(with apologies to those who cannot see the videos)
The King is long dead, having left the building early, despite being seen a few years ago singing a duet with Celine who was only born the same year Elvis first did the song.
The only two Bee Gees left are in their sixties and Mick Jagger’s lips are succumbing to gravity as much as Linda Ronstandt’s tits. The sound tracks of our lives ooze like morphine from the speakers in the waiting room of death, while strange nondescript creatures like a Justin Bieber slither in from the other side of the room. The Man in Black sang Ain’t No Grave Can Hold My Body Down,
but it seems to be holding well so far, unless by ‘body’ he meant his body of work, which he really didn’t.
An abundance of rather absurd games are offered to distract the residents from where they are and why, like politics and religion and consumerism and all are lulled into a calming stupor of thinking their lives have meaning, until eventually their number is up and they wink out of existence, just as all others before them.
I join a few grizzled waiters of various ages, around the perimeter of the room, participating as little as possible in the stupid and mindless games, keenly alert for my calling, as it has become a welcome relief to know the time here grows shorter; a relief from the unbearable pressing of monotony and insanity that pervades the only species on the planet to have evolved enough brains to be so insane, but never enough to get past it.
It is somewhat comforting to know that Jerry Falwell is just as dead as Harvey Milk. So few, it seems, can even see the past road traveled or that all ‘exits’ except the last one are dead ends; that the Hotel California is their lives and they can check out any time they like but can never leave; an arrogant grain of sand before the Universe, thinking itself important and powerful, oblivious to the fact that it is only Dust In The Wind.
I like to Sally forth. Do you ever sally forth? I sallied fifth once but was so far back I couldn't see what was going on. Sally was no help because, of course, she always sallies first.
I drank the milk of human kindness today and I fear it has made me a tad tipsy. Did you ever go to a dentist and get one of those "I don't care" shots? There is a depression kind of I don't care, but this is different, much more...amusing.
If you think this is TMI, well, I'm sorry, just ignore please. For myself I don't think such a critter as TMI exists, at least among close friends...and we are friends, right? I was able today to get my sadist freak on. Oh no, this not even remotely sexual, far more pleasurable than that, in my opinion. I looked into his little beady, black, dead eyes and smiled...he tasted SO good. Someone had killed him, taken much of his body, chopped it up, added some other stuff, then stuffed a lot of it back into his carcass, which made an interesting serving platter. So utterly perverse...and delicious. It was the first time I had known the local Chinese buffet to have stuffed crab.
I left Melinda a note scribbled on the back of an envelope. It said, "You are invited to supper at the Chinese buffet. Click LIKE if you approve." She thumped my head which served as an adequate click. So we went off to engage in tasties.
They have a broiled shrimp/crabmeat dish which almost always has much more of the crabmeat left (after all, it is genuine imitation crabmeat, as opposed to...well) than shrimp...especially when I am there. I dipped it into a small bowl of buttermilk ranch dressing. Ordinarily I also have a slab of the baked flounder but, today, I passed it up because they also had a soft breaded fried shrimp with a white honey/coconut sauce to drool all over it. I drooled. Downright orgasmic Epicurean gastronomic (even though that word sounds rather disgusting to me - and sounds weirdly like astronomical) delights. Must have been somewhere during the third plate, with the second stuffed guy staring at me, over the stuffed mushrooms, with his beady, black dead eyes that I realized I might be stuffed too full and sloshing to get back to the car. I laughed...I didn't care. I could have died then and gone out very happy.
I feel rather heavy snoreage approaching. Later...
There was an episode of Star Trek TNG (The Next Generation) called The Outcast which I thought did a pretty good job of addressing the kind of situation many gay people find themselves in. The gist is that a species of humanoids called the J'naii have all evolved 'beyond' gender. There are no males or females but all persons are both. There are sometimes exceptions, people born who actually consider themselves one or the other and feel attracted to a male or a female. These are the social outcasts, the ones who have a 'sickness'. Luckily, there is something called psychotectic treatment which is quite effective at removing all traces of the 'perversion' from the afflicted person and they are made normal, just like everyone else.
An individual called Soren, who thinks of herself as female, falls in love with Commander Riker, and the feeling is mutual. She tells him how people like her must meet in secrecy, in fear of being discovered, in fear of being made to undergo the psychotectic treatment. Before a tribunal, she makes a very good, passionate appeal to them that she and others like her are no different at all from anyone else; they love, laugh, play, work, live life just like everyone else with the one exception of preferring to be and mate with one gender rather than the 'norm' of being both.
Upon learning that Soren will be forced to undergo the treatment she so fears, Riker becomes so outraged that he is determined to rescue her, even to bring her onto the Enterprise for asylum, if necessary. But he is too late. He and Worf find her on the planet and he is trying to rescue her, but she has no desire at all to be 'rescued'. She remembers what happened between her and Riker, how she used to think and feel, but after having the treatment, she is now normal, like all the other J'naii. She is embarrassed and ashamed at having acted in such a way, and when Riker tells her, "I love you", she can only reply, "I'm sorry".
This is one of the few times I know of in fiction where they got it right about the treatment and results of it. Typically, there is always "some part" of the person they were before, imprisoned within the body, feeling horrible, etc. The truth is that when we develop the ability to program brains, this is how it will be. If you are one way, you may fear and loathe any idea of changing you, but once you ARE changed, it will be just as though you never were the other way, as far as your personality and desires are concerned.
We humans have a ways to go yet before we get to that stage...but we ARE getting there. At the moment, the cutting edge of such neurological science is being able to reconstruct, by reading brain activity, which video clip the subject has just seen. Some call it brain movies. If you look at the actual video clip versus the clip constructed from reading the brain activity, you see there is a great deal lost in the translation. It's hardly an HD reproduction. Then again, this science is very much in it's infancy. You couldn't see or hear very much, or very well, on televisions either when they still brand new things.
My point here, that I really hope at least some can understand, is that eventually, even if probably not in our lifetime, humans WILL have such technology. It will be commonplace in court for the accused to be subjected to such brain scans to extract information about where they were and what they were doing, what they heard, saw, said, felt, at the time of the alleged crime. Further, it will be entirely possible to program the human brain just as easily as a programmer might currently program an inorganic computer. It's all in knowing how.
Troy Davis was accused of shooting and killing a Savannah police officer in 1989.
There was never any murder weapon found.
There was zero physical evidence of any kind which liked Troy Davis to the crime.
There was only "witness" testimony, most of which was recanted, and some claimed coercion by police.
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia declared that there was nothing unconstitutional about the state killing an innocent man and that guilt or innocence in such a case is irrelevant. Only the process is sacred...he was tried, convicted, and sentenced, end of story. The rest of SCOTUS has now agreed.
Many people get upset with me on what they sometimes call my "negative" outlook. I consider that, while my outlook might well be negative, it is nonetheless realistic.
Troy Davis had the support of perhaps millions of people around the world; in an unscientific poll on Huffington Post asking whether he should be executed, the response were 89% no and 10% yes; the support of a former US President (Jimmy Carter); the support of the Pope; the support of Amnesty International; there were protests staged all over the planet. It meant nothing. Nothing at all. Troy Davis was legally murdered by the State of Georgia and died at 11:08pm local time.
Tell me again, how we should 'protest' things we don't like or think are unfair or unjust. If something of that nature should ever happen to you are a loved one...especially if black... remember Troy Davis, his global support even from high places...and kiss yer ass goodbye.
Will the 'debate' and 'the fight for justice' continue? Of course...it always does. And the state goes right on killing...it always does.
Enjoy yer protests...and don't forget yer Thermos.
They call it "French" Vanilla cuz when you lick it, it licks back.
I love my friends here. Hope y'all are all well and happy.
So why did Plato only have five regular solids? What did he have against spheres? Nothing is more 'regular' than a sphere is it?
I have a lot of trouble trying to get my head around the idea that most people don't seem to want to live even a thousand years, even if it's in the peak of health and with complete financial and social freedom. It appears my species is a death cult. (See Troy Davis).
Did you ever wonder what it might have been like to live in the days of Prohibition ? Then look around you...chances are, if you were born after 1937, you have been living during Prohibition your whole life. It may not look so strange to you because it's all you have ever known...it's just the norm. But this is different from that OTHER Prohibition. For one, it's not actually called Prohibition but a WAR! Curious...why would whole nations make war against a plant!? Or is it only against the citizens who would grow, use, and sell the plant? Perhaps you would ask yourself why that is. Maybe you don't think that your well-known government officials would stand there on the TV machine and deliberately tell you lie after lie, with a straight face. But they do so all too often. It's easy enough to understand how some folk conclude that "every word that uttereth from their mouth is a lie".
The specific thing I speak of here is the hemp plant. More specifically, why it has been, for 74 years, "Illegal". How it is that one can be sent to prison for many years merely for the growing or possession of the plant. Yet this same plant has been used by humans for all kinds of things for at least 7000 years. It is absolutely THE single most useful plant on this world. Just FYI, I am not a "pothead". I have seldom smoked it and did not like it myself, when I did. But we should take note that there are two specific threads that relate to this plant...the fact that some people like to ingest it in various ways medicinally and recreationally, and the fact of the plant's overall usefulness. One might think that, aside from the government's 'war on drugs', they would at least acknowledge the other benefits of it. They lie about all that too. Why?
I highly recommend you watch the video Hemp War Conspiracy. Never mind that it has the word "conspiracy" in the title...if you watch it, surely the "conspiracy" will be abundantly obvious, although the reasons it persists may not be clear. You may note that the highlighted person in the video is Jack Herer. He is the man who wrote the book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes". The video mentions that he has a $50,000 offer to anyone who can prove the claims and statements made in the book are not true. That offer is now $100,000. From Chapter 1 of the book:
"Benjamin Franklin started one of America's first paper mills with cannabis. This allowed America to have a free colonial press without having to beg or justify the need for paper and books from England."
"From more than 1,000 years before the time of Christ until 1883 A.D., cannabis hemp, indeed, marijuana was our planet's largest agricultural crop and most important industry, involving thousands of products and enterprises; producing the overall majority of Earth's fiber, fabric, lighting oil, paper, incense and medicines. In addition, it was a primary source of essential food oil and protein for humans and animals."
And suddenly...in the 1930's, it is illegal, complete with national newspaper 'coverage' of how the 'demon weed' drives people crazy with lust, laughter and other 'undesirable' behaviors; propaganda films that would make Her Goebbels proud.... why? Do you know who William Randolph Hearst was? He was both a publishing magnate and a politician. How about his friend Harry Anslinger? He was the first Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) in 1930. Again, why?
For most regular folk, it might seem a really stupid thing that such an incredibly versatile and useful plant would be declared illegal, especially in a country in which, at one time, the nation's Founding Fathers grew it on plantations, one could pay his taxes with it. But remember, politicians and businessmen are seldom truthful and honest. They are not stupid. They know very well the wonderful possibilities this plant offers in virtually every major aspect of life, from transportation to medicine to the building and textile industries. Dupont, Monsanto, and other chemical industry giants would surely oppose legalizing the industrial growing of hemp. So would the oil industry. So would the timber/paper industry.
Although there are small pockets here and there where one might ostensibly not be arrested for marijuana growth, possession, use or sales, you certainly should never count on that because all these remain Federal crimes and Federal law always trumps all other laws. In June of this year, Barney Frank and Ron Paul sponsored a bill that "...would limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, allowing people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal..." Nonetheless, even though "[m]ore than a dozen states allow the sale of medical marijuana, ... the practice is not legal under federal law, leading to confusion and clashes between local and federal authorities."> Source.
So, what can you do about it, assuming you would like to? First...education. Teach yourself factually correct information about the plant, its uses, its history, the reasons for its current illegality, etc. Second, pass the word on to everyone you think might care about such a thing as truth and honesty. Third, if you are the sort of person who thinks voting and writing to your Congressman is helpful, by all means do so. Fourth, join as many public web sites, demonstrations, etc. as possible. What would REALLY have an impact is if every person everywhere who had access to a piece of ground planted as many marijuana plants as possible, not hidden in the woods some where but on front lawns and in pots on porches and in window boxes all across America. Even now, they do not have jail space for 100,000,000 people.
Ask yourself why "they" want to keep marijuana illegal, when the supporters of legalization include not merely "potheads", but former Presidents (Jimmy Carter), members of Congress (Ron Paul, Barney Frank), and even a former Surgeon General (Joycelyn Elders).
Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do (book) by Peter McWilliams. You can get it through Amazon for a few cents plus shipping. Beside marijuana use, talks about other victimless crimes such as prostitution.
Legally speaking, if you are an adult you are free to engage in sex with any other consenting adult...unless there is money exchanged. What does that tell you?
If you are a slave (employee), your function in life is not merely to obey and fulfill your master's (insert your company's name here) wishes, but to eagerly make him as much more rich and powerful as possible. That should be your joy. From this notion comes much of the "Protestant work ethic". This is the message in the "parable of the talents" found in Matthew 25:15-30. Consider this from a Bible study site:
"The master's dealings with the third servant is a very different matter. This servant came to his master with only the talent his master had originally entrusted to him. He did not increase his master's money at all. In fact, if this were to take place today, that money would likely be worth less, due to inflation. This servant offered a feeble excuse for his conduct. He told his master that he was a harsh and cruel man, a man who was demanding, and who expected gain where he had not labored. He contended that this is why he was afraid to take a risk with any kind of investment. And so he simply hid the money, and now he returned it, without any gain. The master rebuked this slave for being evil and lazy. He took his talent from him, gave it to the one who earned ten, and cast this fellow into outer darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth." [emphasis mine] Source.
Money is neither good nor bad, it is simply a tool which is supposed to make it much easier and convenient to trade goods and services. Two of the most vile inventions of humans have been usury and the so-called "profit motive". The innate unfairness of demanding to be repaid $110 when the loan was for $100 is first noted (as far as I can tell) in the ancient biblical texts. The Jews of the time decided that it was not good to do this to a fellow Jew but it was fine to screw over anyone else. At various times in social and religious history, the practice of usury was encouraged or outlawed. The fact that nations and the citizens of them are suffering so much is due in great measure to this practice. As a nation, the US was doomed economically when it allowed the establishment of the Federal Reserve, which puts complete control of all money in the hands of private individuals, rather than in Congress which is, at least in principle, answerable to the people. One of the powers of Congress, according to Article 1, Section 8 is, "To coin Money, to regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures".
The Profit Motive is based on the premise that all, or at least most, people are motivated purely or primarily by self-interest, as espoused in the Ayn Randian Libertarian ideology. There is a degree of truth in this, in evolutionary terms, but it is grossly overly simplistic..."self-interest" can mean many different things, not simply direct personal gain at the expense of or to the exclusion of others. There is much 'self-interest' encompassed within the broader notion of the good of the whole. No one man could ever possibly have built the pyramids...or the US highway system.
In order to fix the world one must first make it a death penalty offense - probably the ONLY such offense - to engage in the practice of usury. Next, some method must be found to make it forever impossible for one person or group of persons to ever have more than another. The only way I know of to do this is to base the pay for work, not on the the kind of work, but on the amount of time devoted to it. Every human, without exception, has 24 hours in a given day. There is absolutely no way for anyone to ever have more than that. It is a fundamental law of nature, at least on this planet. Society should agree upon a certain amount of money that is to be paid to every person who spends a certain amount of their time per day (or week or month, etc.) doing work that is beneficial to the society. This would even follow the notion of "he who does not work shall not eat", not literally, but to a point. Given that the only persons who can truly do absolutely nothing for society are the dead, comatose and unconscious, there would be an abundance of workers. The most menial, repetitive, dangerous and nasty kinds of jobs would be mostly automated...so much so, that the needed amount of time spent "working" in this sense, by any individual, would be quite small. The rest of their time could be spent simply living their lives, doing those things which gave them personal satisfaction and pleasure.
Everyone could spend their money on whatever "personal items" they wished. No one would be allowed to hoard any items - why would anyone want to. Aside from purely personal items such as toothbrushes, no one would be allowed to "hold property"; rather, there would be an abundance of all things for all people to use whenever and wherever they were needed. There would never be any charge at all to anyone for basics such as food, clothing, housing, medical care, transportation, etc. No "Utopia" is ever possible. There would always be some percentage of persons unable or unwilling to live in such a way. Technology must be advanced to the point that such individuals can be reprogrammed to within acceptable societal parameters. Perhaps such persons could be given a choice of this or death or genuine and total exile from society.
Update from the Tin Can:
At least we got all the major bills paid this time, including the rent. The landlady decided to lower our rent for a while, so that will help. Remember, Melinda put in an application to be a cook in the restaurant at the truck stop? We never heard back...now we learn the whole place went out of bidness...hahahahaha I told her she should apply fer a gubmint job, ba da boom.
Now we return you to the regular program already in progress... join the smooth groove with the mellow stylings of Slick Jism and the Fleshtones, with "Sweet Honey Pie".
I found it one of the hardest videos I ever watched. Because of the child abuse. Let me explain.
It's about "13-year-old Deborah Drapper, who, unlike other British teens has never heard of Britney Spears or Victoria Beckham. She has been brought up in a deeply Christian family and her parents have tried to make sure she and her ten brothers and sisters have grown up protected from the sins of the outside world" from the blurb at documentary heaven.
I know nothing at all about any of these people except what I saw in the video. Their home is modest but clean and nice; on a farm, no one is being deprived of any physical necessities; there is food, your own bed, plenty of family time, etc. They don't have TV but they do have computers. I personally agree with some of the values espoused. Though it had nothing to do with religion, I always thought parties were goofy and I certainly wanted no part of being in bars and clubs, flailing about like a dysfunctional octopus. The parents, from what I see are very normal and very loving and caring parents, and I have no doubt they, including the kids and especially dad, would react very badly to anyone suggesting there is child abuse in this home. Looks to me like her dad is a good guy, a great dad. The abuse that is going on is not at all recognized by anyone in the family or household.
The kids have no idea who Britney Spears or Victoria Beckham is, which seems a little odd since they do have a computer. I certainly wouldn't suggest to anyone that it is of any major importance to know about Victoria or Britney except that these people and many like them are very large parts of the popular culture. Without any judgment on the relative value, it does seem rather sad to me that that they seem almost totally culturally illiterate. Do you really have to a "politico" kind of person to at least know who your major elected leaders are? If you don't know zip about mechanics, shouldn't you be able to change a tire if you really need to?
All the kids are home schooled up to the time they can go to university. That's not a bad thing in itself, but how can any person properly educate a child if they don't have the mental wherewithall to do so? In this house, it's Bible study first. But even that is weird. Dad says not a single word of the Bible is "open to interpretation". How strange that he cannot see that this is precisely what he himself is doing, never mind the various "councils" like Nicea.
Deborah knows something about science but she feels so sorry for those misguided people who have ridiculous "theories" like evolution, etc. Deborah definitely has a preoccupation, some might say bordering on obsession, with Hell and trying to get people to not go there. She goes with her older brother, who's in university, and talks to his friends about the Bible and Hell. Dad places little value on things of the world, since this life is short and its primary purpose is to prepare for the life to come. How could dad and the rest of the family be made to understand that there is no such thing as "the life to come"? How indeed. Most of the population at least claims to believe there will be one.
But, despite what most believers and non-believers alike think, this is not a matter of education or intelligence. It is rather a brain disorder of some kind. I remind of my favorite example, Francis Collins. The man was the head of the Human Genome Project and currently runs the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is genuinely a world class scientist. Who would honestly call him uneducated or not very bright? Yet he believes in the Christian God. How? Why? People with Capgras Syndrome believe that a family member is missing and that the person in front of them claiming to be their (father, mother, sibling, spouse, etc.) is actually an imposter. Who thinks it at least plausible that some similar brain dysfunction is causing or enabling bright, intelligent, educated people to believe in God and Satan and demons and angels, etc.?
Deborah even has (or had) her own blog, though nothing has been posted in nearly a year. Deborah's Blog
So, do parents have a right to teach their children as they see fit? If you had the social and political power to intervene in such a situation, would you do so? How so, would you remove the children from the home, would you mandate real education....what?
Went to my heart doc Thursday. Seeing the doc was very quick and easy, he was in and out in 5 minutes or so, changed nothing, will see me in 3 months. Before that, endured a lecture from a nurse about smoking and how the tar gets in your bloodstream and then stuff like cholesterol sticks to it and sugar sticks, so you have to stop smoking, watch your diet, lose some weight, and be very careful with controlling the diabetes. I nod and smile as probably expected. The woman said with her own mouth, "I eat like a bird, I have a shake in the morning and then a very small dinner and I'm still fat." She looked like a stick to me. So much for her medical advice. I'll live as I please until I fall over, thank you.
Then there was the question of Medicaid. Woman had called me yesterday to remind of appointment and wanted to know if I had Medicaid. I wasn't sure, I pay little attention to such stuff. I checked online and found that I have had Medicaid for at least a year, have the plastic card in my wallet (did you know you can find out what's in yer wallet online?), and now that I thought of it, I was sure I had presented that to the office at least once before. So, first thing when I go in I ask the lady if this is or is not a Medicaid card. She says it is, so I say, "How come that other lady keeps asking me if I have Medicaid?" Then I noticed at the very bottom of the paper in her hand...there is my Medicaid number! It's right there on their own paperwork and has been for probably a year.
We finally get that straight and understood, after my visit is over, and she assures me there is no problem, that all current charges are covered but about those older ones, from before I had Medicare and Medicaid...can I pay on those? Um...with what? I try really hard to not be rude to people and, as with the nurse, I smile and nod as she suggests if I can just drop by sometimes with as little as $5 it will keep it from GOING TO COLLECTIONS! As though I give a rat's ass if it goes to collections, they won't have any more luck getting money from me that I don't have than she will. But I smile and nod. Hell no, I ain't giving rich people $5. The plan was to throw a big birthday bash for Melinda...this month (7th) she turns the Big Five Oh! Checkers has $.79 hotdogs on Sunday, so we were gonna blow about $6 on hotdogs, drink and even a couple small milk shakes. I decided we were going to Chinese today instead. Still fed two people from all you can eat buffet and drinks for less than $13.
And speaking of 13...someone is ALWAYS doing that yanno. This particular reference is to a documentary video called Deborah 13: Servant of God. It was made in late 2008, aired on BBC in '09 and is still available online. Stay tuned for more in next note/blog.
I was looking through my .docs and found this one titled 'nihilism'. Curious to see what I wrote on that, I opened it...it was a blank page.
Why should there be such a thing as Absolute Zero, or absolute cold; a degree of coldness beyond which nothing can go, and yet, as far as we know, no upper limit on temperature at all, millions, billions, trillions of degrees, vastly hotter than a human can imagine, yet still no limit in sight? Is this not a decidedly asymmetrical, unbalanced aspect of the universe? And why should humans be so relatively close to the cold end than the other end, if there is an upper end? And just how 'absolute' is it?
Why is 'batshit' considered so crazy? Bats have natural processes too and guano can make great fertilizer and sometimes bomb component.
I think the notion that "power corrupts" is one of those things humans have heard and mindlessly repeat...I don't buy it at all. I think a pauper peasant can be as corrupt as anyone, but who could tell, except maybe his wife...maybe his animals. You only see corruption from the powerful because they have the means to display their corruption to the world, the peasant does not.
I have definitely been on Facebook too much lately. I never met the man, have no idea what he looks like but I actually dreamed of Bob Dobbs...looked much like Chaz Bono.
Hubble Deep Field
I think if you can watch and understand that video and still care about online drama queens, you gotz srs probs.
If you have Netflix access, you can watch the Star Trek TOS episode Return to Tomorrow in the instant lineup. Otherwise, perhaps you would go to Memory-Alpha and check out that episode. The major theme of the episode is a DUMB premise...who can say why?
Then again, we may never make it to have Mars colonies...two examples of why the human species MUST become extinct: THIS and the fact that the Library of Congress is preserving EVERY tweet for posterity.
In keeping (hopefully) with an idea here to blog some about "stuff that matters", I present a small selection of articles that may stir the pot some...aside from the "he's a doody head" pot....
So, we elected a progressive President (amid howls from the right that "he's a Socialist!") who would finally take some actions that benefit the people instead of Wall Street...or not so much, as is pointed out in this article which asks Why Is President Obama So Anxious To Cut Social Security? Why indeed? From the article: "Under the law, Social Security is financed by the designated Social Security tax. It does not contribute to the deficit, since the law prohibits payments from being made if there is not money in the Social Security trust fund." It seems obvious to me that another minority - genuine Progressives - are now prohibited from holding high office.
An observation: A friend on Facebook commented to me that she had recently dealt with a couple of 20-something college students who thought Hitler "had something to do with WWII" though they had no idea what, nor had ever heard of "The Holocaust". Perhaps this is somewhat more encouraging than thinking that Hitler fought against Robert E. Lee in the 1600's in the Civil War?
You are in control! is a mantra shouted ad nauseum by people completely under the delusion that they actually are in control of their lives and what goes on around them. This is a terrific article that points out that you are not nearly as "in control" as you might think, and furthermore, you don't know that. One small example: Push that "door close" button in the elevator and the door closes, thus you have closed the door, duh! Actually, those buttons were only installed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and they are only used by service and emergency personnel WHO HAVE A KEY! Without inserting the key, push the "door close" button all day and it means nothing, the door automatically closes anyway...this one reminds me of people who pray...or those chickens who peck the button to get a shot of food...and who will continue to peck their beaks down to a bloody stump long after the food shots have stopped.
Speaking of buttons, levers, etc. perhaps you notice that voting now usually consists of pressing buttons or levers. When you do that for a presidential candidate, your poor deluded brain tells you "I have done my civic duty, I have participated in my government, have helped determine the course of my nation." Umm...yeah, can you afford fries with that? Even if you really believe that your "vote" is actually counted, even if you completely disregard the Electoral College, which actually elects presidents (sometimes), even if you likewise disregard the Supreme Court, which also elects presidents...the person you voted for is actually president! What are the chances he's gonna do what you want him to do? How many hundreds of millions can you pay donate? I once stayed in a motel, while I was on the road as a truck driver. The room was stifling hot and I turned the thermostat way down to about 60. After a half hour or so I was not noticing any change, so I called room service, thinking the thing may be broken. Turns out the thermostat in my room - and all the other rooms - was only a decorative item which had no actual function. It wasn't connected to anything. "You mean I can't control the temperature in my own room!?" I asked. "No sir, we do that from here", was the reply.
I only found that one once, but I found it. It happens all the time in big office buildings. You might be very surprised if you actually started paying attention to the little things you think you have all under control. Maybe some of the big things too?
I wonder why it is that some on the left put the notion of abolishing the Fed in the same category as flouride in your water and Area 51....especially since there probably IS flouride in your water and there really is an Area 51? Ron Paul and maybe a few others actually in Congress, have proposed abolishing the Fed and returning to "the gold standard". The gold standard is pure bunk and would benefit no one except the very richest who own all the gold. However, the nation's government, in our case, Congress, should indeed be the body solely responsible for creating, printing and issuing currency for the use of the citizens.
Think about it... why should we citizens be instantly saddled with "a national debt" because we have borrowed money from a totally private enterprise - the Federal Reserve - which has nothing whatever to do with the government, except to make money from it, when we could just as easily, as a nation, via Congress, print and issue our own currency at zero interest and thus avoid this completely artificial "debt"?
It didn't used to be that way. Many of the Founding Fathers warned and fought against the money supply being handed over to private bankers to be used as their personal "cash cow". It didn't happen this last time until the Federal reserve Act of 1913.
Will it change? No. Even if you would like it to change...even if you vote for members of Congress and a President who promise change? No...remember, YOU don't control diddly about government, when it comes to anything that really matters. Judging by videos made at the time, millions of Soviets thought they were Communists in a Communist system under Stalin too. Silly humans, freedom is for rulers. "How fortunate for leaders that men do not think". -Adolph Hitler.
Many years ago I coined the following "motto" for myself: "I would rather hear the single worst truth in the universe than ten thousand beautiful lies". I still feel that way. Always, without exception, when I learn that someone has lied to me, I feel betrayed, belittled, disrespected. Even if the truth that I discover is horribly unpleasant, I still feel a great sense of satisfaction upon knowing it, that no number of beautiful-sounding lies can counter. I strongly suspect that in this attitude or outlook, I am a member of an extremely tiny minority of humans.
Most humans seem to take offense upon learning that they have been lied to; yet nearly all these same humans gladly embrace all manner of other lies until/unless something forces them to see a truth; and these same humans will not hesitate to lie if they believe doing so helps them or advances their agenda. This is a successful survival strategy more often than not in evolutionary terms, which is perhaps the main reason it persists. Yet it is also a huge retarding factor in many areas of human progress, since problems can never be dealt with effectively and overcome until the truths about the problem are known and accepted.
Lying is not a uniquely human trait; other primates have been shown to engage in the behavior. A lower level monkey may lie to his group by screaming a warning of danger, when no danger exists, in order to give him time to finish the food he would probably not otherwise get...it would likely be taken from him by higher ranking members. Obviously this is a part of our innate nature from long before humans existed. We must remember that, in evolutionary terms, in genetic drives, survival is the goal, not being honest. Many of us like to think that we humans have overcome this, that we have developed a "moral sense" which overrides this particular survival instinct. Yet, when it is actually tested, it is shown that this is very seldom the case.
For the majority of humans, lying is simply life, whether on a personal level or national or any other level. Very few Americans would EVER vote for any politician who actually spoke the truth, even though very few Americans would even recognize many of the truths spoken. But a few would be recognized, and that would be enough to put the candidate in the "also ran" column. This is one of the many reasons why I long ago gave up any hope I may once have had that humans will ever progress very much in the areas of what most claim to believe are the "best" aspects of humanity; kindness, compassion, empathy, generosity, good will toward all. The truth is that very few humans actually consider these good things except in abstract philosophical terms, or when they are on the receiving end. If there is a cost involved; when the facade of "civilization" slips slightly during "hard times", lying, cheating, greed, even violence and murder, can quickly replace these supposedly "higher aspects of our nature".
Is it not odd that probably most people would indeed consider these; the empathy, kindness, compassion, etc., the better or "higher" aspects of our nature...but ONLY when they are easily affordable? I don't think it is odd at all if you remember that we are, in fact, animals, with most of the inherited "survival strategies" of all our ancestors still embedded in our genetic code and in the workings of our brains. This will never change, it CANNOT change, until those who understand this and who have the will and ability TO change it on a molecular level start to do so. If humanity were seen as a single entity, perhaps we could see that it would be so incredibly, hopelessly, insane that it has no possibility of long term survival. We have existed as "anatomically modern humans" for only about 6 minutes on the Cosmic Calendar Year; a mere blink of time in the history of our planet. We have only had writing for about 10-15 seconds. Dinosaurs ruled for tens of millions of years, and probably would still be the dominant life form here, except for random events.
I have no doubt at all that humans, as we currently understand the term, will soon reach the end of our "blink". We are, as far as we know, the only living things to have ever had the capacity to understand and direct our own evolution. We have yet done very little in that regard. The only two possibilities are that we will adapt or die; the Absolute Dictum of evolution. If something arises from the ashes of humanity, it may well become the pinnacle, at least in this section of the universe, of genuinely intelligent life. If not, we will join the millions of other now extinct species, the "also ran" candidates. Which would you genuinely prefer?
I would prefer that genuine intelligence emerge, guided by "the better angels of our nature". As long as I am able I will likely engage in talking, blogging, debating issues of the day because, for me, what else is there? I am always thrilled and excited when I learn of new discoveries that offer real hope of vastly improved and extended human lives, even while knowing that I personally will almost certainly never benefit from them. It is for such reasons that I remain grateful for the one universally accessible and applicable escape from the psychosis that is humanity.
From a "God's eye" view of this planet and its creatures, especially us, the whole thing would be comical, were it not for the genuinely unimaginable amount of pain and suffering, so much of it self inflicted. Our tools have changed enormously...WE have not, because, to this point, it has been impossible. It is now becoming possible; whether we recognize it and use it remains to be seen. For now... Ecclesiastes 9, [adjusted].
9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the [bad]... .
9:3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
9:4 For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a living dog is better than a dead lion.
9:5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.
9:6 Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.
9:7 Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart;...
:7
9:9 Live joyfully with whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, ...for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.
9:10Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
9:11 ... the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
9:12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
9:16 ...Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
9:17 The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.
9:18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one [fool] destroyeth much good.
So...many Americans sit in front of their computers and/or TVs and see what's going on in the world and most never see much at all of what's going on in the world...we see a lot of the results, when it's far to late to change the course. Of course we were never invited into the wheel house in the first place. Much of what is going on is hidden; talked about and planned behind closed doors, much of it by organizations and people you never heard of. Apparently this state of affairs has now come (openly - HA!) right into the middle of the US Congress. Something called a Super Congress (find THAT in the Constitution), a "committee" within Congress which essentially does as it pleases, without open debate, without amendments to bills, and we find out about what it did, if at all, only AFTER we are in the bent over with trousers dropped position. "The power struggle trumps process entirely. The committee is designed for power, not for transparency and accountability." Source.
You and I go to our favorite news sources, some even scan several of the others, and we only get, at best, a very cloudy and diluted look at what's happening. This is mainly due to the fact that the media has long since stopped being a tool of the public with which we rein in governments and corporations; now most media are simply the propaganda arms of the various factions within governments and corporations; their purpose being to soothe and distract the masses. There are exceptions of course, there are times when accurate and truthful bits of information get out to the public. The trouble is that there is such sheer volume of stuff now that no human has the mental capacity to sift and sort through the teraflops of information in search of facts and truths. Right-wing outlets like Fox News, Newsmax, and the "fringe" outlets like Infowars, the left-wing outlets like MSNBC and Mother Jones and Huffington Post all endlessly shout at us and all the others to "WAKE UP SHEEPLE!"
We look around us and see the "financial crises" is not just an American thing...it's all over. The UK, Greece, Spain, now Italy "may default" on its debts; severe "austerity measures" (which only affect the poor and working people of course) are installed, there are street riots for a bit and then...ho hum. Ask Somalia, they have been without any government at all for 20 years or so and tens of thousands literally starve in the streets and still some say they would rather see their children die than accept aid from the West. You can't fix stupid. All of this can't possibly be about "our" debt ceiling or budget deficit, now can it? Maybe it's about us and them again, this time (again) about the haves vs. the have-nots. "As consumer spending and wages fall, the New York Times reported Thursday that sales of luxury goods to the wealthy are approaching pre-recession levels. The Times reported the sale of luxury goods—including $1,650 Crème de la Mer facial creams, $2,495 Louboutin suede boots, $11,950 Gucci coats and $200,000 Mercedes Benz sedans—increased 11.6 percent in July, the biggest monthly gain in more than a year." Source.
Have you ever read the entire US Constitution? How about the Project for the New American Century? The entire Bible? It has been shown many times over that a random asking of "people on the street" questions about the history of the country, of the world, of being able to identify current American leaders, always results in very few correct answers. Most people find such things excruciatingly boring, most are much more self-absorbed in their personal moment-to-moment affairs, and the trivial things of the day. For many who DO actually read things like the Bible and spend much time with it, the result is preachers who are actually atheists who feel trapped in the social condition, unable to be honest without losing virtually everything they have, including, many times, their entire family.
So, who was at the last G-20 or G-7 or whatever G meeting they had...what did they say? Are there really Illuminati groups working to day to control the world? Who attended the Bilderberg meeting this year and what did THEY talk about? Chances are the vast majority of whatever it was would have bored a grapefruit out of it's skull, but...we can't be really sure, can we? None of "we" were there..are EVER there. The truth is that, at best, a few of us may have glimpses into the people and processes that affect our lives, sporadically and through a glass darkly. Most never have the slightest clue who is running things or why or WHETHER anyone is running things. Most humans seem to shut down this part of the mind, perhaps as a survival technique, with some version of "turn it over to God", and never mind that if there were a God it would be responsible for vastly more human suffering and atrocities than any government could ever devise.
So...I only had two teeth left on the whole left side. These were on the bottom, next to each other. They got loose together and, like a couple of drunks staggering around, leaned on each other for support. One finally fell completely out a few days ago. He has now joined three other siblings in the black plastic cap from a Gator-aide bottle I keep in front of my keyboard for this purpose. There were more teeth in there but some have vanished. Things do that...simply vanish without explanation. The idea was I could get one of those cool little Dremel devices and drill tiny holes in the teeth and thread a length of catgut through there and wear them around my neck. Whole point being that the next time I was around people and someone mentioned "his own teeth" I could proudly drag them out and say, "I still got my own teeth, see!" Now I struggle to afford terlet paper, so the Dremel will wait...some more...likely till all the teeth have vanished into that black hole. The other feller? He's still hanging in but without his bud to lean on he has just laid completely down. When I sneeze, sucker flaps like a stop sign in a hurricane though.
Ima hafta chance me profile pic at Facebook. My friends already know who I am but some of the newer folk keep calling me "ma'm". Hey, when a feller works hard to get this ugly AND grows a beard, it's a tad discombobulatin' to be called "ma'm".
This little trailer we live in is just that... a tin can. I'm pretty sure it's older than I am and it has no insulation at all in the walls, which is why I can sit 4 feet from the AC on full blast with a high velocity fan in front of that blowing straight on me and it's still so hot in here, some days between about noon and 7 or 8 in the evening, that even that blowing wind won't evaporate the sweat off Melinda and I which means there is no sleep during that time no matter how sleepy or tired. The trailer itself has the potential to be a fairly nice place to live with a good deal of work, but then again, if you were going to spend that much money it would be easier to just get a newer trailer. Landlady offered to sell it to us for only $1000 but there are problems with that.
We'd still be paying rent for the land it sits on; it would require much work and money to make it come up to code even, not to mention be efficient and comfortable; the amount it would cost to put wheels and tires and all the required stuff on in to move it would be more than another trailer; then there would be the problem of having some place to move it TO. Most trailer parks I know of would never accept a trailer this small and old, so that is a gone idea and when we eventually MUST move from here, it will be bye, bye trailer. Landlady would probably also sell us the little piece of land too if she could but her husband had a codicil in his will that none of the land she was left may be sold, period. The wishes of dead people often outweigh the needs of the living.
Landlady has already been told she will get zip on rent again this month, the third month in a row. On the up side, we are told our application for rent assistance was approved and a check (presumably for the first two months behind we were) will be sent to the landlady, though that could take up to 30 days. Fingers crossed that the Pubbies don't manage to kill that program before the check goes out. At least the final payment on the computer is made, so we will have that to help next month. We already gave up burial insurance, satellite TV, and now without a computer payment, it should be a little easier.
The power bill alone for this month is $232...that's more than the rent. Hopefully, we will be able to shut down the air a little next month if it will cool off. For those who don't know, I have been declared 100% PERMANENTLY disabled by my heart doc, and I have a defibrillator in my chest. With my disability check and Melinda's income when she was working, we did reasonably well, but since she lost her job it's ONLY my check and that don't go very far. She hasn't heard anything from the truck stop restaurant where she applied to be a cook. I'm always torn between trying to be supportive and encouraging and being, what I call, realistic. Of course it's possible she might get a job somewhere, she does keep trying, but I won't hold my breath.
Now, we're trying to work on the grass. Landlady says the insurance people will inspect next month and they may drop her coverage with the grass as high as it is. I didn't think it was such a big deal myself, even the highest grass is no more than 4 or 5 feet and you can still see the propane tank if you look closely. All you have to do is wait till winter and the cold will make it all go away. It's probably no more than 50 feet from our porch to the storage shed, but it was all I could do to walk that far in that kind of grass, much less trying to push a mower through it. We managed to get it fired up and I made a few swaths across the yard and then almost fell out. Made it back to the porch and got inside but poor old heart was chugging like the Orange Blossom Special and I was getting nauseous. Melinda has managed to get 90% of the front yard done, but rain is coming. I hate seeing her work that hard especially because she is not in all that much better shape than I am. I see pickups with big rider mowers on trailers going by on the road all the time. Would be very simply for someone like that to either cut the grass or at least let me borrow the rider. I enjoy mowing when I have a powerful rider to mow with. I would do that if I had the mower and knew of someone who needed their yard mowed. I'd do it just for fun, of course, not charge them a cent of money. *sigh*
I think it's time to try applying for Section 8 housing assistance. As with all things that has pros and cons, but two of the pros I think of right away: wouldn't have roaches running through your food while you try to eat or over your face while you sleep, and very unlikely have any kind of yard mowing or other such maintenance, plus, at least with the one I've seen so far, the power bill is included in the rent. I'm not really a huge fan of being in a tiny apartment, especially smashed up in the middle of dozens of other tiny apartments, perhaps with small humans creating havoc all about, but all things have a tradeoff or cost. There might be some chance of getting an actual house or decent trailer on Section 8 but we will just have to see. The big drawback is most such places would not allow "pets", though they are typically far less destructive and troublesome than the small humans... I won't leave or sacrifice my boy Tucker...I'm no Abraham.
There is very little about the current monetary system in use the world over that is not utterly fraudulent or, at the very least, misleading. Everything from the very existence of the system as a whole to the definitions of terms. Here's one example of a definition from "investorwords.com":
credit:
1. A contractual agreement in which a borrower receives something of value now and agrees to repay the lender at some later date. When a consumer purchases something using a credit card, they are buying on credit (receiving the item at that time, and paying back the credit card company month by month). Any time when an individual finances something with a loan (such as an automobile or a house), they are using credit in that situation as well. Source.
Do you see what, in the definition above, is misleading or inaccurate? This phrase..."purchases something using a credit card..." This is something that is not possible. Yes, I know many people and dictionaries do put various spins on terms, but my definition of a completed purchase is "when someone has received something of value AND has completed all agreements to pay or reimburse" for that thing. A purchase is at least a two-step transaction; an exchange of "money or its equivalent" for "something of value" If you have taken possession of the "something of value" and have only made a "promise to pay", the transaction is not complete. It cannot be complete until the promise is honored and actual payment is made, or the promise is withdrawn and the "thing" returned, etc.
When a person typically "buys" something with a credit card, only half a transaction has occurred. You have taken possession of the "thing" and made a promise to pay. You have also transferred your debtor from the person, store or company from whom you are acquiring the thing, to the credit card company. The person, store or company has received their agreed upon payment but the transaction is not complete on your end. You have not bought the "thing", you have arranged for someone else to buy it for you in exchange for your promise to pay THEM in the future. If all goes well, you pay the secondary "debtor" AND almost always an added fee for the convenience of having acquired the "thing" you wanted earlier than you probably otherwise could. If all does NOT go well and you are unable to pay your secondary debtor...
Often the "thing" you acquired is completely consumed, thus removing any option to return it and cancel the debt. At this point (or sooner, depending on how you look at it) you have become an indentured servant to the credit card company. You OWE. You are expected to work to pay your debt. If, for whatever reason, you cannot work and pay your debt, then your reputation in the monetary and social systems have been damaged. No one cares WHY you did not pay, least of all the credit card company, only that you did not. This has a very negative effect on your "credit worthiness" and this might be fine except for the fact that our society attaches the moral "worth" of a human being to how much money and/or possessions they have and whether they are able to "pay their bills". Everyone knows that people who "don't pay their bills" are people of "low character" or worth. There is no relevance attached to WHY one has not paid the bills.
This brings us back to why anyone would engage in any credit transactions in the first place. How many reasons are there for this? Perhaps simple greed..."I want this now". Perhaps the person has bought into the social mythology meme that their worth as a person is determined by how much money and/or things they have. They may or may not fully realize the folly of this attempt to get that "acceptance", but it is so important to most that they will continually repeat the credit transactions to at least give the appearance of being wealthier (and thus worth more as a person) - all the while growing poorer - than they actually are. After all, most polls show us that "appearance" is often far more important than actual truth or substance.
Sometimes the "thing" acquired through "credit" is actually of literal and immediate life and death importance. Typically this would be medical care, but in some instances it may even be as simple as food. Many people are so emotionally attached to the concept of a person's worth being indicated by their wealth status ("how much is he worth?" is still a common expression), that they are perfectly willing to allow people to simply die, rather than engaging in what their paranoid fear calls "socialism", i.e., people helping people via government action.
You don't have to pay actual cash money for your purchases, you know. There are things that look almost identical to credit cards, but work very differently. They are called debit cards. With this kind of card, when you make a purchase, it is actually a genuine purchase, a completed transaction. You have "bought" the "thing" and have instantly paid for it. You do not OWE. The net effect is exactly the same as using actual cash. The trouble is, this kind of card also has the same "drawback" as using actual cash. It will not allow one to maintain their illusion that they have more (and are thus worth more) than they actually do. And if you do not have as much as you would like to have or pretend to have, what does this mean? Does it really mean your worth as a human is less than you thought? Maybe that is a lie designed to enslave you. Could it possibly be that you are not given a fair or just payment or compensation for your work in the first place? Perhaps if you were, you would never have any trouble acquiring all the things you really need, whatever they might be? Perhaps you should consider another meaning of the word "credit": "5. Public acknowledgment or praise, typically that given or received when a person's responsibility for an action or idea becomes or is made apparent." Perhaps if everyone got much more of this kind of credit they would feel far less need for the other slavery kind of credit?
For those who follow the minutia of our personal monetary situation... This is Tuesday, July 26. Still no word on whether or not there will be money coming to pay our past due rent. I am about 90% certain that there will not. The reason is that the landlady is one of those paranoid types who refuse to give their SS#, which is one of the things required on the form that she was supposed to fill out in order for the Community Action For Improvement (CAFI) office to put in the request to whomever they request it from. If that doesn't come through, we are left to manage to slowly catch up the past due amount. We've done that before. We were once more than $1000 behind on the rent and we caught that up. The difference between now and then was that I was trucking and later Melinda had her job at the Wild Animal Park. Now there is nothing but the disability check. There was some hope last Monday when Melinda applied at a truck stop restaurant as a cook. She was told that her app would be on top of the pile and, since the kitchen boss there also rents from our landlady and she had put in a good word for Melinda, there seemed good reason for hope she would be hired. Now, more than a week later with no word at all, I am severely doubting that will happen. Call me a pessimist, most do.
Of course I could be wrong on either or both of these accounts, and I certainly hope I am...I'm just not a "person of faith", except in the sense that, if anything can go wrong, it will. This, based on over half a century of experience. Direct TV has not yet stopped the service, but will as of the 8th unless we pay about $150. Of course that ain't gonna happen, so we will be out of that. Oh sure, no one could possibly drop dead from being without TV. Many people CHOOSE to be without any TV at all. That's not the point. The point is that it is one more cut in the "death by a thousand (or far fewer) cuts" that comes with being poor, at least for those who have a need for TV. I am considering talking with AT&T about possibly getting a "bundle" which would include Direct TV, at a cheaper price than the current AT&T bill plus Direct. We dropped the burial insurance so now, if one of us dies, it will be up to any family, if they are able and so choose, to deal with our "disposal" or up to the county. Doesn't matter to me. Dead people not only don't tell any tales, they also don't have any problems.
August will be the last full payment on the computer, and after that, only a small amount remains and we will have more toward other bills. The computer is another example of how the poor get screwed. We got it through Rent-a-Center. Yes, by the time we finish paying on it, we will have paid somewhere between 2 and 4 times what the actual cost of it should be. That is a cost of being poor. If you are poor your only choices in such a situation are to either pay far more than a rich person would pay for the same thing, or simply not have one at all. There are many examples of the poor having to pay much more than the rich or simply be denied.
Of course there are many millions of Americans, not to mention other people in the world, who have far greater financial and other problems than ours. The typical reaction to such a thing is, "Oh well, it could be worse." Indeed, it could. Why do so few people though, voice the obvious alternate that, "It damn well could be a lot better too." Why do so few people seem reluctant or unable to voice their own sense of justice and fairness about such things?
There is a bit in the CAFI thing above which says something about helping people to become "self-sufficient". I find this hugely insulting, not to mention just plain stupid. "Self-sufficient" is in the same category with "self-made man"...utter bullshit. Everyone knows this, but few will acknowledge it...why? If you use electricity that you did not produce, if you drive a car that you did not build, if you live in a building that you did not build, if you wear clothes that you did not make, if you eat food that you did not kill or grow, don't even give me this "self-sufficient" horse shit. It is a flat lie. Many people seem to actually believe that if they work at some job and are paid money and they then use that money for their needs, that they have somehow "done it on their own". Amazing. If no one agreed to give you any money for your work, where would you be? A job is not a thing one simply goes out and gets, as though it were a pebble alongside a road. Someone somewhere must agree to pay you some amount of money in exchange for your work. Naturally, being a severely inferior person, by virtue of being poor, your pay for spending an hour of your time will be nowhere near the "pay" for a hedge fund manager who spends an hour playing squash, or even for doing his "work" which helps no one at all but himself and the small rich group he is in.
As anyone who has read many of my blogs knows, I am one of those people who most certainly want to live forever, or at least very close to it. A truly intelligent and caring species would recognize that the final defeat of the last disease - death - would be, could be, the zenith of human accomplishment; that it's not even that difficult, now that we have the ability to print out or grow all manner of human replacement organs; that a "waiting list" for people who need transplants, and that based on the death of others, is hideously primitive and unjust. And yet, the thought of living a very long time in such a social system as that which we have here makes even me, grateful to know that death, the infinitely patient friend, awaits me; promises the only genuine freedom there is from the insanity.
There is no hope of "educating" significant numbers of our kind to be able to live in a world of plenty and fairness for all. You could never teach your dog even simple mathematics. A dog's brain, no matter how smart relative to other dogs, simply has no capacity for understanding such things. In principle, IF we knew enough about brains in general, we very well might be able to increase a canine's cognitive capacity to the point of understanding maths. No reason why not that I know of, other than our current ignorance of understanding how. Likewise, although many people across the world do have some understanding of justice and fairness and a world of plenty for all, their numbers are miniscule compared to the rest. And most of "the rest" have no more capacity to understand such things than a dog has to understand mathematics. Human animals still carry a great deal of their evolutionary baggage, some of which evolved long before there was even such a thing as a mammal, much less a human. Such are not actually "mindsets" at all, but far more primitive... instincts; the same instincts that work just fine for constructing the various hierarchies of existence of most other species. We are the only species, so far, with the possibility of surpassing our "instincts". But in order to do this, we must become, in a very fundamental sense, something other than the current definition of "human".
In order to do THAT, we must first, have a complete understanding of the genetic programming, the capacities of human brains, how they do what they do and how to operate them with intent. We are just beginning to have some understanding of that and I'm sure it will take a long time to arrive at a real understanding. I have no doubt at all that, aside from the possibility of total extinction, the human species must and will, at some point branch into at least two different species. One will be considerably "smarter" than the other, and the other will have little chance of survival unless the smart ones, for whatever reasons, see to their survival. Unfortunately, "smart" does not automatically coincide with fair and just and compassionate. In fact some, as some do now, will consider such traits as anathema to their own survival...hence the very rich.
So, here's what just happened. All the money was gone or 'spoken for'. We put the last $2 into the gas tank and got a whopping half gallon of gas (I remember when you could fill a big tank for that) in order to get over to the discount store. We had a little left on the EBT card and were out of bread. We got bread and some OJ and a couple of cheap dented cans of veggies and some marked down (almost to a reasonable price) cubed steak in which the green had not progressed very far. We have been completely without any tobacco of any kind for about 3 days now. I don't like it and it ain't easy, but for Melinda it's more than that. Her addiction is stronger, both physiologically and psychologically than mine. She had already gone the 3 days or so, using up the last shreds of the roll-your-own pack someone gave us. She was in pain, to the point of tears. We have about 9 days yet to go before more money shows up...IF the Republicans (infuriatingly enough enough, with Obama's consent) somehow don't manage to cut all disability, Social Security, etc. There was just over $11 left in the bank, 'spoken for' by Netflix. I could not sit here and see my wife, whom I love very much, in tears from the pain, and experiencing nightmares. I went to a store and got some cigarettes.
This means, of course, that when Netflix puts in for their payment it will trigger an 'insufficient funds' at the bank. In turn, the bank will then put an 'insufficient funds charge' on my account of about $30. The net effect is that, when the next check comes, I will have to pay the regular Netflix bill of $10.69 (assuming they have not yet kicked in their new rate of $16), plus the bank charge...in effect we will have paid $30 for 3 packs of cigs. There are those who may think I am not smart enough to understand that this is illogical. Indeed, it is most illogical...BUT it is only one of many illogical things in the scenario and, there are more things to consider than JUST logic. Some of the other things involved...or, at least, that SHOULD be involved in this whole scenario, are kindness and compassion and empathy.
Some will say, just get rid of the Netflix, it is not a necessity, just turn off the Internet, it is not a necessity, just stop with the tobacco, no one has to have tobacco, ad nauseum. It is very easy for some people to declare what is or is not a necessity, especially for other people. Interestingly, how often do you hear anyone say, of the very rich, just stop with the investing, no one has to invest, just stop with the multi-million dollar houses, no one needs more than a simple compact home? I do tend to say that sometimes, but usually get screamed at, as though I had suggested rich people do without oxygen. Of course some people couldn't care less about having a computer and Internet access...that's perfectly fine for them. For other people such things are as vital to their well-being as heart medication.
Our little situation here is one of millions of microcosm examples of different mindsets. It's difficult for me to write about such things because I have to continually jump back and forth between what is and what should be; what would be a reasonable, kind, compassionate and caring world in which all people have the basics of what they need in life, and the actual world we have which is mostly one of overly simplistic and primitive ideas like, "if he don't work, he don't eat". Again, strangely, the logic of this primitive ideology seems to not apply at all to the very rich. "He has $100 million dollars. He doesn't work at anything at all a day in his life, yet he has an enormous continuing income simply because of the fact that he has $100 million dollars." But no one says, "Why should he sit on all that money and still have so much...why should he not only eat but eat very well, when HE doesn't work at anything"? It is a mindset in which people are judged to be inherently superior people by virtue of having large amounts of money...conversely those who have little or nothing are judged to be inherently inferior people.
Everyone knows the scenario... a disheveled-looking guy dressed in dirty and torn clothes walks into a "high-end" (even the language is biased) store and someone immediately comes over to hustle him out. Chances are that no one will ask him anything at all; no one will say "May I help you"? - probably no one will be respectful toward him; the main thing will be to get him out of there as soon as possible to avoid embarrassment to the workers and customers in there. If it is then revealed that this same individual is in fact a very wealthy man, a multi-millionaire; that his appearance was only a prank or joke of some kind, he is then welcomed with open arms, workers compete with each other to see who can better serve his needs and impress him. Why? Is he not exactly the same man as before? Sadly, the answer is no. In a sane, kind, compassionate and caring world, he would indeed be precisely the same man as before. But we do not live in such a world. In our world, it is almost a universal truth that "rich" = "good" and "poor" = "bad".
This is not new. This mindset has been around at lest since biblical times, and surely far longer. Even the Bible says you will always have the poor with you. That is hardly surprising within a monetary system which cannot exist at all without a relative few rich and masses of poor. I found an interesting article in the Daily Kos by a person known only as 'cmhmd' with the title The Poor You Will Always Have With You. I'm in general agreement with the article, though I differ with the interpretation of that statement. From the article:
"Jesus is being lavished with expensive oils, and a member of the group sanctimoniously points out that these oils could have been sold to the benefit of the poor. Jesus notes that we will always have the poor to take care of, long after he is gone. Jesus is actuallyreferencing the book of Deuteronomy, "There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land."
That is cmhmd's interpretation of the line "The Poor You Will Always Have With You". My interpretation is that, sensibly enough, someone pointed out, that lavishing expensive oils on the feet of Jesus was basically a waste and could have been better used to help the poor...in much the same way as some people today point out that all the billions of dollars wasted on humongous expensive buildings and rites, and rituals, could be better used to help the poor... The Jesus character, perhaps tasting the corruption of wealth, basically dismisses the poor with the airy comment that, "Oh, there will always be poor people" and goes right on enjoying his oily footsies. Sounds downright Koch-ish to me; or maybe a precursor to the Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsley's infamous quote, "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes"..
There would at least be a kind of internal logic in the mindset that the rich are inherently superior to the poor, if it were only the rich who tout such a notion. Amazingly though, a huge percentage of the poor fall right in line with this bizarre thinking. Now THAT'S propaganda that works! At least a lot of it is. Sadly, a lot of it is also left over evolutionary baggage from our past which might have had merit long ago, but now is only a hindrance to the species. I'll be Bach (in some lifetime).
I never understood the idea that the less of a thing there is the more valuable it is. I would be interested to know if there is a name for my particular brain disorder. It seems common wisdom that the correct equation is ^s=^v. "Increased scarcity equals increased value". You hear it all the time, if there is a holdup in oil production and thus a slight drop in the amount of it available, the price rises sharply. You hear it in the every days lives of people, "life is so precious because it is so short." I enjoy shrimp. If there were only 7 shrimp left on earth I would not enjoy them any more than if the earth were drowning in them. One reason I find it very difficult to get all enthused about doing a lot of things is because life is so short. A human life time is a barely detectable flicker. Assure me I can reasonably expect to live 10 thousand years, and I could get interested in doing stuff; then I have time to do stuff. I'm 53, I've just barely started really learning important stuff. I need another century just to get reasonably well educated.
Look at this video. There are 8,000 year old mummies there in Chile. Get this, some of them still have their own teeth and even some hair...after 8 THOUSAND years! I have 6 teeth left and not a lot more hairs. WTF!? I'm sure his mommy made him brush after every meal and brush his hair 100 strokes every night before bed and I never did that so it's naturally all my fault.
In either the third or fourth installment of Michio Kaku's series on BBC called TIME, there is a piece about large salt crystals that were found in a cave in Arizona, I think it was. Inside some of those crystals were little drops of water. Inside the water were bacteria that were living. Not bacteria fossils, not dead bacteria that were once alive, but living moving animals that have been in that particlar drop of water for about 200 MILLION years! Watch the whole series here, it's only 4 hours. Ah, ya got plenty of time.
When George W. Bush was President, there was a while there when I very seriously wondered whether he would step down when his final term was up. Maybe it had to do with that remark he made, "....just as long as I'm the dictator". Maybe it had to do with the first time in my memory, a man being installed as US President who did not win an election or get there through any legitimate means. (Gerald Ford was never elected either but got there through normal means in an unusual situation.) There was some relief when I did not see tanks in the streets as Obama prepared to take office.
I either did not know yet, or had forgotten, that who sits in the Oval Office has no more bearing on the nation's policies than who will replace Katie as anchor at CBS. Democrat or Republican have been the only "choices" allowed since Millard Fillmore in 1850. Not even if you have your own billions to spend on a campaign can you be elected if you are not Dem or Pub. The Agenda rolls along, unfazed, either way. I don't know whether Obama was part of the plan from the start or whether he was just naive. Perhaps he didn't know either until he was actually elected and then given his orders.
In any case he now seems fully on board with the Agenda. He finds reasons why he has not closed Gitmo. Finds reasons why he cannot fully and unequivocally support the LGBT community. Finds reasons why he must (at least claim to) spend time with the Big Daddy in the Sky - on his Blackberry, even. Now he says he cannot guarantee that the eighty plus million checks that the government is supposed to send out next month for SS, disability, etc., will be sent. There might not be enough "money in the coffers". Imagine tens of millions of Americans having ZERO money for food, rent, etc. If this happens do you really think it will be very long before there ARE tanks in the streets here (never fear, there is always abundant "money in the coffers" for that kind of thing).
How long until some of the poor start to push back? How long until some of "our service men and women" who are "keeping America safe" from horribly threatening military powers like Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, etc., are also called to "maintain order" in American streets? Can't have starving people raise a ruckus, now can we? Why, that would be unseemly. Just die quietly and all will be well. It's going in in small scales now. In Florida you can be arrested for feeding homeless people.
The "debt ceiling" is now being hailed as the huge CRISES in Washington. There may well be a crises for many millions of Americans if this "ceiling" is not raised. Raising it is not a big deal. Not raising it could result in civil war. The debt ceiling has been raised over 70 times since JFK. Republicans raised it SEVEN TIMES just while Dubya was president. They actually might not this time because they, in particular, seem hell bent on driving our country literally into the ground. Read more at Mother Jones.
If you are on a "fixed" income, or Food Stamps or Welfare or any such program, that rumbling noise you hear may be your stomach growling...for now. When it gets very loud it may be tracks on pavement. That rhythmic sound you hear may be your heartbeat...for now. When it gets much louder, it may be the sound of thousands of boots marching in unison. Perhaps it is nearing a time when all Americans will be reminded, again, that without the Second Amendment, the First, indeed all the others, are meaningless puffs of air.
STOP! Children, what's that sound....Everybody look what's going down.
It all started with a tick. He bit me on the arm back around the2nd or 3rd. Well, you know what they say, "Lie down with ticks, and you get up with dogs...er sumpin'". That's happened several times, no biggie. THIS time he launched a stealth suicide attack. HE didn't last two minutes after he bit me, got flushed. Turned out that he was basically a personnel carrier, and unloaded bunches of other critters into me. They immediately launched a blitzkrieg attack, starting with the formation of a base of operations at the landing site. Turned that into a red mountain with a strange black hole in the middle that I could play Yellowstone Geyser with when I poured hydrogen peroxide into it. No doubt a diversionary tactic.
I wasn't all that worried about it because I was already on bactrim, an antibiotic doc had given me at last visit for a UTI. But after a couple days seeing the minions had decided that was a cool food source, I suspected harsher measures were needed. They were marching in red rows up my arm through the lymph nodes and across my chest. I started to think maybe the main mission was to get to me defibrillator and knock that out, thus taking me down and making me easier to eat.
Went back to doc. He said, "they are drug resistant", I said no kiddin', where do ya keep the Apache attack helicopters of meds? We laid off the bactrim in favor of amoxycillin. I don't know if they knew it or not, but I ain't exactly alone here. Their initial surprise attack set my guys back a bit but, as the general, I supplied my own minions with a whole new weapon. That set off full scale war. That, in turn, led me to discover surprising new territory I never knew I had cuz it never hurt before. Fever and chill and chills and fever. It's 300 freakin' degrees in here!, an hour later how the hell did I get to Antarctica? If I still had teeth they would have chattered.
Meanwhile, back at headquarters... I'm also in a whole different war none of the minions know anything about. Gone begging at some places which supposedly offer rent assistance. Spent a lot of time walking on sidewalks in town. Turns out, most don't. "No funding" is the standard reply. Understandable. Finally got to one place where, we had an appointment at 1pm. Sign on door said, be back at 1:30pm. We sat under an awning in 95 degree heat heat for over an hour. No one came to the door till well after 2pm. Woman there finally gives us form to take to the landlord and an appointment for the 18th. This, AFTER she harangues and belittles and ridicules for half an hour about WHY we need help with rent; ringing on her calculator on how if we didn't have Internet and a computer payment we have rent money. I almost didn't make it, almost walked out. We'll see if it results in any actual money.
Whole body broke out in red pimples, looks almost like measles. The sore from the bite has changed little. May end up going to surgeon to get the sucker cut out like coring an orange. Have only been hit and run a little on FB, can't focus attention very long. Haven't blogged at all. I hope to do it again soon, if I can ever get healed up from whatever this is and get the impotent hurt and rage tamped down some. I had a 40 ouncer a couple days ago. First beer I've had in years. I used to be a good boy. Not so much when I'm angry and hurting.
