"Be comfortable with being uncomfortable." I am not sure who wrote this gem, but I think it is a great quote; if you look below the surface. My youngest daughter looked at this quote and told me: "See this is why I don 't read your posts. I never know what you are talking about!" Ashleigh is seven, and still takes everything she reads literally. I know some adults that do that too!
I think it is a great quote because it pertains to a fulfilled life. We don't grow if we remain in our comfort zone. In fact, we stagnate. The problem is, we all want to be comfortable. We like to avoid change which could involve second guessing ourselves in the future. Nearly everyone I know says they want to be happy. And yet, many of them don't take the steps to change things so that they are happy. Instead, they continue to do the things they have always done and complain about it instead. There are certain things that need to be done to bring about change... and that is true whether it is the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of a relationship, or a new job. In fact, it is true for everything. First, you need to know what you want to do. By knowing what you want, I don't mean that in a vague sort of way. I mean you really need to picture it in great detail. You then need to start thinking about what it will entail to reach that goal. Make a road map so to speak. Put down every little detail of what you would have to do to accomplish your goal. For instance, if you wanted to be able to give your car a tune up, there are certain things you would have to do. First, you would need to know what supplies you would need to do it. Secondly, it would help if you actually knew how to do it. If you don't then you may have to watch someone do one first, or take a class, or even watch a you tube video. Third, you would want to make sure you have all of the tools that you will need. Next you'll need to set aside time to accomplish your task. Etc. Etc. Once you have your detailed plan, the next step is the most crucial part. You actually have to start your endeavor. So many people will make plans and then wait for the perfect moment to start their plan. Unfortunately for many, that moment never arrives. The best time to start, once you know what you want is now. Not next month, not next year, but now. Part of the beauty of have a plan with the steps necessary plainly written out is that you have broken down what you need to do in smaller steps. You have already set it in your mind that there are a number of things to be done to reach your goal, and you can start by attacking one of those small things. Starting a new thing is half of the battle! By starting small two things are accomplished. First it allows you to get comfortable with the changes you are initiating. Secondly, you see some progress right away, and hopefully that will give you enough incentive to continue. Third, you have to keep going! Don't stop until you see your plan through. Get comfortable with working towards your goal. You are moving out of your comfort zone, there will be times when you are uncertain, or tired, or scared. Keep going! If something that you are doing isn't working as expected, then modify it a bit until it does work for you! As a side note, if you are working towards a life changing event, then try to surround yourself with like-minded people. Look for people who have accomplished something similar to what you are attempting. Ask them questions. Get to know them. The worst thing you can do is surround yourself with people who tell you that you can't. If you want to do something, you usually can. There will be a trade off though. You need to be willing to give up something in exchange for the new thing. I find that the things you may need to give up come down to three categories: Time, Money, People, or a combination of the three. To write this post, I am giving up about an hour of my time. Although I am writing it during the day, I know exactly what I am cutting out to write it. I will work an hour later this evening so that my work load doesn't suffer, and I will still do karate with my daughters. Instead, I will read a few less articles on stumble upon tonight and I will keep off of Facebook and Stumble upon. All said, if you embrace change and try to effect the changes you want to see, I think you will find you will begin to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
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"“I think that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms." That's a quote by C. Jo Bell. I think she is a self-published author, since I could not find out too much about her. In fact, when I looked her up, it said she was "best known for her love of cake, especially that of the red velvet nature." I guess if you are going to be known for something, that's as good as anything else.
At any rate, I liked her quote. It was a bit longer than what I show, but I drew the line at letting my kids ride the subway on their own. Maddie could likely do it... she is old enough, although I think she would be very uncomfortable doing it being she grew up in a rural setting. Ashleigh is just too small and young, though, and I would likely have a heart attack from worry if she was off on the subway on her own. I think the best thing we can do for our children is to teach them to think for themselves. While they are young, that entails teaching them how to think. Too many people nowadays don't seem to know how to think logically. Instead, they let their emotional response guide everything they say and do. To me, that isn't thinking. That is reacting. Reacting is good if you are in a life or death situation. You are crossing the street and a car comes speeding around the corner. You quickly run out of the way! That is a reaction. It is okay to react in a situation like that without thinking. In fact, you'd be crazy not to. But there are other situations where it is better to think first. And it is in these situations where we, as a nation, are failing our youth. Instead of teaching logic and critical thinking in our schools, we teach touchy-feely reactions. In fact, much of what passes for history nowadays is just a collection of dates and names, with a one-sided story of why it happened. The schools go out of their way to make sure everyone feels good about what happened. Heroes and villains are described in black and white. Never in the shades of grey that were actually closer to the truth. I am not just trying to pick on history classes here. I am just trying to point out that if we don't make an effort to teach our children to think critically, we should never expect them to be able to do it when they are an adult. If we really want to make the world a better place, then we need to start teaching our children to think critically and logically. Once they have a background in that type of thinking, then by all means allow them to do things for themselves and make their own choices. I try to give my girls freedom commensurate with their maturity level. Notice I did not say age. I know adults that I give less trust to than my 14-year-old daughter! Age does not make maturity. Logical thinking does. Teach your children to think logically, and then allow them some semblance of freedom and watch their lives blossom. "The greatest pleasure in life is in doing what people say you cannot do." - Walter Bagehot. Walter, believe it or not, was once the editor of The Economist, which, of course, is a financial magazine. He was the editor way back in the mid-1800's though, so it was way before the magazine became a mouthpiece for the powers that be.
Bagehot was born about 145 years ahead of his time, judging him purely by his quote. I like to loosely live by that quote as my motto. If people say I can't do something... particularly if it is something physical, I like to practice until I can prove them wrong. Personally, I hate when people use age as an excuse. And I hate even more when they use MY age as an excuse! "You can't do that! You're 50 years old!" Yes, I am fifty years old, but I CAN do that! I will practice the move over and over again until I can do that. Spinning back kick to someone's head. Yep, I can do it. I practiced for months, but I CAN do it. I am now trying to teach my daughter how to do it. It is a definite show off move. Punch a 100 pound bag over with one punch. Yes! That one only took me a few tries to get. Ditto the flying side kick. The trick is to get height. Even outside of karate, I don't like people telling me what I can't do, just because they or most people can't or won't do it. I started my own business because I thought I could work from home and get paid for it. I moved to New Hampshire because I thought New Jersey was grossly over-taxing everyone. Well, what can you do, people said, if you live here, you got to pay it. Well then I won't live here. Yeah right! That's right, I bought a house in New Hampshire in 2005, and have been saving on taxes ever since. Similar to the quote, I do take pleasure in doing what people say I can't do. No fear. We weren't born to live in fear. At least not fear of trying. If I want to do something, and it IS possible, then I am going to try until I can do it. If others don't like that, tough luck! Live for yourself. Do what people say you can't do. I am not advocating breaking the law here. I think you can see where I am coming from by the examples I used. Follow your heart. Do what you want...even if you need to expend time and energy to do it. Time and energy is kung fu. become a kung fu master! and take pleasure from doing things others have said you cannot do! No quotes today folks. Just some thoughts on the old counter culture and what happened to it. In a nutshell, a lot of it was misunderstood, and much of it went mainstream. There were many parts to the counterculture, though, and to say that it all died or went mainstream would be incorrect.
When I think of counterculture, I think of the hippies. Not all hippies were the same though. There were anti-war rallies, acid heads, free love advocates and those who just reveled in the music and the lifestyle. Nowadays, my daughter is teasingly called a hippy, because she prefers natural cures for medical problems rather than pharmaceuticals. That really makes me laugh because it is so obvious that her friends really don't know much about hippies. In fact, the term hippy was usually used as a derogatory to label someone who traveled outside of usual societal norms. Overtime, many of those distinctions were embraced by the popular culture so that they were absorbed by it. Here are a few "hippy" ideas that are not part of the mainstream. Now, I am not saying whether any of these things are good or bad, just that they were at one time fringe hippy ideals (and keep in mind, not ideals for all hippies) that are now part of the popular culture.
To me, the loss of freedom is the one that bothers me most. It is unbelievable how many rules and regulations restricting our freedoms have been enacted just in the past decade alone. Parents have been charged with child neglect just for allowing their children to walk home from school! Others receive tickets if their child rides a bike without a helmet. Adults receive tickets in most states if they do not wear a seat belt. Thank God I live in New Hampshire, the one state in the nation that doesn't enforce that law. Now, don't try to justify it... "well it saves lives" it is still a taking of our freedoms. I wonder what the founding fathers would think of our current society? I think they would cry! They would cry about the sacrifices they made for our freedoms... not fighting in some made-up corporate war, but fighting their own government to free the people from oppression. Now, their prodigy embrace the loss of their freedom and actually cheer it on! Finally, hypocrisy has always been a part of the mainstream culture and it still is. Again below are areas where I see hypocrisy. I am not saying whether the underlying ideal is good or bad, just that the way it is being legislated is hypocritical.
In the end, I guess the counterculture was absorbed by the mainstream. There are still some bastions of counter left in the counter culture. It is just hidden away now. To me, we are all a little bit hippy now. Some more, others less. Just remember, "hippy" wasn't about the dress, or the music, the drugs or the war. It was a label that people used to point out what they were afraid of. Now, the hippies run the show, and things are no better. So be a hippy, it's chic now. As for the counter culture, some of it is mainstream now. Unfortunately, the parts that were interesting are not, and likely never will be. So take it from an old hippy wanna be: live in peace, Do unto others as you would want done to yourself, and make happiness, not discord. I'd use the old adage make love not war, but I am 50 and single and making love has been missing for about three years now, so make happiness not discord will have to do for now. "It is always better to light a candle than curse the darkness." This is said to be an ancient Chinese proverb...and it very well may be! No matter where it came from, I thought about it today, while reading through my Facebook page. I don't know about you, but there are five types of posts on my Facebook page. Three of the types I like. These are: The ones that are trying to be funny...the ones that are trying to convey information and the ones that are showing off pretty girls or trucks or antiques etc. The ones I don't like are the ones that get overly political or the ones from the whiners and complainers.
It's the whiners and complainers that bother me the most, although the political posts are annoying too. Here is a good example. On Facebook today someone put up a picture that said..."Oh God, why don't you send us a person to cure aids, cancer, etc. etc." God replied, "I did, but you aborted him." As if this wasn't bad enough, then someone else added to it. Again the question was asked about sending someone. This time the person had God answer: "I did but you gave them a substandard education because they lived in an area with low property taxes. AND I did but they died because they couldn't afford health care. AND I did but due to racism... and on and on and finally, I did, but you made her carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. So how does all of this lead back to the quote at the top of the page? Easy. Light a candle. None of the above things is real. It is just complaining. People who don't think, or who like to complain grab a hold of it though, and use it as their excuse. I could have done this...but my education held me back. Well, when did YOUR education ever become anyone else's responsibility other than your own or your parent's? If you don't want to have a child, then use protection...or even better, keep your legs closed. Can't afford health care? then eat better, exercise and do everything you can to stay healthy. In fact, many of these things tie together. If you can't afford good healthcare, then it is likely that you failed to get a good education...or maybe your parents failed to get a good education, and you or they work a job that doesn't give good healthcare as a benefit. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have news for you. No one is responsible for you or your children but you. Not your neighbor, not the state, not the federal government. Just you. Do you want a cure for cancer? Okay, what have you done to help the cause? Do you work in the health care fields? No, well do you donate money to charities that are set up to research a cure? No, then don't complain. No one gives a shit about your stupid meme! Did you have an unwanted pregnancy? Then don't have sex. It is really that simple. The media treats sex as if none of us can live without it. We can. While sex is enjoyable, we don't need it. And if you are not in a position to take responsibility for a child, then you shouldn't be having it. Now, if you do feel that the education of someone else's child Is your responsibility, then you can donate money to your local school. In fact, I believe there should be no public education at all. I think that everyone should have to be responsible for either teaching their own children or for paying for that child's education out of their own pocket. If others want to "donate" towards that cause, that should be up to them. If you don't like the darkness, light a candle people! Don't waste everyone's time by complaining. Do something. Just make sure, whatever you do, that what you do is something that doesn't involve infringing on someone else's rights and tries to force them to do something that they don't want to do. Whining that you want a better education for your child and that others should pay for it is just plain wrong. If you want a better education for your child, then work with them daily. Even if it is after work. They are your children. Or pay to send them to a private school if you are not happy with the public education in your town. If you don't like the darkness around you folks, then light a candle. One candle can light many others, Sometimes, people need to be shown what to do. Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Show a man how to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime. And, if after you show that man how to fish, if he decides not to, then that's his problem. It doesn't mean catch two fish so that he can always have one. Sometimes it's okay to let someone live by their own poor decisions. Light the candle on whatever motivates you... and see if your one candle can't light up the world! "Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving." That's a quote by Terry Pratchett. Pratchett was an English author of fantasy novels. He died in March, 2015. I never read any of his novels, so I am not sure what context was behind this quote. For me, it still holds meaning though.
You see, I, in a sense, have come back full circle to where I have started. In 1991, I started as a research assistant at the Value Line Investment Survey. It was my first job on Wall Street, and I was proud to work there. I moved up through the ranks quickly and left five years later as an editor and the editor in charge of the Supplementary Reports portion of the survey. I left to go to Merrill Lynch in 1996. In September 2014, I rejoined Value Line, and in a sense it felt like a homecoming. I still knew many of the older analysts there and many of the younger analysts were very welcoming. After my wife died, it was very hard to keep my hedge fund consulting business viable, since I was also raising two young girls on my own. There just wasn't enough time to do everything, and the business suffered even further, while I supervised visits for the girls with their Mom, or had to drive Sharon to doctors visits as the courts had decreed. In 2014, I still had clients, but I was writing a lot of proprietary reports that I could not send out to other prospective clients, thus the business was stagnating. In July, a number of old friends came up for a fishing trip, and I was talking shop with one of the analysts that still worked at Value Line. He told me that Value Line was looking for analysts to work from home, and I immediately jumped at the opportunity. Two weeks later, I was hired! I must say that coming back to where I started is not like never leaving. I picked up the Value Line system again very easily, and I am thoroughly enjoying working for Value Line again. I, of course, work from New Hampshire. My New York extension rings in my home office. Some of my old friends ask me if it bothers me going back to where I started. And I must say that it doesn't bother me at all. Sure I miss working with the hedge funds and trying to out think the Street. But the reality of it is that that wasn't what I was doing anymore at my own company. I didn't have the time to do the research AND the marketing AND the client talks that are necessary to keep that type of business going. I had more than enough work to keep me going, but I was just making the bills. And the work was no longer run and gun trading and shorts, but more management critiques and operational synopsis'. I enjoyed doing them, and was happy for the work, but it was just not going to allow me to comfortably increase the rest of my business and home school my daughters. At this point, I am covering about 50 stocks for Value Line. Although the press schedule can be tight, particularly during earnings season, I still have time to teach my daughters, train in the martial arts and do other things that need to be done around the house. Although I miss the camaraderie of being in an office setting, I am older now, and it just wouldn't be what it used to be anyway. In the end, I feel like I have to some extent come home... even though I never really leave my home to work anyway. At least not since 2003. It's funny how life changes, yet still manages to stay the same in so many ways. One final thought: If I never left Value Line, I never would have met my wife, and I never would have then had my daughters that I have now. I also never would have moved to New Hampshire, where I am extremely happy. Thus, although I have come back to where I started, I am also happy that I am never really leaving my happy place in New Hampshire! "Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." That, friends, is a quote from Winston Churchill.
Personally, I don't know what to think of old Winston. There are many things he said and did, that I can truly appreciate. There are other things that were reprehensible. I guess that makes him human, since we all have our good and bad moments. It's just that for most of us, our bad moments won't willfully cost other people their lives. Regardless of what you think of the man, I agree with the above quote. I sometimes think that people have either lost their minds or just don't understand economics, history, or property rights. To me, I believe every person has the right to decide what to do with their property...including their money. Socialism, on the other hand, seems to think that everyone is entitled to the sweat of your labor. And not just your labor, but anyone and everyone who is actually working to survive. If you, as an individual, want to give someone else a portion of your pay or property to help them live better, that is entirely up to you. On the other hand, no one has the right to tell other people what they have to do with their money...particularly in regards to charity. Yet Socialism isn't just about charity. It is about the trampling of one person's rights to improve the lot of another. Laws governing the treatment of organized labor is a case in point. So is socialized medicine and social security. Any time, one person's rights are put to the wayside by legislation to improve the lot of another, it is a travesty. In my mind, the United States has slowly turned into a socialist country. Most people are too ignorant to realize it. Very few have read the communist manifesto. If they had, they would see that many of the changes that the federal government has rammed through over the past 100 years are in actuality planks of the communist manifesto. Here is a link to a web page that explains the ten planks set out by Karl Marx. He wrote them in 1848 by the way. What I find amazing is that our country follows socialist policies, and most people walk around calling our country the land of the free! At the same time, when these socialist policies fail and create economic problems, The liberal newspapers scream about the failures of Capitalism! George Orwell wrote about doublethink in his famous novel "1984". If you haven't read it. You really should. It is a thought provoking read! Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged" is also a good read, although it is very long and drags at times. Read these novels, and then look at our country and see if you see the parallels. These people were true visionaries. Well, there is my rant for today. Sorry about the subject matter, but on occasion, someone says something really stupid, and I can't hold myself back... and a rant is born! Have a good night! "Do not spoil what you have, by desiring what you have not." That's a quote by Epicurus. For those of you who are not up on your ancient Greek philosophers, Epicurus is the founder of a school of philosophy called Epicureanism. For him, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life. To have peace, and freedom from fear, and the absence of pain. Sounds like my kind of guy! For those of you with a few minutes to spare, and like a good puzzle, look up the Epicurean paradox. Given its a paradox, it is certain to make you think! Which is a great exercise.
Anyway, back to the quote! Now that you have an idea about what drove Epicurus, you can see where he is coming from with this quote. Oddly enough, there are only a few fragments left from the more than 300 written works attributed to him. In fact, much of what we know of him come from other writers and his followers. I don't know about you, but when I desire something I don't have, it is usually because nothing I have will give me the same utility. I must say that I have never desired something so much that it spoiled for me what I already had. Instead, I usually find that I desire something to enhance what I already have. For many people though, they become obsessed with what they don't have, and therefore fail to enjoy what they do have. I think the best way to avoid this problem is to really know what makes you happy. So many people go through life searching for what will make them happy. They search through the acquisition of consumer goods. I will be much more desirable if I have ripped jeans, therefore I will find someone who loves me for me and be happy. Or, people with nose rings look so cool. If I had a nose ring, I would be considered cool too, and maybe people will accept me for who I am. In both cases, the person wants one thing, but mistakenly thinks that they will get it if they have a particular look or product. Our culture seems to celebrate people who are different, yet many instead want to be different in the same way. Think of tattoos, hair styles, jewelry, clothing, and accessories. How many times do you see people who look different than you, but similar to many other people you see. Are any of them really being different? Or are they just trying to fit in with a particular type of person, while alienating the rest? We look at people, the way they dress, or what they drive, or who they hang out with and we make assumptions about them. Every once in a while, we will get to meet one of these different (different than ourselves, anyway) people and get to view their humanity up close and personal. We get to talk to them in a setting away from "Their" group or "Our" group, and we realize that much of what we usually see is just a facade. Underneath, we are mainly the same. Yes, I realize that there are differences. It is just that the differences don't have to be so great, if we can look past the facade and see the real person underneath. Overall, their wants and needs are similar to ours. For me, I am happiest when I don't care what others think of me. I like to talk to people, and hopefully make them smile or laugh. I like to share my thoughts and knowledge. That is me. Underneath it all, I think that is everybody. We all want acceptance for who we are. So much so for some that they are willing to change who they are to gain acceptance for who they are from others. It is a sad, sad, game that they play. And the shame of it is, that many of them don't even realize that they are playing it. I guess what I am trying to say is, be true to yourself. When you stop trying to chase other people's approval, you will find that you will finally approve of yourself. Some "smart" people will never learn this lesson. Sometimes the most obvious things are the hardest things to see. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance... The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and and its object is not the victory versus Eurasia (ISIS) or East Asia (Al Qaeda), but to keep the very structure of society intact." That is quote by George Orwell written in 1949 in his masterpiece "1984" I added ISIS and Al Qaeda in there just to show how dead on his book was back then about what the future held. Think about it. Do you ever really think the government is going to give up on "the war on terror"? I mean it's perfect for them. Because they are not fighting an enemy from a particular country, they can bomb and kill people where ever they like! And the sad part is that they can do this, then mention that they killed so and so a leader of the bad guys. And we are all supposed to cheer...as if we knew exactly who they were talking about! Most people have no real clue as to who we are fighting...only that they are bad people and they want to kill us. How do we know this? Because the government tells us so, of course. And the sad part is that they are probably right. There are people out there who want to kill us. Just like there are people in our own country who want to make the Middle East into a gigantic parking lot. The poor and uneducated like to blame people in far off lands for their troubles. And our government wants to perpetuate this type of thinking. As I said in my last post, I think it is strange that "our enemies" choose targets that are poised to piss off our general population and bring the might of our military down on them. What did they really gain by killing a bunch of civilians that have nothing to do with them? Why did they not go after the heads of some of our major corporations that do the deals that change their way of life? Or our politicians who enact our foreign policy that seems to enrage them so much? Attacking those types of targets would likely not enrage our populous and have them signing up to go kill people in foreign lands. It might scare the pants off of the elites of our country and have them clamoring for war even more than they do now, but it's likely the regular Joe Six-pack out there wouldn't be going to the recruiting station to get revenge for some CEO. So who benefits from the targets that are chosen? Did Al Qaeda benefit after we sent thousands of troops over there to kill them? Or did our government and some large corporations benefit? Follow the money folks. Who benefited from the patriotic fervor that shot across the United States? Did the shareholders of the large aerospace and defense companies benefit? I think so. Did our military and political leaders benefit in anyway? I think the answer there might also be a big yes. Were all of these people involved? No. Did terrorists take down the twin towers? Yes. I am just not certain it was the terrorists we so quickly went out to kill. Think about our world people. Think about your cell phone and our computers. Think about our politicians and our media. Isn't it amazing that a man in 1949 could write a story about a twisted future and have it be uncannily accurate...even if he was off by a couple of decades! I'll leave off with one more George Orwell quote for you to think about. Leave a comment after you have thought about it and let me know what you think. "War is peace. Freedom is slavery Ignorance is strength" Okay, one more. I promise, no more George Orwell quotes or conspiracy-type posts...at least for a while anyway! "In a time of universal deceit
telling the truth is a revolutionary act!" "When we talk to God, we are praying. When God talks to us, we're schizophrenic." Don't worry this won't be an overly religious post. That quote, by Jane Wagner, was said tongue in cheek to get a laugh. But of course, I am going to ask my usual question: But is it true? My answer to that is that it could be true. It might be true for some people...or it might be false. And nowadays, with the government, or anyone else with access to microwave technology able to beam voices into your head, we will never actually know now will we?
Allan Frey was the first to publish a paper about the microwave auditory effect, and that's why it is also known as the Frey effect. I touched briefly about this in a blog post a couple of weeks ago. Frey wrote about the effect in 1961. By the early 1970's, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research was already beaming voices into people's heads at a distance of 100 meters. In 2003, Waveband Corp. had a contract with the U.S. Navy for a system called MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) intended to remotely, temporarily incapacitate personnel. The project was supposedly cancelled in 2005. Now let me ask you a question. If the U.S. government has been experimenting with this stuff since the early 1960's, do you really think they cancelled it in 2005? More likely, the program was changed to a different name and is being studied more discreetly. Believe me, if something has the potential to be weaponized, our government wants it! Not just to use it versus their perceived enemies... which may include you, but also so that they are up to date with all of the research so that they can block the technology from being used against them. With that said, think of the havoc that would ensue if large numbers of people believed that they were having conversations with their God. Many, not knowing of the Frey effect, would listen to the voices without question. If enough people fell for it, All of the people of the world could become slaves to the perpetrators of the hoax. Think about it, who wouldn't do what their God told them to do...particularly if most of the people around them also heard the voice in their head too! Thankfully, the amount of energy necessary to reach hundreds of people at once would be too high, and many of the people would be in danger. If it wasn't for that, though, I honestly believe someone would have tried this scheme already. Still, the potential for damage could be staggering. Think about it, Some people would likely very willingly become God's assassin. And not just Muslims either! Voices in your head would likely go a long way towards convincing a person to do heinous crimes...particularly if they thought it was their God speaking to them. As for me, knowing about the Frey effect, I would never listen to a voice in my head that told me to do something violent to another. Any voices in my head will be blatantly ignored (to the best of my ability anyway). It is a sad world we live in when you can't trust your government, many of the people around you, the media or even the voices in your head! All said, don't just follow the crowd blindly. A lot of what they are told to do doesn't makes sense. Don't listen to voices in your head...particularly if it is telling you to do something self destructive or violent. And finally, take everything that the big media companies or the government tells you to do with a grain of salt. I love this quote because of how direct and accurate it is. Too often, we let our world get meshed in with the worlds that others try to form for us, and it's not okay. I'd like to put some parents on blast right now- because I know (not in my case) but in the case of my friends that they too often let themselves slide into a mold that their parents set for them. They take NO control over their lives and literally let their parents run everything. Now, I understand that kids need guidance... but that doesn't mean you get to sculpt their life into whatever you want. Emphasis on THEIR life.
A good few examples:
I think that's enough... shape your own world, and your own life... never let anyone else do it for you. ~Maddie "I love acting, it is so much more real than life." That's another quote by Oscar Wilde. His book, The Picture of Dorian Gray really is a classic, and I can't recommend it highly enough. What a gem! With this quote (and many others) Wilde is trying to convey that people are always acting and that we rarely get to see people when they are truly being themselves. Wilde made this observation well before the invention of TV. I'd love to see what he thought of people now!
Nowadays, it is easy to see when someone is being fake. They act like characters on their favorite TV shows or their favorite entertainment personality. The sad part is, that many of them are doing it without even realizing it. Watch the facial expressions that people use. Anger, sadness, happiness, you name it. Now watch the faces young children make when they are experiencing the same emotion. The expressions are rarely similar. When they are, you know that the adult is truly experiencing that emotion. The rest is all about trying to look how they THINK they ought to look given what ever happened. Another example, you ask? Okay, have you ever seen anyone get knocked out? I have on a number of occasions. One thing I have noticed is that when someone is truly knocked out, their body stiffens a bit as they fall and their hands are not thrown out to catch them. I have also seen people fake it. Their hands go out to break their fall, or their bodies just slump easily to the ground... kind of like what an actor does when they PRETEND to get knocked out. These people also seem to need a lot more attention to get them back to their feet. In conversations I often see poor acting too. Usually, when someone is trying to get a point across, they will change their facial expression to something they have seen on TV that worked in a similar type conversation. With people my own age and older, I can sometimes pick out who they are trying to emulate. It is harder for me with younger people though, because I stopped watching TV regularly about fifteen years ago. I guess I will go full circle here and quote Wilde again. In the end, "one's true character is what one wishes to be, more than what one is." So, what do you wish to be? Do you want to stop your friends in their tracks? Stop acting. Stop putting on a stupid expression because you saw Johnny Depp do it. Stop cursing because your favorite rapper can't get through a song without dropping the F-bomb fifteen times. Smile because you feel like it, not because you are expected to after one of your friends says something insulting or stupid. For one day, be yourself. Not the persona you are trying to pull off, but the real you. Try it. It is going to be tougher than you think at first. Really it will be. That's because whether we like it or not, we are all pretending to be something we are really not. Some want to be tough...but are really vulnerable. Some want to seem happy, though they are sad. Some are clumsy, some are nimble. All are actors. Including you. So, who do you really want to be. For me, I want to be smart, kind, funny and strong. While I can be all of those things, sometimes it takes effort. When I am quiet and thoughtful, that is when I am really being me. So who are you? Socrates once said that "The unexamined life is not worth living." People have debated for centuries what he meant by that. They don't know, you see, because after saying that line he chose to drink hemlock and end his life, rather than to live it in a way he did not choose. Quite a ballsy call!
You see, Socrates was a bit uncompromising when it came to his philosophy. He felt that people needed to examine their lives and make any changes necessary to make their lives more fulfilling. He shared these thoughts publicly, and would debate people on many topics. Oftentimes these debates would illuminate peoples actions in a negative light, and the people of Greece hated him for it. They also hated that two of his start pupils went on to start revolts trying to overthrow the government. He was taken to court on two charges and was found guilty. The charges were impiety against the state-sanctioned gods and corrupting the youth. Although no one knows for sure, which was the more serious charge, one of Socrates' three accusers was a politician whose son had had a relationship with Socrates. Little of what remains of what Socrates said at his trial had to do with the corruption of youth charge. Instead, the arguments that are recorded focus on the charge of impiety. Needless to say, Socrates is found guilty. Both he and his accusers are asked to propose a punishment for the jury to vote on. The accusers state that they would like the death penalty. Socrates counters by asking the jury for free meals in the Prytaneum, the public dining hall. The jury voted for death and Socrates, at the age of 70, got the hemlock. One author, Doug Linder, said that "The trial of Socrates was the most interesting suicide that the world has ever seen." To me, and I am no scholar now, it seems that Socrates treated his entire trial as a farce. In fact, he seems to be a martyr for free speech.An unexamined life, for Socrates, was a life with little or no principles. In other words Socrates decided for himself what truly was worth dying for. He viewed his life's mission as saving the souls of the Athenian by pointing them in the direction of an examined, ethical life. He then told the jury that "he would rather be put to death than give up his soul saving. By being so bold, the jury seems to have felt that the only way to stop Socrates from lecturing about the moral weaknesses of the Athenians was by killing him. So, to bring it back to today. Would you be a follower of Socrates if he was around today? It's really hard to tell. Socrates wasn't an angel either. Times were different then and so was the moral code. Going strictly on whether or not I think about my actions, and there impact on others before I do them, I would say yes, I do. Do I try not to lie, steal or hurt others? Yes, I believe in peace over power and that my actions should not do harm to others or their property. But to me, examining my life has to go much further than that. Am I happy? Am I taking the steps necessary to lead to my own happiness? Am I doing right by my children? Am I allowing my morals to falter due to the culture I am living in? Am I taking care of my body to the best of my abilities? All of these questions also have to be answered in my opinion. Also, where does my personal philosophy fail me? If I am unhappy more than I am happy, then likely I have a weakness in my philosophy. Here, I am not talking about the sadness I feel from time to time due to the death of my wife, I am talking about a deeper, longer lasting sense of sadness. Thankfully, I do not suffer from that one any longer. If you, or someone you know, does suffer from that type of feeling, then you need to examine the rules you personally live by and see what it is that you are doing that is conflicting with your moral (ie. personal philosophy). Usually, I find, it is not your personal philosophy that needs changing, but the actions you are taking. In the end, Socrates was certainly a brave old goat. Where would you draw the line between your personal beliefs and what you are asked to do? And I mean that both categorically and metaphorically. Answer those questions and you are well on your way to a happy examined life. "Don't complain about things you're not willing to change." This quote says a lot! So many people go through life complaining about things that they have total control over as if they have no choice in the matter. Here are a couple of examples:
"I hate my job!" Okay, so you hate your job...then change it! There are a lot of things you can do other than make yourself miserable every day by going where you don't want to go. When you point this out to people, they usually look at you and say "well, I have been there so long I won't get the same money elsewhere." This might be true if you stay in the same field. But nothing says you have to stay in the same field. If you hate what you are doing, just changing your location likely won't make you any happier. Get off your fat ass and go back to school, or a trade school and get new training...hopefully in a field where you can make more money. If you are not willing to take steps to make changes, then don't complain to me about it because, frankly, I have better things to do than listen to you complain! Another one I hear a lot is "I hate this area. I would move in a heart beat!" Oh yeah, then why don't you move? "Well, I wouldn't have a job." or "Well, my whole family lives around here." If that is the case, then why do you hate this area? And you're right, there are no $10 an hour jobs anywhere else in the United States...or the world for that matter, so you better stay here where you "hate" it. Others I hear include: "I have no friends." (then why are you talking to me), "I am in debt." (as they sit sipping a $5 drink from Starbucks), "No one understands me." (As they sit there sullenly). Ask any of these people "Why?" and they will tell you "I don't know." But really they do know. They don't want to tell you, but they do know what the basis of all of their troubles are. It is a great resistance to change. They want others to change for them. Amuse me! They don't want to take the steps necessary to change their own situations. Think people! If you have a problem, it CAN be solved. You just have to think about what the answer would be for you, and then take the steps to implement the changes. Some people feel overwhelmed because to get to the life they want, they would have to make tremendous changes. Well, nothing comes for free baby... and a journey of a thousand miles always starts with a single step! If you are one of those people who need lots of changes to live the life you want, then start today. Map out what you want, and then plan a number of little steps that will get you closer to your goal. Then each day, take one of those little steps. Your life can change for the better! You just need to know how you want to change it. Then set a plan...and finally, the most important part, takes steps to follow through on the plan! Complaining wastes your time and mine. Do something with your life. Start the changes today. If you are not willing to do that...Then at least shut up so that we all don't have to listen to how miserable you are. Oh my goshhhh. I think this quote is something that everyone in the world needs to hear. No matter who you are or what your situation is, we've all had something happen in life that we need to move on from or get over and some of us have a hard time doing it. I understand the struggle of doing it completely- my mom died 2 years ago and I'm still depressed about it right now. The pain of something like that... it never leaves. Ever. A little piece of that is going to be with you for the rest of your life, just as the person is, and there is nothing you can do to escape that.
However, that doesn't mean you should let sadness dominate your life forever. Yes, while things are initially going on, you're going to be upset... but you need to move on. I've managed to move on from my mom's death (for the most part) and I'd like to share the advice I followed myself that helped me a lot. This advice can be applied to most situations. Only a few are directed towards people who are dealing solely with the pain of losing someone.
I hope this post helped you... or anyone you may know. Maddie I am assuming that all of you know that my headline today is a quote from George Orwell's 1984. If not, then crawl out from under your rock and go read it you gigantic moron! Sorry, but I think 1984 is a book that we should all be familiar with. Orwell wrote the story in 1949, yet much of the story seems to parallel what is happening in our world since the turn of the millennium. Lately, our government and the mass media seem to want to redefine everything to the extent that words are now meaningless, or more accurately mean different things. And, oddly enough, many people seem to go along with it. For instance, going back decades, politicians want you to believe that we are not never at war... instead, we participate in "police actions". Unless, of course, it is the "War on Terror" or the "War on drugs"! These are wars against faceless enemies so they are ok. Otherwise, we have been at peace since the end of World War II! You might ask: "What about Korea? Or Vietnam? I know we had the Gulf War, and Irag, Afghanistan and even Grenada! Weren't these wars?" Not according to the legal definition of the word. The last time we legally declared war was when Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attacks. So while the texts books call them the Korean War or the Gulf War or Vietnam War, the government thinks of them as "extended engagements" or "police actions". Remember, war (somewhere else) is peace! Just like in 1984!
What other incongruities can we find? How about, if you are out of work for longer than a set specified number of weeks you are not unemployed, but just not part of the work force...whether you are looking for work or not! That way the government can report a lower unemployment rate and make it look like their policies are not as bad as they really are. Another good one is that in our pledge of allegiance we say "And to the republic for which it stands" yet most of our politicians call us a democracy. At the same time they pass one socialist policy after another! Wait, it gets better! What about preemptive war? We have all heard the talking heads chat about this concept with a straight face. The paradox is that you can never start a war in order to prevent it! War is peace...except when it is to the politician's advantage to say we are at war! Then these police actions become wars and it is glorified! Our soldiers become "heroes" who are fighting for our safety. In fact, all of them are now heroes, whether they were actually fighting or just peeling potatoes. They are all fighting for our peace and safety. Okay, so maybe Orwell had a point with War is Peace, but what about Freedom is slavery. That can't be true can it? Well, that depends on what you call freedom. Is freedom having to stand behind a barbed wire fence at the 2004 Democratic National Convention if you wanted to protest? Is freedom having to pay nearly 50% of your income as taxes each year? Is freedom having top pay taxes on your home year after year whether you have any income coming in or not? Did you know that the U.S. has the second highest incarceration rate in the world at 707 prisoners per 100,000 in population? Yep, we are right behind the Seychelles where there are 868 prisoners per 100,000. Here is a link to a table where you can look up the country that you think would be worse! Incarceration Rates . Finally, we reach Ignorance is strength. Just take a look around you ladies and gentlemen. Most people seem to spend their leisure time either watching TV or drinking themselves silly! Ask most of them what they think about current events and you hear about what they think will happen on their favorite TV show. Or they will say they are for or against gay rights or the confederate flag. Many of the people I chatted with didn't even know that there was a crisis in Greece! Ignorance is definitely strength for our politicians. Keep watching TV people...Keep making your pictures look like rainbows and take down all of your confederate flags! Drink yourself into a stupor, and keep pretending that you are free. Just like the politicians want you to. On July 4th, everyone is expected to celebrate Independence Day. While that day used to have a true meaning, nowadays I think it would be hard to call all but a few in this country independent. Let me give you some examples:
Population of the United States: 318.9 million. Number of people Receiving Social Security: 59 million Number of people incarcerated: 2.3 million Number of people on Medicare: 49.4 million Number of people on Medicaid: 8.8 million Number of people employed by the Federal Government: 2.7 million Number of people employed by State governments: 5.1 million Number of people employed by local governments: 14 million Number of people in the U.S. military: 2.2 million Number of people receiving food stamps: 47 million Number of people receiving unemployment: 2.3 million Number of people receiving welfare:109.6 million Number of people unemployed and not receiving unemployment: 9 million Add those numbers up and that's 311 million people out of 318.9 million receiving some kind of economic benefit from our government. Granted, some of those people likely overlap, but still, it certainly says something about independence! But wait! Don't pat yourself on the back just yet. Are your children one of the 49.5 million students in the public school system? Then YOU aren't independent either. When you are truly independent, you pay for what you get. Not have others pay for you. Now, if you home school your children or send them to a private school...and you do not fit into any of the above categories, then happy Independence Day! As for the rest of you, have a nice day off in your world of dependence! I just read an article on the internet that made me think about my own life a bit. The woman in the article spoke about giving up a $95,000 a year job in Manhattan to buy a one-way ticket to St. Johns in the Caribbean. When she left, she had no job to go to and knew no one on the island. She ended up selling ice cream at an ice cream parlor for $10 an hour. No, I have no plans to up and move to the islands! What made me think of my life was my decision to eschew a corporate job and start my own business...and then move to New Hampshire, well away from the financial capital of the world where most of my contacts worked. Similar to the woman in the article, my wife and I knew no one in New Hampshire. Unlike the woman in the article, we didn't give up the cash for our move...I lost that later! I must say that the move to New Hampshire was within the top five things that I have done in my life (my daughters are the best thing I have ever done!). The environment is beautiful, the people are nice, and we get to experience the best of all four seasons! That's a picture we took from the top of one of the local mountains. I truly can't imagine a more beautiful area to live in!
Anyway, back to the story. Sometimes a move can be just what the doctor ordered. I know that when we moved, we wanted to move somewhere that was less crowded and had a lower tax rate. We also wanted to make sure that where ever we moved, we wanted to have cable internet service so that I could conduct my business over the internet. As far as we planned, our plan worked! Sharon's illness was the curve ball I didn't see coming...we'll leave that for another blog post. For this post, I'd just like to say that the woman in the article I read transformed her life. She wasn't happy in Manhattan and felt like she was just spinning her wheels. She wanted her life to become simpler. We all have our own paths to follow. In the end, sometimes I think that following your heart isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just make sure that you use your head too. Dreams can come true, if you plan your way there. Ever hear of H.L. Mencken? I didn't think so. Mencken was a news paper reporter back in the 1920s who was known for his sharp tongue. Two of my favorite quotes are below"
"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable." " The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." I think those quotes speak for themselves. Remember, Mencken wrote in the 20's, 30's and 40's. Even so, he nailed today's politics perfectly. Some things never change! Could you imagine a main stream reporter writing like that now? Nowadays, people get their panties in a bunch if someone even slightly disagrees with them. In fact, I think its comical when people cringe when someone says something that is even a little bit off color. A couple of times I have been asked if I thought something I said offended anyone. I always respond no, and then ask loudly if anyone around me was offended by what I had just said. No one has ever said they were. We have free speech in this country people. I may not like everything you have to say, but I really don't care if you say it. Mencken felt strongly about free speech too. His thought on it is below: "My belief in free speech is so profound that I am seldom tempted to deny it to the other fellow. Nor do I make any effort to differentiate between the other fellow right and that other fellow wrong, for I am convinced that free speech is worth nothing unless it includes a full franchise to be foolish and even...malicious" Was Mencken perfect? Of course not. He had his silly ideas and beliefs as well. What I have to admire, however, is that he wrote daily for nearly fifty years! Imagine having the ability to write something interesting every day...for fifty years. Wow! I would have to think that some of that stuff just wasn't worth reading. Even so, people read it, because they were never sure when something he wrote would be pure gold. A lot of what this man wrote was great so it was well worth reading his bad I would think. Anyway, I have prattled on enough for one day. Who knows, maybe Mencken was thinking about an article similar to this one when he wrote the quote below. "The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly greater than that of any other animal." Nuf Said! Before anyone gets ready to call me a democrat or a republican I'd like to state it plainly that I am neither! I think the government should stay out of our lives. I also think that those who think they are making a difference by voting for either a democrat or a republican are only fooling themselves. Democrats and Republicans are two sides of the same coin!
So how would I make it better? I'd start by getting rid of the corruption. The first out would be the Federal Reserve. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to have our money supply run by a corporation run by the banks was either crazy or crooked. My bet would be the latter! So step one is get rid of the Fed and bring back a currency that is backed by an asset that is hard to increase rapidly. In the past, people used gold and silver because it had to be mined and was easily divisible. Step two would be only allow foreign transactions with currencies that are similarly backed. The Unites States has the largest economy on the planet. Countries will want to trade with us. Thus, they will create an asset backed currency to trade with us. The third step is to simplify the tax code and to create a legal limit to the amount that the government can take from a person or corporation. I think a constitutional amendment that limits the take of all governments on our citizens to no more than 10% of income, would do wonders to turn the country around. Instead of social security we could legislate that each person would have to put away a certain percentage of his income each year for their retirement. Everybody would be responsible for investing their own money. By doing this, we would be taking government right out of the equation. For corporate taxes, I would make it so that only foreign sales could be taxed and I would levy a 25% tax on all imports. While this may sound extreme, It actually makes perfect sense. To avoid taxes, companies would open factories in the U.S. to sell products in our markets. While they could still manufacture things overseas, they will quickly find that they would be undercut by local manufacturers. We have the largest single market in the world. It's about time we use that strength to build an economy with full employment. The final steps that I think are necessary are to simplify laws so that people understand them and can obey them. Right now, there are so many laws on the books, and so many of them are so complex that most people don't even know when they are breaking one. The best thing to do here is to simplify the laws we have and take asinine ones off the books. Once this is done, we need to lower government employment to a level where less than 1% of the U.S. population is working for the government. Government should not be a career. Limit the amount of time that people can work for the government and you will limit the power of one group of people over another. Hopefully, this will be my one and only political rant. I am so tired of looking at Facebook and seeing people spouting for new ways for the government to redistribute other people's money. If you think the military needs to be paid more, then donate. If you think abortions should be free, then donate! Don't try and get everyone to pay for programs that favor one group over another! I think my thoughts above will benefit everyone without directly hurting anyone. The new jobs that my plan would create would be perfect for ex-government workers to move into. Work in the real world! |
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