I watched the “great man” closely on television last night. He was either just himself or he has lost himself.
Barak Obama came on the scene as a startling talent. He came out of the darkness to run for the United States senate in a major state. The details of the coincidental success aren’t important because it was only the springboard to unbelievable accomplishment after a short stint in congress. Timing? Talent? Force of personality? In retrospect it is so hard to say. But it was a meteoric rise.
Yet there is a certain strangeness to his allure. Most people saw him as an amazing campaigner in his salad days. He was never flamboyant but he had reserved energy that seemed to be wanting to get out but was always on the verge. You could feel it under his delivery and you imagined more than what you saw and heard. He had wallop in a low key and he seemed so genuine in a very natural way. He wasn’t overreaching and his demeanor was such that while he was strong, handsome, articulate and charming he still had the common touch of a former community organizer. And he was a writer. Read the rest of this entry
This is a finite planet with finite resources! Hello! There are limits!
Fire came first, then the stone age (obsidian), then the copper/bronze age and then the iron age then the energy age from 1850 on…….
From 1850 on the main source of energy is fossil fuel. Renewable WOOD was the source of energy before!
This is the industrial age. Resource depletion really started here.
Resource depletion accelerates as technology improves. Example:OIL!
The planet is Easter Island writ large! All “civilizations” are Easter Island.
The main source of wealth is the exploitation of non-renewable, finite, resources now. Sustainable resources are a minor part of wealth creation. Read the rest of this entry
Everyone knows, or should know that when you use the internet, especially for email etc. that it is available to almost anyone in the world.
But to have the government spy and record everything that goes on is clearly against the fourth amendment. The ACLU is finally getting around to challenge the constitutionality of the Patriot Act. What took so long for them and others?
Article 4: People have the right to be free, in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, from unreasonable searches and seizures, and no warrants may issue without probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and specifically describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. Read the rest of this entry
I post this as a model for giving a rallyspeech so people can get enthused and encouraged at large (or small) gatherings.
It is so important to keep interest and excitement up if good public participation is the goal!
What a DAY!
A day for ACTION! It’s time for Action! Say that! Work with me! When I say that, you say it!
It’s time for Action! I can’t hear you! AGAIN!
OK! So, what is to be done?
It is important to dive in and work with your passion and with your friends who share that passion. The opportunities are all around you here today! Honor and work for Mother Earth and protect her! Go to the table of your choice and sign up! It’s time for ACTION!
But it takes more than energy and commitment. We have to develop power to make things happen!
Remember, it is always all about power! The rich and the powerful have wealth but we have people for our power!
So we need to be wise and organize! Organizing is so tough to do but it is the action most worth doing! It is hard work but we don’t need Viagra to keep it up! Read the rest of this entry
What is wealth? Wealth is surplus. The wealth of the world is diminishing. The wealth of the world, so far, is its natural resources. At one time there was a surplus of natural resources for the people who lived on the planet. Now there are too many people for the resources that are left. Even the renewable resources (the sun and its result, wind) are in short supply because they need the finite resources to access them. Agriculture is limited by the need of finite resources to make it abundant.
What we have is the diminishing of the food for economic growth. With heightened technology we may be able to ration the resources and spread them out thinner and make them last longer. But they are finite and as they become more rare they become more expensive to produce. The days of cheap resources are over. Read the rest of this entry
How fortunate we are to have a river like the Spokane running right through our city. Can you imagine Phoenix or Chicago or any other city in the world with a river as big as this that creates three waterfalls within earshot of city hall? But our river needs help.
So my message is: Go listen to the river.
And when you listen you will find it speaks in tones so plain and childlike it will be hard to tell if the sounds are sung or spoken. The cataracts are calling out that it wants to run clean and free. Read the rest of this entry
In the Old West the young man with the big iron on his hip walked into the bar on the edge of town. The deputy sidled up and said, “You need to give me that gun and holster stranger. We don’t allow people to wear shootin’ irons in this town. When you decide to leave you can pick it up at the sheriff’s office. We have had so many people killed by accident that it’s a crime! We don’t want you drinkin’ too much of that “red eye” and breakin’ up the place and fightin’ with the local boys. I recommend rollin’ one of the funny little cigarettes and smokin’ it to calm down if you’re feelin’ angry”.
The big iron guy was taken aback! “I feel naked without my pistol. And how do I know I will get my gunbelt back”?
“All the other young galoots are just as naked as you are and we keep track of everything in our register. You won’t have to worry”, said the deputy.
“War Is a Racket” is a speech done by the most famous US Marine, General Smedley Butler after he retired from service. He gave a speech like this all over the United States from 1935 to 1937. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, twice!
I am now delivering this speech as Smedley Butler!
It is great stuff.
“War Is A Racket”, Major General Smedley Butler
War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we’ll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag. Read the rest of this entry
During the time of Charles Dickens London had become a big city and crime was running rampant. The cure was to make punishment so severe that it would deter the criminals from committing the crimes. I believe that over a hundred crimes were punishable by death. One of those crimes was pick pocketing! In order to maximize the punishment and the deterrence there were public executions of the pick pockets. These drew huge crowds because executions in this period of time were particularly grizzly. There were no trapdoors. No hoods. The noose was placed around the neck while the victim stood on a large box and then the box was kicked away. The poor devil kicked and struggled until he passed out and then slowly died. The executions were very popular.
They were discontinued after a fairly short period of time though. You can probably guess the reason. Too many people were getting their pockets picked at the pick pocket hangings! Read the rest of this entry
Matt Shea is a firearms nutcase. We can’t wait to see him arm himself again when the traffic is not to his liking.
But Matt is not a one event talent. His ability to hyper ventilate while abusing his former wife and his anger at fellow legislators has made a real reputation for this political radical.
We are waiting to see him refuse to pay his income tax like his Sovereign Nation conspirators. Shea’s radical belief systems compel him to challenge any commonly accepted political principles and make him forget to get a concealed weapons permit or maybe he was doing that on purpose!
We can probably regard Matt Shea as an extreme Libertarian with a fascist streak running through the middle. But he may go beyond that though with the gun fetish. The gun in the car was loaded so he may be seeing “boogymen” that are out to get him. We are looking at rather psychotic behavior here. Has he lost his empathy? That is the real test of who is a psycho. Can he love? Can he imagine the feelings of others? Is self interest his main focus? Can he play with others?
It is time to call him out as either a sociopath or a real psychopath.