tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-108734392011-11-17T12:59:08.676-05:00having previously been called: Strelnikov's Briefs, Yet Another Dirty Mirror, Pithing Contest and The Exectioner's Thong....GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.comBlogger7651100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-49441193473099285982011-02-14T13:46:00.005-05:002011-02-14T14:07:31.525-05:00

If you are naked and don't want to be seen but want to know who it is that you hear coming, you might step behind a hedge and just peak through. But do you know if the owner of the hedge is back there behind you with a full view of your backside?...that is a metaphor for people who make obscure names for themselves and then repeatedly use those names in web IDs by which they chat, visit forums,

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-49136123807550564002011-02-07T10:33:00.002-05:002011-02-07T10:40:48.295-05:00

This was once good for a giggle.But this is not funny.Yes, friends, 32 bits just ain't big enough for all of us.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-58408957444543524132011-01-26T13:19:00.003-05:002011-01-26T13:32:03.474-05:00

Thanks to my feed from Lindsay Bayerstein's new gig, [I don't get TV where I now live and hate like hell to even read the news much] I hear Obama finally got a priority I agree with. Getting the general tax paying public, which is broker than a bum with a gambling habit, to pay for your lung replacement and your liposuction ain't gonna happen. Give up your state of denial about mortality and

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-45169371117769789552010-11-03T08:43:00.001-05:002010-11-03T08:47:39.955-05:00

Its mad cows munching on astroturf.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-18751250577927471102010-11-01T08:20:00.005-05:002010-11-01T10:48:22.647-05:00

If Matt Taibbi and Eric J. Weiner agree that US infrastructure and land have gone on the auction block, who am I to argue otherwise? I have retreated to farmland, sold my stocks and whittled my dependence on the health and savings institutions that this schizophrenic nation sets up in congress one year and tears down on Murdoctored News the next. And when the authors agree that the buyers are

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-52879313333972413912010-09-16T09:55:00.000-05:002010-09-16T09:58:08.719-05:00

Wherever you try to bury a fear, a stone of anger marks the spot.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-71148878492181840772010-08-20T09:58:00.002-05:002010-08-20T10:03:52.341-05:00

You will never get a chance if you won't take a chance.I find that relationship, including the failure to act on its advice, distinguishes leaders from followers in many spheres: political, academic and financial; conservative and liberal.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-37289359744104870752010-08-17T08:14:00.003-05:002010-08-17T08:32:53.887-05:00

There are many "commons" but our blindness to our personal share of the burden of restoration or at least the self restraint to use them sparingly spreads across them all rather evenly. Monies gathered by governments to fund works nominally for the public good seem to me a rather visible commons. The republicans, the common tax cheats, those who hide proceeds from illegal activities and the

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-73468966330059605572010-08-04T13:03:00.002-05:002010-08-04T13:07:26.578-05:00

All the anger you have ever had came from somewhere else. Don't let it in and you won't have to get it out. And when you can apply this principle to others, you won't need so badly to blame others for your awful behavior. Just get over it.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-63753738286609057412010-08-04T12:59:00.001-05:002010-08-04T13:02:41.599-05:00

If you do not know what you are talking about, fasten on to the reality of some world alternative where you DO know what you are talking about.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-35315787935919676612010-08-03T13:32:00.002-05:002010-08-03T13:37:47.049-05:00

The only faith one actually acquires at the point of a sword is the belief that it is better to be alive than to be dead, regardless what tribal identity or name that faith stamps on its adherents.All "faiths" so acquired are tainted.The only faith one actually acquires on pain of social ostracism or exclusion from from the economy is the belief that it is better to be rich than to be poor,

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-19596420350518764582010-04-26T15:52:00.002-05:002010-04-26T15:55:11.373-05:00

I'd bet anyone reading this could write his or her own post to fit the title, in spite of how fond we are of that way out of responsibility. We do have eyes. We do have ears. We do have minds.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-90426893651830420022010-03-29T16:40:00.006-05:002010-03-29T16:46:01.824-05:00

a bit over my head but in line with my intuition and the little physics I do possess:Gravity Emerges from Quantum Information, Say Physicists I think that gets physics past a huge and longstanding log jam...but what does it do to big bang theory?

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-20837652004346795762010-01-16T20:10:00.006-05:002010-01-16T21:34:26.721-05:00

I parted company with a number of persons and institutions in the last six months. And I did so in such haste that many are still owed a proper fare well.Snow will fall in 16 hours, around noon tomorrow after which it will be too late for the tricky work of demolishing outbuildings. This solar heated place I have lived in with wife and kids for 30 years has been sold. The terms of sale require

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-69810246757282715972010-01-16T20:10:00.001-05:002010-01-16T20:10:44.446-05:00

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-62039588602074978142009-12-20T15:27:00.002-05:002009-12-20T15:29:50.662-05:00

Money is really just the spilled blood of mother earth, cloaked by human guile as a thing we need not wash off our hands to seem innocent.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-63980019086714557262009-11-08T12:03:00.001-05:002009-11-08T12:04:54.978-05:00

A perspective exercise:How would you speak to the people in your life if, whenever you spoke, you could keep in mind the possibility that these were the last words you would ever get to say to them?

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-18148597568192335012009-10-20T19:03:00.001-05:002009-10-20T19:04:49.875-05:00

All spiritualities are created equal. But you may discriminate among religions by the body counts they have amassed.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-53921906392233155142009-09-12T09:46:00.002-05:002009-09-12T09:58:51.441-05:00

Obstacles to our happiness abound. The best work of our lives is in setting aside, going around or just seeing through these impediments. The abiding condition that seals happiness into a visible but unreachable dimension outside our plane of existence is our own character.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-48333389815930124762009-09-08T07:58:00.002-05:002009-09-08T08:01:43.602-05:00

Our anger is the sword of justice that may glint menacingly when brandished but turns to dust when we finally start thrusting it at someone.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-69279613752231799012009-08-30T17:22:00.002-05:002009-08-30T17:33:16.729-05:00

measuring your security by your pile of possessions, feeling like you will have years in proportion to your wealth...that is the moral equivalent of our coccyx or our appendix. It is a holdover from an animal's life where generations were unimagined and the future extended seconds or minutes forward from the crawling minute hand of NOW.The creatures that live more in imagined time than now [

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-2371347643180713582009-08-25T06:58:00.004-05:002009-08-25T10:21:20.617-05:00

Why are these sociopathic displays only found on pick-up trucks? Don't other vehicles have back windows? There is plenty of glass on the back of a Prius, for instance.Patriarchy has its roots in insecurity. To me it seems to be a strain in our culture that revolves around countering its inner fears by projecting menace and the ability and willingness to degrade and instill fear in others.How

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-15560681305133520862009-08-18T20:54:00.002-05:002009-08-18T21:01:05.886-05:00

When you ponder whom your actions might offend, you are looking toward and arranging your future.When you ponder who has offended you, you are looking toward and arranging your past.Some do both. Many get stuck on just one of those tracks. The future is all that remains of your life. As you move forward through life, which way are you looking?

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-57469339635469965302009-07-19T17:54:00.003-05:002009-07-20T07:47:46.634-05:00

One of my very favorite bits of wisdom might be called trite based on how many can recite it:“Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on earth.”And on how many think they can recite it.I like Twain's original much better. I also adapt it for my own "live as if..." advice.Since yesterday turned out not to be your last

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-29146773540876205922009-07-12T22:14:00.001-05:002009-07-12T22:16:06.542-05:00

How many lies have you told because YOU did not want to hear the truth [or the truth that would come back at you]?

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-31785580534757987842009-07-02T18:03:00.001-05:002009-07-02T18:05:49.736-05:00

They say you only use about ten percent of your mind.I say the other ninety percent uses you.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-7276874938937389862009-06-07T13:09:00.003-05:002009-06-07T13:32:35.519-05:00

The recognized, and sometimes accepted, excuse for bad behavior: "I'm only human" is like a tarp. You can toss it over only so much junk before it ceases to disguise what it covers. If a person has simply lost their temper they will later have some regret. For such outbursts, apologies and forgiveness may be exchanged. But when someone blasts away in a fluent flurry of rage and later says

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-25057216168225592862009-06-03T06:56:00.003-05:002009-06-03T07:32:26.892-05:00

Whenever someone enabled by their wealth to do such things, buys more of the limited and exhaustible necessities than they need, be it land, water, food, fuel or whatever, they bid the price of those resources out of reach of someone else who was on the verge of not affording the bare minimum.  That power to diminish well being is not the advertised face of wealth.   Less altruistic behavior is a

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-20669553010068588652009-05-28T18:29:00.002-05:002009-05-28T19:05:08.055-05:00

Teens, an artificial grouping if you use it to categorize by maturity,  are reputed to have achieved nearly instant trend propagation.  That is not news and the four commentaries don't declare it to be.  The speed of propagation is generally attributed to whatever speed the available media supports...I agree.   But no one addresses the question of why, of what might make this pattern so universal

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-79933464430022665042009-05-22T22:02:00.001-05:002009-05-22T22:04:13.590-05:00

Idealism without strategy is a sure recipe for disappointment. Idealism and greed are the estranged children of hope.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-82861137459112295272009-05-21T17:41:00.004-05:002009-05-21T17:55:45.527-05:00

If the world were perfect, I could leave it.  Alas!  There is so much to put right.  I will have to have progeny because I sure won't solve all the problems in my time or by myself.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-54460058706251269492009-04-24T16:44:00.001-05:002009-04-24T16:46:23.802-05:00

Any love that is not a dialogue is a delusion.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-10049345495673743642009-04-02T22:22:00.002-05:002009-05-21T17:59:44.090-05:00

Money is a shared delusion that some people should be more powerful than others, a mildly insane way to digitize exactly how much power you lack.Madoff was so cleverbut did he ever notice he never felt like he had enough?

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-63437953778150677942009-03-18T19:35:00.001-05:002009-03-18T19:37:12.133-05:00

When asking for trouble, raising your voice is seldom necessary.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-52466277102114895952009-03-10T19:52:00.002-05:002009-03-10T19:56:28.164-05:00

It is a blessed state to be so ignorant that you do not even know that you are poor...or it is a sublime achievement.  But if the latter, the IRS will do what it can to remind you of your attachments.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-60030247432761885172009-02-02T08:01:00.002-05:002009-02-02T08:17:14.171-05:00

From Lawrence KS, news of a celebration of Darwin's 200th birthday.When the right idea comes along, all those investments in the wrong ideas become liabilities. Ultimately the motivations for denial will be found in fear of new authority. That might be because of your experience with old authority. Trust me Kansans, its not about authority. If you insist on seeing modernity, science and

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-88574681550809049402009-01-27T14:25:00.003-05:002009-01-27T14:39:31.175-05:00

John Updike has died.Trying to make up meatier sentences about writing than Updike has already provided being presumptuous for most and stupid for me, I'll just pass along a few from his obituary:"It's always a push to get up the stairs, to sit down and go to work,” he told Time magazine in 1982. “You'd rather do almost anything, read the paper again, write some letters, play with your old dust

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-60427777886368749432009-01-20T08:46:00.002-05:002009-01-20T10:47:12.348-05:00

I think of our "conscience", our tendency to feel bad about trespassing our personal boundaries between good and evil as an evolved characteristic. It is a great shame that those boundaries are more learned artifacts than universal and derivable limits. The schooling that would enable us to derive the limits is formal and exacting while the schooling by which we commonly absorb our notions of

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-20983649313949126762009-01-18T12:51:00.001-05:002009-01-18T12:53:58.698-05:00

In intimate conversations, the more heated or discordant the discussion, the harder to be certain in any of the sentences who is the subject and who is the object...loves joke on us.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-90681300509044936942009-01-12T21:53:00.005-05:002009-01-13T08:52:27.046-05:00

A hopeful author and professional journalist, Jaimal Yogis, asked me if I would review his forthcoming book: Saltwater Buddha. I have to qualify any such reviewing. If you have read many of my posts, you may know better than I the quirks of my writing and ideas about religion. It turns out I am the one being done the favor because I thoroughly enjoyed the book and devoured it in one

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-51243242868272134432009-01-08T20:40:00.001-05:002009-01-08T20:42:12.973-05:00

Excellence is the greatest rebellion.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-58667149040148819682009-01-06T13:03:00.006-05:002009-01-06T13:24:12.888-05:00

I like the sound of it. PZ is gonna love the title of this report in Science Daily:Religion May Have Evolved Because Of Its Ability To Help People Exercise Self-controlThe article is not quite as emphatic that religion is just another kind of behavior as the title would lead you to expect. But still, it definitely puts religion back in the box where science would have it.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-49874997774443123432009-01-05T23:00:00.001-05:002009-01-06T01:16:14.607-05:00

I have come, seeing parts of my life where it has slipped away and mysteriously taken joy with it, to fiercely prize honesty.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-71992167229000362202008-12-12T19:10:00.001-05:002008-12-12T19:13:44.936-05:00

...the dreamer and the realist can have conversations.  One set of exchanged words, two conversations.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-91870184893713897352008-11-18T06:58:00.002-05:002008-11-18T07:35:14.160-05:00

This article in NY Times has new numbers on the participation of women in the computing/programming work force. New and much worse than I had realized. The decline of the percentage of women who have jobs in software engineering was a shock to me perhaps because the particular place I work does have closer to 20% women and they work as both senior managers, researchers and engineers. The gains

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-23260650646014336152008-11-10T18:05:00.001-05:002008-11-10T20:03:24.196-05:00

Whether an object in the mirror is real or an illusion depends on whether you are aware of the mirror.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-28264136106599987982008-11-06T20:53:00.002-05:002008-11-06T20:55:53.891-05:00

There is a limit to the utility of letting the past as you remember it or the future as you imagine it haunt your present.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-1900899379883494442008-11-05T22:18:00.002-05:002008-11-05T22:33:19.152-05:00

Honesty burns all the right bridges.[and you don't even have to rack your brain keeping sundry stories straight]

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-75724682218798634662008-11-04T11:28:00.001-05:002008-11-04T11:28:37.363-05:00

Election 2008 Voting Information Today, November 4th, is Election Day! Remember to vote--not just for Barack Obama, but for Congressional, state and local candidates as well. Where and when do I vote? Find your polling place, voting times, and other important information by checking out these sites and the hotline below. These resources are good, but not perfect. To be doubly sure, you can

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-33131724103569615802008-10-25T10:39:00.005-05:002008-10-25T10:52:34.664-05:00

If there is not at least one person to whom you would literally never lie, one person to whom you fiercely and at any cost, present your truest self in every moment and circumstance, then your life is shabby, a string of compromised amusements, a toying with the devil as he grooms you for his version of eternity.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-13567082364735775502008-10-22T15:36:00.000-05:002008-10-22T15:38:12.321-05:00

Which troubles do you carry around lest others suffer and which, if you set them down would not require that anyone else pick them up, would in fact, cease to exist?There are burdens we think we carry which are in truth only shrines to a past we foolishly wish to change.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-26109551196440192592008-10-22T15:35:00.003-05:002008-11-05T10:23:31.461-05:00

I had imagined when I set out to write, that my words would be the cairns and guideposts I had found and revealed to lessen the missteps and troubles of others who travel through life.What I have found on reading the words later is that they are more often just tracks left in soft earth by yet another soul lost in this wilderness.There is a simple solution to this problem of conditional wisdom

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-6016368535781592542008-10-14T21:15:00.000-05:002008-10-14T21:16:12.426-05:00

If applying a label to some person or problem gives you as good a feeling as if you had come to a useful understanding of the problem...you are screwed to the ground and cannot move any farther.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-79446762000458443012008-10-10T20:30:00.006-05:002008-10-11T10:22:49.367-05:00

Looking forward, as we must now that a change for the better is likely in November, I begin to think about who will be on board and who needs to be on board in order for Obama to successfully enact much of the repair and reallignment he promises. Lincoln Mitchell posts his view of this prospective new government at HuffPo but I am wary of strategizing in strictly partisan terms. I prefer the

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-70111558286376812592008-10-10T07:25:00.002-05:002008-10-11T10:45:09.889-05:00

Ever notice how your "low information voter" turns out to be your "high emotion" voter?

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-9728077627972698552008-10-09T23:02:00.002-05:002008-12-14T13:52:01.906-05:00

You don't have to possess a low IQ to prefer an oversimplified description of circumstances.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-80423355336366154472008-10-07T08:12:00.004-05:002008-10-07T08:24:42.138-05:00

How do you cast doubts and aspersions on another without causing the listeners to reflect on your own character? You get someone else to do the dirty work. There need be no substance at all to an allegation if it is not coming out of the mouth of the candidate.That whole mode of campaigning seems convincing primarily to the weakly informed and uncritical listener who is glad of any support for

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-31960112445474050852008-10-01T17:26:00.002-05:002008-10-01T18:15:09.183-05:00

If you are grown up enough to make salutary use of news which is humbling and sobering, then Mr. Darwin's notion is as personally tonic as it is powerfully explanatory of biodiversity. It invites you to reflect that all human history is but our moment on stage in a plot with an infinite chain of murderers being murdered. You cannot begin to count the designs which seemed invincible in their

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-20460309431979718012008-09-25T18:54:00.002-05:002008-09-25T19:01:26.250-05:00

Until a person has changed his mind, there has been little demonstration that he even has one.[In the way that intelligent people can and conservatives cannot, Brad DeLong reconsidered a long held belief...this was my inspiration.]

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-73974679832590545482008-09-24T15:19:00.004-05:002008-11-07T09:21:30.533-05:00

John McCain who dares dangle before the undecided voters the allegation that Obama is "not ready to lead", is himself not even ready to talk.And he was so insistent on having debates only a few short weeks ago.One nice thing about the 21st century: with all its instant communications and internet broadcasting of every little bit of news, your lies come back to haunt you a lot faster than in the

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-78015037778486925222008-09-08T23:02:00.002-05:002008-09-08T23:12:16.031-05:00

I think it is a fine, and fortunately not too rare, human capcity to look upon wretched starving neighbors who are dying of hunger and disease and rather than shuning or fearing them, to be ready to spend your last cent on their betterment and to say to each suffering one "Your death is not necessary. This should not be your fate".I do.  I really think there are people whose strongest inclination

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-21276292194361295082008-07-20T09:51:00.002-05:002008-07-20T09:54:22.458-05:00

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Bob Herbert urges us to take Al Gore seriously, the way we took JFK seriously when he said we should shoot for the moon. But Herbert notes that a spirit of inadequacy, dependence and apathy seems to have stolen our resolve and our capacity to respond to inspiration where it is needed and when it comes. Don't you know that in so big and diverse a nation, there is

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-59925861480969921722008-07-09T20:30:00.004-05:002008-07-11T07:37:43.956-05:00

These thoughts are the luxury of a comfortable old salary man contemplating retirement. I wish for the whole world, but particularly for those caught up in the thought that they must do just the task that seems to be set for them lest they not eat or not have progeny or....the list goes on, ...I wish that you could each have and chew on such doubts about your to-do list.A badly organized list of

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-80143846371177877002008-06-27T09:37:00.003-05:002008-06-27T10:07:02.609-05:00

Ego is a snare and a delusion. But worse is its power to distort and pervert. A gun is a physical thing. A simple machine for making its bearer lethal. The machine has no intention. The naked ape has no lethality. The combination of the two conjures and alters, borrows from the depths of hell, a power the ego desperately craves but the mind is not competant to use.Questions of safety and

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-58934254146580165402008-06-17T21:13:00.002-05:002008-06-17T21:17:29.794-05:00

The powerful pay no price for telling huge lies but the common and poor people may pay with their lives for believing the lies, or with jail time for making up little lies of their own.If you tell a whopper, you are either more likely to get away with it or you may get a good laugh.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-25250709146655675532008-06-17T00:48:00.003-05:002008-06-17T00:53:59.882-05:00

Confidence is not a given in the characters of lovers. It may in fact be the outcome or reward of love honestly pursued and won. If it is present a priori, then it is dangerously attractive. ThereforeBeware of lovers who attract you with their cool confidence. Even if not feigned, it means you play on an uneven field.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-59048218651711302452008-06-11T07:17:00.002-05:002008-06-11T07:29:20.649-05:00

Gay marriage looks silly to those who cannot admit to the myths and the flaws of design and execution in their own marriage.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-45369892716179686302008-06-02T06:44:00.001-05:002008-06-02T06:52:38.529-05:00

We work within the limits of our ability out of necessity but mostly we work within the far more confining limits of our habits.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-8198568587769669552008-05-30T15:06:00.002-05:002008-05-30T15:11:55.158-05:00

Having a burden of possessions is called ownership. Having a burden of possessions others actually own such as a mortgaged house, is slavery. Can you imagine any other alternatives?

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-86955164811403986572008-05-28T07:59:00.000-05:002008-05-28T08:00:42.858-05:00

We set up the prize to avert our eyesFrom the courseless tossing waters we row,"Something to live for", a passable guiseFor an emptiness we don't want to know.Our wiring rewards all striving towardsThe project that projects self on goals.Losing whatever floats our boat, the ground of being affordsA respite on the shoals.Do not despair. The wiring is still there.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-54260309298646297912008-05-22T21:50:00.002-05:002008-05-22T22:00:37.818-05:00

When things go wrong, it is vastly more fruitful to seek what went wrong than who is wrong.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-58239943517313550012008-05-20T09:06:00.003-05:002008-05-20T09:22:59.510-05:00

I don't believe in magic. I do believe my own mind has more workings than I will probably ever be aware of let alone understand. I am therefore prepared to take tentative steps on faith conditioned by observation. These steps would be counterintuitive to anyone in the grips of the Republican mindset of insecurity, scarcity and self preservation. But, as my saintly old teacher would say to

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-15478094059598716442008-05-19T08:58:00.004-05:002008-05-19T09:53:35.161-05:00

It is one of humankind's most noble intentions. It is a matter of personal belief perhaps, but I believe it is in fact nothing less than practical advice, the only advice that can be followed without eventually needing an army to back you up. Yet, despite being one of the most widely praised bits of wisdom and being rediscovered and restated in many cultures and religions, the Golden Rule has

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-89411996882252649442008-05-17T10:33:00.002-05:002008-05-17T12:09:32.425-05:00

...then accept my apologies. Do not adjust your mindset, we are experiencing technical difficulties. The name changes of late have demonstrated that my hit counter was, as I have suspected, mostly counting Google's scratching when others have an itch to see underwear that hides little. That is then to say, the hit counter lies to me, and measures nothing. This is a technical consequence of

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-77981760908585472832008-05-13T12:03:00.003-05:002008-05-13T12:40:29.860-05:00

Who was that woman you were with last night....someone who saw you with her told me.That was not exactly a woman. That was fate. We are just friends.Some friends! I heard you were dancing with her!No, I was not. But I can see how it might have looked that way. I have learned to bow gracefully to my fate.I have a hard time believing you. You have quite the reputation as a Lothario.I

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-72182818968162289812008-05-09T06:00:00.000-05:002008-05-09T06:00:02.312-05:00

You might think freedom should somehow mean the ability to go in any direction at any time. Does an expectation that will have you running into obstacles almost constantly really sound like a plan to experience true freedom? Quit worshiping yourself and come back to this world. True freedom begins as a narrow path that threads between not giving a damn what other people think of you and not

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-70615647534468337562008-05-08T20:42:00.004-05:002008-05-09T00:08:34.308-05:00

Is there a way to cure yourself of writing, to the exclusion of job and housework, just to see your words served to a planet in need of almost everything but more words? What is it that addicts me to this blogging?I dearly love the occasional kind word from my readers.I have a sense of responsibility toward the people whom google sends my way for answers not about underwear. Yeah. Imagine it.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-34034853275269462902008-05-08T13:56:00.005-05:002008-05-08T15:33:16.397-05:00

A news release from NCAR that says things like antarctic atmospheric models have run about 1/2 degree C warm:The authors compared recently constructed temperature data sets from Antarctica, based on data from ice cores and ground weather stations, to 20th century simulations from computer models used by scientists to simulate global climate. While the

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-75236825173422532842008-05-08T06:00:00.001-05:002008-05-08T06:00:01.799-05:00

I have gotten into the habit of scanning ScienceDaily.com. The write ups are short and generally good at conveying the impact of a journal article to a general audience but hey, its not war and politics they write about so how stimulating could it be? [or didn't y'all notice your volitional reading is geared to stimulation? Conditioned stimulus perhaps, but stimulation all the same!] Well, the

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-66844687114504591572008-05-07T08:14:00.006-05:002008-05-09T07:49:47.051-05:00

This is my blog so I can play news anchor if I want. But this is your browser so you can wince and go elsewhere if you want. This is a wrap up of the May 6th primaries...as I happen to see them.10 oclock news: the margins of victory have shrunken for both candidates vs earlier counts. That is interesting since that means a 2% flip in the count would make Obama the winner in Indiana. Lake

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-65719691461931366032008-05-06T18:07:00.007-05:002008-05-06T21:17:52.794-05:00

Key Findings From Early Exit PollsThe economy is the major driving issue, with 65% In Indiana saying it was the most important issue, and 60% saying the same in North Carolina.Exit Polls: Indiana, North Carolina Latest InformationWORRIED ABOUT THE ECONOMY The economy was on voters' minds in Democratic primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. Two-thirds of Democratic primary voters in Indiana and

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-64915928368704226412008-05-06T15:05:00.003-05:002008-05-06T15:22:07.879-05:00

I lifted this straight out of the newsfromunderground google group posting. And that in turn was content supplied by Blackboxvoting.org.Over and above the internecine negative campaigning Clinton introduced into the Democratic primaries, we now have a catalog of voting irregularities in Indiana...most of which involve disenfranchised voters in districts that were expected to go for Obama. What

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-15550988492460802472008-05-06T06:00:00.001-05:002008-05-06T06:00:01.445-05:00

It is not too far fetched to say that America is a high risk debtor. Long before the sheriff comes to evict a man who has habitually borrowed more than he can pay and squandered it on luxuries, his borrowing habits show a pattern. It is essentially the pattern of addiction. Among people addicted to alcohol, the expression hair off the dog that bit you is a junk rationalization that has turned

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-83167770451101132862008-05-05T06:01:00.002-05:002008-05-05T06:01:00.859-05:00

He says he gets it from you and me: Ordinary people are finally asking why is the US fighting the world when it should be fixing its own tattered house? Friedman knows and claims many of the people he has talked to around the country are aware as well: we can't afford to do both and, surge hype be damned, the fighting is not doing us any good. Whence hope when leaders treat you like a dope?

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-20387957509642752212008-05-04T05:19:00.002-05:002008-05-04T05:19:00.502-05:00

I have been reluctant to say a word about the Wright imbroglio. I knew from his autobiographical Dreams from my Father that Obama had been recruited to the church by Wright more than the other way round .... and that was all so long ago. While I have said little because I knew little and don't put much stock in the religious associations of people who wear their faith lightly, I was still

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-29813593960629072772008-05-03T17:05:00.001-05:002008-05-03T17:05:00.679-05:00

Yes, the crowds are smaller this year than they were last year. But so are the remittances to struggling relatives that the immigrant workers send back to Brazil and Mexico. What a brilliant solution America has devised for its impasse over immigration! Become as third-worldly as the places immigrants fled ...and back they will go!Time travel policy: I am at a Bat Mitzvah on the 3rd, you

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-1388547150421469202008-05-02T14:51:00.001-05:002008-05-02T14:51:29.970-05:00

Maybe these guys prop us up because, dumb and brawny as we are, the US is  the hired cop, the tough but not too dangerous guy who will make the world safe for business even if you have to fool him into it by not correcting him when he says he is making it safe for democracy.  It is an inversion of the relationship we used to have with minor satellite nations: proxyhood.  We use to ship money and

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-11757487325455409672008-05-01T20:31:00.004-05:002008-05-17T15:58:41.867-05:00

And when that is not enough to win our stupid war, kill yourself. This country doesn't want to deal with psychologically damaged veterans. It doesn't want to face the fact that it owes something to vets who have gotten seriously messed up being told they are the good guys and the fight is a good fight and then finding they have to go berserk or park their conscience while they pretty much shoot

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-79213597514000933882008-04-30T21:10:00.004-05:002008-05-01T14:46:40.799-05:00

..."making the world safe for hubris in a hummer"!The NY Times editorial board has the awesome job of producing thoughtful and thought provoking commentary on the issues of the day...every day. There is a whole team devoted to the task and all in all they aren't bad at it. They are better than typical bloggers, a little. And they accept comments to the opinion pieces. Todays topic is how

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-80510349834855032882008-04-29T08:47:00.002-05:002008-04-29T09:08:26.524-05:00

Oh how original, McCain would 'put families in charge' of health care. Don't you get the picture you old fart? RIGHT NOW we are virtually in the following scene: The doctors, their lawyers, the HMO and their lawyers sit on one side of the negotiating table. I and my family sit on the other. In the distant background, a gaggle of senators is strolling toward the putting green on the 7th hole,

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-29423626688692611902008-04-29T08:45:00.002-05:002008-04-30T20:13:34.515-05:00

This article has a theme you should get used to. Its headline is precisely and concisely what Peak Oil is all about. The things those damn liberal fear mongers say to take away your umurkun liberties...they are coming true.Now."According to normal economic theory, and the history of oil, rising prices have two major effects", said Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the International Energy

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-9705446927735727962008-04-28T21:15:00.002-05:002008-04-28T21:24:43.458-05:00

positive investment: you put money into something in expectation of getting back money or some valuable enhancement of your situation at some point a stated number of years in the future. [eg your tuition] Negative investment: you get money from some place with the certainty that you will have to cough up that cash plus fees and interest at some point a stated number of years in the future. [eg

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-8359058971237432602008-04-28T20:26:00.002-05:002008-04-28T20:43:56.596-05:00

I recommend reading this essay by Nick Bostrom at MIT's Technolgy Review. It is much faster than reading a book by Carl Sagan or Fred Hoyle on extraterrestrial life or any of these . This essay brings home strongly the most important part of the questions of where the aliens are to be found: does their absence hint that we too must inevitably parish before we can carve our initials on far

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-8306589765967483982008-04-28T16:46:00.002-05:002008-04-28T20:25:36.544-05:00

I never idolized either of the remaining two Democratic contenders for president. I have said to friends and may as well say to any who read the drivel I put up here that I would be happy to have either of them in the White House next January rather that John McBush. I'd be ecstatic to have Pelosi in there by, say, July if the stupid congress suddenly woke from its slumber and forthwith

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-72022678984619294982008-04-27T09:33:00.005-05:002008-04-28T21:11:59.389-05:00

This opinion from New York Times editorial board that trade is NOT the problem behind the war on the middle class asks for a "fact based" treatment from the candidates.I think their analysis is helpful but incomplete.In the US any job that can hurt the environment has become harder for employers to invest in both for health, remediation and prevention costs that the "cheap labor" countries ignore

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-61030360601957486982008-04-24T15:08:00.006-05:002008-04-25T01:47:14.302-05:00

In 2003, some guy in Montana digs up a T-rex, one of the last of the thunder lizards to go extinct. In 2007, a gal in North Carolina makes an amazing discovery: recognizable protien fragments are preserved deep within these massive 68 million year old bones. This week Science will publish the report of a medical genetics team at Beth Israel-Deaconess hospital in Boston, directed by a Harvard

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-85252256989683053572008-04-22T20:55:00.007-05:002008-04-23T08:25:59.190-05:00

The phrase "The American Story", if offered as the title on a blank sheet each of us was to fill with a story might produce a decidedly motley collection. The myth that somehow there is one even vaguely unified American story is apt to find uncritical expression in some glowing pean penned over at Townhall.com. The grit, disappointment and glints of glory would more likely mingle in individual

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-87784653532073967592008-04-22T20:28:00.004-05:002008-04-22T21:13:03.111-05:00

The lead sentence of this Jonah Goldberg opinion piece in the LA Times reads thus:Promoting democracy throughout the world has been a driving force in U.S. politics since the country's earliest days.Whether the other things Goldberg dismisses as thoughtless slurs against necons are true or not, one thing is clear, and Goldberg is the poster boy for it: Neocons are ignorant imperialists. The

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-8696067089296009582008-04-21T22:57:00.006-05:002008-04-22T00:25:03.692-05:00

When otherwise liberal friends of mine discuss how to proceed in Iraq, quite a few are aware that one of the most significant political shifts Bush, and his Cheney gang have worked is the transfer, by default, of decisive political clout in the region into the hands of the Iranian theocracy. And knowing that, these friends are stuck, saying "we can't just pull out. The country will go to pieces

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-3749998557495131022008-04-18T19:44:00.003-05:002008-04-18T19:48:19.085-05:00

History got revised and simpler at least a little each time they sat to chat over a cup of tea.

GreenSmilenoreply@blogger.com0