QmannZ QuoteZ

"Moi" {explained}.

2011-10-27T13:23:00.000-05:00

"If one does not begin by showing one's self to be something of an independent, forward thinker - one quickly becomes something of a foregone conclusion." N'est-ce pas?

And you may quote me...

Beat the Heat!

2011-07-19T11:42:00.007-05:00

Holy moly, what's wit' this sultry heat?
Gimme a Sping-like day or a cool treat!
Rather Winter's snows, n' slabs o' ice?
Move to Alaska? (Cain't afford the price!)

Go ahead, there 're Kilo-Watts to burn...
(Sweaty-sticky makes m' body squim!)
The therm-o-stat's set t' seventy-eight.
(An empty wallet can definitely relate!)

But when blizzards' bite and sleets do come,
Some of us will be feelin' kinda duh dumb.
'Cause what we'd wished for (a sure bet),
Is a thing we'll most-likely (later) regret!

Whether, you're in swimmin' or off mowin'...
Whether, gone campin' or a' fishing goin'...
'T would sure be neat!
To beat this frickin' heat!

Copyright ©2011 - Robert C. Kuhmann - All Rights Reserved.

"Rain Rain"

2011-07-19T10:48:00.005-05:00

When always raining,
Folks end-up saying,
Go away!

No pouring rain,
Brings farm-field pain,
Come today!

Each rain-drop playing.
Every drizzle staying.
Making hay!

Copyright ©2011 - Robert C. Kuhmann - All Rights Reserved.

"Firefly"

2011-07-04T15:19:00.006-05:00

As you trace your way, by thy tiny light.
It takes your all, to glow and mark it bright.
Soaring, blinking - gone by sunrise' sight.
Gliding, winking - to fly fire each night.

Copyright ©2011 - Robert C. Kuhmann - All Rights Reserved, and dedicated to every child - who has chased, captured, admired the wonder of, and released fireflies - on any sultry Summer evening.

Both at the SAME time?

2011-05-01T16:47:00.000-05:00

Be profoundly thoughtful, be also kind - for, one who VALUES nothing and no one, cannot be BOTH nor EITHER - at the same time.
Me Thinks

At gunpoint!

2011-03-29T17:31:00.000-05:00

A short-list of things that the government can (and will) force you to do ...at gunpoint.

taxpaying
zoning
speed limits
vehicle inspection
vehicle registration
protest in "free speech" zones
building codes
surrender your house under eminient domain

And that's just for starters. Every single rule and regulation which has been instituted by our government is backed-up by Local, State, Federal police and Agents. They enforce their will at the barrel-end of a gun. If you continually decline to do precisely what the Local, State, and Federal government has decreed, then you will eventually find yourself looking down the barrel of a gun.

Count on it.

Not Common? Not Sense?

2011-03-21T14:25:00.000-05:00

Take your "pick" of almost any topic: Common Sense is not so common anymore.

Take care of you...

2011-03-08T19:18:00.000-06:00

None will improve your lot - if you yourself, do not...

Succcess vs Failure?

2011-02-28T10:57:00.002-06:00

Ever notice how SUCCESS tends to occur - in private, whereas FAILURE - the non-event, takes place in full-view?

Politicians lie!

2011-02-05T10:41:00.001-06:00

A Democrat, a Republican, and a giraffe go into a bar. After many drinks, the giraffe passes-out on the floor. The bartender (having seen everything before) looks-up from his newspaper and asks, "What's that lyin' on the floor?" The Republican replies, "He's with the Democrat." The Democrat replies, "He's with the Republican." The giraffe (still conscious) mumbles, "I'm not a lion, I'm a giraffe." Moral of the story? Don't ask a politician about lying, ask a Giraffe.

;-)

Copyright (c)2011 - RCK - All Rights Reserved.

A good way to begin 2011 ?

2011-01-10T08:32:00.008-06:00

Kick the DRAMA out!

In life, there comes a time, when a person must walk away from all the drama ...and the people who create it. Unfortunately, too often - the people who don't treat you right, are the ones who need you all the more - but many don't realize that fact; others won't ever admit to it. It's likely that those "who need you", are also the ones who will never "get it"... They will continue down the same path, needing each next "give-take victim" all the more (doing damage to that person all the while and all along the way). Is your own well being, life, and self worth worth the sacrifice? Bets are "on", that that the answer is, "no!" So, the point I wish to make is this: some people, for whatever reason: cannot be helped, comforted, or fixed.

Circumvent the whole issue. Don't go there - easier said than done, since men by nature, tend to be "fixers". However, whether that be by nature, due to nurture, foolishness, self loathing, or from within a victim mentality - some people who "need", are simply not able to adequately receive the help they are given. In that case, the "helper" has no choice but to move on - as that other person is a lost cause - and the damage to self (to the helper) will likely circumvent any and all help given.

Kapish? Surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad people. Focus on the good people. Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy. I shall continue to love mine (those who treat me right)! And I am going to give everyone else the boot...

The following people are "getting the boot" (written in invisible ink - not to protect the guilty, but to protect myself from the DRAMA that would ensue):
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
Think about it...

Who would you add to your own "list of the lost"?

New Year's Resolution ?

2011-01-02T08:03:00.000-06:00

For 2011, I propose this "New Year's Resolution" to all readers: 'make relationships your first priority ... and consumption the last.' Decide: WHO? and WHAT? to VALUE. Choose: WHO? and WHAT? to HONOR. Such are alternatives. All take-form as: thought, words, or deeds. A belief in all that is Good (its doing) will help to better our selves, our loves, and our lives. Me Thinks.

Political Correctness (Bah Humbug!)

2010-12-28T19:56:00.006-06:00

Sick of the social mandates of, "always" being POLITICALLY CORRECT? Tired of the hum-drum, and the run of the mill? Salvation is here! Here are a few of my startup-business (website) ideas:

wvw.MisMatch.con
e-Dating to expose porn, pervs, and players.
wvw.LinkedOut.con
Networking where loners and losers get hung out to dry.
wvw.twirper.con
Twirps cause all bird species to quit singing, f-o-r-e-v-e-r.
wvw.Coldmail.con
SPAM e-mail never gets read, as Hell freezes-over, for good.
wvw.arsebook.con
Social site for unfriending the other end, of any face.

And others ...

wvw.eDischord.con
e-Dating, where nothing ever works-out harmoniously.
wvw.Mate3.con
Where a Menage à Trois, is infinitely better than 1.

When there's a $1.00 to be had, there's someone to be had with a dollar? Your ideas (giggle) ?

An E=MC2 Christmas (the Bi-polar Expressed)?

2010-12-24T19:49:00.007-06:00

E=MC2 Christmas again?
(AKA: the bi-Polar Express-ed)

While pondering the existence of Santa Claus at a very young age, I was guided by the traditional wisdom of: "Those who don't believe, don't receive..." Indeed, and that is well-along the lines of 'you'd better not shout, you'd better not cry - you'd better not pout, I'm tellin' you why...'. The combo aligned my childhood loyalties to the Nordic legend. However, as the years passed, I evolved into the mind of a scientist, and I sought to collect sufficient evidence to lead me to postulate a theory of "Christmas Physics". All of which has been designed to explain "Santa Claus" (A.K.A. "Kris Kringle") and his widely-reported, sometimes incredulous, always "Polar", goings-on's.

However, Christmas Physics is a distant cousin of Quantum Theory (and just as stringy), and multi-dimensional. The Christmas phenomenon is expressed in polarized energy units, known as "santas", Those are convertible to standard units to express: energy, time, and space (thank you Herr Albert, part-time violinist). This allows for the the (apparent) impossibility of "flying" reindeer and their annual around-the-world trip (in one night), etc. "Santas" are generated by particles of "spirited" beings, called "elves". "Elves" exist in nearly all living matter (they are entities capable of doing good deeds or acts of kindness, in a wink). As "santas" are generated, the living beings nearby, feel a sense joy/happiness (jolliness - if you see what I mean?). However, a critical mass of "elves" must be reached to start the energy transformation (the paper-chain reaction). Only certain souls possess an adequately high concentration of "elves", consequentially, only they can generate the huge (truly massive) "santa mass" that is required. Voila! That explains the "Santa Claus" of legend, more or less, Me Thinks.

To my way of thinking, anti-santa energy (i.e. "bah-humbug") can (and does) disrupt the local field-effect of the "santa" conversion. The origin of "humbug" is (essentially) unknown, but "relative" (as in "Relativity") as akin to bad-tasting fruit-cake and the inevitable, holiday traffic-jam. The interaction of high-energy "humbug" and large "santa mass" can lead to the "scrooge cascade". The resultant slippery-slide depends on the "quanta" of each - within the interaction (the chain reaction)?

As these shorter, colder days of winter (and small children) act as a catalyst for this reaction, the catalytic conversion allows beings with average amounts of "elves" (at far less than "santa mass") to transform a limited amount of "santas" (by adding cookies and milk).

? Of course, this theory is not restricted to Western cultural myth. As most cultures recount similar children's stories, hence, this must be something of a Universal occurrence. Therefore, the "Santa Claus" theory (story) is not so much, a fairy tale, but a mis- understood domain of specialized physics. After all, how else could Santa Claus (possibly) get so much work done in just one day, or travel as far - with a red-nosed deer lighting and leading the way? It's as simple as:

E=MC2 that is to say... Elves (do) = Most (of the massive work for Santa) Claus (on) Christmas (eve). But, children everywhere already knew that...

What remains of the child, in you?

Christmas ideals are a reflection of traditions that have withstood the tests of time and which define who and what we honor (serve), as well as - who and what we cherish (value). May your holidays be blessed with much Peace and Peace of Mind. Know wisdom. Teach tolerance. Show patience. And be kind, for...

(-: The smile you send out, comes back to you! :-)

Ever notice that...

2010-12-08T02:37:00.000-06:00

Ever notice that a THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - is best pondered, longer? Or that COMMON SENSE - is neither a sense, nor especially common? And that LOVE HURTS - whereas self-indulgence feels good. Ever notice that we aren't who we THINK and SAY - until we DO? And that THE WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH - comes in pieces and is anything, but...

How does one identify bullschiest?

2010-12-08T02:31:00.002-06:00

Simple enough: when you begin to smell it, you know you're closeby (but to be especially sure of the facts) if it feels like it, looks like it, and smells like it ...once you've stepped a boot into it, you're there!

He will show himself great...

2010-11-07T16:35:00.003-06:00

A human being is only interesting if that individual is in contact with Self. To trust your self, be who you are. Do what you ought to do, the way you need do it. Discover you, what you do, and trust it. If a person doesn't trust themselves, they will never trust anyone else. While you may be deceived if you trust too much, you will live in torment if you do not trust enough. For it is mutual trust - even more than mutual interest, that holds human relationships together. Our friends seldom profit us, but they make us feel safe. Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end. To be Loved, and Love well - trust a man of Worth. Trust that man and he will be true to you; Treat him greatly, and He will show himself great. Loving well, depsite...

Got Attorney?

2010-10-28T20:34:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's true - I sleep peaceably in my bed, because a rough man stands at the ready in the dark of night, to visit violence on those who would do me harm - allow me to introduce you to my attorney...

Redundancy revisited...

2010-10-09T15:22:00.000-05:00

Redundancy is always a, no-no.

Experts on EVERYTHING ??? (red flag)...

2010-10-09T08:58:00.011-05:00

Surely I'm not the only one to have noticed the growing trend in advertising - EPERTISE in EVERYTHING! This old world works in "mysterious ways", me thinks...

Let's examine whether or not any of this makes sense.

Yep, if there's an Almighty Dollar to be had, there's someone out-there who will lay-claim to having "the expertise" that YOU need (according to them) ...and they'll have no qualms telling you so. It "sounds" self-serving from the get-go, doesn't it? RED flag!

Their fine print always says, "trained professionals will assist" you. Okay. Was their training all of: one hour, or two? Training makes a person an "expert"? I see. RED flag!

That nonsense has become particularly prevalent in the Financial & Mortgage Industry - where all the "players" (fresh-out-of some brand-name prestige-school) seem to (miracle) KNOW what's best for YOU and your MONEY! Really? What BULLSHIT! RED flag!

If true, and those "trained advisors" know SO MUCH of such great value ...how can it be that NONE of them are (already) MILLIONAIRES ...and retired at age 25-30? RED flag!

I find it to be more than disturbing that so many companies are getting away with this sort of thing. The whole of it utterly SMACKS of commercial FRAUD (and flagrant incompetence). Naturally, and once you've read the FINE-PRINT (you did read it, didn't you?), the "disclaimers" defy all Common Sense (and all sound intelligence). RED flag!

Trust me, those so-called "experts" haven't got a frickin' clue...

Have you also noticed that GOVERNMENT is comprised of similar "EXPERT" leadership - of which a HUGE proportion are former ATTORNEYS? Former? Doesn't "former" usually equate to: "failed"? i.e. "has-beens" and FAILURES who couldn't "make it" out in the "real world"!

Isn't "government by lawyers" a lot like allowing the "weasel into the henhouse"?

Hence, attorneys are the ones who are writing the legislation, and are ultimately the ones called upon to litigate it, and (to some degree) also to enforce it - à la "Attorney General" (of something or other). Is it (thus) any wonder that BIG BUSINESS seeks out those "legislators", to "have 'em" in their hip-pocket?

We all know that there are payoffs (by the pork-barrel full) to be had - oft' coming from cash-rich Lobbyists (and from well "under the table"). Those same "legislators" get huge Federal salaries, free Healthcare, and lifelong Pensions. We can be certain that every single scum-bag in the country wants to jump (leap) onto that "bandwagon"!

Take mental note (also) of just how many of those so-called "representatives" of the people, "For the People, By the People" ... have a girl-friend in a foriegn country; or on the campaign-trail; spare children (no spouse required); or "boys" being back-door'ed in back-offices.

Our leaders, one and all - Governors, Senators, Representatives, and even the occational Judge (indicted for taking lucrative bribes). Sick and sickening stuff. But it's business as usual. The business of good-looks, schmooze, lewd sex, and easy money...

Shall we contact the French? (Perhaps borrow a guillotine and a head-basket?)

Some things never change.

So, I ask ...what would happen were the "financial advisors" (experts all, with their 1-2 hours of training)... to take-over the whole of the BANKING and MORTGAGE industry "for us"?

Seems to me, that they already have. RED flag! Slice-off heads. Vote "no", across party lines.

Me Thinks!

P.S. An anecdote: the etymology of the word "mortgage" has its allures. MORT (from the French word for dead, n. death). GAGE (from the French word for engagement, n. contract). i.e. "contract with death" (seems especially "apropos", these days)...

COMMENTS submitted from FACEBOOK and via E-mail:

" It's a shell Game that would make P.T. Barnum proud. There IS a sucker born every minute, and Truth is not a requirement, nor wisdom; just parchment. " -DennisD

" The clear message is this: financial advisors make money every time anyone buys or sells (regardless of whether or not - you as the investor, make a dime or lose your shirt). They simply want the would-be SUCKER to sign on the dotted-line (hence the need for parchment), and then they HAVE you! They don't give a "horse's petunia" about whether or not they (cause) you to become involved with crooks! In point of fact, the bigger the crook, the bigger their commission! " -ZoeT (edited by Qmann)

Good and Ideal Husband will be found...

2010-09-24T17:24:00.004-05:00

During creation, God promised women that good and ideal husbands would be found in all corners of the world. And then He made the earth round.

During creation, God left the free will of choice to all men. Men decided that the world is flat; and the center of the universe. Whereas most women are; and believe that they are.

(giggle)

Count UR Blessings: toughest arithmetic to master?

2010-09-10T14:52:00.004-05:00

A good and useful memory is one that recollects every blessing of each day, whilst forgetting each tribulation. The toughest arithmetic to master is the common sense to know when or why to start or stop the counting. Prayers go up. Blessings come down. If you have been blessed with great love, value the connection ... and keep it warm.

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” -Acts 20:35

The US-of-A ... I, E, and G...

2010-09-08T03:56:00.004-05:00

Ah yes, the US-of-A ...the "Love it or Leave-It" country that can "afford" a MILITARY machine that is LARGER (in budget) than the top 43 "other" richest nations on Earth. We have no qualms about burning-up young lives (and loves) to "protect" our failing oil-based economy - as we toss naïve kids into war-zones (that we created). Unprepared and ignorant, they are mowed-down and returned cerimoniously to the... "Go ARMY", "America's NAVY", "My son is a MARINE" households, for a prompt burial. (Wives and Mothers get to keep the flag for comfort, or display. "Semper Fi" in a graveyard, is "forever" indeed!)

We Americans are (almost as blindly) pushing ourselves down the slippery-slopes of an enduring economic oblivion. We're the US-of-I too! We're a US of, "I don't care" - because our Great Society has a pronounced "me first" orientation. Through all of that, we've stupidly underwritten a "healthcare" system that is (also) ..."all about greed", but not about "Health", and certainly (not about) "Care". To be cared for (genuinely), one must count-on good luck or rely on family, friends, or neighbors...

Yes, We-the-People can "afford" a planetary killing-machine (under the guises of "peace-keeping"). Tell me, how does one "keep" PEACE by "making" WAR? We have the most effective and brutal means to KILL other human-beings ever invented, and yet... We also think of ourselves as Religious, Political, and "Right" - while too many are "right-eous" about both.

How WRONG we are as a people! Is it any wonder that the fundamentalists of other ideologies, political regimes, and religions - want us (the entire "US"), dead?

Meanwhile we "care" for our down-trodden by allowing our legal-social-fiscal-financial system to TAKE everything a person has worked-for - often, simply because they've had the misfortune of falling-ill, or lost a bill-paying job (when some greedy employer "went bust"). Thereafter the credit system "treats" those individuals like losers - the guilty second-rate citizens - that they are not! How many jobs will their be for returning (unemployed) G.I.'s?

We aren't solely the US-of-A, we're also the US-of-E (of Entertainment) - even the ad-media-tized "News" is presented so as to, "make US think about something else" (as we entertain ourselves via mindless TV-programming - while munching butter-soaked microwave-popcorn). We are being trained to avoid doing something worthwhile to help and protect our fellow-man. Munch. Watch. Sit. Don't worry, be happy? (And was your TV "Made in the USA"?)

We endure a 24 X 7 onslaught of advertising: designed to prompt the sales (and purchases of) tons of "Made in China; Taiwan; Japan; Singapore; Maylasia; Philipinnes; Indonesia " schtuff... which most of us do not need (as MC / VISA / DISCOVER / AMEX lovingly oblige while rubbing their hands-together wryly).

No, the US-of-A is moreover, the US-of-G. An (us) US, of Greed.

So, don't fall ill. Don't lose your job! Else, Greed awaits ...you, your freedom, and your free will!

Me Thinks

R-U a fed-up wage-slave? JetBlue 'em!

2010-08-12T07:17:00.015-05:00

Do you have a job? Is yours a SAFE, SANE, and LAWFUL workplace? If not, have you become a wage-slave inside of dysfunctional employment? Are you "fed-up"?

Have you lost your "voice"? Perhaps you've never had a "voice"? Does your employer's "Spiel" sound something like this?

‘We hear you; we feel for you; you're right; we’re not going to exploit you; we do our best to treat you with respect.’

Unlikely. Yeah, I bet not...

What an employee should NOT do:
a) “Stay silent.”
b) “Do nothing.”

What an employer should NOT do:
a) “Stay silent.”
b) “Do nothing.”

My advice? Talk! Talk a lot, but "document" e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Think, say, and do - nothing that could potentially be used against you. Obtain signed affidavits from every and any witness (to objectionable events). If a witness lives far away, ask that their documents be "notarized" (by a Notary Public). Create and maintain a chronological journal. Align yourself with accredited court professionals. Consult with an Employment Law attorney, and contact the department of Workforce Development people in your State. Leave a HUGE "paper-trail" ...("pee" on every post)!

Some employers understand ONLY one of two things:
1) Money.
2) Lawsuits.
3) Losing Money. (Did I say, one of "two"?)

Rude manners and/or abuse in the workplace can become unbearable. Don't take it. If all else fails, hire a talented attorney (a Martindale-Hubbell AV-rated legal expert who won the last case). If you find yourself being harangued, harassed, or threatened (even in veiled forms), don't take it - all are ILLEGAL! Be prepared to sue at moment's notice. If the climate within your workplace becomes UNBEARABLE. Then, sue! Sue until cows come home to roost...

After the graces of "fair warning" (when POSITIVE motivational speaking hasn't cut-it), sue for THREE things:
1) Money.
2) More Money. (Did I say, "three"?)

If that action "costs you" your job (know that any form of REPRISAL is ILLEGAL in all 50 States), sue 'em for that as well! If you've been slandered, sue for that! Stand up for the Truth! Demand a Safe, Sane, and Lawful workplace! It's your RIGHT (all three)! Ask for $Million-dollar money - the "money thingie" WILL definitely be understood - I can promise you that...

As for JetBlue, their core business is in the NooZ ...free Steven Slater!

In the meantime, boycott JetBlue! Wadda buncha scumbags.
Me Thinks

P.S. "Whistleblower" laws apply (should you need to effect legally protected complaints to your employer) about: unsafe work conditions (call OSHA); unstable behavior (contact the local police); and/or unlawful activity (advise the FBI). You may do so without fear of your employer - it's the Law (everywhere)...

Bank fined $200 Million (consumers win)...

2010-08-11T08:56:00.001-05:00

Wells Fargo was ordered Tuesday to pay more than $200 million to compensate customers who faced higher fees due to the bank's practice of posting transactions so that checks for the highest amounts clear first, often triggering more bounced checks. How many other banking organizations have being doing the same?

Kick ass!

Your RIGHT to the TRUTH!

2010-08-11T08:23:00.000-05:00

Whenever you hold the TRUTH, it is RIGHT to persue it...

Cure-Alls & Snake-Oil?

2010-08-09T04:22:00.020-05:00

Coca-Colatm is being sued by a non-profit public interest group, on the grounds that the company's vitamin water products make unwarranted health claims. Okay. So how do you suppose that Big Business is defending itself? In a feat of skewed logic, lawyers for Coketm are defending the company by asserting this thinking:

"No consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitamin water was a healthy beverage."

Does that mean that a consumer would have to be "unreasonable" to in order to come to the conclusion that a product named "vitamin water" (products that have been aggressively marketed as a healthy beverage), actually HAVE health benefits? Snake oil by another name?

That IS perfect ~~crazy~~ insanity ... Me Thinks!

Old-Young? / Young-Old?

2010-07-19T14:13:00.000-05:00

If UR too young to be old, and UR too old to be young, then act your age!

Thoughts on COMEDY & TRAGEDY ...

2010-07-10T16:24:00.009-05:00

The words COMEDY and TRAGEDY commonly refer to the ways in which dramatic conflicts are resolved (inside of and outside of theatre)...

Whenever a tragedy occurs, the inherent confusion cannot end until such time as everyone affected has recognized what had taken place ...and has: learned, forgiven, forgotten, and re-established (his or her) identity within a functional social group.

Whereas a comedy typically ends within a "group celebration" -- e.g. a betrothal or wedding (accompanied by music and dance). The emphasis is on integration inside of the group. It's a recommitment to the sharing of life, together. If there has been a disruptive presence -- a source of anti-social discord, then that person typically has to reform their ways -- else be punished, or banished from all celebration by the group.

Thus, a "comic celebration" is looking forward to a more meaningful communal life, hence the ubiquitous ending for romance novels (romantic comedies) ..."and they lived happily ever after."

Me Thinks

Some people are too darned turbid!

2010-06-18T12:30:00.007-05:00

'Tis not my intent to muddy things-up, but some people are so darned turbid, that they don't know their hole from an ass in the ground!

Know wadda mean?

Copyright (c)2010 - Robert C. Kuhmann - All Rights Reserved. (All Wrongs Avenged!)

No more questions...

2010-06-08T13:16:00.002-05:00

People are living smaller - everywhere. The economy is bleak and it is going to deteriorate. As an optimist, I do not announce such things as idle talk. Still, I am present and a participant - grateful for the joys of life, big and small. The future is definitely going to be a challenging time. Meanwhile, albiet that (in general) people do not choose whom they love, they may love whom they choose - and there are many ways to do that. How may I help (love) you?

No more questions (for today)...

Thinkology of LOVE, the inevitable...

2010-05-31T14:33:00.019-05:00

Some authors would have you believe that a good romance is the equal of a marriage of the heart and mind... (AKA "chemistry")?

A "thinkologist" however is busy at rehash, preoccupied by a "theory of everything" (on one's mind and sometimes, below one's belt).

For those of us, for whom, "thinking" is both an inevitability and a part of the daily diet...

Picture this:

If you toss two really bright people into one room (a male, a female), and then leave them there long enough... The fundamentals of today's theory are: that they WILL mate, fall in love, and that a romance will ensue! Alas, I've spent time in one or two rooms decorated to those precise "House Beautiful" norms. Somehow, the physical coitus never seemed to supplant or offset the, "cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am) component of the intellectual copula that was ALWAYS well underway, and first. Does such a "union" make thinkers into part-time lovers, or part-time lovers into thinkers?

When romance reunites people who have been "thus" united, then separated, and then re-united (after a certain time), is their reunion (also), once too often?

I always try to engage my readers with a tone of sarcasm (nobody ever really believes everything I say anyway)... Am I wrong (rhetorical)? ;-)

This sort of amusement invites everyone to laugh at the many easy foibles of our lives and our living. A "thinkologist" makes observations about the most rigorous, purely formulaic alternatives - as well as the unpredictable nature of LOVE. The objective being ...to make whatever one thinks about LOVE (thereby), a joy to read (and to experience)?

Romance is a love story told in such a way, that it appeals to men (stiffened) and it appeals to women (swollen). Love's most primitive allures engage both the naive and the jaded - from Algebraic Number Theorists, to Professional Violinists - and (likewise) all those manic enough to harbor phobias towards either endeavor. Patience comes to the penitent...

If I'm not being funny or clever here (nor original, in a way that pulls, you the reader, "in"), then blame me - for I am the only farcical, hugely entertaining, and equally as modest author of this strangest of stories.

LOVE is a Greek Classic (and oft-times, as lyrical): "boy meets goddess"; "girl meets a god"; "boy or girl loses the other god". Along the way, the two engage in playful eros romps that out-perform the soggiest TV-soap (and) every made-for-Broadway satirical play, ever written. Pass the hankies, to wipe my wetted eyes...

Each of those compositions become somewhat more accursed (as entertainment) than the other (...akin to a trash-talk, romance-novel - composed for, and targeting lonely, generally rather unattractive women whom men date once, at best). In general, men aren't into romance (no, not even the unattractive guys).

So, as YOU read this, weep with me...

As YOU become an active THINKOLOGIST yourself...

Soon enough, there will be thunderbolts raining down from your own Mount Olympus, as the gods drink themselves into a carefree stupor on cheap sex ...and cheaper wine.

Align yourself to "thinkology".

Save CIVILIZATION as we never knew it! Lock yourself up in an empty room with someone who thinks the way you do. Do it today! It's the cerebral version of, "getting laid".

There is a spiritual teacher who states, that "if you fight against reality, you suffer". The object is to "come into acceptance". Small words, big concept.

Difficult at times,
Me Thinks.

P.S. My next entry will be about "missed opportunities" in life...

MeThinksThinker

2010-05-22T17:13:00.002-05:00

MeThinksThinker is also my MATCH and FACEBOOK pseudonym. And since you've gotten this far: here's my website [link] and email [link].

Me Thinks

R-U the Owner of a Broken Heart?

2010-05-19T18:11:00.012-05:00

Sometimes it is hard to identify the dividing line - where just-caring ends, where true love begins - and (maybe) also (and exactly) what that difference REALLY is! Some of us think that we allow ourselves to love, some opt to control who not to love. Some of us have been hurt. Some, burned. Some people just seem to open their hearts more than all others. Some maintain their feelings for a lifetime. Some break-up with those they have loved, because each thought that the other, was the wrong person.

But often, we don't end the feelings nor the sense of connection which comes subsequent to our individual investments of "self" (in such dearly beloved, unique persons).

We were very busy. We were even busier. We are probably always as busy. Maybe each felt it is necessary to terminate the connection (the love, the growing friendship), or to put an "us", on hold? Whatever it was, it sometimes doesn't make much sense.

Most earn their "keep" - by becoming life-long friends - such that they're, "kept"? And doesn't love have much to do with being the BEST of friends?

The loves of one's life tend to remain (live on) in the heart (in the soul). Some loves more than others, some less. As we get older, we might opt to make a habit of telling everyone just how much they mean, and to outline what their contribution has meant to our existence - because (for better for worse) some of us, never seem to stop caring.

Somehow the caring grows more important now. And maybe our mothers (living or gone to the hereafter) would call all of this, "Mushy"? There are an incredible number of lonely hearts out there. What a shame when a LOVE dies.

What a shame.

(An offering to friends, from friends...)

Have a 'good' day at the Office, honey?

2010-05-10T11:24:00.000-05:00

These are trying times ...challenging times. As for you and your job - don't let inept company management get you down. Inept management doesn't go away, the badly managed company goes away. Don't let the riffraff get to you!

Gettin' a Life?

2010-04-05T19:55:00.000-05:00

If what others think of you is a constant source of worry, take heart in knowing that they rarely ever do.

Give "pause" to all Importance & teach Humility

2010-03-22T08:07:00.007-05:00

"The Place of Mankind within the known Universe"

The Universe comprises everything we perceive to exist physically, the entirety of space and time, all forms of matter and energy. We live on a blue planet, called Earth. It is but one of several planets orbiting an average star, our Sun.

Are there extra-solar planets (planets that orbit around other stars)? Yes. As of 19-March-2010, 443 extra-solar planets have been confirmed.

Has life been found on any celestial body other than Earth?
[ Not yet! ]

Mankind is comprised of 6.8 Billion souls who share the blue planet, compared below. We are traveling through Space with trillions upon trillions of other living things.

What is the size of our planet?
The diameter is about 7,926 miles (12,756 KM) at the Equator, see below.

Many stars retain a solar system of orbiting bodies - ranging in size, from dust, to asteroids, to planets. Almost all the stars in the known Universe have collected or gathered into galaxies. An average galaxy contains between 10 to the 11th and 10 to the 12th stars. In other words, galaxies on average, are comprised of between 100 billion and 1 trillion stars.

Astronomers estimate that there are approximately 100 billion to 1 trillion galaxies in the known Universe. So if you multiply those two numbers together, you get between 10 to the 22nd and 10 to the 24th stars in this Universe.

That's 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 lights in our skies. That's more stars than there are grains of sand on every beach and in every desert of Earth. How many stars?

There are (at least) between 10 sextillion and 1 septillion stars in the known Universe. That's a large number, yet quite small - compared to Infinity. We live on a speck of dust that orbits but one of those many stars.

Throughout our lives, we are moving (on the Equator) at about 1000 MPH (1620 KMH) due to the rotation of the Earth. The Earth is also moving around the Sun (our star) at about 67,000 MPH (108,500 KMH). The Sun is rotating within the Milky Way (our Galaxy), at about 486,000 MPH (758,000 KMH). The Milky Way is moving through Space towards other clusters of Galaxies, at about 667,000 MPH (1,080,500 KMH).

Due to relativity, the speed of the Milky Way varies when compared with different objects in space. The speed of the Milky Way galaxy is actually not one number, its value is relative to the speed of all other objects.

Is the known Universe expanding?

Yes.

Is it expanding at a constant rate?

No, it is accelerating!

How can that be?

No one knows.

And all of this star stuff has been moving and changing ...

For a long, long, LONG time, indeed.

Does everything have a Beginning?

Does everything have an End?

Maybe, yes. And perhaps, no.

How large is the Universe?

No one really knows.

What is the age of the Universe?

Current scientific thought is that the Universe is 13.73 (+/- 0.21) Billion years old.

How many dimensions are there (height, width, depth, time, and...)?

The scientific community has included 11 dimensions into the attributes of String Theory.

Are we alone?
It is far more likely that we are not alone. Science believes that parallel Universes, exist.

What am I made of?
Star stuff that is as old as the Universe itself.

Why are we here?
No one knows for sure.

What is life?
Self-perpetuating, replicating organisms.

What defines true intelligence?
The ability to inquire.

How much longer will all of this endure?
No one knows.

How large is large?
It's relative.

How small is small?
It's relative.

What it Time?
Answer that question completely to become very (VERY) famous.

Is there life after death?
It is a matter of spiritual beliefs.

And so it is.

-ooOoo-

Copyright ©2010 - Robert C. Kuhmann - All Rights Reserved.

Once in a Generation...

2010-02-12T13:14:00.002-06:00

When the 2008 elections came along, political participation became "trendy", some might say, "cool"....

During a few extrordinary months, the Democratic primary became the must-watch reality-TV show of the year... The general election tossed-up the very real possibility of an Obama Presidency - literally a new face for the body-politic (a young, liberal, charismatic, African-American man who'd started his career as a community organizer). Incredible!

Suddenly, everyone was talking, living, and breathing electoral politics.

Voter participation sky-rocketed: first the numbers of those "emotionally invested" in the election, mushroomed - then the number of campaign volunteers soared into the stratosphere. And finally (on election day), the numbers of young people and poor people (who stood in line to vote – the very individuals who had "sat it out" in the past), hit levels not seen for generations!

Opinion poll numbers showed large spikes in confidence - indicating that government could "do the right thing by" ordinary Americans.

And yet (now, 15 months after Obama's election), 62% of the US population is convinced that the country is on the wrong track, and most Americans seem to believe that the government isn't looking out for their best interests afterall...

The growing suspicion is perhaps, this: that 2008 wasn't quite the clean break many thought it to be... Would such a notion explain just why so many Obama voters sat-out the recent "special election" (in Massachusetts)? And also - why so many others voted for Scott Brown – and yet bizarrely also, why so many told pollsters that they wanted Brown (a Republican) to "work with" Democrats (to implement some version of healthcare reform)?

The polls of early 2009 indicated that a majority of voters were willing to give Barack Obama "years" (to turn the "broken economy" around). Now, those polls have been updated, and most reveal that increasing numbers of Americans are deeply impatient with, and resentful of, the still-sluggish pace of economic recovery.

Obama's great dilemma is that he used the language of "hope and change" to set the "bar" almost impossibly "high" for his Presidency.

His rhetoric was skillfully used to energize his audience (one that exhibited more enthusiasm than stamina, one that WANTS change to be both: instantaneous and easy). It has proven to be anything but. After all, a President can set the tone, but when it comes to domestic policy reforms - only Congress can pass Bills - not the sitting President!

The compromises made with various Senators (to secure their support on healthcare), has smacked of a political, "business as usual" climate. And the Public reacted accordingly – growing increasingly angry at the "Washington, DC mentality". Some have responded by jumping from Obama's vision of "change" to that indignities of their "Tea Parties". Others reacted by reverting to historical "apathy" and (once more), by removing themselves from the political process altogether.

Now, robbed of a "filibuster-proof" majority in the Senate, healthcare reformers can only watch - as their "moment for change" slips through their fingers....

The combined effect has made the overall political climate all the more unpleasant. Example: the recent Supreme Court ruling eviscerated spending-limits that Corporations can hand-out (to influence elections). That alone means there's going to be a strong likelihood that politics will become even uglier, messier, and more "beholding" to special interests - than it has been in the past.

All of which prompts an observation: commentators told the once-apathetic that they had "no right" to complain (if they weren't going to participate). And so (in 2008), they finally participated. They helped elect a progressive President, and gave the Democratic party the biggest Congressional majority seen, in decades. They put in place a foundation for the sort of across-the-board change - not seen since the "Great Society" years, or perhaps even, since "The New Deal".

And the result?

We're a year into a new administration's rule. We've got political stalemate. Instead, of leadership, we've disoriented Congressional would-be leaders. Moreover, there is no clear leader (especially when it comes to fighting for healthcare reform, some version of which a clear majority of Americans, want). There is a growing sense that the plutocrats -- the bankers, the great corporations, the holders of vast fortunes – will always win, that the political system is fundamentally "fixed", to be stacked-against the "little guy".

That's a dangerous caldron of hot soup...

Too many of the ingredients of the moment in in the mix: anger, rage, frustration, fear of economic calamity (loss of home, loss of job), and in particular ...a sense of hopes betrayed and promises broken, of having been sold a bill of goods! People are bitter, and embittered politics tend to generate two things: apathy and/or authoritarianism.

One can only hope that the Democrats will find their sea-legs soon, and that Congress can follow-through with "genuine promise" (for the transformations that were embodied by Obama's candidacy in 2008). If they don't; if they duck and weave; and hope that small-bore changes will suffice to meet the towering needs of the moment - then politics will likely take some particularly "ugly turns" in the years ahead.

In the election campaign, Obama repeatedly talked of "the urgency of now."

That urgency is still there, as are the transformative ambitions and instincts of President Obama. In 2010, Congressional Democrats need to find a way to harness the "urgency", and to implement "big-picture" reforms akin to those that the Obama election promised to usher-in.

If they can't, or don't - they will have lost a "once-in-a-generation" opportunity.
Me Thinks

That hopey, changey thing...

2010-02-07T09:41:00.005-06:00

NPR's "Weekend Edition" (interview aired, Sunday 07-Feb-2010): a year after the Innauguration of President Obama, Sarah Palin said, "I gotta ask the supporters of all that...", "How's that hopey, changey thing working out for ya?"

Our (colloquial language) reply, "for ya": FACTUALLY (subsequent to 1-year in office - 25% of his 4-year term thingie):

President O has kept, compromised, or has "in the works": 399 (of his 503 announced "promises") - i.e. 79.3% are underway or completed!
President O broke (might not be the suitable label) his "word", 15 times (2.9%).
President O has 87 items "stalled" (due primarily to bi-partisan, politically-motivated squables within the House and Senate - "bought" by the lobbyists who represent Big Money).
President O is a man for The People, by The People?

History will tell the tale... The political facts? [click on this link]

N.B. It is suitable to mention that the (above) Florida-based website, has [historically speaking] some (very) clear-cut right-wing, Conservative leanings...

And so it is, Ms. Sarah (whacha thinkin'...)?
Me Thinks

TOYOTA "Seppuku" (the historical way?)

2010-02-05T07:58:00.000-06:00

TOYOTA Motors chief executive, Akio Toyoda apologized (today) for the company's massive vehicle quality problems, but did not announce another "recall".

Apparently, the days of "falling on one's sword" are in the past...

Dōmo arigatō! (doh-moh ah-ree-GAH-toh)

Me Thinks

Unscrupulous Souls

2010-02-04T09:53:00.000-06:00

American business was once riding a euphoric high, but with good times come the bad. Many unscrupulous souls are out there. They prey upon unwitting consumers and are looking for easy "openings" to bilk, swindle, and entrap ...YOU! Save more, spend less and avoid rip-offs!

Need a source of good advice and great ideas? [link]

INCOMPETENCE: In the Workplace?

2010-01-30T07:36:00.009-06:00

Do you spend portions of YOUR time, compensating for the INCOMPETENCE of others?

Ever heard of the "Peter Principle"? It's a theory originated by Dr. Lawrence Peter which states that employees within a hierarchical organization advance to their highest level of competence, are then promoted to a level where they are incompetent (and then stay in that position). It is now 40 years since Dr. Peter introduced that idea...

When viewed from the inside (of almost any organization), there's ALWAYS a weak link. Inevitably, s-o-m-e-o-n-e who makes life more difficult for everyone else. That someone has influence that holds-back the rest of the group. It's a simple fact: not everyone can do the job.

"Incompetence" is defined by mistakes. Everyone makes the occasional error or bad decision or lapse in judgment. Most go unnoticed. But at some point, FAILURE becomes the norm, and (more often than not), even that person's defining "deficiency".

Are workers more incompetent today than in the past?

In general, probably yes. Let us consider the "ruler" (measurement) of education. The USA has "lowered the bar" with respect to international standards for College/University acceptance. A disconcerting reality: there are more Honor Students in China, than the USA has, as students. Still, there is no reason to think that people today are fundamentally less capable than in the past, but more is demanded of workers - less in terms of the sheer amount of work, than of different types of highly-qualified work. Relatively speaking, the workforce is less qualified. Even the most essential skills of: Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic are painfully in decline. How many of your colleagues: can't write; can't spell; don't know grammar; utilize a colloquial dialect of the English language; or chronically plagerize from the works of others? If the politics of your workplace fall within the mainstream, the answer to that question is staunchly (and frankly), appalling.

The working-world is increasingly complex. Many of us are required to take-on more responsibility, and more difficult roles. That's an inevitable result of accrued technological expansion, and of specialization. For example, the proliferation of powerful types of software on computers, and the inherent organizational de-layering of the modus operandi of traditional bussiness management. Projects have ever-broader scopes and grander mandates, but fewer "warm bodies" to complete the tasks. That means ...every time there's a new project or initiative, the prerequisite commitment of time and energy gets added to someone's already-long, "to-do" list. Everyone is expected to do a bit of everything. Furthermore, there is the issue of "multitasking", which can turn almost anyone into a forgetful fool (or worse). Failures soon ensue...

It's not solely the modern workplace that creates INCOMPETENCE - the "Principle" holds that the hierarchy itself, through promotions - tends to transform capable workers into incompetent bosses. Alas, INCOMPETENCE begets INCOMPETENCE: Managers with poor judgment hand-out assignments to the wrong people; delegate tasks to those who can't handle them; and force others outside of their realm of competency.

Companies put the wrong people in charge. At some point, every boss was promoted to a position of responsibility, and too often - straight into INCOMPETENCE - ad infinitum.

Incompetence in the workplace has always existed. Make certain that hires are apt to be competent to perform their assigned duties. Failure to apply a suitable ruler (to cull-out the "losers" beforehand), is always the first mistake! Which is (in and of itself), a form of INCOMPETENCE!

Me Thinks!

Another day older, and deeper in Debt?

2010-01-27T18:46:00.000-06:00

If you need a nice break from reality - don't look at yourself in the mirror.

Me Thinks!

Washington Politics (as usual)...

2010-01-26T06:08:00.000-06:00

The White House proposes.
The Congress disposes.

Don't be where you're not!

2010-01-09T14:31:00.004-06:00

Welcome, but not wanted.
Here, a Good person is both.
I won't be where I'm not.

Blue Moon (tonight)!

2009-12-31T08:33:00.006-06:00

Tonight will be, the first "Blue Moon" (occurring on a 'New Year's Eve') since 1990, but don't hope to see the moon in shades of "navy", or any other color for that matter. A 'blue moon' is a creation of folklore," because it's simply a chronological, second full moon within a calendar month.

The 'blue moon' myth adds to a host of misconceptions about our lunar neighbor. Among the more interesting things to ponder as you gaze skyward (weather permitting), at the not-blue, 'blue moon'...

There is no "dark side" of the moon. There is, however, a "far side" that we can't see, because as the moon goes around the Earth once, and spins on its axis once (all in the same amount of time), it thus reveals but one surface of (always) the same face - when viewed from the surface of the Earth.

There is no scientific evidence that the full moon affects human behavior. Reliable studies comparing the lunar phases to births, heart attacks, deaths, suicides, violence, psychiatric hospital admissions and epileptic seizures have found little or no connection.

The moon is moving away from Earth. It's drifting out into space by about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters), per year - about 10 feet during an average lifetime!

The moon is never really full. It is illuminated by reflected sunlight. So for the face of the moon to be 100 percent lit from our point of view, Earth would have to be exactly between the sun and the moon. But when that happens, an eclipse occurs as the moon falls behind the shadow of the Earth.

Speaking of eclipses - skywatchers in Europe, Africa, and Asia will have a chance to see a partial lunar eclipse tonight. A distinct but modest scallop of darkness will be visually carved from the moon. A bite of 'blue cheese', perhaps?

And so it is.

INCOMPETENCE: State Government?

2009-12-30T06:00:00.006-06:00

Contact the WI DWD (Wisconsin Workforce Development Department) to present a legitimate complaint related to: Discrimination, Wages, or ANY form of ABUSE by an employer. The DWD staff will invest more energy - to do NOTHING - than to take the claim presented seriously.

Try calling the WI OCI (Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance) to present a case related to abuse of Federal Privacy Law. Once your proof has been provided, the administrator will effectivel take NO ACTION and let the perp run free (to commit the same crimes). Their excuse will be carfully explained, no Wisconsin laws were violated.

Care to hear about more such State level examples of INCOMPETENCE?

Just ask.

INCOMPETENCE: Federal Government?

2009-12-28T10:42:00.005-06:00

Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano conceded today that airline security failed - when it allowed a Nigerian (on a terror watch list, and allegedly armed with explosives) onto a Detroit-bound flight from Europe.

The concession was a turnaround from her declaration a day day earlier - that "the system worked."

The secretary's comment (on Sunday) was widely criticized, given that suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was foiled because his explosive mixture did not properly detonate and he was stopped in his tracks by vigilant passengers (who were forced to take the law into their own hands)...

My opinion? Janet is incompetent and she should resignm Me Thinks.

Who loves you dearly?

2009-12-13T06:57:00.004-06:00

With respect to "betrayals of trust"...

Something I've learned through my many hard knocks (when dealing with the people I have loved, or love):

Trust is rather misunderstood, Me Thinks. We like to believe that we can "trust" others. But trust doesn't necessarily mean that people aren't also human; nor that they don't have their own ongoing "issues" - sometimes they do "things", and they do hurt us.

Trust instead, needs to be focused on ourselves - so that we may trust (remain assured) that we can always be resilient - whenever others reveal their humanity in unexpected (perhaps unwelcome, and sometimes hurtful) ways...

Look in the mirror, my friend - that is where TRUST is the most deserved.

People will always do and say whatever they will.

Isn't life just full of surprises?
(Thoughts shared by cousin, Annie!)

A widdle bit o' Genealogy?

2009-12-05T13:44:00.006-06:00

Following much laborious research, an undiclosed collateral lineage has been uncovered. Some may be at a loss for a response whenever others (impolitely) say, "You don't know Jack Schitt."

Some do know. Some don't. Not a relative? Well, maybe.

But now, anyone can handle the situation intellectually. It suffices to be informed. Allow me to explain...

Jack is the son of, Awe Schitt and, O. Schitt. Awe Schitt, was a fertilizer magnate, married to O. Schitt, the owner of Niedeepin Schitt, Inc. They had one son, Jack.

In turn Jack Schitt married Noeh Schitt, the deeply religious couple produced 6 children: Hollie Schitt, Fullagh Schitt, Givah Schitt, Boole Schitt, and the twins: Deepp Schitt and Dipp Schitt. Against her parents' objections, Deepp Schitt married Dumbe Schitt (high school drop-out).

However, after being married 15 years, Jack and Noeh Schitt divorced. Noeh Schitt later remarried Theodore Sherlock and, because her kids were living with them, she wanted to keep her previous name...

She was then known as, Noeh Schitt-Sherlock.

Meanwhile, Dipp Schitt married Loda Schitt and they produced a son of nervous disposition whose name was, Chicanne Schitt. Two other of the 6 children, Fullagh Schitt and Givah Schitt, were inseparable throughout childhood and subsequently married the Happens brothers, at a double-wedding.

The nuptual announcement in the newspaper outlined the Schitt-Happens wedding. Soon there were three Schitt-Happens children: Dawg, Byrd, and Hoarce.

Boole Schitt, the prodigal son, left home to tour the world. He recently returned from Italy with his new Italian bride, Pisa Schitt.

So now ...when someone says, "you don't know Jack Schitt," you will be postured to make suitable corrections.

"God, help me to be wiser, with respect to what I accept as truth."

A collateral relative? Unlikely. No Schitt.

Healthcare for Everyone (equal risk = equal cost)

2009-11-22T09:38:00.002-06:00

No self-focused entity should (ever again) be allowed to "wish away" this GREAT EMERGENCY!

Not by pretending that it does not exist, nor by placing profits over an equal shot at wellness - for every man, woman, and child.

Everyone (also) needs to take care of themselves by living and eating healthy.

Me Thinks

ONE PAGE - Credit Card Contracts

2009-11-22T07:24:00.004-06:00

To all CREDIT CARD companies, a WARNING:

Produce fair, common sense, ONE PAGE Credit Card Contracts ... else, we your life-blood, the consumers and citizens of this great land (and the world) ...

We PROMISE to double-up every rule and law (imposed to keep you honest) through expanded REGULATION, by adding peeks, pokes, and (over-your-shoulder) monitoring of your EVERY MOVE (and profit). That will be done so that all financial businesses will be REQUIRED to be "up front" - forced to eliminate ALL deceptive, in-fine-print, gobblty-gook (even the scams that you concoct, in your dreams).

Companies who don't comply will pay HUGE fines ...or be "nationalized" !

We PROMISE.

Infinitely LARGE.

2009-11-04T09:13:00.009-06:00

A googolplex is a VERY large number... but (tiny) when compared to INFINITY.

It has been estimated that ALL of the "fundamenal particles" that are the makeup of the "known" Universe equate to about 2.5 to the power 10 ...followed by 89 zeros! Much SMALLER than a googolplex.

Me Thinks it, an interesting fact never-the-less, that (Mathematically) a "googolplex" is PRECISELY as far (or conversely, as close) from (to) INFINITY, as is the number 1.

i.e.
1 Googolplex + or - Infinity = Infinity
1 One (1) + or - Infinity = Infinity

Think about it ...THAT concept is assuredly the KEY to understanding something very, very, very IMPORTANT.

Me Thinks

P.S. A "Googolplex" is not to be confused with, "GOOGLEplex", which is a neurotic disorder which evolves subsequent to the overuse of GOOGLE (whenever one doesn't know the details related to things as important as the topic of this BLOG entry). Are you now, Giggle plexed...?

Infinitely SMALL.

2009-11-04T08:52:00.011-06:00

While mankind has acquired a grand understanding of the Universe, there are still mysteries regarding its expansion ...and related to huge mass, and enormous energy. At the same time, there are underlying shortfalls with respect to the tiniest things in our world, such as: quarks and photons...

Mathematically, the INFINITELY SMALL occupies no space. It has no mass nor motion and thus, no inertia. No energy. No emission and no absorption. It exists everywhere, without time, and perhaps ...without even, creation?

We humans see ourselves as much closer to the smaller end of things, rather than the larger. At the smallest end, the spectrum becomes finite, and our grasp of the concept makes SMALL seem somewhat closer - while the notion of INFINITY and small, takes an extra stretch of the imagination. Is it possible that matter can continually be broken-down into smaller and smaller bits? Might it be possible that finite particles could in fact ...exist INFINITELY within themselves... and be capable of being subdivided, forever?

The idea of a "Babushka" doll-styled, "embedded universe" creates the basis of fairy-tales. I suppose that most people have philosophized about the idea (at one time or another)... However, as we know (what we, at least today consider) fundamental particles behave completely "different" (i.e. "quantum-mechanically" speaking) when compared to "macroscopic" objects such as: galaxies. Hence, the model is not realistic.

Me Thinks

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars." -Walt Whitman

What the F'what?

2009-10-30T23:56:00.015-05:00

Ah rural, farm life...

The fresh smell of manure wafted from the inside of our barn... It was milking time. The heffers were waiting to be hooked-up to the milking machines - having been out in the pastures grazing all-day. Naturally, some of the cows needed to relieve themselves. Soon enough, a huge pile had plopped out onto the floor, right behind one of the cows. That aromatic poo caught the nose of a very hungry horse-fly. Within a few moments, the fly had flown through the barn’s open door and seated himself atop the steamy pie. He began eating.

The cow-pie was especially tasty. The fly kept eating and eating until he was just about to burst. Now FULL, the fly decided that it was time to leave.

But, the fly was SO full, that when he flapped his wings [loud buzzing], he went nowhere. Frustrated, he tried again [louder buzzing]. Even MORE frustrated, the fly looked around the barn, trying to figure out how he’d be able to get to a sunny place to sleep-off his full belly. The fly spotted a pitchfork standing up against a wall, right by a sunlit window. He mused, "I'll just amble over there, then climb to the top of that pitchfork." ...thinking, "I'll use the handle as my launch-pad, and then -- I'll surely be able to fly-off, to sun myself."

Overburdened, it was an arduous walk, but the fly managed to remove himself from the dung-pile. The fly got across the floor to the pitchfork, then slowly made his way to the top. He flapped his wings [more loud buzzing], then he pushed-off and into the air! But alas, he was still too heavy ...and FELL straight-down, to the floor...

All of the heffers flinched, upon hearing the [loud] SPLAT !!!

The horse-fly was dead (squashed, his fly-body spread across the floor, in poo)...

The Moral of the Story? (click-on & read "comments")...

Hillbilly (farm) "PlayStation"
(Grab the fly-swatter!)

Sinning Obliges...

2009-10-19T09:20:00.021-05:00

Wall Street and the Big Banks will NEVER "self-regulate".

They're in it for the "G-R-E-E-D". Are we being taken for fools? Let's impose rigid rules (LAWS); mandatory (public) AUDITS; huge FINES to "compensate" misbehavior; JAIL-TIME for CEO's whose "wages" violate the rudiments of "common sense". How about adding the DEATH PENALTY for those who've "made off" with BILLION$ that had been "entrusted" to them?

While we're at it, let's cut the CRAP (much of which is muddling-up the topic of Healthcare) and let's FORCE the "pharma" companies to speak the TRUTH. Come now, does anyone really need to, "Ask/talk to your doctor..." every time a blue pill gets popped? Let's get real - it's about "legaleeze" and "money". Your family physician would be the one sued (while those Pharma companies avoid stepping-up to the plate - whenever their "better living through Chemistry" goes haywire)!

Cute, but seriously, this is serious B.S.

Next, just ask yourself ...how many "subscriptions" have been shoved "up yours" (e.g. Internet, Cable, Satellite, Cellphone, Telephone, Home Security, etc.)? How many of those companies are now "plugged-in" to your bank account (usually, for a period of YEARS without a fair-play "opt-out")?

Has your Credit Card provider RAISED their interest rate to something EXHORBITANT of late? Or were they asleep at the wheel (while exploiting tax-payer dollars and "sense" to benefit themselves)?

Have YOU been CHASE'd yet?

Care to "switch" to a different auto insurance company? EVERY offer "claims" to save money for anyone dumb enough to have "switched" (on average) ...meaningless statistics.

What about "in-store rebates"? Three foot-long receipts and fine print that will cause your eyes to ache ... i.e. your money into their pockets 'now', your money back in your pocket 'later' (if ever). Like it, or lump it?

Scams, scams, and more scams!

When a "service" isn't; when a so-called "savings" isn't; when a great "offer" isn't; when a "product" isn't - then what is it?

Demand TRUTH in ADVERTISING!

The people who impose all of this nonsense are cheaters and liars. Worse, the legal profession helped to make it so. Can anyone (honestly) disagree? Take note of just how many of the law-makers, are lawyers? Honest, straight-talkers - trustworthy folks?

This feeding-frenzy began a long time ago - "pork" anyone?

Has EVERY facet of "money-making" been transformed into a scam? Is it not "high-time" to roll-out the guillotines (see next entry)?
Me Thinks

Don't lose your head (take the 5th)!

2009-10-19T08:52:00.014-05:00

Ever notice? How certain people (you know the ones)... "go silent" because they're well-aware of their GUILT! Moreover, those same individuals (usually) don't give a rat's ass about anything (nor anyone), but themselves.

Me thinks that France had it RIGHT all those years ago. Let's roll-out a "guillotine" for use at public executions...

" Vive le pays de Napoléon Bonaparte !!! "

SCIENCE

2009-10-18T10:01:00.003-05:00

Science: it's what one must do - to know the Truth.

Revolutionary Roads?

2009-10-17T08:59:00.005-05:00

Not all who wander, are lost.

Freedom comes to she and/or he who, rethink(s) the thunk...
Me Thinks

Into a BLACK HOLE (the value of the US Dollar)?

2009-10-11T08:23:00.012-05:00

Friday, the 30-stock Dow Jones industrial average finished higher by 78.07 points, or 0.80%, at 9,864.94 - the highest closing level in a year...

The broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was up 6.01 points, or 0.56%, at 1,071.49. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 15.35 points, or 0.72%, to 2,139.28. On the New York Stock Exchange, 18 stocks were higher in price for every 11 that declined. Breadth on the Nasdaq was 18-8 positive. Market players were looking to next week's earnings reports and retail sales and industrial production data - to see if a recovery will be picking up steam - to justify strong gains since March. The stock market will be open on the Columbus Day holiday while the bond market will be closed. Treasuries plunged Friday as Bernanke acknowledged that the Fed will eventually have to hike rates. The battered dollar index was higher on Bernanke's comments. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the biggest story in the world economy is the continuing fall of the U.S. dollar (or at least it is - everywhere outside of Washington, D.C.)...

Me Thinks

Easy as Apple Pie, let's eat within Euclidean space!

2009-10-08T12:08:00.005-05:00

When the diameter of a CIRCLE equals one, its circumference is "Pi", i.e.
Binary 11.00100100001111110110…
Decimal 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288…
Hexadecimal 3.243F6A8885A308D31319…

Did you know that Aristarchus was the FIRST to recognize that the Earth rotates around the Sun? No, it wasn't Copernicus (his reference to Aristarchus was suppressed in his final work on the subject). The plagerism of heliocentric cosmology ? Yes, indeed.

And THAT too, is perfectly "irrational".
Me Thinks

Living ONE HUNDRED years...

2009-09-18T06:19:00.023-05:00

Today, mother began her 100th year of life (her 99th birthday), thus 99 years of living are behind her...

So, what are the odds of living to 100?

Mankind has come a long way. In the recent past, the odds of becoming a centenarian were about 1-in-20 million, but today those odds can be as great as: 1-in-50. A world fact: in developed countries - girls, who were the first born, to caucasian mothers, aged to 25 years (or younger) are the most likely to live to 100...

Here's an approximate summary of the progression of global (historical) Average Life Expectancy:

Stone Age = 20 years
Bronze Age = 18
Early Rome = 28
Medieval Times = 33
End of 19th Century = 37
Early 20th Century = 50
1940's = 65
Present (circa 2009) = 77-81 years.

Quite naturally, the major factor in determining life expectancy is always, Genetics.

But other factors well within a person's control will also have an influence. It has a lot to do with Common Sense and the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle - by keeping fit; good diet; conscientious hygiene; the preservation of balanced mental health; and stress management. It's a complex matrix and difficult to quantify just how much each of those play a part. What is certain, is that substance abuse shortens one's life dramatically (smoking, for example has a very significant negative impact because of the inreased risk of both heart failure and cancer).

A truism?

By the time an individual arrives at 90, he or she has gotten past a lot of the things that have already killed most of their contemporaries. It's an irony, but those statistics may become rather irrelevant in the next 20-30 years - as medical technologies advance (including genetic engineering, stem-cell therapy, bionics, nanotechnology, and rejuvenation therapy). Indeed, the human lifespan could be pushed out to 150, 200, 300 or more years (assuming you can afford the price tag).

I for one, would love to live to 100!

What an achievement to have lived for an entire century! And to have witnessed so many varied world events, and seen so many innovations come to be, or pass into obsolesence.

Yes, I would love to live to 100 (provided that I don't become a burden for my loved ones), and provided that I still have "all my marbles". I think that living to 100 would be marvellous!

By the way, my (Me Thinks) calculated life expectancy is 98!

Mother has always said, "I shall grow old, gracefully." To that, I would add, "A great life is not to be counted as the number of years we survive, rather - it's all about HOW we live them." I cannot recall ever seeing her angry, nor hearing her pronounce a foul word, or saying anything unpleasant about another person... She knows inner calm. She is also the most "other-centered" and genuinely "giving" and loving person I've even known.

May EVERYONE "love to 100" and live to set an example for others ...as my mother has done for almost a CENTURY.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

P.S. Our "record holder", was one of mother's STREMMEL relatives - a gal who lived to the ripe old age of, 105. Another, reached 103. Two of her sisters made it to 94 and 92. Mom was her mother's 5th-born child - when Mary was 37.

Grandparents' Day 2009

2009-09-13T07:27:00.003-05:00

"Any attempt at alienating a child from the other parent (or from a child's Grandparents) should be seen as a direct and willful violation of one of the prime duties of parenthood..." -Florida Bar Association

Ask your legislative representative(s) to enact provisions that will GUARANTEE a Grandparent's access to their grandchildren! In most U.S. States, there are no laws to ensure that children have unfettered access to those whom they love, and who love them...

U.S. Census Bureau Report: "The Bush Years"

2009-09-13T07:04:00.006-05:00

Read the US Census Bureau Report. The "Bush Years" did not leave behind a legacy of "greatness" (far from it). In fact, on every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush's two terms. While G.W. was in office, some poignant examples:

- Median household income, declined.
- Poverty, increased.
- Childhood poverty increased, (even more).
- Number of Americans without health insurance, spiked.

By contrast, the country's condition improved on each of those Census Bureau measures during the two terms while (Democrat) Bill Clinton was in the White House (often substantially). What an irony, that many of those who voted Republican during the last election (or for Bush during the preceeding two) are absolutely enraged by the possibility of any change...

Your thoughts?

H-u-m-i-l-i-t-y

2009-09-10T16:41:00.003-05:00

Humility makes one great, and honorable twice (it directs our best thoughts to favor others, in lieu of one's self).

Hovering under a Halo of Hubris?

2009-08-21T18:08:00.015-05:00

Hubris (/hjuːbrɪs/) (ancient Greek ὕβρις): overweening; arrogance; an outrageous act or exhibition of pride, or a disregard for basic morals, ethics, and law.

"The three chief anti-virtues of a Marketeer are: self-promotion, incompetence, and hubris."

"Don't own the personal hubris to assume that the book you're writing is going to get published."

"The antidote to hubris - to superciliousness - is (irony), that capacity to discover and systematize ideas. Or, as Emerson insisted, the development of: Consciousness, consciousness, consciousness."

"Our environmental problems originate in the hubris of imagining ourselves as the central nervous system (the brain) of nature. We're not the brain, we're the cancer."

"It's only hubris, if I fail." -Julius Caesar

Mass Extinction (underway)...

2009-08-16T12:59:00.011-05:00

An undercover agent from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service displays endangered "Ornithoptera Alexandrae" butterflies - seized during a 'sting' (the male butterfly is at the top). Also known as "Queen Alexandra's Birdwing", the specie is among the largest and rarest in the world.

This insect has a wingspan up to one foot and can be found flying high above the rainforest in Papua New Guinea. A pair sells for more than $10,000 on the black market. Exotic living things are still being killed, to be sold to the highest bidder...

Where is this old world headed?

FREEDOM!

2009-08-05T09:36:00.008-05:00

NORTH KOREA: a round of applause, for former U.S. President, William Jefferson Clinton!

As for you Kim Jung-il (dictator, tyrant, and criminal), most of the planet awaits your demise with great impatience. Should one of your sons (or son-in-law) perpetuate your legacy of crimes against humanity, he too shall become the bain of FREE peoples, everywhere.

A lengthy "burn" in HELL (your own) is assured...

Getting NOTHING, for something...

2009-08-01T17:40:00.029-05:00

Ah yes, the United States of America. For the People, by the People? Country First? Good luck. Let FREEDOM ring, but Me Thinks that the time has come, to RENAME this ailing land.

Something along the lines of:

The US of E. - "The United States of Entertainment" (Vive Blueray!)
The US of G. - "The United States of Greed" (Not God?)
The US of O. - "The United States of Obama" (Wannabe god.)

That's right, E+G+O - "The U.S. of Ego" ...that of Corporate "Healthcare" America!

What with all the 'tweet' about Healthcare, seems that everyone has forgotten that those businesses are all about making MONEY (aka, "profits"). Logically, are those "operations" [pun] about "PREVENTIVE" medicine, or about "CURATIVE" medicine"? Seems to me, that having lots of unhealthy (sick) "customers" would be one heck of a lot more PROFITABLE (more so, than helping folks to "prevent" themselves from becoming ill). Or (perish the thought), by having "customers" who succeed at living within "wellness", by maintaining and enjoying, consistent Good Health!

Our grandparents had no bona fide Healthcare companies to "care" for them. (Obviously, one doesn't "miss" what one never knew.) Grandma and Grandpa had no "concerned" money makers to "share" their paycheck (during those days gone by)... You'd think that our ancestors (recent past, to ancient past) were always sickly (dropping like flies). Goodness sakes! Call a Law firm. You (might) have Mesothelioma! (Get some money for nothing, and your kicks for free?)

Geeze, "Living" itself must have been HELL for Grandma 'N Grandpa (unhealthy all the time)?

Nah. Bullscheist! Pure propoganda! Corporate America (The U.S. of Ego) has CREATED that perception of need (while the balance of Corporate America supplied "healthy" JUNK-FOOD to get the "sick people" ball, rolling). Just, drop-by for FAST-FOOD, anywhere. Then, "Ask your doctor" (for a pill to cure whatever ails you)! We've been brainwashed onto mindless pathways that lead towards POOR HEALTH. We wanted it. We suckered for it. We pay for it.

Now we're REALLY going to pay...

Hell no! I would prefer my own (independent) private Physician, one who still does housecalls (and who knows me by name). Someone who KNOWS my medical history and gives a damn.

But no, THAT would be COMMON SENSE. Alas, things are getting crazier and less sensible (less sensitive) by the day.

What is the PRICETAG on life (to remain alive)?
What is the PRICETAG on the quality (of that life)?
What is the PRICETAG of curative (vs. preventive)?

Consider this: The United States spends US$ 7,290 on health care per person, per year - while the average spent by the 30 most developed countries is US$ 2,960. It is unacceptable that we have so much more of our money tied up in health care, yet we are not delivering demonstrably better health care than many of these countries. Studies show that the U.S. ranks below average on major health indicators, including infant mortality and life expectancy, when compared with the rest of the world. We currently rank 44th in infant mortality and 30th in life expectancy, with the average American living to 78 years of age. By comparison, Japan spends $2,550 on health care per person each year - just over a third of what the U.S. spends - and boasts a life expectancy of 83 years.

Sarcasm: how in the world did our ancestors "get by" without ANY of the "Ask your Doctor" medications - before BIG pharma companies (for PROFIT), and BIG healthcare (for PROFIT) came along? The whole SCAM of health and medicine in America (The US of Ego) is a sham (there shall be no "premature exhaltation" coming [pun] from this horny old man). What does "USFDA" stand for (really)... ? Is it similar to, "FUBAR"?

For-profit healthcare will NEVER place WELLNESS or WELL-BEING of a patient first.

The current delivery system has built-in incentives to create and maintain a General Public in a POOR state of health - not prevention, not cures! Such organizations should be rewarded (paid), and allowed to innovate (profit) - but ONLY when a patient is "cured" (or kept healthy). Why should any organization be "rewarded" for failure?

Or am I crazy?

The "politics" of Healthcare, has everything to do with the "money-making" motives of Healthcare". Let's make sure that the ONLY priority is "health success". Let us ensure that profitability is NEVER allowed to be the engine that empowers a Health (Wellness) system.

As a footnote, one cannot set goals that aren't attainable. As they say in French, "La Fontaine ne peut grimper qu'à l'hauteur de sa source." (A fountain cannot surge higher than its spring.) If a Government-run Healthcare plan is to be based upon corporate profits (without the guarantees of sustainability, motivated by health-success - by placing the personal HEALTH of every INDIVIDUAL first), I'll be the first to say, "Lick my buttons!" and "Kiss my axe!"

You know, this whole process resembles a bankruptcy - that of a "Psychic-Readings" studio. Whenever one of those fails, shouldn't the resident "prognosticator" have been able to predict their own collapse, so as to have prevented the event?

Such rationale doesn't exactly instill confidence, does it?

Working hard at play? Playing hard at work?

2009-07-23T06:58:00.006-05:00

A child's "play", is their "work". The trick in life - is to become an adult for whom, one's work IS play!

Me Thinks

Vive la France! Bastille Day!

2009-07-14T20:25:00.002-05:00

Bonne Anniversaire la Belle France!

(My daughters are 1/2 French.)

On Time & Relativity - Part 1

2009-07-09T07:53:00.018-05:00

The Theory of Relativity provides a sense of fascination for most thinkers, Me Thinks.

But similarly, it is often regarded as abstract, and difficult to understand. Part of that challenge is due to the fact that relativistic effects contradict everyone's, everyday experience.

When an object (of mass) moves at a velocity approaching the speed of light, it's inherent properties are changed in surprising ways. There are three relativistic effects that occur on objects with mass. These are:

1. length contraction
2. time dilation
3. mass increase

Relativistic effects occur on any object (moving at any speed), but these effects are infinitesimally insignificant (largely, very small - giggle) unless the object is moving at a noticeable fraction of the speed of light (approximately 3.0 X 10^8 m/s).

AKA: Any mass, in motion.

It's our most familiar process - one that we all know "from experience". Motion (as we "experience" it) is comprised of neither time dilation nor length contraction. A displacement at half the speed of light could correct this misjudgment (but it's not on offer just yet, I shall let you know).

Q. What is the minimum speed for relativistic effects?
A. There is no minimum speed for relativistic effects.

(Imagine that an Indy car is your 'time machine'. Your subjective elapsed time is shorter in a fast loop around the track, than it would have been if you had remained at the starting line. The catch is that at such speeds, the effect is very small - your relativistic clock would read [perhaps] slower by a couple of trillionths of a second. Eureka! Must one specify the degree of the desired relativistic effect? Yes.)

A possible alternative to an actual relativistic experience is simulation: i.e. cinematographic imagery (virtual reality). It allows us to conceptualize relativistic flight, gravitational collapse, compact objects (collapsed stars, for example) and other extreme conditions. Extreme?

Well yes, extreme to-the-extreme (very small, but large? giggle)!

The general Theory of Relativity is also a theory of gravitation. Its peculiar predictions (like the deflection of light) are not part of our everyday life (the gravity of the earth is simply too weak to impress mere mortals). Nope, there's nothing THAT extreme happening anywhere nearby, albiet our Sun does a nicer job of it. Let us look into Space. That's where the everyday experiences of even mortal men will reach those extremes. And in no time (pun).

I've yet to provide my readers (as promised) with "time words" - redefined or invented. Patience (is going to be one of them)...

At the beginning of the 20th century, the theory of relativity was considered to be one of the most difficult and abstract theories in science. This is expressed (e. g.) in Herr Einstein's famous question, "Why is it that nobody understands me and everybody likes me?" Or, in the anecdote on Sir Arthur Eddington, who (when someone remarked that he probably was "one of the three men in the world who really understood relativity theory") replied, "I do not know who might be the third."

I suspect that there are a few more than three today. Were it that everyone be so enabled, alas. Onwards. Why does time appear to run slower near a gravitational field?

General Relativity. The geometric theory of gravitation developed by Albert Einstein, incorporating and extending the theory of special relativity to accelerated frames of reference and introducing the principle that gravitational and inertial forces are equivalent. The theory has consequences for the bending of light by massive objects (the nature of Black Holes) and indeed, the fabric of space and time.

General Relativity. It predicts that time should pass more slowly when near a massive body. This is because there is a relation between the energy of light and its frequency: the greater the energy, the higher the frequency. As light travels upward in a gravitational field, it loses energy and so its frequency goes down. This means that the length of time between one wave crest and the next goes up. To an observer high up, it would appear that everything below was taking longer to happen. (This prediction was first tested in 1962 using a pair of very accurate clocks mounted at the top and bottom of a water tower. The clock at the bottom, i.e. nearer the Earth, was found to run slower, in exact agreement with General Relativity.)

Life for folks in New York (when compared to) life for folks at Denver - is INDEED a march to the beat of a different drummer! Let us not compare the "Big Apple" to the "Mile High" city, but rather to a somewhat smaller, Orange...

Do citrus trees grow in Colorado?

Did you know (relatively speaking), that the surface of the Earth (proportionately scaled) is far (FAR) smoother than the most convoluted wrinkles of an Orange peal?

And so it is...

Never give up, Never give up, Never give up!

2009-06-21T18:50:00.017-05:00

Happy Father's Day!
To all the Dads
(And other unsung heros AKA, meritorious Step-Dads)...

See [link]:
Every Day is Father's Day

WI State Governor underwrites "Me Thinks", thinking.
See [links]:

2009 Wisconsin State Fatherhood Week

Official Gubernatorial Proclamation

From the White House, about Responsible Parenthood...
See [link]:

On the 100th anniversary of Father's Day.

Every day is Father's Day - yes, it takes a MAN to be a Dad!

Yerkes Observatory (Williams Bay, Wisconsin USA)

2009-06-21T18:22:00.014-05:00

My son and I revisited Yerkes Observatory yesterday (yet again). It's a shrine (of sorts) to knowledge itself, Me Thinks. To maintain a father-son "tradition", we always breathe deep, and take-in an extra breath (or two), for good measure - just in case a few molecules of the air once-inhaled by Albert Einstein, yet linger...

Upon arrival in America, the celebrated German scientist was asked about his plans, to which Einstein responded, "I want to go to The Observatory!" He did quite exactly, that...

Links:

1) Yerkes Observatory (World's largest refractory telescope).
2) Albert (During his Geneva Lake visit of May 6, 1921.)
3) Theory of Relativity (casual reading for the reading casual).

After all, I did tell you (dear readers) that we would eventually engage a dicussion of, "Time" (it's being prepared, and shall be published in "due course" [pun]... ).

The same photo (of the Yerkes star-studded [pun] group) hangs on the wall of my dining room, under a clock, whereupon it is written (most suitably), "Tempus Fugit".

R.I.P. (Requiescant In Pace)

P.S. In that cherished photo, find: Herr Albert, Mr. Charles. T. Yerkes, astronomer Geo. E. Hale, and others... I am offering a prize to whomever can name EVERYONE who figures in that ever-so-historical shot. The original is preserved as a glass-plate negative (part of the archives of the University of Chicago). My copy was produced directly from that negative ...by the curator (bragging is obliged and allowed here).

Millions of Billions (not talk about mere money)...

2009-06-07T10:41:00.034-05:00

Millions and Billions, (not "McDonalds"), indeed Billions of Trillions... countless Quadrillions! Let us talk about the "Digital Revolution".

Credit where credit is due, "kudos" go to Silicon Valley! I was a priviledged participant during its earliest days... The Digital Revolution is still changing "life as we knew it".

Increasingly, we live in a world of (technological) moving targets which have no moving parts. They move fast. It has also become a world of superlatives, because World Records change almost "faster" than CHANGE, itself. Literally? (At "light speed" that is provably true, albeit that I may have to "invent" the language of "time" itself to do so ...but we shall speak of "Time & Relativity" another day).

"Personal Computing" has become a truly great gift to all Humanity (having come to useful fruition in less than a lifetime). One has to wonder about the past... How did motivated people (for whom passion, was an omni-present thirst for knowledge) keep-track of their work-in-progress? Anyone who "hungers" for KNOWLEDGE also has a gigantic "data management" problem to solve. Such can be a daunting organizational task.

For the sake of this dialogue - just imagine what the most celebrated "Minds" of the past could have done with computing devices placed at their disposition (24 X 7)! The comparison renders their myriad accomplishments all the more amazing.

I shall pause in silence, momentarily humbled by that thought...

[p-a-u-s-e]

I've been PRIVILEDGED to know quite a few people who "thirst" and who "hunger"... Almost all of them have seen their lives become inexorably intertwined with a daily usage of computing machines.

My first contact with digital computation was back in 1970-71. I was an undergrad at a private college. The Physics Lab had just taken delivery on a "table-top" calculator. SHARP produced a unit that had a 16-digit, alpha-numeric display in the form of "Nixie" tubes (those formed orange-colored characters: 0-9, A-to-Z, +, -, /, *, and a "period" to represent decimal displacements). It weighed-in at about 30 pounds (14 kilos). The cost in 1970's US Dollars, was about $18,000.

Everyone who was mathematically inclined, wanted to try-out the Physlab's "new", "brain-toy". In no time, students were obliged to sign-up and stand in line, to get a "time-slot" (the machine was very much in-demand - at saturation over-night). Digital computation at a personal level, was an instant success all around the World.

Philosophically, in my lifetime (age 58, Sep'09) we've gone from a society of the HAVES and HAVE-NOTS - to a society of THOSE-WHO-KNOW and THOSE-WHO-KNOW-NOT. Sadly, we still have an Elite, the dwindling Middle-class, and many more Poor. But we have a growing number of people "who know"! Power to the People?

Knowledge empowers. Knowledge is power.

Most importantly: to remember, is to know!

Those who have access to knowledge (and LOTS of it), can be profoundly EMPOWERED by it. This has held true for the knowledge itself - MASSIVE amounts of KNOWLEDGE! The creators of the ancient Library of Alexandria, Egypt would certainly revel at the formidable amount of information that has become available: from almost anywhere, to almost anyone (e.g. GOOGLE and its competitive peers). The experience has expanded as an exponential, thanks to the dynamics of binary engines.

To Mr. Babbage, a hats-off... To Mr. Boole, a bow.

From a purely economic perspective: it is an AMAZING fact that ANYONE can purchase (at almost ANY consumer electronics store), powerful computing machines for under $1000 (2009 US Dollars). The consumer can easily add data storage, in 1, 2, or 3-Terabyte increments (and for under $250 retail). That reality is utterly STUNNING by the standards of 1970. Such capability was literally unimaginable, back in those days. Indeed, no one foresaw what was coming in its entirety. More is on the way.

Speaking of Terabytes, is the "Hubble" telescope back on-line? A whole Universe awaits us!

We can all be pleased to be alive at this time in the history of mankind. The experience leaves the mind to wander and to wonder, "What will come next to revolutionize our world?" What will be the REALITY in 10, or 100, or 1000, or even 10000 years? How long will we endure as a species? Or, will all of mankind's endeavors be for naught? Excuse me, I've diverged...

Who wouldn't like to live on? Who wouldn't want to see MORE of what is "yet to come"? Would we be overwhelmed? Would we recognize that world? Me Thinks that all of us alive today, would be overcome with awe... Nothing of our world would remain. Nothing would still be recognizable. We are certain to be superseded.

It's in the cards...

My almost "100-year-young" Mother has seen incredible change, and yet...

I for one, think FORWARD in terms of POSITIVES. I foresee almost unlimited progress (KNOWLEDGE) ahead - to satiate those who thirst onwards within a mindset of the intellectually famished.

Notradamus was wrong, and Armageddon is NOT coming (well, not just yet).

As some of my readers know, I operate two hi-tech businesses [1] [2] from a home office (with "Greening" in mind, I go to the cities as little as possible). My primary MEDIA SERVER is as much of a "play-thing" as it is a "work horse" - a dray, a "French Percheron"? It's VERY "paperless" ...all muscle!

Across the past few months, I've transferred volumes of binary data from 1100 (legal) music CD's (I've about 250 more to go.) There are now 8,275 MP3 music files online. I'm now looking forward to a similar "mini-project" -- that of, transcribing aging 33-RPM records, Then I plan to repair and replicate my father's (far older) 78's -- converting those into WAV files (so I can burn CD's of the 78's for family). Then, I shall treat myself to a "retro"-fest, listening to my 33's (digitally corrected) as MP3's, of course.

That server (one of several in my home) now has 375,000 files of PIX, photos, music (MP3, MIDI, sheet music, S3M, MOD, etc), references, navigation maps, antique maps, e-Books, dictionaries, encyclopedias, bi-lingual dictionaries, thesaurus, books on math, physics, biology, anthropology, astronomy, chemistry, botany, paleontology, and more... including a "backup" (duplicate) of my 20,000-name genealogy -- and all the related (pun), accumulated documents.

The data can be accessed by ANY computer recognized (as "safe") within my network. The files can be READ (only), not WRITTEN. The only way to "write" to the server, is to TRANSFER files into a TEMP folder, or to add them directly from CD's or DVD's. It's a SUPER secure setup, as you would imagine. Firewall, anti-spy, anti-virus, anti-SPAM ...a "meal" in and of itself?

What is AMAZING is that (of the 1.0 Tera bytes available from that server), only 168 Gigs have been used. If I combine ALL of the storage that I have on my network (adding-in the storage of computers that are turned-off, or stored), I have about 2.75 Tera bytes -- all to myself (and my 11-year old son). That's 2.75 Thousand Billion! or Two Trillion, Seven Hundred and Fifty BILLION.

The BIG numbers cease to sink-in at some stage... ("whopper" sounds good, or "gigantic").

My network is composed of about 20 Million files. I had to become very organized, to say the least.

For the GEEK in you (my reader), a new world record was set in November last year (2008): the first computing machines in the world broke the PETA-flop boundary. The IBM "Roadrunner" barely managed to cling to the top spot, fending off a challenge from the Cray "Jaguar". But both competitors broke Peta-flop speeds, performing 1.105 and 1.059 QUADRILLION floating-point calculations per second, the first two computers to do so.

A quadrillion? Yes. If I had that many pennies, I could (literally) buy the USA and most of the planet. That's one thousand-million-million (or, one-million-billion) -- i.e. ten to the fifteenth power. Mere pocket change? No mere talk about money. It's called, "number crunching".

Back in 1970, I had just "aced" a college course in "Slide rule". As a backup, I need to locate my "counting frame" (abacus)? It's here -- somewhere... in the meantime, my 1974 Hewlett Packard, HP-21 still serves me quite nicely. Whereas, my all-magnesium, "Pickett Scientific" (slide rule) has become an antique...

Just like like me.
Me Thinks.

P.S. My first true "personal computer" was one of my own manufacture ...a "home-brew" machine built upon "Cromemco" electronic S-100 "guts". That was way back in 1975-78. As of this writing, I have more than 75 modern computers at my beck 'N call. Four of the fastest, run GIMPS calculations all day, every day ...to discover new Prime Numbers (number theory), just for fun! Doesn't everybody? Dih-dih-dih-dah! The the letter "V" in Morse Code (the Roman Numeral for "5"), the opening phrase to Beethoven's 5th, or 0001, as per Boole - and the "Rain Man" knows all of that. "Hi Kim!"

As-Salāmu `Alaykum (السلام عليكم)

2009-06-04T18:11:00.023-05:00

"Salam", to my readers and friends around the World.

When I was a child (of Norwegian, German Saxon & Bavarian origins), I grew-up in Illinois, within a Protestant Methodist, Christian household. As a family, we maintained a tradition of reciting this prayer (whenever we sat down together for meals):

"God is Good, God is Great.
And we thank Him for this food.
By His hands we all are fed.
Thank you God, for our daily bread."
"Amen."

The wording of that benediction parallels the (same) prayer in many languages. Indeed, once translated, the concepts conveyed by those words are components of the tenets of several World religions. I am thinking of: "God is Good", "God is Great" - in particular.

The takbīr or takbeer (تَكْبِير) is the Arabic name for the phrase Allāhu Akbar, الله أكبر. Usually translated as, "God is great" or "God is [the] greatest," it is a common Arabic expression, used as both an informal expression of faith and as a formal declaration. Note that (in the spoken language of Jesus Christ), the word for God, is "Allah".

As-Salāmu `Alaykum (السلام عليكم) is an Arabic spoken greeting used by Muslims, as well as Arab Christians and Jews.

That greeting was used today by US President, Barak Obama.

I for one, am PROUD to have this fine gentleman representing the American people abroad. His pronunciation was correct. His usage was one of respect. He did honor to his hosts, and to himself. While it is true that Obama has stated (during public speaking engagements) that his African, Muslim father was "agnostic", his father's past was deeply rooted in Islam. Mr. Obama has been wise to draw upon his intimate familiarity with customs and language.

Admittedly, I have a bias in this matter.

Three of my children are half-American. One is married to an African. They (like Mr. Obama) have parents who share two nationalities and two belief systems. Those two sets of values stem from two very different ethnic cultures and two very distinct political systems.

My daughters, their mother, and I invested the time and energy to learn and KNOW more than one language (fluently) - several, in fact.

I am doubly PROUD to have a US President whose international savvy includes a diverse knowledge of culture and language - moreover, to such a degree that he could (and did) quote passages from the Holy Koran. In addition, he was apt (and able) to greet his "hosts" (abroad), in THEIR language. BRAVO!

At last! America has a intelligent, broad-based knowledgeable, and worldly person in the White House. (Thomas Jefferson MUST be pleased ...smiling, from the hereafter.)

Mr. Obama is distinguishing himself as a class-act statesman, an intellectual, but also a man sensitized to the needs and values of grass-roots folk in this great land, and the World.

Were it that he could speak a dozen languages, or more (so as to best articulate the message of Peace and sane international dealings), that would be wonderful! The world needs competence from its leadership...

May "His will be done." Or (again), in Arabic language, Inch'Allah (arabeg: إن شاء الله in šaʾ Allāh), "As God would will it".

What an irony, that some Americans make ridicule of cultures (about which) a sad majority know little to nothing - too often by, misquoting, mispronouncing, misrepresenting, stereotyping, and misunderstanding the peoples for whom they formulate mindless slurs. (I am most impressed by their stupidity, not by their ignorance.)

Too many Americans have remained intellectually lazy - all those who have remained ignorant of the great diversity and profound interest of this vast, wide world. Those who seem to value their personal status quo far more, than knowledge.

As-Salāmu `Alaykum (السلام عليكم) Mr. President!

The term "Salam" in Arabic means "Peace".
Me Thinks (do you?)

P.S. The salutation, "Salam" is used throughout the world (by approximately, 1.7 billion Muslims) to greet each other daily. It is the greeting which is truly the most universal of greetings used by Mankind.

P.P.S. Today, I choose to describe myself as: Spiritual, not Religious - I seek to practice a "religion" of mutual respect.

Loving deserving...

2009-06-01T10:51:00.003-05:00

A loving, deserving man harbors not misogyny, nor does he teach the contempt of women.

A loving, deserving woman harbors not misandry, nor does she teach the contempt of men.

Being a RAGE wright is not a right, a rite, nor Right.
"He was a well good wright." (Christ was a fine carpenter.)
--Chaucer

The Demagoguery of Greed...

2009-05-26T08:45:00.007-05:00

Its a shame that CREDIT CARDS aren't "land-fill" friendly ...because that's where I'd like to send mine (dead, buried, and a'moldering-in-the-grave).

JP Morgan CHASE just jacked-up my rate to 29.24% -- despite the fact that I pay on time, have never been late, delinquent, or over my assigned balance limit.

The medias have reported that this sort of NONSENSE was (suddenly) imposed upon millions of card-holders. Gee! Aren't we surprised? Did everyone take note of the fact that such gentile changes to the "TERMS and CONDITIONS of USE" occurred - just before President Obama signed the "common sense" CreditCard legislation into law? Very jokie...

The card companies "claim" to offer the consumer "an option". You 'may' pay IN FULL (if you don't like their demagoguery)...

So wazzup?

This NONSENSE is staunch proof (all of it, negative) of GREED! We Americans have become THE premier "me first society of the planet". Corporations who behave like this should be subjected to mandatory refunds and HUGE fines (likewise payable in full). Didn't we, the citizenry of this "free" country, just "bail-out" these ass-holes?

Memo to myself: time for a "Balance Transfer" to another card company. Like most of working America, I'm too BROKE to pay off my balance in full...

And you?

The Anonymous Point of View...

2009-05-15T18:08:00.003-05:00

The horizon of most people, is a circle with a radius of zero.

They call it their point of view.
-Albert Einstein

Execs TWITTER (your) time away?

2009-05-04T07:50:00.018-05:00

If you run a business, you probably (also) OWN all of the servers and workstations at your company. Here's a simple (and virtually cost-free) suggestion for your I.T. SysAdmin: BLOCK all of the following websites...

TWITTER, FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN, eBAY, CRAIGSLIST, YOUTUBE, FLICKR, MYSPACE, BEBO, IMDB, ROTTENTOMATOES, FARK, POGO, MOOLA, HOTORNOT, PATENTLYSILLY, DEL.IC.US, FURL, DIGG, REDDIT, SLASHDOT, SNAPFISH, MATCH, eHARMONY, MATE1, YAHOO PERSONALS, NETFLIX, BLOCKBUSTER, BESTBUY, TARGET, WALMART...etc.

It's HIGH TIME that your employees get down to business! Are your Execs "twittering" their time away (at YOUR expense)? Clearly, the rules of social networking engagement are still evolving, but does time spent at any of the above websites enhance your BOTTOM LINE? Either these tools are shedding light on business issues, or are they're just a distraction ...and I assert that all "distractions" ARE a total waste of time.

It's your call. Me Thinks.

The genetics of death: H1N1

2009-04-30T07:00:00.014-05:00

The W.H.O. (World Health Organization) escalated the ongoing pandemic to a LEVEL 5 alert status, just yesterday (in an attempt at containment).

"Influenza A virus subtype H1N1", also known as "A(H1N1)", or simply "H1N1" - is a subtype of influenza virus A, and the most common cause of influenza in humans.

Discussion: In each time and each place, mankind has always sought to avoid disease. Historically, we've tried to limit the diffusion of diseases.

Surely, I am not alone to have taken notice of the fact that ALL of the deaths attributed to H1N1 (to date) have occurred in persons of Hispano American origin.

Let us also take note of the ethnological fact, that a very large percentage of the human populations alive today (from the Hispano American region)... is genetically speaking, descended from the aboriginal peoples who lived in isolation (from the balance of planetary populations) for at least 12,000 years, and possibly longer...

Genetic studies conducted by the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY have produced "genographic" mappings which describe the genetic-geographic origins of the peoples of the world (based upon DNA samples obtained from humans, all over the planet). Their statistical results connect (and disconnect) the "families" of the Planet, and span a sea of time...

It is clear, that all of Mankind has ties to the most ancient of the "Out of Africa" genealogies. Since anthropological times, the descendants of those "men" have bound all humans alive today to a common ancestry. But that same expanse of time served to produce the divergences of race, and the geographic isolation of entire populations. Both have fostered the evolution of immunities (and vulnerability) to specific types of disease.

Could it not be, that the H1N1 victims (Mexican descendants of ancient American peoples), have an inherent genetic predisposition (vulnerability) that other genetic groups may not share (carry)?

Are the "purest" aboriginal, Hispano Americans alive today, not part of a remnant population - the result of the varied geographic isolations of time? And does not such an inheritance, make them who they are today (from an immunology perspective)? And perhaps, particularly vulnerable?

Time will tell, and history is a wondrous teacher.

As the first Europeans arrived in meso-America (during the XV, XVI, XVII, and XVIII centuries), they also introduced an entire array of communicable diseases. Some of those ailments ultimately ravaged the indigenous aboriginal populations. Indeed, entire cultures were virtually obliterated.

Is it not true that disease became the most efficacious "Conquistador"?

The practices that were used to avoid disease (those 500 years ago), were derived from observation. And the only control measures were to stand clear from the contagious places, and to isolate sick persons (by means of the simplest of quarantines). There was merely implied epidemiologic surveillance.

The supply of safe drinking water, sewage disposal, and sanitary control of food were not habitual practices, as they are today. Food residuals - waste collection were not opportune. Those were the practices of ignorance. They favored the existence and proliferation of many parallel vectors that serviced to spread the tides of disease (including insect-borne ailments and through various animals).

Domestic waste did not simply disappear in a timely fashion. Society allowed an accumulation of excreta and waste near to dwellings. In some places, there were measures related to water supply, excreta disposal, handling of dead bodies, and environmental sanitation - but there was no knowledge of the risks, as we know them today.

It was believed that (through) ceremonials, sacrifice, processions, and prayers to various gods - prevalent diseases could be avoided.

It is certainly true that hygiene (or lack of same) is still a contributor to endemic illness across the Hispano American region, but that the larger more logical vulnerability may simply be tied to the acquired genetics - that is to say, the mere genealogical make-up of the victims. Logically, all descended from native peoples who were present 500 years ago (and perhaps as much as 20,000 years ago).

A genetic predisposition (vulnerability) to specific, albeit evolving flu strains, may well explain why the deaths are occurring inside of selected populations, but not in others...

Me Thinks

Every Woman's (Public Restroom) experience?

2009-04-23T14:15:00.017-05:00

(The author of the "original" is unknown to me, but this piece HAD to have been written by a woman! Here's my re-write of a version that was emailed to me.)

If you are female, you are sure to have empathy for this story...

-ooOoo-

Whenever we (ladies) are compelled to use a Public Restroom, we typically find a line of women waiting at the entrance. So, we smile politely and take our place. Once it's our turn, we check for: feet protruding from under the stall doors. Naturally, every stall is occupied.

Finally, a door opens and you (let's switch to 2nd-person) dash in - nearly knocking down the woman who was leaving the stall.

You get in, only to find the door won't latch.

It doesn't matter, the wait had been so long, that you are about to wet your pants! The dispenser for the modern 'seat covers' (invented by someone's Mom, someplace) is handy, but (of course) it's, empty. You would hang your purse on the door-hook, if there was one, but (uh-uh) there isn't. Next, you carefully (but quickly) drape your purse around your neck (Mom would have a fit, if you put it on the FLOOR!), yank down your pants, and assume 'The Stance'.

In this position your aging, toneless thigh muscles begin to shake. You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold, 'The Stance.'

To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you can hear your mother's voice saying, 'Honey, if you had tried to clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!' Your thighs begin to shake even more.

You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday - the one that's still in your purse. (Oh yeah, but it's in the purse hung around your neck, that now, you have to hold up, while trying not to strangle yourself at the same time). That would have to do. You crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It's still smaller than your thumbnail .

Then, suddenly -- someone pushes your door open (because the latch doesn't work). The door hits your purse (still hanging around your neck) on your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the tank of the toilet.

'Occupied!' you scream, as you reach for the door, thereby dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue - straight into a puddle on the floor - losing your footing altogether, as you slide-down, directly onto the TOILET SEAT (plop). The seat is wet (of course). You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ that resides on the uncovered seat (because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not that there was any, even if you had taken time to try). You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew any of this, because you're certain her bare bottom never touched a public toilet seat and because, frankly dear, 'You just don't KNOW what kind of diseases you could get.'

Yes, Mom (you think to yourself), I know.

By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so confused that it flushes - propelling a stream of water (like a fire hose) against the inside of the bowl (it sprays a fine mist of water that covers your butt and runs down your legs and into your shoes). Sweet. Water everywhere (now it does look like you wet your pants, for sure). The flush somehow sucks everything down with such force that you grab onto the empty toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in too.

At this point, you give up.

You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat.

You're exhausted.

You try to wipe with a gum wrapper that you found in your pocket and then slink out of the stall (inconspicuously, more or less) to the sinks.

You can't figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the line of women still waiting.

You are no longer able to smile politely to them.

A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet paper trailing from your shoe. (Where was that when you NEEDED it? Eh?) You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it in the woman's hand and tell her warmly, 'Here, you just might need this.'

As you exit, you spot your man -- who has long since entered, used, and left -- the men's restroom. Annoyed, he asks, 'What took you so long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?'

You smile wryly, guarding your silence for Mom's sake.

Yes, this piece was written by a woman (anonymously, due to obvious reasons). It is dedicated to women everywhere who must deal with Public Restrooms. (Rest? You've GOT to be kidding!). It successfully explains (for all the men) what really causes we ladies to take so long. It also answers their other commonly asked questions about why women go to the restroom, in pairs.

It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and hand Kleenex to you, under the door!

-ooOoo-

Have a good one...

Restroom Experience, that is.

EARTH DAY (The River of Life) in 3 parts...

2009-04-22T11:25:00.013-05:00

Part-I

The longer we live, the more brief does this life appear.
We breath-in its varied and succeeding stages,
When a day taken from childhood does seem a year,
And all the years, like the passing of ages...

The carefree currents of our youth,
Ere in passion and in disorder,
Steal and linger like a river smoothed,
Along its verdant borders...

But as the care-worn cheek grows wan,
And sorrow's shaft flies slower, thicker...
As stars, measure life up to every man,
Why seem our courses quicker?

When joys have lost both bloom and breath,
And life itself sublimes, ...vapid.
Why, as we reach the Autumn of life, towards death,
Feel we, the tide, current, and tow more rapid?

It may be strange -- yet who would change,
Time's course to a slower speeding?
When one by one, our friends have gone,
And left our bosoms bleeding...

The heavens bestow years of fading strength,
Indemnifying fleetness,
And those of youth, the semblance of length,
Misproportion'd to their sweetness...

Part-II

Running, flowing -- never stopping;
Begun as a trickle -- joining eddies, forming a stream;
The spring follows valleys -- thru rock, mud, sand, 'n moss;
Becoming mighty, strong -- widening the course.

Gathering pebbles along the way -- tossing, turning, rolling;
Toying with them; dropping each off -- then forgetting when.
Showers fall into it, and join as one within it.
Heat evaporates it, and carries it back up into the sky.

Ever flowing, changing -- never meandering the same way.
Never regretting, having been here or there, nor where.
Once Love lived along the banks of the River of Life.
Love grew amdist the floods and flows.

There Love floated, carried by life's sweetest waters.
Love rained to awaken the seeds of Spring,
And to nourish all life and growing things.
Love grew.

This fleuve was born of storms and wind,
blown to traverse the Good Earth.
The river runs deep, like molten fires that make and shake,
Continents, and one's Worth.

Love had all that was needed for happiness and joy,
But was plagued by demons,
the triple-headed beast of:
Greed, Hate, and War.

Greed swallows-up generosity, locked inside of dungeons.
Hate severs connection and teaches peoples to fear each other.
War threatens to rain destruction upon all who oppose...
Monsterous rule.

And the people were separated, and afraid, and poor.
The threads of unity became frayed.
The fabric of care, unraveled.
As love thirsted.

And War took the young, marching them off to slaughter,
To meet the Reaper, in places far, far away.
Greed steals and seals their future...
Ended.

Their River of Life, run dry.
Families witness heart springs fallen into dust,
New sprouts fail, and tall trees die.
And the hills turn brown.

And the mothers wept and mourn, and do not know what to do.
The families too are divided.
Some have more and some had less.
All was lost.

Old wounds and present injustice kept the loved apart.
But as War shook both fists,
Threatening to unleash destruction upon the Earth...
The wise turned to each other and they say:

We are but scraps of a torn fabric, but if we tie them together,
We can bind wounds, dry tears, and weave a net to carry heavy loads."
"We must amplify love, and throw off dread,
Take back our power and spin new threads."

"A life-line, held in strong hands,
A living web of shining strands."
"Make our fingers remember how to spin.
Freedom that may ring on the rising wind."

"As we sew the threads of life, the cords of fate,
We combine our love into a river, that can overrun all hate."
"We may apply justice, burning bright like shooting stars,
We can make Peace into a river, that can overcome all War."

Part-III

And if you want to know where true power lies,
Turn and look into your brethren's eyes.
So come Mothers and Fathers,
Sons, and daughters.

Come spinners and weavers,
Tool makers, potters,
Dancers and dreamers...
Fixers, changers,

Singers and screamers...
Forget all dangers.
Come ancestors, guardians,
Gods and goddesses too,

You who teach us,
You who speak only truth, true...
You who plant, and you who reap,
You who soar and you who creep,

You who cook, and you who drum,
You who have been, and you yet to come...
You who do battle with hand and sword,
You who resist using plume and words.

All unreasonable women,
All unmanageable men.
Come Harpies, Banshees, Gorgons, and Witches;
Come courageous warriors, and furious bitches!

Break the chains that have kept us bound.
Weave a web to pull the Monster down.
In the face of truth, no lie can stand.
Weave the vision, strand by strand.

We are the water flowing, we are the seed,
We are the storm winds, here to blow away all greed.
We are the new world, we bring to birth;
All rivers rising, to reclaim...

This Good Earth.

-ooOoo-

O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream

My great example, as it is my theme!

Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull,

Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full

--John Denham (1615-1669)

(From the poem, "Cooper's Hill", first published in AD 1642.

This one's for U! (Anonymous)...

2009-04-06T09:57:00.012-05:00

"Verbal Abusers"

Needless to say, gender does not determine whether a person is verbally abusive. It does, however, affect the possibility and the style of abuse that may occur. Since female cultural stereotypes dictate that girls and women should be: "nice", "good", "pleasant", "polite", "passive", and "conforming" - it takes a rebellious woman to become an abusive one.

She must rebel against all of the norms. But (unlike boys or men - who are expected to use anger to hide what is considered any sign of weakness, such as: fear, hurt, disappointment or sadness) - women are supposed to express these feelings with vulnerability (and hide their anger).

A verbally abusive woman, therefore, is a bold woman who has dared to become a rebel. Societally, she becomes unattractive to "nice", "good", "pleasant", "polite" men (and other women).

How unfortunate that the rebellion tends to take an abusive path.

Women need to rebel against the limitation and oppression of the stereotypes - they need to dare express anger as anger, but the last thing they need is to become abusive. Yet, very often those women who have the fire to rebel, have also had the misfortune of having abuse and violence to rebel against. This is a formula for becoming an abuser as well. Knowing only the pattern of attack or counterattack - rebellious, abused women quickly learn the lesson of "destroy or be destroyed". Does that sound familiar?

Having rejected the role of victim - they frequently take the only other role available in all of this destructive duel: that of victimizer. Since they are often not the physically strongest opponent, the weapon of choice of abusive women is usually verbal assault, and they often become skilled "lashers" - crushers of spirits.

A son is a common target of an abusive woman. But sometimes, the anger and resentment that abused women carry in their hearts provide the fuel for directing those feelings at themselves and at their daughters. This phenomenon can easily cascade from one generation, to the next. Being female, a woman puts herself (at the the least risk) by targeting their daughters, because daughters are the most vulnerable. And as women, it is the most natural outcome of abuse, to be angry at and abuse ourselves for not being able to make others love us enough to treat us well instead of abuse us.

When the question is raised, "Are women masochistic?" ...the reply is that no one is born masochistic, but some are taught to face in that direction. The traps of the gender stereotypes teach us all (men and women) to believe that: if we are good enough and nice enough, everyone will like us and often even love us, also teaches that if we are mistreated and abused " it's " our fault because we didn't do " it " right.

Abuse by women is justified by the belief they failed the test of goodness and niceness. It is about fault, somehow, and she is blamed and, in turn, blames herself. If she were only more patient, more giving, more loving, more tolerant - she would be more desired and loved. Masochism is the natural outgrowth of this genderized legitimization of abuse. It, of course, spills over onto daughters of abused women. It is their lot.

In the end, they represent both the failure and the threat.

It is not surprising, therefore, that in some cases, the threat for a daughter is even more damning to a woman than her own perceived failures. If a daughter is prettier, smarter, marries better, is treated better (and, God forbid) - is seen as happier, as successful, or more talented - she represents everything an abused and/or abusive mother wants for herself, but feels she can never have (never had).

This daughter is, of course, envied and often seen as deserving of all of the anger and abuse that gets aimed in her direction.

If the daughter fails in her marriage(s), or if she is abused by her husband(s) - or herself, then she is, (psychologically) viewed as deserving of MORE punishment - until she changes. The cycle of women as the abused and the abuser is a very painful and tragic one, that goes on basically unnoticed and unattended in society.

Unless physical harm results - psychological battering of and by women is tolerated and often condoned. Sarcasm and ridicule are seen as a natural part of their relationships. Cutting remarks and cruel put-downs are excused, and crushed self-images and bleeding spirits do not count as punishable crimes. There is no public outcry. It's just the way life is. Pretend it doesn't hurt, pretend you don't feel, pretend you didn't see or hear it. Pretend you didn't mean it. Pretend, pretend, pretend.

The acceptance of verbal abuse depends entirely on pretense and self-deception. The corruption of lies and denial is the key to any abuse, but especially of verbal abuse. The only way out of this destructive pattern and the violence it condones, is integrity.

Liberation begins and ends with truth, with integrity. Oppression is built on lies.

To be liberated:

- Do not pretend to have the right to verbally abuse yourself or others.
- Do not pretend to be justified whenever you are abusive.
- Do not pretend that you aren't angry and hurt when you are abused.
- Do not falsely accuse others of behavior that was not abusive.
- Do not pretend that you are justified when you retaliate.

- You cannot pretend that you don't care.
- You cannot pretend that you can't help it.
- You cannot pretend that you don't see what's going on.
- You cannot pretend that you don't see what's happening.
- You cannot pretend that you are powerless.

It does matter. It is not all right to pretend. If you are to be liberated you cannot pretend.

The first step, therefore, in freeing yourself form this horrendous cycle of abuse (being abused, and then abusing) is to stop pretending. Whether you are the abused or the abuser you must stop any and all pretending. Your protection is the Truth. You must let in The Truth and acknowledge your use of pretense (as a way of escaping the harsh reality). As this is happening, you must protect yourself from using the enlightenment of "clarity" as a weapon, and abusing yourself for having been a pretender.

Liberation must be free of all violence and abuse. Judging and blaming must be transformed into self-reflection and accountability. That is of course, where the problem lies. It is easier said than done.

A woman who is used to reacting by violating either herself or others, is out of control.

She is not reflective, fair and accountable, and to make that shift she must make Herculean effort to stop herself before she reacts. And that means catching herself while her automatic reaction has taken over, and there seems to be no space or time for reflection. The only way this can occur is by a dramatic intervention within her pre-programmed system (the elimination of denial). She must place herself on "alert" and every time an assault-like reaction gets triggered. She must step in front of it and stop it, even if she's in mid-sentence.

Only a strong confrontation of herself at that point will stop the verbal abuse (only a willing reactor can be stopped). Rather than a duel, there needs to be a truce, and then the reflective persona and the reactive persona have to agree on what's fair to say and what has integrity.

For this to transpire, she must find the courage to face down the out of control reactor/abuser behavior. She must be committed to the integrity of accountability and fairness. She must marshal the discipline it will take to stop herself from automatically reacting, and finally. She must use her brains to process complex information coming from within herself and from others.

People are not masochistic by nature, but anyone can learn masochism from the stereotypic lessons along "genderized" empowerments (that girls are taught from birth).

Women who are verbally abusive of others (male or female) are first and foremost abusive to themselves. Just as women learned these lessons, however, a woman can unlearn them, and any woman who is verbally abusive to herself and to others can liberate herself from this destructive pattern. It will take courage, commitment, discipline and brains, but it is not only possible to stop this destructive pattern, it is the greatest accomplishment and most valuable gift you can ever achieve and receive.

The best part of this gift is that it is within YOUR power to attain, and it doesn't depend on others.

Needless to say, it is much easier with the loving support of others, but even if some try to sabotage your efforts, they can never stop them.

Only you can stop abusing yourself and others. It is likely that you will become "depressed" (that will have come as no surprise to this author). Psychological liberation is in your own hands. So, join a support group, get into therapy, and go for it - as if your happiness and your life depended on it.

Because, both do! Me Thinks.

White on Black

2009-04-04T09:10:00.002-05:00

Ever notice...
That there is not one shred of evidence that supports the notion that life is serious?

Ever notice...
That it is wisdom not to worry about what other people "think", 'cause most don't do it very often?

Ever notice...
That for every "action", there is an equal and opposite "Government Program"?

Ever notice...
How "bills" travel through the mail at twice the speed of "checks"?

Ever notice...
Anyone can eat well, stay fit, yet die young anyway?

Ever notice...
How "opportunities" always look BIGGER - once they've been missed?

Ever notice...
Experience is a wonderful thing. "Experience" enables us to recognize a mistake whenever it happens again?

Me Thinks.

Black on White...

2009-03-27T12:28:00.014-05:00

Ever notice...
How self-important people consider themselves "experts" in just about everything that THEY choose to introduce into THEIR conversation? How their pomposity reigns, as an incessant stream of tasteless diatribe (and sometimes, while unethical or illegal inviction is imposed), as they attempt to rule? And how their listeners reject the impositions [and quickly], by dropping all of the unwelcome gifts?

Ever notice...
That whenever someone demands "frank" and "open" communication (from you) - once provided (to them), the same person tries to get YOU to stuff "Pandora" back into the "Box"?

Ever notice...
That the enchantment in our lives, is not necessarily shared by everyone?

Ever notice...
How many people are sure that they will go to "Heaven", albeit that they've yet to spend any of their due time in "Hell"?

Ever notice...
How I think you - just beside me, and how I miss you - just the same?

Ever notice...
The degree to which, "play" is very serious business, for a child?

Ever notice...
That "depression" can be the "sand" that makes the "pearl"?

Ever notice...
All who aren't busy livin', have already begun their dyin' ?

Ever notice...
It is said that the true test of maturity, is the ability to have empathy for the suffering of another?

Ever notice...
One ought to know how to give-out HOPE (by carrying dark chocolate in one's pocket)?

Ever notice...
While he (a man) thinks that she's playing "hard to get", she (a woman) thinks that he is playing hard to get rid of - because some women need a man about as much as a fish needs a bicycle. And because some men, "bite" - far more frequently than, fish?

Ever notice...
How simply "saying nothing" - can provide for an Oasis of Peace, in a Desert of Turmoil?

Ever notice...
How everyone is on their way to somewhere?

Ever notice...
H2O - it's always the same water, and there are many wells?

Ever notice...
In the pursuit of TRUTH - the Goal and the Destination, are One and the Same?

Ever notice...
The most important thing to SEARCH-for, is ANSWERS-from?

Ever notice...
There ought to be something grammatically, "Eternal" about a poem written for a woman, you know -- both, Past and Present?

Ever notice...
True "togetherness" - it's when you can sense the movements of the hand of the other (without touching), like "his and hers" hands immersed in warm water?

Ever notice...
Raindrops on Roses, are akin to Whispers and Kisses?

Ever notice...
The best Apology is to: have Even; having Forgiven?

Ever notice...
That LOVE ...is the most effective Anti-drug, Drug?

Ever notice...
When your Heart "opens", your Mind "opens up" -- when Tibetans refer to the Mind (one's thoughts), they gesture towards the Heart... ever notice?

And so it is,
Me thinks

Changing times... "Tinkertoys, Tribes, and Art"

2009-03-17T19:01:00.008-05:00

It seems to me, that the hard facts of our changing economy mark a dramatic equivalent - one that is (for the student of history) all too reminiscent of the panic that set-in, subsequent to the collapse that led into the Great Depression.

We now know that an "Era" has ended for the United States of America …but we don’t know what is going to come...

It remains that we all have two choices:

We can lock ourselves behind facile rationale (by promoting happy-talk, or by ignoring the news).

or

We can join into challenging conversation (to decide what needs to be done, and do it).

Change is never perfect. Change means re-invention.

And until something that "works" has been re-invented, we will have no idea what the specification may be. As for me, I am quite capable of feeling a strong preference for something entirely NEW (admittedly, for reasons which reflect my own ignorance), and that is likely to add greater risk to the formula.

We all need to become "good" at disguising that gloomy scenario to ourselves -- to overcome fear. Because most of us automatically tend to create a rational cover-story - which we (then) learn to believe. The stance doesn’t solve problems nor author the diplomacy of mediation and middle ground. We are (after all), ALL in this together.

Meanwhile, what we see on TV is not vulgar, and prurient, and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar, and prurient, and dumb. Television is the way it is, simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar, and prurient, and dumb interests (and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests, or the absence of same).

History teaches. History repeats itself.

Art, including the Performing Arts (all culture) will be first to take the hit. Not unlike Tinker Toys and Tribes, the assemblage is weak, and the few survivors were quite naturally, all the more vulnerable in the first place.

Me Thinks.

Decision Makers - Making Decisions

2009-03-11T13:48:00.008-05:00

Seems to me that selling is all about...

Psychology.

Oddly enough, most "sellers" aren't paid anything extra for their respective roles as therapists. Indeed, sales people are supposed to be good therapists. "Sellers" play shrink all day, every day (isn't it so)? Just "how" people make decisions is the real topic. That's not fluff.

As a "seller" (if you are one, you'll know this), have you ever observed how a prospect will listen (far more seriously) to strategies that talk about pain (losses), as opposed to gains (advantages)? Hence, it's inherently an error to taunt the benefits of your product or service, in first position.

It is far more likely that a "seller" will get more of a person's attention by discovering what "hurts", first - by creating a studied position. That's a smart initial stance, and one that can't lose by adding to the "hurt".

Consequently, I always try to posture myself (when performing the business of "selling") so that I may ask my prospect (or customer), that one essential question:

"What is really important to you?"

Generally speaking - what is or isn't a good investment position (from the buyer's perspective) has much more to do, with LOSS - than any ADVANTAGE that a "seller" might suggest (or concoct)...

Allow me to leave you with one other thought:

Have you ever noticed - the degree to which "dissent" needs to be (and is) a curious part of effective decision-making? Moreover, people remember what they "felt" last. Yes, emotion has as much to do with it, as logic.

Selling is about how the buyer buys, not about how the seller sells.
Me Thinks

The USA - a nation of laws? (or of lawyers)?

2009-02-04T19:02:00.005-06:00

How much hope is there for the simplification of government and a return to "common-sense" ... when the majority of the legislators who create the laws of the land, are lawyers?

(Rhetorical, Me Thinks)

Armageddon (the end of the World)!

2009-02-04T13:13:00.009-06:00

What happens if a big asteroid hits Earth?

Well ...judging from realistic simulations (involving a sledge hammer and common laboratory frogs), we can assume it will be pretty bad. The ONE THING that is certain? You can throw-out all the visual stereotypes based-upon the images popularized by disaster-movies and television Nature programming...

When (not, "if") another mass-extinction event aligns itself on a collision-course with Mother Earth (and astrophysicists have shown that such objects tend to travel very, VERY fast), it's not going to be a mountain-sized rock likely to linger long enough to be "watched" (as though it were going to lumber slowly into a broadside with our planet). There'll be no, "Slow-Mo"...

When (not, "if") some massive object from space collides with our (mostly) water-covered home, everything and everyone in the line of FIRE will be v-a-p-o-r-i-z-e-d (virtually instantaneously)! All else won't be quite as lucky. That scenario will be a TRUE "Hell on Earth", and science can almost promise it, as a statistical certainty:

Billions of Souls, Trillions of tons - turned into plasma. One and all will go, "poof" like a puff of smoke. Don't worry, be happy - you won't feel a thing ...

Me Thinks.

P.S. In any case, I've always suspected that DEATH must be a lot like a non-memory, akin to a faded recollection from before we were born...

Ask Your Doctor!

2009-01-30T08:46:00.018-06:00

"ASK YOUR DOCTOR"

It's the chewable-vitamin, almost-morphine of marketing! Yep, if bullshit is right for you, do as you're told: "Ask your doctor!"

Ask, ask, and ask again. Ask about the little blue pill. Ask about pink ones to control reflux. Surely there is "something" wrong with you that a pill can "cure"? Drive your doctor crazy. You are dying (or so the pill-makers would have you believe). There's a pill to make it all well - but you have to "ask your doctor". Your doctor wants to know EVERYTHING about you. Just ask.

The pharma companies want to be certain of two things. First, that if you (or yours) sue someone (due to the side-effects of their product, or even your death), they can lay claim to having recommended nothing, per se. Second - since YOUR DOCTOR wrote the prescription - all of your headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, and so forth would become the doctor's doing and your doctor's responsibility. And THAT is what malpractice insurance is for, n'est-ce pas?

A sweet deal. Works for them (the pill makers, of course)...

We've all seen the mindless prescription drug adverts on the boob-tube. Those have become more and more insulting to our intelligence: a talking bee, scowling bubbles, blobs of green snot, and smiling people going about their "daze" like contented cows - apparently "cured" of all their ills.

The one thing the pharma companies have in common, is THEIR "new" (over-priced) drug - the same one that is being force-fed (as hype) onto the open marketplace of your TV screen!

Had anyone ever hear of P-A-D, or "Restless Leg Syndrome" before those miracle-drugs appeared on the scene to "heal" the same? When a limb "fell asleep", weren't you wondering - "Gee, surely there's a pill to cure this?"

None of those companies give a rat's ass about anything but their BOTTOM LINE.

Sadly, there is obvious "method in their madness". The advertising works.

Have you ever wondered why so many "mainstream" drugs have been linked to dependencies the equal (or worse) to street narcotics? There should be an END to those horrible trends, and soon.

On top of that, there's a clear "push" in the form of propoganda designed to negate the values of herbal and homeopathic remedies (as if those were completely insane, akin to being home-grown at a hippie colony that cultivates cannabis sativa AKA "magic weed"). Their proganda promotes an approach to wellness, that is "curative", as opposed to "preventive".

Advertisers can't SELL cure-medications to healthy people, right?

Herbal supplements may not have been created in a lab, but that doesn’t mean they don’t provide the same treatment (without the side effects that can kill). Let's keep in mind, that no herbal supplement is regulated to say that it will "treat or cure a disease".

The word "disease" is the "pharma word" of the decade...

For, only prescription-based products are "able" to treat diseases - according to the FDA. Might we then wonder, just "why" so many FDA-approved drugs have been recalled due to violent (if not fatal) side-effects? Who would have guessed that an FDA-approved drug for depression, could actually trigger suicide? Indeed, the FDA-approved anti-depressants that are out on the market now, carry a warning - that they "may" CAUSE suicidal thoughts.

Just watch those drug commercials. Take note of their fine print and their fast-talking schmooze. Note how many products have side-effects that include: thoughts of suicide, insomnia, dizziness, dry mouth, dependency, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, rectal bleeding, loss of memory, bloody noses, more vomiting, blood in vomit, blood in stool, etc.

The alternate list of un-expected "pleasures" is long!

The prescription drug companies have only one word on their minds.

It's not the word, "cure". The word is MONEY!

Why else would anyone pay $100's for pills that might relieve their woes - when they could opt to take a simple supplement, or possibly a generic medication from Canada (rendered illegal in America, by none other than the competition on the US side of our international boundary)?

Surely there is much that is very WRONG in all of this?

Me Thinks

Good riddance to Bad rubbish!

2009-01-29T17:40:00.009-06:00

"Blago Son-of-a-bitch" AKA "Blag-oye-oh-gate" AKA "Hot Rod",

Without any due respect from me, I am DELIGHTED to learn that you were impeached and now, convicted. As the latest ex-Illinois Governor, you were the most illegitimate 3-dollar-bill, and staunch liar ...that we've seen in a long time.

While every circus needs its clowns, Joe Sixpack and the rest of the USA has been watching (and dismissing) your insane B.S. (vomiting all the while). You will NEVER hold a Public Office in Illinois again (and my bet is, that your political career is kaput).

[ I wonder just how long it will take to to remove ALL of the remaining ego-maniacal, politicially-empowered, shit-heads (like you) across this GREAT country? ]

For now, as a legacy to you (and the long-arm of your influence), those self-promoting signs bearing your name (posted at every Tollway plaza across northern Illinois) have got to go! Tonight would be good.

Scumbags like you are going to "fall" all across America. Leave now (Serbia would be a wise destination). I've been there, but I'm not at all sure that Serbs (anywhere) will be rolling out a red carpet for you any time soon...

Shame on you Blago.
SHAME on YOU!

P.S Eight (8) state governors have been Impeached (across US history), as a point of fact, two were Serbs.

P.P.S. A lot of men would like to have a head-of-hair like yours, but not attached to your head.

2012, the RNC ultimate solution?

2009-01-23T08:31:00.013-06:00

From the Republican "lair of despair", picture this...

The face of Abraham Lincoln. Then, that of Ronald Reagan. Now, "morph" the two faces into one. Then place that bearded visage onto the muscular body of "Mr. T" (gold chains and earrings included). What do we get? Sure enough...

Reagraham LINCOOL !!!

Next, recycle this celebrated label (as the campaign slogan): "The Great Communicator II."

Sounds like a "come to Jesus" moment to me...

And morph's for the Veep? Limitless...
Me Thinks

Ninety-Eight, going on Ninety-nine...

2009-01-05T16:39:00.005-06:00

Mother, at 98 years, 03 months, and 25 days (circa Jan 2009), has reached that age when life stops giving "things". It's a time when existence begins taking every "thing" away. It is thus also, that time, when "Family" becomes (truly) EVERYTHING!

Me Thinks,
RK

Illinois Voting Precincts

2008-12-15T16:47:00.001-06:00

Chicagoland and Illinois -- it's where 4 out of every 2 voters, voted for Barak Obama...

;-)

Shoes thrown at GW Bush during Press Conf in Iraq

2008-12-15T16:44:00.002-06:00

Watching our lame duck, duck -- really quacked me up.

;-)

Money for Nothing, Kicks for free...

2008-11-20T16:36:00.009-06:00

Show me the Money. I'm a businessmann, but what the heck, it's just money... Sit down. Quietly and calmly count, then recount all of your blessings. Are you healthy? Do you have love? How many children do you have? Grandchildren? Safety? Freedom? A warm bed? A roof over your head? Food? Clean water? What are your gifts?

When people ask me, "How are you doing?" (the knee-jerk standard greeting in American language culture)... I respond with this, "I'm ALWAYS good! How about you?"

That's the time to fall silent and to listen -- these days, someone you know might need far more than the positive attitude. Me Thinks.

RK

Soul Mates

2008-11-08T17:32:00.000-06:00

Soul-mates are people who bring out the best in you.
They are not perfect, but are always perfect for you.

Me Thinks

The "real McCoy" McCain?

2008-10-20T07:49:00.015-05:00

What has happened to the John McCain (that Republicans "thought", they knew)?

At a Washington rally a few weeks ago, John McCain leaned into the microphone and asked (in the tone of a dime-store pitchman), “Who is Barack Obama?”

Seems to me that the Republican presidential candidate ought to look into a nearby mirror, to ask that of himself (particularly following the Wednesday debate, last week).

What has become of the once dignified Arizona Senator?

- The active reformer?
- The gutsy “straight talker”?
- The former POW and survivor?
- Where is the man who investigated Republican party corruption?
- The guy who investigated involvements in the Indian casino mess?
- Where is the author of campaign finance reform?
- Where did the friend of the poor immigrant go?

Do "haters" now possess the soul of the onetime defender of tax justice?

McCain -- who waited for years to elbow George W. Bush out of the way -- appears to have lowered his own ethics and manners to those of the Republican insiders (whom he once despised):

= Richard Nixon -- the master of "dirty tricks", who tried to deploy the FBI to advance partisan purposes.

= Karl Rove -- the exploiter of religious, sexual, and reproductive "wedge" issues.

= Bush himself -- who would follow any calculating jerk’s advice (particularly if risky, hard right, and unyielding).

= And finally, the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, the infamous Republican from Wisconsin -- the grinning purveyor of the "patriotism smear".

The latest smearings...

“And you launched your political campaign in Mr. Ayers’ living room,” claimed McCain (in the third debate, referring to William Ayers, a onetime terrorist whom Obama repudiated). McCain went on, “Obama chooses to associate with a guy, who in 2001, said that he wished he had bombed more, and he [Obama] had a long association with him.”

McCain’s choice for vice president, Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin (as in, "pal-ing" ?), had already accused Obama of “pal-ing-around with a terrorist.” Overnight (on Friday), the McCain forces ramped it up. They began routing a recorded message (approved by the Republican National Committee) that said, in part: “Hello, I’m calling for the RNC and John McCain because you ought to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers...”

Obama debunked the smear during the debate (measurably, the worst ever heard from one candidate, delivered against another).

None of McCain’s, Palin’s or the RNC’s charges are true.

Nothing can make them so. Yet McCain & the RNC keep piling it on, broadening the fallacy, from “pal-ed around,” to “associated with” and now “worked closely.” That kind of big lie worked for McCarthy, Nixon, Rove, Bush and yes, Adolf Hitler. And it may work again in this era of chainsaw politics. It’s not funny or forgivable. Should it disqualify McCain on grounds of character?

Now that McCain himself has "rolled-in-the-gutter" (on national television), what will be left of presidential majesty, the demeanor of a chief of state -- were "M" to be elected?

In France, when the public votes "M", they mean Merde (shit), "a vote for no one"! Perfectly, à propos, Me Thinks.

McCain’s intellect and leadership qualifications quickly fell under world-wide scrutiny because of his dubious choice of, Palin. He didn't know her, and she was not vetted -- yet the act of placing Mrs. Palin on the ticket, was the biggest executive decision McCain had ever made during his civilian life. McCain didn't know that Palin's unmarried daughter was pregnant, nor that it's a bipartisan legislative body probing Palin’s abuse of power in Alaska. McCain did not know (that in July) Palin’s husband Todd, had lolled around the governor’s office behaving like her unelected Viceroy. McCain does now. Yet on Wednesday, McCain called her “a role model.” “She’ll be my partner,” added McCain, 72 (who has had two major bouts with skin cancer, and for whom "survivability" is anyone's legitimate concern).

Would Palin be up to the task of the Presidency of anything? And shouldn't she be impeached as the Governor of Alaska (talk to the AK State Trooper ...her ex-brother-in-law, for his opinion)?

There are many (including Republicans) who believe that McCain put the nation at risk by linking fate, to Palin. Just why he did it, is still unfolding. There are persistent reports that McCain was influenced by William Kristol (a New York Times columnist) who a decade ago, was a leading architect of the US invasion of Iraq. What is Senator McCain thinking?

Is this, the "real McCoy" McCain?

Universe & Creation

2008-10-19T18:29:00.004-05:00

The more profound the revelations of SCIENCE ...the more certain one can be that there is a Great Spirit who made everything so.

Me Thinks