(Welcome back Merrykat! Great diary. This is something Everyone (on all sides), should learn. - promoted by lamb12)

(I'm a little rusty.;-)

'A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves' - Edward R. Murrow

And who can really blame them when the sheep come willing to the slaughter?

"The times, they are a different."  - Glar, 'Planet 51'  (Very funny movie.)

Rambling musings of 'Capitalism... A Love Story', 'The Spy Factory', 'Inside Job' and sheep tests...
It's odd how things seem to come together for me.  Every so often I'll read one thing, then see a couple of other things, read something else...
And it will hit, just how badly we are screwing ourselves over.

I think the prior owners moved just so they wouldn't have to clean it.  I got the trash out and started moving out the left over furniture.  My trash company will take one big thing a week, so it's moving kinda slow, but at least it's moving. I think I've evicted most of the spiders.  The place stood empty for almost a year, so there were a lot of 'em.  There are a few diehards, but chemical warfare is in the offing.  First general cleaning is done.  I got the bathroom to a point where it doesn't scare me to use it.  I've carved a clean skin and chunk of counter space out of the grime in the kitchen.  Been scrubbing woodwork far a looong while now.  Found out that paint is reluctant to stick to the walls.  Prior owners were heavy smokers who, apparently, didn't really believe in cleaning.  I'm thinking of just proceeding as if the place has smoke damage...
On the up side Scrubbing Bubbles rock, took the dead, liquefied mouse right out of the stove.  Works pretty good on woodwork.
And thanks to a very good friend, I got my fence, all six feet tall and 300 feet of it.  Let's see stupid dog try to jump that.  The yard has awesome potential.
And that's a whole 'nother war to be waged in its proper season.
I have miles to go before I move.
So I'm in a mood to bitch.

I know dumbing down has been a topic here.  I've been seeing a disturbing trend related to this process.
Am I the only one who wonders what the editors of our major print news organizations are getting paid for?  Do they even check the online stuff?
I have examples...

9-9-09 Stltoday.com  (St. Louis's major news paper.)
In August, the district's attorney, Christi Flaherty, argued that other children could not tolerate the dog in the classroom, which put the district in a legal "catch-22" when it came to education its special education students. Flaherty also argued the dog was not a part of Carter's Individual Education Plan, and thus was not necessary in order for the district to provide an adequate an appropriate education to the child as required by law.

Its not an option any more for him not to go to school without the service dog," Thompson said. "They've gone through so much already."

(I've been seeing this sort of grammar disaster for a while, this is the one that made me start clipping things.  I'm not normally a grammar cop.  In fact I'm in the grammar-impaired camp.  So if I'm catching these things there is a problem.)

9-14-09 Stltoday.com
Sliwa said Guardian Angels would all be selected from the neighborhoods of St. Louis and trained by experienced members from other cities. It would several months to set up a chapter here, take applications and train people, he said.

9-26-09 BBC world news
Federal, state and local authorities have refused to say if Sparkman was at work going to door-to-door for census surveys in the time before his death, but his Census Bureau ID tag was found taped to his body.

10-12-09 AP
Dr Johansen-Berg said there were clinical applications for this work but there were a long way off. Dr Johansen-Berg said there were clinical applications for this work but there were a long way off.

(This one was so good they had to do it twice.)

11-8-09 AP
Instead, their numbers have quadrupled to 200 since 1996, an unlikely boon experts credit to the concurrence of an impoverished government keen for revenue that has enacted laws to protected them, a conservation program that encourages people to support them, and a rare harmony with humans who have accepted their presence.

11-20-09 Reuters
By allowing officials to extract DNA from personal effects, the law "doesn't violate in any way the body or the privacy," she said. "It will surely help discover the identity of the grandchildren we have been searching for for so many years."

11-21-09 Reuters
The 20-meter (66 feet) tall fiberglass Santa has been among the festive decorations in Auckland since 1960 but in recent years began to struggle with one of his eyes that was made to wink and a mechanical figure that moved in a welcoming gesture.

His face remains bandaged ahead of a public unveiling on Sunday but his mechanical figure has been replaced with a static digit.

These are all clipped directly form the online articles.  Ok, I know a couple of these are nit picky, dropped or doubled words and the like, but I think the 'professionals' should be held to a little higher standard.  If the first one wasn't so obvious, and if it hadn't taken me a minute to figure out that the last one was talking about a finger, I might be more forgiving.
This sample may not seem like much.  But I've only been clipping things for a couple of months and I'm not reading as much as I used too, what with the rehab hell and all.  I've been seeing this sort of easy to spot errors for at least a year and a half now and it's getting worse.
Do they not have editors check this stuff?  Is it just the common lack of care on the net creeping in?
I can accept having to stop and figure out what someone is really trying to say in a non-professional forum.  But shouldn't there be some professional pride involved here?  Don't writers have to at least know the basic grammar rules anymore?  What, exactly, are the editors getting paid for?  How hard is it to run a spelling and grammar check?  Don't these people have Office installed?!
This sort of thing, and trends such as spelling bouquet as bokay, are symptom and contribution of the dumbing down of our society.
As long as the common denominator rules the denominator will drop.  Only when you hold people to a higher standard will they climb.
As long as we allow greed and stupidity to rule we will decline.

Now I have to get back to doing my bit in fight with chaos and entropy....

I am a victim of the economic downturn.  The house I'm renting is going into foreclosure and I gotta move.
Fortunately, I know someone who has a house they want to get rid of.  I don't have much money, they don't want much money.  Life is good.
Unfortunately the place is a pit.  I don't have much money, so sweat equity is kicking in.  I've gotta replace flooring and paint and clean and all that good type stuff.  While I pack, organize a yard sale, and move.
It's gonna be a lot of fun...
But at the end I'll have a passable house with a huge ass yard. ;->
So, needless to say, I won't be around here much for a couple of months.  I'm hoping to have all this over with by Thanksgiving.
It's been real and it's been fun...
And it really has been fun.
Please, don't feed the trolls while I'm gone, I'd like to see ya all here when I come back.

First let me say that I consider Christianity to be one of the worst things that ever happened to the human race.  Perhaps even, the single worst thing.
Personally I do not hold with any organized religion.  I agree with the Muslims that it is a sin to presume to know god.  My personal beliefs run closer to Zen than anything else.
But, I don't believe that 'religion' is the problem.
And I believe that all religions have validity.
As with all other things, the problem is not with religion, but with the way humans use it.
(I'll warn ya now that this has potential to be a long ramble. ;-)

First, my opinion on validity...
What purpose do religions serve?  They are a way of dealing with the unknowable, the mysteries of life.  Ever since we became self-aware we have been aware that there are things that are beyond us.  There are things we don't know, and we don't like that.  By and large, the human animal does not deal well with uncertainty.  We like our world concrete and observable.
And actually, if you step back and take a look at it from the ground level, supernatural belief was a pretty smart coping mechanism.  Ya gotta remember our Savannah dwelling ancestors were developing the capacity to observe and reflect.  They didn't have the benefit of centuries of observation.
How about we try a mental experiment?  Try to ignore all you know about science, block it off in the back of your mind and try to forget it.  Now let's say you've got a handle on cause and effect, you've thrown some rocks in the water and watched the ripples spread...
Now let's set you down in the middle of the open Savannah, in the middle of a big ass storm, with nothing to cling to but a scrawny bush....
Imagine the worst storm you've ever seen and nothing but grass and scrubby bushes as far as the eye can see.  Lit, rather vividly, by multiple lightening strikes.
Ya know that the bright flashes start fires.  But where do the bright flashes come from?  Now imagine rain pounding and wind strong enough to uproot scrubby bushes and send them flying...
And forget all you know of modern weather science.
Ya know something caused it.  But what?  Where did it come from?  Why did it happen there and then?
Remember the ability to ask these questions is new, and the available observation is limited.  The most powerful things you've experienced are some animals, and a few men.
What ever is causing this is way bigger than any of those.
The questioning parts of our makeup had to have an answer.
And we came up with one.
And no matter how far we've come, no matter how much we know there are still things we don't know.  There are still things we can't weigh and measure.
Me, I've experienced too many strange things, too much Synchronicity and such, not to believe that there is something in the universe beyond what we can see, touch, or measure.
And I do believe that at the core all religious and supernatural belief has some validity that they've tapped into something.
I also believe that once you put something intangible into words you have moved it one step from the underlying truth.
Haven't most of us had to search for words to describe an experience?  Were the words true to the experience, or were they lacking the fist hand feeling of the experience?  Tell me what love is.  How about happy, what is happy?  Point out and measure sorrow for me.  Words do not convey the actual truth of a thing.
For example, let's look at dog.  I say dog and you get a picture in you mind, right?  All right, the dog in question is a big, black dog.  Was your original dog big and black?  Now we'll add old, old, big black dog.  Was your first big black dog old or young?  I could go on adding words, I could post pictures and videos and still, you would not know my 17 ½ year old black lab mix.
And even if you met her, she would not mean the same to you as she does to me.
Add the problems of individual perception and the whole thing gets rather shaky.
Hence my qualms about organized religion.  Dealing with the intangibles of the universe is an intensely personal thing, and it should be left that way.  You can't read any word as the literal truth and you can't prove what god wants.  Therefore you can't force other people to BELIEVE your way.
Religions, at their best, calm fears, bring comfort and hope, and inspire man to reach for a higher ideal.  That's not all bad.  The power of prayer has been observed.  The focusing of will can be a strong force.
The problems come with the word and the twisting of the word to suit individual wants and desires.  The problems come from human arrogance and ignorance.
The true problems are the fanatics who believe they have the right to bend other people to their will.  The problem is trying to legislate morality.  The base problem is the human animal.
There are many, many devout followers of religions who are good, decent people.  Who do what they can to help their fellow beings.  Who are content to follow their own path and to let others follow theirs.
Should we call them diseased?  Should we deprive them of comfort in their lives?  Should we show the same absolute intolerance for diversity that the fanatics do?
As for me, flawed monkey that I am, I'll strive to live and let live, and do unto others as I would have them do unto me.

OK, this is where I think the power of the State needs to be controlled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Things like this should not happen.

One of my friends from work was gunned down by her ex-boyfriend, in front of her four children, this morning.
It's been a long, bad day.
I'm in a mood and I'm not sure exactly what mood it is.  I'm sad, that's definitely in there.  Melissa was a sweet girl.  She had a good, warped sense of humor.  I'll miss her in my days.
And I'm mad.  Oh so mad at so many things right now.
And yet, I'm calmly considering what to do with my evening.  I should be packing.  I should be making arrangements to go over and start cleaning the other house.  I should be doing laundry.  I could go read or watch a movie...
But, I'm in a mood...

The true tragedy of humanity is that our ability to conceive true greatness is constantly defeated by our basic nature.
The enlightenment of ancient Greece.
The glory that was Rome.
The liberty of the United States of America.
All destroyed by human greed and selfishness.
This one act defines the depths of our selfishness.
You wanna blow yourself away?  More power to ya, I'll load the fucking gun.
But, why take the mother away from these four children?
One thought for anyone beyond himself could have stopped this.
There's no Satan involved here.  This was pure human selfishness.  We don't need demons, we have ourselves.
Why should I change my lifestyle to save the planet?  It's not gonna happen in my lifetime.
My intangible, all powerful, disconnected deity doesn't like you.  So you need to die.
Why should I care if my neighbor dies of a curable illness?  It's not my problem.
I don't like the color of your skin.  So you need to die.
I want a new yacht; you can die of a curable illness, which is not my problem, so I can afford it.  Besides my intangible, all powerful, disconnected deity doesn't like the color of your skin...
We could achieve so much if we could just get past the childish, selfish, greedy, petty little bits of ourselves.
Ya wanna know why we can't feed every child in this country a healthy diet?  Why can't we ensure basic health care for everyone in this country?  Why can't we effectively police our streets?  Why can't we keep guns out of the hands of whacked out idiots?  Why can't we control emissions and soften the effects of climate change?
The answer is very simple.  If we did all that and all the other noble, right things we could do, somebody, somewhere wouldn't get their yacht.
Why did he take the mother of four small children?
She was his yacht.

What I had originally intended to post before I got sucked off on the side track...

Was talking to a friend the other day and he mentioned something I intend to follow up when I can.  In the mean time, anybody out there know something about finding a defendant not guilty because the law is unjust?  I know the concept but not the particulars.  He mentioned that courts were not allowing this concept to be introduced in jury deliberations, even declaring mistrials if this was mentioned in the jury room.
We were interrupted before I could get any more information.

In the same conversation he proposed the idea of the right to vote being contingent on serving your country.  If you don't serve, you don't vote
As it stands, no I don't think you should be required to serve, if your only choice is the military.  But create a civilian option and I'd go along with the idea.  I have no problem requiring a term of service from our citizens.  I think in a lot of ways this could be a great idea.  I think if you are receiving public assistance you should be contributing to the community in some way.  Maybe Job Corps could be expanded to facilitate this?

A country which proposes to make use of modern war as an instrument of policy must possess a highly centralized, all-powerful executive, hence the absurdity of talking about the defense of democracy by force of arms.  A democracy which makes or effectively prepares for modern scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic.
  Aldous Huxley

First, thank you all for the good conversation.  Haven't really flexed the mental muscle like this since my husband died.
Odd, thinking back on it now the whole thing plays out as sort of a modern fable.  Cuz, what killed my husband was a chronic sinus infection.
My Deary departed was an AV tech.  He worked in the high powered world of corporate hospitality, meeting and event services.  He provided sound and lighting for business meetings, conventions, and corporate events.  He worked on the fringes of the lunacy that is our vaunted 'Private Sector'.
Dog and pony shows to launch new products and strategies, budget meetings, planning sessions, and rah, rah shows, he saw it all.  Glassy eyed motivational speakers, holier than thou Prima Donna's, hyped up executives, and the monumental waste of money.  He saw it all.  Corporate planners who would spend thousands to truck in vintage race cars just to dress up the presentation of the latest slogan, who expected to get the $20 projector and desert for free.  The executive who told his people that an 80% market share was unacceptable and that the competition was gunning for their retirement and their kids' collage funds.  The corporate vice-president that railed to his executives that the workers were a bunch of slackers out to take the company for everything they could get, who had to be crushed and controlled.  Most of what he saw wasn't pretty.
When he got the original infection he was working for an educational institution.  A meeting facility with an in-house client base, that was still competing for public business.  His supervisor at the time was a corporate shrew fresh from the front lines who preached a policy of appeasement and ass covering.  CYA was her hard won lesson from the corporate trenches.
She was all about the bottom line and, even though there was more than enough work, refused to hire my husband an assistant.  She insisted that he not only do all the set up, but that he be present for all the events.  So my Deary worked 10-20 hours a day, seven days a week, on salary.  He worked so many hours that on average he was making about $3 bucks an hour.
When he got the infection he couldn't/wouldn't take the time off to go to the doctor.  When he finally did go to the doctor they had to do a MRI to determine the full extent of the infection.  It had taken over all the passages on the right side of his head.  It took one of the more powerful antibiotics to fight it.  They should have operated then to clean out his sinuses.  But he couldn't take that kinda time off.
Needless to say the job didn't last.  He quite out of shear exhaustion.  The position turned over several times before they hired two people to fill it.
The job didn't last, but the infection did.  It came back from time to time.  We didn't have insurance then, so we did what we could, even resorting to bird antibiotics on occasion.
We were doing ok.  I was unemployed but looking.  He had a good job that paid the bills, and was going to be offering insurance the next year.  Things were getting better.
And then something happened.  The first time I took him to the emergency room the doctor barely looked at him, diagnosed a sinus infection, pumped him full of fluids, and despite his disoriented condition and my saying he wasn't acting right, sent him home with a prescription, which I spent our last hundred in the bank to fill.  The next night they admitted him to ICU.
At the age of 41 he had a stroke.  Caused, when all was said and done, by the sinus infection.
It's all there, isn't it?  Insane corporate pressure, lack of personal responsibility (if he'd said screw you and gone to the doctor sooner the first time...), a failure of the health care system, and a real effect of the lack of insurance.
These are the sort of things being debated in the halls of power.
And it's looking as if the corporations are gonna win again.

A country which proposes to make use of modern war as an instrument of policy must possess a highly centralized, all-powerful executive, hence the absurdity of talking about the defense of democracy by force of arms.  A democracy which makes or effectively prepares for modern scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic.
       Aldous Huxley

Listening to Mike Rodgers, and others, go on about the Private Sector...
The Private Sector will save us.
The Private Sector is your friend.
The Private Sector, benefactor of all mankind.
Huh?
Did I miss something?
Have so many people missed the part where the Private Sector put us in the hole we're in today?
Do people not realize that the almighty 'Private Sector' is exactly what is running this country into the ground?
Was it Joe Blow not producing and consuming enough that caused the cookie to crumble?
Or was it Mr. Fat Cat playing fast and loose with hedge funds, taking advantage of the unwary and overly optimistic, and running billion dollar pyramid scams?
Who exactly is it that's moving our industrial base to Mexico and China, our food production to South America, out-sourcing the IT jobs to India?
Through out the history of this country the Private Sector has proven that it will lie, cheat, murder, knowingly endanger the public health, intimidate and exploit anyone it can, and pollute everything in sight to add a zero to the bottom line.
Do you really think these people have your best interest in mind?
Has anyone else read 'The Jungle' by Upton Sinclair?
If it weren't for government regulations we'd all be eating things you really don't want to know about on a daily basis.
If the tobacco industry had it's way there would be no warning on a pack of cigarettes.
If the auto industry had it's way people would still be dying in preventable SUV roll over accidents.
Capitalists would still be employing children at pennies a day if there weren't a law against it.
Oh, wait, I don't think there is a law against it in India...
Up to now it's been better business for Pfizer to just pay the fine and keep breaking the law.  We'll see if 2.3 billion is enough of a price tag to get them to tow the line.
Do you people realize that the Private Sector is auctioning off your DNA?  That corporations hold patents on your genes?
A bit of George Orwell there, don't you think?
And this should be scary to more people.  Think about it, a team of researchers develops a cure for cancer from X gene.  That they leased from XYZ Corp.  XYZ Corp now owns the cure for cancer.
How much ya think they're gonna want for that?
You really think the Private Sector is gonna give this away for free?  Voluntarily?
What happens on the day that potable water becomes a valuable commodity worldwide?  You think the Private Sector is gonna share?
Oh yeah, let's Privatize social security and watch it evaporate in bonuses that are more than I'll make in the rest of my working years.

A country which proposes to make use of modern war as an instrument of policy must possess a highly centralized, all-powerful executive, hence the absurdity of talking about the defense of democracy by force of arms.  A democracy which makes or effectively prepares for modern scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic.
Aldous Huxley

I'm not an Atheist, myself.  More an Agnostic.  I do believe that there is something beyond this space and time.  The universe is too vast and complex for this to be all of it.  But I'm not placing any bets.  I have faith that the truth is way beyond my comprehension and conception.

I am but a fly on the wall of the big bang and there is no way I can wrap my puny mind around it all.

I accept that.

I've read a couple of post from the godless ;-> who are wrestling with the lack of an after life.  Do not despair, my friends.  There is hope.

And your salvation lies, not in some supernatural ethos, no friends; it is good old-fashioned physics that will lift you up and give you peace.

Consider:  

Everything is made up of matter and energy. You can't destroy either, only change it.

When you listen to quantum physicist you hear them speak of will and intent.  The particles 'want' to do this or that.

Now, does the body generate the energy or does the energy infuse the body?
At death, the body, left to it's own devices, decays and is recycled into the system.  What happens to the energy?

Personal experience leads me to believe that the energy infuses the body.  When someone dies, something leaves and it's not like shutting off a light switch.  I believe that will is a strong force.  Whose to say that what makes us who we are isn't a pattern of energy, a specific vibration in the ether.  That energy has to go somewhere.

What if the image of god is the spirit and not the body?  My dear departed husband, also a staunch non-believer, asked that question.

Following this line gives a whole new light to ghosts and hauntings.

Orson Scott Card has an interesting slant on this idea in the Ender series.

It's something to think about.  You can have an after life with out all the baggage.

I'll never be a republican.  Though I always vote democratic, I'm not really a democrat.  I'm more a pragmatist.

Abortion should remain legal until we do something to provide for all the unwanted children that are already here.  Read the newspaper folks, parents are killing their own.  This is not a good sign.  When rats are stressed they turn to cannibalism.  How many kids are in the foster care system?  Do you really want to force people who don't want kids to have them?

Personally, I think we should curb the fertility industry.  How many embryos are they flushing down the sink on a daily basis?

If you're going to have a death penalty it should be enforced.  If you want to do all you can to insure that innocent people aren't executed create an independent (INDEPENDENT, completely.  No lawyers to argue their case, no politicians to pull strings.) board of review.  A board drawn from multiple disciplines that reviews the entire case from evidence collection to sentencing.  If they don't find anything amiss the sentence goes forward.  This would also streamline the appeals process.  Once the case is decided it passes to the board for review of the facts, and that's it.

Should we have a death penalty?  You shot rabid dogs, don't you?  There are some people who don't work and play well in the general population.  If you can never let them out again they should be gone.  How much mercy did they show their victims?

I believe in smaller government.  I want it out of my bedroom and living room.  I want it in the boardroom and on the factory floor.

Wanna solve our economic woes?  Stop giving money to the fools that lost it in the first place.

AGI, a bonus is something you get for doing a good job.  Did you guys do a good job?

A bonus is a perk, not a guarantee.

A bonus is something you get when the company profits.

A bonus is something I'm not getting this year thanks to you clowns.  I am also not getting a raise.  Why should I pay you anything extra?

It would also help if corporations would start paying their taxes.

It would really help if everybody started paying their taxes.  It would be so easy with a flat tax.  Then you wouldn't have to worry about all the ins and outs and the loopholes.

Why are we still subsidizing the oil industry?  They had record profits last year.

Why are we subsidizing the pharmaceutical industry?  Don't they make enough money?

Why do boards of directors profit off of providing water and power?

You really wanna kick-start the economy?  Fund a bum.  If you really want to get money moving give $10,000 to the poorest people in the country.  That money will be back in circulation the next day.

But that's not the point, is it?

I'm not a republican and I'm not a democrat either.  They're all playing the same game and I don't have enough money to buy in.  They want money to move, but only in the proper channels.

Of the rich, by the rich, for the rich...

Or of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation...

I truly believe that Bush the younger allowed 911 to happen.  I don't think he planned it or set it up, but I believe he allowed it to happen.

I believe that Bush the younger stole the election.

Marriage pre-dates reliable recorded history, so why do the Christians suddenly own it?  What gives anybody the right to tell anyone who they can and can't marry?

I think that in this day and age we should have a national, standardized curriculum.  A kid should be able to move from Maine to California and not have to worry weather or not his credits will transfer.

Intelligent design is not science.  We've proven Darwin's theory, get over it.

We shouldn't pay kids to attend school.  We should remind them that the knowledge is the reward.

Am I they only one who's thought about figuring out some way to wire all the gyms and fitness facilities to collect energy?  Think of all the calories just burning away into space.  We could be making light out of that.  I'd do laps on a treadmill if it took some off my electric bill.

Think Global, live local.  What's wrong with getting your meat and your tomatoes from the farm outside of town?  Does it really have to be trucked across the continent?

Of course this is a radical idea as far as the corporate farms are concerned.

Instead of ever expanding to the outskirts, we should be looking for ways to draw back in and make our cities safer and more comfortable.  We need green space more than we need another strip mall or housing development.

Worried about carbon emissions?  Auto industry going under?  Population obese?

Let the auto industry sink.  Use the money on some decent public transportation and encourage people to walk more.

This would create a niche for more, smaller stores, (think Walmart would have a problem with this?) and branch offices.  The delivery service would be a whole new industry.

Why can't you get from Maine to California quickly and cheaply?  A coast to coast light rail system would be wonderful.  Europe can do it, why can't we?

It'd be so cool to refit an unused rail car and turn it into a self contained apartment and be able to hook up to a train and move where you wanted to.

OF COURSE PIGS STINK.  The pig farm was there before you built the house, live with it.

SIGH, I feel better now.  Thank you.

Oh, yeah, John Wayne was a great actor.