Category Archives: Environment

That Small Town Feeling

15 Monday Jun 2020

Posted by in Conspiracies, Democratic Socialism, Emotional Intelligence, Environment, First Amendment, Healthcare, Indivisible, Making Sense of Guns, Politics, Terrorism

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In America, there is a small town where things don’t work the way they do everywhere else. It’s a place that’s still small town America. Exactly the same small town America that politicians invoke during an election cycle when they are trying to convince people that they alone are somehow able to conserve the values many of our grandparents held dear.

In this place, everyone who is anyone was brought up in a good Christian home, raised on down-home rules pulled mostly from the Bible. But one value that’s sure to be upheld is the one that says that anyone who hasn’t accepted Jesus into their lives, has to go to the back of the line here in America. And that this value is an essential part of the fabric of a nation founded on Christian values.

Modern scientific “theories” don’t just automatically get accepted and taught here. Especially not if they fly in the face of what we’ve been taught and know in our hearts to be a part of God’s plan for us. In this town there’s a saying, “Noah didn’t need no nanoparticles.”

Of course everyone here knows someone who’s been addicted to meth, has diabetes, or is missing a few teeth (This is America after all). But, that is no reason to scare people into letting some socialist weaken our national defense just for some free doctor’s appointments.

More than anything, the people of this town do their homework. They‘re not likely to sit idly by while an oppressive government schemes their freedom out from underneath them. Microwaves, contrails, chip implants, and 5G… you name it and they’ve fought for freedom from it.

Here the law matters. And not those little freedom-killing laws that get forced on you by some liberal activist judge, but honest-to-goodness tough laws. The type that are designed to punish people. This town is founded on the age-old knowledge that “might makes right”, as well as a couple of other things that rhyme with that.

And with that deep respect for the law, comes an even deeper respect for our Second Amendment. Every citizen of this town is advised to keep and bear arms to show how each one of us cares about the safety of our neighborhoods. We will always do what we have to to keep them safe, unlike ‘other’ types of neighborhoods.

Most of all this is a town that exists in direct proportion to the amount of payola each politician gets from silent sources when they publicly invoke its fabled existence. And, it is entirely populated with the faces of each and everyone person imagined by a voter who wished their vote who somehow transported them to this safe little island of individual liberties with a type of justice they can secretly get behind.

This is a town that too many American’s wish they lived in. And what’s worse, most of them are afraid to admit it to their own friends and family. How can we expect an enemies country to learn from this, when a huge portion of its citizens can’t even reconcile their own beliefs with way they hope to appear to others?

High Time For Change: Medical Cannabis and Recovery – Part 1

11 Friday Jan 2019

Posted by in Anxiety, Buddhism, Cannabis, Change, Depression, Ego, Emotional Intelligence, Environment, Fear, Heroin, Human, Medical Marijuana, Meditation, Mental Health, Open mind, Recovery, Spirituality

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*The following is multi-part series on the rise of cannabis as a medicine, how it affects alcoholics and addicts in recovery, and how to go about changing the information we have in our minds.

On June 10, 1935 the modern recovery movement was born when Alcoholics Anonymous came into being. And with it came an entirely new way for society to view alcoholism. While this isn’t the only method for people to recover, it’s going to be my primary starting point for now.

AA presented alcoholism as a disease, and one with no known cure. They also offered an ongoing “treatment” for alcoholism that would help the sufferer keep their illness in remission. It soon became very well respected, primarily for the recoveries that it had helped foster. Rather than branching out into other problem areas in society, it instead offered up its 12-step formula to other organizations, to adapt as they saw fit to help other populations with different needs. AA also offered its help to the world of science and health, helping to catapult much of the medical research on alcoholism and addiction that we now benefit from. They firmly put themselves in a position to only help, and never to engage in opinions one way or another. AA also tried very hard to foresee the future in order to avoid falling prey to medical fads, or fickle politics. In doing so, it necessarily took a step back, offering no opinions or endorsements. It’s that kind of foresight that has allowed the program to help as many people as it has over the years. It also gave the mistaken impression to many that the organization itself was mired in the past, advocating faith-healing over science, and allowing people to blame their problems on a disease instead of taking responsibility.

On August 2, 1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Marijuana Tax Act, setting in motion an eighty-year assault on plant that had previously been cultivated for a variety of uses by Americans up until that point. The bill itself was drafted by Harry Anslinger, who served (not at all coincidentally) as the first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. There is more than enough evidence indicating that cannabis was already under assault on different fronts prior to this point, but history has also shown that Anslinger played a pivotal role in cannabis prohibition. And, like many of the other substances that were being regulated, and prohibited during this particularly active period of American puritanism, cannabis went from being a plant of many uses, to a fast and efficient way to ruins your life just from the penalties alone.

So, for 80 years those two worlds existed on parallel planes, rarely interacting. As the 12-step world grew and expanded to include organizations like Narcotics Anonymous, and Marijuana Anonymous, the idea of members using any sort of medicine that alters consciousness became taboo in church basements around the world.

It’s here where I need to step and explain something. I have and will use the terms organization, program, members, and culture to describe things like AA, and that isn’t accidental. It also needs to be pointed out that they aren’t synonymous with each other, something that becomes important as this narrative continues.

The organization of Alcoholics Anonymous is just that, the parent organization that exists to serve the groups, and individual members with information to aid in their recovery. This is the same type of organization that I mentioned had “firmly put themselves in a position to only help, and never to engage in opinions one way or another”. Unlike most organizations, they never set rules or requirements for their members to follow, at most they will offer suggestions. Not everyone at the organization is a member, let alone an alcoholic or addict. If asked about their position on different forms of cannabis being legally prescribed as medicine, or about recreational legalization, they would very likely say that they have no opinion on those kinds of issues.

The program of Alcoholics Anonymous are those 12-step things you hear mentioned in TV and movies all of the time. If you actually use these twelve things to help you in life, you are following the program. You don’t need to be a member, or even an alcoholic or drug addict to use them. They were designed to be “open source” long before that was a term of use.

The members of Alcoholics Anonymous are just that, the people in the seats. Someone becomes a member when they say they are, that’s all there is to it. Of course, because the membership is made up of people who get to decide if they are members, or even if they are alcoholics at all, it is as flawed as and varied as people are in general. And while that means no one person is in charge, it also means that anyone who thinks they are, will try to be. I invite you to someday attend an AA meeting someday, and then randomly suggest they move their coffee pot across the room. Watch to see how many people think they are in charge. This will become is a crucial point in this narrative, because they are people with lots of opinions, who talk to each other all the time.

Finally, there is the culture of Alcoholics Anonymous. This is where most misunderstandings and conflicts arise within the world of recovery. And it’s here where opinions become dogma, regardless of evidence.

To be continued…

 

Space Station 3-D Printer Builds Ratchet Wrench

14 Tuesday Aug 2018

Posted by in Brain Droppings, Dingleberries, Environment, Middle Way, Open mind, Quantum, Revolution, Tax the Church, Tech

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THIS!!!

This is why we have science and technology, and math, and shit that makes your cell phone work. The earth isn’t 5,000 years old, you navel-gazing, closed-minded, backward-assed, lost in the wilderness of Bible knowledge, fundamentalist motherfuckers.

The International Space Station’s 3-D printer completed the first phase of a NASA technology demonstration by printing a ratchet wrench.
— Read on www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/3Dratchet_wrench

It sucks, doesn’t it?

23 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by in Change, Dingleberries, Ego, Emotional Intelligence, Environment, Fear, Hate, Human, Indivisible, Islam, Love, Male superiority, Middle Way, Open mind, Politics, Race, Revolution, Sameness, Trump-Hole, Women

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So, news reports have said that members of the Trump administration have been denied service in, and chased out of, businesses they thought they had the right to frequent as a normal customer. It’s completely unfair.

And I hear they’re also having trouble finding dates, or keeping them when they do. People are just walking out in the middle of dates when they find out someone works for the administration. It’s just rude.

No one likes to be judged by others. Especially not before they even get a chance to know you. And something personal, like where you work or what you believe in, shouldn’t affect what restaurant you’re allowed to eat in… Right?

Exercising the Law of Parsimony

18 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in Brain Droppings, Clowns, Conspiracies, Dingleberries, Environment, Guns, Hate, Indivisible, Mental Health, Middle Way, Open mind, Patriotism, Politics, Spirituality, Terrorism, Trump-Hole

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It is a practically universally accepted fact that the Russians have been trying to interfere with democratic elections all over the world, including in the United States, where they appear to have been successful.

It is also a near universally accepted fact that human activities are contributing to rapid climate change, and endangering the planet and the human race, and that this activity is directly linked to the burning of fossil fuels.

So, do you suppose that it’s by accident that the only notable exceptions in each of these cases is a group of politically linked, right-wing individuals, who have built a news echo chamber so efficient that even facts are unable penetrate it?

Dandelion Break

30 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by in Conspiracies, Dingleberries, Environment, First Amendment, Hate, Human, Male superiority, Middle Way, Patriotism, Politics, Race, Sameness, Terrorism, Trump-Hole

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I tried to start an entry describing what I learned as a Boy Scout about respect for the American Flag. It was going to mention the flag worshippers out there who put the flag sticking up from the bed of pickup truck and drive around until it’s in tatters. Or better yet, how they constantly wear some form of the flag on their hat, or shirt. I was even going to mention the other people that put their confederate flag right next to the stars and stripes, usually on the wrong side… anyway, I never finished that post, I got distracted. Besides, it’s not like pointing out someone’s ignorance will make them reflect on their contradictory ways.

My distraction was about the (not-so) emergency response to Irma in Puerto Rico, and the fact that the President of the United States is ignoring the suffering of millions of U.S. citizens. But then Donald Trump began to bash the mayor of San Juan for criticizing him for doing nothing as the second level of destruction hits the island. Things like cholera, and the problems that come out of simply ignoring and not treating people for things that are so completely treatable… there is no excuse. Especially if you are more worried about upsetting the shareholders of shipping companies, than you are of human lives. And so neither of these topics got their own post.

You see there was this whole “drain the swamp” thing that was begging to be brought up as Tom Price came under fire for chartering private flights on the taxpayer’s dollar. But then he said he would pay the people back for his seat on these flights. He chartered the whole thing, but he was only going to pay us back for the seat he sat in. I was going to point out that the $50,000 he planned on giving back, was a fraction of the estimated $1M it actually cost for all of the charters. But then he resigned/was fired. And so, I began to comb through the stories of corruption and excess, that is coming out of this administration lately, but I got overwhelmed again.

You see, there’s some weird thing happening in Cuba with sonic attacks on U.S diplomats, and people are getting very sick. No one knows why, and what little is left of our State Department, isn’t saying anything. But even if they did, it wouldn’t stop the renewed fears that are reminiscent of the Cold War. You see, North Korea isn’t going to back down. Threatening nuclear war is all they have. But our president seems to think he can bluff them like some cement contractor from New Jersey. And that would be bad enough, but Trump will do anything to not lose face. That includes using “fire and fury like the world has never seen”, on a country that is about as much a match to us militarily, as I am to a 6 year old kid in arm wrestling.

I didn’t write about any of that either because the CEO of Equifax just retired after overseeing a massive data breach that has affected just about every American. Apparently this buttmunch was allowed to gracefully walk away with a $90M golden parachute. Even though, I guarantee you he’s the kind of guy who would fire his immigrant Guatemalan gardener for trimming the hydrangeas too unevenly.

So, as you can see I was going to write about all of these things, as well as a dozen more. But, I got overwhelmed. So, like Opus, I just need a dandelion break.

The Work

27 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by in Buddhism, Compassion, Ego, Environment, Human, Meditation, Mental Health, Middle Way, Open mind, Sameness, Spirituality

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“I like walking around cities better than in the countryside. I’m happy the trees are there, I just don’t need to see them, that’s all. I’m serious. I much prefer cities. Let’s face it, it’s actually better that we leave the trees alone; let them get along with doing their job without human interference. Cities, though: they’re full of people, and they’re the ones who need us. But we feel the opposite. As soon as we see all those people crowding the streets, filling the buildings, driving the cars, we feel aversion for them. We want to run away into the trees! It should be the other way around – at least, that’s how bodhisattvas would feel. The more people the better! Grist for their mill.”

– Venerable Robina Courtin

16 Saturday Sep 2017

Posted by in Change, Conspiracies, Environment, Human, Male superiority, Middle Way, Patriotism, Politics

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So here’s my latest idea: The newest conservative push is to somehow “earmark” their taxes so they don’t have to pay for contraception or abortions. I say we allow the same exceptions for defense spending. I would no longer like to pay for the tools used to kill people in any fashion. Instead, I would like it to be used to pay for healthcare. I am not looking for “free” healthcare, instead I would prefer that my taxes to be earmarked as well.

However, if this is too objectionable, I would be willing to compromise: No earmarks. Instead, we just increase the tax base overall by removing any loopholes normally reserved for religious exceptions.

A society is really just a bunch of people cooperating, and compromising. When we lose that, we regress to a state of myopic, self-interested factions. Kind of like Afghan warlords, only with access to a Starbucks.