Feeling like my old self again

[toejam]

There's not many people around who have known me since I started on message boards - maybe Steven, but for a long time I didn't take anything seriously. I hung out in the History Lounge and the Newsmax board when it was still up and conversed with various and sundry people on various and sundry topics.

I was more famous for my jokes than for any kind of debate. The assholes used to say I had nothing to contribute. I didn't care - I was all about being funny.

Then a number of jobs changes hit. The company I was working for was sold and moved out of state. I took another job and that company went broke. Then I took another job and that company moved away. I have had four jobs in six years.

In the midst of this I had three heart surgeries and was finally declared inoperable.

You know the rest. It has been an uphill battle trying to get well again, after having been just a heartbeat from death.

Progress has been slow. I would work like hell to get somewhere and it seemed at times like I would never make any progress. I am talking about physically, now. I worked and worked and suffered then it seemed like all of a sudden I'd move up another notch. Then I was back on the flat spot again for a while.

The mental part was the hardest thing to deal with. I was so depressed I didn't know how depressed I was. I couldn't sleep, so I had to take sleeping pills. I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't remember anything.

About 2-3 weeks ago I was looking at my Martin guitar, and it was beginning to show signs of a dislodged bridge plate. With all of the medical bills I have, I knew I didn't have the money to fix it so I decided to sell it.

I took it to a music store where I knew they dealt in used instruments and the guy there told me that he already had two of the guitars like mine and hadn't been able to sell them, so he didn't want to buy it, but if I wanted to trade it he would do that.

I wasn't sure if I did but I looked around anyway. I spotted an electric that I liked, with the plastic still on the pickguard. It turned out the guy who got it bought it new, got it home, played it for a bit, then traded it to this guy for another guitar. It was brand new.

I traded for it and have been playing it as often as I can. This is really saying something, because I didn't feel like doing anything, let alone playing.

I have graduated to a one speed bike, riding the hills around here.

At work, I pick up my pen or start my computer and the ideas just fall out of them - I have done more work lately than I think I have done in the past six months.

Gentlemen, I think the worst is over.

To all of you who have wished me well and prayed for me over the months I do appreciate your support.

[Sailor]

Total Congrats Mike. Welcome back.

[101ABN]

Glad you're feeling better, Mike.

Now go kick some sand in a bully's face, just for old times sake.

Regards

[cameron]

hey Toe I did not know your story till just now. Sorry you have been going through a ruff patch, and I hope the worst is over for you.

The Good lord might get a good chuckle out of the idea of me keeping anyone in my prayers, but I'll do my best.

[ReformedLiberal]

"The mental part was the hardest thing to deal with. I was so depressed I didn't know how depressed I was. I couldn't sleep, so I had to take sleeping pills. I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't remember anything."

That's the one part that should never be underestimated, Mike. But I'm sure you know that by now, if you didn't before. Temper and attitude have been the factors that have done in more than one acquaintance in spite of surgeries, proper diet and exercise, and all the drugs the doctors thought to prescribe. It may sound trite, but: "Let go, let God" is good advice just the same. I've waited a long time to hear this good news and I'm really glad you made it this far. Keep the faith, lose the baggage, and enjoy life as it comes...one day at a time. Oh, and pay the neighbor kid to mow the lawn.

[toejam]

You know, Steve, I look at THC these days and see nothing but unmitigated silliness.

I used to think of the moonbats over there as the forces of evil, now they just seem like the forces of stupidity, not worthy of my precious time.

The place sure has changed.

But you know, it's not in my job description to straighten it out, mainly because it's like pounding sand down a rathole. You never have enough sand.

CRW said one day that I "wasn't the gut puncher I used to be".

I just don't give that much of a shit any more. I have other fish to fry.

I have had several false starts on my book; "Strongheart" over the past few months. But it's a story that needs to be told. This disease kills more people than AIDS and never gets any press.

The title comes from what the cardiologist said to my wife when they brought me out of the cath lab the last time: he said that there was nothing that could be done for me.

He added: "He has one thing going for him - he has a strong heart"

At the time I had two arteries totally clogged and was on the verge of heart failure. (Now tell me there is no God).

I don't know how I will manage running a consulting business, working full time, and writing a book, but of all the problems I have, this is a lovely problem to have, considering the alternative.

[cameron]

Hey toejam, I would be interested in what you've read in the area of theology. I believe in objective truth, that is how I may distinguish, right from wrong. For objective truth to exist, so to must god.

How does that sound to you? No objective truth, without an objective observer.

I am goofy aren't I

[FightingFalcon]

Hey Mike - we've had our differences in the past but I'm happy to hear that you're feeling better.

[toejam]

cameron said:

Hey toejam, I would be interested in what you've read in the area of theology. I believe in objective truth, that is how I may distinguish, right from wrong. For objective truth to exist, so to must god.

How does that sound to you? No objective truth, without an objective observer.

I am goofy aren't I

Not at all - that's a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

If you have ever heard of the law of non-contradiction, it stems from the "either/or" dialectic. If you listen to the moonbats they will invariably reveal their penchant for espousing the "both/and" dialectic, which is how they try to make moral relativism stick.

The law of non-contradiction states that contradictory statements cannot be both true or both false. In other words, if a moonbat says the sun rises in the west and I say it rises in the east he will tell me that all truth is relative and my saying the sun rises in the east is just a construct of my perspective or some such bullshit.

Or they may simply say that this is "my truth" or something like that and insist that we are both right.

A lot of this has to do with them wanting all ideas included in the marketplace of ideas whether they are legitimate or not. What they don't realize is that there isn't a truth claim in the world that isn't exclusive. I can't think of ONE truth claim that doesn't exclude something, my favorite being when they tell you "there are no absolute truths" as if it were absolute truth.

As Ravi Zacharias says, if you want to discount the law of non-contradiction you might as well be talking about a one ended stick. It's simply logically impossible.

That said, they will try to push the idea of God into the background or delete it entirely by saying that all truth claims are legitimate when they are actually building their houses on philosophical sand in the first place.

As if you could change the universe with a thought.

Then you come to the place where you have to ask if there is no God how do we know what's right and what's wrong. One of the things they like to do when talking about homosexuality is claim it exists among the animals.

Among the animals they kill and eat each other, too, and kill and eat their young, but they never bring that up.

There are cultures who never heard of the Jewish God or Jesus Christ who take a very dim view of murder, adultery, stealing, stuff like that. In order for those things to be wrong, there has to be a standard, and if they don't know about the standard we use why would they think those things are wrong?

Simple - in order for there to be a moral law there has to be a moral law giver - a universal knowledge, as Paul explains in Romans. Otherwise, there is no reason to observe any moral law. Going back to another one of their pet philosophies, evolution, they will claim that societies formed and created moral laws.

Why? It seems to me that in an atheistic evolution model of morality I can kill the other guy and keep the food and women to myself, if everything else is equal. Survival of the fittest and all that.

Yet even as the moonbats will try to tell you that there is no absolute morality they will constantly try to tell you that what you are doing and saying is "immoral". Watch on the moonbat board and see how often they do this.

How do they know?

Now I admit I am painting with a pretty broad brush, but too often when you try to pin these guys down on some of their ideas they backpedal like a cornerback trying to cover Randy Moss, unless they are too stupid to defend their philosophy and too stupid to know it.

Example: StratagosV.

Moonbat liberalism has too many logical holes in it to be taken seriously. You are on the right track. I wish I could do this subject justice.

[ReformedLiberal]

toejam said:

You know, Steve, I look at THC these days and see nothing but unmitigated silliness.

I used to think of the moonbats over there as the forces of evil, now they just seem like the forces of stupidity, not worthy of my precious time.

The place sure has changed.

But you know, it's not in my job description to straighten it out, mainly because it's like pounding sand down a rathole. You never have enough sand.

CRW said one day that I "wasn't the gut puncher I used to be".

I just don't give that much of a shit any more. I have other fish to fry.

I see that place in a whole different light these days as well. I started out trying to be serious all the time and ended up just being the class clown because the whole thing was so silly. Then I slowly started to pick my battles over issues that I thought shouldn't be taken too lightly. It's still a diversion for me, when I get bored. It is my type A pressure relief valve that is somewhat more interactive than yelling at the TV or radio.

When the doctors admit that they can't do anything for you, it can be a blessing in disguise. I don't tell this story much, but I was diagnosed with leukemia when I was 7. I have vivid memories of a week in the hospital and being really tired of feeling sick all the time. I had just about given up wanting to live before I had lived.

My parents both came in with the doctor and a nurse brought me a tall coke with ice. I never got soda at home, only when we went out to dinner on special occasions. Not only was I tired of being sick, I was tired of being pampered and didn't want to be a burden, so I refused the treat. My mom started crying and left the room; something I had never seen before. My dad got all stoic and tried to put on a fake smile. I lay awake in bed that night, unable to sleep, thinking about how this was affecting my family. Up until then, I was only thinking about myself.

I resolved to quit feeling sorry for myself and find a way to get out of the hospital. I put on a happy face and never complained. I did my best to convince the doctors and nurses that there was nothing wrong and I didn't belong there. They sent me home soon after that, but I still had to go new places for special tests periodically.

I never wanted to go back to the hospital, and I never wanted to see my mother cry like that again. They hadn't told me what was wrong, but my mom told me several years later about the diagnosis. She said that the subsequent bone marrow tests showed that I gradually went into remission after that stay in the hospital. I think that If I had known that I had been diagnosed with a virtually terminal disease at that age I never would have been able to overcome it. Not knowing any better, I just thought I could, and would, get better.

[cameron]

toejam said:

cameron said:

Hey toejam, I would be interested in what you've read in the area of theology. I believe in objective truth, that is how I may distinguish, right from wrong. For objective truth to exist, so to must god.

How does that sound to you? No objective truth, without an objective observer.

I am goofy aren't I

Not at all - that's a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

If you have ever heard of the law of non-contradiction, it stems from the "either/or" dialectic. If you listen to the moonbats they will invariably reveal their penchant for espousing the "both/and" dialectic, which is how they try to make moral relativism stick.

The law of non-contradiction states that contradictory statements cannot be both true or both false. In other words, if a moonbat says the sun rises in the west and I say it rises in the east he will tell me that all truth is relative and my saying the sun rises in the east is just a construct of my perspective or some such bullshit.

Or they may simply say that this is "my truth" or something like that and insist that we are both right.

A lot of this has to do with them wanting all ideas included in the marketplace of ideas whether they are legitimate or not. What they don't realize is that there isn't a truth claim in the world that isn't exclusive. I can't think of ONE truth claim that doesn't exclude something, my favorite being when they tell you "there are no absolute truths" as if it were absolute truth.

As Ravi Zacharias says, if you want to discount the law of non-contradiction you might as well be talking about a one ended stick. It's simply logically impossible.

That said, they will try to push the idea of God into the background or delete it entirely by saying that all truth claims are legitimate when they are actually building their houses on philosophical sand in the first place.

As if you could change the universe with a thought.

Then you come to the place where you have to ask if there is no God how do we know what's right and what's wrong. One of the things they like to do when talking about homosexuality is claim it exists among the animals.

Among the animals they kill and eat each other, too, and kill and eat their young, but they never bring that up.

There are cultures who never heard of the Jewish God or Jesus Christ who take a very dim view of murder, adultery, stealing, stuff like that. In order for those things to be wrong, there has to be a standard, and if they don't know about the standard we use why would they think those things are wrong?

Simple - in order for there to be a moral law there has to be a moral law giver - a universal knowledge, as Paul explains in Romans. Otherwise, there is no reason to observe any moral law. Going back to another one of their pet philosophies, evolution, they will claim that societies formed and created moral laws.

Why? It seems to me that in an atheistic evolution model of morality I can kill the other guy and keep the food and women to myself, if everything else is equal. Survival of the fittest and all that.

Yet even as the moonbats will try to tell you that there is no absolute morality they will constantly try to tell you that what you are doing and saying is "immoral". Watch on the moonbat board and see how often they do this.

How do they know?

Now I admit I am painting with a pretty broad brush, but too often when you try to pin these guys down on some of their ideas they backpedal like a cornerback trying to cover Randy Moss, unless they are too stupid to defend their philosophy and too stupid to know it.

Example: StratagosV.

Moonbat liberalism has too many logical holes in it to be taken seriously. You are on the right track. I wish I could do this subject justice.

Thanks for your insights, I have been thinking of trying to turn my little thought into an ontological argument for the existance of god.

[toejam]

It's already been done. Give me some time and I'll see if I can locate it.

Check out this book, though:

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0830826947/qid=1121446850/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-8485575-2212152

[toejam]

fightingfalcon said:

Hey Mike - we've had our differences in the past but I'm happy to hear that you're feeling better.

Thanks kid - that was a classy thing for you to say.

[gop]

yes mike you've had some rough times and im glad to hear things are greatin better no one deserves it more than you and take it easy

[toejam]

Okay, Cameron, try this:

www.saintaquinas.com/philosophy.html