Running for President/Nukes for allies

 

I'm running for President of the United States in 2024.  I will simply need around 84 million write in votes.  Shouldn't be a problem, my name is only 9 characters long and compared to the two choices of the ruling class I would be the obvious choice.  My first act as president would be to give nukes to Taiwan and Ukraine.  Tactical land based to the Ukraine because they don't have very far to go to Russia and they need to be mobile so the Rooskies don't preemptively make the Ukraine glow in the dark.   Taiwan will need a sub.  The Chinese could delete that island  of roughly 14,000 square miles with a few nukes or even a sustained conventional bombing.  128 mirved warheads on 16 tridents floating somewhere between Japan and Vietnam would keep the Chinese at bay. You know they're taking notes on the Ukrainian land grab and Taiwan is going to be the next victim while the rest of the world clutches their pearls and vehemently admonish Chinese aggression while taking no action.  The Chinese are already grabbing the south China Sea as their own and when the UN gives it to them Taiwan is next.   The Rooskies will run like scared rabbits if the Ukraine gets nukes but if not the Ukrainians would not hesitate to serve Putin radioactive rice crispies for breakfast.   That's my platform:  Nukes for evildoers.  

Homo rationis

On my recent vacation in Italy, I was struck by the scale of devotion to religious beliefs.  Town upon town had gone to immense effort and expense to erect cathedrals, some of which were massive architectural and artistic undertakings.  All this for something imaginary, nonsensical and morally reprehensible.  I'm sure some saw it as a holy duty, and others simply went along with the majority like the sheeple they are.  I believe it is hard-wired in us to suspend skepticism and embrace the dogma of delight.  It is in all civilizations at all times.   The same sort of irrational devotion continues to this day although it is widely dispersed across celebrities, politicians, and various other causes.  There is a growing minority that has dispensed with this very human tendency.  They are mostly atheists, but they need not call themselves by any name.  They have a high level of  skepticism and are not influenced by religion, propaganda, advertising, or societal norms.  If it hard-wired to be  true believers than it may be hard-wired to be a skeptic.  If this is the case then this represents an evolutionary next step for Humanity.  The arrival of Homo Rationis, who will live with and among Homo Sapiens much like Neanderthals lived, and there is evidence for, bred with modern Humans.  Hopefully Homo Rationis will have an evolutionary advantage over Homo Sapiens and eventually replace them.  This is speculation because Homo Rationis must live in a world built for the irrational.  Time will tell.  

The Vatican is Disneyland

Just recently got back from a trip to Italy.  Spent most of the time in the Umbria and Tuscana regions but spent a couple of days in Roma to see the sites.  The wife wanted to take in the vatican museums and I have to admit I wanted to see what I had previously only seen in Art History class lectures, so I spent about 35 Euros to get the tour.  35 Euros to those pedophile protecting sons of a bitches, c'est la vie.  About half way through the combination of great art and crushing humanity I started to get a sense of deja vu.  I identified it as the last time I was in Disneyland.  Crushing masses, endless lines, and gift shops at every turn with the fucking pope's grill plastered on coffee mugs and buttons.  I actually saw a Buddy Jesus bobble-head outside of St. peter's square.  I wonder how he got away with that.  Anyway, the similarities are obvious:  cult following of salivating  masses giving up their hard-earned money to revel in fantasy.  On my few trips (always a mandatory social responsibility) to disneyland I always would do a quick calculation on the amount of people times the entrance fees plus the average amount of souvenirs.  Good money if you can get it.  And the pope gets it.  That facility must generate tens of millions in pure profit.  I'm sure he gets a cut from the vendors outside the vatican walls.  I guess humanity (of which I no longer count myself as member) are hard-wired to worship.  Disney, the church, celebrities, politicians; they're all worshiped for reasons I don't understand.  Reason being the operative word, because I use reason therefore I don't worship.  Which is the second revelation of my trip and will be edified in the next post.    

Good Mother's Day

Another Mother's Day has come and gone and billions of dollars of merchandising and propaganda have paid off.  Some mothers do no deserve celebration, but under the umbrella of profit and guilt all require some sort of remuneration for passing the lizard creature through the birth canal (or abdominal slice) in a shower of blood, mucus and urine to the outside world.  I have to give my wife at least a Mother's Day card or she will be offended.  My mother is taking a dirt nap, but no matter, all mothers are to be celebrated and acknowledged with cash or gifts or society will collapse.

I propose changing the name of the day from Mother's Day to Good Mother's Day.  Only good mothers will be feted.  This will reduce the insincere payouts on the second Sunday of May to only the deserving mothers.  The children will be the final arbitrators of which mothers will be celebrated.  Bad or mediocre mothers will get nothing.  Mothers who favored one child over the others will only receive gifts from the favored one.  This will put the pressure of performance on the  mothers themselves.  They will have to suck up to their children in the same way children need to behave in the weeks leading up to Christmas to ensure the largess of the day.   We don't need to celebrate crack-head, obese welfare mothers whose sole purpose in propagating to ensure the steady flow of checks from social services and after the children come of age to inflict guilt to extort money.  Mothers will be assessed to the mothering skills and judged on those skills.  Found wanting, they will be ignored.  Found exceeding their children's arbitrary standards, they will be rewarded.  This will be just and fitting and will eventually lead to the second Sunday of May being just another carefree day devoid of yet another mandatory social beguilement. 

Of course, to be fair, Father's Day will be subject to the aforementioned, but may be hardly noticed. 

Hillary Clinton is Gollum

There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.” 
― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

The 2016 election is without precedent for its transparent indictment of the American Psyche.  We have brought forth two horrible people to be president.  It is not the system, it is the people who have been corrupted beyond salvation.  Hillary in particular is unequivocally odious.  Power and money are all the Clintons desire and they will have their precious.  The recent issues with her health will persist as long as her only thought is the accumulation of wealth through the selling of influence in the public sector.  Like Gollum, the physical toll will be great, but nothing makeup and drugs can't mollify while she sells the county to the highest contributor.   These two candidates are the result of the degradation of the American voter.  They think they are watching daytime TV instead of deciding the fates of themselves and their children.   We have already let our elected representatives put us on a 1984ish path of perpetual war.  We have allowed them to overspend by 19 trillion dollars, a debt that can never be paid down and has made us a perpetual debtor nation.  And the voters will give the country to a malicious, greedy, single-minded potentate who will complete the transition of America from a republic to an oligarchy.  And we have handed our future to the rich with thunderous applause. It has been thus for decades, but never has it been so easy to delineate as the present.  We could have good government, proper infrastructure, good education, all it takes is a discerning electorate.  This is what we get, what we deserve.  This was written about Nixon, but applies today:

Big man, pig man, ha ha, charade you are. You well heeled big wheel, ha ha, charade you are And when your hand is on your heart. You're nearly a good laugh Almost a joker With your head down in the pig bin Saying "keep on digging"Pig stain on your fat chin What do you hope to find?When you're down in the pig mine You're nearly a laugh You're nearly a laugh But you're really a cry.Bus stop rat bag, ha ha, charade you are You fucked up old hag, ha ha, charade you are You radiate cold shafts of broken glass You're nearly a good laugh Almost worth a quick grin You like the feel of steel You're hot stuff with a hat pinAnd good fun with a hand gun You're nearly a laugh You're nearly a laugh But you're really a cry.Hey you Whitehouse, ha ha, charade you are You house proud town mouse, ha ha, charade you areYou're trying to keep our feelings off the street You're nearly a real treat All tight lips and cold feet And do you feel abused?.....!.....!.....!.....!You gotta stem the evil tideAnd keep it all on the inside Mary you're nearly a treat Mary you're nearly a trea tBut you're really a cry.

-Pink Floyd

Well, we got what we deserved, but the other side of horrible coin.  It was, as Kurt Vonnegut's wife observed when smelling Kurt's breath after a night of drinking:  "The smell of mustard gas and roses".  It was gratifying to see the Clinton machine run aground and with no political capital to sell, the Clinton foundation has folded up its tent and hit the road.  The only thing left is the ominous aura of the Clinton's coming back to life like a B horror movie monster.  Until their inevitable ends come, they will always be a threat.  The desire for wealth and power does not end with this defeat.  But now we have the Donald, the unknown danger, the wild card, the baby with a gun, the bull in the china shop.  We will see.  If nothing else, it wil be entertaining, like the mythical music of Nero while Rome burnt.  "We don't need no water . . "

Permission Slip

Just had to add this.

From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 10 March 2010 7.12pm
To: Darryl Robinson
Subject: Permission Slip

Dear Darryl,

I have received your permission slip featuring what I can only assume is a levitating rabbit about to drop an egg on Jesus.

Thank you for pre-ticking the permission box as this has saved me not only from having to make a choice, but also from having to make my own forty five degree downward stroke followed by a twenty percent longer forty five degree upward stroke. Without your guidance, I may have drawn a picture of a cactus wearing a hat by mistake.

As I trust my offspring's ability to separate fact from fantasy, I am happy for him to participate in your indoctrination process on the proviso that all references to 'Jesus' are replaced with the term 'Purportedly Magic Jew.'

Regards, David.

From: Darryl Robinson
Date: Thursday 11 March 2010 9.18am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Permission Slip

Hello David

The tick in the box already was a mistake I noticed after printing them all. I've seen the play and it's not indoctrinating anyone. It's a fun play performed by a great bunch of kids. You do not have to be religious to enjoy it. You are welcome to attend if you have any concerns.

Darryl Robinson, School Chaplain

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 11 March 2010 11.02am
To: Darryl Robinson
Subject: Re: Re: Permission Slip

Dear Darryl,

Thank you for the kind offer, being unable to think of anything more exciting than attending your entertaining and fun filled afternoon, I tried harder and thought of about four hundred things.

I was actually in a Bible based play once and played the role of 'Annoyed about having to do this.' My scene involved offering a potplant, as nobody knew what Myrrh was, to a plastic baby Jesus then standing between 'I forgot my costume so am wearing the teachers poncho' and 'I don't feel very well'. Highlights of the play included a nervous donkey with diarrhoea causing 'I don't feel very well' to vomit onto the back of Mary's head, and the lighting system, designed to provide a halo effect around the manger, overheating and setting it alight. The teacher, later criticised for dousing an electrical fire with a bucket of water and endangering the lives of children, left the building in tears and the audience in silence. We only saw her again briefly when she came to the school to collect her poncho.

Also, your inference that I am without religion is incorrect and I am actually torn between two faiths; while your god's promise of eternal life is very persuasive, the Papua New Guinean mud god, Pikkiwoki, is promising a pig and as many coconuts as you can carry.

Regards, David.

From: Darryl Robinson
Date: Thursday 11 March 2010 2.52pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Permission Slip

Hello David

While it would be a pity for Seb to miss out on the important message of hope that the story of the resurrection gives, if you don't want him to attend the presentation on Monday then just tick the box that says I do not give my child permission to attend.

Darryl Robinson, School Chaplain

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 11 March 2010 5.09pm
To: Darryl Robinson
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Permission Slip

Dear Darryl,

I understand the importance the resurrection story holds in your particular religion. If I too knew some guy that had been killed and placed inside a cave with a rock in front of it and I visited the cave to find the rock moved and his body gone, the only logical assumption would be that he had risen from the dead and is the son of God. Once, my friend Simon was rushed to hospital to have his appendix removed and I visited him the next day to find his bed empty. I immediately sacrificed a goat and burnt a witch in his name but it turned out that he had not had appendicitis, just needed a good poo, and was at home playing Playstation.

Someone probably should have asked "So the rock has been moved and he's gone... has anyone checked his house?" I realise Playstation was not around in those days but they probably had the equivalent. A muddy stick or something. I would have said "Can someone please check if Jesus is at home playing with his muddy stick, if not, then and only then should we all assume, logically, that he has risen from the dead and is the son of God."

If we accept though, that Jesus was the son of an Infinite Being capable of anything, he probably did have a Playstation. Probably a Playstation 7. I know I have to get my offspring all the latest gadgets. God would probably have said to him, "I was going to wait another two thousand years to give you this but seeing as you have been good... just don't tell your mother about Grand Theft Auto."

Also, is it true that Jesus can be stabbed during a sword fight and be ok due to the fact that he can only die if he gets his head chopped off?

Regards, David.

From: Darryl Robinson
Date: Friday 12 March 2010 10.13am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Permission Slip

Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus have a sword fight. Learning the teachings of the Bible is not just about religion. It teaches a set of ethics that are sadly not taught by parents nowadays.

Darryl Robinson, School Chaplain

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 12 March 2010 2.23pm
To: Darryl Robinson
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Permission Slip

Dear Darryl,

You raise a valid point and I appreciate you pointing out my failings as a parent. Practising a system of ethics based on the promise of a reward, in your case an afterlife, is certainly preferable to practising a system of ethics based on it simply being the right thing to do.

Many years ago, I lived next door to a Christian named Mr Stevens. You could tell he was a Christian because he had a fish sticker on his Datsun. He used to wave at us kids from his bathroom window on hot summer days as we played in the sprinkler. I learnt a lot from Mr Stevens. Mainly about wrestling holds. The trick is to oil up really well making it hard for the other person to hold you down. I would often lie on his living room rug looking up at the pictures of sunsets behind quotes from Psalms while waiting for him to unwrap his legs from around my torso.

Your job would be made much easier if, after making the school children sit through an hour of church youth group teens dancing, singing and re-enacting Jewish magic tricks, you simply told them that it was just a small taste of what hell is like and if they didn't believe in Jesus they would have to sit through it again.

When I was at school, we were forced to attend a similar presentation. Herded into the gym under the pretence of free chips, we were assaulted with an hour of hippies playing guitars and a dance routine featuring some kind of colourful coat and a lot of looking upwards. Due to the air-conditioning in the packed gym not working and it being a hot day, the hippie wearing the colourful coat blacked out mid performance and struck his head against the front edge of the stage spraying the first row of cross-legged children with blood. Unconscious, he also urinated. There was a bit of screaming and an ambulance involved and everyone agreed it was the best play they had ever seen.

Regards, David.

From: Darryl Robinson
Date: Friday 12 March 2010 2.47pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Permission Slip

Hello David

I don't see what any of that has to do with this play. It's important for children to have balance in their life and spirituality is as important in a childs life as everything else. There's an old saying that life without religion is life without beauty.

Darryl Robinson, School Chaplain

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 12 March 2010 3.36pm
To: Darryl Robinson
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Permission Slip

Dear Darryl,

I agree completely that balance is an important component of a child's education. I will assume then that you will also be organising a class excursion to a play depicting the fifteen billion year expansion of the universe from its initial particle soup moments following the big bang through to molecule coalescion, galaxy and planetary formation and eventually life?

Perhaps your church youth group could put together an interpretive dance routine representing the behaviour of Saturn's moon Hyperion, shattered by an ancient collision and falling randomly back together, tugged to and fro by the gravitational pull of Titan, sixteen sister moons, the multi-billionfold moonlets of Saturn’s rings, Saturn’s gravitational field, companion planets, the variability’s of Sol, stars, galaxy, neighbouring galaxies... or possibly not, according to an old saying, there is no beauty in this.

Also, while I understand that the play is to be held outside school grounds, due to the fact that it is illegal to present medieval metaphysic propaganda in public schools, it is also my understanding that you are now required by law, as of last year, to go by the title Christian Volunteer rather than School Chaplain. A memo you may have missed or filed in your overflowing 'facts that cease to exist when they are ignored' tray.

Regards, David.

From: Darryl Robinson
Date: Monday 15 March 2010 9.22am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Permission Slip

I'm not going to waste any more precious time replying to your stupid emails. If you don't want your child to attend the play just indicate that on the permission slip.

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 15 March 2010 11.04am
To: Darryl Robinson
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Permission Slip

From: Darryl Robinson
Date: Monday 15 March 2010 2.11pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: No Subject

I will pray for you.

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 15 March 2010 2.19pm
To: Darryl Robinson
Subject: Re: No Subject

Thanks. Mention that I want a Toyota Prado if you get the chance. A white one. With dark grey leather interior and sat nav.

Regards, David.

From: Darryl Robinson
Date: Tuesday 16 March 2010 9.20am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: No Subject

I've had enough of your nonsense. Dont email me again.

From: GOD
Date: Tuesday 16 March 2010 10.18am
To: Darryl Robinson
Subject: Word of God

DARYL, THIS IS GOD. BUY DAVID A TOYOTA PRADO. A WHITE ONE. WITH DARK GREY LEATHER INTERIOR AND SAT NAV.

From: Darryl Robinson
Date: Tuesday 16 March 2010 2.35pm
To: GOD  Cc: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Word of God

I'm serious.

From: GOD
Date: Tuesday 16 March 2010 2.48pm
To: Darryl Robinson
Subject: Re: Re: Word of God

OK.

Arizona Religous Rights Law

Evidence again that we live in a theocracy was the near-passage of the Religious Rights law in Arizona.  This law would allow businesses to refuse service to someone whose lifestyle was in violation of their religious dogma.  Fortunately, it didn't escape the gay community that the law was aimed at them and they mounted a public campaign which inevitably forced Jan Brewer to concede the political cost was too great.  That the bill even got as far as the governor's desk is an embarrassment.  That religious people get more rights than the constitution allows is illegal.  The bloody christians assert that their rights are being violated because their big guy in the sky doesn't like what some people do with their nasty bits.  Believe whatever myth and nonsense you want, but that doesn't give you extra rights.  What adults do with their nasty bits is not mine, the government's or any religious nut cases business.  When we accede to the delusional superior rights under the law, then the law becomes delusional and we are all in a world of hurt.

Yes you are confused and you always will be when you mistake certainty for knowledge and superstition as evidence.  Absence of gawd is inclusion of emprical evidence.  People who use knowledge of the world to make decisions rather than inexplicalbe mythology will make better decisions.  The need for authority worship is obviously in our makeup.  There are still kings and queens and celeberties and politicians whom we treat as deities.  It is a human weakness and attribute but that doesn't mean we should let it continue unabated.  I am against any person who attempts to justify their action because they believe some cosmic muffin told them so.
Vonnegut: “Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile."

We give the religous respect and cultural leeway when they deserve neither.  At least atheists aren't blowing themselves and others up because a mythical book told them so.  They're also not protecting child rapists and if they were they could be arrested and not protected like cardinal mahoney and other members of the catholic sodomy society.

Eminence Front

"And people forget-forget they're hiding

Behind an eminence front

Eminence front - It's a put on."

                       -Pete Townshend

The recent back and forth in the comments on the previous post illustrate a point that is given, but which is rarely spoken.  That is, we are all actors.  I act like I care about my work, so that I can get money to buy food, clothing and shelter.  The Pope acts like he accepts without question Catholic dogma because he's the leader of that cult and that's his job but we know not what he thinks in the quiet of his room.  He may truly believe what he says or he may not.  I can't tell you,  but if you read this blog you already know that my beliefs are more than three standard deviations from the mean. Yet, I can be found working, paying taxes, and more than less acting like everyone else.  I put on a front like everyone else, but I try not to forget that I am hiding, and that the truth and my identity are different from what is purported to be the truth and what I say and how I act publicly.  I never confuse the truth with what I do to survive.  I can speak the truth as I have in these posts, but the masses are indifferent.  They have accepted the actor and the play as reality, and it serves them well enough. Quiet desperation has been replaced with cold comfort and sublimation of the self to the collective. Some day, we may awaken from out self-induced coma, but that day is not today or tomorrow.

I'm soooooooo confused. Are you AND the Pope both full of shit? And is he evil but you're good? Is knowing the truth while living an "eminence front"  better than not knowing the truth and still faking the crap out of everyone? Please enlighten.

No, Yes, Yes.  Only the Pope can  know if his faith in the Cosmic Muffin is truly his faith or whether he is just putting up an eminence front because he gets to wear the funny hat.  The hat alone would keep me faking it until the day I die.  I am good and he is evil because I not only recognize  the front I put on but am willing to acknowledge, document and demonstrate it if need be.  You are painfully aware that at the Big V in the sky my eminence front only had a small degree of opaqueness, Allowing the barely observant to see that I despised working there.  But it was union and difficult to get fired.  Now, it is easier to get fired, so the front is more opaque.  It is far better not to have a front of any kind, but the social construct is simply not built that way.  The major tenet of my philosophy is to "Never confuse the truth with what you do to survive."  Another is "Seek the truth."  The Pope and all religious zealots have given up seeking the truth, They have it in their book, which is a nasty thing.  It is obvious that humans need to be constantly updating the truth as new information comes to light.  So, until the world becomes rational, it is necessary and good to have an eminence front to the world because this allows me to earn a living with some time off to rail against the very society that requires an eminence front.  I don't want to be a martyr because they is no afterlife.  Railing against society without constraint would make me one.  I've lost enough jobs pointing out the truth to pointy haired bosses.  The Pope is my antithesis:  Hanging on to unproven dogma merely to perpetuate having a really funny hat and hordes of gold and jewels and real estate and providing a place for pedophiles to ply their trade.

I've Changed my mind on Religion

I've changed my attitude on how I treat the religious.  I was of the mind that the personal beliefs of any individual were their beliefs and however bizarre or fallacious they were, individuals had the right to hold those beliefs if it made them happy.  I now think this is harmful to the collective.  We have to evolve socially toward survivability.  Holding on to actual non-physical descriptions of reality are not forwarding that evolution.  I was, in social interactions, tolerant of people referring empirically to Gawd and faith and heaven and the inner city because I felt it was their right to be self delusional.   What has changed my mind is the realization that our herd mentality will be one of the last things to go in our social evolution.  The masses continue to worship celebrities, royalty, politicians, and fads blindly and recklessly.  It is therefore more responsible to point out the absurdities of religion than allow their easy, salacious, and moribund transfer to the masses.  If pointing out the ridiculous nature of religion becomes more popular, then perhaps it too will become a fad and the empirical among us can harvest the herd mentality to the benefit of our social survival.  There are things we can learn from religion, but the most important is how to subjugate intelligence and create True Believers in mass movements.

P.S.  Got the message Wounded Zebra.  Stay off the Serengeti.

P.P.S:  So God only applies to Catholics?  The rest of us can act with impunity?  The point is that the Pope believes that God has a plan and executes that plan.  If God doesn't want the Pope's brains spattered, God will prevent it, and if he wants them splattered, he will allow it.  It's been the religious cop-out for centuries that God works in mysterious ways and that God intervenes in reality.  If God can't control assassins, then why call him God?  If God is out of the interfering in human affairs game, why do we pray to him?  The irony with the Popemobile is that the person who is the chief talker to God, is least accepting of His will.  He just another humanoid in a funny hat that doesn't want to his brains blown out.

P.P.P.S:  Naivete? 
The bloody Pope and the Catholic dogma insist that the creator of the universe is taking an active role in our daily affairs.  Every freaking saint had to commit a miracle.  People can't do miracles, gawd acts through them to make the blind deaf or the lame speak.  They've got two in the saint queue:  bloody john paul and mother teresa.  They're attributing supernatural acts to them.  How does that happen?  Because gawd has full admin rights to the universe and made the impossible happen through them.  That's the freaking dogma.  So, QED, when the pope rides around like anyone else in a bulletproof jeep, he's admitting that the laws of physics will apply to him no matter what and if someone wants to get him out of the child molesting business then gawd is not going to interfere.  

Not with a bang, but a whimper

This is how the blog ends
This is how the blog ends
This is how the blog ends

I gave the idea of propagating an empirical examination of society a try.  There is no audience to be found.  The reign of used car salesmen and robber barons continues unabated while the salivating masses force their attention on the shiny objects of celebrity and entertainment.  Instead of thinking and acting as though we could direct our intelligence and imagination to make the world incrementally more equitable, I have decided to relegate myself to the sidelines and watch the parade.  The blog will remain, as it costs me nothing to let it slowly decay into a black hole of obscurity, and occasionally I will post an esoteric thought or thesis, but the days of challenging the tsunami of propaganda are over.  I didn't attempt to make this blog a contest.  I was hoping to start an empirical discussion of how to conduct ourselves in a civilized manner with an eye to enhancing our survival outside of the mythical and dogmatic constraints of religion, politics, race, and doublespeak that permeates the current dialogue.  It was cathartic to rage against the machine, even briefly.  But my missionic(I know it's not a word) zeal was misplaced.  The best way to change the world is to sit quietly in one's room.

The Crazy Among US

What do we do with the crazy among us?  The revelations about the recent shooter in Santa Monica and others reveals that they were primed to commit an egregious act.  "Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.1 When applied to the 2004 U.S. Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people.2 "  Of course, the numbers above apply to all disorders from Schizophrenia to Agoraphobia.  There is no number for the proportion of mental disorders in which the individual will go out and shoot people.  Medical conditions are private, as is their conversations with their care providers.  Adults have their own rights.  The Santa Monica shooter was given a mandatory psychological evaluation and released three days later.  If you are an adult, the standard is no incarceration unless you are an immediate danger to yourself or others.  Most aren't.  Most are, despite their condition, intelligent enough to tell the doctors what they want  to hear and save their rage until they are released.  Given the numbers, we should feel good about the number of crazy people who commit violent acts.  It is a very small percentage.  We should also realize that the numbers are overwhelming to any monitoring systems we might have in place.  Until we have an economic way of monitoring the most dangerous among us, we will always have Santa Monica scenarios.  

1. Kessler RC, Chiu WT, Demler O, Walters EE. Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of twelve-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005 Jun;62(6):617-27.

2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates by Demographic Characteristics. Table 2: Annual Estimates of the Population by Selected Age Groups and Sex for the United States: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2004 (NC-EST2004-02) Source: Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau Release Date: June 9, 2005. http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/

Phone Records and mass media

The government is doing their job.  Because we have sided with Israel and oil companies and have a huge military industrial complex to keep the Muslim world under what we consider control, we have for the last five or six decades pissed off the Muslims who can't fight us in a conventional war so they fight a guerrilla and terrorist war.  So our government is monitoring our phone calls and internet activity looking for terrorist patterns.  It should be no surprise given the circumstances.  The media runs the story trying to frighten the salivating masses because that sells advertising.  For the media and politicians, it's a wonderful thing.   They can get lots of advertising revenue and do a lot of grandstanding without ever defining the issue.  They can pretend it is about rights to privacy when it is really about a clash of cultures.  We could roll over the Muslims if they didn't have the petrodollars fueling their resistance.  We could ignore them and they would go away if we could get away from our compulsion to try to convert the Middle East into an American colony.  But we don't, so the government looks at our phone and internet records and the media drools.  They can have my records.  We still have a semblance of  a legal system and I really don't think they will be spending much time tracking my boring, tepid life.  The threat to my life comes from the salivating masses who hire used car salesmen and robber barons (i.e. Democrats and Republicans) to handle my money.  I believe the voters of this country will bankrupt me before the FBI knocks on my door and asks why I called LLBean at 3 in the morning.  

Elitism and Global Warming

The recent Scientific American magazine and several other stories have studied the eventual sea level rise, it's effect on low lying coastal regions, possible mitigation, but little on the elitist nature of the problem.  Here's what is going to happen:  Warming will continue to melt glaciers, poles, and ice caps with the water from that melting making it's way into the ocean which will rise relative to the land masses.  People in the United States love building on the coast.  Rich people love building on the coast.  The coast is going away when the oceans rise.  We can either spend trillions of dollars we don't have protecting the coast or let the ocean have it's way.  We will spend the money.  Because the rich people living on the coast will spend some of that wealth buying the decision makers.  The taxes that come from us all will pay to protect those most able to protect themselves, incurring more debt to pass on to future generations.  Hopefully, I will be gone before the politicians start defending the rich against the ocean.  Until the masses take their vote seriously and wrest control of the legislature from the elite, we will be under the thumb of the plutocracy.  

Apocalypse Now, or very soon

It wasn't just my imagination.  The 50's had 7 apocalyptic movies, the 60's had 13 apocalyptic movies, the 70's had 23 apocalyptic movies, the 80's had 30 apocalyptic movies, the 90's had 29 apocalyptic movies, the 00's had 55 apocalyptic movies, and the 10's have 20 apocalyptic movies to date projecting to over 60 for the decade.  I like to think about the end of the world as much as the next guy, but not this much.  Movies run in cycles, capitalizing on what has made money before and repeating the formula until it doesn't make any more money.  The 12-21-2012 popular culture idiocy probably had something to do with it, but there is an undercurrent of interest in the end of the world.  I have no evidence to back it up, but my impression is that the salivating masses have a subliminal understanding that our way of life is not sustainable for the 7.1 billion residents.  People have an intuition that the future is not the shiny object that their parents held dear in their imaginations.  We continue to make significant progress and continue to rely on  antiquated technology to support us.  It's the smell of mustard gas and roses.  I don't know what the future will bring, except that it will be different from our current condition.  Change is the only given.  

Memorial Day

In the United States we honor fallen soldiers on Memorial Day.  What is referred to as their sacrifice is held in the highest reverential regard.  Soldiers dying in war is a given.  So is war.  While we have manage to stay the wholesale carnage visited in the first half of the 20th century, we still resolve mainly ideological and economic differences with the time honored tradition of taking up sides and killing each other.  From the perspective of political and military leaders, the soldiers killed are a necessary use of resources to accomplish  political goals.  For the family and friends of the fallen soldier, it is an irreplaceable loss in their lives.  We have decided to organize ourselves into states and use variations of the free market system to distribute wealth.  We also recognize war as a legitimate way of reconciling differences.  Again, because the people deciding on war are not the family and friends of the people who are going to fight it.  We are, like every other species on the planet in a fight for survival and will employ violence to enhance our survival.  We are also a sentient species that is aware of our actions and their consequences.  We need to change our behaviours, but there will  be many more Memorial Days before what is obvious is what we do.  

Crime, Punishment, and the Social Contract Part 3

The question is then should any society exercise the prerogative to cast out transgressors of the social contract?  Yes, with certain conditions.  Everyone should agree to and understand the social contract and the consequences of non-compliance.  We do not do currently do this.  The social contract is an ambiguous lecture in some philosophy or social science class, if that.  We have to clearly define what is expected of a citizen and what they get in return.  They can then opt in or out.  Opting out means they physically remove themselves from society and relocate to another.  Opting in means that they understand  and accept the social contract.  Like any contract, if they are not in compliance they accept the consequences.  The remaining Boston Marathon terrorist should be taken out and executed.  Such severe violations of the social contract are without redemption.    The shoplifter should be remanded and the social contract reviewed and renewed.  The white collar criminal that steals billions of dollars and can't provide restitution should also be executed.  The recidivists need to be judged on the cost of their crimes, the cost of incarceration, and their ability to provide restitution.  Nature evolves in part because of natural selection.  Society can evolve partially using the same principal.  This is in no way tied to either Eugenics or Social Darwinism.  

Crime, Punishment, and the Social Contract Part 2

As I discussed in the previous installment, when egregious crimes are committed against the collective and in violation of the social contract, is it either moral or civilized to execute the offender with quick and extreme prejudice?  Only if we are able to discern a just society.  Pol Pot thought he had a just society and over a million people lost their lives.  On the other hand, it is possible to find perhaps millions worldwide who would think the United States government is in the same league with the Khmer Rouge.  Opinions do not matter.  Empirical evidence and the scientific method are all we have to discern policy in even such an ambiguous area as how to run a civil society.  The question then runs to whether or not a quick execution is in the long term survival interests of our society.  If the evidence, as in the Boston Marathon bombing, is incontrovertible, then the expense and consternation of trial by jury and incarceration for some decades is an undue burden on society.  We don't currently apply that standard because we are so afraid of the inexact quality of our senses and reason that we would rather let murderers go free than execute an innocent man.  We have good reason to be cautious, and we have good reason to proceed.  Understanding how we discern the difference between Knowledge and Certainty should be the first stone on which any societal structure is built.  If we understand that, we can have a society in which the social contract is both enforceable and beneficial.    We will always have scarce resources and the ability to apply those resources to bring about a civil society rather than using them to support the degradation of civil society.  This is topic exceeding the short length of a blog.  For a more detailed explanation: http://www.roguewolfinc.com/thebrassswancosmology.htm

Crime, Punishment, and the Social Contract

The recent arrests in Cleveland and the judgement in Phoenix have brought up the issue of what to do with the most blatant violations of the social contract.  By the social contract, I mean the inherent agreement between human beings in a society that they act in a civil manner to each other.  There should be an actual contract, signed at the age of legality or adulthood.  At 18 years of age every person should sign a contract with the rest of society agreeing to act in a civil manner.  Or they could opt out, dropped off at one of the Aleutian islands with others of a similar bent to fend for themselves.  The signatories would then be obligated to abide by the contract and face the consequences of the law if they don't abide.  The most heinous violations, could, depending on the state, result in the loss of life by the offender.  But we're reluctant to do so.  Of the approximately 3125 inmate on death row, 33 were actually killed by society in 2011.  The latest examples of aberrant behavior will follow the same policy of trial, appeal, and incarceration for around a decade before the sentence is carried out.  We are so scared of executing an innocent person that we run around for, at times,  the life of prisoner trying to get the job done.  The Cleveland kidnapper, rapist, murderer and torturer could be taken out his cell this afternoon and have his life terminated.  We don't, but it wouldn't be civilized or moral.  Or would it?  To be continued   

Don't care if you are or aren't or may be

There was an NBA  player who recently announced he preferred the company of his own gender.  I don't care.  I work with people who prefer the company of their own gender and I don't care about that part of their lives either.  Of all of the people I encounter on a daily basis,  99% of those people have nothing to do with my sexual preference and that is a good thing.  The media loved the story because it was entertaining and because there is a small  population of emotionally stunted  people who react strongly on both sides of the non-issue.  Adults can do whatever they want with their nasty bits to whatever adult will consent and it is none of anyone else's business.  The only reason to get upset is when religious sheeple and dullards think they have the right to tell people what to do with their nasty bits.  The don't have that right and should get back to putting Creationism on the same level as Science and other such nonsense.  Someday, we will all be bored with what who does what with whom, or perhaps not.

Jon Stewart and the White House Correspondents

The ridiculous event of the White House Correspondents dinner was a pointed and obvious symbol that the Fourth Estate is lost.  Celebrities and Government officials and the people who are supposed to be the watchdogs of society all joking and parading before the cameras like an episode of American Idol.  The News organizations have abandoned their Fourth Estate obligations in favor of profits.  The profits are derived from the transition from a journalistic organization to an entertainment delivery channel.  It doesn't matter what was presented, as long as it garnered ratings.  So, we have reporters sharing the limelight with the people the should be investigating.  Jon Stewart's Daily Show skewers the politicians and news organizations alike, and we all have a good laugh.   We should be running screaming into the streets when the truth about politicians is revealed.  It's not the politicians or the new organization's fault, they are merely grabbing all the money they can with the two good hands god gave them.  The Fourth Estate has been retired by masses.  It is the salivating masses that has chosen entertainment over journalism.  It has changed and weakened our democracy irreparably.   

Insanity Defense

I usually don't delve into the abyss that is the law, but some things are simply too irritating to be left without comment.  One of those things is the insanity defense, which I realize is rarely used, but is usually found in the most heinous cases.  Most of these cases involve someone murdering someone else.  Murder is not an easy thing and usually takes some physical and mental effort to accomplish the task.  I think of people who are insane as people who think their committing murder by urinating on the lawn.  People who can go through the actions necessary to commit their particular crime may be insane but they knew what they were doing or they wouldn't have succeeded.  There is some cognition of their act and their surroundings or they would fail miserably.  They may not know right from wrong.  Most criminals don't, or they are like politicians and actually believe their own propaganda wherein they can act on their dubious world view.  In either case, they are responsible for their behavior.  Depending on the crime, they need to be put safely away from society before they lose their mind again.  There can be no abdication of responsibility because you have bad brain chemicals.  

Terrorism is Doublethink

The recent act of terrorism in Boston highlights the Doublethink of the terrorists but you will never hear about it in the mainstream media.  The terrorist organizations use guerilla warfare techniques to fight against an enemy they can never defeat.  Conventional warfare would be a lost cause against the United States so the terrorists try to inflict some physical casualties and psychological damage.  Unfortunately, terrorism actually has increased the resolve of the United States to defeat the terrorists.  While they have certainly inflicted a certain degree of existential damage to the citizens of the United States, the terrorists are nowhere near anything that could be called a victory.  The state of Israel has been under nearly constant terrorist attack for nearly 65 years and is solidly viable.  So, the terrorists cannot win, and yet they persist.  Much like the United States, having a perpetual enemy and a perpetual war keeps the people in power in power. The energy and money spent on terrorism, converted to education and industry, would actually give Islamic extremists more influence over the policies of the United States, much in the way China has leveraged its economic prowess.  But that would cause a change in the power structure.  It is far better to keep waging a war that will never be won.  

Obama as Madison Avenue

Obama tried to sell gun control legislation in the same way infomercials sell useless products:  Appeal to the emotions.  He paraded Sandy Hook survivors at the State of the Union speech.  He gave them his weekly address before the Senate vote.  Unfortunately, the Senators are not the public.  His sales tactic of shamelessly evoking a tragedy would certainly have worked if it had been a national referendum.  He could have kept parading the survivors and pictures of bloodied children until the masses screamed for gun control.  It turned out to be both despicable and ineffective.  Sure we should have gun control, gun owners should be licensed, there should be background checks, if you use a gun improperly your ownership rights should be revoked, and if you have a firearm and you're not supposed to have one you should go to jail.  This is reason.  Obama preferred sensationalism and emotionalism.  Two factors that guide the decision making process in government, much to our detriment. 

There is a name for it

The Ineptocracy:  " A system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers."  Nice.  Now there is a word (and a t-shirt) for the way the government is degrading our infrastructure and diluting our wealth.  We are creatures of patterns and those patterns are self-reinforcing.  The pattern of debt and corruption will continue until such a time as the producers are unable to support those incapable of producing adequately for themselves.  Hopefully, it will take over 30 years and I won't have to be a part of it.  I would like to witness it, high on a hill overlooking the collapse.  But it will probably be a long and drawn out process, and we will adapt and forget, adjust and succumb, until human voices wake us.