Wren Nesting In Ponytail Palm

When your government and your economy are addicts and can't seem to stop their habits, borrowing against limited collateral, where do you send them for professional help?

Ask an expert about the symptoms, first:

Stockman [former Reagan administration budget director] explained that before 1980, it took about $1.50 of new borrowing -- public or private -- to generate $1 of GDP growth. By the mid-1990s, it was $2.50 or $3 of borrowing for a $1 of GDP growth. By 2007, before the big collapse and meltdown finally came, $7 of public and private debt was added to the national balance sheet in order to get $1 of GDP growth.

"When you get to the point of $7 of borrowing to get $1 of income, you're obviously on an unsustainable path and pretty close to hitting the wall, which more or less we have," he said.

"So the addicts in Washington are now unfortunately terrified to stop all this borrowing whether it's for guns or butter for fear of the economy will collapse.... That's why we're just at the beginning of solving this massive financial collapse we had in 2008 and not in the process of healthy recovery as some of the pals in the White House or on Capitol Hill or on Wall Street would have you believe."

Where do we get a second opinion?

Should we keep drawing from the well just because it hasn't run dry?

I'm not worried about the rhetoric inciting divisive opinions.  I'm concerned about finding at least one courageous group of people willing to say, "Stop the Insanity!"

Or should I not worry and, like Tajikistan, just cede some of my sovereignty without blinking an eye?

We're a global village and all that now, right?

You know what?  I'm not going to think any more about the government that makes the laws under which I try to be a good citizen.  If the majority of people don't care if their cash cow is getting close to cashing out, then I won't, either.

I have to keep my eyes on the big prize - getting our species living permanently, securely, happily in more than one solar system - and on the little prize, opening the eyes of those wanting to be enlightened about the concept of reality.

The rest is just a poor filter level setting letting the random bleetings of the noise floor get through.

Infinite Curiosity

A piece of the puzzle?  You decide.  Old but interesting news:

Fluoridation Chemical Shortages and Rising Costs

One more from the CDC:

Temporary Shortages of Fluoride Additives

Can you outrun your own body?

I haven't tried to bend a spoon with my mind but I have seen a spoon's shadow bent around the curve of the inside of a paper bowl.

This morning, I arrived at a familiar crossroads - do I create my own light or follow the light of others?

Growing up in the shadow of a chemical plant, many of my friends and their parents discussed chemical compound possibilities in everyday conversation.

JETS may still be around.  I don't know.

So I guess that's why my philosophy (again, a word I use loosely) is centered on the simple phrase, "states of energy."

And why I don't trust a theory if the squirrels in the yard don't see its poignancy.

A clever brain is not the universe, only part of it.

If the truth has no impact on the states of energy that I see and call living things and their tendency toward narcissistic self-replication, then why reveal it?

If the truth has as much meaning to my species as the formula for plastic in a three-litre bottle does to the spider in the foyer, why attempt to translate it?

"Truth."  Another combination of loosely held-together characters characterising characterisations like strings of a marionette holding up a puppet's body joints that we interpret as representations of people, animals and other everyday objects.

Members of the Committee of 7.5 want me on their team because they assume it means they'll have exclusive access to the truth.

But the truth doesn't work that way, does it?

That's why I'm a member of another group that collects secrets from all groups/societies/clubs and openly shares them with whomever.  The more secrets you assemble and connect, the clearer the jigsaw puzzle of our species' habits materialises.

Who knows what tomorrow may bring?  Lots of snow and slippery weather, the forecasters sing!

Never believe what you read, including these words.  We're fooling ourselves in one giant agreed-upon, closed-off fantasy.

As you know, humour is the key to unlock the door to get out.

When one bad apple spoils a whole bunch of sideline reporters, do you toss out the whole barrel or reassign the lot to cover news stories that'll go into the morgue and start all over?

Which is more important: your bottom line or your people?

After we've trained the whole species to divert their food/shelter seeking habits toward participation in the world of commercialisation, how do we, from a global standpoint, manage the resources so that unique products can "naturally" rise and fall in popularity (via adverts, word-of-mouth, etc.) without depleting resources available for the next round of unique must-have goodies?

Tariffs and bans are one form of centralised planning used by decentralised capitalist societies, not to mention communist ones, to control the processing and flow of raw resources.

My programmers ran a scenario for me last night where China's increased control of exotic materials was met by a ban of and/or tariff on the import of products made with Chinese-based exotic materials.

One result was the forced consumption of domestic production in China.

Another result was the increase in innovation in the rest of the world in creating useful products that advanced society without the need for exotic materials.

A result I hesitate to report was a degradation into famine and food wars due to increased currency exchange problems and high-sea battles/raids.

I've asked my programmers to change the parameters and run a full-length 1000-year projection for analysis over the weekend.

Two Problems Looking For A Solution Or The Other Way Around?

Take underutilised workers and find a viable way to use their brains for science.

Thanks to "No Highway in the Sky" for the inspiration.

Thanks to Pizza Hut and the driver who went back to purchase a bottle of Mountain Dew for the energy to contemplate the idea.

International Irrational

A secret cable was released to special members of the Redneck Mafia today.

The cable details plans for Ireland to seek public comments on possible reparations that Ireland could ask of Denmark for damages caused by Danish citizens who raided the Emerald Isle as Vikings centuries ago.

Indeed, Ireland may, according to the document, claim billions of Euros from Great Britain as well, with the Irish leaders believing that not only did the British disguise themselves as Vikings but that they also continue to raid the Irish economy today.

A footnote in the cable points out that the Viking claim could easily be extended to France and Germany.

For some strange reason, the Dutch government has just suddenly gone into exile.  A spokesperson said they are neither confirming nor denying any involvement in Viking activities.  However, there's a wooden shoe sale they'd like folks to know about that's supposed to raise funds for propping up the E.U.

More as it develops...

House for sale/at auction

When one is left alone to meditate (albeit in public view amidst crowds and family), one is no longer one.

Praying for people to accept what has happened and will happen with no thoughts/dwelling on what might have been.

Listening to conversation at a Christmas open house about: enjoying the Andy Griffith TV show, trying to sell a nice one-story rancher house in this economy, becoming a great-great grandmother, the 93-year old sixth grade teacher alive and doing well (the student in his 70s still appreciative of the teacher's positive influence), the city schools' band director recruiting flute players, the storyteller Doc McConnell's young daughter now retired with a teenage daughter of her own, Crook & Chase back at it again...

The world has changed but it hasn't.

One's 16-year old niece with a job of her own, buying her uncle a box of practical jokes (joy buzzer, whoopie cushion, flies-in-ice, etc.) with her personally-earned money - just like her mother and uncle before her, buying family gifts with their first jobs. Keeping her sensitive, artistic side open through painting, expecting perfection.

One's 17-year old niece getting engaged to a nice young man in the military - wasn't her stepgrandfather a military man when he proposed to his bride-to-be?

One's 18-year old nephew continuing the family thespian tradition a [BIG] step further.

Dogs making tracks in the snow.

Cats curling up under the covers.

What if the power to brighten a single light bulb was more significant than deciding whether to add ambiance for a holiday gathering with the flick of a switch?

Assuming much when assuming nothing.

What if, instead of filling prisons, we found meaningful work for those who were willing to risk their families' health and security to build meth labs at home? Fulltime pharmaceutical laboratory test subjects, for instance, earning minimum wage, hazard pay and medical benefits.

Turn self-interest into something more profitable.

Meditating the self out of the picture.

The father's speaking tours on industrial engineering in the U.S. become the son's blog about reengineering the species' place in the universe.