Suffocating Under Prescription Laws

Today, the restrictions on life-saving medicine are an obvious manifestation of Social Darwinism. Medicines such as Albuterol, the rescue inhaler for asthmatics, require a prescription by an expensive medical doctor. Readers unfamiliar with Albuterol should know that is a non-narcotic medicine that asthmatics require on occasion when their asthma acts up. It is not typically something that one takes on a daily basis, but rather as needed, such as during allergy season. Inability to obtain Albuterol can lead to death by suffocation at the utmost, or costly visits to indifferent nurse practitioners at expensive, far-away medical clinics in order to obtain a script for twenty-five doses of the common generic drug, Albuterol. A visit may cost as much as a hundred dollars, not counting the Albuterol itself, which is additional. Always the words on the label read "NO REFILL," guaranteeing another visit a few months down the line and another hundred dollars flushed down the toilet. Making Albuterol difficult to obtain is unethical, because it increases the risk that an asthmatic will die of suffocation.

Why is Albuterol a prescription drug in the first place? That's a good question that would be difficult to answer without cynicism. Almost every drug that does anything requires a prescription. The reason is the government thinks people are idiots. Some people are idiots, sure. But most people would rather be given the benefit of the doubt. I believe one should assume that people will make wise choices, given adequate information, and yet even if they do not, it is better that they should be given a choice. My belief is a natural extension of my bias toward democracy. Those who are authoritarian take the opposite view, that only an authority should decide what is best for an individual. I suppose one's stance on this issue reflects one's political affiliation. There are some that would be happier in Iran or China, being told what to do and what not to do all the time.

In my view, doctors should not have an exclusive monopoly on prescribing life-saving medicine. In order to justify such a monopoly from the ethical perspective, doctors would have to always be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to instantly write a script to anyone who needs it at no cost. This, of course, is impossible for anyone, let alone a doctor. Doctors are hardly available at all, and when they are seen it is at great cost and at their convenience, not the convenience of the suffering. I conclude that prescription and indeed drug laws in general will have to be revisited in a future society founded upon ethics. I doubt that any change will happen in my lifetime, but perhaps future generations will come around to a similar viewpoint as expressed here.

Hooray for Jinkx

I was pleased to see that Jinkx Monsoon won the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. However, I don't flatter myself for predicting her victory. To anyone paying attention, it was pretty clear who the top runner was. I also predicted that Ivy Winters would win Ms. Congeniality, but that too was obvious. One of the interesting little details about the fifth season is that Jinkx had a crush on Ivy Winters. I think that showed good taste. Ivy Winters looks better male than female. However, Jinkx is something else. She is one of many drag queens I would like to see on a regular TV show. She has a great talent for acting. She just needs good lines, although she's competent at impromptu. I think she's pretty amazing, and if Hollywood doesn't have a producer that can imagine her in a television show, then that's Hollywood's loss.

Although I am a bonafide fan, I cringed reading the bio on her web site. I absolutely cringed, and my heart sank. She comes across as too arrogant by half. Every other sentence boasts of her intellect. You know, intelligence is a funny thing. It should be self-evident; there is no need for trumpet-blowing. And also there is the danger, no matter how intelligent one thinks oneself, there is always someone more intelligent, who will laugh at one's boasts. Intelligence is all a matter of perspective. Summa cum laude, indeed. But I may be hypersensitive to a fault I also share, because have I not also boasted of those three Latin words, the finest decoration for a bachelor's degree? After all, did we not work hard in college in order to achieve summa cum laude? Don't we deserve some credit? Is the trophy without value? Yet I have qualms about how it is perceived. I've never gotten a job on the strength of summa cum laude. As far as I can see, no one cares about academic honors besides those in academia. Even a college degree has no value in terms of employment. A bachelor's degree translates into a minimum wage job in today's America.

But perhaps the author, which I assume was Jinkx herself, is worried about being underestimated. I predict the bio will be rewritten within a month's time or whenever Jinkx has a moment to spare.

Having read Jinkx's bio, I know the backstory to a curious remark that RuPaul made to Jinkx after their luncheon late in the fifth season. "You're a bright young star," Ru said, which signalled that Jinkx was favored to win. Ru rarely gives such a strong and undeniable sign of favor, and Jinkx was clearly pleased by the remark. Yet Ru was borrowing the phrase that Jinkx used in her bio--"bright star."

Here's for Jinkx

I expect Jinkx Monsoon to win the fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. Jinkx epitomizes what I think drag should be, a performance act with emphasis upon acting, drama, and comedy. I like Alaska too, but as an actor, Alaska seems less refined than Jinkx. I noticed the look on Jinkx's face when RuPaul said she was turning the decision over to the viewers. Perhaps Jinkx suspects that she has captured the hearts of the viewers. She has more cunning than some people have given her credit for. She was the strongest contender from day one and knew it. One felt the same way about Raja, a contender from a previous season who simply demolished the competition--was so far above them as to seem another species.

Some judges and competitors ding Jinkx for her fashion sense. Perhaps I am not a good judge of that sort of thing. My fashion sense is below average, although I've absorbed a good dose by osmosis from my spouse, who has a very great fashion sense. However, I think Jinkx puts her face together very well, and the face is the most important part of the body. As for her costume, I usually like it, and I never understand why judges praise another competitor and criticize Jinkx for her costume. It is never clear to me. There have been times when I felt that Jinkx was the best-looking competitor on the stage by a factor of about a hundred to one, and yet the judges seem to differ from my opinion by a similar factor. To me, the costume is almost irrelevant. I'm more interested in the acting and the presentation, or how a competitor handles herself. There are some competitors that may get their costumes right according to the arcane laws of fashion, but they bore me silly with the same wooden face that never changes and never registers any passion other than naked ambition.

Faith Falters

As a friendly observer, I witness the disintegration of what used to be a fine thriving little church in my community. What strikes me is the lack of intelligence in the higher echelons, the district managers, so to speak. What blockheads they seem. What uninspiring specimens they install as preachers.

Jesus is not going to fix everything. If you want God to help you, help yourself. The trouble with churches has always been that they do not react in realtime but have a delayed reaction to problems due to the shackles around each ankle, one named Tradition and the other named Ignorance. Knowledge is not the serpent. Knowledge is the path to wisdom. Without knowledge, how do we know what is so? Some religionists assume they already know, due to having (mis-)read a book. Some preachers speak as though their audience were uneducated sharecroppers without a nickel to their names and no television, no Internet, no telephone; no way to find out contrary information. To recruit and retain the sophisticated, it is necessary that the preacher be sophisticated, not simple and not bandying about the same old discredited superstitions. Do not speak of what cannot be proven, but speak of what is known to each heart. Too many preachers seem like children. They do not know anything and one doesn't yearn to hear anything they might have to say. It would be better to select a person that knew nothing of the Bible, but had a good heart and knew how to speak, than some of the specimens from seminary, who seem to be guaranteed employment for life, rather than being selected upon personal merit.

Gaining a dozen new indigents is fine for filling out the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, but losing a single family that is well-educated and well-connected is a loss that reverses the former gain altogether. For generations, churches have been losing the best and the brightest. Educated people do not go to church anymore. Churches have also been losing the young. I see no end to the trend of mindshare loss. Islam also is losing in the long term, retaining some due to the thread of a shared cultural identity in the face of an overwhelming Western culture, but that faith too is on the wane, and perhaps all others as well, due to the excellent accessibility of information in our times.

Knowledge will defeat faith. Faith I think had its uses and served well another age of Man, as did monarchy and feudalism. In my family tree, I observed there were many preachers as far back as the 1600s. My people used to be earnest believers even in the current generation, but they have all left their various denominations for various reasons. Most left because their churches were stodgy, unscientific, mean-spirited merchants of mumbo-jumbo. I left as a teenager and never looked back. The Church had no answers for me, only hypocrisy and mumbo-jumbo. The time to update and refresh religion was hundreds of years ago. There used to be a narrow window of opportunity. The time has passed when religion could change and accommodate modern man. Now religion will be discarded as an outmoded relic of the past. Philosophy must replace it.

Tragedy in Boston

A friend of mine told me about the tragedy that struck the Boston Marathon today. She had heard about it on television. It's completely crazy to bomb a marathon. Runners are some of the best people in the world. Hard-working, healthy, clean-living, cheerful and happy folks are the runners.

To understand such an insect act, one has to accept that there are people in the world that lack empathy for other sentient creatures. They are severely handicapped psychologically and incapable of finding love or friendship. They are uninteresting dim souls that behave in the ways that the ants behave.

I suspect that radical Islamist terrorists were behind the tragedy and that their rationale was payback for drone attacks. That to me seems the most likely scenario. They accomplish nothing, of course, but perhaps the act satisfies some primitive desire for revenge. Terrorists are nothing if not primitive. It is a mistake to think of them as being rational or pragmatic. I don't think they have a grand strategy or much conception of politics.

I envision a lazy, stupid terrorist, insofar as most terrorists probably are lazy and stupid. Evil and the destructive urge appeals to those types most of all.  Hard-working folks tend to build things, nurture things, work to make the world a better place. Those that want to destroy have not invested any blood, sweat or tears in building or creating anything of note. That is why they find it so very easy to destroy.

No one would be venturing out on a limb here by speculating that the terrorist is male, because men tend to find it within themselves to commit such acts. Not nearly as many women have ever been convicted of terrorism. I think this is because women create and nurture the most important thing of all, life. Of course, the hormonal differences between estrogen and testosterone play an important role as well.

Mr. Stupid is aware of the Boston Marathon because it is nearby where he lives or because he has heard about it before. Probably a cell of three or four terrorists, some foreign nationals. More than one person would have to be involved to pull something like this off, because terrorists tend to be so stupid and lazy that they would lose focus without the incitement of peer pressure to spur them on.

The terrorists, when apprehended, should be charged with capital murder and put to death. It's a good thing to have capital punishment to deal with crimes like this. A public execution helps heal psychic wounds. Hopefully, the method of execution will be non-destructive of body parts,  because the organs of the terrorists could be harvested and given to those in the Boston area that need organs.

Deathrace

I watched a disturbing movie, Deathrace, about a dystopia set in the U.S.A. of the near future, in which, like today, there are few or no good jobs, and those jobs that are available tend to be temporary, ill-paid, and without benefits of any kind. The numerous and well-armed police are given a free hand to beat the hell out of workers, because workers are considered expendable, along with the rest of the have-nots. Prisons are run by private corporations, as is the case today in many states, and these corporations are in it to make a profit at all costs. The movie seemed realistic, and I wondered whether it was a crystal ball into our future.

The plot sickens: a worker is sent to jail for murdering his wife, although actually an undercover agent murdered his wife in order to frame him for the murder. Why was he framed? Because he is a good driver. Once in prison, he competes in a reality show called Deathrace, where convicts race against each other in armored cars fitted with machine guns and exotic weapons, which is reminiscent of the gladiators of Ancient Rome.

Midway through, I paused the movie to put up dishes and dropped a wine glass, which shattered. I don't usually drop things. At that point, I realized the movie had ceased to entertain and that I didn't care to watch the rest. There were no interesting characters, and despite the thought-provoking plot, the writing was uninspiring. No one in the movie uttered anything memorable.

My kind of movie is any of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. I watched The Hobbit in order to recover. The next day, I watched The Fellowship of the Ring and found my favorite scenes, the romantic ones concerning Arwen, who chose a mortal life, and they brought tears to my eyes once again. Surely there will always be good people in the world. I think good has powerful benefits, some evident and some subtle. Otherwise, good would not have endured the ages. Evil is destructive not only of others but of self, whereas good is regenerative and nurturing of all.

It may be that the economy is screwed up, and many of our politicians and other officials either don't give a damn or don't have a clue what to do about it. I think America is on the road to being second-rate, and China is going to be the new fascist power to rival the old Axis Powers. All that is pretty clear. One doesn't need a crystal ball. I've heard plenty of ordinary people express similar opinions. The powers-that-be up in Washington are still acting as though nothing has changed, strutting about the world like we're still the sheriff. The leaders are due some rue from the clue canoe. That will come about in due course. Usually, America gets a wake-up call like Pearl Harbor or 1929 before it wakes up. I don't know what disaster is going to make the big changes yet, but I do have a vague feeling that things are not heading in the right direction, and that something bad may occur. I felt more confident in the 1990's, never doubting the country's future for a second, but in those days I could open a paper and read page after page of job openings in the computer technology field, my field. Nowadays I open up the paper and read page after page of foreclosures, bankruptcies and public auctions.

The future is shrouded in mist, far away, offering brief glimpses only. I do think that the world is a better place than a hundred years ago. Today I think so many politicians are wrongheaded, stodgy, hidebound by tradition and unwilling to take any risks, even for love of country, but I wonder whether that has not always been the case. Corruption has always been rife, perhaps even more so in the past than now. It may be that the economy is worse, and our standard of living is declining rather than increasing, but there is a lot of room for standards to fall, because our expectations were high in the clouds. After all, poverty has been the fate of most people in the world ever since the world began. Why should Americans be an exception? The fate of our country or ourselves does not necessarily bear that much relation with the fate of mankind. The world got on before America assumed the sheriff's role, and it will get on long after we place our badge on the shelf.

I should not like to be living in Taiwan, which will be the first lamb sacrificed to the Chinese lion.

China

I changed my mind about China. China's probably more corrupt than Russia. They recently tightened the screws on Internet censorship, all because people are clamoring for democracy and exposing corruption. I bet what has been exposed is just the tip of the iceberg. Those who suffered under communism now suffer under kleptocracies, but I guess there was never much difference between the two systems in practice, whatever theory might have intended. Always the insiders, the elite get to have the best of everything, while everyone else is treated second-rate.

Here's a letter from a Chinese laborer working 15-hour days.

We in the West are just fooling ourselves about China, which is going to start the next world war, and at that time, future generations are going to be wondering why we let the suits export all the really important jobs over to China. Too late in the game to reboot the manufacturing sector once a hot war is on. Manufacturing is what won WW2, and ultimately it is what wins all wars. If you can replace a tank division, then you can lose a battle and still win the war.

Will we retain Alaska and Hawaii?

I'm puzzled the right-wingers ignored current events and replayed Viet Nam from 2001 - 2012, but they never could see farther than their own portfolios. A lot of time was squandered. Missed opportunities. Could have done something about the economy, alternative energy, and global warming. Now there are a lot of people unemployed or underemployed and there's no end in sight to that. The old cling to their cushy retirements and entitlements while casting aspersions on the young, who can't find good jobs in today's economy, and the politicians look to save money by cutting education and benefits (present and future) for the young. So the young have nothing to do and nothing to look forward to, while U.S. companies continue shipping jobs overseas to China, which one day is going stop playing nice and demand territorial concessions.
Post a Comment

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

The Economy

I remember back in the 1990's--the boom years--everyone, Democrats and Republicans alike, were rapping about how free trade was so great. America wouldn't be manufacturing, but that was all right, because we were going to be leaders in information technology, doing high-level innovating with our super-creative brains, because we were so much more awesome than all those foreigners. Turns out that those imaginary new jobs got exported, downsized, rightsized and outsourced, and when one opens the newspaper nowadays, there just aren't any jobs to be had except in the medical field caring for the comfortably retired with their Medicare and pension plans. That will last for a decade or two and then guess what, no more pension plans and who knows what will happen to Medicare.

I do wish the Republicans would try for once to do something about job creation instead of giving more welfare to the rich, who already receive the lion's share of welfare benefits.
Post a Comment

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

TIME Magazine

I got the latest TIME and was impressed by its unusual heft. The heft wasn't all additional advertising, as I had suspected, but actual news articles concerning something other than the latest Hollywood movie. The last issue devoted 27 pages to the latest movie by Spielberg. I wonder how much Spielberg paid TIME for that amount of advertising. I also wonder why I should be paying for a magazine that is composed of advertising and not news.

Would this issue of TIME mark the brand new, never-before-seen inclusion of investigative journalism and tell me something that I did not already know? Would this issue be reality-based, or a bunch of rumors and half-truths? Unfortunately, TIME squandered all its pulp to analyze the election and the supposed technical, financial, demographic and logistical factors behind Romney's defeat, based upon its various sources in the rumor mill. I scanned those articles but found them beside the point. I don't expect that many people in the media will get the point. At any rate none of it was interesting to me, and I went back to Doris Lessing and her confessions of being a Communist divorcee in Southern Rhodesia. Yes, even that was more interesting.

Who won was a function of the candidates themselves, the ideas they espoused and how those ideas resonated with the electorate. I don't expect Republicans to gather any clues from the election. Republicans never take rides on the clue canoe. The only likely change is they will become more extreme and crazy than before to reflect their base. The Republican party is the extreme right wing, while the Democratic party is the moderate right wing. There is no left wing political party in the United States. Anyone who looked at Obama's policies for five minutes without bias would conclude that Obama is a conservative. In large part he continues the policies of his predecessors Bush and Clinton, which is why his relations with the former Presidents remain so good. Romney, at least the latest version, was not a conservative, but a radical Social Darwinist who promised extreme change that would result in unnecessary suffering and additional warfare and debt. There were enough voters in 2012 that perceived enough of this to make the crucial difference--more than enough voters, as a matter of fact, because the margin was not as close as pundits predicted. Romney lost not just the Electoral College, but the popular vote as well, and he lost in all those battleground states that the Republicans were boasting they would carry, and in doing so he squandered hundreds of millions of dollars from his unethical donors. Perhaps his supporters on the ground were uninspired by his background at Bain Capital, his flip-flopping on issues, and his fumbling of words and facts. But the central problem was Romney's ideology, and I am pleased to predict that Republicans will never admit that in a million years, because introspection is unknown to Republicans. No, they will continue to commit the same old errors, which bodes well for the opposing party of the future, be it Democrats, Greens or Libertarians.

Post a Comment

by igor 04:20 4 replies by igor 09:32 0 comments

Means to an End

It is natural to compare marijuana with alcohol, because society on the one hand permits alcohol, and just recently, in the last hundred years, has made marijuana illegal. Marijuana users are persecuted by nearly every government in the modern world. New, radical laws defy thousands of years of tradition when marijuana was legal to grow, sell, and use. Neither did our Founding Fathers nor the ancient world ban marijuana. The plant was never perceived as a problem until the corrupt and racist politicians made it so. All these things that I write are well-documented and can be confirmed by those that are interested in the truth.

Today, alcohol and marijuana are among the popular drugs, although not nearly as popular as the bearers of caffeine, chocolate and coffee. Yes, caffeine too is a drug, and unlike marijuana, is toxic. Subtle substances and influences are more dangerous, because they slip beneath our awareness. We do see in this world as through a glass darkly.

Marijuana derives from a plant grown in sunshine and is the friend of living things. Almost alone among all substances, marijuana nourishes introspection and reflection. It makes a poor party drug, as can be observed by the wider popularity of alcohol for that purpose. Alcohol suits a party because of its simplicity and predictability. In small quantities, alcohol reduces social inhibition just enough to get conversation flowing. Limiting the amount consumed poses a problem, however. For many people, inhibitions are not a problem in the first place, and one wonders, why drink at all?

Alcohol may be regarded as marijuana's opposite. Alcohol derives from Death, for it is the waste product of yeast that feeds upon decaying plant matter. Alcohol kills living cells. Men are crippled and slain by the poison. The association with death is pervasive. The physical nature reflects the spiritual. Alcohol's history with mankind is long and storied. Good men are turned bad, and bad men become worse. Drinking opens a Gateway that invites Evil into our world. Things that watch in the darkness are ever eager to use humans as their vessels. Not all puppets perceive the strings that move them.

Some do concede that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, but fear that legalizing marijuana will result in a situation where marijuana is just one more item on the recreational menu. In the first place, it already is. Millions use, whether the thing is legal or not. Prohibition transforms ordinary folk into criminals. Our United States, the powerhouse of Prohibition, imprisons more of its people than any other nation on Earth. The very first thing that the Prohibitionist wants to do is build new prisons and make them harsher than before. In this manner, men forge hells in their paradise of Earth.

Alcohol diminishes my power. One of the best presents that I ever gave myself was nourishing my resolve to abstain from alcohol. I am in general agreement with those that say Hell is found in a bottle. Even so, I would not favor a renewal of Prohibition. It never worked in the 1930s and never will work. Prohibition offends a man's sense of liberty. Let the drinkers drink, as long as they harm none. The second clause is the difficult one. Drinkers will drink and they will act accordingly. That is why religious men have tried to ban it. But banning is a simplistic solution and fraught with difficulty, because there is a need, is there not, a need for inebriation. If there is an itch, it will be scratched. I propose not banning, but replacing, and with the replacement, improving.

The marijuana user thrives in peace and calm and is immune to boredom and restlessness. Marijuana can be a superb tool for meditation, relaxation, and exploration of the mind. Both a benefit and a potential downside of marijuana is that the user tends toward passivity and inactivity. Sometimes it is best to wait rather than act. Think of the bear, hibernating through the winter. However, when action is called for, abstinence is best. Those placed in highly demanding roles will find their performance improves through abstinence. However, do not remove marijuana from the shelf. Marijuana offers an alternative remedy for alcoholism, drug addiction, anxiety and mild depression.

I consider it a blasphemy to lace marijuana with any other substance. Thankfully this has been a rare occurrence, because marijuana consumers prefer their product to be pure and unadulterated. Any case of violence associated with marijuana use must raise an immediate suspicion that adulterants or other substances were consumed. Individuals who are prone to violence either dislike marijuana or use it as a medication to suppress their violent tendencies. When used in combination, other ingredients tend to overshadow the subtle influence of marijuana. Alcohol and marijuana together produce a zombie-like state of no value to self or others, while alcohol alone diminishes the spirit and inhibits spiritual development.

Materialists of our age bristle at abstract terms. What is meant by this suspect word, "spirit?" Seldom is it defined. Spirit can be taken to be attitude and willpower, the driving force, that which determines, perceives and acts, let us hope, with compassion and love. That is what I mean. Other qualities such as gods or magic paint our lives with color, but they should not be taken seriously. After all, we are not serious creatures. We are improved apes. If gods exist, we are their joke, their prank. If magic exists, then it follows the laws of science in every respect, and the best magicians are scientists, and the best path to magic is study. I do not hold with those who study spells, follow the movement of planets and think the worst minds of the past can refute the best minds of today.

For the ancient shaman, marijuana was a holy sacrament, indispensable for seeing things that are hidden. In our modern world, those that use marijuana for the ancient and sacred purpose comprise a tiny minority of the entire population of users, and even they have other needs from time to time. Marijuana can serve as a conduit, a means to an end, a precursor to spiritual awakening. If one maintains focus upon gaining something that is worth having, then it is possible to make the acquaintance of Athena. After all, what does a human being need most but Wisdom? Compliance is not required, because we have free will, but it is advisable to accept the Counsel of Athena, if such is offered, for it is a gift. Those that heed her wisdom know bliss. Other impulses one perceives within the Gateway, such as paranoia, seem of little value but serve a purpose, like the staff of a shepherd goading sheep away from danger and toward the right path.

Athena is another suspect word, bound to offend religionists and bemuse materialists. The name of the Entity varies among cultures and is not important, nor is it necessary to conceptualize a separate entity with a gender and a personality, for the separation is an illusion. All is One, and the Oneness can be perceived. The realization is profound and transforming. There is no separation.

Many that do not use, or that used at one time and quit, have the wrong impression about the herb. See NORML for valid information concerning marijuana. At one time, NORML was almost the only source of information, as opposed to the enormous amount of lies and half-truths about the plant being generated by the misguided governments of the world, but the world is changing. One day soon, the plant will again be legal everywhere, just as it was for most of human history. Here is why I think so. Man loves knowledge, and knowledge leads him to the following conclusions. There is no valid scientific, moral or social reason for marijuana to remain illegal; none at all. Marijuana is superior to alcohol, and the human species would profit by abandoning the lesser substance, which does great harm, in favor of the gentle herb, placed upon the Earth as a gift to Man, a plant that brings peace to those that desperately need it. I concede that Abstinence is best for most, and I remain sober for long stretches of time to function at my highest level. But if a drug is to be used, on a rare occasion, then marijuana brings the least harm of all and this is irrefutable and self-evident to those who are honest with themselves. Marijuana is a potent medicine and a spiritual sacrament, and those who claim otherwise have never used it for the proper purpose.

Work Wasted?

This morning I thought about a web site that is now gone. I had breathed good life into its bones. Is it true that many thousands of hours of work were wasted? Is it true that all of the hours invested in coding, designing and refining the web site will be of no practical value, that is to say of no importance to any employer? I think that these conclusions are all true. All of that work was completely wasted. Probably it is true I could have been in coma and achieved the same result of nothing or close to nothing.

Work as an end to itself is a difficult concept to grasp. I often feel dismay about mountains of work that I have performed with no apparent reward and no trace of the work ever having been performed, a depressing outcome for an ego that looks for rewards.

So then I call upon my guide No-Ego, which apprises me of the view from up in the watchtower. I see over the horizon a future (or is it the past?) in which humanity does not exist (or does not exist yet), and it chills me, the thought not only of my own extinction but of my entire species, but it is also a sobering observation. It seems that all human accomplishments are doomed, because that is the nature of human accomplishments. Not only the things that I do, but even the works of kings and the fabulous artifacts of genius are temporary. Every song, story, building, machine and artwork pass from all recollection. Our planet is doomed according to the current thinking of astrophysicists. We are, all of us, building castles in the sand before the tide--a consolation for anyone who has watched some of his castles be devoured by an early tide.

Living in a finite existence, one grows accustomed to thinking in terms of time, of beginnings and endings, alpha and omega, but the cycle does not end. There is no end and no beginning, so what will come will be followed. Better, worse, greater, smaller, weaker, stronger, different, same, all are manifestations of the one. I cannot and I will not be more specific than that, because I am an ant crawling on a mound of mud on an island in an archipelago--about as aware of what is going on as that.

Climate Change

I do worry about climate change, because it seems like the world will experience serious effects before I disintegrate into my constituent atoms. Beneath all the hubbub about the ailing world economy is the consistent and dreadful drumbeat about irreversible global climate change, which indicates that things won't get better but will instead get much worse. Like all our problems, the new problems just won't get solved because the politicians and the people who vote for them just aren't clever enough. A glance at the U.S. Congress is all one needs to know that the United States is in no position to solve any problem facing the world. We create new problems and exacerbate old ones rather than solving any problems.

Equal Opportunity Haters

It is consoling, I suppose, to know that Republicans don't just hate gay people. They also hate the workers, defined as anybody who earns under $1,000,000 a year, and anybody who goes to public schools. I was amused looking at what the Republicans have done to the public school system in Texas. Of course, Republicans destroy government institutions whenever they can. They're trying to dismantle the Post Office, so that it will cost $5 to mail a letter across the country instead of forty-odd cents. They hate Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and anything at all that helps working people. They love disease, poverty, prisons, and automatic machine guns. The only government institutions Republicans like are related to weapons and security forces, to keeping the workers down, unemployed, diseased, dying and in prison where they belong according to Republican ideology. Kill the poor and repopulate with rich people's children is the Republican way of thinking in a nutshell. If you work for a living, you are automatically worthless, because working is a sign of inferiority. If you don't work, but fight with weapons or by proxy through your henchmen, then you should make all the rules and control every single thing that everyone does. This ideology dates back to feudalism and is basically the root of Republican thought today. People that vote Republican get what they deserve, but unfortunately those who don't have to adapt to the insanity that Republicans always bring to society. Republicans break down government, because the ideal is anarchy, a state where those with the guns make all the rules.

If Romney does win in 2012, as some seem to believe, then the world will be a much less safe place, America in particular.  But I don't think that he will win, because Obama is the stronger man by any measure that one would care to apply, and this is obvious to anyone with eyes to see. Those among the Republicans who believe that strength is all, and there are some, this faction will not support Romney against Obama, because Romney is weaker. So I predict Obama will win in 2012, but the outcome of other races remains unclear to me. I hope that he carries many Democrats with him in his victory, but I am not familiar with those cases. The best scenario would be a Democratic landslide victory in 2012. Under those circumstances, the future of the United States looks brighter.

Sympathy Misplaced, Perhaps

I can't help but feel sympathy for some of the big-shot, rich celebrities that get tangled up in some kind of scandal, legal dispute, or divorce proceeding due to their affair. Some of them are intelligent men, so the question arises, why do men stray? I suppose from the logical perspective, it would be best to remain 100% monogamous or (possibly better) asexual. Of course, humans are not entirely logical animals, and we are animals. I think in Humans 2.0, the next version of our species, when we roll it out of our laboratories, we will be more logical and consistent; some would say boring. But boring can be good. Boring becomes interesting as one's expectations adjust.

Heroin and Euthanasia

What I would like to see in the future is more progress in gay rights and also the legalization of most drugs, with the possible exception of horrible things like meth or crack, which have no legitimate purpose. I was going to add heroin to the list, but heroin may indeed have a legitimate purpose for those that have reached the end of their life and are suffering from intense pain or depression. I see no reason to deny heroin to the terminally ill. Heroin was used for medicinal purposes in the past, and in the case of the terminally ill, anything that might ease their passage should be provided to them without interference.

I think euthanasia should be allowed to those of sound mind who want it. There must be a comfort and a consolation to know the precise hour of one's passing. If this luxury is afforded to those condemned by the legal system, then surely it can be permitted to those who have harmed no one.

One envisions a hospice where the dying are high on smack and gleefully marking down the days to their carbon monoxide-assisted demise. Most strange it would be, to be sure, but I think it might be a better and more civilized method of passing from this world.

Zimmerman Facing the Music

Looking at the photo of Zimmerman in the court room, I pity the fool. I guess I'm a soft touch. He looks lost. I'm glad I did not go into law. I'd be a good lawyer due to my analytical abilities, but there are places I just don't like to go--things that I don't like to do to people. Like I said, I'm a soft touch.

People like Zimmerman should never, ever monkey around with firearms. The trouble is that people like Zimmerman are exactly the kind of people that want to monkey around with firearms. And they bring down a world of trouble on their empty heads.

My own feeling is that it will be difficult to pin Murder 2 on Zimmerman. Manslaughter, maybe. But to prove "hatred or ill-will" resulting from a five or ten (max) minute encounter is difficult. I don't buy the theory that Zimmerman was racist either. To claim such a thing without any compelling evidence is just a mistake. Race may have been a factor in the encounter, yes. But to prove some one is motivated by racist hatred is a tall order indeed.

I wish there were a way to resurrect the victim, Mr. Martin. I wish there were a living God in the world that presided over things and intervened to correct injustices that were beyond the power of humans. But God is deaf to the earnest entreaties of human beings, and that is why I do not believe in God.

Perhaps one day each of us will store our essence online in a computer system, and our physical bodies will be replaceable clones.

The best our justice system can do for a deceased victim is permit the victim's family to observe the punishment of the killer. That is not much consolation really, but it is better than nothing. I don't think we should be complacent about the status quo, however. We really need to be thinking about replacing these vulnerable and fragile fleshly shells that we dwell in. They are neither robust nor long-lasting and cause us many problems. The fairy tale about heaven is an inadequate answer to the problem of mortality.

The Present

The present tends to be underrated as a general rule, with people expressing opinions that the past was better or that the future will be better. But I think the present time is much better than many earlier times. I'm glad that today's U.S. does not have to deal with slavery or women's rights (for the most part). The world is a more just place. Around the world, it's an incredible achievement that the Cold War has largely ended or diverted into a calmer and more civil environment. China and Russia are now trading partners, rather than enemy armies. Also, the world is mostly at peace, despite problems in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Nothing the size or scope of a World War has been allowed to occur. These good signs bode well for the future and reflect well upon the present.

It would appear that businessmen of various stripes are in control of the world governments, rather than warlords. Indeed, warlords are an endangered species. The merchants are destroying them one by one. Warlords were defeated in the Second World War and ever since they have been defeated. I think that is a good thing, but I hope the merchants prove to be better rulers. Certainly it would not be difficult to improve upon the warlords. War has not accomplished much for modern warlords and has not proved to be a sound investment strategy for a country's resources. North Korea would be a case in point. Their excessively militarized economy is very poor, so much that they cannot feed their people, which really requires incredible incompetence in a modern government that has so much agricultural information and technology at hand. The warlords of North Korea appear to be drunk and out of touch with reality. Eventually technology will be developed to neutralize their nuclear threat, and then the surrounding states will reclaim N.K.'s population and natural resources to the proper stewardship of the merchants. It may be a hundred years in the future or it may be fifty, but it might be even sooner.

Sometimes things happen faster than one might expect. I remember how surprised I was by the fall of the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe. It seemed they were dropping like dominoes. Sometimes the time is just right. Overall, these times are good ones. I like the merchants a lot better than the warlords.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

A Mid-Life Crisis

Many people seem to have a mid-life crisis, a term used to describe adultery or some other inconstancy, a breaking away from the normal and expected behavior. It is amazing, the pull that a desire for adventure can have, particularly upon a man, who is driven in part by instinct to seek adventure, even in a small or restricted way.  Such a man may be pitied, praised, or ignored, depending upon the outcome of his adventure.

I really think that Americans should have forgiven former President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky. His behavior was a curious and revealing lapse, possibly the most interesting thing that Clinton did during his Presidency. It was genuine and based upon a dangerous irrational passion. The act was fraught with obvious risks to his political career, his legacy, even his marriage, and yet he did it anyway, demonstrating a nature heavily invested with instinct. Clinton had the will to power. It is not any surprise that a powerful man will have a desire for frequent and enthusiastic sex. It is surprising only that people would be surprised at all to find out about it. I think that Americans are very naive.

Much was overlooked during the Presidency of Kennedy, so why not Clinton? It really was a bit hypocritical for many in Congress to hassle Clinton over the affair. It would be interesting, though impossible to know how many Congressmen have remained completely monogamous. I wonder whether the monogamous would even be a majority. Powerful men have an easy way with women, because power is an aphrodisiac.


I think the mileage that the Republicans obtained as an aftermath of the silly Lewinsky Affair really harmed the country in a number of ways. Right-wingers were able to grab a lot of power and keep for it a long time. Now we have two wars and a dismal economy, and none of the old problems from the past were addressed in an effective manner. The U.S. economy is broken, and it happened on the Republicans' watch. In addition, we have a right-wing Supreme Court. I don't know where all of this leads, but I do feel that the country has not been improving itself at all over the past ten years. I think the U.S. is going downhill in a number of ways and by any measure one would care to apply. It does worry me, but then I also keep in mind that younger people probably have more at stake then I do. It is probable that by the time things get hairy, I'll be checking out.

The Appeal of the Supernatural

When I was a young man, I shunned all superstition, everything from God to magic and mysteries and took a fierce pride in doing so. As I get older, I find superstition immensely satisfying to the childish nature that thrives on awe and wonder.  I find that religious people are much more understandable and some of their joy can be perceived. Of course, religious people vary a great deal, but I have known some good ones, and fewer of the bad, because the bad I know better than to be around.

I think it is charming when otherwise educated and liberal people tell me their surprising opinions about magic, spells, homeopathy, astrology, charms, "cures," and gods and goddesses. I have learned that belief is quite common among liberals, and atheism is not in and of itself a liberal belief. When I am in a Church or a cemetery, reading the gravestones as I like to do--and so many gravestones speak of the Lord and the hereafter--sometimes I wonder if it is my destiny, as it was for so many ancestors, to convert to some belief system, either a philosophy, a theory of magic, or a religion. About all I know is that my religion would not be Islam, while unknown Hindu would be most unlikely, and although there are things such as scholarship, liberality and wisdom that I admire in Judaism, it might not be on the table either, because of the adherents' preoccupation with a narrow strip of land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. I never thought it was wise to place all the bets on Israel. A nomadic tribe might as well remain nomadic, because it certainly increases their odds. Being confined to a small area simply exposes a people to obvious risks.

After a survey of the competing alternatives, I decide to remain with atheism, because it seems the cautious and humble scientific approach. I don't think that any elaborate religion can pass the common sense test, and they all claim to know rather too much. How much better to say, there is a power, and it is miraculous and good, and I do not know more, other than I wish to be like it. A religion that confined itself to that sentence would be acceptable. But then, things tend to snowball after they are successful, and men have added on every manner of window dressing in the form of claimed miracles ancient and modern and other forms of divine intervention, and rules and opinions on matters that were composed by themselves, mere men, but presented as coming from infallible divine authority--preposterous to say the least. All can be debated and should be, in order that a better appreciation of the truth may be known. People get things wrong so often. When an error is discovered, it must be corrected. Every engineer would feel that way.

I had a speculative idea about Divine Providence yesterday. I'm sure it's not original, but I can't remember offhand where I got the idea, whether it was a film or a book. The thought occurred to me that the human existence, we ourselves, are like television shows for the gods, who watch us with amusement. Like a television audience, the gods do not interact with the show, other than to applaud or criticize, which we may or may not hear, depending upon our ability. Perhaps our very purpose is the same as a television show--merely to entertain or inform. The gods, if they exist, appreciate a wide variety of television shows among humans. Not only do they watch us, but they would watch the activities of life and all matter in the Universe. The sheer calculating power of all that omniscience is unimaginable. Such an intelligence would be more like a force of nature than a processor.

I suppose the human "show" is improving its story, because we are more advanced than our ancient ancestors from millions of years ago. With any luck, the humans will survive the atomic age and go on to make many more scientific discoveries and eventually unlock the secret to immortality. Will humans be the one species that continues to advance and evolve into ever more-powerful beings? Where does the improvement end? I suppose once a being has learned how to become immortal, then anything at all is possible afterward. At what point will the show merge with its audience?

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments

The Wacko Nursing Student

With some interest, being a former nursing student myself, I read about the wacko ex-nursing student who went to his Christian college and shot a bunch of students, apparently at random. He didn't find the college administrator he was looking for, so he settled for anyone in sight. This is just one of many cases around the country of people that feel like they have no options career-wise or otherwise in their life, so they figure that life in prison or the death penalty is not too big a price to pay for extracting their revenge against the cruel, cruel world.

Such pointless killing indicates a failure of the imagination. After all, it is still possible for a man to retreat to one of the remote wildernesses of the world on any of the seven continents (perhaps excluding Antarctica) and live off the land, abandoning society altogether.  One does not "have" to be rich, famous, loved, admired, or respected. Certainly the primitive and half-naked tribes of the world would concur.

Years ago, suicides might have hollered "Goodbye, Cruel World!" as they jumped off a multistory building, but nowadays, some people don't want to walk into that dark night alone. They want company. They feel that if their life is in ruins, why not share the suffering? Spread it around a bit, let others feel the pain they are feeling.

To be sure, the world can be difficult for those without connections, money or any kind of support network. The social safety net is inadequate in many respects. Some people are satisfied with becoming homeless and begging for loose change, while others are willing to work for next to nothing in exchange for food and shelter, while still others exhaust every possible avenue, legal or not, to try to get ahead. However, those already suffering from mental illness, such as severe or recurrent depression and anger, and who have frequent experiences of suicidal ideation--imagining, visualizing and yearning for the termination of their life--for this group of people, the added impetus of financial, social and familial ruin may push them to consider suicide. Remember, there is still no health care for a large group of people in the United States, and many Americans don't want the poor to get any health care, either. So, mental illness above all other illnesses remains unaddressed, and those who are crazy are apt to become more so. Meanwhile, firearms are easy to obtain.

Once one has decided upon suicide, then other options, evil ones indeed, present themselves. The individual who has decided upon suicide has less to fear from the death penalty or indeed any consequences. The widespread easy availability of guns makes the scenario illustrated by the wacko ex-student at the Christian college in California all the more common and frightening. One does not require any combat skill, courage, nor any physical strength to kill, because the weakest and most incompetent fool can pull the trigger of a powerful firearm.

Many people believe the answer to the murder epidemic lies in gun control. However, there is more to this particular puzzle than just gun control. Birth control also is important. If there is no longer much need for workers--and that seems to be the case due to the astronomical unemployment rate of 20 - 25% in the U.S. (the 8% figure is a lie)--then people should stop having babies altogether, until such time that good jobs become available again. I think the time has come for people to consider getting their tubes tied. Just forget about having children, because the children probably grow up to be poor or jobless in today's economy.

Apparently, there are a lot of people in the world whose work, whose very being, is unwanted, undesired or at any rate woefully underpaid and under-appreciated. These people feel left behind by the Zeitgeist. They feel abandoned by the world, outcast and alienated, and rightfully so, because they do not have a career and do not have a profession and do not have any proper or respected place in the world, nor do they have any obvious means of obtaining the same. If they had not been born in the first place, then the problem would not exist. Instinctively, they seek to address this issue by reducing the population of fellow workers through crude, random and evil deeds.

Killers of any stripe should be prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent of the law, but that does not address the underlying problems in the social fabric. Punishment addresses one individual and sets a proper precedent and creates deterrence against similar acts. My suspicion is that many killers would, if given the choice, select the death penalty in preference to life imprisonment, so I do not believe that the death penalty is a solid deterrent for all individuals. Again, those suffering from various mental illnesses, including depression, will not be deterred, but may even be attracted by the prospect of the death penalty. I believe that repeated incidents of gun violence are symptomatic of larger issues in society that need to be addressed through effective and meaningful measures, either conducted by the government or by private industry. There should not be a wasted class of people that are shut out from all opportunity and all hope; but if there is to be such a class, then society had better take all possible measures to reduce the birth rate in this class and curtail future members.

by igor 04:20 8 replies by igor 09:32 6 comments