Would You Take the Blue Pill or the Red Pill?

How does morality work in the human mind? This video is fascinating.

The Eyes of The Shepherdess

This post could be called "Sailing Past The Sirens"

"I saw a big circus tent, and I crawled over to it and lifted the canvas and looked inside."

"What did you see?"

"Everything!"

-- as retold by Johnny W.

I have an announcement, W.J. lied to me....there was no circus tent! There was just this ominous smokey cloud that came in from the west that engulfed me in a transforming matrix of alternating metallic colors, orange and blue vibrating into red and white and back again. The pattern was an apple-core quilt style with a dot right in the center of each piece. The quilt wrapped around me and my sympathetic vibrating harmonized with the nano-colors as fabric passed through me destabilizing everything I have ever known to be true.



At some point, I realized I had entered a portal of infinity with nothing to hold on to. I was scared shitless as every molecule in my body was vibrating at bee speed, and getting louder. I also knew that I was on my own, all alone, and if I did not make it back, I would be folded by this undulating matrix into the fossil record of infinity.

For reasons of safety and self preservation, I moved away from the vortex, not sure if I was pulling this new reality with me, contaminating other areas, or if its gravity was weakening. Time and space were definitely stretching. Only at this point did I wake my other and ask for help, only to confront an enraged archetype that had been summoned from hell against her wishes. I was standing naked before Isis, and it was not pretty.

Industrial Disease

Warning lights are flashing down at quality control
Somebody threw a spanner and they threw him in the hole
Theres rumors in the loading bay and anger in the town
Somebody blew the whistle and the walls came down
Theres a meeting in the boardroom theyre trying to trace the smell
Theres leaking in the washroom theres a sneak in personnel
Somewhere in the corridors someone was heard to sneeze
goodness me could this be industrial disease?

The caretaker was crucified for sleeping at his post
Theyre refusing to be pacified its him they blame the most
The watchdogs got rabies the foremans got fleas
And everyones concerned about industrial disease
Theres panic on the switchboard tongues are ties in knots
Some come out in sympathy some come out in spots
Some blame the management some the employees
And everybody knows its the industrial disease

The work force is disgusted downs tools and walks
Innocence is injured experience just talks
Everyone seeks damages and everyone agrees
That these are classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze
On itv and bbc they talk about the curse
Philosophy is useless theology is worse
History boils over theres an economics freeze
Sociologists invent words that mean industrial disease

Doctor parkinson declared Im not surprised to see you here
Youve got smokers cough from smoking, brewers droop from drinking beer
I dont know how you came to get the betty davis knees
But worst of all young man youve got industrial disease
He wrote me a prescription he said you are depressed
But Im glad you came to see me to get this off your chest
Come back and see me later - next patient please
Send in another victim of industrial disease

I go down to speakers corner Im thunderstruck
They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
Two men say theyre jesus one of them must be wrong
Theres a protest singer singing a protest song - he says
they wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
They wanna have a war to keep their factories
They wanna have a war to stop us buying japanese
They wanna have a war to stop industrial disease
Theyre pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
They wanna sap your energy incarcerate your mind
They give you rule brittania, gassy beer, page three
Two weeks in espana and sunday striptease
Meanwhile the first jesus says Id cure it soon
Abolish monday mornings and friday afternoons
The other ones on a hunger strike hes dying by degrees
How come jesus gets industrial disease

As Long As The President Said It Was Okay...

This is a concise video laying out the whole argument of torture and why it is wrong. It also shows graphically what we as Americans allowed to happen over the past 8 years. It is a half hour well spent, IMO.

Pig Flew

Here is my contribution to the debate and bio-terrorism alert...

Birdie birdie in the sky
Why do you do that in my eye
I will not laugh I will not cry
I’m just glad that pigs don’t fly


And watch out for republican flu...(hint: its more deadly)



.

Smart Freedom, Not More Rope

Hey, the world is changing. It will not be the same. Mixing Terrence McKenna, teachings from Kundalini yoga, wilderness awareness experiences, economics, Mormonism, and the recent conference I attended presented by the California International Bankers Association, 2012 is going to be a big year. If we are lucky, citizens are going to own the insurance markets, car manufactures, and every other "over-leveraged" capitalist industry. And the pandemic is global, with the pathogen being the IMF and World Bank.

If we are lucky, we are not going to be "communists" in the sense that the Catholic Church today was once as oppressive as today's Taliban, which they were during the dark ages. One of our biggest objectives should be in avoiding the post-soviet privatization, where billionaires were politically created by merging mafia with government. But if everyone owns stock that they can freely buy and sell, those citoyens are then responsible for the actions of their businesses in their communities.

The capitalists have sold the world enough rope to hang them many times over. Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is not to use that rope.



This post written in Berkeley, CA (go figure). Regardless of how crazy you think Berkeley is, is it not an expression of freedom? So maybe Berkeley should be studied as a model.

"We All Want Our Children to Be Well Adjusted..."

"...it is just that there is nothing for them to be well adjusted to."

We Are In The Birth Canal...

What Water Shortage?

Think you might like to try waterboarding for sport? This guy made a bet that he could go 15 seconds...






...and you read their magazine fro the articles. So why do you watch the videos?

What Does the Road Look Like Going Forward?

Elizabeth Warren of Harvard University and the head of the Congressional Oversight Committee for the TARP funds addresses what she calls the BIG QUESTION -- one that has to be answered within the next six months: What does the road look like going forward?

Then the good professor gives a history lesson in finance beginning with GeoWashington ending with today's uncertainty.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Elizabeth Warren Pt. 2
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Derivative markets . . .an understandable explanation

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit . In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers, most of whom are unemployed alcoholics, to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around about Heidi's "drink now pay later" marketing strategy and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi's bar and soon she has the largest sales volume for any bar in Detroit.

By providing her customers' freedom from immediate payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Heidi's borrowing limit. He sees no reason for undue concern since he has the debts of the alcoholics as collateral. At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then traded on security markets worldwide. Naive investors don’t really understand the securities being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, their prices continuously climb, and the securities become the top-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, although the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager at the bank (subsequently fired due his negativity), decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi's bar. Heidi demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being unemployed they cannot pay back their drinking debts. Therefore, Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations and claims bankruptcy.

DRINKBOND and ALKI BOND drop in price by 90%. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by 80%. The decreased bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans. The suppliers of Heidi's bar, having granted her generous payment extensions and having invested in the securities are faced with writing off her debt and losing over 80% on her bonds. Her wine supplier claims bankruptcy, her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 50 workers.

The bank and brokerage houses are saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock negotiations by leaders from both political parties. The funds required for this bailout are obtained by a tax levied on employed middle-class non-drinkers.

Finally an explanation I can understand!

(H/T Richard A.)