I didn't used to be quite as invisible...
Viewing Earth from the perspective of a tiny fragile globe hurling through space humbles and inspires all at once - but makes flag waving and joining in difficult. And so from age 10 on things got difficult. I mean if you're paying attention, even just a little, how can you not be angry? But how also can you not be inspired and awed. And so I write. By Charlie Phillips
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
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.
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.
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
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 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
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
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?
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?
Sunday, July 15, 2012
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.
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.
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