Satori in Oakland
Hey, Kerouac had to go to Paris
I get to do it right here in Oaktown
Land of the free, home of the brave
and hey, is this real satori, or
am i just bullshitting myself
maybe trying to bullshit you
pumping myself up with my own self importance
the way poets do
when they're wearing plaid sweatpants and a grey T shirt
and hey, does it matter about
my satori
when what matters is
your satori
___________________
What went wrong?
What went wrong?
Was it a word, a look, a hurt feeling
a small wound that festered, growing
more toxic with the passage of the years
perhaps a succession of such small wounds
Was it a great gaping wound
some large injury
done to him at some time in his life, who knows when
a wound which no one knew about, and so
when the worst happened
everyone was shocked
was it what was done to him
the largeness or smallness of it, or
was it the bitterness with which
he regarded it, obsessed over it
almost cherished it with his thoughts and attention
turning it over and over in his mind
like some dark poisonous spider
could it have been prevented, stopped
ameliorated by some intervention, whose intervention?
Did he ask for help, cry for help, turn away help, say
no, nothing's wrong with me, I'm OK
leave me alone
Who knew, and who should have known
could have known
did know?
The end result, shock waves
rippling through
family, friends, acquaintances
even people to whom he was just an article in the paper
a story they heard
one more human tragedy
one more confirmation to them of what they already knew
or thought they knew
an excuse to vent fears, anger, frustration
because if it could happen to him
maybe it could happen to them
or someone close to them
so if they can make some sense of it
even to say "he deserved what he got"
maybe they can feel a tad bit safer
in a world where it seems like
anything can happen
at any time
So what went wrong?
How to make some sense of it?
I don't know
Friday, August 7, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Health care
Human beings are not machines. Emotions are the key to health.
Any health care system that relies on western allopathic medicine-brutal, expensive, ineffective-is doomed to failure.
The AMA drove "alternative" healing out because it was cheap, gentle and effective.
Any health care system that relies on western allopathic medicine-brutal, expensive, ineffective-is doomed to failure.
The AMA drove "alternative" healing out because it was cheap, gentle and effective.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Health Care Video
take the time to watch just the first five minutes of this video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5528328984547372206
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5528328984547372206
Dear President Obama
Dear President Obama,
You have a responsibility to investigate the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by the Bush-Cheney administration.
Using terrorism as an excuse, they did their best to pervert America from a democracy to a dictatorship. Most Americans still do not know that, and therein lies the danger, because the next administration to try it might succeed, unless people realize the danger.
Now they attack Pelosi. It is as if a gang of murderers wanted to blame a witness, and all the wimpocrats do is issue feeble denials, rather than attack, attack, attack. If the situation were reversed, we all know how the Republicans would act.
--
be well,
jay
You have a responsibility to investigate the high crimes and misdemeanors committed by the Bush-Cheney administration.
Using terrorism as an excuse, they did their best to pervert America from a democracy to a dictatorship. Most Americans still do not know that, and therein lies the danger, because the next administration to try it might succeed, unless people realize the danger.
Now they attack Pelosi. It is as if a gang of murderers wanted to blame a witness, and all the wimpocrats do is issue feeble denials, rather than attack, attack, attack. If the situation were reversed, we all know how the Republicans would act.
--
be well,
jay
Two halves=one whole
The left does a very accurate job of describing how the political and economic structures of this country and many others are set up to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, how people are victims of oppression. It ignores personal responsibility. Many people are just as much victims of themselves, of their own arrogance and ignorance, and too often make the worst of a bad situation.
The Right, on the other hand, totally preaches personal responsibility, yet seems totally oblivious to the fact that if employers are paying low and landlords are charging high, people are screwed, and that this is no accident, instead it is the deliberate result of what amounts to a conspiracy.
The left says we all need to take care of each other, but ignores that we need to do a good job of taking care of ourselves. The Right says people deserve what they get, and every man is responsible for himself.
Personal responsibility-social responsibility. Two halves=one whole.
The Right, on the other hand, totally preaches personal responsibility, yet seems totally oblivious to the fact that if employers are paying low and landlords are charging high, people are screwed, and that this is no accident, instead it is the deliberate result of what amounts to a conspiracy.
The left says we all need to take care of each other, but ignores that we need to do a good job of taking care of ourselves. The Right says people deserve what they get, and every man is responsible for himself.
Personal responsibility-social responsibility. Two halves=one whole.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Open Letter
This is meant to be a chain letter. If you find the ideas in it worth sharing please forward it.
--------
Dear Members of Meetup and other groups working to make the world a better place,
If environmental pollution causes us to get cancer, or if global warming destroys food crops, all our massage, NVC, yoga, meditation, vegetarianism, dancing, and everything else will not save us. The figure commonly used is that 1 in 3 Americans gets cancer in their lifetime. Can anyone doubt that a large portion of the cause is environmental pollution.
What can we do?
i offer below some small actions. Will these small actions save the planet? Hell no!, but,
when our friends see us doing them, perhaps they will do them too, and when enough people get the message that environmental pollution and destruction poses a clear and present danger, a greater threat to our health and safety than Al Quaeda, Iran, North Korea, and the economic meltdown, all combined, then some big changes will happen.
It constantly shocks me how seemingly nice, intelligent, well intentioned people just don't seem to grasp the connection between the coffee cup they threw away, and global warming,don't seem to grasp the enormity and the urgency of what's going on, and live their lives in a way inconsistent with the values they espouse with their words. Enough talking the talk. It's time to walk the walk.
OK, 3 very small ideas, the big idea being, to start adopting into your every day life positive actions.
1) You know that you are going to shop. Just keep some cloth shopping bags with you at all times, probably in your car.
2) You know that you are going to eat and drink. Just bring a lunch kit: coffee cup, plate, utensils, cloth napkin, especially to Meetup and other events
3) Form carpool groups for all events.
That's it. Of course there are a host of other actions that could be taken, but let's make a start, a start to remembering that every action has consequences. Do i expect people to be perfect? Hell no. Am i perfect? Probably not in this lifetime, and, don't use that an excuse for lack of diligence.
I hear a lot of people talking the eco talk. Let's at least take the baby steps towards walking the walk, and remember:
In metaphysical terms, the smallest actions are important, symbolic actions are important. With every action you do, every word you speak, every thought you think, you are making a statement to the universe about what kind of world you want to live in.
here's a link to a funny little video, The Story of Stuff http://www.storyofstuff.com/
--
be well,
jay
--------
Dear Members of Meetup and other groups working to make the world a better place,
If environmental pollution causes us to get cancer, or if global warming destroys food crops, all our massage, NVC, yoga, meditation, vegetarianism, dancing, and everything else will not save us. The figure commonly used is that 1 in 3 Americans gets cancer in their lifetime. Can anyone doubt that a large portion of the cause is environmental pollution.
What can we do?
i offer below some small actions. Will these small actions save the planet? Hell no!, but,
when our friends see us doing them, perhaps they will do them too, and when enough people get the message that environmental pollution and destruction poses a clear and present danger, a greater threat to our health and safety than Al Quaeda, Iran, North Korea, and the economic meltdown, all combined, then some big changes will happen.
It constantly shocks me how seemingly nice, intelligent, well intentioned people just don't seem to grasp the connection between the coffee cup they threw away, and global warming,don't seem to grasp the enormity and the urgency of what's going on, and live their lives in a way inconsistent with the values they espouse with their words. Enough talking the talk. It's time to walk the walk.
OK, 3 very small ideas, the big idea being, to start adopting into your every day life positive actions.
1) You know that you are going to shop. Just keep some cloth shopping bags with you at all times, probably in your car.
2) You know that you are going to eat and drink. Just bring a lunch kit: coffee cup, plate, utensils, cloth napkin, especially to Meetup and other events
3) Form carpool groups for all events.
That's it. Of course there are a host of other actions that could be taken, but let's make a start, a start to remembering that every action has consequences. Do i expect people to be perfect? Hell no. Am i perfect? Probably not in this lifetime, and, don't use that an excuse for lack of diligence.
I hear a lot of people talking the eco talk. Let's at least take the baby steps towards walking the walk, and remember:
In metaphysical terms, the smallest actions are important, symbolic actions are important. With every action you do, every word you speak, every thought you think, you are making a statement to the universe about what kind of world you want to live in.
here's a link to a funny little video, The Story of Stuff http://www.storyofstuff.com/
--
be well,
jay
We Can Do Better!
WATCH THIS VIDEO http://storyofstuff.com/downloads.html
---------------------------------------------
All problems in human society come from very simple causes
1) COMPASSION, OR THE LACK OF IT
Everybody cares, but how far do the boundaries of compassion extend? Do we just care about ourselves and our families and friends. Do we care what happens to somebody else, especially if we will never meet or even see that someone else. Our city, our class, our race, animals; trees.
2) FEAR, usually fear that there is not enough for everybody, meaning that we can't afford to help others, because then we won't have enough for ourselves.
3) WISDOM, VISION, CLARITY, SEEING DEEPLY
different words for the same thing.
When you turn on a light, do you see the power plant upstream, the garbage dump the whole light fixture will inevitably end up in.
Every action has consequences and implications, direct and indirect. Do you understand how the simplest actions of your life, such as buying a pizza, are not simple, in fact are the result of a very complicated manufacturing and supply chain? Seeing that is wisdom, taking things for granted is foolish.
If you really thought through, as best as you could, all the consequences and implications of how you are living, you would live very differently, and, my belief, be happier and healthier.
It's all really very simple:
selfishness, fear, and shortsightedness, or compassion, courage, and wisdom.
------------------------
WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE ECONOMY?
In the simplest of terms, the people who kept it going, the poor and middle class people who created the demand for goods and services, don't have enough money to spend to keep the whole house of cards going,
BECAUSE
the rich got so greedy, downsized so many people, didn't pay enough people good wages , moved factories offshore, and raised executive salaries through the roof while doing it.
Everything else is a detail.
Productivity went way up, profits went way up, and the owners and executives kept it all for themselves. Occasionally tossing the workers a few crumbs, usually firing them and making one person do the work that used to be done by two people.
Food chains are built on the little critters at the bottom of the food chain. When they aren't doing well, the whole food chain collapses. Henry Ford understood that it benefited him to pay his workers enough to buy his cars.
AND MAYBE THERE'S A BRIGHT SIDE
My personal belief is that environmental pollution is responsible for a lot of cancer, heart disease, asthma, and everything else.
The more we consume=the more poisons we create.
Less consumption=less cancer (and maybe you're the person who won't get it)
I think the whole idea of an economy based on production of material goods is dead, and we are seeing that in our health. This planet can only handle a certain level of toxins, whereas current economic models say that growth is good. That's wrong. Of course everyone needs to have their needs met in a comfortable way, food, shelter, etc.. but the way we're doing it very often results in watching your loved ones suffer as a result of toxins produced by the same system that employs you.
WE CAN DO BETTER!
---------------------------------------------
All problems in human society come from very simple causes
1) COMPASSION, OR THE LACK OF IT
Everybody cares, but how far do the boundaries of compassion extend? Do we just care about ourselves and our families and friends. Do we care what happens to somebody else, especially if we will never meet or even see that someone else. Our city, our class, our race, animals; trees.
2) FEAR, usually fear that there is not enough for everybody, meaning that we can't afford to help others, because then we won't have enough for ourselves.
3) WISDOM, VISION, CLARITY, SEEING DEEPLY
different words for the same thing.
When you turn on a light, do you see the power plant upstream, the garbage dump the whole light fixture will inevitably end up in.
Every action has consequences and implications, direct and indirect. Do you understand how the simplest actions of your life, such as buying a pizza, are not simple, in fact are the result of a very complicated manufacturing and supply chain? Seeing that is wisdom, taking things for granted is foolish.
If you really thought through, as best as you could, all the consequences and implications of how you are living, you would live very differently, and, my belief, be happier and healthier.
It's all really very simple:
selfishness, fear, and shortsightedness, or compassion, courage, and wisdom.
------------------------
WHAT WENT WRONG WITH THE ECONOMY?
In the simplest of terms, the people who kept it going, the poor and middle class people who created the demand for goods and services, don't have enough money to spend to keep the whole house of cards going,
BECAUSE
the rich got so greedy, downsized so many people, didn't pay enough people good wages , moved factories offshore, and raised executive salaries through the roof while doing it.
Everything else is a detail.
Productivity went way up, profits went way up, and the owners and executives kept it all for themselves. Occasionally tossing the workers a few crumbs, usually firing them and making one person do the work that used to be done by two people.
Food chains are built on the little critters at the bottom of the food chain. When they aren't doing well, the whole food chain collapses. Henry Ford understood that it benefited him to pay his workers enough to buy his cars.
AND MAYBE THERE'S A BRIGHT SIDE
My personal belief is that environmental pollution is responsible for a lot of cancer, heart disease, asthma, and everything else.
The more we consume=the more poisons we create.
Less consumption=less cancer (and maybe you're the person who won't get it)
I think the whole idea of an economy based on production of material goods is dead, and we are seeing that in our health. This planet can only handle a certain level of toxins, whereas current economic models say that growth is good. That's wrong. Of course everyone needs to have their needs met in a comfortable way, food, shelter, etc.. but the way we're doing it very often results in watching your loved ones suffer as a result of toxins produced by the same system that employs you.
WE CAN DO BETTER!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Living Well
Ok, so you've read my earlier blog posts, and lots of other similar material, and you're saying "life sucks, and then you die".
The delicate balancing act of life is to keep the spiritual eye open to the higher truths, to live a life of integrity, to keep a good attitude, and a smile, to take care of your health, to not let stress chew at you and destroy your health, to eat well, take care of your body, have good relationships, etc
AND
to see the world as it is, to see through all the lies we are told and the frauds we are sold, to not just accept the propaganda, the brainwashing, the bullshit.
I'll tell my own story. A few years back, i was getting so upset, taking on so much stress, about all the "problems of the world", thinking about it so much, that my health started to go down. i really had the feeling that if i didn't find some way of dealing with this, that i wouldn't be around much longer.
I have a long background and repertoire of spiritual practices. I meditate, do yoga, vegetarian, all that stuff. In this case it saved my life.
I started doing a practice of sending energy up to my third eye, of holding the intention, praying, if you want to call it that, that i be allowed to see the world with the eye of spirit, because to my human eyes, it looked like it was bad and getting worse.
What ended up happening, is that i started getting the understanding, the deep intuition or feeling, that the world was a one room schoolhouse, that we are all here, and have chosen to incarnate here, in this time, in the midst of these problems, for the purpose of learning lessons. One of the biggest, and for me, probably my own personal most important lesson, is to not hate those who do wrong, to see them as the wounded, sick individuals they are, rather than as "bad" people. To see the innate goodness deep in the soul of even the most horrendous torturer.
And, ultimately, i received the understanding that we are all, as Wayne Dyer says, spiritual beings having a material experience. Our essence is not wetted by water, not dried by wind, not cloven by a sword, not burned by fire. Our bodies are like suits of clothes. If something happens, you can always get a new one.
That may all sound pretty pie in the sky to materialistic types who believe in no higher reality than what they can touch, taste and smell. Until you do some practices, which open up your energy body and higher centers, it's all just a bunch of words, until you start opening up higher modes of perception.
I personally believe that anyone living in this world, especially those trying to change the world for the better, owe it to themselves to give themselves the spiritual and psychic nutrition they need, and this is done through every day practice. I am not trying to sell any particular brand. There are a lot of different choices, what is important is to do something.
Now you can see from my other blog posts that i still react to wrongs, but I now have a sense that, as Martin Luther King said, "the arc of history is towards justice".
good luck
The delicate balancing act of life is to keep the spiritual eye open to the higher truths, to live a life of integrity, to keep a good attitude, and a smile, to take care of your health, to not let stress chew at you and destroy your health, to eat well, take care of your body, have good relationships, etc
AND
to see the world as it is, to see through all the lies we are told and the frauds we are sold, to not just accept the propaganda, the brainwashing, the bullshit.
I'll tell my own story. A few years back, i was getting so upset, taking on so much stress, about all the "problems of the world", thinking about it so much, that my health started to go down. i really had the feeling that if i didn't find some way of dealing with this, that i wouldn't be around much longer.
I have a long background and repertoire of spiritual practices. I meditate, do yoga, vegetarian, all that stuff. In this case it saved my life.
I started doing a practice of sending energy up to my third eye, of holding the intention, praying, if you want to call it that, that i be allowed to see the world with the eye of spirit, because to my human eyes, it looked like it was bad and getting worse.
What ended up happening, is that i started getting the understanding, the deep intuition or feeling, that the world was a one room schoolhouse, that we are all here, and have chosen to incarnate here, in this time, in the midst of these problems, for the purpose of learning lessons. One of the biggest, and for me, probably my own personal most important lesson, is to not hate those who do wrong, to see them as the wounded, sick individuals they are, rather than as "bad" people. To see the innate goodness deep in the soul of even the most horrendous torturer.
And, ultimately, i received the understanding that we are all, as Wayne Dyer says, spiritual beings having a material experience. Our essence is not wetted by water, not dried by wind, not cloven by a sword, not burned by fire. Our bodies are like suits of clothes. If something happens, you can always get a new one.
That may all sound pretty pie in the sky to materialistic types who believe in no higher reality than what they can touch, taste and smell. Until you do some practices, which open up your energy body and higher centers, it's all just a bunch of words, until you start opening up higher modes of perception.
I personally believe that anyone living in this world, especially those trying to change the world for the better, owe it to themselves to give themselves the spiritual and psychic nutrition they need, and this is done through every day practice. I am not trying to sell any particular brand. There are a lot of different choices, what is important is to do something.
Now you can see from my other blog posts that i still react to wrongs, but I now have a sense that, as Martin Luther King said, "the arc of history is towards justice".
good luck
Saturday, April 4, 2009
is america a one party state?
Is America a one party state, the CORPORATE CAPITALIST PARTY? Are the Democratic and Republican parties like the left and right wings of this party, the Wage Slavery party, with the Democratic party representing a kinder, gentler version, while the Republicans are more hard nosed.
Are they like the slaveholders of the pre Civil War South, where some of the slaveholders starved their slaves and didn't give them enough time to rest, while others saw the wisdom in taking better care of their slaves, however both shared the unquestioning assumption that the slaves existed for the benefit of the owners, that the slaves' purpose in life was to be slaves.
Let's look at our "free" elections
1) a winner take all system, which means that you only have to get part of the electorate to believe your lies, rather than having to moderate policies, as in a parlimentary, proportional representation system. The two party system discourages and silences any voices too far off the mainstream. Third parties are rendered a joke, because they have no chance of winning, thus people will not vote for them, thus, they have no chance of winning.
2) Money and advertising, in effect, buy elections. The rich are allowed to buy as many Newspapers, TV and radio stations as they want. The media then, in effect, chooses the candidates, by giving free advertising in the form of "news" to some, while totally ignoring others. This preserves the illusion of "freedom of choice", while making a mockery of it.
An additional benefit of this is that once you own the media you can lie to and brain wash the populace, Fox "news" being a good example.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6737097743434902428
Of course the deeper brainwashing is not just the lies and propaganda that media mouthpieces like Fox put out, the deeper brainwashing is the whole mindset of materialism, selfishness, war with nature, competition instead of cooperation, and all the rest of the sick, perverted and self destructive modes of living that society tries to program us for.
3) People who disagree are put either in prison or under the threat of prison. The way to do this is by making the lifestyle of the left and the working classes, especially the darker skinned people, illegal.
One way that this is done is by making pleasurable drugs illegal, while encouraging expensive addictions to toxic medical drugs with horrible side effects, actually prescribing them through the power of the "health care" system.
You get to lock up a bunch of people, take away their right to vote, and make money off them while they are in prison. Also, even for the ones you don't lock up (is it 80 million americans who use drugs? 100 million?), people afraid of jail are less likely to be politically active. They will keep their heads down and shut up.
4) And, if wages stay low, and people have to work a lot of hours, they won't have time to educate and concern themselves with politics.
5) Let's not forget an educational system that features one teacher for 35 students, and fails to teach even the basic elements of personal finance and time management, in a world where those are such vital skills, and that teaches students to learn what the test will ask and to avoid creative thinking.
6) However, when too many people start to wake up, usually because they are suffering, then elections are switched to computers, which can then easily be hacked, if you can call it hacking when the company that makes the machines and wrote the programs does the "hacking".
The two videos below are about how the elections are stolen
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7926958774822130737
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5321794022770412541
all this under the banner of free and fair elections.
To sum up, THE FIX IS IN
Case in point; Republicans under Reagan and Bush institute lawlessness, the invitation to theft and fraud known as deregulation, and give away trillions in tax cuts to the wealthy. The system falls apart, the Republicans (Tweedledee) lose credibility, so the ruling elites bring in the Democrats (Tweedledum) to give away Trillions to the people who caused the problem, under the rationale that they have to, in order to save the little people.
addendum: A case can be made that President Obama is the perfect person to continue the cause of Corporate Welfare. He looks like change, he sounds like change, but fundamentally, he represents business as usual, albeit a kinder, gentler version.
i think that President Obama is a smart, well intentioned man, whose weakness is that he is prone to conventional thinking. I think that, given the brainwashing and propaganda the American people have received for so long, he is probably the best we could have hoped for, given that essentially, when it comes to elections, our choices are made for us by the ruling elites through the mechanism of the Corporate media.
His weakness is that he still thinks inside the box; closer to the edges, but still inside the box. My hope is that at some point he will wake up and see that we need to go outside the box, and that he will be allowed to live to do that.
-------
Think of yourself as a scientist. Take a step back from your beliefs, and just see if the facts fit the theory. This doesn't mean that the theory i outline above is true, i'm not sure it is myself, and the truth is, I hope I'm wrong, but does it seem like it explains what is going on. You draw your own conclusions, come up with your own theories.
What can you do?
I believe that it is each person's responsibility in life to because the best people we can be. The first thing is to wake up yourself.
Avoid the temptation to buy, buy, buy. Your time is your most valuable resource. Use it to become the best person you can be. Take care of your body, mind and spirit, and actions will come naturally, as the fruit of your higher state of awareness. Martin Luther King said that the arc of history is towards justice. For all the problems, there has been a lot of progress. Time is on the side of Truth, and it happens through each person waking up, one by one.
Are they like the slaveholders of the pre Civil War South, where some of the slaveholders starved their slaves and didn't give them enough time to rest, while others saw the wisdom in taking better care of their slaves, however both shared the unquestioning assumption that the slaves existed for the benefit of the owners, that the slaves' purpose in life was to be slaves.
Let's look at our "free" elections
1) a winner take all system, which means that you only have to get part of the electorate to believe your lies, rather than having to moderate policies, as in a parlimentary, proportional representation system. The two party system discourages and silences any voices too far off the mainstream. Third parties are rendered a joke, because they have no chance of winning, thus people will not vote for them, thus, they have no chance of winning.
2) Money and advertising, in effect, buy elections. The rich are allowed to buy as many Newspapers, TV and radio stations as they want. The media then, in effect, chooses the candidates, by giving free advertising in the form of "news" to some, while totally ignoring others. This preserves the illusion of "freedom of choice", while making a mockery of it.
An additional benefit of this is that once you own the media you can lie to and brain wash the populace, Fox "news" being a good example.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6737097743434902428
Of course the deeper brainwashing is not just the lies and propaganda that media mouthpieces like Fox put out, the deeper brainwashing is the whole mindset of materialism, selfishness, war with nature, competition instead of cooperation, and all the rest of the sick, perverted and self destructive modes of living that society tries to program us for.
3) People who disagree are put either in prison or under the threat of prison. The way to do this is by making the lifestyle of the left and the working classes, especially the darker skinned people, illegal.
One way that this is done is by making pleasurable drugs illegal, while encouraging expensive addictions to toxic medical drugs with horrible side effects, actually prescribing them through the power of the "health care" system.
You get to lock up a bunch of people, take away their right to vote, and make money off them while they are in prison. Also, even for the ones you don't lock up (is it 80 million americans who use drugs? 100 million?), people afraid of jail are less likely to be politically active. They will keep their heads down and shut up.
4) And, if wages stay low, and people have to work a lot of hours, they won't have time to educate and concern themselves with politics.
5) Let's not forget an educational system that features one teacher for 35 students, and fails to teach even the basic elements of personal finance and time management, in a world where those are such vital skills, and that teaches students to learn what the test will ask and to avoid creative thinking.
6) However, when too many people start to wake up, usually because they are suffering, then elections are switched to computers, which can then easily be hacked, if you can call it hacking when the company that makes the machines and wrote the programs does the "hacking".
The two videos below are about how the elections are stolen
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7926958774822130737
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5321794022770412541
all this under the banner of free and fair elections.
To sum up, THE FIX IS IN
Case in point; Republicans under Reagan and Bush institute lawlessness, the invitation to theft and fraud known as deregulation, and give away trillions in tax cuts to the wealthy. The system falls apart, the Republicans (Tweedledee) lose credibility, so the ruling elites bring in the Democrats (Tweedledum) to give away Trillions to the people who caused the problem, under the rationale that they have to, in order to save the little people.
addendum: A case can be made that President Obama is the perfect person to continue the cause of Corporate Welfare. He looks like change, he sounds like change, but fundamentally, he represents business as usual, albeit a kinder, gentler version.
i think that President Obama is a smart, well intentioned man, whose weakness is that he is prone to conventional thinking. I think that, given the brainwashing and propaganda the American people have received for so long, he is probably the best we could have hoped for, given that essentially, when it comes to elections, our choices are made for us by the ruling elites through the mechanism of the Corporate media.
His weakness is that he still thinks inside the box; closer to the edges, but still inside the box. My hope is that at some point he will wake up and see that we need to go outside the box, and that he will be allowed to live to do that.
-------
Think of yourself as a scientist. Take a step back from your beliefs, and just see if the facts fit the theory. This doesn't mean that the theory i outline above is true, i'm not sure it is myself, and the truth is, I hope I'm wrong, but does it seem like it explains what is going on. You draw your own conclusions, come up with your own theories.
What can you do?
I believe that it is each person's responsibility in life to because the best people we can be. The first thing is to wake up yourself.
Avoid the temptation to buy, buy, buy. Your time is your most valuable resource. Use it to become the best person you can be. Take care of your body, mind and spirit, and actions will come naturally, as the fruit of your higher state of awareness. Martin Luther King said that the arc of history is towards justice. For all the problems, there has been a lot of progress. Time is on the side of Truth, and it happens through each person waking up, one by one.
Friday, April 3, 2009
a little bit about me
for those of you who have read this blog, and perhaps some of my other writings on my website, jaydancingbear.com
you may be under the impression that i am a knee jerk, bleeding heart, liberal do gooder. Well, maybe i am, but i don't think so.
I started out as a Republican, a real meat head type, the guy who said we should nuke North Vietnam (this was during the Vietnam war). Times have changed.
In many ways liberals drive me crazy with their politics of victimhood and failure to demand personal responsibility and accountability from all the "victims". As far as i can tell, most people are just as much victims of themselves, of their own arrogance and stupidity, as they are of anything else. Lack of resources is one thing; poor use of resources is another. As a musician who has lived on a low budget my whole life, and done well with it, i know that you can spend $10 on one meal or on groceries for three meals.
Now the big BUT
But, even though liberals drive me crazy, they are so absolutely right on in their view of how our political and economic system is rigged to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and to produce lots of losers to fill up the prisons and march off to war. Conservatives close their eyes to how having a kid grow up with virtually no parent time, because the parents both have to work 2 jobs to survive, because the landlord gets to grind them to pay enough rent to pay his mortgage and put money in his pocket, and then that same kid goes to a school where classrooms have one teacher for 35 kids, and of course he's been subtly told he's not good enough because he's not white, well, what do you expect?
The figure i saw was that 1 in 3 high school kids do not graduate. Where are they going to end up? In prison, making a lot of money for police, courts, judges, prison guards, the suppliers of clothing and food, etc. And that's the point. The system is designed to produce these losers to make money off of.
Just from a selfish point of view, we're better off not having a bunch of fucked up, angry, uneducated people stealing our car stereos when we park, or having to trip over a bunch of homeless people when we go downtown (and let's not forget how many of these homeless are vets).
I just wish everybody would cut the shit and tell the truth: people are ultimately responsible for their own actions, and the system is rigged to produce losers.
And the environment. Don't get me started. A slow motion train wreck, the ultimate disaster. But hey, let's not interfere with business, even if we all get cancer, our homes are blown away in a hurricane, and the world either cooks us or goes to a new Ice Age.
WAKE UP. Even if everybody else is a marching moron, at least open up your own eyes.
http://www.projectcensored.org/
you may be under the impression that i am a knee jerk, bleeding heart, liberal do gooder. Well, maybe i am, but i don't think so.
I started out as a Republican, a real meat head type, the guy who said we should nuke North Vietnam (this was during the Vietnam war). Times have changed.
In many ways liberals drive me crazy with their politics of victimhood and failure to demand personal responsibility and accountability from all the "victims". As far as i can tell, most people are just as much victims of themselves, of their own arrogance and stupidity, as they are of anything else. Lack of resources is one thing; poor use of resources is another. As a musician who has lived on a low budget my whole life, and done well with it, i know that you can spend $10 on one meal or on groceries for three meals.
Now the big BUT
But, even though liberals drive me crazy, they are so absolutely right on in their view of how our political and economic system is rigged to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and to produce lots of losers to fill up the prisons and march off to war. Conservatives close their eyes to how having a kid grow up with virtually no parent time, because the parents both have to work 2 jobs to survive, because the landlord gets to grind them to pay enough rent to pay his mortgage and put money in his pocket, and then that same kid goes to a school where classrooms have one teacher for 35 kids, and of course he's been subtly told he's not good enough because he's not white, well, what do you expect?
The figure i saw was that 1 in 3 high school kids do not graduate. Where are they going to end up? In prison, making a lot of money for police, courts, judges, prison guards, the suppliers of clothing and food, etc. And that's the point. The system is designed to produce these losers to make money off of.
Just from a selfish point of view, we're better off not having a bunch of fucked up, angry, uneducated people stealing our car stereos when we park, or having to trip over a bunch of homeless people when we go downtown (and let's not forget how many of these homeless are vets).
I just wish everybody would cut the shit and tell the truth: people are ultimately responsible for their own actions, and the system is rigged to produce losers.
And the environment. Don't get me started. A slow motion train wreck, the ultimate disaster. But hey, let's not interfere with business, even if we all get cancer, our homes are blown away in a hurricane, and the world either cooks us or goes to a new Ice Age.
WAKE UP. Even if everybody else is a marching moron, at least open up your own eyes.
http://www.projectcensored.org/
Clear and Present Danger
dear president obama,
Global warming and environmental pollution are a greater threat to the people of the US, and the rest of the world, than China, Iran, North Korea, Al Qaeda combined, a greater threat to our health and saftety than the economic meltdown.
The Bush regime systematically lied and deceived the American People about this grave danger, thus most Americans consider these problems to be annoying, but not life threatening. Looking at the evidence, there is clear and present danger.
I believe it is your responsibility is to go on TV and deliver an address telling the US citizenry just how serious this is. Present as evidence all the scientific reports the Bush administration censored, literally crossing out the lines of type it did not like.
I'm not going to adduce all the evidence here, just one small fact. One in two american men gets cancer in his lifetime. 1 in 2. that's shocking, clear evidence of the effects of our toxic lifestyle.
The recent use of the word pragmatic is appalling. Is it pragmatic to stay inside of a burning building, because you have work to do in your office. How big a disaster is needed to wake people up. Are you as president going to wait for that disaster, or are you going to be proactive.
I believe you are a smart, well intentioned man, who is prone to conventional thinking. What is needed to save the planet is visionary thinking, and i believe you can do it.
Yours Truly,
Jay Dancing Bear
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090128-ocean-dead-zones.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/1130_051130_ice_age.html
Global warming and environmental pollution are a greater threat to the people of the US, and the rest of the world, than China, Iran, North Korea, Al Qaeda combined, a greater threat to our health and saftety than the economic meltdown.
The Bush regime systematically lied and deceived the American People about this grave danger, thus most Americans consider these problems to be annoying, but not life threatening. Looking at the evidence, there is clear and present danger.
I believe it is your responsibility is to go on TV and deliver an address telling the US citizenry just how serious this is. Present as evidence all the scientific reports the Bush administration censored, literally crossing out the lines of type it did not like.
I'm not going to adduce all the evidence here, just one small fact. One in two american men gets cancer in his lifetime. 1 in 2. that's shocking, clear evidence of the effects of our toxic lifestyle.
The recent use of the word pragmatic is appalling. Is it pragmatic to stay inside of a burning building, because you have work to do in your office. How big a disaster is needed to wake people up. Are you as president going to wait for that disaster, or are you going to be proactive.
I believe you are a smart, well intentioned man, who is prone to conventional thinking. What is needed to save the planet is visionary thinking, and i believe you can do it.
Yours Truly,
Jay Dancing Bear
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/01/090128-ocean-dead-zones.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/1130_051130_ice_age.html
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Putting people in prison for fun and profit
http://www.google.com/search?q=prison+industrial+system&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
http://www.facts1.com/ThreeStrikes/Facts/
the US locks up way more people per capita than any other developed nation in the world, including communist china. why? because there's money to be made, lots of it.
http://www.facts1.com/ThreeStrikes/Facts/
the US locks up way more people per capita than any other developed nation in the world, including communist china. why? because there's money to be made, lots of it.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Is it worth saving?
I understand the fear that people face in this current crisis, but let's ask, is the life that being a slave in the system offers you so great? Is it worth saving, or are you just so afraid of the unknown that you cling on to what you have, no matter how many problems. Ask yourself, and be honest, do i really want to live the rest of my life this way, or do i just believe that this is the best i can hope for, it's how it is, no hope of anything better, other than maybe buying a new car.
So many of the people i meet are TIME-POOR, working, commuting, busy, busy, busy.
OVER STIMULATED, ASSAULTED by all the distractions, phones ringing, ads, etc.
So many seem to experience SENSORY DEPRIVATION. Sure they eat and drink, but most don't seem to have the experience of being in their bodies.
ALIENATED FROM NATURE. Destroying the ecosystem. Toxic lifestyle, toxic society, a cancer on the planet.
POOR HUMAN RELATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, INTIMACY
so many people don't seem to have any idea of the effect their choice of words have, don't understand the flows and pauses of conversation, don't understand the differing styles of male and female communication, in short, no skills, not even the concept of acquiring those skills.
etc, etc, etc. I'll hold my pointing out the problems to a minimum. I'm sure you can think of many more.
So again i ask, is it worth saving?
Maybe you are one of the lucky ones, but i think most people in America would say their lives suck in many ways,
1) if they were honest, with themselves and others
2) if they were able to get in touch with their deep feelings, which so many people seem to be out of touch with. That is one of the major effects of this society's lifestyle, to cause people to shut down.
Let's build a just, sustainable society, one that offers real satisfaction, fulfilment, peace and joy, through connection and service with nature and other people, and the very first step is admitting that WHAT WE HAVE IS NOT WORKING.
Our current system is rigged for people to remain wage slaves their whole lives, rigged in subtle, hidden ways that the average person has no idea of. Some people manage to be "successful" in the business world, but usually at the cost of failure in their personal lives.
So what is it i'd like to see?
DAILY LIFE people could start their mornings with up to one hour of meditation or prayer, depending on your orientation, and do up to an hour of exercise or yoga, etc., and have some time to spend with their families. A world where people are rich in time to spend taking care of themselves physically, mentally and spiritually, and have the time to establish connections with others, especially family.
Schools would teach communication skills, such as NVC (non violent communication), and relationship skills, such as those contained in a book called Breaking the Impasse
http://www.beyondintractability.org/booksummary/10564/, as well as principles of self care such as healthy eating, food preparation, exercise, etc. In short, schools would teach the essential skills of how to be in the body and deal with other people.
2 a work week of 4 days, 6 hours day, doing work that truly helps other people, such as elder care, teaching, manufacturing of what is essential, necessary paper work, etc.
http://consciouschoice.com/1995-98/cc095/dump40hourweek.html
3 an environmentally healthy lifestyle. Sustainable, Organic, non toxic. An end to disposability.
4 a fair wage system, where no one made more than 10 times the salary of anyone else, and workers received 1/2 of the profits of a company, in the form of bonuses.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Society/Winner_Steal_All.html
http://perfectlylegalthebook.com/
How is this going to happen? Our whole society propagandizes us, especially through the mass media, especially TV, that ME is what we need to focus on, and We is a limited circle of family and friends. The key change is one of Values, where we are committed to
creating a world where everybody wins,
whereas the world we have is one of winners and losers.
and what do i mean by "a world where everybody wins". That sounds pretty lovey dovey, pie in the sky.
I mean a world where the everyone has the support to reach their full potential. A world where classes have one teacher for each six students, a world where parents have plenty of time to spend with their children, a world without poisons in the air, food and water. A world where people practice taking care of their health. A world where people live in integrity with themselves, other people, and the environment. A world where people aren't assaulted by noise and distractions and ads from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep. A simpler, slower, more meaningful way of life, where lying on the grass in the sun in a park is something one can do every day, and there aren't a lot of emotionally damaged "homeless" people who have self sedated to escape from the pain of their lives, because everyday life is joyful, not painful.
This means that, in answer to the question, "where is your brother", instead of answering "am i my brother's keeper?", we reply, "i have done everything possible to help my brothers and sisters be all they can be, and i myself am doing my best to live my deepest truths".
And what's the first step?
The first step is for YOU to be absolutely honest with yourself, and the second step is for you to have the courage to make whatever changes you need to make so you can start living your life the way you want to live.
http://www.cchange.net/
So many of the people i meet are TIME-POOR, working, commuting, busy, busy, busy.
OVER STIMULATED, ASSAULTED by all the distractions, phones ringing, ads, etc.
So many seem to experience SENSORY DEPRIVATION. Sure they eat and drink, but most don't seem to have the experience of being in their bodies.
ALIENATED FROM NATURE. Destroying the ecosystem. Toxic lifestyle, toxic society, a cancer on the planet.
POOR HUMAN RELATIONS, COMMUNICATIONS, INTIMACY
so many people don't seem to have any idea of the effect their choice of words have, don't understand the flows and pauses of conversation, don't understand the differing styles of male and female communication, in short, no skills, not even the concept of acquiring those skills.
etc, etc, etc. I'll hold my pointing out the problems to a minimum. I'm sure you can think of many more.
So again i ask, is it worth saving?
Maybe you are one of the lucky ones, but i think most people in America would say their lives suck in many ways,
1) if they were honest, with themselves and others
2) if they were able to get in touch with their deep feelings, which so many people seem to be out of touch with. That is one of the major effects of this society's lifestyle, to cause people to shut down.
Let's build a just, sustainable society, one that offers real satisfaction, fulfilment, peace and joy, through connection and service with nature and other people, and the very first step is admitting that WHAT WE HAVE IS NOT WORKING.
Our current system is rigged for people to remain wage slaves their whole lives, rigged in subtle, hidden ways that the average person has no idea of. Some people manage to be "successful" in the business world, but usually at the cost of failure in their personal lives.
So what is it i'd like to see?
DAILY LIFE people could start their mornings with up to one hour of meditation or prayer, depending on your orientation, and do up to an hour of exercise or yoga, etc., and have some time to spend with their families. A world where people are rich in time to spend taking care of themselves physically, mentally and spiritually, and have the time to establish connections with others, especially family.
Schools would teach communication skills, such as NVC (non violent communication), and relationship skills, such as those contained in a book called Breaking the Impasse
http://www.beyondintractability.org/booksummary/10564/, as well as principles of self care such as healthy eating, food preparation, exercise, etc. In short, schools would teach the essential skills of how to be in the body and deal with other people.
2 a work week of 4 days, 6 hours day, doing work that truly helps other people, such as elder care, teaching, manufacturing of what is essential, necessary paper work, etc.
http://consciouschoice.com/1995-98/cc095/dump40hourweek.html
3 an environmentally healthy lifestyle. Sustainable, Organic, non toxic. An end to disposability.
4 a fair wage system, where no one made more than 10 times the salary of anyone else, and workers received 1/2 of the profits of a company, in the form of bonuses.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Society/Winner_Steal_All.html
http://perfectlylegalthebook.com/
How is this going to happen? Our whole society propagandizes us, especially through the mass media, especially TV, that ME is what we need to focus on, and We is a limited circle of family and friends. The key change is one of Values, where we are committed to
creating a world where everybody wins,
whereas the world we have is one of winners and losers.
and what do i mean by "a world where everybody wins". That sounds pretty lovey dovey, pie in the sky.
I mean a world where the everyone has the support to reach their full potential. A world where classes have one teacher for each six students, a world where parents have plenty of time to spend with their children, a world without poisons in the air, food and water. A world where people practice taking care of their health. A world where people live in integrity with themselves, other people, and the environment. A world where people aren't assaulted by noise and distractions and ads from the moment they wake up to the moment they go to sleep. A simpler, slower, more meaningful way of life, where lying on the grass in the sun in a park is something one can do every day, and there aren't a lot of emotionally damaged "homeless" people who have self sedated to escape from the pain of their lives, because everyday life is joyful, not painful.
This means that, in answer to the question, "where is your brother", instead of answering "am i my brother's keeper?", we reply, "i have done everything possible to help my brothers and sisters be all they can be, and i myself am doing my best to live my deepest truths".
And what's the first step?
The first step is for YOU to be absolutely honest with yourself, and the second step is for you to have the courage to make whatever changes you need to make so you can start living your life the way you want to live.
http://www.cchange.net/
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Why hold on?
America is not user friendly.
cruel system
that offers lots of ways to lose and
not many to win?
- Landlords charge as much as they can, employers pay as little as they can get away with
- Employers fire as many workers as they can, have the ones left standing work two jobs for the price of one, while CEOs pay themselves enough money to buy a small country
- The environment is poisoned. the food supply is poisoned, the water is poisoned, the air is poisoned, the ice caps are melting, the ocean is fished out, mountains have been strip mined, we have nuclear waste we don't know what to do with, and more
- A "good" job means working 60hrs/wk, a bad job means you need two jobs.
- Health care is for the wealthy.
- People's lifestyles are sickness producing.
- A fat, sluggish populace that knows more about American Idol than American politics
- The media picks the candidates in elections by giving billions of dollars of free advertising, which they call "news coverage", to one or two candidates, and freeze out the rest
- In a supposedly "free" country, people go to jail for smoking pot, and can not marry the person they love.
- In California, under the 3 Strikes Law, people are serving life in prison for stealing a VCR or a bicycle.
- People are encouraged at every turn by advertising to sell themselves into economic slavery by running up their credit cards.
- 9/11 was an inside job http://www.wanttoknow.info/9-11cover-up
- elections have been hacked http://www.wanttoknow.info/electionsinformation
- True peace and satisfaction are rare commodities, not to be found in the mainstream world
- Tax Laws, really all laws, favor the wealthy http://perfectlylegalthebook.com/
- The whole system is a carnivorous one in which the poor and middle class are just a big feed lot for the super rich to eat.
cruel system
that offers lots of ways to lose and
not many to win?
Monday, January 19, 2009
what is a criminal?
someone who knowingly hurts other people for their own benefit.
ultimately criminal behaviour is selfish behaviour; i win at the expense of you losing, whether this is street crime or predatory lending.
by this standard, much of what passes for normal business practices are criminal, including high rents and low wages. On the other hand, personal behaviors such as gambling, drug use, sodomy, and prostitution, are not.
I distinguish between moral crimes, which hurt others, and legal crimes, where religious and other beliefs are turned into laws against certain behaviours. The usual argument is that society is brought down by things like prostitution. Personally, i think society is much more damaged by repression.
I believe in Freedom, a very unfashionable idea these days.
In fact, i believe that putting people in jail for victimless crimes, such as drugs, is in itself a crime, and those who advocate such brutal repression are themselves criminals, since they seek to hurt others (by locking them up) in order to force the whole society to live by their puritanical beliefs.
So, i ask you, come up with your own definition. What is a criminal?
ultimately criminal behaviour is selfish behaviour; i win at the expense of you losing, whether this is street crime or predatory lending.
by this standard, much of what passes for normal business practices are criminal, including high rents and low wages. On the other hand, personal behaviors such as gambling, drug use, sodomy, and prostitution, are not.
I distinguish between moral crimes, which hurt others, and legal crimes, where religious and other beliefs are turned into laws against certain behaviours. The usual argument is that society is brought down by things like prostitution. Personally, i think society is much more damaged by repression.
I believe in Freedom, a very unfashionable idea these days.
In fact, i believe that putting people in jail for victimless crimes, such as drugs, is in itself a crime, and those who advocate such brutal repression are themselves criminals, since they seek to hurt others (by locking them up) in order to force the whole society to live by their puritanical beliefs.
So, i ask you, come up with your own definition. What is a criminal?
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Happiness is
a state of mind.
So often i have thought, i would be happy if this or if that. it is true that having my human needs met frees me to access deeper truths, however, ultimately, i find happiness is a state of consciousness, and dis-satisfaction is a state of consciousness. of course, very often these states are the result of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, etc. (drugs are way too powerful for me).
leaving those aside, the question becomes, how can i live in the state of consiousness that has happiness as one of it's attributes.
In Aldous Huxley's Perennial Philosophy (it's a great book) there is a saying that joy is the surest sign of the presence of god. is that ultimately the key to human happiness, an ongoing mystical experience of the presence of god, living with the presence of god? (god also meaning spirit, goddess, or whatever you want to call it, they're just different names for the same thing).
yes.
So often i have thought, i would be happy if this or if that. it is true that having my human needs met frees me to access deeper truths, however, ultimately, i find happiness is a state of consciousness, and dis-satisfaction is a state of consciousness. of course, very often these states are the result of caffeine, alcohol, sugar, etc. (drugs are way too powerful for me).
leaving those aside, the question becomes, how can i live in the state of consiousness that has happiness as one of it's attributes.
In Aldous Huxley's Perennial Philosophy (it's a great book) there is a saying that joy is the surest sign of the presence of god. is that ultimately the key to human happiness, an ongoing mystical experience of the presence of god, living with the presence of god? (god also meaning spirit, goddess, or whatever you want to call it, they're just different names for the same thing).
yes.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Look Deep, think like a chess player
Every action has both intended and unintended consequences.
The phrase "web of life" is amazingly accurate.
Most beings see only what is in front of them, not understanding the effects they have on people, places, animals, they'll never see.
Look deeply, think like a chess player. If you make this move, then what will happen next, and your reaction to that, on and on. That is really how life works; seeds that were planted a long time ago, sending ripples forward in time, effect our lives, yours and mine, today, here and now.
The phrase "web of life" is amazingly accurate.
Most beings see only what is in front of them, not understanding the effects they have on people, places, animals, they'll never see.
Look deeply, think like a chess player. If you make this move, then what will happen next, and your reaction to that, on and on. That is really how life works; seeds that were planted a long time ago, sending ripples forward in time, effect our lives, yours and mine, today, here and now.
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The idea of keeping a cloth bag in the car and a cup handy are good ones. I see more people using cloth bags at the grocery stores, but not so much yet the cup.
I partially disagree with the comment that well intentioned and smart people do not see how the little things contribute to the larger whole. Personally, I am not 100% sold that global warming is a fact or that we have caused it. It is also the thinking that there are larger causes that we do not have control over. I think we do have a responsibility to decrease our foot print, but there is still a ways to go in changing our thinking before behaviors follow suit. It's happening though.
Another thought: what about water usage? Why have we not created home and portal distillation systems to stop the over use of water? It seems to me that this is a larger contributor of health and environmental issues.
To the third point about car pools, I do not think most Americans see this as practical. I also think that too many people see it as an impingement of their individualism. It is something we should make a little better effort of though.
Thanks again for the insights :)
-Digger
GNP=Gross National Pollution, or Gross National Poisoning
and of course it is international
the small things i mentioned are just tokens, just a way for people to do some small action. Perhaps asking for this is a mistake on my part, because people who do these things may believe it is enough.