So, yeah... I got off of Facebook last week, but in a larger sense, I feel like I've been doing this kind of thing for my entire life... going along with the flow... trying to find my place in group action... working towards what I hope and believe will be positive... running into something that seems to be a contradiction to the general flow... attempting to point out the seeming discrepancy... having cursory agreement from others, but usually in service of saying, "Huh... well, I guess that's the exception that proves the rule." *... then noticing that, especially if the discrepancy keeps cropping up, either folks ignore it, or they get disgusted and walk away from the entire premise, and still... I find that if I'm interested but want to find out why the discrepancy popped up and continues to, and also, what the quality and indication of that discrepancy might be, I get a great wave of resistance among my fellow travelers.... usually indicating to me that we've moved from one cloying mode of dogmatic "orthodoxy" to another emerging form of what is also becoming its own form of dogmatic "orthodoxy". And then the alarms start going off in my head.
And, then I get sick in my soul, disillusioned, angry, turn into a tale eating Ouroboros, and then I either become mute or explode. Then I go to the wilderness.... not always literally, although often so.... this is the Australian Aboriginal "Walk-About", the time of Jesus in the Desert, Prince Siddhartha's time under the Bo Tree, Rip Van Winkle's nap time........
It's been going on with me for over a half a century this cycle. Observation. Examination. Participation. Testing and Questioning. Discord. Disillusion. A loud or quiet exit, not from the premises, but from the club. From the fashion. From the fad. From the rationalization. From hypocrisy, both in others in that which I find has set in and is taking root in myself.
And, I don't regret any of these.... I do re-run them in my head, over and over and over.... I'm observing it in myself. It also goes on in the world over and over and over. Catholics become Protestants become Methodists become Wesleyans become....??? Jazz kids become Beat kids, become Hippies, become Punks, become Post-Punks, become Emo kids.... ???
It goes on and on and on... and every time someone becomes a disciple, he seeks, finds, loses, finds, loses... builds a franchise... builds a power structure..... Jesus rejects Pharisaic Judaism.... gives his life... Paul gloms onto the teachings of Jesus... builds the church... church is persecuted by Roman Empire... Roman Empire accepts the religion... becomes the religion... the religion is a fun-house mirror version of Pharisaic Judaism writ HUGE. Some individual followers get mute or scream at the top of their lungs. Again, and again, and again... and...
I think that the point of the story is the telling of the tale. This is the Buddha's joyful participation in the sorrows of the world. It's just that when the "joyful" part is gone, the trick is getting it back... the joy... not the sorrow... the sorrow always takes care of itself.
These excerpts from Alan Parker's "Midnight Express" illustrate the universal this process perfectly. And, I recognize that sometimes I'm the Brad Davis Bad Machine in this scenario, and sometimes I'm the yammering skinny British Bad Machine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW9DxqYtvmU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shlBZZ-IQYY
I'm not saying that everything in existence is like this... but, I often find myself in this abstract... and then I know I need to get off the wheel for a while. So I have the energy to walk again.
*Which, by the way, is an utter pile of bullshit: There are nearly always exceptions to rules. Granted. Of course. However, those exceptions in no way EVER prove the rule. They may not invalidate the rule... that needs to be further explored... but, go into a scientific lab, perform an experiment, and when one instance doesn't go in the same direction of the rest, then tell your fellow scientists that the "Exception proves the rule." They'll laugh you right out the door. Because, in no way does the Exception Ever Prove The Rule. Period.
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
Respite, Repose, Reset
So, I unceremoniously left Facebook last week. I had become addicted to its most damaging aspects. I found myself incessantly checking it. Giving hours of my day to scrolling my Feed. It was the behaviour of an addict. My compositions, I discovered, were geared more and more towards trying, in some way, to sway people who I ultimately don't need in my life. Some are family members, and some are not. But, I have wasted far, far too much energy and too much time on caring what they think, or if I can or should try to influence them. The political climate of the last few years has exacerbated this, but I can't lay this exit all on that sorry state of affairs. I'm gonna own that I got addicted to tangles that weren't worth the portions of my soul that I am coming to realize that I gave to them.
Also, I find that I really, really despise what Facebook and Twitter are doing. We all have walked into a vicious social experiment that we didn't fully realize the implications of, back over a decade ago. It is not healthy to constantly converse with all the remote tangents of the history of your life. Some ghosts ought to remain ghosts. Some family only need be seen and nodded to at the annual reunion, if at all. And finally, having algorithms applied to one's self to help one more easily enter hate-filled echo chambers is an action of pure evil and self-eating abuse.
I don't know if this leave-taking will prove to be permanent, as I do a fair amount of work-related stuff there, and also have a couple of hobby sites there that I miss. There's a hiking page I like, and an old movies page, and an iceberg watching page. And, I enjoyed several years long Scrabble marathons with friends.... but there was also a fair amount of bile, and poison there, too. I injected a fair amount of it, myself. Sometimes I fancied myself in some grand ethical battle of epic proportions... and, I guess sometimes I was engaging in something like that... but, also, sometimes I was guilty of walking into the elevator and punching all the buttons to see what might light up.
Not healthy.
There's also quite a few folks there with whom I'd like to stay in touch, but I'm hoping that returning to this blog, which I haven't touched in over six years, will prove to be a more reciprocally sustaining and helpful outlet, and also will be a nice way to share stuff with friends. There's a few of you already here, and I really don't need "thousands of friends". Does anyone really actually have thousands of friends? I doubt that is actually possible. Maybe some of those folks on Facebook will join me. Who knows?
I have kept written journals for many years now, but I find that they ultimately serve a different function for me than online composition. As I read through them, I realize that they are really kind of a stream of consciousness mental spew.... there's no small amount of poison expelled in that writing, and ultimately, I'm going to burn them. They serve a purpose for me, but really, not for anyone else.
So, I'm gonna try this again. We'll see what happens. If you're out there, cool. I hope you enjoy this. That's what I wanna try to do, as well.
Also, I find that I really, really despise what Facebook and Twitter are doing. We all have walked into a vicious social experiment that we didn't fully realize the implications of, back over a decade ago. It is not healthy to constantly converse with all the remote tangents of the history of your life. Some ghosts ought to remain ghosts. Some family only need be seen and nodded to at the annual reunion, if at all. And finally, having algorithms applied to one's self to help one more easily enter hate-filled echo chambers is an action of pure evil and self-eating abuse.
I don't know if this leave-taking will prove to be permanent, as I do a fair amount of work-related stuff there, and also have a couple of hobby sites there that I miss. There's a hiking page I like, and an old movies page, and an iceberg watching page. And, I enjoyed several years long Scrabble marathons with friends.... but there was also a fair amount of bile, and poison there, too. I injected a fair amount of it, myself. Sometimes I fancied myself in some grand ethical battle of epic proportions... and, I guess sometimes I was engaging in something like that... but, also, sometimes I was guilty of walking into the elevator and punching all the buttons to see what might light up.
Not healthy.
There's also quite a few folks there with whom I'd like to stay in touch, but I'm hoping that returning to this blog, which I haven't touched in over six years, will prove to be a more reciprocally sustaining and helpful outlet, and also will be a nice way to share stuff with friends. There's a few of you already here, and I really don't need "thousands of friends". Does anyone really actually have thousands of friends? I doubt that is actually possible. Maybe some of those folks on Facebook will join me. Who knows?
I have kept written journals for many years now, but I find that they ultimately serve a different function for me than online composition. As I read through them, I realize that they are really kind of a stream of consciousness mental spew.... there's no small amount of poison expelled in that writing, and ultimately, I'm going to burn them. They serve a purpose for me, but really, not for anyone else.
So, I'm gonna try this again. We'll see what happens. If you're out there, cool. I hope you enjoy this. That's what I wanna try to do, as well.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Consilience - Or, everything I know about something came from everything, and vice versa........
Consilience - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
I read Edwin O. Wilson's book on this subject some years ago, and though it was not an easy read, it was an eye opening one for me. I'd often felt that disparate avenues of knowledge and expertise could benefit and inform one another (ie.: auto-mechanics could possibly learn much from Philosophy and vice-versa ; poets could learn from astro-physicists; plumbers could teach Art historians) but, I never realized that this was actually a burgeoning philosophy of learning and gathering knowledge. I thought this phenomenon was just a weird, random way of looking at things that I'd stumbled upon. And, I'd only really moved past the novelty of the idea to an actually methodology when I'd reached mid-Life and found this approach to feed me and edify me far more than it let me down. I came to believe, the elements of the Universe (not just the physical ones, mind you) largely are what they are... it is now only their combinations that are the nearly infinite and abundant..... and which stand to teach us much and move us forward.
There is a natural tendency in the expansion of knowledge over time for that knowledge to branch and specialize. This is not a bad thing, of itself, but can tend to lead to a situation where current specialization over-values itself to the denigration and dismissal of general knowledge. This is the nut of the problem. It leads folks to come up with absurd abstractions to try to open their eyes to the immensely variegated phenomenon of temporal and spacial existence: abstractions like "Let's think outside the box." As though there were a box in the first place. There is no box. The box is an artificial construct built by the natural inclination of Specialization to value itself over Generalization, because Specialization eventually finds the focus of the "Micro" of itself to be over-whelming and ultimately exclusive of the "Macro" of all other potential avenues of exploration and inquiry. The "box" is a self imposed, and ultimately false construct; that is if its validity is purported to be concrete and naturally manifest in and of itself. It may have its usefulness, this cordoning and grouping, such as facilitating the making of incisive inquiry that is not sullied by a background noise of irrelevancies... but, ultimately, it is important to remember that that "box" is no more real or naturally evident than a set of subset brackets.
This is ultimately why I don't try to learn too much about my pursuit, Theatre, by watching Theatre. Not that I completely eschew that activity... I love Theatre, not just as a practitioner, but as an appreciator, as an audience member. But, I go with the Danish Prince's pontification on what the purpose of Theatre is: "To hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to Nature". This is important. If I am to truly to pursue a reflection of value, then what I am charged to reflect is the myriad of aspects of temporal and spacial existence. If I do not... if I only watch Theatre to help me do Theatre.... then I am holding the mirror up to the mirror. And if you've ever been to a barber shop or hair salon and sat between two large mirrors, you know the situation created: an ultimately false infinitude of infinite digression. Fascinating to contemplate, but ultimately an exercise in limiting, not expanding observation.
"To see the World in a grain of sand" is what the Buddhists say... and that is my hope. And, on those rare occasions of an awareness of concilience; the unity in the diversity; the macro in the micro... and vice versa... in those moments, I find immortality in the temporal and boundlessness within spacial dimensions.
Consilience: Here's to it.
I read Edwin O. Wilson's book on this subject some years ago, and though it was not an easy read, it was an eye opening one for me. I'd often felt that disparate avenues of knowledge and expertise could benefit and inform one another (ie.: auto-mechanics could possibly learn much from Philosophy and vice-versa ; poets could learn from astro-physicists; plumbers could teach Art historians) but, I never realized that this was actually a burgeoning philosophy of learning and gathering knowledge. I thought this phenomenon was just a weird, random way of looking at things that I'd stumbled upon. And, I'd only really moved past the novelty of the idea to an actually methodology when I'd reached mid-Life and found this approach to feed me and edify me far more than it let me down. I came to believe, the elements of the Universe (not just the physical ones, mind you) largely are what they are... it is now only their combinations that are the nearly infinite and abundant..... and which stand to teach us much and move us forward.
There is a natural tendency in the expansion of knowledge over time for that knowledge to branch and specialize. This is not a bad thing, of itself, but can tend to lead to a situation where current specialization over-values itself to the denigration and dismissal of general knowledge. This is the nut of the problem. It leads folks to come up with absurd abstractions to try to open their eyes to the immensely variegated phenomenon of temporal and spacial existence: abstractions like "Let's think outside the box." As though there were a box in the first place. There is no box. The box is an artificial construct built by the natural inclination of Specialization to value itself over Generalization, because Specialization eventually finds the focus of the "Micro" of itself to be over-whelming and ultimately exclusive of the "Macro" of all other potential avenues of exploration and inquiry. The "box" is a self imposed, and ultimately false construct; that is if its validity is purported to be concrete and naturally manifest in and of itself. It may have its usefulness, this cordoning and grouping, such as facilitating the making of incisive inquiry that is not sullied by a background noise of irrelevancies... but, ultimately, it is important to remember that that "box" is no more real or naturally evident than a set of subset brackets.
This is ultimately why I don't try to learn too much about my pursuit, Theatre, by watching Theatre. Not that I completely eschew that activity... I love Theatre, not just as a practitioner, but as an appreciator, as an audience member. But, I go with the Danish Prince's pontification on what the purpose of Theatre is: "To hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to Nature". This is important. If I am to truly to pursue a reflection of value, then what I am charged to reflect is the myriad of aspects of temporal and spacial existence. If I do not... if I only watch Theatre to help me do Theatre.... then I am holding the mirror up to the mirror. And if you've ever been to a barber shop or hair salon and sat between two large mirrors, you know the situation created: an ultimately false infinitude of infinite digression. Fascinating to contemplate, but ultimately an exercise in limiting, not expanding observation.
"To see the World in a grain of sand" is what the Buddhists say... and that is my hope. And, on those rare occasions of an awareness of concilience; the unity in the diversity; the macro in the micro... and vice versa... in those moments, I find immortality in the temporal and boundlessness within spacial dimensions.
Consilience: Here's to it.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
and he bent to it again.............
Clark Nicholson:
'via Blog this'
So, when I'm not nuts... like I have been for the past year or so, I like to try to adhere daily to something I call "The Four Things". I feel like if I do these four things every day... or if I at least try to get these four things done every day, then I'll make positive gains in the quality of my life and I'll more easily be able to do the things that are important to me and that give me pleasure. So, I try each day to:
1. Read: it can be for work, but ideally, it should be something that I enjoy. Like a novel, a selection of poetry, some good comics, a play that I've always wanted to read. It can't just be obligatory reading.
2. Write: it can be in a private journal. In blog form. In a well thought out exchange on social media... it doesn't matter what form it takes as long as it is of a length and depth that requires some mental and stylistic investment. It can't just be the answer to work emails. Although, a long and heartfelt email to a friend or family member will meet the bill, as well.
3. Exercise: It can be at the gym, hiking on a mountain, doing stretches on a picnic table in a park, it doesn't matter... but just saying "I've had a busy day." doesn't count.
4. Play guitar: Not just noodling, but I need to do some scale work, and I need to practice actual songs. It's my hope to play in front of folks by the end of the year, and I'd like to have at least 20 or so songs well practiced by my birthday on Nov. 4th.
And, I'd like to add
5. Welsh: I'm trying to learn this language and I need to spend at least a half an hour a day in vocab drills.
And, once a week I want to work with Gamut's Improv Troupe, "TMI" as well as participating in some Duo work once a week.
Aaaaaand.... I've got little excuse not to do this. I'm through with mainstage work at the theater for a bit. Just finished a very satisfying run of Ronald Harwood's "The Dresser", which I really enjoyed, but was quite exhausting. I know that in the past I've tried to do The Four Things (Now 5) and rarely accomplished all of it. But, I'm going to really concentrate on this for the next 9 months or so... I don't have to worry about the Park Show, as I have delegated that to Karen Ruch and I know that that will be in good hands... so, outside of a few things here and there, and a real need to get back down to SC to check on Mom and Dad.. well, I should be able to focus.
I need to. I do not want to roll into my Fifties in the midst of a down-hill slide. So.... here's to new directions. If I don't get it absolutely right each day, I can't let it de-rail me.
Here we go... chugging out of the station........
'via Blog this'
So, when I'm not nuts... like I have been for the past year or so, I like to try to adhere daily to something I call "The Four Things". I feel like if I do these four things every day... or if I at least try to get these four things done every day, then I'll make positive gains in the quality of my life and I'll more easily be able to do the things that are important to me and that give me pleasure. So, I try each day to:
1. Read: it can be for work, but ideally, it should be something that I enjoy. Like a novel, a selection of poetry, some good comics, a play that I've always wanted to read. It can't just be obligatory reading.
2. Write: it can be in a private journal. In blog form. In a well thought out exchange on social media... it doesn't matter what form it takes as long as it is of a length and depth that requires some mental and stylistic investment. It can't just be the answer to work emails. Although, a long and heartfelt email to a friend or family member will meet the bill, as well.
3. Exercise: It can be at the gym, hiking on a mountain, doing stretches on a picnic table in a park, it doesn't matter... but just saying "I've had a busy day." doesn't count.
4. Play guitar: Not just noodling, but I need to do some scale work, and I need to practice actual songs. It's my hope to play in front of folks by the end of the year, and I'd like to have at least 20 or so songs well practiced by my birthday on Nov. 4th.
And, I'd like to add
5. Welsh: I'm trying to learn this language and I need to spend at least a half an hour a day in vocab drills.
And, once a week I want to work with Gamut's Improv Troupe, "TMI" as well as participating in some Duo work once a week.
Aaaaaand.... I've got little excuse not to do this. I'm through with mainstage work at the theater for a bit. Just finished a very satisfying run of Ronald Harwood's "The Dresser", which I really enjoyed, but was quite exhausting. I know that in the past I've tried to do The Four Things (Now 5) and rarely accomplished all of it. But, I'm going to really concentrate on this for the next 9 months or so... I don't have to worry about the Park Show, as I have delegated that to Karen Ruch and I know that that will be in good hands... so, outside of a few things here and there, and a real need to get back down to SC to check on Mom and Dad.. well, I should be able to focus.
I need to. I do not want to roll into my Fifties in the midst of a down-hill slide. So.... here's to new directions. If I don't get it absolutely right each day, I can't let it de-rail me.
Here we go... chugging out of the station........
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Windy Verbal Superfluity in Praise of a Fish and Life
(A Facebook Reply)
Emily II (the Emily after Emily I, but before Emily III, and long before Jimmy Shimmers) was a lovely goldfish that lived in a bowl on our kitchen table. She'd been a carnival fish in early life, but when the ping-pong ball of fortune chanced to fall into her bowl one day, she became a Nicholson.
She was a joy filled fish who dashed around her bowl anytime someone walked past the table. She had a gift for living life to the utmost. She sucked the marrow from the bones of the corpus of mundane existence. She was Nietzche's Over-Fish. She was Plato's ideal of a goldfish, of which, it is said, all corporeal fish are but pale reflections. Her lineaments where such as to humble sculptors and architects.
Over the passing months, as she reveled in the abundant joy of admittedly confined yet seemingly boundary-less life, there on our kitchen table, her tail grew substantially more diaphanous and extremely full, owing more in appearance to the wing of an arch angel than that of the fins of any mere carnival fish to come before her. She was a marvel of abundant living and an inspiration to embrace each day with unsullied passion.
Sadly, as with many souls possessed of a lion's heart and an eagle's lofty vision, she was fated to be tendered a life which was lived twice as brightly as the norm, only to yield to a final accounting that was half as long.
In the throes of her joy and rapture one fell evening, after those of us to whom the normal rigors of temporal existence require the solace and rejuvenation of nature's second course, sleep, and had temporarily sought sweet morphean oblivion to shuffle off the effects of random and often brutal reality, Emily II had, in contrast,set about a dervish dance of fishy terpsichor-y that would constitute the summation and all too immediate conclusion of a Roman Candle life lived amidst the dull and smoldering glow of punk that had surrounded her.
What the performance entailed could only be speculated upon the next morning by the prodigious residue of the splash and the sated and somehow wise visual echo of Emily II's deeply dead eye. She lay there on the table, consumed by the fires which had been the essence of her life, as one who had now passed into the ranks achieved by few, save Isadora Duncan, Duse', and Najinsky. She had, quite simply, lept for sheer " joie de vivre" out of the milieu of her own life into the ether of the outer world. She jumped out of her bowl.
It was I who had the misfortune to discover her, and having not yet ushered my daughter toward knowledge of the mysterious existential abyss of mortality, scooped this embodiment of ichthyan transcendence onto the burial bier of a nearby spatula and hurried with her little body, devoid of its divine essence to the bathroom.
Pausing at the Porcelain Altar of the Void, I reflected on the symbol-logy of what was about to occur. I rationalized that this end was as good as any, was it not? Her life, as all lives, was a temporal thing, and to fetishize the vessel after it had been rendered void of its living essence was actually to glorify that which was, finally, but the trappings of the sacred light of life.
But, remembrance of the horrible Charybdian sucking that attends the plunge of the chrome lever of elimination ceased my philosophical self-equivocation. Action must be taken, and taken decisively. My child would shortly waken, and she must not see me full in the flush, so to speak, of this act's commission.
Then, to my brain it came, and I feel certain, not wholly birthed in conception by my own methods of invention. It was, I am convinced, an extension conveyed to me by the still lingering life force of Emily II, and it would serve to both confirm and conclude the shape and scope of that life.
I proceeded to our plant corner in the sunny portion of our living room and using a handy spoon left nearby after the last night's repast of Hamburger Helper, fashioned a tomb suitable for the repose of a fish of such boundless vitality and fathomless appreciation for the gifts to be realized only in the fields of time and space. She now lives on in the strong stem and defiant leaves of a towering rubber plant.
A living poem to the power of the force of life fully lived.
(A Facebook Reply)
Emily II (the Emily after Emily I, but before Emily III, and long before Jimmy Shimmers) was a lovely goldfish that lived in a bowl on our kitchen table. She'd been a carnival fish in early life, but when the ping-pong ball of fortune chanced to fall into her bowl one day, she became a Nicholson.
She was a joy filled fish who dashed around her bowl anytime someone walked past the table. She had a gift for living life to the utmost. She sucked the marrow from the bones of the corpus of mundane existence. She was Nietzche's Over-Fish. She was Plato's ideal of a goldfish, of which, it is said, all corporeal fish are but pale reflections. Her lineaments where such as to humble sculptors and architects.
Over the passing months, as she reveled in the abundant joy of admittedly confined yet seemingly boundary-less life, there on our kitchen table, her tail grew substantially more diaphanous and extremely full, owing more in appearance to the wing of an arch angel than that of the fins of any mere carnival fish to come before her. She was a marvel of abundant living and an inspiration to embrace each day with unsullied passion.
Sadly, as with many souls possessed of a lion's heart and an eagle's lofty vision, she was fated to be tendered a life which was lived twice as brightly as the norm, only to yield to a final accounting that was half as long.
In the throes of her joy and rapture one fell evening, after those of us to whom the normal rigors of temporal existence require the solace and rejuvenation of nature's second course, sleep, and had temporarily sought sweet morphean oblivion to shuffle off the effects of random and often brutal reality, Emily II had, in contrast,set about a dervish dance of fishy terpsichor-y that would constitute the summation and all too immediate conclusion of a Roman Candle life lived amidst the dull and smoldering glow of punk that had surrounded her.
What the performance entailed could only be speculated upon the next morning by the prodigious residue of the splash and the sated and somehow wise visual echo of Emily II's deeply dead eye. She lay there on the table, consumed by the fires which had been the essence of her life, as one who had now passed into the ranks achieved by few, save Isadora Duncan, Duse', and Najinsky. She had, quite simply, lept for sheer " joie de vivre" out of the milieu of her own life into the ether of the outer world. She jumped out of her bowl.
It was I who had the misfortune to discover her, and having not yet ushered my daughter toward knowledge of the mysterious existential abyss of mortality, scooped this embodiment of ichthyan transcendence onto the burial bier of a nearby spatula and hurried with her little body, devoid of its divine essence to the bathroom.
Pausing at the Porcelain Altar of the Void, I reflected on the symbol-logy of what was about to occur. I rationalized that this end was as good as any, was it not? Her life, as all lives, was a temporal thing, and to fetishize the vessel after it had been rendered void of its living essence was actually to glorify that which was, finally, but the trappings of the sacred light of life.
But, remembrance of the horrible Charybdian sucking that attends the plunge of the chrome lever of elimination ceased my philosophical self-equivocation. Action must be taken, and taken decisively. My child would shortly waken, and she must not see me full in the flush, so to speak, of this act's commission.
Then, to my brain it came, and I feel certain, not wholly birthed in conception by my own methods of invention. It was, I am convinced, an extension conveyed to me by the still lingering life force of Emily II, and it would serve to both confirm and conclude the shape and scope of that life.
I proceeded to our plant corner in the sunny portion of our living room and using a handy spoon left nearby after the last night's repast of Hamburger Helper, fashioned a tomb suitable for the repose of a fish of such boundless vitality and fathomless appreciation for the gifts to be realized only in the fields of time and space. She now lives on in the strong stem and defiant leaves of a towering rubber plant.
A living poem to the power of the force of life fully lived.
Friday, December 7, 2012
I never got a job from a poor person....... Really?
Y'know, I heard today for the umpteenth time this rationalization against returning to Clinton era tax rates with higher levels on folks making over $250,000 a year: "Well, I never got a job from a poor person." and it hit me..... "Really? you never got a job from someone who made less than $250,000 a year?"
There are tons and tons of folks who make less than that a year who run businesses and hire people. I got no problem with rich folks; they are folks: some good, some bad. But they are not the only people who contribute to this economy as bosses and business owners. Not by a long shot.
I've got much more respect for a guy who runs the butcher shop around the corner, busts his butt and manages to pay his bills as well as the salaries of his few employees, and DOES IT, than I do someone who trades in shady investment "products", busts the entire economy, takes billions in bailouts, and then gives himself a bonus. Of those two examples, I'm gonna call the smart businessman the first guy. I'll take small stability over monolithic volatility any day. And of those two, the second one can and should be the one we look to help with a proportionally small increase in public revenue generation.
Rich people are very important factors in this economy, but they are not the only factors.
There are tons and tons of folks who make less than that a year who run businesses and hire people. I got no problem with rich folks; they are folks: some good, some bad. But they are not the only people who contribute to this economy as bosses and business owners. Not by a long shot.
I've got much more respect for a guy who runs the butcher shop around the corner, busts his butt and manages to pay his bills as well as the salaries of his few employees, and DOES IT, than I do someone who trades in shady investment "products", busts the entire economy, takes billions in bailouts, and then gives himself a bonus. Of those two examples, I'm gonna call the smart businessman the first guy. I'll take small stability over monolithic volatility any day. And of those two, the second one can and should be the one we look to help with a proportionally small increase in public revenue generation.
Rich people are very important factors in this economy, but they are not the only factors.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Notes Based on a Conservative Repudiation of Karl Rove
The best thing that I've read since the election last night?
This:
Conservative activist Richard Viguerie said in a statement Wednesday that "in any logical universe," Rove "would never be hired to run or consult on a national campaign again and no one would give a dime to their ineffective Super PACs, such as American Crossroads."
So much for you, troll. You built your entire adult life on making a fortune off of dirty tricks. The public believes NOTHING that you say. Nothing. Even Megan Kelley called you for looking like a pathetic fool on FOX last night. Go away, now Karl. You have done enough damage.
Now.......... Republican Party.........consider what voices like Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, and Savage have done for you.... have done to you. And realize that this is your chance. This is your chance to get those cancerous tumors off of you. I know that there are many of you who don't consider yourselves followers of those yahoos, but in the past they all just had too much popularity and power, so that if you spoke up and said what you thought of them, then you knew others would brand you as a RINO.
Well, those guys can't really do that right now. The Bullshit Avalanche has just slid. And the yahoos and the wingnuts can bellow and moan, but they all took a serious gut punch last night. So, take your chance, now: Dump those guys. Do it before they get back up with a fresh lungful of billowing BS fumes. Do it now.
Rupert Murdoch is not you. Charles and David Koch are not you. The crazed religious zealots are not you. You are the Party of Lincoln, of Teddy Roosevelt, of Eisenhauer, of Goldwater. Founded on ntellects like those of Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, of modern thinkers like William F. Buckely. All of these, your old friends, would likely get drummed out of the current incarnation of the Republican Party by the usurping voices who tell you that they are "The Right". But they aren't "The Right", those yammering yahoos. They are the bullies on the playground field. And this is a grown-up world. Time to tell them where to go. They are "The Wrong". They are not you.
Get your voice back, Republicans. Get your party back. Stop worrying about "taking back your country." Take back your party. Come back to us.
Signed,
Your friend in the Middle.
This:
Conservative activist Richard Viguerie said in a statement Wednesday that "in any logical universe," Rove "would never be hired to run or consult on a national campaign again and no one would give a dime to their ineffective Super PACs, such as American Crossroads."
So much for you, troll. You built your entire adult life on making a fortune off of dirty tricks. The public believes NOTHING that you say. Nothing. Even Megan Kelley called you for looking like a pathetic fool on FOX last night. Go away, now Karl. You have done enough damage.
Now.......... Republican Party.........consider what voices like Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, and Savage have done for you.... have done to you. And realize that this is your chance. This is your chance to get those cancerous tumors off of you. I know that there are many of you who don't consider yourselves followers of those yahoos, but in the past they all just had too much popularity and power, so that if you spoke up and said what you thought of them, then you knew others would brand you as a RINO.
Well, those guys can't really do that right now. The Bullshit Avalanche has just slid. And the yahoos and the wingnuts can bellow and moan, but they all took a serious gut punch last night. So, take your chance, now: Dump those guys. Do it before they get back up with a fresh lungful of billowing BS fumes. Do it now.
Rupert Murdoch is not you. Charles and David Koch are not you. The crazed religious zealots are not you. You are the Party of Lincoln, of Teddy Roosevelt, of Eisenhauer, of Goldwater. Founded on ntellects like those of Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, of modern thinkers like William F. Buckely. All of these, your old friends, would likely get drummed out of the current incarnation of the Republican Party by the usurping voices who tell you that they are "The Right". But they aren't "The Right", those yammering yahoos. They are the bullies on the playground field. And this is a grown-up world. Time to tell them where to go. They are "The Wrong". They are not you.
Get your voice back, Republicans. Get your party back. Stop worrying about "taking back your country." Take back your party. Come back to us.
Signed,
Your friend in the Middle.
Monday, October 8, 2012
Representative Paul Broun and His Abuse of Truth and Beauty
Georgia Representative Dr. Paul Broun
I don't care that he's a Republican. I don't care that he's a hunter. Neither of those things make the slightest bit of difference to me, although some of my friends on the more Lefthanded side of the equation may wish that they did. I know many good folks who are Republicans and many fine folks who hunt.
I don't care that he perpetuates the worst stereotypes about a certain type of legislator from the part of the country where I was born and raised.
OK.... I do care about that a bit................ Maybe more than a bit.....
But I very deeply care that he trades in ignorance,arrogance, and resentment. That he sows the seeds of desolation and calls this a pious act. I care that, despite his medical degree, he either fundamentally misunderstands what science is, or at the very least, misrepresents what science is for his own gain. I care about this because as a Member of the US House of Representatives, he sits on the Science Committee and determines government policy concernng scientific matters. How does anyone believe that the sort of reasoning espoused here is sound or rooted in anything other than the politics of pandering toward ignorance and resentment?
If this was a Muslim leader saying these same things and only substituting the Koran for the Bible it would be hard to believe that he wasn't an angry extremist workng to create a more dark and dangerous world. Extremist views have far more in common wth other extremist views than the respective faiths of which they so arrogantly claim to be the sole voice.
As someone who considers himself a Christian, I am really tired of people mis-using my holy book as a science text, a history text, an archeologic text, or a work of journalism. Do the contents of The Bible deal with those things? Yes. But a huge disservice is done to the Bible when it is forced to be a manual, text, or reference work for which it is ultimately ill suited. I find The Bible to hold many of the most sacred and holy truths for me.... and yet, I know it's not a very good stand-in as a manual to fix an engine or to find a recipe. I don't ask it to be what it is not. And I find the use of it to fan the flames of passionate ignorance more distasteful and blasphemous than if it were employed as a door stop.
I find truth in Genesis. For that truth to be real for me, I don't need for it to function as journalism.
I find truth in the various tellings of the birth of Jesus in the Gospels. I don't need to ignore their discrepancies to recognize an underlying truth.
I find the most beautiful truth in the story of the loaves and the fishes. I know it is an inspiration for the poor in spirit. An inspiration for those who wish, along with the help of others, and also with the help of the transcendent mystery I choose to call God, to strive to bring forth something from nothing.
Although I was not physically there at that gathering related in the Bible, I know the truth of that story from many other gatherings that I have be fortunate to take part in. I have felt the truth of that story in my soul. In that sense, it is the most true and heartening story for me. In no small part, that story has lead me to make my life about working to spread what is good and nourishing among a group of my fellows. I have made my life about working with others to make something out of nothing. I cherish the truth of that story. A challenge to me about whether or not I believe that x number of fishes and loaves were actually multiplied on x day by anyone means less than nothing to me. I know the truth of that story, and no challenger can take that truth from me. Not Jerry Falwell. Not Bill Mahr. And certainly not Rep. Paul Broun.
Concerning meetings in life with its Paul Broun's.... here is the way that it usually goes down: You, Dr. Broun, ask me if I believe in the Bible. Do I believe that it happened? I tell you that I know that it happened in the story. You tell me that is not true belief. That I must believe that it happened in history. I tell you that history is a story. You say that history is truth. I tell that I believe that truth need not be historical. I don't believe that the truth of that of which you are speaking to be appropriately revealed by the precepts of science. I believe that the essence of that truth is beauty. And for any man to make that beautiful truth to have to adhere to the strictures of science or history is to cut the heart from the deep and transcendent Mystery. And that is an abuse of truth. A desecration of beauty.
The song I was taught to sing as a kid told me that I loved to tell the story. And I do. And besides that one story, so many more. I take the telling of stories very seriously. From many people. From many places. From many times. And from no time or place that you might consider ever actually...... existed. And yet true... very true. I have made this activity my life's work. I find truth in stories. I sometimes find far more truth in these non existent times and places than in the more mundane realm of actual happenstance.
And, while you, Dr. Broun, stake a claim to a book so holy and believe that the literal truth of it is the best or only truth, I will hold its truth in my heart and know my heart to be with the heart of the universe. And I hope that you will live to actually feel that. A truth that you don't have to "take back" . Because you never lost it. It is only there to gain. The Big Bang does not take that away. Dinosaurs do not take that away. The footprints at Latoli do not take that away. Charles Darwin does not take that away. These things... all things... are but a local manifestation of a transcendent Mystery. Gain this knowledge, Dr. Broun, and divide the bread and the fishes with us all.
From my friend, Joe Campbell: "There’s no real conflict between science and religion. Religion is the recognition of the deeper dimensions that the science reveals to us. What is in conflict is the science of 2000 B.C., which is what you have in the Bible, and the science of the twentieth century A.D."
I think I can safely extrapolate this to be truthful for the 21st Century, as well.
I don't care that he's a Republican. I don't care that he's a hunter. Neither of those things make the slightest bit of difference to me, although some of my friends on the more Lefthanded side of the equation may wish that they did. I know many good folks who are Republicans and many fine folks who hunt.
I don't care that he perpetuates the worst stereotypes about a certain type of legislator from the part of the country where I was born and raised.
OK.... I do care about that a bit................ Maybe more than a bit.....
But I very deeply care that he trades in ignorance,arrogance, and resentment. That he sows the seeds of desolation and calls this a pious act. I care that, despite his medical degree, he either fundamentally misunderstands what science is, or at the very least, misrepresents what science is for his own gain. I care about this because as a Member of the US House of Representatives, he sits on the Science Committee and determines government policy concernng scientific matters. How does anyone believe that the sort of reasoning espoused here is sound or rooted in anything other than the politics of pandering toward ignorance and resentment?
If this was a Muslim leader saying these same things and only substituting the Koran for the Bible it would be hard to believe that he wasn't an angry extremist workng to create a more dark and dangerous world. Extremist views have far more in common wth other extremist views than the respective faiths of which they so arrogantly claim to be the sole voice.
As someone who considers himself a Christian, I am really tired of people mis-using my holy book as a science text, a history text, an archeologic text, or a work of journalism. Do the contents of The Bible deal with those things? Yes. But a huge disservice is done to the Bible when it is forced to be a manual, text, or reference work for which it is ultimately ill suited. I find The Bible to hold many of the most sacred and holy truths for me.... and yet, I know it's not a very good stand-in as a manual to fix an engine or to find a recipe. I don't ask it to be what it is not. And I find the use of it to fan the flames of passionate ignorance more distasteful and blasphemous than if it were employed as a door stop.
I find truth in Genesis. For that truth to be real for me, I don't need for it to function as journalism.
I find truth in the various tellings of the birth of Jesus in the Gospels. I don't need to ignore their discrepancies to recognize an underlying truth.
I find the most beautiful truth in the story of the loaves and the fishes. I know it is an inspiration for the poor in spirit. An inspiration for those who wish, along with the help of others, and also with the help of the transcendent mystery I choose to call God, to strive to bring forth something from nothing.
Although I was not physically there at that gathering related in the Bible, I know the truth of that story from many other gatherings that I have be fortunate to take part in. I have felt the truth of that story in my soul. In that sense, it is the most true and heartening story for me. In no small part, that story has lead me to make my life about working to spread what is good and nourishing among a group of my fellows. I have made my life about working with others to make something out of nothing. I cherish the truth of that story. A challenge to me about whether or not I believe that x number of fishes and loaves were actually multiplied on x day by anyone means less than nothing to me. I know the truth of that story, and no challenger can take that truth from me. Not Jerry Falwell. Not Bill Mahr. And certainly not Rep. Paul Broun.
Concerning meetings in life with its Paul Broun's.... here is the way that it usually goes down: You, Dr. Broun, ask me if I believe in the Bible. Do I believe that it happened? I tell you that I know that it happened in the story. You tell me that is not true belief. That I must believe that it happened in history. I tell you that history is a story. You say that history is truth. I tell that I believe that truth need not be historical. I don't believe that the truth of that of which you are speaking to be appropriately revealed by the precepts of science. I believe that the essence of that truth is beauty. And for any man to make that beautiful truth to have to adhere to the strictures of science or history is to cut the heart from the deep and transcendent Mystery. And that is an abuse of truth. A desecration of beauty.
The song I was taught to sing as a kid told me that I loved to tell the story. And I do. And besides that one story, so many more. I take the telling of stories very seriously. From many people. From many places. From many times. And from no time or place that you might consider ever actually...... existed. And yet true... very true. I have made this activity my life's work. I find truth in stories. I sometimes find far more truth in these non existent times and places than in the more mundane realm of actual happenstance.
And, while you, Dr. Broun, stake a claim to a book so holy and believe that the literal truth of it is the best or only truth, I will hold its truth in my heart and know my heart to be with the heart of the universe. And I hope that you will live to actually feel that. A truth that you don't have to "take back" . Because you never lost it. It is only there to gain. The Big Bang does not take that away. Dinosaurs do not take that away. The footprints at Latoli do not take that away. Charles Darwin does not take that away. These things... all things... are but a local manifestation of a transcendent Mystery. Gain this knowledge, Dr. Broun, and divide the bread and the fishes with us all.
From my friend, Joe Campbell: "There’s no real conflict between science and religion. Religion is the recognition of the deeper dimensions that the science reveals to us. What is in conflict is the science of 2000 B.C., which is what you have in the Bible, and the science of the twentieth century A.D."
I think I can safely extrapolate this to be truthful for the 21st Century, as well.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
If I might quote.........
One of the more bizarre and interesting developments in the the last couple of decades is a greatly increased popularity and usage of aphorisms and quotes by nearly everyone who has a keyboard connected to a power source. If you're on one of the big social networks, I'm sure that you see this every day. Suddenly, all of your friends have the wisdom of the ages tumbling from their lips, or at least pasted on their daily "Wall" posting.
I've seen posts from folks whose reading habits don't stretch any further than the sponsor labels on NASCAR racers that quote Nietzche's, "That which doesn't kill us......."
And I can't exclude myself from this trend, either. Often when a friend is going through trauma or sorrow I'll Google up something soothing and pithy. When I'm in the midst of a political argument and need the weight of a pronouncement made by a founding father to smack some armchair radical State-ist (of whatever stripe) back in line, well.... I set my search engine to humming.
Usually this search entails the hunt for some quote that I vaguely remember, so there is at least that much of my own composition of other's ideas that is actually "composed" by me, but sometimes I will just make my first effort to address injustice by simply typing "Injustice" and then clicking on the little magnifying glass icon. And I feel fairly certain that nearly everyone online is doing this to a greater or lesser degree.
So.... what exactly are we doing when we engage in this activity? Are we just slightly more subtle plagarizers of the thoughts of others when we say, "I believe it was Montaigne who said....." just after we have googled up a quote that just happened to be by Montaigne? Or are we just accepting our status as cells in the growing gestalt organism that is now the mass of written modern communication? And, unwittingly, are we becoming a bit smarter than we were as we pretend to be smarter than we are, since now that we have ganked certain thoughts in print, we may possibly yet bring up in a face to face conversation: "I believe it was Montaigne who said......" ?
I don't really feel bad about what we're doing as a written culture. I'm not playing Holden Caufield here, and calling us all phonies. ("I believe it was Holden Caufield who said.......")Everyone seems to know that this is going on, and in the long run nearly all knowledge has passed from one person to another by various media. I just wonder sometimes if we are collectively giving credit where it is due, or are we backing up our own shake-y cred by willy-nilly name dropping all of antiquity. Little bit of both, I guess.
And really, this all could very well could be the most positive of any development. Just a shift in facility, ehhh? For example, I've got a "Bartlett's Favourite Quotations" on my desk that I used to use on occasion when I actually wrote things.( I mean, when I actually put pen or pencil to paper. ) and I never felt like I was "cheating" when I found a good quote. I think that any guilt I'm going through concerning instantly having the world's wisdom at my fingertips is the relative amount of ease involved in utililzing the treasure trove of accumulated human thought. Are we smarter? Or, are we more stupid because we no longer go to the encyclopedia, the dictionary, the Bartlett's, or to books at all for the resources for our composition?
Most would say, "Calm down. It doesn't matter what medium is used to communicate. What matters is the communication."
May be. May be.
But I believe it was Marshall McLuhan who said, "The medium is the message."
I didn't Google that, BTW.
I've seen posts from folks whose reading habits don't stretch any further than the sponsor labels on NASCAR racers that quote Nietzche's, "That which doesn't kill us......."
And I can't exclude myself from this trend, either. Often when a friend is going through trauma or sorrow I'll Google up something soothing and pithy. When I'm in the midst of a political argument and need the weight of a pronouncement made by a founding father to smack some armchair radical State-ist (of whatever stripe) back in line, well.... I set my search engine to humming.
Usually this search entails the hunt for some quote that I vaguely remember, so there is at least that much of my own composition of other's ideas that is actually "composed" by me, but sometimes I will just make my first effort to address injustice by simply typing "Injustice" and then clicking on the little magnifying glass icon. And I feel fairly certain that nearly everyone online is doing this to a greater or lesser degree.
So.... what exactly are we doing when we engage in this activity? Are we just slightly more subtle plagarizers of the thoughts of others when we say, "I believe it was Montaigne who said....." just after we have googled up a quote that just happened to be by Montaigne? Or are we just accepting our status as cells in the growing gestalt organism that is now the mass of written modern communication? And, unwittingly, are we becoming a bit smarter than we were as we pretend to be smarter than we are, since now that we have ganked certain thoughts in print, we may possibly yet bring up in a face to face conversation: "I believe it was Montaigne who said......" ?
I don't really feel bad about what we're doing as a written culture. I'm not playing Holden Caufield here, and calling us all phonies. ("I believe it was Holden Caufield who said.......")Everyone seems to know that this is going on, and in the long run nearly all knowledge has passed from one person to another by various media. I just wonder sometimes if we are collectively giving credit where it is due, or are we backing up our own shake-y cred by willy-nilly name dropping all of antiquity. Little bit of both, I guess.
And really, this all could very well could be the most positive of any development. Just a shift in facility, ehhh? For example, I've got a "Bartlett's Favourite Quotations" on my desk that I used to use on occasion when I actually wrote things.( I mean, when I actually put pen or pencil to paper. ) and I never felt like I was "cheating" when I found a good quote. I think that any guilt I'm going through concerning instantly having the world's wisdom at my fingertips is the relative amount of ease involved in utililzing the treasure trove of accumulated human thought. Are we smarter? Or, are we more stupid because we no longer go to the encyclopedia, the dictionary, the Bartlett's, or to books at all for the resources for our composition?
Most would say, "Calm down. It doesn't matter what medium is used to communicate. What matters is the communication."
May be. May be.
But I believe it was Marshall McLuhan who said, "The medium is the message."
I didn't Google that, BTW.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Elizabeth Warren was Robbed!!!...... And now you can be, too! Here's Clark to tell ya' how!!!
Posted this on Facebook yesterday, but their "Notes" feature takes away all formatting. This is probably a better place for it anyway.
The following was written last week when I found out that Elizabeth Warren, the person who conceived and built the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was passed over as its first Director by the current Presidential Administration because her appointment would "scare the Banks"..... The irony of this statement moved me to compose sloppy Facebook Prose, and also to throw up in my mouth a little:
You're just in time and in exactly the right place for my New, Ultra Patriotic, Compassionate-Only-to-Myself, Your-Fast-Track to endless Prosperity, FaceBook Info-mercial!!!
Hey, I just got a great idea for jump-starting the economy! (At least my economy, anyway... and possibly yours if you're the type of "Cain versus Able", "I'll bet I can cram 47 camels through the eye of that needle!!", Real Old Time Religion Patriot that I hope you are.... for the sake of us all......well, ok..... really just for the sake of me. But, stick with me kid, and you'll be rollin' in the Cash, Lettuce, Kale, The Ol' Mazoo!!!! Listen carefully, sonny!
It seems we (and by "we" I mean Investment Banking institutions) don't want anyone in the Investment Banking arena to be "scared" by Governmental regulators in the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which might cause them (us) to back off pushing those dandy "products" that nearly sunk us all 3 years ago..... you remember 'em. And if you don't, they're all still out there for ya' to get a chunk of, so............ dig in!!!
"Products" like Credit Default Swaps (which turns out to be" insurance policies" that you secretly can take out on your neighbor's financial house.... just before you burn it down), Mark to Market investment (Soliciting investment for your Ideas that you have not yet thought of), agressive "Sub-Prime" Lending ( or lending that can be chopped and bundled 'til no one realizes that what's being sold is a ball of garbage), rampant Credit Card Recruitment to vast groupings of those folks who are not on their financial feet yet and could really screw themselves up for life. This is especially effective if the interest rates are raised secretly and penalty fees are hidden like little mine fields all over the the place. This last one, rampant Credit Card Recruitment, works really well on 18 year old kids who don't realize what a fine ripe fruit for the picking their destroyed lives are. Mmmmmm the sweet smell of recovery!!! Or, financial Armegeddon? Which is which? Who knows? Who Cares?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?! There's fast cash to be made here!!
So: here's the idea: It's a new "product" called "Clandestine Automotive Aquisition" which involves....wait, let me see how I can explain this plainly..... Hmmm......
OK, I got it...... It involves taking your car when you're not looking.....
Yeah, that's pretty much it, taking your car when you're not looking.
*** When you're not looking---------I take your car.***
And keep it. Or sell it. Or sell it back to you. Again. Great idea, ehh? Terrific "product", right? ..................................... "Clandestine Automotive Aquisition"!!!!
And it will at least stimulate my own personal economy, and yours if you'd like to join me in my Chop Shop....... I... I.... I didn't mean Chop Shop.... Uhh... I meant....... Investment Opportunity! Yes!
What do you mean, "theft"?! Who's talking theft? It's not theft... it's my new Personal Financial Enhancement "Product". I just came up with it! It's a brilliant new innovation in entrepreneurship!!! All those new dollars generated will stimulate the economy. Theft?!?! What? Are you a Communist? Don't you love this country?!?
Because, what's not being regulated right now ain't a damned bit less of a rationalization for criminality and a euphemism for theft than the examples that I gave you at the top of this ramble.
Whether you liked it or not, you were on board board for those last "products".... why ain't you on board for mine?!?!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Farmville notification.
You're just in time and in exactly the right place for my New, Ultra Patriotic, Compassionate-Only-to-Myself, Your-Fast-Track to endless Prosperity, FaceBook Info-mercial!!!
Hey, I just got a great idea for jump-starting the economy! (At least my economy, anyway... and possibly yours if you're the type of "Cain versus Able", "I'll bet I can cram 47 camels through the eye of that needle!!", Real Old Time Religion Patriot that I hope you are.... for the sake of us all......well, ok..... really just for the sake of me. But, stick with me kid, and you'll be rollin' in the Cash, Lettuce, Kale, The Ol' Mazoo!!!! Listen carefully, sonny!
It seems we (and by "we" I mean Investment Banking institutions) don't want anyone in the Investment Banking arena to be "scared" by Governmental regulators in the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which might cause them (us) to back off pushing those dandy "products" that nearly sunk us all 3 years ago..... you remember 'em. And if you don't, they're all still out there for ya' to get a chunk of, so............ dig in!!!
"Products" like Credit Default Swaps (which turns out to be" insurance policies" that you secretly can take out on your neighbor's financial house.... just before you burn it down), Mark to Market investment (Soliciting investment for your Ideas that you have not yet thought of), agressive "Sub-Prime" Lending ( or lending that can be chopped and bundled 'til no one realizes that what's being sold is a ball of garbage), rampant Credit Card Recruitment to vast groupings of those folks who are not on their financial feet yet and could really screw themselves up for life. This is especially effective if the interest rates are raised secretly and penalty fees are hidden like little mine fields all over the the place. This last one, rampant Credit Card Recruitment, works really well on 18 year old kids who don't realize what a fine ripe fruit for the picking their destroyed lives are. Mmmmmm the sweet smell of recovery!!! Or, financial Armegeddon? Which is which? Who knows? Who Cares?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?! There's fast cash to be made here!!
So: here's the idea: It's a new "product" called "Clandestine Automotive Aquisition" which involves....wait, let me see how I can explain this plainly..... Hmmm......
OK, I got it...... It involves taking your car when you're not looking.....
Yeah, that's pretty much it, taking your car when you're not looking.
*** When you're not looking---------I take your car.***
And keep it. Or sell it. Or sell it back to you. Again. Great idea, ehh? Terrific "product", right? ..................................... "Clandestine Automotive Aquisition"!!!!
And it will at least stimulate my own personal economy, and yours if you'd like to join me in my Chop Shop....... I... I.... I didn't mean Chop Shop.... Uhh... I meant....... Investment Opportunity! Yes!
What do you mean, "theft"?! Who's talking theft? It's not theft... it's my new Personal Financial Enhancement "Product". I just came up with it! It's a brilliant new innovation in entrepreneurship!!! All those new dollars generated will stimulate the economy. Theft?!?! What? Are you a Communist? Don't you love this country?!?
Because, what's not being regulated right now ain't a damned bit less of a rationalization for criminality and a euphemism for theft than the examples that I gave you at the top of this ramble.
Whether you liked it or not, you were on board board for those last "products".... why ain't you on board for mine?!?!
We now return you to your regularly scheduled Farmville notification.
Friday, May 20, 2011
"All's Well That Ends Well" is the only Shakespeare title that is a complete sentence. So?
So, Melissa suggested that I post my director's notes for "All's Well That Ends Well". Tell me what you think:
“All’s Well That Ends Well”. The title is a sentence. It is the only title of any Shakespeare play to hold that distinction. And because it is a sentence complete with a verb (the contracted “is” in “All’s”), it postulates a point of view with which we can either find ourselves in agreement, or of disagreement. And that’s where the journey begins for us. “All is well that ends well.” Consider that. Is it true? Do the “ends justify the means”?
There is not a definitive answer to that question in our culture. Even if we say we stand against that sort of philosophy, we still indulge in it as a matter of policy on a constant basis. For instance, the majority of us in this country espouse that we feel that killing others is wrong, and yet that war in a justified cause is not only acceptable, but necessary. If that is the case then we must feel that our actions are vindicated by our desired outcome. All’s well that ends well, yes? If we say that we stand against killing, but that killing is acceptable to bring about a desirable end, then aren’t we saying that those desirable ends are justifiable by those undesirable means?
There is not a definitive answer to that question in our culture. Even if we say we stand against that sort of philosophy, we still indulge in it as a matter of policy on a constant basis. For instance, the majority of us in this country espouse that we feel that killing others is wrong, and yet that war in a justified cause is not only acceptable, but necessary. If that is the case then we must feel that our actions are vindicated by our desired outcome. All’s well that ends well, yes? If we say that we stand against killing, but that killing is acceptable to bring about a desirable end, then aren’t we saying that those desirable ends are justifiable by those undesirable means?
Let’s hold the question up and look at it in another light: We culturally believe that thievery is wrong. We also believe that charity is a virtue. So, I ask you: Is Robin Hood a good person or a bad person? Are his ends justified by his means? OK, now ask the same question about the fellow who breaks into your house and steals your TV because he has no money. Are the actions of either one of these persons who are operating outside of the legal system justified by the ends they bring about? Did you answer “Yes” for one and “No” for the other? Yes, the situations are a bit different in each instance but the means, “theft”, is not. Do you feel that theft is sometimes OK? If you do, then to what extent is your acceptance of that fact rooted in your judgment of the “rightness” of the outcome?
Please understand, I’m not writing this to tell you my opinion of the ethical nature of the means or the end. This is not a “Pro” or “Anti” statement. I merely wonder: If undesirable actions produce desired ends, then are the undesirable actions vindicated?
OK…. Not easy questions. “All’s Well…” is not an easy play. It’s a funny play, to be sure, but it is also a challenging play. And because it is so rarely produced, I feel that it is a misunderstood and underappreciated play. I really believe that Shakespeare is challenging you with his title. You must decide about his statement. Do you think Shakespeare believes that his title is a statement of fact or a rationalization for unacceptable actions? Hmmmm. What do you believe?
OK… I hope that you enjoy our little comedy. By the end, perhaps our means will be justified. Perhaps not. My friend Will and I leave that for you to decide.
Clark
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
.... in which I put my shoulder to it, and set forth again....
Several years ago, back before I got sick (more on that in the future, I'm sure) I set myself a loose daily template for what I considered an enjoyable, fulfilling and successful life. I called it "The Four Things". It was my hope that each day I would find enough time to devote to Reading, Writing, Exercising, and Playing Guitar. I was somewhat successful but found that even though this seemed like a modest set of goals, I often found that I had missed one of the elements. This was due to :
a.) a busy and erratic schedule made even more full 6 days out of the week by a 90 minute round-trip commute
b.) a tendency of mine to become either wrapped up with involved projects which took up the whole of most days (I have an old house that needs a fair amount of attention, as well as tons of stuff in the house which also requires an equal or greater amount of my focus)
c. ) periodic tendencies toward a rather deep slothfulness.
Still, although I did not meet this four-fold goal most of the time, or even much of the time, I found that nearly every day I did at least two of "The Four Things". And although that ration didn't "satisfy" me, per se', it did give me a sense of pride and well being that I was dedicating myself regularly to making a bit of a difference in my quality of life by focusing on these self-sustaining activities.
Then, with-in a year I got sick... I became infected with Lyme Disease which compromised a lot of my focus, personal health, and quality of outlook. During this time I remembered about "The Four Things" and still tried to stick to them, but my ability to read was severly curtailed for a bit by the disconcerting nature of the illness.
Among other horrible symptoms, in it's chroninc stage it takes reading comprehension down to almost nothing. This also curtailed writing (except about Lyme itself, because I was so angry, frightened, and amazed by the ineffective and uninformed regard given the disease by the medical profession, insurance companies, local and state legislation, and the public at large that what focus I had I directed obsessively in this area.... as do other folks with this scary and painful condition... and, I am confident in asserting, as very probably would you if you were unfortunate enough to fall down that particular rabbit hole.)
Exercise is part of any plan to heal Lyme, but because of the pain, discomfort, and energy-sapping nature of the disease I did not exercise regularly and gained a fair amount of weight. This typical a large portion of folks with Lyme and sets off a self perpetuating cycle of unhealth that is hard to vanquish.
And because Lyme was making me fat, lazy, and stupid.... I didn't feel much like playing the guitar.
Sooo...... there I was with my new "Four Things" program lying in pieces on the ground, and my body, mind, and soul in a shambles. I began the "2 steps forward, 1 back", "1 step forward, 3 back", "No steps forward, no steps back" game that is trying to eradicate Lyme from the body. I have had different levels of success, am still fighting, but now have about 90% of my old life back... most of the time.... sometimes I only have about 60% of it back.... but I keep on, 'cause there's not really any alternative.
Anyway, long story short.... I now journal erratically, but find myself more often "writing", as 'twere, on my Facebook page... and although that is often fun and fairly effective way to keep in touch with folks who are important in one's life, I often find that the broad "scatter-shot" of that network often does not encourage long form written composition.... and also, given my tendency to usually want to talk about the two big "no-no"s in polite conversation, Politics and Religion, I often alienate my self not just from the folks who disagree with me, but also from those folks who understandably feel that "this is not the place" for that nature of self expression. Some people may want to discuss issues of Taxation, Regulation, Social Responsibility, Economics, etc. but a whole lot of folks just want to play Farmville..... that is, until you stir them up with the above topics... and then you not only don't get to talk about what you wanted to in the first place, but you also feel like a jerk for causing an un-necessary ruckus.
That's why I started this Blog: So I could have an outlet to write about this stuff in a semi-public manner without alienating those folks who are not interested. I don't promise to write in it every day, or even regularly, but it's here for when I feel like saying stuff that I feel is not better said either in the very private outlet of my written journals, or the very public out let of the Fbook.
Since you're reading this, I'm glad you're here. I'll tell you what's on my mind and look forward to hearing what's on yours. As long as we maintain a basic level of civility then I'm up for talking about nearly anything.
Here goes..............
a.) a busy and erratic schedule made even more full 6 days out of the week by a 90 minute round-trip commute
b.) a tendency of mine to become either wrapped up with involved projects which took up the whole of most days (I have an old house that needs a fair amount of attention, as well as tons of stuff in the house which also requires an equal or greater amount of my focus)
c. ) periodic tendencies toward a rather deep slothfulness.
Still, although I did not meet this four-fold goal most of the time, or even much of the time, I found that nearly every day I did at least two of "The Four Things". And although that ration didn't "satisfy" me, per se', it did give me a sense of pride and well being that I was dedicating myself regularly to making a bit of a difference in my quality of life by focusing on these self-sustaining activities.
Then, with-in a year I got sick... I became infected with Lyme Disease which compromised a lot of my focus, personal health, and quality of outlook. During this time I remembered about "The Four Things" and still tried to stick to them, but my ability to read was severly curtailed for a bit by the disconcerting nature of the illness.
Among other horrible symptoms, in it's chroninc stage it takes reading comprehension down to almost nothing. This also curtailed writing (except about Lyme itself, because I was so angry, frightened, and amazed by the ineffective and uninformed regard given the disease by the medical profession, insurance companies, local and state legislation, and the public at large that what focus I had I directed obsessively in this area.... as do other folks with this scary and painful condition... and, I am confident in asserting, as very probably would you if you were unfortunate enough to fall down that particular rabbit hole.)
Exercise is part of any plan to heal Lyme, but because of the pain, discomfort, and energy-sapping nature of the disease I did not exercise regularly and gained a fair amount of weight. This typical a large portion of folks with Lyme and sets off a self perpetuating cycle of unhealth that is hard to vanquish.
And because Lyme was making me fat, lazy, and stupid.... I didn't feel much like playing the guitar.
Sooo...... there I was with my new "Four Things" program lying in pieces on the ground, and my body, mind, and soul in a shambles. I began the "2 steps forward, 1 back", "1 step forward, 3 back", "No steps forward, no steps back" game that is trying to eradicate Lyme from the body. I have had different levels of success, am still fighting, but now have about 90% of my old life back... most of the time.... sometimes I only have about 60% of it back.... but I keep on, 'cause there's not really any alternative.
Anyway, long story short.... I now journal erratically, but find myself more often "writing", as 'twere, on my Facebook page... and although that is often fun and fairly effective way to keep in touch with folks who are important in one's life, I often find that the broad "scatter-shot" of that network often does not encourage long form written composition.... and also, given my tendency to usually want to talk about the two big "no-no"s in polite conversation, Politics and Religion, I often alienate my self not just from the folks who disagree with me, but also from those folks who understandably feel that "this is not the place" for that nature of self expression. Some people may want to discuss issues of Taxation, Regulation, Social Responsibility, Economics, etc. but a whole lot of folks just want to play Farmville..... that is, until you stir them up with the above topics... and then you not only don't get to talk about what you wanted to in the first place, but you also feel like a jerk for causing an un-necessary ruckus.
That's why I started this Blog: So I could have an outlet to write about this stuff in a semi-public manner without alienating those folks who are not interested. I don't promise to write in it every day, or even regularly, but it's here for when I feel like saying stuff that I feel is not better said either in the very private outlet of my written journals, or the very public out let of the Fbook.
Since you're reading this, I'm glad you're here. I'll tell you what's on my mind and look forward to hearing what's on yours. As long as we maintain a basic level of civility then I'm up for talking about nearly anything.
Here goes..............
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