Propaganda and Ignorance

Obama won. All said and done an electoral college landslide -  332  to 206 votes. Additionally he is only the fifth president in U.S. history to win a majority, and not just a plurality, of the popular vote twice. And yet average republicans were shocked by the results of the election. Truly shocked. They were sure Romney was going to win.

Why? Because their sources of 'information' are unreliable. They had been told repeatedly Romney was winning  and would win. He didn't and they were lied to.

Many mainstream republicans chose to live within a bubble isolated from the rest of us and from reality. Without realizing it they seek out their own bias and are deliberately misinformed by their information sources. Perhaps then they should examine the reliability of these sources and not just as regards the election - but also to accusations that Obama is a Muslim, a socialist, that he will steal their freedoms, steal their guns, give what little they have to the poor or lazy, that the world will soon end, we can expect mushroom clouds over America, and all the rest of the fear tactics and outright lies their information sources beat into them in thinly veiled attempts to advance their agendas - and make money.

Republicans are shocked because they are out of touch with mainstream America. Misinformed and lied to they have a distorted picture of Obama, Romney, the general sentiment of America, and of reality. No wonder they were so shocked.

Hate fuel

Fox 'News' is steroids for idiots

Drill Baby Drill

A superstorm
the result of global warming?
global warming in part
the result of cars burning gasoline?

Ironic then
Fistfights over gasoline in short supply
after a storm caused in part by 
gasoline

Got to have the drug baby
fossil fuel
drill baby drill

Reminds me of the old saying
I'm afraid to leave my vat of warm shit
I might get cold

Keep swimming in that toxic waste
Keep mainlining that crude
and we all pay the price

The Nature of the Universe

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Hubble discovered that our universe is expanding. If we imagine running the clock backwards, then the  universe must shrink. Do so long enough and the logical conclusion of an expanding universe is that it began at a single point in space - from nothing.

Scientists think our universe came from nothing, all at once, in a really big explosion - the big bang. Remnants of that explosion can be heard and 'seen' by tuning your TV when connected to an antenna to a channel with no local broadcast. 10% of the snow and static you see is left over energy created by that explosion 13 billion years ago.

So the something - the universe - came out of nothing, all at once. To explain something from nothing requires an understanding of nothing. But science requires physical cause. Therefore, goes the argument, science cannot explain the creation of something from nothing. It is completely lost at the boundary between nothingness and something.

As soon as the big bang idea of creation became widely accepted theologists rushed in to explain it - something from nothing cannot be explained by science - the big bang can then only be explained and understood by evoking a creator God.

I think we can't answer the question - why is there something rather than nothing - until we better understand the something in order to better frame the question. We are still very much in the dark about the true nature of the universe and are probably asking the wrong question without any hope of understanding the answer.

Science pursues understanding of the something. Given enough time we will someday come to understand its true nature - and in doing so come to understand our beginnings and the true nature of 'nothing'. Religion provides only a focus for faith.

My Life

machine gun lead throughout the war
a tropical paradise into hell
the dead and wounded
the nevermore
the blood, the gore
a legacy

I attach myself to stars
and see the earth from afar
a fragile globe so full of hate
a sadness, an angst, my fate

I 'save' lives
perhaps someone is keeping score
gore to kill
gore to save, more
my life is not my own
whose is?

Belief

The universe presents an infinite number of possible outcomes in all that we experience.
A belief focuses on but a single possibility.
Religion is belief based on single choices amidst infinite possibilities.
Discard your religion.
Discard your beliefs.
Experience your universe.

Hooded masks, white robes and egg.

This says it all. In their hatred of Obama, Fox 'News' and CNN could not contain themselves enough to get their facts straight before rushing to plaster this on their airways. And if you think CNN's subtitle was not deliberate salt in the wound I'd love to sell you a silver mine. So much revealed here - what fools. The only things missing? - hooded masks, white robes and egg.

One World

120 million people murdered in wars in just the 20th century alone - we civilized humans.
Makes you want to wave your flag?
Makes you swell with pride?
Thank goodness, god is on our 'side' 
Go us.

Economic Rape

The modern day republican party's purpose at its most basic is to take money from the poor and give it to the rich. Actually it's to take money from the non-rich and give it to the rich in order to make them, richer. Downsizing government is a means to make that easier to do.

The democrats purpose - as far as I can tell - is to provide contrast so as to more clearly outline the republicans. Beyond that - I cant tell.

You are being told that we are broke. We are not broke. Our gross national product is at an all time high even after accounting for inflation. Despite unprecedented growth, our middle class is shrinking - our numbers of poor growing, while our 1% richest - ever and ever richer.

This fact is all you need to know.

The money is there - it's just going to a precious few working in 'defense', banks, wall street, pharmaceutical and oil companies, and global corporations. These uber rich have no need for your police, your fire depatment, your public schools or infrastructure, and are happy to divert funds from these services to themselves. They care not a twit about you and are happy to enrich themselves with your retirement, your home, your savings - while at the same time having you 'bail' them out. Happy to steal from you while they take away your services. They have long ago declared war on you. It's time to wake up.

The next time a school closes down the street from you - remember why.
You are being robbed - raped actually.

It's up to you to stop it.

Sustainability = Survival

I don't want less consumption.
I don't want a more primitive lifestyle.
I don't want everyone to ride bikes to work.
I don't want to cost people their jobs, their lifestyles, their way of life.

All I want is for the federal, state and local governments, industry and science to place an emphasis on sustainability. We cant burn fossil fuel indefinitely - we will run out.  We can't continue to pollute and destroy  our environment - where we live - its not sustainable, as in we cant continue to survive like this.
So - place more emphasis and resource on developing clean, sustainable technologies and strategies that allow our way of life to continue - indefinitely.
Um - duh?

Portland Trash Pickup

Portland, you are now paying the same amount of money for half the trash pickup service you used to have.

Your sense of environmentalism is being appealed to, perhaps even manipulated, in order that you accept this.

I don’t know what the intent was.
I don’t know what the motive was.
I don’t know if it's greed or necessity.

But here’s what I do know.
I have less service then I used to have, despite there not being less trash, and no environmental gain.

Feels like a fast one to me.

Memorial Day

35 million people died in WWI
60 million in WWII
2-4 million were killed in the Korean War
2-4 million in Vietnam
150,000-600,000 were killed in Iraq

In all these wars civilians bore the brunt of the death and suffering
Innocents
Memorial day is not for military heroes
Not for our 'brave' troops
Not a day for our flags, our nationalism
Memorial day is for remembering the absolute insanity of war
And to pause, listen, and learn from the anguished cries of millions

Don't poop in the living room

There are those that believe the worlds oceans too large, their capacity to absorb our pollution too great, for us to ever have to worry. They are wrong.

What Next?

Enlightenment comes only after we evolve past human
Our flaws too rich for such 
But can any intelligence ever really know true enlightenment
For as an intelligence's sphere of knowledge expands
so to the area of unknown surrounding it
Intelligence, it seems then, is always in pursuit
and isn't enlightenment - still?
Human as a species has less than 100 years left
What's next?
Most certainly it will be billions of times more intelligent than us
Whatever it is, coming from us, it will remain forever curious, forever on the move
and therefore, by definition - forever flawed
This gives me great joy

Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism

Conservative political ideology in Western democracies may be identified by several components, including an emphasis on personal responsibility, acceptance of hierarchy, and a preference for the status quo. These ideological components map closely onto non-ideological psychological processes, which support attitudes consistent with political conservatism. We describe how attitudes and behaviors consistent with these components increase as a consequence of thinking that requires little time, effort, or awareness. From this starting point, we develop the argument that political conservatism is promoted when people rely on low-effort thinking. When effortful, deliberate responding is disrupted or disengaged, thought processes become quick and efficient; these conditions promote conservative ideology.

Scott Eidelman, Christian  Crandall, Jeffrey A. Goodman, and John C. Blanchar,  Pers Soc Psychol Bull published online 16 March 2012

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/03/16/0146167212439213.full.pdf+html

Destiny

Sad, really.
Our destiny
Something, beyond us - the end of who we are.
Never meant for greatness
humankind then -  a next step.

Listen to the MUSTN'TS

Listen to the MUSTN'TS, child
Listen to the DONT'S
Listen to the SHOULDN'TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON'TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child
ANYTHING can be

by Shel Silverstein

Conservative 'Thinking'

Conservative thinking is low effort thinking
Complexities reduced to black and white - unknowns and shades of gray replaced by rigid structure and over-simplification
At its basis - fear of an uncertain, complex, and confusing world
Such thinking results in rigidness of thought, purposeful ignorance
It lies at the heart of racism, bigotry, hate, repressiveness
It is a fearful, rigid resistance to progress and revelation and can in the end therefore only, finally, fail
For fear is the price nature extracts for imagination, wisdom - enlightment
It is the reason there is courage and must always be overcome

Ill Take The Moon

When it comes to big egos there are two basic types at opposite ends of a spectrum. The first actually believes they can accomplish the impossible and change things for the better.This sort inspires vision and greatness in those surrounding them, spearheading collaborative efforts that exceed what was thought possible - the first landing on the moon in less than 10 years.What egos those first NASA engineers and scientists must have had.

The second type assumes the world owes them - greatness, grandeur, and control.
Owed their greatness they crush anyone in the way using tools of fear, repressiveness, subjugation and over-reaching control - Stalin comes to mind.

One is a talented optimist and positive force, the second a narcissist, usually aided by a solid dose of sociopathy - by their nature, destructive, demoralizing, repressive.

The origins of the ego - matter - the size of the ego - not so much.

Muslims are not terrorists

40% of the people voting in the republican primary in Georgia last week believe Obama is a Muslim. No doubt this is due in large part to right wing media propaganda.
Even if it were true - and it's not - so what?
There are about 1.5 billion Muslims in the world - about 20% of the worlds population.
Are people really going to hate and fear 20% of the worlds population simply because they follow Islamic teaching?
Put another way:

I am shocked and dismayed to find out that President Obama is a Christian.
Christians are terrorists.
Timothy McVeigh was a Christian.

I am shocked and dismayed to find out that President Obama is a Muslim.
Muslims are terrorists.
The 911 terrorists were Muslims.

FCC should clear Limbaugh from airwaves By Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem, Special to CNN updated 1:45 PM EST, Sat March 10, 2012

Editor's note: Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem are the Co-Founders of the Women's Media Center.

(CNN) -- Ironically, the misogyny Rush Limbaugh spewed for three days over Sandra Fluke was not much worse than his regular broadcast of sexist, racist and homophobic hate speech:

--Women cabinet members are "Sex-retaries."

--"The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."

--The National Organization for Women is "a bunch of whores to liberalism."

--[Said to an African American female caller]: "Take that bone out of your nose and call me back."

These are just a few samples from the arsenal of degrading language Limbaugh deploys on women, people of color, lesbians and gays, immigrants, the disabled, the elderly, Muslims, Jews, veterans, environmentalists and so forth.

Jane Fonda

Limbaugh doesn't just call people names. He promotes language that deliberately dehumanizes his targets. Like the sophisticated propagandist Josef Goebbels, he creates rhetorical frames -- and the bigger the lie the more effective -- inciting listeners to view people they disagree with as sub-humans. His longtime favorite term for women, "femi-nazi," doesn't even raise eyebrows anymore, an example of how rhetoric spreads when unchallenged by coarsened cultural norms.

Robin Morgan

At least this most recent incident has turned a spotlight back on the vile, damaging statements Limbaugh has been promulgating for years. His sponsors are dropping him; his stations have begun to follow suit. VoteVets, a coalition of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, released a statement by female vets, including Katherine Scheirman, former chief of medical operations in the U.S. Air Forces, demanding that the American Forces Network drop Limbaugh from its programming.

Gloria Steinem

They state, "Our entire military depends on troops respecting each other -- women and men. There simply can be no place on military airwaves for sentiments that would undermine that respect."

That makes this a fitting time to inquire of his syndicator, Clear Channel Communications, whether it intends to continue supporting someone who addicts his audience to regular doses of hate speech. Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks Inc., which hosts Limbaugh's program, has defended his recent comments.

If Clear Channel won't clean up its airways, then surely it's time for the public to ask the FCC a basic question: Are the stations carrying Limbaugh's show in fact using their licenses "in the public interest?"

Spectrum is a scarce government resource. Radio broadcasters are obligated to act in the public interest and serve their respective communities of license. In keeping with this obligation, individual radio listeners may complain to the FCC that Limbaugh's radio station (and those syndicating his show) are not acting in the public interest or serving their respective communities of license by permitting such dehumanizing speech.

The FCC takes such complaints into consideration when stations file for license renewal. For local listeners near a station that carries Limbaugh's show, there is plenty of evidence to bring to the FCC that their station isn't carrying out its public interest obligation. Complaints can be registered under the broadcast category of the FCC website: http://www.fcc.gov/complaints

This isn't political. While we disagree with Limbaugh's politics, what's at stake is the fallout of a society tolerating toxic, hate-inciting speech. For 20 years, Limbaugh has hidden behind the First Amendment, or else claimed he's really "doing humor" or "entertainment." He is indeed constitutionally entitled to his opinions, but he is not constitutionally entitled to the people's airways.

It's time for the public to take back our broadcast resources. Limbaugh has had decades to fix his show. Now it's up to us.

Get Real

Thank goodness some men in Virginia feel the need to 'protect' women and women's rights by mandating an ultrasound prior to a planned abortion. After-all isn't it part of a woman's "right to know", and doesn't someone have to protect women from themselves and potentially dangerous procedures? - god forbid we leave that up to doctors and the women themselves.
So why not  take it one step further? Lets 'protect' men as well. Lets require men to have cardiac stress tests and to document erectile dysfunction prior to being prescribed Viagra. And let's not pay for its purchase with government funds and insurance coverage - after-all isn't erectile dysfunction God's plan to protect men from themselves and limit the need for abortions?

Or we could just stop hiding real intent behind false concern and get real.

Next

The only thing Brietbart's Obama video reveals is Obama's charm, obvious intelligence and easy speaking style.
The fan fare and drama surrounding its release by the republican right is frankly embarrassing and reveals only their desperation, racism, and lack of imagination.They choke on their own hatred, act the fool, and prove their own insignificance - apparently even in death.

Next.

Still waiting

Residential solar power. Energy directly from the sun made and used off grid in your home - pretty cool. The average residential solar panel installation costs about $15,000 - $20,000 after government rebates and subsidies. A lot of money to invest upfront. But financing is available with repayment periods of 15-20 years allowing for monthly payments that are less than the average current electric bills. So why don't we see solar panels on every roof? Simple - technological growth is exponential, the systems are becoming obsolete every 3-5 years, long before they are paid off. Each generation of systems significantly cheaper and much more efficient than the preceding ones, producing more power for less money. So much so that hanging on to solar panels for the 15-20 years it takes to pay them off would be like hanging on to your PC that long.

What is needed is to be able to pay off the systems before they become obsolete while making payments no greater than current electric bills. Since the average household electric bill is about $150/month this translates into systems costing about $5000 - $6000 installed. Pay them off in 3-4 years, keep them 5 years, make a little money over what you would normally have to pay, and then upgrade.

An alternative may be to offer installations larger than needed for free. Companies would make money on a monthly fee that is less than current electric bills and on the sale of the excess electricity to the utility companies, the customer would never own anything.

One thing is for sure - as long as prices stay where they are the grid as we know it is safe and greenhouse gases, king.

The Best We Can Do?

Mitt Romney -  "The trees are just the right size in Michigan".

Rick Santorum - "The 2012 election is similar to the time between 1940 and 1941 when Americans didn’t act against Adolf Hitler".

Newt Gingrich - “The idea that a Congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument”. “You can’t trust anybody with power".

Ron Paul - "[It is the] destruction of civilization", on the end of apartheid in South Africa. "If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet - footed they can be". "Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks".

"One Useless Man is Called a Disgrace; Two are Called a Law Firm; Three or More Become a Congress", John Adams.

Where Medical Technology and Greed Meet

The Republican Party and some of the extremely wealthy in this country have declared full out war on the poor and middle class. They have attempted to gut the social net while protecting the wealthy - their tax breaks, the oil companies- their subsidies, the banks and Wall Street - their unbridled, unregulated greed.  With no end to their lust for ever more, they have been ever willing to destroy the lives of millions here in the US. Outside of this country they have been willing to take it even all the way to murder - hundreds of thousands have died and millions have had their lives ripped apart in their pursuit of wealth and power through war - these 'wars' serving at least in part to transfer wealth on a massive scale from the average American to them, while distracting and consolidating power along the way. They have been ever willing to destroy lives, even take life in their never-ending quest for more.

Now realize there is coming a day when scientists will unlock the secrets of aging and then think of their greed. The next great leap in medical care will center on learning to manipulate genetic machinery in each and every cell in our bodies. The cure for cancer, disease, deformity, and even aging, to soon follow. Yes, this will occur. But it will be expensive and if history teaches us anything those in power, those with the greatest greed will pull out all stops to keep it so and to control it. They will attempt to monopolize medical technology - guaranteeing extended life free of disease for themselves, while denying the masses, in their never ending pursuit of more - more money, more power, more control, better health and even more life. After-all not everyone can be given extended life will go their arguments. The wealthy being superior - deserve it - the poor do not.

They will no doubt think they will get away with parents having to watch their children die of disease for lack of money. They will no doubt believe at first that people will settle for watching the suffering and death of their loved ones while they, the wealthy, live on.  They will no doubt think it - and they will no doubt be amazed at the rage and wrath they will awaken in doing so.

It is in fact the only scenario where I can see the masses of this country rising up to violent revolt. Barring an entirely new paradigm in government and financial structure worldwide, this is likely to occur - twenty to thirty years from now. Greed, unbridled lethal greed, will stand in the way of the potential for immortality and in doing so will finally; finally have seen its day.

A Time Honored Tradition

Doctors white coats: 19th century costume 
perfectly designed to spread 21st century germs

Modern day scourge

1.0 The 24 hour news cycle
2.0 Right wing talk radio
3.0 Left wing talk radio
4.0 Carry on luggage
5.0 HR departments
6.0 'Smart' phones
7.0 TSA
8.0 Destination weddings
9.0 'Happy' meals
10.0 Corporate convenience
11.0 Blogs (Ancil Nance's addition to the list) 

Barely There

If you put all 6 billion people on earth in one place and then removed all the empty space in and between their atoms, what volume would they then occupy?

A cube slightly smaller than a lump of sugar.

Stupid is as stupid does

A car bomb killed a nuclear scientist in Tehran’s Wednesday morning rush hour this week.  The driver of the car, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a 32-year-old father of three, was at least the fifth scientist with nuclear connections to be killed since 2007; a sixth scientist, Fereydoon Abbasi, survived a 2010 attack.

“The United States had absolutely nothing to do with this,” said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton took it even further, “categorically” denying “any United States involvement in any kind of act of violence inside Iran.” I think two things about that:
1. They know who did do it and thus are complicit by saying nothing.
2. That the lady doth protest too much, methinks.

It appears Israel is behind much of this. I would  be very surprised if the US was not abetting them despite publicly denouncing the attacks.

Mind you this is not a Matt Damon drama filled action movie. Innocent human beings are being murdered. Men who have committed no crime. Men with families. And it's not ok.

Justified as an alternative to war, it is not - it is murder. It is terrorism. And it is unlikely to accomplish anything other than to slow Iran's effort while strengthening their resolve. Gary Sick, a specialist on Iran at Columbia University says “It’s important to turn around and ask how the U.S. would feel if our revenue was being cut off, our scientists were being killed and we were under cyber-attack. Would we give in, or would we double down? I think we’d fight back, and Iran will, too.”

Israel denies involvement but hints at justification if they WERE involved. One former Israeli official  offered this “In Arabic, there’s a proverb: If you are shooting, don’t complain about being shot,” he said. Right out of the mouths of Iran's leaders when they go to murder us and our allies in retaliation. 

Do I want Iran to gain nuclear weapons capability?
Of course not.
But there are ways of seeing that doesn't happen that are legal and humane and at least somewhat in the spirit of international law and basic decency. 
Does clandestine murder of people who have committed no crimes against humanity or for that matter any other crime make you swell with patriotic pride?
Doesn't me.

It is inhumane, it is illegal, and it is stupid.

Loves Abyss

Swaying bodies in the heat
Mind is focused and then it's free
Day and night is all the same
Drops of rain where the shadows lay 
 
Aching heart comes home again...
 
Once again your spirit's high
Not a cloud in the sky
 
The time will come when we're once more
Will feel our presence no more
 
Just swaying movements and 
the breeze
and
timeless ancient love abyss 

by Yuliya Phillips