Uh oh! Why don't I see any new posts here? Could it be true? Has Ed Hale finally permanently transformed into Fishy and stopped writing as he's always rumored to one day do just before he disappears forever? Well as it turns out, not quite yet.
So do not despair. In fact, rejoice! The latest greatest iteration of your favorite underground blog, The Transcendence Diaries, version 6.0, has been completely updated revamped and reformatted and is now being hosted HERE. In fact, it's the same address as you've no doubt become very accustomed to visiting. www.transcendencediaries.com. You've probably just arrived here through a technical error. So if you've come to this site by mistake and are surprised to not see anything new, don't fret. The Ambassador is still plugging away as always. You just got off at the wrong stop. Click here and you'll be good to go. And from this point on, THIS is the new site for all the latest from yours truly. Cool?
Peace and Love,
The Ambassador
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Friday, September 20, 2013
Iran and The West Making Progress
Pardon the rough shot copy and paste nature of this post but I felt that it was most important to just get this information out to as many people as possible in a timely manner. If one obtains their world news coverage via only American television they surely aren't aware of much except the usual hype as entertainment disguised as news that the united states has become so adept at popularizing lately. Opined ideologies and corporate sponsored propaganda passed off as news. Political infighting followed by journalist infighting over the political infighting. It's a sad and sorry state for American media.
That doesn't imply that this piece below is any better. It is after all an NBC story. So be fair warned. But at least it is the newly elected Iranian president himself in the flesh speaking. An it does appear that there may be progress coming between these two countries. It's really Israel obviously that we have to worry about. If there's one thing that will prevent peace or lead us to war more than anything else it's Israel. They seem awfully hellbent on the idea. But perhaps with all his blunders of late aside president Obama can help push or better put lead us down a path more peaceful and prosperous than Netenyahu proposed at the UN last year. Almost anything seems better than his stated goals. And lest we forget Obama is the first American elected official to formally and publicly reach out to the Iranian government in over 30 years. It was a bold and smart decision. Admirable.
Now if we could just talk him into ending those criminal crippling economic sanctions... That would be true diplomacy. Hell that would just be the right thing to do. Start there. Just start by being lawful and compassionate
Read on. More later. Peace and love as always.
The Ambassador
2 days ago Iran's president Rouhani: We will never develop nuclear weapons
Iran’s president vows to never develop nuclear weapons
In an exclusive interview with NBC's Ann Curry, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country is asking for peace, stability and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction.
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told NBC News on Wednesday that the country will never develop nuclear weapons and that he has the clout to make a deal with the West on the disputed atomic program.
“In its nuclear program, this government enters with full power and has complete authority,” Rouhani told Ann Curry, NBC News national and international correspondent and anchor at large, in his first interview with a U.S. news outlet since his election.
“The problem won't be from our side,” he said at the presidential compound in Tehran. “We have sufficient political latitude to solve this problem.”
Asked whether Iran would ever build a nuclear weapon, Rouhani noted that the country has repeatedly pledged that “under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever.”
“We have never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb, and we are not going to do so,” he said. “We solely are looking for peaceful nuclear technology.”
Rouhani's comments are the latest in a slew of signs that he is cautiously open to defrosting relations with the U.S., which were in deep freeze under the isolating leadership of his predecessor, the inflammatory Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
He and President Obama have exchanged letters in which they traded views on “some issues.”
"From my point of view, the tone of the letter was positive and constructive," Rouhani said of the note he got from the White House congratulating him on his June election, in which he defeated five hard-liners.
"It could be subtle and tiny steps for a very important future. I believe the leaders in all countries could think in their national interest and they should not be under the influence of pressure groups. I hope to witness such an atmosphere in the future."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that in the letter, Obama told Rouhani the U.S. is open to a resolution to the nuclear impasse in which Iran can prove its atomic program is peaceful.
But he also conveyed the need to act quickly because the window for a diplomatic deal "will not remain open indefinitely,” Carney said.
On another pressing topic, Rouhani was questioned about his views on Iran’s close ally Syria and its promise to give up chemical weapons under the threat of air strikes from the U.S.
He said he could give no guarantees on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad, just days after he was quoted by his country's official news agency as saying he would accept any Syrian president elected by the people.
EXCLUSIVE: Iran president Rouhani says they will never develop nuclear weapons
In his first interview with a U.S. news outlet since becoming president, Hassan Rouhani told NBC News' Ann Curry that he has full authority to strike a nukes deal with the west.
“We are not the government of Syria,” he told Curry when asked about the chemical weapons handover. “We are one of the countries of this region which is asking for peace and stability and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction in the entire region. “
Asked whether he thought Obama looked weak when he backed off the air-strike threat, Rouhani replied, “We consider war a weakness. Any government or administration that decides to wage a war, we consider a weakness. And any government that decides on peace, we look on it with respect to peace.”
His answers underscored the shift in Iranian politics since Rouhani was elected with just over 50 percent of the vote. In his inaugural address, he spoke of engagement with the West to end sanctions over the nuclear program.
"The Iranian people voted 'yes' to moderation," he said in his speech.
Rouhani's appearance next Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly — where western diplomats regularly stalked out of Ahmedinejad's fiery speeches — should provide more clues to just how moderate he is.
Among recent overtures from his administration: the head of Tehran's nuclear program said Rouhani has a "more full-fledged ... desire" to come to an agreement on nukes than the prior government, and his foreign minister tweeted Rosh Hashanah well-wishes earlier this month, in stark contrast to the anti-Semitic vitriol of Ahmedinejad.
Experts say Rouhani's softer approach apparently has the support of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Monday, the new president said the Revolutionary Guards — who report to Khamenei and have been accused of backing hard-liners — should stay out of politics. The next day, Khamenei was quoted on state TV as saying, "It is not necessary for the Guards to have activities in the political field."
Khamenei also spoke about the need for "flexibility.”
"I agree with what I years ago called heroic flexibility, because this is sometimes a very good and necessary move but with sticking to a basic condition," he was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
"Sometimes a wrestler shows flexibility for technical reasons, but he doesn't forget who his opponent is and what his real goal is."
Still, the tension between the U.S. and Iran — which cut diplomatic ties in 1980 after the hostage crisis — remains palpable.
Earlier this week, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, Marzieh Afkham, criticized the tone of Obama's letter to Rouhani.
“Unfortunately, the U.S. administration is still adopting the language of threat while dealing with Iran,” Afkham said, according to the New York Times. “We have announced that this needs to change into the language of respect.”
Western diplomats remain wary of Iran.
After Iranian energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi pledged more cooperation at the annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz sounded a note of caution.
"The proof will be in the pudding," he said. "The words have to be followed by concrete action."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
That doesn't imply that this piece below is any better. It is after all an NBC story. So be fair warned. But at least it is the newly elected Iranian president himself in the flesh speaking. An it does appear that there may be progress coming between these two countries. It's really Israel obviously that we have to worry about. If there's one thing that will prevent peace or lead us to war more than anything else it's Israel. They seem awfully hellbent on the idea. But perhaps with all his blunders of late aside president Obama can help push or better put lead us down a path more peaceful and prosperous than Netenyahu proposed at the UN last year. Almost anything seems better than his stated goals. And lest we forget Obama is the first American elected official to formally and publicly reach out to the Iranian government in over 30 years. It was a bold and smart decision. Admirable.
Now if we could just talk him into ending those criminal crippling economic sanctions... That would be true diplomacy. Hell that would just be the right thing to do. Start there. Just start by being lawful and compassionate
Read on. More later. Peace and love as always.
The Ambassador
2 days ago Iran's president Rouhani: We will never develop nuclear weapons
Iran’s president vows to never develop nuclear weapons
In an exclusive interview with NBC's Ann Curry, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country is asking for peace, stability and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction.
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told NBC News on Wednesday that the country will never develop nuclear weapons and that he has the clout to make a deal with the West on the disputed atomic program.
“In its nuclear program, this government enters with full power and has complete authority,” Rouhani told Ann Curry, NBC News national and international correspondent and anchor at large, in his first interview with a U.S. news outlet since his election.
“The problem won't be from our side,” he said at the presidential compound in Tehran. “We have sufficient political latitude to solve this problem.”
Asked whether Iran would ever build a nuclear weapon, Rouhani noted that the country has repeatedly pledged that “under no circumstances would we seek any weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, nor will we ever.”
“We have never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb, and we are not going to do so,” he said. “We solely are looking for peaceful nuclear technology.”
Rouhani's comments are the latest in a slew of signs that he is cautiously open to defrosting relations with the U.S., which were in deep freeze under the isolating leadership of his predecessor, the inflammatory Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.
He and President Obama have exchanged letters in which they traded views on “some issues.”
"From my point of view, the tone of the letter was positive and constructive," Rouhani said of the note he got from the White House congratulating him on his June election, in which he defeated five hard-liners.
"It could be subtle and tiny steps for a very important future. I believe the leaders in all countries could think in their national interest and they should not be under the influence of pressure groups. I hope to witness such an atmosphere in the future."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that in the letter, Obama told Rouhani the U.S. is open to a resolution to the nuclear impasse in which Iran can prove its atomic program is peaceful.
But he also conveyed the need to act quickly because the window for a diplomatic deal "will not remain open indefinitely,” Carney said.
On another pressing topic, Rouhani was questioned about his views on Iran’s close ally Syria and its promise to give up chemical weapons under the threat of air strikes from the U.S.
He said he could give no guarantees on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad, just days after he was quoted by his country's official news agency as saying he would accept any Syrian president elected by the people.
EXCLUSIVE: Iran president Rouhani says they will never develop nuclear weapons
In his first interview with a U.S. news outlet since becoming president, Hassan Rouhani told NBC News' Ann Curry that he has full authority to strike a nukes deal with the west.
“We are not the government of Syria,” he told Curry when asked about the chemical weapons handover. “We are one of the countries of this region which is asking for peace and stability and the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction in the entire region. “
Asked whether he thought Obama looked weak when he backed off the air-strike threat, Rouhani replied, “We consider war a weakness. Any government or administration that decides to wage a war, we consider a weakness. And any government that decides on peace, we look on it with respect to peace.”
His answers underscored the shift in Iranian politics since Rouhani was elected with just over 50 percent of the vote. In his inaugural address, he spoke of engagement with the West to end sanctions over the nuclear program.
"The Iranian people voted 'yes' to moderation," he said in his speech.
Rouhani's appearance next Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly — where western diplomats regularly stalked out of Ahmedinejad's fiery speeches — should provide more clues to just how moderate he is.
Among recent overtures from his administration: the head of Tehran's nuclear program said Rouhani has a "more full-fledged ... desire" to come to an agreement on nukes than the prior government, and his foreign minister tweeted Rosh Hashanah well-wishes earlier this month, in stark contrast to the anti-Semitic vitriol of Ahmedinejad.
Experts say Rouhani's softer approach apparently has the support of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Monday, the new president said the Revolutionary Guards — who report to Khamenei and have been accused of backing hard-liners — should stay out of politics. The next day, Khamenei was quoted on state TV as saying, "It is not necessary for the Guards to have activities in the political field."
Khamenei also spoke about the need for "flexibility.”
"I agree with what I years ago called heroic flexibility, because this is sometimes a very good and necessary move but with sticking to a basic condition," he was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.
"Sometimes a wrestler shows flexibility for technical reasons, but he doesn't forget who his opponent is and what his real goal is."
Still, the tension between the U.S. and Iran — which cut diplomatic ties in 1980 after the hostage crisis — remains palpable.
Earlier this week, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, Marzieh Afkham, criticized the tone of Obama's letter to Rouhani.
“Unfortunately, the U.S. administration is still adopting the language of threat while dealing with Iran,” Afkham said, according to the New York Times. “We have announced that this needs to change into the language of respect.”
Western diplomats remain wary of Iran.
After Iranian energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi pledged more cooperation at the annual meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz sounded a note of caution.
"The proof will be in the pudding," he said. "The words have to be followed by concrete action."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
Thursday, September 19, 2013
On the Edge of Yet Another Meltdown
The gold market went insane today! like nothing I've ever seen before. Before the markets even opened gold dropped from 128 to 124 and falling in a matter of minutes. In anticipation of Fed chairman Bernanke speaking today. Then after the Fed announced there'd be no taper of the $85 BILLION dollars a month they're currently printing and pumping into the US economy to keep it from collapsing the whole damn market went nuts. As if every investor on planet earth had dropped LSD and it kicked in for EVERYONE all at the same time.
It was insane. Gold ran from 123 to 129 in less than a minute. The numbers were moving so fast on my computer that I thought any minute the processor was going to freeze up or burn out shooting sparks and a whiff of smoke out of the back of my laptop. I caught a few seconds of it on video. Boy was it a site to see.
A little later CNBC was showing the ticker across the top of the screen as it always does for all the various equities and commodities including gold and silver. Went to the bathroom and came back and out and WTH?!?! Gold was showing it was back down to $1308. It had ben at 1362 for hours now. Every two minutes for hours, $1362. And then BAM it just switches to $1308. Silver too. Had lost all it's value. I had seen them do this before. A few weeks back. Only with gold and silver mind you. It was a glitch that lasted about three minutes. But this time it went on and on for about forty minutes. So I was freaked out. Went online to confirm it and sure enough they had it wrong. Gold was right where it should have been.
So what's up with CNBC?!?! Seriously? What the f is going on? We already know the big institutional houses and banks do NOT like gold. It's real. It's a safe haven hedge against sloppy and let's face it fraudulent monetary policies that have caused more than their fair share of economic crises over the last 100 years for Americans. And in 2008 one that effected the whole world. They've got their conspiracy against the one last real hard asset that can't be manipulated and fucked with. It's easy to magically disappear trillions of wealth in dollars and computer blips and bleeps as they did in '08. But it's impossible to go into every persons home and fuck with their gold. That's the one asset class that they can't screw up with hedge funds and Fred default swaps and derivatives et al. And they hate it. So frankly if you ask me, that little glitch that happened on CNBC tonight was no accident. Something accurately happened. Deliberately. For all we know there could have been a few million people tuned in right during that 39 minutes and saw gold down that much and ran to their computer to sell out of their GLD holdings. Out of fear it was dropping again. You just never know.
I posted a query online to see if anyone else noticed it and had any idea what was going on. WHO could pull off such a stunt? We know WHY. But who has that kind of power? Only a few. I received the usual plethora of comments both good bad and comical. And Then the last one caught my eye; Laurie Childers suggested that perhaps we just stay away from the shiny yellow rock that makes white man crazy altogether. Frankly I wouldn't care either way. It's not a foodstuff or a basic need item, nor is it necessarily a luxury that I enjoy immeasurably like say making music or love or learning or writing. So it's not like we're addicted to it. She may have a point.
So i told her, Hey Laurie, that is one original out of the blue an out of the box viewpoint. Kudos for that. And thank you. It's refreshing to hear an idea so out of left field like that once in a whole when we get caught up in something. Can always count on you for that.
But I'll tell ya, the problem is... we have to have "some" form of fungible currency that is real and can't be manipulated by higher ups, 1, AND 2, a safe place to keep it (cash in US currency is not safe as today's 20% drop showed or 2008 showed) and 3, a way to make money from our money in order to make a living or eventually retire or simply safely care for yourself and your love ones, i.e. investing what you have for a profit so you don't end up a burden to society or your loved ones when we're old.. This is the reality of being human on earth. Safe investments... As in days of old -- even good old bonds-- are gone. 2% return?!?! Minus inflation and you've lost money not made it. It's an upside down economy. All cockeyed.
Precious metals are the closest thing to real currency we have left in our global society. Paper money is just too manipulated now. We don't think about it too much in the US -- more people should-- but we hear about it everyday as it happens in various other countries all over the world around us -- their paper currency loses its value completely. Greece Spain Egypt Iceland... Iran is going thru it now due to the US's wicked sanctions. They carry around BRIEFCASES full of cash just to buy groceries. It's sad and scary. India is going thru it too. The Rupee has become nearly worthless in a few months.
This is actually happening in the US too. But it's being artificially propped up thru the deal the US has with the Saudi dictatorship and their oil. We give them military support of their dictatorship and protect their oil fields and they in turn give us the right to force all nations on earth to have to buy all oil in US dollars. It's a very evil scam.
And that's just ONE way it's being artificially propped up. Try googling "price of house or car or men's suit in 1983" and you'll see how much value the US dollar has lost. It's scary.
Not to mention the market manipulations that we saw in 2008. Trillions were lost overnight. Trillions of OUR money. Depositors money. Gone.
If we could stop all that or at least regulate it a bit... I'd be happy not to mess with the yellow OR the silver metals. I'm quite happy w a debit card and PayPal. But alas not if the money ain't there.
Hope this makes sense. It's late and I'm kind of just touching on the issues... But therein lies my personal reasons for having a relationship w gold and silver. It's responsible survival. For ourselves and for the people we love and their futures.
More later. This battle is in full swing now but I dare say it has just begun. We will get to the bottom of it.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Rebuild America or White House Jihad?
It seems a strange coincidence that today as the nation mourns the 12th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Centers in 2001 that the last, most recent image we have of our president is of him giving an internationally televised speech attempting to explain to the world America's dire need to militarily attack yet another country in the Middle East; an irony uniquely American.
I usually refrain from posting in the Transcendence Diaries on September 11th, or making any major or minor statements about it one way or the other; precisely because of the reason that compelled me to do so this year. The day is as memorialized in the national consciousness of the United States people as any major national holiday at this point. 9/11 is as deeply embedded in the American psyche as Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July. But unlike other stand-out days of the year, like Christmas or Easter for instance, September 11th cuts across all races and religions and touches every American heart in a profound way. But the reasons why, now, twelve years later, may be different for some people as compared to others; which is what has transformed the day into such a controversial and contentious topic.
This morning as I contemplated these ideas, I realized that there is no better way of illustrating this point personally than to simply do what I always do every year on this day, but with a few slight changes and additions. Every year on September 11th our record label marks the occasion by posting the music video of the song "Rebuild America" on a wide variety of websites across the internet and on social media, as well as emailing it to our fanbase and releasing a national press release. We recorded the song the week after the attacks and released it soon after. The song became an instant favorite with our fans, an emotional touchstone that helped express the grief and desired hopefulness that many were feeling during that time. The following year we decided to begin donating the proceeds from the sales and downloads of the song to The Robin Hood Foundation, a New York City non-profit that has a special chapter solely dedicated to helping the families of 9/11 victims.
As always, here is that music video:
There is no need to go into any of the details of my own personal experiences on that day or that week as many are apt and justified to do today, as all of it has already been written about extensively here in the pages of the Diaries of previous years. [a simple search for 9/11 would bring up all the entries from the last 12 years related to this day, the tragedy, and the song]. By the spring of 2003, many Americans had shifted their attention from mourning the tragedy of 9/11 to protesting and demonstrating along with the rest of the free world the United States' government's stated plan to invade the country of Iraq. I participated in several demonstrations across the country that season, from Miami to New York to Washington DC. One thing was certain if anything: though the world grieved and sympathized with us for our losses, they were unanimous in their opposition to our government militarily attacking another country with no direct connection to the 9/11 attacks. The month of March saw the world break every record in humanity's history books related to the massive numbers of attendees at these demonstrations. Some cities clocked in over two million people marching through the streets carrying signs and banners begging or demanding the United States to not invade Iraq.
Needless to say, democracy did not prevail in that mammoth global endeavor; democracy had been trumped by sheer force of political will and military might. The event had the unfortunate effect of triggering a reversal of the sentiment of the people of the world in regards to the United States of America, from sympathy and empathy to a very palpable anger and resentment, and worse yet it more brightly illuminated the stated reasons the attackers used to justify their attack than any flag burning or jihad message ever could, i.e. the United States was a heartless bullying global superpower with no respect for the sovereignty of other countries and no appreciation for the sanctity of human life; like many empires before it it was an imperialist arrogant and elitist killing machine that deserved to be attacked and stopped at any cost. It was hard to argue with this idea when confronted with it while traveling to other countries over the next few years. The image of George W. Bush had become the face of a new kind of corporate controlled war monger; the American flag the new symbol of 21st century evil. It was an inescapable sentiment that spanned the globe no matter where I traveled over the next few years. Planet earth had found its new villain that the world loved to hate.
By the fall of 2004 a cheap independently produced film entitled LOOSE CHANGE was making its way through the underground and the cognoscenti that portended a seething theory about 9/11 through asking a series of questions about the myriad inconsistencies and mysteries surrounding many of the events before during and after that fateful day. Many of the inconsistencies were just too obvious and eerie to easily dismiss or deny. At the same time hundreds of videos were beginning to appear all over the internet from a variety of different countries that were pointing out the same problems with the official story and asking the same questions. There are now three full length feature films in the LOOSE CHANGE series. And they are only the tip of the iceberg in regards to the vast quantity of films that have been produced now all proposing similar theories... that there is more to the 9/11 story than what was originally reported officially by the American government and media. If you haven't yet seen these films it would be difficult to think of anything else more important to suggest that one do today. No matter what you're viewpoint, if any, SEE THESE FILMS, if you care in the least about America or the world and it's people.
In 2004 it was ludicrous to suggest to anyone outside of your own family that you had any doubts about the official story surrounding 9/11. It was too close, too soon, too sore still. And besides, are you not a patriot? Do you not love America? Have you no shame? Or pride? Flash forward to 2012 and one is hard pressed to not find that at least half of the people you know aren't skeptical of the official 9/11 story or harboring their own suspicions that something just doesn't feel right about it. (I hesitate to say this and only do so in order to prove a point, with no egoistic intention whatsoever, despite what it may sound like), but it is not often that I personally encounter anyone who knows as much or more than I do about any so-called underground knowledge or conspiracy theories or unreported facts or truths that haven't yet reached the mainstream, let alone have anything to teach me or new to share with me. This has nothing to do with any particular gift talent skill or advantage I claim to possess as much as it does the simple fact that I have more desire to study and learn and can afford to and am willing to give up more time attention and effort for it than anything else. It may be the one thing I personally excel at, if anything, being that learning is the one thing besides making love and music that I am more passionate about than anything else in this particular lifetime.
The reason I mention this is because over the last few years, millions of people have surpassed me in their quest to research and collect data regarding the alleged "terrorist attacks" of September 11th. It seems that everyone has their own personal storehouse of unreported details and facts about the event, and their own personal theories as to what exactly happened; millions of people all over the world, from every race, nation, class, economic background and of every age. The hearts and minds of the people of the world have slowly transitioned from shock, sadness and sympathy over that day to doubt cynicism suspicion and skepticism, a lurking uneasy feeling that won't leave one's thinking once started on the path of researching the events of that day, that week, that month, that year. It has gone from underground conspiracy theory to mainstream common knowledge that the events as they were officially reported are downright impossible to believe.
As the years wore on, it became more and more challenging to defend the United States of America and its dubious so-called foreign policy. Even if the events of 9/11 as they were officially reported were indisputably true and trustworthy, it was becoming more and more apparent to the world that the United States had metamorphosed into something ghastly inhumane and deadly on a global level. Fear and anger rather than patriotism and envy filled the hearts of many when the subject of the good old USA came up in conversation. In 2005 I had already written and released the music video for the song "White House Jihad". The stark contrast between this song and "Rebuild America" couldn't have been more striking. The sentiment of the songs couldn't be more different. It wasn't a conscious thing. I've never written songs like that; in fact I've never done anything with much consciousness or conscience. As anyone can attest, I am more a seat of the pants type. I tell it do it call it as I see it, in each moment, without foresight or regard for consequences.
That video is here:
Just like "Rebuild America", "White House Jihad" seemed to resonate strongly with a certain group of people. The innocence and blind patriotism of "Rebuild America" had long since dissipated and given way to a new-found realism and self-consciousness that each of us had an inherent responsibility to attempt to stop the bloodshed and madness, whether American or any other nationality. Watching the horrors of war, if one is compassionate, is a grueling experience. Whether it's the hundreds of thousands killed in the country under attack or the thousands killed or tens of thousands maimed and injured of one's own country, it doesn't matter. The horror of war is the most unpleasant aspect of the human condition to consider and behold. I knew "White House Jihad" was a controversial song. I knew it was the furthest thing from patriotism during a time when tens of thousands of our fellow brothers and sisters were in harms way and risking their lives and the welfare of their homes and families. But at the same time I felt like I had to do something, to say something. Marching demonstration protesting wasn't working.Talking about it wasn't working. Hell, singing about it didn't work any better.
But as artists we put it out there, no matter what "it" is, when we feel it. It's a statement of purpose, a mass, a vigil, an act of defiance and protest, a mission statement. Years pass. Critics have condemned me for the insensitive and disrespectful sentiment of "White House Jihad", just as others have criticized me for the seemingly ignorant and blind patriotism of "Rebuild America". It's a classic "you can't please everybody all of the time" catch-22. I find it funny now when music critics doing their research to review one of our new albums come across "Rebuild America" and not "White House Jihad" and assume that I am nothing more than the simple naive American flag waver given voice in that song, as if that alone sums up a person. And vice versa. Surely we are all, every single one of us, much more than the momentary feelings and ideas we express in any given hour on any given day. Especially in the context of the state that we live in, as confused and convoluted as it is. It isn't easy being American in this day and age. Perhaps it never has been.
It is certainly a privilege to be American; the country and its chosen mode of governance offers tremendous freedom and holds great potential. But it is also a heavy burden. Of course we wanted and want to rebuild our America; just not at the expense of others weaker than ourselves. Regardless of what we eventually discover or determine caused the tragic events of 9/11, innocent lives were lost. And that's a sad thing. The wind got kicked out of us for a few minutes there. Hope was all we had, along with a very human ability to work hard, see beyond our momentary grief and persevere. On the other side of the coin of course we are embittered and angered by the atrocities committed in our name over the last twelve years. Anyone seeing and hearing clearly sees the dire need we have as a country for change and transformation; it's hanging around our collective neck like a "kick me" sign or a noose. Perhaps it is nothing less than White House jihad that we need to rebuild. A full on revolution of the whole set up. A full cleaning and clearing of the whole house, top to bottom. We don't say these things out of being unpatriotic or unaware or unappreciative of our many blessings as citizens of this country. Rather we say them out of that same hope and love and pride we felt for the country on the first September 11th all those years ago.
I am sure I am not the only one who harbors this same set of confusing and contradictory beliefs and ideas. They echo through our collective conversations as a country on a daily basis now in every form of media and dialogue available to us. Our emperor lost his wardrobe many years ago and I think almost all of us would do just about anything to see the poor glorious bastard clothed once again. This is what makes today so difficult and challenging for many of us. His nakedness is ours; and in the seat of our soul we long for that pride and respect and sense of honor that we vaguely remember feeling once a long time ago to return. We just aren't sure how to get there, which makes days like today even more painful than just the mourning and pain over innocent lives lost. The day has taken on a new meaning for us all, not because of what transpired on that day, but on the days and years that immediately followed it since. Somewhere in our future, if we are to have one at all, is a path that will take us to a new-found sense of self respect honor pride and patriotism as American citizens, but more importantly as responsible and respectful citizens of the world.
The Ambassador
I usually refrain from posting in the Transcendence Diaries on September 11th, or making any major or minor statements about it one way or the other; precisely because of the reason that compelled me to do so this year. The day is as memorialized in the national consciousness of the United States people as any major national holiday at this point. 9/11 is as deeply embedded in the American psyche as Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July. But unlike other stand-out days of the year, like Christmas or Easter for instance, September 11th cuts across all races and religions and touches every American heart in a profound way. But the reasons why, now, twelve years later, may be different for some people as compared to others; which is what has transformed the day into such a controversial and contentious topic.
This morning as I contemplated these ideas, I realized that there is no better way of illustrating this point personally than to simply do what I always do every year on this day, but with a few slight changes and additions. Every year on September 11th our record label marks the occasion by posting the music video of the song "Rebuild America" on a wide variety of websites across the internet and on social media, as well as emailing it to our fanbase and releasing a national press release. We recorded the song the week after the attacks and released it soon after. The song became an instant favorite with our fans, an emotional touchstone that helped express the grief and desired hopefulness that many were feeling during that time. The following year we decided to begin donating the proceeds from the sales and downloads of the song to The Robin Hood Foundation, a New York City non-profit that has a special chapter solely dedicated to helping the families of 9/11 victims.
As always, here is that music video:
There is no need to go into any of the details of my own personal experiences on that day or that week as many are apt and justified to do today, as all of it has already been written about extensively here in the pages of the Diaries of previous years. [a simple search for 9/11 would bring up all the entries from the last 12 years related to this day, the tragedy, and the song]. By the spring of 2003, many Americans had shifted their attention from mourning the tragedy of 9/11 to protesting and demonstrating along with the rest of the free world the United States' government's stated plan to invade the country of Iraq. I participated in several demonstrations across the country that season, from Miami to New York to Washington DC. One thing was certain if anything: though the world grieved and sympathized with us for our losses, they were unanimous in their opposition to our government militarily attacking another country with no direct connection to the 9/11 attacks. The month of March saw the world break every record in humanity's history books related to the massive numbers of attendees at these demonstrations. Some cities clocked in over two million people marching through the streets carrying signs and banners begging or demanding the United States to not invade Iraq.
Needless to say, democracy did not prevail in that mammoth global endeavor; democracy had been trumped by sheer force of political will and military might. The event had the unfortunate effect of triggering a reversal of the sentiment of the people of the world in regards to the United States of America, from sympathy and empathy to a very palpable anger and resentment, and worse yet it more brightly illuminated the stated reasons the attackers used to justify their attack than any flag burning or jihad message ever could, i.e. the United States was a heartless bullying global superpower with no respect for the sovereignty of other countries and no appreciation for the sanctity of human life; like many empires before it it was an imperialist arrogant and elitist killing machine that deserved to be attacked and stopped at any cost. It was hard to argue with this idea when confronted with it while traveling to other countries over the next few years. The image of George W. Bush had become the face of a new kind of corporate controlled war monger; the American flag the new symbol of 21st century evil. It was an inescapable sentiment that spanned the globe no matter where I traveled over the next few years. Planet earth had found its new villain that the world loved to hate.
By the fall of 2004 a cheap independently produced film entitled LOOSE CHANGE was making its way through the underground and the cognoscenti that portended a seething theory about 9/11 through asking a series of questions about the myriad inconsistencies and mysteries surrounding many of the events before during and after that fateful day. Many of the inconsistencies were just too obvious and eerie to easily dismiss or deny. At the same time hundreds of videos were beginning to appear all over the internet from a variety of different countries that were pointing out the same problems with the official story and asking the same questions. There are now three full length feature films in the LOOSE CHANGE series. And they are only the tip of the iceberg in regards to the vast quantity of films that have been produced now all proposing similar theories... that there is more to the 9/11 story than what was originally reported officially by the American government and media. If you haven't yet seen these films it would be difficult to think of anything else more important to suggest that one do today. No matter what you're viewpoint, if any, SEE THESE FILMS, if you care in the least about America or the world and it's people.
In 2004 it was ludicrous to suggest to anyone outside of your own family that you had any doubts about the official story surrounding 9/11. It was too close, too soon, too sore still. And besides, are you not a patriot? Do you not love America? Have you no shame? Or pride? Flash forward to 2012 and one is hard pressed to not find that at least half of the people you know aren't skeptical of the official 9/11 story or harboring their own suspicions that something just doesn't feel right about it. (I hesitate to say this and only do so in order to prove a point, with no egoistic intention whatsoever, despite what it may sound like), but it is not often that I personally encounter anyone who knows as much or more than I do about any so-called underground knowledge or conspiracy theories or unreported facts or truths that haven't yet reached the mainstream, let alone have anything to teach me or new to share with me. This has nothing to do with any particular gift talent skill or advantage I claim to possess as much as it does the simple fact that I have more desire to study and learn and can afford to and am willing to give up more time attention and effort for it than anything else. It may be the one thing I personally excel at, if anything, being that learning is the one thing besides making love and music that I am more passionate about than anything else in this particular lifetime.
The reason I mention this is because over the last few years, millions of people have surpassed me in their quest to research and collect data regarding the alleged "terrorist attacks" of September 11th. It seems that everyone has their own personal storehouse of unreported details and facts about the event, and their own personal theories as to what exactly happened; millions of people all over the world, from every race, nation, class, economic background and of every age. The hearts and minds of the people of the world have slowly transitioned from shock, sadness and sympathy over that day to doubt cynicism suspicion and skepticism, a lurking uneasy feeling that won't leave one's thinking once started on the path of researching the events of that day, that week, that month, that year. It has gone from underground conspiracy theory to mainstream common knowledge that the events as they were officially reported are downright impossible to believe.
As the years wore on, it became more and more challenging to defend the United States of America and its dubious so-called foreign policy. Even if the events of 9/11 as they were officially reported were indisputably true and trustworthy, it was becoming more and more apparent to the world that the United States had metamorphosed into something ghastly inhumane and deadly on a global level. Fear and anger rather than patriotism and envy filled the hearts of many when the subject of the good old USA came up in conversation. In 2005 I had already written and released the music video for the song "White House Jihad". The stark contrast between this song and "Rebuild America" couldn't have been more striking. The sentiment of the songs couldn't be more different. It wasn't a conscious thing. I've never written songs like that; in fact I've never done anything with much consciousness or conscience. As anyone can attest, I am more a seat of the pants type. I tell it do it call it as I see it, in each moment, without foresight or regard for consequences.
That video is here:
Just like "Rebuild America", "White House Jihad" seemed to resonate strongly with a certain group of people. The innocence and blind patriotism of "Rebuild America" had long since dissipated and given way to a new-found realism and self-consciousness that each of us had an inherent responsibility to attempt to stop the bloodshed and madness, whether American or any other nationality. Watching the horrors of war, if one is compassionate, is a grueling experience. Whether it's the hundreds of thousands killed in the country under attack or the thousands killed or tens of thousands maimed and injured of one's own country, it doesn't matter. The horror of war is the most unpleasant aspect of the human condition to consider and behold. I knew "White House Jihad" was a controversial song. I knew it was the furthest thing from patriotism during a time when tens of thousands of our fellow brothers and sisters were in harms way and risking their lives and the welfare of their homes and families. But at the same time I felt like I had to do something, to say something. Marching demonstration protesting wasn't working.Talking about it wasn't working. Hell, singing about it didn't work any better.
But as artists we put it out there, no matter what "it" is, when we feel it. It's a statement of purpose, a mass, a vigil, an act of defiance and protest, a mission statement. Years pass. Critics have condemned me for the insensitive and disrespectful sentiment of "White House Jihad", just as others have criticized me for the seemingly ignorant and blind patriotism of "Rebuild America". It's a classic "you can't please everybody all of the time" catch-22. I find it funny now when music critics doing their research to review one of our new albums come across "Rebuild America" and not "White House Jihad" and assume that I am nothing more than the simple naive American flag waver given voice in that song, as if that alone sums up a person. And vice versa. Surely we are all, every single one of us, much more than the momentary feelings and ideas we express in any given hour on any given day. Especially in the context of the state that we live in, as confused and convoluted as it is. It isn't easy being American in this day and age. Perhaps it never has been.
It is certainly a privilege to be American; the country and its chosen mode of governance offers tremendous freedom and holds great potential. But it is also a heavy burden. Of course we wanted and want to rebuild our America; just not at the expense of others weaker than ourselves. Regardless of what we eventually discover or determine caused the tragic events of 9/11, innocent lives were lost. And that's a sad thing. The wind got kicked out of us for a few minutes there. Hope was all we had, along with a very human ability to work hard, see beyond our momentary grief and persevere. On the other side of the coin of course we are embittered and angered by the atrocities committed in our name over the last twelve years. Anyone seeing and hearing clearly sees the dire need we have as a country for change and transformation; it's hanging around our collective neck like a "kick me" sign or a noose. Perhaps it is nothing less than White House jihad that we need to rebuild. A full on revolution of the whole set up. A full cleaning and clearing of the whole house, top to bottom. We don't say these things out of being unpatriotic or unaware or unappreciative of our many blessings as citizens of this country. Rather we say them out of that same hope and love and pride we felt for the country on the first September 11th all those years ago.
I am sure I am not the only one who harbors this same set of confusing and contradictory beliefs and ideas. They echo through our collective conversations as a country on a daily basis now in every form of media and dialogue available to us. Our emperor lost his wardrobe many years ago and I think almost all of us would do just about anything to see the poor glorious bastard clothed once again. This is what makes today so difficult and challenging for many of us. His nakedness is ours; and in the seat of our soul we long for that pride and respect and sense of honor that we vaguely remember feeling once a long time ago to return. We just aren't sure how to get there, which makes days like today even more painful than just the mourning and pain over innocent lives lost. The day has taken on a new meaning for us all, not because of what transpired on that day, but on the days and years that immediately followed it since. Somewhere in our future, if we are to have one at all, is a path that will take us to a new-found sense of self respect honor pride and patriotism as American citizens, but more importantly as responsible and respectful citizens of the world.
The Ambassador
Monday, September 09, 2013
Coming Down Off the Chocolate High
In one of the strangest geo-political twists the United States has ever seen, the president of Syria, yes that Syria, manages to appear on American television this morning, BEFORE the president of the United States, to discuss the recent allegations (by the United States) that the government of Syria inadvertently used chemical weapons against its own people in the civil war the country is experiencing. I can tell you as an American that it was more than a bit surreal to see Syria's president beat our own to the punch in messaging the American people. I'm not sure if Obama is high or stupid, but not since the Iran-Contra Affair has the world seen such a blunder as this plan to attack Syria threat has been. Not only has it confused the hell out of the American public but it's sent the economic markets rocking back and forth on an almost daily basis. No one knows what the hell is going on, especially the president of the United States.
In an even stranger twist still, just hours later, it was announced by the mainstream media that Russia has been brokering a deal with Syria and the United States for over a week to allow Syria to turn over its chemical weapons to a neutral third party in the international community. President Obama admitted in an interview today on CNN that he has been discussing this option with Russian president Putin since the G20 Summit. Which means that all this recent blustering by Secretary of State John Kerry has been what? A ruse? A bluff? Was the carpet pulled out from him at the last minute? The voting in the Senate and in Congress?
Many in America and around the world would agree that there was nothing as purely evil AND fool-hearty at the same time in American history as the Bush-Cheney years. This was pure selfish war mongering in the traditional old-fashioned imperial style of pre WW II years. Compounded with Bush himself who never quite seemed to be aware of what he or his administration was actually doing, let alone the world at large. It was one of the first times the whole world got to see firsthand just how little the president of the United States actually does besides just being a charismatic figurehead. But the last few years of the Obama presidency have been starting to make look GW look not half as dumb and foolish, nor as mean spirited and evil as some have been led to believe prior to Obama's ascendancy to the White House. Words like fumble, foible, farce, mockery, sham, gaffe, mess and more have all been used in recent days to describe the lone wolf president's handling of this Syrian conflict; a conflict we must remember that has absolutely nothing to do with us.
From the moment Obama inserted himself into this tragic affair by boisterously announcing his "red line", the Syrian government's civil war has become an American problem, with myriad prospects for future problems for us now that his proverbial foot has been placed in his mouth.Watching him attempt to pull it out over the last few weeks has been an agonizing affair for all. It isn't easy to see the emperor parade through town without any clothes, even if you aren't a fan.
Which is where I, like many, find myself. Never being a fan of Obama, it isn't as difficult for me it's been for many; those who are liberal in the media are admittedly stumped, disappointed and confused. For me, besides the very basics -- e.g. the excitement around the US electing its first half-African American president, I was not an Obama fan as much as just a non-Romney fan. from the start there were too many aspects of the man and his mysterious past that I just didn't and don't like. I couldn't vote for him in 2008 because of this, so I gave my vote away. It was obvious he was going to win. I personally did not feel comfortable being a part of electing him. To be perfectly frank I can still remember seeing his face on several occasions and remarking to Princess Little Tree that "I don't know why yet, but every time I look at him I feel this strange eerie intuitive flash inside that HE is actually the man who is going to be responsible for starting World War III or something like it; can't explain it. But it's there... He just doesn't seem to be on the up and up."
Once it was revealed that this "man of peace" was secretly assassinating more people with drones than any previous president, or that more immigrants have been deported under his watch than any other prior administration -- while he pretends to maintain a "pro-immigrant" stance to the unknowing masses, or that more people have been arrested and imprisoned for drug possession during his administration than any other -- again while he himself benefits from a "mr. cool factor" for admitting to doing drugs in college, or that he was in the pocket of Monsanto and signed a deathly no-labeling of GMOs law behind the backs of his most ardent liberal followers, or that he's been consistently and covertly bombing both Yemen and Pakistan for over a year -- killing hundreds of innocent civilians in the process, OR that he was the first president to single handedly order an assassination of an American citizen for "threatening to commit terrorism", it became very clear to me that, like most US presidential candidates, he was just as corrupt as he was charismatic. And therein lies the key to why it is ridiculous for so many of our friends around the country, men and women alike, to be so blindly gaga over him -- as if he were some kind of "new brand, never before seen hero of mythic proportions, an enlightened leader who's going to do things differently".
As compassionate liberty-leaning people, yes we must commend him for his stance on gay marriage equality. That has been a highly transformative shift in our culture in a very positive direction. But besides that, the high is wearing off. In light of this new Syria debacle, combined with last year's Libya debacle (which, let's face it, he got away with just through being very crafty and charismatic), I am sadly starting to fear that Barack Obama may turn out to be one of the worst things we as a nation have ever done (besides Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, etc... Obviously that's a big list....) It is starting to appear as though we sacrificed experience boldness intelligence and skill for "fulfilling America's dormant MLK Dream". And to be sure that WAS a great achievement in and of itself. I'm glad we did it, glad we were capable of it finally, glad I saw it transpire in my lifetime. I am sure in and of itself it has and is going to change tens of millions of lives around the world for decades to come: in increasing racial equality and tolerance, in helping lead by example on that front and in helping to bolster the self opinion of so-called minorities worldwide, but especially in America. No one can ever again utter the words "Yeah but we'll never elect a black president..." Those days are now gone once and for all. So good on us for that.
BUT... and this is a BIG but... what will be the cost of this smaller picture achievement in the big picture? How much worse is it going to get? How many more foibles or blatant acts of deception will we be forced to endure for this accomplishment? As in what's next? Has the man (and his entire administration to be fair) no clue what he's messing around with here? Has his head just become so big that he forgot that we need to actually do our homework in order to make those straight As? Or is it simply the blind power that corrupts absolutely when one notices how big their stockpile of missiles is? This is after all Syria we are talking about here. The heart of the Middle East and the dread of every sane person's worst nightmares when it comes to radical extremist terrorism. This is THE Damascus, the oldest continuous city on planet earth and coincidentally the legendary Damascus of numerous World War III prophecies. Besides Iran? Russia? China? Not to mention the Egypt/Palestine/Israel/Jordan consequences inherently attached at the hip of it all.
The relative ease and casual stance he seems to be taking when talking about our country entering into military conflict with the second two largest countries on earth is alarming. He now speaks and acts exactly like many presidents who came before him, with the same kind of blind hubris and arrogance as if he truly believed that the United States divinely inherited the title of "world's greatest ruling empire" and has the right to bark commands and ultimatums at anyone it damn well pleases just because it has the biggest ego and pile of weapons. We can all more than vaguely remember the Obama of just a few short years ago stating unequivocally that he did NOT adhere to this ideology and that he would do his best to attempt to fix our country's fouled reputation because of such misguided ideas. Where is THAT Barack Obama?
Allegedly, at least according to his words and actions until today, he plans on going all in against ALL of them, regardless of their protests and none to subtle suggestions that we dare not tread in those waters. And at the same time no less? It's one thing to invade a little country like Grenada, or Iraq when you have a coalition of larger nations on your side. It's another thing entirely to butt heads directly with the bloody four horsemen of the apocalypse. Especially when HE won't actually be doing any fighting. Like Bush before him, Obama hasn't and won't see any action on the field if we were to enter yet another bloody military conflict. While he's playing basketball, living breathing American men and women will be doing the fighting. And that's precisely the reason why the man was elected in the first place, i.e. to get us out of those kinds of scenarios once and for all. Lest we forget that while Senator John McCain has now become Obama's main and nearly only supporter in this new fantasy, it was HE who Obama ran against in his first presidential election, his win based in large part on the promise that "I'm not going to give you four more years of Bush".
We also need to remember that this week just happens to mark the one year anniversary of the attack on our embassies in Benghazi, Libya. This is still a painful thorn in the side of every American citizen who care about each other. In this case, four actual American's were actually killed. We were attacked. As in "perhaps we should take some kind of defensive military action" attacked, in our own home-base and territory. That issue was just covered up and brushed aside as if it never happened. Never before have we seen an administration make so little out of something so big before. But here we are being led to believe that "Syria poses a major threat to our national security" according to the president. Whereas Libya was.... what? Ironically, this afternoon during his interview on CNN, Obama told Wolf Blitzer that "it is inconceivable and just not credible that Assaad's government can pose any real threat to the United States militarily." So then WHY exactly are we going to attack them?
Another disturbing element of this farce has been Kerry's and Obama's consistent assertions that "this isn't just we here in the United States who are upset about Syria's use of chemical weapons and who feel the need to take action against the Assaad government". The problem with these statements is that so far it IS just the United States who is claiming that they need to attack Syria. It's not like we're standing a long line to get our punch in. For whatever reason, the U.S. government feels a sudden and desperate need to attack the Syrian government. As is always the case in geo-political events of this magnitude, we won't find out the real reasons for this new so-called Syrian crisis for months or even years when it comes out in the back pages of newspapers or in future New York Times Bestsellers. By then Obama will be a former president and lo and behold we will discover that the details of the situation are far different than what we are currently being told. The Obama White House is counting on that fact. One hopes that for once we discover the true reasons for this before years have passed. We deserve it. The people who voted for him deserve it.
Of course, we aren't even talking about the economy yet... I have found it very disturbing that Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire tycoon publisher and economy expert, has stated on many occasions that he's a "life long voting democrat" who has visited the White House numerous times on the president's invitation to try to talk sense to the Obama administration about the economy and how to handle it and according to him "they just won't listen; I fear for the country if they continue down this path and make the same mistakes they've been making" he has stated. And the man is Jewish. Jews don't vote Republican traditionally. But he just doesn't see how the economy is going to turn around if the Obama administration doesn't start making more fiscally intelligent decisions. This is a frightening idea, a Jewish democrat saying he can't in good conscience vote for a president he was in love with four years prior because his fiscal policies don't make common sense.
There's more of course. Much of which we've already discussed here in the past and much that we've never mentioned. (Sandy Hook is one such "unmentionable"...) But what still puzzles me the most about all this is now that the curtain has been pulled back regarding so many aspects of the great and powerful O, and now that he has flip-flopped on the major issue that distinguished him from his opponents -- unilaterally and militarily attacking other sovereign nations who have not attacked nor even threatened us, HOW on earth can people still feel so ra-ra about the man or continue to defend and commend him? What exactly are people waiting for? What do they need to see before they come back down to earth and start seeing him as he really is? Yes, he's our first black president and that's amazing. Sure he's a cool and good looking guy who can give one hell of a speech and that feels good after eight years of bumbling Bush and the dark heart of Dick Cheney clogged our airwaves. But it is past time for us to stop the hero worship and start rolling up our sleeves and taking to the streets the same way we would if it WERE Bush/Cheney planning an attack like this. Many already are. And that's what makes America such an incredibly admirable country. And with 59% of the people overtly against any kind of military action towards Syria, that speaks volumes about the heart and mind of our country. Let us hope that we continue to grow as we apparently have and that we can somehow help our president do so with us.
In an even stranger twist still, just hours later, it was announced by the mainstream media that Russia has been brokering a deal with Syria and the United States for over a week to allow Syria to turn over its chemical weapons to a neutral third party in the international community. President Obama admitted in an interview today on CNN that he has been discussing this option with Russian president Putin since the G20 Summit. Which means that all this recent blustering by Secretary of State John Kerry has been what? A ruse? A bluff? Was the carpet pulled out from him at the last minute? The voting in the Senate and in Congress?
Many in America and around the world would agree that there was nothing as purely evil AND fool-hearty at the same time in American history as the Bush-Cheney years. This was pure selfish war mongering in the traditional old-fashioned imperial style of pre WW II years. Compounded with Bush himself who never quite seemed to be aware of what he or his administration was actually doing, let alone the world at large. It was one of the first times the whole world got to see firsthand just how little the president of the United States actually does besides just being a charismatic figurehead. But the last few years of the Obama presidency have been starting to make look GW look not half as dumb and foolish, nor as mean spirited and evil as some have been led to believe prior to Obama's ascendancy to the White House. Words like fumble, foible, farce, mockery, sham, gaffe, mess and more have all been used in recent days to describe the lone wolf president's handling of this Syrian conflict; a conflict we must remember that has absolutely nothing to do with us.
From the moment Obama inserted himself into this tragic affair by boisterously announcing his "red line", the Syrian government's civil war has become an American problem, with myriad prospects for future problems for us now that his proverbial foot has been placed in his mouth.Watching him attempt to pull it out over the last few weeks has been an agonizing affair for all. It isn't easy to see the emperor parade through town without any clothes, even if you aren't a fan.
Which is where I, like many, find myself. Never being a fan of Obama, it isn't as difficult for me it's been for many; those who are liberal in the media are admittedly stumped, disappointed and confused. For me, besides the very basics -- e.g. the excitement around the US electing its first half-African American president, I was not an Obama fan as much as just a non-Romney fan. from the start there were too many aspects of the man and his mysterious past that I just didn't and don't like. I couldn't vote for him in 2008 because of this, so I gave my vote away. It was obvious he was going to win. I personally did not feel comfortable being a part of electing him. To be perfectly frank I can still remember seeing his face on several occasions and remarking to Princess Little Tree that "I don't know why yet, but every time I look at him I feel this strange eerie intuitive flash inside that HE is actually the man who is going to be responsible for starting World War III or something like it; can't explain it. But it's there... He just doesn't seem to be on the up and up."
Once it was revealed that this "man of peace" was secretly assassinating more people with drones than any previous president, or that more immigrants have been deported under his watch than any other prior administration -- while he pretends to maintain a "pro-immigrant" stance to the unknowing masses, or that more people have been arrested and imprisoned for drug possession during his administration than any other -- again while he himself benefits from a "mr. cool factor" for admitting to doing drugs in college, or that he was in the pocket of Monsanto and signed a deathly no-labeling of GMOs law behind the backs of his most ardent liberal followers, or that he's been consistently and covertly bombing both Yemen and Pakistan for over a year -- killing hundreds of innocent civilians in the process, OR that he was the first president to single handedly order an assassination of an American citizen for "threatening to commit terrorism", it became very clear to me that, like most US presidential candidates, he was just as corrupt as he was charismatic. And therein lies the key to why it is ridiculous for so many of our friends around the country, men and women alike, to be so blindly gaga over him -- as if he were some kind of "new brand, never before seen hero of mythic proportions, an enlightened leader who's going to do things differently".
As compassionate liberty-leaning people, yes we must commend him for his stance on gay marriage equality. That has been a highly transformative shift in our culture in a very positive direction. But besides that, the high is wearing off. In light of this new Syria debacle, combined with last year's Libya debacle (which, let's face it, he got away with just through being very crafty and charismatic), I am sadly starting to fear that Barack Obama may turn out to be one of the worst things we as a nation have ever done (besides Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, etc... Obviously that's a big list....) It is starting to appear as though we sacrificed experience boldness intelligence and skill for "fulfilling America's dormant MLK Dream". And to be sure that WAS a great achievement in and of itself. I'm glad we did it, glad we were capable of it finally, glad I saw it transpire in my lifetime. I am sure in and of itself it has and is going to change tens of millions of lives around the world for decades to come: in increasing racial equality and tolerance, in helping lead by example on that front and in helping to bolster the self opinion of so-called minorities worldwide, but especially in America. No one can ever again utter the words "Yeah but we'll never elect a black president..." Those days are now gone once and for all. So good on us for that.
BUT... and this is a BIG but... what will be the cost of this smaller picture achievement in the big picture? How much worse is it going to get? How many more foibles or blatant acts of deception will we be forced to endure for this accomplishment? As in what's next? Has the man (and his entire administration to be fair) no clue what he's messing around with here? Has his head just become so big that he forgot that we need to actually do our homework in order to make those straight As? Or is it simply the blind power that corrupts absolutely when one notices how big their stockpile of missiles is? This is after all Syria we are talking about here. The heart of the Middle East and the dread of every sane person's worst nightmares when it comes to radical extremist terrorism. This is THE Damascus, the oldest continuous city on planet earth and coincidentally the legendary Damascus of numerous World War III prophecies. Besides Iran? Russia? China? Not to mention the Egypt/Palestine/Israel/Jordan consequences inherently attached at the hip of it all.
The relative ease and casual stance he seems to be taking when talking about our country entering into military conflict with the second two largest countries on earth is alarming. He now speaks and acts exactly like many presidents who came before him, with the same kind of blind hubris and arrogance as if he truly believed that the United States divinely inherited the title of "world's greatest ruling empire" and has the right to bark commands and ultimatums at anyone it damn well pleases just because it has the biggest ego and pile of weapons. We can all more than vaguely remember the Obama of just a few short years ago stating unequivocally that he did NOT adhere to this ideology and that he would do his best to attempt to fix our country's fouled reputation because of such misguided ideas. Where is THAT Barack Obama?
Allegedly, at least according to his words and actions until today, he plans on going all in against ALL of them, regardless of their protests and none to subtle suggestions that we dare not tread in those waters. And at the same time no less? It's one thing to invade a little country like Grenada, or Iraq when you have a coalition of larger nations on your side. It's another thing entirely to butt heads directly with the bloody four horsemen of the apocalypse. Especially when HE won't actually be doing any fighting. Like Bush before him, Obama hasn't and won't see any action on the field if we were to enter yet another bloody military conflict. While he's playing basketball, living breathing American men and women will be doing the fighting. And that's precisely the reason why the man was elected in the first place, i.e. to get us out of those kinds of scenarios once and for all. Lest we forget that while Senator John McCain has now become Obama's main and nearly only supporter in this new fantasy, it was HE who Obama ran against in his first presidential election, his win based in large part on the promise that "I'm not going to give you four more years of Bush".
We also need to remember that this week just happens to mark the one year anniversary of the attack on our embassies in Benghazi, Libya. This is still a painful thorn in the side of every American citizen who care about each other. In this case, four actual American's were actually killed. We were attacked. As in "perhaps we should take some kind of defensive military action" attacked, in our own home-base and territory. That issue was just covered up and brushed aside as if it never happened. Never before have we seen an administration make so little out of something so big before. But here we are being led to believe that "Syria poses a major threat to our national security" according to the president. Whereas Libya was.... what? Ironically, this afternoon during his interview on CNN, Obama told Wolf Blitzer that "it is inconceivable and just not credible that Assaad's government can pose any real threat to the United States militarily." So then WHY exactly are we going to attack them?
Another disturbing element of this farce has been Kerry's and Obama's consistent assertions that "this isn't just we here in the United States who are upset about Syria's use of chemical weapons and who feel the need to take action against the Assaad government". The problem with these statements is that so far it IS just the United States who is claiming that they need to attack Syria. It's not like we're standing a long line to get our punch in. For whatever reason, the U.S. government feels a sudden and desperate need to attack the Syrian government. As is always the case in geo-political events of this magnitude, we won't find out the real reasons for this new so-called Syrian crisis for months or even years when it comes out in the back pages of newspapers or in future New York Times Bestsellers. By then Obama will be a former president and lo and behold we will discover that the details of the situation are far different than what we are currently being told. The Obama White House is counting on that fact. One hopes that for once we discover the true reasons for this before years have passed. We deserve it. The people who voted for him deserve it.
Of course, we aren't even talking about the economy yet... I have found it very disturbing that Mort Zuckerman, the billionaire tycoon publisher and economy expert, has stated on many occasions that he's a "life long voting democrat" who has visited the White House numerous times on the president's invitation to try to talk sense to the Obama administration about the economy and how to handle it and according to him "they just won't listen; I fear for the country if they continue down this path and make the same mistakes they've been making" he has stated. And the man is Jewish. Jews don't vote Republican traditionally. But he just doesn't see how the economy is going to turn around if the Obama administration doesn't start making more fiscally intelligent decisions. This is a frightening idea, a Jewish democrat saying he can't in good conscience vote for a president he was in love with four years prior because his fiscal policies don't make common sense.
There's more of course. Much of which we've already discussed here in the past and much that we've never mentioned. (Sandy Hook is one such "unmentionable"...) But what still puzzles me the most about all this is now that the curtain has been pulled back regarding so many aspects of the great and powerful O, and now that he has flip-flopped on the major issue that distinguished him from his opponents -- unilaterally and militarily attacking other sovereign nations who have not attacked nor even threatened us, HOW on earth can people still feel so ra-ra about the man or continue to defend and commend him? What exactly are people waiting for? What do they need to see before they come back down to earth and start seeing him as he really is? Yes, he's our first black president and that's amazing. Sure he's a cool and good looking guy who can give one hell of a speech and that feels good after eight years of bumbling Bush and the dark heart of Dick Cheney clogged our airwaves. But it is past time for us to stop the hero worship and start rolling up our sleeves and taking to the streets the same way we would if it WERE Bush/Cheney planning an attack like this. Many already are. And that's what makes America such an incredibly admirable country. And with 59% of the people overtly against any kind of military action towards Syria, that speaks volumes about the heart and mind of our country. Let us hope that we continue to grow as we apparently have and that we can somehow help our president do so with us.
Wednesday, September 04, 2013
Protecting Usernames and Passwords Sir Richard Style
That evening, unable to sleep, I decided that I needed to take some preventative action in order to prevent the same from happening to me and mine. First I used an encryption app to mask all the data; but I also needed to change the name of the file I keep that data in. But what should I NAME this new file? Certainly "Passwords" wasn't the smartest idea. So many people I know have a file or a Note in this phone called "Passwords"; just as poor Sir Richard once did. Probably not the smartest move. But as with all things negative in life, everyone is SURE that "that'll never happen to ME". Until it does. That's life. Funny how that works.
Nope. The name of this file needs to be something that no one would ever be the slightest bit interested in if my device were ever lost or stolen. In days gone by when wanting to hide certain personal or confidential communications from the wandering eyes of overly curious busy-bodies in college, I would name the documents something like to dat.bin.cache01901 or some other meticulously boring and random name. This is a particularly brilliant idea that I highly recommend to anyone who has something/anything that they would prefer to keep private... It might be personal diary entries, or it might be the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe that you've been saving for just the right occasion. The file name should be something that sounds as if it's just a system file; that usually does the trick. Hell, I don't even want to click on files with those types of names.
But what of this new file name for all my usernames and passwords? It too should be cryptic random and boring and NOT contain the words "username" or "password" in it even once. But it also had to be something I myself would remember... In the end, I decided on renaming this file RichardElliot, HIS name. No stranger is going to click on some random name if they find someone's laptop or phone... And best of all if I ever forgot the name of the file where I keep my usernames and passwords I figured, I would still be compelled to click on that Note now and then just to see why the hell I had created a Note called RichardElliot in the first place, in which case I would then be reminded what it was and where all my usernames and passwords were.
A few minutes ago, after creating yet another new online account necessitating a username and password, this time on Basecamp (an excellent app if you aren't yet familiar with it), I opened up my RichardElliot file to make a note of this new username and password and was reminded why nearly ten years later I am still typing data into a Note with the old boy's name on it. It's funny how one minor event in one person's life can lead to another in someone else's so haphazardly. And what an odd thing it is now, these words; to him they are one of the most personal things a person can be associated with, besides a body one guesses, his name. To me, those words have transcended nameness entirely. Without thought, they're boldly etched in my mind now, solidly demarking a file I access on a a nearly daily basis, sometimes several times per day, ingrained in my consciousness as deeply as my own social security number or birth date. Yet in reality this is someone's name. A living breathing individual 5000 miles away....
An added bonus is that I don't believe a day has gone by in the last ten years that I have not thought at least once about Sir Richard. In a way it might be construed as "cheating" a bit I suppose. When Sir Richard receives a seemingly random call text or Facebook message from me asking how he's doing, he expresses feeling "pleasantly surprised" and thanks me for "always thinking of him." Little does he know from whence the thought came... He might end up being that one friend on earth I stay in contact with the longest in my life simply due to this strange twist. But hey I can think of much worse things people could do with our name. So in the bigger picture it's probably not such a bad thing. And if in the end it saves me from suffering the same fate as he all those years ago God love him, then I shall certainly be forever in his debt.
Monday, September 02, 2013
Superman Explains the Transcendence Diaries
Tonight Princess Little Tree had the opportunity to watch Superman I and II. We had never seen them before but had heard about them for years. we were curious. I more than she of course. Both movies are considered American classics. They made Christopher Reeve an instant celebrity and household name and swept up at the box office. As you read this bare in mind it's being written while another American classic, a James Bond film by the name of Goldfinger I believe, is playing in the background. This is another classic Hollywood flick that neither the Princess, who's long ago fallen asleep by now lucky her, or I ever felt even a slight desire to entertain. The 20 to 30 percent of attention I can afford the movie while simultaneously composing this Diary entry on an iPhone is more than enough to be able to already see that these so called James Bond classics are no better than the aforementioned Superman movies.
Don't get me wrong. There is nothing more unbearable in ones disposition than to discover that what thrills entertains titillates excites and moves the majority of others in his species does absolutely nothing for him but bores and more often than not simultaneously annoys. It isn't a pleasant way to live amongst ones peers, nor an easy way to feel that sense of belonging that scientists claim is one of the seven basic human needs. Luckily once we escape the socially emotionally and intellectually stifling and suffocating confines of what they call K through 12, we do tend to discover with pleasure that we aren't as alone in the world as we once believed we were in our first 16 years of existence. It's a more than welcome surprise. To learn that there are others who share our love for mental stimulation and our inherent disdain for most things pedantic and mainstream.
But that doesn't mean that adulthood is all pies smiles and magic carpet rides. One does have to interact with the masses regardless of what profession one chooses. Even rock 'n' roll. There's a loneliness, a palpable sense of isolation that can be quite stifling if we allow ourselves to give into the temptation of deliberate hermitage due to not having enough in common with everyday people. I experienced it firsthand just out of the college years. I learned that I had to deliberately choose to mingle with the masses if I was to maintain what semblance of sanity I may have had. I would love to report that it was brutally challenging and nearly unbearable but truth be told it wasn't half bad. Unlike many of my ilk I found it rather easy to bullshit with the working classes. Water cooler talk and all. The Tree God bless him used to plead with me how I managed to do it. He couldn't bare to to do it himself and thus was often thrust into a world with himself as his only companion. I almost always replied "I either stay high or I have a few drinks old chap. It makes it more bearable. Try it. It's not bad once you get used to it."
Of course I didn't always need to be high or drink in order to wine and dine with the mainstream crowd. The first coupla years, sure. How else are we meant to endure the banal conversations about nothing and worse yet the barrage of mistaken propaganda for facts and statistics that are thrust into the air so casually and confidently. It's no wonder the United States has gotten away with being labeled the land of the free and home of the brave when in reality it's the most brutal killing machine of an empire the world has seen since Nazi Germany. No wonder at all. Flip on any network or cable news show for a few minutes if you can stomach it and you'll see just how easy it's been for this sham to be pulled off.
But that doesn't have much to do with Superman does it? Tsk tsk. So what does Superman have to do with the Transcendendce Diaries? Simply put, absolutely nothing. Superman can best explain the Diaries by the understanding that the author of said tome found Superman to be one of the worst movies I've ever had the displeasure to sit through.
Okay I will confess here in the spirit of freedom beauty truth and love that I didn't actually make it all the way through any of them. Almost made it through the first one. The second and fifth I merely skimmed at best. The third and fourth... I dare say are unnecessary for the purpose for which we first decided to watch them.
(Seeing the look of disgust and utter boredom on the Princess's face during the first half hour of Superman I, I attempted to give her a pep talk by standing up and dramatically waving my arms around the room to extol the virtues of viewing these films as a means to better understand the common man so we could relate with them better in the future. It was all I had. How else do you justify spending two and half hours of what under normal circumstances is a thrilling and precious life watching something so bereft of anything remotely interesting and at the same time so mentally insulting and mundane? Well it worked. She made it through the first one. As did i. The feeling in the room was more akin to if we had just finished a lengthy visit at a nursing home with an elderly lady with Alzheimer's that neither of us knew out of the kindness of our heart and in the spirit of selfless service to others. But still, we did make it through.)
Truth be told I cannot for the life of me now understand even a little why or how these films even get made let alone get viewed by anyone over the age of 6 or 7. I know for me personally these kinds of films, anything that was called action/adventure or comic book oriented, was my worst nightmare. I was far too gone into studying the worlds of earth sciences, electricity, chemistry, art and music.
I got so bored with action adventure portions of films that I would either get up and leave which drive my parents crazy or I would bury myself in the little notebook I carried everywhere with me. Taking notes. Asking questions mainly. Or proposing myriad theories about the mechanics of the universe or the human mind or the prospect of God. This didn't make me the most popular kid in school thats for sure. But for your average 6 or 7 year old which I learned early on I was not, I can clearly see that with the limited capacity for understanding the need to suspend disbelief or knowledge of the art and science of filmmaking that Superman movies or James Bond movies for that matter may be just their thing.
What I can't get is how anyone past that age can actually take them seriously. Christopher Reeve.. Okay, he was a struggling actor, he wanted to make a name or himself, he wanted to make money... Makes sense. The same can be said for any of the other actors on set or the crew behind the cameras. But for an audience member... How the hell does one even discuss movies like this without cracking up? The way we might when the words Sarah Palin pop up in the occasional conversation. This is the feeling we were left with. I still attempted to sit through Superman II, because it was in and because I had heard so much about the films all my life. Why not see what they're all about? After all Christopher Reeve seemed like a nice enough chap.
The same can be said about Sean Connery. He's handsome enough. And one certainly can't deny what a an enviable badass machine that Aston Martin is. But other than that, we don't need to sit through an entire movie to marvel over the noble attributes of these basic earthly trappings regardless of their aesthetic appeal. Nope. Someone has to tell it like it is. Most box office Hollywood smashes are utter shite. Tripe if you will. The James Bond myth is as empty and hollow as the Superman one. This is children's stories dressed up with a few adult clothes and some kissing scenes at best. And yet they're national icons. International icons. Treasures. Cultural touchstones for entire generations.
But there's nothing transcendent about them. And therein lies the explanation of what the Transcendence Diaries is all about in a nutshell. They are NOT about things of that nature. Lucky for us all there IS plenty of valuable art and entertainment and noble goals and missions being created on planet earth on a near daily basis at this time in our history to discover and explore. And lest we forget still plenty of propositions about the mechanics of the universe consciousness human psychology and God even to keep us busy for a very long time to come.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
Syria: Another Piece of the Puzzle Coming Together
It took a while. Getting to the truth isn't a simple one off affair. We usually cannot get there sitting in front of the tube listening to what employees of giant corporatocracies have been ordered to report or recite, i.e. newscasters, anchormen, et al. One can say the same about mainstream magazines and newspapers as well, though print journalism usually comes the closest to revealing some truth about most subjects compared to any other form of MSM (mainstream media).
When US Secretary of State John Kerry and president Barack Obama appeared on international television vehemently announcing their grand plan to take military action against Syria we all got the feeling we'd seen this before. And in fact we had. This time the reasoning was "The leader used chemical weapons on his own people." Neither of them bothered to mention that it was the US who originally sold the chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein that led to his manhunt and execution by public hanging; nor the millions of pounds of Napalm that the US military dropped all over the countries of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Still, there was something quite odd about how the whole thing went down this time. Usually a US president becomes very resolute when he's ordered to invade another country. They make their case and hop to it, as the above photo collage illustrates. Obama the man campaigned as a peace making presidential candidate. He quickly erased all hopes of that hollow rhetoric when it was discovered that he had quickly risen to be the all time world record holder for ordering targeted assassinations using drone strikes. He comes off cool and laidback, plays basketball, hangs with celebrities and rappers, smokes ciggies, admits to being a pothead in college. But from nine to five he's one of the most calculated and ruthless killers the White House has ever been home to. His assassination of Al Awlaki AND his young son (on separate occasions), both being American citizens, without due process or trial, was an unprecedented event in American history.
Now he's announced he's after Syria, just as he went after Libya and Qaddafi and his predecessor went after Iraq and Afghanistan. The American people were warned of this plan years ago by General Wesley Clark [see video footage here], that as far back as '2001 the United States had already drafted a list that contained a total of 7 countries in the Middle East that it was planning on invading and taking over. Syria was one. Iran will be next.
Because of the strange way that the tag team of Kerry/Obama handled this latest invasion announcement I felt the need to spend some time researching the events led up to it. There was much that did not make sense. Why would a US president make the announcement publicly and ruin the element of surprise? Why did he renege on his tough talk in the final hour and pass the ball to the US Congress but without even calling them in for an emergency session when this was such a "vital matter of national security" as they'd been stating? The British did. And they quickly voted to have no part in this latest American coup lucky them. What of that? How could Obama or Kerry or anyone on earth with half a brain not clearly see that invading Syria when the rebels their government are fighting are comprised of Al Quaeda and other Muslim extremists groups would cause even more uncertainty and chaos in that region and just might be the worst thing for America that could transpire out of all possible outcomes? Or that attacking Syria in any way will certainly involve killing hundreds of innocent civilians there and if anything cause a unification of the Sunnis and Shiites by reminding them of their traditionally vitriolic disdain for America?
For the last few weeks I set about researching the facts and rumors to get a better understanding of what was really happening. CNN MSNBC and FOX News are the three primary 24 hour news sources in the United States at this time, for the record. None are real news services. Unfortunately not even close. Glamorized mouthpieces for various large corporate/banking/government cartels, each with their own slightly different agenda. None try very hard to disguise this fact at the time of this writing. So regardless of how many hours they need to fill all three networks repeat the same two to three bites of data over and over again ad nauseum, offering nothing new or insightful and usually not even coming close to reporting any actual truth or facts about these kinds of events. It's as horribly frustrating as it is frightening if you're the least bit educated or knowledgable about world affairs or well traveled. For the time being we've the internet and plenty of sources outside the US to gain access to actual news and facts.
There are stories leaking out now from several sources about a visit to Tehran from several US diplomats to discuss the Syrian issue. This would explain the delay between when Kerry announced the plans to invade Syria and their next press conference nearly a week later. Evidently these meetings did not go well and despite their best efforts the US could not get Iran to agree to even a small military strike to at least save the face if the US president after all his chest beating. [Google it]. Personally I find this particular story hard to take in given the tough talk from Washington re Iran over the last few years AND the crippling sanctions they've foisted upon this nation and its people. But being more in the know than many about Iran I am aware of many such meetings between the US and Iran trough the years that have never made it to American mainstream media. That's the key to understanding geopolitical affairs especially regarding. The United States. What's really going on almost never gets reported on. What does get reported is usually a smokescreen or what is commonly referred to as a false flag operation. One can usually determine what is NOT truly important by simply paying attention to whatever the mainstream media is talking about.
They're either the last to know OR they're simply following orders and are deliberately not reporting what's really happening. I don't pretend to know which is fact. We just know at this time that they almost never report on or discuss anything remotely important or factual compared to the behind the scenes. Whether a full on conspiracy as some people suggest or just ignorance of the facts I cannot yet conclude.
Last week several global media outlets began reporting that Saudi go-to henchman Prince Bandar (read the book Sleeping With The Devil to learn about him and how important and involved he is in American geopolicital affairs and foreign policy) was actually the person who supplied re chemical weapons to Syria -- a gift from the Saudi so called royal family -- to the REBELS and it was THEY who actually used them, albeit unknowingly. A buddy of mine from the music scene, the Lone Ranger, one of the greatest singer songwriters of our time, or any for that matter, is a big Obama fan, God love him. His ignorance regarding world affairs belies his utter brilliance as a songsmith. He posted something to social media yesterday that was so innocently pro-Obama, touting his claim that he will wait for the US Congress to make the decision about whether or not to invade Syria or not, that you couldn't help but smile, the way you do when you see your child take their first step or splash food all over the kitchen. I mean it was just cute at best. But then others began posting comments and links to his post that were more founded in reality. Much to his chagrin and dismay but hopefully elucidating for him at some point as well.
I posted the same articles yesterday and the day before about the leaks coming out that it was the rebels who actually used the chemical weapons. I'm glad this story is spreading. It appears as sad as it is for all of us that this was yet another Saudi/American false flag operation to further their agenda started with 9/11. Bandar supplied the necessary "problem" the Saudi/American cartel wanted to trigger the "reaction - solution" portion of the equation. I.e. "Assad used chemical weapons and we now need to take military action against Syria." Surprise surprise.
Of course no one was counting on this inconvenient truth being discovered. Even though Assad himself told TIME magazine last week "it would defy elementary logic for us to use chemical weapons in an area where we have a heavy concentration of our own troops." The white House believes the American people will fall for this story even thus. So it turns out the rebels actually used them but didn't know what they were. Now we are forced to acknowledge that the US president and company know this fact and they r just following orders just as Bush and company did. Especially since General Wesley Clark revealed to us that Syria was on that initial invade and coup list along with Iraq Libya Iran and others. what about Afghanistan, Yemen and Pakistan? All countries where Obama's United States is currently waging war.
What seemed like whacky conspiracy speak ten years ago is now happening right before our eyes just as the General said it would. As quaint and precious as The Lone Ranger and others are in their desire to see things thru patriotic high school textbook viewpoints, there is simply no way we can return to those naive eyes any longer. This was all planned. Unfortunately the reasons we now know and there doesn't seem there is anything we can do about it but prepare for at least two more wars; Syria and Iran. Iran of course is already being terrorized by America through a brutal economic terrorism. The US will use Israel and the nuclear excuse to finish them off. What then? Only those heartless war mongers in Washington know.
When all is said and done history will show that the United States and its allies primarily the Saudi royal family and Israel will have manufactured excuses or reasons to invade 5 to 7 countries over the course of a 15 year period. That's if they're successful in this grand scheme of theirs. A desire to rule the world doesn't necessarily guarantee its success. History has shown us that time and time again.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Not All Hurricanes Are Bad
When I see films like THE HURRICANE which remind us of stories about the likes of people like the boxer Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter, I feel uplifted and inspired. My belief in justice and moral integrity are renewed. This is no easy task. Not in this day and age. Not in any prior. One could say in fact that as a whole we human beings are living in an age where there is more justice, more integrity, more liberty and more reasons to believe in the possibility of these ideals than any other time in our recorded history.
Perched high above the history of humanity peering down with a bird's eye view of its last last ten thousand years, it appears that it's never been easy for humankind to be honest just truthful or fair-minded. Darker temptations in some have always managed to challenge and displace the higher ideals that others are able to so easily envision.
And such was the nearly unbelievable case of Hurricane Carter, a man wrongfully and fraudulently convicted of not one but three murders he didn't commit, had no opportunity even to commit, nor a motive. He was set up; and he served 22 years in a state prison for doing nothing but being black. His wasn't a case of faulty DNA tests or being in the wrong place at the wrong time or mistakes made at the crime scene. It was a flat out deliberate mission of lies deceit and fraud to bring one man down by the State of New Jersey, police officers, state prosecutors and judges; all because of racial bigotry and hatred (and some would say envy) against one man because of the color of his skin and the level of success he achieved in his life.
Yes, ours is a history of such stories. Millions of them. Most untold. Will never be told. But occasionally justice does prevail. In Carter's case it did; after having to serve 22 years in prison. How he managed we can only imagine. In today's world we hear of more and more cases such as this, moments of transcendence and enlightenment, bad turning good. There is do-gooding going on all around us. We just have to keep our eyes open for it. And in times of doubt, we can look to stories like this one to remind us that anything is possible when and if you set your mind to it.
Perhaps the greatest lesson of this true story which captivated the hearts and minds of America so vividly, the most touching for sure, is the aspect of the three white Canadians and the young black Brooklyn boy who lived in Toronto being so moved by Carter's unfair predicament MOVNG to the same town where Carter was being imprisoned to dedicate their every waking days to helping reopen and research his case which is what inevitably got his conviction overturned and led to his regaining his freedom.
They were strangers. They weren't his family nor his friends. And yet they committed 110% of themselves and their resources to help him. For no other reason it appears than the kindness of their hearts. This is humanity at its best. In each of us this potential exists. To take these noble actions of selfless service and dedication to help another for no reward except the good feeling that comes from it. Evolutionarily speaking I believe we are only seeing the very beginning of this trend in ourselves. We are at the cusp of it. Spinning towards the center of becoming a truly noble honest just and fair species. I believe this.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Why Persevere and Not Just Give Up?
"Problems are not problems—they are lessons to be learned. Growth waiting to happen. Cutting yourself off from the growth is regression, isolation. You must embrace your difficulty and rejoice in it. Because it will catapult you to greater victories to come."
- Solomon (Ch. 13)
Oh how many times through the years have we heard variations of this same sentiment? "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" etc. Definitely inspiring ideas. Encouraging in times of those inevitable challenges of life that even the best and brightest among us cannot escape. Ive been fabulously rich and I've been dirt poor and I can guarantee with certainty that life is much better, more enjoyable and easier when you are rich. But it's no less challenging. The problems of life just manifest in different ways.
My wife and I have suffered(?) / experienced four miscarriages in the last five years, two of them with twins. That is a pain a trauma a tragedy that no amount of money can make any more enjoyable less painful or palatable. Only time and a willingness to integrate fully can help ease that pain.
Sure having money would and will make this particular problem easier, because it opens more potential doors of opportunity for us to still be able to birth our children into this world eventually. Whether adoption or surrogate mother, both are wildly surprisingly and cost prohibitively expensive. Options only people who are wealthy would ever be able to consider or afford. The average adoption costs $60,000. Don't get me started on how much I loath this commonly known fact. A surrogate mother will come in at $50,000 easily; and that's regardless of whether you get a baby out of the deal of not.
Life it seems, at least if you're fully living it, comes with a cornucopia of what any of us would label challenges crises tragedies problems and difficulties. Rich or poor. Black brown red yellow or white. But it's the "how we deal with them" that seems of most import.
The quote above rings true, FEELS true. Not just from an intellectual viewpoint but from the experience of living life perspective as well. The question of course is "why? How?" Why must we embrace life's challenges? Rejoice? Seriously? And how does it help or do us any good? Why not mourn bitch moan complain whine kick and stomp our feet? Allow cynicism to set in and strengthen our inner and outer armor to better shield us from the next inevitable incoming heartbreak? In fact why not just give up entirely? Stop believing in miracles and trying so hard? Certainly less disappointment lies ahead if we aim low and don't allow ourselves to dream up such lofty ideals about what is possible.
For some this IS the path. Whether deliberate or unconscious, life begins to slowly wear us down. We stop believing in the ridiculous the absurd the miraculous. We stop expecting things to be easy or anticipating great moments of bliss and victory. Instead we just hang on as best we can an hope for the best. But overall we stop trying. We stop shooting for the stars. Fuck drops of Jupiter. We're not even going to fly me to the moon.
And yet every now and then we read simple platitudinous quotes like the above and feel that spark of hope inside once more. We hear stories of others who overcome incredible odds to achieve tremendous things. They never say they accomplished these things from giving up or from coasting or from losing hope or strapping on a cynical suit of armor.
The story seems to be always the same. They fully embrace the pain the agony the trauma. They mourn and ache. Deeply. They scream and cry and ask "why me?!". And then they dust themselves off get back in their horse and ride on. Beaten up but not bested. Stronger healthier and usually even more willful to succeed, even if success simply means to enjoy life again.
What is it about this method that works for us? What about this piece about embracing and rejoicing? I would submit that, as opposed to Solomon's view stated above, difficulties are indeed still often times "problems", at least to the perceiver; though the "embracing and rejoicing" of these perceived difficulties seems to lessen the emotional charge and resistance we feel towards them. Once fully experienced, fully integrated, WE take control of them, as opposed to feeling controlled by them or feeling victim to them.
This process make us feel stronger, more capable of overcoming them and others that may come our way in the future. Once overcome we become feel and appear bigger stronger more powerful. More adept at facing whatever life throws at us. We feel more confident. Through deliberate and thoughtful acceptance and yes even rejoicing of the worst of it all we create new ceilings, higher, stronger. Wisdom ensues. A grace of wisdom and confidence. Newfound power and inner strength is found. Not the kind that's put on or asserted. But something much deeper stronger and more substantial.
We've grown beyond what we previously thought impossible. Surviving is the least of it. Damn right we survived. But we did more than that. After that, my God we just might be able to do anything. We begin to believe we can do more than just survive; we can thrive. Because we've faced the worst and made it through. We didn't allow it to break us down but instead we compelled it to build us up. And that is growth. An inner power beyond the limits of explanation with words.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
- Solomon (Ch. 13)
Oh how many times through the years have we heard variations of this same sentiment? "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" etc. Definitely inspiring ideas. Encouraging in times of those inevitable challenges of life that even the best and brightest among us cannot escape. Ive been fabulously rich and I've been dirt poor and I can guarantee with certainty that life is much better, more enjoyable and easier when you are rich. But it's no less challenging. The problems of life just manifest in different ways.
My wife and I have suffered(?) / experienced four miscarriages in the last five years, two of them with twins. That is a pain a trauma a tragedy that no amount of money can make any more enjoyable less painful or palatable. Only time and a willingness to integrate fully can help ease that pain.
Sure having money would and will make this particular problem easier, because it opens more potential doors of opportunity for us to still be able to birth our children into this world eventually. Whether adoption or surrogate mother, both are wildly surprisingly and cost prohibitively expensive. Options only people who are wealthy would ever be able to consider or afford. The average adoption costs $60,000. Don't get me started on how much I loath this commonly known fact. A surrogate mother will come in at $50,000 easily; and that's regardless of whether you get a baby out of the deal of not.
Life it seems, at least if you're fully living it, comes with a cornucopia of what any of us would label challenges crises tragedies problems and difficulties. Rich or poor. Black brown red yellow or white. But it's the "how we deal with them" that seems of most import.
The quote above rings true, FEELS true. Not just from an intellectual viewpoint but from the experience of living life perspective as well. The question of course is "why? How?" Why must we embrace life's challenges? Rejoice? Seriously? And how does it help or do us any good? Why not mourn bitch moan complain whine kick and stomp our feet? Allow cynicism to set in and strengthen our inner and outer armor to better shield us from the next inevitable incoming heartbreak? In fact why not just give up entirely? Stop believing in miracles and trying so hard? Certainly less disappointment lies ahead if we aim low and don't allow ourselves to dream up such lofty ideals about what is possible.
For some this IS the path. Whether deliberate or unconscious, life begins to slowly wear us down. We stop believing in the ridiculous the absurd the miraculous. We stop expecting things to be easy or anticipating great moments of bliss and victory. Instead we just hang on as best we can an hope for the best. But overall we stop trying. We stop shooting for the stars. Fuck drops of Jupiter. We're not even going to fly me to the moon.
And yet every now and then we read simple platitudinous quotes like the above and feel that spark of hope inside once more. We hear stories of others who overcome incredible odds to achieve tremendous things. They never say they accomplished these things from giving up or from coasting or from losing hope or strapping on a cynical suit of armor.
The story seems to be always the same. They fully embrace the pain the agony the trauma. They mourn and ache. Deeply. They scream and cry and ask "why me?!". And then they dust themselves off get back in their horse and ride on. Beaten up but not bested. Stronger healthier and usually even more willful to succeed, even if success simply means to enjoy life again.
What is it about this method that works for us? What about this piece about embracing and rejoicing? I would submit that, as opposed to Solomon's view stated above, difficulties are indeed still often times "problems", at least to the perceiver; though the "embracing and rejoicing" of these perceived difficulties seems to lessen the emotional charge and resistance we feel towards them. Once fully experienced, fully integrated, WE take control of them, as opposed to feeling controlled by them or feeling victim to them.
This process make us feel stronger, more capable of overcoming them and others that may come our way in the future. Once overcome we become feel and appear bigger stronger more powerful. More adept at facing whatever life throws at us. We feel more confident. Through deliberate and thoughtful acceptance and yes even rejoicing of the worst of it all we create new ceilings, higher, stronger. Wisdom ensues. A grace of wisdom and confidence. Newfound power and inner strength is found. Not the kind that's put on or asserted. But something much deeper stronger and more substantial.
We've grown beyond what we previously thought impossible. Surviving is the least of it. Damn right we survived. But we did more than that. After that, my God we just might be able to do anything. We begin to believe we can do more than just survive; we can thrive. Because we've faced the worst and made it through. We didn't allow it to break us down but instead we compelled it to build us up. And that is growth. An inner power beyond the limits of explanation with words.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
Why Facebook is Used but Not Liked
Facebook is relentless in their endless solicitations to attempt to get people who download their Pages Management app for Mobil to post a review in the App Store. I usually don't bother. Unless I love an app. Then Ill take the time to write a quick one up to help support that app.
One too many requests by the busy bees at FB finally compelled me to write such a review. But not because I love it. On the contrary. The app is almost useless for anything one might wish to accomplish on their own FB page. More a toy than an app. So I decided to share these thoughts with them via the App Store before I delete it altogether.
What I discovered is that many other users feel the same way. In a world where most apps out there have a plethora of five star glowing reviews, FB Pages Manager app is surprisingly unloved. Hovering just above 2.5 stars out of 5. Certainly not a five star app so far. I found one or two things NOT mentioned by previous reviewers to add and did. Pasted below.
"It would appear that none of the programers who design this app actually use it as a FB page admin themselves. They're programmers not business owners or commodities unto themselves so that makes sense. But they NEED to get someone in there w them full time who IS a regular FB Page admin or else this app is never going to be much use to those who could benefit from it. 1. Users need to be able to log in AS their page and then visit OTHER PEOPLE's pages and post there AS THEIR page. As we r able to on FB desktop version. Right now it is impossible. If you leave your page you r right back as YOU personal (or another one of YOUR OWN pages) -- as opposed to being the page you want to be. In other words we cannot even post or share on one of our own pages from /as one of our other pages. Thats crazy. 2. We need to be able to peruse and tag our own and other people's personal profiles when logged into and acting as one of our pages. That requires either going back to desktop or switching back to our personal profile etc. too much hassle -- which DISCOURAGES users from even bothering. Hence they forget and never bother. 3. This may not be the place for it but FB makes it so damn impossible to contact human beings that this is the best format users have: Businesses companies artists anyone / anything that has a FB page that people have voluntarily Liked (because they like that product person or service) should NOT be charged extra for their own fans/followers to see their posts. This is WHY people LIKE a page, i.e. to see what that product / person is up to on a regular basis. Why on earth would FB deliberately block the majority of a Page's fans from being able to see that pages posts? It's bad-greedy. Not good-greedy. Downright retarded business. What they don't realize is that in the Personal Expression Age people are not willing to be played with like that and they show it through word of mouth and taking actions. thus they just flat out refuse to pay for sponsored posts let alone advertise a page once they find out that they'll be forced to pay for their own followers to read their posts. Too many other options exist as work arounds. So people choose those instead -- just out of principle. This is the single biggest obstacle FB faces currently in being Liked themselves. People may use the site but they don't like the company. Google and Apple on the other are beloved. FB can hop aboard that love train any time. Best of all they'll make MORE money from pages. More people will be encouraged to USE pages instead of personal profiles and thus they'll then pay to advertise their page. It's common sense. Fix these things and the other suggestions in these reviews above and below and FB may just start being Liked and respected and admired as opposed to just being used."
Bottom line, does Zuckerberg want to be like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs one day or does he want to forever be known as that obnoxious guy who nobody wants to like as he is now? Sure there's a certain amount of mainstream riffraff-envy involved in being that successful that just comes with the territory and thus you're never going to win a popularity contest. But Jobs and Gates were as beloved as they were despised because they were rockstars.
The jury is still out on Zuck already due to the dubious questions revolving around the origins of Facebook to begin with regarding how much was his and how much was just ripped off from what was already out there? Friendster and MySpace anyone? Not to mention the three other business partners and co-creators he screwed over in the process of usurping total control of the idea. His bedside manner leaves something to be desired. Rather than a mad genius ala Steve Jobs one gets a feeling instead that Zuck may instead just be a pompous ass and greedy opportunist. Not the greatest legacy one would wish to leave trailing behind them.
Zuck def needs some good PR fix it help. Especially as he ages into full on adulthood. Facebook is a fun and functional tool to be sure. But it is easily replaced as we've seen countless times before. Tumblr? Now there's a pop culture company founder one can easily get behind success-envy and all. The key is that you want people to respect you so much that they want to be like you, not resent you for your success. They have to believe that you are deserving of your success and are a generally nice and trustworthy person. Right now Zuckerberg has neither going for him. But there's always hope. Either that or we may be thinking about Facebook in the same terms as we do Yahoo as a search engine two years from now.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
One too many requests by the busy bees at FB finally compelled me to write such a review. But not because I love it. On the contrary. The app is almost useless for anything one might wish to accomplish on their own FB page. More a toy than an app. So I decided to share these thoughts with them via the App Store before I delete it altogether.
What I discovered is that many other users feel the same way. In a world where most apps out there have a plethora of five star glowing reviews, FB Pages Manager app is surprisingly unloved. Hovering just above 2.5 stars out of 5. Certainly not a five star app so far. I found one or two things NOT mentioned by previous reviewers to add and did. Pasted below.
"It would appear that none of the programers who design this app actually use it as a FB page admin themselves. They're programmers not business owners or commodities unto themselves so that makes sense. But they NEED to get someone in there w them full time who IS a regular FB Page admin or else this app is never going to be much use to those who could benefit from it. 1. Users need to be able to log in AS their page and then visit OTHER PEOPLE's pages and post there AS THEIR page. As we r able to on FB desktop version. Right now it is impossible. If you leave your page you r right back as YOU personal (or another one of YOUR OWN pages) -- as opposed to being the page you want to be. In other words we cannot even post or share on one of our own pages from /as one of our other pages. Thats crazy. 2. We need to be able to peruse and tag our own and other people's personal profiles when logged into and acting as one of our pages. That requires either going back to desktop or switching back to our personal profile etc. too much hassle -- which DISCOURAGES users from even bothering. Hence they forget and never bother. 3. This may not be the place for it but FB makes it so damn impossible to contact human beings that this is the best format users have: Businesses companies artists anyone / anything that has a FB page that people have voluntarily Liked (because they like that product person or service) should NOT be charged extra for their own fans/followers to see their posts. This is WHY people LIKE a page, i.e. to see what that product / person is up to on a regular basis. Why on earth would FB deliberately block the majority of a Page's fans from being able to see that pages posts? It's bad-greedy. Not good-greedy. Downright retarded business. What they don't realize is that in the Personal Expression Age people are not willing to be played with like that and they show it through word of mouth and taking actions. thus they just flat out refuse to pay for sponsored posts let alone advertise a page once they find out that they'll be forced to pay for their own followers to read their posts. Too many other options exist as work arounds. So people choose those instead -- just out of principle. This is the single biggest obstacle FB faces currently in being Liked themselves. People may use the site but they don't like the company. Google and Apple on the other are beloved. FB can hop aboard that love train any time. Best of all they'll make MORE money from pages. More people will be encouraged to USE pages instead of personal profiles and thus they'll then pay to advertise their page. It's common sense. Fix these things and the other suggestions in these reviews above and below and FB may just start being Liked and respected and admired as opposed to just being used."
Bottom line, does Zuckerberg want to be like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs one day or does he want to forever be known as that obnoxious guy who nobody wants to like as he is now? Sure there's a certain amount of mainstream riffraff-envy involved in being that successful that just comes with the territory and thus you're never going to win a popularity contest. But Jobs and Gates were as beloved as they were despised because they were rockstars.
The jury is still out on Zuck already due to the dubious questions revolving around the origins of Facebook to begin with regarding how much was his and how much was just ripped off from what was already out there? Friendster and MySpace anyone? Not to mention the three other business partners and co-creators he screwed over in the process of usurping total control of the idea. His bedside manner leaves something to be desired. Rather than a mad genius ala Steve Jobs one gets a feeling instead that Zuck may instead just be a pompous ass and greedy opportunist. Not the greatest legacy one would wish to leave trailing behind them.
Zuck def needs some good PR fix it help. Especially as he ages into full on adulthood. Facebook is a fun and functional tool to be sure. But it is easily replaced as we've seen countless times before. Tumblr? Now there's a pop culture company founder one can easily get behind success-envy and all. The key is that you want people to respect you so much that they want to be like you, not resent you for your success. They have to believe that you are deserving of your success and are a generally nice and trustworthy person. Right now Zuckerberg has neither going for him. But there's always hope. Either that or we may be thinking about Facebook in the same terms as we do Yahoo as a search engine two years from now.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Little Known Myths About Christopher Columbus
1. Christopher Columbus wasn't his name and he wasn't Spanish. His actual name is Christof Colombo or Cologne.
2. The world didn't believe the earth was flat. In fact by 1492 everyone had already known the earth was round for 1700 years. In 240 BC Greek mathematician Arotothanese proved it by using sticks stuck into the ground and measuring the shadows they produced based on light from the sun.
3. The "Columbus was an underdog who was out to prove to the whole world they were wrong about the earth being flat" was a fiction created by American author Washington Irving in the late 1800s in a biography he wrote about Columbus to "make the story more exciting.
4. Columbus' original intention was to get to Asia. He was horrible at math but kept it secret, being an explorer and all; he falsely believed he could get there by sailing west because he was using Italian math rather than the more accurate (at the time) Arabic math. He calculated that the earth's circumference was 15,000 miles, when in fact it is more like 25,000 miles.
5. He miscalculated the distance of the Atlantic Ocean believing it to be 2500 miles across when in reality it is actually 10,000 miles.
6. Without the Americas being where they were the ships' entire crew would have long starved to death had they actually sailed to Asia.
7. Queen Isabella of Spain did not approve of Columbus' scheme as is repeated in the common theme. She didn't actually believe he was accurate in his measurements. It was her husband King Ferdinand who finally caved and funded the voyage. The Queen Isabella just sounded more romantic through the years and was added hundreds of years later.
8. Spain did not have the money themselves. They actually had to borrow the money from wealthier citizens of the royal court.
9. On the voyage Columbus kept two log books the whole time. In one he charted the actual number of nautical miles they were sailing but kept it private. In the other he shortened those numbers by half each day because he knew that his crew would commit mutiny if they knew how far off his calculations were.
10. The Santa Maria was in fact the name of one of the ships. The Nina was not. That one was owned by a man named Juanino De Santo Clara. Over the years it's been shortened to The Niño. And then eventually just The Nina. The Pinta we still don't know the actual name of that ship. But the word in spanish means "the painted one" which was a euphemism for "prostitute" in that period. The word sounded appropriate to the crew and as the history was told and retold over the centuries this little known fact was deliberately left out to clean the story up.
11. Columbus was not the first man on board to spot land as is reported. That honor goes to one of the crew members named Rodrigo Deltriana. Columbus didn't give Deltriana the credit because he wanted the reward.
12. Columbus was not the first European to set foot on North America. He never actually even set foot on North America. Ever. The closest he came was some islands in the Caribbean and the northern coast of Central America.
13. Leif Erickson and his crew of Vikings were actually the first Europeans to set foot on North America 500 years earlier in Newfoundland.
14. We have no clue where Columbus actually landed still to this day. It is believed it is "somewhere on one of the islands in the Bahamas.
15. Columbus refused to believe he hadn't found Asia. Because of the indigenous peoples he encountered on his little island he decided he'd landed in India. Which is why still to this day Native Americans are mistakenly called Indians.
16. Upon his return to Europe Columbus unfortunately was unable to report that he had discovered any treasures for his his eager bankers and investors. A small bag of gold is disputed. But we know for sure that he brought back a hammock, a turkey, a pineapple and some tobacco.
The one fact that is not disputed is that Christopher Columbus's voyage did start a cavalcade of future voyages by Europeans to the Americas where at the time there were 50 to 100 million Native Americans living. There are only 2 million now. These voyages are also responsible for starting the North African slave trade to help work the land and mine it for its natural resources and of course to build what would eventually be called the Colonies.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Rethinking The Classics
Someone recently brought up in conversation a request for some suggestions on what "classics" she should read this summer, referring to her high school and college years and alluding to not necessarily having read every book that was required of her as perhaps some other students might have. That's one area of college that I actually excelled in and enjoyed, literature, especially the classics, but really just about anything that had to do with the written word regardless of the subject matter or the time period.
Reading learning studying writing, these are all endeavors that appealed to me since I can remember; nearly equal to my love of art or music or all things creative. There's a reason why these Diaries exist, and why, much to the horror of my ever faithful programming and design team, the number of entries and posts is so damn copious. Truth be told, though most people outside of the day to day project don't realize it -- managing the Transcendence Diaries is a full time project in and of itself with several people in its employ for almost thirteen years now, we've only begun to scratch the surface of translating them into digital form, editing them and getting them up online. It's one of the biggest and longest running projects I've ever been involved in.
When I heard Anne's question about catching up on the classics, it reminded me that I recently found the booklet that accompanied "the 100 greatest books of all time" series I bought years ago. Hardcover leather-bound with gold leaf, each of them, at exorbitant prices that conveniently ignore the fact that one could easily buy them on eBay for one-tenth the price, they are beautiful and make a valuable contribution to the library. With the advent of digital everything now, especially images and the written word, I occasionally question the practical nature of owning such a mammoth book collection at this time. But after a few minutes in their presence, perusing the books themselves, their covers, jackets, sleeves bindings, copyright pages and numerous other aspects of books only available to us in non-digital form, I am always left feeling more than content and relieved that I never abandoned collecting. They may not be as portable as a kindle or iPad -- not that I'm not a huge fan of those as well, I am -- there is just something inexplicably and palpably enjoyable about a real live book in the flesh; especially an old one.
After perusing this list of "the 100 greatest books of all time" though -- some great books in there for sure -- I was left with a feeling that we will be soon rethinking and updating it, collectively, as a society. We must remember that these kinds of lists are purely from a Western Viewpoint. Those whose lives are born and bred in other parts of the world, who's education is not from a traditionally Western background, would not necessarily agree with what we consider "the classics". But from a purely Western Civ perspective something really bothered me about looking at this list. I was familiar with every book on there, having had to or wanting to read all of them in either high school or college, but it just seemed stale to me. Seeing Canterbury Tales yet again but nothing by Kurt Vonnegut for example. A decade or two ago one would never dare utter such a sentence, at least not in the vicinity of certain company. But today the idea seems almost downright quaint.
I know it may seem hard to fathom, but I feel we're in for a big shift w/ certain long thought of "classics" being taken off the list and some newer ones being added. Either that or we need to create another list entirely. That may be a more feasible approach. Regardless of which list one references, The Harvard Classics is a fine example, the top 100 always looks very much the same. Perhaps it is time we create a new list, call it something like "The NEW 100 Greatest Books of All Time". That way we don't begin dismissing heretofore classics and deny the pleasure of their acquaintance to younger up and coming intellectuals.
I have always maintained, to the chagrin of my peers, that there is a difference between literature and great fiction. Where that proverbial line in the sand is I would assert is impossible to determine. Many books now long considered classics were once nothing but best selling works of fiction; for those that are fictional that is. Some classics are not fiction at all lest we forget. Take the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche or Marcus Aurilieus(sp?) for example. But for those that are, not all of them started out as "literature".
For all its flowery pomp, brilliant wit and poetic wordplay, Shakespeare -- (whatever we eventually decide about his true name and personhood) -- wrote plays for both the royal court AND the throngs of unwashed masses of his day. Not exactly the most learned of the world of academia. Soap operas really some have said. Moby Dick most will remember is a book that was thoroughly panned upon its release. Now its taken for granted as literature in some circles. Baccacio's Decameron was and still is soft porn, poetic or not. It may be a classic but is it literature?
Much of what has been released over the last fifty years has not entered the realm of "the 100 greatest books of all time". But many are great works of art, some have sold in the millions, and some have huge cult followings. No one is going to argue with Catcher in the Rye being called a classic now. But what about Stranger in a Strange Land or 2001 A Space Odyssey? I honestly am not half as familiar with the best selling works of fiction from the past fifty years than I am with the traditional classic. That's just where my heart happened to land when I began my love affair with reading. But that's just one of the reasons why it may be a good idea to start a new list of classics. For people like myself who aren't as aware of the newer classics as most contemporary readers are.
I still feel like a rethinking, a retooling, of the top 100 is bound to transpire imminently. It's a hunch and my intuition almost never fails. But in the end I'd prefer a newer secondary list, whereby we could keep the old standards in place as they are, stale or not, just to make sure that nothing of great import falls out of place and out of reach to newcomers to the glorious joy of getting caught up and enthralled with a truly life-changing great read.
- Posted by The Ambassador using BlogPress on an iPhone
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Creating A Truly Noble America
We didn't ask to be Americans, those of us who were born here; just as we didn't ask to be named the name we go by, as if it is our fundamental identifier, when in fact it is nothing but some random idea that popped into the heads of those crazy kids who found themselves pregnant one day and eventually became our parents. Most humans turned parents, always think they're being unique and creative when naming baby humans. For the first year or two of the existence of their newborns, they'll always tell you the baby's first middle and last name, never just the first like everyone else in the world does once we get past the age of two; instead they repeat that whole baby's name over and over again, announcing it to anyone who'll ask, people just walking by at the mall "oh what a cute little baby.... what's her name?" "Ahhhh thank you. Isn't she precious? Her name is Maria Teresa Abigail Smith" or "Harley Elena Jacobs", etc... always that damned middle name, you know, that middle name that you as an adult human will never ever ever use a day in your life, just like your parents don't and no one else you know does either.
There's a reason why no one goes around announcing their middle names. Because no one cares; no one asks. So why do new parents always insist on telling everyone the middle name(s) of their kids? (Frankly it's a good test of the general intelligence, or at the very least the emotional stability, of people, whether or not they spend that first year announcing the middle name of their new babies' or not. The average mainstream human almost always invariably does (in Western society we're specifically talking about). It's just how it is. They don't even think about it. They're proud of themselves for coming up with those three names in a row and they want to show it off and grab some of that easy approval from whoever they can whenever they can. If you ever encounter someone who just introduces their newborn to you with just their first name then you know you're dealing with a more intelligent person who is aware of this odd tendency of most others, and who doesn't feel any inner need to show off their baby naming skills. They're comfortable with themselves. Because it's such a rare occurrence it's always refreshing.
Regardless of how creative our parents think they were when they christened us with their idea of a killer series of names, we're still liable to meet a variety of people throughout our lives with the same name. Meeting or hearing about someone with the same first name as you have is a weird enough experience. Your name is John but you also have a coworker named John so when you're speaking to him, HE is John; but you're also John. It's weird. When we meet or hear about someone who has the same first AND last name as we have it's even weirder. It's just downright trippy. I've always said that one day I'd like to hold a big Ed Hale dinner celebration and invite every person in the world named Ed Hale. Advertise it nationally over a period of six months or more and see how many we can collect together all in the same room. Not only would it be mind blowingly strange, it would also prove a bigger point. Our names mean absolutely nothing in the bigger picture. We may "feel" something about our name or from our name, identify with it in some way, but in the end it's just a series of words in a certain order that has nothing to do with us.
(In the Transcendence Media empire, the conglomerate of little companies I've collected over the last twenty years, my team and I have always marveled at and joked around by all the different Ed Hales there are around the world. We battle them for that ever coveted spot in the top ten of all the major search engines. There's Ed Hale the balding older business man who owns a sports team and maybe a newspaper in Baltimore. There's Ed Hale the famous dead race car driver; Ed Hale the American POW from some war in our American past. Ed Hale the dead police officer who became infamous for something. Edward Everett Hale the poet from the 1800s. And then there's the newest Ed Hale, some loony right wing conservative farmer who got his fifteen minutes of fame for spouting a variety of crazy racist conservative nonsense during the 2008 presidential election season. I've recently made "friends" with another Ed Hale, who doesn't appear to be necessarily famous for anything, on Facebook who sent me a friend request out of the blue a few months back with a message attached that simply said "Cool name man". I couldn't decline that request.) All in all the experience has taught me that there is just nothing unique about a name and certainly nothing that we have a choice in unless we take that big plunge and decide to legally change our name to something of our own choosing.
The same can be said about our religion. None of us asked to be religious. Though many of us simply are because those crazy kids who found themselves pregnant one fine day and birthed us into this world decided that we would or wouldn't be just because they were, or weren't.. Once we become adults choosing whether or not we are religious throughout the rest of our lives is a farily easy task. Many people confront the dillemma of this decision young in life, make a decision and never look back. Some choose to maintain the religion they were born and raised within. Some choose instead to go the way of an alternate religion than the one they were raised in; they convert to Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism or even atheism. (Don't ever let an atheist fool you into thinking they aren't "religious". It takes just as much faith, zealotry and passion to be an active practicing atheist as it does being any of the other world religions of humankind, to believe without a shadow of a doubt that there is "nothing" as much as those who believe there may be "something". They've just chosen to embrace the other side of that yin and yang symbol for whatever reason, and that's their right.)
The same can be said for our given name. Elton John invented his name. So too did Marilyn Monroe, as did Marilyn Manson, Cary Grant, John Ono Lennon, Woody Allen, David Bowie and many others. It's easy. There is nothing in the name we are given except the hopes dreams and aspirations of two young starry eyed kids in love. Once we, the children of those kids turned parents, grow up to become adults ourselves, we trade places with them. We become the young and dreamy star-crossed lovers and idealists, believing that our given name perhaps doesn't suit us as much as it could, that giving ourselveTheres s a new name portends a brighter future. We harbor the same dreams and aspirations for ourselves in that moment as our parents did when they first learned that we were becoming a reality in their lives and chose to name us. The process is a meaningful one, to change one's given name. But it's an easy one. Just a few signed contracts more effort than changing our religion.
But the country that we call home, the country that we are born in, and are raised in, that's a different story. Legally, at least in the United States, by the simple act of being born in said country we become its citizens. Hostages one might argue. From the moment we are born we are referred to and classified as American citizens. Our names and faces go into numerous databases. A birth certificate is issued, birth records are filed in city, county, state and federal government. At an early age we are issued a number that will follow us the rest of our lives, one that we have no choice in obtaining and no option of changing. Then comes a drivers license, a passport, constant subtle demands to pledge allegiance to the country and memorize it's national anthems, mottos, myths and legends, supposed heroes and alleged villains.
If we are smart, self educated, perceptive, confusion sets in at an early age. We begin to recognize that the so called heroes that we've been indoctrinated to revere and admire are often more villain than hero; and the alleged villains that we've been instructed to look down on are sometimes revealed to be more fallen hero than villain. The more we learn, the more we discover that as with all countries in the modern world most of what we are taught about our home country and nationality is either a flat out lie or a giant stretch of the truth. There is purpose in this well regulated system of duplicitous indoctrination.
We are instructed that it would be best if we go to college, major in one particular field of study and then get a job for the next forty-five years of our lives which will help us pay a percentage of every penny we earn to the government we are taught that controls every aspect of our waking and sleeping hours as long as we are alive. Hell, they even make us pay, an even larger percentage of any and all money we earned, after we pass on from this world. They conveniently call it an Estate Tax, though it is commonly referred to as the Death Tax.
There are thousands of other rules and laws that are foisted upon us from the moment we are born. There is no choice in it. It is the law of the land. Not just for us here in the United States, but for all human beings, no matter which country we are born in. This is the system. A system of control, of civility, a system to control human beings, so as not to let the natural chaos that runs rampant through the quantum universe thrive in its gorgeous madness on planet earth.
Of course not all of it can be controlled. Leap year is a subtle living breathing example of how chaotic and out of control the system still is. Just ask anyone who was unlucky enough to be born on that one day that only happens to exist once every four years.... tricky that is. So too is the fact that no one in their right mind can honestly claim to know what year we are really in -- what a mysterious, elusive and arbitrary idea this is -- what year we are in..., considering that there are over one-hundred different calendars currently being used on planet earth, in addition to the fact that we are all well aware that the year that we presently ascribe to today was invented a little more than fourteen hundred years ago. Just restarted the calendar. Started at year 0 right smack dab in the middle of God only knows what year it was -- depending on what country you were in at the time the Romans made this decision. Luckily some countries resisted the Roman barbarians we call the godfathers of so-called Western Civilization and kept tracking their own traditional calendar.
[Though it's a bit off topic, we'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention that the same can be said for what time it currently is. Depending on where YOU are at this very moment that you are reading this, I can almost guarantee that if we both answered that question at the exact same moment we would call out a series of very different numbers. That is the nature of "time" as we still know and understand it today. Most clock time via the earth's spinning on its access, based on visible light from our so-called "sun", and in a bigger way via the earth's revolutions around this so-called sun. Summer in the northern hemisphere of earth is Winter in the Southern Hemisphere. And vice versa. While some are sunning others are freezing, at the exact same "time". Certain regions assume without second thought that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Except where it doesn't. Some assume without thinking that the sun rises in the morning and lights up the sky for 8 to 16 hours a day and then slowly passes out of sight to blanket the earth in darkness for 8 to 16 hours. Of course to others, depending on where they live on this same earth, the sun doesn't rise, but rather stays up in the sky for weeks at a time, never allowing the earth to see darkness; and vice versa. These are measurements of "time" and yet without them we still need "time"; so we have to find new ways of tracking time, with a non-sunlight based method. Digits, arbitrary digits at that...
(The sun too is an entirely random and arbitrary word/name that does not exist in any real sense of the word. Carl Sagan once remarked how mind blowing and near silly it was that if we ever do find ourselves fortunate enough to discover any other intelligent life in the known universe besides ourselves that we would have no physical way to communicate with them with words or even maps where we live. To most of us saying that we live on earth the third planet from the sun in our solar system in the Milky Way galaxy makes sense, gives us a stable reference point, a sense of stability. The problem is that these ideas are all man-made. They are not constants in the universe. We have no reason or right to believe that any other living beings in this universe would have a clue what a solar system is, or a galaxy, or a sun or an earth or even a planet. They certainly wouldn't know what "the sun" meant, nor would they know what "the Milky Way Galaxy" was. And forget about so-called constellations. These are the childish dreams of much younger humans who didn't have the benefit of telescopes... Of course even if we could eventually get these other beings to understand what it is meant by a "constellation", how would they ever understand our subjective concepts of them, being visible and viable only from our limited vantage point here on earth, and again all depending on where you happen to live on earth.)]
For most of us, leaving the country that we are born in forever and becoming a citizen of another country entirely is not only a big decision but also a major effort. It isn't as simple as waking up one day and declaring "I'm an atheist or I'm a Christian or my name is now Lady Gaga." Not only is it involve a difficult series of actions, some of which take years to accomplish, it is also an action that has a certain taboo or stigma attached to it. Especially in heavily nationalist countries such as Russia or China or the United States or Iran. Not every nation state is as laid back as Belize or the Bahamas. The United States in particular is interesting in that it dislikes losing citizens to other nations as much as it seems to dislike accepting citizens in from other nations; ironic for a country that prides itself on being called "the world's melting pot".
But what if we are born here, in the United States of America (don't even get us started on how confounding the actual name of this country is... that's hours of talking in circles with no proverbial chased tail ever caught, for what and where IS America....?) ... yes, what if we were born here in the United States of America and we actually like living here, lies, deceptions, duplicitous indoctrination and all. Sure it's an evil Matrix controlled by nameless banking elites who are not even from America nor live here whose rules and laws are defended by a heartless military and a faceless police state militia ready to shoot at any citizen who causes a ruckus or says the wrong thing at the wrong time. But what if we still want to live here?
What would make us desire such a state of living? When there are so many other democratic republics around the world now doing a better job at the ideal than the United States is....? Nations who followed the ideals and principles portended by the formation of this ingenious land more accurately than we have managed, nations who are simply pulling it off better than we are presently. The days of the USA being the "best damn freedom loving democracy in the Western World" is a myth that has long since died in the hearts and minds of any living breathing soul on earth with brain power enough to register on an MRI scan. Too many other countries are doing it now, and simply put doing a much better job at it than we are.
But what if we still want to live here? Perhaps it's our family. Perhaps it's the technology or the opportunity for capitalist gain. Many still believe the United States is the country that offers the best potential for going from zero to hero financially the fastest, the best for maximizing profits and financial gain. Perhaps it's just "home" and we don't want to leave. Perhaps some even believe that America, though not quite ever great as it's always claimed to be, and certainly not "exceptional" as some love declaring, still holds the potential to be great one day, to truly be exceptional and not just brag about being so. Though it disturbs me to admit it sometimes, I am one such individual.
I have been lucky that in my chosen career I have had the rare opportunity to travel the world in ways that most people never get to. I have lived in more countries and called them home for months at a time than most people ever get to even visit for vacation. ANd though it usually takes me months to start missing home, hell it's no secret, it takes me weeks just to get over how much I despise about so much of America and what it stands for and does around the world, after a few months i start missing the old place. There is something about the United States that is just deeply embedded beneath my skin. It's not family. I am not that kind of person. My family could always just come visit when they wanted to and that would be fine with me. No, this is something deeper. More visceral and palpable. Something emotional AND physical, at least in the emotional and mental influence on my physicality.
One of the biggest challenges that we the cognizant have in our quest to make America truly great is in helping the mainstreamers among us understand that we LOVE America, though we curse its atrocious acts and refuse to grovel at its dirty blood stained feet. Though we despise its acts of war, it's corruption from within, it's unjust jurisprudence and political systems held together by lies deceit extortion and bribery, we believe in the content and the substance of it's original founding documents and ideals. And we hope and pray, just as everyone else does, that America can make continuous strides towards staying together, staying safe and secure, and coming closer to representing what it claims to stand for.
We talk a great talk here in the United States. No other country on earth has a more adept system of nationalist propaganda and horn tooting. If we could only live up to that potential one day, even live up to half of it... What a truly great country this could be. For all our finger pointing at the mistakes and errors and even the blatant deceptive and egregious actions taken on a daily basis by a knowing elected body of civil servants, we still cling to the notion that America has the potential to become truly, for once, that shining city on a hill that all the world looks up to, rather than the biggest meanest bully in the school yard that all the world looks down on and fears.
We must never forget for even a moment that the ONLY thing right now in present day earthly society that allows America to call itself "the greatest country on earth" is a trembling fear in the hearts and minds of everyone else who doesn't live here. With an arsenal of over 8,000 nuclear missiles stationed all over the world, along with the largest standing army with battalions stationed in over 75 countries on permanent military bases, in addition to being the only country in the history of human civilization to use nuclear weapons on another country, FEAR is the calling card for America's claim to greatness.
We commit more military terrorist acts in a single day than some countries commit in a century. When those don't work we are also the most skilled country on earth at bringing other countries to their knees using economic terrorism. Military coups are our business. Drone strikes are our "let's do lunch". Starving millions of people to death in order to gain access to trade and military secrets or natural resources or full on control of other countries and their leaders is day to day business as usual for the United States on the world stage. It's hard to accept. It hurts to acknowledge. Its painful to contemplate. But it's the first step to true freedom, the freedom to decide deliberately whether or not we want to continue to be citizens of such a nation or not. To NOT acknowledge these things and just accept being a citizen of this country because we were born here is not freedom. It's more akin to communism or fascism. It's being trapped; perhaps out of fear of not knowing if we can succeed anywhere else. Or ignorance. True freedom is acknowledging all that we are and then still deciding that we want to make a go of it here.
No one I know who has studied and understands the true mechanisms that drive America wants to leave. Instead they have a strong desire to help change America, to help improve it, to help assist it's growing up and growing into its stated goals for itself, liberty freedom and justice for all. And that's just the beginning. How about truth and honesty, integrity, keeping your word, being a peace maker rather than the world's war monger, being a teacher and leader and role model, a beacon of hope and a source of light. A safe haven for the displaced, discouraged, disappointed and dispossessed. These are just some of the ideals and roles that America holds the promise of growing into.
We may complain a lot, petition a lot, march on Washington a lot, demonstrate and protest a lot, opine and editorialize and yell a lot, flag wave (or flag burn when necessary) a lot, shout and kick and scream a lot as the storm-trooper police officers drag us away yet again to jail, but there is reason for it. We are NOT the enemy. We are not hoodlums. We are not radicals. Though perhaps in our idealistic vision for a truly noble America we are radical. We are patriots. American patriots. And WE ARE EVERYWHERE.
There's a reason why no one goes around announcing their middle names. Because no one cares; no one asks. So why do new parents always insist on telling everyone the middle name(s) of their kids? (Frankly it's a good test of the general intelligence, or at the very least the emotional stability, of people, whether or not they spend that first year announcing the middle name of their new babies' or not. The average mainstream human almost always invariably does (in Western society we're specifically talking about). It's just how it is. They don't even think about it. They're proud of themselves for coming up with those three names in a row and they want to show it off and grab some of that easy approval from whoever they can whenever they can. If you ever encounter someone who just introduces their newborn to you with just their first name then you know you're dealing with a more intelligent person who is aware of this odd tendency of most others, and who doesn't feel any inner need to show off their baby naming skills. They're comfortable with themselves. Because it's such a rare occurrence it's always refreshing.
Regardless of how creative our parents think they were when they christened us with their idea of a killer series of names, we're still liable to meet a variety of people throughout our lives with the same name. Meeting or hearing about someone with the same first name as you have is a weird enough experience. Your name is John but you also have a coworker named John so when you're speaking to him, HE is John; but you're also John. It's weird. When we meet or hear about someone who has the same first AND last name as we have it's even weirder. It's just downright trippy. I've always said that one day I'd like to hold a big Ed Hale dinner celebration and invite every person in the world named Ed Hale. Advertise it nationally over a period of six months or more and see how many we can collect together all in the same room. Not only would it be mind blowingly strange, it would also prove a bigger point. Our names mean absolutely nothing in the bigger picture. We may "feel" something about our name or from our name, identify with it in some way, but in the end it's just a series of words in a certain order that has nothing to do with us.
(In the Transcendence Media empire, the conglomerate of little companies I've collected over the last twenty years, my team and I have always marveled at and joked around by all the different Ed Hales there are around the world. We battle them for that ever coveted spot in the top ten of all the major search engines. There's Ed Hale the balding older business man who owns a sports team and maybe a newspaper in Baltimore. There's Ed Hale the famous dead race car driver; Ed Hale the American POW from some war in our American past. Ed Hale the dead police officer who became infamous for something. Edward Everett Hale the poet from the 1800s. And then there's the newest Ed Hale, some loony right wing conservative farmer who got his fifteen minutes of fame for spouting a variety of crazy racist conservative nonsense during the 2008 presidential election season. I've recently made "friends" with another Ed Hale, who doesn't appear to be necessarily famous for anything, on Facebook who sent me a friend request out of the blue a few months back with a message attached that simply said "Cool name man". I couldn't decline that request.) All in all the experience has taught me that there is just nothing unique about a name and certainly nothing that we have a choice in unless we take that big plunge and decide to legally change our name to something of our own choosing.
The same can be said about our religion. None of us asked to be religious. Though many of us simply are because those crazy kids who found themselves pregnant one fine day and birthed us into this world decided that we would or wouldn't be just because they were, or weren't.. Once we become adults choosing whether or not we are religious throughout the rest of our lives is a farily easy task. Many people confront the dillemma of this decision young in life, make a decision and never look back. Some choose to maintain the religion they were born and raised within. Some choose instead to go the way of an alternate religion than the one they were raised in; they convert to Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism or even atheism. (Don't ever let an atheist fool you into thinking they aren't "religious". It takes just as much faith, zealotry and passion to be an active practicing atheist as it does being any of the other world religions of humankind, to believe without a shadow of a doubt that there is "nothing" as much as those who believe there may be "something". They've just chosen to embrace the other side of that yin and yang symbol for whatever reason, and that's their right.)
The same can be said for our given name. Elton John invented his name. So too did Marilyn Monroe, as did Marilyn Manson, Cary Grant, John Ono Lennon, Woody Allen, David Bowie and many others. It's easy. There is nothing in the name we are given except the hopes dreams and aspirations of two young starry eyed kids in love. Once we, the children of those kids turned parents, grow up to become adults ourselves, we trade places with them. We become the young and dreamy star-crossed lovers and idealists, believing that our given name perhaps doesn't suit us as much as it could, that giving ourselveTheres s a new name portends a brighter future. We harbor the same dreams and aspirations for ourselves in that moment as our parents did when they first learned that we were becoming a reality in their lives and chose to name us. The process is a meaningful one, to change one's given name. But it's an easy one. Just a few signed contracts more effort than changing our religion.
But the country that we call home, the country that we are born in, and are raised in, that's a different story. Legally, at least in the United States, by the simple act of being born in said country we become its citizens. Hostages one might argue. From the moment we are born we are referred to and classified as American citizens. Our names and faces go into numerous databases. A birth certificate is issued, birth records are filed in city, county, state and federal government. At an early age we are issued a number that will follow us the rest of our lives, one that we have no choice in obtaining and no option of changing. Then comes a drivers license, a passport, constant subtle demands to pledge allegiance to the country and memorize it's national anthems, mottos, myths and legends, supposed heroes and alleged villains.
If we are smart, self educated, perceptive, confusion sets in at an early age. We begin to recognize that the so called heroes that we've been indoctrinated to revere and admire are often more villain than hero; and the alleged villains that we've been instructed to look down on are sometimes revealed to be more fallen hero than villain. The more we learn, the more we discover that as with all countries in the modern world most of what we are taught about our home country and nationality is either a flat out lie or a giant stretch of the truth. There is purpose in this well regulated system of duplicitous indoctrination.
We are instructed that it would be best if we go to college, major in one particular field of study and then get a job for the next forty-five years of our lives which will help us pay a percentage of every penny we earn to the government we are taught that controls every aspect of our waking and sleeping hours as long as we are alive. Hell, they even make us pay, an even larger percentage of any and all money we earned, after we pass on from this world. They conveniently call it an Estate Tax, though it is commonly referred to as the Death Tax.
There are thousands of other rules and laws that are foisted upon us from the moment we are born. There is no choice in it. It is the law of the land. Not just for us here in the United States, but for all human beings, no matter which country we are born in. This is the system. A system of control, of civility, a system to control human beings, so as not to let the natural chaos that runs rampant through the quantum universe thrive in its gorgeous madness on planet earth.
Of course not all of it can be controlled. Leap year is a subtle living breathing example of how chaotic and out of control the system still is. Just ask anyone who was unlucky enough to be born on that one day that only happens to exist once every four years.... tricky that is. So too is the fact that no one in their right mind can honestly claim to know what year we are really in -- what a mysterious, elusive and arbitrary idea this is -- what year we are in..., considering that there are over one-hundred different calendars currently being used on planet earth, in addition to the fact that we are all well aware that the year that we presently ascribe to today was invented a little more than fourteen hundred years ago. Just restarted the calendar. Started at year 0 right smack dab in the middle of God only knows what year it was -- depending on what country you were in at the time the Romans made this decision. Luckily some countries resisted the Roman barbarians we call the godfathers of so-called Western Civilization and kept tracking their own traditional calendar.
[Though it's a bit off topic, we'd be remiss if we didn't at least mention that the same can be said for what time it currently is. Depending on where YOU are at this very moment that you are reading this, I can almost guarantee that if we both answered that question at the exact same moment we would call out a series of very different numbers. That is the nature of "time" as we still know and understand it today. Most clock time via the earth's spinning on its access, based on visible light from our so-called "sun", and in a bigger way via the earth's revolutions around this so-called sun. Summer in the northern hemisphere of earth is Winter in the Southern Hemisphere. And vice versa. While some are sunning others are freezing, at the exact same "time". Certain regions assume without second thought that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Except where it doesn't. Some assume without thinking that the sun rises in the morning and lights up the sky for 8 to 16 hours a day and then slowly passes out of sight to blanket the earth in darkness for 8 to 16 hours. Of course to others, depending on where they live on this same earth, the sun doesn't rise, but rather stays up in the sky for weeks at a time, never allowing the earth to see darkness; and vice versa. These are measurements of "time" and yet without them we still need "time"; so we have to find new ways of tracking time, with a non-sunlight based method. Digits, arbitrary digits at that...
(The sun too is an entirely random and arbitrary word/name that does not exist in any real sense of the word. Carl Sagan once remarked how mind blowing and near silly it was that if we ever do find ourselves fortunate enough to discover any other intelligent life in the known universe besides ourselves that we would have no physical way to communicate with them with words or even maps where we live. To most of us saying that we live on earth the third planet from the sun in our solar system in the Milky Way galaxy makes sense, gives us a stable reference point, a sense of stability. The problem is that these ideas are all man-made. They are not constants in the universe. We have no reason or right to believe that any other living beings in this universe would have a clue what a solar system is, or a galaxy, or a sun or an earth or even a planet. They certainly wouldn't know what "the sun" meant, nor would they know what "the Milky Way Galaxy" was. And forget about so-called constellations. These are the childish dreams of much younger humans who didn't have the benefit of telescopes... Of course even if we could eventually get these other beings to understand what it is meant by a "constellation", how would they ever understand our subjective concepts of them, being visible and viable only from our limited vantage point here on earth, and again all depending on where you happen to live on earth.)]
For most of us, leaving the country that we are born in forever and becoming a citizen of another country entirely is not only a big decision but also a major effort. It isn't as simple as waking up one day and declaring "I'm an atheist or I'm a Christian or my name is now Lady Gaga." Not only is it involve a difficult series of actions, some of which take years to accomplish, it is also an action that has a certain taboo or stigma attached to it. Especially in heavily nationalist countries such as Russia or China or the United States or Iran. Not every nation state is as laid back as Belize or the Bahamas. The United States in particular is interesting in that it dislikes losing citizens to other nations as much as it seems to dislike accepting citizens in from other nations; ironic for a country that prides itself on being called "the world's melting pot".
But what if we are born here, in the United States of America (don't even get us started on how confounding the actual name of this country is... that's hours of talking in circles with no proverbial chased tail ever caught, for what and where IS America....?) ... yes, what if we were born here in the United States of America and we actually like living here, lies, deceptions, duplicitous indoctrination and all. Sure it's an evil Matrix controlled by nameless banking elites who are not even from America nor live here whose rules and laws are defended by a heartless military and a faceless police state militia ready to shoot at any citizen who causes a ruckus or says the wrong thing at the wrong time. But what if we still want to live here?
What would make us desire such a state of living? When there are so many other democratic republics around the world now doing a better job at the ideal than the United States is....? Nations who followed the ideals and principles portended by the formation of this ingenious land more accurately than we have managed, nations who are simply pulling it off better than we are presently. The days of the USA being the "best damn freedom loving democracy in the Western World" is a myth that has long since died in the hearts and minds of any living breathing soul on earth with brain power enough to register on an MRI scan. Too many other countries are doing it now, and simply put doing a much better job at it than we are.
But what if we still want to live here? Perhaps it's our family. Perhaps it's the technology or the opportunity for capitalist gain. Many still believe the United States is the country that offers the best potential for going from zero to hero financially the fastest, the best for maximizing profits and financial gain. Perhaps it's just "home" and we don't want to leave. Perhaps some even believe that America, though not quite ever great as it's always claimed to be, and certainly not "exceptional" as some love declaring, still holds the potential to be great one day, to truly be exceptional and not just brag about being so. Though it disturbs me to admit it sometimes, I am one such individual.
I have been lucky that in my chosen career I have had the rare opportunity to travel the world in ways that most people never get to. I have lived in more countries and called them home for months at a time than most people ever get to even visit for vacation. ANd though it usually takes me months to start missing home, hell it's no secret, it takes me weeks just to get over how much I despise about so much of America and what it stands for and does around the world, after a few months i start missing the old place. There is something about the United States that is just deeply embedded beneath my skin. It's not family. I am not that kind of person. My family could always just come visit when they wanted to and that would be fine with me. No, this is something deeper. More visceral and palpable. Something emotional AND physical, at least in the emotional and mental influence on my physicality.
One of the biggest challenges that we the cognizant have in our quest to make America truly great is in helping the mainstreamers among us understand that we LOVE America, though we curse its atrocious acts and refuse to grovel at its dirty blood stained feet. Though we despise its acts of war, it's corruption from within, it's unjust jurisprudence and political systems held together by lies deceit extortion and bribery, we believe in the content and the substance of it's original founding documents and ideals. And we hope and pray, just as everyone else does, that America can make continuous strides towards staying together, staying safe and secure, and coming closer to representing what it claims to stand for.
We talk a great talk here in the United States. No other country on earth has a more adept system of nationalist propaganda and horn tooting. If we could only live up to that potential one day, even live up to half of it... What a truly great country this could be. For all our finger pointing at the mistakes and errors and even the blatant deceptive and egregious actions taken on a daily basis by a knowing elected body of civil servants, we still cling to the notion that America has the potential to become truly, for once, that shining city on a hill that all the world looks up to, rather than the biggest meanest bully in the school yard that all the world looks down on and fears.
We must never forget for even a moment that the ONLY thing right now in present day earthly society that allows America to call itself "the greatest country on earth" is a trembling fear in the hearts and minds of everyone else who doesn't live here. With an arsenal of over 8,000 nuclear missiles stationed all over the world, along with the largest standing army with battalions stationed in over 75 countries on permanent military bases, in addition to being the only country in the history of human civilization to use nuclear weapons on another country, FEAR is the calling card for America's claim to greatness.
We commit more military terrorist acts in a single day than some countries commit in a century. When those don't work we are also the most skilled country on earth at bringing other countries to their knees using economic terrorism. Military coups are our business. Drone strikes are our "let's do lunch". Starving millions of people to death in order to gain access to trade and military secrets or natural resources or full on control of other countries and their leaders is day to day business as usual for the United States on the world stage. It's hard to accept. It hurts to acknowledge. Its painful to contemplate. But it's the first step to true freedom, the freedom to decide deliberately whether or not we want to continue to be citizens of such a nation or not. To NOT acknowledge these things and just accept being a citizen of this country because we were born here is not freedom. It's more akin to communism or fascism. It's being trapped; perhaps out of fear of not knowing if we can succeed anywhere else. Or ignorance. True freedom is acknowledging all that we are and then still deciding that we want to make a go of it here.
No one I know who has studied and understands the true mechanisms that drive America wants to leave. Instead they have a strong desire to help change America, to help improve it, to help assist it's growing up and growing into its stated goals for itself, liberty freedom and justice for all. And that's just the beginning. How about truth and honesty, integrity, keeping your word, being a peace maker rather than the world's war monger, being a teacher and leader and role model, a beacon of hope and a source of light. A safe haven for the displaced, discouraged, disappointed and dispossessed. These are just some of the ideals and roles that America holds the promise of growing into.
We may complain a lot, petition a lot, march on Washington a lot, demonstrate and protest a lot, opine and editorialize and yell a lot, flag wave (or flag burn when necessary) a lot, shout and kick and scream a lot as the storm-trooper police officers drag us away yet again to jail, but there is reason for it. We are NOT the enemy. We are not hoodlums. We are not radicals. Though perhaps in our idealistic vision for a truly noble America we are radical. We are patriots. American patriots. And WE ARE EVERYWHERE.
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