It's easy for me to do a lil honest self inspection and see how most of my ideologies and methodologies came from my Mom.

She always taught us to never accept the status quo as the best way anything could be done, to never accept anything at face value, nor anyones opinion or position on anything as truth, always pointing to the idea that only after careful personal inspection of all sides of an issue could a reasonable determination be made in where truth did or did not lie. She was also careful to just as quickly point out that even in doing proper due diligence, one still had to always accept the possibility that the eventual considered conclusion could still be incorrect.

She was a masterful debater and taught us early on the value of takin the devils advocate position in debate as a method of exploring the other side of a personally held position. Debate was always welcomed by her, whereas argument was not. We were always told that debate should always be devoid of emotion and that no amount of personal attack was acceptable and, once either party crossed over these boundaries, the point was then ceded to the opposer.

This all tended to infuriate my Dad though as he often viewed our debates as argumentative and disrespectful towards my Mom and he NEVER welcomed debate on any opinion he held, though Mama herself never saw it as such and instead that she was teaching us to always push and probe any and all things in search of the ever elusive "truth".

I was similarly taught an unusual concept in regards to respect. We were told that all people were equal and that respect could never be based upon anyones position in life, wealth, or lack of it, whatever level of education they'd achieved, or any other such factors, and instead was an elusive quality based mostly in how one treated others. Mama was fond of sayin "No one can ever demand respect. People can only command respect through their actions and deeds.".

Now that lil gem has problee tended to have caused me lots of grief over the years as what this represented to me was a concept that we were empowered to go toe to toe with anyone, no matter what their position since we all were equals and each one put their pants on one leg at a time each mornin, which tends to not always be the most productive position to work from when dealing with those in "perceived" positions of power.

School principals, cops, judges, etc. who tend to hold up their positions of authority as if they are shields against any type of reproach by those of us they perceive themselves to have the right to lord over tend to sometimes enjoy flexing their positionary muscle when you question them, so in these cases respect for the idea that "shutting the fuck up" is sometimes the best course of action, which I tend to forget .... A LOT, a really, really lot

When it came to the freedom of expression and respect for others rights to it, as well as our own boundaries she was always quick to say "I'll defend your right to any opinion you choose to hold and will defend to my last breath your right to that opinion whether I am in agreement with it or not!". I at least "like" to think I get this one right, most of the time. Always knowing people in general hold differing opinions on things it seems important to grasp that everyone has a right to their view of things, no matter how one feels personally relevant to their position.

My Mom really was a wise and wonderful lady. I really miss her

So, enough of that heaviocity BS, let's get onto some fun stuff like: What leads to DKs fascination with goats? Will pulses and Blahs give-a-shit meters ever make it back from the shop? Will 'berto find true love in Oz? Will PJs cat ever pass his drivers test so they can finally team drive in puuuurfect harmony? Will GAK finally become the supreme ruler of Kiwiland? And ... will fossil make it out here today so I can finally get the batch of new music an moovies he's been hoardin up for me loaded onto the server while we dine on fine Chinese cuisine?

All this and more on todays installment of "As the Data Flows"