How to Ward Off a Hare-brained Occultist

A cross is effective against vampires, and some Christians get frightened by a simple pentagram, so what scares a hare-brained occultist?

Well, I brought up Science, and a popular scientific experiment, and Lordy, that occultist cleared out. Science is their cross, their pentagram. The notion that all their fancies will be proven false, and they will be made a laughingstock scares them away.

Wise is to avoid conflict with Science, by co-opting it into one's beliefs, as I believe the Catholic Church has been doing for the past hundred years. Science revises Man's conceptions and understanding of all things, including magic. It is unwise to hold magic as a special egg immune to the overwhelming penetrative power of scientific inquiry. Why can the two not be as one?

Zombie

My dream seemed commonplace and unscary, only because it was inspired by the many zombie shows. A friend of mine, who I cannot even remember, came to school, but he was dead, and his body showed signs of being, well, past its prime. People complained, but not in a hysterical way like you would think. The more I think about the premise, the more it seems illogical. He was pale as a ghost, and certainly did not act normal, but was not threatening in any way, just, well, dead--animated dead.

I don't know what the significance of that dream was, or what possible relation it would have to my life. I don't even know the friend was or if it was indeed a friend. I think the whole thing was a bad TV show. I decided, no more wearing a pentagram in bed.

School Shooters

It would be satisfying to take the latest school shooter, string him up in his front yard, and leave him there until the crows pick his bones clean. Then incinerate bones, home, and everything in the home. I wonder how many school shooters would play copycat after that spectacle gets live-streamed on YouTube. My guess is not as many. The glory and notoriety factor would work in the opposite direction from what it is now, where these school shooters are sitting in prison watching TV news about themselves and browsing their sick fan mail.

The Demise of Unions

It is amusing to watch U.S. companies grovel before the Chinese Emperor. Gap, Marriott, and all of these huge multinationals obey Chinese censorship, even when selling products in the U.S. Interesting. All it takes is power.

Who cares what Americans think?

The working man used to have power, when he gathered together to form unions, but the smart folks brainwashed the masses, to make them think unions are bad. In the end, working people lost a great deal--benefits, job security, and salary. And that's not ever going to come back, because without unions, workers can be treated just any which way. If the American worker gets too uppity, then companies need merely to shift production to China. Who really cares what Americans think? What's important is what the Chinese Emperor thinks.

Now China owns both our politicians and the heads of companies and can get them to do whatever it wants them to do. Everyone is scared to death of incurring the wrath of China. The writing is on the world--U.S., has-been, washed-up relic of something that used to be. China, ascendant master of the Universe, with just a matter of time before it seizes Taiwan and other territorial ambitions. Is democracy doomed? Probably. If the best that the U.S. can do is put up a dolt like Trump, then the best is behind us. The U.S. got tired of smart (Obama), so settled for its opposite. Twenty-plus trillion in debt, with no end in sight to the national debt, and quite likely to default on Social Security and Medicare obligations, the U.S. has betrayed the working people. Who cares? Working people have no power.

So Trump Axed the Iran Deal

So what? A big ho-hum from the American public, reason being that Iran has been a bad actor all around the world, showing its behind all the time to neighboring countries and expressing its desire to destroy the United States and everyone living here. I think Trump is probably right that the time has come to nix the deal. The deal was worth a try. In theory, Iran could have accepted the olive branch and changed its ways, modernizing its economy and its system of government. Certainly, Iran would have been welcomed back into the community of nations, after establishing trust. Instead, Iran has chosen poverty, ignorance and backwardness. And that is what they will get. Time to stop hearing about Iran, it is just another horrible, backward country that no one would ever want to visit, where oppression, censorship, torture and misery are the norm.

As for nukes, if Iran goes nuclear, so do the other countries in the Middle East. It was only a matter of time anyway. The dam was sure to break. If North Korea has nukes, then Iran was sure to get them, one way or another, quite possibly from a North Korean submarine, sold in exchange for oil, food, and gold. Of course, the Iranians would pay just about any price for the weapon they so desire, billions, even. It is rather precious to suppose that a treaty and inspections can prevent a massive, well-funded intelligence apparatus from obtaining nuclear missile technology. I have no doubt Iran will eventually get nukes. Then catastrophe is simply a matter of time. The Iranians can always rationalize that Allah will reward the faithful after pressing the button. That's how the Islamic terrorists think, before they blow themselves up.

In truth, the most likely scenario is global nuclear war at some point in time. Everybody seems to want to jump on the nuke wagon. All these stupid boys have to play with dangerous toys. For the same reason, real boys play with firecrackers. Just the desire to make things go boom. Stupid, mindless leaders in North Korea, Iran. What bigger boom than a nuke?

The key is to prepare for the Apocalypse, to salt away knowledge and learning, that it not be forgotten, and, if desired, to try to survive what comes next--probably, nuclear winter, a mini-Ice Age, as Carl Sagan predicted. At any rate, most of the Earth's surface will probably become radioactive or otherwise uninhabitable for a time. It may even be that H. Sapiens will die out, and there will be no intelligent life left to blog about the state of the world. In which case, you know, too bad. I rather think a degenerative mutant species will dominate composed of individuals somewhat resistant to radiation.

As for me, I had my time in the Sun, and it was fun, for the most part. My hope is that I live out the remainder of my days before the end, but if I do see the end, I imagine there will be a certain satisfaction in knowing I'm among the last to know the civilized, modern world as it once was in all its glory. Luckiest of all will be the really old folks. They will have savored a complete measure of life before the catastrophe.

Republicans Have No Class

Honestly, some Republicans are acting like trash. McCain is dying, and they criticize his guest selection for his own funeral? Zero compassion. That explains Republican ideology 100%.

Platinum Can't Keep Its Trousers Up

As the internal combustion engine gradually gets phased out from worldwide usage in motor vehicles, platinum's trousers keep falling. I anticipate $600/oz., or about where we were in 2000. From there, it could decline further. After all, from an aesthetic point of view, it has nothing over silver.

College is Worthless

The four-year university track is another symptom of chronic stupidity. Perhaps some deserve crushing debt, being jobless and not having anything, while being highly educated at the same time. One can purchase book-learning, but one cannot purchase true merit, courage and work ethic.

NPR recently published a report on the shortage of trade workers in the United States. The truth is, people are lazy, and would rather go into debt drinking alcohol and popping pills for four years than actually get out there and work. Mom and Dad will buy the story, right? A four-year degree. Oh yeah, going to climb up that corporate ladder and be a big shot executive type, right? Yeah, sure. Just like all the other millions.

The best plan is to learn what is termed a "blue-collar" trade and go immediately to work, not after high school, but during--at the earliest age humanly possible. If, later, one is compelled by the desire for higher education for its own sake, then sure, that option will be readily available to one who has already paid for a house, set up a comfortable retirement and accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings. Blue collar workers are making $30 - $60 an hour, which dwarfs the salary of most college professors!

Education means nothing in today's world. It used to mean something, but people need to get their head out of the 1900s and get with the times. This is 2018. It is all about finding a niche in the global economic jigsaw puzzle. The fact is, skilled trades are what are needed. Not more entitled folk clutching worthless degrees. Get in line at the McDonald's and see whether you can impress the shift manager with your mad skills. "Would you like Fries with that?"

Young people should spend their teenage years working in fast-food jobs, like McDonald's. It would do them a world of good. In high school, if the pool of teachers is no better than what it was in my day, then bad habits are being learned, like vaping and nonsense with their phones and pointless, mindless obsessing over social media. Four hours an evening, working the grill at McDonald's, would demonstrate the value of money in a meaningful manner, conveyed to tired muscles.

My first job was at the age of 15, and I worked at a fast-food restaurant, grocery store and also did odd jobs around the neighborhood. I learned the value of money and to treat it with the utmost respect. If a dollar costs tired arms, legs and aching back, well then, that dollar is not something to be tossed around lightly, is it?

The problem with our university system is that it has not changed since the 1800s, and really, people need to get work much, much faster. College teaches charming little nuggets of knowledge, the bulk of which goes unused or gets forgotten. It is basically something people buy as a ticket into the middle class, except it doesn't work that well anymore as a ticket into the middle class, because everybody and their brother already has a degree, and degrees are handed out to pretty much anyone with a pulse, anyway. Grade inflation is more than a thing, it's a fact of life, and professors are scared to death to flunk a student, because the professors are making peanuts with peanutty benefits anyway. Most professors get no benefits and earn less than $40k a year; they are called "adjuncts." By the time a person is 22, a lot of good years are already behind them, years when youngsters were quick and agile with technology. So, what college does in effect is actually reduce the effectiveness of workers, by ensuring they are older before they start work, while conveying zero benefit.