Zeitgeist

A number of years ago, I remember seeing the first of many films about the 9/11 tragedy and the conspiracy theory that Zeitgeist argued about. I believe it was in 2008 when I first saw it and I was not really convinced at the time. Like many Americans, I could not believe that our government could be part of something so grizzly and damaging to our sense of patriotism/nationalism or security. But when I saw the most recent films along with the first Zeitgeist, I have not only confirmed my own suspicions I've developed over the last five years since I first saw the documentary, but I believe that this country is really on the road to a total collapse.

Our financial system in this country has managed to become infected with a disease that has not only ruined our economy, but has managed to infect every other country that has come into contact with us financially--and has become the daily norm.

The bottom line is that our country has been creating money out of thin air and basing it against our workforce in the form of labor that has yet to be done.

When you go to a bank to get a car loan (or a mortgage or any line of "credit"), they take "money" that is "created" and you put it in your account. For each dollar that is loaned to you, you purchase goods and services which is generating more money in the same way against the labor that is performed by the infinite number of people that are in the workforce. Much like the chaos theory of "if a butterfly beats its wings in South Africa it causes by a complex chain of events a hurricane off the coast of Florida. . . ."

The money that you "borrow" is "created by the Fed Reserve Bank." The Banks go to the Fed and ask for money to be created. The Fed creates a bond in the amount of money that is printed and introduced into the financial system. The bank takes that money that is just created in a line of credit for you and you pay for your house, car, whatever services or goods you need which creates more jobs to meet your demands--therefore creating that chain of events that generates more money which equals debt. For every dollar that is created by the Fed, there is debt, and usually there is more debt for every dollar because of accrued interest, so there is never a balanced budget--only more and more debt. And the Fed keeps pumping more money into this economy which continues to raise the debt ceiling higher and higher. Eventually, the big financiers of the banking system could do a margin call and that would collapse the entire system.

It's a form of slavery. We all work and receive "money" that has no value accept what the Fed says it's worth. Really, the bottom line is that the money that the Fed creates isn't even in circulation to cover the total amount of debt. So, when you default on your car loan, mortgage or line of credit, someone comes in and buys that debt and adds more debt to it, negatively impacting your credit score and preventing you from getting more credit. When, in all actuality, the banks don't have the authority or legality of creating credit in the first place! It's a sham! The banks create the debt for you, creating the money through the Federal Reserve Bank (the big evil centralized banking system that is unconstitutional and privately controlled outside of government channels) and all the while citizens are continuing to work for big wealthy companies that really only have wealth that is physically measurable in the labor that we all produce goods and facilities/assets.

To simply this even further, a person could look at his or her local Walmart like this:

Customers come to Walmart to buy goods and services in a very large building that is owned by a corporation. This corporation built the building with labor provided by a yet another corporation and it's contractors/employees who got their building supplies from yet another corporations and it's employees doing labor to produce the raw materials. .. going all the way to the manufacturing firms that created the raw materials for the construction. All of these corporations and their employees have gone to banks and have accounts filled with money that was created out of thin air by the Fed. No gold or precious or valued metals were used to back any of this. All the companies that stock the Walmart Store with goods and services are fueled by countless corporations and employees that also have "money" that is deposited in accounts by the same banks that have created the "money" out of thin air through the Fed.

All these people that live in the town that supports the Walmart Store, the employees from that town that work within it's walls, including the trucking industry that brings goods to the store for everyone to handle by stocking the shelves, the selling of, is basically redistributing goods produced by labor paid for by money that doesn't have any value except for the labor that was performed to produce it.

This cycle is repeated an infinite number of ways for every company, regardless of size or volume, that exists in the United States. Now, imagine the effect that these same corporations have when they move their manufacturing plants abroad. Detroit--one such city--is now a bankrupt hot mess of empty buildings and deteriorating infrastructure. Once a powerhouse of labor and industry, thanks to our Fed, the banking system, and our government, now people cannot even work for the benefit of providing their labor in exchange for services.

So the dollar is only worth "labor" as its backing. You see, you have to work for many years to pay off your house. So you work up to 100,000 dollars worth of manhours to pay off your home (on the average let's say) and that doesn't include all the bills you pay for your other services that support your family, lifestyle, maintenance of house, taxes on property (that technically doesn't belong to you--it belongs to the bank until it is paid in full), cost of living expenses, transportation and insurance costs, the list is endless. All the while, the Fed Reserve System continues to pump this "money" into the system.

Another way to look at is would be say that your great-great-great-great grandchildren will be owing on debts you created in your lifetime just by virtue of being born. They will also be responsible for debt accrued by their offspring before they are ever born for many more generations after them. . and so on and so on. Money is not paper bills, bonds, or coinage; but work--labor that is being performed for all-time. The old saying of "the only two things in life that are certain are death and taxes" is much more than just a cliche, but it's the very meaning and existance of our lives in this "system" that has been generating debt.

You generate detb by breathing. Just the simple act of existing and you must pay money to someone or some entity formed by the government. There is no such thing as Freedom. Happiness is relative. And if you win the lottery, your money is not real, but it will just excuse you from labor. . . . . and you get a nice lifestyle. But if the central bank does a margin call. . .  you're FUCKED.

To make it worse, every war is financed by corporations that stand to make billions of these dollars (which is your labor) and they do nothing except oversee the labor that is performed to create the machine that is the war effort. This means that when the government wages war, Halleburton and others will employ their slave labor force and corporate army to enslave others into doing what is necessary to make the corporations richer and more powerful, supplying politicians with rewards for getting campaigns financed to guarantee their government salaries for "labor" that is easy street compared to "labor" on the front lines in battle or on a manufacturing floor in a factory building goods or weapons to fuel the war that is making the CEOs richer.

It's a vicious run-on sentence, isn't it? Just like it's a vicious run-on cycle with no end.

This is a very dynamic way of redistributing labor. Money is just the "promise" of support for the labor that is performed and rated in it's value to those who "own the laborers." In the eyes of the government and big corporations, we humans are only worth our weight in the labor we individually perform. So if you work in a high tech job, you are worth more than the person that flips burgers for a living, despite the fact that both jobs are relevant and important to keep the economy moving forward, despite the debts increasing all the time.

In conclusion: It's going to be a hell of a day when that margin call is made. Our world is about to come crashing down on our heads. My suggestion is to do as little banking as possible and put all your money into assets that the rest of the world is going to have a hard time taking from you. I also recommend that you find ways to live off of the grid--become less dependent on organized or government funded utilities and use alternative energy, food, and become self-sustained. And make sure that you have a way to protect yourself and your family from harm, foreign and domestic.

Be free! Turn your money into something TANGIBLE!

And by the way, our government IS capable of killing it's own people, and I do believe that the "War on Drugs," "War on Terror," and that the destruction of the World Trade Center and the 9/11 plane hijackings were all a very elaborate conspiracy. I also believe that Barack Obama is from Kenya--illegally holding office as our Commander in Chief and President--and that he could care less about Syria and its dead Saran gas victums. Our politicians only care about fueling our debt engine that is our economy--and war does just that.

All politicians are a conflict of interest. The checks and balances have failed.

I am anarchist. Government has no business making laws that affect us negatively, or wage war in our name. They are only to be administrators, not world police. Let Russian and China deal with the middle east. It's in their hemisphere. We have problems here domestically and we don't allow Europe or Asia to tell us how we deal with Canada, Mexico, or Central and South Americas. Obama needs to let the rest of the world deal with their own neighbors and stop forcing the issue.

And Obama Care needs to be stopped. Not only that, but our government needs to be more transparent about what it's doing. Secrecy is not important or necessary. Spying on our own citizens, threatening other nations under the guise of "anti-terror" laws is nothing short of what Hitler did in Germany.

If the big corporations and our Federal Government isn't mindful of its actions, the New World Order is going to be very different than what it has been planning or bargaining for: Americans will not tolerate totalitarianism.

What should we do in the Middle East?

I think we should do nothing and let the Middle East destroy itself. Every-time the United States and its allies get involved, nothing gets resolved and it only delays the inevitable. People living in these countries are constantly in a state of war with each other and everyone outside of the region. Trying to do anything in the "name of democracy for all" is futile because the people of this region obviously don't want democracy.

When people go to war over religious theology, new terrorist leaders are born to replace the ones that are killed. It's been an unending battle with no solution that benefits anyone in the Western World so long as the old ways of thinking are still used to create international diplomacy.

A few years ago, I wrote a blog about this and why it is that we are always in constant disagreement with Iran, Syria, and Russia. Ever since the end of World War II, after the borders of the Middle East were redrawn by the British and its NATO allies, the United States has been trying to manipulate democratic leaders into key positions of leadership by installing them despite local citizen's sentiments. The US has had a foreign policy that was designed to keep communism from spreading, and it was aptly called "The Policy of Containment." The US has been afraid of the idea that the poverty stricken countries could easily fall into the grips of communist regimes and that it would destabilize world politics if enough of them gained power in the United Nations. The Cold War would appear to be far from over. The Cold War is just redefined. Now, it is a battle of points of view. People are talking over each other and not listening to opposing arguments and getting so polarized over it that conversations are  becoming screaming matches. It's not just happening in the world between nations, but within our own borders and among ourselves. Political polarism is obviously taking a front seat on every theater of debate.

Our country has forgotten that WWI and WWII were not popular wars here in the US, prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Had the Japanese not done that, Hitler may have won and the facist movement in Europe would have unified it successfully. Americans were concerned that Great Britain was forcing the US into a futile war that was more about the redistribution of colonial interests world wide and less about stability of Europe and Asia.

Barack Obama has been shuffling jobs around in his cabinet for the last few weeks in light of the political tides in the Middle East, trying to find support from within to buttress his desire to send a military strike into Syria. What we know of our intelligence on the situation is not more than what the media has been able to report--probably because the US Government is only going to release the information it needs to gain support of the American public. The bottom line is that the evidence is not sufficient enough to prove that the rebels themselves have not been the culprits responsible for  launching Saran gas on civilians in an attempt to make it look as though Al Assad's regime was responsible.

It's like the movie "The Sum of All Fears" where a small political group can launch an evil and ill-conceived plan to kill thousands of people in a terrorist attack, but making it look like the enemy of their enemy is responsible in the hopes that both enemies attack and destroy each other. Meanwhile the culprits can sit back and watch, winning a war that nobody but they know was declared or waged and do so from a safe distance.

Which brings to bear the meaning of "The Enemy of my Enemy is My friend" but now is evolved into "The Enemy of My Enemy is STILL My Enemy, but my unknowing ally." This is where the End of Days begins. When we get involved in these conflicts, what we may think to be the small and unimportant players in international espionage can actually cause a lot more damage than you might think. It's just like what started major conflicts like WWI and WWII. It's always these little insignificant countries full of religious and political fanatics that cause cascading wartime effects.

Then, you have China and Russia--two very big countries with big armies with angry leadership--hellbent on the desire to have their political agendas heard and forced acceptance. China and Russia view the Middle East to be their sphere of influence and take it very personally when the United States and European allies get involved. So they are naturally opposed to any US led agenda in the Middle East and often find ways to circumvent NATO and the UN's resolutions which often times include trade embargoes on regimes that have been cited as inhumane dictatorships in violation of international laws through their actions against their own people. It's the same old story. Not to mention the fact that most Europeans are very liberal in their views to a fault--they also have issues with committing to a decision that may be considered unpopular in world opinion, much like our own government in the US. And when our governement does make a decision to commit to an unpopular resolution through military actions, then many of our so-called allies throw us under the bus, leaving us to hold the bag on the expense in money and political policy and its enforcement.

The world is just as polarized as the US constituency--something that I cite the Internet as being a major contributor for. The media is, most of the time, influenced by the governments that oversee their ability to broadcast. Al Gazer and CNN are propaganda engines serving two very different masters whose differences actually makes them the same as oxymoron similes.

I think it's time for the US to step back and let the world decide what to do. We have so many domestic issues that need to be addressed here, so many jobs and economic distress that spending millions of dollars per bomb dropped in the name of "anti-terrorism" or "national security" and not really be any better off then the day before the surgical strike would seem to be moot. Let these people destroy themselves. Let Russia deal with it. Let China do what they want to do. And as they flim-flam about with their agendas, they can argue and destroy each other. They are on the other side of the planet. We have to fix our problems here. The less we worry about what Russia and China do in their own hemisphere, the better it will be for us in the long run. We have been brainwashed for the duration of the Cold War and now the War on Terrorism, making them out to be the evil empires synonomous in scope with the Third Reich.

My opinion may not be a popular one. But I'm sick and tired of my country stepping up and taking a leadership role in an arena that is bent on destroying us for doing so. The lack of appreciation or support from our allies in the Middle East (a very "loose" interpretation of the world "ally") is a key indicator of what we should be doing.

This leads me to the core of the problem: Israel. While I think that it's important that Israel should be protected, I think that the Israeli track record speaks for itself. I think that if we allowed Israel to deal with its neighbors as is should, that many of these little terrorist cells would eventually dry up. Israel doesn't put up with terrorists. They are known to take the initiative, time and time again, and doing it effectively. I don't always support what Israel does, but the Middle East is their backyard, and they are the ones that have to live with the immediate consequances of military actions waged against their neighbors. Palestinians are idiots. They covet the strip of land that they didn't want in the first place. The Israelis turned it into something valuable, and now they are wanting it back. They are the "trailer trash" of the Middle East and an embarrassment to secular and progressive Arabs the world-over. Hezbollah is also embarrassing. Gihad is not the way of Allah. Anyone that has read the Koran and has a brain in their heads knows that. Muslims have been getting a bad rap for what extremists have been doing in the name of Allah much the same was as their Christian left wing counterparts have in the name of Jesus.

And, we don't need Middle Eastern oil. It's time for the US to open up it's oil fields, create American jobs and flood the world with it. It would stabilize the commodities market and balance the economy in our own country. While our politicians are constantly looking for ways to destroy our Constitution and monetary system, making more and more middle class Americans poorer and the elite wealthy fewer and richer, they could be doing the opposite and building the US up again as a formidable manufacturing power house that it once was in the 1940s and 1950s. People need to understand that the transition to a new world economy is not going to be an easy one, there are always going to be sacrifices made by the poorest of people. There are always going to be the people that are the elite few with the most money. But if we want a larger middle class, we have to be able to accept the new environment that will support it.

Allowing the Middle East to collapse would put Israel in the position to do what it has to do. Take out Iran, but let Israel do it. Take out Syria, allowing Arabs to clean up their own messes. America needs to be less interested in this part of the world. It has been fueled by our interest in its oil, an needless pursuit. It has no basis in common sense and in light of the the world economy failing on our accounting, we need to become less involved and start pulling out of world markets and concentrating on our internal problems. Imperialism is expensive and we cannot afford it. We were stronger when we worried less about the outside world, and I'm not necessarily saying that we should be strict isolationists. We should be promoting free market economy, not colonialism. We should keep our circle of allies small. We do this, it will make it so that over time, and as we gain more stability, we can influence others that want to be part of this circle of allies  rather than going out to them like a Ponzi Scheme and have them apply for membership with us.

Our military interests should be about protecting our borders and promoting our security. It should not be about inflicting our dated Cold War Agenda onto the regimes that won't live long on their own in a collapsing world market economy in the next ten years. Many of these old regimes that were allowed to exist during the Cold War, are failing because the internet has connected people in ways never before possible. Now we have Reporters without Borders--independent journalists that are reporting about what is ACTUALLY TAKING PLACE in countries like Syria.

It's like environmentalist that claim we are responsible for changing the environment of the globe. It's hard to prove that kind of a blanket claim, but the public keeps getting packaged and approved information with government and media endorsements supported by our favorite companies that produce goods we want in our lives everyday. It is about political change brought about by lobbyists pretending to be interested in defending the needs and wants of the American public, when all they are really accomplishing is corrupting our government and inflating it to levels so large and full of pork barrel spenders that it's hard to find the truth in anything.

Detroit, Michigan, St. Louis, Missouri, and now Baltmore, MD--failing cities because of our federal government driving away American manufacturing to third-world countries for cheap labor. Pittsburgh steel mills should be producing and keeping Americans employed supplying Detroit car makers. Massive cities are becoming ghost towns with no hope of recovery.

Who is John Galt?

I am sure that there are people out there that will not like this political point of view, people that would rather shoot me down for my opinions and ideas. That is fine. That is the one thing that makes this country a great one despite its politicians. I can say what I want about my elected officials and try to influence others into thinking with their brains and less with their wallets. I think that an approach that is less imperialistic, with a balance in isolationism, keeping our circle of allies small, and remaining focused on the truth are all vitues that lead to a more ideal way of life for our country, and inevitably, the world. If the majority of people in the working classes are working and living comfortably, we would have less obvious problems, and war would be less necessary with each year. Stability isn't about making everyone rich, or even about redistributing wealth. None of these things have ever worked for any form of government.

I highly recommend that you read "For Us the Living" by Robert Heinlein and "Atlas Shrugged," by Ayn Rand.

Government paying for a felon's sex reassignment surgery.

In the latest headlines, we have all been informed by the media that PFC Bradley Manning has decided to come out to the public and announce that he wants to become a woman and be referred to as Chelsey. Further reporting through CNN indicated that this was not a big mystery for the investigators and prosecutors in the case, that it was an issue that came up during the prosecution's presentation of the case. Manning's attorney is insisting that the Fort Leavenworth prison, where Manning is being incarcerated for his treasonous act of leaking classified materials--serving a 35 year sentence, is to begin the sex reassignment surgery preparatory hormone therapy.

Of course, the Army is going to deny this request. It is ridiculous to think that they would even be equipped, let along obligated to go through with such an expensive surgery. Not only that, but should the Army be required to do the surgery to anyone on active duty, let alone a convict in their custody? I think there are more important things the government should be spending money on and a gender reassignment on a on is not one of them. 

What surprises me is the number of people who support Manning having his way. I am confused by the fact that he seems to think that taxpayers should be flipping the bill for this. The bottom line is that a gender reassignment surgery is an elective alteration of the human body and is not a life threatening illness. For many people who wish to have the change as transgender, before they are able to undergo the procedures they must endure life as a woman and go through many months, sometimes years, of psychotherapy before they are approved. Somehow, I feel that Manning is making a mockery of this. To me, at least on the surface, this entire story seems like a narcissistic cry for attention. 

I can see the point of view (though not personally) from a person who has gone through this change. I have met four people who have gone through this transition and now have a better quality of life. But do people have a right to the surgery if they have committed a treasonous offence? I guess the argument that is being made here is that if this is considered a medical condition by the world of medicine and psychology, then I could see the man being granted his request. However, he did not tell the Army of his condition prior to his enlistment. Therefore, I think the government is in the right to deny him this treatment. One of the first things that the military processing centers ask prospective service members (I've been through this myself) is if there are any pre-existing medical or psychological conditions that could cause an interruption or complicate one's ability to carry out their orders while on active duty. I think that "feeling like being in the wrong gender's body" would be a HUGE one! So even though I agree with the rest of the world that being born as the wrong gender constitutes the need for a gender reassignment surgery with the appropriate preparatory therapy for both the emotional and physical attributes, I don't believe that Manning has ever been truthful about anything and that his withholding of this information is a true testament as to how deceitful he really is.

I first posted about this troublesome story on my Facebook page after I learned of it in an article on CNN. My main focus in my initial response was very straight forward in that I was mainly focused on the fact that he is a convicted felon, having been through the just course of due process through the military courts. If there is anything that I've learned about military justice, is that a court martial will find out the truth. Military courts do not allow much wiggle room in the shade of grey areas of law like in the civilian world. The military has a level of discipline that is relevant to both sides of the cases they here--defendants are groomed by the military through their training and cultural day-to-day living standards just as the attorneys that prosecute them for crimes allegedly committed--even more-so as the officers have even a higher standard of expectations than the enlisted. Though many people may not agree--because most people are disenchanted by the government or the military in light of the current political views and trends of the times--the truth is that the military has the most disciplined justice system that is untainted by special interest groups and lawyers--and it is still held up to the same standards as the civilian counterparts through the Supreme Courts.

America would be a much different place if the civilian courts were as disciplined--and I am sure that there are judges out there who believe they are even though I personally don't believe it--and frivolous lawsuits do not exist in military courts. Military courts are about one thing--JUSTICE. They are unforgiving-ly impartial. They work strictly by the evidence presented and the punishments or awards are strictly rewarded. The Uniformed Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) governs each branch of the military services and has been only slightly modified over the years to keep it current with the times--mainly to keep it in line with the rulings of the Supreme Court and guarantee the rights of the individual. But that isn't really the focus of this blog entry--but mainly it's just a supportive statement I'm making. If Manning is guilty, he was justifiably tried and found as guilty. If he was innocent, he would have been found so. But even the innocent are not 100% free of guilt because in the military culture, discipline in the ranks is paramount and the actions of the individual are 100% accountable--therefore, something had to have happened to land the individual into the courts in the first place. In the process of finding the argument for the prosecution, all angles of investigation are pursued and all the little details are found out and presented. Nothing is allowed to go unchecked. And this is where civilian society often times will be confused as to how justified and fair the military courts are. If there is corruption, it will be rooted out through due process.

Ironically, the military justice system is modeled after it's civilian counterparts, but with 100% accountability of both sides. I know this from personal experience--another story for another time.

The root of the problem lies in the civilian jouralists that want to sell headline stories for commercial interests. This is a story that has scandal written and woven all around and through it. This is a story that will grab the attention of the media and tug at the heart-strings of millions of simpathetic and ignorant Americans who--as of late--have been romantically blinded by the underdogs that have sold out our security to our foreign and domestic enemies in the name of "patriotism." I shudder to think that anyone really knows what the world "patriotism" means because if anyone feels "badly" for a man that spills sensative information about our national security, then the don't know what patriotism is.

Our presidents have all made decisions that are on both sides of the spectrum of American acceptance. Popular decisions are going to obviously be the source of positive opinion polls--common sense and logic decrees this. It's the unpopular decisions that create a grey area that only history itself will realize the full potential of. The passage of time is the unforgiving arbitrator of decisions made for the benefit of all Americans. Many people blame President Bush (Jr.) for the middle eastern conflicts, the negative impacts of the Patriot Act, multibillion-dollar bail-out plans for major corporations, and the list goes on and on. But what many people tend to be blinded by is that in current events, the Middle East is still a hot mess of Al-Qaeda terrorist cells that can still reach out and kill Americans at will. Despite all the intelligence reports, money and influence of the American Federal Government, advanced weapons technology, tighter airport security, and heightened awareness through intense surveillance of our broadcast communications and internet, we will always have enemies of the state that will continue to remain aloof and a few steps ahead in the relentless pursuit they continue to perpetuate in what our government has called the "War on Terror."

Now, for the heart of the the argument:

I think the major problem with this country starts with the liberalism movement, and their conservative counterparts butting heads and doing everything in their prospective powers to prevent their opposing sides or opinions to be heard. This is a bipartisan nightmare that has gone on for decades and our checks and balances of the federal government have been unable to get the job done because they fail to be impartial themselves. When the checks and balances of the three branches of the federal government are allowed to be bought by the bipartisan counterparts, they become compromised. This starts a cascading effect that influences all the constituency of our nation, right down to the trans-sexual PFC Manning.

Everything that has been going on in this "high profile" case is a result of our society. The reason why our government is big, bloated, pork barrel spenders, corrupted, contemptuous of American opinion is because it is a direct reflection of our society. There are so many people that are unhappy in our country, that our own federal government is trying to legally pass laws to prevent the constituency from retaliating against it. Americans continue to vote into power the same politicians that pass frivolous laws that fleece money from the American people in an effort to justify their own frivolous existence and salaries that accompany their job descriptions.

I don't feel that my views are "1950's arcane ideas." I was accused of this, and also of being "poor," by a person on my Facebook page that I've not spoken to in person, only knew as an acquaintance from Pacific Lutheran University several years ago, and basically lit me on fire with liberal leftest views.

I am of the mindset of "live and let-live" when it comes to political ideas. Not all socialism is bad, as I also believe in capitalism.  But you have to be careful with socialism--it can become corrupted even faster than capitalism. People that are put in charge of other people and their ability to move up in society are easily corrupted by capitalists through lobbyists. This is where socialism and capitalism brought together create hippocracy. There is a level of common sense that needs to be found in the regulation of politicians and lobbyists. Promises of political support in favor of various corporate interests through financing political campaigns or awarding special favors through lavish gifts in leau of financial gain is the root of our political and social immorality.

Until this is addressed in a forum where voters are present to voice their needs and concerns, our government is doomed to fail and fold in on itself in a dismal failure that our founding fathers would be ashamed of. Our constitution is muddled into a corrupted form of itself that it cannot legally function as a governing document--a testament to the corruption of the past 100 years. And what will it look like if it allowed to evolve in this way in another 100 years? I don't think it's going to function another twenty. I think the federal government is going to collapse, right long with the worthless money it's been printing.

Should PFC Manning be granted a sex change demand? NO. It's like Obama demanding the American people accept Obama Care without due process. It's like 100,000 other issues that we Americans are aware or unaware of that affects our daily lives--issues that we may or may not have a voting say in. It's like the many taxes that are imposed by all tiers of our government from the local level on up to Capitol Hill--Washington D.C. all done for "fines, inspections, permits, licensing, fees, taxes, etc." Everything we pay out to an agency of government is a tax. Many of these fees were never approved by the American citizens--and why do we continue to pay them?

The War on Terror. . . is it patriotism. . . .or is it a tax?

The War on Drugs. . . . is it pursuit of criminal prosecutions. . . . or is it a tax?

The Patriot Act. . . . .is it in protection of American citizens. . . or is it a tax?

Are any of these things justifiable? Sure, depending on which side of the argument you are standing--and the debate continues unabated as it always has. But there is such as thing as the difference between justice and fairness as opposed to the sum of both. It is about which of the two is logically more affordable--not just in dollars, but also in idealism and the longevity and viability of what is supposed to be the American Dream.

Granting an inmate a sex change when he or she was not truthful about their condition prior to their contract obligations of their employment, is not in keeping with the standards of the American way of life, the Bill of Rights in which it's governed, and a slap in the face of every American that needs a transgender procedure and cannot afford one.

I fail to see where my views are "1950's arcane" or I'm labeled as "poor" because of my own lifestyle, past, or present living conditions, or education and ideas. If you think that, then you are ignorant and need to read more about current events and study a bit more history--or just keep your opinion to yourself. I also reserve the right to change my own mind as life would allow me too.

Thanks for reading the blog. Please feel free to comment. If you have an opposing view and can make it without calling me an asshole or acting like one, your comment will be welcome.

Windows 8

I hate Windows 7 & 8. They are the most convoluted operating systems that I've ever worked with. I have never seen such a shitty system that can't even connect to a printer through a wireless network connection, even after it was successfully configured earlier in the same day. What makes the network any different than it was during an earlier computing session when all the ips have remained "static?"

Not only that, but Microsoft has found it important enough to make their new operating system look like Windows Phone.. . . aaaaaah. .  .and thus, for XP and Vista users, it makes the transition directly into Windows 8 a major learning curve.

I don't like how programs open in the new Windows 8 and act like individual desktops, or when you launch a program's function and the window opens in another "desktop" area, and unless us you alt/tab to find it, you might be sitting there waiting for the window to appear for an eternity. . . 

HP printers that work on a wireless network, cannot connect with Windows 8 and stay connected, or be configured by USB cable, or be manually configured from the printer itself without there being some dramatic explosion of emotions from the operator!  And shame on HP, for making a proprietory printer software suite for Windows 8 that won't communicate with it!

Windows 8 is the most convoluted, difficult, contankerous, bullshit, buggy, glitchy, P.O.S. operating system I have ever encountered in my life. Millenium was better configured. . . . .

Today, I had more issues getting the downstairs printer to work with the Windows 8 computers than I've ever encountered before. However, when I got on this computer, programmed with Linux Debian 7, I used the CUPS administrator and was able to connect the printer, an HP Officejet AIO, and printed the documents I needed. later in the day, when the Windows 8 computer failed to do it, I was able to print from my laptop again, wirelessly. Samba worked transparently.

If I buy a new laptop this year, I'm wiping the drive of Windows 8 and installing Linux Debian 7.

Microsoft still sucks. Congratulations for wasting countless manhours all around the globe as I am sure that I am not the only person that has ever experienced this issue. Microsoft has, again, prematurely launched software that has so many issues and design flaws, that I wonder who the hell designs things over there in Redmond, WA. They need to pull their heads out of their asses and get with the program an create software that we can actually depend on and use without having to hack our own computers just to find basic functions.

Linux rules.  . . . simplicity in Gnome 3 and choices to tailor the operating system with less learning curve for the computer savvy. Do a Google search on any issues in linux, there will be 50 answers with ways to handle the problems in tutorials and step-by-step instructions on forums.

Pontification

On Wednesday, I was accused of being a Pontiff. I was told that I was "pontificating" about my book through my own ideas. (An obvious and pernicious statement when you think about it, actually). "More pernicious still has been the acceptance of the author's controversial ideas by the general public."

The Pontiff is the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pontificate is the term of office of the pope or a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Pontification is a speech made by the Pope.

WARNING: The following paragraph may make your brain hurt. Read at your own risk. The author assumes no liability for tumors, aggravation, anxiety, mental defect, loss of consciousness, or other mental or physical health related issues caused the reader.

As I get older and more learn-ed about the world through various literal sources and experience, my intuitive brain makes subconscious links to information through cross-references that my cognitive brain may not understand right away. And as I continue to grow in experience, those autonomic links of information become more and more literal understandings of my cognitive recollection of information that I have not personally accessed in a deliberate attempt or by even an educated guess. In short, does this define "epiphany?" Hmmmmmm. . .  get it? I shall continue this pontification.

To pontificate is not a verb, according to Miriam-Webster. I even tried to find it as a verb on wikipedia.org. Both of these sources are governed by American language authors or language authorities. English in America vs. English in Great Britain varies in mild differences of pronunciation or definitions of words. But when you look at British definitions, pontificate is a verb as well. It's not recognized as a verb in American dictionaries. But more and more Americans are adopting this definition in an effort to sound more intelligent. Somehow, we Americans seem to think that if we sound like we are British we are smarter.

Ironically, the Spanish word for "pontificate" is a noun as it is in American English and it is "el pontificado." So would the preterate form if trans-mutated into a "verbo" be "pontificar?" or would they use "pontificir or pontificer?" I hope it's an ar verb--they are easier to conjugate.

Yo pontifico

Tu pontificas

Usted pontifica

Ellos pantifican

Nosotros pantificamos

Vosotros pantificaís

In the British definition of the word, it means to speak or write and give your opinion about something as if you knew everything about it and as if only your opinion was correct. 

So, Pontiff-the Pope-is the know-it-all of the Christian faith, and seeing how he is the foremost authority on all that is God and Jesus, is--by his opinion and that of his followers--the greatest authority and next to Godliness through his pontificate and his pontifications. So, when someone says that a person is pontificating, they are saying that person is a bullshitter! So the Pope is the leading bullshitter of the Christian world?

So, why was I accused of pontificating? I don't take it as an insult, because I am the end-all and be-all of the book I am writing! I was describing the bold new re-write and reconstruction of my novel at writer's group. I wanted to express how I was going to change the course of the book through a rewrite of the main character's personality. I also included a quick read of my blog entry on my theory of life-critical mass. Using my ideas about critical mass being the very nature of the universe, and how it has influenced the evolution of man, would be best described as life is a series of critical mass scenarios, followed by the consequences or the after-calm. As it is often said, after the storm settles and the dust clears, one must pick up the pieces of the aftermath. 

Now, I realize that there was not real insult meant by the comment and the individual was just meaning it in jest, and if you have read my blog entries preceding this one, you can tell that I am rather long-winded. It may take a while to get to the point. But isn't that the true skill of a writer. Do we writers all "pontificate" (in the British sense of the word) when we do what we do? Perhaps this blog entry is a "pontification" and if so, where do I go to get my papal garb? I always wanted a funny hat like the Pope's. Would make for great nun jokes. . . 

So when people read Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek," is he the "pontiff of the United Federation of Planets?" YES! HE IS! And now that he is dead, he can be considered to be the "GOD" of said federation! And that all future writers basing their ideas in HIS micro-verse would be "pontiffs" and be considered "Trekkie Gospels according to Rick Burman or J.J. Abrams." He did create it from his imagination. So that would make me a "god" as well! Or any writer that creates a world or universe on paper or in an electronic literary medium! A micro-verse. And since I consider George Lucas to be a bit on the evil (dark) side of SciFi due to his savvy business dealings creating a false prequal to the original trilogy, then he would be the "DEVIL." Interesting. So I could say, "Gene Roddenberry is to GOD as George Lucas is to Satan." Or, depending on who you talk to, that could be reversed. Of course everyone has an opinion. So we could go like this: "Gene Roddenberry is to Book of Mormon as George Lucas is to Koran." Again, that could be reversed to, but I consider both books mentioned in the previous sentence to be neither of my personal beliefs, so no insult or political correctness was intended.

So, if we all wanted to be technical and use British vernacular to describe what we are doing as writers, we would all be Pontif's of our own micro-verses. And our pontifications would be eternal as we pontificate through our "scriptures."

I won't apologize if I bored you with my "sermon-assertion" at writer's group. **snicker**

Here ends the lesson.

Complacency, comment I made on Facebook

This was in response to a comment my mother made on her facebook, citing comments made by Bill Cosby on the state of social acceptability and education in our country.

"Just like when I hear people in America using British vernacular because they think they are educated by doing so. It's so phony. Or when a French Horn student in a PRIVATE UNIVERSITY ON SCHOLARSHIP has a double horn and don't know what the thumb trigger is for, or what note a C major scale starts with. Or the strung out black woman peeing in the corner by the front door of AM/PM down the street from PLU--late at night. I cringe at the very existence of complacency. And we live in the--once--most powerful and wealthy nation on the planet. But, unfortunately, this is the new world we live in. Hurray for literacy! I just hope that there will be enough people that know how to read or do math without the aid of a machine in ten years. If not, then I think we are a dying breed Mom! Bill Cosby is a personal hero. He calls it like it is. You should hear what he has to say about Obama. And Cosby is a very balanced debater. He doesn't just see the negative in everything, and he does offer up solutions. Unfortunately, those solutions are things that require time, energy equaling to work--something that laziness in people prevents. The older I get, the less tolerant I am of ignorance, rudeness, and complacency. If someone want's to bitch about the government, education, or social systems of our country, they should be able to read a ballot and write in their choices for elected office. And while they do it, show proof of VALID CITIZENSHIP. Loveyamuchly! Thank you for kicking me in the ass as a kid all those years for academics, and for instilling a love of literature through a passion for books--and not just the fun fantasy stuff but hard information. Information, knowledge are power--therefore--literacy is the strongest ammunition. Without literacy, how could a person read and understand the 2nd Amendment?"

Government corruptions affects what you eat and feed to your children.

I'm not sure if I entirely believe in "secret agendas" of ASPCA and other organizations that run animal shelters. I've been seeing a lot of posts by animal breeders here on Facebook that claim that if the ASPCA had its way, they would make it so that humans couldn't own animals. I think that is a pretty wild accusation that isn't based in reality. I do believe, however, that there are legislators that would like to change how rabbits are bred, and that if the rules were changed or made into laws, that it would fundamentally destroy ARBA in Washington State. How this would happed is by tampering with breeder's purse strings--how else. It's like anything else that Washington State taxes so they can add more money for earmarking and misappropriate as they always do. What Olympia legislators want to do is to change how rabbits are viewed by society and the government at large. They want to classify rabbits as "pets" and not be used for agricultural purposes, such as human consumption. The United States is the only country in the world that does not recognize rabbit as a form of meat production.

I've read articles about how chefs from abroad have come to the US looking for sources of rabbit to use in their menu. There is a growing desire in American society for rabbit to be included in the menus of fine dining establishments but there are no suppliers producing large enough quantities.

There are benefits all across the board for using rabbits as livestock. They virtually cost less money to raise than chickens or water foul and have a meat that is very similar. They are also the most lean meat that you can consume. They are easy to process and they reproduce with such regularity that their numbers can be produced more radically  than chickens or other livestock. They can be processed much more quickly from birth than chickens. Rabbits are not just great pets for the family, but a food source that anyone can raise for virtually nothing out of pocket because rabbits eat very little, can eat hay or grass, produce larger litters of kits, and their pelts can be used for a variety of industries.

In times of economic struggle--which seems to be never-ending in our lives and there is no hope of a speedy recovery--small farmers find themselves unable to sell their produce or meats because of entities like the FDA. It all has to do with the value of the once mighty US Dollar and the taxes that our state and federal government want to generate by lying to you about the "evil" of whole milk verses pasteurized milk from a cow that has been genetically modified through the hybrid grain it's being fed while she's tied in a pen where she cannot move and spend most of her life in on a corporate farm. The same farms that are paid to overproduce or under-produce while the local farms are struggling to pay their mortgages and are forced into selling out to the larger corporations. This kind of behavior is being done to manipulate world markets through commodities.

Our country has been about wasteful spending of our money and our future generations' money (those that haven't been born to even earn it yet) and continues to spend money that doesn't even exist in reality. Politicians would have you believe that their jobs are so important by justifying them through the pork barrel spending that they have "sworn to stop doing."

So the point of this post is to redirect those who would point the finger in the wrong direction. Animal shelters are not the evil ne'erdowells here. It's your home-grown politicians who see your money in your wallet that you earned as their money to bath in and play around with. Funny thing is that the money in your wallet and in their coffers is worth ZERO. There isn't enough gold in the whole of Planet Earth to back it and the only thing that is are empty political promises that reek deception.

Our country is using our own people against one another to further its existence through corruption. Everyone should buy their produce, milk, meat, and eggs from local farms. Buy meat rabbits and eat food that is far more healthier than that you would by from your local corporate grocer. Why should we continue to support corruption in government by continuing to play into their trap. Keep your dollars and cents in your local businesses and farms. And when the time comes, don't vote rabbits to be "pets" but rather tell politicians that they are livestock. Keeping them as livestock prevents them from being animals that are found in shelters like cats and dogs. Rabbits can be pets for those who chose to keep them as pets. Let the rest of us use them for their intended purpose in nature.

In con-conclusion, if there is a way for people like you are me to make a living that is healthy, benefits ourselves and others, and cuts out big corporate farms that provide political campaign monies through lobbyists, you can guarantee that there will be laws set to prevent it or punish us through money or prison time.