alt0182

no would have beens

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 16:48:00 +0000

In Jerusalem, by Alan Moore, there is a group of children belonging to the Dead Dead Gang. They have all gained a dimension...which seems like something that happens when you die...and this added dimension gives them abilities that are analogous to our super-powers whenever we look in on the inhabitants of Flatland.

The children in the Dead Dead Gang can see Time for what it truly is; a direction in space. And they can traverse that direction as easily as we can walk in our world of only three space dimensions.

The children visit 1675 to see the great fire that destroys half of the city. The oldest gang member, John, is explaining to the youngest fella that this was the year in which the "Boroughs" district of the city becomes a slum. He reasons that the winds were blowing in such a way that the Boroughs were not destroyed, but the rest of the town was. After the fire, the people rebuilt the destroyed homes while the folks in the Boroughs just continued with their old...and now comparatively shabby...dwellings. This "new town" advantage continued and was reinforced down the centuries by the "better" people choosing to live in the better places.

And if only the wind had been blowing differently that day, then the Boroughs would be the good part of town and not the habitual and perennial slum neighborhood.

But the leader of the gang...her name is Phyllis...disagrees and says,

But that's not 'ow it 'appened, wiz it? Things only work out one way, and that's the way they 'ave to work out. If we'd grown up in posh 'ouses, then we wouldn't be us, would we? I'm 'appy bein' 'oo I am. I think this wiz 'oo I wiz meant to be, and I think that the Boroughs wiz meant to be 'ow it wiz, as well.

(Language also changes when you die. You keep your accent, but being above Time causes you to pick up some tense-less verb forms. I'm sure you can figure it out.)

Phyllis is a very wise character who speaks as a surrogate for the author and his views on Time. Everything has already happened...and you'll see this truth more clearly when you die, because you will gain a dimension.

You can look at a partially completed sudoku puzzle and figure out that one of the empty squares must be either a 3 or a 7. There are no other possibilities...and so, that square has a 50% chance of being a 3 and a 50% chance of being a 7. This is...of course...totally wrong.

No chance is involved. The square has a 100% "chance" of being what it is. You can do that same sudoku puzzle a hundred times and...if your reasoning is correct...then the square will always be what it is.

The only way that the square in question could be anything different is if we started out with a completely different initial sudoku puzzle.

Sudoku is fun because we are kinda slow as logicians. Computers think that sudoku is boring.

And this is what Phyllis is saying. Everything is as it is because everything else is as it is. There are no "would have beens" unless you change everything.

The only way to truly be anyone is to be who you are as a result of the entire context.

Reality is a pattern...a structure...and the idea of causation is suspect. A big skyscraper is coherent and the 12th floor is related to the 23rd floor...but it does not cause it. I am coherent and structured...but my patella does not cause my liver.

In the Jerusalem book, the journey continues. Death is only the beginning. Time is Space.

Strength Test

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Mar 2018 16:36:00 +0000

This short post is an unsolicited compliment to a great site called Strong Towns.

I am not that old...but old enough to remember the major phases of retail business in America.

When I was a little kid (in the 60's), my Mom took me shopping. I went with her on all her local errands. She took me to the:

Bakery
Pharmacy
Barber
Butcher
Grocery
Fish Market
Dry Cleaner
Hardware Store
Shoe Store

And all of these places were in what we always called the "down town". You parked on the street, usually in a diagonal space (herringbone), and walked to the various store fronts. Every store was owned by a family...by someone you knew and who knew you.

I am not trying to make a bid for sentimentality. This post is not about nostalgia.

As I got older (70's and 80's), things changed and we entered the world of franchises and malls. I remember thinking it was real exciting to wander thru the indoor pedestrian malls and enjoy the air-conditioning and the dazzle of the window displays. The mall was way more than just shopping...it was about eating, entertainment, and above all socializing.

And now...my health club is in a declining mall. I go there quite often and I have tracked its precipitous decline. It is 80% dead. What remains are the service businesses (hair salons and the gym) plus a small batch of dubious retail store fronts, like vape stores, eyebrow trimmers, phone case repair, and an antique consignment place.

The malls killed the downtowns. Amazon killed the malls. Are we about to see a downtown redux?

If you only read one thing on the Strong Towns site, make sure you check out the Strength Test. We are not all urban planners and sometimes the jargon of that profession can be daunting, but this strength test is just ten questions and really, you don't need to know all the answers...it is sufficient to just think about the questions. You'll quickly get a sense of the philosophy that the site's author is promoting and you'll know more about your own town and whether (or not) it is strong.

Strong Towns is a brilliant site with a great and timely message for America.

Three Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 16:47:00 +0000

Philosophy comes first, then religion.

If you can't get straight on what you believe about the nature of Reality, or if you refuse to do that work, then your religious convictions...no matter how vehemently stated...are just arbitrary and lazy. In effect, your faith is merely convenient and no better than a bumper sticker I once saw on the highways of America:

The Bible says it. I believe it. And that settles it.

Over the years, my model for Reality has become Media...Reality is a type of immersive media. The laundry list for this philosophical neighborhood includes things like: "The Matrix", Eternalism, Simulation Theory, David Bohm, and lots of other stuff. Yah...okay...I am an amateur philosopher, but this is still what I believe.

My basic tenet is that existence is like a movie reel. It is thousands and thousands of still photographs with little gaps between them and when you play it, it conveys the illusion of motion and it tells a story.

The inspirational aspect of this belief is that it implies (for me) the real existence of a thing called consciousness. The movie can't watch itself. There has to be an audience. I call them Souls.

And so it is in that light that I then turn my attention to religion. I am not pretending to be exhaustively all-inclusive here. I just want to comment on three religions from the point of view of someone who believes that Reality is Media.

Christianity definitely does not see the world as media. Instead, life is a high-stakes moral tightrope. Modern Christianity is uncomfortable with this statement and tired of constantly being attacked on the basis of Hell and Satan and Damnation...but...I don't think that conciliatory words from liberal theologians really change this basic paradigm for Christianity. Like it or not, life is the grand game of free will, good vs evil, and final judgment...and...you might not come out on the side of the Angels. This is a real possibility.

So for Christians, the most critical question is, "What should I do?"

It is about me, my free will, my body, my soul, my actions, and my consequences. (sorry. do I over-simplify? I just can't accept the modern, softer versions. In the course of history, Christianity laid down a foundation of belief and in that core, existence is defined as a moral hazard. I don't think that Christianity can sidestep this, however much it may want to.)

But if Reality is truly Media, then Christians are like those kids in the grocery store who are "steering" the cart.
In Buddhism, Reality is just a bunch of silly happenings and mutual causes...dependent arising. It might be painful. It might be fun. However, it is ultimately pointless...dukkha. The question for Buddhists is, "How do I make it stop?"

And again...I over-simplify. Sorry, again.

Buddhists are tired of being accused of nihilism and they propose all sorts of complex contortions to avoid this charge...but at the end of the day...in my eyes...Buddhism is nihilistic. It is good to meditate, but I cannot accept the premise for why we should meditate. Escaping into stillness may relieve me from time to time...but it does not fulfill me.

If Reality is truly Media, then Buddhists just want to leave the theater and go home to bed and endless, dreamless sleep.

You may not consider Jungianism a religion, but I do. It is the religion that looks at Reality/Media and asks the question:

What does it mean?

The goal for the Soul is to experience many lives and many points of view and then, armed with that experience, to participate in changing the media to make it better. This is evolution and redemption in a single stroke.

I doubt that I am convincing anyone. Eternalism is believed by people you should respect...like Albert Einstein...but it is still difficult and weird and absolutely non-intuitive. I admit all that.

But if Einstein and quite a lot of other physicists are right, then Eternalism is true and we are left with the need to decide which question we really, really want to dedicate ourselves to:

What should I do?
How do I make it stop?
What does it mean?

I choose to interpret Reality as an eternal quest for knowledge, experience, and improvement. I don't want to judge it. I don't want to escape it. I want to know what it means.

One final point...You might object to Eternalism because you feel that it denies free will. I have three tentative ideas on that issue:

Reality/Media may very well be branched...like The Garden of Forking Paths by Borges. Free will may then be operative, but only at certain points in a reality-story...like hypertext fiction and also like Groundhog Day. The Soul chooses which "story" to "read" and by virtue of in-story decision points changes the progress of the story. In Groundhog Day, the soul does this repeatedly...practicing until he gets it right.
Or free will may operate only in between the lives that the Soul chooses to live.
And finally, I would say that the whole issue of free will really doesn't interest me much. If you had it and then God took it away, how would that feel? Conversely, if you didn't have it and then God suddenly gave it to you, how would that feel?

I don't think free will is as important as people say it is.

Souls might have it at certain points, but the characters in the media do not have it. The characters in the media don't even move...so how could they have free will? It would be like saying that Frodo has free will. That is all that I can say.

I pledge allegiance

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 12:20:00 +0000

I pledge allegiance to my spin and charge.

I pledge allegiance to water and to this pond...the perfect place to float, to be green, or to replicate.

I pledge allegiance to the colony and the graces of sailing, stinging, and ingesting.

I pledge allegiance to my clan. We are over here. They are over there.

I pledge allegiance to an indivisible nation...divided by dead abstractions of party, corporation, municipality, and indivisibility...and to the flag for which we stand or sit or kneel.

I pledge allegiance to the other indivisible nations with whom we trade and war and merge and divide.

And to all of Earth's children...the animals and plants...our clothing, our food, our friends, and our teachers. I pledge allegiance.

And to the Sun and his System...for warmth and shelter and storm.

I descend to the substance...to the rational parts without meaning...then soar irrationally among the conscious, insubstantial wholes.

The Freedom of this dual motion...I transcend even that.

In the name of the continuum, the irrational, and the rationals. Amen.

I pledge allegiance.

isms for the 21st century

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 17:15:00 +0000

The 20th century could be described as a conflict between capitalism and communism. Capitalism was a given since the 19th century. It was the unstated thesis of the 20th. And the (emphatically stated) antithesis was communism.

The Bolshevik Revolution. German unrest during the interwar years. The Cold War. Mao Zedong. Korea. Cuba. Vietnam.

It was 100 years of conflict and confrontation between these two opposing ideas. Both philosophies had their strengths and weaknesses. I think the ravages of capitalism have been as great as the benefits and we don't need to go into all that here.

As for communism, I like the story (maybe just a story) of how a train is sent east across the Trans-Siberian Railway carrying lumber. And somewhere in the middle it passes a westbound train carrying...lumber. The supposed moral of this story is that planning never works. "Invisible Hands" work and they are the only thing that works.

And now this titanic conflict is over...but not because either side won. Instead, we achieved a synthesis. China is a capito-communo hybrid and rapidly becoming the world's largest economy. As for true blue, unfettered, cowboy capitalism in America...this is only a comforting illusion.

In the 1960s, real entrepreneurs got an idea and literally took it to the bank to get a business loan. Coffee Shops, Hot Dog Stands, Farm Markets, Beauty Parlors, and Pharmacies. These entrepreneurs had ideas and experience and intuition and hope. Some succeeded and some did not, but they were all authentic capitalists.

But where do the coffee shops and such come from today? In the case of coffee places, they all come from Starbucks Inc. and a tiny, insignificant market slice goes to miscellaneous others. But Starbucks rules.

They are big and powerful and nationally branded and backed up by research and international logistical channels and decision-making AI systems that analyze traffic flows and demographics and employment pools and weather and God knows what else.

When the big boys decide to build a Starbucks here rather than there, it is because they have marshalled all these resources and analyzed terabytes of data. Individual Starbucks do fail now and then, but not very often. The "invisible hands" have come into view...for those who are already rich and powerful.

This is not capitalism any more than China is communism. We have synthesized. We are not likely to see mutually redundant shipments of lumber on the Trans-Siberian Railway any more simply because the world has changed a lot since Lenin. This has nothing to do with economic theory...it has everything to do with technological practice.

The new isms for this century are Nationalism and Globalism. These two ideas have had their genesis in the 20th, but they are really coming into their own right now. I would propose pre-existing Nationalism as the given thesis and Globalism as the antithesis.

We see it everywhere, but in the microcosm of America we see it in the Red/Blue Divide.

President ConDon, who is "republican", is purging his cabinet of globalists and installing nationalists. "Make America Great Again" and "America First" are nationalist slogans. Tariffs and borders and walls are the delights of nationalists. Trumpian nationalists are inherently xenophobic and racist. They hate the UN. They fear a "new world order" and a "deep state". They resign from the (international) Paris Agreement.

And in the worst manifestation of this line of thinking, they suspect a cabal of "international jewry" is attempting to de-christianize them for financial gain. (hence, Trump's solid popularity among evangelicals.)

Trump has successfully changed the definition of "conservative". They used to love Free Trade and Law Enforcement. Now they love protectionism and attack the FBI and the intelligence agencies.

Nationalism is awake in Europe...in Germany and England and France...and in Turkey and in the heart of Vladimir Putin. The president of China has recently become a strongman...dictator for life.

And the globalists? I am not sure they really have an organized "side" yet. Environmentalism is probably the most coherent expression of globalism at the moment. Issues of food distribution and women's rights also come in here.

Globalists recognize that certain problems and endeavours really do require a global approach. They are less afraid of a nanny state and more aware that nationalism flowered once in Germany...and that the name of the political party involved, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei was shortened to just Nazi.

So...what is the synthesis? To understand that, I think we need to remove the rhetoric and the emotion. We need to replace the inflammatory words of Nationalism and Globalism with the more pragmatic words of Decentralization and Centralization.

The railroad gauge in Florida is the same as the railroad gauge in Oregon and all the other states. This fact does not elicit an emotional outrage in most people. Nobody complains about nanny states or big brother or international jewry...they just drive trains more efficiently and everyone benefits. Good God...they even use the same gauge in Canada...a foreign country! No problem.

Some things should be controlled by a central authority/system...and other things not so much. When you say it like that, it doesn't get over-heated.

And finally, my mischievous nature forces me to...well...heat things up. Because some things on the centralized/decentralized spectrum are clearly up for grabs. Consider the legality of firecrackers.

As it turns out, the smart states like New Jersey and Massachusetts make fireworks illegal...whereas "deplorable" states like Alabama and Mississippi have virtually zero restrictions.

In fact, the legal status of fireworks tracks well with red/blue political maps...as well as with maps showing "states with the highest firecracker injury rates".

Go figure.

Firecracker laws by state

Something here to displease everyone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 08 Mar 2018 20:10:00 +0000

Politico reports:

"President Donald Trump last year hailed a multibillion-dollar initiative to create a seamless digital health system for active duty military and the VA that he said would deliver faster, better, and far better quality care.”

This new system for the VA and the military is worse than simply "behind schedule and over budget". This new system is bad to the point of being life threatening. As one doctor put it, "We took a broken system and just broke it completely."

I have seen a lot of bad implementations. In fact, I have seen mostly bad implementations. In fact...not even mostly...every implementation that I ever experienced in the last 25 years was awful...every one of them.

Why?

We ask the people what they want...we ask the current users...especially the ones in the trenches, assuming that they are the real experts. And this approach...although widely regarded as unquestionably essential...is in fact stupid.

Managers in the organization generally know nothing about how the current system is used. They know about dashboards and summary reports...usually made by other people.

Definition of a manager today is: He (or she) is a highly paid person who talks all day and emails all day and goes to meetings and is good at picking out which pie slice on the pie chart is biggest (or smallest) and then saying "This is where we need to focus."

Workers in the trenches...okay...these folks are a notch better than managers. At least they know the current system, but what does that really mean? It means they know the interface and the routine workflows and the crazy workarounds. They don't know the data structures, coding, security, hardware/network, interface design methods, and a thousand other things.
What they know is old, limited to the current system, and often arbitrary and fragmentary.

And to make things worse, they are primarily concerned with job protection. These are the people who force the vendor to mangle the out-of-box system so that it looks like and behaves like the old system. It is like having an old car with a dent on the bumper...buying a new car...and then insisting that the dealer install a dent on the new bumper.

If you are paying a vendor for a new system then why not expect...call me crazy but...a new system! Check the dictionary and see what "new" means.

So we have this built-in toxic relationship between "SMEs" and vendors and SMEs preserve their jobs and vendors charge more for changes and subsequent version upgrades. This is corrupt.

We ignore years of research when we insist on making the system fit our retro-entrenched-business. Vendors...to their credit...often evolve systems in a given industry silo...taking advantage of improvements in technology, lessons learned, and the most recent standards and best practices. Why throw that away?

Okay...this is a mostly liberal blog...but now I gotta say some things about vendors that could be considered politically incorrect.

The vendor people often fall into four distinct groups:

Sales/Account Reps—These are "regular Americans" and they'll say anything to make the deal.
In Charge Indians—They are "Americanized" but still able to talk to the other Indians in their own languages.
Non-English speaking, but physically present Indians—This is the "Indian pool". They sit together and eat together and code together and smile a lot.
Offshore Indians—We never see them or talk to them. Their salaries and benefits are probably good...by Indian standards...but probably inhuman by US standards. Either way...we really don't care and that's what bugs me. These people are coding a healthcare system while they themselves probably lack adequate healthcare!

This type of (layered and English-challenged) workforce is practically guaranteed to generate misunderstandings and cultural disconnects.

Sorry, but IT development should be totally onshore using American workers...who are trained by strong programs in colleges and community colleges and technical schools. Instead, we skim the top 2% of the talent from a country that can barely afford to feed its own people. Let that talent stay in India. They need it. We shouldn't.

(Note to President Dim-Don: Steel and aluminum and coal are not what you should be protecting.)

We all use different systems for the same thing. IT is a huge cost for companies. In an industry like insurance, everyone is basically doing the same thing. They may even be using different versions of the same system from the same vendor.

In an industry like insurance, we stand to make massive gains by achieving an economy of scale. The competitive model of unrestrained capitalism does not guarantee the best quality at the best price.

Insurance is a social lubricant. It is also a game of numbers...everything else is fluff. We are wasting our money building systems for many companies, many state-level insurance regulators, and many insurance brokerages. This is not a technical issue, but a social one.

Capitalism does not always guarantee the best. Technology...especially artificial intelligence...works best at the highest level with the best access to the largest data set. Things like insurance and healthcare don't work well in the competitive model and should be consolidated as much as possible.

Russian Hookers made simple

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 02 Mar 2018 18:31:00 +0000

First thing to know is that everyone is reporting on this Russian Escort...not just Trump-Bashers.

The list of responsible news outlets includes: WAPO, NYT, AP, CNN, Reuters, and more.

FOX is not reporting this.

Instead, they are covering the heart-warming story of how an Alabama man used his AR-15 and his Second Amendment rights to defend his family against a gay, muslim, black, immigrant, commie, hollywood, jewish, treasonous, democrat, liberal intruder who was trying to steal the family Bible.

Getting back to the Escort...

The Russian names make this intricate story even harder to follow, so I am gonna use some friendlier terms. (CuteGirl, Oligarch, Dissident, and Russian#2 for the Deputy Prime Minister of Mother Russia).

And I'll use the real names for Manafort, Trump, and Putin. Ready?

Manafort was $19M in debt to Oligarch when he became Trump's campaign manager.
Oligarch is really good friends with Russian#2. They go sailing together on the Oligarch's yacht...flanked by Oligarch's floating bodyguard aboard an armed vessel also owned by Oligarch. CuteGirl goes with them.
CuteGirl has a video recording of the two men on the yacht talking about the problems with the Americans. Specifically, they hate one Victoria Nuland, Barack Obama’s assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
CuteGirl posts this yacht video on Instagram!
Dissident sees the Instagram post and decides to investigate further.
Dissident produces a report on YouTube.
The Russian Government is seeking to have this YouTube deleted and has started pursuing legal actions against CuteGirl and Dissident.
CuteGirl flees to Thailand. She makes money there by giving a "Sex and Orgasm Technique" class to Thai sex workers. CuteGirl is arrested by Thai police...not for the content of her class...but because she is "teaching without a permit".
Thai government intends to deport CuteGirl to Russia...where she will no doubt be quietly murdered.
CuteGirl sends desperate plea for help to the US government saying that she can link Trump and Manafort directly to Oligarch and Russian#2 and Putin.

That is the simplified story. This CuteGirl is obviously a real clever operator who has survived in a very dangerous world of power, money, and crime. And...she is desperate.

BUT is she lying?

Consider not just the links themselves, but the strength of the links:

Trump—Manafort—Oligarch—Deputy Prime Minister—Putin

Each one of the dashes above represents a factual and profound linkage. Specifically:
—campaign manager of
—$19M in debt to
—floating F*ck Buddies
—works directly for really dangerous dictator

CuteGirl is asserting that Oligarch is/was the back-channel between Trump and Putin.

I believe her.

Cast of Characters

Anastasia Vashukevich...CuteGirl.
Oleg Deripaska...the oligarch.
Paul Manafort...the oligarch's buddy...and Trump's campaign manager.
Aleksei Navlny...the dissident.
Donald Trump...the president (sorta)
Sergei Prikhodko...the Russian Deputy Prime Minister.
Vladimir Putin...Dictator of Russia.

Personal Ownership of Nuclear Weapons

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 15:31:00 +0000

More gun control stuff! Sorry, but I am interested and taking the time to do some research. Keep reading. You'll learn a lot.

One of the most common criticisms of the 2nd Amendment is that it is antique, quaint...that it was impossible for the Framers to anticipate future weapons development...that this obsolete amendment was meant to apply to the black-powder, flint-lock muskets of the time.

I wanted to know if the 2nd Amendment can be interpreted as having a limit.
And I wanted to understand this in terms of the opinions of the NRA-type people...I wanted to know what the gun nuts think.

1. Gun advocates generally concede that the Founding Fathers were unable to anticipate the future lethality of weapons.

2. BUT...they also maintain that the spirit of the amendment is that private citizens have a right to "parity" with government forces. Even so, there are differences of opinion:

Parity with Police—These folks see police forces as the main concern/threat to liberty. Police groups can become corrupt or they can obey the orders of a corrupt government. So...goes the logic...whatever weapons police have defines the weapons that citizens have a right to own.
Parity with the Military—The same logic applies here, but I think these folks are more likely to be Nazis...rather than just extreme libertarians. I suspect these are the folks who never really reconciled over the Civil War.

So...this idea of parity is fairly common and would seem to support the idea that citizens have a right to own just about any type of weapon. (This is crazy, but many gun advocates think this way.)

3. Some gun people...who are also passionate constitutional scholars...parse the 2nd Amendment even further and they stress that the right involves "keeping and bearing" arms. Therefore, it pertains only to weapons that can be carried.

(Interesting...this would exclude the ownership of mortars...except for very strong people...but would allow for machine guns and automatic rifles. Presumably, only Superman would be allowed to own a tank.)

(Don't laugh. People on the internet actually do have long and detailed discussions regarding this bearing aspect of the 2nd Amendment.)

4. The National Firearms Act of 1934 severely regulated the private ownership of machine guns. Basically, you had to pay a steep tax, submit to a thorough background investigation, register yourself, register the weapon, fingerprints and photographs on file...and...you can't sell it to anyone else unless they go through the same process. Typically, the background investigation takes ten months to complete. AND...you can't move to another state with your machine gun unless you report it to the ATF bureau.

5. The Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986 basically said...no more machine guns. But it allowed all properly-registered and existing machine guns to be kept by their owners and to be sold...if all the strict requirements are met by the buyer. It also became illegal to repair old machine guns. In essence, this is a war of attrition against automatic weapons. The dwindling supply of these weapons has made them priceless in the marketplace.

6. Every year, the owners of these ever-dwindling machine guns get together for a festival. You can look at the weapons, witness a demo, and for a price, you can even shoot them under proper supervision. This popular festival is held in...you guessed it...Las Vegas!

In summary:

Laws enacted since the framing of the constitution limit 2nd Amendment rights to semi-automatic weapons and prohibit anything deadlier.
Gun advocates generally disagree with this restriction. To be fair, the gun people don't seem to really be pursuing the right to own machine guns (or mortars or tanks)...it is something that is more theoretical than passionate. Whereas, the defense of semi-automatic rifles is passionate and powerful.

And just to be clear...I advocate gun control. I believe that all assault rifles (semi-automatic, high muzzle velocity, huge capacity magazines) are too dangerous for civilian ownership.

We controlled machine guns in 1934! We should do no less for assault rifles today!

Oh yeah...and what happens when we finally invent this thing? I suspect it will be sooner than you think!

Camden and the main debate

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 21:08:00 +0000

ONE
Imagine a little fish...swimming in the Atlantic waters off the New Jersey coast. He happens to be a Portuguese Trout, but his parents emigrated to New Jersey before he was even born. All his life, he has always wanted to visit the "Old Country".

Fortunately, Portugal is exactly due East of New Jersey...straight shot. He knows it's gonna take a long time, but he begins his journey eastwards. He is a good fish and a good swimmer and he has a good goal.

But there is a current...from south to north. It is inexorable. Unlike the little trout, it never sleeps, never varies. The current is slow...in fact, it is a bit slower than the fish swims...but the real hell of it is, the current is vast. It is hundreds of miles wide. The fish cannot see it or feel it. He cannot use his "free will" to swim against it. It is his moving frame of reference...except...he doesn't know it is moving. He doesn't even know it exists.

After a very long time of swimming due East towards Portugal, he finally arrives in the waters off the coast of...Norway. The Norwegian fish eat him and that's the end of it.

TWO
I took a walk through the streets of Camden yesterday. I did it on Google Street View...because...I would be petrified to walk the streets of Camden in real life. I urge you to do the same...in Camden, or Detroit, Oakland, or Cleveland. There's only one way that I would not be afraid to walk the streets of Camden...if I was born there...if it were my undetectable frame of reference.

THREE
Obesity has exploded. There is no other way to say it. The increase is exponential. The American obesity rate has more than tripled since 1950. Why? Oh I don't know, maybe:

The average restaurant meal is four times larger than it was in the 1950s.
Fast food is cheap and readily available. Vegetables are not.
Sugar, salt, empty carbs...arranged in row after row in grocery stores. Processed foods take up the vast majority of space at the store and the advertising bandwidth on TV.
Soda manufacturers are prominent at the most expensive of all advertising venues...the Super Bowl.

But all of these factors are oceanic currents. We are not fatter because we have suddenly and inexplicably lost our moral compass en masse.

THE MAIN DEBATE
The main debate between Republicans and Democrats is how much we should weigh the factors of individual responsibility versus social currents.

Pick any issue...like the banning of 64 ounce soda drinks in New York City...the Democrats will always support a ban or a tax...and the Republicans will always oppose...appealing to LIBERTY and RESPONSIBILITY.

Isn't it funny how these moral notions always seem to dovetail so well with...PROFIT?

The beginning of the end for President Con-Don

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 16:03:00 +0000

Sometimes, I think my purpose in this blog is just to extract and summarize what is most relevant in the daily flood of news. This is one of those posts and the topic is the "flipping of Gates".

I owe a lot to the fine writers at Politico. (Jack Shafer)

Gates and Manafort launder money for the Russians and have done so for years...prior to the 2016 election.

Manafort was $17M in debt to Russian oligarchs at the time that he became Trump's campaign manager. (this alone is stunning and the blog post could end here)

(just as an aside...what do you think it feels like to be $17 MILLION DOLLARS in debt to billionaire Russian Mafia guys? Would that...like...influence you...at all?)

In 2010, Manafort and Gates rigged the Ukrainian election to install a Russian puppet as president of Ukraine. (so they know how to rig an election)

Manafort's level of access in Russia is quite high. He is the close friend of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska...who is a close friend of Putin.

In 2014, Russia launched a massive and prolonged effort to manipulate public opinion in favor of Trump. This expensive and extensive operation continued all thru the campaign and election and in fact...has not stopped.

Is it reasonable to believe that the shockingly long list of Trump associates with substantive and illegal involvement with shady Russians...over a stretch of many years...is completely separate from the election meddling launched by those same Russians?

One of the things that Trump does that just infuriates me is...he just says stuff. He just says that there was no Russian meddling...and then, when that becomes ludicrous even to his base...he then just says...okay there was meddling, but it had no effect on the election. How the hell does he know that? How can anyone ever know that?

Jared Kushner did what exactly during the campaign? Oh that's right, he managed the campaign's entire digital presence...facebook, twitter, and dozens of other social media platforms. Was that effective in influencing voters?

You can't say that what you were doing was effective, but what the Russians were doing wasn't effective. (Republican Consultant—Rick Tyler)

And don't forget...This pronouncement about the futility of the Russian meddling is coming from a man who told us that the election was tampered with by millions of illegal immigrant voters...which of course is false...fake news.

Trump is illegitimate!

Although Trump lost the popular tally by nearly 3 million votes nationally, he won three states that most observers expected to go to Clinton by a total margin of 77,744. Were the Russian efforts enough to have moved 77,744 votes in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania?—Huffington Post

And we know that the Russian meddling campaign specifically targeted...Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

We will never prove that Trump is illegitimate...but...it will be proven that he and his most trusted associates actively colluded with Russia to steal the election and undermine our democracy.

President Con-Don won't get away with it. No honor among thieves. His days are numbered.

A$$ault Rifles

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 17:11:00 +0000

I watched the President's "listening session" at the White House.

I also watched Jake Tapper's Town Hall event on CNN.

And...sorry...but I have to say this: The White House event was about 80% bump stock and background check and 20% assault rifle ban. In the CNN event, these percentages were reversed.

Even during our grief and frustration...especially during our grief and frustration...we must not allow the NRA and Trump to manipulate the discussion.

The self-serving gun lobby "solution" is:

Ban bump stocks
Focus on mental illness
Arm teachers

Bump Stocks are a giveaway...a negotiation trick. They are not financially important to the NRA or the gun makers. Of course they should be banned! They are GAGA CRAZY! And I am sure that the righteous folks at the NRA also support a ban on hand grenades, dynamite sticks, sarin gas, and mortars in school. But don't let them feel good about this. Bump stocks are not a point of negotiation. They should be banned before the gun control discussion even begins.

Focus on Mental Illness. Now the NRA strategy is combining giveaway with another trick: distraction. Of course mentally ill people should not have weapons. Again, it is clear that mentally ill people are not a significant source of $revenue$ for the gun makers. Giving up this slice of the market does not hurt them.
The real NRA gain here is to seductively, imperceptibly introduce the idea that guns are not the problem. This is the same tired and false slogan that we have been hearing for years! "Guns don't kill. People do." The NRA wants to base our safety on the slender reed of an inadequate mental healthcare system rather than attack the obvious problem of A$$ault rifles. If we allow ourselves to be fooled by this nonsense, then we might as well start saying, "Nuclear weapons don't kill. People do."

Put it this way...

The USA has way more guns than Germany. WAY MORE.

The USA has way more deaths from guns than Germany. WAY MORE.

Those two facts correlate and if we include the same measurements from dozens of other countries...then those two facts correlate massively.

The NRA wants you to believe that the USA is WAY MORE mentally ill than Germany (or any other country), even though NOTHING backs up that claim.

The NRA is hoping that we are not smart enough to understand that mental illness is a problem AND guns are a problem.

Clarification of the "gun show" loophole.

Guns are sold in three ways: Dealers, Gun Shows, Personal Sales. Only dealers are required to do background checks (and even that varies). But it is misleading to say "gun show" and "loophole". It makes the problem seem much smaller. Most people have never been to a gun show...but we all have neighbors. Personal sales require no background checks. Personal sales need not be recorded anywhere. Anyone who currently owns a gun can sell it...to anyone...with no record of any kind. And, in many states, it is legal for a private citizen to buy weapons in bulk. And then resell them one at a time.

(The NRA recently protested a proposed bill in Virginia that would have limited the number of firearms that a private citizen could buy in a month...taking the number down from 500 to only 100! The NRA blocked this bill!!!!)

This is not a "loophole" and it is not limited to "gun shows". This is a pervasive super highway of gun sales...this is TOTAL FREEDOM to sell any gun to anybody at any time with no risk or record or responsibility. There are private citizens in America whose primary career and income source is selling guns by means of this "loophole".

And finally, the advice from President Covfefe: Arming Teachers

His tweets:

History shows that a school shooting lasts, on average, 3 minutes. It takes police & first responders approximately 5 to 8 minutes to get to site of crime. Highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive. GREAT DETERRENT!

....immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions. Highly trained teachers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards. A “gun free” school is a magnet for bad people. ATTACKS WOULD END!

Have I mentioned that Trump is dim-witted?

Headline for President dim-don, most correctional officers do not carry firearms while they are in close contact with inmates. dim-don...do you think there is a reason for that? Arming teachers would make it easier for shooting incidents to occur.

In the second tweet, he is suggesting that "sickos" would employ a rather logical selection process based on research and analysis.

"Hmmm...hey! how's about I attack the Mayberry Middle School two hours away from here...oh no wait...no good...it says here on google that they have armed teachers. Bummer!"

As usual dim-don, you are oblivious to human emotions...completely unable to relate.

Headline for President dim-don, school shootings happen almost overwhelmingly at the school the shooter attended and frequently involve the element of actual or perceived bullying. If you arm the teachers, the shootings could simply happen at the popular burger joint hangout two blocks away.

Oops! I know what you're thinking dim-don.

Highly trained hamburger-flippers would also serve as a deterrent to the cowards that do this. Far more assets at much less cost than guards. A “gun free” burger joint is a magnet for bad people. ATTACKS WOULD END!

Give guns to everybody! The NRA loves you dim-don.

Call out the militia!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:17:00 +0000

Let me begin with a premise...out of respect for the Constitution.

The second amendment is not about:

hunting
tradition
home defense
personal defense

The second amendment is all about resisting a government that has become tyrannical and unlawful. That is the spirit of this amendment. The fact that weapons are used to honor tradition, go hunting, and to protect home and person is...secondary.

The constitutional literalists are not much different from biblical literalists...in that...they cherry pick.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

This does not translate into "Anybody can have any kind of weapon, at any time, for any purpose, without any restrictions or qualifications whatsoever."

In this regard, the second amendment is similar to the first amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The first amendment does not translate into "Anybody can say anything they want in any circumstance or place no matter what the consequences may be."

The cherry-pickers always quote the second amendment after the first comma.

It seems to me that a militia should be allowed to have a level of weaponry that makes it a credible deterrent to a possibly corrupt federal government. This would include tanks and artillery, for example. But it also seems to me that we have such a militia already and it is called the National Guard.

No? You disagree? Okay then...we need to define militia and make allowance for it in our society. But it is still true that the second amendment does not mean:

"Anybody can have any kind of weapon, at any time, for any purpose, without any restrictions or qualifications whatsoever."

And so our stunning, but obvious, conclusion is simply this:
The current gun control debate has nothing to do with the second amendment. It has everything to do with individual gun ownership.

The current gun control debate is about how to regulate a dangerous reality...weapons owned by individuals...in a way that ensures the greater good of society. It is no different from the regulation of drugs, alcohol, driving privileges, firecrackers, or pets.

Speaking of pets...most states prohibit the trade in wild animals and restrict the kinds of animals that can be legally owned...or stipulate guidelines that must be followed if you wish to own a cobra or a tiger...for example. This is just common sense...not a violation of constitutional rights.

Guns are no different.

And finally, I think it is important to provide a very simple guide to the vocabulary of weapons. Here is a rough and ready classification so that you know what you are hearing on the news:

Automatic...means that you can squeeze and hold the trigger and the weapon keeps on firing...machine gun...rat a tat tat.

Semi-Automatic...means that you launch a new bullet every time you squeeze the trigger. If you have a fast finger, then you can still shoot a lot of bullets in a very short time. Put this together with a high-capacity magazine...and that is called an assault rifle. AR-15 (and if you put an assault rifle together with a bump stock, then you have an automatic weapon...a machine gun)

Manual Action...means that you squeeze the trigger and launch one bullet...and then...you gotta do some other mechanical action, like using a lever or bolt handle to discharge the empty bullet casing and then load another bullet and then you squeeze the trigger for the second time. It means that you can't do rat a tat tat or anything close to it.

And here's a fact, Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated JFK with a manual action rifle. It is unrealistic to think about banning manual action weapons, but even manual weapons can do a lot of damage. ALL weapons are dangerous and should be carefully regulated.

Semi-automatic rifles (assault rifles) are only proper in the military and have no place in:

hunting
tradition
home defense
personal defense

BAN Assault Rifles, BAN high capacity magazines, BAN bumper stocks.

Some Enchanted Evening

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 17:42:00 +0000

This post is about gun control. Trust me...it's about gun control, but my own thinking style runs towards the metaphoric...so I have two preliminaries for you. (and two post-liminaries.)

First Preliminary—Rodgers and Hammerstein, South Pacific, Some Enchanted Evening:

Who can explain it, who can tell you why
Fools give you reasons, wise men never try

Second Preliminary—A great article in Politico, entitled Why the NRA always wins.

And the takeaways are:

It’s not the money. It’s the culture.
Politics is downstream from culture.

The NRA has its own channel called NRATV. It gets good ratings in flyover country.

It uses good-looking actors and easy-to-watch shows that portray guns as: healthy, American, moral, fun, romantic, and as necessary in the fight against terrorists, godless liberals, and all sorts of bad guys that are waiting in the bushes to kill you and your family and RAPE YOUR PUPPY!

Oh for heaven's sake...click on it...you can delete your browser history later. But really...you should click on it. You need to experience it. You need to understand that political contributions and political threats are not the greatest weapon of the gun lobby. If you clicked that link, then you are looking at the greatest weapon.

So how do we fight that? It is a fact that you don't need an assault rifle to defend your puppy...let alone 20 assault rifles. You'll be fine with just a double-barreled bird gun as Joe Biden once told us. But who listened?

The gun nuts are right (kinda)...we don't need more guns laws. This is not a political fight...it is cultural.

We need a national campaign to directly counteract NRATV. We need something like the Truth Initiative against cigarettes...remember those horrible images of yellow teeth, black lungs, wheezing old people, and images that were far, far worse?

Turns out, they worked.

We need to dramatically portray the real effects of guns in our world.
These are:

The enabling of easy suicide
The accidents involving children
Graphic demonstrations of what military weapons do to bodies
The escalation of domestic disturbances and trivial disputes with neighbors
Funerals of Law Enforcement
Lives destroyed in prison

Legislation and logic...charts and facts...agencies and programs...we should never abandon these methods, but we gotta win it on the culture front, or we lose every time...the carnage continues...people stay awake at night trying to understand what kind of sicko would RAPE A PUPPY...then they buy an AR-15 and three high-capacity mags...and a bump stock.

First Post-liminary—Check out Scott Adams latest book: Win Bigly

And the takeaways are:

Words are less persuasive than pictures.
Facts are less persuasive than feelings.

Second Post-liminary

Georg Cantor proved that the rational numbers are countably infinite. (this includes rational fractions like 223/1784)

He also proved that the irrational numbers are un-countably infinite.

It is the irrationals that form the glue that holds the number line together. They are infinitely dense on the real line. They form the continuum.

The rational numbers are the mile-markers.
The irrational numbers are the road.

Roald Dahl—A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men.

An Olive Branch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 18 Feb 2018 16:48:00 +0000

People have told me I am kinda excitable.

In this post, I want to offer to my political opponents, a true opportunity for reconciliation.

Hillary was a bad candidate. As president, she would have been competent...but that is not the same thing as being great. Furthermore, I believe she would have perpetuated the anger/polarization of American politics...and I admit that this anger and polarization was present long before Traitor-Trump came on the scene.

Despite what I have written in earlier posts, I admit now that if you voted for Trump...then it is possible that you are not a deplorable idiot.

Maybe you were a single-issue voter and the composition of the Supreme Court meant everything to you. I'll accept that as a good intention...but not a good way to use your precious vote. Single issue voting (for guns or against abortion or whatever) is a lazy way to vote.
If we accidentally kick off a war in Korea, it could likely kill more people than all the abortions in America for many...many... past years.
And...if the oceanic currents stop flowing due to massive injections of cold freshwater into our oceans...then...the entire fish trade is threatened or diminished. Fish are the primary source of protein for most of the people in the world. Millions and millions will die if we screw up the environment.
A responsible vote must consider all issues.
A responsible pro-life vote must consider all lives.

Maybe you were just fooled. Trump is a powerful speaker. (like Hitler) Anyone can make a mistake. Mistakes can be forgiven...if they are admitted.

Maybe it was Populism that appealed to you. Populism is a rather idealistic concept...it is almost quaint...but thoroughly impractical and dangerous...so easily manipulated.

Outsiders do not make good Oil Tanker Captains.

Outsiders do not make good Surgeons.

Outsiders do not make good Teachers, Chefs, Carpenters, Engineers or Train Conductors.

It is not romantic to admit that politics...governance...is a profession. But it is mature to admit it.
We may yearn for the sentimental image of "Honest Abe the Rail-Splitter, born in a log cabin", but...Lincoln was a lawyer and a very shrewd politician.
Yeah...Populism is fun, but not mature.
And here's the real kicker...Traitor-Trump is not a Populist...not even close.

So...if you voted for Trump and you regret it, then you are forgiven.

And if you voted for Traitor-Trump and you still don't regret it...then you are a deplorable idiot.

Trump is not Republican, not conservative, not populist, not Christian, not patriotic, not honest, and not the "Law and Order" candidate.

He is a selfish and cowardly traitor...nothing more.

To the Deplorable Idiots

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 21:19:00 +0000

You voted for Trump. okay...keep reading, because I have been told that we need to use persuasion to convert Trump-voters...that we need to find common ground...that we need to stop calling Trump-voters "deplorables" and "idiots".

But the thing is...if you voted for Trump, then you are a deplorable idiot.
And if you still support him, then you are a Traitor.

Every single intelligence agency told the new president that Russia had interfered with the election and that they would continue to attack America in this way. Trump called it a hoax.

Trump asked Putin twice if Russia had interfered in the US election. Putin said, "No way Bro." So what did Pussy-Grabbin Trump conclude? That the case was closed. In the same meeting, he even discussed a joint cyber-security project with Putin! Trump and Putin both know...if you're gonna lie, lie BIG. Play it to the hilt!

This Russian operation helped Trump. They hurt Hillary. They also helped Bernie and Jill Stein. So who were the Russians afraid of?
Hint: It wasn't Pussy-Grabbin-Trump.

Congress voted (nearly unanimously !!!) to impose sanctions on Russia. The implementation date for those sanctions has passed and Trump-bitch has done...nothing. Hello...deplorable idiots...I am talking to you...is this patriotism?

Tip for Cadet Bonespurs: This is not the end of the Russian investigation...it is the beginning.

Here are some shocking quotes from the actual indictment authored by the deep state conspiracy coup hoaxers...known to normal people as the Department of Justice.

(Note that the word "Defendants" means the indicted Russians and the words "Trump supporters" means Deplorable Idiots):

And if you want to read it for yourself (assuming that you can read), the link is:

https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download

**********************************************************
Quotes from the DOJ Indictment:

Defendants posted derogatory information about a number of candidates, and by early to mid-2016, Defendants’ operations included supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump (“Trump Campaign”) and disparaging Hillary Clinton.

Defendants also staged political rallies inside the United States, and while posing as U.S. grassroots entities and U.S. persons, and without revealing their Russian identities and ORGANIZATION affiliation, solicited and compensated real U.S. persons to promote or disparage candidates. Some Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and without revealing their Russian association, communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump Campaign and with other political activists to seek to coordinate political activities.

The ORGANIZATION employed hundreds of individuals for its online operations,
ranging from creators of fictitious personas to technical and administrative support.

The ORGANIZATION’s annual budget totaled the equivalent of millions of U.S. dollars.

During the exchange, Defendants and their co-conspirators learned from the real U.S. person that they should focus their activities on “purple states like Colorado, Virginia & Florida.” After that exchange, Defendants and their co-conspirators commonly referred to targeting “purple states” in directing their efforts.

Defendants and their co-conspirators also created thematic group pages on social media sites, particularly on the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. ORGANIZATION controlled pages addressed a range of issues, including: immigration (with group names including “Secured Borders”); the Black Lives Matter movement (with group names including “Blacktivist”); religion (with group names including “United Muslims of America” and “Army of
Jesus”); and certain geographic regions within the United States (with group names including “South United” and “Heart of Texas”). By 2016, the size of many ORGANIZATION-controlled groups had grown to hundreds of thousands of online followers.

Defendants and their co-conspirators also created and controlled numerous Twitter accounts designed to appear as if U.S. persons or groups controlled them. For example, the ORGANIZATION created and controlled the Twitter account “Tennessee GOP,” which used the handle @TEN_GOP. The @TEN_GOP account falsely claimed to be controlled by a U.S. state political party. Over time, the @TEN_GOP account attracted more than 100,000 online followers.

They engaged in operations primarily intended to communicate derogatory information about Hillary Clinton, to denigrate other candidates such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and to support Bernie Sanders and then-candidate Donald Trump.

Specialists were instructed to post content that focused on “politics in the USA” and to “use any opportunity to criticize Hillary and the rest (except Sanders and Trump—we support them).”

Certain ORGANIZATION-produced materials about the 2016 U.S. presidential election used election-related hashtags, including: “#Trump2016,” “#TrumpTrain,” “#MAGA,” “#IWontProtectHillary,” and “#Hillary4Prison.” Defendants and their co-conspirators also established additional online social media accounts dedicated to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, including the Twitter account “March for Trump” and Facebook accounts “Clinton FRAUDation” and “Trumpsters United.”

In or around late June 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the Facebook group “United Muslims of America” to promote a rally called “Support Hillary. Save American Muslims” held on July 9, 2016 in the District of Columbia. Defendants and their co-conspirators recruited a real U.S. person to hold a sign depicting Clinton and a quote attributed to her stating “I think Sharia Law will be a powerful new direction of freedom.”

After the election of Donald Trump in or around November 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators used false U.S. personas to organize and coordinate U.S. political rallies in support of then president-elect Trump, while simultaneously using other false U.S. personas to organize and coordinate U.S. political rallies protesting the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. For example, in or around November 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators organized a rally in New York through one ORGANIZATION-controlled group designed to “show your support for President-Elect Donald Trump” held on or about November 12, 2016. At the same time, Defendants and their co-conspirators, through another ORGANIZATION-controlled group, organized a rally in New York called “Trump is NOT my President” held on or about November 12, 2016

On or about August 19, 2016, a supporter of the Trump Campaign sent a message to the ORGANIZATION-controlled “March for Trump” Twitter account about a member of the Trump Campaign (“Campaign Official 2”) who was involved in the campaign’s Florida operations and provided Campaign Official 2’s email address at the domain donaldtrump.com. On or about the same day, Defendants and their co-conspirators used the false U.S. persona joshmilton024@gmail.com account to send an email to Campaign Official 2 at that donaldtrump.com email account.

On or about September 22, 2016, Defendants and their co-conspirators created and purchased Facebook advertisements for a series of rallies they organized in Pennsylvania called “Miners for Trump” and scheduled for October 2, 2016.

Jerusalem 122

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 17:06:00 +0000

I am taking a chance here. I cannot contain my enthusiasm. I have read exactly 122 pages of Alan Moore's Jerusalem...this brings me to the beginning of the chapter entitled "X Marks the Spot". I want to include this detail as a form of encouragement. I don't think that the hooks of this book fully sink in until you get to this point.

Get the book.
Read it slowly and carefully.
Read up to page 122.
You will be addicted by then.

This book is 1300 pages long...so my risk here is in raving about it in superlative terms like "life changing"...when I have only read a twelfth of it.

I also want to say...this book resonates with me because it is about this idea of Eternalism. It combines poetic vision and scientific truth. (As the book jacket says, this is Blake plus Einstein.) I have spent a lifetime reading books about the reunification of science and religion. I have approached it from many angles and given credence (even temporarily) to just about any and all crackpot theories, cults, and legitimate mystical musings. And it seems to me that this book is the best expression of what I have been seeking.

In short...I think it is simply true.

And I think that every faith, every kooky cult, every poet, every mystic, every scientist, every person has a piece of the truth.

We are all circumambulating.

Time is Space. That is the simplest way to say it. Time is a direction, but (as three dimensional beings) we cannot point in that direction. This fact has spiritual implications and that is what the book is about.

Another way of saying it...and I owe this thought to Lewis Carroll Epstein...is that we cannot exceed the speed of light because everything is always moving at the speed of light. The speed is always the same, but it is the direction that counts. "Straight ahead"...or close to it...is our usual state. We are travelling almost exclusively in the time direction and very little thru the other three directions. This is the direction of stories. If you change that direction and keep on changing it...you become fantastical...then psychedelic...then incoherent.

Time is the direction of story.

Parade for Cadet Bonespurs

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 17:06:00 +0000

Why is he doing this? Possible answers are:

He wants to become America's first dictator. Heil Trump. Sieg Heil!
He wants people to think that he wants to become a dictator.
He has intimidated Law Enforcement and the Intelligence Community and taken several swipes at the Free Press and Freedom of Speech...now he wants to demonstrate dominance over the military...ironically, he is Commander in Chief...but this is something new. He wants to debase the military with this stunt.
He is an impulsive and spoiled child.
He is pandering to his base.
He has no grasp of his responsibilities or the urgent priorities that require his attention and leadership.
He has no interest in his responsibilities or the urgent priorities that require his attention and leadership.
He is using the outrage of a military parade to capture the news cycle and deflect attention away from some other disgusting scandal.

But I think the real answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE.

This type of parade is expensive and the symbolism is repugnant and at odds with truly American traditions. (like loyalty to the Constitution rather than loyalty to a demagogue)

Difference between Trmp and Hitler? Hitler was a decorated combat veteran of WWI, not a draft dodger.

Difference between Trump and Kim Jong Un? Kim is smarter and has better hair.

a child coping with pain

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 16:44:00 +0000

Cysts grew in my large intestine. I have no idea when this began, but certainly by the age of seven or eight, I started to experience pain after eating. It was often intense and...eating being something that I did every day...the pain became my constant companion.

I would have surgery when I was 12 to remove the cysts, but the experience of five years of pain taught me about coping...in a way that can only be described as a mercy or even...a grace.

I am in bed and in pain and I can hear the clock ticking or my brother breathing. I long to sleep, but I cannot. I cannot sleep simply because I am tired. I must wait until I am exhausted, and that may require another three hours.

And this is how I began to have my open-eye experiences and my closed-eye experiences.

The knob on the drawer...the bed post...the shoe in the corner. It did not matter. I only had to stare at something. The pain moved in slow waves from dull to agony to dull, but I had to be apart from it. I had to be detached. And staring turned into mist and I felt motion. It was motion that can only be described as inward. It was towards the bed post...between the wood grain...into the tiniest atoms...and finally into the tiny infinity of inner space. And I could stay there and let the hours pass in a moment. This was my open-eye experience.

At other times (I was usually sitting up), I was able to close my eyes and enter a similar state. The subtle difference here...and I will never forget it...was an experience of moving out. Out and out and out...into a large infinity...until I could again pass the hours easily and find the relief of sleep.

And then one day...

I was waiting for the tub to fill...sitting on the sink and staring into the mirror. I was not in pain at that moment, but my habit of staring and entering a special state was well-practiced by then and happened very easily. What I experienced was neither an inward nor an outward movement. At the moment of detachment, I experienced that reflection in the mirror.

I will never forget it and I can only say that there was a flip. The boy in the mirror was someone else. And who was "I"? I was a being that loved that boy. I loved every nuance of his lips and eyebrows and hair. I loved him as an artist loves what he is painting...no matter what it is. And...I had a vocabulary and a depth and I was able to express my love in words that were completely beyond the abilities of that boy.

And then it ended...easily and naturally...the boy came back and took a bath. But "he" never forgot.

I believe it was the soul staring into the mirror that day.

Body and Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 06 Feb 2018 15:06:00 +0000

In an earlier post, I wrote about the Eternalist theory of time...the idea that time does not pass...it just is. This is also known as the B-Theory of time.

If this theory is correct, then Reality is media. I proposed that it is media built (by the Holy Spirit) for the activity of Souls (who redeem the Creation by deriving meaning from it and are lead by their exemplar, Christ).

In this post, I want to write about the quirky things that happen if you believe that your soul is you...that it is the spiritual portion of your identity...that it is (for example) female, because you are female.

Bodies and Souls...there are three possibilities:

ALL bodies have souls.
SOME bodies have souls, but some do not.
NO bodies have souls because bodies are part of the media and souls are essentially outside the media.

Let's start with SOME...since it is the standard position of most Christians. (i.e., one human body has one soul...dog bodies do not have souls...when we resurrect, we do so as body and soul.) And then the children, wisest of us all, begin to ask those ridiculous/profound Sunday school questions that can only be answered with tortuous twists...Ptolemaic epicycles.

What exactly is a human? Did the Neanderthals have souls? When does the soul join up with the body? At birth? At conception? Did the soul exist before it got assigned to a body? What was it doing while it waited? What about when babies or even fetuses die? Do their souls get judged? Do the good ones go to heaven and the bad ones to hell? How can they go to heaven at all since they have not been baptized?

Okay...okay...it is (truly) not my goal to beat up on Christianity...especially not with this approach. BUT...bottom line, the Christian notion sees the body as a prerequisite for a soul. To me, this feels like speciesism or materialism...and both are poor choices for the justification of Christian ideas.

Which leads me to the next possibility...ALL creatures have souls. This idea probably originated with people who really love their pets. Eastern thinking...and especially "New Age" Eastern thinking...also played a role. And of course...the Sunday school questions begin again.

We are supposed to be happy in heaven, but how can I be happy without my dog? Have you ever looked into the eyes of a Gorilla (dog, whale, horse)? Of course they have souls!

But the problem is in knowing where to stop. Easy enough to extend the soul franchise to mammals. and ummm...well yes, birds are quite smart and Cockatoos are adorable. But what about lampreys and thousand-leggers and termites and ticks? Do they have souls? This all gets quite silly.

NO bodies have souls? This is what I believe. Bodies (and minds, biographies, egos) do not have souls. Souls have bodies. All time exists all the time. For me, this is what makes the idea of non-physical consciousness so believable. Nothing happens in a movie. A movie is a large collection of static photographs. None of them move and none of them think and truly, there are no people in those photographs. There are no Hobbits or Orcs. There are only patterns of light and dark.
In order to experience the illusion of time, you have to bring in pure consciousness from outside the movie itself. Only a feeling consciousness (soul) can add meaning to those patterns of light and dark. Only a soul can redeem them.

How else is it possible for you to love Frodo? How is it possible for you to hope that everything turns out well...even after the fifth reading? Do you love ink stains on pressed wood pulp? Or do you love a heroic Hobbit of the Shire?
This is how the soul loves you.

May I re-state the vow of the Bodhisattva?

In her wisdom, she sees no beings. In her compassion, she vows to save them.

Trump's 2018 Goals for Amurca

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 14:53:00 +0000

1. Pass the Amurcan Liberation Act making Sharia Law illegal in all 48 states and providing funds to establish a special team to enforce this law...to be called Sharia Stoppers, SS for short. Let us finally rid our country of this scorge that has so massively infiltrated this great Judeo-Christian nation. (mostly Christian really)

2. Build a wall around Uzbekistan and make Paraguay pay for it.

3. Sever diplomatic relations with the regime in the Republic of Puerto Rico. We will steadfastly maintain this policy until the missiles are removed.

4. Make it a crime to serve as President of the United States of Amurca if you are not a native-born citizen.

5. Hope Hicks. She's so hot! Am I right or am I right? I'm right.

6. Restore the ravaged economy of Nantucket and achieve Amurcan energy dominance by ending the War on Sperm Whale Oil. We must eradicate ridiculous regulations so that we can restore our future with the light of clean-burning, Amurcan-made Sperm Whale Oil.

7. Everyone must talk English or you will not get no healthcare!

8. Officially declare Israel to be a place in the eastern Medita...medta...moravian?...big water over there. We're talking sharks, People. We're talking sharks. Big sharks. Really big sharks.

9. Extend the FISA Act for another 30 days or maybe longer. Or not.

10. covfefe.

Oh my GOP!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 21:50:00 +0000

1. Carter Page has been on the FBI radar for years...because...he is (suspected of being) a tool of Russian oligarchs and money-launderers. This FBI interest in Page dates from 2013. Page's (well-documented) involvement with shady Russians is even older.

2. The Steele Dossier was originally commissioned by Republican candidates during the primary. It was only later taken up by Democrats.

3. The idea of paying (a lot) for opposition research is to discover disparaging information that is true or strongly indicative. Made-up lies are free. Some portions of the dossier are inaccurate, but for the most part, it is true. (Espionage is not an exact science.)

4. The FISA warrant was not issued against the Trump campaign. It was issued against Carter Page.

5. There is simply no way to justify the rushed release of a Republican memo in the name of transparency unless you also agree to release the minority memo.

6. All of the suspected "deep state" conspirators are Republicans and/or Trump appointees!

7. McConnell and Ryan are slithering through all this by saying that the memo has nothing to do with the Mueller probe, while their president is saying it is a complete vindication! (Hint: It can't be both.)

8. The ENTIRE CONGRESS voted to impose sanctions against Russia and the date for that to occur was last week. No explanation is given for this Executive failure to...ummmm...execute.

9. In 2013, Eric Trump boasted that the family business did not depend on the support of legitimate banks, "We don’t rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.”

10. Nunes recused himself...months ago! (Does he have a dictionary?)

11. The memo tells us nothing about how the FISA court made its decision. The total context is missing.

But if a hooker gets beaten up by a thug and then tells the cops that the thug sells drugs on the corner...is she lying? And should the tip be ignored? OR...should it be evaluated and placed into context with many other corroborating tips? (Most of which are likely to come from addicts, criminal competitors, and other hookers as opposed to Nuns, Fishmongers, Astronauts, and College Professors).

12. "In 2010, Steele helped deliver information about FIFA to the FBI that eventually led to indictments of many current and former officials of the soccer governing body, as well as the ouster of longtime FIFA president Sepp Blatter." (Washington Post...nevermind...it is probably fake news.) Steele is not a hooker who is angry about getting beaten up.

13. Where are Trump's taxes?

TRUMP your DADDY is Vladimir Putin.

Cinema Thought Experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 16:14:00 +0000

Mathematicians sometimes work by assuming something beautiful to be true and then they try to work out the details. Perhaps this post is in that spirit.

Einstein—He believed that all moments in time (past, present, and future) exist all at once. Time does not "pass".

He says:

Since there exists in this four dimensional structure [space-time] no longer any sections which represent "now" objectively, the concepts of happening and becoming are indeed not completely suspended, but yet complicated. It appears therefore more natural to think of physical reality as a four dimensional existence, instead of, as hitherto, the evolution of a three dimensional existence.
..for us physicists believe the separation between past, present, and future is only an illusion, although a convincing one.

Einstein's opinion provides the premise for this post, namely: What if Reality is like a movie reel...a set of pre-existing photographs...which are then displayed in quick succession to produce the illusion of motion? In other words, what if our lives are media?

The Attraction of this Idea—Well...there are no real beings in a movie...no choices being made...only lights on a screen coming from a set of unchanging photographs that are totally lacking in consciousness. Nothing is even moving in a movie!
So if consciousness exists (and I think it does), then it must come from somewhere other than the world that we see and experience.
In short, it may be true that time does not pass. We do. We pass. And it must also be true that consciousness is non-local and existing in a domain that is outside the media.

The idea of a Soul—So many people use the words "soul" and "spirit" as synonyms, but Soul is making a comeback. Spirits (for me) are angelic, powerful, governing beings. They are the agents of God. Whereas Souls are those entities who feel and experience and suffer. Roughly, I imagine the Trinity and its functions as:

1st Person—The "Father": Mystery, Infinity, Transcendence.
3rd Person—"Holy Spirit": Intelligence, Structure, and especially Power.
2nd Person—"Christ": The Leader of Souls and Attractor from the future. (Omega for Chardin) But above all...Souls dare to enter the Creation...and to derive meaning from the journey, thereby Redeeming it.

We do not have Souls.

Souls have us—The ego...our biography...is one of many for the Soul.
Saint Francis of Assisi tells us, "What we are looking for is what is looking."
Ramana Maharshi would call this the witness(?). My biography...and all the specific traits of my gender, body, mind, political party, daily thoughts, or what-have-you...is media and is a subset of the Soul.

Incarnation—To redeem the Creation, the Soul must "Fall" into it to obtain first-hand experience...this is what Souls do. And certainly, one trip would not be enough. Yes...reincarnation...but I must stress that this is not the cheap, commercialized notion of having once been "an ordinary sailor in the crew of Christopher Columbus" or "one of Nero's concubines". No...the Soul's journey is long.
The goal of Universal Redemption requires many Souls and many experiences as: electron, element, protozoa, Coelacanth, Megatherium, Australopithecus, and...yes...ordinary sailor on the Santa Maria.
Each Fall is perhaps more like a flight through the media to see existence with the eyes of a particular being and point of view.
(And I imagine that some of these flights might be at a mistaken angle and the Soul experiences something like madness or hallucination and confusion.)
(And I imagine that some Souls might specialize to deeply experience a particular class of beings...the Soul of Dog or the Soul of Rome or the Soul of Water. Whatever it is that draws a Soul to this type of experience is an expression of what is sometimes called the "deepest love" of that Soul.)

Evil—The Soul is on a quest for meaning...not morality. Only a juvenile mind would say that a Rabbit is "good" and a Rattlesnake is "evil". But to really know what it means, the Soul must dare to be a Rattlesnake or a Rabbit. And to really understand it, the Soul must dare to be both.
(And I imagine a Soul daring to live as both the husband and the wife in entwined lives that involve a bitter divorce and then...and only then...the Soul can say, "Ah yes, I understand now".)
I once saw a video of an artist...a water-colorist...who was explaining the use of white and black. He already had most of the painting done (boating scene) and he took a photo of it and then added the black...shadows under the pier...the undersides of ropes and cables. And then he added the touches of white...glints and glares on a pile of wet fish sitting on the sunny dock and so on. And the painting was transformed. The photo, taken earlier, suddenly seemed dead and sterile in comparison with the finished work.

Isaiah 45:7, I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

A Jungian Dream—One of Jung's patients was telling him her dream. She dreamt that she was stuck in a trench full of muck and smelly filth. She saw Herr Doktor Jung standing above her on the edge of the trench. And she held out her hand and said "Please save me". But the dream psychologist replied, "Not out, but through."

Can we also hear in this, the words of another, and better, teacher? A teacher who is not only standing above and offering encouragement, but one who shows the way?

Be not afraid. I go before you always.

Trumpocalypse, a warning

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 16:45:00 +0000

WAKE UP!!!

"Hillary Rodham Clinton" plus "d" "e" "p" and "s"...is an anagram!!!!

Rearrange those letters and it spells "DEEP STATE ham rod".

Russia? Give me a break. Sure you've seen lots of photoshop images of the "Kremlin" and "Dostoevsky" and "vodka", but have you ever actually seen Russia?

Nope...me neither. and there's a good reason for that. BECAUSE IT DOES NOT EXIST!

The Bible Codes tell us that it is GOD'S plan to use Donald Trump as his instrument of salvation to guide us through the end times and defeat Hillary. (rearranged, plus an "e" and it spells HELL)

What more proof do you need?

Don't believe me? Read Trumpocalypse. You can get it on Amazon, but use a money order and a fake name. The FBI, the entire intelligence community, people from blue states, all the media (except FOX), Europeans, MS13, Gay people, Chelsea Manning, Muslims, Haitians, Women, and the Extraterrestrials may be watching you!

(but not pornstars or Norwegians...they're probably okay. Norwegian pornstars...even better)

Good luck fellow travelers. I am now going off the grid.
Donald Trump Save Us!
Donald Trump Save Us!
Donald Trump Save Us! Amen.

Trump's First SOTU

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 15:39:00 +0000

The ritual of the SOTU address always makes me want to see the President succeed. I am susceptible to the emotion and the majesty of the moment and I am infected with hope. Over the years, I have found myself praying for the success of Presidents from both parties.

Trump began with the usual platitudes...and...corny as they always are, he had me feeling good...for 2 or 3 minutes. But the real Trump quickly surfaced and the speech that was supposedly meant to unify, was actually bitterly divisive.

Flag Patriotism—Given the facts of Trump's life, it is always jarring and insulting when he uses symbols to put his insincere morality on display. He also does this with the Bible. I do not hate these symbols, but this type of patriotism is cheap. It is easy to love the flag...you just have to say that you do. The flag is not going to talk back. Flag-love, in Trump's hands is a weapon. He uses it to taunt his opponents and to dog-whistle to his base. As a veteran, I am disgusted by a soft and complacent nation that proudly cries during a Lee Greenwood song but defends itself with the poor and the brown. Give it a rest, Cadet Bonespurs.

No Climate Change—Not one word! No need to state the obvious. This is simply the most pressing issue of our time, but instead, he bragged that he had ended the "war on American Energy" and the "war on Clean Coal". Funny, but I have not heard of either war or the fact that Trump had ended them. He has disemboweled the EPA and the Interior Department and abdicated American leadership by withdrawing from the Paris Agreement...I suppose that is what he means.

The Author of the Speech—It was Stephen Miller. I have no words. I think he was recently ousted from the Society of American Vampires on an ethics charge.

Awkward—In his effort to prove that all...yes ALL...immigrants are bloodthirsty gangsters, he provided Gallery Exhibit A...the African-American parents of two young girls who...in fact...had been brutally murdered by MS13 gang members. And then he actually told them to stand while they cried in agony and everyone else clapped! And the subtext?

You see? I really do like black people and I want to protect them from brown people.
This never would have happened if we brought in more Norwegians.
Democrats like murderers. I'm sorry, but I gotta go with my heart on this one. I am against murderers. This proves I am really a good person.

Clapping—Maybe this is a cheap shot, but imagine the sound of laundry day in a country where the women repeatedly slap the clothing against rocks at river's edge. Now imagine that they are not slapping clothing against the rocks, but rather the limp, wet bodies of recently killed Opossums. That is what it sounds like when Trump claps. Kudos to the acoustics guy for making this crystal clear. I may never sleep again.

Americans are Dreamers too—I think it was Samantha Bee who recently told the joke about Trump's response to Black History month. "All months are important". Yes, Mr. President...and when you meet a man who has just fallen and broken his wrist...nurturing and protecting this injury and giving it all sorts of special treatment...do you tell him that all bones matter? And since you seem to be an expert on the Bible, can you respond to Christ who tells us in a parable: Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me. (?)

Compassion must be felt. And when it is truly felt, then the words come.
But this president postures...he cynically manipulates dry symbols and the hearts of the gullible.

He is hollow.

For all of them

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 May 2017 20:03:00 +0000

Just one of the things I get from this Cat Stevens hit is the idea of coping with loss...saying goodbye...what you think about and how it feels when you have a loss. I am 59 and I don't think anyone can get to that age without a few losses and some pain. I don't dwell on it, but I don't suppress it either.

Like many people, I have a wall in my house that is dedicated to the ancestors...those who have gone...those who were once young...those who made a path for me.

And you might think that I would idealize them or describe them in terms that are larger than life and flattering.

But instead, I often think about their quirks, flaws, weaknesses, mistakes...about how they coped...about how imperfect and how heroic they were.

And the patches make the goodbye harder still.

Oh very young
What will you leave us this time?
You're only dancing on this earth for a short while
And though your dreams may toss and turn you now
They will vanish away like your daddy's best jeans
Denim blue fading up to the sky

And though you want them to last forever
You know they never will
You know they never will
And the patches make the goodbye harder still