THE CANNIBAL CABAL

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from  freeacre

Is there no depth of depravity too low for the scumbags in government, finance, and media? Apparently not. On every front, we are continually assaulted by new atrocities. We read articles reporting that cancer and AIDS and hepatitis, killer flu, Alzheimer’s, autism, and god-knows-what-else is spread by mandated vaccines – and yet it continues unabated. Our food supply is contaminated by known carcinogens and gender-bending pharmaceuticals, and the regulators that are supposed to guard the safety of our foods are the same corporate wankers who develop and market them. Our country has become an empire relying on unending and undeclared resource wars to secure diminishing supplies of oil, water, natural gas, farmland, and whatever else the corporatists feel entitled to. Our money is created from a decision by the Federal Reserve to create electric zeros in a computer, then lend them to the government with interest, putting us in indentured servitude for generations, while the fat cats get mind-bendingly rich. Then this financial debt abomination is used to prop up the stock market because, for them, debt is money.  Rights defined “inalienable” as citizens of this land have been first compromised and now repudiated. No more right to a fair trial. No more right to assemble or free speech. “Whistle-blowers” are incarcerated and tortured (read the Rolling Stone article this month about Bradley Manning) or renditioned or killed. Our attorney general just admitted that the president has a hit list and pretty much anyone can be on it. Objecting to this outrageous turn of events can lead to being considered a “terrorist.”  Hugo Chavez just died from cancer (or a heart attack) and the world wonders if we didn’t just kill him. Why not? We admitted to trying to kill Castro. Hell, even our own President Kennedy was assassinated and the culprits never identified. To say nothing of 9/11.  So, no. There are no depths of depravity too low to go.

Why not?

On my recent trip to Portland I picked up a wonderful little book, “Make Gentle the Life of this World,” by Maxwell T. Kennedy. I had lost it years ago and was delighted to find it again. It is a homage to his father, Robert Kennedy, and filled with quotes from his father and quotes from his father’s personal collection. What strikes me in reading it again, is that it is a book that could not have been written today. It’s too gentle. Too compassionate. Too beautiful. I doubt that it could get published now. Not in this competitive celebrity driven culture in which we find ourselves suffocating.  Watch Chris Hedges recent speech on our carnal celebrity culture:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=EHnjc1gde8c&feature=endscreen

What is happening to humanity? It appears that the world is being taken over by psychopaths. Here is the definition from Wikepedia:

“Psychopathy (/saɪˈkɒpəθi/^[1][2] is a personality disorder that has been variously characterized by shallow emotions (including reduced fear, a lack of empathy, and stress tolerance), coldheartedness, egocentricity, superficial charm, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity, criminality, antisocial behavior, a lack of remorse, and a parasitic lifestyle. However, there is no consensus about the symptom criteria and there are ongoing debates regarding issues such as essential features, causes, and the possibility of treatment.^[3]
While no psychiatric or psychological organization has sanctioned a diagnosis of "psychopathy" itself, assessments of psychopathy are widely used in criminal justice settings in some nations and may have important consequences for individuals. The term is also used by the general public, in popular press, and in fictional portrayals. This popular usage does not necessarily conform to the clinical concept. According to the Scientific American, although psychopathy is associated with and in some cases is defined by conduct problems, criminality or violence, many psychopaths are not violent, and psychopaths are, despite the similar names, rarely psychotic.”

So, what is the cause of this condition?

Paul  Levy on Reality Sandwich (http://www.realitysandwich.com/greatest_epidemic) writes of “wetikos,” a native American word for those suffering a sort of psychic virus manifesting in people who can’t get enough.

"this disease, this wetiko (cannibal) psychosis, is the greatest epidemic sickness known to man."[vii] We, as a species, are in the midst of a massive psychic epidemic, a virulent collective psychosis that has been brewing in the cauldron of humanity's psyche from the beginning of time. Like a fractal, wetiko operates on multiple dimensions simultaneously -- intra-personally (within individuals), inter-personally (between ourselves), as well as collectively (as a species). "Cannibalism," in Forbes's words, "is the consuming of another's life for one's own private purpose or profit."[viii] Those afflicted with wetiko, like a cannibal, consume the life-force of others -- human and nonhuman -- for private purpose or profit, and do so without giving back something from their own lives. One example that symbolizes our self-destructive, collective madness is the oil companies' destruction of the Amazonian rainforest, the lungs of our planet. This is literally a full-bodied revelation showing us what we are doing to ourselves. Another literal example that is symbolically illustrating the wetiko complex in action is Monsanto genetically engineering terminator seeds that do not reproduce a second generation, thus forcing farmers to buy new seeds from Monsanto for each year's new crop. This makes survival for many poor farmers impossible, which has triggered a wave of suicides among farmers, as Monsanto grows richer from the process.

Forbes writes, "The overriding characteristic of the wetiko is that he consumes other human beings, that is, he is a predator and a cannibal. This is the central essence of the disease."[ix] Predators, "full-blown" wetikos are not in touch with their own humanity, and therefore can't see the humanity in others. Instead, they relate to others either as potential prey or as a threat to their dominance. As if a different breed who is more animal-like predator than ordinary human being, someone fully taken over by the wetiko psychosis consumes others' lives, physically, emotionally, psychically and meta-physically, beyond just the material body and physical possessions to the level of meaning itself. Wetikos are the "anti-artists" of our culture, embodying the opposite of what creative artists do. Unlike an artist (please see my article "The Artist as Healer of the World"), who creates life-enhancing meaning and enriches the world without robbing others, a wetiko takes and consumes without giving anything back, continually draining and impoverishing the planet of resources.

We are currently in the midst of "the greatest epidemic sickness known to man" (please see my article "Diagnosis: Psychic Epidemic"). Many of us don't even realize this, as our collective insanity is so pervasive that it has become normalized. Our collective madness has become transparent to us, as we see and interpret the world through it, rendering our madness invisible, thereby unwittingly colluding with the collective psychosis that is wreaking incredible death and destruction on our planet. Being "trans-parent," our madness is beyond its mere appearance, which is to say, "beyond being apparent," i.e., not visible. Our collective psychosis is invisible to us, as it expresses itself both in the very way we are looking, as well as all of the unspoken ways we have been conditioned not to perceive. Due to its cloak of invisibility, we don't see our madness, a psychic blindness which makes us complicit in the creation of our madness.

Many of us can't fathom the level of evil to which full-blown wetikos have fallen prey, and of which they are capable. Our lack of imagination of the evil existing in potential in humanity is a direct reflection of a lack of intimacy with our own potential evil, which enables the malevolence of wetiko to have nearly free rein in our world (please see my article "Shedding Light on Evil"). In our psychic blindness we are complicit in the spreading of the evil of the wetiko psychosis, a systematic evil whose depth is beyond the capacity of words to fully describe.”

Ok  I’m back now.   Whew!

Does it spring from the “reptilian” part of our brains left over from natural evolution processes or some actual alien reptile influence?  http://www.examiner.com/article/conspiracy-theory-returns-november-7-to-trutv?cid=db_articles

At any rate, changing the minds or appealing to the non-existent hearts of these malefactors, is not going to be easy. Maybe it is impossible. Perhaps we are into cycles described by the ancient Hindus or Mayans who see long cycles of birth, progress, deterioration, death and re-birth as being just how the universe is wired.
When I was young I thought that hearts and minds could be changed by exposing them to facts and appealing to their consciences. Like, to end the war in Vietnam or to get rid of racism and injustice or to promote health or the well-being of the collective humanity of which we are all a part. Well, you can see how well this has worked out. …

Scum has risen to the top. Most of the ones in charge really don’t give a fuck about us, as George Carlin used to rant (bless his heart). Of course there are noteworthy exceptions that attempt to swim against the tide of greed, power, privilege, convenience, and selfishness. But, it seems to be a losing battle so far. From our last post comments, I know that our own dear p, feels that we are all one – even the wetikos. Once we embrace that shadow that is in all of us and deal with it instead of denying it, there is hope for empowering the sacred within us all as well. One hopes.

Meanwhile, we are like the little marsupials that scampered around the Jurassic period trying to survive without getting stepped on or eaten by the dinosaurs. Happily, the asteroid came along that wiped out the reptilian monsters and set the rest free. Maybe history will repeat itself.
 

ONCE MORE ON SUSTAINABLE POWER SOURCES

Folks, instead of posting a picture I am posting a link to read that is about this post subject material. 
http://www.aweo.org/problemwithwind.html
While I see some problems with some of the content of this site, I do think that overall it outlines some problems over this renewable energy that most aren't aware of.

From Murph

I’m sure most of the readers on this site are quite familiar with all the hype concerning sustainable/green power being pushed by various sources all over the news and internet.   I have written about them periodically over the years and I’m going to hit on it again today.

First, some things that I think we can agree on concerning the basics of this.   Everyone of the schemes for nearly free power also demand the use of non renewable resources, everyone one of them, from nuclear to wind to solar power to the touted free power from the ether or the magnetic characteristics of our universe.   To build the machines to harness those power sources takes non-renewable resources, at least in human lifetime measurements.  

Secondly, we need a working definition of “sustainable”.   In the absolute sense, which, seemingly, no one wants to talk about, it means that resources are not used up faster than they can be regenerated.   I can understand the reluctance to look at it that way because everything that is renewable in human life time terms is based on sunlight, including, lumber, farming, water critters we eat, drinkable water and breathable air.    That does not include the vast amount of substances we mine out of the ground.  They are renewable but on a scale of time that makes them meaningless in terms of human societies.   So, excluding what might as well be termed as non renewable resources what is talked about in sustainability is how long those non renewable resources can last and under what conditions and scale of usage.  

If we try to produce all the electricity needed by the use of the “green” technologies, we also have to look at how much of the non-green technologies and resources also have to be used.   It appears to me that the amount of non-renewable resources to do this would be incredible and that does not include the cost of infrastructure to utilize it and the cost of maintenance and repairs.   The current big buzz is of course solar and wind power.  

I am going to assert that from an economic and resource position, neither of these sources are viable.   

Take wind power.   I presume all of you have looked at these huge wind turbines that are mainly being built in China.  They are gigantic and take a huge amount of infrastructure and non-renewable resources to build, install and maintain.   Plus, I have mentioned before, there is a very simple problem with physics here.  It is called the law of conservation of energy and the laws of thermodynamics.   Simply put, if you remove energy from one place and convert it to another form of energy, you have inherent losses but the amount of energy stays the same, just at a lower lever.   We all know that the movement of air (wind and currents) controls what the weather is at any particular location and time.   The energy to move air around is controlled by many other factors but one of the largest factors is the sun, heating and cooling areas of the earth and causing wind.   So, putting up a windmill pulls energy out of the air movement and converts it to electricity.   The result is less energy in air movement to some amount.   If enough of these huge wind turbines are built and installed, the question comes up as to whether they will have an ultimate effect on the movement of air, ie, the weather.   Now I realize we are talking about a huge artificial system compared to the even larger ecological system we call weather.   But, I have seen no studies concerning what can/probably happen if we build enough of those huge turbines.   I rather suspect and assert that there will be a large influence on weather patters if enough of them are put up.  What amount of changes and the observable effects is not being investigated as far as I know and what the tipping point would be.  Is this just another example of ignoring the consequences of our actions? 

Virtually the same observations also apply to solar power.  If enough of the sunlight hitting the earth is converted to electrical power, what happens to the weather patterns influenced by the heat of the sun?   Again, I find no research on this subject.

The standard retort concerning this is that the ecological system is so huge and the amount of energy it contains is so big and the amount of energy we could possibly drain from the system is too small to make a difference.     This point of view is touted by folks with little or no training in the sciences, mostly by the political class but not limited to them.   

IMO, it is a mute point.   I do not think that we have the resources or the ability to make sufficient investments to get to the point of unforeseen consequences.   But, government and private business is going to try.   The amount of damage they can inject into the ecological system and society by trying is going to be severe I think.   

On to the “free sources of energy”.   There is lots of information on the web concerning these schemes.   I have no idea concerning their validity.  However, for the same reasons above, there ain’t no such thing as “free energy”.  To use the purported electromagnetic properties of our universe takes non renewable resources in the form of rare earths and oil and mined metals.   I am going to assert that there isn’t enough of these resources left at a price that is affordable to make either home units for everyone or scaled up devises to feed the electrical infrastructure we have or could develop.  

Now, in contradiction to all of this, I will admit that I would produce my own electrical power for my own usage if the cost benefit ratio made it worthwhile.   I also admit that I would ignore that ratio if the cost came down enough where I could handle the out of pocket cost.   What it comes down to is being able to continue to use electrical power in the advent of the grid having prolonged outages or just plain going away.   Home generators can handle short-term power outages.   It’s the longer term ones that I would invest the money in for our use.    But, currently, to run our household on personal generation of electrical power is not feasible.   I suspect this is also true for most homeowners in this country.   What I can do is put in, relatively speaking, enough generating capabilities to run essential elements of modern life, namely, preservation of refrigeration and water source and maybe even cooking.   Heating would still be a problem since we have a central electrical furnace.  (The codes involved to put in a wood heater present an even larger outlay of money)   A friend who lives nearby has put in a small system to run the essentials with some success.   To put in something similar would cost me in the neighborhood of $1500-$2000.  This might be doable, will take some more investigation.  

I am all for individual homeowners being able to continue operations at home in the event of a cut-off of power from the grid.   I am also in favor of finding a way to produce power that is not so destructive of the environment and is affordable.   However I think that the present directions of this push are a blind alley.  In the end, I think we are all going to have to learn how to live without access to continuous multiple power sources that are needed to keep us comfy and uninvolved in the events taking place around us.  

Picture from "Django Unchained"

 2013 Now What?

Here it is – the first week of 2013. I find myself crawling out from my emotional bunker as I realize that I have survived the much-anticipated assorted disasters of 2012.

Now what?

 We still seem to be facing the same challenges to our well-being: the globally orchestrated financial debacle, the corruption of the government, the burgeoning police state, the deterioration of the environment, never-ending resource wars, the failure of our healthcare system, disarming the citizenry, and on and on. I read a report recently that said if we add up all the governmental debt and include all the social security and Medicare obligations that have already been squandered, each man, woman, and child would owe over $180,000 – with interest. That puts us and our progeny in the “indentured servant” category. Slaves, essentially, since it is an amount that can never be re-paid.

We are living in a concentration camp without walls because they don’t need walls anymore. Our owners have drones, militarized police, unlimited surveillance, and have abolished our right to a free trial everywhere in the country. You can’t even characterize it as a reservation, since, even nominally, there is no place we can call our own. Much like a plantation in some areas, with the one percent living in the Great House, and the rest of us wage slave/consumers doing our obligatory debt shopping, while the old and disabled are fleeced by the medical and pharmaceutical industries. What the hell happened?

Charles Eisenstein has a good take on this progression in his essay on Reality Sandwich entitled “The Space Between Stories.” He writes,

“Sometimes I feel intense nostalgia for the cultural mythology of my youth, a world in which there was nothing wrong with soda pop, in which the Super Bowl was important, in which the world's greatest democracy was bringing democracy to the world, in which science was going to make life better and better. Life made sense. If you worked hard you could get good grades, get into a good college, go to grad school or follow some other professional path, and you would be happy. With a few unfortunate exceptions, you would be successful if you obeyed the rules of our society: if you followed the latest medical advice, kept informed by reading the New York Times, and stayed away from Bad Things like drugs. Sure there were problems, but the scientists and experts were working hard to fix them. Soon a new medical advance, a new law, a new educational technique, would propel the onward improvement of life. My childhood perceptions were part of this Story of the People, in which humanity was destined to create a perfect world through science, reason, and technology, to conquer nature, transcend our animal origins, and engineer a rational society.
From my vantage point, the basic premises of this story seemed unquestionable. After all, it seemed to be working in my world. Looking back, I realize that this was a bubble world built atop massive human suffering and environmental degradation, but at the time one could live within that bubble without need of much self-deception. The story that surrounded us was robust. It easily kept anomalous data points on the margins….”

Eisenstein says that we are between cultural stories. We are living through the dissolution of the story that we were telling ourselves about our reality and creating a new one. Hopefully, it will be a more sustainable one.
  
Unfortunately, our public educations do not include much history about the coping mechanisms people who were slaves used to survive. We have the enduring legacy of music –  the Blues, the dances, the slang terms used so the “massas” couldn’t understand what they were talking about. We have the eloquent prose of Frederick Douglas and Sojourner Truth. We also have the wisdom of the American Indian leaders of the day. It wasn’t all about picking cotton.

Today, as our collective consciousness is coming to terms with our vanishing liberty, a new movement out of (all places) Canada has emerged. Calling itself “Idle No More,” it is beginning to catch the imaginations of people all over the world. Here is an excerpt from an essay entitled “The Wild Fire of Idle No More” by Morgan Maher on Reality Sandwich.com, 

“…Naomi Klein commented: “The #idlenomore round dances taking over shopping malls during xmas rush r the most subversive actions I've ever seen “
Klein's excellent article for the Globe and Mail succinctly maps the vast, complex details that fuel Idle No More
" … the time for bitching and moaning is over. Now is the time to act, to stand strong and unbending for the people, places and principles that we love.

… the Idle No More movement – its name at once a firm commitment to the future, while at the same time a gentle self-criticism of the past. We did sit idly by, but no more.
During this season of light and magic, something truly magical is spreading. There are round dances by the dollar stores. There are drums drowning out muzak in shopping malls. There are eagle feathers upstaging the fake Santas. The people whose land our founders stole and whose culture they tried to stamp out are rising up, hungry for justice. Canada’s roots are showing. And these roots will make us all stand stronger."
Idle No More is spreading like hurricane wildfire throughout the world. Canada, USA, Europe, Australia, Egypt, Palestine, Colombia... the list goes on.

I am wondering the escalation of the neo-con efforts to dominate and control the global masses, is leading to our recognition of our combined slavery whether we are on the “left” or the “right.” We are beginning to react in a way that encourages a more indigenous and human reaction to the despicable reptilian corporate abuses.

Whether one is by nature a warrior, a teacher, a healer, a techie, or simply a concerned parent or comedian,  seems to be a place for each of us in the generalized resistance.

Check out some of these links and let me know what you think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth

http://www.realitysandwich.com/2013_space_between_stories
http://www.realitysandwich.com/wild_fire_idle_no_more
http://www.ishtarsgate.com/forum/showthread.php?3810-2013-The-Rebirth-of-Venus-and-the-Return-of-the-Divine-Feminine&p=20529#post20529
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/insider-report-dhs-was-created-to-to-fight-americans-not-protect-them_12282012

THE LATEST INSANITY

4th of July parade of the horse mounted deputies.


THE LATEST INSANITY from Murph

Our last post was November 4. Way too long in between, but neither Freeacre or I have had blocks of time to spend on it, and we also are again feeling tongue-tied. I was really reluctant to write on this latest insanity but succumbed to the temptation. We had around 12” of snow the other night, finally got the essential areas cleared, working outside is nearly impossible, so lets see what we come up with.

Highlighting the news, of course, is the latest shooting spree at a school that left a bunch of grade school kids dead and several adults. I have been reading a whole bunch of contradictory stories about what happened during and after the killings. We’ve been warned that any repeating of non-official information was punishable by jail time. Mainstream reporters typically aren’t doing their jobs in checking up on the facts of the case or calling out officials that seem to be giving out deliberately misleading and out right contradictory information. And of course, the hue and cry for gun control is going viral on the net. Every liberal I know about is screaming at the top of his lungs for gun control and even some of the more conservative folks out there in the Disney land concept of living.

I am going to postulate that we are watching extreme insanity at work, taking over citizen’s common sense and proposing all kinds of draconian remedies so this never ever happens again. These remedies include;

1. Hardening the public schools so that no one unauthorized can enter the premises. Of course they do have a tendency to completely minimize the cost of this, and, they seem to think that making schools even more prison like than they already are is a good thing.
2. Taking all assault types of weapons away from all civilians
3. Limiting clip fed firearms to a max of 10 shots clips
4. Various schemes for completely disarming the civilian population in total. Australia and New Zealand are their favorite examples
5. Making the acquisition of a firearm more difficult, to the point that you would have to prove that you need one.
6. Advancing the idea that if we can save just one child from such a horrendous fate, regardless of the cost and effort, it is worth it.

There is more, but this seems to be the worst of the lot that I have come across so far. And, of course, there is the deliberate avoidance of dealing with many of these crazy mass killings that were the result of stolen firearms, not purchased ones.

New advocates of trashing the second amendment are writing furiously for a variety of reasons. And, of course, government officials are screaming in a high-pitched voice that we have to do something, right now, as if that will cure the problem that has definitely not been defined. All they want to talk about is how bad guns are, across the board.

There are some folks out in writers opinion land that are advocating a bit more of a rational approach to a problem of crazies doing crazy things. They include;

1. Arming teachers and school officials. Personally I like this one.
2. Examining how we are dealing with individuals that are exhibiting psychopathic tendencies.
3. Examining our legal drug culture and its affects on the brain and what people do around being on the drug and what they do when they get off, for whatever reason.
4. Taking a good hard look at statistic and comparing government mass killings as opposed to the crazies mass killing.

American culture for a long time now has increasingly progressed toward dependency on the government to solve all problems. Personal responsibility does not enter into their observations, and freedom definitely does not. Throughout our history, every time a citizen says, “there ought to be a law” for or against something, we loose another bit of our freedom. Now, do to the rash of crazies shooting up some folks, they want even more government control. Of course, they discount the loss of American lives in wars that were started from lies, nor do they consider that the 9-11 tragedy and the official version was also a lie, and they definitely don’t want to deal with the wholesale death by government bombs and troops on the civilian populations in those illegal wars. After all, our government is right and we must not question that rightness, and besides, those folks aren’t good American white folks and, they are over there and we are here.

Very few of the writers on this subject are dealing with the fact that there have always been a certain number of folks that do crazy things, like mass murder, or the bankers and financiers stealing citizen’s money, or out of control governments that do whatever they want to regardless of the damage to the population.

Another observation. Notice that most of the rampages and killings happen where there is no one to oppose them, gun free zones and lots of folks around to target in on. Mon. and Tues Carl Denninger made some pretty interesting comments on this. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3091627
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3090416
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3090111

Most of our population likes to talk about our freedoms, except when it threatens their lives or livelihoods, they’re being wards of the nanny state. In essence, we are a nation of irrational dumbed down hypocrites.

Currently, according to stats I have seen, there are on the order of 300,000,000 firearms in the hands of civilians, getting pretty close to one for every man, woman and child in the country. Of course, many folks don’t have firearms, so some folks have a bunch of them, mostly in the hands of collectors and preppers.

Now those folks that are advocating the complete collection of firearms from civilians don’t seem to understand how massive and expensive an undertaking that would be even if the government takes only a certain classification of firearm, you know the drill, we’ve been through it before. The “assault type of rifle”, all full autos (for which there is a nation wide, hard to get, and expensive license for them), large capacity semi auto pistols and god knows what else they would want to take. Maybe all knives over 2” blade length and all other edged battle weapons too. Coupled with the large percentage of corrupted police departments I would suspect that their gun and edged weapons collections would increase substantially. Hell, it happens now without wholesale confiscation.

Of course there is the argument that a disarmed citizenry is helpless to aggressive states, governments and genuine outlaws that could give a shit about laws to begin with. Statistics abound concerning how disarmed countries are much more peaceful and don’t have these kinds of incidents of mass killings, with guns of course. Most of these stats have some serious problems. I’ve been looking at civilian gun violence for years now and what I am hearing on the MSM is flat our wrong. And additionally, the gun banners don’t want to deal with where these mass killings take place; Where guns are banned and nobody is going to shoot back.

The gun banners don’t really like to deal with the mass confiscation of guns (and other weapons) that have taken place and the results of the like of Hitler and Stalin. Pre gun periods (Japan) where there was a state ban on civilians having battle weapons resulted in other means of civilians fighting the state powers, most of them lethal too. What’s this with China banning sales of any knives last weekend?

Only in novels have I seen an honest appraisal of what happens in a society where everyone over a certain age has the right to be armed, primarily for personal and loved ones defense against those that choose to be aggressive and end up killing folks. IMO, history has shown that those with the inclination to do mass killings or just individual assaults are going to do it regardless of laws. And, while disarming the civilian population would perhaps reduce, to a small extent, the incidents of mass civilian against civilian killings, it would never eliminate it. Our police are not able to protect against these mass killings, only to catch and punish the culprit. For me, I want the ability, freely given, to protect myself, my loved ones, my friends and innocent bystanders from these kinds of attacks. I guess I’m just an anachronism living in a society of mostly woosies.

This will probably be the last post for 2012. Both of us wish for you all to have a pleasant holiday period, and we are looking forward to 2013 continuation of our relationships. In our view, 2012 was a pretty tough year for a lot of folks and quite frankly, don’t think next year will be any better. Keep, through the holiday season, some prayers and thoughts for the folks that through no fault of their own, are having a really tough time of it. There but for the grace of God ……….

"Oh, Momma, Is this really the end?"

By freeacre

"Oh, Momma, could this really be the end? To be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues again?” - Bob Dylan

I have close to twenty doom movies, but I am not a collector. I don’t have ceramic cows or turtles or a glass menagerie. I guess they are like books on survival subjects. They vary in production value, acting, direction, and plausibility. But, I’ve got to admit that I’m hooked on the drama. Whether it’s a cheesy portrayal of FEMA’s response to “quantum” electrical grid surges, or tear-jerking heroics of Robert Duval in “Deep Impact,” or sensational battles between aliens and humanity In “Independence Day,” they’ve got me. Dealing with the assorted threats of coronal mass ejections from the sun, colliding asteroids, invading aliens, nuclear war, robotic take-over, contagion, radical climate change, earthquakes, and zombie attacks is compelling. And, all together, they are somewhat amusing. But, that’s just me.

It helps me get my mind around the end times. Keep in mind that we have, and have always had, an expiration date for this incarnation. There is no way around the fact. So, I guess I find some comfort in the knowledge that we were born into these intense times. I could have been born in some dusty village somewhere and carried water on my head every day of my life, and died of exhaustion and boredom. That would really suck.

But, none of those movies so far deals with the current science that indicates that the solar system is heading into the galactic center and through a cosmic “fluff cloud” that is giving off some sort of energy that is making significant changes already. Carbon 14 readings, for instance, are no longer as reliable. Time may be literally speeding up. A second sun and its associated planets and debris may be heading our way. Therefore, and as recorded in the geologic record, the magnetic polarity of the earth may switch. The magnetic force that our earth protects us from gamma rays with has been weakening for many years. The neutrinos in the earth’s core may be heating up, loosening the continental plates, or making the earth expand. All these things appear to be cyclical. And they seem to be happening again at this time.

Many traditions have referred to the End Times. Many tell tales of destruction and eventual renewal. In fact, the Archdruid writes in “Apocalypse Not” that there has hardly been a generation since Zorathustra that hasn’t thought that the end was near either due to The Rapture or some other type of Judgment Day.

These long cycles seem different, to me, though. The crustal plates do seem to be breaking up, NASA has announced that there is a BIG asteroid heading our way (since redacted), and earthquakes are getting more frequent. We are probably not helped by all the thousands of fracking wells being drilled all over the place as they mine for natural gas.

As if this weren’t enough to provoke an anxiety attack by Christmas, back on earth, in real time, the news is filled with potential financial collapse, Europeans are committing suicide when faced with evictions and unemployment, masses are fighting in the streets, there's a possible break-up on the European Union. Let’s not forget the wars in the Middle East and the potential ones ahead.

Here at home, we’ve got the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. The massive failure of our decrepit electrical grid and the difficulty in fixing it in short order, and thousands of families still suffering. The money we need to fix things here at home so the whole damn place doesn’t look like Detroit has been spent and re-spent. Now we work with loaned money that we can’t repay. Since we have given our financial sovereignty over to the central banks of the world, they’ll probably decide that the only thing to do is start over with a new global currency and one world government. Yada, yada, yada…

Oh, then there is the horrifying glimpses into the worlds of pedophilia, torture, human trafficking, military renditioning, drone strikes, cyber-surveillance, the Patriot Act, and the tyranny of the advancing corporate police state. In comparison, it’s making the greed-heads on Wall St. seem less sinister. Fuck. I thought they were bad.

I find myself more sympathetic to those of us who keep the aperture of their awareness pretty well shut to what is going on around us all. I think it is maybe not so much due to indifference, but self-defense. It just may be that knowing these things and the suffering of those around us is just too much of a heart-breaker to bear. I, for one, sometimes feel like wrapping a bungee cord tightly around my head so it doesn’t explode.

For those of us who, for some damn reason, have our eyes wide open, how do we cope with this set of bizarre circumstances? I hearken back to being grateful that I am not carrying water on my head, even though I feel guilty for those who do. I’m also grateful for my friends and my tribe. I am happy that my husband is also my best friend. I go ahead and order a calendar for next year, even though I am not sure there will be one. I continue to go to civic meetings and plan for the holidays. I’m not waiting for anything special to use the good silverware. I’m trying to be as compassionate and forgiving as I can be. I am cultivating confidence that our children will not perish, but prevail, and transform this reality into something better than we have wrought. I believe some things just because they are worth believing in. I remember that I have never made a plan for beyond Dec. 21, 2012. I have just wanted to live long enough to see what, if anything, would happen by then. So, if we make it through this year, I guess I’ll have to write a new script. Maybe it will be like “The Road.” Or, maybe it will be “Murph and freeacre’s Excellent Adventure.” Either way, it won’t be long now.

WHAT AILS US?

Picture of the Keshe foundation logo

From Murph

WHAT AILS US?

I am going to presume that most of you that read this blog get or seek out, on a periodic basis, blurbs and videos advocating the newest breakthrough in energy technology. The latest one I got is from the web site “Forbidden knowledge” concerning the Keshe foundation touting its development on plasma energy technology and of course makes the claim that it is a panacea for all that ails the world.

I am going to assume that most of the folks that read this blog know that I am quite disdainful of claims for a single solution to the problems that face this planet. I take the stance that the problems are much more far reaching than finding a new cheap energy source.

Lets take a look at some of those problems;

1. History shows that as available energy increases, so too does population of humans increase. As human populations increase, so too does the demand of peripheral resources that may or may not depend on cheap energy. Cheap energy also increases the production of waste from consumption and that waste may or may not be convertible, by the increase in cheap available energy, to something usable.

Also, those folks that advocate more and better cheap energy need to study up on Jevons Paradox.

Historically, it appears that the only way to control or decrease human population is by scarcity in its extreme (ie, starvation and disease) or governmental decrees and punishment for producing more humans, (as in China). Neither of which appear particularly desirable to me and so far not very successful.

While the debate and disagreements rage over the population density of this world go on, and various schemes are propagated for decreasing world population, we still are not in agreement over just how much naturally occurring resources are available for what standard of living by how many people regardless of the energy sources.

2. Methods of producing cheap energy all appear to me to be based on availability of resources to produce that energy. So, the availability of resources to produce that energy has to be taken into account, which I have never seen a study that actually looks at this in detail. There have been a few studies on that area for wind and sun energy, which indicate that the energy return is a loser for very large-scale operations. I have seen no data yet for the more esoteric energy conversions like the plasma or electromagnetic devises or the newer ideas on nuclear energy.

3. All of these cheap energy sources as a substitute for hydrocarbons extracted from the planet are touted as being able to maintain a western type of life style of heavy consumption. It seems to be based on the fear that that the western civilization standard of living is in peril due to energy shortage and that is an intolerable situation. Our way of life is non negotiable. Well, universe may have the last word on this point of view.

4. None of these cheap energy schemes take into account the attitudes and agendas of the worlds elites that are currently in control of almost everything. These panacea energy sources take for granted that the governments of the world (including the increasing authority of the UN) and the elites have the world’s population well being foremost in their minds. If you have any doubts about the elites attitudes about this, study up on agenda 21, ICLEI, The Earth Charter, The International Covenant on Environment and Development, the Georgia Guidstones and the new world order (NWO) and all the other related documents you can find. These are extensive documents and will consume much time to understand the total agenda they have in mind. My conclusion from these documents is that there will be a push to eliminate most of the “useless eaters” from the planet. The word “useless” of course pertains to all of those folks that do not contribute to the well being of the elites.

In short, it sure appears to me that a new technology of cheap energy will not solve much of the dire problems that ails’ the world.

All of our modern living in western societies circles around the idea of convenience of which energy is the biggest factor. Most folks simply cannot wrap their minds around the idea that convenience is not the greatest influence on happiness in life, satisfaction with ones life, or whatever we want to include in spiritual development. These values do not depend on how many toys we can purchase with our slave labor, although the propaganda, advertising and new age ideas certainly seem to advocate it. Rockpicker put up a link on the last posting that talks about this; http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/solutions-1/smile-or-die-the-perils-of-positive-thinking-.html

None of this takes into account wide spread world wide calamities, such as; Drastic increase in volcanism, flooding, sea levels rising, more and larger earth quakes, hits from the sun, bombardment of rocks from space, more subtle earth changes or even the big human induced horror, nuclear war. Any of this stuff that goes extreme will completely negate whatever form of energy we are using when it happens. We have evidence from the far past that such extremes have happened before, no reason to assume it won’t happen again.

Charles H. Smith (oftwominds.com) has been talking extensively about economic and social systems and how they are being pushed into more intense fragility. Instead of our leaders (read idiot elites) encouraging more flexibility in our systems, they are deliberately introducing more fragility into our social and financial systems for very self-serving agendas. What this means is that it will take a relatively very small event to totally collapse just about everything in our overly complex systems we depend on because we have no feedback systems left to limit this fragility and complexity. The results of this increase in complexity and fragility is the concentration of resources and wealth into a very small amount of the population, like 10%, and this is at the expense of everyone else.

I happen to agree with Charles on these issues. It appears over historical time that the same forces within civilizations always produce the same results, that is, the complexity and concentration of wealth and resources into fewer hands at the expense of the general population, and finally the collapse of the system itself. Naturally, the elites of the time persevere to try again at a later time in another civilization and through generations of handed down power structures alter their agendas in the hope of finally getting the whole enchilada without the consequences. This time around in the western countries dominated by the predatory capitalistic economic system have altered their strategy again. Instead of grabbing everything by brute force and intimidation, they induce populations to give it all to them voluntarily. We can point to the events and persons that were chiefly instrumental in all of this. But, in the final analysis, it was the populations that gave in to the elite’s demands.

Changing these broad historic cycles to something different will take a general population attitude change. God knows, we have a bunch of folks that are advocating that as an eminent and foregone happening sometime in the future (the New Agers for one). Which means that humans on a vast scale will give up their impulses that are derived from our genes that was necessary for survival in the past. In our historical past, it appears that greed, elite hierarchy, manipulation and exploitation has always been with us, some societies with more of less of those traits. The most common claim is that outside forces will cause the change. Now how likely is that? If you want a mental exercise to work on, picture what a society would look like if none of that existed in human interactions. Idealists from the past up to modern times have written extensively on what it would look like and it never happens. If a god of some sort indeed created us, I assert that he fucked up righteously. The centuries of the idea that we have free will and can do different is an idle and straw man argument in my opinion. Indeed, it appears to me that it will take some kind of outside intervention to change these human traits into something more benign.

Don’t hold your breath.

picture credit from Vanity Fair

Romney

By freeacre

Good ol’ Mitt. The quintessential White Guy. The Great White Hope of the Republican Party and NASCAR crowd, whose job it is to vanquish the infidel, Barack Hussein Obama (the gay, Muslim, anti-Christ, communist n*gger) by replacing him as the President of these United States. Yee haw!

It should have been simple. It seems that President Obama has been pretty much a bummer for even his most ardent followers. Much like President Clinton, who’s character was stained by a blue dress and the combined resources of the Republican Party every day for years with the hypocrital impeachment proceedings led by Newt Ginrich (who was himself having an affair while his wife battled cancer) and his henchman, the prosecutor, Starr.

Does anybody even remember who Clinton ran against? I had to look it up. Oh, yeah, it was Bob Dole… another white guy who seemed to be born in a suit. The Republicans just don’t seem to be able to come up with anyone who is even remotely less corrupt or acceptable than the Democrats, no matter how lame the incumbent is.

They have outdone themselves this time, though, with Mitt Romney, the venture (vulture?) capitalist and bishop of the Mormon church. Matt Taibbi has laid bare the malfeasance that Bain Capital has been guilty of under the leadership of Mitt, the king of the hostile takeover, that helped some companies and destroyed others by looting and then bankrupting them. He and others from Rolling Stone have also documented and revealed the outsourcing of jobs and companies for which Bain is responsible. If you have not already read it, please do read this one: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829.

This guy is such a creation of Privilege that I wonder if he ever had to learn to tie his own shoes. It’s not just his incredible personal fortune ($225 million or so) that puts him in the stratosphere of hierarchy. It is the rank he inherited within the Mormon Church as well. One of my favorite commentators, Stephen Pizzo, has been delving into the bazaar teachings of the Mormon cult for weeks now. He has a new website called What Mitt Believes. Take a gander at this one: http://whatmittbelieves.net/?page_id=390.

The teachings of the church are weird, racist, and objectionable, but then, I find many of the teachings of all the monotheistic religions just as disconcerting. The question to my mind is just how much of an influence this would have on his performance in a possible Presidency. Just how much weight do you think the other world leaders, including the physicist Andrea Merkle, would give to Romney given that his religion teaches that the earth is 9,000 years old and his family wears magic undergarments? France, for instance, has decided that the church is a cult and has rejected their obnoxious missionaries. Apparently, as a bishop in the church Mitt Romney’s word cannot be disagreed with by any Mormon in good standing, because he is supposedly divinely inspired. Just great.

Now, the latest jaw-dropper is an article by Gordon Duff which details not only what an intellectual numbnut Romney is, but also that fact that he is a draft dodger who’s father, Gov. George Romney, created a new class of draft deferment especially for his unstable son, Mitt: AND that he may be an illegal alien as well! Here is the link: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/10/09/mitt-the-strange-case-of-the-secret-vietnam-years/

Well, this raises a whole raft of new questions that will not be asked during tomorrow’s debate between Obummer and Romney. One might think that the same constitutionalists who have been questioning the citizenship status of Obama might also turn their attention to the legal status of Romney. But, so far, this does not seem to be an issue for them. Hummm….

Could this election be more of a clusterfuck? It exemplifies all of the elements of dysfunction, craziness and corruption that paralyzes the government as a whole. Oh, and bring in the fact that Romney needs Ohio to win and that the easily hackable electronic voting machines with no paper trail and Diebold software are once again being created and controlled by Republican minions.

It is said that we have two “brains.” One is between our ears, and the other is in our gut. Am I alone in feeling sick in the gut when I contemplate the time between now and election night? I have to continually remind myself that I have felt much the same before every election since Nixon beat McGovern, and I managed to survive all of them. What a freakin’ pantload this one is, though!

High drama on the campaign trail as the nation of swine turns its collective attention once again to the political trough for its ration of swill from the mainstream media. Billions of dollars being funneled into television ads to buy the election once again. Everyone wrings their hands about the problem that could be solved simply and in one fell swoop. The FCC licenses the airwaves, after all. Like France, America could decide that the licenses to do business of the different news agencies and channels depend on their making available equal FREE TIME for all those political parties who qualify to be on a ballot for three months to state their views before a national election. And, every candidate who is on the ballot would be included in the debates. Voila! No more groveling for campaign funds to get elected. Nothing would change our government more. It’s not so much the people as the process that ensures the corruption ruining our country.

Where in the world is all these bazillions of advertising dollars going anyway? One would think that the news agencies would be awash in money, not cutting staff and on-site reportage due to cutting costs. Is it all just being dumped into the long pockets of the talking heads to ensure their complicity in the political pimp job story line? Maybe it’s going towards tickets into the secret facilities to ride out the contrived storm to come. I really have no idea.

Romney and Obama will go at it again tomorrow night; I guess, once again, I feel compelled to “stay tuned.”