Three Words

Three words the dying hermit taught to Mustafa were morda, a lesser ward that can be used at will, malcipiter, a greater ward with some risk, and ooshtah, which attracts attention like a beacon in the darkness. How these words are said is important. By themselves they are mere babble, but spoken in the right manner, they achieve substance.

Mitt Romney the Rich Boy

Mitt Romney thinks that 47% of Americans do not pay taxes and do not work and will not vote for him.

Well, Romney, they don't put their ill-gotten wealth from outsourcing American jobs in overseas Swiss bank accounts like you do, so they probably do pay some taxes, after all.  I know Mitt Romney pays a smaller percentage of taxes than most anyone I know, because he has all these clever accountants working night and day to shuffle his fortune into all kinds of elaborate schemes and avoid contributing to America.

I think it's funny this rich boy who was given his fortune by Daddy flicks his thumb at poor working people and says, "They don't deserve to eat. If I'm President, I'm going to starve them all. Let the Chinese do all of the American jobs."

Daddy was a rich man, daddy was a rich man, daddy was a rich man, hey!
Romney got money, got money from daddy, and that's why he's where he is today!

Adios, Analytics

I think I'm going to remove the Google Analytics code from my blog, if I haven't already. It has been over a year since I've bothered checking my site statistics. I guess I just don't give a darn anymore about whether people are viewing or how many people are viewing. I have treated this blog since its inception as my personal playpen for opinions and ideas, my storage locker and alternative backup for technical information, and personal journal to deal with any philosophical or personal issues I might like to explore.

Surprise! Popularity was never one of my goals and to be honest, I prefer not to be popular, because popularity is pretty boring and I can't think of any celebrity I envy. The only thing about celebrity that I might envy is the money. Everything else that comes from celebrity just seems taxing, vain and mildly annoying.

I determined a long time ago that there is no money to be made with this sort of blogging or at least through my mediocre talents. I ran AdSense for a year or two as an experiment just to see how much revenue would be generated. I earned enough to buy a six-pack of cheap beer*. I never did request that check. Instead, I cancelled my account because the money was a joke and I felt bad about making my blog ugly with stupid ads for over a year. If one is going to sell out, then one should get a good price at least.

Oh by the way, Google Analytics consistently reported that a sizable chunk of my blog's readers are from Russia or nearby, which means that spambots, black hats, and related scum are frequent visitors. Russia is never good news in the server log.

* - I don't drink anymore, though. And I don't miss it.

The Economy

The Economy and jobs should have been priority #1 beginning when Bush took office. Instead, Iraq and Afghanistan became the #1 priority. This is because American leaders are mentally challenged. They are uncertain as to where they live. They do not know what time of day it is or who they are or why they are where they are. I think that Congress and the White House should be run like an assisted living center. There should be nurses, doctors and orderlies on staff to help the decision-makers distinguish reality from fiction. On a daily basis, powerful medication should be administered to improve their mental functioning and prevent breaks with reality. The cost would be insignificant compared to the cost of business as usual. I think a couple of million dollars spent on nurses and doctors would be better in the long run than trillions of dollars wasted on pointless and endless wars in faraway places.

It is about time that an American President did something about the unfair trade practices of the Chinese. The reality is that the Chinese are waging economic war against America. I am glad that Obama is doing something, but I think that something should have been done on George Bush's watch, ten years ago, or maybe even earlier.

Why Firefox is Safer

Firefox is a safer browser than IE or Chrome primarily because of two add-ons, NoScript and AdBlock. NoScript uses a whitelisting strategy so that no script can run without the user explicitly allowing access from a specific site. AdBlock simply removes ads from view, which eliminates the possibility the user will accidentally click on an ad and be deposited on a malware or spyware site. I have installed these two add-ons on all of my desktops and consider them to be standard equipment for all computers that I provision.

I do not install Chrome on any machine. There is no reason to have two tools when one is better by every measure than the other.

There should never be one-click access to IE. Typing should be required. If I see IE on a machine, I delete the icon and remove it from the Start menu. IE should only be accessed by experienced users on an as-needed basis for updating Windows and nothing else. In Windows XP on my desktops, it can be accessed by choosing to run a program and then typing in "iexplore.exe". As soon as the necessary task is completed, IE is closed.

The reason IE is bad is an old one. It was true in the 1990s and it remains true today. IE is the browser with the largest market share, so it has "target" written on its forehead in bright red letters. Another problem is that it is the default browser in Windows, so the biggest number of clueless users will be using IE. Effort is required to install Firefox, though much less effort is required to install Chrome, because these days it is included by default in tons of applications from Avast antivirus to the kitchen sink. Google is paying software vendors to include Chrome in the installers. The result is that Chrome will be grabbing more of the clueless user population. The reason elite users stick with Firefox is they like customizing their browser and they have a deeper knowledge base that allows them to do so. All of these factors make Chrome and IE the top targets for black hats, who know quite well that clueless users make easier targets.

Among my friends, I have heard of many people getting hacked while using IE exclusively. They wind up spamming all their friends, losing money, losing their credit rating, or having to reinstall Windows altogether. I have not heard of many people getting hacked that use Firefox. Maybe it is because the people that use Firefox also take other precautions, or maybe there are other reasons involved, but I am sticking with Firefox until the bitter end.

Irate Egyptian Soccer Fans / Redneck Muslims

The reason Muslims take offense at films or cartoons, rather than books is because so many of them are illiterate or even if they do understand their own language they don't read much more than is required for daily living such as traffic signs and so on.

In Libya, it seems as though Muslim rednecks killed our envoy, although we may never know what really happened.

All this blood and rage over a little movie that I never heard of and probably will never watch! I think that Muslims like to be angry, are always looking for reasons to be angry, and that their religion is a religion of hate and anger. I don't recall Christians going on a killing spree when people made fun of Jesus, or Buddhists severing heads from bodies when people made fun of Buddha. Maybe those sorts of things happened in the Middle Ages, but not in modern times. One never hears about Islam except in the context of terrorism, war, killing, torture or assassination.

I was amused recently to read some spokesman for the Syrian rebels threatening the West if it does not cough up billions of dollars in aid. Apparently the rebels are going to turn extra-fanatical and anti-Western if we don't support them against the Syrian regime. I don't know whether the spokesman ever graduated from business school, but threatening the customer is not a good way to make a sale. Never mentioned is anything about repayment or any benefit that the West might derive, other than vague and halfhearted promises to avoid extremism.

I also believe that Muslims should get over Israel and let bygones be bygones over there, because Israel provides an example for how to run a government. The barbarian nations around Israel should be taking notes and learning by example instead of attacking the one decent nation in their midst. If certain nations such as Iran would just learn to leave Israel alone and focus upon their own issues then they would be a lot better off in the long run.

The slogan "there is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet" is arrogant and wrong besides, because the deity described by the legal systems of Saudi Arabia and Iran is just a crude and barbaric tyrant with no education.

Freedom of speech has offered superb gifts to the human race, such as democracy, rule of law, science and technology and culture. For the most part, at least in modern times, the only thing the Muslims have given the human race is the oil extracted by Western oil companies that happened to exist beneath their feet, to their great good fortune. Iran exists today as a populated nation due to the benevolence of the philosophical West, which opted to renounce colonialism and renounce imperialism. That is why the U.S. pays for Iraqi oil instead of taking it. That is why the U.S. economy is in the pits today, because we donated vast sums of money to help the stupid Iraqis get rid of their stupid dictator without asking for a single dime in return. I don't know how many people understand what a monumental waste of money the two recent wars were for the U.S. It seems like many people around the world think that there is some diabolic plot or method by which we are profiteering. If only. The embarrassing truth is that George Bush did not have a brain in his head.

It is difficult to find Moslem countries that are not rife with injustice and barbarism, although there may be a handful around the world. A Moslem country would never be a place to which I would choose to go. I prefer civilized regions of the world. Give me Europe, North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, or Asia (outside the Middle bEast) any day of the week and keep the rest. The irony about killing Americans who happen to venture into the Middle East on a peace-keeping or diplomatic mission is that the victims are probably the friendliest and most open-minded Muslim sympathizers that can be found, the ones most apt to see things from the Muslim point of view. They are the ones getting killed or kidnapped. People who view Islam in the same light that I do would not set foot over there in the first place, certainly not on any mission of peace or diplomacy.

I don't think tourism to Muslim countries is going to recover for the foreseeable future. There are too many fanatics over there that think violence is the way to handle their personal shortcomings in the intellectual department. I never did understand Americans who traveled to the Middle East on pilgrimages or vacations, but I know for sure I would not go, not in today's political climate, where so many think that it is okay to kill an American in order to register their disapproval over a movie.

You know what I do when I don't like a movie? I write a critical review. That is because I am civilized. The reason I call those Egyptian rednecks "barbarians" is that they do not know how to behave in a civilized fashion. They are just a bunch of thugs without the faintest grasp of morality. Probably no one would have even heard of the movie in the first place if these stupid rednecks had not given it free publicity.

Here's the link to the full movie, "Innocence of the Muslims."

It is quite obvious to me that no one would have watched the movie if those ignoramuses over there had not made such a fuss over it. But since they have, the movie is going to be watched about a thousand times more than would otherwise have been the case.

I Sympathize with Chicago Teachers

I read an article in the Chicago Tribune about the teacher's strike. I agree that the money being offered is all right and perhaps even generous in today's lousy economy, where so many workers endure salary freezes or even salary reductions. Workers are getting the shaft all over the world due to right-wing policies which have transferred industrial production over to slave-labor countries like China. I don't know what the U.S. will be producing in the future other than internal organs for the Chinese to harvest from our otherwise useless bodies. Perhaps blood donation will become a major new career option in America under Romney's administration if he wins the election, because I know Romney's number one goal is to eliminate all jobs in America and move them over to China so that his buddies can grab more easy money. The only way the Mitt Romneys of the world know how to make money is by stealing jobs and wages from the workers. The Romneys of the world do not produce, invent, create, or build anything. They only downsize, reduce, and cutback. They are the parasites, feeding upon the working class while serving their true masters, the Chinese.

The reason I support the teacher's strike has to do with Rahm Emmanuel wanting to tie teacher salaries to student performance on standardized tests. That's wrong. Teachers have moderate influence over student performance, but that influence only goes so far. Any computer programmer knows that if your input is garbage, then your output will be garbage. Garbage in, garbage out. That's the GIGO principle. Teachers in Chicago might be the best in the world, but they can only do so much when their students are hungry and living in crime-ridden neighborhoods where people are unemployed or underemployed or working the typical McJobs for minimum wage.

Teachers should be judged based upon parent evaluations and principal evaluations. Student performance is actually a function of genetics and upbringing, and teachers have little to do with it. For my part, I learned little or nothing in school, but taught myself everything I wanted to learn. School was irrelevant to me, and I don't really care about any of the teachers I had. Some were absolute monsters, most were decent, some were boring, and some were interesting, but none were essential and none inspired me. I found inspiration in books and movies, as I'm sure most kids do today. I didn't encounter intelligent educators until I went to college. Until college, I usually knew more than the teacher, not the other way around. If I had questions about the world, I waited until I got back home and then looked up the answer in the encyclopedia or dictionary or asked my parents, because I knew for sure the teacher wouldn't know anything. However, kids with uneducated parents would not have had the same option. So again, kids with educated parents have a huge advantage.

Parents bear about 95% of the responsibility for the performance of students. Ninety per cent of the responsibility comes from birth, that is, what kind of intellectual capacity exists in the student to begin with. Many parents should not be giving birth at all. They should use birth control or else get themselves sterilized. The reason they have children is because they are irresponsible and care about no one save themselves and their own compulsive need to feel loved by a young and innocent teddy bear. Meanwhile society picks up the tab with public assistance and all kinds of tax breaks, societal approval and privileges for people who neglect to wear a condom. I think that people who volunteer to become sterilized should receive the same financial benefits as people who receive welfare and food stamps for their children. In fact, they should receive more because they demonstrate greater responsibility. Such a policy would remove the financial incentives for popping out babies. A glance at the unemployment numbers in this country makes it very clear we are not lacking in people. We are lacking in jobs for people. So any new baby is probably going to grow up to be an unemployed person with any amount of education, but no job and no profession. If the number of babies could be reduced, then that might help the overall jobs picture in the future, provided all the remaining jobs are not exported to China like Mitt Romney wants to do.

Toxoplasmosis

Toxoplasmosis is scary! Especially for cat owners like myself.

I am continually reminded by existing science and new scientific discoveries of how ignorant I am and how ignorant the human race is. We make too many assumptions. Only recently in our history have we begun--and we've only just begun--to become aware that microorganisms are our #1 predator. We are not at the top of the food chain after all. Microorganisms are. Invisible bodies are preying upon us, often without our knowledge. They influence our behavior, causing depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, aggression. For most of our history we assumed that demons and spirits were causing harmful changes in people. Now we are learning about the real demons that are invisible to the naked eye.

I do not know how cat owners are going to cope with Toxoplasmosis.

But perhaps I'm too credulous.

The media, after all, pushes alarm buttons in order to push copy. They want to grab eyeballs in order to sell advertising. That is their entire focus.

In reality, at my age, is there even a 1% chance that I am not infected with Toxoplasmosis, after having opened my home to cats every day of my life? I think not. I think it is futile to fret over Toxoplasmosis, at least for me. Younger people might have a chance of never getting infected in the first place, but it is entirely unrealistic to expect that after decades of shuffling litter boxes back and forth I have managed to remain Toxo-free. Also, most people do not appear to suffer ill effects from Toxoplasmosis. Hidden within the article is a little hint that the main sufferers are immunocompromised and elderly patients, for whom Toxo may be the least of their worries.

So I have decided not to worry about Toxoplasmosis, although I will certainly take extra precautions when disposing of cat litter. And the cats are banned permanently from the bedroom and the study.

Swiss Bank Accounts

I had no idea before reading this article that Mitt Romney hid his wealth overseas to avoid paying American taxes.

I Do Not Call for Assistance

When a new and unexpected problem arises, a worker or student may feel tempted to ask for help immediately, but that is weak and should be avoided. While asking for help is certainly a tool that one can consider when needed, pushing the "help button" straightaway bypasses another important tool, the brain. I have learned to wait, to give myself time to think. Thinking takes time and it cannot be rushed and does not have anything to do with deadlines.

I cannot tell you the number of times in my programming career that end users called me on the phone for instructions on how to do something that they could have figured out themselves if they had spent a single solitary minute thinking instead of panicking. People have a tendency to panic when confronted with anything out of the ordinary and that is weak. Computer programmers take measures, when possible, to avoid startling users, but sometimes things arise which cannot be avoided by any reasonable coding precaution, or more often, management isn't willing to devote the resources to permit the coding of very elegant software. Programmers cannot do as they like; they are told what to work on by management.

For me, I like to think first of all. I ask myself whether there is any possible way that I can fix a new problem without assistance. If the answer is no, then do you know what that means? That means that I need to think about it some more. I am hesitant to ask for help, because doing so is a mark of incompetence. It is not charming and it is not cute. It is taking time away from somebody else. I do not like to take time away from others. I would prefer my manager only hear from me when I have some good news or if there is an emergency situation.

The only time I really need to call for assistance right away is when time is limited, but time is almost never limited. Even if a customer is waiting, they can usually wait a bit longer. Few things are so urgent that they cannot wait a few minutes for my brain to engage. I can figure out most things that do not require secret knowledge that I have no way of knowing or special abilities. That is one of my advantages. If there is a way something can be done and if the way can be perceived by an ordinary person, then I will find it, even if the problem has never been seen before.

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.

The Weaknesses of Chrome & Firefox

The weaknesses--and some of the strengths--of Firefox, as I see it, are in the add-ons. Java and Flash are the two major annoyances. It seems at least once a month some vulnerability comes about and an update to one of the two kludges is "highly recommended," killing 10 - 15 minutes of the end user's time, per computer. For me, that amounted to about twenty minutes killed this morning updating Java on two machines. I can't count the number of times Flash has updated, but I really don't like it because I don't know anything about Adobe or what it wants to do with my computer. Do I trust Adobe? Not really. I don't know anything about the company, but its product resides on my computer, apparently necessary because so many people watch videos on the Internet these days. We are moving to an illiterate society. Sun Oracle Java, for its part, wants to install the Ask! toolbar into my browser, and if I don't remember to un-check the box during installation, it will install that worthless piece of crap into my browser, which will necessitate another lengthy uninstall process. I hate Ask with a passion.

I can certainly understand why some users have abandoned Firefox in favor of Chrome, which has flash and java built-in rather nicely and which updates those two things in a comparatively transparent and fast manner. The main thing I don't like about Chrome is that it makes too many assumptions regarding the interface, which is far too minimal for my taste. I like a few buttons and an accessible menu at the top of the screen. Computers just are not smart enough yet to make quite so many assumptions or to start with a blank screen. Chrome wants to hide everything away, and I don't like that.

I know that idealistic young computer programmers wish things were different, but the reality is computers are as stupid as the day is long. This was true twenty years ago and it remains true today, and no amount of fancy marketing or design by Google or Microsoft will change the reality. The only thing that is going to change the scene is exponential advances in hardware. Then we can talk minimalism. Okay? Until that day, give me my damn buttons and menu options.

I also don't like Chrome's lack of add-ons such as Ad Blocker, which cleans the web of so much advertising clutter. The reason I stay with Firefox has to do with its design, which I feel is just about right, and its many add-ons, and its open-source nature. I just don't trust Google or Microsoft, because they are obviously looking for some kind of advantage to accrue from their browser, and that advantage might not be to my advantage, whereas Firefox, in theory at least, intends to create the best browser, without any dependency upon a particular vendor. Perhaps Firefox does take money from certain sources such as Google, but they are not bound to Google and could change tomorrow, whereas Chrome is inextricably bound to Google. Not that I have anything against Google, of course. But Google is, after all, a company in business to make a profit. I would use Chrome if the option were between Chrome and IE, but not while Firefox is still viable, and Firefox is still viable even with the annoyances I have described above.

Arming our Enemies?

Stories like this one about Pakistan lead me to believe we are making a monumental mistake by giving money to Pakistan, which seems to be the enemy of truth, justice and all that is good. If it is true that the people of Pakistan would kill a person for simply saying not to kill people for "blasphemy," then the people of Pakistan are bloodthirsty savages, no better than animals, and considerably worse than some animals, such as bonobos. I think that Pakistan should be paying the United States tribute in return for its continued survival and in exchange for elementary education on such issues as philosophy and morality. Otherwise India should be permitted to annex Pakistan and take over the substantial task of the education of its people. I would not envy India in such a scenario.

That all the above is mere fantasy on my part points to the depressing reality, which is that our leaders and our elite in America, ever since the fateful day of 9-11-2001, have ignored everything else in their single-minded quest for vengeance--and really the entire debacle in Afghanistan is nothing more than mere vengeance.

If I could make a wish, it would be as follows. Instead of giving to Pakistan, we should be taking from. Instead of investing in Afghanistan, we should be investing in America. Instead of investing in Iraq, we should be investing in America. Instead of placing fools in power, we should place the most capable in power. With all the problems in this country today, it is indefensible to spend even a solitary penny on faraway lands.

Whenever I think of Afghanistan and Iraq, I think of President Bush, the redneck President. I cannot believe that anyone seriously thinks a guy like Mitt Romney, who is Bush #3, should be the President. I don't think Romney is a redneck like Bush, or not quite. He is nothing more than a salesman. He will say and appear to do whatever his clientele want, within reason and to a limited extent, in order to close the deal, and then do what he wants to do, which is quite limited really. He wants to strut. He would be recognized, adored, and enjoy all the perks, privileges, and prestige of executive power. That is Romney's real agenda and always has been and always will be. Plug in whatever ideology you want, but he is in it for his ego, and this is quite obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes to see. The nation has real problems that need to be fixed but unfortunately Romney's just not a "fixer-upper" type of guy. He's not an engineer and doesn't understand how to solve tough problems. He's a salesman. Period.

Obama has some good engineering qualities. I like his caution, prudence, pragmatism, and willingness to concede mistakes. These are all qualities of a good engineer, and Bush did not have them.

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.

The Bank Teller

I had a funny dream last night. I was at the bank, waiting to cash a check, and one of the tellers, a man about my age, made a snappy comment about me. I don't recall what he said. Unfortunately, my recall of dreams has always been spotty at best. The minute I wake up, about 75% of the details are gone, leaving only the skeleton. At any rate, the teller had a mustache and unkempt hair with cowlicks going in every direction. I thought that was odd, as bank tellers tend to be neat and conservative in their appearance as a rule. He made a snappy remark, and I retorted with something like, "Why don't you comb your hair?" and the other bank tellers laughed at him. He made no reply. Then I went over to the little table set aside for customers to sign checks, and I signed a check that someone had written to me for $500. I did not recognize the signature, but it was someone from New York, judging by the address in the top left corner. I went to the same cashier, let's call him Mr. Clown, and he performed his job in a professional manner without making any further remark.

I started having a bad feeling about the check, because I did not know where it came from. Was it a forgery of some kind? Since I didn't have any recall of the check's origin, I decided that it must indeed be fraudulent. I told Mr. Clown to give me the check back, that I had changed my mind about cashing it. He smiled and said I had made the right decision, because he had doubts about the check's authenticity as well. I took out one of my own personal checks and wrote myself a check for $500, withdrawing from my own account.

That was the end of the dream. The only basis the dream has in reality is that I recently withdrew $500 from my checking account--via the ATM, not a personal check. I have not been inside my bank in several months and have never had anything but a pleasant experience with bank tellers. However, I have had an increased rate of forgetfulness due to adopting a new schedule with many new tasks and duties and many new risks and potential problems. I think the theme of the dream is "Vigilance is Required," because it was vigilance and caution that moved me to halt the cashing of the suspicious check. I think that the bank teller was actually another copy of myself, because my hair has a tendency to stand up, and each morning I have to apply a wet comb to keep it down. I like to use humor to offset anxiety and lighten otherwise tedious or stressful situations, so Mr. Clown was me serving as the butt of a mild self-deprecatory joke. I'm not sure why the check was from New York, but I have given some thought in the past to the idea of moving to New York and perhaps some day I will.

No-Ego

The ego believes in win and lose, life and death, success and failure, and is centered upon the self. All things to the ego revolve around self and are only judged by their relation to self. It is impossible to perceive truth as long as an ego stands in the way, because the ego distorts reality by centering reality around the self. This is like looking into a concave mirror.
 
No-ego does not perceive reality as revolving around self, but observes the self in its proper place, as a small part of the whole. No-ego is concerned with the whole, with all things, although there may be a focus upon human society because of its seeming importance. Entering the zone of no-ego, one can see for miles... Insight expands, uncertainty declines. Connections are made with the whole, so that there is not a separation between the observer and the observed, but the observer feels and senses what the observed perceive.

Dwell in the ego because you must, because of the animal-nature which requires selfishness in order to survive and prosper, but build watchtowers of no-ego for the purpose of expanding the vision beyond the short-term and the trivial.

Circumcision

An interesting article on male circumcision popped up recently in the daily news.

I don't have a strong opinion on it one way or the other. However, when I read that circumcision helps lowers the rate of HPV, HIV, herpes, and urinary tract infections, that is something I can't ignore. Personally I don't think circumcision really matters on an aesthetic or sexual level. If you love someone, then you will get used to whatever they have in the genital department; of if they love you, then vice versa.

However, if I were to be a father (unimaginable now) then I would probably decline the procedure for my newborn for the simple reason that I don't feel like I should intrude my own opinion or belief onto another human being in a way that will unalterably change their body for life. They might resent it later, and besides, new scientific research is always coming out and one never knows what next year's study might indicate. Just for the sake of human rights and all that jazz, I would rather each boy decide for himself once he becomes emancipated from his parents.

At any rate, if circumcision is indeed a human rights violation then surely it is a trivial one in comparison to all the others.

ImgBurn is a Virus

ImgBurn is malware. After I installed it, without warning it replaced my home page and search engine and attempted to install an unknown add-on in Firefox. I immediately uninstalled ImgBurn. As far as I'm concerned it is no different than any other virus. I just wish my anti-virus program, Avast, had stopped it in time.

I think I have eliminated all of the changes it made. What an idiotic thing that Ask search engine is. I would never in a million years use such a search engine that behaves in such an obnoxious, intrusive manner. Not only did I remove it from the default search engine, I deleted it altogether from the list of search engine options, and if I ever see it on someone's computer, I definitely will recommend removing it. Ask is a search engine created by virus-writers.

Depression

CNN posted a decent article on Depression along with many online resources. I think that young people should get help fast from professionals when they need it, rather than parents going into denial mode and thinking everything is okay or that Junior just needs to buckle down and study more. The reality is that no amount of extra studying and no amount of extra discipline is going to alleviate depression (such strategies might actually make it worse). If the depression is not treated by someone competent it will get worse. Unfortunately there are some incompetent or misinformed psychologists and psychiatrists out there in the wild. I would say that a good shrink works wonders and that is the one to select. Only word of mouth recommendations by forthright and candid current or former patients or their parents can help find a competent mental health professional, which by the way is also the best way to find a good mechanic, carpenter or air conditioning repairman. Also, not every shrink is suitable for every patient, because personalities, personal limitations and preferences do come into play, coloring the professional's judgment and reasoning at times.

In addition to being a mental problem, depression is a medical and physical problem affecting the brain and the body. It is not "all in the head" or imagined, it is real and causes real changes in the brain and the body.

Obama in 2012

I support Obama in 2012 because he has been a much better President than Bush. He hasn't gotten us tangled up in any foreign war. He has tried to offer relief to working Americans, though blocked at many points by Republicans, which points to the urgent need to elect more Democrats to Congress. I intend to vote straight-ticket Democrat, because Republicans in almost every instance vote against the interests of working Americans. Obama has better foreign policy, better domestic policy, better economic policy, better science and technology policy, and is better on all social issues. Gays can serve openly in the U.S. military now because of President Obama, and that is a big step forward. I am also pleased that Obama has announced that he supports gay marriage, because gay marriage is extremely important for gays to aspire to the same level of stability, happiness, and security that straights do. There may be areas where I disagree on one point or another but overall the choice between Obama and Romney is a very dramatic and clear-cut one, requiring all of two seconds.

Romney does not seem much different than Bush, although he has shown a surprising degree of flexibility on many issues, changing his positions to suit his electorate. I think Romney would involve the U.S. in additional wars. To finance the new wars, he would drastically increase the national debt, just like Bush. I think he would reduce funding for education in the U.S., because the more educated the electorate is, the less likely Republicans will be voted into office. He would certainly be amenable to cutting Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, the "big three" government programs, as well as food stamps, mortgage relief and anything else that helps ordinary people.

Romney claims to want to turn back the clock on gay rights and abortion rights, but I don't really know how far he would go in that direction, because some wealthy donors to the Republican Party don't share the enthusiasm of the religious right for gay-bashing. I'm sure the Republicans would attempt some kind of mischief to hurt gay people, but it would probably be symbolic or temporary rather than permanent. However, I would vote against Romney on the gay issue alone, if for no other reason, because there is a real chance he could hurt gays with his foolish pandering to the hateful. Romney lacks charisma and intelligence, and so he will feel great pressure to pander and give in to pressure groups on the right wing. At risk are gays, women's reproductive rights, and minorities of every kind, but everybody will feel the pinch of his pro-war, anti-working class agenda. The only people Romney truly represents are the wealthiest 1%, while everybody else is dispensable in his view and only necessary to win an election or two. That is where all the new talk against gay marriage and abortion comes from, Romney's tacit acknowledgment that he needs to fire up the religious right in order to win the election. The religious right is less concerned about Romney's real agenda (more money for his cronies) and much more concerned about gays and abortion.

When I see polls indicating that Obama is only ahead by a small margin, I am really puzzled. I do not see any reason at all for anyone except a selfish billionaire to vote for Romney. The only way I can explain Obama being only slightly ahead in the polls is that many liberals are dissatisfied with his policies on various issues ranging the gamut, from foreign policy to the economy to gay rights and marijuana decriminalization. One of my friends has even announced she is not going to vote for Obama but is going to vote for the Green Party candidate, whoever that is. I would like to remind liberals that the choice is not between Obama and your ideal. The choice is between Obama and Bush #3. And that is a very easy choice to make.