tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72490742024-03-07T04:14:22.379-03:00jaxblogOccasional and random thoughts about life, the world, and what goes on around us which may provoke your own thoughts and conclusions.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-59817493485180446082013-08-25T13:55:00.000-04:002013-08-25T13:55:03.336-04:00The Facts are Clear: That's My Opinion!<a href="https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/p480x480/1014240_10153197239585515_1097970189_n.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/p480x480/1014240_10153197239585515_1097970189_n.png" width="320" /></a><br />
What I propose to examine here is how we so easily criticize things which we don't like but tend to be less critical of things which agree with our own beliefs.<br />
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The idea for this article came after I had seen the accompanying photo on Facebook and re-posted it.<br />
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After a couple of comments were made on my posting, I decided to follow up and find the <a href="http://www.naturalindependent.com/archives/10931/appeals-court-rules-in-favor-of-dea-in-marijuana-scheduling/" target="_blank">original webpage</a> where this photo appeared and found that the article basically was opposing the US government's ban on marijuana.<br />
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I decided to look around that website to see what else they were publishing. I found an article in which they are <a href="http://www.naturalindependent.com/archives/11593/kraft-mac-cheese-latest-target-of-honest-food-activists/" target="_blank">soliciting signatures for a petition</a> to ban certain food dyes in foods sold in the US.</div>
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Now, it's OK in my view to campaign to support any cause anyone wants but when you compare these two web pages there is one stark contradiction that popped out at me.</div>
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The first article is critical of US laws that were formulated on opinions rather than proven health claims, and the second article cites laws in the UK prohibiting food colours as grounds to ban them in the US. The second article does not examine the basis on which the UK laws were formulated, but the name of the website suggests that it has a built-in bias in favour of natural foods.</div>
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I haven't examined the basis on which the laws in the UK were passed, but far too often, even when there are scientific evidence backing up claims they may be <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/000728487X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=000728487X&linkCode=as2&tag=affiliatemast-20">Bad Science</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=affiliatemast-20&l=as2&o=1&a=000728487X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, which is gathered to support a previous bias of the people who are proposing the law in question.<br />
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In summary, I'm not passing judgement on either of these pages, just pointing out how this illustrates how easily we will use evidence without question when it supports something we believe in and yet criticize the same kind of evidence when we see something that doesn't support our beliefs. <br />
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If we really want to be objective, we should be examining all evidence with the same degree of vigour.<br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-25619597959507030572013-06-20T21:16:00.001-04:002013-06-20T21:18:07.754-04:00Never Question Facebook?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=588950474482832&set=a.255503794494170.65998.249469905097559&type=1" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYrDv5Dpn2GYer-Vb6FpjX_uVzT4zXePE4v3OcREwgRfFsewnc5sr6HPTkTVi9hOiCwgipS9ViqvrFlUFt-lYHF1GzcR2ndBWgdNeWETcOU3f8hISxUa8mv-GBCxq_VbhMG6Oazw/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-06-20+at+5.46.55+PM.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The photo displayed is linked to a<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=588950474482832&set=a.255503794494170.65998.249469905097559&type=1" target="_blank"> FaceBook posting</a> which I recently received. As I sometimes do (although probably not as frequently as I ought to) I searched a bit further to learn more about this strange term <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterostome" target="_blank">deuterostome</a>.</div>
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There were two surprising things I learned, the first being that there is nothing at all rare about deuterostomes. Almost all of us humans and other mammals are the same even if we've never heard the term before.</div>
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The other surprising thing is that while the sign above might be amusing it is based on a complete misunderstanding of the process of development which we go through. We deuterstomes do not start out as "assholes," but rather as a hollow ball which at some point develops a single hole which is the anus, followed by a second hole which is the other end of the digestive track: the mouth. The fact that the anus develops first and the mouth second is what distinguishes a deuterstome from its opposite counterpart called a <i>protostome</i>.</div>
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So the correct interpretation of the facts is that we develop assholes first followed by our mouths, not that we "are" simply assholes to start with. Of course, if you still wish to stick to the illogic expressed in the sign, writing this blog would likely mark me as an exceptionally arrested deuterostome!</div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-23686809245911163552013-06-19T15:15:00.000-04:002013-06-19T15:15:55.968-04:00Visiting the Holy Grail<br />
A YouTube recording I recently watched brought to mind the thought that many people in the US --or at least border officials-- might think outsiders consider the USA to be the Holy Grail. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-qFQ0n3rJXqSZNC_B_80hQ4tu7bUM4jAPxtvc8tVRsZd-0D4hSqH7RpfWnoFDlgnlxKOvUfXFna4cEufURnS6XdIKW6vgJ1lZAbUpmwCoyMY_5jBaXI6aYmlGfJVbrv9YKXqdeA/s1600/border.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="US-Canada border crossing via Wikipedia" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-qFQ0n3rJXqSZNC_B_80hQ4tu7bUM4jAPxtvc8tVRsZd-0D4hSqH7RpfWnoFDlgnlxKOvUfXFna4cEufURnS6XdIKW6vgJ1lZAbUpmwCoyMY_5jBaXI6aYmlGfJVbrv9YKXqdeA/s200/border.jpg" title="US-Canada border crossing via Wikipedia" width="200" /></a></div>
I've had my own experiences that testify to the ludicrous nature of US border officials, but I must agree that the attitude of the Canadian man in the<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-AWBfxsL6k&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank"> linked recording</a> was definitely confrontational almost from the start. In fact when you consider that the recording was likely made in anticipation of something happening, you might wonder if it was done in order to deliberately provoke some kind of reaction. After all, why would a completely innocent person, who had absolutely no agenda, even want to record such an event unless, perhaps, they had been continually subjected to unpleasant treatment in the past.<br />
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A great number of US officials who I have had contact with have been so much less welcoming than they might have been leading me to wonder if the DHS has an unstated mandate to disingratiate as many visitors as possible.<br />
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In fairness, however, take note that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-AWBfxsL6k&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">this video</a> is about 3 years old, and earlier this year I was surprised at how pleasantly we were processed when we arrived at the immigration inspection when passing through the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. On the flight which took us to DFW airport, a video was shown which depicted a warm welcome being given to arriving visitors by US border personnel and I commented to my wife that I'd be amazed if what we were to experience was even half as pleasant as what the video portrayed. In fact, I was so favourably impressed by the improvement we experienced that I even complimented the official who processed our entry. <br />
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While I'd still think that there's too much of a hassle for passengers in-transit, now, at least there is a glimmer of hope that visitors to the US might not need to be afraid of one-day being water-boarded just for stepping on the soil of the USA.<br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-56864514742114097172013-06-14T23:04:00.003-04:002013-06-14T23:04:58.897-04:00Questioning the Unquestionable<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYBZhdTnsL6SQQ2kSlCs8h5j8C8UCHGci2WmyC7irk6vHEj0NU03g-pgVtJe1wSWBEC2zA72S3ay0ewUflqc-hTwRnkfwtV6Ss8h3YXOTazas1XDMfB46f-lHQmrFRe3zOpXZ0w/s1600/happycrowd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYBZhdTnsL6SQQ2kSlCs8h5j8C8UCHGci2WmyC7irk6vHEj0NU03g-pgVtJe1wSWBEC2zA72S3ay0ewUflqc-hTwRnkfwtV6Ss8h3YXOTazas1XDMfB46f-lHQmrFRe3zOpXZ0w/s200/happycrowd.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I read the following in a blog called <a href="http://www.sovereignman.com/lifestyle-design/what-use-can-we-really-be-after-capital-controls-or-a-currency-crisis-12009/" target="_blank">Sovereign Man</a>:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Human beings are not meant to exist in isolation. We strive for inclusion and acceptance of our peers. And the forming of social groups, whether families, tribes, dynasties, and kingdoms is as old as human civilization itself.</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm sure few people would argue about that. It seems to be one of those universal truths on which we all agree.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yet, I am going to question. I do agree, however, with the second and third sentences in that paragraph. They are observations which reflect my own experiences. It is the first sentence which I want to examine. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Begin with the principle that just because you observe something doesn't establish the cause. Just because you see a black cat running in a field of red poppies doesn't mean that red poppies are the reason black cats exist. Even if you observe this hundreds of times and you've read about this in writings of scientists and artists and religious leaders written hundreds of years ago, still does not establish that red poppies have anything to do with the reason why black cats exist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, in this case, the fact that humans have from, the beginning of time, tended to form groups doesn't establish the fact that human beings must form groups. All that we can say with absolute certainty is that, based on all recorded evidence we could expect that humans will want to form groups with others.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where does this notion come from? Who, or what established that humans "are not meant to live in isolation"? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are religious arguments that God may have decreed this and will point to various scriptures in sacred books, but even if a person does believe in God, it cannot be known for certain that what is written in these books are really the true words of their deity or merely a widely accepted interpretation created by some man.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some people might argue that humans need to couple with others in order to reproduce, and survive as a species, yet in spite of being true it does not establish a cause for a long term or permanent relationship between several or many other humans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't raise this objection because I have concluded that this is an issue which merits a great deal of debate, but rather as an illustration of how passively we let very basic questions go unanswered in our lives. Perhaps, the question is of gigantic importance and if we were to seek to find an answer to this we might start to completely reshape society.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The attitude I'm proposing, more than anything, is that we should be continually questioning statements we hear, and habitually examine ourselves to see if things we say or believe are based on solid principles and, if not, start to wonder how things might be different if a new foundation were established.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-52464012461872242112013-06-12T13:53:00.000-04:002013-06-12T13:53:50.590-04:00Stop the Petition!<br />
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A recent edition of a newsletter I receive called <a href="http://www.writershelper.com/Editors_Notes-147.html" target="_blank">Editor's Notes</a> brought to my attention <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-kindle-e-book-return-policy-stop-allowing-refunds-on-e-books-after-e-books-have-been-read?utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition" target="_blank">a petition</a> which is circulating to stop Amazon's practice of allowing Kindle book buyers to receive a refund for books which they have purchased. I believe this is a dangerous petition which is detrimental to the very people who are striving to have it passed. Their viewpoint is extremely myopic and out of touch with today's reality.</div>
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This is an issue on which I've turned 180˚ … piracy and the whole topic of Intellectual Property. One of the best examples of how this applies to the real world today is in the position of Paulo Coelho who reports that because of piracy he has sold 12 million copies of his books in Russia that he would have never sold otherwise. See: <a href="http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2012/01/20/welcome-to-pirate-my-books/" style="color: #1155cc;">http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2012/01/20/welcome-to-pirate-my-books/</a>. </div>
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The petition explanation makes two gross errors: First it states that if anyone buys, then returns a book from Amazon, the author is "out of pocket" a certain amount of money. This is absolutely false. You can't lose something you never had. Yes, you have received less than you would have if the person kept the book. But you certainly are not poorer because you are in exactly the same position you were in before that potential buyer ever appeared on the scene.</div>
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Next, it compares the sale to going into a restaurant and eating a meal then asking for a refund after you have eaten it. In the case of the restaurant, the eater has physically used up the food and the owner of the restaurant is "poorer" because he cannot sell it again, eat it himself, or do anything else with the food which was consumed. In the case of the book, the author still has the ideas which he is free to use, to offer to others, or to modify in any way they wish, but also, as Coelho points out he is actually potentially richer because he may have gained a supporter who will advertise his work for free.</div>
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Amazon's policy is like having your books put out in millions of public libraries (which wouldn't have been possible without Amazon). I don't know if I'm typical, but I have borrowed books in a library and because I enjoyed the work of a certain author have subsequently purchased something from them. If I hadn't read that "free" book I might never have bought the thing I did. If you had a choice between having your own book in just a hand full of libraries, or millions of them, which would you choose? </div>
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I would suggest that even if you received nothing, and if your book were given free to everyone on the planet, you would still be better off when it came around to the next thing you write because you would have a certain number of recipients of your first book who would love to read whatever came next. Cohuelo gained 12 million of those, and that was just in one country.</div>
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An essay which really convinced me of the errors in current IP laws was written by Stephan Kinsella: <a href="http://library.mises.org/books/Stephan%20Kinsella/Against%20Intellectual%20Property.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;">Against Intellectual Property</a>. I highly recommend this to anyone who has an interest in IP.</div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-86983131183887834872013-06-09T15:50:00.000-04:002013-06-09T15:50:44.960-04:00Symbol of American Failure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The term "American" may a symbol of its greatest failure. Term is closely related to the notion of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny" target="_blank">manifest destiny</a> which is the dream of uniting all of the countries in America into one gargantuan nation which would be called the United States of America. <br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This was never declared as a specific plan or objective, but has been almost openly pursued by some US presidents and there is evidence that the idea of creating one super-nation may have been in the back of the minds of at least a few of the founding fathers when they created the US constitution. <span style="line-height: 19px;">Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to James Monroe, wrote that "it is impossible not to look forward to distant times when our rapid multiplication will expand itself beyond those limits, and cover the whole northern, if not the southern continent."</span></span><br />
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The plan never played out but the notion lived on and through a distorted sense of democracy it might be considered justifiable to expropriate the name "American" as a moniker for exclusive use of the USA. While the number of states involved in the union is a majority of the separate states in all of America, the union represents a majority only if it is agreed that each state has only one vote, but it is far from a majority of all the people in the area.<br />
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A search of "population of America" in Google returns a result for the population of the United States of 319 million whereas the population of South America is 387 million, Central America is estimated at some 47 million and we still haven't included the populations of Mexico and Canada which add another 140 million to the equation. The total population of the Americas is well over 893 million of which 319 is barely over a third.<br />
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The use of the term "American" is widely rejected throughout Latin America and is considered by many to be an inappropriate misuse of the term to describe a person or any thing which is specifically attached to only the United States. In Spanish the denomyn for a US citizen is "estadounidense," and the official Spanish dictionary states its view quite plainly:
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<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">But the use of </span><i style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">americano</i><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> to refer exclusively to inhabitants of the United States should be avoided; this abusive usage is explained by the fact that U.S. citizens often use the abbreviated name </span><i style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">América</i><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> (in English, without an accent) to refer to their country. One should not forget that </span><i style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">América</i><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> is the name of the entire continent and all who inhabit it are </span><i style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">americanos</i><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">. </span><span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_(word)" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Translation from Wikipedia</a></span> </span></blockquote>
It is clear that anyone from the US who wants to make friends with others in the rest of the Americas, would be wise in employing another term and although they may have a long list of reasons to take pride in the country where they were born, they might reconsider the word they use when that word, in itself, reflects a dream that has never been realized.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-59867457873213816572013-06-09T15:49:00.002-04:002013-06-09T15:49:48.302-04:00The Delights of Thinking<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/OSHO_ineternational_Asharam.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="OSHO international Asharam" border="0" height="150" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/OSHO_ineternational_Asharam.JPG" title="" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">OSHO International Asharam via Wikipedia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I have just had an epiphany and it is the first time I realized that "epiphany" is what it is called!<br />
<br />
Isn't it great when you make these discoveries? It seems that all of a sudden a veil has been lifted from something you've been straining to see so long it seems like forever.<br />
<br />
This discovery comes from reading some of the thoughts of a controversial, possibly misunderstood original thinker who I have only recently stumbled across: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagwan_Shree_Rajneesh" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><b>Osho</b></a>, also known as <span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="line-height: 19px;">For most of my recallable past I have been a person who has not subscribed to the popular way of thinking about life and the things that we see and hear around us. I have been aware of this and occasionally have tried to share or explain my ideas to others. Most of the time, however, I have not tried to recruit others to join my viewpoint.</span><br />
<span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span style="line-height: 19px;">It's not that I don't care, the fact is that I would like to have more people think the way I do but the idea that came out of the blue after my introduction to Osho was a notion that says:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="line-height: 19px;"> I would like you to agree with me, but I don't want you to accept my ideas without thinking about them.</span></blockquote>
Now, I don't consider most of my ideas to be original because I have adopted the majority of them from others, but I tend accept the ideas I hold because I have thought about them, examined them from a number of different angles, compared them with my experiences, attempted to extrapolate them into other situations which I haven't had but think might possibly come to pass, and after all this still conclude that they could be useful to me. I believe that if anyone else passes through a similar process and THEN adopts my ideas, then it is healthy for them and for me to be in agreement.<br />
<br />
I don't believe it is healthy, or perhaps a better term might be "reliable" for you to agree with me simply because I happen to present the idea in a way that sounds good, or because you wish to please me or avoid conflict with me. If that is the only basis of your agreement, I would be reluctant to accept that I could count on your support if some kind of harsh test were to arise.<br />
<br />
In addition, I don't think our world would be better off if everyone agreed with me about everything. Yes, it is something that might feel good, but in the long run it would lead to stagnation and boredom.<br />
<br />
If everyone agreed with everyone else about everything, there would be no change, no growth, no progress. Of course it's nice to think how pleasant it might feel if we could experience a life where everything was perfect, where we had no problems, where everything went just as we wanted it day in and day out, but I submit that sooner or later we would become bored with that kind of life and, if nothing else, we would start inventing problems just to have a bit of variety.<br />
<br />
So then the question arises: How much disagreement is the optimal amount? Is it even possible to measure this and would it be possible to agree on the answer?<br />
<br />
That's the delightful thing about thinking -- you think you've made an important discovery about yourself, or the world around you and when you start to examine your discovery you find out that there are more questions to be answered each time you reach a new level of understanding.<br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-81757056216653555902012-11-09T17:30:00.000-03:002012-11-09T17:30:14.545-03:00Disturbing Thoughts on EducationThe following graphic comparing the percentage of educated people with voting patterns could be interpreted in some disturbing ways.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6nwGiVZ5T1qwnNuXMh6W6GW54HICGD7JU7_iwMe-_NEsN6fycL3kCIMYFMXcuvw-RV39eeBpWkrOez0oVD0KAi9eQuDDGdoQmoYeT8LmjltvOkERqjOP_H9acySwx5tt9H6gaWw/s1600/voting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6nwGiVZ5T1qwnNuXMh6W6GW54HICGD7JU7_iwMe-_NEsN6fycL3kCIMYFMXcuvw-RV39eeBpWkrOez0oVD0KAi9eQuDDGdoQmoYeT8LmjltvOkERqjOP_H9acySwx5tt9H6gaWw/s640/voting.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
One of the immediate conclusions which might be drawn from this is that people who are "stupid" vote differently from others. The unfortunate thing about this conclusion is that people who do not have a higher level of education are not necessarily stupid, or unintelligent, to use a more precise term. There are many reasons why people have not attained a higher education which have nothing to do with intelligence.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Note that I am not claiming there is absolutely no correlation between intelligence level and education level, only that one is not a cause of the other. I only wish to point out that on an individual level it is not valid to suspect that just because a person is uneducated that they have less mental capacity and decision making capability. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Next, take into account that the fact that a person has a higher level of education does not necessarily mean that they are better thinkers or more agile in solving practical problems than a person with a lower level of education. In fact, it is commonly know that many highly educated people get their degrees by cramming for exams and then promptly forget a large amount of what they crammed into their minds after their final exams have been completed.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
In one way it is only normal for people who have a higher education to favour government involvement in their lives, because if it weren't for government funding and subsidies a great many of the institutions where they were educated wouldn't even exist. Just as animals don't bite the hand that feeds them, educated people would tend to support the forces which made it possible for them to get the education they received. And, in addition to this, since most of the institutions are supported by government largesse all of the teachers would have a tendency to reinforce a kind feeling at the least toward their benefactors.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
From this perspective then, it is quite understandable that bigger governments will tend to support more higher education and expand opportunities to make more people able to receive higher education because it will result in a larger number of voters who would continue to support their existence. </div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-26186576147458645872012-11-04T17:38:00.000-03:002012-11-04T17:38:57.276-03:00What's the Matter with this Photo?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/69552_496208413746985_1395461114_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/69552_496208413746985_1395461114_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Even though most people would agree with the idea, there seems to be something fundamentally wrong with the thinking in the photo to the right.<br />
<br />
To begin with it starts from the notion, that politicians should be reformed. That, in itself, might not be a bad idea, but it's like saying that forks should be punished because you can't eat soup with them. If forks were changed to be suitable for eating soup, and politicians were changed so that they never lied, both would lose some or all of their ability to perform the things which they do best.<br />
<br />
Politicians work within a political system in which lies, deception, and duplicity is necessary in order for it to function as it does. The fact that many people expect the political system to solve the problems which they see in society and in the world is similar to believing that you can butter your toast using a jack-hammer. The tool isn't the right one for the job and using it with the belief that it is, only brings about consequences which are not wanted.<br />
<br />
What I would say to the person who first uttered the thought in the photo is: If you want to hire someone to do a job where honesty and openness is important to you, first make sure that they are going to work in a system where those traits will be successful, and then only put your trust into someone who has proven to be trustworthy before you hand them the keys to your future.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-43605032696143760772012-08-03T21:59:00.000-04:002012-08-03T21:59:28.898-04:00Money, Prices, Value, etc<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.globaltimes.cn/attachment/101104/82e06383fb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="http://www.globaltimes.cn/attachment/101104/82e06383fb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Recently I've been reading and watching a variety of fascinating explanations of what is wrong with our world and ideas of how its problems might be fixed.<br />
<br />
One case in point is <a href="http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-secret-of-oz/" target="_blank">The Secret of Oz</a>, a 1 1/2 hour documentary from 1996 which has some unique views and probably would have a lot of people say that it makes a lot of sense.<br />
<br />
The problem with making sense, though, is that it isn't enough to make it work and the reason it wouldn't work is that it is missing an essential element, or at least is confusing two things which seem to be the same but are not.<br />
<br />
My take on this is that many writers about economic matters confuse money with prices. You hear statements like: "If the supply of money in a country drops the economy will fall into a depression."<br />
<br />
I'm ready to concede that sometimes a depression and a decrease of money supply happen at the same time, but former is not the result of the latter. A decrease in prices isn't a depression, even though prices often do decrease when there is a depression. And just because people might earn less money, isn't necessarily a bad thing.<br />
<br />
Now with that statement, I'm sure many people are laughing or saying that I've just proven that I'm completely out of my senses. But, wait a moment and you may see that I'm not.<br />
<br />
Suppose, for example that you lived in a world where there was only $1.00 and you had a bowl of rice which you sold for $1.00. Now you have all the money in the world, but you have no shoes. You look around and find someone who has a pair of shoes to sell and they want $1.00, so you buy them.<br />
<br />
At this point you have no money and think that if you could figure out that it would be great to sell two bowls of rice, except that there's only $1.00 in the whole world, so what's the use? If you sell both bowls you'd still have only $1.00 and you would have cut your income in half, effectively reducing the price of rice to $0.50 a bowl. How could that possibly be good?<br />
<br />
Well, with the ability to feed twice the number of people, you now have twice as many other potential products or services which you might buy but, in order to sell them, they too would end up lowering their prices so that everything that was wanted could be sold with the amount of money available.<br />
<br />
As more and more products and services became available, and as the quantity of each thing increased, the prices would continue to keep dropping … exactly the opposite of what we have become accustomed to with continuing inflation. <br />
<br />
There is no one price which fits everything from a grain of rice up to a train locomotive, or a cruise liner because there are many complex elements involved in all of the myriad of things we buy and sell, but if the supply of money … whether it be dollars, gold bars, sea shells or whatever it might be is fixed, then as more and more things become available, and more and more people are consuming them, prices can only fall lower and lower. If you could imagine that everything that was for sale were of equal value, then the simple way of finding out the price of each thing would be to simply divide the amount of money available by the number of things for sale and voila its price would be the answer.<br />
<br />
At some time in our past we somehow came up with the notion that it was undesirable to have prices go down … especially if that "price" was what we received for our labor or services, but when you stop and think about it what difference does it make to you how much money you get for what you do, if you can get an equal or increasing amount of something you value in return?<br />
<br />
This is the thing that I find difficult to swallow from The Secret of Oz … that it is necessary to control the amount of money to keep the economy going. As long as people are getting value for their time and energy it really doesn't matter how much money is in the system, or whether prices stay the same, go up or go down. And while there may be some validity in the idea that having the quantity of money being manipulated by private interests produces unwanted abuses, what guarantees are there that putting this into the hands of politicians or bureaucrats would be any better?<br />
<br />
<br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-46511355201214072812012-06-02T17:05:00.000-04:002012-11-08T16:20:27.867-03:00Dangerous Democracy<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqUpoLIs3zHeDfRR2-0hGvQdY3A7IvxYBubiGSt91V6uhB0hcfKQpCRfOag4bKXwDyu0HQP7wtFU6anarKIBC0xtFcD-s46kiyBfpTrU1zgx93AKCBDzKKhZgl1Hvb7I6Iqkphuw/s1600/Screenshot+12-11-08+11:08+AM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqUpoLIs3zHeDfRR2-0hGvQdY3A7IvxYBubiGSt91V6uhB0hcfKQpCRfOag4bKXwDyu0HQP7wtFU6anarKIBC0xtFcD-s46kiyBfpTrU1zgx93AKCBDzKKhZgl1Hvb7I6Iqkphuw/s200/Screenshot+12-11-08+11:08+AM.jpeg" title="democracy vs peace" width="200" /></a></div>
It is very popular to equate Democracy with Peace, but this is a fallacy and, in practice, the exact opposite is true.</div>
<br />
<div>
</div>
<br />
<div>
Before you write this off as seditious nonsense, take a moment to examine what a democracy is. In very simple terms, a democracy is a form of government in which the majority rules.</div>
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<div>
</div>
<br />
<div>
That, in itself, does not imply or even make any allusion that a government which is a democracy is peaceful, nor that living in a democratic country needs to be peaceful.</div>
<br />
<div>
</div>
<br />
<div>
Part of the notion of equating a democracy with peace comes from the formation of people who live within that kind of a system who are taught, from their very earliest days that to solve a problem you vote about it and that everyone <strong>peacefully</strong> accepts the will of the majority.</div>
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<div>
</div>
<br />
<div>
To put this into perspective imagine the smallest possible country that could exist as a democracy. This would have to be a nation with 3 people in it, because with a population of only 2 you could never have a "majority" except in those cases where "everybody" agreed.</div>
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<div>
</div>
<br />
<div>
Now imagine some issue where there was a division of opinion. It could be anything that you can think of, but let's say that it is an issue over whether or not we allow alcohol to be used. Two people are against the use of it, and one person wants to use it.</div>
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<div>
</div>
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<div>
They take a vote, and inspite of the majority deciding that they don't want it, the third person decides that he will not accept that decision for himself.</div>
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<div>
</div>
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<div>
How are the other two going to stop this person from making or using alcohol? They may eventually have to resort to force as long as the majority does not reverse their position or change it to allow the minority to do as they wish.</div>
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<div>
</div>
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<div>
Whenever anyone uses force, or even the threat of it, in order to get their way, we are no longer talking about peace. Peace does not mean accepting what someone else wants because, --if you don't-- you're going to get stompped on.</div>
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<div>
</div>
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<div>
So to return to original premise, Democracy has nothing to do with Peace. We, who live in a democracy, may have been trained to accept the decision of the majority without complaining, but that acceptance will only last as long as we feel that what we want is less important than the consequences we would face for not accepting. <br />
<br />
Don't subscribe to the illusion that just because a country is a democracy, that its government or its people are peaceful … all it means is that they chose the people who make their rules through a process of voting; nothing more, nothing less.</div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-38326800849797413242012-06-01T17:57:00.001-04:002012-06-01T18:55:07.341-04:00The Elephant in your Back YardWould you be surprised to discover an elephant in your back yard? And what if, on discovering it, you learned it had been there for several years?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://green.thefuntimesguide.com/images/blogs/waterpik-ecoflow-showerhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" src="http://green.thefuntimesguide.com/images/blogs/waterpik-ecoflow-showerhead.jpg" title="showerhead" width="320" /></a></div>
I imagine your reaction might be similar to what I felt after I finished reading a short publication I received a couple of days back entitled <i><a href="http://lfb.org/files/2012/04/HackYourShowerhead0412.pdf" target="_blank">Hack Your Showerhead: Ten Ways to Get Big Government Out of Your Home</a>.</i><br />
<i><br /></i><br />
What I found most amazing was the variety of ways in which government regulations affects us and our lives without our even being aware of it. The unfortunate thing about this is that we often have a tendency to blame other the wrong people for the consequences of these regulations.<br />
<br />
One of the ten ways that Jeffery Tucker, the author of this article, sees government regulations affecting us is in the shorter life that many --maybe most-- electric appliances have today, in comparison to the way they were a few years back.<br />
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I'm sure you've heard the complaint: "They just don't make [insert name of appliance] like they used to!" and then the complainant goes on to blame the greedy manufacturers for cutting down on the quality presumably in the interests of making more profit.<br />
<br />
As Tucker sees it, these manufacturers are under the pressure of government pressures and regulations to implement a series of changes to their products, some of which actually make them perform worse than they did before without adding any material benefit to the end user. So, in order to comply with the government presser so that they can stay in business, they are forced to substitute parts and materials that will meet the government requirements and yet will not increase the price beyond what their customers are prepared to pay. All too often the consequence of this is to use cheaper parts which will wear out faster than the older ones.<br />
<br />
Tucker explains what happened to air conditioners:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="font: 11.5px 'Adobe Caslon Pro'; line-height: 12.1px; margin: 9.0px 0.0px 4.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Manufacturers are permitted to make units that use only so much electrical power. They must choose among the features in which to allocate this energy ceiling. The lighter, “more efficient” parts tend to break more easily than they once did. This means that you have to replace the units more often than you did in the past. </span></div>
</blockquote>
And that's just air conditioners. <br />
<br />
Adding Tucker's article to my own observations over the years I have started to wonder how many of all the problems we face in the world today, ranging from wide spread diseases, to aberrant social psychopaths, to threats of depleted resources, to animals in danger of extinction, to hunger, to wars, etc. could be traced back to government interference, intervention or stimulation of some sort or the other, regardless of how well intentioned it may have been.<br />
<br />
This suspicion is not because I believe that everybody in government has some evil intention to make the world into a living hell for us, but rather that people, both those who are in the government and those to look to the government to solve problems have too much faith in the ability of these people to find solutions.<br />
<br />
The people in government are not superhuman before they go to work for the government, nor do they become endowed with any special abilities once they enter the government. Why then, do we, and they believe that they can solve problems which supposedly couldn't be solved before the government became involved?<br />
<br />
So if you discover you have an elephant which you don't want in your garden, do you then look around for another elephant to deal with it, or is it better to consider other alternatives such as finding a new place to plant your garden, start planting things which elephants don't like, or some more imaginative option?<br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-70119101622956169942012-05-22T01:11:00.001-04:002012-05-22T01:13:09.967-04:00Google vs ChinaMany people might recall reports of conflict between Google and the Chinese government.<br />
<br />
During the summer of 2011, I happened to be using Google Maps and entered instructions to get driving directions from "China" to "Taiwan." GM produced some surprising results, which I was sure would disappear at sometime in the future, so I took a screen-shot to preserve the moment.<br />
<br />
Below is the screen-shot which I have preserved for posterity. Point A is the start which is Bejing, the capital of China and point B is the destination "Taiwan." <br />
<br />
I've annotated the surprise in this version … as you read it keep in mind that these are supposedly <b>driving</b> directions. <i><u>Click on the image</u></i> to see the whole thing.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivMy-En6uUM-E94v2FatnoBVVDmb1eFov1UzJeaGeM2hJWtT5LvM7F6r4WcFIajhdd7pKJ1gOMfsQ4MTI7z9hEIeZa_39d_w5kaGxi-h6zxNb7qkaXgFYf3Ym_K9npTKxvN6_FTw/s1600/china-taiwan-in-google.jpg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivMy-En6uUM-E94v2FatnoBVVDmb1eFov1UzJeaGeM2hJWtT5LvM7F6r4WcFIajhdd7pKJ1gOMfsQ4MTI7z9hEIeZa_39d_w5kaGxi-h6zxNb7qkaXgFYf3Ym_K9npTKxvN6_FTw/s640/china-taiwan-in-google.jpg.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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If you try this today you'll get a note that says:</div>
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"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We could not calculate directions between</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>China</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>Taiwan</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">.</span>" </div>
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<br /></div>
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Some reports of this in the summer of 2011, called the original result shown in the screen-shot an "Easter Egg," however, the fact that there isn't even a route now calculated might suggest that it was something else.</div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-29972137933151941312011-06-20T11:57:00.001-04:002011-06-20T11:57:40.260-04:00Saying what you mean<p>We often are told that being effective in what we do is, in part, dependent on how well we can differentiate between what is important and what is urgent.  This is an example of the former which got displaced by the latter.</p> <p>I started writing this in <img style="margin: 9px 0px 0px; display: inline; float: right" title="glenn beck" alt="glenn beck via wikimedia" align="right" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Glenn_Beck_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg" width="198" height="240" />January 2010 after watching Glenn Beck attempt to show how Progressivists have misrepresented or disconnected history from people today.  That particular issue has nothing to do with my topic, nor is this supporting or disputing Beck’s arguments, but I mention it because it provided me with the jumping off point for my thinking.</p> <p>On at least two occasions in his program Beck said, “Back in a second” before a break.  For some reason I counted those seconds and, the first time counted 210, the next one I didn’t count accurately, but estimate that it was at least 150 seconds.</p> <p>The point here is that we use many words and expressions which do not mean what they say, and when we use them we often don’t even consider what it is that we intend to say … rather we just utter something that expresses an approximate idea that we haven’t even clarified for ourselves.</p> <p>One of the most frequent terms that comes to mind which is used by younger people is “whatever,” as a response to somehow indicate that no further discussion is wanted.  I’m not intending to be critical of young people when I say this, but wouldn’t it be much better to simply say something like, “Let’s talk about something else”? Or, “This topic bores me,” or whatever really expresses the mood of the moment.</p> <p>If we, ourselves do not take the responsibility of choosing and using terms which express clearly what it is that we want to communicate, why should we be the least bit surprised if politicians, journalists, teachers, children, or anyone are misunderstood or ambiguous.</p> <p>Like anything else, if we wish to see change in things around us, we must initiate a change in ourselves and if we want others to start meaning what they say, we, too, must do the same and the start to that is to choose words that allow us to say what we mean and to insist that others who are trying to communicate with us do the same.</p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:c8274dbc-51e1-4ec5-bece-d2ecac17af25" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Glenn+Beck" rel="tag">Glenn Beck</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Progressivism" rel="tag">Progressivism</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/communication" rel="tag">communication</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/language" rel="tag">language</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/journalists" rel="tag">journalists</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/meaning" rel="tag">meaning</a></div> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-60288770017867464682011-05-30T20:19:00.001-04:002011-05-30T20:25:15.780-04:00You’re Wrong Fred!<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8GVnyA-sdj29k4NDx1NsDR5wxBV7O2XsgeNLn_zYpjpIdQehq13P0y_FVkrCglpnV3YNmmudl_reTcM3tYMwue_lLdYogO-jQlSDzgpfx9fxUaCqSFMgPb9PzT8DkIYyJMss0A/s1600-h/wonderwoman%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="wonderwoman" border="0" alt="wonderwoman" align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-c3GPc3U81-c/TeQ1a4mXVfI/AAAAAAAAALo/Nzo5RJ70hFA/wonderwoman_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="173" height="244" /></a> Fred Reed is an interesting blogger and he doesn’t shy away from taking on controversial topics, but in his blog which he calls <a href="http://fredoneverything.net/SexualFuture.shtml" target="_blank">A Polity of Castrati</a> he argues that women are purely consumers of what men produce.</p> <p>Actually, on the surface, the arguments he presents are quite convincing, but I believe he is missing an essential point:  That women’s role in most of the world today is a <em>cultural distinction</em>, not one which is determined by the essential nature of women.</p> <p>He spends considerable time developing the idea that women do not produce the things which make our lives and civilization as a whole what it is to day, the implication being that they are not capable of doing so.</p> <p>I’m wondering, however, if in many areas, if there aren’t achievements or discoveries which women have made that he has overlooked and that perhaps our whole society doesn’t easily recognize.</p> <p>I agree wholeheartedly with the observation that women are essentially different from men.  They are physically different and I’ve little doubt that these physical differences don’t lead to some differences in the way that they think and act.</p> <p>In his conclusion Fred seems to imply that his country is being feminized right up to the governing level and seems to be dubious over the future prospect over that happening.</p> <p>I do agree with some of his observation that many affirmative action laws and similar actions have produced some strange and undesirable results, but I think he is missing the point when he fears for the future because of women’s role in government.</p> <p>I would agree with the assertion that gender equality, just for equality’s sake is not a good policy.  Women should be allowed to do what they do best, and men what they do best and people must be given the freedom to choose the best person for whatever they want done based on who can perform best … not on some arbitrary formula dreamed up by someone who believes that everything should be homogenous.</p> <p>It is not so much women’s role in government which is producing the problems that loom in the world today, it is the nature of government itself – regardless of who (or what sex) it is comprised of.</p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:4e76d329-be3f-434e-afe8-b132b5b98e0b" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/women" rel="tag">women</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/government" rel="tag">government</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/laws" rel="tag">laws</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/fred+reed" rel="tag">fred reed</a></div> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-45896274473078454612011-03-26T12:21:00.001-03:002011-03-26T12:21:40.579-03:00How to get 2 Site Build It! businesses for the price of 1<p>Have you been thinking about starting an internet business? </p> <p>If so, you need to consider Site Build It! (SBI! 2.0)?</p> <p>An NOW is the prime time to do it.</p> <p>SBI has had a tradition of offering 2 SBI! subscriptions for the price of one every year at Christmas, but right now there is a<strong> 72 hour exception</strong> to this practice.</p> <p>The reason is that Sitesell.com has been quickly rising on <strong>Facebook</strong> and at 9PM EST on March 25th, crossed over a  <strong>10,000 “Like”</strong> target.</p> <p>To celebrate, they are offering this same <strong>2-for-1 special offer for only 72 hours.</strong></p> <p><em>How can you best benefit from this offer?</em></p> <p><strong>1. Get 2 SBI! Sites for $299.  </strong> Start right away on your first business and you have up to 9 months to activate the other one. </p> <p><strong>2. Split the cost with someone in your family or a friend </strong> – each of you gets an SBI! 2.0 site for less than $150.00. This is an incredible bargain when you count up all the training and collection of tools which are included in the price.</p> <p>In both cases, <a href="http://facebook.sitesell.com/gomyss.html ">follow</a> <a href="http://facebook.sitesell.com/gomyss.html ">this link</a> and you’ll<strong></strong> not only get Site Build It! 2.0 for half the price, I’ll guide you with personal coaching, if you want it.</p> <p> </p> <p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:b11e4c91-661e-4b00-af7b-fcde65189a76" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/SBI" rel="tag">SBI</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/site+build+it" rel="tag">site build it</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/2+for+1" rel="tag">2 for 1</a></div></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-12865637465468201692011-03-03T13:37:00.001-03:002012-06-02T17:00:18.066-04:00A luxurious trip<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1p20I-CabcrQrWPPgs5Xp7weODQNoxBCAkOz-tJ4kSW2I5xjGCMBpEV40vzh-GbTywi5H0xo7QhtKmLeola97L7T4Cmy227EaeFkDEEw_fskNMMBZvXTjVsZ4lUzSKkVakBdpKg/s1600-h/de%20lujo-dubai%5B3%5D.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="de lujo-dubai" border="0" height="171" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_Q0F1H-SppZs/TW_Dz69RNAI/AAAAAAAAALA/j-PoBLmaAL0/de%20lujo-dubai_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; display: inline;" title="de lujo-dubai" width="430" /></a> <br />
This image is an ad promoting a casino in Chile which was giving away a luxurious trip to Dubai. <br />
<br />
I saw a billboard with this ad on a highway when I visited Chile and started thinking: What's so special about a trip to Dubai?<br />
<br />
Of course the opulent luxury in Dubai hotels and things which have been built in that country but apart from seeing what people with virtually unlimited funds can buy, I wonder anyone would get out of a trip there.<br />
<br />
Certainly there is a lot of appeal to winning such a trip, but if a person isn’t in any position to be able to afford such opulence to begin with what would they get out of being exposed to it and being given a taste of it first hand?<br />
<br />
Would this experience be satisfying to that person or would it create a feeling of resentment or longing for something which is so far out of their reach? <br />
<br />
Or perhaps, it might stimulate them to return to their normal surroundings and begin to splurge on luxuries which they couldn’t afford in the first place to try to prolong the illusion that they experienced in winning such a trip.<br />
<br />
If, out of the blue, someone came up to me and offered me such a trip, I don’t think I’d hesitate in accepting it, but I know that I’m not likely to visit a casino (which I seldom do anyway) in the hopes that I might be the lucky winner.<br />
<br />
From a purely marketing point of view, I would be curious to know how this promotion worked out in comparison to other campaigns which they’ve run to attract donations to their purse.<br />
<br />
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Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/gambling" rel="tag">gambling</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Dubai" rel="tag">Dubai</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/luxury" rel="tag">luxury</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/travel" rel="tag">travel</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/marketing" rel="tag">marketing</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-52737878846403001662010-11-21T15:57:00.001-03:002010-11-21T15:57:18.708-03:00Life’s Challenges<p><img style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px" align="right" src="http://sp.life123.com/bm.pix/manweightmachine.s600x600.jpg" width="250" height="168" /> Today a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/Steve.M.Pavlina/posts/171481992876515" target="_blank">posting by Steve Pavlina</a> in Facebook where he stated: </p> <blockquote> <p>The point of weight training is to get stronger, not to move hunks of metal up and down. Many of life's challenges are similar in nature.</p> </blockquote> <p>brought to my mind an experiment I undertook in my own life to deal with challenges.</p> <p>I was about to depart on an international flight from Canada to Chile which, in the past had always been a challenge.  I recalled that every time I had taken that journey, there had always been un-expected problems which seemed to turn the trip into an unpleasant experience.</p> <p>What I decided to do was to expect problems and see how capable I was at getting through them.  In other words, rather than hope that everything would just go perfectly –or at least without any difficulties- I was actually looking forward to them as a challenge to my own capabilities.</p> <p>Well, as it turned out there were unexpected things which would have been horrible under other circumstances, but when the first one came along (and there were several), my first reaction was to think: “Hey, this is my first problem of this trip … how am I going to handle it?”</p> <p>I’m not sure if I had previously decided to expect more than one problem, but by dealing with each and then taking the attitude of “well that’s dealt with … now, what’s next” I wasn’t setting myself up to be suddenly smitten by another problem coming out of the blue when I “thought” I’d dealt with them all.</p> <p>If we can establish this kind of thinking about everything in our lives, then life’s challenges will be no more onerous than adding another few pounds to the weight we’re trying to lift in a weight-training program.</p> <p> <div style="padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: none; padding-top: 0px" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:9262139a-bb76-4842-a592-26833781c1e4" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/steve+pavlina" rel="tag">steve pavlina</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/life" rel="tag">life</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/challenges" rel="tag">challenges</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/difficulty" rel="tag">difficulty</a></div></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-25582116839069420882010-11-19T02:32:00.001-03:002010-11-19T02:32:09.669-03:00What is policing?<p><img title="police officers" style="display: inline" height="266" alt="police officers" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/SA_police_force.jpg" width="200" align="right" />Today I made a stop at a Starbucks near to my residence to warm up on a cold day.</p> <p> When I arrived I noticed 3 uniformed police officers at a table near the window. </p> <p>I took my time, warming up and passing a few long minutes reading an interesting article on my Kindle and noticed that these officers didn’t seem in any hurry to leave and continue doing their duty.</p> <p>Then I started thinking:  What do police officers do when they are policing?  In the end, I’m sure that these three officers were in this particular Starbucks well over an hour and while I wasn’t able to hear or observe anything about what they were up to, it didn’t seem to me to have much of a “policing” nature to it.</p> <p>I’m not writing this to point fingers because I can’t say that these individuals were acting like typical police officers in this area, nor can I even conclude that what I saw was the way they acted on a regular basis.</p> <p>All it did was get me to start thinking what it is that police officer do when they are policing and asking if what they do might be done well in a group of three sitting in a Starbucks cafe.</p> <p> <div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:9cfd7ddf-55bd-40b4-bae3-d47d3370a2aa" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/police+officer" rel="tag">police officer</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/starbucks" rel="tag">starbucks</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/kindle" rel="tag">kindle</a></div> </p> <p><font size="1">Image South Australian police officer via Wikipedia</font></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-49659327720947741532010-10-10T17:01:00.001-03:002010-10-10T17:01:53.796-03:00Calling spades spades<p>To anyone who knows me it would not come as a surprise that I believe in the precepts of free-market capitalism (FMC).</p> <p>T<img style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px" height="146" src="http://www.unodc.org/images/ngo/NGO_main.jpg" width="189" align="left" /> hat being said, it is also vital to recognize that I do not condone any and all actions that are taken or promoted under the banner of FMC. I also feel it is important to take into account the fact that there has never—ever—been a country which has been a 100% pure FMC economy. </p> <p>To my recollection the USA, even at it’s very inception, was a mixture and it has moved more and more away from FMC every year even though it is popularly held up to be the exemplary model of FMC.  Perhaps, it is still the most free of all the countries today—although there may be much reason to doubt that—it is still far from a pure FMC and should, in reality, be called something else.</p> <p>With this background I wish to express some doubts that I’ve had in recent times which grow out of the increasing concerns—both in number and loudness—that I’ve been hearing about the movement of the US towards a socialistic or communistic economy.</p> <p>The crux of my concern is the connection which is always shown between the horrible actions of major communistic movements in the past in terms of genocide and suffering.</p> <p>The questions which I am asking is what is there in socialism or communism that is inherently violent, or that makes a nation which adopts these systems to start killing off people on a large scale.</p> <p>Yes, we can look at a large sampling of nations and name leaders like Mao Zedong, Stalin, Hitler, Castro, etc and show that under them millions of people perished.  I’m not arguing about these facts … but the thing that I am asking is whether it is the <em>system </em>that is at fault, or the <em>person or people </em>who were flawed.</p> <p>From the evidence I’ve seen I have little doubt that the most efficient way for an economy to operate is the FMC model, but that, in itself, doesn’t make the other systems inherently evil, just as travelling in an ox cart is slower than a bicycle, comparing the two needs to be done on the basis of what you wish to achieve and not on the personalities of the famous people who have used ox carts or bicycles.</p> <p>What this point of view raises is another issue which is possibly more vital to our future than the exact mixture of economic systems which we use:  the issue is that some individuals are possibly much more inclined to abuse power than others.</p> <p>With this in mind, then we need to concern ourselves with two points:  1) Identifying who are most likely to abuse power and 2) Limiting the power which they can have so as to limit the damage which they can do.</p> <div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:a84fa33c-5912-4aad-a818-18bc272ffca4" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/economics" rel="tag">economics</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/USA" rel="tag">USA</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/communism" rel="tag">communism</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/socialism" rel="tag">socialism</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/free+market" rel="tag">free market</a></div> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-69871676670289877642010-10-10T16:46:00.001-03:002010-10-10T16:52:21.281-03:00Coming back to haunt you<p>I think that one of the greatest challenges we face in life is being honest with ourselves.  </p> <p><img style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px" height="180" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Van_Hool_Astromega_Oxford-tube.jpg" width="240" align="left" /> We may be conscious of using some deception or attempts to influence the thoughts of other, but somehow we even go to great lengths to avoid the fact that we may be doing </p> <p>the same to ourselves.</p> <p>When my children were small, I always attempted to teach them what I believed would be helpful to them in their lives, although I may not have always realized that there was some variance between what I said and what I did.  You may remember the old saw: “Do as I say, not as I do.”</p> <p>One of the things I frequently would say to my girls whenever they complained that some rule or outcome or event “wasn’t fair”, was “Who ever told you that life was fair?”, or as an alternative I’d say “Fare is what you pay to the bus driver.”</p> <p>Recently I’ve moved from being an active worker into the realm of the retired, and as such, have felt that my life should be much more relaxed and free from obligations imposed by the needs and desires of others.</p> <p>My wife, however, decided to take up employment where she was on call, and could be called at a pre-dawn hour to work.  On a couple of occasions I was awakened and asked to drive her to her place of employment, arising several hours before I would have otherwise.</p> <p>On one of these times I found myself thinking: “This isn’t fair! Now that I’m retired, why should I have to ‘work’ too, just so my wife could work”?</p> <p>Then, as I was searching for the answer to that question, I recalled what I had attempted to instil into my children … now I have to decide:  Do I live by my own teachings, or do I decide that I’d been wrong all that time? <div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:3fc26a67-9946-4948-8bf7-8a7212a0a113" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/teachings" rel="tag">teachings</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/honesty" rel="tag">honesty</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/values" rel="tag">values</a></div></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-82872064625217063672010-09-06T22:25:00.001-04:002010-09-06T22:25:45.978-04:00Dynomighty Designs<p><a href="http://www.dynomighty.com/products.php?s=mighty%20wallets"><img style="display: inline; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px" height="207" src="http://www.dynomighty.com/database/mighty wallets/007-DY-405/images/1.jpg" width="258" align="right" /> Dynomighty Design : Products - Mighty Wallets</a> <br />I stumbled upon this while pursuing some links on a wholly unrelated topic.  Oddly enough, I had been searching for a simple replacement wallet for a few weeks and had just, the day before I discovered this page, purchased something which met my needs.  When I saw this product, I was intrigued and totally dissatisfied with my just-completed purchase.  How I wish I'd delayed my purchase a couple of days. <br />Of course, this is not a major disaster or setback for me, but because I dislike unnecessary back tracking, frivolous waste, and duplicated effort, the issue is an annoyance for me.</p> <p> <br />What I find so interesting is the simplicity and inventiveness of the products which this company produces.  The line of wallets which the company produces suggests that this is its biggest selling line but in addition they have several other ingenious products such as a bottle-top tripod, magenetic jewelery, desk pops, and sky vases.</p> <p> <br />Simplicity is, in my opinion, one of the things that makes many classic designs, products, and ideas so special.</p> <div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:a3d414bd-66f7-4892-9b7f-9c03910bfdb7" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/products" rel="tag">products</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/wallets" rel="tag">wallets</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/simplicity" rel="tag">simplicity</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/companies" rel="tag">companies</a></div> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-3579178478727045212010-08-03T11:45:00.001-04:002010-08-03T11:45:10.031-04:00You can say whatever you want<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWn-m7bOSLafpbG4EZI0uoWFpliJVwa9gWb-WLSGN28jUaLPElQJIpdQG4146fhE-ShEsIVGsrfy9sDx_imc3SoBZLTq7-hyIP0YXHcHbjvIwp7NXDtDvJJiDw1Ki24oAv5z-fbA/s1600-h/free%5B5%5D.jpg"><img title="free" style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; margin-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="144" alt="free" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Q0F1H-SppZs/TFg5hT5Am7I/AAAAAAAAAKY/4z-ngPWk-DE/free_thumb%5B3%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="210" align="right" border="0" /></a>A package of soymilk reads:</p> <blockquote> <p> <strong><font color="#0000a0">IT’S FREE!</font></strong> Silk Vanilla is free of lactose, dairy, cholesterol, eggs, casein, MSG and worries. <em>You still have to pay for it though.</em></p> </blockquote> <p> Before I get to my point, I’d like to say I love this product and find it an excellent replacement for regular milk.</p> <p>The thought that struck me, when I read that statement on the package is that it seems so typical of what we hear everywhere in the media from politicians and about most everything.  Statements are made which are the complete opposite of what they say …. and as long as the person somewhere, somehow, clarifies what they are saying, it is considered totally acceptable.</p> <p>A defendant of this kind of action would likely state: “Why should a person be criticized just because a reader didn’t read on a bit further to learn the real, full meaning of what was said.”</p> <p>I would tend to agree with that kind of defence, and yet I also see that there is a lack of trustworthiness demonstrated by the person who makes a statement of this nature, because he is relying on his own cleverness and his listeners’ lack of acuity to actually create a false impression which is serving his own ends and not those of his listeners. </p> <p>It is tragic that this kind of thinking is too prevalent today.</p> <p></p> <p> <div class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" id="scid:0767317B-992E-4b12-91E0-4F059A8CECA8:1b4d160d-971a-4288-80a9-19f86e1a2396" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/advertising" rel="tag">advertising</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/politicians" rel="tag">politicians</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/language" rel="tag">language</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/honor" rel="tag">honor</a>,<a href="http://technorati.com/tags/trust" rel="tag">trust</a></div></p> <div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-79775290068595885132010-06-28T13:31:00.002-04:002010-06-28T13:33:59.919-04:00Global Warming, Population growth, and Petroleum Reserves<span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY">YouTube - The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See (part 1 of 8)</a><br /><br />This professor has some impeccable math, and a very clear explanation of how it can be applied. I highly recommend it, however I do not agree with his logic. He doesn't take into account the fact that innumerable situations in which this kind of exponential growth have never occurred, that something -- usually completely unexpected -- have happened to prevent the disaster from culminating.<br /><br />This does not excuse us from acting sensibly in dealing with issues which face us either now or in the future. Using the issue of global warming, as an example, whether or not you agree that it is a real problem, it does not make sense to continue to pollute our environment with abandon.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7249074.post-1264467415406080732010-03-12T13:20:00.000-03:002010-03-12T13:20:29.558-03:00New Rules for the New Economy<a href="http://www.kk.org/newrules/blog/2010/02/the-network-economy-is-a-meta-.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NewRules+%28New+Rules%29&utm_content=Netvibes">New Rules for the New Economy</a><br /><br />A fascinating new viewpoint at how the world is changing...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0