Protest

Interesting. We have eight cents in the bank. Two cents left on the EBT (food stamp) card. We're doing really great compared to millions of other Americans. We're told Egypt is in crisis, though we're never quite sure why. Mubarak seems to have been fine for 30 years and suddenly he has to go. Some mention of income inequality, unemployment, etc., among Egyptian people. Really? This feller asks, Where's the Protest at Home?. I kinda wondered that too...what, only "tea-baggers" and "patriots" can protest?

TRB

Smoke And Fog

Merle Haggard sang, "If We Make Through December" (everything's gonna be all right I know). It's now the 29th of January. We are counting days here until the third...when we will have money again. So much for December. It is already calculated that, if we pay all the bills, we will have about ten dollars left with which to buy all the non-edible items we will need for the month; gas for the car, paper products...cigarettes. Really, cigarettes? Who needs that?

To my knowledge there is not a single good or beneficial use for the tobacco plant other than to sell it for smoking or chewing or dipping, etc. It is legal. There are many thousands of good uses for the hemp plant, completely aside from smoking marijuana. It is illegal. I don't claim to be an academic authority on logic but it does seems rather obvious that deliberately subjecting your lungs and respiratory system to smoke - of any kind - is illogical. But billions of people do it. Why? Kristofferson included the line, I'd smoked my brain the night before on cigarettes and songs I'd been pickin' in his song Sunday Morning Coming Down. Can you imagine Pat Boone singing that with any credibility at all?

In this interview this month with Brian Lamb, Christopher Hitchens acknowledges that his previous habits of smoking and drinking probably contributed to his current situation of of being in stage 4 esophageal cancer. To his credit, he does NOT say that he wishes he had not done that, or if he had it to do over, he would never touch the stuff. He does say that smoking and drinking often served him well in his writing.

You may notice that A) I have now blogged and B) that it has been several days since I did. This past month all the bills were paid. We had no cigarettes after about the 17^th or so. Even went to visit my friend who lives here in LaGrange and managed a little trade of some food for some cigarettes, but it wasn't enough. I hadn't had a puff of a cigarette for about five days. This was a big help to my breathing; I had gotten so I could not lie flat and sleep because of the wheezing. We discovered we had enough money to manage to get a pack, and did. I would take a drag or two off Melinda's. This morning I succumbed and smoked a whole one myself. I'm not physiologically addicted to cigarettes, at least in the same way Melinda is. She actually experiences withdrawal symptoms, like extreme irritability, itching, sometimes shivering and shaking. When I was in hospital a few years back for ten days, the only time I even thought about smoking was when Melinda would come in the room, positively reeking with that disgusting odor from having been downstairs smoking. I was sick.

When I get sick like that I find the smell of both cigarettes and coffee completely disgusting and have zero desire for either. In the past several days I have been a little sick like that again...not enough for doctor or hospital, but enough so I found those things revolting. It always seems during such times that cigarettes are surely gone from my life for good and maybe coffee too. But then...I recover. When I first came outside after having been in the hospital years ago, I rocked back because the whole friggin' world stank so bad it literally took my breath away. Just having been without smokes for a few days this time, we went to town and when we returned home, I was rocked back again at how this place stank inside. Taking a puff or two solved that problem.

I feel like kind of a worm any time we end up asking anyone else for some money for cigarettes. I feel out of sorts when I don't have any smokes. Sure, sometimes I can OD on cigarettes to the point of getting a headache or even feeling nauseous. Sure, I won't argue that there are thousands of chemicals in cigarettes, aside from the nicotine, many of which are proven carcinogens. Sure, being smoke free would not kill me in the way that being without food or water would. Still...there is an aspect of me that is killed...changed, gone, if I have no smokes. I miss that part - a lot. I see no reason to miss that part if it is avoidable. Furthermore, I see no reason to deprive myself of having a drink when I want either. I don't "have a problem" with alcohol. I can have a few drinks and then go weeks or months and never even think of it again. I can sometimes buy a six pack of beer and still have some left months later. I have deliberately avoided having any alcohol in the house for a very long time, even when I could still afford it, so that Melinda would not be subjected to the sight and smell of it. I surely would never want to threaten her years of hard-fought and won sobriety. If you are sensitive to alcohol and you have not had any in a long time, you can smell another person who has been drinking, even if only a beer. Comes from their pores. Likewise, a non smoker is smacked in the face with a horrible odor when a smoker comes into their office, even if it has been hours since that person was around any smoke. It embeds itself into fabrics, hair, etc., and it too emits from the body.

Yeah, shit stinks, shit happens and life sucks, sometimes anyway. Jack LaLanne finally died at 96. He had various TV shows on the air for about 30 years in which he advocated vigorous exercise, etc. He would say that you should get up off the couch, stop watching TV and get outside and exercise. If we had all done that who would have seen his TV shows? People are different. Some people are runners. They LOVE to run. I think that's great. For myself, I think if God had wanted me to walk everywhere, He would not have invented engines. Some people are vegetarians or vegans, some would never smoke anything at all, some would never drink alcohol, etc. I think that's great. I don't want to live that way. It's not who I am. I suppose, technically I COULD live that way...but, why? Many folks have lived to 96 or more without doing very much at all in the way of "exercise and fitness". Some folks who have been at the peak of athletic fitness and never engaged in any "bad habits" have dropped dead in their teens or twenties.

Unlike a lot of people I am fully and completely aware that I will die regardless of what I do or do not do. "Quality of life" can mean very different things to different people. People are different. I don't really like drinking. I sure as hell don't like smoking. Both are quit illogical, as Spock pointed out. Yet some humans have done both since there have been humans. So a decision has been made by my somewhat insufficiently fogged brain...a rather large dose of the metaphorical pill fukital will be ingested...and when cash arrives again...there will be smokes...and a touch o' the rum fer me medicinal needs.

There...I feel better already. Top o' the mornin' to ya!

TRB

Personal Update

So here's what's happened at the ranch lately...

A couple weeks back when we had the big ice storm here (in Georgia more ice than will fit in yer iced tea is a big ice storm), we went to Kroger. Weird...there were only three dozen eggs in the whole store, and they were the "organic" ones which cost over $3 a dozen. Trucks couldn't get through Atlanta for deliveries. The whole northeast, Chicago, even Nashville, not a problem, but Atlanta was a demolition derby. *sigh* But it was an interesting tiny taste of what things might look like if there were a real emergency, with NOTHING on the shelves.

Computer died yet again. He's in the lobby (at the store) and won't even be shipped out for another resurrection till Wednesday. I suspect the same problem as before. Again, I had a great three part blog on there that was not yet posted cuz I was waiting to spring it one each day for three days. Rewrite, anyone? This is a different loaner computer. Used to belong to Mrs. Nese. I know that cuz her family picture is the desktop background and I know all about every online account Mrs. Nese has, with passwords, etc. Have managed to delete most of that off this hard drive. Just got a good morning IM from one of her friends and I replied, then realized it was showing that Mrs. Nese was replying even though I am logged into Yahoo under my own account. Heh.

For about 3 or 4 days (and nights) we had a curiosity. Tucker and I were sleeping soundly on the couch and some loud thumping noises woke us up. My first thought was it sounded like some doofus was walking on the wood floor of our front porch with big boots on. But it's three in the morning. Maybe some drunk has wandered up. The noises keep going. I get my weapon in hand, Tucker on his chain and open the door. The infantry Tucker charges out, and the artillery right behind... nothing.

Having no apparent target, I retreat into the Fort dragging Tucker with me. The noises seem to have gone away. Then I was thinking... 'possum? armadillo? Got back to sleep and forgot about it till the next day. Was sitting in the recliner and suddenly feel and hear a bump directly under my chair from under the floor. Vibrated me butt. In bright sunlight I get flashlight to investigate. One end of trailer is high enough to crouch and walk under, the other end is literally ON the ground with no more than six to eight inches between the floor and the ground. I go under the floor at the deep end, checking the whole area for anything unusual. No signs at all of any animals, no fur, no tracks...I shine the light all the way to the low end and there is no sign of anything there either. No movement, no noise, no bright eyes staring back.

There is a small hole in the underpinning at the low end. I look in there. Nothing. I shine the light between the cracks of the floor boards on the porch. Nothing. Still, sometimes the incessant bumping noises. After about the third day I'm beginning to consider calling animal control to see if they will come out and do a thorough search under there and, failing that, trying to find a number for ghostbusters. Then the noises go away as mysteriously as they started. It would appear, if it was an animal, it either left or died. If it was a ghost, perhaps it moved on to someone more likely to be readers of the National Enquirer.

Well, crap! He's ba-a-a-a-c-ck. Again with the knock booming. Just have to turn up the TV more I guess. You get used to it...just add an audio component to the annoyances of bugs in yer coffee and rats that manhandle their way out of traps. *sigh*

Things you should not get confused...especially when invited out by your Japanese friends.... bukaki and kabuki.

Some possibility Melinda may get a call from Walmart on Monday...possibly get hired. A friend who is an employee says he talked her up good to his boss. Would be very nice. At least they have good insurance and maybe she could get to a doc soon. I guess that's it for now...gotta blog about my friend Wesman Todd Shaw's blog. I been neglecting him (cuz I don't get on with Hubpages) and that boy getting awfully close to running off the road...(wink).

Dang, only the 22nd and only one roll of terlet paper left. Oh well, mail man always brings junk mail. Oh yeah, according to an email from Peter Joseph, the latest Zeitgeist movie should be viewable online on the 25th. It's a shake and bake night, so gotta get shakin'... se y'all.

TRB

Tucson

Y'all should be proud of me...I played Farmville and Cityville nearly all day and only now, headed for midnight, did I finally break and start to write.

Rarely can anything bring out the weird, goofy and just plain stupid - and normal - like a public shooting; if it involves a politician or a kid it's worse...this Tucson thing included both and so is comparable to the lightening round on a game show. Any who know me know I'm more liberal than not on most things, and I'm generally a fan of Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and a couple other MSNBC shows. I've had to lay off watching them for the most part for the past week, cuz I just can't stomach that much self-righteous ignorance.

Looky, as far as I can tell this feller Loughner had some amount of mental or psychological problems and they may or may not have affected this incident or lead up to it. In any case, a guy goes on a rampage and kills 6 people and wounds about 14 others. Okay. It happens. Of course it's a terrible tragedy for those wounded and for their loved ones and the loved ones of those killed. When is that not the case? Isn't it always a terrible tragedy when loved ones get hurt or killed? Does it really matter that much whether it was a bad guy with a gun or a car wreck or an earthquake. Dead is dead, isn't it? Hurt is hurt, isn't it?

But here we go again with all the "gun control" nuts and their incessant urges to always pass a law against something they don't like. Happens every time. After each one of the school shootings, after the thing at Virginia Tech...on and on ad nauseum. In some of those cases the shooter acquired the guns and ammo used totally legally, others not. By what Orwellian gymnastics of speech does it matter to the killed and wounded whether the shooter had the guns and ammo legally or not? It's a little like thinking a serial killer has to look like me instead of being a nice looking all American boy like Ted Bundy

Bill Maher said on Leno, "Nobody needs a clip that can shoot that many times". This is not a relevant point whether they do or don't. The point is that those who want such ammo clips will have them. If they can't get them legally, they will get them illegally. If they can't get them in the commercial "mainstream" they will get them underground...or they will make them themselves. It is just the height of stupid to think that passing laws against guns and ammo will stop anyone who wants them from having them. It's also not relevant whether or not wearing seat belts saves lives...the relevant thing is whether or not it's your choice to wear one or not. It ain't your choice. I freely acknowledge I'm a house nigger on this one...just cuz it's easier. I'm too old and broke down to fight an unwinnable battle. No, it's not "the n word", it's nigger, and it's not necessarily derogatory and it does not apply exclusively to black people; and no, a rebel flag doesn't necessarily equal race hatred, nor does a swastika necessarily equal Nazi.

On the political right, I agree that the original intent of the Second Amendment was (partly) to enable the citizenry to overthrow a tyrannical government if necessary...but that ship sailed about a century ago. Anyone who seriously thinks "we the people" could overthrow the American government by force of arms is seriously delusional. Hey, even if you know lots of folks with AK 47's and maybe some grenade launchers, etc., that ain't spit against tanks, unmanned drones, fighter jets and aircraft carriers, helicopter gun ships, microwave weapons that can be adjusted to fry hundreds or thousands at a time, nuclear submarines, etc. And those are what we know about.

Most of the folk on the left tend to support "a woman's right to choose", and I will hear them sometimes say to those who oppose abortion, "If you don't want one don't have one!" I totally agree. But precisely the same applies to guns...you don't want one, don't have one! This doesn't give you the right to try to prevent those who do from having them. Some on the right might think if almost everyone were armed, you might have less gun violence; that if potential thieves, home invaders, rapists, etc., knew their planned victims probably had guns they would be less likely to try it. I don't think so. There's a helluva lot more to it than merely having a gun, or even knowing how and when to use it properly. Knowing how and when, doesn't necessarily mean you CAN. The will to use it when necessary has to be there, otherwise the gun is useless, or may even get you killed. If you are faced with a situation in which you don't have time to think things through, to try to talk your way out, to try to run, but have a fraction of a second in which to either fire or not fire, if you hesitate you are dead. Having fear or such goofiness as "sanctity of human life" and such happy horseshit in yer head will get you real dead, real quick. Gun or no gun, if you are not mentally prepared to instantly treat your assailant as a deadly snake about to strike you, you will likely soon be wormfood.

I think the left is deeply embarrassing themselves, well, me anyway, by jumping all over Sarah Palin and what she said. "Blood libel" seems to be a phrase that got some panties in a wad. Yeah, so that phrase probably was not the technically correct one (though some - like Alan Dershowitz - think it was correct), maybe she might have intended or better meant "vendetta". Hey, if sister Sarah murders someone, I'll say treat her like any other murderer, but to insinuate she had any responsibility whatever for this shooting because she put a crosshairs on AZ in reference to politically defeating Gabrielle Giffords is just nuts. The good news for Ms. Giffords is that she seems to be recovering remarkably well considering the injury. A .50 calibur ought to leave one helluva exit wound. I think I will construct a letter to Sarah Palin, encouraging her to run for president. There is zero chance she would win if she did, but if some actual miracle happened and she did win, it would be fascinating to see how long she lasted. After all, it ain't like a president actually runs things, is it?

Okay, it's after midnight now; Dear Sarah...

TRB

Stinkweeds

It's two am Sunday morning. All the buzz online is about the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and others in the parking lot of a Safeway in Tucson. As is always the case in such an incident, stories bloom like stinkweeds, about every conceivable angle of it; was she the target, was the shooter a "madman", was he an atheist, we have to have more gun control, ad nauseum. Yeah, so I'm adding my own little stinkweed. Huffington Post has a special commentary from Keith Olbermann (since when is he on TV on weekends?), in which he uses the word repudiate a lot. I have no argument with the basic gist of his comments, but I feel compelled to do a bit of repudiating and refudiating too.

I'll wait for further facts to emerge about all the specific details of the incident; this little piece is not about Ms. Giffords, Judge Roll or the other people who were shot nor about Jared Lee Loughner. What my little weed here is about is the assertion that this incident is but one fairly minor incident in falling of empire. Of course, "empire" suggests world affairs, and there is certainly that aplenty, but there is also the internal crumbling both in physical terms and social and political terms. This is an example of the latter.

Keith himself has many times addressed what has come to be called Jan Brewer's Arizona death panels. These are not merely political rhetoric and hyperbole; so far at least two persons are dead as a direct result of the so-called budget cuts by the state government of AZ. Naturally, there have been and will be many other such things going on all over the country, not just AZ. It's all well and good for Keith and other pundits and politicians of whatever stripe, to state, as he did, that "violence has no place in our democracy". I see two huge problems with that statement: A) Yes it does have a fundamental place and, B) we don't have any democracy.

Violence always has been and forever will be THE primary means of change, for good or ill, among human groups, small and large, tribes or nations. We killed a lot of Indians to get this country, to take it from them. We killed a lot of British soldiers to keep it. We killed way over half a million of each other over a big argument we had in the mid 1800s. We vaporized tens of thousands of Japanese people with atomic bombs. We continue to kill tens of thousands of men, women and children in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. It is utter folly to think this will ever change, either on a national level, or on a personal level. We are animals...we fight and kill like animals; animals with just enough cleverness to make them vastly more dangerous than any other animals.

Democracy? HA! You mean the kind we are attempting to force upon other peoples in various parts of the world who want no part of it or us? The kind of democracy that gave the people of AZ who were on that transplant list a vote on whether or not they would prefer to die for lack of medical care? The kind of democracy that allows poor people in our country, including many thousands of maimed and damaged soldiers to vote on whether or not they would prefer to sleep under bridges, in tents, in cars, on park benches rather than have a decent home to live in? Oh yes, these are terrible socio-political problems but there is no reason to resort to violence. Really? Guess what, all violence is not done by people with guns. How's this:

"He predicts that nearly 30 Arizonans will die this year because of the state's decision to cut certain transplants. "Failure to restore this funding is a death sentence for people who have committed no crimes," he said. The state hopes to save $1.4 million from the transplant cuts. Arizona faces a projected $1.4 billion shortfall in its next state budget." Source CBS News. Anyone going around with guns to the homes of these folk and popping them off? Nope....that would be the doings of politicians with pens. Why is Jan Brewer not arrested and charged as an accessory to murder?

We are a declining empire. That we ARE an empire is beyond any sensible dispute. We...America...are THE military superpower on this planet. We will not always be. Gilbert Mercier had a good article in Alternet last month called The American Empire Is Collapsing And Americans Will Be The Last To Know. I agree. Not that it's necessarily a good thing to know...it ain't like we're gonna change it. Four days ago, Sam Harris also had a great article in Alternet called Is The Ruination Of America Possible? It's not only possible but is well under way and is almost certainly inevitable.

Many thousands of people in America see the problems, see some excellent and outstanding ways to remedy them, to stop the decline. Many write wonderfully insightful and profound articles and even whole books on the subject; people who were, or even still are, in high government positions (Robert Reich, Paul Krugman), very wealthy people (Bill Gates, Warren Buffet), very talented people (Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Matt Taibbi), and yet the decline goes on unabated. Why? Some do a very good job of collecting and distributing information about the problems, but when it comes to answers, they cannot seem to grasp that they are as much of a problem as the ones they point out. A case in point: An article appeared on July 12, 2010 in The Real Truth magazine titled America's Crumbling Infrastructure. It does a great job of presenting some information about the bad problems with America's roads, bridges, drinking water, etc. The explanation? "Ezekiel also states that God intends to punish America." *sigh*

Some might point back at me and say something like, "Even if you don't ascribe it to God, you're still saying the same thing, that collapse is inevitable, that nothing can be done." Well, yeah, kinda. Hey, at least I blame humans for the problems, not make-believe critters. COULD humans fix the problems? Of course, as easy as pie. WILL humans fix the problems? Well, open can, worms everywhere. Basically, no. In part because most humans live in and on illusions and delusions. Then there's that animal greed, tribalism, propensity for violence, etc. Yeah, I could be wrong. I heartily encourage all and sundry to take any and every possible legal and non-violent political action possible; get permits, march in the streets, flood Washington and your state governments with snail mail, email, faxes, phone calls, pointing out the problems and suggesting solutions; hold neighborhood or town meetings; every chance you get, 'vote the bums out' and replace them with fresh bums, just like we been doing for what...200 years or so? Hey, even Nero fiddled while Rome burned, the legend says. Most guys on death row still do calisthenics...or make stuff out of match sticks...or paint.

Well, I been growing this little stinkweed for two hours now...may not compare to butterbeans and jalapenos, but still... We all pass the time somehow, eh?

TRB

Support Troops?

Hell no, I DO NOT support our troops!

I consider myself a patriot. There was an odd feller around in the late 1700's who was called, at least once, "that dirty little atheist". He wasn't really (more Deist/agnostic), but he wrote something called The Rights of Man. You can read it here. His name was Thomas Paine. I would hope the time would eventually come when most people could truthfully say of themselves, along with Paine, "The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." Obviously, we are nowhere near such an enlightened state, as a nation or as a species. Meanwhile, as long as patriotism - to a point - seems fairly reasonable, I am one. I like the ideal of the Oath of Enlistment into the US Armed Forces. It says:

"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God." (Title 10, US Code; Act of 5 May 1960 replacing the wording first adopted in 1789, with amendment effective 5 October 1962). Source.

Okay, so I'd drop the goofy "so help me God" part, and I'd have to look long and hard at what might happen if there were a clear contradiction between the first two clauses and the third... what if "obey[ing] the orders of the President..." etc., was a violation of "defend[ing] the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic"? How many potential military recruits do you suppose ask such a thing of the recruiter...or think of it before they get to that point? In the video I will point you to, a guy says something like, "When you are in country, you really don't have any choice, people are shooting at you, etc." No kidding. That's why you should think of these things BEFORE you sign yourself up to be in a military.

You might remember seeing George Bush, shortly after 9/11 happened, standing at Ground Zero shouting into a megaphone something like, "Soon, the people who brought down these buildings will feel us all". At that moment there was probably a collective "Huuahhh!" from most of the American population. I was thinking, "Well, not really, cuz they're kinda dead...vaporized even... by the impact and fire of a passenger jet slamming into a building at several hundred miles an hour." We were told that the nation of Iraq and it's sadistic leader (one of the many the US had installed there over the decades), one Saddam Houssein was behind this attack and they would shortly pay dearly. They did. They still do, as well as the people of Afghanistan and now Pakistan, and likely soon, Iran. But America has paid, and continues to pay, and will pay in the future, just as dearly.

Later we were told that neither Saddam Hussein nor the nation of Iraq had anything to do with a group called al Qaeda or 9/11, that the men who flew the planes into the buildings were Saudis...from Saudi Arabia. Well, never mind, we saw to it that Saddam was hanged anyway cuz he was a bad man. And besides, his name was Hussein. See video.

Saddam Hussein Execution (full video) | Viral/Other | SPIKE.com

And did we attack Saudi Arabia? Well, of course not, that would be silly.The family of our president at the time, the Bush family, has long had very close ties with King Faud and the rest of the Saudi Royal Family. Oh, and that bin Laden guy....the one man that the most sophisticated intelligence and military operations on the planet can't seem to find? His family, the bin Ladens, is said to be second only to the Royal Family in wealth and power in Saudi Arabia...and naturally, people with that much money and power are also close friends with the Royals and the Bushs. Check out The Bush-Saudi Connection.

So...we DID attack a couple of nations that had nothing to do with 9/11, we did NOT attack a nation our government says was responsible for 9/11. You gol-dern pinko commie bastard, this is AMURKA! and when the president says fight, we fight! Uh-huh. I try hard to not be an all or nothing guy...sometimes there is middle ground. I can't truthfully say I don't support ALL the troops. The ones in this video? They seem supportable to me. There is a video I would hope you would take the time to watch. I'm including a trailer for it below. Can't embed the whole thing but I will give a link. I was gonna embed it but I got the message at Youtube that NBC had pulled permission to view it because of copyright issues.

You know one reason I support this kind of soldier? Seems a lot of them finally got a clue that all enemies of the US or its people or its Constitution are not necessarily in other countries; not necessarily gooks and ragheads; not necessarily in fatigues or dress uniforms. Sometimes enemies are (gasp!) "domestic"! Sometimes they are handsome American boy-next-door types, with five thousand dollar Gucci suits. You can watch the whole video at this link:

The Ground Truth: After The Killing Ends

My friend Tex Shelters also has a nice blog on this subject here.

Iraq Veterans Against The War

Veterans For Peace

TRB

The Secret You

This is my first blog of 2011. Even though I still have about a half hour local time in 2010, why wait? It's 2011 in some places...close enough. I've spent much of the past several weeks absorbing information. I hope to spend part of the New Year, sharing much of it with you. This is not to say, by any stretch, that I claim to be a depository of huge knowledge, but I do read a lot and watch videos a lot...not just the Dean Koontz novels (which I usually enjoy) and the viral vids of cute baby animals (which I also enjoy), but books and videos on philosophy, economics, history, cosmology, latest tech advances, etc. I have very little in the way of official education; I have a GED and a bit of Jr. and tech college. But I am a natural nerd and enjoy learning all I can about everything I can.

There is a huge amount of information available and if even half of "the masses" knew any significant amount of the important knowledge, we would live in a very different world...maybe. I harbor no illusions that such will ever be the case for many various reasons, but I post the knowledge I do in the hope that some bored and hapless surfer may stumble upon something that makes him think something he never thought before, wonder about something enough to learn more. There are several generally accepted "truisms" that "everybody knows" that I do not consider truisms at all, and I know that very often what "everybody knows" is just flat wrong.

In this category are things like, "If I can do it, anyone can do." That is wrong to the point of absurdity...people do not have the same capacities and abilities and drives. Another is "absolute power corrupts absolutely". I forget the source of that gem, but I call bullshit. I think a given person is either corrupt or they are not...if they are a poor nobody, they have very little chance to display their corruption, but if they gain a lot of wealth and power, then they can. Conversely, if they are genuinely good people, then they are, regardless of their level of wealth and power. Another is "knowledge is power". Well, SOME bits of knowledge can be powerful in some situations, but I have knowledge out the wazoo, but barely have the power to walk to the bathroom. I would hope that some folk would start to actually listen and question things they hear, even from their own mouth, and see whether it is actually reasonable or logical.

When you receive, then give. When you learn, then teach. And remember that Oprah now OWNs the world.

In my opinion, one of the best places to start learning anything is with yourself. The phrase know thyself has a much different meaning now than in the time of Socrates. Until fairly recently it was only a term of philosophy or religion or mental health. It was the goal in a seemingly endless battle between the dualists and the materialists. One could spend years studying this, but the gist is that the dualist asserts that "mind" is something different from, separate, apart from matter, in the "mind over matter" sense. These folk are likely to believe that souls or spirits exist, that one can be or will be somehow still alive after they die. I think that is understandable, to a point, partly because of dreams and various other mental experiences one can have. Still, many people as far back as biblical times and Lucretius somehow intuitively knew that was nonsense.

The King James Bible says, "For to him that is joined to all the living there is hope: for a live dog is better than a dead lion."Ecclesiastes 9:4. The philosophy of Lucretius "includes disbelief in any kind of life after death and in any divinity concerned with man's welfare." Source. Perhaps this intuitive knowledge was due to the fact that no one ever saw any dead folk (or dogs, or cows, etc.) get up and go on their way, and the doubt probably affected other biblical passages, such as, "But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then [is] our preaching vain, and your faith [is] also vain." 1 Corinthians 15:13,14. And the whole congregation said..."well, duh!" Well, naw, cuz we had, from the beginning of recorded history (and surely before) to the present, a plethora of (often fatal) idiocies that far outweighed this intuitive knowledge that should have been intuitive to all, but wasn't.

How could any person seriously expect to be a learned individual about the world if they cannot grasp the most basic and fundamental truths about their own conscious existence? The materialists, in contrast to the dualists, assert that consciousness is the result of and utterly dependent upon matter, not some ethereal "other" thing. In our time, the empirically correct answer is established beyond any rational dispute, and the materialists have won. This is fact, not anyone's opinion or belief, just as it is fact that the earth is (mostly) spherical rather than a disk, yet some (many more than you might think) seem unable to accept the fact. The brain produces consciousness, just as it directs the autonomic systems (renal, respiratory, etc.) of the body.

I stole the title for this blog from the title of the following video series...called, oddly enough, The Secret You. I urge you, if at all possible, to watch these at least once, more if needed to grasp the information and implications. For example...it is now possible for another person to know precisely what your future action will be long before you know. In fact, you never know what your action will be...you only know it after the fact, which shoots the notion of Free Will all to hell. In these videos you can see what it would be like if your brain were transplanted into another body, and you could see your current body from different eyes...really, it's cool.

Lee Ann Womack had a beautiful song you still hear played often called "I Hope You Dance". There is a line in it which says, "Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance." That's all well and good for warm fuzzies, but I would much prefer you give knowledge a fighting chance. Why should you be a secret...to you? You up for it?

The Secret You

Yes Virginia, you can still dance, even with a head full of knowledge. Happy New Year

TRB