Your self-importance is equal to

This opinion piece has been posted all round the place. 

An Open Letter to the Legion of Lamentation*
By: E.P. Unum
July 13, 2020

I got a copy seemingly authored by this guy.

Here is my byte, which I can easily defend based on his(?) words.** But I won't bother, today.

98 per cent bullshit. No discussion with this guy, and ignorant of key points and deeper analysis of subjects that he pretends to know something about. Just another America-is-the-greatest blowhard shooting his mouth off. A shotgun blast any particle of which requires more information, more context, more thought, and more understanding.

Rip, you can Rest In Peace and crawl back into your cave. The fact that you believe anyone is interested in what you think/believe is just the least of the chains that your entitled culture (take a sip of your elitist beverage) has bound you up in and from which some of us are thankful we are still able to see for what they—the chains—are and escape to higher and better ideas and action. Set yourself free of us now that you have had your say and shut up and listen more carefully to others, or just go ahead and let others live as we let you. Your self-importance is equal, and no more, to that of mine and that of other citizens.

Respectfully yours . . .

___

* https://liberalsarenuts.com/2020/07/29/an-open-letter-to-the-legion-of-lamentation/. BYW, this site is full of stuff the above can be used to describe.

** "Being offended isn’t a mark of virtue; it’s a sign that you’re a big, blubbering baby who will throw a tantrum if you can’t get your way. Wagging fingers and shouting obscenities at me is just plain disrespectful, and might get you a punch in the nose." Now, who comes first to mind who can justifiably be described this way? If the author's answer is the same as mine, which I don't believe to be the case, then we have two of them at least.

Popcorn for politicos

[The following is in response to a letter I received detailing a bunch of stuff seemingly Republican, right-leaning, Trump pardoning, chaos-embracing, conspiracy-spinning, generalized other bashing . . . you get the idea. Pardon for the repetition of part of an earlier post about guns, but it seemed appropriate to insert for purposes of diverting attention from an argument no one will come to a consensus about in present-day USA.]

I already have my popcorn and I'm enjoying the chaos, er fun. Thanks for your lines nicely delivered in this human drama. (Wait, gotta pop more popcorn.) Very entertaining, if in some places different from my lines and character when I have to deliver on stage. But I'm not going to do that here, or am I?

Okay. You got me. I'm a leftie, have been all my life. You righties have tried to do us in or teach us otherwise, but I still prefer my way of looking at and doing things my sinister way.

Do you know we on my side die earlier than you guys do? because the world is controlled by you bastards! We are at least 12 percent of the population, and yet never acknowledged by the majority--you guys. All lives matter. Of course they do, goes without saying. But so do Black lives, leftists matter, Asian-Americans matter, even though in my case I have never been recognized or accepted for that label which is who I am genetically What about MY identity and rights? In this me-culture, everyone forgot about me!

Hell, All Lives AND Black Lives and My life matter, in spite of white fear of losing the majority (think "superior") view.* I ain't part of no Democratic conspiracy, just one of the humans in a race where whites want now desperately to win ("dominate") and others just want to compete in a fair contest.

Now to be equitable, I do try to understand the right side of the spectrum. I brush my teeth sometimes with my right hand, and I sometimes zip my fly with my right hand; but hey, I draw the line at shaving right-handed. I may be a leftie but not stupid like the white sheep majority.+

Now about those guns. If we give everyone from 5 years of age and up a real gun, what would happen? First, chaos. I agree. Let the show continue.

Well, the never-to-die dream of being a cowboy or cowgirl toting a gun on main street for show or action has never died . . . nor has blowing away instead of achieving consensus with the bad--those other--guys. As I said, I have my popcorn. Citizenship paid for just as have righties, over and over. (Or do they on the right pay taxes? I hear a lot don't.)

Other than the first killings of people who look funny or look different or just look and we can pop 'em off just for fun, what else would happen if we really embraced our inner gun and wild west heritage?

+ A small, mostly passive proportion of the populace would object vocally and then retreat to mumbling and solitary protests in private and out of sight.

+ A large proportion of the populace would embrace the freedom and call it a right not a privilege.

+ A large proportion of these would acquire, or be gifted, guns.

+ The guns and munitions industries would institute a holiday where everyone was encouraged to shoot their guns off to the air above in unison at noon and gather later for a barbecue and gun games. Among these there would be 21-gun salutes, wild random shooting with cries of yippee, and some tears at wounds and casualties perpetrated by the careless and untrained.

+ Annually we would witness more mass shootings but eventually accept them as the cost of freedom. No more tears need be shed. Shit happens.

+ A small proportion of crazies would do crazy things like hold people hostage, snipe at passersby, kill someone because of a verbal disagreement or unjust job termination, etc.

+ A very small proportion of experienced gun owners would see religion and give up their arms and campaign for the repeal of the freedom, without success.

+ Criminals would continue to use guns to get what they wanted, but increase their arsenals to newer technologies to accomplish the same end. To stay competitive, you know.

+ Non-gun owners would be marginalized and deemed impoliticly correct or worse. They would become a new discriminated-against group with appropriate epithets to describe them.

+ Foreign visitors to the country would decrease.

+ TV shows and documentaries and info-docu re-enactments would increase showing us more and more violent scenes to savor before bedtime.

+ Since 5 year olds would be entitled to a gun, they would find new products to badger their parents about--pink or blue pint-sized rifles and pistols made of plastic that shoot real bullets, one at a time, just for safety.

+ Laws would be enacted to prevent carrying firearms into designated places such as the men's room at the local movie theater, the garage of a friend, the desert . . . places where the likelihood of accident or perpetration would be less or more . . .

In short, live and let live, that is unless someone you don't want around shows up . . . and eats his chicken fried steak with his left hand. "Shit! See that? Yikes!" Especially if s/he doesn't use a fork and knife "like we all do hereabouts".

Stay safe _in_ the funny farm and keep those entertaining messages coming.

Oh, and thanks for the movie recommendations. So far can't find 'em on YouTube, 'cause in the good ole US of A, you gotta pay for what you get--no free lunch.

_____

+ For a look at Truth and the heights of American culture, see https://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow/videos/jordan-klepper-vs-trump-supporters/210669160181460/

* The reference for the fear of whites and Asian aspirations, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-battle-cry-of-the-white-man/2014/08/05/961858f4-1cd4-11e4-ab7b-696c295ddfd1_story.html

Socialism redux, DRAFT

The secular doctrine I have and advocate is to elevate beliefs and opinions with refereed, evidence-based information and knowledge in a process of civic dialogue. (The only religious doctrine is to live and let live.) Thus two with different opinions can then develop together a shared reality on which to base action and policy, the participants, of course, remaining open to further refereed, evidence-based information and knowledge--research--and the willingness to not compromise relationship in the process.

Writing and reading is an app for change.

Otherwise, one tries to convince the other with biased garbage and rhetorical diversions. This is a waste of time and hot air. "Well, in my experience, etc." Hogwash. Your experience (reading or otherwise) cannot be replicated for an-other to a degree that it will bring them to agreement with you--a strategy proven it does not work.

To take some point of possible disagreement (a button someone else pushed for you ) and follow it through the rabbit hole to get at refereed, evidence-based information and knowledge resulting in a shared reality takes effort and bracketing what one already "knows" and believes. Difficult stuff, but sometimes worth trying if the issue is important to the parties.

So for the moment, subsequent to the prior post, the only one I think important for a brief introduction is socialism. (The Green New Deal is akin to this, but must remain separate so that we don't get too confused.) Further to my own experience, which I have related previously here with regard to socialized healthcare, let's take the bailout of US farmers, or most recently big business such as the airlines. Isn't subsidizing banks and airlines socialism? a form of state participation in ownership? The guy who holds the promissory note is the real owner. (You don't own your house, for example, if you have a loan against it.) And if the subsidy is not a loan, well that is the owner putting more capital into the business. (More capital by the way that does not come from the beneficiaries of the business, but that is another story the short version of which is big brother issues to a selected business for our collective benefit. Sounds like a more extreme form of socialism when considered in this way.)

Social Security: socialism in that the government pays me more than I put in for my retirement. I live on that, on the beneficence of the state, and if taken away, I am homeless and in this day/age unemployable. What to do? Keep Social Security. Don't mess with it. I like this socialism as do all those on the benefits side of the program.

Americans if covered by health insurance are subject to the whims of those who hold the purse open or closed for payment in time of needed care. The big brother insurance company holds your very  life hostage to their ways of protecting and increasing profits to their owners/shareholders, not to mention their top executives.

The profit motive in the matter of health and medical care is inappropriate, 'cause health is the primary duty of life, and sometimes we all need some help. From where if not from big brothers? The Affordable Health Care Act is socialist measure that still protects the other big brother, insurance companies, as it asks those who can pay must. We have our cake and eat it too, but the taste for some causes some wince because of a label misapplied, socialism.

No, no. It is not the individual's choice to get sick and his or her responsibility to have acquired the resources necessary today to get well. Is there any one person you can think of who is justifiably "disabled" such that acquiring the resources to get well accident/illness strikes is just not in the cards, never was, and not in any way realistic? Deny reality to any degree and it might come back and bite you, and you'll have to go to the hospital for wincing or whatever sometime in your life. This is just a conjecture I admit, but in my experience true more often than not.

I believe America lives on bits and pieces of socialism and its cruel adversary, bad capitalism. Bad capitalism is the current state of our i-culture. Capitalism is bad when no money is left on the table for the next owner, and there is no room any longer for being a good corporate citizen, and, worse, not knowing the health and environmental effects of your new product or service before release to the consumer, or the world.

I invite refutation in whole or in part. Remember to bring refereed, evidence-based information and knowledge so that we can discuss in civil fashion with a view toward shared reality and the responsibilities we together will have to take with any of our future actions or policies. Decisive action and policies stick till consequence trickle down and are felt for good or bad, although money doesn't seem to down. Why is that?

I am a socialist, DRAFT

In the 1980s I lived in Vail, Colorado. I was a property manager. I worked hard, led a healthy outdoor lifestyle, plus had each of my children live with me and attend high school, graduate and then go on to college. Those were happy, lucky and treasured years.

During that time I  dreamed about how to return eventually--if not before--to living abroad as I did briefly in my 20s. Europe and foreign cultures and languages fascinated me, although I have never proved much of a foreign language speaker. I subscribed to newspapers from New Mexico, a state I perceived like no other in the US, more foreign than any other in the union; I read The Economist magazine weekly; I pored through issues of the International Herald Tribune--a daily that overwhelmed me sometimes . . . I could not keep up. Even took French and German lessons. Basically I couldn't get enough of what it must be like living in a foreign land but residing in place in my own.

During those Vail years, I observed the tea leaves, or crap shoot, of the American healthcare system, a system for profit, not so much about health. I clearly saw that other countries, even Eastern Bloc countries, had a more humane outlook about healthcare services, and living life, than such was obvious in my own country, something I was somewhat aware of in my 20s when residing and working in West Germany (Munich).

Then at the end of that decade, the 80s, I saw how to return to Europe and do good work, something more meaningful than serving wealthy people who didn't really need me, my skills, my interests. Others elsewhere needed expertise I had. I decided to make the leap into the known unknown, live in a former communist country and exist as others did while at the same time contributing what I could, if what I had was wanted and useful. If I didn't have the advantage of the advanced technical medical expertise at hand, for a healthy price, in America, and was in danger of pain and death without the latest, most advanced care, why, all those living there lived and died as they did, or would. I could do the same. Why did I need what my own country had available if most of the world, I thought, lived without whatever that was?

Because of necessary ongoing care after my first heart attack in 1992, today I have health records in six languages, the first/oldest of which is in French. Under care abroad I got first hand knowledge how the French approached serious problems like mine. Two and two makes four, then and now--reading about something and experiencing it delivers more certain knowledge.

To cut to the point. I would not be able to take the six medications required daily for my health maintenance in the US because of cost. Socialized medicine gives and has given me a lease on life with almost no lease payments. My meds cost me about a dollar a month. And three hospitalizations? I paid nothing for excellent care. None of the dreaded nightmares of socialized medicine have I encountered in all these years (going on 25), except perhaps in Italy, a westernized country, and according to WHO, with almost the best healthcare system in the world, a claim I (still!) strongly question. (Again, Italy is different kind of country and another story.)

While on leave in the US during the last twenty-five years and  just before I left to live as we do here, our touted system cost me half my life's savings, in the tens of thousands of dollars. Part of that money lost was for the same procedure I had had at the same hospital two or three years before by the same doctor. Not elective but absolutely necessary heart surgery. The insurance company had no mercy because I didn't call ahead for approval.

I am a socialist, at least as far as healthcare is concerned. I am a socialist in that the state pays my required fair share (about $100 per month) toward health insurance because I am a poor pensioner by local standards. I am a socialist because I get to ride free as a senior on public transportation in Prague. And what else? I accept the authoritarian approach to the current health crisis in today's world (2020). And I do what they tell me. They have approached the problem by anticipation and preparation and a populace that every day helps to solve problems by volunteerism, and humor. I am not afraid of socialism if by what we mean is that the state takes care of some necessary stuff to live and get along in a civil society--e.g., education, healthcare, generous vacations for regeneration, etc.

Believe this propaganda at your own risk.

Those in the US can continue to fight over a socialism they don't understand much less know the definition of . . . because "The Constitution says it’s okay to shoot socialists, a GOP state legislator contends" in Montana (Washington Post, Monday, February 3, 2020).

What a country! Shoot 'em if they have a different view than you do. Solves the problem quick and easy . . . open gun stores during a pandemic because it is an essential service/business? Give me a break.

So interesting, disappointing . . . a waste of our time

So interesting . . . but the writing you* sent me has no attribution/source other than you got it from a relative. So, what to say. Well, here is two cents.

The writing states: "Bernie married his college sweetheart, Deborah Shilling, and spent his small inheritance on a summer home in Vermont on 85 acres.  The shack had a dirt floor and no electricity, maintaining his proletariat credibility, but not impressing his new bride.  He refused to get a steady job, so his wife didn’t stick around long, divorced after 18 months."

According to the usual online sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Sanders#Personal_life

and

https://www.biography.com/political-figure/bernie-sanders

whether they divorced 18 months or two years after marriage is unclear, tending toward the time being two years. Suspicions arise.

But no matter. Here is the real giveaway, except for the most obvious--see last sentences of the piece.

His choice of summer property was a cause for "un-impressing" his new bride, AND he didn't get a job--So she left. Seems like pure conjecture, unless it can be substantiated.

So judging for myself, interesting article/writing, but I wouldn't bet on anything being True until proven with documentation and the identity of who is writing this stuff, where published, date, etc.

As for the most commonly checked online sources, Bernie is all about his politics and political career, and how great, etc.

Sounds a little bit like Mayor Pete's Wikipedia profile, put up and maintained by him/his campaign, although avowed by them, "It's not so!" However the metadata for a recently uploaded, then deleted, photo of him, told the tale. Came from him or his campaign.

So who can you believe?

Today I vote for Edward Abbey. His piece on rednecks worth more than the political crap we are subjected to, so that we waste our time debating stuff like I have gotten into above. Our candidates are the best we have to offer? Give me a break. I vote for the likes of Edward Abbey.

Alternatively, your bringing this writing about Bernie to my attention has provided today's writing/research exercise, which I am very much thankful for.

Best,
kevin

PS The first three pages of a Google search on

"In all her years in congress Elizabeth Warren introduced 110 bills.  2 passed."

produced no reputable source for this article--all people, including at least one from China, posting and re-posting a decidedly suspect (opinionated) text from an unknown source.

PPS Oh, this is priceless; I didn't get it at first. "Bernie’s past, including a brief stint living in a kibbutz in Israel is cloaked in secrecy. (It worked for B Hussein.)" A reference to our former president suggesting there was a cover-up, etc., about his biography, birthplace, etc. Opinion/conspiracy!

No . . .I have drawn my own CONCLUSION--the article on Bernie on the face of it is not credible.

PPPS Example of just one of the places where you can find this article (and waste(?) your time), an article purportedly a "contribution to public/civic discourse" circulating for probably for over a year by my best guesstimate.

https://www.ini-world-report.org/2020/02/18/who-is-bernie-sanders/

_____
* From a friend who sent me a copy of the contribution, which can be seen via the link just above.

Broken countries

[Written but not sent to a friend.]

Italians. No, they're not that bad, nor is anyone else, my idealist self insists. Only this. If you live in a foreign culture, you will step unintentionally into the smelly stuff you can't clean off your shoe, plus you will never change "them". The foreigners--to you--have their ways of doing things, as an old German friend of mine reminded me often: "They know what they do." The subtext was and is you are not one of them and will never be, so get used to their ways and adapt as best you can without grossly offending, or getting thrown out of the community or country.

Such has been life for me abroad for over twenty-five years. Stepping in it, "Oh, shit!" And do you really think I would settle a purchase in two meetings here at the lawyer's office? one private (without counsel) where a certain amount of cash changes hands, and another where the same thing happens but for the (adjusted) total to seal the contract--with legal witnesses--to be transmitted to the tax office? I did that. There was no other way to get the deal done to put a roof over my head and later get rid of it (did not take place in Italy by the way).

So discovering the ways these people do things is my daily classroom with, most of the time, no dire consequences, except perhaps some embarrassment and constant self-realizations about who I am and where I find myself. Never a dull moment. That's the juice of living outside one's own culture without native level language skills: Ever a classroom and self-guided psychological therapy tour. Oh, and education and therapy always come at a cost.

I do find Italians amusing, and I have written about both the ups and downs of residing in this country and my local area with fantastic panoramas and cultural lessons aplenty. But I walk softly. . . . And I have Italian friends, one or two. It is a friendly and inviting place. Lots of positive stuff, including the food which is more than pizza, pasta, and pane--and the daily obligatory religious ritual at 13.00 sharp, pranzo. I won't elaborate here. It is easier to complain or feebly explain. Just know, I love a lot about Italy including my friends and daily encounters, which are always interesting, often amusing. Celebrating Eataly? goes without saying.

You mentioned that someone you knew had a kind of systemic health problem from which s/he died. Could have been saved with the right intervention(s). So too I find Italy. The country is hobbled if not broken, not easy for ordinary people to cobble a living. A systemic problem. Fundamental changes needed in politics, government and culture--society--so that one can have a meaningful and productive life as well as get on well enough economically.

In the US, with regard to guns and violence, I think it also a systemic problem. Why do people have 'em? and use them, abuse them, and have unwanted accidents and tragedies? Many factors, many causes. Some with guns, perhaps you, collect them, care for them (weird?), trade them, go and practice on paper targets, hunt game, etc. But why do ordinary people feel the need to have a gun? Ordinary people where I have lived in Europe do not feel they need a gun. Of course there are intruders and bad people. But this is not a gun culture, nor a particularly dangerous or violent one--in part I would argue because guns are not a right (also weird!) to have and hold.

Here in the CZ just yesterday we had a shooter killing several. This is so rare in my experience here that to see that in the news is shocking. The same is not shocking in the US. Kind of business as usual I'd argue--because of the multiple things that need to change such that such incidents in the US become out of the ordinary, not common, rare, shocking again.

I am not qualified or smart enough to tell anyone what to do to solve guns/violence/threat to person and property in America. But it is more of a problem than it should be. Given who and what America is, make-my-day is every day and no one is or should be surprised. When you are a fish in the fishbowl, what else is there? You have to get out of the water and breathe different air differently from the tacit ways you have accepted as normal, that is experience life beyond familiar waters. America needs a new normal . . . but I fear that will not be anytime soon. We are so polarized, and I agree with some that we are not very bright as a nation (but if nudged--don't do it--could name a few names).

I find the article linked below interesting in regard to both of these subjects--living in a culture and making needed socio-cultural changes. Not optimistic but seems to sum up where we are. Read if you are interested, or we can just move on and set these more serious subjects aside. I for one am unable because of age, location, and other factors to make any difference. And there's the rub.

The article begins:

The United States is sick with income and other forms of social inequality. It suffers from cruelty, loneliness, greed, gangster capitalism, white supremacy, violence, sexism and a culture of ignorance and distraction. Our broken political system does not encourage critical thinking or nurture a capacity for responsible, engaged citizenship.

Here is the link.

https://www.salon.com/2019/12/09/author-chris-hedges-on-trump-the-democrats-and-the-dying-american-empire/

My point

Claims without specifics or citations of studies "proving that something or other does thus and so" are in the category of made-up beliefs and anecdotal notions, not to be taken seriously.

Not here, not anywhere.

Illustration, as sent to me by a relative, who has a certificate of mental disability from the Czech government. But one doesn't need a certificate to claim off-the-wall "facts" . . . as we can observe all across the great country (USA), and elsewhere.

[begin quote]

"Dr. Liu Yiping , encouraged each person receiving this newsletter to  forward it to another ten people, certainly at least one life will be saved ... I've done my part, I hope you can help do your part. thanks!

Drinking hot lemon water can prevent cancer. Don't add sugar. Hot lemon water is more beneficial than cold lemon water.
Both yellow n purple sweet potato have good cancer prevention properties.
01. Often taking late night supper can increase the chance of stomach cancer
02. Never take more than 4 eggs per week
03. Eating pope's nose (chicken backside) can cause stomach cancer
04. Never eat fruits after meal. Fruits should be eaten before meals
05. Don't take tea during menstruation period.
06. Take less soy milk, no adding sugar or egg to soy milk
07. Don't eat tomato with empty stomach
08. Drink a glass of plain water every morning before food to prevent gall bladder stones
09. No food 3 hrs before bed time
10. Drink less Teh Tarik, no nutritional properties but can cause diabetes and hypertension
11. Do not eat toast bread when it is hot from oven or toaster
12. Do not charge your handphone or any device next to you when you are sleeping
13. Drink 10 glasses of water a day to prevent bladder cancer
14. Drink more water in the day time, less at night
15. Don't drink more than 2 cups of coffee a day, may cause insomnia and gastric
16. Eat less oily food. It takes 5-7 hrs to digest them, makes you feel tired
17. After 5pm, eat less
18. Six types of food that makes you happy: banana, grapefruit, whole meal bread, spinach, pumpkin, peach.
19. Sleeping less than 8 hrs a day may deteriorate our brain function. Taking Afternoon naps may keep our youthful look.
Cooked tomato has better healing properties than the raw tomato.
Hot lemon water can sustain your health and make you live longer!
Hot lemon water kills cancer cells
Add hot water to 2-3 slices of lemon. Make it a daily drink
The bitterness in hot lemon water is the best substance to kill cancer cells.
Cold lemon water only has vitamin C, no cancer prevention.

Hot lemon water can control cancer tumor growth.
Clinical tests have proven hot lemon water works.
This type of Lemon extract treatment will only destroy the malignant cells, it does not affect healthy cells.
Next... citric acid and lemon polyphenol in side lemon juice, can help reduce high blood pressure, effective prevention of deep vein thrombosis, improve blood circulation, and reduce blood clots.

[end quote]

___
Suggest one could start here, if interested in pursuing this lemon-water business, especially as observed with mice, the experimental subjects.

And all this time!

I have misspoken most of my life about this: Chuck Taylor All Stars shoes. I thought it was this Chuck Taylor, the Stanford football coach from 1951 to 1957.

My brother and I at football camp wearing Chuck Taylor "keds".

But NOOOOO!

Chuck Taylor was this guy. (If interested, check him out.) And this is what I am wearing in the picture . . . through high school basketball and beyond.

I apologize for the error. How was I to know before Wikipedia?

Harold Hoarder

Dearest Harold (the Hoarder),

Thank you for your message. I read it with compassion, but a pain in my heart. Compassion we need not dwell upon, mere sentimental and useless BS. But of pain must I speak, being a person of the cloth, your humble servant, bringing you ideas and words you, sadly, cast into the wasteland from which your materialism grows. My faith in your salvation continues, and so . . .

I recall you once threw a dildoe away. Blessings, my son, for therein is an evil material thing. Why, with dildoes, what woman has use of a man and his member? Is it not better to cast the thing from you and use your own, Gypsy-given tool to satisfy yourself and your woman? Besides, dildoes need batteries to work and they wear out and you have to buy more. With a dildoe you now have more things to worry about. You performed a good deed by casting that "thilthy"* thing aside.

I recall you once hoarded an empty box. Is it not so? Cast it also away. It is the occasion for sin, for you might put something in it and then where will you be? A man with a box now filled--you have two material things whereas before you had one. See how this error in your ways multiplies? And what if you put more than one thing in the box? You will forget all of what you have in there before nature takes your memory away from you naturally. What a tragedy! We need no stinking boxes.**

Does not the scripture say that to enter the kingdom of heaven you must pass through the eye of a needle? It indeed does. In the Holy Book of Gypsy it says that the damned will swim in their belongings on the lowest level of hell, for there is where all human waste and material objects sink and mire those who would not forsake and let go  their grubby little hands that which they could not part.

Ah, pain in my heart. Save thy self before it is too late. You don't wish after you part to be thrown into that infinite storage unit below with all that crap and all the crap that other hoarders and materialists have accumulated. Think of it. All that plastic and refuse and tools you can't use in the afterlife. You will be unable to grasp any of it with your immaterial hands. You will still, however, get a monthly bill for storage. Material hell is not a fair nor pleasant place.

Ponder and continue to pay until you are forced to yell, "Uncle!" or, "Pastor, help me. Help me. I'm drowning. I'm drowning."***

So ends this message from Word-of-the-Day Salvation and Redemption services, a non-profit church for the overly burdened souls of color on this earth. You being a whitie of some pinkish color, not politically of course.

I.M. Free

PS Where did you throw that dildoe? Is there any way of recovering that and having a quick sniff?****

___
* _Filthy_ pronounced thus for shock/amusement's sake.
** An allusion to a line from a movie, which was never, trivia buffs beware, phrased in this way in the original.
*** A reference to Harold' youth when he and a buddy rowed out a ways in the lake and called to the shore, thus bringing the Coast Guard and the county sheriff to the rescue.
**** Property of Diane Messchaert about whom another post will tell all sordid details.

We don't need no stinking labels

In this protracted season of slinging, swearing, smudging, slaying, smearing, and separation--distancing--here is where I guess I am. You?

And will your score prevent us from talking and reaching agreements on proceeding some way somehow? that is, making progress?

Or will you refuse both yes and no and just sit there impervious, ignorant . . . stupid?

Vote the obstructionists out, I say. It's the left-leaning libertarian's way, if this label has not also lost its meaning in the needless frays.

Takela, how the street got its name

How did Takela Drive in the City of South Lake Tahoe, California, get its name?

Entering Takela Drive from Lake Tahoe Blvd.

The answer is in the 11.02.16 issue of the Lake Tahoe News. Thanks to them for publishing this important piece of information (er, trivia?).

URL: http://www.laketahoenews.net/2016/02/takela-the-true-tale-of-a-name/

If for some reason, you cannot access this curiosity, or bit of fluff, contact me and I'll forward a copy.

Addendum

I admit there are probably people who remember the times I am talking about; however, I believe I am safe in asserting that the origin of the place name securely rests in the lives and memories of just three people. Now I believe there will be more.

I note with interest that the News has categorized my truth-telling as opinion. I would surely love to hear what other "opinions" there are that specifically address how the street got its name. But I suppose, people will believe what they want to believe, and they do, of course.

I have tried to ferret out records of my father's proposal to the planning commission. Perhaps there he had to explain the significance of the word Takela. As for whether or not the newly incorporated City of South Lake Tahoe got in on the action I can't say. I will leave that to those on the scene and who can get access to city records, microfilms at the local library, etc.

Not many street names that I suggested in the several subdivisions my father developed at (many say _in_) Tahoe remain under the same name. Or the streets have disappeared and subdivisions re-configured. Alas.

And finally an aside. I remember applying for a summer job with the local newspaper at the time. I wanted to be a writer and I wrote for my high school newspaper. I met two people at the newspaper office, and the guy in charge, once I told him my last name, went off on my father and that in no way would I have a summer job with his paper. The other guy witnessing the vehemence tried to calm the first guy down. Not entirely unconscious by then as a young person, I slinked off. No summer job that year, but yeah! more water skiing behind the boat christened, and that went by the name of, Takela.

This aside, a memory of something that happened a long time ago and was and is of no account really, led me to use the expression "damnable property developer" in the piece I contributed to the Lake Tahoe News.

(Im)precisely

He added, "Brothers and sisters don't be fooled by your desires, this life is short and bitter and the opportunity to submit to allah may pass you by."

A Washington Post article online concerning one of the latest shootings in the US outlined the different lives the shooter, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, led. As with many articles online, advertisements were sprinkled throughout, among them this one concerning wine. What is interesting is that the advertisement comments nicely on what the article at that point was highlighting in the writings of Mr. Abdulazeez. 

I question the mechanical insertion of advertisements into "content," always, but that is perhaps a minority view. As this one, however, makes clear, Mr. Abdulazeez's interests are eerily underlined and give pause to the wisdom of scrambling content with Mammon's messages. 

Isn't that what these intrusions and diversions are? Down with the silly and time-wasting insertions . . . they even lead to posts like this one, where the diversion is the subject, not what the article says, much less what the article might mean.

Oh, the title and authors in case someone might want to delve. Chattanooga shooter's real, online lives seem to take divergent paths, by Greg Jaffe, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Adam Goldman, July 17, 2015.

You can't be civilized or serious

With great interest, I read and hear about "what good are the humanities," and by extension my little corner of that world, the human sciences. I am amused, because in the main, the rationale for cutting back on studies in humanities has to do with this--They don't prepare you for the world of work and making money, you know, supporting yourself and your consumption. Must prepare for a job, and the next job. (Yes, I am teetering on the edge, but I intend to write no full-fledged rant.)

Also with great interest, I read and hear about this star, that black hole, those exoplanets, water on Mars? And so forth. Not a week goes by that news aggregators do not host a story on an astronomy-related topic. Yesterday it was how a comet smelled like rotten eggs (probably). Now how the hell do they know that? And how would even that technology that tells astro-scientists this have any practical value? like does it have something to do with the world of work, other than for astronomers and news aggregators? Unfortunately, the news aggregator does not help make that connection, if there is any, but we still love this stuff. So let's examine that connection from an expert.

The work that most astronomers do is more properly referred to as astrophysics, the study of physical conditions in faraway locations in the universe. I would maintain that this research does not have much direct, practical benefit to people's lives. From Dave Rothstein (http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=417).

I venture the connection is because we are interested and curious and like to wonder and try to answer big questions like, are we alone in the universe. And don't arts and humanities have the same utility? The same utilitarian value?

Hmm. So why aren't those business-type educators and their like-minded com-patriots cutting the funding for astronomy, or at least railing against its impractical value?

The big bang is an outlier some say. We like this subject and praise its theorists and publicists because we like to fit God into the picture. And god particle? What is that and does it answer my most fundamental quandaries: How is it possible I am here and why?

Pope Francis, it turns out today, doesn't have a radically new view  and acceptance of evolution in the Catholic cosmos of beliefs. Oh boy, let's get into that one. A good fight, er, discussion with my Christian friends is always, er, entertaining, although disagreements often lead to excommunication from their circles of interaction, or worse.

See what is happening? Of course the touchy-feely and squishy stuff has value along with the practical and oh-so-serious stuff about what is real, what we can see and touch. In a word, material stuff. We are obsessed with this other stuff, though. It is not the economics of questions like abortion but the values and beliefs involved. And how can you talk about matters like women's healthcare options without getting some background in how to think and talk about things social and human and political, etc.? Intelligent decisions come from education in and practice with stuff such as we find in the arts and humanities.

In legitimate "hard" science such as astronomy we like bite-sized news bits. Takes little effort to get the info and say, "Wow!" Now reading a book or taking the time to understand what a great painter did and how s/he did it, that takes a bit more. Is it worth it? Guess. And don't just try to nail me on the visual arts. Pick on anthropology or drama or all the rest of the world's perspectives--except the narrowest of disciplines, business.

Music. Should that be part of the curriculum and should we have experts who can perform and/or communicate intelligently about it? You can't be civilized or serious if you answer in the negative.

An MBA will lead you down precarious paths if it is these guys and girls and only these people who address themselves to health and healthcare. Ask a business-type about bedside manner and why they don't teach or train people in this important area, especially when the business-type is the patient. Ask that question right back and whether s/he has even sampled the universe of non-business points of view extant presently and in the past. And ask the follow-up. What have you done to ensure that there are people who know how to give compassionate care--to you and everyone else?

Silence.

Crack a book. Enroll in some course. You can still find one. Teach yourself through practical experience instead of that all-inclusive holiday. Include expanding mental and emotional horizons instead of your gut.

If you would like a rant, and I am sorry this has become a small tempest--truly I'm sorry--take a look at the increase in the number of for-profit business schools that have sprung up all around the world in the last twenty years. Look also at how some practicality-bent meme has nudged if not shoved more and more humanities-oriented courses out of the college catalogs and the public consciousness. Then ask, is this really a good thing? What's important that is slipping through the cracks? How can we reclaim our humanity?

Okay. That was a bigger bite than intended, and almost out of control. Thank god for self discipline which I learned how to manage. Now  where was that where I learned t manage these personal things? In business or business school? Don't recall that exactly . . .

To blahblahblah (verb)

[This post is in response--in part--to this. It took the form of an email message to a friend, who sends me stuff I try not to get too excited about.]

You have delivered a deep well of questions these past messages, and I don't know which ones to pull out and address, if any. Because it is all so messed up these days. The news, for example, is horrible. The only way to cope with it is to ignore, or watch, read, and listen as theatergoer. What with personal, that is emotional, ups and downs also, now my son as well as yours: How is one to feel all is well at home, "where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." It is all so fragile and so evanescent, because the only thing that matters is the people we love and expect will be there--happy, healthy, fulfilled. To threaten to lose or to lose them, this is the stuff of the meaning of a life. Mine, anyway. Do we really have time to even dignify the crazies by talking about them and trying to convert? To educate and civilize, I will leave room for these, but they too have their limitations.

So when it comes to immigration and racist or non-racist, let 'em in or throw 'em out, I guess I want to say "grow up." I also want to say grow up to Israel and Palestine. Set the swords aside in some museum and let's get on with living and enjoying and leaving other people alone. In Iraq, the newly taken lands by fundamentalists who say live this way or die: Unfucking Unbelievable in this era. We know better. We can behave better. We can let the other guy have his guns and ways if only he keeps those shitty ideas and values to himself and leaves his own and other people alone.

So flap on about "Creative change is easier here because we pick and choose from among all the world's cultures. That inherent advantage in the American system will continue. . . ." Oh really? Is there evidence that anyone in the US chooses something better from the world's cultures? Health care system? This comes to mind, just to pick one off the top of my head.

Which brings up this. It is great to discuss ideas. But ideas and discussions do not effect change by themselves. It takes something else. Something more personal and visceral. When cancer threatens the life of your son, or a blood clot on the brain in the case of my son, what are the ideas and values most motivating, most moving, most effective? It is not some conjecture as to who shot down that plane in Ukraine, but the love and affection we have for a precious life not our own, those senselessly shot down included. Get that in the meme that travels throughout our country and throughout the world and we will be getting somewhere. The rest is just blah, blah, blah.

Have I gone off the deep end? Probably. So I will return to the fantasy world of my novel, where there is no in-your-face sex, no violence, no bad guys, and kindness redeems all. Will anyone read my book when it is finished? No. "Not life as it is." But I say, why can't it be? As bad as it is and as bad as it can get, if idealists give in, where will we be then? I hate to think.

Thanks for sharing the readings with me. You see, I can blah, blah, blah just like the rest of them.

Perps hidin' out

I got this email today in response to mine, which I agree was a bit harsh. The reference is to a "joke" circulating on the Internet having to do with who will pay for Mrs. Obama's high school reunion, with supposed picture of her classmates. Mr. Hass was one of those who forwarded the material to others which eventually got to me. My final thoughts below.

[BEGIN MESSAGE]

Fred Hass
Today at 9:12 PM
To K. Mactavish

It isn't a joke.
It is the truth.
Painful isn't it?
Also, I did not send you an email.
And, as usual, with no rational argument, one resorts to name-calling.

ORIGINAL MESSAGE

From: "K. Mactavish"
To: fredhass@comcast.net
Sent: Sunday, December 8, 2013 11:04:03 AM
Subject: bs from lesser beings

I am a recipient of an email "joke" titled THE NEXT THING...

For even considering sending this picture and comment, or creating them, you are among the saddest miscreants and racists I have ever received a message from. Not funny. Seems like you never learned anything in life or school about civil behavior and getting along with people who are different from you. And you are different in a way that says that many of us do not want your crappy thoughts or sense of humor. Try putting the shoes on of the other and walking two baby steps forward instead of back into bigotry and the mists of ignorance.

Sincerely,
an offended party of one, and there may be more

[END MESSAGE]

I guess I should apologize for calling Fred a lesser being, but it appears he is if he believes the joke is not intended to get a laugh, or a grunt like, "Hey, real clever, dude." But I won't. If he believes in this "truth" as he claims, let him. He is beyond saving or talking to.

Eugene Murphy replied this way.

[BEGIN MESSAGE]

Eugene Murphy
Today at 8:36 PM
To K. Mactavish
I didn't send you an Email.

[END MESSAGE]

Sorry, Gene baby, you are not primarily responsible for my getting a copy of the message you forwarded. And that surely exonerates you?

Final thoughts. It does seem to me that spreading the word is spreading the word, and in this case--negative and disrespectful words with illustration--does not help the world become a better one. Thoughtless, I say. Plus, it appears Fred and Eugene can't read very well. My original message from the first words were that you email-forwarders did more than consider "sending this picture and comment" on to others. You actually did. The original message I got attests to your role in the chain.

Some of these enlightened baby boomers--I'm pretty sure this label fits these guys--need to slip silently out of any circle of influence they may be muttering around in. The world has heard enough from them.

Okay, okay. I didn't need to start this battle. But per earlier posts here, I think racism and like-stupid attitudes tiresome. I want to say, "Grow up, get a brain, and a heart."

Have I exposed--oops--some perps hiding in, I think, California? Perhaps I shouldn't have . . . nah. Too much fun smokin' 'em out.

http://www.zdnet.com/mapping-racist-tweets-where-post-election-hate-came-from-7000007202/

Later.

Brutally direct messages in reply to brutish behavior don't work. I admit my defeat--these guys just don't see their part in the mischief of forwarding email messages. Which brings up a practical response.

Getting a message sent or forwarded to you is your private business. Forwarding a message to some people you want to read or see it, you  enter public space, a message now conceivably viewable by anyone with email in the world. Forward a message without editing it, at least deleting other names and addresses of people who already got it, you are doing a disservice.

All this should be obvious, but the unwitting reveal themselves to be who they are.

Mea culpas

1

'We assess that Miranda is knowingly carrying material the release of which would endanger people's lives,' the document continued. 'Additionally the disclosure, or threat of disclosure, is designed to influence a government and is made for the purpose of promoting a political or ideological cause. This therefore falls within the definition of terrorism . . .'*

Have you ever possessed a document or authored one which had as its purpose promoting a political or ideological cause? This is serious. Think back. Yes you have. No? How about checking the bookshelf. Got a book up there authored directly or indirectly, unfortunately unsigned, by an extraordinary person?

A document that could endanger people's lives? I know I wrote one or two. You too, I suspect, and that is all I need to do these days, suspect.

In the spirit of an early confession will earn some lenience, here are some recent examples--partial mea culpas--of the terrorism that I am, I suppose, guilty of. You don't have to search far. Quotes from this blog. They came from me and I confess I in that sense possess 'em.

I said what? "One thing that seems to work always is to beat anyone's sorry ass who doesn't agree with you or do what you say."

OK, I made an accusation: "Holding companies accountable has in the past seen decision makers in those companies and the regulatory agents they have worked with walk away from the messes they have had a direct hand in causing."

Oops, incriminating evidence: This year I proposed petition for "Obama and the administration to: provide foreign state officials in undeclared war zones real time locations of enemy combatants and warfare preparations."

Name calling, and so what? I called everyone I knew and didn't who were perpetrating the present craziness on this planet a "jihadist of any stripe".

I wonder if there will be an unexpected knock on my door soon. And just this wondering is a sign that an average person exposed to popular media these days and using just a bit of grey matter will legitimately know we have entered a new era of spookiness. Today we don't blame the Nazis but our "protectors of freedom".

2

I broke the resolution made some months ago and renewed just two months ago--not to read mainstream news. Moment of weakness. But now that I have done so and ranted on about something I found, I should take steps to remedy my own contribution to any misunderstandings in the above matters.

It is all about context. My sins and others you may find here on this blog demand that you read the words around them. I believe you will find my peccadilloes not even worthy of the word. Go ahead, read on. Prove me wrong.

Good call. A waste of time. Now the quote I started out with, do we need a context in this case? We do not. I have already addressed the matter of the content of what has been said--at the first level of comprehension. The second level is this.

Miranda. Miranda is a feminine given name of Latin origin, meaning "worthy of admiration" (per Wikipedia). And he is a partner in a same-sex relationship with someone who has been outspoken about matters in the public face such as Wikileaks yea or nay. Oh, the reverberations of associations and ironies. But that is not the best of it.

This guy, because he had in possession some words of a character that most everyone has read or said (see above), could disclose. And it is because he could disclose he was detained and labeled a terrorist.

We are all terrorists, and if anyone finds out what you are thinking or have on your bookshelf, hell has frozen over and we are doomed to a wasteland covered by the thickest ice in human society and relations that we have ever known, but often feared and glimpsed on the horizon.

Like the thought police and re-education camps and political correctness and all the rest of it, we are trying to live in homogeneous and simpler times. Funny thing is, they never were, in spite of Moses and his or his mentor's prohibitions against coveting, er immoral thoughts. Some are singing the same theme song these days we have already heard, but not all of us like that music and won't dance.

And now I do think someone is at the door. . . . Gotta stop reading the news.
---
* See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/02/david-miranda-terrorism-glenn-greenwald-british_n_4199838.html

Weapons grade*

If anyone other than the named recipient reads these words, they are all fictitious and for entertainment only, not meant as threat to or subversive re anyone or any government, especially my own snoopy one.

Revelations about NSA covert operations against U.S. citizens prompted this disclaimer at the bottom of my email messages, a blanket to cover whatever I wrote and sent from wherever from now on, usually from here outside the borders of the U.S. I thought then, why other than my location would anyone be interested in what I wrote to anyone by email. What keywords would they use to bring my name and content up on their screens?

In the Daily Mail in May of 2012, we get a list of keywords "used by government analysts to scour the Internet for evidence of threats to the U.S." The list in part looks like this, with examples from some of my email messages, typos and malaprops included. I thought by putting this out I could save Homeland Security a bit of trouble.

By the by. What are we doing publishing a list of keywords? and these keywords? Do we think that those planning ill will actually use any of these? for real? Where is a Snowden when you really need one?

Afghanistan: There's this great new restaurant down the street run by some guys from Afghanistan. I didn't know it was allowed to serve goat here just steps away from the stock exchange in New York. They are in disguise there. They don't look Afghan. They don't wear a kameez or lungee.

Al Qaeda: The photo on my German driver's license, valid for life, looks like I am a member of Al Qaeda. Check out my beard! It was a late hippie phase I went through. You know, rebellious. I was in Munich when those fellows in arms killed the Israeli athletes. That's when I got it.

Iraq: The first year of teaching in the Soviet bloc as an academic exchange pro of sorts, I had this young talkative student from Iraq. We conspired to elude the guys tailing us and have coffee and a chat, both of us being foreigners.

Agro and Chemical: My wife works these days at an agriturismo, you know, a farm where they don't use chemicals in anything agro. All natural. No worries about poisons in your food. Aren't the use of chemicals in growing things a kind of bio-terrorism? I'm sure the Italians think so.

Assassination: I classify the killing of Martin Luther King as an assassination, don't you, Mohamed?

Attack: I think this whole domestic spying thing is an attack on our privilege of privacy. No one ever had any right to privacy and will not from now on if we continue to support our government's policies in this regard!

Authorities: I have to give it to the Italian authorities. They are a mob protecting their own and eliminating, in all legal, illegal and subversive ways, foreigners of all colors.

Weapon: I doubt any terrorist puts in an email, "Hey Christian, what is your weapon of choice in this crusade to convert? An egg salad sandwich? Careful the eggs don't blow apart in that pot. Lotta heat and pressure will detonate eggs." Exploding eggs, what a concept.

Conventional: I am so conventional that no one would bother to go beyond the subject line of my specially encoded messages. How do they do that html stuff in an email message anyway? It is encryption enough for the ordinary government worker, I would guess.

Cops: Johnny is so cute. I am a little concerned, though. We played cowboys and Indians when we were kids. Now he plays cops and drug dealers. And the plastic guns. They are just like uncle's assault rifle in that cabinet, the one with the glass door I should point out. What is this world coming to? What is my family coming to?

Dirty bomb: She had this fantastic dirty bomb hair, and I thought it was real. Turns out she used some chemicals from the cabinet. I thought she said momonium or something. My hair dresser friend said it was probably peroxide, if she made it at home.

Disaster management: I came home and the kids and babysitter--I could have killed them all. I went into disaster management mode right away Someone should have called 911 or FEMA or someone to clean up the mess before I got home!

Domestic security: The man said it would give us all a feeling of domestic security at home. Little did I know that Uncle Pedro were code words for a pedophile program that infected my home computer network like a virus from Iran. I am glad they installed that ante-virus program on our network. But Ralph needs to put a password on the system still.

Drill: You know the drill. Here at Kindergarten Madrass we line the little bastards up and ask who did it. One of them you can be sure burnt that book and told someone he did it. Training these kids these days is like training a terrorist. They each have their own ideas about how to act in a modern daycare facility. We are so vulnerable to subversive little acts of rebellion. And stealing the lunch snacks like that, too.

Eco terrorism: Eco-terrorism these days takes you to the most exotic places, places where no will know where you are and what you are doing. Best way to get away . . . from it all. I recommend slipping away unnoticed so no one will ask questions before you split. No one here at the office will notice you are gone for a few days. You need time off. Avoid the burn out, I say.

Enriched: You know those corporate guys get enriched while we peons eat peanuts. I am so envious of the one percent. Why, I could become a militant Occupy member.

Terrorist: I ain't no terrorist. But if I was, I'd bomb first and ask questions later, just like Americans. I could be the Great Satan with those little Jihadists. Funny expression, no? Like I would really use a chemical weapon on those Italian flies. Sticky paper will do the job just fine. Just be patient till they get caught in their own curiosity.

Exercise: They say it is good for everyone. So why don't they make a law about that? Exercise yourself to death!

Improvised explosive device: My wife said her IED failed her and now she is expecting. I was so not expecting this.

Law enforcement: Law enforcement? No worry. Not here in Italy. Got a little something baksheeshish to seal the deal?

Mitigation: It's invasion mitigation. I like the sound of that. Olive trees are vulnerable just like any other old tree.

Example of mitigation with deadman.

Momonium: (See entry for Dirty bomb.)

Nitrate: I wonder if the salami has nitrates? Doesn't that mean that one could explode?

National preparedness: The news is full of what to do. I remember when we were told to hide under our desks in the name of national preparedness. Do you think a nuclear device gives a damn about a wooden desk?

Nuclear: My nuclear family includes Mario, Maria, Massimo and Giuseppina. We are our own little Mafia and would go on a rampage if we didn't get our daily dose of pasta.

Prevention: (What terrorism planner would use this word and how?)

Recovery: (What terrorism planner would use this word? a banker?)

Response: (What terrorist teachers ask for every time there is a question. Where is a Snowden . . . )

Target: (Which shopper doesn't know about this place?)

Weapons grade: When we lived in Mexico it was really dangerous, what with the gangs and dead competitors along the road that you read about. We worried a lot about that, always on alert. And the chilli peppers! Now, that was weapons grade stuff. Blast your ass off the day after, not to mention incinerating your mouth and stomach.

Continue. So ridiculous I can't.

---
*Department of Homeland Security's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder'

Letter to a friend

Thanks for the link to Bollyn. It has opened up a number of questions for me which I am not sure I can answer. The key problem for me is that I can't get a balanced overview of all of this. It seems each writer/authority that has gotten into these things has his or her counterpart to rebut what has been asserted.

I will continue to dig further, but in general, what is being talked about is something at a level and complexity that I can do nothing about, except shoot my mouth off once I formulate a well reasoned and informed opinion. But even that is self serving. I am no world changer or idealist any longer, although at one time I thought, egoistically, I was.

All of the issues that Bollyn and others raise require cross-checking to a nit's ass degree before agreeing or disagreeing. Any one of his paragraphs could use a fact checker . . . an endless and in the end fruitless task.

No one changes their beliefs in the face of facts. And no one decides or concludes without emotions.

I am sorry to say this, because I thought differently for so many years, but the world is going to hell conspiracies or not.

Typical of the brouhaha in things like the Jewish Lobby, just to take one subject, here is an example of the endless go-rounds to interpret/understand what someone else has said/wrote that someone has taken issue with.

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/01/20/the_israel_lobbys_role_in_american_politics

So what's one to do? Here are some conclusions I recently came up with.

+ Give everyone a gun in the US. Age to qualify, per recent experimental evidence, 4.5 years old, sized and juvenilized (sp?) for age-appropriate play. Stand back. Watch what happens. "Teach 'em early 'bout their rites!"

+ Stop with the shock seeing mothers breast-feed--anywhere. Leave mothers and their children out of your Puritan outrage. Go have a tantrum elsewhere.

+ God allowed humans to make up different religions and moral rules because s/he wanted to see how only the chosen ones worked it all out. So far, disappointment or marvelous diversity. Let's err on the positive side and celebrate and travel more.

+ Stop harassing whilstleblowers. Focus on the substance of those whose cover has been blown, and what they actually did or did not do.

+ Different people are different. Love them or leave them alone. At the very least they are as different as you are to them! Want them bothering you, or more? So, get along and get on with life.

One thing that seems to work always is to beat anyone's sorry ass who doesn't agree with you or do what you say.

Depending upon your reaction to my pithy conclusions just above, prepare your sorry ass for this terrorist (I know, this sentence will get picked up and maybe so will I . . . bring 'em on!)

. . . in the wind?

Neil Kornze, Principal Deputy Director, BLM:

Attention: 1004-AE26*

I support the recommendations in the standard NRDC letter to you and your agency re proposed rules for regulating oil and gas fracking on our public lands.  I assume you have received a number of these, and so you don't need another of the same to consider. However . . .

The NRDC letter in part reads as follows. "Those strict safeguards should . . . ensure that oil and gas companies are held accountable for contamination they cause. . . ."

Holding companies accountable has in the past seen decision makers in those companies and the regulatory agents they have worked with walk away from the messes they have had a direct hand in causing.

Consistent with the principle that corporations are people and that our government is made up of people who are conscious actors charged with protecting American land and the American people, the rules and regulations should provide for criminalizing contamination and other wrongdoing at least to the extent that real, named persons are tried in a court of law and if found responsible, they go to jail. If environmental damages are judged to take eons to neutralize or dissipate, prison terms as punishment should last as long.

Again, I support the recommendations in the NRDC letter. But in addition, please put some teeth into the bite of accountability.  Leadership on the side of right and the justified takes us beyond our narrow roles in a daily work routine. Get out there and make something important happen, something that perhaps even goes beyond fracking and business (profit's) interests.

---
* See also http://www2.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing and
http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2013/june/nr_06_07_2013.html and  http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/wy/pavillion/EPA_ReportOnPavillion_Dec-8-2011.pdf .

Questions re the monkeys-to-humans "evolution objection"

A. Had your flu shot this year?

The flu virus evolves to survive onslaughts against its survival. And since flu poses a danger to our well being, we engineer new vaccines annually to attack the "mutations." If we can do this--annually--what can nature alone accomplish using its counter-/adaptive-techniques?

B. Got a dog? What kind is it?

Dogs are the products of breeding. So, purebreds are not really purebred. Bring two together and the offspring look/act like a combination of the parents. Why not thee, er thou, you, whatever?

C. Do you take after your mom or dad? Well, then are you "just like" him or her in each and every way?

Thought so. If you count the generations even from the biblists six or ten thousand years, you should get pretty significant variations from the original pair of humans, not apes (separate evolutionary history).

D. Segue. Eve was created from Adam's rib?

Quite a leap from the original specimen, comparable to monkeys-to-humans. Why it's same-sex procreation! Or maybe self-sex. Unbelievable.

. . . And these without going into any of the concrete sciences of physical and biological constants and changes in us and other living things.

PS This published yesterday and an interesting extension to part of this discussion. Scientists Move Closer to a Lasting Flu Vaccine By Carl Zimmer.

Vaccines work by enhancing the protection the immune system already provides. In the battle against the flu, two sets of immune cells do most of the work.

One set, called B cells, makes antibodies that can latch onto free-floating viruses. Burdened by these antibodies, the viruses cannot enter cells.

Once flu viruses get into cells, the body resorts to a second line of defense. Infected cells gather some of the virus proteins and stick them on their surface. Immune cells known as T cells crawl past, and if their receptors latch onto the virus proteins, they recognize that the cell is infected; the T cells then release molecules that rip open the cells and kill them.

This defense mechanism works fairly well, allowing many people to fight off the virus without ever feeling sick. But it also has a built-in flaw: The immune system has to encounter a particular kind of flu virus to develop an effective response against it.

It takes time for B cells to develop tightfitting antibodies. T cells also need time to adjust their biochemistry to make receptors that can lock quickly onto a particular flu protein. While the immune system educates itself, an unfamiliar flu virus can explode into full-blown disease.

Today’s flu vaccines protect people from the virus by letting them make antibodies in advance. The vaccine contains fragments from the tip of a protein on the surface of the virus, called hemagglutinin. B cells that encounter the vaccine fragments learn how to make antibodies against them. When vaccinated people become infected, the B cells can quickly unleash their antibodies against the viruses.

Unfortunately, a traditional flu vaccine can protect against only flu viruses with a matching hemagglutinin protein. If a virus evolves a different shape, the antibodies cannot latch on, and it escapes destruction.

Influenza’s relentless evolution forces scientists to reconfigure the vaccine every year. A few months before flu season, they have to guess which strains will be dominant. Vaccine producers then combine protein fragments from those strains to create a new vaccine.

Scientists have long wondered whether they could escape this evolutionary cycle with a vaccine that could work against any type of influenza. This so-called universal flu vaccine would have to attack a part of the virus that changes little from year to year.