Please Hear What I’m Not Saying

Don’t be fooled by me. Don’t be fooled by the face I wear for I wear a mask, a thousand masks, masks that I’m afraid to take off, and none of them is me.

Pretending is an art that’s second nature with me, but don’t be fooled, for God’s sake don’t be fooled. I give you the impression that I’m secure, that . . . → Read More: Please Hear What I’m Not Saying

Bailouts, Finance, Greed, Mammon, God and Gaia

I am reading Killing the Host by Michael Hudson, and was sitting with a feeling of sadness at the bailout of the banksters and Goldman Sachs.

I was saddened that the American government and the American people suffer consequences of corruption of the government by the financial elites. The government of the USA is now an oligarchy.

I then thought of the culpability . . . → Read More: Bailouts, Finance, Greed, Mammon, God and Gaia

Abolish all taxes?

Ron Paul has called for the abolishment of all taxes. And I said online that I thought that that was one of the stupidest ideas I had heard from him. Someone asked me why so I felt I should respond.

It is a confusion of the current general public mindset that taxes pay for government. It stems from seeing government as like . . . → Read More: Abolish all taxes?

Burning the midnight oil

It is well known (everywhere but in the Climate Denier’s Homeland) that burning fossil fuels causes atmospheric CO² to increase, causes man-made global climate change. It is also clear that the carbon industry has a interest in burning more fuel, each company seeks to maxmise it’s own return by increasing its revenue and reserves. They also fund lavishly the climate deniers and skeptics as well as corrupting the governments that might putatively seek to limit their earth destroying short term profits. . . . → Read More: Burning the midnight oil

Private capital and the demands of citizens

Charles Hugh Smith has a blog post “How the Middle Class Lifestyle Became Unaffordable” that succinctly describes the quandary of capitalism today. The State has two core mandates: enforce quasi-monopolies and cartels for private capital, and satisfy enough of the citizenry’s demands for more benefits to maintain social stability. . . . → Read More: Private capital and the demands of citizens

Nuclear Decommissioning True Costs

That bastion of eco-terrorism the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has updated it’s thinking on the true costs of nuclear decommissioning:

The Yankee Nuclear Power Station in Rowe, Massachusetts, took 15 years to decommission—or five times longer than was needed to build it. And decommissioning the plant—constructed early in the 1960s for $39 million—cost $608 million. The plant’s spent fuel rods are still stored . . . → Read More: Nuclear Decommissioning True Costs

Great Secret of Mind

As usual I have been reading extensively on consciousness – with a particular interest in spiritual development. I was reading Tulku Pema Rigstal’s The Great Secret of Mind, and was severely disappointed in his holding onto outmoded patterns of thought, for a youthful teacher teaching non-duality in the 21st century several of his images were dated and culturally biased. Granting that his translator, . . . → Read More: Great Secret of Mind

How Governance became Unethical

Today I received a talk on “How Governance Became Unethical” (the link will download the slides for you) by my friend Prabhu Guptara. This is excepted from my email conversation with him.

I read the slides and I have to admit that I have lots of problems with them. He seems to posit the problem as a generalized, cultural-moral evolution without a driving . . . → Read More: How Governance became Unethical

Shark or Mackerel

What would you rather be the shark or the mackerel? But, what if we are swimming in the wrong ocean?

Wake up to the sound of elite music

A commenter over at nakedcapitalism got me worked up today. Cinderella said:

They say that it is for our own benefit, that we keep shoveling money to periphery countries, but how can it be so? They have to cut their social spending as a reciprocation, but how does this help our economy or people who live in periphery countries? Dunno.

I responded:

Think . . . → Read More: Wake up to the sound of elite music