One for Alanis’ song Ironic

Did you know that the chief architect of the patriot act is a Vietnamese refugee named Viet D. Dinh? He escaped totalitarian oppression to come here and create totalitarian oppression.

Economic Theory

They say it’s recession when it’s happening to someone else and depression when it’s happening to you. I think that’s too exclusivist. It creates an atmosphere of us against them and fosters more class warfare. Here’s how I view it:

It’s recession when they’re using a condom.
It’s depression when they’re giving it bareback.

That’s what’s happening in the world. Some folks like it. Other folks don’t.

On the subject of weeping and gnashing of teeth

Isn’t there a dentist in hell who can fix some kind of fireproof jaw guard for people so they won’t grind their teeth?

The shape of politics

The appearance of our political system is based on the coin to the left. Through voting and elections we weed out and narrow down from several candidates to two…one from each party.

Then in November we flip the coin. While the coin is in the air everybody thinks subconsciously “Heads I win, Tails you lose”. Occasionally there is a third party but that is mostly a statistical aberration and an annoyance to many. So the coin lands and the country moves through the next four to eight years seemingly led by either a jack ass or an elephant.

The two animals are different manifestations of the same shape-shifting beast. In reality that coin we’re tossing every four years is the ball bearing to the right. It has no sides and rolls along under someone else’s control.

The illusion of safety

A person sitting on a pallet of gold in the Fort Knox vault is safe but the rent is more than most people can afford.

• You’re either aware or you’re not aware.
• You’re either prepared or you’re not prepared.
• You’re either responsible or you’re not responsible.
• You’re either trained or you’re not trained.

These are the things one must be doing every day, in every situation, to best ensure freedom from harm. “Safe” and “Secure” are overused and overly misunderstood. Safety, as it is pitched about in the media and the community conversations is an illusion. It’s an abstraction. It does not exist.

We want to be free to move about public venues playing with our personal electronics and not be physically threatened. We think that the existence of the police or other security guarantees that. And so people go about their yakking, head bopping, snapshooting, texting, getting cash from the ATM, eating lives not paying attention very far beyond their “personal space.” Then when someone grabs their toys and runs they stand around wondering what just happened. Or something worse befalls them which I won’t go into. These more serious events are well depicted on CSI and Law and Order.

Back in 2000 I was in one of the malls here. I left the store I had been shopping at and went to the ATM which was about 50 yards away in an open area back down the wing. I got my twenty bucks and receipt and stuck them in my shirt pocket and started back towards the store. I didn’t really pay attention to who was around. I wasn’t thinking about that or even that it was necessary. My mind was on the fact that I needed the cash and had to get done so I could start heading to work. When I got about 2/3 of the way back I got this twitchy feeling like someone was watching me. Then in my right eyeglass lens I sort of caught a reflection of someone getting close to me. It was then that I thought, wait a minute. something’s wrong here. I stopped and turned around. There was a man about four feet away from me. I tried to look him in the eye. We had just passed the last down escalator for that wing. He turned and went and got on it. He looked down at his feet. I kept trying to look at him…to look him in the eye until he was out of sight.

Did I feel “safe?” I don’t know. I doubt it. I did not feel afraid. Would I have won had there been a physical confrontation? I don’t know. It’s possible. But maybe not. I know from what happened that the guy who was intending on shoving me and stealing my money or whatever he was going to do did not have the stomach for facing me full on. He’s a crook, a thief. His operating method was surprise and maybe speed. I was supposed to be left $20 poorer and wondering what happened. So my “safety” began the moment I stopped and took responsibility for myself and my surroundings and it only lasted as long as I was doing that.

Where was mall security? Where were the police? I don’t know and I really don’t care. It doesn’t do me any good having them there if my attacker is running to the exit with my money and they’ve maybe just heard through the grapevine that something just happened on the second level between Space City and Gadzooks. It doesn’t do anyone any good if they’re lying on the jogging trail with a stab wound, the mugger is running away with their iPod and the bicycle park police are on the other side of the lake. It’s called crime. The US military does not swear an oath to protect you from it. The police do, but they’re not your bodyguards or personal escorts. There is no static condition of safety or security that guarantees your freedom from it. The government doctor can implant an RFID chip next to your colon and an array of billion dollar satellites will know exactly where your body is when you just bled to death from a gunshot. While this will be an aid to the authorities in getting your remains to the coroner, none of this stuff matters if you could have dealt with a situation and didn’t because you weren’t paying attention.

Here are my “security measures”:

1. Trust no one. If you don’t know them personally they don’t have your back.
2. Compartmentalize your head. Stay sufficiently disconnected from your toys to be aware of your surroundings.
3. Don’t count money or have cash visible while walking around. Avoid open air ATMs.
4. Keep your bag between you and a wall.
5. If you’re at a restaurant take your stuff with you to the toilet.
6. Lock the car at night and stay with it until that stupid interior light goes out.
7. Look all around yourself all the time.
8. Know where the exit is.
9. Remember where you parked.
10. Watch the watchers. There is always someone who is out of place. Make sure you see them.
11. There are exceptions and variations to these. Try to keep that to a minimum.

Protecting yourself is your responsibility. It’s more important than feeling safe.

Attitudes towards work

I’ve never found a balance between my need to work and my desire to be free to do whatever.

I doubt I ever will.

So as the chorus of that Loverboy song goes, “Everybody’s workin’ for the weekend!”

The root of the root of all evil

St. Paul wrote to Timothy that the love of money is the root of all evil. Over the centuries, through the editorial power of folk recollections, at some point we got to the statement that money is the root of all evil. As a result there have been those throughout time who’ve cursed its existence, their disdain for it becoming part of utopian dreams. A love of money mostly has to do with a love of the things it can purchase. And it is this love of things that leads to many problems in our world. Just look at the rate of bankruptcies, foreclosures and people walking away from homes in the U.S.

If and when I see St. Paul I shall have to ask his forgiveness, but the things going on in this world necessitate a slight revision and expansion of I Tim 6:10. It’s not the love of money that is the root of all evil, it’s the love of power. We often hear people say “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It’s kind of a catch phrase. It is usually said by people who don’t think they’ll ever have to come face to face with either scenario…at least not in their lifetimes. In looking back over just the last 50 years of history I’m forced to say we are face to face with men and women the world over who lust and chase after absolute power and control.

The love of money is a large part of evil’s root system, if we can conceive of such a thing. It’s the love of power that is its core.

Nuts

Now the Atlas Shrugged IMDB page has Brad Pit listed as John Galt again.

Combining Church and State

I will not accept this. You cannot scare me with my immortal soul. I don’t care if I am perceived as damned by every professing Christian on the planet.

Imaginary Money: How it works

When you’re approved for a loan someone writes an amount into the credit column of your account and $1000 or however much it is has just been created. If it’s a credit card the system codes the amount onto that magnetic stripe. After that you start paying interest on your spending. This is where money is created, not in the minting of coin or printing of cash. There is no intrinsic value backing what you borrow.