tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51056108328825660302024-03-13T05:06:26.426-05:00A Virtual Weltanschauung<i>
<a href="http://www.virtual-weltanschauung.com/images/lateral.mp4"><u>
From a Life of Lateral Recumbency</u></a></i>
<br>
<br>
<b>Statistically you have <strike>25</strike> 10 years to live . So what do you do with those years?</b>
<br>- Heck if I know. You tell me. -ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.comBlogger528125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-69294728796646939872023-12-09T20:37:00.026-06:002023-12-09T21:18:41.151-06:00The Time I Tried to Read a Mark Levin BookI tried to read Mark Levin's T<b>he Democrat Party Hates America</b> and made it
maybe half way through before I switched over to hyper-drive reading speed. Not
because it was so easy to go through, but because every page is overflowing with
venom and hatred, hatred of the “the Democrat Party”, of Joe Biden, of Hunter
Biden...pure, pulsating hatred. I just wanted get through it as fast as
possible. But even then I had to quit before the end of the book. It was just
too depressing. <br /><br />
I thought it would be a good exercise to get out of my comfort zone and see
another point of view. I thought I would examine his logic and admit where I saw
it as...well ,logical, and point out where there was poor reasoning (as I saw
it). But really after getting into it, I don’t remember any actual arguments,
just an avalanche of hateful rhetoric directed at “the Democrat Party”. And if
you didn’t know, calling the Democratic Party “the Democrat Party” is meant to
be an insult, or it is when you hear it spoken and that same tone comes across
in this book.
<br /><br />
I probably overvalue my own skill at analyzing arguments. But this was an
exercise for me, and nobody else will likely read it my thoughts, so I plunge
ahead with my own limited abilities.
<br /><br />
Anyway, it wears you down putting your mind in the mind of somebody so very
angry, so filled with the opposite of compassion. Page after page of
saying the current state of the country is horrible, really horrible, but really he
“tells” and doesn’t “show” us about that.
<br /><br />
The upshot is IF you already think the Democrats are really bad I bet you are
fine with believing they are all Marxist. Yet he never defines what he means so I
assume he thinks social secruity, laws protecting minorities, any acknowledgment
of prejudice..THAT is Marxist. I mean if Marxism means the state owns the means
of production then none of that stuff is actually Marxist.
<br /><br />
Assuming he equates Marxism with Communism, he never shows where Democrats are trying to obolish private property, much leess have the state take over the means of production (BTW, take over is not the same thing as to regulate)
<br /><br />
So he goes on and on about how Democrats are Marxist. Then there are some really long sections where
he repeatedly tells us "you know who really liked slavery in the 19th
century??..DEMOCRATS...And you know what else, guess who was really racist after the Civil War...DEMOCRATS. So THERE. " I mean yeah, but the unstated
conclusion is that all Democrats today therefore also believe in all that stuff.
And that goes on and on for multiple chapters and he is really indignant
about it. So really super disingenuous reasoning for page after page is simply
draining, it is so disingenuous it is hard to even know where to start.
<br /><br />
And YES I know Woodrow Wilson was super racist, EVERYBODY knows that. But it
doesn’t dissuade me from voting for a stronger social safty net or anything that
would make rich people pay more in taxes. Another unstated assumptions is that
taxation is marxism.
<br /><br />
And the Coup de grâce is the last chapter where he talks about the worst thing that
has ever happened in America...attempts to save lives by implementing COVID
lock downs. If you come to this book already thinking like him then no reasoning is
required. If you think the lock downs were a tool people tried to make things
better, and we should look at what worked and what didn’t for the next time,
then Levin is of no help. Although I have to admit I skippped most of the last
chapter for my mental health, but from the tone of the opening I am pretty sure
he did not work out a nuance position.
<br /><br />
Below are some highlights I saved from the library ebook I checked out. Remember
he is saying the stuff below about Democrats. I guess during his schooling his
dictionary had no entry for “irony”
<br /><br />
And of course the biggest irony is that with half or more of the population
voting for the Democratic Party he is the one who really, really, hates
America. Or at least 1/2 of it
<br /><br />
<b>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">
# #
<br />
The police state is growing—as is monitoring and spying
<br />
the police state is growing (elsewhere he says police budgets are slashed??)
<br />
Our borders are wide open
<br />
The Democrat Party is responsible
<br />
The Democrat Party is responsible
<br />
eviscerate the Constitution
<br />
Democrat Party apparatchiks
<br />
Biden’s radical agenda
<br />
American Marxism
<br />
the progressive left who hate America
<br />
the American Marxist agenda,
<br />
their “Marxist paradise.”
<br />
Democrat Party today is more Leninist than Jeffersonian
<br />
the horrendous story of the Democrat Party’s past
<br />
Wilson’s racism
<br />
American Marxism
<br /><br />
No longer would states with smaller populations, rural areas, etc., have any effective say in the selection of presidents and vice presidents. Indeed, only nine states make up about 50 percent of the nation’s population. Thus, representative government, where all areas of the country have a say in the conduct of the national government, would end. Tens of millions of people would be without meaningful input in governmental affairs—most of whom just happen to be Republicans and Independents. Representative government would be over for tens of millions of American citizens.
<br /><br />
Of course, slavery is unconscionable. There is no excusing it. But capitalism did not drive slavery. Slavery has existed, and exists today, throughout the world and in noncapitalist societies. As Peter W. Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, explains: “Slavery… was not an American invention, or a European one. It has existed in human societies for thousands of years.
<br /><br />
They have a totalitarian mind-set. This means the party must come before country
</b>
</span>
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-52999309372799249142023-11-21T13:43:00.003-06:002023-11-21T13:43:36.143-06:00If It Quacks Like Evil, Maybe It Really Is Evil<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/176735535-the-conspiracy-to-end-america" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1691256875l/176735535._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/176735535-the-conspiracy-to-end-america">The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16550.Stuart_Stevens">Stuart Stevens</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5935186423">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
I admit that at the start I was not dazzled by this new Stuart Stevens book. It had a lot of references and names and stories from the many other scary books about trump. I had read or heard mentions of these sources in print or on many podcasts and opinion stories. And it is true much of this is a rehash of what we already know.<br /><br />So what is new here?<br /><br />The background info he brings is fine but like I said if you were looking in this direction already you probably knew much of it. HOWEVER once Stuart comes out swinging for real, he really keeps coming. With a directness and force you didn’t realize you were missing. And really the facts are clear for any that have eyes and ears and with much force Stuart Stevens is shouting to get your attention.<br /><br /><b>Trump and Trumpism are as <i>pure evil</i> as has existed in mainstream politics, and when I look around, I, too, often see the institutions of America failing the moment. It doesn’t come in the active embrace of Trumpism but in a failure aggressively and unequivocally to reject an authoritarian movement of hate. My fear is that America is learning to accommodate Trumpism, and history is clear that is a gateway drug to democratic collapse.</b> - Location 2284-2287 <br /><br />“Pure Evil” ? Is that too much? <br />I used to complain in my imaginary political dialogs with people who demonized previous Republican administrations or politicians. I mean sure I thought they were wrong and probably jerks, but that was as far as I would take it, BUT I think with the current situation his comment is not hyperbole. Again for those who have the eyes and ears to look a the facts. <br /><br /><b>To rise in the Republican Party, it is essential to show solidarity with those who wish to end democracy. </b>- Location 2181-2182 <br /><br />He does have an outline of why he has his vies and they make sense of the obvious (to me) craziness of modern Republicanism<br /><br /><b>Whenever a democracy slides into autocracy, there are five critical elements at work. All of these are active today in American politics.<br /><br />The five autocratic building blocks are: <br />•Propagandists <br />•Support of a major party <br />•Financers <br />•Legal theories to legitimize actions <br />•Shock troops</b><br />- Location 94-98<br /><br />And he uses known facts and stories to show this is the case.<br /><br />I wish I could sit and talk with him for a while and ask what he would have said about some of his current opinions that were anathema to Republicans just a short while ago before he was on this track. Like was he also so reasonable about guns?<br /><br /><b> Walking into a Starbucks with a semiautomatic weapon isn’t proving you have the right to bear arms; it is an assertion that you do not trust society to protect you, that there is no civil bond between you and the next person in line ordering a latte.</b> - Location 2206-2207<br /> <br />And what did he previously think of the Federalist society in the “before times”? Because his take down of them is throughout and SO spot on it is scary. In fact I would say it is one of the core takeaway of the book. I suspect he was previously fine with the Federalist Society before and probably all the never Trump Republicans were totally cool with them. Or maybe not, I never get and chance talk with them<br /><br />Here it is even if it is a bit long for a Goodreads review.<br /><br /><b>Taken individually, none of these judicial actions is a death blow to democracy, but collectively, each builds on the previous one. It is a long game played with patience. A timeline tells the story:<br /><br />1982: The Federalist Society is formed. <br />1986: Federalist Society superstar Antonin Scalia is nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Reagan. <br />1991: Clarence Thomas, a Federalist Society member, is nominated by George H. W. Bush. 2000: George W. Bush loses the popular vote to Al Gore but is elected by the electoral college. The Supreme Court rules 5–4 in favor of Bush in the infamous Bush v. Gore case. 2004: George W. Bush is reelected. <br />2005: Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society creates the Judicial Confirmation Network (later to become Judicial Crisis Network). He raises $15 million from undisclosed donors to run confirmation campaigns supporting Bush Supreme Court nominees. <br />2005: John Roberts, a Federalist Society member, is nominated to the Supreme Court by George W. Bush. <br />2005: Samuel Alito, a Federalist Society member, is nominated to the Supreme Court by George W. Bush. <br />2006: The Federalist Society expands its public relations campaign. Leo comments that “I spend probably close to $800,000 annually on a PR team at the Federalist Society, and we generate press that has a publicity value of approximately $146 million each year.” <br />2010: The Supreme Court rules 5–4 in the Citizens United decision that corporations have the right to spend unlimited money in U.S. elections. Four of the five deciding votes are cast by Federalist Society members. <br />2010: redmap is formed by Republicans to focus on redistricting state legislatures to maximize Republican benefit. <br />2012: With the help of undisclosed “dark” money made possible by Citizens United, conservative Paul Newby is elected to the North Carolina Supreme Court. <br />2012: North Carolina ends public financing of judicial nominations. <br />2013: The Supreme Court nullifies key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, which John Roberts first opposed in 1981.<br />2016: Justice Scalia dies seven months before the presidential election. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refuses to allow hearings or a vote on President Obama’s choice of Merrick Garland as Scalia’s replacement. McConnell says, “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.” <br />2016: Leonard Leo’s Judicial Crisis Network spends $7 million to support the Republican senators running for reelection who refuse to hold hearings on Merrick Garland. <br />2016–2017: Groups controlled by Leonard Leo raise over $250 million from undisclosed donors. <br />2016: Donald Trump loses the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million voters but wins the electoral college. <br />2017: Leonard Leo’s Judicial Crisis Network spends $10 million in support of Trump. <br />2017: Trump nominates Neil Gorsuch, a Federalist Society member, to replace Justice Scalia. 2017: Leonard Leo’s Judicial Crisis Network spends $10 million supporting the Gorsuch nomination. <br />2018: Justice Kennedy resigns. Trump appoints Brett Kavanaugh to replace him. Kavanaugh, a Federalist Society member, worked for the two George W. Bush campaigns and in the White House, married Bush’s long-time personal assistant, and was nominated by Bush to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Trump, a president who lost the popular vote, appoints the protégé of a president—Bush—who also lost the popular vote. <br />2018: The Leonard Leo organization “Freedom and Opportunity Group” donates $4 million to “Independent Women’s Voice,” which runs ads supporting Kavanaugh. Heather Higgins, the group’s president and chief executive, attacks the women who accuse Kavanaugh of sexual assault, saying, “If you have a weak standard of evidence, then what you are doing is guaranteeing that future nominations will all be last-minute character assassinations and circuses.” She is paid $311,000 annually as the leader of Independent Women’s Voice. <br />2019: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that states are free to gerrymander without review by the state’s Supreme Court. “We conclude that partisan gerrymandering claims present political questions beyond the reach of the federal courts.” Of the justices voting in support of the 5–4 ruling, three have been confirmed by a collection of senators who represented a minority of the country’s population. All are Federalist Society members. <br />2020: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg dies thirty-eight days before the presidential election. Trump appoints Amy Comey Barrett to replace her. Majority Leader McConnell holds hearings and the Senate vote to confirm her after the presidential election voting has begun in many states. He denies this contradicts his previous refusal to hold hearings on the Merrick Garland nomination during an election year. <br />2020: Barrett is confirmed and becomes a justice of the Supreme Court. There have been five Supreme Court justices in U.S. history who were appointed by a president elected with a minority of the vote and confirmed by senators representing a minority of the country’s population. With Barrett’s confirmation, all five are currently on the Supreme Court. <br />2022: $1.6 billion is gifted to the Marble Freedom Trust, a Leonard Leo group. <br />2023: The North Carolina Supreme Court overturns a previous ruling and allows the Republican-controlled legislature to draw districts by any guidelines they choose. <br /><br />The 2019 Supreme Court ruling on gerrymandering provides no pathway for appeal. Justice Paul Newby, who was elected post–Citizens United, is now chief justice. What began decades earlier continues to play out, changing the legal basis of American elections. It is the Long Game played patiently and relentlessly with no like effort in opposition. The Republican attack on the electoral system with combined efforts to challenge election results, restrict voting, and control the counting of votes is following the successful blueprint used by the Federalist Society to change the judicial system. </b> <br />Location 1794-1848<br /><br />Thanks to NetGalley for letting me get a head start of this important book
<br/><br/>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4147366-david-rush">View all my reviews</a>
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-35239800060794576782023-07-16T17:52:00.007-05:002023-07-16T17:57:55.934-05:00Fredric Brown and The Meaning of Life<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122555.The_Fabulous_Clipjoint" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Fabulous Clipjoint (Ed & Am Hunter #1)" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347492335l/122555._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122555.The_Fabulous_Clipjoint">The Fabulous Clipjoint</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/51503.Fredric_Brown">Fredric Brown</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5690058966">5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
WOW. I LOVED this book.<br /><br /> It has much of the usual tough guy detective or noir story feel but it is a different kind of mystery. In some ways it is a slow burn even though things do happen and you want to find out what it coming. BUT the resolution at the end is a bit of an “anti-resolution”, at least in a mystery story sense. It is hard to explain, just read the book and get to the end.<br /><br />The kicker is toward the end where finally there is a reference to what the title is all about. After all their adventures, our young protagonist and his wise but tough uncle have a drink from high above Chicago and Brown lays out the whole point if it all. And it goes in a direction I wasn’t expecting.<br /><br /><b>We took a table by a window on the south side, looking out toward the Loop. It was beautiful in the bright sunshine. The tall, narrow buildings were like fingers reaching toward the sky. It was like something out of a science-fiction story. You couldn’t quite believe it, even looking at it. “Ain’t it something, kid?”<br /><br />“Beautiful as hell,” I said. “But it’s a clipjoint.” He grinned. The little laughing wrinkles were back in corners of his eyes. He said, “It’s a fabulous clipjoint, kid. The craziest things can happen in it, and not all of them are bad.”</b>| Page 128<br /><br />So basically, everything going on around us is a con, or a bait and switch, where we are lured into life but false advertising. I might be overreaching here but we are lured to buy, eat, do, some many things and most of them are really not good for us. The majority of stuff in a coffee shop you should not get (pastries, sugar packed coffee, and more). And just look down a cereal aisle in a grocery store, millions spent to lure us to buy sugar coated crap.<br /><br />Well, you get the idea. But to make a big ol’ comments about the absurdity of modern life at the end of a mystery novel. THAT is something special.<br /><br />I must confess I don’t think I would have appreciated it as much when I was younger. I guess I am an older more cynical reader now and ripe for Fredric Brown mysteries.<br /><br />Now some quotes:<br /><br /><b>She came back looking like a million bucks in crisp new currency.</b> | Page 111<br /><br /><b>I said, “You talk like a poet, not a carney.” He chuckled. “I read a book once,” he said. “Look, kid, don’t try to label things. Words fool you. You call a guy a printer or a lush or a pansy or a truck driver and you think you’ve pasted a label on him. People are complicated; you can’t label ’em with a word.”</b> | Page 49
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/4147366-david-rush">View all my reviews</a>
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ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-25626564253939229782023-07-12T21:40:00.005-05:002023-07-12T21:42:10.998-05:00One LifeI let the last birthday go by without comment. Less to say, or birthdays mean less each year.
<br><br>
On the drive home from work I listened to Lisa Ekdahl’s “One Life”. Where for all the different personalities and all the conflict, there is just one life we are all living. And that reminded me of some psychologists saying there is no “self”, no individual, and our individuality is a fiction brought about by all the different parts of our brain interacting.
<br><br>
And this interaction is not a collection of discrete parts pretending to be a whole, but what there is of a self is the relations between all the brain activity. So too society is not a collection of individuals, but the relationship between all the brain relationships going on. And it is all happening NOW, every moment, and we let it flow by without comment, like ignoring a birthday .
<br><br>
BUT this universe of connections is the very essence of existence and it binds us together even while we ignore it.
<br><br>
To quote from the movie “Brazil”..”We are all in this together”.
<br><br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=VaW7EiSvjfM" target="_blank"></a>
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-83041927291071437622023-04-17T12:56:00.004-05:002023-04-17T13:06:08.625-05:00Boerne Bike Ride
Saturday June 24, 2023 : 7AM<br>
START @ Don Strange Event Center<br>
Boerne Texas<br>
Coffee Hollow Rollers » 25 mile<br>
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Comfort » 39 mile<br>
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<a href="https://tourdeboerne.com/">https://tourdeboerne.com/</a>ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-24698555185484652772022-10-20T15:55:00.003-05:002022-10-20T15:55:26.439-05:00ChromeBook Ubuntu
<b>Googling Your way to Success
<br><br></b>
A while back my old-ish Chromebook kept telling me it was out of date, so I found on the internet how to wipe the Chrome OS and install some linux version on it.
<br><br>
Long story short, I had that for a while and it mostly worked but thinking I was smart I decided to try a different version (going from Lubuntu to Xubuntu)
<br><br>
Whoops...I found the install went well and fewer problems than before, until I discovered if listing to any audio for more than a few minutes it would be interupped by a minutes long monoton horn sound. You could not mute or stop it.
<br><br>
Much Googling I finally found one person who said to try thing
<br><br>
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
<br><br>
And then add this one line...
<br><br>
options snd_sof sof_debug
<br><br>
Then the minutes long "horn" stopped, and all was well
<br>
I just didn't want to forget this
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-91486288362709437092022-08-09T15:09:00.007-05:002022-08-10T14:39:20.635-05:00DVD SubtitlesI can't believe I never knew or learned and then forgot, but IF you have a DVD and you want English subtitles you can use Closed Captions. Assuming Handbrake has been adapted to rip DVDs (that you personally own)
<br><br>
Simply add the subtitles as a track from the Closed Caption option.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcD6boXDqeXrzMWiGzU1Z4KKB55panbNeoWkFwQM6rcjBkI4_xxq3KTUM8uFw38e9qHBC_UrK6z_rGC97S7xHjzXa9CWS3q6l5GAv-p7tyEwGaz3QV-SIh3lca1eAcS9hGhcUZ4zsn0Nb36K1nS5SkDFEDwpEIzf0Qb6LicsQJBY1dG_k6pv3YbCrNog/s752/subtitle1.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="752" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcD6boXDqeXrzMWiGzU1Z4KKB55panbNeoWkFwQM6rcjBkI4_xxq3KTUM8uFw38e9qHBC_UrK6z_rGC97S7xHjzXa9CWS3q6l5GAv-p7tyEwGaz3QV-SIh3lca1eAcS9hGhcUZ4zsn0Nb36K1nS5SkDFEDwpEIzf0Qb6LicsQJBY1dG_k6pv3YbCrNog/s320/subtitle1.jpg"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMNPrHoFBJNf9BtyeqLKUfADVKznsk_vYiYrKhlkppkqA9XpGYvWvy-ZYSDuR7LQJQ564GpXDfzLUS697tdRAGhtBv5oyjiqTuv2_egbsMV4JLc1xIlQYjc6WthgqmUVSHK6fnq28mcBuMBX97ugF5o3DFzGO4G7AhToWoQuodvQ65344QV_2q3lEMA/s768/subtitle2.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="434" data-original-width="768" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMNPrHoFBJNf9BtyeqLKUfADVKznsk_vYiYrKhlkppkqA9XpGYvWvy-ZYSDuR7LQJQ564GpXDfzLUS697tdRAGhtBv5oyjiqTuv2_egbsMV4JLc1xIlQYjc6WthgqmUVSHK6fnq28mcBuMBX97ugF5o3DFzGO4G7AhToWoQuodvQ65344QV_2q3lEMA/s320/subtitle2.jpg"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPhVhcKL_eGITXcIF7nM8UEo9Q0EhfCYi1yen4Tj7V7yM8UVyEkWbyrMuCmH0Fi7oiYFBbk80n350-UIfgkigKgoEC2GGE-Ft3dXSBn5YYo0E9fwdLNLERyvrRR-jNVOiWlmc_Odd5K-YDeLO-zHhLzzdYZRnT6tTm0avR4C9YCOIVpEDIYS-9zAuaBQ/s748/subtitle3.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="748" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPhVhcKL_eGITXcIF7nM8UEo9Q0EhfCYi1yen4Tj7V7yM8UVyEkWbyrMuCmH0Fi7oiYFBbk80n350-UIfgkigKgoEC2GGE-Ft3dXSBn5YYo0E9fwdLNLERyvrRR-jNVOiWlmc_Odd5K-YDeLO-zHhLzzdYZRnT6tTm0avR4C9YCOIVpEDIYS-9zAuaBQ/s320/subtitle3.jpg"/></a></div>ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-68765882236468830512022-05-16T09:18:00.009-05:002022-05-16T11:18:37.712-05:00When Does Life Begin?"When does life begin?"
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Or more precisely, when does HUMAN life begin? THAT is crux of it all, and is a matter of tradition, convention, and opinion. To say that "Science" tells that human life begins at conception is rhetoric not science. That is not how science works, and to claim otherwise is to make it not just a an opinion but a theological opinion.
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A zygote may contain DNA but that zygote is patently NOT a human and to declare when a human is “ensouled” is by definition theology since it deals with the soul (not science).
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And current views about abortion are “relatively” recent and “conservative” religious thinkers once held other theological views.
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St. Augustine declared that abortion is not homicide but was a sin if it was intended to conceal fornication or adultery.<br> </span>
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12178868/
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Resolution On Abortion, adopted at the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention), June 1971: RESOLVED, That we call upon Southern Baptists to work for legislation that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape, incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother<br></span>
https://www.johnstonsarchive.net/baptist/sbcabres.html
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When the Roe decision was handed down, W. A. Criswell, the Southern Baptist Convention’s former president and pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas—also one of the most famous fundamentalists of the 20th century—was pleased: “I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person,” he said, “and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed.”<br>
</span>
https://politi.co/2JsQoNr
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-19680751036147193702022-03-21T14:06:00.022-05:002022-05-16T11:19:28.089-05:00Certainty in an UNcertain WorldThinking about why people entertain questionable conspiracy theories yet ignore actual documented and quite bad conspiracies throughout history. And thinking ther is a connection to some leaping from believing unproven (to my mind) conspiracies to wanting to take up arms to the point of violence to others. Below is some of me talking to myself
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. . . . .
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Conspiracies with ambiguous or tenuous evidence can prompt different paths of thought in response… but if you go “all in” and double down on the belief, it gives a “believers high”. AND the bigger the leap, the more complex the conspiracy, the more tenuous the claim, the better the emotional “high”
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To believe in conspiracies there is a psychological Alchemy formula that is different for each person, but to end up with this “believer’s high” a key ingredient in the mental potion is the LACK of absolute proof. Perhaps it is the very act of “connecting the dots” that gives off some endorphin or hormone, but whatever…it requires a physiological response that allows emotions and reasoning to combine and produce the “sacred belief”. Once in place it allows someone to achieve a blissful state and exalt in self righteous confidence.
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And once something becomes a “sacred belief” then contrary evidence, or illustrations of illogic actually harden the conspiracy in the mind.
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It is this self righteous confidence that pushes away the ever present fact that to live,is to live with uncertainty, to live with ambiguity.
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To be sure, there ARE conspiracies. Some with big government, or big corporations, or even biases of cultural worldviews. BUT conspiracies with clear, documented, evidence, don’t give the same “high”. So Iran/Contra, tobacco companies and cancer, oil companies and climate change, may be noted, then ignored. Those conspiracies are in a sense accepted and relegated to the mundane while JFK conspiracies,ludicrous voting claims, all with dots just waiting to be connected IF you only take off your blinders…THAT requires making a commitment, declaration of sorts, and this commitment gives back many times over with the emotional alchemy of turning ambiguity into certainty.
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Interestingly it is the act of committing oneself to a belief in a vague theory wholeheartedly that makes the belief “real”. To believe you simply have to believe, THAT is where the fun is. Proof is not fun, connecting the dots IS.
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# # # #
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On the violence of it all…to return to the psychological, once you have the confidence in the conspiracy THEN the next level of commitment is to hate some other. So once the leap to connecting questionable dots is done, then comes the audacity of HATE, and the more audacious, the more hate, the better the "high". To fuse self righteous certainty of a disovered injustice and blame it on somebody else takes another audacious commitment. To be self righteously confident of the injustice, AND to have that "other" as the cause of the injustice… Then all that is left is action. Sweet, sweet, self righteous action
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Final thoughts.
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I suggest that we live in an uncertain world, most knowledge is an illusion*, life is complicated, ambiguous, even contradictory. And almost everybody seems to have a different opinion on what the rules should be. And no one wants to submit to somebody else’s view.
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So, how then do we live in a world with people who don’t believe what we believe and may actively hate us for some imagined injustice.
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What then is to be done?
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For me the starting point is Compassion for all things, including people. And that takes recognition from the start, I, like the world, am flawed…I want to be compassionate but fail so often.
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But you have to start somewhere so I start with that.
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* the illusion of knowledge is a post for another day
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-65730347825357585882022-01-25T14:30:00.011-06:002022-01-25T14:44:15.171-06:00Why Are People Doing This Crazy Stuff!!<br>
Just trying to understand the society around me and thinking about people who believe "the Big Lie" as a rationilztion for even more crazy beliefs and actions...Came across this reseracher, Karen M. Douglas, and found this article online by her and some other people about why people believe in crazy conspiracy stuff (NOT theories in their minds)
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">
Social Motives<br><br>
Causal explanations, conspiracy explanations included, are also informed by various social motivations, including the desire to belong and to maintain a positive image of the self and the in-group. Scholars have suggested that conspiracy theories <b>valorize the self</b> and the in-group by allowing blame for negative outcomes to be attributed to others. Thus, they may help to uphold the image of the self and the in-group as competent and moral but as sabotaged by powerful and unscrupulous others. If this is the case, we can expect conspiracy theories to be particularly appealing to people who find the positive image of their self or in-group to be threatened (Cichocka, Marchlewska, & Golec de Zavala, 2016).
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These findings suggest that conspiracy theories may be recruited defensively, to relieve the self or in-group from a sense of culpability for their disadvantaged position. In keeping with this defensive motivation, conspiracy belief is associated with narcissism—an inflated view of oneself that requires external validation and is linked to paranoid ideation (Cichocka, Marchlewska, & Golec de Zavala, 2016). Conspiracy belief is also predicted by <b>collective narcissism</b> —a belief in the in-group’s greatness paired with a belief that other people do not appreciate it enough (Cichocka, Marchlewska, Golec de Zavala, & Olechowski, 2016). Groups who feel that they have been victimized are more likely to endorse conspiracy theories about powerful out-groups (Bilewicz, Winiewski, Kofta, & Wójcik, 2013).
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https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0963721417718261
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And also this
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"Conspiracy theories tend to be particularly prominent in times of crisis," said Prof Karen Douglas, a social psychologist at the University of Kent who specialises in the psychology of conspiracy theories.
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"People are looking for explanations that help them cope with difficult situations when there is a lot of uncertainty and contradictory information. They might also be looking for simple answers that make them feel better, and conspiracy theories might seem to offer those simple answers."
</span>
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57369349ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-82352783231457142882021-10-12T13:24:00.003-05:002021-10-12T13:25:32.012-05:00The Power of the AbsurdI happened upon this and wanted to save it here for future reference. Another explanation of the in-explainable
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this time by Scott Atran found as a chapter in "This Explains Everything" an anthology from different writers
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GypPekomyho/YWXS9GMlsKI/AAAAAAAAB1E/rFkmfs9pPmIP9-g1SYkkPaJrRRKDTRvGwCLcBGAsYHQ/s697/quote.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="400" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="697" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GypPekomyho/YWXS9GMlsKI/AAAAAAAAB1E/rFkmfs9pPmIP9-g1SYkkPaJrRRKDTRvGwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/quote.png"/></a></div>ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-34962359352610042752021-07-10T22:51:00.002-05:002021-07-10T22:52:36.263-05:00A Plausible ExplanationI can't vouch for this Kimmel guy but this article certainly sounds plausible and would explain the crazy
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I am a violence researcher and study the role of grievances and retaliation in violent crime. Recently, I’ve been researching the way grievances affect the brain, and it turns out that your brain on grievance looks a lot like your brain on drugs. In fact, brain imaging studies show that harboring a grievance (a perceived wrong or injustice, real or imagined) activates the same neural reward circuitry as narcotics.
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This isn’t a metaphor; it’s brain biology. Scientists have found that in substance addiction, environmental cues such as being in a place where drugs are taken or meeting another person who takes drugs cause sharp surges of dopamine in crucial reward and habit regions of the brain, specifically, the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum. This triggers cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through intoxication. Recent studies show that similarly, cues such as experiencing or being reminded of a perceived wrong or injustice — a grievance — activate these same reward and habit regions of the brain, triggering cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through retaliation. To be clear, the retaliation doesn’t need to be physically violent—an unkind word, or tweet, can also be very gratifying.
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Although these are new findings and the research in this area is not yet settled, what this suggests is that similar to the way people become addicted to drugs or gambling, people may also become addicted to seeking retribution against their enemies—revenge addiction. This may help explain why some people just can’t let go of their grievances long after others feel they should have moved on—and why some people resort to violence."
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</span>
James Kimmel, Politico 2020
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https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/12/trump-grievance-addiction-444570ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-13159401533601088292021-06-21T15:53:00.008-05:002022-01-25T14:51:27.249-06:00I Found My Guy!!!<i><span style="color: #6aa84f;">“Free man is by necessity insecure; thinking man by necessity uncertain.”</span></i>
<br>― <b>Erich Fromm</b>
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I mentioned him before but this quote, from "the Sane Society", that I just found today is the fulcrum of all my thinking balances. For how we veiw the world balences on this point all humans live whether they know it or not.
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Or rather from this truth flows all human psychology, politics, and love. So one can take this begining and deny it and say there IS certainty or one can live honestly.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y9qmjAu-T68/YND8SlsoxfI/AAAAAAAAByU/evrU4Pqr7Awlb7xt6ML5aCo1KNoohr1bACLcBGAsYHQ/s595/Fromm.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="477" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y9qmjAu-T68/YND8SlsoxfI/AAAAAAAAByU/evrU4Pqr7Awlb7xt6ML5aCo1KNoohr1bACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Fromm.jpg"/></a></div>ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-39545782014709840232021-06-04T01:08:00.007-05:002021-06-04T01:17:00.335-05:00Escape from ReasonI was thinking about how our brains work and we (all of us) are prone to think emotionally and it takes effort to override that to make reasoned deciscions. And as the Repulican party is the most obvious example I Googled the pschology of ex president and found some old articles.<br><br>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">
Emotions are powerful motivators of behavior. For most animals, emotion, not rational thought is what drives behavior, and this remains true for our esteemed species, self-christened as Homo sapiens—“the wise one.” But our decisions are not made solely by reasoning. In fact, in the most complex and momentous decisions we make we rely on emotion—gut feelings. Whom to marry, where to live, or even what entrée to select from a dinner menu, are decisions we make not by reason, but rather by how we “feel.”<br><br>
Most of these circuits are deeply engraved by evolution in the brains of our primate and mammalian ancestors. A mother’s instant reaction to respond with unlimited aggression if necessary to protect her child is a familiar example. The human brain shares this same neural circuitry with other animals, and that circuit is separate from the neural circuit that launches us into defensive aggression in response to another type of danger, facing an intruder for example. To understand this election you must understand the brain’s threat detection mechanism.<br><br>
This neuroscience perspective explains the seemingly incomprehensible situation of a privileged billionaire becoming the champion of working class men and women who are feeling angry and threatened. It is boggling to provide a logical explanation for this improbable hero of the working class, but his appeals to the anger, fear, and frustration that many feel—an appeal to the brain’s limbic system—is perfectly consistent with how the human brain makes complex decisions by relying on emotion when faced with momentous decisions. Perfume is not sold by describing how it will make us smell; it is sold by how it will make us feel. So it is with selling real estate. And rationally we know that all cars travel at the same speed on our roads. How then can we rationally explain the need to purchase a 500 horsepower Corvette, when it will ride the bumper of a jalopy in traffic, but cost 10 times as much? Marketing skillfully manipulates emotion—tapping into how we feel—to nudge our purchasing decisions.</span>
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<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/trump-s-victory-and-the-neuroscience-of-rage/" target="_blank">https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/trump-s-victory-and-the-neuroscience-of-rage/</a>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">
Another surprise victory is unlikely to happen again if this election is looked at from the same perspective of neuroscience that I used to account for the surprising outcome in 2016. Briefly, that article explained how our brain provides two different mechanisms of decision-making; one is conscious and deliberative, and the other is automatic, driven by emotion and especially by fear. Trump’s strategy does not target the neural circuitry of reason in the cerebral cortex; it provokes the limbic system. In the 2016 election, undecided voters were influenced by the brain’s fear-driven impulses—more simply, gut instinct—once they arrived inside the voting booth, even though they were unable to explain their decision to pre-election pollsters in a carefully reasoned manner.
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Trump’s dismissal of experts, be they military generals, career public servants, scientists or even his own political appointees, <b>is necessary for him to sustain the subcortical decision-making in voters’</b> minds that won him election and sustains his support. The fact-based decision-making that scientists rely upon is the polar opposite of emotion-based decision-making. In his rhetoric, Trump does not address factual evidence; he dismisses or suppresses it even for events that are apparent to many, including global warming, foreign intervention in U.S. elections, the trivial head count at his inauguration, and even the projected path of a destructive hurricane. Instead, “alternative facts,” or fabrications, are substituted.</span>
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Anyway I wanted to save these links <br><br>
<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/neuroscience-and-psychology-suggest-no-surprise-victory-for-trump-this-time/" target="_blank">https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/neuroscience-and-psychology-suggest-no-surprise-victory-for-trump-this-time/</a>
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And to tie it to some other thoughts I see this along the lines of Erich Fromm's "Escape From Freedom" <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3671847252" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3671847252</a>
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-38758032654672365052021-06-03T20:03:00.006-05:002021-06-03T20:06:52.611-05:00The blog post where I try to drain Meaning of MEANINGFrom my first post form 2007, with some editing...</br></br>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">
Tomorrow morning I wake up for the first time as a 50 year old man.</br>
Statistically I have 25 years to live ( more or less). So what do I do with those 25 years? … </br>
And if I don't or can't, does that mean I failed? </br>
Is life about finding meaning? </br>
Is life about not failing?</br>
Must I find meaning? </br>
If not that, then what? </br></br>
</span>
OK. that was 14 years ago. WOW! (meaning now statistically I have 11 years to live)</br></br>
This is only my third post this year. Which is fine, because I now use it as a place for me to put things I want to put somewhere. And I have not felt the need to say anything to my self, or to any unlikely passerby.</br></br>
BUT, how would I phrase a new first blog post now?
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">
so much depends</br>
upon</br></br>
a red wheel</br>
barrow</br></br>
glazed with rain</br>
water</br></br>
beside the white</br>
chickens</br></br>
</span>
<b>The Red Wheelbarrow </b></br>
<i>BY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS </i></br></br>
You can Google that poem and find all sorts of meaning. And Williams may have had some explicit “meaning” in mind, but I don’t know and don’t care. I take the poem as an a song of experience. It could have been anything, a box and not a wheel barrow, a dog and not chickens...none of that "matters". What matters is accepting the experience, the immediate experience that prompted that poem. A reminder that wherever you are, whatever you see, it ALL “depends so much”
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NOT what caused the wheel barrow to be there or what will happen to the chickens….PAY ATTENTION to the world NOW. So much depends because everything in front of us is NOW and we are all part of it NOW. PAY ATTENTION!
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What does it mean? </br>
What is the meaning of life?
</br>To diagram a moment or a life like diagraming a sentence looking to find “meaning” is to conceptualize that which cannot fit into a concept. So give thanks that we are all in this together. EVEN if we all irritate the hell out of each other...give thanks. EVEN if we have not been the best version of ourselves, give thanks for this moment we communally experience all over the world. For this moment let go of the past and let thoughts of the future float away, they are fictions that distract us from living this moment.
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It came over him like a fit; it was like a single spark kindled in his soul and spreading fire through him. Everything in him softened at once and the tears started into his eyes. He fell to the earth on the spot....He knelt down in the middle of the square, bowed down to the earth, and kissed that filthy earth with bliss and rapture. He got up and bowed down a second time</span></br>
<b>Crime and Punishment </b><i> - Dostoevsky</i>
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That is how I would start a new blog.ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-53192192647095231362021-03-27T15:57:00.009-05:002021-03-27T16:02:15.465-05:00No Self, No ProblemI've been reading "<b>No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism</b> by Chris Niebauer Ph.D" and it is really in line with with my thinking of the last few years. I am still not exactly sure what I am, but this may help.
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A few quotes for a preview
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">Sure, the physical entity of my body and my brain is there, but the “I” attached to it only exists as a thought—and only when I think it.
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Seen in this light, “I” is simply a useful, categorical fiction, expressed through language.</span>
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-69374494519196228442021-01-14T10:33:00.011-06:002021-01-14T10:43:11.744-06:00The Only Certainty is UN-certaintyI am still mulling over my Grand Theory of Everything. Very slowly but it is still there.
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Anyway given recent political events and beliefs driving those events, that brought my thinking back to humans and their love for certainty, AND the vehemence people maintain their certainty. Following a link to another link I found this article .
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<i>That science can fail, however, shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. It's a human construct, after all. And if we simply accepted that science often works imperfectly, we'd be better off. We'd stop considering science a collection of immutable facts. We'd <b>stop assuming every single study has definitive answers</b> that should be trumpeted in over-the-top headlines. Instead, we'd start to appreciate science for what it is: a long and grinding process carried out by fallible humans, involving false starts, dead ends, and, along the way, incorrect and unimportant studies that only grope at the truth, slowly and incrementally.
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Acknowledging that fact is the first step toward making science work better for us all.</i></span>
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And the point is people in general think their views have the certainty of established sience, but actually established science isn't all that "established"
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<a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/5/13/8591837/how-science-is-broken">https://www.vox.com/2015/5/13/8591837/how-science-is-broken</a>ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-19738332179809878032020-12-02T16:46:00.007-06:002021-03-05T08:08:18.861-06:00The Episode Where We Escape From Freedom<p>I have been reading Erich Fromm's Escape from Freedom recently, and to fill in some blanks I went looking for some background on Fromm on the Internet.</p><p></p>
<p>Nice Quote</p>
<p></p><p>
<span style="color: #6aa84f;">
Fromm identified deep feelings of anxiety and powerlessness upon
which Hitler had been able to capitalize. His sadomasochistic message of
love for the strong and hatred for the weak — not to mention a racial
program that raised “true-born” Germans to the pinnacle of the
evolutionary ladder — provided a means of escape from intolerable
psychological burdens experienced on a mass basis.
<p> <span style="color: #6aa84f;">
Escape From Freedom was not merely an analysis of Nazism. At
the heart of its thesis was the notion that capitalism — particularly
in its monopolistic phase — fostered “the development of a personality
which feels powerless and alone, anxious and insecure,” and which is
therefore tempted to surrender its freedom to strongman leaders.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/08/erich-fromm-frankfurt-school-marxism-weimar-germany <br /></p>ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-14228224455841198082020-06-13T16:41:00.001-05:002020-06-13T16:43:26.263-05:00Where fiction affects facts
In the conversation with my self my self points out that money and race and nations are quite real to most people. In the horror show of a year it is alarmingly clear that race and money affect people’s lives and sometimes with deadly consequences.
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Good point!
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In fact I am glad you brought that up. (what a helpful fellow that sell guy is)
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I may or may not have demonstrated the fiction of money by holding up a $100 dollar and a $1 dollar bill and asked why one is much more desired than the other. If I have not done that bit then the gist is they are both on the same kind of paper of the same quality of design and such stuff. Obvious we all just agree that when we see $100 we will give and get more stuff than the $1.
In the part of my act I go deeper to say even IF there was a pure gold standard where the 100 meant there where 100 units of gold for each dollar the $100 bill represents, it is STILL just “belief” that those gold pieces mean anything. Why do thing gold is the “gold standard” or money? What the hell is gold to a human, it is a crappy metal for building plows or steamships. It has “value” only because we humans declare it has value.
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The point is it is just a piece of paper in front of you and even it was a chest of gold on your door step it is only valuable for the same reason paper currency is...because we believe it has value
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HOWEVER, if you don’t have money it sure makes paying your bills REALLY difficult. And while you are explaining to some racist that biologically there is such thing as a “race” culture is even less tied to DNA...if you are explaining this while a some A-hole racist is threatening you the consequences of these fictions are quite <br><br>.
And that makes it all the more absurd. People and groups define themselves by these fictions and because of it people die. People are tortured. People suffer. Dying and suffering are for sure real and all driven by a lie.
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Ain’t that a kick in the pants?ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-74616622221040944532020-06-04T16:54:00.002-05:002020-06-04T16:59:26.162-05:00We Are at the Place We Find Ourselves - Finally<b>Our story so far…</b><i>(a work in progress)</i>
<br><br>
NOW<br>
There is only now<br>
There is no past there is no future<br>
Just now<br>
NOW<br>
<br>
To uselessly elaborate a little, when you think of past sorrows, embarrassments, joys or victories, as well as future fears or plans… you are doing all that NOW.
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Existence is not a VHS tape where if we could only learn to rewind or fast forward the tape of time THEN we could visit that solid event in the past or the solidified future experience. Whatever you are planning or remembering it is all in your head and everything is happening NOW.
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And even more astonishingly it is all the same for ALL of us, for ALL sentient beings, for ALL inanimate objects. ALL existence is connected NOW.
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WE are ALL in this together, whether we know it or not.
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:
<br><span style="color: #6aa84f;">
Tell me a story.<br>
In this century, and moment, of mania,<br>
Tell me a story.<br>
Make it a story of great distances, and starlight.<br>
The name of the story will be Time,<br>
But you must not pronounce its name.<br>
Tell me a story of deep delight.<br> </span>
- Robert Penn Warren
<br>
:
<br>
The bit from Robert Penn Warren’s poem may speak to this, and this is just my interpretation, but when you are captured but a story you experience it right THEN. And yes we frame our outlook on the world through the conceptual lens of Time. But that is not how we experience life.
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PART II<br>
Assign value, to assign blame and glory<br>
:
<br><br>
And so ends today’s sermon
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-20061787105284208512020-06-04T16:50:00.000-05:002020-06-04T16:58:45.531-05:00Another Marker is PassedBirthday yesterday
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Now 63
<br>
Wow 63
<br>
Take stock? Maybe sell stock?
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I will try to throw out my half-assed world view in posts to come. If anybody makes a virtual stumble and lands here, these thoughts are only worth the virtual paper they are written on.
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To everybody, Be WellZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-5262692635348449442020-05-09T08:10:00.001-05:002020-05-09T08:10:30.166-05:00TO B. -RESCUE DOG : A PoemA poem from and old friend
<b>TO B. -RESCUE DOG</b>
<br>
<br>When I learned the true extent
<br>Of misfortune in your tale,
<br>I knew then I must consent,
<br>And that mercy must prevail.
<br>Consent to bring you home at last,
<br>Your family finally found,
<br>Never more to be out cast
<br>Your anguish run to ground.
<br>I hear you snuffle in your sleep
<br>And I wonder what you dream
<br>I trust you know I’ll always keep
<br>The promise I made to you.
<br>Peculiar tastes, this little guy
<br>Like french fries off the street
<br>Or nasty bones we might pass by
<br>Not slowed by missing teeth.
<br>Yes, I know, you are a little fat-
<br>They say I spoil you rotten-
<br>But for everything I do for you-
<br>So much more have I gotten.
<br>Those cloudy eyes, you’re older now
<br>But the gaze still love-driven
<br>You’ve taught me well, the why and how
<br>Of devotion freely given.
<br>And devoted will I stay to you-
<br>Companions till the end
<br>Daily rites of mutual need
<br>God, to me, did you send.
<br>
<br>W.S.H. -3/1/2020ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-10324737844494117102020-04-19T07:06:00.002-05:002020-04-19T07:17:22.227-05:00Starting a GUI app on startup with a RaspberryPiI got a new Raspberry PI4 and I set it up to record some over the air TV and the app I was using allowed to set a schedule much like old school VHS recorders would. BUT you have to have the application running all the time so if you forget to start it the recording is missed. Most all the search results for Raspbery Pi or Linux about autostart a program just would not work.
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Finally I found somebody who said if it had a GUI it would not load under traditional methods since the came into play before the Graphical Interface. Anyway I was having no luck. And finally under some lucky combination of search words I found this site.
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https://www.instructables.com/id/Autostart-a-Program-When-Raspberry-Pi-Boots-Newbie/
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Here is the gist with a few changes for my situation
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<span style="color: #6aa84f;">
You only need to do this part once, but you need to do it first. Click on Applications -> Preferences -> Main Menu Editor on your Pi desktop.
<br><br>
In the Main Menu Editor window click on Preferences in the first column. Check the box for Default applications for LXSession in the second column. Click Okay.
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Now when you click on your Applications -> Preferences menu you should see Default applications for LXSession listed. You don't need to click on it yet, but you'll need it after the next step.
<br><br>
Find out the command to start the GUI program which for me was the path to the program and supposedly by adding -m afterwards would start it minimized (it didn't). But anyway /usr/bin/Kaffeine -m
<br><br>
Now that you have the command syntax you need to add it to the autostart sequence. Choose Applications -> Preferences -> Default applications for LXSession from your Pi desktop. Select the Autostart tab.
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In the Manual autostarted applications section enter the text of your command in the box next to the Add button. Then click the Add button and your new command should be added to the list. When your Pi boots (or reboots) these commands should run.
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You can temporarily disable a command by unchecking the box in front of it. This will add # in front of the command and it will be ignored until you go back and check it. And obviously you can remove a command from the sequence completely by clicking the Remove button beside it. (There is no undo for this) </span>
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-28573211884138247132020-04-17T16:05:00.000-05:002020-04-17T16:09:57.833-05:00Posting just to Post<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I think I posted it years ago and for some reason thought of it again today. Google tells me it is from the webcomic Slow Wave
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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Wave">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Wave</a>
<br><br>
Interesting interview here : <a href="http://www.tcj.com/the-jesse-reklaw-interview/">http://www.tcj.com/the-jesse-reklaw-interview/</a>
ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5105610832882566030.post-41701577837023813822020-01-25T13:50:00.003-06:002020-01-25T13:50:41.533-06:00A New find of an Early Cartoonist - Cliff SterretI happened up a book of this guy's cartoons and to conserve money I will just make not of him here rather than buy the book
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He has such and interesting look
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https://animationresources.org/category/cliff-sterrett/ZeppoManxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02366476693738248059noreply@blogger.com0