tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-108734392024-03-23T13:08:20.406-05:00The Nature of the BeastA rambling monologue of one man's views on society, politics, business, environment, consumerism etc. If you want to know which trash can to put this in, "dissident American independent with liberal and tree hugger tendencies" will do.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger766125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-62230589914494428662012-04-27T09:53:00.002-05:002012-04-27T10:19:34.885-05:00If this isn't Lake Woebegone then...Why isn't anyone average?
There are a variety of re-reports and repostings of a study done at U of British Columbia that concludes people who are, in the sloppy parlance of popular press, more "analytically inclined" and less reliant on intuition are on average less likely to profess some religious faith. But from a read of the article [pg 493 of the April 27 issue of Science] the "Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-49441193473099285982011-02-14T13:46:00.005-05:002011-02-14T14:07:31.525-05:00hey, you there in the bushes!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,Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-49136123807550564002011-02-07T10:33:00.002-05:002011-02-07T10:40:48.295-05:00actually not funnyThis was once good for a giggle.But this is not funny.Yes, friends, 32 bits just ain't big enough for all of us.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-58408957444543524132011-01-26T13:19:00.003-05:002011-01-26T13:32:03.474-05:00'Bout time!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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-45169371117769789552010-11-03T08:43:00.001-05:002010-11-03T08:47:39.955-05:00In case you were wondering where Boehner's majority came fromIts mad cows munching on astroturf.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-18751250577927471102010-11-01T08:20:00.005-05:002010-11-01T10:48:22.647-05:00You are not in control.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 areUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-52879313333972413912010-09-16T09:55:00.000-05:002010-09-16T09:58:08.719-05:00Its kind of like a cemetary...Wherever you try to bury a fear, a stone of anger marks the spot.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-71148878492181840772010-08-20T09:58:00.002-05:002010-08-20T10:03:52.341-05:00the relation between lucky and pluckyYou 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-37289359744104870752010-08-17T08:14:00.003-05:002010-08-17T08:32:53.887-05:00the many commonsThere 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-73468966330059605572010-08-04T13:03:00.002-05:002010-08-04T13:07:26.578-05:00When you stop blaming othersAll 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-63753738286609057412010-08-04T12:59:00.001-05:002010-08-04T13:02:41.599-05:00but above all, keep talkingIf 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-35315787935919676612010-08-03T13:32:00.002-05:002010-08-03T13:37:47.049-05:00belivingThe 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, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-19596420350518764582010-04-26T15:52:00.002-05:002010-04-26T15:55:11.373-05:00Ignorance is not innocenceI'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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-90426893651830420022010-03-29T16:40:00.006-05:002010-03-29T16:46:01.824-05:00this is excitinga 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?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-20837652004346795762010-01-16T20:10:00.006-05:002010-01-16T21:34:26.721-05:00There is a Storm ComingI 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 requireUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-69810246757282715972010-01-16T20:10:00.001-05:002010-01-16T20:10:44.446-05:00Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-62039588602074978142009-12-20T15:27:00.002-05:002009-12-20T15:29:50.662-05:00The Nature of our currencyMoney 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-63980019086714557262009-11-08T12:03:00.001-05:002009-11-08T12:04:54.978-05:00Tell ye all? Oh gee!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?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-18148597568192335012009-10-20T19:03:00.001-05:002009-10-20T19:04:49.875-05:00A distinction with a differenceAll spiritualities are created equal. But you may discriminate among religions by the body counts they have amassed.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-53921906392233155142009-09-12T09:46:00.002-05:002009-09-12T09:58:51.441-05:00HappinessObstacles 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.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-48333389815930124762009-09-08T07:58:00.002-05:002009-09-08T08:01:43.602-05:00AngerOur anger is the sword of justice that may glint menacingly when brandished but turns to dust when we finally start thrusting it at someone.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-69279613752231799012009-08-30T17:22:00.002-05:002009-08-30T17:33:16.729-05:00nothing is minemeasuring 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 [Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-2371347643180713582009-08-25T06:58:00.004-05:002009-08-25T10:21:20.617-05:00Pick-up Artists of the PatriarchsWhy 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 Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-15560681305133520862009-08-18T20:54:00.002-05:002009-08-18T21:01:05.886-05:00how to tell if yer head aint on straightWhen 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?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10873439.post-57469339635469965302009-07-19T17:54:00.003-05:002009-07-20T07:47:46.634-05:00not immortality, just sustainabilityOne 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 lastUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0