Our Minds Are Marvels of Engineering

For Steven Pinker fans.

My Contribution to the War On Christmas

Happy Newton Day!

Holiday Book Recommendation

I recommend that you rush over to your friendly bookseller, find this book in the science section, take it out, and then walk it over to the science fiction section and return it to its correct place.

Feel free to do this to any book by Behe as well.

Merry Christmas.

What's Going On?

What are Americans thinking about?

What about African Americans?

Medicare and Medicaid

Social Security is not the problem. There is no Social Security crisis. Social security was fixed in 1983 (thank you President Reagan). The true crisis in the Federal Budget in the coming years is soaring Medicare and Medicaid spending. It can be addressed by comprehensive health care reform. Also, the graph above excludes debt service, which is also a huge problem. Which of the presidential candidates are honestly addressing the actual problems?

For more detail and an even better graphic that includes debt service, check out page nine of this pdf report.

Be wary of those who tell you that "social insurance" costs are spiraling out of control (that's true, due to Medicare and Medicaid), and then propose to slash Social Security benefits as the solution. It is dishonest.

Sing Along

Who Is It?

What person said . . . .

Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

In most communities it is illegal to cry "fire" in a crowded assembly. Should it not be considered serious international misconduct to manufacture a general war scare in an effort to achieve local political aims?

The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.

Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.

It's All Good

The Three Big Ideas Of Life
are
Creation. Evolution. Grace.



Being a solid evolutionist, with a long time scientific fascination and hunger for witnessing great breakthroughs (what a great time to be alive!), I never had a problem with believing the impenetrable, bizarre, mysterious fact of our Creation, always hoping for some answers.




We were created. No doubt. How can I know this? We exist, like everything else that is, like all that has ever been. How could this be? I don't really have that answer, but it is.


By the way, let's not mix this up. I'm not conceding Creationism - something different. Creationism was itself created of course, but in this case, we know who the creators (and perpetrators) are. The Creationism idea, over time, took one particular path (among many paths that potentially pop up) that eventually evolved into Intelligent Design, the great modern surviving beast. ID strategically goes to battle against great ideas like Evolution and Archeology and History and myriad other fields of science - all of these are great legendary ideas that humans also created that don't want to be bothered to have to fight such a stupid pipsqueak of an idea such as ID. But fight they must. Sigh.



Ironic. Both of these, the earlier and later generations of theories that waste time attacking established truth - and there's surely more to come - evolved, in the same way that Evolution predicts it could. Good and bad genes evolve - are created - and good and bad ideas survive and evolve, in many of the same ways as do our genes. There's always a good variety of genes and ideas circulating out there, but rest assured, the useless and destructive ones (like ID, or flu epidemics) will eventually get weeded out. And on and on we go. So long as we stay successful - surviving. If we don't ultimately (and timely too) prevail over the bad ideas that have evolved, then there could be a big stress imposed on society, and we may or may not (if we adapt) perish. Communism was successfully created, and it has mostly been successfully destroyed. Islamic jihadism has successfully been created, and we are so far unsuccessful in destroying it. I have faith we will. History is full of former good ideas. This is the way it works, whether it makes us upset or not. But, c'mon, have a heart.


So there's Creation. Sounds so holy, but there are no doubt things created, however you think about the mystery of Creation. And it's wonderful to think about.


Then there's Evolution. Genes, and memes, the genetic proteins and cultural ideas that pass down through the ages to form us and inform our society. Our species and our culture are always evolving. Always have. Always will, as long as we are successful.


Which brings me to . . . .


Grace. However you define it. Successful Life? Love? Bliss? Purpose to our lives? Is it already created for us? Or do we decide of our own free will? What is it to you? Heart? Love? Knowledge? Seated at the right hand of the Father? Nirvana? Contentment? Removal of desire? In this life? In the next? What is grace, what is best, for you? Is it what is best for us?

Great questions. Many of us have many different answers. Between Creation and Grace alone you have enough to build whole religions. Oh, wait.






It so happens that I think the subject of Grace is more important than either the subject of Creation or Evolution.



Certainly, we shouldn't forget about Evolution. By Evolution - a particularly important understanding for us to have due to the fact we are now so much our own creators - I mean the process by which humanity (and all life) is able to keep chuggin' along.



So, it boils down to the big three ideas of life:




Creation. The mystical source of it all. We just don't know. We have ideas, though. Many ideas.



Evolution. How it all works. We really have the basics pretty much dialed in. But it's so early in our era of knowledge, so we are still learning rapidly.



Grace. What we decide to do with it all.

Our awareness, our morals, our understanding, our customs, our history, our destiny, our lives. What do we do? Individually, and collectively over time, what should we do? Do we agree to work together toward some shared purpose? If so, should it be a broad enough purpose to permit us to realistically include everyone in an agreement? Or do we form factions, with cross-purposes? Sometimes, clearly, that it required. Should our purpose simply be our survival? Do we all have different ideas about how much control we can or should exert in achieving Grace? Good questions. Let's talk about it.

If fact, it's all good, and all are the possible subjects of big breakthroughs in our understanding, our morals, our history. Time would be well spent enjoying and studying and talking about all of the three big ideas of life.

Supply Sadism

I ran across an old article by Krugman, from over 4 years ago, that provides some useful perspective on one thing that is bothering me these days.

As all the Republican presidential candidates get my blood boiling by blinding asserting the myth that tax cuts are the cure for any problem and will pay for themselves, it's not enough to simply refute the lie that is the supply siders mantra - cut tax rates and revenue will go up. Giuliani is the worst offender lately: "I know that reducing taxes produces more revenues. Democrats don't know that. They don't believe it."

BS. Find me an economist that believes that. But why, then, besides the easy political hit of crack for their devoted followers, do politicians continue this line of rhetoric? What is this BS really about?

Krugman explains how the tax-cut for everything crowd really has two fronts, the happy, political one of all-gain, no-pain and the ideological one of "starving the beast" so that a fiscal crisis will eventually result in voters hating the goverment, and then force huge spending cuts. Small government is the goal. The dishonest way they have of getting there is what pisses me off.

Krugman:

"A look at who the supply-siders are and how they came to prominence tells the story.

The supply-side movement likes to present itself as a school of economic thought like Keynesianism or monetarism -- that is, as a set of scholarly ideas that made their way, as such ideas do, into political discussion. But the reality is quite different. Supply-side economics was a political doctrine from Day 1; it emerged in the pages of political magazines, not professional economics journals.

That is not to deny that many professional economists favor tax cuts. But they almost always turn out to be starve-the-beasters, not supply-siders. And they often secretly -- or sometimes not so secretly -- hold supply-siders in contempt. N. Gregory Mankiw, now chairman of George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, is definitely a friend to tax cuts; but in the first edition of his economic-principles textbook, he described Ronald Reagan's supply-side advisers as ''charlatans and cranks.''"

Why can't more folks see through the BS? If you want a smaller government, then campaign based on telling us what you will cut. Otherwise, quit promising a free lunch, when all you are doing is running up the tab.

Rob

Rob Boyle.





Singer/Songwriter, entertainer, crowd pleaser. It's about the music, and the people, you know? It's really OK if music is sometimes a spiritual thing for you. "Ordinarily", you make some money.

Bah.

Just Gravy.

What is lasting is . . . .

Connections.

Let it go.

Beautifully human.

Music.

I understand.

"All of this will probably take years . . . . "

. . . . working through all the new problems (that have arisen the last few years) will take some time, just like the current problems.

Important Government Business

Resolved, That the House of Representatives-- (1) recognizes the Christian faith as one of the great religions of the world; (2) expresses continued support for Christians in the United States and worldwide; (3) acknowledges the international religious and historical importance of Christmas and the Christian faith; (4) acknowledges and supports the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States and in the formation of the western civilization; (5) rejects bigotry and persecution directed against Christians, both in the United States and worldwide; and (6) expresses its deepest respect to American Christians and Christians throughout the world."

There is a War on Christmas, after all.

Source

What Is Reality?

This is one result (other more serious results are misplaced hatred, fear, war, people die, etc.) that happens when some in our government and media seek to mislead and most of the rest of the media only say, he said, she said, you decide:

"I have now received three (3) student papers that discuss Iraq's attack on the Twin Towers on 9/11. All three papers mention it as an aside to another point. I've had two papers on the virtue of forgiveness that argue that if we had just forgiven Iraq for the 9/11 attacks, we wouldn't be at war right now. I just read a paper on the problem of evil which asked why God allowed "the Iraq's" to attack us on 9/11. The thing that upsets me most here is that the the students don't just believe that that Iraq was behind 9/11. This is a big fact in their minds, that leaps out at them, whenever they think about the state of the world."

For some folks, it's a close enough approximation of reality.

Sciencedebate2008

A Call for a Presidential Debate on Science and Technology

I've submitted my question (about the health of the world's oceans). Won't you?

War Is Over!

If you want it.

Two Means To An End

What do nuclear war and global climate change have in common?

From an interview with Jonathan Schell:

You know, when I wrote The Fate of the Earth, back in 1982, I said that, first and foremost, nuclear weapons were an ecological danger. It wasn't that our species could be directly wiped out by nuclear war down to the last person. That would only happen through the destruction of the underpinnings of life, through nuclear winter, radiation, ozone loss. There has been an oddity of timing, because when the nuclear weapon was invented, people didn't even use the word "environment" or "ecosphere." The environmental movement was born later.

So, in a certain sense, the greatest -- or certainly the most urgent -- ecological threat of them all was born before the context in which you could understand it. The present larger ecological crisis is that context. In other words, global warming and nuclear war are two different ways that humanity, having grown powerful through science, through production, through population growth, threatens to undo the natural underpinnings of human, and all other, life. In a certain way, I think we may be in a better position today, because of global warming, to grasp the real import of nuclear danger.

I hope to get an outraged comment from reader DS.

Ozark Music Plus Weird Fiddle Stuff

The Ozarks look beautiful from my perch in Chesterfield. The original music is great here as well. Last Friday, Webster Jim and I traveled to Washington MO to see Big Smith. I recommend them. Watch this:



Now, after you take some serious drugs, watch this weird, but uniquely American, band, called Uncle Earl (homage to Earl Scruggs):



Recognize the piano player? Yep, it's John Paul Jones, from Led Zeppelin. That's all.

We Don't Torture

Tapes? There were tapes, after all? Don't worry, though. Nothing to see here, move on now.

?????

"Freedom requires religion . . ."

I don't get it. If you believe that God is the ultimate authority, and since most religions are fundamentally authoritarian in their doctrines, I don't understand how Freedom requires Religion. I think I know what he really means, though. In America, athiests aren't free to run for public office. It's just that folks don't usually say this out loud.

Whatever. He's certainly no JFK, whose approach to this issue is beautifully and uniquely American. The POLITICAL role of faith and religion in America was perfectly set forth by Kennedy, thus providing a precedent for all to follow. Until now.

Big Mouth

Some say I have one. Who am I to argue?

As Gunter Grass said, "The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open.”

Imagine . . .

. . . that he kept his word, no more, no less.







At the time, Bush's approval rating soared to 86%.

America was united. Now, not so much.

Q.E.D.

Click To Play

Geneva Schmeneva

This is nice.

"Non-compliance with the Geneva Conventions remains official US Policy, according to leading Habeas Corpus lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights. Systematic denial of Red Cross access to prisoners remains."

Philosophy of Fundamentals and Taking Liberties

It would not be called fundamental if it were not believed to be always true. A condition is fundamental because it is basic, a premise, understood to be the case, always. Like supply and demand. Like how to read. Like simple mathematics. Like trust. All are fundamental. Until there is a major paradigm shift, or the sun starts rising in the west, the fundamentals are always required.

I believe I barely qualify in calling myself a musician. In fact, I’m a drummer. A drummer is to musician as a kicker is to football player. No respect. But I am a musician nonetheless.

As a drummer, and as a musician, there are certain fundamentals to be respected. You have to stay on the beat. You have to respect the dynamics of the song. You have to please the listener.

I occasionally play in a duet with an acoustic guitar player on Fridays nights at a small bar and restaurant in St. Louis county. On a recent Friday night, during a break, I got into an interesting discussion with the guitar player about the fundamentals of musicianship.

He was complementing me on both my fundamentals and my musicality. I was playing within myself and I was pleased that he noticed. I took this as an opportunity to explain my philosophy of drumming. I told him that I believed that it all starts with the fundamentals: I have to fit in with the music, I have to maintain a steady beat and I have to be a pleasing performer. That is my fundamental job as a drummer. I could be flashy, I sometimes am flashy, but I feel that I first have to earn it. If I am playing, doing my job, sticking with the fundamentals, then I may sometimes earn the right to take some liberties. By liberties, I mean an interesting, different, creative and yes, sometimes flashy, fill. I may not have the best skills, the fastest hands or the fanciest equipment, but if I am getting the job done, and can continue to get the job done by respecting the fundamentals, then I can sometimes show off a little. Be creative. Do something to make the audience swoon. Have a drum solo. But I can only do this if I continue to remember the fundamentals.

By contrast, a drum machine is steady. A drum machine is programmed to stick with certain fundamentals. Some drummers are not as good as a drum machine. Some are better. But the bad drummers fail the fundamentals, no matter how fast and flashy they play. So what can make me preferable to a drum machine? Because I am human. I can do more than a drum machine. I can be creative. But it only works if I never forget the fundamentals. Otherwise, just go with the drum machine.

Why should anyone care about the philosophy of drumming, or guitar playing (the guitar player completely agreed with me)?

Because what is true for music is true for internet stocks, the housing market and the supply and demand for tulips. It’s fine, and beautifully human, to take some liberties with the regulations and the financial structures that frame those markets. It's great to make the people swoon. It's great to take liberties and be fast and flashy. But it only works if the fundamentals are respected. When they are not respected, the fundamentals don’t go away. Rather, they come crashing back into our reality and people get hurt. It’s not nice to mess with the fundamentals.

Where Have All the Really Good Enemies Gone?

This one does not appear to be quite the threat that we were told. We are at war after all. We need a new good enemy. Is North Korea still scary?

We need fresh fuel for the fear.

Bad News

". . . only 16 percent of born-again Christians, compared to 43 percent of Catholics and 30 percent of Protestants, believe in Darwin's theory of evolution."

Evolution is central to our understanding of how life works. It can be complex, particularly as we add to our scientific understanding, but it is very easy to grasp the basics. Here are two good sites that provide a wealth of information:

TalkOrigins

Understanding Evolution

But instead of educating Americans about the truth and beauty of the theory of evolution (as we supposedly do with the "3R's"), we confuse people with ignorant behavior and beliefs.

The bad news and undeniable truth is that religion encourages Americans to believe things that are not true and to deny things that are true. And America is among the most religious, and sometimes stupid, countries in the world.

I don't want to be anti-religious. I am simply anti-stupidity.

Should we continue to tolerate the massive denial of science and other true things because people's "freedom of religion" is protecting stupidity? I say believe what you want, but do not brainwash children and do not let your fantasies rule over truth, no matter how useful your lies may be.

This pisses me off. I don't want to have to tolerate or have respect for people's stupid beliefs. It just encourages others to cling to their stupid beliefs. For example, serious presidential candidate and Southern Baptist minister Huckabee said: "Oh, I believe in science. I certainly do," he said. "In fact, what I believe in is, I believe in God. I don't think there's a conflict between the two. But if there's going to be a conflict, science changes with every generation and with new discoveries and God doesn't. So I'll stick with God if the two are in conflict." At a recent debate, Huckabee proudly raised his hand when the moderator asked if any of the candidates believed in stupidity.

Perhaps the motivation for avoiding the study of evolution is the concern among many believers that it inexorably leads to athiesm, and then they will lose their salvation and risk an unpleasant eternity. I can understand that. In fact, many of the proponents of atheism, including Richard Dawkins in his book "The God Delusion", explicitly use evolution to disprove many of the arguments for the existence of God. Given the strong beliefs and assumptions about life held by many religious people, this may indeed be a compelling reason to shy away from scientific knowledge - in order to sustain your faith beliefs and, of course, pass on those beliefs to the children.

But is this motivation a good enough justification for avoiding the truth and promoting lies, such as Intelligent Design? I say no. I SHOUT NO! There simply has to be a better way. Some scientists who believe in God promote a philosophy of "God in the gaps", or Stephen J. Gould's "non-overlapping magisteria" (the "NOMA" view), wherein they feel that science and religion appropriately address different domains of knowledge and that therefore there is no necessary conflict between them so long as each sticks to its own domain. I don't find that very satisfactory. However, I think that, for now, this view will have to be sufficient as a way of moving our culture forward. But I am not the one who will have to make sacrifices. It is those with demonstratively false beliefs that will have to give ground. Give up the stupid fantasies and join me in embracing the beauty of evolution and scientific knowledge. In the meantime, those of us who truly believe in the importance of education, including science education, should be shouting from the rooftops to stop the madness.

By the way, an interesting debate on the phenomena of religion is here.

Click on comments below if you think I am stupid.

Kindles and Bits

The demise of the book continues, here.

Buffalo Values and the American Hero of our National Discourse

Why oh why can't we have a great national discourse equal to the potential greatness of American democracy?

Here is one insight.

"But that's what passes for being a "tough" interviewer these days: the pose of confrontation rather than genuinely challenging questions, the query designed to embarrass rather than enlighten, the worship of, rather than the challenge to, conventional wisdom. "

Freedom

Freedom can be measured in numerous ways. The first way, which I prefer, is to start with the First Amendment to the US Constitution:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Take freedom of the press. What country has a less free press than North Korea? Entria now ranks last at #169. Burma is stuck at 164, but still ranks higher than Cuba and Iran. Iceland and Norway are tied for first.

The US is just under Nicaragua at #48.

Still The Same

Still a shame. From today's press conference:

"QUESTION: Thank you, sir. A simple question.
"BUSH: Yes?
"QUESTION: What's your definition of --
"BUSH: It may require a simple answer.
"(LAUGHTER)
"QUESTION: What's your definition of the word torture?
"BUSH: Of what?
"QUESTION: The word torture, what's your definition?
"BUSH: That's defined in U.S. law, and we don't torture.
"QUESTION: Can you give me your version of it, sir?
"BUSH: No. Whatever the law says."

Naturally, "whatever the law says" is a secret.

The Whole World Is You

"The whole world is you. Yet you keep thinking there is something else." --Hsueh-Feng

9/11

One year ago today, I gave a speech at my Toastmaster's club in Phoenix. While I spoke, I had two photographs circulating through the audience - one showing a close-up of a wall that had pictures of missing loved ones; the other was a panoramic picture of Manhattan at night with those two spotlights at ground zero shining high up into the sky. Several people in the audience told me that I should deliver this speech again on the sixth anniversary of September 11, 2001. Here it is:


Pictures on the Wall

I wrote a short song, but I won't sing. We'll call it a poem. I call it Pictures on the Wall.

Two lights into the sky
Where the towers once stood
It's night and I just sigh
This light does me no good

Two bright lights into the sky
Where the victims once stood
It's still night and I must cry
Is there hope for the good?

Oh, there came heroes, hope and strength
But I just see the pictures on the wall
While the fires burned for months
No reason, no reason at all

Yes, we had two bright lights shining proud and high
Up into that Manhattan sky
But I still see the pictures on the wall
While the fires burned for months
And we all just cried
It's still not over; we're not over it at all
I'll never be over the pictures on the wall
I'll never be over the pictures on the wall

My friends, a lot of time has passed, and we continue to be strong and have hope for the future. But I cannot forget. We meet on the fifth anniversary. Today I remember the pain. It is imprinted and easily felt. Today especially, after so frequently hearing it for such a long, long time, sometimes so carelessly tossed about, it actually hurts to say it or hear it. 9/11. September 11, 2001. I remember clearly. As we meet on this day, I need to connect to the raw feelings I felt on that day, five years ago. So I remember.

There is integrity in my feelings. It's authentic. I remember the purity of my anger and my agony. It's real. It's true. It's what I felt five years ago. It feels the same today. I need to remember, or eventually I might feel nothing at all. It's what we all need to do. Remember.

But there have been so many distractions. 9/11 dominates our foreign policies, our domestic policies, it's affecting our lives in many ways, whether expected or not. The first round of 9/11 movies has now been released. That's just the way it is. Like Pearl Harbor and the World War II generation, this tragedy and this era will spawn an industry, feeding our entertainment, our culture and our politics for generations. So much has become entangled with September 11, 2001. The images we share, the stories we tell, and the history we shape together will forever define that powerful day.

Our history, of course, is still being written. And the stories are still being told. Dramatic controversies, brutal wars and tough elections are constantly swirling around us. So many people live in fear. So many are pushing fear. All of this clamor can be dark and confusing. But my memory is distinct. It is bright and clear.

It is difficult to even have a conversation about 9/11. There are so many questions and so many opinions. How could this happen? Who can we trust? Where is the hope? There is so much noise; too many distractions. But my memory is always a comfort. It is true and clear.

I will not let this noise alter my connection to what happened. We got hit hard. Some lived through this, while many others, tragically, did not. But I was one of the victims. All of us are victims. Our children are victims. Their children may not remember, but I promise to remember my pain. It is still imprinted and easily felt.

Please, I implore you, on this day, to pay no attention to all the noise. Go back to that day. Remember, and feel, and let everything else go. Forget war. Forget the news. Ignore the voices telling you how you must react. Tomorrow, you can dive right back into the noise and swim wherever you like. But today, please don't take comfort from the distractions.

I challenge you: Face the feelings you had while you lived through this horrific act of terror. I say that we owe it to the victims, we owe it to ourselves, and we owe it to the generations to never forget. Why? Because the honesty and the clarity of our memories must live, and those memories must inform the future that we create. While we will, of course, engage in the noise as we grow together, we must never allow ourselves to get lost in fantasy and fear. We must not get lost in the noise. We must stay connected to the truth.

My memories connect me to what I know is real. So I have gone back, and I have said it out loud. Today, I remember the pictures on the wall while those damned fires burned for months, and we all just cried.

Time has gone by, and I am not over it. The pain is imprinted and searing.

Tomorrow, I'll see the two proud lights shining high into the sky.

Tomorrow, I will see hope.

But today is the fifth anniversary of September 11, 2001. Today I remember.

Freeeeeeedom!

Freedom to Hate!

Where does the hate come from? From all of us, in ways big and small.

How does it get incited? In a million little ways. Alone, or in a crowd, it grows, validated sometimes by the popularity of the source.

How does it end? Call it out for the bullshit it is when you can.

I used to like Nugent. Back in the 70's.

Full rant transcript in comments.

Last Request

Paolo has some pipes!

George Bush Makes Sense

Quotes:

"A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam: When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear and the victory must be overwhelming." Source

"Our nation should be slow to engage troops. But when we do so, we must do so with ferocity. We must not go into a conflict unless we go in committed to win. We can never again ask the military to fight a political war” Source

Too bad he said these things before he became President.

Forgive The Progress

A tiny slice of a possible future reality, here.

I struggle agreeing that "The printed page is giving way to the networked screen.", per the site's mission statement.

Then again . . . .

What is a book, now?

Has it been fading to history? The age of the printing press will have only ruled for five or so centuries?

And before the book, it was elite hand-written manuscripts. Those wonderful royals, and scholars, and monks. Consider the era of the early Bible - those manuscripts were so special and in the hands of so few. So sad the loss to a way a life with the coming of the press. Pardon the pun intended.

What becomes of the perfect civilization they (we) have invented?

Before the written words, there was language. Before that, there were only simple symbols and sounds. For hundreds of thousands of years, the way these animals we are could make do - and make do we did - was by asserting our clever ways, sharing ideas, adapting for millenia and using the basics at hand: sticks and stones, rock tablets, pictures, cave drawings, art, dances, songs, stories and grunts. Communication perfection. So sad for the sudden loss of status for the artists and storytellers when the change set in to finally culture us with words and grammer. Another loss of another way of life. And the horror! we surely felt with the next change - refinement from the printed books. Now the gutwrenching information age changes are upon us, with the final empowerment of universal knowledge. More barriers come crashing down.

Broadband for all! (Freedom for all? Equal justice for all?)

We will change. In huge ways, like we always did before. Changes bring change; it's not that hard to understand. Or is it?

So of course we should we embrace the change, as we inevitably will, right? Or, shouldn't we fight for a while longer to go back to (stay in?) the stone age?

The answer: Forgive the progress, but never forget.

I love the past and I love the future. And so do you.

A good book in the right room is forever. It's something to read and hold, to smell the age of the pages, to see the dancing and the faces of the characters in your imagination. The warm fire is crackling and lightening the words. You flow in the glow and remember. (But surfing the net and drowning in the data is nearing nirvana.)

Another warm image: a vinyl record album, with it's wonderful cover and inner sleeves - some with lyrics you can actually read without help from Walgreens. (But downloading the latest song is pretty good too - better even: I can color laser print the album art to frame for my music room. Never done it, actually, but I could.)

All precious memories, before the times of changes. Those singers and storytellers and writers. I love them still. And sticks and stones, and dance, and art, and I always love to grunt.

Now as we get dragged through yet another time of change, in our inexorable march to greater cultural sophistication, technological mastery and magically coordinated cooperation (Adam Smith's invisible hand and our collective brain), we will decide to take those single steps on our longest journey, sometimes blind and bloated and bleating all the way. We post the words to our little pages during our short stay - always staying within the natural narrative of the story of humanity. We have always done so, and we are always glad we did. We move forward. It's who we are.

Some say - but it's another long story for another long day - that we are all marching toward the singularity, and soon. Maybe.

What I know is that ideas grow and then live forever. The basics we use in our own age are special to us. They will be treasured, even if they no longer lead the way, even if we let them fade away. What has been lasting is humanity.

But still, our ways will always flow, and ebb, and stop or grow. We build on what was past, and make it better. Deep down in our genes and in flowing through our memes, we appreciate that. We know; we are proud of the civilization we are inventing. And we smile at our pictures of the past. Tonight, I'll have happy dreams of how my child self stayed up too late with E.B. White. After I post this on my blog. Weird.

Oh, the knowledge and memories that we enjoyed, and that our progeny will treasure their way during their times.

Books and songs and all our things. They just keep changing. We are born and we die and we each witness a small slice of reality - only a page from the human story. Over the long term, haven't these changes been for the better? After all, we are the best we can be.

What is Reality

Not exactly Matrix, more like SimCity.

"Dr. Bostrom assumes that technological advances could produce a computer with more processing power than all the brains in the world, and that advanced humans, or “posthumans,” could run “ancestor simulations” of their evolutionary history by creating virtual worlds inhabited by virtual people with fully developed virtual nervous systems. "

Doesn't really change anything though; it's real to me, to us, irrespective of a Prime Designer, or not.

Non-Trivial Paragraph

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Link

"It's A Quagmire"

Per Dick Cheney, in 1994.

"We Don't Torture"

At today's press conference:

Q Thank you, sir. A two-part question. The New Yorker reports that the Red Cross has found the interrogation program in the CIA detention facilities use interrogation techniques that were tantamount to torture. I'm wondering if you have read that report and what your reaction to it is? And the second part of the question is, more than a year ago you said that you wanted to close the detention facility at Guantanamo, and a year later nothing has actually happened in that regard. And the Vice President, Attorney General and Homeland Security Secretary are reported to be resisting such a move. I wonder if you could tell us who's really in charge on this issue, are you doing anything about it, do you expect Guantanamo to be open or closed when you leave office?

THE PRESIDENT: I did say it should be a goal of the nation to shut down Guantanamo. I also made it clear that part of the delay was the reluctance of some nations to take back some of the people being held there. In other words, in order to make it work, we've got to have a place for these people to go. I don't know if you noticed a resolution of the Senate the other day, where all but three senators said we don't want these prisoners in the country. I don't know if it was a 97-3 vote, but it was something-to-three vote. In other words, part of the issue, Peter, is the practical issue of, what do we do with the people. And you say nothing has taken place. I strongly disagree with that. First of all, we are working with other nations to send folks back. Again, it's a fairly steep order. A lot of people don't want killers in their midst, and a lot of these people are killers.
Secondly, of course, we want to make sure that when we do send them back, they're treated as humanely as possible. The other issue was whether or not we can get people to be tried. One of the things I'm anxious about, want to see happen, is that there to be trials. Courts have been involved with deciding how to do this, and Defense is trying to work out mechanisms to get the trials up and running. And the sooner we can get that up and running, the better it is, as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to make any predictions about whether Guantanamo will be available or not. I'm just telling you it's a very complicated subject.
And I laid out an aspiration. Whether or not we can achieve that or not, we'll try to. But it is not as easy a subject as some may think on the surface. Again, I refer to you to the Senate vote. When asked whether or not you want to shut down Guantanamo, and therefore receive some of those prisoners in your home state, there didn't seem to be a lot of support for it. Like, three people said, it's okay by me, in the Senate.
Your other question, sir?

Q Red Cross report?

THE PRESIDENT: I haven't seen it. We don't torture.

Pronounced "mc - eye"

Whoa Nellie! What a great singer.

The Next Few Months Are Critical

Brilliant! Take a trip down memory lane. Recall the sage advice of the Wise Ones of Washington - those who tell America what to think, because we can't think for ourselves.

Now talk to me about the credibility of these people.

"The Foreign Policy Community is more secretive than the Fight Club." This quote is from Glenn Greenwald at Salon, who provides a more thorough analysis of the sorry state of our foriegn policy discourse.

Recommended Web Site

The National Archives Experience, paid for by your tax dollars.

"We Do Not Torture"

Torture is defined as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity."

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948. Article 5 of the UDHR states that "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

In 1985, Ronald Reagan said of the UDHR, "For people of good will around the world, that document is more than just words: It's a global testament of humanity, a standard by which any humble person on Earth can stand in judgment of any government on Earth." In 1995, Pope John Paul II called the UDHR "one of the highest expressions of the human conscience of our time".

America is party to several international treaties that prohibit torture. Americans are also subject to various laws relating to torture, such as The War Crimes Act of 1996. Despite this, and despite what I feel are compelling moral arguments against torture, Americans, particularly Catholics, seem to approve of torture. Maybe we are just too easily swayed by such fantasies as Fox's show "24".

Here is the question of the day then: Does America torture?

Can you put aside your partisan ideologies long enough to investigate which is the closer approximation to reality?

Is it the rhetoric:

"We do not torture" President Bush, 11/07/2005

"The United States of America does not torture. And that's important for people around the world to understand." President Bush, 11/29/2005

"I want to be absolutely clear with our people, and the world: The United States does not torture. It's against our laws, and it's against our values. I have not authorized it -- and I will not authorize it." President Bush, 9/06/2006

"MR. RUSSERT: Does this new executive order allow measures that if were used against a U.S. citizen who was apprehended by the enemy would be troubling to the American people?

Admiral McCONNELL: I can report to you that it’s not torture.

MR. RUSSERT: How do you fine—define torture?

Admiral McCONNELL: Well, torture is—an attempt to define torture in the, in the executive order, it gives examples: mutilation or murder or rape or physical pain, those kinds of things. Let me just leave it by saying the, the techniques work, it’s not torture. They’re not subjected to heat or cold, but it is effective. And it’s a psychological approach to causing someone to have uncertainty and in a situation where they will feel compelled to talk to you about what you’re asking about.

MR. RUSSERT: And we would find it acceptable if a U.S. citizen experienced the same kind of enhanced interrogation measures?

Admiral McCONNELL: Tim, it’s not torture. I would not want a U.S. citizen to go through the process, but it is not tortures, and there would be no permanent damage to that citizen." Meet The Press Transcript, 7/22/2007


Or is it the reporting:

"One of the sources said that the Red Cross described the agency’s [CIA] detention and interrogation methods as tantamount to torture, and declared that American officials responsible for the abusive treatment could have committed serious crimes. The source said the report warned that these officials may have committed “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions, and may have violated the U.S. Torture Act, which Congress passed in 1994. The conclusions of the Red Cross, which is known for its credibility and caution, could have potentially devastating legal ramifications." The New Yorker, 8/13/2007


The first amendment allows me to state my view that members of this administration have clearly broken the law, perhaps even commited war crimes, but I suppose I should be careful, lest I be called an unpatriotic dirty f___ing leftist hippy, which I suppose is your right, as well.

Perhaps it is best to listen to the advice of this administration in these matters:

"But assuming the press reports are right, it's a terrible thing to say, and it unfortunate. And that's why -- there was an earlier question about has the President said anything to people in his own party -- they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is." Ari Fleischer, 9/26/2001

I picked the wrong decade to speak my mind.

Good Question

Why do they love us?

I have heard the opposite question asked about the opinions of the rest of the world, or of the Middle East - Why do they hate us? - many times, and I have heard many answers. There clearly is a lot of hate for America throughout the world. But just as clearly, particularly when the subject is the American people or American values, and not American foriegn policy, there is a lot of love for America or Americans. So, why do they love us? I'd really like to know.

Rush

I saw Rush in Kansas City in 1982.

There is a new Rush video. Click on the .wmv movie at the top left of this site. It's an instrumental song called Malignant Narcissism. Also check out the video for YYZ (Toronto's airport code). I like to imagine that's me on the drums.

Easy To Hate

But it takes more effort to understand.

Participation

I know I must have upwards of one or so readers by now. Not including me. A good handful of folks have been made aware of this space, and I intend to share things more widely in the months to come. It's early, and I haven't found my groove yet.

Still, I have never had one written comment. Not one. I'm about to just deflower myself at this point. And worse, my co-author, Webster Jim, has had better things to do (like have a life, I suppose).

I am willing to defend my outlandish theories. I dare you, anyone, MOM?, bring it on.


Full disclose: I have received some flattering extra-blog comments. Thanks.

Good Question

This is the first in a new series featuring good questions that I never hear asked. And sometimes, like now, it will provide a springboard to rant something off my chest.


How many of the 3,640 US troops killed in the Iraq War were killed by "Al Qaeda" or "Al Qaeda in Iraq?"


I honestly don't know. My educated guess is 5%. The percentage of Iraqi citizens killed by Al Qaeda and affiliates is probably higher.

Now, rantime.

America has a war policy that is hugely unpopular, both in America and in most of the world, partly due to the incongruence of the rhetoric to what is being reported.

Of course, none of us can truly understand the actual reality, not only on the ground in Iraq, but in the current and future global consequences of America's policy. Unknowable unknowns, the worst kind per Rummy. Old school is blowback. The numerous concepts of purpose floating around coupled with the differing interpretations of success, defeat, threats, enemies, allies, and on and on, only results in a huge population of humans effected by the War but in the end, uninformed and uninspired. Well, two large minority groups are indeed inspired: policy supporters that happen to be very influencial and antiwar agitators that are gaining influence. It seems to be on a collision course. For now, though, despite the passion of some, all of us are inevitably uninformed. That is why the credibility of our leadership is so critical, and also why our trust is waning. The news and views just are not in sync. Communication breakdown.

So people are divided about whether the rhetoric or the reporting is a closer approximation of reality. Or they may prefer to base their opinions on which is the closer approximation to their ideology or tribe. I suggest to those who sincerely seek greater understanding: consume from a broader and deeper range of sources of both rhetoric and reporting. You may learn who to trust. Or learn to trust yourself. Use your voice, exercise those civic muscles, and find a way to ask questions, demand answers and be the democracy.

There are many compelling voices out there now that are more difficult to find than the usual American mass media pundits found screaming in your face. Most of this sorry lot have been more wrong than right over the last decade or so. They give good market share, not a closer approximation of reality. It may take more effort, but there are additional reporting sources available for your edification that are not as "sound bite" and "gotcha" oriented as is our somewhat condescending mass media.

Here are some good, raw sources of information. Also, they have a good track record for traditional Washington reporting.

What's the point of today's rantime? It's about the trust. It comes first. No communication can take place without it. The players are just uninformed and uninspired. No chance of unity of purpose. The game breaks down.

We can get it back on track so long as we can remember that we the people don't have to agree, we just have to trust in each other, and that together, we always find the right path, eventually.

Paradise Made

Imagining the future perfect, from a time of painful change
Can glimpse my hope and love unbounded, colored by my native shame
A flawless vision of the future, or ruining of Creation
You say to stay with what your God wants, Praise be to His perfect aims

I yearn to know, and yet I falter, see clues in contemplation
What does your God want, what do I want, should they not just be the same
Some say to stray now, should have no fear, improve us because we can
What does your God want, what do we want, don’t know the rules of the game

Been using tools to take your aches, and leave them in the past
Is it wrong to kill our sorrow, to leave our tears at last
We suffer for the unseen heaven, at the will of Creation,
Dare we change, make our heaven right now, we need justification.

Living in bliss, a heaven on earth. Could this be His perfect aim,
Living in bliss, a heaven on earth. Should our purpose be the same,
Feelings we miss, a heaven on earth. Can we live without our shame,
Feelings we miss, a heaven on earth. Do we lose more than we gain.

Appearance is Reality

For Matrix fans.

Paradise Lost

"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heaven"

Satan, in Milton's Paradise Lost

Ship of Fools

Being a suit-and-tied, clean-cut, white kind of guy, making big money deals in the business world, I have been in situations where everyone in the group (for example, at a Mergers and Acquisitions conference at the Beverly Hills Hotel) naturally assumed that everyone else there was, of course, conservative. In these circumstances, being warmly embraced by only members of the in-group, people can feel free to share what they really think.

I invariably will say something that clearly does not fit the script (it's the born troublemaker in me). People are at first surprised that I can think for myself (I don't happen to like being a part of any political tribe). Then I quickly become perceived as nothing more than a dressed up hippy with a haircut - a wolf in sheep's clothing. "Isn't this cute - the naive liberal. How did he get in here?" If I'm not with "us", then I must be with "them". I know, I know - it goes both ways. Silly humans. Still, it's fun to watch. Ah, the emptiness of it all!

Like a National Geographic article where the researcher is living with and documenting the interactions of the aborigines, here is a look at the native beliefs of the fracturing neo-con tribe at one such gathering:

". . . All the tropes that conservatives usually deny in public – that Iraq is another Vietnam, that Bush is fighting a class war on behalf of the rich – are embraced on this shining ship in the middle of the ocean. Yes, they concede, we are fighting another Vietnam; and this time we won't let the weak-kneed liberals lose it. "It's customary to say we lost the Vietnam war, but who's 'we'?" the writer Dinesh D'Souza asks angrily. "The left won by demanding America's humiliation." On this ship, there are no Viet Cong, no three million dead. There is only liberal treachery. Yes, D'Souza says, in a swift shift to domestic politics, "of course" Republican politics is "about class. Republicans are the party of winners, Democrats are the party of losers."

Africa Digs US

Meet your neighbors.

From the Pew Global Attitudes Project - "In the current poll, majorities in 25 of the 47 countries surveyed express positive views of the U.S. Since 2002, however, the image of the United States has declined in most parts of the world. Favorable ratings of America are lower in 26 of 33 countries for which trends are available.

The U.S. image remains abysmal in most Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia, and continues to decline among the publics of many of America's oldest allies. Favorable views of the U.S. are in single digits in Turkey (9%) and have declined to 15% in Pakistan. Currently, just 30% of Germans have a positive view of the U.S. – down from 42% as recently as two years ago – and favorable ratings inch ever lower in Great Britain and Canada.

For all of the bad news, however, the global survey of 47 nations, conducted throughout the world, reveals a more complex picture of opinions of the United States."

Are your curious? Some wonder whether we should even care. What kind of neighborhood do you live in? How do folks get along? Is it the policy, or the people? Do you dare?

Predictions

November 2008. Hillary Clinton vs. Mitt Romney. Not even close. Hill wins two terms. America will be blessed/cursed by at least 28 straight years of having a bush or a clinton in the white house. God Bless the American Royalty. We get what we deserve.

Winter 2007. It will be cold and snowing somewhere. One Hundred times as many people can remember the World Series and American Idol champions than can name all twelve Supreme Court justices. (just checking if you are paying attention)

Next week. A politician will admit to an inappropriate affair.

Tonight. I will stay up too late.

Explore! Colonize!

Am I the only crazy human that advocates trancending the insufficient confines of Earth?

According to this New York Times article, Dr. Gott thinks that, "To ensure our long-term survival, we need to get a colony up and running on Mars within 46 years."

Let's get busy - 46 years is much shorter than "one day."

Day Three Is Ending

"Life As We Know It"

What does this phrase mean?

It's frequently used, but do many of us really understand what is "life as we know it."? Fortunately, we already learned what we need to know to technically answer this question from high school biology class. And Sunday School gave us some needed perspective. We are well equipped to tackle this question. To find the answer, we just need a refresher now and then.

I found an intriguing article online in Discover Magazine, here, that begins with the most succinct scientific summation of that answer I have seen in decades. (I must be getting old since I seem to be using the term "decades" frequently nowadays) It has just the right balance of big-picture persepective and nuts and bolts action. Here is the pithy introductory paragraph, answering the too-little comprehended question, what is "life as we know it?":

Every living thing on Earth shares a long, colorful history. Our planet was born into a maelstrom 4.5 billion years ago, and for the next 600 million years a steady bombardment of primordial debris made the surface uninhabitable. The blitz finally tapered off 3.8 billion years ago. Then within about 50 million years later—practically an instant in geologic time—life irrevocably established itself. Since then, it has evolved into everything from bacteria to toadstools to mudskippers to humans. Outwardly these species vary wildly, but at the molecular level they are staggeringly uniform. They all use DNA to encode genetic information. They all use RNA molecules as messengers to transfer the information from DNA to cellular factories called ribosomes, which then build proteins, which in turn drive our metabolisms and form the structures of our cells. In short, every species seems descended from a common ancestor whose attributes define what scientists mean when they say “life as we know it.”

There are exciting perspectives framed by this simple story. I am awed at the deep connection among all of the life on earth. And by the equally deep connection between life and the earth itself. The earth was and is an essential part of us. Mankind has only recently (last few hundred years) learned some of the basics of our connection to the history of life on earth. I think this must mark the first time in 3.8 billion years that a tiny piece of that life on Earth, just one of the late-arriving species of this "life as we know it", became consciously aware of these facts. Time. Life. Humans. Conciousness. Awesome! Knowledge, technology, and science. Oh my!

Our amazing planet, endlessly spinning like a top and flying around the sun once a year, has always been full of excitement and plot changes. The suspense is killing me.

Just for fun: imagine that the whole 4.5 billion year existence of our humble planet was represented as just one 24 hour day. Now get this: The universe exploded into existence to begin Day One. On Day Three, our Sun was born. Earth was then formed at a moment after midnight on Day Three, immediately falling into line around the sun, and continuing it's ceaseless march forward ever since. Life suddenly came into existence at around 3:45 am on Day Three. Humans pop into existence at 11:59 and 59 seconds pm as Day Three winds down. We have gained our current, complex, scientific understanding of reality in just our last few moments. The sun has another 4.5 billion years left, and that's when it all goes dark for poor Earth, at the end of Day Four. It's the end of "life as we know it." Sounds bleak, right?

But it may not be the end for humanity, for we have recently gained the self-awareness and the cooperative culture required to transcend our self-destructive human behaviors. And we have harnessed the technology to escape our imprisonment by the gravity of earth. We may soon be able to transcend the great distances of our solar system, our galaxy and our universe. On the one hand, we are just a form of life, one of many, easily understood, a humble product of this earth. Yet, on the other hand, we may soon be able to choose, if we want, to live peacefully enough, and travel far enough, to create for ourselves, another day. If we can make it through the last few moments of Day Three, then we can look forward to nice long Day Four, and if we can prosper, then we can choose to live forever. More days, more years, it never has to end. (or does it?)

Stunning. Yet, why do so many find this so boring? Or so tedious (biology class)? Or wrong (creationists)? I have no right to complain; I have doubts, it gets too complicated, and it sometimes does get quite boring hearing the same old trite questions which I thought were so meaningful and important in my first year of college: What was before Day One? How did Life begin? Is Life only on earth? Where is ET's home? How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?Give me a break. Same old stuff; never any answers. In the long run, I'm dead, we are all dead. So what's the point?

Well, I got my bio-mojo back: I found some new questions. I've been thinking big too much. I've always been an earthling but I keep looking up to the stars. I need to look back down to the ground more often. Gotta have some balance. Sure, let's search the skys, read the past and predict our future with all of our sophisticated tools. But let's not forget to look for some answers right here at home. From the sub-headline of the article lies the invigorating question:

Aliens Among Us
Do we share Earth with alternative life forms?

We've been looking all over the universe for signs of life. Turns out that we should be looking for "alternative life" right here on our strange and beautiful planet, our home, our Earth. Do we have company right here, under our noses, in our own house? Do these aliens, perhaps, live in our own bodies? That's an interesting article.

But back to the broad question: What is "life as we know it"? Let's approach the question with some balance - we should not only study what it is and where it is, but what and where it could be. Why? Because as humans, by god, we are our own brand new category. We have gained a power that no other life form has. It doesn't matter so much how we came to be or who or what gave us this power. What is undeniable is that we now have influence on life itself in a way no other life can. Just when we discovered our past reality and how it works, we find that we can now actually create a future reality, based on the past and built on our dreams. We can imagine it and then we can make it.

While we have long held strong beliefs and upheld lasting traditions that tend to attribute the whole of our past and, in many cases, our eternal future, to the course pre-determined by our Creator, this thinking is not scientific. I can't say that it's wrong, I can only assert that it sometimes gets in the way of a more useful reality. There are always going to be unexplainable stirrings in our souls, an aching in our gut, and a grace in our hearts. Seems good to me. There are always gaps in our scientific knowledge, but those are all different issues. Most people believe in a Creater, and when they become educated they sometimes end up struggling to trust in the state of our scientific knowledge. Or they struggle to trust in the very faith-beliefs they have always held. Sunday school and biology class don't always get along. Uh oh. Cognitive dissonance. Debates. Emotions. Wars. The madness. Whatever - the conflict is futile. The struggle is wasting energy and distracting us. Believe, or don't believe. What is important is how the sum of our beliefs informs how we behave from here on out. All the real action is in the future. And the important thing, to me, is that we have become a Creator, one I believe in. It's an intellectual faith. It doesn't have to be in conflict with other beliefs. But it must coexist with them.

An intellectual faith is honest and informed. It learns. It is a faith that is moral and optimistic, because those are human characteristics. It is striving to gain more knowledge and to be more useful. It is the same faith in ourselves and in our ability to improve that our ancestors had. And it is a faith that recognizes a long-term responsibility in our actions. It finds a mature way to reconcile our collective intellect with our feelings and traditions. We are Creators, and we are creating now, shaping our current reality, in good ways and bad. We are on a course that we created. And we've only just begun (where have I heard that?) Day Three is ending. Day Four is dawning. What will come next for us? It's all up to us. This is all good, clean fun. We may as well engage and figure it out together.

What is "life as we know it?" What do we want it to be? Where do we want it to be? What choices can we make or should we make to start life on places other than earth? So far, we are only three days in to this whole wonderful experience. Shouldn't we make plans to stay around for a few weeks at least?

Days like these make me want to go back to college.

Good Emptiness

We should embrace the fact that so many things remain mysterious to humanity. The answers to some beautiful questions, from the perspective of humans, remain unknown. For some books, the pages are empty. I love the good emptiness.

Some understandings about our existence are, for now anyway, unknowable. Yet in the last several hundred years, humanity's knowledge and technology have exploded. What we know and what we don't know coexist smoothly within a reality that I adore. I am overjoyed by the amazing and mysterious fact that I am aware of the incredible luck I had to be born, and to be alive as a thread of an intricate tapestry of life and matter and energy that has been selectively woven over the last 14 billion years by natural processes that we largely understand, while simultaneously exposing and highlighting those things that remain a mystery to us.

I have labored with love to learn those beautiful mechanisms of our existence. And I love to struggle with the unanswerable questions. It can be fun to fantasize, but I don't need fictional explanations or patronizing answers to embrace me in a warm blanket of assurance and false understanding. I love my struggle with the mysteries. I am not afraid of the unknown. I will always embrace the good emptiness.

What is bad? It is the bad emptiness of substituting false beliefs for knowable understanding.

Here is a real problem for which I have no answer and no one can teach me the answer:

I am alive. I will die. I do not know the time of my death. What should I do?

I have to search for my own answer. I have to find a way to live. I will always learn. I will always love. I will never forget that I am human. But I still do not know the answer to my problem. Neither do you. Don't pretend you do.

I love the good emptiness because I love being alive and I love learning. The mystery is why.

Circle of Life?

I had a debate last night about the best framework for viewing the whole of our lives.

A friend said that life is comprised of cycles, of patterns that repeat. He sees it all as circular.

I disagreed. I see life as an arc, or as an arrow flying forward through time, with a tragectory whose course can be and is altered by events both within and outside of our control.

I should use my Sharpie to draw a series of concentric circles on his forehead to serve as a target for my archery practice. Unless I miss, I would win the argument.

Raw

My computer decided to play some Muddy Waters.

Raw.

So, I now live in Chesterfield, having recently moved here from the desert.

I'm sure I'll have some things to say.