I promised myself not to open the Book of the Future this week. I wanted surprises to greet me should I hear or read about what's going on in the world.
Surprises ... if I want surprises, I should open a dictionary in a language I don't know. Is that a surprise, though?
The past few days I have let my thoughts drift more than usual. I have pondered world news and wondered why I see the same accusations / responses / behaviours all over again.
I have put myself in the place of some of the countries as if a nation has a personality.
I have asked myself in what way is an accused or insulted nation like myself.
Then, a personal issue that has crept along the periphery of my thoughts came forward.
Many weeks ago, I felt happy to say I was down to 222 pounds in body weight (you can estimate the stones or kilograms on that one for yourself).
An event - a personal issue - occurred afterward that has pushed my weight back up to 238 pounds.
My wife and I ran into a colleague of mine, Dr. N, a department chair at a local for-profit career college. Dr. N asked me if I was interested in teaching a class for her on Saturday. I said yes and agreed to stop by her office to meet the new academic dean.
During my meeting with the dean, I discovered she is originally from Connecticut but her husband is from the South - she ended up getting her academic degree down here.
Further into our conversation, I found out that the dean considered me a "bench player" because, although I had excellent feedback from the students in the classes I had taught there, I was up against newer instructors with more advanced degrees and longer time in the postsecondary education business. Plus, the dean said, I should consider getting a more advanced postsecondary degree (presumably in education) in order to "broaden my horizon."
Thus, although the department chair had wanted me to teach a Saturday class for her, I was being put into a substitute instructor position while they brought in someone from a local university to teach the class because the class had been moved to Thursday and the new instructor could teach that day (Saturday is a holy day for the new instructor, I was told).
So, here I found myself in an odd position. I had decided to stop teaching at ITT Tech several months back, came back to the local campus at the invitation of my former department chair and then was told, in a sense, that they didn't really need me after all.
I felt like I had been invited to my own birthday party just to be insulted by my friend.
It's an emotion, in retirement at middle age, not to be wished for, I can tell you.
With the memories of that emotion strong right now, with my weight pushing my belly up and over my belt, I step into the shoes of a nation.
Pick a nation that has publicly proclaimed it has been insulted lately - Iran, Israel, China, United States, Cypriot (Turkish or Greek), Korea (North or South) - and I am there. Pick a nation's leader, a religion, a religious leader, a corporation or corporate leader who has been picked on and I am there.
I do not know what the Book of the Future says about what will happen next in the international business of nuclear weapon proliferation. I do not know who will be the next Supreme Court Justice of the United States, Prime Minister of the UK or leader of Iraq. I do not know how we will convert people who don't give a rat's ass about the environment to care about recycling or the "green" movement in general.
I sit here in complete ignorance, my emotional state a mixture of depression, boredom and happiness.
Not a cloud in the sky, the light streaming into the room casting bright green shadows. And yet, Mr. Positive, Enthusiastic Optimism feels a dark weight pressing down on his shoulder blades.
I am a person. I feel aches and pains in my body and emotions in my brain and glands like everybody else.
Most days, I ignore my bodily self as a byproduct of the thought process I was born into.
This week, I am paying more attention to myself as a body to see what being a real, complete person is all about, putting aside thoughts of the impermanence of the self or other ideas that a thoughtless body is [probably] barely aware of.
Have you been told you're a "bench player," a second-teamer, a substitute when or if the rest of the team thinks you're needed?
The [non]proliferation of nuclear weaponry. The sovereign right to decide how the people will be ruled. The product mix you know the customer will buy versus what the marketing department says the customer wants, the board of directors be damned. Keeping the faith for billions while delicately handling how thousands have lost their faith through the misbehaviour of a few. The international cooperation of space exploration, taking turns such that some will sense they are being left behind.
Changes.
Being honest with ourselves.
I'm one person. I don't own much but I own a lot. By world standards, I am a rich person, not wealthy or filthy rich, free to live a healthy life and spend money in most any way I please. I am a product of two people and the result of billions more.
Because my name is common, having been used by a member of the U.S. Congress, an actor, an automobile dealership owner and many writers, to name but a very few, I am relatively anonymous. I exist but I don't exist.
Half the week is gone. Half a week of watching the world at work. Half a week of watching life on this planet grow and consume itself over and over. Half a week of knowing that the other half will pass by just as quickly.
In the world of for-profit postsecondary education, I am a bench player. Although that world is part of my past, what does it say about my future? How, in the world of highly effective people, should I sharpen my saw? Have I slipped into the world of the chattering class?
You're only as relevant as you believe yourself to be and act on that belief in the moment.
I have control of the food I consume and the exercise I put into my daily habits to burn off the excess calories I consumed knowingly/unknowingly. I decide how I'm going to react to others no matter in what temporary emotional states I may find myself.
I am also every one of you, you being a person, a people, and/or a group. We have control of our lives. We consume more than we need but we have the ability to control both our consumption (including our reactions to others that cause emotion-based changes to our consumption) and how we exercise to burn off excess consumption and increase our strength/health.
I can guess what the Book of the Future says we're going to do next if we keep drawing lines in the sand and insulting each other like children in a playground. Instead, are we not adults? Do we not have wisdom upon which to draw mutually-agreeable conclusions?
Don't wait until next week to see what the Book of the Future says you're going to do next. Be the first on your block to take the initiative to step over the line and see life from another perspective. Perhaps you'll find that both sides are insulting each other for no reason. Then, you can put aside the old ways of insulting and kicking sand and sit down to talk like reasonable adults.
A few more days of peaceful ignorance and then I'll look at what my colleagues, associates, insect farms, computer programmers and stack of pencils have to say about the future. Until then, I'm going to enjoy being me, with all my wonderful imperfections, insect bites and personal issues I couldn't see because I blinded myself emotionally from living freely in the moment.
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
21 April 2010
01 April 2010
A Paper April's Fool Moon
While digging through some old magazines, I found a reference to Nature, which reminded me of the old Omni magazine, Insight, and others that wound up in a refuse bin and perhaps in a landfill somewhere. Now, we have e-mags and nearly instant cross-references, where this becomes that and we spread the news to blogs and pollywogs and frogs and pigtails. I eat my wasabi peas listening to "Celtic" music thinking about water fleas and ant colonies moving from one potted tree in our house to another and then into the cereus pot (cereus, not serious or Sirius, not serial or cereal, either).
Redbuds blooming, Cornish Rex grooming.
On this day when a group sent me a message via an April Fool's Day joke, which they wanted to imply says what the real reason an ancient library was destroyed (to hide the prehistoric evidence of prehistoric evidence, evidently), I thumb through Harry Moore's Miocene musings called "The Bone Hunters," looking for the real clue to the next adventure our species is about to take.
Beyond automatic colour tracing...
Beyond the quad cube...
How do you demonstrate strength in weakness?
How do you turn play money into real prizes?
How does a wasp make a nest?
In this country, we don't make national heroes out of self-proclaimed martyrs - instead, we honour those who die in selfless service to society in general (police, firefighters, medical workers, military, etc.).
However, you can't just shove that kind of social status down the throats of those in a different society.
Figure out how to honour the dead in two opposing societies and you figure out how the living can live together, finally aligning two sets of youth training toward reaching one goal of the greater good for all, allowing dissident voices to argue about spinoff goals that might help us find even better goals one day.
A praying mantis, a spider, a hummingbird and a moth - what does a hawk want with these? How important is the lichen, moss or mosquito to them?
If you sell chemical fertilizer, you value green lawns with few insects or weeds. If you sell fruits and vegetables, you value the honeybee. How do both sellers compromise and agree to a goal of the greater good for all?
Subcultures. They're everywhere.
Will you be ready when we activate your sleeper cell for the greater good? Can you see it might be something as simple as asking you to turn on your television set and watch a popular program that your whole family will enjoy? Can you see it might be something as complex as accepting new job training and moving to a different part of the world where you don't speak the dominant local language? Would you give up your chemical sales job to become a beekeeper? Would you give up your vegetable farming to become a chemical engineer?
According to another message I received yesterday (via the arrangement of catfood cans in a pet store), some of you animal breeders will set up a communications network via read/write ID chips embedded in pedigree pets, using the pet owners' own WiFi networks to spy on them and their lifestyle habits in order to strengthen future sales of high-end pets (the strength in weakness demonstration, perhaps?). Nothing like seeing your customer from your product's (pet's) perspective!
Time to listen to the Great Mother and the Great Father for a while. They've been bugging me to go deeper into the meaning of life on this planet so I can see the grand vision intended for those who will first communicate with life on another celestial body. They tell me it has little to do with intelligence as we see it and more to do with chemistry and low-power wavelength alignment. They also tell me that we will learn to put aside superiourity and respect the sovereignty of unique lifeforms or we will never learn to survive on other worlds. More after I meditate on what they told me and what others have thought about many times before I arrived here in my temporary cellular form.
And yes, my computer programming friends - Czech, Russian, Chinese, et al - I am looking at the data you put together for me. Of course, the virtual world is important but it's not the only situation I'm situated in. There are some offworld issues to assess so I can decide which countries will be toppled in years to come to align the past, present and future in this instant. Nothing is permanent, my friends, including our valuable friendships - everything transforms.
Redbuds blooming, Cornish Rex grooming.
On this day when a group sent me a message via an April Fool's Day joke, which they wanted to imply says what the real reason an ancient library was destroyed (to hide the prehistoric evidence of prehistoric evidence, evidently), I thumb through Harry Moore's Miocene musings called "The Bone Hunters," looking for the real clue to the next adventure our species is about to take.
Beyond automatic colour tracing...
Beyond the quad cube...
How do you demonstrate strength in weakness?
How do you turn play money into real prizes?
How does a wasp make a nest?
In this country, we don't make national heroes out of self-proclaimed martyrs - instead, we honour those who die in selfless service to society in general (police, firefighters, medical workers, military, etc.).
However, you can't just shove that kind of social status down the throats of those in a different society.
Figure out how to honour the dead in two opposing societies and you figure out how the living can live together, finally aligning two sets of youth training toward reaching one goal of the greater good for all, allowing dissident voices to argue about spinoff goals that might help us find even better goals one day.
A praying mantis, a spider, a hummingbird and a moth - what does a hawk want with these? How important is the lichen, moss or mosquito to them?
If you sell chemical fertilizer, you value green lawns with few insects or weeds. If you sell fruits and vegetables, you value the honeybee. How do both sellers compromise and agree to a goal of the greater good for all?
Subcultures. They're everywhere.
Will you be ready when we activate your sleeper cell for the greater good? Can you see it might be something as simple as asking you to turn on your television set and watch a popular program that your whole family will enjoy? Can you see it might be something as complex as accepting new job training and moving to a different part of the world where you don't speak the dominant local language? Would you give up your chemical sales job to become a beekeeper? Would you give up your vegetable farming to become a chemical engineer?
According to another message I received yesterday (via the arrangement of catfood cans in a pet store), some of you animal breeders will set up a communications network via read/write ID chips embedded in pedigree pets, using the pet owners' own WiFi networks to spy on them and their lifestyle habits in order to strengthen future sales of high-end pets (the strength in weakness demonstration, perhaps?). Nothing like seeing your customer from your product's (pet's) perspective!
Time to listen to the Great Mother and the Great Father for a while. They've been bugging me to go deeper into the meaning of life on this planet so I can see the grand vision intended for those who will first communicate with life on another celestial body. They tell me it has little to do with intelligence as we see it and more to do with chemistry and low-power wavelength alignment. They also tell me that we will learn to put aside superiourity and respect the sovereignty of unique lifeforms or we will never learn to survive on other worlds. More after I meditate on what they told me and what others have thought about many times before I arrived here in my temporary cellular form.
And yes, my computer programming friends - Czech, Russian, Chinese, et al - I am looking at the data you put together for me. Of course, the virtual world is important but it's not the only situation I'm situated in. There are some offworld issues to assess so I can decide which countries will be toppled in years to come to align the past, present and future in this instant. Nothing is permanent, my friends, including our valuable friendships - everything transforms.
22 March 2010
The World Did Not End Today ... Now What?
Kudos to Pelosi and Merkel for keeping their positions relevant in today's economy.
[ And now, a word from our sponsor ]
Do you feel lonely and tired? Have you found yourself in your life? Do you feel happy and satisfied? Do you have no idea who or what you should be or are?
We know how you feel.
In these times of all times, isn't it time you gave a thought to why you have that nagging feeling you know what's going to happen before it happens?
You see, you do already know what's going to happen. After all, people are people everywhere. That's why we're here to remind you you have developed a brand-new system for taking control of your life and the lives of people around you who haven't yet developed their own system of infinite power and mind control.
Normally, we would charge weekly consulting fees to tell you what you already know. But, for a limited time only, we're not going to charge you perpetually. In fact, we're not going to submit a bill for any amount at all. Instead, we're giving away, totally free, the information you already have in your head.
That's right! If you don't call within the next 48 hours, you will receive absolutely nothing from us for nothing at all.
You heard that right, folks! We're offering this package to you with the special added bonus of you discovering your own lifetime benefit of unlimited wealth and happiness without spending any money or investing any time in listening to us or our expert panel of expert experts.
So hurry! This offer is only good for your lifetime. Should you fail to take advantage of this deal, you have no one to blame, not even yourself, because you made a decision, consciously or subconsciously, to do something else entirely. And guess what! It's okay! You'll live a wonderful life either way!
[ Now back to your regularly scheduled blog entry ]
Some colleagues of mine have sent me their setups on several game boards - Monopoly, Risk, Life, Go, chess, D&D, Stratego, Chutes & Ladders, Operation - and asked me to guess the outcome. Every colleague stressed the seriousness of the game, comparing it to Jumanji or Zathura in the influence the game's moves have on real life. My colleagues want me to prove to them that the Book of the Future predicts not only the final outcome but the changes to this part of the universe every game piece movement makes.
As you know, the universe operates according to my wishes but not my demands. Being a retired individual, not actively involved in swaying public opinion or stock market manipulation, I view this universe of mine with a sly twinkle in my eye, allowing humourous diversions to cause occasional irregularity in the form of temporary layoffs, good times, and micro-anarchic chaos.
Disposable credit card numbers, fake caller ID, disposable phone numbers, counterfeit passports, lack of a real home address - all these add up to shuffling game pieces around the globe invisibly. What you see on the game board, as we've seen, is never what the game is all about. We've been here before, haven't we?
But colleagues still want to know the answers I've already given them. They're caught in a loop of unbelievability. They cannot accept the fact that their game-changing shots are statistically insignificant when the future is already known.
That's why I tell you I'm neutral when it comes to seeing and telling you what the Book of the Future has laid out for us.
For instance, I support my buddies who say they don't believe in government handouts. At the same time, I've built my financial portfolio on paychecks tied to government contracts and investments in government-backed securities which exist to support those who receive government handouts and use them in the marketplace to churn the value of labor units over and over. I know that government bureaucracies rarely shrink in size but then again they feed a lot of people on this planet, keeping them happily employed and willing to buy products developed/built in part by many people who received free primary/secondary public education and postsecondary education subsidised by the government.
We live in a complex society that's not easily represented by any single board game. Who are the pawns? Where is Boardwalk? Can you really pass Go when you play Go with Play-doh? D'oh!
I'm not a liberal. I'm not a neocon. I'm not a conservative. I'm neutral and independent. My only focus is our species in total, which represents life on this planet that can spread out into the universe regardless of moral, ethical or environmental concerns, because most everything comes out of the wash looking clean.
Did I not tell you that the Book of the Future said that Obama would come out smelling like a winner? I did not vote for him or his predecessor. I do not care, but others do, who holds the office of the U.S. presidency. I understand the political hierarchy necessary to keep any government system running so I vote for independents to allow myself the freedom to observe our political-industrial complex in action without any personal vested interests.
Tomorrow, the chief executive representing one of the three branches of government established by U.S. constitutional law will sign into law a set of financial constraints tied to the institution of medical health care. The Book of the Future indicates this is only one of several goals that must be met to prevent debt-crushing blows to another world power.
Politicians and mass media criers who want to represent the emotional buildup of opposition to the political party in power will play up the failings sensed in any change to the status quo. So be it. The larger the perceived change, the louder the opposition yells. Let us celebrate our pendulum-swinging political process with joy. After all, it works well, both historically into the past and historically into the future!
While elected public officials hit the campaign fund trail to shore up support for upcoming elections, let's pause a moment and look at other issues that will make government policies lose their immediacy and become another historic moment for schoolchildren to memorise later on.
Let's consider the role of the individual: YOU.
Are you willing to insert/embed electronic equipment in your body to vastly improve your ability to communicate with others? Are you willing to have a disposable identity that does away with any worries about identity theft because we're all temporary placeholders for personal identification information, including fingerprints and other genetic anomalies?
Can you imagine a scenario where you have no social goals tied to a name or group because, although you may experience and apply intense social-climbing skills, you have been trained to believe your ascendancy is for the benefit of our species and not for individually-named glory? In this scenario, you still have your independence, including guaranteed freedoms like uncensored speech, but in this particular freedom case your speech would be crowdsourced with the voices of others and blended with the rest of our species' freedoms quasi-anonymously.
The Book of the Future long ago told us about these scenarios that predicted the species-wide broadband initiative we're slowly implementing to tie our thoughts and actions together 24-hours a day.
The Power of You. I told you this blog is only about you. Every single one of you/me/us.
When our lives are transparent, what is a "community standard" we expect others to follow? That's the main issue we have to address that will make all other government decisions fade in importance - the hierarchy of family, community and species' standards. Do e-citizens have community standards separate from digital illiterates? Can a tribe be allowed to maintain its traditional ways and slaughter the last remaining specimens of a species, even if it means the end of the tribe members' traditions/livelihood?
We have reached the point where groups like the United Nations no longer represent our species well. We must look to something more meaningful - a world council made of all of us - the complete expansion of the Internet, where tribes, corporations, nations, civic groups and independent thinkers have equal say in our mixed-mode hierarchy of daily living.
Your Voice Rules. We know the future laid out for us. We know we will raise the standards of living for all of us, not just socioeconomically, but also in respect to respect for one another's existence/opinion.
For instance, Apple, Dell, HP, IBM and others have the power to empower unemployed Americans using government-backed retraining/retooling to replace the supply chain stranglehold in China and build high-tech manufacturing expertise on this continent while China builds its domestic market and stops complaining about its currency pricefixing. Tata Motors can compete globally. Ireland can rebuild, one website at a time. Baidu and Google can become partners rather than competitors. And I can rest assured that our species has plans to train a new generation of space explorers.
After all, those of us with a view of the future already know what's going to happen - how we choose to freely participate in the moment is up to us because we know life takes first priority and everything else gets seconds.
See you at the spaceport soon!
[ And now, a word from our sponsor ]
Do you feel lonely and tired? Have you found yourself in your life? Do you feel happy and satisfied? Do you have no idea who or what you should be or are?
We know how you feel.
In these times of all times, isn't it time you gave a thought to why you have that nagging feeling you know what's going to happen before it happens?
You see, you do already know what's going to happen. After all, people are people everywhere. That's why we're here to remind you you have developed a brand-new system for taking control of your life and the lives of people around you who haven't yet developed their own system of infinite power and mind control.
Normally, we would charge weekly consulting fees to tell you what you already know. But, for a limited time only, we're not going to charge you perpetually. In fact, we're not going to submit a bill for any amount at all. Instead, we're giving away, totally free, the information you already have in your head.
That's right! If you don't call within the next 48 hours, you will receive absolutely nothing from us for nothing at all.
You heard that right, folks! We're offering this package to you with the special added bonus of you discovering your own lifetime benefit of unlimited wealth and happiness without spending any money or investing any time in listening to us or our expert panel of expert experts.
So hurry! This offer is only good for your lifetime. Should you fail to take advantage of this deal, you have no one to blame, not even yourself, because you made a decision, consciously or subconsciously, to do something else entirely. And guess what! It's okay! You'll live a wonderful life either way!
[ Now back to your regularly scheduled blog entry ]
Some colleagues of mine have sent me their setups on several game boards - Monopoly, Risk, Life, Go, chess, D&D, Stratego, Chutes & Ladders, Operation - and asked me to guess the outcome. Every colleague stressed the seriousness of the game, comparing it to Jumanji or Zathura in the influence the game's moves have on real life. My colleagues want me to prove to them that the Book of the Future predicts not only the final outcome but the changes to this part of the universe every game piece movement makes.
As you know, the universe operates according to my wishes but not my demands. Being a retired individual, not actively involved in swaying public opinion or stock market manipulation, I view this universe of mine with a sly twinkle in my eye, allowing humourous diversions to cause occasional irregularity in the form of temporary layoffs, good times, and micro-anarchic chaos.
Disposable credit card numbers, fake caller ID, disposable phone numbers, counterfeit passports, lack of a real home address - all these add up to shuffling game pieces around the globe invisibly. What you see on the game board, as we've seen, is never what the game is all about. We've been here before, haven't we?
But colleagues still want to know the answers I've already given them. They're caught in a loop of unbelievability. They cannot accept the fact that their game-changing shots are statistically insignificant when the future is already known.
That's why I tell you I'm neutral when it comes to seeing and telling you what the Book of the Future has laid out for us.
For instance, I support my buddies who say they don't believe in government handouts. At the same time, I've built my financial portfolio on paychecks tied to government contracts and investments in government-backed securities which exist to support those who receive government handouts and use them in the marketplace to churn the value of labor units over and over. I know that government bureaucracies rarely shrink in size but then again they feed a lot of people on this planet, keeping them happily employed and willing to buy products developed/built in part by many people who received free primary/secondary public education and postsecondary education subsidised by the government.
We live in a complex society that's not easily represented by any single board game. Who are the pawns? Where is Boardwalk? Can you really pass Go when you play Go with Play-doh? D'oh!
I'm not a liberal. I'm not a neocon. I'm not a conservative. I'm neutral and independent. My only focus is our species in total, which represents life on this planet that can spread out into the universe regardless of moral, ethical or environmental concerns, because most everything comes out of the wash looking clean.
Did I not tell you that the Book of the Future said that Obama would come out smelling like a winner? I did not vote for him or his predecessor. I do not care, but others do, who holds the office of the U.S. presidency. I understand the political hierarchy necessary to keep any government system running so I vote for independents to allow myself the freedom to observe our political-industrial complex in action without any personal vested interests.
Tomorrow, the chief executive representing one of the three branches of government established by U.S. constitutional law will sign into law a set of financial constraints tied to the institution of medical health care. The Book of the Future indicates this is only one of several goals that must be met to prevent debt-crushing blows to another world power.
Politicians and mass media criers who want to represent the emotional buildup of opposition to the political party in power will play up the failings sensed in any change to the status quo. So be it. The larger the perceived change, the louder the opposition yells. Let us celebrate our pendulum-swinging political process with joy. After all, it works well, both historically into the past and historically into the future!
While elected public officials hit the campaign fund trail to shore up support for upcoming elections, let's pause a moment and look at other issues that will make government policies lose their immediacy and become another historic moment for schoolchildren to memorise later on.
Let's consider the role of the individual: YOU.
Are you willing to insert/embed electronic equipment in your body to vastly improve your ability to communicate with others? Are you willing to have a disposable identity that does away with any worries about identity theft because we're all temporary placeholders for personal identification information, including fingerprints and other genetic anomalies?
Can you imagine a scenario where you have no social goals tied to a name or group because, although you may experience and apply intense social-climbing skills, you have been trained to believe your ascendancy is for the benefit of our species and not for individually-named glory? In this scenario, you still have your independence, including guaranteed freedoms like uncensored speech, but in this particular freedom case your speech would be crowdsourced with the voices of others and blended with the rest of our species' freedoms quasi-anonymously.
The Book of the Future long ago told us about these scenarios that predicted the species-wide broadband initiative we're slowly implementing to tie our thoughts and actions together 24-hours a day.
The Power of You. I told you this blog is only about you. Every single one of you/me/us.
When our lives are transparent, what is a "community standard" we expect others to follow? That's the main issue we have to address that will make all other government decisions fade in importance - the hierarchy of family, community and species' standards. Do e-citizens have community standards separate from digital illiterates? Can a tribe be allowed to maintain its traditional ways and slaughter the last remaining specimens of a species, even if it means the end of the tribe members' traditions/livelihood?
We have reached the point where groups like the United Nations no longer represent our species well. We must look to something more meaningful - a world council made of all of us - the complete expansion of the Internet, where tribes, corporations, nations, civic groups and independent thinkers have equal say in our mixed-mode hierarchy of daily living.
Your Voice Rules. We know the future laid out for us. We know we will raise the standards of living for all of us, not just socioeconomically, but also in respect to respect for one another's existence/opinion.
For instance, Apple, Dell, HP, IBM and others have the power to empower unemployed Americans using government-backed retraining/retooling to replace the supply chain stranglehold in China and build high-tech manufacturing expertise on this continent while China builds its domestic market and stops complaining about its currency pricefixing. Tata Motors can compete globally. Ireland can rebuild, one website at a time. Baidu and Google can become partners rather than competitors. And I can rest assured that our species has plans to train a new generation of space explorers.
After all, those of us with a view of the future already know what's going to happen - how we choose to freely participate in the moment is up to us because we know life takes first priority and everything else gets seconds.
See you at the spaceport soon!
21 March 2010
Let Level Heads Prevail
While secret organisations prepare to call their troops to actions, I hope we have our national guard on duty in this country, focused on keeping us focused on the big picture and not on local slices of time that are always full of change and thus full of strong emotional pull. Don't get trapped into getting provoked. Folks hold flint and steel and cotton balls, ready to set the spark of chaotic controversy for their personal gain, not yours.
I want the ability to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables without worrying about if I'm carrying the politically-correct paperwork while passing through armoured checkpoints. I have friends who have lived in such situations and are lucky to be alive to tell me about them.
We choose our futures in the thoughts and actions of this moment. Consider your next move carefully. Our future depends on what you say or do right now.
Some people have already revealed what they're going to do next and their leaders are telling them to hold off until the sign is given to everyone in their groups to proceed in a coordinated maneuver.
I'm neutral about what's going to happen next. The Book of the Future has already prepared me for the best and the worst that can happen. Either way, I made my peace with the world the day my brother in-law died in 2006. I am not him but I'm prepared by my Eagle Boy Scout training to do the right thing by him.
I will not let this country fail or falter in the face of global competition. This country represents hope for the world in the realm of free speech and freedom of religious practice - immigrants keep pouring in who know what other countries' leaders and their organisations do not represent well: government of the people, by the people and for the people. It's not just about money, although money helps us pay for those who protect the freedoms we love dearly.
Have mercy on your neighbour - you do not know what s/he has gone through to get where s/he is in life right now.
If you start a class war, be prepared to face the consequences of your actions. Heroes and enemies are just words. The pen is mightier than a sword and deadlier than a bullet in the heat of battle. Have you considered the counter-counter-counter-counter-counter attacks already prepared against you?
Unemployment is high and unrest is growing. GDP and gross domestic emotional stability are not directly proportional. Do you want to be the one who helped social scientists develop the correct formula?
I close this blog entry in order to enjoy domestic tranquility with my wife and our two cats - my ultimate moment of meditation no one interrupts without consequence.
This blog is about you and your future. I am unimportant. If you read these words, consider their meaning carefully. Your life is in your hands, not mine. This moment's all I've got and I choose to spend it with my life partner. Maybe you should, too. There's always a chance it's the last moment any of us have together but I sure hope not. I've got a moon cruise to catch one day soon - who else but my wife to spend it with!
I want the ability to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables without worrying about if I'm carrying the politically-correct paperwork while passing through armoured checkpoints. I have friends who have lived in such situations and are lucky to be alive to tell me about them.
We choose our futures in the thoughts and actions of this moment. Consider your next move carefully. Our future depends on what you say or do right now.
Some people have already revealed what they're going to do next and their leaders are telling them to hold off until the sign is given to everyone in their groups to proceed in a coordinated maneuver.
I'm neutral about what's going to happen next. The Book of the Future has already prepared me for the best and the worst that can happen. Either way, I made my peace with the world the day my brother in-law died in 2006. I am not him but I'm prepared by my Eagle Boy Scout training to do the right thing by him.
I will not let this country fail or falter in the face of global competition. This country represents hope for the world in the realm of free speech and freedom of religious practice - immigrants keep pouring in who know what other countries' leaders and their organisations do not represent well: government of the people, by the people and for the people. It's not just about money, although money helps us pay for those who protect the freedoms we love dearly.
Have mercy on your neighbour - you do not know what s/he has gone through to get where s/he is in life right now.
If you start a class war, be prepared to face the consequences of your actions. Heroes and enemies are just words. The pen is mightier than a sword and deadlier than a bullet in the heat of battle. Have you considered the counter-counter-counter-counter-counter attacks already prepared against you?
Unemployment is high and unrest is growing. GDP and gross domestic emotional stability are not directly proportional. Do you want to be the one who helped social scientists develop the correct formula?
I close this blog entry in order to enjoy domestic tranquility with my wife and our two cats - my ultimate moment of meditation no one interrupts without consequence.
This blog is about you and your future. I am unimportant. If you read these words, consider their meaning carefully. Your life is in your hands, not mine. This moment's all I've got and I choose to spend it with my life partner. Maybe you should, too. There's always a chance it's the last moment any of us have together but I sure hope not. I've got a moon cruise to catch one day soon - who else but my wife to spend it with!
17 March 2010
Three-thousand what?
Once a politician, always a politician? Sadly, it seems so:
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/mar/17/fact-check-premiums-would-rise-under-obama-plan/
Seeking true reform is one thing but misspeaking the truth is another. Someone just confirmed he said "no" a long time ago. Oh well, who's next?
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/mar/17/fact-check-premiums-would-rise-under-obama-plan/
Seeking true reform is one thing but misspeaking the truth is another. Someone just confirmed he said "no" a long time ago. Oh well, who's next?
09 March 2010
Removal Of This Bear Warning Sign Is Punishable By A Death By Bear Sign
Some friends of mine from the area I know as the Middle East have frequently asked me to divulge the information I have concerning the facts leading up to the events that occurred in the United States of America on the 11th of September, 2001. They are willing to trade concessions for facts. If I will share data, they might nudge Iran into being a little more cooperative internationally.
Having friends from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Florida who all compiled a compost heap of data for me over the years, I have obtained information that contradicts information that contradicts information that contradicts information that ... well, you get the contradiction, I'm sure.
What is a fact? We've looked at that question many times, haven't we? Perspective, implication, belief - these all influence what you call a fact.
Thus, to divulge information would mean I would have to present facts from one or more perspectives, which would imply a certain image (or images) whose interpretation(s) would depend on your beliefs.
Fact: Many airplanes did not meet their stated flight plan objectives on 9/11/01.
Fact: Many airplanes did meet their stated flight plan objectives on 9/11/01.
Fact: While using 9/11/01 as a rallying cry to drum up support for war, President George W. Bush had not made up his mind whether to attack Iraq.
Fact: The U.S. military and its private contractors had spent months putting assets into place to attack Iraq before President Bush's public announcement to attack.
Fact: One person's terrorist group is another person's fight for the recognition of the right to exist.
Fact: Saudi Arabia is officially a friend of the USA (oil and regional stability speak louder than words).
Fact: Osama bin Laden and his extended family are associated with Saudi Arabia.
Fact: Osama bin Laden has never been officially captured by the USA and Saudi Arabia (or Saudi Arabian families) has never been severely punished for the fact that most of the hijackers of 9/11/01 officially held Saudi citizenship.
Fact: History belongs to the successful aggressor and its allowance of freedom of speech.
Fact: I support both the majority and minorities within a plurality but know who butters my bread; thus, in this case, my hands are tied, my lips are sealed and some facts will go silently with me to my grave. I know this means Iran will have a stronger bargaining position because of my silence but it also means others who have a different perspective on the situation can reveal facts that I cannot if we want to deal frankly with the Iranian leaders in the public arena.
History is rewritten constantly - nothing is permanent. The USA can become a former empire like many European countries or it can find ways to strengthen its longterm global credibility without the use of shortterm military coercion and still remain strong. "Walk softly and carry a big stick" is still apropos. In fact, China is using that phrase against the USA just as the USA used that phrase against others in the past.
Just because you took the bear warning sign down doesn't mean the bears have left the woods. In other words, just because you didn't see a bear warning sign doesn't mean the woods are safe - you're at the mercy of someone who forgot to put up a warning sign, didn't know to put up the warning sign or maliciously removed the warning sign - nothing is what it seems. Live in blissful ignorance, if you want - I look for signs you can see if you know what you're looking for, like footprints in the mud, scratches on trees or scat on the trail.
We may just be states of energy but those states of energy like to hold together in rather consistent forms. Know the consistent patterns of your misbehaving child and you know what that adult child will do later on - ultimately, you are responsible for your offspring and I will hold you accountable because, remember, I don't tolerate intolerance ... in any form. You have the child, you pay the price for the child's behaviour - a simple fact we can both understand and deal with. I'll deal with you later. That's a fact.
Having friends from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Syria, Lebanon and Florida who all compiled a compost heap of data for me over the years, I have obtained information that contradicts information that contradicts information that contradicts information that ... well, you get the contradiction, I'm sure.
What is a fact? We've looked at that question many times, haven't we? Perspective, implication, belief - these all influence what you call a fact.
Thus, to divulge information would mean I would have to present facts from one or more perspectives, which would imply a certain image (or images) whose interpretation(s) would depend on your beliefs.
Fact: Many airplanes did not meet their stated flight plan objectives on 9/11/01.
Fact: Many airplanes did meet their stated flight plan objectives on 9/11/01.
Fact: While using 9/11/01 as a rallying cry to drum up support for war, President George W. Bush had not made up his mind whether to attack Iraq.
Fact: The U.S. military and its private contractors had spent months putting assets into place to attack Iraq before President Bush's public announcement to attack.
Fact: One person's terrorist group is another person's fight for the recognition of the right to exist.
Fact: Saudi Arabia is officially a friend of the USA (oil and regional stability speak louder than words).
Fact: Osama bin Laden and his extended family are associated with Saudi Arabia.
Fact: Osama bin Laden has never been officially captured by the USA and Saudi Arabia (or Saudi Arabian families) has never been severely punished for the fact that most of the hijackers of 9/11/01 officially held Saudi citizenship.
Fact: History belongs to the successful aggressor and its allowance of freedom of speech.
Fact: I support both the majority and minorities within a plurality but know who butters my bread; thus, in this case, my hands are tied, my lips are sealed and some facts will go silently with me to my grave. I know this means Iran will have a stronger bargaining position because of my silence but it also means others who have a different perspective on the situation can reveal facts that I cannot if we want to deal frankly with the Iranian leaders in the public arena.
History is rewritten constantly - nothing is permanent. The USA can become a former empire like many European countries or it can find ways to strengthen its longterm global credibility without the use of shortterm military coercion and still remain strong. "Walk softly and carry a big stick" is still apropos. In fact, China is using that phrase against the USA just as the USA used that phrase against others in the past.
Just because you took the bear warning sign down doesn't mean the bears have left the woods. In other words, just because you didn't see a bear warning sign doesn't mean the woods are safe - you're at the mercy of someone who forgot to put up a warning sign, didn't know to put up the warning sign or maliciously removed the warning sign - nothing is what it seems. Live in blissful ignorance, if you want - I look for signs you can see if you know what you're looking for, like footprints in the mud, scratches on trees or scat on the trail.
We may just be states of energy but those states of energy like to hold together in rather consistent forms. Know the consistent patterns of your misbehaving child and you know what that adult child will do later on - ultimately, you are responsible for your offspring and I will hold you accountable because, remember, I don't tolerate intolerance ... in any form. You have the child, you pay the price for the child's behaviour - a simple fact we can both understand and deal with. I'll deal with you later. That's a fact.
02 March 2010
Who's Gonna Get Us Off This Planet?
How long have you worked with your colleagues? Did it start in preschool? Do you think you only started when you took your first "real" job?
When I was a small child, I attended a seminar on personal growth. At the end of the seminar, the speaker told the young people in the audience she had a special message for those interested in more information so a smaller group of us gathered in another room with her.
The speaker asked how many of us could keep a secret and then had us play the "pass the secret" game (you know, where one person whispers a message in the ear of another, that person whispers the message in the ear of the next person, and so on, until the message has reached the ears of the original message-giver).
As the speaker whispered in the ear of the first person, she took quick glances at three of us in the room. Being acutely aware of adult behaviours, the three of us knew what she meant.
When the message got to me, I could tell the first kid of the three of us had modified the message by adding a phrase at the end, so I added another short phrase.
By the time the message got to the speaker, it had four parts.
The speaker thanked us for our participation and asked three to stay behind, including myself and two kids different than the two other ones I'd seen her signal.
The speaker explained that she was part of a very special group. She had watched us kids carefully and knew by our actions we could be trusted to follow our instincts and not follow instructions that indicated they were to be followed to the letter. You follow?
She told us she'd contact us later on. It might be days or it might be months but she'd let us know when she was back in town and had instructions for us to read very carefully, choosing for ourselves the direction we would take.
A few months later, my parents announced we were taking a tour of Washington, D.C. They excitedly told the family all the places they wanted us to see and asked us what we wanted to see. Of course, I wanted to visit the Smithsonian.
Just before our trip, the speaker showed up at my school to give a lecture on the flight of the Alice Springs camelback warbler. I attended the lecture and talked with the speaker afterward.
The speaker told me that while visiting buildings in Washington, I was to get lost from my parents and any tour group I was with. During my childlike, innocent wanderings, I was to gather information about certain subjects using whatever I had at my disposal. The speaker handed me a piece of paper, trained me with methods in how to enhance eidetic memory, had me memorise the list of words on the paper and then eat the paper (it had the sweet taste of ground horse hooves).
Back in those days, it was easy to wander through buildings.
When we walked into a building with a tour group, I would read the names of important people listed on the public display, get lost, and ask adults I bumped into if they could point me in the direction of my [uncle/aunt such-and-such]. Most adults were all too helpful and pointed me to elevators or hallways I could duck into until they disappeared.
That was in the 1970s. The speaker made it clear that the information I gathered would not be used for 30 or 40 years so I would be safe in having a long stretch of time between my face being seen and the data being put to use.
I had forgotten about the speaker and the information until recently.
While reviewing a multidimensional chart of population density versus wealth distribution versus manufacturing capability versus natural resource ownership/access versus education level versus military strength versus underworld valuation, I saw some of my old data.
During my childhood wanderings, I looked through the desk drawers of supposedly famous/powerful people, discovering their hidden trusts, foundations and other methods for keeping their wealth or estates off the books. I found accounting ledgers that showed who was depositing money in offshore accounts, offering free holidays, "loaning" free automobiles/houses/holiday homes, and the record of other terminology that a young person is not supposed to know about.
Using both my eidetic memory and a cheap tourist camera, I captured a lot of data. That was all I was supposed to do. However, as a child who had inside information, including names, and a cruel sense of humour for my age, I accidentally bumped into those famous/powerful people and asked them vague questions, dropping hints that on the surface made no sense, sending some people scrambling back to their offices or out of their offices in confusion. Then, I'd make myself obvious and get "found" by building security guards who'd kindly escort me back to my parents.
Now, while I watch political maneuvers that make no sense, I understand what's going on. I see politicians who are secretly figuring out if they can find a profitable way to get gambling casinos and "bingo halls" raised to the level of stock exchanges and regulated by the SEC. I see lobbyists who want to tie universal health care coverage to the court ruling on the federal authority of enforcing the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I see corporate lawyers wanting to go after Chinese glass quality control while Toyota is facing a decrease in public trust. I see the U.S. president going after education and the Russian president going after Olympic trainers in the same light. In other words, who paid for the coup in Niger and who was paid to expose a "coup" in Turkey?
While my associates sort out the details to feed questions to the new set of speakers we've got combing through the tangled mess of public education for a few new recruits to join the network of associates that doesn't exist, I'm moving on to another project.
I've been told that a space agency leader is learning why some people are not good politicians and will be reined in properly. Therefore, I'm not going to worry about how the political effect on space exploration will play out. If I can see the difference between a player and a "playa," then so can those who I trust to take care of business using the politically-correct, public channels of communication. If not, then my associates know what to do next. Pedigree has never been a good form of shielding against the need of the many.
My associates rarely take the direct approach. We have time on our side. Lots of time. Decades, if that's what it takes. I remind them that I'm a nice guy and want all of us to use happy ways to move the world forward. They remind me that I'm a writer, the messenger boy, by my choice. We all have choices to make in how we take turns leading the network. I've made mine and they have their choices to make. Together, we'll get the job done, for our species, no single person more important than the other. Some will get rich along the way, some will get fame and power, some will keep their anonymity and some will take quiet walks in the woods. Never sacrifice freedom of choice to achieve our greater goals.
When I was a small child, I attended a seminar on personal growth. At the end of the seminar, the speaker told the young people in the audience she had a special message for those interested in more information so a smaller group of us gathered in another room with her.
The speaker asked how many of us could keep a secret and then had us play the "pass the secret" game (you know, where one person whispers a message in the ear of another, that person whispers the message in the ear of the next person, and so on, until the message has reached the ears of the original message-giver).
As the speaker whispered in the ear of the first person, she took quick glances at three of us in the room. Being acutely aware of adult behaviours, the three of us knew what she meant.
When the message got to me, I could tell the first kid of the three of us had modified the message by adding a phrase at the end, so I added another short phrase.
By the time the message got to the speaker, it had four parts.
The speaker thanked us for our participation and asked three to stay behind, including myself and two kids different than the two other ones I'd seen her signal.
The speaker explained that she was part of a very special group. She had watched us kids carefully and knew by our actions we could be trusted to follow our instincts and not follow instructions that indicated they were to be followed to the letter. You follow?
She told us she'd contact us later on. It might be days or it might be months but she'd let us know when she was back in town and had instructions for us to read very carefully, choosing for ourselves the direction we would take.
A few months later, my parents announced we were taking a tour of Washington, D.C. They excitedly told the family all the places they wanted us to see and asked us what we wanted to see. Of course, I wanted to visit the Smithsonian.
Just before our trip, the speaker showed up at my school to give a lecture on the flight of the Alice Springs camelback warbler. I attended the lecture and talked with the speaker afterward.
The speaker told me that while visiting buildings in Washington, I was to get lost from my parents and any tour group I was with. During my childlike, innocent wanderings, I was to gather information about certain subjects using whatever I had at my disposal. The speaker handed me a piece of paper, trained me with methods in how to enhance eidetic memory, had me memorise the list of words on the paper and then eat the paper (it had the sweet taste of ground horse hooves).
Back in those days, it was easy to wander through buildings.
When we walked into a building with a tour group, I would read the names of important people listed on the public display, get lost, and ask adults I bumped into if they could point me in the direction of my [uncle/aunt such-and-such]. Most adults were all too helpful and pointed me to elevators or hallways I could duck into until they disappeared.
That was in the 1970s. The speaker made it clear that the information I gathered would not be used for 30 or 40 years so I would be safe in having a long stretch of time between my face being seen and the data being put to use.
I had forgotten about the speaker and the information until recently.
While reviewing a multidimensional chart of population density versus wealth distribution versus manufacturing capability versus natural resource ownership/access versus education level versus military strength versus underworld valuation, I saw some of my old data.
During my childhood wanderings, I looked through the desk drawers of supposedly famous/powerful people, discovering their hidden trusts, foundations and other methods for keeping their wealth or estates off the books. I found accounting ledgers that showed who was depositing money in offshore accounts, offering free holidays, "loaning" free automobiles/houses/holiday homes, and the record of other terminology that a young person is not supposed to know about.
Using both my eidetic memory and a cheap tourist camera, I captured a lot of data. That was all I was supposed to do. However, as a child who had inside information, including names, and a cruel sense of humour for my age, I accidentally bumped into those famous/powerful people and asked them vague questions, dropping hints that on the surface made no sense, sending some people scrambling back to their offices or out of their offices in confusion. Then, I'd make myself obvious and get "found" by building security guards who'd kindly escort me back to my parents.
Now, while I watch political maneuvers that make no sense, I understand what's going on. I see politicians who are secretly figuring out if they can find a profitable way to get gambling casinos and "bingo halls" raised to the level of stock exchanges and regulated by the SEC. I see lobbyists who want to tie universal health care coverage to the court ruling on the federal authority of enforcing the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I see corporate lawyers wanting to go after Chinese glass quality control while Toyota is facing a decrease in public trust. I see the U.S. president going after education and the Russian president going after Olympic trainers in the same light. In other words, who paid for the coup in Niger and who was paid to expose a "coup" in Turkey?
While my associates sort out the details to feed questions to the new set of speakers we've got combing through the tangled mess of public education for a few new recruits to join the network of associates that doesn't exist, I'm moving on to another project.
I've been told that a space agency leader is learning why some people are not good politicians and will be reined in properly. Therefore, I'm not going to worry about how the political effect on space exploration will play out. If I can see the difference between a player and a "playa," then so can those who I trust to take care of business using the politically-correct, public channels of communication. If not, then my associates know what to do next. Pedigree has never been a good form of shielding against the need of the many.
My associates rarely take the direct approach. We have time on our side. Lots of time. Decades, if that's what it takes. I remind them that I'm a nice guy and want all of us to use happy ways to move the world forward. They remind me that I'm a writer, the messenger boy, by my choice. We all have choices to make in how we take turns leading the network. I've made mine and they have their choices to make. Together, we'll get the job done, for our species, no single person more important than the other. Some will get rich along the way, some will get fame and power, some will keep their anonymity and some will take quiet walks in the woods. Never sacrifice freedom of choice to achieve our greater goals.
22 February 2010
Volumes and Reams
I had listened to many proposals to resolve the stalemate. Some of them included references to recent pop culture - movies like "The Net," "Hackers," "Antitrust," and "Live Free or Die Hard."
So I dug deeper.
I pulled out scrolls given to me by an old couple down the street, both who meditated on the enormity of every task at hand, telling me that this moment in which we live is it, so treat it with grace, honour, dignity, seriousness, humour and patience.
I consulted with wise sages by reading their texts in dogeared books.
I smelled the wind.
I picked up fallen leaves and compared them to the naked, twisted sculptures standing tall above me.
I listened to those who had no solutions to offer.
Here, in this moment, is what I found. The seriousness of this moment is a laughing matter. We need not raise angry voices to sway lost leaders. So, I call on those of you physically able to do so to give thanks for all we have. Let us proclaim this "Hunger Strike Week" and demonstrate our solidarity in wanting to creatively get us out of the way of fatcats and others who desire to enrich themselves by taking all our money.
In this part of the world, it is Black History Month, which is a way of celebrating the diversity within our general culture.
Diverse ways of thinking. Martin Luther King, Jr. Gandhi. Benjamin Franklin. Sacagawea.
I live only in this moment. In this moment, I choose to drink water. Let this moment live for a while until I see that leaders put us first. If they, active or retired, show they are using their re-election funds for personal use, then I will continue to find similarly quiet, dietary ways to encourage them to think otherwise. I will not act rashly.
So I dug deeper.
I pulled out scrolls given to me by an old couple down the street, both who meditated on the enormity of every task at hand, telling me that this moment in which we live is it, so treat it with grace, honour, dignity, seriousness, humour and patience.
I consulted with wise sages by reading their texts in dogeared books.
I smelled the wind.
I picked up fallen leaves and compared them to the naked, twisted sculptures standing tall above me.
I listened to those who had no solutions to offer.
Here, in this moment, is what I found. The seriousness of this moment is a laughing matter. We need not raise angry voices to sway lost leaders. So, I call on those of you physically able to do so to give thanks for all we have. Let us proclaim this "Hunger Strike Week" and demonstrate our solidarity in wanting to creatively get us out of the way of fatcats and others who desire to enrich themselves by taking all our money.
In this part of the world, it is Black History Month, which is a way of celebrating the diversity within our general culture.
Diverse ways of thinking. Martin Luther King, Jr. Gandhi. Benjamin Franklin. Sacagawea.
I live only in this moment. In this moment, I choose to drink water. Let this moment live for a while until I see that leaders put us first. If they, active or retired, show they are using their re-election funds for personal use, then I will continue to find similarly quiet, dietary ways to encourage them to think otherwise. I will not act rashly.
21 February 2010
Driving A Coupe In Niger
While Nigerians watch their neighbours in Niger all cooped up during this latest coup, where is the esprit de corps to prevent corpses from lining up the streets on which one could drive a coupe?
Meanwhile, the data keeps on keeping on, telling me that I don't need to listen to opinions to tell me what the planet's clearly telling me with facts:
Facing the Skeptics' Arguments
Faith in faith versus faith in numbers means doing nothing about something going on without nothing to show someone.
Never let a symbol symbolise symbolic cymbals balanced on balloons held up by Tom Thumb's thimbles.
Other facts that tell me our planet's facing changes: mininature rhinos (armadillos) living underneath my house and "rooting for grubs" in our backyard garden.
Time for a cup of Dunkin' Donuts robust coffee, using caffeine to boost my perceived level of energy so I can enjoy today and ignore my chest congestion for a few hours. This blog is about you but right now I need to focus on me to heal myself so I can spend more time thinking about you in good health.
20 February 2010
One Last Word About Toyota
Through the years, my wife and I have owned Toyotas: 1988(?) Toyota Corolla, 1991 Toyota Camry DX, 1996 Toyota RAV4, and 2002 Toyota Camry XLE.
We stuck to Toyota, mainly for my wife's daily driving, after a carpark incident when a FedEx driver ploughed his van into the backend of my wife's Corolla (estimates showed the driver was doing 40-45MPH in a 15MPH zone). Although the impact should have crumpled the rearend and possibly turned the petrol tank into a burning inferno, the Toyota crumple zone absorbed most of the impact, saving my wife from serious injury (to complete the description, the FedEx van pulled my wife's car out of her parking space, and pushed it into two other vehicles parked nearby; my wife's head and shoulder hit and broke the driver's side window, causing bruises and some mental anguish).
Therefore, like Volvo drivers, we see Toyota as a safe vehicle for safe drivers.
However, our experience at Toyota repair shops has been less than spectacular. Seems like the repair shops have hired away service managers from other "push as much crap-to-fix stuff on the customer as possible" repair shops, both foreign and domestic. A regular oil change, if you're not careful, can turn into a major fix, especially when the local repair shop needs to raise cash to build ever more extravagant-looking quarters that have nothing to do with getting your vehicle maintained and repaired. A pretty, shiny lemon is still a lemon, is it not?
So, as American politicians continue to waste taxpayers' money pretending to care about their constituents while grilling Toyoda (or before that, HUAC circus performances, MLB owners, bank CEOs, and soon-to-be BCS show producers), it's up to us regular automobile owners to tell repair shop mechanics and managers "enough is enough." If they offer more than you asked for, tell them "no thank you" and find a reputable local repair shop mechanic who will fix what you asked for and nothing more. Then and only then can we show we've empowered customers who know a bad dealership/repair shop when we see one.
I've said all I had to say about one automobile manufacturer and its distribution network. In my experience, all automobile manufacturers and their distributors do about the same thing to their customers, if you don't watch out and stop being a passive sheep.
We stuck to Toyota, mainly for my wife's daily driving, after a carpark incident when a FedEx driver ploughed his van into the backend of my wife's Corolla (estimates showed the driver was doing 40-45MPH in a 15MPH zone). Although the impact should have crumpled the rearend and possibly turned the petrol tank into a burning inferno, the Toyota crumple zone absorbed most of the impact, saving my wife from serious injury (to complete the description, the FedEx van pulled my wife's car out of her parking space, and pushed it into two other vehicles parked nearby; my wife's head and shoulder hit and broke the driver's side window, causing bruises and some mental anguish).
Therefore, like Volvo drivers, we see Toyota as a safe vehicle for safe drivers.
However, our experience at Toyota repair shops has been less than spectacular. Seems like the repair shops have hired away service managers from other "push as much crap-to-fix stuff on the customer as possible" repair shops, both foreign and domestic. A regular oil change, if you're not careful, can turn into a major fix, especially when the local repair shop needs to raise cash to build ever more extravagant-looking quarters that have nothing to do with getting your vehicle maintained and repaired. A pretty, shiny lemon is still a lemon, is it not?
So, as American politicians continue to waste taxpayers' money pretending to care about their constituents while grilling Toyoda (or before that, HUAC circus performances, MLB owners, bank CEOs, and soon-to-be BCS show producers), it's up to us regular automobile owners to tell repair shop mechanics and managers "enough is enough." If they offer more than you asked for, tell them "no thank you" and find a reputable local repair shop mechanic who will fix what you asked for and nothing more. Then and only then can we show we've empowered customers who know a bad dealership/repair shop when we see one.
I've said all I had to say about one automobile manufacturer and its distribution network. In my experience, all automobile manufacturers and their distributors do about the same thing to their customers, if you don't watch out and stop being a passive sheep.
19 February 2010
Stirrups and Spurs
Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
"Ted."
"Yes, sir?"
"Am I to understand that you're supporting this upcoming takeover of the government?"
"No, sir. I wouldn't say that. Not in those words."
"Yet, you've petitioned the government for secession of your landholdings."
"Yep. That's what I did. You see, I know there's a war coming. And it's going to be a bloody war. There ain't nothing civil about this one. So I've got it figured out that if I just go ahead and declare my land a sovereign nation, I won't get caught in the middle of all the fighting over who's in charge and who's got to be sacrificed for the cause."
"The cause?"
"Hell, yeah. You know what I'm talking about. We've been working on this for how long now?"
"I never heard anyone refer to it as 'the cause.'"
"That's the issue, isn't it? We're not a cause, in the strictest sense. We're visionaries, you and I and the rest of the folks gathered here this weekend."
"All with different visions, I might add."
"In a way, yes. In a way, no. All our visions combined make one big helluva plan for the future, don't they?"
"I certainly hope so."
"It is. Mr. Kissinger, I've always wondered how you arranged things so smoothly with China. Since it's just you and me here, tell me what you had on 'em that made 'em want to negotiate."
"Vell, Mr. Turner, it's like this. The enemy of my enemy is my adversary's apothecary. We sent agents disguised as missionaries into the countryside to determine what made the Chinese people one people. It turns out that the magic of apothecary secrets is the common thread among all the diverse populations of China, from waterfront docks to skyscrapers to rice fields. I arranged with President Nixon that we would supply certain...how do you say it in English?...under-the-counter ingredients not readily available on the open market. Elephant tusks and rhino horns, for example. The beaks of an endangered Hawaiian bee eater. Blood samples from English aristocracy. Hair from Queen Elizabeth's scalp."
"You what?"
"They were very curious about the apparent invisible power the English monarchy has over its people. I was assured that Chinese scientists would discover this secret and use it on future leaders of their country. Now I know this sounds absurd but in the course of many international treaty negotiations I have seen many requests that have little relevance to the treaty itself. In fact..."
"I'm sure you've seen a lot, Henry. Tell you what. Let's get back together with the others and see if some of them are ready to make serious concessions. I'm willing to host their fortunes in the hidden, underground vaults of my ranch but I need more than verbal assurances they'll back each other when the chaos hits the fan."
"Mr. Turner, you have my full support. I will work with the others to consolidate our position that if we are to be future beacons of hope for the common people, we must hide our wealth and make it appear that government bureaucracies have stolen our hard-earned money for their evil plans."
"Not only that but we'll have to pool some of our resources to fund counter-insurgencies when the first wave of 'freedom fighters' turn out to be ruthless dictators in disguise."
"You were reading my mind. I will convey just that very same message."
"Kissinger, you're all right. I had my doubts about you but some of your old Chinese colleagues backed you up. I even got a good recommendation from Jimmy Carter, of all people. Bill and Hillary told me you're a sly fox and coming from them, I took that as a compliment. Even the ol' intelligence buddies, George Bush and Vladimir Putin, put in a good word for you."
"Of course."
"Now, before we get out of here, I've got a couple of names to throw at you. Joe 'Red Eagle' Ginn."
"Good man. He has made his tribe a lot of money."
"Do you think we could promote him to territorial president of Americanaxo?"
"Possibly."
"Good. Dick Cheney."
"What about him?"
"Leader of the first wave of insurgents or the second wave of counter-insurgents?"
"Will there be a third wave?"
"Yes, that's where Red Eagle comes in."
"First wave, then."
"Any recommendations for the second wave?"
"Do you anticipate the counter-insurgents to be simply anti-first wavers or pretending to unite the North American continent into one?"
"Anti-first wavers."
"Then, you need to form a committee, not have one single leader. What about Oprah, Sarah Palin, Carlos Slim and Stephen Harper from Canada?"
"Those are good names, Kissinger. But you know Bill Gates was really hoping to get in on this action. He's grown tired of the philanthropist role."
"Yes, but he is seen as a business tycoon. The people will not accept anyone of that caliber to lead them. Not even Ballmer, I don't think."
"What about Carlos Slim that you mentioned? He's no destitute dude."
"But the people of the United States do not know that. We can build him into a man wrecked by ruthless business leeches who caused the Second Great Recession when they wouldn't lend any of the money from the stimulus funds, only lining their pockets and building even bigger mansions with the people's money."
"Thanks, Henry. Keep those ideas coming. Let's get in there and see if we wrap this up. I'm ready for some trail riding."
"Ted."
"Yes, sir?"
"Am I to understand that you're supporting this upcoming takeover of the government?"
"No, sir. I wouldn't say that. Not in those words."
"Yet, you've petitioned the government for secession of your landholdings."
"Yep. That's what I did. You see, I know there's a war coming. And it's going to be a bloody war. There ain't nothing civil about this one. So I've got it figured out that if I just go ahead and declare my land a sovereign nation, I won't get caught in the middle of all the fighting over who's in charge and who's got to be sacrificed for the cause."
"The cause?"
"Hell, yeah. You know what I'm talking about. We've been working on this for how long now?"
"I never heard anyone refer to it as 'the cause.'"
"That's the issue, isn't it? We're not a cause, in the strictest sense. We're visionaries, you and I and the rest of the folks gathered here this weekend."
"All with different visions, I might add."
"In a way, yes. In a way, no. All our visions combined make one big helluva plan for the future, don't they?"
"I certainly hope so."
"It is. Mr. Kissinger, I've always wondered how you arranged things so smoothly with China. Since it's just you and me here, tell me what you had on 'em that made 'em want to negotiate."
"Vell, Mr. Turner, it's like this. The enemy of my enemy is my adversary's apothecary. We sent agents disguised as missionaries into the countryside to determine what made the Chinese people one people. It turns out that the magic of apothecary secrets is the common thread among all the diverse populations of China, from waterfront docks to skyscrapers to rice fields. I arranged with President Nixon that we would supply certain...how do you say it in English?...under-the-counter ingredients not readily available on the open market. Elephant tusks and rhino horns, for example. The beaks of an endangered Hawaiian bee eater. Blood samples from English aristocracy. Hair from Queen Elizabeth's scalp."
"You what?"
"They were very curious about the apparent invisible power the English monarchy has over its people. I was assured that Chinese scientists would discover this secret and use it on future leaders of their country. Now I know this sounds absurd but in the course of many international treaty negotiations I have seen many requests that have little relevance to the treaty itself. In fact..."
"I'm sure you've seen a lot, Henry. Tell you what. Let's get back together with the others and see if some of them are ready to make serious concessions. I'm willing to host their fortunes in the hidden, underground vaults of my ranch but I need more than verbal assurances they'll back each other when the chaos hits the fan."
"Mr. Turner, you have my full support. I will work with the others to consolidate our position that if we are to be future beacons of hope for the common people, we must hide our wealth and make it appear that government bureaucracies have stolen our hard-earned money for their evil plans."
"Not only that but we'll have to pool some of our resources to fund counter-insurgencies when the first wave of 'freedom fighters' turn out to be ruthless dictators in disguise."
"You were reading my mind. I will convey just that very same message."
"Kissinger, you're all right. I had my doubts about you but some of your old Chinese colleagues backed you up. I even got a good recommendation from Jimmy Carter, of all people. Bill and Hillary told me you're a sly fox and coming from them, I took that as a compliment. Even the ol' intelligence buddies, George Bush and Vladimir Putin, put in a good word for you."
"Of course."
"Now, before we get out of here, I've got a couple of names to throw at you. Joe 'Red Eagle' Ginn."
"Good man. He has made his tribe a lot of money."
"Do you think we could promote him to territorial president of Americanaxo?"
"Possibly."
"Good. Dick Cheney."
"What about him?"
"Leader of the first wave of insurgents or the second wave of counter-insurgents?"
"Will there be a third wave?"
"Yes, that's where Red Eagle comes in."
"First wave, then."
"Any recommendations for the second wave?"
"Do you anticipate the counter-insurgents to be simply anti-first wavers or pretending to unite the North American continent into one?"
"Anti-first wavers."
"Then, you need to form a committee, not have one single leader. What about Oprah, Sarah Palin, Carlos Slim and Stephen Harper from Canada?"
"Those are good names, Kissinger. But you know Bill Gates was really hoping to get in on this action. He's grown tired of the philanthropist role."
"Yes, but he is seen as a business tycoon. The people will not accept anyone of that caliber to lead them. Not even Ballmer, I don't think."
"What about Carlos Slim that you mentioned? He's no destitute dude."
"But the people of the United States do not know that. We can build him into a man wrecked by ruthless business leeches who caused the Second Great Recession when they wouldn't lend any of the money from the stimulus funds, only lining their pockets and building even bigger mansions with the people's money."
"Thanks, Henry. Keep those ideas coming. Let's get in there and see if we wrap this up. I'm ready for some trail riding."
18 February 2010
The Uptight Citizens Brigade
Talking with a friend of mine who believes he is a statistician's magician, I learned about new ways to measure demographic changes. My friend took unemployment data from a select number of countries, computed trends of the types of people getting fired or laid off, compared that to the types of people getting hired, plotted estimates out 1, 2, 5, 10 and 25 years from now and showed me the results.
Wow!
Let me say that again. Wow!
I'm all about comic timing but these charts...wooie! Makes me want to take a walk up Mt. Everest without an iPod and GPS device.
Makes no sense? Exactly. The demographic changes in those charts were a willy-nilly, moxnix, Rauschenberg collage. Age. Weight. Shoe size. Eye colour. Religious preference. Political affiliation. Think of a way to classify yourself or your body parts and you could probably find yourself in the plotted data points and extrapolation lines like a person who believes that biorhythms determine which latte and scone to buy every morning.
Instead of demographic comparisons, I looked at the data points in relation to numbers of persons employed/unemployed and then pulled out some old statistics books that compared political upheavals - revolutions, civilisation collapses, that sort of thing - to the general state of the population in situ and rival populations wanting to take over prime territory/treasures.
Just the sort of thing that all the so-called brain trusts are supposed to be doing, providing expensive consulting services to kings, queens, presidents, and triumvirates.
What did I discover? Well, you historical hysteria buffs already know the answer. Citizen unrest and effective political change are correlated to direct control of military forces and propaganda machines. The actual demographic composition is a neutral effect because propagandists always use opposing demographic differences to sway public opinion - it doesn't matter what the demographics show as long as those who want to cause change can make up some cockamamie story why the differences matter. The greater the stress, duress and [perceived] economic slump, the easier it is to convince one demographic group or set of groups to set up opposing camps and start making each other out to be enemies. Successful propagandists create new, imaginary demographic differences in order to attract the largest number of followers. Obvious to most of you yet you still let yourself be swayed by these simple political tactics.
Which takes me to my next observation. A follower of mine, who wants to gain access to my information channels, asked me what she should do to get "connected." She assumed there was some horrifying, debilitating, demeaning, hazing-type ritual that she had to submit her body to join the "club."
When someone asks you a question like that, do you realize the power you could create, using sadistic methods for controlling others? Or, like me, do you smile and remember the moment you decided you wanted to be part of the "it" crowd that's not part of any "it" crowd because you're really a solo operative in a network of solo operatives? That's your decision to make, of course. I know plenty of solo operatives who pretend to control large organisations which require years of gruesome tasks and assignments before novices can graduate up to apprentice status and then decades later become professionals.
I'm not a sadist. I don't have a control freak mentality. I prefer the loose network of trust that those who work with me have established instantly. You're either in or you're out. You don't have to erase your personality in order to take on a set of bogus beliefs. You can believe whatever you want to believe. If you're a masochist, then we'll help you hook up with sadists, if that's your thing, but it has no bearing on your "membership."
So, to answer the follower's inquiry, I don't want followers. I don't want leaders. I want associates who pass along information at appropriate moments but may have to take a positive or negative stance against one another in public situations. If you want to be in, you're in. That's all there is to it. Wear your same old clothes and keep your same old friends. I don't care. It's information we're after, not ideology.
For years, my associates and I have used a wide variety of communications methods. Messages inserted in mass mailings. Patterns carefully carved in the dust on the side of motor vehicles. A particular set of foundation plantings next to one's house or business (a devil's backbone in Arizona may be the same as a lotus in India or palm tree in Ireland). Teleprompters with incongruous text. The progress of general technology use has added more methods such as popup ads on the Internet, email spam, silly kitten videos and other annoying ways of turning off the public while we invisibly keep in touch with each other. You look at the funk, we look at the noise. You see people trying to rip you off, we see advantages to slip in and pass data back and forth.
So go ahead and get yourself branded or tattooed or dunked in ice water or whatever makes you feel important in other organisations. We don't care. But keep in mind that once you join us, you're always in. There's no getting out. There's no pay, no retirement, no official/unofficial recognition. You're still as incognito or famous as you ever were.
One small detail before I zip up my lip on this subject. We're a bunch of practical jokers who like to pull pranks while we're doing whatever it is we do (you don't get to find out our real motivations until after you join). At the same time, if you join and are found to be intentionally passing false or misleading information for your personal gain or the gain of someone not associated with us... What can I say here that I haven't hinted at in previous blog entries? We're not thugs - you won't find yourself wearing cement shoes at the bottom of the ocean or end up in an "accident." No, we're much more subtle in our methods of keeping each other in line. Hmm...well...let's, you and I, make sure we're always on the up-and-up with one another. Pranksters are punny, when they want to be, and more cruel than I ever thought possible. I'm an easygoing, funny guy who likes sunny days and quiet walks in the woods. Some of us are not. The only thing that matters is what we're working toward.
I've said enough for now. You have to make the decision to join on your own, without anyone to tell it to. Some of you will require training to better understand your body's capabilities but the training has no instruction manual or obvious teacher. You'll learn about all that after you join. It's a weighty decision, not to be taken lightly. Those who thought they could join and quit whenever they wanted have fallen by the wayside. Think about it. Look around you, observing people, places, things and ideas (e.g., is Apolo Anton Ohno wearing a bandana or showing his gang affiliation?). Do you see what you think you see or do you know that your trained perception is the haphazard result of those who have no collective purpose or understanding of how the universe works?
More later. I need to move on to something else. I have a bad habit of running my mouth too much.
Wow!
Let me say that again. Wow!
I'm all about comic timing but these charts...wooie! Makes me want to take a walk up Mt. Everest without an iPod and GPS device.
Makes no sense? Exactly. The demographic changes in those charts were a willy-nilly, moxnix, Rauschenberg collage. Age. Weight. Shoe size. Eye colour. Religious preference. Political affiliation. Think of a way to classify yourself or your body parts and you could probably find yourself in the plotted data points and extrapolation lines like a person who believes that biorhythms determine which latte and scone to buy every morning.
Instead of demographic comparisons, I looked at the data points in relation to numbers of persons employed/unemployed and then pulled out some old statistics books that compared political upheavals - revolutions, civilisation collapses, that sort of thing - to the general state of the population in situ and rival populations wanting to take over prime territory/treasures.
Just the sort of thing that all the so-called brain trusts are supposed to be doing, providing expensive consulting services to kings, queens, presidents, and triumvirates.
What did I discover? Well, you historical hysteria buffs already know the answer. Citizen unrest and effective political change are correlated to direct control of military forces and propaganda machines. The actual demographic composition is a neutral effect because propagandists always use opposing demographic differences to sway public opinion - it doesn't matter what the demographics show as long as those who want to cause change can make up some cockamamie story why the differences matter. The greater the stress, duress and [perceived] economic slump, the easier it is to convince one demographic group or set of groups to set up opposing camps and start making each other out to be enemies. Successful propagandists create new, imaginary demographic differences in order to attract the largest number of followers. Obvious to most of you yet you still let yourself be swayed by these simple political tactics.
Which takes me to my next observation. A follower of mine, who wants to gain access to my information channels, asked me what she should do to get "connected." She assumed there was some horrifying, debilitating, demeaning, hazing-type ritual that she had to submit her body to join the "club."
When someone asks you a question like that, do you realize the power you could create, using sadistic methods for controlling others? Or, like me, do you smile and remember the moment you decided you wanted to be part of the "it" crowd that's not part of any "it" crowd because you're really a solo operative in a network of solo operatives? That's your decision to make, of course. I know plenty of solo operatives who pretend to control large organisations which require years of gruesome tasks and assignments before novices can graduate up to apprentice status and then decades later become professionals.
I'm not a sadist. I don't have a control freak mentality. I prefer the loose network of trust that those who work with me have established instantly. You're either in or you're out. You don't have to erase your personality in order to take on a set of bogus beliefs. You can believe whatever you want to believe. If you're a masochist, then we'll help you hook up with sadists, if that's your thing, but it has no bearing on your "membership."
So, to answer the follower's inquiry, I don't want followers. I don't want leaders. I want associates who pass along information at appropriate moments but may have to take a positive or negative stance against one another in public situations. If you want to be in, you're in. That's all there is to it. Wear your same old clothes and keep your same old friends. I don't care. It's information we're after, not ideology.
For years, my associates and I have used a wide variety of communications methods. Messages inserted in mass mailings. Patterns carefully carved in the dust on the side of motor vehicles. A particular set of foundation plantings next to one's house or business (a devil's backbone in Arizona may be the same as a lotus in India or palm tree in Ireland). Teleprompters with incongruous text. The progress of general technology use has added more methods such as popup ads on the Internet, email spam, silly kitten videos and other annoying ways of turning off the public while we invisibly keep in touch with each other. You look at the funk, we look at the noise. You see people trying to rip you off, we see advantages to slip in and pass data back and forth.
So go ahead and get yourself branded or tattooed or dunked in ice water or whatever makes you feel important in other organisations. We don't care. But keep in mind that once you join us, you're always in. There's no getting out. There's no pay, no retirement, no official/unofficial recognition. You're still as incognito or famous as you ever were.
One small detail before I zip up my lip on this subject. We're a bunch of practical jokers who like to pull pranks while we're doing whatever it is we do (you don't get to find out our real motivations until after you join). At the same time, if you join and are found to be intentionally passing false or misleading information for your personal gain or the gain of someone not associated with us... What can I say here that I haven't hinted at in previous blog entries? We're not thugs - you won't find yourself wearing cement shoes at the bottom of the ocean or end up in an "accident." No, we're much more subtle in our methods of keeping each other in line. Hmm...well...let's, you and I, make sure we're always on the up-and-up with one another. Pranksters are punny, when they want to be, and more cruel than I ever thought possible. I'm an easygoing, funny guy who likes sunny days and quiet walks in the woods. Some of us are not. The only thing that matters is what we're working toward.
I've said enough for now. You have to make the decision to join on your own, without anyone to tell it to. Some of you will require training to better understand your body's capabilities but the training has no instruction manual or obvious teacher. You'll learn about all that after you join. It's a weighty decision, not to be taken lightly. Those who thought they could join and quit whenever they wanted have fallen by the wayside. Think about it. Look around you, observing people, places, things and ideas (e.g., is Apolo Anton Ohno wearing a bandana or showing his gang affiliation?). Do you see what you think you see or do you know that your trained perception is the haphazard result of those who have no collective purpose or understanding of how the universe works?
More later. I need to move on to something else. I have a bad habit of running my mouth too much.
17 February 2010
The Glib Mr. Gibbs
The Book of the Future, the gift that others keep on sharpening for me. I want some happiness, some joy, some sunshine, a warm bed, a good hug or two a day and untamed woods. Instead, what do I get? A box of powdered nongraphite particles, and glued slivers of pencil pieces. Turns out the Book of the Future only tells the future when a specific pencil type is used. No formulated wood byproducts. No pencil "lead" wannabes. So, while I track down authentic fortunetelling writing utensils, I'll tell you what the artificial pencils have said and let you decide what they mean.
First item of interest - the glibness of the White House Press Secretary when he poked fun at a former vice presidential candidate (and likely forerunner for the 2012 U.S. Presidency). According to a timeline described by the Book of the Future, Mr. Gibbs' hand action has ensured that the 2010 midterm elections will bring into U.S. Congressional offices a group of leaders determined to find a way to impeach and oust the current U.S. President based on legal terms inaccurately used in future exercises of executive power. Along that same timeline, many other White House advisors, once described as positive do-gooders associated with the "Chicago Mafia," will turn tail and run when they find out that their business interests back home have been infiltrated by people with real power who are siphoning money to conservative political leaders.
Meantime, Saudi and Chinese bankers will quietly let world leaders know their decisions are no longer their own. Not that that's news but the world leaders will be forced to make public announcements to that effect. The pencil shavings are hard to read at this point but it appears to say a historic announcement will be made by President Sarkozy, who will concede that France has officially become the first of many European nations to convert to the official world religion, Buddislam. As usual, Great Britain will be the lone holdout and will negotiate a treaty that allows the swap of religious asylum seekers across the Channel. The Channel Tunnel will be called the Gate of Heaven, with the Continental people seeing the British Isles as hell and vice versa. Vatican City will completely turn into a tourist attraction, hiring consultants from famous amusement parks to install roller coasters and 3D rides throughout the former Catholic enclave.
Bob Costas will revive the Timex watch brand, using his trademark nervous twitches and fidgeting to show how the watches are self-winding. With the technical fiasco and death at the Vancouver Olympics blamed on NBC's pressure to boost ratings, the network will pass the Olympic broadcasting torch to the new global media conglomerate of Fox, CCTV, and Univision. Future Olympics will be centered on reality TV stars whose popularity will be monitored by a set of producers who decide the outcome of "public" voting polls to determine the Olympic participants. The participants will not only have to demonstrate their athletic skills but also negotiate impossible business deals, perform surrealistic death-defying tricks, have soap-opera style love trysts, prove the existence of legends (Atlantis, Bigfoot, etc.) and speak more than 10 languages fluently while working as undercover specialists for opposite sides of a yet-to-be-revealed international spy network.
Parents who cannot afford private education of their children will be forced to make their children permanent wards of the state, allowing governments to decide how to treat childhood violence as a set of systemic infections, such as funneling violent children into government factories (formerly called prisons), with future genetic testing allowing the corporation-run governments to tell parents that their unborn potentially-violent children will have to be taken away at birth in order to serve the greater good. The Book of the Future does not say whether violent children will be allowed to procreate.
Now you can see why I want a set of real pencils to work with. These future readings from "parts is parts" pencils are like putting too much Bisphenol A (BPA), HGH, and other artificial acronyms into a Toyota automobile designer - we're endangering the future for all of us.
I want a happy future so until I find some pencils that don't smell like they came out of a chemical factory, I'm setting aside the Book of the Future. The future happens without my predictions. In the meantime, I'll look for the signs and other forms of communications you want to leave me that tell how people plan their future moments - I'll report the ones that seem to make the most sense (and to answer one reader's question, no, I don't accept "tips" about Triple Crown horse race winners or which players and referees have been paid to throw a game's outcome; I don't report them, either (not on purpose, that is)).
I tend to report only those future outcomes that point to my getting our species and their representatives off this planet. Other outcomes, like the effect that unlawful tracking of people's cell/mobile phone use will cause, have no meaning to me - they're simply side effects of the widening gap between the digital and the nondigital citizens of our world population. People can choose not to participate in such futures by being digital or nondigital; thus, those futures require individual decisionmaking.
Do you believe in magic? Well, my crystal ball is still working. It tends to report futures that apply to people who believe in miracles, love, religion, luck, fate, etc. Like those who thought that universal health care coverage is a guaranteed right. According to the crystal ball, something wonderful's about to happen in Australia. Kinda fuzzy inside the ball but I'm seeing clear blue water. Not sure what it means but I'm sure we'll find out.
First item of interest - the glibness of the White House Press Secretary when he poked fun at a former vice presidential candidate (and likely forerunner for the 2012 U.S. Presidency). According to a timeline described by the Book of the Future, Mr. Gibbs' hand action has ensured that the 2010 midterm elections will bring into U.S. Congressional offices a group of leaders determined to find a way to impeach and oust the current U.S. President based on legal terms inaccurately used in future exercises of executive power. Along that same timeline, many other White House advisors, once described as positive do-gooders associated with the "Chicago Mafia," will turn tail and run when they find out that their business interests back home have been infiltrated by people with real power who are siphoning money to conservative political leaders.
Meantime, Saudi and Chinese bankers will quietly let world leaders know their decisions are no longer their own. Not that that's news but the world leaders will be forced to make public announcements to that effect. The pencil shavings are hard to read at this point but it appears to say a historic announcement will be made by President Sarkozy, who will concede that France has officially become the first of many European nations to convert to the official world religion, Buddislam. As usual, Great Britain will be the lone holdout and will negotiate a treaty that allows the swap of religious asylum seekers across the Channel. The Channel Tunnel will be called the Gate of Heaven, with the Continental people seeing the British Isles as hell and vice versa. Vatican City will completely turn into a tourist attraction, hiring consultants from famous amusement parks to install roller coasters and 3D rides throughout the former Catholic enclave.
Bob Costas will revive the Timex watch brand, using his trademark nervous twitches and fidgeting to show how the watches are self-winding. With the technical fiasco and death at the Vancouver Olympics blamed on NBC's pressure to boost ratings, the network will pass the Olympic broadcasting torch to the new global media conglomerate of Fox, CCTV, and Univision. Future Olympics will be centered on reality TV stars whose popularity will be monitored by a set of producers who decide the outcome of "public" voting polls to determine the Olympic participants. The participants will not only have to demonstrate their athletic skills but also negotiate impossible business deals, perform surrealistic death-defying tricks, have soap-opera style love trysts, prove the existence of legends (Atlantis, Bigfoot, etc.) and speak more than 10 languages fluently while working as undercover specialists for opposite sides of a yet-to-be-revealed international spy network.
Parents who cannot afford private education of their children will be forced to make their children permanent wards of the state, allowing governments to decide how to treat childhood violence as a set of systemic infections, such as funneling violent children into government factories (formerly called prisons), with future genetic testing allowing the corporation-run governments to tell parents that their unborn potentially-violent children will have to be taken away at birth in order to serve the greater good. The Book of the Future does not say whether violent children will be allowed to procreate.
Now you can see why I want a set of real pencils to work with. These future readings from "parts is parts" pencils are like putting too much Bisphenol A (BPA), HGH, and other artificial acronyms into a Toyota automobile designer - we're endangering the future for all of us.
I want a happy future so until I find some pencils that don't smell like they came out of a chemical factory, I'm setting aside the Book of the Future. The future happens without my predictions. In the meantime, I'll look for the signs and other forms of communications you want to leave me that tell how people plan their future moments - I'll report the ones that seem to make the most sense (and to answer one reader's question, no, I don't accept "tips" about Triple Crown horse race winners or which players and referees have been paid to throw a game's outcome; I don't report them, either (not on purpose, that is)).
I tend to report only those future outcomes that point to my getting our species and their representatives off this planet. Other outcomes, like the effect that unlawful tracking of people's cell/mobile phone use will cause, have no meaning to me - they're simply side effects of the widening gap between the digital and the nondigital citizens of our world population. People can choose not to participate in such futures by being digital or nondigital; thus, those futures require individual decisionmaking.
Do you believe in magic? Well, my crystal ball is still working. It tends to report futures that apply to people who believe in miracles, love, religion, luck, fate, etc. Like those who thought that universal health care coverage is a guaranteed right. According to the crystal ball, something wonderful's about to happen in Australia. Kinda fuzzy inside the ball but I'm seeing clear blue water. Not sure what it means but I'm sure we'll find out.
11 February 2010
Slaves of the Standard of Living
"Hey, Joe!"
"Yeah?"
"Look at this, willya?"
"What the f..."
"That's what I'm thinking."
"Can you tell who owns this?"
"Hell if I know."
"Well, we gotta tell the boss."
"You ain't kidding!"
= = =
"So, let me get this straight. You goes into the client's primary residence to install a security system and youse guys find three other security systems already installed?"
"Yeah, boss. Only thing is, though, these security systems...well..."
"Spit it out, Pinhead."
"Well, boss, see...these systems...they ain't for keeping no burglar out. They's designed to spy on our client's domicile."
"Fartface, is he for real?"
"Yeah, boss. I think there might be other stuff in there we ain't seen yet."
"What do you mean you ain't seen yet?"
"As soon as we saw that other shit, we dropped what we was doing and came directly over here to report it to ya."
"Uh-huh. So you're telling me you don't have a complete picture of what's really going on over at the client's place, is that it?"
"Somethin' like that, yeah."
"Well, get your big fat asses out of here and finish the job! And don't touch nothing, neither. I don't want whoever it is who put those things in there to know we're in there, too."
"Sure thing, boss."
= = =
"Tranquility, this is base. The eagle feathers are back. Over."
"Cut it out with the CB, walkie-talkie crap. What do you see?"
"Ten-four, good buddy. Roger that. We've got a plain brown wrapper with pretty seat covers cruising by and coming out of the rocking chair position. Over."
"U'rhythmia, what's he saying?"
"Well, Mr. Casey, sir. I think he's saying there are some undercover female cops about to pass our position."
"Incredible. Look, I hope you're ready to take over this outfit soon. With techno talk boy here, too."
"Absolutely, sir. I've aced every exam and physical test so far. I think I'm ready."
"Good. Cause I've got a pain in my ass that really hurts. Fell off the ladder while installing some security cameras on a private job last night. I'm going to lay back and take a couple of pain pills. You take over this one, will you?"
"Yes, sir. Gladly, sir. Miguel, this is U'rhythmia. What's your 10-20?"
"I'm in traffic on a 10-0. Over."
"Can you describe the seat covers to me?"
"Yeah, they're crossdressers. I think they're disguised or trying to be. Over."
"A heavyset, short one and a tall, skinny one driving?"
"10-4."
"Looks like it's them. We're on our way for the 10-23."
"Should I run a 10-27?"
"No. I'm sure it's them. Continue your 10-40."
"Roger that. Over."
"Over and out."
= = =
"Abigail, I got a text."
"And?"
"It's coming from that mobile phone relay unit I put in our neighbour's house."
"Cool. What's it say?"
"I don't know. Something weird. It's reporting information from four wireless security systems, including itself, as well as two wireless Internet connections."
"Awesome. What does that mean?"
"It means we've got some great stuff to put up on our old MySpace page tonight!"
= = =
"CIA Grassville office. May I help you?"
"Yes. When do classes begin?"
"Classes?"
"Yes, my son signed up for your CIA courses and I need to know when the first day of class is."
"Ma'am, we don't train anyone here."
"But his acceptance letter came from your admissions office. I'm sure he's supposed to start taking classes there."
"Ma'am, we don't send out acceptance letters."
"You mean this isn't the Culinary Institute of America?"
"No, ma'am."
"I see. Then who am I talking to?"
"This is the Center for Information Assessment, part of the Committee for Public Safety under the umbrella group the People's Office for the Protection of the Republic."
"Oh, you mean I'm talking to the Chia Pet Poppers? That's just so amazing. You know, this will impress my son that I've actually talked to someone in an official capacity. He thinks I don't know anything and don't have any friends with important duties. But now that I've talked to you! Well! What's your name? [CLICK]"
"Who what that?"
"A crank caller."
"Another one? We need to change our phone number. Say, have you looked at today's report?"
"Yep. We had activity in Sector 4-A-23C."
"C? I thought it was B."
"That was yesterday's report."
"No, yesterday's report showed activity in ICU-U-C-ME in your house. He-he."
"Very funny. So what's your conclusion?"
"We have a team checking it out."
"What's the objective for this surveillance?"
"We had a report that a set of unusually strong electromagnetic signals were being sent and received from that location. The Committee for Equal Distribution of Power Grid Usage wants to assess if there is any unauthorised power bandwidth generation in that sector. We are to observe and report ONLY. No contact with the citizens at this time."
"What's your take on this one?"
"We've observed this location more than once."
"I know that. Inconclusive every time."
"Yeah. I gather this is a political maneuver. We'll file this report like all the others."
"Exactly. You know, when is our job not political?"
"Well, it's a job and it pays most of my bills so why don't we go over some upcoming assignments and then break for lunch?"
"Good point."
= = =
"The boss ain't gonna like this."
"No shit, Sherlock. What do you thinks happenin'?"
"I think our network's triggered this box to go off."
"You think that display means anything?"
"You mean it countin' down from five minutes?"
"You think that's what it means?"
"Why don't you wait here and find out?"
"I say we go to the pub for a couple of beers."
"Yeah, like right now!"
= = =
"U'rhythmia, you all right?"
"I don't know. I feel funny. What happened?"
"Some object took off out of that building. The shock wave knocked us all out and some sort of EMP killed all our electronics. We're probably toast ourselves but don't know it yet."
"My eyesight is messed up."
"At least we're alive. Mr. Casey didn't make it."
"Damn! Well, I guess that means I'm in charge. How you doing?"
"It hurts to breathe, the skin on my face and hands are fried and I think my legs are broken but other than that, I'm okay."
"Well, that means we're stuck here, doesn't it? No communications, no mobility..."
"I've already fired off three flares, filled a dozen helium balloons and released them one every five minutes so we..."
"You did? How long have I been out?"
"Approximately 30 minutes. I don't have a watch but I found an old metronome I'd brought with me on a previous assignment and have been using it as a sort of stopwatch."
"Great job! You're the best!"
"Oh, don't thank me. Thank my parents for setting me down in front of the TV and watching old reruns of Wild, Wild West, MacGyver, A-Team, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mod Squ..."
"I'll be sure to thank your parents next time I see them."
"You can't. They're dead."
"There you have it. Okay, so when do you expect a response team to arrive?"
"They arrived ten minutes ago. They're already assessing the blast hole."
"What about us?"
"I gave them the go-ahead to proceed, since we weren't dying, and let us wait for a civilian emergency medical team to pick us up. After all, we aren't here in an official capacity, are we?"
"You're thinking on your feet! Well, sort of..."
= = =
"So what do we tell the boss?"
"Fuck if I know. This ain't what I figured we was here for."
"Me, neither. I thought this was some sort of double-crossing, two-timing snitch what we was gatherin' incriminatin' evidence to turn over to the Committee for the Benefit of Having a Very Clear Conscience."
"Yeah, like someone wasn't behavin' properly like."
"You think we should go back in there and retrieve our gear?"
"What, with the others in there snoopin' around?"
"Hey, we're legitimate private contractors just doin' our job, ain't we?"
"Good point."
= = =
"I've got an update on the report. It appears that the electromagnetic activity has spiked in the past two hours."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, look at this graph."
"Beautiful."
"Isn't it, though? Reminds me of the time we placed those neutron detonation devices along that fault line in the Caribbean. Shame about the loss of lives but the tectonic plate activity was perfectly aligned with what we predicted."
"Any word from the team?"
"They've been neutralised by a private 'emergency medical' team we sent in. A team from the Center for Entertaining the Masses is reviewing the scene and creating a temporary movie set to make this look like a special effects job gone out of control."
"Any buzz coming out of the astronomy community?"
"Yeah. They're claiming that a spacecraft has launched into orbit."
"Okay, help them keep making that claim. We've got a couple of experts in UFOs who we can also make counterclaims for us that this is a sure sign of Alien Armageddon. The public won't know the difference and won't care."
"I thought we were the Information Assessment team, not Misinformation Dispersal."
"I guess it's time you and I had a little talk..."
"Yeah?"
"Look at this, willya?"
"What the f..."
"That's what I'm thinking."
"Can you tell who owns this?"
"Hell if I know."
"Well, we gotta tell the boss."
"You ain't kidding!"
= = =
"So, let me get this straight. You goes into the client's primary residence to install a security system and youse guys find three other security systems already installed?"
"Yeah, boss. Only thing is, though, these security systems...well..."
"Spit it out, Pinhead."
"Well, boss, see...these systems...they ain't for keeping no burglar out. They's designed to spy on our client's domicile."
"Fartface, is he for real?"
"Yeah, boss. I think there might be other stuff in there we ain't seen yet."
"What do you mean you ain't seen yet?"
"As soon as we saw that other shit, we dropped what we was doing and came directly over here to report it to ya."
"Uh-huh. So you're telling me you don't have a complete picture of what's really going on over at the client's place, is that it?"
"Somethin' like that, yeah."
"Well, get your big fat asses out of here and finish the job! And don't touch nothing, neither. I don't want whoever it is who put those things in there to know we're in there, too."
"Sure thing, boss."
= = =
"Tranquility, this is base. The eagle feathers are back. Over."
"Cut it out with the CB, walkie-talkie crap. What do you see?"
"Ten-four, good buddy. Roger that. We've got a plain brown wrapper with pretty seat covers cruising by and coming out of the rocking chair position. Over."
"U'rhythmia, what's he saying?"
"Well, Mr. Casey, sir. I think he's saying there are some undercover female cops about to pass our position."
"Incredible. Look, I hope you're ready to take over this outfit soon. With techno talk boy here, too."
"Absolutely, sir. I've aced every exam and physical test so far. I think I'm ready."
"Good. Cause I've got a pain in my ass that really hurts. Fell off the ladder while installing some security cameras on a private job last night. I'm going to lay back and take a couple of pain pills. You take over this one, will you?"
"Yes, sir. Gladly, sir. Miguel, this is U'rhythmia. What's your 10-20?"
"I'm in traffic on a 10-0. Over."
"Can you describe the seat covers to me?"
"Yeah, they're crossdressers. I think they're disguised or trying to be. Over."
"A heavyset, short one and a tall, skinny one driving?"
"10-4."
"Looks like it's them. We're on our way for the 10-23."
"Should I run a 10-27?"
"No. I'm sure it's them. Continue your 10-40."
"Roger that. Over."
"Over and out."
= = =
"Abigail, I got a text."
"And?"
"It's coming from that mobile phone relay unit I put in our neighbour's house."
"Cool. What's it say?"
"I don't know. Something weird. It's reporting information from four wireless security systems, including itself, as well as two wireless Internet connections."
"Awesome. What does that mean?"
"It means we've got some great stuff to put up on our old MySpace page tonight!"
= = =
"CIA Grassville office. May I help you?"
"Yes. When do classes begin?"
"Classes?"
"Yes, my son signed up for your CIA courses and I need to know when the first day of class is."
"Ma'am, we don't train anyone here."
"But his acceptance letter came from your admissions office. I'm sure he's supposed to start taking classes there."
"Ma'am, we don't send out acceptance letters."
"You mean this isn't the Culinary Institute of America?"
"No, ma'am."
"I see. Then who am I talking to?"
"This is the Center for Information Assessment, part of the Committee for Public Safety under the umbrella group the People's Office for the Protection of the Republic."
"Oh, you mean I'm talking to the Chia Pet Poppers? That's just so amazing. You know, this will impress my son that I've actually talked to someone in an official capacity. He thinks I don't know anything and don't have any friends with important duties. But now that I've talked to you! Well! What's your name? [CLICK]"
"Who what that?"
"A crank caller."
"Another one? We need to change our phone number. Say, have you looked at today's report?"
"Yep. We had activity in Sector 4-A-23C."
"C? I thought it was B."
"That was yesterday's report."
"No, yesterday's report showed activity in ICU-U-C-ME in your house. He-he."
"Very funny. So what's your conclusion?"
"We have a team checking it out."
"What's the objective for this surveillance?"
"We had a report that a set of unusually strong electromagnetic signals were being sent and received from that location. The Committee for Equal Distribution of Power Grid Usage wants to assess if there is any unauthorised power bandwidth generation in that sector. We are to observe and report ONLY. No contact with the citizens at this time."
"What's your take on this one?"
"We've observed this location more than once."
"I know that. Inconclusive every time."
"Yeah. I gather this is a political maneuver. We'll file this report like all the others."
"Exactly. You know, when is our job not political?"
"Well, it's a job and it pays most of my bills so why don't we go over some upcoming assignments and then break for lunch?"
"Good point."
= = =
"The boss ain't gonna like this."
"No shit, Sherlock. What do you thinks happenin'?"
"I think our network's triggered this box to go off."
"You think that display means anything?"
"You mean it countin' down from five minutes?"
"You think that's what it means?"
"Why don't you wait here and find out?"
"I say we go to the pub for a couple of beers."
"Yeah, like right now!"
= = =
"U'rhythmia, you all right?"
"I don't know. I feel funny. What happened?"
"Some object took off out of that building. The shock wave knocked us all out and some sort of EMP killed all our electronics. We're probably toast ourselves but don't know it yet."
"My eyesight is messed up."
"At least we're alive. Mr. Casey didn't make it."
"Damn! Well, I guess that means I'm in charge. How you doing?"
"It hurts to breathe, the skin on my face and hands are fried and I think my legs are broken but other than that, I'm okay."
"Well, that means we're stuck here, doesn't it? No communications, no mobility..."
"I've already fired off three flares, filled a dozen helium balloons and released them one every five minutes so we..."
"You did? How long have I been out?"
"Approximately 30 minutes. I don't have a watch but I found an old metronome I'd brought with me on a previous assignment and have been using it as a sort of stopwatch."
"Great job! You're the best!"
"Oh, don't thank me. Thank my parents for setting me down in front of the TV and watching old reruns of Wild, Wild West, MacGyver, A-Team, Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mod Squ..."
"I'll be sure to thank your parents next time I see them."
"You can't. They're dead."
"There you have it. Okay, so when do you expect a response team to arrive?"
"They arrived ten minutes ago. They're already assessing the blast hole."
"What about us?"
"I gave them the go-ahead to proceed, since we weren't dying, and let us wait for a civilian emergency medical team to pick us up. After all, we aren't here in an official capacity, are we?"
"You're thinking on your feet! Well, sort of..."
= = =
"So what do we tell the boss?"
"Fuck if I know. This ain't what I figured we was here for."
"Me, neither. I thought this was some sort of double-crossing, two-timing snitch what we was gatherin' incriminatin' evidence to turn over to the Committee for the Benefit of Having a Very Clear Conscience."
"Yeah, like someone wasn't behavin' properly like."
"You think we should go back in there and retrieve our gear?"
"What, with the others in there snoopin' around?"
"Hey, we're legitimate private contractors just doin' our job, ain't we?"
"Good point."
= = =
"I've got an update on the report. It appears that the electromagnetic activity has spiked in the past two hours."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, look at this graph."
"Beautiful."
"Isn't it, though? Reminds me of the time we placed those neutron detonation devices along that fault line in the Caribbean. Shame about the loss of lives but the tectonic plate activity was perfectly aligned with what we predicted."
"Any word from the team?"
"They've been neutralised by a private 'emergency medical' team we sent in. A team from the Center for Entertaining the Masses is reviewing the scene and creating a temporary movie set to make this look like a special effects job gone out of control."
"Any buzz coming out of the astronomy community?"
"Yeah. They're claiming that a spacecraft has launched into orbit."
"Okay, help them keep making that claim. We've got a couple of experts in UFOs who we can also make counterclaims for us that this is a sure sign of Alien Armageddon. The public won't know the difference and won't care."
"I thought we were the Information Assessment team, not Misinformation Dispersal."
"I guess it's time you and I had a little talk..."
09 February 2010
Knowing Which Bookmarks To Keep
When writing a series of books that parallels the activities of us on our planet in our universe, tweaking just a little so that it resembles the real parallel universe interlaced with ours without giving away too much, I forget to write chapters that I'd invented or were given to me by others to put down. Such is the misfortune of living a spectral way of thinking, where everything is integrated together and one's thoughts look like one's activities and vice versa.
Thus, I cannot remember which is true. Did I just read that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will give a total of $10 billion to solve a subset of world problems or did I imagine they would follow in the philanthropic footsteps of others like the Rockefellers to write a chapter of history for themselves in a positive light? Either way, $10 billion seems like a big number to me, even after suffering the numbing effect of all the trillions of dollars that have been spent to prop up financial institutions to save the world economy from collapsing. Thanks, Bill and Melinda!
I still remember to ask these questions:
Thus, I cannot remember which is true. Did I just read that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will give a total of $10 billion to solve a subset of world problems or did I imagine they would follow in the philanthropic footsteps of others like the Rockefellers to write a chapter of history for themselves in a positive light? Either way, $10 billion seems like a big number to me, even after suffering the numbing effect of all the trillions of dollars that have been spent to prop up financial institutions to save the world economy from collapsing. Thanks, Bill and Melinda!
I still remember to ask these questions:
- How do Japanese and Korean auto workers live after retirement? On what do they depend to support food, housing, medical and other expenditures?
- How do Americans, like the older labourer named Danny I met in Wal-Mart, live after they stop actively working in the marketplace? If there is no viable social safety net, how do we find sustainable employment or other means of economic support for workers like Danny as they get older? Do we start sharing our underused homes with people who have no homes? What did we learn from the experiences of homeowners who opened up their houses to people displaced by Hurricane Katrina?
- So far, Obama has shown he is an eloquent speaker who likes to drum up positive support from his grassroots organization that helped get him elected. His wife and kids are playing the near-perfect support role of First Lady and First Daughters. With Obama's three years as U.S. President left in this term of office, what can Americans do to get their thoughts about industry and government moving in a more positive direction so that we put aside our differences and solve world problems even if we don't have $10 billion in our bank accounts?
- Isn't it time we all reread the Universal Declaration of People's [Human] Rights?
- One day, we will see the most dynamic leader from the universally-recognized most persecuted group on Earth (with the least emotional baggage of/with other groups) as our world leader. Some have seen Obama holding that role but he seems like a placeholder for someone more experienced politically and better connected (i.e., more real power) to come later. In my studies, including reviews of the indigenous peoples of this continent and examples of their influence such as the YMCA Indian Guides wooden box (made by my father) that contains a headdress, moccasins and paperwork from the late 1960s, I wonder if there is someone from a native tribe on this continent who will emerge in that role. Some would want the 14th Dalai Lama to fill that position but he has too much negative emotional baggage with the leaders of China. In years past, the United States promoted people of Scots-Irish descent into world leadership positions because they represented an oppressed/repressed and persecuted people who only mildly offended the British. Marx, Lenin and Mao have represented the oppressed proletariat in times past until they came to represent a new form of oppression. The name Gandhi stills maintains a positive image for much of the world (he also demonstrates the crossover of a popular person's world status and a near-religious godlike figure, reminding me to say that I am not including historic religious figures such as Mohammed, Buddha, or Jesus in this discussion). Who will rise from the lower socioeconomic class and be welcomed by the middle and upper classes as their spokesperson to lead us into the middle and later periods of this century? Who will have lived a simple but well-connected life and continue to shun the trappings of materialism while rising to power? Who will have recall of all the major philosophies of our people and be able to converse easily in other languages with no pretense of mental superiourity while talking with the least educated among us? Who will gather a group of leaders that desires to maintain a healthy balance between commercial enterprises and noncommercial interests, between local/national fervor and equal rights for all, between warmongers and peacemakers, between the haves and the have-nots, between the educated and the ignorant and between what we know is right and what we only guess is somewhat right for the moment? All this without becoming a cult figure who insists on leading us for a lifetime; instead, this person willingly "retires" to private life after passing the torch to those who may be as effective but not as dynamic. A leader/mentor/coach, not a bureaucrat. A person who has not had to make public political compromises along the way. A person who embraces all people, without making fun of those who disagree (because we know there is no such thing as 100% agreement with what we all individually believe). Does/can such a person exist who offends very few people?
- How do I reconcile my belief in social progress with my dislike of socialism as a political, bureaucratic institution because of the knowledge that socialism - really, any form of government with established bureaucracies (including large portions of Western democratic governments) - leads to more and more inefficiencies and ineffective economies of scale? Free market, laissez-faire "decisionmaking" versus centralised market planning is not the argument here, I don't believe, because we still walk blindly into the future no matter how well we think we planned for contingencies in the next moment. Do we just keep moving forward with our regional governments that run their own social experiments within the realm of changing tastes in the marketplace and cooperate with one another to prevent major wars and economic fallouts, letting social trends swing back and forth on small pendulums (countries, NGOs, cooperatives/communes, corporations, etc.) hanging off the end of one big imaginary/invisible pendulum so that we never really ever swing too far in any one direction globally? How much inefficiency is inherent in a large people-based system (or set of systems), making "social progress" (continually maximising our society's shape toward reaching the most, best-possible, 100% completely-satisfying socioeconomic freedom per person) a moot point?
06 February 2010
Music City Scrum
While the meeting of the Fourth Reich takes place in Nashville, I pondered the Book of the Future's layout of the new Führer once again rising from humble beginnings with little more leadership to go on than a feeling of destiny before her in the wily western north, competing against the current nation's leader whose leadership skills are based on similar manifest feelings that haven't panned out very well.
All across the world, the old patterns re-emerge - people blaming others for their woes, people looking for someone to lead them out of this quagmire, the idle rich coaxing the idle unemployed to make them richer with no thought toward consequences.
I hate knowing the future. It's not always fun and games. Like seeing Haiti and knowing there's nothing I can do about stopping earthquakes. Or watching as our nations finally link all their missile defense systems together in one big planetary defense system to protect us from extraterrestrial stuff we only imagine will threaten our species' existence, unaware of the real threat facing us in the years ahead (no surprise there, the same ol' threat once again: ourselves).
Reminds me of an episode in the original Star Trek series about a woman whose death made the difference between the events that would take place in a place similar to Germany in the leadup to WWII. I know what's going to happen, I have planned for the future and will act accordingly, keeping a low profile when the time is right because the voice of freedom will not have its day in the sun for a while and thus Air America's demise is only the start of what Rupert Murdoch's media empirebuilding has reignited.
I bow my head in shame of what our people are about to do to each other. Although the future is not guaranteed, we do repeat our childish habits because there are no supreme humans steering us in the right direction (although we want to believe otherwise), leaving us to fend for ourselves as we turn on one another like rabid animals.
I will keep this blog/story going as long as I can but when it comes time for the storm troopers to start rounding up all the independent thinkers, I will not make myself a martyr intentionally. I like living, not dying for a cause just to repeat more history of our people. My goal is to get off this planet and run the show from another location where politics has been eliminated because people had to take a different form off-world and thus cast aside many of the physical traits that lead us to repeat ourselves here on Earth.
Some of you already know what's going to happen. Some of you will keep taking advantage of the situation because you firmly believe in terra firma. All the power to you. With no legacy to leave behind for Earthbound offspring, I can find other joys to seek. See you around...for now.
This is the Year of the Woman that I'd celebrate with this blog - I just didn't say which woman was going to make it her turn to be praised by her adoring worshippers in lockstep - I celebrate all women, including those who know better than to follow the crowd. May you find a way out of this next cycle of inhumanity!
All across the world, the old patterns re-emerge - people blaming others for their woes, people looking for someone to lead them out of this quagmire, the idle rich coaxing the idle unemployed to make them richer with no thought toward consequences.
I hate knowing the future. It's not always fun and games. Like seeing Haiti and knowing there's nothing I can do about stopping earthquakes. Or watching as our nations finally link all their missile defense systems together in one big planetary defense system to protect us from extraterrestrial stuff we only imagine will threaten our species' existence, unaware of the real threat facing us in the years ahead (no surprise there, the same ol' threat once again: ourselves).
Reminds me of an episode in the original Star Trek series about a woman whose death made the difference between the events that would take place in a place similar to Germany in the leadup to WWII. I know what's going to happen, I have planned for the future and will act accordingly, keeping a low profile when the time is right because the voice of freedom will not have its day in the sun for a while and thus Air America's demise is only the start of what Rupert Murdoch's media empirebuilding has reignited.
I bow my head in shame of what our people are about to do to each other. Although the future is not guaranteed, we do repeat our childish habits because there are no supreme humans steering us in the right direction (although we want to believe otherwise), leaving us to fend for ourselves as we turn on one another like rabid animals.
I will keep this blog/story going as long as I can but when it comes time for the storm troopers to start rounding up all the independent thinkers, I will not make myself a martyr intentionally. I like living, not dying for a cause just to repeat more history of our people. My goal is to get off this planet and run the show from another location where politics has been eliminated because people had to take a different form off-world and thus cast aside many of the physical traits that lead us to repeat ourselves here on Earth.
Some of you already know what's going to happen. Some of you will keep taking advantage of the situation because you firmly believe in terra firma. All the power to you. With no legacy to leave behind for Earthbound offspring, I can find other joys to seek. See you around...for now.
This is the Year of the Woman that I'd celebrate with this blog - I just didn't say which woman was going to make it her turn to be praised by her adoring worshippers in lockstep - I celebrate all women, including those who know better than to follow the crowd. May you find a way out of this next cycle of inhumanity!
05 February 2010
The Fifth of February Fisticuffs
Okay, you see, I'm not here. Got that said so let's go on to the rest of the story, about you, me and the me who's not me who's not here. Then we'll make it complicated later on.
I had just poured myself a shot of Bushmills white label Irish whiskey, the kind John recommended when my wife and I visited he and his wife in their cottage above Lough Derg a few years ago (good to see you again at the airport today, John - hard to believe your boy is 14 years young and taller than a stalk of wild ribbon grass). Sure, I could've had some Lynchburg mash or Kentucky fermented charcoal juice but I had the bottle in front of me, a dead writer to mourn, and what I tought was a quiet evening at home with the cats.
I carried the whiskey into the study, leaving the cats to soak up the heat from the old Kerosun kerosene heater toasting spider webs in the living room. 'Twas going to be a nice night for writing a few 'thank you' notes to the neighbours for thinking good thoughts and prayers about our eldest neighbours next door to me, the missus having a bit of breathing problems and needing a few nights' rest in the local hospital.
Then there came a rapping on the door. Three large taps. Loud, they were. Like someone was going to reach me no matter if I was ten stories down in my hidden subbasement labora...well, anyway, as if I was unavailable.
Being dressed for the evening in my finest house clothes - a pair of Guinness sleep pants, a work shirt and a pullover/zipup sweater - I hesitated going to the front door. What if is was them? You know, "THEM"!!!! Okay, enough for the melodrama. I'll be serious for a moment. Or shall I? Well, what if it was whoever it is it isn't supposed to be?
It was. Or it wasn't. What it was was my neighbour, Baunivonne. Baunivonne and I share an unsordid past so it's not like I'm going to spill the beans about something sorta sordid. Instead, it's the future we were to share or the past from this moment looking back that I'm here to tell you about. But in the past before that she and I shared one experience: we had the same home builder, a young man reluctantly following his father's footsteps in the house construction/repair business, she and he being... But that's all in the past, isn't it?
Baunivonne stared at me when I answered the door. Her eyes said one thing clearly, "It's colder than ice melting off the face of the embarrassed scientist who quoted a primary school student's report on the slowly melting career of Paul Michael Glaser and extrapolated the end of the world therefrom." The thermometer, I imagined from our frosty breaths, would fortune a guess of a temperature in the -3 to -5 deg C range.
"Rick, I was passing by our neighbours' house, seeing if their missus was home. She wasn't so I tought I'd wander further down the lane to your house and let you know she's not there."
"Thanks."
Her eyes continued to say she expected me to courteously invite her in, both of us stamping our feet on the rotting boards of my front deck to keep warm and test for termites in freezing weather.
"Me-ow. Me cold," our cat Merlin cried from the open doorway, his thin Cornish Rex fur not exactly mutated for subbacolda weather.
Baunivonne changed the expression on her framed face (what was she framed for? Nothing serious. Eyeglasses, mainly.) "Uh, that your cat?"
"Yep, this one's Merlin and that one in there is Erin."
"In there?"
"Uh-huh."
"Nice and toasty and warm and out of the cold?"
"Indeed."
"With us freezing our butts out here in the cold?"
"Absolutely."
She shivered, her gray, shoulder-length, no-fuss hair shaking like a feather duster. Her expression hinted at the "There's clueless and then there's Rick" line of thinking.
I nodded and agreed with her almost-thought. I decided to keep the conversation going. "So, who you think's gonna win the game on Sunday?"
"The game? Oh yeah. Well, I'm a Saints fan going way back but the Colts sure seem to have it together this year. I bet you're pulling for the Colts. Or should I say Peyton Manning?"
"Well, sure, he's quarterbacking a good team and all..."
"No, I mean you being a Tennessee fan."
"Of course I'm pulling for Peyton. He's a good-humoured kid with a well-balanced family. His wife's doing good work. What more could I ask for?"
"A Super Bowl win?"
"Yeah, until he wins another one I guess folks will keep comparing him to that three-ring circus clown...what's his name?"
"Tom Brady?"
"No, I mean Emmett Kelly. Or is it P.T. Barnum they keep comparing him to?"
"You probably mean Brett Favre."
"What is it about those boys from Mississippi whose bodies won't quit? Look at Archie. He lasted how long with an average Saints team?"
"A long time. Hey, you ever wonder why we're the kind of neighbours who don't go to each other's house two or three times a week for a hot cup of coffee?"
"Umm..."
"Or just show up uninvited and get asked in for a steaming cup of tea?"
"Well..."
"Or just call each other up and have a phone conversation for the hell of it?"
"Now that you mention..."
"Or just stand here like now with icy breaths and no clue what's going on?"
"I suppose. You still rescuing cats?"
"My husband found one abandoned at an apartment complex down in Jacksonville and brought it home for me. It's part Maine coon. You think your cats would invite it in and be kind to it for no other reason than to at least be neighbourly, let alone offer it something to drink or eat? It's not like it's going to offer its firstborn son to them or anything."
"Well, they've been neutered so that won't be a problem."
"[They the only ones who've been neutered?]"
"What did you say?"
"Oh, nothing. Look, I'll let you know if I hear anything more about the missus next-door. And thanks again for letting me know about her. We neighbours should really pay more attention to each other as we get older, you know, with our needs and wants changing with the passing years."
"I know what you mean. How long have we lived here?"
"I moved here in 1985."
"We moved here in 1987."
"Twenty-five and twenty-three years ago...amazing. In all that time, I don't ever think I've been in your house."
"And I haven't been in yours."
"Doesn't that seem strange to you?"
"Yeah, I guess it does."
"Doesn't it seem something easy to fix?"
"You're right. I ought to stop by your house and visit sometime. Maybe see that new cat of yours."
"Yeah, I guess that's what would fix it, all right. Not like I could come over to your place and step inside for a few minutes to get warm before I walked back to my place."
"I could see why you wouldn't want to do that, too."
"I wouldn't?"
"Yeah, I mean you intended to visit our neighbours..."
"Who've let me in their house once or twice in 25 years!"
"...And you took a few minutes out of your walk to give me an update. I know how that is. It breaks your concentration and changes your focus from your main objective. I bet you're ready to get back to your place and warm up."
"That's exactly what I'm thinking...warming up right now."
"Well, Baunivonne, give me an update if you find out anything."
"Yeah, I might call you tomorrow from work, if that's okay with you."
"Sure."
"You wouldn't consider that intruding if I called you at home, with you sitting in your warm house?"
"Not at all. Talk to you then."
"Thanks. I'll try not to freeze to death before I get back to my house."
"Be careful. And thanks for stopping by."
= = =
Now, that's the sort of conversation we've all had, one party saying one thing, the other party not hearing anything but the words and missing all the subtle phrasing, intonation, body language and previous history which would've helped put together a picture that even partially resembles what the first party intended. It's the same everywhere. I see it all the time, in politics (with China and the U.S. puffing up their chests and blowing out hot air about respect and territory and integrity when what they're really saying is something else entirely that only the cold winds of diplomacy can decipher properly (which is basically that the old deal's no longer any good and the new deal's getting foul-smelling a little too quickly for the next round of negotiations to have any hope of making the next few deals go smoothly)), in business (where a certain global entity has forgotten that distribution economies of scale mean nothing if certain products in the distribution channels have no meaning to the changing buying patterns of their customers/suppliers) and entertainment (where worldwide sports like soccer and rugby have long ago figured out how to put valuable adverts in the game to pay for their fans' viewing habits on the tellie (all but fans in America, that is)).
There's a funny picture I'm seeing, looking at an old map of our world. Since you can't yet use my eyes and brain to see the world, I'll draw the picture with words for you. It's this, you see. Our world is shrinking, collapsing in on itself. I'm no scientist but I seem to remember a spinning spherical body that gets smaller tends to grow denser and spins faster. Doesn't that mean its gravitational pull gets stronger (the average pull, that is, with the usual lows and highs of planetary gravitational fields for you to chart out on your personal home world simulation computer)? No, I'm sure I'm wrong - I bet I got that information from some popsci book or movie like "2010: The Year We Got LASIK and Gave Up Contacts" starring Roy 'I never bled to death from multiple shark bites' Scheider.
Did you see the light shows in Earth's sky recently? Would you want to see more? I'm not sure if I would. Some "asteroids" are incompatible with what I want our species to accomplish in years to come. I don't want some extraterrestrial runaway train to come crashing down on my party two or three thousand years from now. I wonder if I could pull in a few more "asteroid" hits? Of course, I don't control everything. I just report what I see and what I think I see I know. Those who tell me what they say they know is what I don't know if I believe is true, being the gullible type I am. However, when enough of what they pass on to me in their clandestine, cloak-and-dagger game of hide-and-seek so that no one knows who passed these nuggets of information to me turns out to be true, then I keep finding ways to spin little stories around this stuff to keep me hungry for more amour. You know that, of course. It's love that keeps us together. Else, instead of writing this you'd find me breaking a golf club over my knee in frustration of missing another nine 200-yd holes-in-one in a row or snapping my fishing pole in two because I couldn't reel in the last 20-tonne, eight-legged whale ray in the ocean, having to cut the line before I sank the Queen Mary ocean liner I'd borrowed for just such a fishing trip.
Until next time. I've got a kitchen to stock up for the big game. No, not the Super Bowl - I've got a Wal-Mart, Publix, Discount Food Mart and Mary's beer store within walking distance for that Miami smashmouth mosh pit. Instead, I'm talking about the Ireland rugby team's match to be lit and fired up soon. If I gave you a ha'penny, would you die for Ireland, little soldiers? To be in Limerick at South's again, with John, John, and the rest of the gang - that's a sight to be rich for - we'd spend more than a ha'penny on pints, that's for sure. When the children have no shoes on their feet, we'll still have Munster rugby in Ireland while the NFL players in America go on strike about forgetting why they can't remember who they are after being told to run at each other's heads like battering rams with little to protect them from concussive blows but padding made of modern chemicals instead of the leather of previous generations. In all cases, use your heads wisely, folks. You've only got one brain - pickle it with care.
I had just poured myself a shot of Bushmills white label Irish whiskey, the kind John recommended when my wife and I visited he and his wife in their cottage above Lough Derg a few years ago (good to see you again at the airport today, John - hard to believe your boy is 14 years young and taller than a stalk of wild ribbon grass). Sure, I could've had some Lynchburg mash or Kentucky fermented charcoal juice but I had the bottle in front of me, a dead writer to mourn, and what I tought was a quiet evening at home with the cats.
I carried the whiskey into the study, leaving the cats to soak up the heat from the old Kerosun kerosene heater toasting spider webs in the living room. 'Twas going to be a nice night for writing a few 'thank you' notes to the neighbours for thinking good thoughts and prayers about our eldest neighbours next door to me, the missus having a bit of breathing problems and needing a few nights' rest in the local hospital.
Then there came a rapping on the door. Three large taps. Loud, they were. Like someone was going to reach me no matter if I was ten stories down in my hidden subbasement labora...well, anyway, as if I was unavailable.
Being dressed for the evening in my finest house clothes - a pair of Guinness sleep pants, a work shirt and a pullover/zipup sweater - I hesitated going to the front door. What if is was them? You know, "THEM"!!!! Okay, enough for the melodrama. I'll be serious for a moment. Or shall I? Well, what if it was whoever it is it isn't supposed to be?
It was. Or it wasn't. What it was was my neighbour, Baunivonne. Baunivonne and I share an unsordid past so it's not like I'm going to spill the beans about something sorta sordid. Instead, it's the future we were to share or the past from this moment looking back that I'm here to tell you about. But in the past before that she and I shared one experience: we had the same home builder, a young man reluctantly following his father's footsteps in the house construction/repair business, she and he being... But that's all in the past, isn't it?
Baunivonne stared at me when I answered the door. Her eyes said one thing clearly, "It's colder than ice melting off the face of the embarrassed scientist who quoted a primary school student's report on the slowly melting career of Paul Michael Glaser and extrapolated the end of the world therefrom." The thermometer, I imagined from our frosty breaths, would fortune a guess of a temperature in the -3 to -5 deg C range.
"Rick, I was passing by our neighbours' house, seeing if their missus was home. She wasn't so I tought I'd wander further down the lane to your house and let you know she's not there."
"Thanks."
Her eyes continued to say she expected me to courteously invite her in, both of us stamping our feet on the rotting boards of my front deck to keep warm and test for termites in freezing weather.
"Me-ow. Me cold," our cat Merlin cried from the open doorway, his thin Cornish Rex fur not exactly mutated for subbacolda weather.
Baunivonne changed the expression on her framed face (what was she framed for? Nothing serious. Eyeglasses, mainly.) "Uh, that your cat?"
"Yep, this one's Merlin and that one in there is Erin."
"In there?"
"Uh-huh."
"Nice and toasty and warm and out of the cold?"
"Indeed."
"With us freezing our butts out here in the cold?"
"Absolutely."
She shivered, her gray, shoulder-length, no-fuss hair shaking like a feather duster. Her expression hinted at the "There's clueless and then there's Rick" line of thinking.
I nodded and agreed with her almost-thought. I decided to keep the conversation going. "So, who you think's gonna win the game on Sunday?"
"The game? Oh yeah. Well, I'm a Saints fan going way back but the Colts sure seem to have it together this year. I bet you're pulling for the Colts. Or should I say Peyton Manning?"
"Well, sure, he's quarterbacking a good team and all..."
"No, I mean you being a Tennessee fan."
"Of course I'm pulling for Peyton. He's a good-humoured kid with a well-balanced family. His wife's doing good work. What more could I ask for?"
"A Super Bowl win?"
"Yeah, until he wins another one I guess folks will keep comparing him to that three-ring circus clown...what's his name?"
"Tom Brady?"
"No, I mean Emmett Kelly. Or is it P.T. Barnum they keep comparing him to?"
"You probably mean Brett Favre."
"What is it about those boys from Mississippi whose bodies won't quit? Look at Archie. He lasted how long with an average Saints team?"
"A long time. Hey, you ever wonder why we're the kind of neighbours who don't go to each other's house two or three times a week for a hot cup of coffee?"
"Umm..."
"Or just show up uninvited and get asked in for a steaming cup of tea?"
"Well..."
"Or just call each other up and have a phone conversation for the hell of it?"
"Now that you mention..."
"Or just stand here like now with icy breaths and no clue what's going on?"
"I suppose. You still rescuing cats?"
"My husband found one abandoned at an apartment complex down in Jacksonville and brought it home for me. It's part Maine coon. You think your cats would invite it in and be kind to it for no other reason than to at least be neighbourly, let alone offer it something to drink or eat? It's not like it's going to offer its firstborn son to them or anything."
"Well, they've been neutered so that won't be a problem."
"[They the only ones who've been neutered?]"
"What did you say?"
"Oh, nothing. Look, I'll let you know if I hear anything more about the missus next-door. And thanks again for letting me know about her. We neighbours should really pay more attention to each other as we get older, you know, with our needs and wants changing with the passing years."
"I know what you mean. How long have we lived here?"
"I moved here in 1985."
"We moved here in 1987."
"Twenty-five and twenty-three years ago...amazing. In all that time, I don't ever think I've been in your house."
"And I haven't been in yours."
"Doesn't that seem strange to you?"
"Yeah, I guess it does."
"Doesn't it seem something easy to fix?"
"You're right. I ought to stop by your house and visit sometime. Maybe see that new cat of yours."
"Yeah, I guess that's what would fix it, all right. Not like I could come over to your place and step inside for a few minutes to get warm before I walked back to my place."
"I could see why you wouldn't want to do that, too."
"I wouldn't?"
"Yeah, I mean you intended to visit our neighbours..."
"Who've let me in their house once or twice in 25 years!"
"...And you took a few minutes out of your walk to give me an update. I know how that is. It breaks your concentration and changes your focus from your main objective. I bet you're ready to get back to your place and warm up."
"That's exactly what I'm thinking...warming up right now."
"Well, Baunivonne, give me an update if you find out anything."
"Yeah, I might call you tomorrow from work, if that's okay with you."
"Sure."
"You wouldn't consider that intruding if I called you at home, with you sitting in your warm house?"
"Not at all. Talk to you then."
"Thanks. I'll try not to freeze to death before I get back to my house."
"Be careful. And thanks for stopping by."
= = =
Now, that's the sort of conversation we've all had, one party saying one thing, the other party not hearing anything but the words and missing all the subtle phrasing, intonation, body language and previous history which would've helped put together a picture that even partially resembles what the first party intended. It's the same everywhere. I see it all the time, in politics (with China and the U.S. puffing up their chests and blowing out hot air about respect and territory and integrity when what they're really saying is something else entirely that only the cold winds of diplomacy can decipher properly (which is basically that the old deal's no longer any good and the new deal's getting foul-smelling a little too quickly for the next round of negotiations to have any hope of making the next few deals go smoothly)), in business (where a certain global entity has forgotten that distribution economies of scale mean nothing if certain products in the distribution channels have no meaning to the changing buying patterns of their customers/suppliers) and entertainment (where worldwide sports like soccer and rugby have long ago figured out how to put valuable adverts in the game to pay for their fans' viewing habits on the tellie (all but fans in America, that is)).
There's a funny picture I'm seeing, looking at an old map of our world. Since you can't yet use my eyes and brain to see the world, I'll draw the picture with words for you. It's this, you see. Our world is shrinking, collapsing in on itself. I'm no scientist but I seem to remember a spinning spherical body that gets smaller tends to grow denser and spins faster. Doesn't that mean its gravitational pull gets stronger (the average pull, that is, with the usual lows and highs of planetary gravitational fields for you to chart out on your personal home world simulation computer)? No, I'm sure I'm wrong - I bet I got that information from some popsci book or movie like "2010: The Year We Got LASIK and Gave Up Contacts" starring Roy 'I never bled to death from multiple shark bites' Scheider.
Did you see the light shows in Earth's sky recently? Would you want to see more? I'm not sure if I would. Some "asteroids" are incompatible with what I want our species to accomplish in years to come. I don't want some extraterrestrial runaway train to come crashing down on my party two or three thousand years from now. I wonder if I could pull in a few more "asteroid" hits? Of course, I don't control everything. I just report what I see and what I think I see I know. Those who tell me what they say they know is what I don't know if I believe is true, being the gullible type I am. However, when enough of what they pass on to me in their clandestine, cloak-and-dagger game of hide-and-seek so that no one knows who passed these nuggets of information to me turns out to be true, then I keep finding ways to spin little stories around this stuff to keep me hungry for more amour. You know that, of course. It's love that keeps us together. Else, instead of writing this you'd find me breaking a golf club over my knee in frustration of missing another nine 200-yd holes-in-one in a row or snapping my fishing pole in two because I couldn't reel in the last 20-tonne, eight-legged whale ray in the ocean, having to cut the line before I sank the Queen Mary ocean liner I'd borrowed for just such a fishing trip.
Until next time. I've got a kitchen to stock up for the big game. No, not the Super Bowl - I've got a Wal-Mart, Publix, Discount Food Mart and Mary's beer store within walking distance for that Miami smashmouth mosh pit. Instead, I'm talking about the Ireland rugby team's match to be lit and fired up soon. If I gave you a ha'penny, would you die for Ireland, little soldiers? To be in Limerick at South's again, with John, John, and the rest of the gang - that's a sight to be rich for - we'd spend more than a ha'penny on pints, that's for sure. When the children have no shoes on their feet, we'll still have Munster rugby in Ireland while the NFL players in America go on strike about forgetting why they can't remember who they are after being told to run at each other's heads like battering rams with little to protect them from concussive blows but padding made of modern chemicals instead of the leather of previous generations. In all cases, use your heads wisely, folks. You've only got one brain - pickle it with care.
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