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Blue Collar Atheist: Introduction — Who is this guy?

I grew up in Texas with a bunch of rodeo cowboys.

I wanted to become a veterinarian, a horse doctor, but it didn’t pan out. Instead, I ended up working as a carpenter, driving a dump truck and then a soda delivery truck, being foreman of a roofing company, and a lot of other stuff in that same vein.

I moved away to the mountains in the west when I was about 21 and got a job at a pack station (a ranch, sort of) on the edge of the wilderness, where I worked with horses and mules. I was also a teamster for eight years, a real one, driving hitches of huge Belgian and Percheron draft horses on hay rides and sleigh rides in a little resort town. Continue reading “Blue Collar Atheist: Introduction — Who is this guy?”

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Blue Collar Atheist: Foreword — Saying Goodbye To Gods

My dog died.

Don’t sweat it – it was more than a decade ago now, and I’m (mostly) over it.

Can’t tell you how much I loved the old beast.

His official name was Woodacres Ranger, and he was from a line of champion German shepherd show dogs. But I never even bothered to register him. To me, he was Ranger the Valiant Warrior, my best friend for more than 12 years, and we romped through the heart of the world together.

For most of his life, we lived in California’s Eastern Sierra, in a small town at about 8,000 feet above sea level. The trails are rocky, the water is crystal clear and ice cold year-round, and the wildlands thereabouts are filled with black bears, coyotes, uncatchably quick mountain bunnies, and all manner of smells and sights to delight an energetic dog. Continue reading “Blue Collar Atheist: Foreword — Saying Goodbye To Gods”

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Milestones

Sometime today Blue Collar Atheist will reach 100,000 reader hits. I know other bloggers here will smile indulgently at that number — PZ probably gets that many an HOUR — but to me it’s something special.

From my first post on Aug. 24 — just 55 days ago — I’ve written 133 posts, received 940 comments (Thank you!), and gotten approximately 30 billion bits of spam — mostly about penis enlargement. (I try not to take it personally.)

My best day ever, Sept. 17, I posted “Amish Men Saved From Burning in Hell” and got 7,222 hits.

My worst day (after the formal rollout, anyway) was Oct. 6, with 1,150 hits. I think that might have been the day I posted the Narwhal Song, the Badger Badger Badger animation, and pictures of Bill O’Reilly in a thong.

So far, none of the comments have included the phrases “You suck!” or “I hope you burn in hell!”, and there have been zero death threats, proposals of marriage or offers of gratuitous sex.

I have also, thus far, failed to attract my first Christian troll. But I suppose that’s why the Sweet Baby Jesus made tomorrows.

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Thank you, Occupy Wall Street

I lived through the Vietnam Era.

Just a few of the consequences of that war:

It killed 58,220 U.S. soldiers. More than 150,000 were wounded, at least 21,000 were permanently disabled, and 830,000 suffered symptoms of PTSD. In addition, about 50,000 American servicemen deserted, and an estimated 125,000 U.S. citizens of military draft age fled to Canada.

Besides that, about 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides were sprayed over Southeast Asia, resulting in more than 4 million human victims of dioxin poisoning, and uncountable numbers of non-human ones. Continue reading “Thank you, Occupy Wall Street”

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My bad.

Okay, that’s the last time I do that.

I thought I’d try posting all eight parts of Grizzly’s Gamble at once, but it turns out that wasn’t a good idea.

The site stats appear to show that a significant number of people are reading part 8 first, which is totally my fault. It IS stacked at the top of the screen, above the other parts.

The bad part, from both the readers’ and writer’s viewpoint, is that it dilutes the impact of the piece. It’s like giving away the ending of the movie before viewers watch the first part. “Oh, so Bruce Willis is dead, huh? And the gimmick is that Haley Joel Osment is the only one who can see him? Huh. I don’t know, what else is on?” And sure enough, some of the readers of part 8 didn’t read any farther.

Heck.

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Grizzly’s Gamble — Part 8 of 8

Start HERE

Parts:  One — Two — Three — Four — Five — Six — Seven — Eight

 

 

This is the Truth:

In my hunting days, I was headwaiter at a seafood restaurant in a little resort town in the California’s Eastern Sierra mountains. Hunting season had opened several days before, but I’d had to work every day. This was my last evening shift before I had a couple of days off, and I was ready to go.

I had my new Ruger .30-06 rifle with a 7-power scope. I had my pack and my sleeping bag and two days worth of camp food. And I had an intimate knowledge of miles and miles of backcountry trails that would lead me into good hunting country, far away from the lazy, clumsy road-hunters who swarmed the hills every fall. Continue reading “Grizzly’s Gamble — Part 8 of 8”

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Grizzly’s Gamble — Part 7 of 8

 

Parts:  One — Two — Three — Four — Five — Six — Seven — Eight

Stomping Kittens

In America there is a safety-conscious social force backed up by the power of law – and constantly reinforced by frequent and large lawsuits – that decrees that every tiniest hint of danger must be stamped out of every activity. People must be taken care of.

Even in the midst of our riskiest pastimes, we do everything possible – which is always considerable – to eliminate the risk. The requirement for wearing floatation vests and helmets on river rafting trips is a good example. Continue reading “Grizzly’s Gamble — Part 7 of 8”

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Grizzly’s Gamble — Part 6 of 8

 

Parts:  One — Two — Three — Four — Five — Six — Seven — Eight

Technological Man

Guns. Fire. Helicopters. Radios. Infrared sights. Light-amplifying night scopes. Binoculars. Poisons. Traps. Electrified fences. Bulldozers. Chainsaws. Fishing nets. Maps.

We humans live in a society where we can draw on the accomplishments and assets not only of our own families, not only of our own acquaintances, but the intellectual fruits of literal geniuses for the last ten thousand years.

Call it the realm of Man-to-the-X-power, where human advantages rise into the exponential, to be multiplied together an unknown number of times.

The question becomes, not “what advantages do we have?” but “what advantages do we NOT have?” Continue reading “Grizzly’s Gamble — Part 6 of 8”

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Grizzly’s Gamble — Part 5 of 8

 

Parts:  One — Two — Three — Four — Five — Six — Seven — Eight

Man Plus

How often do human beings come in quantities of one? Certainly a lot of us can feel lonely at times, but we do that even when surrounded by scores of our fellows. Actually being completely alone in today’s world is really not that easy to accomplish. It is almost always the result of conscious choice – and great effort and expense – on the part of the camper, hiker, or cyclist, and usually doesn’t last more than a few hours or days. Continue reading “Grizzly’s Gamble — Part 5 of 8”

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Grizzly’s Gamble — Part 4 of 8

 

Parts:  One — Two — Three — Four — Five — Six — Seven — Eight

Diet

Ah, now wimpy little Man begins to really come into his own. Wouldn’t you just know that our ancestors, who didn’t seem to be good at much else compared to the other big beasties, would at least be good at eating?

In fact, they were, and we are. We humans can eat everything from raw plants to long-rotten meat, and just about anything in between. We have versatile dentition that can cut, crush and grind, and an even more versatile digestive tract to go along with it.

Advantage? A darned big one. Continue reading “Grizzly’s Gamble — Part 4 of 8”