Red Faced Rag Wrangler’s Blues

I’ll make this fast, ‘cause I want to try out a printer that someone left out by the dumpster on the paper route. People leave stuff out there all the time. So far, I’ve collected two printers, a TV and a VCR. The TV and VCR work, although the VCR is missing it’s remote, I don’t know about either printer except that one has a cartridge and the other doesn’t.

I’ve been itching to write about the honorable LTG Russell Honore’s now famous line, “Don’t Get Stuck On Stupid.” I’ve also been itching to write about how I managed to get Richard Tolan, who commented irrelevant self-promotional nonsense on my blog, un-stuck on stupid by commenting irrelevant angry nonsense on every single entry on his blog from beginning to end. Instead, I think I’ll start a whole new blog, and a new business putting together silly graphics for stupid worn-out catchphrases like DGSOS on tee shirts, ball caps, coffee mugs and so on. But first, the printer. Before that, there’s this deal with the circulation department of every newspaper in the world failing DGSOS.

While I’ve been stuck on the stupidity of DGSOS, I found Mickey Kaus’s story via Vodkapundit of how he couldn’t say NO to the LA Times subscription. Someone there failed DGSOS. The LAT? Mickey? Both? Both.

I’m going to explain, as a paper carrier, once and for all, how this works.

Several years ago, when I still had a hopeful career as a Computer Engineer, I got one of those pesky telemarketers from the Rocky Mountain News. That was before they joined forces with the Denver Post. Being a naïve kid, I let them say whatever they want, but never agreed to a subscription to the paper, which they gave me anyway. For six months, I got a free newspaper every day, and every day I threw it in the trash. When the customer service guy gave me a follow-up call, I said that I didn’t want it, and please stop delivery. He said he couldn’t do that, and that I should call the subscription department. Not on my dime. When they started sending me bills, then past-due notices, then threats to stop delivery, I considered it extortion and threw the bills away. I finally wrote a nasty note on the back of the bill about pollution or environmental responsibility or something and actually sprang for the cost of a stamp and envelope to send it back. The paper stopped immediately.

I’ve since learned that the best approach to telemarketers is to just hang up immediately. Be sure to hang up in mid-sentence so that they know that they’ve been hung up on. When I sold vacuum cleaners back in college, they taught us something they called “assuming the sale.” Don’t let it happen to you by submitting to your natural tendency to be polite and allowing the conversation to continue.

But better yet, there’s now this thing called the National Do Not Call Registry. After I registered, I stopped getting calls from commercial telemarketers. Go there. NOW! (after you’ve finished reading this.) Know the rules. This does not stop people who call with a survey. It does not stop charities or political orgs. It does not stop people with whom you have already done business. You have to renew your registration every year. The penalty for violators is substantial, but to get them prosecuted is extremely difficult, requiring exacting documentation of the violation. There’s also a state do-not-call registry for most states. Do your own investigation, and get on that list too.

Now, about the newspaper business. Ironically, after my previous experience, I now deliver the Rocky Mountain News, the Denver Post, the N’York Twymes, the Wall Street Gerbil, the United States of America TODAY, the Investor’s Daily Bullshit, and the Financical Times. My job as a paper carrier has given me some unique insight into the newspaper business.

It’s filled with idiots from top to bottom. They set it up to keep the various layers insulated from each other, so that the whole organization is permanently Stuck On Stupid. It does no good to do things like threaten the person you’re talking to. They’re trained and paid to only hear “yes” no matter what you say.

They don’t get their money from the subscribers. They get more money from the advertisers than from the subscribers. At least, the local papers do. That explains why they’ll let a “subscriber” go delinquent indefinitely without ever actually canceling the subscription. And the advertisers pay by the distribution numbers, so the more papers they deliver, the more money they extract from the advertisers. So, they come up with all these bogus sample subscriptions, and force sample subscriptions on as many people as they can in order to artificially boost their distribution numbers and extract more money from the advertisers.

It does no good to let your papers pile up in your driveway or doorstep, or kick them out in the street, or down the hall of the apartment building. As a paper carrier, I get paid to deliver the paper whether you want it or not. It’s your doorstep, not mine. Technically, I’m supposed to report pile-ups and note-leavers. In fact, there’s nothing in the contract about this, there was just a pile-up policy memo once. But nobody knows or cares about the papers that pile up on the driveways except the resident. Most of the time I don’t even look, because I have to drive so fast, and it’s dark at 4:00 AM. But reporting a pile-up would mean that the managers would cancel it, and I would no longer get paid to deliver it. Since I would lose money by reporting pile-ups, I never do that.

A few of us more intelligent carriers have figured out that if we know that they don’t want it, there’s no point in delivering to those people. Especially when I have to walk around the back of an apartment building, up some stairs, and down a hall, just to deliver one stupid paper that the resident doesn’t even want anyway. I’ve established my pile-up threshold as five papers. At five papers piled up, I start dumpstering them. There’s a balance between the embarrassment of being caught carrying an armload of undelivered newspapers to the dumpster on the way in to the distribution center, and wanting to maximize my income. Dumpstering the pile-up people has proven to be the best policy all around. I get paid to deliver to the dumpster. The resident is happy that they don’t get the paper any more. The managers believe that I’m doing my job. In fact, the assistant manager does the same thing, but I think the district manager (a newbie) is still stuck on stupid. And the advertisers believe that their advertising dollars are well spent. In the end, it’s just the beliefs that count.

And about those freebie papers that they blanket the whole neighborhood with, they call that “alternate delivery”. Everyone gets the freebie paper that doesn’t already get the regular paper. I did that once. Twice. Three times is a charm. Some guy threw the paper at my truck, chased me down the street, and stood there and screamed at me for five minutes. For the next week, I scattered the papers all over his yard while he was asleep, and emptied my urine bottle on his car. I know where he lives; he doesn’t know where I live. There are a small handful of names (about 0.5%) on the route list that are hilighted and marked with big bold capital letters, DO NOT DELIVER HERE! Supposedly those are the people that are so in-your-face about not wanting the papers that somebody has to make a special note. The fourth time I was asked to do alternate delivery, I let them talk me into it, then when I drove down to do it, they had crossed my name off the list and gave that route to someone else. So I swore that if that's how they're going to treat me, I'd never do alternate delivery again.

Now back to that printer that I found….

Widespread Unrest and Grief

I previously described the effects of geomagnetic storms, and how they affect electrical and mechanical systems, human emotions, and migratory animals.  There have been some recent rather strong GMS alerts and warnings that are associated with some emotional unrest and grief.

Since hurricane Katrina occurred on 8/29/05, there was some GMS activity on 9/02/05 through 9/04/05.  On 9/02/05, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin expressed his outrage in an emotional interview that the state and federal officials, mostly FEMA, were slow in responding with rescue efforts to hurricane victims.  The blame game has escalated out of proportion.  While President Bush continues to encourage continued relief efforts, politicians see this as an opportunity to generate conspiracy theories and portray the Bush administration and FEMA as uncompassionate or incompetent.

There has been more GMS activity recently.  There have been watches, warnings and alerts from 9/09/05 through today, and forecast through 9/13/05.  There was a G3 (strong) warning Sunday morning at 5:37 UTC (11:37 MDT, Monday night, 9/10/05).  And there was a G5 (extreme) alert at 6:46 UTC (12:46 MDT).  I arrive at the distribution center at about 2:00 AM.  This morning, there was a breeze coming through the open doors, while the paper carriers were folding the papers and loading their vehicles.  This was so upsetting to one individual, who has often shown signs of being emotionally unbalanced, that he felt obliged to close the door, and shout and swear at anyone who wanted to open the door.  

He may very well be fired for his lack of self-control.  I mentioned to one of the managers how this guy was such a nutcase.  He’s the same asshole who parks his car two inches away from my truck so that I can’t get a cart in to load.  He’s always been like this, never thinks of anyone but himself.  The whole world revolves around him.

Elsewhere, there was an emotional 9/11 memorial service in New York at the site where the World Trade Center once stood.  It took four hours to read the names of the 2,749 people that were lost.  Relatives wept and made brief personal statements as they remembered their loved ones and how their lives were lost on this day four years ago.

Katrina Healing Meditation

I feel that it's time to stop the blame game for the victims of hurricane Katrina, as well as for the war on terror in Iraq, and the bipartisan politicking, and start some sincere healing. I've been working on posting a meditation from the Theta Healing technique and classes that I took recently. I've realized since then, that I have a mountain of healing work to do. Until then, I'll pass along this meditation that was forwarded to me by a friend who knows some people from New Orleans that are in need of assistance.

To answer the question that few dare to ask, "why does God let bad things happen to good people?" I answer, "So that they can have the opportunity to make a profound difference in their own or someone elses life." When there's nothing that we can do either directly or financially, then prayers and meditations such as this are the best thing to do.

Please join as many as a million people around
the world in a healing meditation and prayer
for those affected by Katrina.

Meditation and prayer powerfully affect our
world in ways we may never understand. And
when two or more join together the effects are
exponential. Lives will be saved, emotional
trauma healed, families reunited, hearts
soothed, and normalcy returned. Miracles will
happen.

1) Everyone will meet in meditation and prayer
at the same time on the same day. Simply
meditate or pray in your own space, and
imagine connecting with everyone else, as
described below.

Sunday - September 18, 2005

11:00 to 11:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time
10:00 to 10:30 pm Central Daylight Time
9:00 to 9:30 pm Mountain Daylight Time
8:00 to 8:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time.

To coordinate with your time zone, visit:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html

If you are only available for five minutes,
please do what you can.

If you cannot join us at the appointed time,
please do your meditation and prayer at any
time, and imagine your energy joining the
group.

2) Consider doing the following meditation:

* Breathe slowly and deeply.

* Focus on your heart, and see your heart
filled with the beautiful, warm, golden,
healing light of the sun. Feel the limitless
healing energy of love filling your heart.
Magnify the feeling inside of you. See the
energy. Hear it.

* When you are ready, imagine all of the
people who have been affected by the
hurricane, all of those who are giving so much
to assist, each and everyone one of them
wrapped in this warm, beautiful, light of love
and healing. Imagine them perfectly restored.
Imagine them in a beautiful, loving setting,
free of any pain or sickness, happy, healthy,
their lives fully restored. Use all of your
senses. See, hear, and feel them filled with
hope, health, and happiness.

* When you are ready, feel the love energy
growing as your love and compassion joins the
love energy of millions of others around the
world.

* Hold this picture for as long as you can (5
minutes, 30 minutes, one hour)

* When you close your meditation, imagine this
beautiful healing light of love expanding to
envelope the entire world, every country,
every man, woman and child. Hold this vision
and know with complete confidence, with all
your heart and soul, that this healing is
taking place and be thankful for the love of
the world.

* Express your thanks to God, Jesus Christ,
Buddha, Muhammad, your spiritual guide,
universal love energy, to that which is
appropriate and meaningful for you.

(This particular meditation was suggested by
healer and teacher Chunyi Lin, creator of
Spring Forest Qigong. Feel free to meditate or
pray in any way that is right for you.)

3) Please dig deep into your pocket to donate
money to help those affected by Katrina. For a
listing of ways to donate or volunteer, visit:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2005/katrina/help.center/

4) Please send this email to as many people as
you can. To friends and colleagues, any lists you have,
members of the media, your church, anything and anyone
that comes to your mind. Post it on discussion
forums. Consider getting together in groups,
or coordinating telephone conference calls for
everyone you know.

Thank you for joining us, for your support,
and for your love.

Most Sincerely,

Paul Scheele
Pete Bissonette
and all of your friends at
Learning Strategies

Learning Strategies Corporation
2000 Plymouth Road
Minnetonka, Minnesota 55305-2335 USA

800-735-8273
952-476-9200
Fax 952-475-2373
http://www.LearningStrategies.com

Floodwaters Receding, Emotions High

Here's a few observations of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The New York Times had a photo on the front page of a dead body floating through the streets of New Orleans. That was in poor taste in itself. Somewhat reminiscent of when CNN aired footage of the dead soldier's body being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu in Somalia. Closer inspection of the photo of the floating body revealed what looked like a large tag with a big red question mark stapled to the end of the dead woman's dress, and apparently a poo mark seeping through the appropriate place on the backside. Rather poor taste. Inappropriate for a national newspaper.

I read a transcript of an interview between the New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin and the local TV station. Mayor Nagin was obviously extremely upset, angry, and frustrated that the federal response to the disaster was so slow. I'm sure that he's very passionate about helping the people in his city. It doesn't seem that he's done as much beforehand to mitigate the disaster as he would like for federal and state government to do afterwords. I would say that elected officials are elected more for their passion for the people that they represent, than their ability to plan, make decisions, or direct and coordinate large complex and diverse organizations of people. It's time for that man to quit ranting and raving, realize that there have been and will continue to be losses, and start coordinating the recovery efforts so as to minimize further losses.

I realized that one of the other paper carriers was saving boxes to collect food to send to the relief effort. Feeling some compassion for these people, went to my cupboards to find some unused canned food items, and took a look through my closets for some clothes that I don't use anymore. I took a container of canned food with me as I was out on errends, and stopped by a couple of supermarkets where they might be collecting donation items. But there was no collection effort! Back home, I visited the web sites of the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Neither the Red Cross nor the Salvation Army are accepting in-kind donations of collected items such as canned food or clothing. According to the Red Cross article, it's a logistical nightmare for them to collect, sort, clean, transport and distribute such items. It's more effective, they say, to take monetary donations and purchase supplies in large quantities from local manufacturers. As I explained yesterday, because of the high price of gasoline, and how that's such a major expense in my work, I cannot afford to donate cash.

I turned the TV to some of the news stations to get some coverage of what's happening there. There was the President, holding a press conference. The Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, wanted to put her two cents in, but there was some trouble in coordinating the audio feed, so she waited a moment while someone figured that out before she spoke. Like the President, she didn't have much to contribute except for words of encouragement. New Orleans Mayor Nagin was there, still too upset to say anything more, knowing that he'd go off on a tear and say something else he'd regret.

On MSNBC, the reporter had some field worker from FEMA on the air for a report. The guy seemed to be emotionally and physically drained. The MSNBC reporter kept asking the FEMA guy questions aimed at placing the blame. "The news stations had pictures before FEMA did. Is FEMA really that unresponsive?" "Has the response been slower this time than in previous disasters?" "How would you categorize the magnitude of the failure? Colossal? Moderate?" "Who's to blame for the lack of responsiveness?" After a few minutes of this ambush, I couldn't take it anymore, and changed the channel. I would think that with the level of destruction there, it would be near impossible to communicate or coordinate anything.

I found this on Am I A Pundit Now, by means of WILLisms.com

The Price of Gas

I managed to get gas this morning for $2.76. My favorite gas station has always been a penny less than the gas station at the supermarket across the street, even with it's member discount card. When I passed the supermarket, it was priced at $2.79. My favorite gas station was at $2.98, up $0.53 from three days ago. I stopped to fill up, and stood at the pump for a moment, pondering. Why is this station so unusually desolate today? Is the supermarket station out of gas, like they were three days ago? Even if they are, I could go to the one down the road for $2.85, and I know they're open 'cause there's cars there. It's worth a shot. I got back in and went over to the supermarket station, and got gas for $2.79 with a $0.03 member discount for $2.76.

Three days ago, I got gas at my then-favorite gas station for $2.45.

A couple of weeks before that, I was getting gas there for $2.15.

Factors affecting the price of gas at this time are:

• Hurricane Katrina. Refineries in Florida are shut down. There has been talk in the news of "supply disruptions." I suppose that means that delivery trucks aren't running, and oil pipelines have been shutdown.
• King whats-his-name in Saudi Arabia died. I suppose everyone expects the new guy to turn off the oil spigot. I understand that he hasn't, that he's been the guy making all the decisions all along while the old guy was dying for a long time and nobody said anything. I also understand that the new guy has been considering turning up oil production, and that he's also saying it's the supply lines and distribution that's been making the price of gas go up so much. Anyway, I expect that it takes a bit more than a week for oil to make it's way from Saudi Arabia, through the oil tankers across the ocean, through the refineries, through the trucks and stations to my gas tank. It's just the expectation that makes the prices go up everywhere at once, simultaneously.
• The war in Iraq. Oh boo-freakin-hoo, the Islamofascist extremists think we're stealing their oil in Iraq. I still haven't seen any sign of our soldiers seizing oil fields, operating oil pumps, pipelines, or tankers, or even having the training to know how to do such a thing if it was even their mission. They're just trying to keep the terrorist sunnis out of the faces of the honest Iraqi citizens so they can set up a new government - any government - so the oil people can get their oil production going again, and sell it at fair market prices. Iraq only produces 20% of the world oil, and the war started two years ago, which doesn't add up to the 50% increase in the price of gasoline in the last month.
• Labor Day weekend is upon us. This is one year where I think that the traditional drivingest weekend of the year, marking the end of summer vacations, will come in as a minor blip on a hard uptrend in the price of gas.

Some personal gasoline usage facts

• I deliver newspapers for a living. I drive two routes, for a total of 50 miles each night.
• 20 of those miles are driving to and from the route from my house. It's exactly 10.0 miles from my house to the distribution center.
• I have to fill my tank every three days. It cost me $30 to fill the tank now, so that's $10 a day to deliver the newspapers.
• Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I deliver the fewest papers: 236. At $0.10 per paper, that's $23.60 income, minus $10 in gas for a net income of $13.60 for each of those two days.
  
• My vehicle, a 1988 Toyota pickup, gets 15 miles per gallon on the route.
• On the hiway, I've gotten as much as 22 miles per gallon.
• The truck has 230,000 miles on it. I've put a lot of money into repairs and tires and oil changes, especially since I started doing this.
• It now costs me $4 to go into town for that social club meeting. That shall now be eliminated as being a luxery item that I can't afford!
• My birthday is this next Monday - Labor Day. Happy Birthday to me! My parents live in Fort Collins, 62 miles away. They always invite me up for my birthday. It'll cost me $20 to drive up there and back. For my birthday, I should ask for the $20 it cost me to go up there and see them. Luxery Item!
• A friend wants me to come visit to do some spiritual healing practice together. That's 41 miles and $16 away. Luxery Item!
  

Some more facts, unrelated to the price of gas, that I'd like to acknowledge

I'm really sorry that so many people down in New Orleans are having such a hard time with the hurricane, and the flooding and destruction and all. There's nothing I can do physically or financially to help out. But I'll send my prayers.

I'm also really sorry that so many people over in Iraq died in a stampede. I hear that someone shouted "suicide bomber!" on a crowded bridge or something like that. It was during an important annual shiite religious festival. Some 965 people were trampled. Again, there's nothing I can do but to send my prayers.

I can't control the weather, or the economy, or the price of gasoline, or the terrorists. I can't go to New Orleans, or Florida, or Iraq, or Washington D.C.. I can't afford to send money to all those people in need, no matter how much the people on TV hold up hungry kids, begging for donations. The best thing that I can do is to send my prayers, and put all that aside, and get on with taking care of my own affairs to the best of my ability.

If you subscribe to a newspaper with home delivery service, remember that generous tips are always greatly appreciated.

Israelestine Est. 2525

There are theories of a day when Israel and Palestine will come to peace, and form what has would be called New Jerusalem. Perhaps that’s just my wishful thinking or naïve interpretation of various prophetical writings, which are usually vague to start with. At first, I thought it was just one pet theory by some guy that channels an angelic being that’s come here to facilitate Earth changes into a new era, the New Age, the Age of Aquarius.

The city of Jerusalem is a focal point of three religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Temple Mount is the place where the original Jewish Temple in Jerusalem stood on the site where Abraham offered his son Isaac in sacrifice to God. The ancient Israelites built the Tabernacle of Moses on the spot. Solomon built the first temple to replace the tabernacle. The Babylonians destroyed the Temple of Solomon 420 years later, and the Second Temple was built 70 years after that. Romans destroyed the Second Jewish Temple 410 years later in 70 A.D., leaving only the West Wall, the famous “Wailing Wall.” In 691 A.D., Palestinians erected the famous Dome of the Rock shrine, called the Mosque of Umar, on the same spot where it is said that the prophet Mohammed ascended into heaven. Jerusalem was also the place where Jesus preached, performed many miracles, and was condemned to be crucified. I’m beginning to think that Temple Mount in Jerusalem is some sort of holy wormhole portal into Heaven that sucks up all the great enlightened prophets of the ages.

A Google search turns up much more about the New Jerusalem. There’s a poem by visionary author William Blake. There’s a Musical Group (I think) called New Jerusalem Music. There’s a church called the New Church, the General Church Of The New Jerusalem, based on the writings of Mormon preacher Emanuel Swedenborg. Ultimately, the New Jerusalem is described in the Bible, Revelations 21. One web site says that Jerusalem has always been a symbol of God’s presence on earth. Many of these sources say that the New Jerusalem is the end result of human struggle, and is a place of peace and happiness, ruled by reason. Another individual notes that Jerusalem has historically been a place of bloodshed, and is unlikely to be the focal point of Earth’s transition into an age of profound world peace.

Okay, that’s the history lesson. I thought I’d prognosticate how such a euphoric utopia might somehow arise out of a city that is the focal point of two cultures who want to either annihilate each other, or displace and deny the other’s right to exist. Israel, and Palestine. Merging these two states would be a bit like crossing a cat with a dog, and watching the poor creature chase itself to death. Or like crossing an apple with an orange, and answering the cliché “You can’t compare apples with oranges.” I imagine that it would take a very long time for these two cultures to resolve their differences. I can’t help but to think of that 60’s song by Zager and Evans

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive they may find

Only it should be

. . . If Israel is still alive
If Palestine can survive . . .

When I first read about the New Jerusalem and thought about the Islamic extremists, terrorists, Islamofascists, or whatever you want to call them, I wondered in my own Pantheistic way, “How is it that the left hand of God goes to war with the right hand of God?” In my own unique oversimplification of matters, I think of scooping a bowl of ice cream, how one hand holds the bucket steady, while the other hand scoops the ice cream out. Two hands, working cooperatively in opposition to accomplish one goal. Why is it that Israel and Palestine can't be like that?

To stretch my mind into the distant future, and determine how Israel and Palestine could co-rule the New Jerusalem, I think of the ancient Greek Spartan kingdom. Two kings, who had to come to an agreement to make any decisions, ruled the Spartans. This, along with a strong hierarchical government structure resulted in one of the strongest military kingdoms to have ever existed. Historians theorize that the strength of the dual kingship was because it prevented absolutism. Others believed it was a compromise arrived at to end the struggle between two families or communities. Does this sound much like Israel and Palestine?

Switching to terrorist web site, jihadwatch.org, there is an article titled Palestinian Cleric: We Will Enter Palestine as Conquerors, Not Through Negotiations But Through Jihad. The article is filled with more jihadist rhetoric about how it’s the duty of every Muslim to exterminate Jews everywhere, and it’s the destiny of Palestine to “liberate Jerusalem and regain Palestine.” The interviewee cites hadith and Koranic verse

Judgment Day would come only when the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims would kill the Jews, and the stone and tree would say: 'Oh, Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew. . . there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him', except for the Gharqad tree.

Indeed, it will be a very long time, if ever Israel and Palestine can make peace. I feel that these Palestinians are behaving like a bunch of naughty children, and ought to all be sent to their room without supper, and give the Temple Mount to Israel. Let them build their Third Temple, and let’s get this thing over with.

Islam Extremists Accept support of Cindy Sheehan

One of the biggest flaps in the ongoing media frenzy over the war in Iraq is Cindy Sheehan is protesting at the gates of President Bush’s ranch in Crawford Texas. It appears that her son, Casey Sheehan, was killed in action while on duty in Iraq. And for some reason, Ralph Nader, felt compelled to write a public letter in support of Ms. Sheehan’s presidential camp-in. Or maybe Nader is writing the letter for his own political agenda.

Go visit Islamic web site, aljazeera.com, and you’ll get a feel for how the Islamic extremists really appreciate the support from the liberals. Especially telling are some of the reader comments, such as this one, which was rated a “Good Comment” by fellow readers:

i send my condolences to this poor lady. she is another victim by hands of bush. she is what america use to stand for. bush has no heart, no feelings, and no morals. he sat on ranch relaxing as a grieving lady cries on his door step. all she wants is an answer why her son is ddidd. bush cant even spare a minute for a man who gave his life for the sake of oil. he does not care and he has no value for life.nader who also happens to be an arab showed more respect for this lady then the man responsible of his ddethh. when all you brainless bush supporters get drafted by bush and sent out to dyy i hope you all remember everything you said since the start of this war. you will all turn and run. its easy to support a war when your sitting around at home drinking beer and watching sports. but when your leader comes calling you will all show your true colors and find a rock to hide under because your all kkoowerdds like bush.

If you can keep your spell-checker from going ballistic over this passage, it might be instructive to analyze a few points.

• The author believes that President Bush planted bombs beside the roads, sent trucks loaded with bombs into lines of Iraqi children, military checkpoints, sent disillusioned Muslims with bombs into the transit systems of London, and had airplanes flown into the World Trade Center buildings. Last time I checked, it was the Islamic extremists that were carrying out these activities, and this was the reason why President Bush has troops stationed in Iraq to stop these activities.
• Casey Sheehan gave his life for oil. Is that why oil is up to $65 a barrel now? Casey Sheehan gave his life so that oil could be more expensive? Less expensive? Hmmm, I must’ve missed the big rush to seize the Iraqi oil fields as soon as the coalition forces got into Iraq. Maybe it’s because they wanted to protect the legitimate citizens of Iraq before they set out to seize the oil fields that the price of oil has gone up so much.
• “Ralph Nader is an Arab.” Well, well, well, you could’ve fooled me. As I recall from the last presidential election (in which Nader was a candidate), he did not have any public position one way or the other about the war in Iraq. His primary issues were relating to the environment. Is this what makes him an Arab? Having no position on Arab issues?
• The author shows his hatred for “all you brainless Bush supporters…” Now wait a minute. If Bush is responsible for Casey Sheehan’s death, and all the other soldiers who’ve died as a result of their illegal invasion of Iraq, then I suppose that makes Bush an Arab too, just like Ralph Nader. Just who’s side is this guy on, anyway?
• Bush supporters sit around drinking beer and watching sports. I’ve got nothing against watching sports, or against drinking beer for that matter - as long as you don’t drink and drive. But it’s been a long time since I’ve had a beer, and I only really watch sports whenever the Denver Broncos play in the Superbowl. Until then, I think I’ll see if I can dig enough change out of the couch to go buy a soda pop, sit back in my office chair, and surf the blogosphere, watching illiterate Islamic extremists make fools of themselves in this hopeless war against Muslim children lined up for candy from our soldiers.
  

Spirituality, Mudslinging, and Religionism

I’ve taken the Theta Healing class. I’m going to take the two-day workshop a week from now, and until then, I’ll suspend judgment of the technique. Just a couple of quick notes about it first. The class was not intended to be, and did not serve as, a healing clinic. It was meant to instruct and familiarize the students with the principles and techniques. Three days before the class started, I decided to get some extra sleep, so I wouldn’t be nodding off during the class. That first day, I woke up at 1:00 PM with what felt like plugged up ears. That’s still happening at this time. I have this, and much more to work on. Most of the students in the class were professionals who work in the healing arts or various areas of alternative medicine, such as massage therapy, naturopathy, herbology, and so forth. As far as belief in God goes, the technique respects all beliefs in God, but does not endorse any particular religion or belief system. Students are asked to claim that they “pray to God, and God heals.”

I’ve decided that blogging on political issues is a major drain on my time and energy. If my main objective at this time is to build up the ecommerce web business, and after that has been accomplished, to develop more writing and marketing skills, then blogging extensively about world politics is interfering with my immediate goals, and not contributing significantly to my development of either writing or marketing skills.

But I can’t help but to maintain an interest anyway. I’ve been reading the Islamic web site, aljazeera.com, and the comments that are posted there. I’ve resisted the temptation to add to the already inflammatory comments, which would just be further fueling the terrorist sentiment. I’ve noticed that the articles that are written are often out-dated, and usually distort the views in an anti-American way, or just misrepresent the facts. The comments that are posted are almost universally inflammatory, use extremely poor spelling, grammar and punctuation. I suspect that many of those who post comments are among a small band of hired ghost-writers who post inflammatory comments from the perspective of both extremes, for the purpose of fueling the controversy and the anti-American sentiment.

On another favorite blog, Pedro on the quietist has some good comments that I largely concur with. It’s a little acknowledged fact that negative campaigning is one of the most widely used political tactics: to discredit the other side with loosely supported accusations of insanity or immorality. They used to call this “mudslinging.” I guess calling it “negative campaigning” gives some dignity back to taking the dignity away from one’s opponent. For the record, I voted for Bush in the last election. I thought long and hard about the issue of the war on terror. I concluded that George W. Bush already had a strategy for dealing with the situation in Iraq, and the problem of Islamic extremism, and was familiar with the issues, whereas John Kerry never did present any strategy at all for the war, except to attempt to discredit Bush. At the state level, however, I decided to vote Democratic. Senate candidate Pete Coors, head of the Coors beer dynasty, who I began to refer to as “Senator Beer Baron” represented some rather dangerous possibilities. Coors proposed to cut taxes. It turned out that he wanted to cut corporate taxes, while leaving individual income taxes unchanged. I’ve always been suspicious of trickle-down economic theory. Thinking from the perspective of corporate executives, why would they trickle-down tax savings to the grunt-level employees or even the shareholders, when they could increase their own executive salaries by the same amount? And there was the issue of major funding for Pete Coors coming from the NRA. As much as I believe in gun safety and second amendment rights, I think that the NRA should just keep out of politics. That places the NRA in the position of a militia, which is not what we need when we already have a competent well-trained military. And there’s the fact that the Denver Post advertised for Pete Coors, but not for his democratic opponent Ken Salazar. So I preferred to vote for “Senator Salad-Bar” (Salazar), who would actually do some things for the Colorado citizens, rather than “Senator Beer Baron,” and his self-serving interests.

Another article on the quietist discusses “Religion vs. Spirituality.” I have some strong views on this subject. I’m not sure what the perspective of the original article is; I think it’s facetious, but I’ve always found sarcasm to be confusing, and often take it literally and get in trouble. I grew up in a Christian family. I started seeking broader views of God at about age eight. Sometime during the many years of studying mysticism, I concluded that conventional religionism is suitable only for those who lack the capacity to contemplate the mysteries of life and of the Universe, and derive their own cosmology, that might even be consistent with scientific as well as progressive religious thinking. Religion provides a ready-made package of answers to all of life’s problems. After all, millions of Muslims can’t all be wrong. Except in the eyes of Christians. Okay then, millions of Christians can’t all be wrong. Except in the eyes of Jews. Okay then, millions of Jews can’t all be wrong. Repeat for Hindus, Buddhists, and any other religion you find.

The Mars Connection (Part V, Conclusion)

In my natal astrological chart, I was born with Mars in Libra; opposite to Aries, the sign it rules. When a planet is in it’s “fall” like this, its effect is weakened. Mars represents the archetype of the Warrior, passion, desire, energy and action. With an afflicted Mars, I express this in life by often lacking those qualities: passion, desire, energy and action.

With the events of May and June, this lack of Mars energy has become apparent to me in several symbolic ways. Running the paper route has left me with an ongoing battle against fatigue. A friend suggested that my symptoms indicated that I needed adrenal support supplements. I’ve since determined that Enzymatic Therapy’s Fatigued To Fantastic Adrenal Stress End has been the greatest help in alleviating the fatigue. DHEA also helps to an extent. And of course, a few extra hours sleep during the day helps too. I’ve learned a great deal in recent months about adrenal fatigue, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and these and other supplements and vitamins. Mars rules the adrenal glands, which is what these supplements help. The DHEA supports the adrenals as well as the testosterone level. Mars also rules the sexual urge.

Another problem was the urinary problem, that I mentioned before. Getting “pissed off” is more than a pun. I’ve had urinary problems since I was a kid. Yes, I was a bed-wetter. I didn’t even know when it happened. I think I was about ten years old when my mom took me to a urologist, who treated me for a bladder infection.

The bouts of anger were another indication. With properly modulated Mars energy, one would not respond to unfortunate events out of pure anger. Balanced Mars energy allows one to act rationally, with purpose, and with results.

To everything there is a season...
A time to love, and a time to hate
A time of war, and a time of peace
-- Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

The mechanical problems with the truck have been further indications of Mars issues. The truck had radiator problems – a corroded radiator, and a leaky hose, both of which had to be replaced. Symbolically, with a defective cooling system, you could say that I “couldn’t keep my cool.” The clutch in the truck has also shown signs of wear, and will likely be the next major component to be replaced. The clutch would be symbolic of a “lack of self-control.” In astrological symbolism, Mars also represents mechanical abilities and mechanical things, which covers automotive repairs.

With all of this multiple symbolism of Mars issues coming up, it soon became apparent to me that this is the source of my problems. I’ve learned to use Sanskrit Mantra to adjust mental and psychic energies. When I first became aware that something wasn’t right, I turned to my Mantra book, Healing Mantras (Thomas Ashley-Farrand). Sometimes, important information seems to leap right out at me. When I opened Healing Mantras in search of answers and solutions, the first section that I opened to covered physical and planetary karma. It explained the different types of karma. Prarabdha karma is the karma that has resulted in the current lifetime, and includes the karma that is described by the position of the planets at the moment of birth. This is what astrology is based on. There are mantras described for resolving karma associated with each of the planets. In Healing Mantras, Mars is related to the sex organs, adrenal glands, and red blood cells. The Mars mantra, which I have been using for at least the prescribed period of time, is

Om Sri Angarakaya Namaha

You will see that mantra in my previous entries. Since I began that practice, I haven’t had any more serious mechanical problems. My fatigue is under control, and I don’t get easily worn out. I haven’t had any more urinary problems. I still get upset from time to time, but it’s more modulated, more easily controlled with humor. I’ve had periods where I have more energy.

My interests have been drawn to other things now. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the problems of the worldwide Islamic Jihad, the war on terrorism, and on the political issues. And, starting tomorrow, I’m taking a three-day class on a form of psychic healing and self empowerment called Theta Healing. I think it’ll be interesting to see, when I “go up and seek God,” in what way I refer to God. But more interesting, I’d like to see what I can make of my life once I identify and remove some of the inappropriate failure-programming that’s been affecting me my whole life. That might be a topic for another blog entry, or series of entries.

There Are No Moderate Muslims

I’ve spent the last several days reading through a series of political blogs. Up until now, I was convinced that most blogs are either schoolgirls publicly chronicling their social life, or spammers promoting their pornography, mortgage refinancing, or some other web site.

Then, I happened upon The Belmont Club. Then I found a whole slew of other really interesting blogs:

State Of Flux
The Quietist
Neo-Neocon
Rightwing Nuthouse
No Oil For Pacifists
The Wide Awakes
TMH’s Bacon Bits
WILLisms

Maybe some day I’ll have to break this blog up into three separate blogs: one for the newspaper carrier experiences, one for the mystical contemplations, and one for the political commentary. But then, the reader wouldn’t get the sense of what a complex human being I can be, how it might be possible to be all these things at once (and more) and would believe that I really am a 12 year-old kid who rides his bicycle around the block in mid-morning, throwing newspapers at dogs, flowerpots, bushes and windows (none of which is true).

I got to thinking about my political views. When I was in college, my dorm buddies would try to get me to talk politics, and then call me a pacifist because I didn’t want to have my admittedly ignorant views scrutinized and criticized. Am I left, or right? Liberal or Conservative? Republican or Democrat? I’ve traditionally voted Republican, partly because my family, my dad is Republican, and because I, at least used to believe in industry and free enterprise. From what I’ve been reading on these blogs, I suppose I’m liberal. Liberal, in that I think we should wait and see what the Islamic terrorists really want. Wait until we all get so fed up with their senseless attacks that we send bevy after bevy after bevy of bombers and fighters and submarines and aircraft carriers and ICBMs all loaded with nukes and bomb the holy crap out of (insert long list of middle-eastern nations, included Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia repeated several times) until there’s nothing left but a big crater full of radioactive oily seawater connecting the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. Surely we can make some sort of vehicle that runs off of radioactive oily seawater. :-)

Okay, that might be a bit too extreme. And we don’t want to end up as bad off as the Muslim extremists, now do we? No, we don’t want to stoop to their level. Besides, not all Muslims are extremists. Besides, as the liberals keep telling us, we’re supposed to “understand” what the terrorists want, why they think how they do, and how we might possibly “appease” them.

In the mystical tradition, the way to overcome the demon – called the Dweller On The Threshold, or what Carl Jung later called the “shadow-personality” – is to lift the veil of darkness, and gaze into the eyes of the demon. Confront the demon directly, and peer into the depths of his soul, so that the demon will not be able to withstand the light of introspection, and will flee.

I was out searching the web for some information about kids being trained to fight in Somalia. I saw a TV program about our aborted attempt a few years ago to liberate Somalia from the grip of warlordism (or thugocracy to borrow another invented word). But when I did some searches relating to Somalia, I found some Islamic web sites. I’ve wanted to find some of these Islamic web sites. Perusing a few Islamic web sites is a far cry from infiltrating an organization, but it’s as close as I care to get.

There was a story where the UK cops wanted to effectively shut down Islamic web sites with denial-of-service attacks, which struck me as yet another form of terrorism. Why don’t they just track down the IP addresses and owners and names of the people that run those web sites? InterNIC is still a US controlled organization, to the last of my knowledge. But I digress.

I found a few Islamic web sites:
Aljazeera.com
JihadWatch.org
zmag.org
Ocnus.net
Of these, I found Jihad Watch to be the most moderate. Of particular interest was a current article titled The Myth of the ‘Moderate’ Muslim, which in turn quotes the same article published in the London Free Press.

The truth is there does not exist an identifiable body of Muslims, substantive in number or an outright majority, who could be described as "moderate" by their repudiation of Muslim extremists.

Violence has been an integral part of Muslim history, irrespective of whether it is sanctioned by Islam, and Muslims who unhesitatingly use violence to advance their political ambitions have created a climate within their faith-culture that any Muslim who questions such practice is then deemed apostate [without faith] and subject to harm.

If you don’t understand what that’s saying, go read the full article, and all the commentary following it. It means that Islam is by its very nature, a religion of violence, that war is the way of life. And there’s more, in some comments posted by “Gorkhali”

You can never trust a Muslim, because deep down inside, somewhere in their heart they cannot completely accept you as a human being unless you are a Muslim.

Nor can they ever be loyal to the country of their birth, unless it is a Muslim nation (ie, betrayed India and created Pakistan, Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan)).

They will always hold a certain amount of hatred and disgust for other faiths regardless of how "moderate" they are.

Their will never be a moderate Muslim, since this would mean betrayal of Allah and the Koran.

So not only are they bent on our destruction, but you cannot negotiate with them. The only way to effectively deal with the Muslims is to isolate them, or destroy them. Maybe there’s some value to the policy of turning the Middle East into a crater full of radioactive oily seawater. :-)

The Jihad Watch web site describes Jihad both “struggle,” and as the duty of every Muslim – a way of life, although an often violent way of life. When the war in Afghanistan started some American scholar of Islam described Jihad as an internal struggle, a struggle of the soul.

As a pantheist, I think of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Native Americans, Voodoo witchdoctors, cats, dogs, horses, birds, whales, sharks, tigers, trees, lettuce, wildflowers, rocks, soil, volcanoes, planets, stars, galaxies, quasars, and vast stretches of empty space as all being expressions of God. Yes, we are all God. Jihad is Gods internal struggle to purge the Shadow. OBL called on Muslims everywhere for Jihad. And the US-led coalition forces stepped in to do the job. Here is your Jihad.

The Wall Street Urinal???

Oh, “Journal.”

We had one of those mass starts of sample papers for everyone’s route for the whole distribution center, and presumably for the whole state of Colorado. Except it wasn’t the Denver Post. It wasn’t the Rocky Mountain News. No. It was the Wall Street Journal. That’s really strange. We’ve never had sample starts of the Journal before. I got 49 new subscribers on my two routes, which in addition to the original four Journal subscribers brings it to a total of 53.

The rumor is that these are all paid subscriptions, not the free samples that the Denver Post is so notorious for. Okay, so if they’re all paid subscriptions, then why are some of these people already canceling? A few of these on my route are going to “resident.” Does the alleged bill also get sent to “resident?” I know that I missed one of these the first day, and never got a complaint about that. If the guy was going to pay for it, and didn’t get it, why would he not complain that he didn’t get it? Just being generous?

I’m not as dumb as I’m being paid to act. Anyway, I’ve decided that it’s good advice to stop delivering to those people that let it pile up. If I’m an agent for the Denver Piss-people-off-with-sample-newspaper-subscriptions Agency, then it’s in my best interest to not piss people off so much that that they call in and stop their sample delivery. According to the rules, I’m supposed to report pile-ups. But if I dumpster them instead, I still get paid $0.50 a week to deliver to the dumpster every day. And the customer is happy, and the Wall Street Journal gets more money from its advertisers for having a larger distribution. And for every two papers that I dumpster, I can get an extra hamburger from Wendy’s dollar menu each week. Woohoo!

Dark Night Of The Soul (Part IV)

I try to stay aware of what Spirit is trying to tell me. I had become a bit too involved in repair and maintenance to talk with Spirit. Maybe there was an entity interfering. Maybe some misguided Spirit Guide was trying to teach me a lesson. But still, there was absolutely no reason why this should have happened in this way at this time. I decided, and declared “If I ever find out who did this, I’m gonna kick his ass!” How do you kick Spirit’s ass? I’d have to quit this life, go over to the other side, and hunt down the perpetrator. How do you kick Spirit’s ass, even from the other side? It doesn’t work like that, sir.

There is a way to fire one’s Spirit Guides. Maybe “fire” is the wrong word. You request a change, and the old ones leave, and then new ones come in. The catch is that in the “intermission period”, you’re completely without any feeling of connection to God, which is experienced as depression and despair. By requesting what Kryon refers to as the neutral implant, the guide change, and graduate status, you are asking for some major changes in your life. The neutral implant is a way of neutralizing the fear and materialistic drives that compel humans to act on a Darwinian level of self-preservation. It’s a way to free the mind and spirit to pursue higher purposes. I had requested the neutral implant several months ago, but continued to feel frustration over not knowing or being able to control what was happening to me spiritually and materially.

There’s other ways to make adjustments to mental programming, spiritual programming (Karma), exorcise demons, dark forces, wayward discarnates, misguided Spirit Guides and other entities, and dabble in all kinds of other Spiritual influences. Some of it gets kind of messy.

“Hold your nose, we’re going in!”

And there’s even a way to Command Spirit to work for you. It’s our right to direct the energies and entities in the world around us. In this new age that we’re already several years into, there is a growing spiritual awareness of humanity’s oneness with God. It’s becoming more of a natural thing for enlightened light-workers to work in cooperation with Spirit.

But it was a growing into that oneness with God that I was experiencing in June when I expressed my anger and frustration with not knowing what the source of my problems were. “Not knowing” is being out of touch with Spirit. Without doing anything more than having the intention, apparently what I had done ended up with firing all of my Spirit Guides. I was severely depressed for three days. It was real bad. If I hadn’t understood what was happening, I would have been suicidal. Since that change, I’ve had a growing sense of awareness, and a renewed sense responsibility

To Be Continued...

Psychic Disturbances

You may want to check out the report of geomagnetic storm data, continuously tracked by the Space Environment Center (SEC) section of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The web site is http://www.sec.noaa.gov/alerts/index.html, and the current warnings are at http://www.sec.noaa.gov/alerts/warnings_timeline.html. I check this site at least once a day now. You can also check historical data in the archives at http://www.sec.noaa.gov/alerts/archive.html.

Geomagnetic storms are a result of sunspot and solar flare activity. Periods of strong activity are known to interfere with radio communication, navigation systems, power distribution grids, satellites, pipelines, pose radiation hazards to high altitude aircraft and astronauts, disturb migratory animals, and are visible as aurora borealis or "Northern Lights" in more southern latitudes. Geomagnetic storms are measured on a scale from G1 to G5 similar to that used for tornadoes and hurricanes. A "G1" is Minor, causing power grid fluctuations and affecting migratory animals. A "G5" is Extreme, causing power grid disruptions and blackouts, satellite malfunctions, disruption of HF radio communication for days, and auroras visible as far south as Forida and Texas.

There have been studies that link geomagnetic storms to human mass psychology as reflected by declines in the stock market. The theory is that humans are mentally and emotionally affected by geomagnetic storms, resulting in a market sell-off. See http://www.bc.edu/publications/bcm/winter_2004/ll_solar.html, and the published paper, http://www.frbatlanta.org/invoke.cfm?objectid=AFD46B63-2852-4812-BE83E6D0C777F4BF&method=display. I've also correlated some of these storms with declines in the S&P 500 and DJIA averages.

I can personally account for at least three occasions of disruption, specifically mechanical breakdown of my vehicle and computer malfunctions, occuring within a day or two after some geomagnetic storms. Check out the archives at http://www.sec.noaa.gov/alerts/archive.html. Here's some dates, for which I have repair receipts and dated computer files as proof:

June 12 - 13, and 15 - 17, 2005, level G2 geomagnetic storm
June 18, I had my truck repaired for a broken water hose. It had been leaking the past few days, and began overheating.

May 28 - 31, 2005, level G2
June 1, I had my truck repaired to have a heavily corroded and leaking radiator replaced.
May 27 - 28, a critical system file on my computer is corrupted, requiring a day of repair, and eventually re-installing many software packages. This threatened to interfere with the final project for a class that I was taking. I was very upset over this, made some harsh decisions, and later went into a deep depression for three days. I'm still recovering emotionally from this.

November 6 - 15, 2004, level G4
November 16, I had my truck repaired to have a slipped timing belt, pulleys, and water pump all replaced. The engine had been making strange sounds for the previous few days, and finally lost power and would not run. The vehicle was in the shop for two days, and I was also unable to perform my job for two days, and lost money as a result. Lost pay from job is undetermined.

Think of recent times when things might have gone wrong for you, and see if there is some correlation. You can check the archives for these and other dates. If you find that there's a relationship, as I have, you might want to follow the current geomagnetic storm warnings page, just like you check the weather report.

Commemoration Of The Dawning Of The Atomic Age

I have to pause in my usual postings. I have several other topics to write about. But this is an issue of profound importance to the whole planet and the entire human race. On this day 60 years ago, July 16, 1945, the first atomic weapon was tested at Trinity Site, White Sands, New Mexico, in the USA.

The entire war had led up to this test, and ultimately the first use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. From the attack on Pearl Harbor which drew the USA into the war, the sequence of events led the world on a treacherous, but inevitable course that culminated in this. Although Roosevelt was president before, and all through the war, he died of a heart attack, leaving the sole decision of whether or not to use the device to his successor, President Harry S. Truman. Churchill called these type of events "hinge events," because it's like a door opening, the course of history changes with a single event.

It was said that the entire Japanese Empire was involved in the war, that "there are no civilians on the island of Japan." The Japanese people were prepared to fight until the very last man, woman and child. It was decided that this war of attrition could only be won by the total innihilation of Japan; America's genocide. All major Japanese cities were being systematically destroyed with incindiary bombing raids -- the cities were being burnt to the ground. In times such as these, the decision makes itself; it only takes someone to own the decision. So, yes, there were probably many lives saved on both sides by this display of such awsome power that the Japanese Emperor was shocked into surrender.

It has been said that these events sent shock waves throughout the entire Universe, that beings of higher consciousness in other places were aware of what had happened, and that many came to Earth at that time, and in the years afterward to observe the progression of this sequence of events, and their aftermath.

Back at Trinity Site, the first test had profound impact on the conscience of all of those involved. There was a great moral awakening in the USA. "We are nuclear giants, but ethical infants. We know everything about war, but nothing about peace."

J. Robert Oppenheimer had the most notable comments, which I had the privelege of watching him speak on today's installment of The Last Days of WW II today on The History Channel:

"Some laughed. Some cried. Most were silent. I remembered the lines from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita, 'And now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all felt the same in some way."

Working For The Weekender

The weekender edition now starts on Thursday. That makes it Thursday through Monday; a TM schedule. Two more days, and it’ll be the whole week.

In the jungle,
In the mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight

I wing a WEP, I wing a WEP,
I wing a WEP, I wing a WEP,
I wing a WEP, I wing a WEP,
I wing a WEP, I wing a WEP

In the jungle,
In the mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight

I wing a weekender Post,
I wing a weekender Post,
I wing a weekender Post,
I wing a weekender Post,
I wing a weekender Post,
I wing a weekender Post,
I wing a weekender Post,
I wing a weekender Post

Om Sri Angarakaya Namaha

Cops Can't Rant

There's a story about a NYPD cop that got fired for having a web site for cops to rant about their job. He says he's gonna sue for violation of first ammendment rights and file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. More power to you buddy!

I wonder if the Denver Newspaper Agency, publisher of the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, knows that I use this blog to point out all the stupidity of running a paper route. I wonder if I would get fired for pointing out that they pull shenanigans like changing all their weekender subscribers from a four-day schedule to a five-day schedule just to artificially boost their distribution numbers and get more revenue from their advertisers. I wonder if I did get fired, if I could get pull off a successful lawsuit. Not likely, in Colorado, an "Employment At Will" state. Not likely, working as contract labor. I wonder how many people, if any, actually read this blog. Like the owl and the tootsie pop, "The world may never know."

Survey time. Leave a comment if you read this, and it means anything to you. Just one word, yes or no: would I be justified in suing if I got fired for having this blog?

Om Sri Angarakaya Namaha

Succumbing To Entropy (Part III)

What Happened In May, 2005

This last class, Search Engine Marketing, which I took from April 26 to June 6, was plagued from beginning to end by computer problems. I re-installed Internet Explorer twice, along with the last several service updates. I turned to one of my spiritual practices, Sanskrit Mantra, for assistance. Ganesh is the Hindu expression of God that is called the Remover Of Obstacles.

Om Gum Ganapatayei Namaha

That’s the Ganesh Mantra. I was using the Ganesh Mantra, in earnest, to help get rid of the computer problems. The next day, my computer was running a bit sluggish, so I re-booted. That is, I attempted to re-boot. It would not.

It turned out that the one file, NTUSER.DAT, which contains all of the software settings, had become corrupted. “No problem,” I thought. I would just go to my backup, and restore that file. No. The system cannot back up that particular file while the system is running. So, really, there’s no value for doing backups, except to save user data. I managed to shoehorn together the system, using a computerized variation of the “pound in place, and paint to fit” technique that we used to joke about in the machine shop. But I still needed to re-install most of my software. And it was the final week of the class. And I had customers sending me orders that I needed to fill.

I was super pissed off. Of all the files to be corrupted, the one that holds the whole system together had to be the one. If architects built houses the way computer programmers write software, one woodpecker could destroy civilization. There was absolutely no reason why this should have happened in this way at this time. One tiny little beam that holds up the entire tree house of my system, by homework, and my business, and a woodpecker has to come along and drill a hole in it, causing the whole tree house to collapse to the ground.

It appears that the district manager at the newspaper agency has had computer problems of her own in June. Her computer lost its mind. One day we didn’t have any route lists, at all, for any of the routes. Another day, everything was all messed up, the counts didn’t match, there was new addresses in the route list that weren’t on the bundle mail start / stop list. I never hear the details of what happened, but I can tell when something’s up by the way people act all depressed and unresponsive. The manager took a week off recently.

I wish I could afford to take a vacation. Even if I could, I’d need to find a substitute paper carrier. And train him. Fortunately, I have a second route now. Fortunate? Yeah, I can afford to pay my taxes now. I can buy some time, and go back to building the business outside of the paper route.

Om Sri Angarakaya Namaha

To Be Continued...

Don’t Point That Thing At Me!

It’s skunk season. I saw four of them this morning. Two were “courting” beside the street, one hiding down in a driveway, and another one crossing the road.

I’ve learned to recognize the animals I see out at night by the color of their shiny eyes, and by their movements.

Cats have golden eyes, and they walk fast, stop and look, walk again, stop and look, then run into a bush or under a car and watch.

Raccoons have golden eyes, humped backs and stand defiantly, wondering who’s gonna try and steal his garbage, then they’ll reluctantly lumber away. Racoons often take the whole family along, as many as four or five.

Foxes have golden eyes too, maybe red, maybe white, and run like cats, but don’t stop and look. Foxes are unconcerned with cars, and often sit beside the road and watch traffic.

Coyotes are bigger than foxes, and run like foxes, but turn and look with their golden eyes as they run. Coyotes are shyer than foxes; they usually slip away before you can see them unless you watch the shadows outside the headlights.

You never see the eyes of bunny rabbits, which is weird considering how big they are, but they dart about randomly, sometimes drawn to vehicle tires like moths to the flame, and they occasionally pop straight up in the air when they’re startled. I think they know that it’s their mission in life to be coyote lunch, but they somehow mistake trucks for coyotes, and become road pizza instead.

Skunks are the only animals that always have red eyes (when you can see them). If the skunk is happy, it’ll nonchalantly lumber around in the grass, foraging for bugs and worms. If it’s upset, it’ll be in the middle of the road pointing its ass at you.

I remember the first time I saw a skunk. I looked up from wrangling the next newspaper, and there he was, in the middle of the road, with his pants pulled down around his ankles, fluffy black and white tail in the air, pointing a big rosy red asshole at me, counting off “Ready!… Aim!… ” My reaction was to hit the brake and throw it in reverse, “Back up! Back up! Give that boy some room!” Just give him some distance, and he’ll calm down and go about his business. Then after he’s gone, I roll up the window “just in case” and slowly drive past.

Om Sri Angarakaya Namaha

Succumbing To Entropy (Part II)

What Happened In May, 2001

May 16 was the four-year anniversary of having lost my last respectable job as a software support engineer. The job had potential. The company had potential. I had the respect of most of the support department. I could have worked into a position as full-blown software development engineer. But then, the company’s founder decided that he wasn’t qualified to run a company, and hired a CEO. CEO’s, as they usually go, act out of un-enlightened self-interest. The first one decided to grow the company by buying up a bunch of smaller companies. He was fired for incompetence. The second one was already retired, and only agreed to do this until they found the guy they really wanted. Then the third guy decided to grow the company by shutting down parts of the company, and pointing out how much money he saved the company.

I was pursuing the latest technology, which the sales people never understood, or cared about. The market for those products was never developed. In yet another political maneuver originating in greed and unenlightened self-interest, the sales manager “acquired” the support department, and shifted the focus away from skills and technology to customer satisfaction. The Sales manager told us “Nothing will change. Continue work as usual.” I told the Support manager that I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing, and just let me work on this one project for at least three months to get established. We agreed to this. Two weeks later, I was fired for “poor productivity.”

It was about the 10^th time that I lost my job (I actually lost count), and the second time the managers made up excuses and lied about why they were firing me. That’s when I decided I had had enough with working for corporations as an employee. That’s when I decided to go into business for myself. Four years later, I’m still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up.

Om Sri Angarakaya Namaha

To Be Continued...

You Can’t Teach The World A Lesson

My reaction to the London bombings is one of detached, but sad amusement. These terrorist attacks make me think of when as a child, I would stick firecrackers into anthills. The blast would kill or injure a few ants, make the rest of the ants run around in a frenzy, then give them something interesting to work on in rebuilding their anthill. The difference with these suicide bombers is that it’s more like tying a firecracker to your finger, lighting the fuse, and sticking your firecracker-finger into the anthill.

I gave up terrorizing anthills when I was about ten. These Arab terrorist suicide bombers don’t have much more morals or maturity than a ten year-old, or intelligence than a ten year-old who ties a firecracker to his finger.

If you don’t like an anthill, and it’s not on your property, then it’s best to just leave it alone. If it’s on your property, and it’s a problem, then that’s a different story. But firecracker attacks don’t solve the problem.

They’ll attack New York City, Madrid, London, but they never attack Small Town, USA. I feel safe.

Something else that I learned when I was a child is to place the blame appropriately. Someone stole something of mine in grade school, and I got in trouble for beating up an innocent kid out of spite. Meanwhile, whoever did it was happy that they got away with it. I hate practical jokes. But you can’t teach the bully a lesson by beating up innocent kids.

Om Sri Angarakaya Namaha

Death Ray

I loaned my spotlight to Sam. Yeah. The 2,000,000 candlepower one.

I’ll bet he was out there, burning holes and writing his name in the grass. Lighting trees on fire. Incinerating dogs. Blinding the carriers for the other paper. Making birds burst into flame in mid-flight. Silhouetting couples making love inside their houses.

You could give the young women the alien abduction experiences.

“And then there was this real bright light. And then I was floating in the air. And there were these strange little men, with big round shiny heads. And they took me up to their spaceship. And there were thousands and thousands of these orange and blue sacks filled with larvae. Then the larvae all turned into newspapers. Then I woke up in bed, all sweaty.”

Om Sri Angarakaya Namaha

Geldof Blasts eBay

Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof has lashed out at the Internet auction site eBay -- calling it an "electronic pimp" -- after pairs of tickets for the upcoming London event have been listed for as much as 10 million pounds ($18 million).

Well Bob, first off, you're accusing eBay of doing the selling. It's not eBay, Bob, it's the individual sellers who are listing the tickets on eBay. eBay is merely providing a venue for making the sale. Just as you're providing a venue for pimping out these artists for your own profiteering on the backs of the impoverished people that your event allegedly benefits. eBay makes a market where there is apparently desire for both seller and buyer to agree upon a price and a means to make a desired exchange. Accusing eBay of profiteering is a bit like saying the New York Stock Exchange is immoral for selling the stock of various gun manufacturers. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people." Stock exchanges that provide a market for investors to buy and sell stock for gun manufacturer's don't kill people, people who misuse guns kill people. That example may be an extra layer removed than what you're saying. My point is, target your wrath appropriately.

Second, Bob, not everyone who's selling on eBay is profiteering at the expense of the impoverished. How do the impoverished people suffer by someone else selling tickets for an event that they may never even know about? Anyway, back to my second point... As a seller on eBay, I can say that eBay has been my best bet yet for ketting out of - and staying out of - the clutches of both poverty and of the culture of corporate greed. I'm probably one of the very few people in the world who understand the karmic benefits of working through poverty. While everyone else is whining about the condition of the impoverished people, I'm using the experience as motivation to overcome the situation and make something of myself. And I'm making something of myself by building a business of my own, starting by selling stuff on eBay! I don't care if anyone holds a concert for me; that doesn't mean a thing to me.

By lambasting the free enterprise system, Bob, you're attacking the very means by which an ambitious, capable person such as myself could possibly break free of dependence on a culture of corporate greed, where companies like Worldcom and Enron build their own executive bankrolls while keeping their employees in a state of near-poverty, and stealing from their retirement. It's the free enterprise system that made America great. Don't destroy the opportunity for people to get out of poverty by attacking an avenue to success (eBay), and by mollycoddling people away from such avenues to success with handouts and a fish for a day.

Om Sri Angarakaya Namaha