Whether you're the president of a corporation, or a janitor, you still only have 24 hours in a day.
One of the biggest problems in this country is income inequality, which has created a society where people don't even have time to spend with their kids. Income inequality impacts our lives in a thousand small, unpleasant ways, because prices tend to go up to what the market will bear, meaning what the more affluent can afford. Society is slowly falling apart, as the rich get richer, and the poor and middle class sink into quicksand.
I propose a PROPORTIONAL WAGE LAW-You can make as much as you want, as long as you create wealth for everybody. The highest paid person in a company can make up to 25 times what the lowest paid worker makes, including the janitor, including temp workers and subcontracted labor, including the value of all perks and benefits, not more than 25 times the lowest paid salary.
Saturday, July 11, 2015
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics
The next time you hear about how we are the wealthiest country, think of this example of statistics in action:
*if you put a millionaire and a homeless person in a room, their average income is $500,000/yr.
*If the next year the millionaire makes 2 million, and the homeless person, probably a Vietnam vet, is still living under a bridge, the average income has gone up to $1,000,000/yr.
*If the next year the homeless person dies, and the millionaire still makes 2 million, the average income has gone up to $2 million/yr.
The economy is doing great.
That's statistics in action.
*if you put a millionaire and a homeless person in a room, their average income is $500,000/yr.
*If the next year the millionaire makes 2 million, and the homeless person, probably a Vietnam vet, is still living under a bridge, the average income has gone up to $1,000,000/yr.
*If the next year the homeless person dies, and the millionaire still makes 2 million, the average income has gone up to $2 million/yr.
The economy is doing great.
That's statistics in action.
Thursday, July 9, 2015
Know thyself
I am going to have a small piece published. Here it is:
Know Thyself
by Socrates Thalassos
1) Are you somatically conscious of, present in, your body?
Where in your body are "you"?
1) Are you somatically conscious of, present in, your body?
Where in your body are "you"?
2) Are you lost in your thoughts, or conscious of your thoughts?
3) Are you aware of your sub/unconscious programs?
How "on automatic" are you, how "here now"?
How "on automatic" are you, how "here now"?
4) Do you identify yourself with "all-that-is"?
5) Have you articulated clearly your spiritual/metaphysical belief paradigm,
your values, intentions and priorities?
6) How much time do you spend working on yourself?
5) Have you articulated clearly your spiritual/metaphysical belief paradigm,
your values, intentions and priorities?
6) How much time do you spend working on yourself?
-----------
Bio
Socrates Thalassos is someone who has spent many hours working on himself, has experienced great benefit, and wants to help you be happier and healthier.
Socrates Thalassos is someone who has spent many hours working on himself, has experienced great benefit, and wants to help you be happier and healthier.
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Here we go again-Bernie Sanders, Hilary Clinton and The Facade of Democracy
I love Bernie, but ask yourself, why is he forced to run as a Democrat?
Can you vote for who you REALLY want for President? Or Senator? No.
Remember the 2000 election, when Ralph Nader voters were vilified for "costing" Al Gore the election? The obvious lesson was that what is needed is ranked balloting, where you put 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd Choice, and if your first choice doesn't come in the top 2, your vote goes to next choice, etc. That's getting close to real democracy. So did ranked voting become an issue? No.
Whatever the issue: environment, economic justice, prisons, corporate rule, etc., the decisions are made by politicians who got in as a result of a corrupt and dysfunctional "electoral" system. The real truth is that we have
AUCTIONS, NOT ELECTIONS
The amazing thing is that things aren't worse.
And almost more amazing is that all the various political, environmental and economic organizations don't get it, that the fix is in, the system is rigged, and put some effort into creating an honest system.
Democrats are not more creative thinkers than Republicans. They both have their stock set of beliefs and policies, both on auto response most of the time. They both rarely look under the surface appearances of issues, rarely look deeply, rarely see the full complexity and inter-relationship of issues. They think the problem is bad leaders, rather than recognizing that the bad leaders are a product of a broken system.
There really are not that many died in the wool conservatives, but when you disenfranchise the left, have auctions not elections, and when necessary simply hack the vote, well, you get what we have now, plutocracy, a system in which the environment and the populace are simply something to exploit.
-------
Two obvious issues
*Districts so gerrymandered, that your vote hardly counts.
*Can you trust electronic voting, when so much evidence indicates that it is easily hacked (google it)
_________
Election day not a national holiday, elections on a workday=discriminates against workers
This tells you the truth right away
A) Who gets to vote?
1) Who gets to register
2) Who gets wiped off the rolls (florida 2000).
3) Drug laws as political repression-
if you wanted to find a way to take away the vote of tens of millions of Republicans, you would pass laws making beer and cigarettes illegal, serious crimes.
When, during the late 60s and 70s, the height of the culture and Vietnam wars, Republicans wanted to take away the votes of Democratic voters, especially blacks and hippies, they made pot and drugs illegal. It worked.
Ronald Reagan, Bush, and a host of Senators and Congressmen, would never have won if all those votes hadn't been taken away. We still are very much at the affect of those laws today.
4) Are there enough voting machines (ohio 2004)
B) Who do they get to vote for?
1) Winner take all=Lesser of two evils
In most cases third party candidates have no chance, people are afraid of throwing away their vote
i.e. Ralph Nader
2) Instant Runoff Voting, Proportional Representation=every vote counts
C) How honest is the vote count
1) Electronic voting machines = stolen elections
Paper ballots harder to steal an election
D) How is the process financed?
1) Campaign contributions =legal bribery
2) Corporate money allowed as "free speech"
No money=no chance to win=candidates sell out
E) How do we find out what the candidates have to say
1) Role of media
a) corporate owned
b) covers some candidates more than others, shuts out 3rd party candidates
c) sound bites, slogan advertising
F) Serious, serious gerrymandering of elections, to the point that your vote hardly makes a difference.
--------
There's a great book called Fixing Elections,by Steven Hill, which is as valid today as the day it was written.
https://www.google.com/search?q=fixing+elections+steven+hill+&aq=f&oq=fixing+elections+steven+hill+&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
http://www.c-span.org/video/?171355-1/book-discussion-fixing-elections
Can you vote for who you REALLY want for President? Or Senator? No.
Remember the 2000 election, when Ralph Nader voters were vilified for "costing" Al Gore the election? The obvious lesson was that what is needed is ranked balloting, where you put 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd Choice, and if your first choice doesn't come in the top 2, your vote goes to next choice, etc. That's getting close to real democracy. So did ranked voting become an issue? No.
Whatever the issue: environment, economic justice, prisons, corporate rule, etc., the decisions are made by politicians who got in as a result of a corrupt and dysfunctional "electoral" system. The real truth is that we have
AUCTIONS, NOT ELECTIONS
The amazing thing is that things aren't worse.
And almost more amazing is that all the various political, environmental and economic organizations don't get it, that the fix is in, the system is rigged, and put some effort into creating an honest system.
Democrats are not more creative thinkers than Republicans. They both have their stock set of beliefs and policies, both on auto response most of the time. They both rarely look under the surface appearances of issues, rarely look deeply, rarely see the full complexity and inter-relationship of issues. They think the problem is bad leaders, rather than recognizing that the bad leaders are a product of a broken system.
There really are not that many died in the wool conservatives, but when you disenfranchise the left, have auctions not elections, and when necessary simply hack the vote, well, you get what we have now, plutocracy, a system in which the environment and the populace are simply something to exploit.
-------
Two obvious issues
*Districts so gerrymandered, that your vote hardly counts.
*Can you trust electronic voting, when so much evidence indicates that it is easily hacked (google it)
_________
Election day not a national holiday, elections on a workday=discriminates against workers
This tells you the truth right away
A) Who gets to vote?
1) Who gets to register
2) Who gets wiped off the rolls (florida 2000).
3) Drug laws as political repression-
if you wanted to find a way to take away the vote of tens of millions of Republicans, you would pass laws making beer and cigarettes illegal, serious crimes.
When, during the late 60s and 70s, the height of the culture and Vietnam wars, Republicans wanted to take away the votes of Democratic voters, especially blacks and hippies, they made pot and drugs illegal. It worked.
Ronald Reagan, Bush, and a host of Senators and Congressmen, would never have won if all those votes hadn't been taken away. We still are very much at the affect of those laws today.
4) Are there enough voting machines (ohio 2004)
B) Who do they get to vote for?
1) Winner take all=Lesser of two evils
In most cases third party candidates have no chance, people are afraid of throwing away their vote
i.e. Ralph Nader
2) Instant Runoff Voting, Proportional Representation=every vote counts
C) How honest is the vote count
1) Electronic voting machines = stolen elections
Paper ballots harder to steal an election
D) How is the process financed?
1) Campaign contributions =legal bribery
2) Corporate money allowed as "free speech"
No money=no chance to win=candidates sell out
E) How do we find out what the candidates have to say
1) Role of media
a) corporate owned
b) covers some candidates more than others, shuts out 3rd party candidates
c) sound bites, slogan advertising
F) Serious, serious gerrymandering of elections, to the point that your vote hardly makes a difference.
--------
There's a great book called Fixing Elections,by Steven Hill, which is as valid today as the day it was written.
https://www.google.com/search?q=fixing+elections+steven+hill+&aq=f&oq=fixing+elections+steven+hill+&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
http://www.c-span.org/video/?171355-1/book-discussion-fixing-elections
Saturday, January 10, 2015
EXECUTIVE HOURLY WAGES
EXECUTIVE HOURLY WAGES
based on 40hrs/wk x 50wks/yr
$500,000yr=$250/hr
$1 mil====$500/hr
$2 mil===$1000/hr
$5 mil===$2500/hr
$10 mil==$5000/hr
$20 mil=$10,000/hr
$30 mil=$15,000/hr
does not include perks and benefits
based on 40hrs/wk x 50wks/yr
$500,000yr=$250/hr
$1 mil====$500/hr
$2 mil===$1000/hr
$5 mil===$2500/hr
$10 mil==$5000/hr
$20 mil=$10,000/hr
$30 mil=$15,000/hr
does not include perks and benefits
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Does Western Medicine do more harm than good?
It would be difficult to find a more corrupt system
such total lack of integrity and deep hypocrisy
as the American medical system of "healthcare".
-----------------
In a nutshell:
1) has the profit motive so corrupted the medical system that effective, safe and cheap treatments have been deliberately ignored and suppressed, for example cancer treatments, and brutal, expensive and relatively ineffective treatments offered, often doing more harm than healing, all for the sake of making more money?
2) Do the egos of people in the medical establishment keep them from accepting new evidence and treatments which disprove theories they have built their careers on?
3a) Does Western allopathic medical theory have an accurate and relatively full understanding of how the human being really works, and the deeper, non technical causes of dis-ease, or is the theory so one dimensional that it renders the diagnosis and treatment much, much less effective than it could be, often doing more harm than healing.
3b) is this deliberate, because the system has deliberately excluded any changes to the underlying theory because they might lose some of their obscene profits?
--------------------
Currently there is a big debate in this country about people having access to health care. A noble idea, but what good is access to health care if that care sucks? if it is based on maximizing profits, not health?
Most people unquestioningly accept Western Medicine without ever researching it.
People who do take the time to investigate often find themselves turning against allopathic medicine, on the fringes, becoming critics of not just the system but the very basic tenets of the medical establishment.
But few take the time to look into it.
We are surrounded and bombarded every day by a massive brainwashing propaganda machine touting Western medicine: drug ads everywhere, doctor heroes on TV, articles in magazines about the latest pill or treatment, public service billboards, etc, etc, etc.
But very few people ever question and look deeply into the details, which get more damning the deeper one looks. They may grumble about prices, but basically they do what they're told.
_____________________
Most people think of the benefits of medical treatment. They acknowledge that there are some problems, but believe that the benefits outweigh the costs, that most of the time it works.
Is that true?
Based on all the research i have done, my impression is that for emergencies Western Medicine is great, but for illness is often the worst choice, often does more harm than good, and maybe %10 of the time a good choice. When you read books by health oriented, open minded doctors like Andrew Weil they ask these questions.
The basic training that medical schools, schools usually funded by drug companies, indoctrinate doctors with is the idea that drugs are necessary. Of course, these drugs have many harmful side effects, such as turning people into zombies or destroying their sex lives, but that is considered necessary.
If you go to a doctor, there is a good chance that you too will be turned into a drug addict, although people taking these "medications" are not considered drug addicts in the usual sense. This is what the schools trained doctors to do, drugs and surgery. Doctors are taught to look with contempt on alternative practitioners as qucks, and taught that they are failing their patients if they don't give them pills or surgery. Medical schools are basically there for training Drug Pushers (legal drugs of course).
Meanwhile, there has been a systematic suppression of alternatives, with the intent of leaving people no choice but to go a drug pushing doctor. A medical monopoly. Just go online and read the stories of the suppression of many alternative treatments.
Who writes the protocols, which very often determine the results.
*how many times have you heard alternative treatments called unproven. That's because drug companies are not going to fund research which could reduce their obscene profits.
I want to make clear that my main criticism is of the drug companies and the medical schools, and secondarily of the doctors who close their minds to anything other than drugs and surgery. There are many fine individuals out there, doctors and especially nurses, working in the spirit of service, with the highest intentions, and i am appreciative and honoring of their efforts. My wish is that the means they have at their disposal are determined by effectiveness, not profitability.
Certainly many people have had the experience of being helped, the question is,
*did people, did you, receive the best care you could have,
*were they/you denied treatments that could have helped,
given treatments that were inferior to the treatments they/you were denied,
*did they/you suffer horrible side effects that were unnecessary if they/you had been treated with "alternative" treatments (alternative only because ignored and suppressed),
*did they/you pay enormous sums of money, sometimes losing everything, to pay for their/your medical care, and
*was all this done for the sake of
maximizing profits instead of maximizing healing?
------------------------------------------
here's a partial list of problems:
When we're sick, we need to take care of ourselves.
What IS the best way? I do think Western Medicine has some good to offer, is the best choice for some things, but with all the problems, you practically need to spend 10 years studying, and not at a medical institution, to know what is the best treatment for you.
My opinion is that, when you really look at the costs and benefits, "alternative" treatments are, 90% of the time, safer and more effective on deeper levels, and are gentler and cheaper.
-----
Most of us are surrounded every day by advertisements for medications and medicine.
TV shows regularly feature doctors as heroes, and have as long as TV has existed.
The underlying effect is the same as if a massive propaganda brainwashing campaign has been taking place, and maybe it has. It is very interesting to read, when one studies the history, that
Many doctors are kind people who truly care about their patients.
The question is, what were they taught?
In particular i want to mention cancer, a disease that 1 in 3 americans gets during their lifetime. I react whenever i hear an appeal to "help us do more research". Based on my studies, and people i have personally known, there are a number of safe, gentle and cheap ways to heal cancer, and they have been ignored and actively suppressed by the Medical Monopoly. For example,
did you know that
Much of what you will read about health and alternative medicine is written by people who have come through the medical school machine. They were basically taught that everything except drugs and surgery is bullshit, that even mentioning it means they are failing their patients, and:
that is changing.
Nothing original in this blog entry. Many people have said it all before, and well.
such total lack of integrity and deep hypocrisy
as the American medical system of "healthcare".
-----------------
In a nutshell:
1) has the profit motive so corrupted the medical system that effective, safe and cheap treatments have been deliberately ignored and suppressed, for example cancer treatments, and brutal, expensive and relatively ineffective treatments offered, often doing more harm than healing, all for the sake of making more money?
2) Do the egos of people in the medical establishment keep them from accepting new evidence and treatments which disprove theories they have built their careers on?
3a) Does Western allopathic medical theory have an accurate and relatively full understanding of how the human being really works, and the deeper, non technical causes of dis-ease, or is the theory so one dimensional that it renders the diagnosis and treatment much, much less effective than it could be, often doing more harm than healing.
3b) is this deliberate, because the system has deliberately excluded any changes to the underlying theory because they might lose some of their obscene profits?
--------------------
Currently there is a big debate in this country about people having access to health care. A noble idea, but what good is access to health care if that care sucks? if it is based on maximizing profits, not health?
Most people unquestioningly accept Western Medicine without ever researching it.
People who do take the time to investigate often find themselves turning against allopathic medicine, on the fringes, becoming critics of not just the system but the very basic tenets of the medical establishment.
But few take the time to look into it.
We are surrounded and bombarded every day by a massive brainwashing propaganda machine touting Western medicine: drug ads everywhere, doctor heroes on TV, articles in magazines about the latest pill or treatment, public service billboards, etc, etc, etc.
But very few people ever question and look deeply into the details, which get more damning the deeper one looks. They may grumble about prices, but basically they do what they're told.
_____________________
- Is it safe?
- Is it effective?
- Are the benefits greater than the risks?
- Does it often do a lot more harm than good?
- Is it the only choice?
- Is it the best choice for your particular problem?
- Does Western medicine have a real understanding of the true causes and conditions of dis-ease, including energy and emotions, or is it like a lamp repairman who does not know that electricity is what makes the lamp work?
- Does the Western medical industry treat people in ways based on maximizing healing, or maximizing profits (at your expense, in health and money)?
- Have safe, effective and cheap treatments been deliberately ignored and even suppressed, because they threatened the profits of the pharmaceutical industry?
- Has the very research process itself been corrupted to the point that one can not even trust what is reported?
_________________________
Most people think of the benefits of medical treatment. They acknowledge that there are some problems, but believe that the benefits outweigh the costs, that most of the time it works._________________________
Is that true?
Based on all the research i have done, my impression is that for emergencies Western Medicine is great, but for illness is often the worst choice, often does more harm than good, and maybe %10 of the time a good choice. When you read books by health oriented, open minded doctors like Andrew Weil they ask these questions.
The basic training that medical schools, schools usually funded by drug companies, indoctrinate doctors with is the idea that drugs are necessary. Of course, these drugs have many harmful side effects, such as turning people into zombies or destroying their sex lives, but that is considered necessary.
If you go to a doctor, there is a good chance that you too will be turned into a drug addict, although people taking these "medications" are not considered drug addicts in the usual sense. This is what the schools trained doctors to do, drugs and surgery. Doctors are taught to look with contempt on alternative practitioners as qucks, and taught that they are failing their patients if they don't give them pills or surgery. Medical schools are basically there for training Drug Pushers (legal drugs of course).
Meanwhile, there has been a systematic suppression of alternatives, with the intent of leaving people no choice but to go a drug pushing doctor. A medical monopoly. Just go online and read the stories of the suppression of many alternative treatments.
How many people have suffered and died
because they were deliberately denied access to,
or even knowledge of cheap, safe and effective treatments?
Tens of millions? Hundreds of millions? More?
Ask yourself, is the incentive for drug companies and the medical establishment to come up with a pill that costs $10 and that you take one time, or is the incentive to give you just enough relief of symptoms to keep you coming back for more.
One of the biggest problems is that the basic scientific research itself can not be trusted.
who funds the experiments?
Who writes the protocols, which very often determine the results.
Who gets to publish their results.
*Very often the drug companies themselves write the research reports. Statistics are skewed (statistics can easily be made to lie simply by how you frame them).
*Experiments that produce results drug companies don't like are suppressed.
*Definitions of illness are changed so that more drugs are prescribed.
*how many times have you heard alternative treatments called unproven. That's because drug companies are not going to fund research which could reduce their obscene profits.
________________________
In short, you can't even believe that what a doctor believes is scientifically true, because the drug companies have systematically lied and corrupted research. See some of the links i provide below, or just google it. Tons of examples on the internet, including some very big names.
_________________________________
And the billing system-doctors and hospitals running up the bills at every chance they get. Just compare prices for treatments and drugs in the US to prices in other countries. and insurance companies dedicated to denying treatment using any excuse they can find.
is it any wonder people turn to "alternative" medicine.
-----------------------------
I want to make clear that my main criticism is of the drug companies and the medical schools, and secondarily of the doctors who close their minds to anything other than drugs and surgery. There are many fine individuals out there, doctors and especially nurses, working in the spirit of service, with the highest intentions, and i am appreciative and honoring of their efforts. My wish is that the means they have at their disposal are determined by effectiveness, not profitability.
Certainly many people have had the experience of being helped, the question is,
*did people, did you, receive the best care you could have,
*were they/you denied treatments that could have helped,
given treatments that were inferior to the treatments they/you were denied,
*did they/you suffer horrible side effects that were unnecessary if they/you had been treated with "alternative" treatments (alternative only because ignored and suppressed),
*did they/you pay enormous sums of money, sometimes losing everything, to pay for their/your medical care, and
*was all this done for the sake of
maximizing profits instead of maximizing healing?
------------------------------------------
here's a partial list of problems:
- 1 Misdiagnosis
- 2 Side effects
- 3 Illness picked up in hospitals, that people didn't have before they got there, 6th leading cause of death in the US
- 4 The only treatments are strong drugs with many, many side effects, or drugs and surgery. Not much else. A sledgehammer approach. Created a nation of drug addicts. Very often doesn't cure illness, just keeps people hooked on taking heart medicine and blood pressure medicine
- 5 The Placebo effect. In studies, people have had astonishing results from water injections and fake pills, just because they believed they were getting medicine. How much is this happening with regular medicines. Do they really work as much as we think?
- 6 The natural tendency of the body is to heal. Medicine takes credit for every person who gets better. Speaking in terms of minor illnesses and accidents, most of them would have gotten better anyway. Did the pills do anything? Did they retard healing?
- 7 Through overuse of antibiotics, many germs have progressively evolved to be resistant to treatments, a large long term cost.
- 8 Western medicine is one dimensional, treating people like a hunk of meat. So much illness is the result of emotions. Medicating the body without treating the heart, the head, working with the causes of illness, is at best a temporary fix.
- 9 Western Medicine does not address the energetic body, including EMF poisoning
- 10 The emphasis is on treatment of disease after it occurs, rather than prevention
- 11 Western Medicine refuses to address the toxicity of the environment, all the poisons in the land, water and air.
- 12 Financial Incentives-is the incentive to come up with a pill that you take one time and costs 10 dollars, or to keep people hooked
- 13 Is the research itself valid? Medical politics make US govt politics look tame. Can we trust what we're told, or was someones' reputation or job more important than health?
- 14 Western medicine ignores significant lines of research. Two specific examples:
- a) There have been thousands and tens of thousands of cases of what medicine calls "spontaneous remission" of illness. In other words, diseases just went away, disappeared. Another word for this is miracle.
- b) In cases of multiple personality disorder, situations have been documented where one personality had illnesses, wore glasses, etc, and the other personality didn't. In other words, people's physiology changed drastically within the span of moments, as the change from one personality to another occurred.
- Rather than investigating how these things have happened, and how they can be encouraged to happen, medicine has ignored these lines of research, lines of research which could lead to amazing healings. Why?
In fact, really accounting for spontaneous remission and MPD would mean that currently accepted medical theory would have to totally change, and so these amazing sources of insight are ignored. - 15 Food. Ignores the fact that you are what you eat; your body needs fresh, whole, living food with a lot of life force and the nutrients not processed out of it. A little lip service, but for the most part nutrition is not a part of medical diagnosis or treatment, in contrast to many "alternative" therapies, such as Gerson, macrobiotics and Wigmore, where it is the cornerstone.
- And, if you eat poison, you'll get sick; pesticides, herbicides, fungicides- the word cide means poison in latin, and if you got to a supermarket the factory farmed food there is loaded with poisons.
- and now there's GMOs, a worldwide experiment in which you are the guinea pig.
16 Emotions not accounted for as one of the primary causes of dis-ease - ----------------
- My personal opinion is that
- the Western Medical establishment represents the biggest betrayal of trust since Judas.
- A system more thoroughly lacking in integrity would be hard to find, although there are many fine individuals who are doing what they think is right, meaning what they've been trained by the teaching institutions to do.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/health/research/05ghost.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0- https://www.google.com/search?q=Fishbein+AMA&aq=f&oq=Fishbein+AMA&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
- this is a great one to read
http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/medical-history.html
https://www.google.com/search?q=drug+companies+%26+doctors+a+story+of+corruption&aq=0&oq=Drug+companies&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 - https://www.google.com/search?q=drug+companies+%26+doctors+a+story+of+corruption&aq=0&oq=Drug+companies&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=definitions+of+disease+expanded+for+profit
------------------------------------------
When we're sick, we need to take care of ourselves.
What IS the best way? I do think Western Medicine has some good to offer, is the best choice for some things, but with all the problems, you practically need to spend 10 years studying, and not at a medical institution, to know what is the best treatment for you.
My opinion is that, when you really look at the costs and benefits, "alternative" treatments are, 90% of the time, safer and more effective on deeper levels, and are gentler and cheaper.
-----
Most of us are surrounded every day by advertisements for medications and medicine.
TV shows regularly feature doctors as heroes, and have as long as TV has existed.
The underlying effect is the same as if a massive propaganda brainwashing campaign has been taking place, and maybe it has. It is very interesting to read, when one studies the history, that
- The reason alternative medicine is alternative, is because there was a deliberate creation of a Western Allopathic Medicine business monopoly in the early 1900s.
- Through the bribing of politicians, "Alternative" treatments, which had been the choice of many people, were, one by one, systematically made illegal, forcing people to have no other options than allopathic medicine, forcing them to spend their money on doctors, drugs and surgery, not on herbs or hydrotherapy.
- At the same time, the teaching institutions for doctors were taken over, in a devious way, by huge funding of medical schools, on the condition that the only thing they taught would be drugs and surgery.
- A one-two punch.
Many doctors are kind people who truly care about their patients.
The question is, what were they taught?
In particular i want to mention cancer, a disease that 1 in 3 americans gets during their lifetime. I react whenever i hear an appeal to "help us do more research". Based on my studies, and people i have personally known, there are a number of safe, gentle and cheap ways to heal cancer, and they have been ignored and actively suppressed by the Medical Monopoly. For example,
did you know that
- in 1950 a Federal Court found the Hoxsey treatment an effective cure for cancer. The AMA got the FDA to drive it out of the country the following year.
- With actions like that, how much credibility can we accord the medical profession?
Much of what you will read about health and alternative medicine is written by people who have come through the medical school machine. They were basically taught that everything except drugs and surgery is bullshit, that even mentioning it means they are failing their patients, and:
that is changing.
Please, do not take my word for anything!
Do your own research, come to your own conclusions.
Do your own research, come to your own conclusions.
Nothing original in this blog entry. Many people have said it all before, and well.
- There is a book called Sugar Blues, by William Dufty, that is basically a history of western medicine. you must read it.
- http://www.google.com/search?q=sugar+blues+william+dufty&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
- Also, watch Hoxsey, When Healing Becomes a crime. You can watch it free online. https://www.google.com/search?q=hoxsey+when+healing+becomes+a+crime&aq=f&oq=Ho&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
- Andrew Weil has stated most of this much better in his new book, why our health matters, which should have been named, The Medical Monopoly, America's National Disaster, How Allopathic Medicine has created a nation of drug addicts. Brutal Treatments, high prices, no real cures.
- http://www.amazon.com/Why-Our-Health-Matters-Transform/dp/1594630666
- what doctors don't tell you http://www.wddty.com
- https://www.google.com/search?q=embrace+release+heal+by+leigh+fortson&aq=0&oq=embrace%2C+release%2C+heal&sugexp=chrome,mod=0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Let me summarize my core ideas quickly
1) The causes of dis-ease are primarily mental and emotional, secondarily lifestyle, diet, exercise, Modern medical treats people as biological machines; inherently this is inadequate and inacurate
2) Medicine has been corrupted by money (selling drugs) and ego (not being open to new ideas (for various reasons)), and consequently has ignored and even suppressed many useful treatments and lines of research.
3) Western medicine is good for emergencies, but for illness it is quite possible that Western Medicine does a lot more harm than good.
1) The causes of dis-ease are primarily mental and emotional, secondarily lifestyle, diet, exercise, Modern medical treats people as biological machines; inherently this is inadequate and inacurate
2) Medicine has been corrupted by money (selling drugs) and ego (not being open to new ideas (for various reasons)), and consequently has ignored and even suppressed many useful treatments and lines of research.
3) Western medicine is good for emergencies, but for illness it is quite possible that Western Medicine does a lot more harm than good.
be well,
jay dancing bear
jay dancing bear
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Manning, Snowden, Obama
Manning and Snowden most likely broke the laws on the books, but morally they upheld the basic principles the USA is based on. The people and practices they exposed undermine the soul of America.
In Nazi Germany, hiding jews was a crime. A few brave souls broke the law and hid jews. In slavery days in America hiding an escaped slave was against the law; a few brave souls upheld a higher law. Today we honor those people as heroes. Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, Daniel Ellsberg, and all the other whistleblowers are the true patriots, people who uphold the moral laws and basic principles of America.
For these reasons, President Obama must pardon them.
Tell the President that
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
In Nazi Germany, hiding jews was a crime. A few brave souls broke the law and hid jews. In slavery days in America hiding an escaped slave was against the law; a few brave souls upheld a higher law. Today we honor those people as heroes. Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden, Daniel Ellsberg, and all the other whistleblowers are the true patriots, people who uphold the moral laws and basic principles of America.
For these reasons, President Obama must pardon them.
Tell the President that
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
Monday, July 29, 2013
In the realm of hungry ghosts, a protest poem
IN THE REALM OF HUNGRY GHOSTS
In the realm of hungry ghosts
bellies the size of beach balls
throats the size of a small straw
never able to get enough
always wanting more
constantly remodeling their houses
buying bigger houses
newer cars
bigger TVs
the latest electronic toys,
cell phones, computers, and all the rest
always in their heads
their only sensations in their bodies
food and sex
otherwise, only pain
reminds them that they have
arms, legs, fingers, toes
and lots of skin
Success is not success
if it takes you away from
your birthright as a living being
to be fully alive in your body
A sociopathic, ecocidal society
where the only value put on the land
is to develop it
with constantly rising prices, where
even those who are not hungry ghosts
have to struggle just to survive
in the realm of hungry ghosts
-----------------
here's an older poem on the same themes
A naked pagan
dancing with the sky
i am alien in your world
Your houses, factories, TV sets
It is difficult for me to understand
how can you live this way?
but you do
I need trees, grass, sky
rushing rivers and willing consorts
fresh strawberries picked from the ground
You tell me of vaccines, hospitals
guaranteed food supply
heat in the winter
Yes, these are good things
when enjoyed properly
but why give up
the joy of feeling
the sun on your heart
the waves on your flesh
trances
the companionship of spirit
Why do you seem to lack
joy, contentment, fulfillment
serenity, and
integrity
You sell yourself to the highest bidder and
live in fear of not selling yourself
why can you not find a way to have it all?
If this technology is so wonderful
why are so many unhappy
sick at heart
filled with all manner of diseased emotions and
homeless in the streets
I don't understand
The gifts i offer
you think worthless
I offer the sand, the sea
compassion, and
deep feelings
What you want from me is to be a robot
For that i may earn enough to buy food and pay rent
since you have set a price on every inch of the earth
by what right do you control this land?
I don't understand
but, after all
I am only
A naked pagan
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Full Disclosure
God knows why i am writing this now and posting it, but anyway...
Somewhere, i believe in some past life, i lost the sense that i could count on anything on earth to last, and that's been the underlying substratum of my whole life. Money can be lost, people can die or just leave you, or almost worse, your feelings change, houses can burn down, fame is fickle...
I"m 57: i don't have much income, no home of my own, no girlfriend, not much public recognition in my field of music (other than a person here or a person there).
But there have been times in my life when i did have a girlfriend, and often i was still unhappy.
Times i made money, often still unhappy
etc.
When i get into moods of "poor me", i remember those times, and i realize that what i am really looking for is a feeling of peace and joy, and seeking that feeling from external stimuli is ultimately fruitless, an up and down seesaw.
Not that i don't want home, girlfriend, money, success, i do, and at times acutely feel the lack. Not that i diminish the importance of having a happy and healthy physical life, i want those too, but what i really want is an unbreakable sense of happiness, a sense of happiness that's not just the effect of and dependent on external causes, which are not reliable. Meditation and yoga are the things that have brought me the most peace and happiness, and they are not mutually exclusive with a happy human life.
I've had no real desire for kids or to own a home or a lot of stuff, and that has allowed me a lot of choice. I understand that doing karma yoga in the world, job and kids, householder, is a very valid path, which i may be entering on, but up to now my path has been to withdraw from the world, to keep myself as protected as possible, safe from the overstimulation and unrelenting busyness i see so many people caught up in, 1000 Facebook notifications/10 thousand emails/500 cell phone messages a day.
I've lived in tents a lot, probably a total of 4 and 1/2 years of my life, in Big Sur and Mt. Shasta and some other places, and i have to say that, generally speaking i sleep and feel better in nature, and my ideal situation was when i had full access to kitchen and indoors and had the tent as an extra bedroom, so i'm not totally a nature boy, i like some comforts. Still, while it's nice to have power and a refrigerator, it's just too easy to get sucked into hours each day on the computer, and i don't like all the EMFs of modern life.
What i really want is to truly feel myself as spirit incarnate, as tat tvam asi, as the hindu scriptures and the western teacher Joel Goldsmith, and so many others, speak of. (go buy any book by Joel Goldsmith, they all say one thing). I can't say i've done that yet, but what i can say is that living a life with lots of free time, much of it in nature, relatively free of busyness and overstimulation, with as nearly constant mindfulness as i can manage, gives me occasional glimpses, and i'm at the point where it's time to re-enter the world and participate.
I've found so much truth in the saying "attitude is everything" and in the buddhist teachings, which basically amount to learning how to be happy and methods to accomplish that. I started out adulthood, like so many of us, as a wounded, damaged person. I've spent years healing, to the point where, despite my lack of externals, i don't feel wounded anymore. If i die tomorrow, it was time well spent, and, i want to fulfill my humanity and have a good human existence, and give something back, especially my music.
So, today, i got into the headspace of "i need this, i need that". Maybe i'm just writing this to remind myself of what i really need, maybe i'm writing this because it pains me to see people who are looking for peace and happiness from externals, and suffering much in the process, especially people i know. Maybe i just don't have enough wisdom yet to accept that.
So, i've written 700 songs, many of which nobody but me has heard, many of them not played in years.
I do Watsu and massage and energy work, i teach guitar, i can be very loving, nurturing and giving in relationship, and i am officially declaring that i am open for business as a human being, not a dis-embodied mind.
Amin
Somewhere, i believe in some past life, i lost the sense that i could count on anything on earth to last, and that's been the underlying substratum of my whole life. Money can be lost, people can die or just leave you, or almost worse, your feelings change, houses can burn down, fame is fickle...
I"m 57: i don't have much income, no home of my own, no girlfriend, not much public recognition in my field of music (other than a person here or a person there).
But there have been times in my life when i did have a girlfriend, and often i was still unhappy.
Times i made money, often still unhappy
etc.
When i get into moods of "poor me", i remember those times, and i realize that what i am really looking for is a feeling of peace and joy, and seeking that feeling from external stimuli is ultimately fruitless, an up and down seesaw.
Not that i don't want home, girlfriend, money, success, i do, and at times acutely feel the lack. Not that i diminish the importance of having a happy and healthy physical life, i want those too, but what i really want is an unbreakable sense of happiness, a sense of happiness that's not just the effect of and dependent on external causes, which are not reliable. Meditation and yoga are the things that have brought me the most peace and happiness, and they are not mutually exclusive with a happy human life.
I've had no real desire for kids or to own a home or a lot of stuff, and that has allowed me a lot of choice. I understand that doing karma yoga in the world, job and kids, householder, is a very valid path, which i may be entering on, but up to now my path has been to withdraw from the world, to keep myself as protected as possible, safe from the overstimulation and unrelenting busyness i see so many people caught up in, 1000 Facebook notifications/10 thousand emails/500 cell phone messages a day.
I've lived in tents a lot, probably a total of 4 and 1/2 years of my life, in Big Sur and Mt. Shasta and some other places, and i have to say that, generally speaking i sleep and feel better in nature, and my ideal situation was when i had full access to kitchen and indoors and had the tent as an extra bedroom, so i'm not totally a nature boy, i like some comforts. Still, while it's nice to have power and a refrigerator, it's just too easy to get sucked into hours each day on the computer, and i don't like all the EMFs of modern life.
What i really want is to truly feel myself as spirit incarnate, as tat tvam asi, as the hindu scriptures and the western teacher Joel Goldsmith, and so many others, speak of. (go buy any book by Joel Goldsmith, they all say one thing). I can't say i've done that yet, but what i can say is that living a life with lots of free time, much of it in nature, relatively free of busyness and overstimulation, with as nearly constant mindfulness as i can manage, gives me occasional glimpses, and i'm at the point where it's time to re-enter the world and participate.
I've found so much truth in the saying "attitude is everything" and in the buddhist teachings, which basically amount to learning how to be happy and methods to accomplish that. I started out adulthood, like so many of us, as a wounded, damaged person. I've spent years healing, to the point where, despite my lack of externals, i don't feel wounded anymore. If i die tomorrow, it was time well spent, and, i want to fulfill my humanity and have a good human existence, and give something back, especially my music.
So, today, i got into the headspace of "i need this, i need that". Maybe i'm just writing this to remind myself of what i really need, maybe i'm writing this because it pains me to see people who are looking for peace and happiness from externals, and suffering much in the process, especially people i know. Maybe i just don't have enough wisdom yet to accept that.
So, i've written 700 songs, many of which nobody but me has heard, many of them not played in years.
I do Watsu and massage and energy work, i teach guitar, i can be very loving, nurturing and giving in relationship, and i am officially declaring that i am open for business as a human being, not a dis-embodied mind.
Amin
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Personal and political
Petsitting in the Bay Area for month of July. Just got back from 2 months in Cambria, Big Sur and Monterey, mostly camping. I sleep so well in a tent, away from a lot of electronics, especially in Big Sur. It's so somatically rich. Lying on the ground looking up at redwoods during the day, going to bed more or less with the sun at night.
On a physical level, the best i ever felt was when i lived at Harbin, my tent right by a stream, full use of kitchen and showers and hot springs, leave for the winter, come back in the spring. And, while somatically rich, there's more to life, and i've learned and grown so much since those days.
Even in Big Sur this trip, it was great, and after a while i needed more societal interactions. Maybe some day i'll be ready to go out to pasture, but not yet.
---------------
On this trip i met a lot of homeless people. Not down and out San Francisco types, just regular folks who had lost their job or place or had a health issue, and were trying the best they could to keep their heads up in the face of difficult circumstances. A number of them had a real sense of community.
What i saw, in political terms, was what a sham the American dream has become for people who don't have skills, especially computer skills, at least in California. To think that someone, starting from zero, can a) get a job in the first place, especially if they don't even have money to pay their cell phone, and b) even if they get a job, how can they get a place making minimum wage, $8/hr, and apartments are $800 month and up, not to mention utilities, etc., is a joke. Anybody who can add 2 + 2 can do the math, and it doesn't add up. These are the people i met.
Anybody who says "fine, go someplace else", well, where's the money to get there, knowing nobody, where to stay, etc. In short, not so simple.
For myself, i don't have a place of my own, mostly because i seem to travel endlessly, haven't had much money, but do have skills, prospects and practices, more of an old fashioned drifter, although today that distinction seems to be getting lost. To some extent i could relate to what these folks were going through, on the other hand i felt a bit above it all, even though at times my bank account was down to $120 and i did get a bit nervous, but i always have miracles in my life. I've learned to expect and count on them and this time was no exception.
Still, i do have a strong sense of "there, but for the grace of god, go i". Every time i think of getting a place, i look at the rents, and i see the effects on me personally of a system that encourages exploitation. i have some advantages; educated, frugal, skills, good with money, white (let's tell the truth), strong spiritual grounding.
What about the people who don't have those going for them?
-----------------
So, personally, i'm in a great place petsitting, looking to get my own life together, and i expect i will... and i think about all the people who were pushed over the edge, they didn't fall over the edge, they were pushed, by a social/economic system that empowers greed and exploitation, an ethic of "i got mine, screw you", the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, I win, you lose, "the very thing that makes you rich makes me poor" (a song title from a Ry Cooder album)-------the greed of all the executives who downsized and moved jobs wherever they could pay desperate people almost nothing, just so they and the people at the top, the %.01 (it's really not 1%, it's the %.01 could add millions and tens of millions of dollars to their own pockets, while millions and tens of millions of blue collar folks lost everything. Sure, it's everybody's responsibility to make the best of whatever happens, and i don't deny that many people are just as much victims of themselves as of a corrupt and exploitive system, but i would at least like to see the system set up for average people, not just the smartest and most ambitious, to live a decent life, and it all comes down to the basic values of individuals and the society collectively, the most basic one being compassion for everyone. Instead, America, to a large extent, at least the laws governing money, functions on dog eat dog, i win, you lose, tough shit.
Especially as someone who has followed my calling as an artist, rather than maximizing my income, i see how, despite cute PBS programs, the underlying pressures in the society are for people to sacrifice their integrity and their dreams to the necessity of making MONEY, wasting their lives as wage slaves, often in useless and ecologically destructive ways, and then i see how the people who do that so often seem stressed and unhappy, hardly enough time for themselves to pee.
I always struggle with the fact that, in metaphysical terms, i really do believe in divine justice and that it's all perfect, and the struggles are to learn from, but when i meet and hang out with people i like and have good conversations with, people who, on one level, are getting fucked over by the system, it's a lot harder for me to be so philosophical about it.
----------------------------
I add three links from Barbara Ehrenreich, who has written compellingly and beautifully on this topic
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/thislandistheirland.htm
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/nickelanddimed.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Falling-Inner-Middle-Class/dp/0060973331
some more links
David Cay Johnston Perfectly legal
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket
http://www.nationalmemo.com/wages-fall-at-record-pace
I've done other posts on this blog on similar topics, just check the politics tag.
On a physical level, the best i ever felt was when i lived at Harbin, my tent right by a stream, full use of kitchen and showers and hot springs, leave for the winter, come back in the spring. And, while somatically rich, there's more to life, and i've learned and grown so much since those days.
Even in Big Sur this trip, it was great, and after a while i needed more societal interactions. Maybe some day i'll be ready to go out to pasture, but not yet.
---------------
On this trip i met a lot of homeless people. Not down and out San Francisco types, just regular folks who had lost their job or place or had a health issue, and were trying the best they could to keep their heads up in the face of difficult circumstances. A number of them had a real sense of community.
What i saw, in political terms, was what a sham the American dream has become for people who don't have skills, especially computer skills, at least in California. To think that someone, starting from zero, can a) get a job in the first place, especially if they don't even have money to pay their cell phone, and b) even if they get a job, how can they get a place making minimum wage, $8/hr, and apartments are $800 month and up, not to mention utilities, etc., is a joke. Anybody who can add 2 + 2 can do the math, and it doesn't add up. These are the people i met.
Anybody who says "fine, go someplace else", well, where's the money to get there, knowing nobody, where to stay, etc. In short, not so simple.
For myself, i don't have a place of my own, mostly because i seem to travel endlessly, haven't had much money, but do have skills, prospects and practices, more of an old fashioned drifter, although today that distinction seems to be getting lost. To some extent i could relate to what these folks were going through, on the other hand i felt a bit above it all, even though at times my bank account was down to $120 and i did get a bit nervous, but i always have miracles in my life. I've learned to expect and count on them and this time was no exception.
Still, i do have a strong sense of "there, but for the grace of god, go i". Every time i think of getting a place, i look at the rents, and i see the effects on me personally of a system that encourages exploitation. i have some advantages; educated, frugal, skills, good with money, white (let's tell the truth), strong spiritual grounding.
What about the people who don't have those going for them?
-----------------
So, personally, i'm in a great place petsitting, looking to get my own life together, and i expect i will... and i think about all the people who were pushed over the edge, they didn't fall over the edge, they were pushed, by a social/economic system that empowers greed and exploitation, an ethic of "i got mine, screw you", the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, I win, you lose, "the very thing that makes you rich makes me poor" (a song title from a Ry Cooder album)-------the greed of all the executives who downsized and moved jobs wherever they could pay desperate people almost nothing, just so they and the people at the top, the %.01 (it's really not 1%, it's the %.01 could add millions and tens of millions of dollars to their own pockets, while millions and tens of millions of blue collar folks lost everything. Sure, it's everybody's responsibility to make the best of whatever happens, and i don't deny that many people are just as much victims of themselves as of a corrupt and exploitive system, but i would at least like to see the system set up for average people, not just the smartest and most ambitious, to live a decent life, and it all comes down to the basic values of individuals and the society collectively, the most basic one being compassion for everyone. Instead, America, to a large extent, at least the laws governing money, functions on dog eat dog, i win, you lose, tough shit.
Especially as someone who has followed my calling as an artist, rather than maximizing my income, i see how, despite cute PBS programs, the underlying pressures in the society are for people to sacrifice their integrity and their dreams to the necessity of making MONEY, wasting their lives as wage slaves, often in useless and ecologically destructive ways, and then i see how the people who do that so often seem stressed and unhappy, hardly enough time for themselves to pee.
I always struggle with the fact that, in metaphysical terms, i really do believe in divine justice and that it's all perfect, and the struggles are to learn from, but when i meet and hang out with people i like and have good conversations with, people who, on one level, are getting fucked over by the system, it's a lot harder for me to be so philosophical about it.
----------------------------
I add three links from Barbara Ehrenreich, who has written compellingly and beautifully on this topic
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/thislandistheirland.htm
http://www.barbaraehrenreich.com/nickelanddimed.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Falling-Inner-Middle-Class/dp/0060973331
some more links
David Cay Johnston Perfectly legal
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket
http://www.nationalmemo.com/wages-fall-at-record-pace
I've done other posts on this blog on similar topics, just check the politics tag.
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