this last aspect of the book, the possible gathering of this data by the government for control of society, that troubled me the most. While I have tried to minimize my digital trail in simple ways -- I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine, and Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird for my web and email -- I am sure that there are lots of other things I could do to minimize my digital trail more.

So this was a sobering book to read. I am not sure how much to believe as to what the companies can and are doing with the data that they collect from me, but the idea that the government could easily start using that data was what I found most troubling.

If you decide to read the book, skip the first two chapters, as they are long and don't add much to the book.

Comments?

Senile Texas Aggie

Christian Eschatologies
These are the different Christian eschatologies that I know about, and there are plenty that I don't know about.

Christian eschatolgies can be divided into three main groups, called premillinnialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism. The term millennialism comes from a passage in Revelation where there is a reign of 1000 years on earth of relative peace. The pre-, post-, and a- refer to when Jesus' return is in relation to those 1000 years. Premillennialists believe that Jesus' return will occur before the 1000 years. (Many if not most Protestant denominations are of this position.) Postmellinnials believe that Jesus' return would occur after the 1000 years. (The Roman Catholic church was at one time of this position, though I don't know if it still is or not.) Amillennialists believe there will not be a 1000 year reign on earth, that the mention of that is merely symbolic. Instead, they believe that when God decides that it is time for the Great White Throne Judgment to occur, then Jesus will come back, with the saved going to heaven and the condemned sent to hell. (The Campbellite Church of Christ was of this view at one time, and you can see it expressed in the song "When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder I'll Be There".)

For the Premillinnialists, there are basically three different flavors: pre-Tribulation, mid-Tribulation, and post-Tribulation. The Great Tribulation refers to the time, usually 7 years in length, when the False Prophet is supposed to arise and lead humanity astray in rebellion against God. The prefixes "pre-", "mid-", and "post-", refer to when the Rapture is supposed to take place. Pre-Tribulation means that the Rapture will occur before the Great Tribulation starts. (The "Left Behind" series presents this view.) Mid-Tribulation means the church will go through the first half of the Great Tribulation and then will be raptured. Post-Tribulation means that the church will go through the entire Great Tribulation and then the rapture will occur, but they will join Jesus here on earth for the 1000 year reign.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Edited to delete the text of this post. Please read the next post for the reason I deleted the text in this one.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

All,

Someone on this forum kindly reached out to me to point out that I have been rude in asking very personal questions of different people, including the one who contacted me, on a public forum. I want to apologize to all of you to whom I have asked those questions. I sincerely have meant no harm. I have asked the questions of each of you because I wanted to let you know that I care about you. It is not that I wanted to be a gossip. If I didn't care about you, I certainly wouldn't bother to ask. Heck, I would bother to read your posts!

As I have mentioned before, I have Asperger's Syndrome. One of the characteristics of the syndrome is that those who have it are often clueless in social situations. I offer this by way of explanation, not excuse. One would think that having lived almost 67 years on this earth I would have learned the basic social guidelines, but sometimes I miss learning even the most basic of these rules. I ask your forgiveness. I will try to not ask these kinds of questions again.

To the person who contacted me: thank you! You have made clear to me my (inadvertent) rude behavior. I will try not to make that kind of mistake again.



Senile Texas Aggie

 

[B&B Happy goats]

.......

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I've never read a post of yours and doubted that you sincerely care about folks that you don't even "know." I don't think you would ever be deliberately rude to anyone. But, I suppose it's not surprising that folks have different levels of privacy that they are comfortable with. Just keep being your kind, caring self!

 

[Mike CHS]

I knew you have AS and if you ever ask me something that I didn't want the world to know, I just wouldn't answer so color me with @frustratedearthmother

 

[AmberLops]