How Equality for Women Will Save the World

Humanity is evolving -with women. The men are not. The men I speak of cling desperately to an outdated patriarchy where they rule and women are submissive.  They hate women, they fear them out of the fear of being left behind as the next step in evolution happens. Women have been greatly enpowered in the last 30 years -particularly in this country- but some men are afraid of the advancement.

Pussy Riot, Malala Yousafzai, Mona Eltahawhy have expressed themselves in ways  women never have before. Women are tired of being treated like dirt.Tired of being treated as incubators for procreation or sex slaves for men’s primitive desires.Women are rising up in greater numbers- and in many countries- where women have traditionally been oppressed in a state of slavery. It’s about time.

In response medievel thinking drives men to violence to preserve their distorted sense of superiority. But by oppressing women they keep themselves and humanity from advancing.

When I was a teenager I was in the midst of the “women’s liberattion “ movement. I thought that men can’t be far behind in finding their new voice in the modern world. Instead the dread and anger towards women and homosexuals demonstrates how the conservative notions of masculinity are further entrenched in fear. Men wield power with brute strength rather than the intellect they so admire but use less and less.

Women got the right to vote in this country because they convinced men we had the right. Men agreed with the change. We made the change together. Men and women need each other, we are twins in nature. We are equal but different, yin and yang that dance together. We can not exist in separate states. It’s time the evolved men of the world show their brothers they can have their masculine identity without having to promote it with fear and oppression.

The USA is Now the USSR.

Edward Snowden has revealed that our  Democratic government is spying  on it’s own citizens and this  is how the very people being spied on react. This is exactly how our government can do this because we don’t care as long as we can play around with our smart phones, twitter and face book- all of whom are in cahoots with the government. We are doomed.

What I find especially disturbing is how the media, instead of expressing appalling  outrage, spend time nit picking over details. Well they’re not really spying on everyone and they aren't doing anything legal so what's the problem. They shouldn’t be doing any of this at all. The endless war on terror does not justify it. If our government can’t spot rank amateurs like the Boston Marathon dip shits with basic detective skills what makes us think they can can stop real terrorists.

Maybe they don’t want to. Amazing how people see conspiracy in the Sandy Hook shooting where children were massacred but let’s see a show of hands of those who think the Marathon bombing was used to justify a larger police state? 

The power being abused by the NSA and our government is frightening. We’ve seen it before in the Soviet Union, Communist China, North Korea. George Orwell predicted it in the forties for God sake. Somewhere along the line the powers that be decided to emulate the Soviet Union  and abandon real democracy. With this revelation we have learned that American citizens are being given a false sense of freedom.

(NSA photo credit  George frey/EPA/LANDOV)

Security Theater and The Barbarossa Effect

Recently a man fell off his jet ski, swam to shore, and calmly walked across two runaways and into a terminal at JFK airport -dripping wet- before being spotted by an employee.The elaborate and very expensive security system meant to catch such an intrusion failed. How many other airports employ this fancy security system that doesn't work?  Meanwhile passengers are practically being striped searched by the ineffective TSA before getting on a plane.

The Department of Homeland Security is engaged in a security ruse. They spend little time on local made terrorists who have killed people, set fires to places of worship and generally threatened the safety of the public. Instead, an inordinate amount of time, energy, our money and media distraction is spent on the looming  non existent threat from foreigners. Obviously the DHS is more interested in Islamist terrorists than right wing extremists because the perceived threat of "foreigners" feeds our xenophobia. This re enforces the need for a more militarized police force and the exploitive practices of the DHS trampling on our civil rights.

This form of  "mission creep" is a variation of what I call the Barbarossa Effect.  In the movie of the same name Willie Nelson plays a bandit who married the daughter of a wealthy Mexican rancher. He set out to kill Nelson's character who is supposedly terrorizing the local village. But here's the twist, as long as Barbarossa is alive the rancher can justify offering "protection" to the frightened villagers to maintain his own power. When henchmen inform the rancher they killed Barbarossa, he explains how they killed their golden goose. Gary Busy, a clumsy oaf Nelson befriends', takes Nelson's place, and so Barbarossa lives on.

It's the same scam used to justify the cold war, the war on drugs and now the war on terror. As long as people think there is a reason to be afraid, our government will increase it's invasion of our rights to maintain their power. It's not Homeland security, it's job security.

The Week in Unsurprising, Non Shocking Revelations.

The Higgs Boson exists. For those of you who are asking "What the Fuck is a Boson?"

Anderson Cooper is gay. For those of you who were clueless on this one, better luck next time.http://gayhomophobe.com/

The Healthcare Act is upheld by SCOTUS.  But boy was the media surprised. I wasn't. The insurance companies love this because they will be richer.

How Far We Have Fallen

“Our workers’ organization has become an end in itself. A machine which is perfected for its own sake and not for the tasks which it could have performed.” -Robert Micheals 19th century Social Theorist. 

Change "workers’ organization" to "government" and it describes how broken the country and business are. 

Enjoy your weekend.

Don't believe everything you see on American news TV.

I'm kind of sick and tired of hearing how bias "the liberal media" is. The fact is all of the mainstream media on TV and the internet is famously bias. Don't believe me? Then read what a Norwegian has to say about the recent terrorist attack and how badly American news got it wrong-again.

In the rush to get the story, serve a political agenda and make sure the viewer feels afraid- most of the mainstream media failed miserably. Do you think they learned their lesson and will do better next time? Unlikely.

Remember to consider every news story with a healthy dose of skepticism and consult more sources.

American Vengeance VS. Norwegian Justice

Once upon a time when Puritan colonists came to this country, they decided the prisons back home in England were cruel pits. They would have a new kind of imprisonment called a penitentiary where criminals would go to do "penance" i.e. think about their crimes and atone for them. They would be humane and lenient.

Well that's all very nice but it was quickly forgotten and replaced with vindictive punishment because it made us feel morally superior and satisfied our anger. They don't do that in Norway and it has the Righteous Americans in a froth. How dare they treat those criminals like, like well people!? Everyone knows the only way to stop people from committing crimes is the threat of incarceration- except it doesn't. The death penalty -for instance is an excellent deterrent to murder-except it isn't. No one in the penal system in this country believes in the concept of rehabilitation -once a criminal always a criminal. They don't deserve a second chance.

For those foaming at the mouth that the terrorist-er excuse me extremist, will get out in 21 years after serving time in a cushy country club- he will not, the parole board can extend his time indefinitely and likely will. A cage- no matter how gilded- is still a prison. Next to exile, denying freedom to someone is the harshest judgement we can give -even to a monster.

The Real Threat

Poor Tracy Morgan has fallen for the current Threat du Jour to society. In his blundering rant he declared if his son were gay he would stab him.

Funny, thirty years ago a white guy could say if his son dated his white daughter he would stab him too. And the people would nod in agreement. A portion of in this country still view interracial marriages as immoral.

It’s easy to demonize a small minority as a threat to our children and the moral fiber of our society. Like the bully at school we find a easy target of our fear in the defenseless. People want so hard to believe in a clearly identifiable cause of our problems and solutions that are just as clear.

If we liquidate all the money grubbing Jews, Germany will be great again. If we drive out the commies lurking among the liberal intellectuals- then democracy will be safe. If we stop those uppity blacks who need to know their place then everything will be fine.

It’s common for us to point the finger at those who are truly guiltless as the real danger. With a large dose of hyperbole and fear they become immense and frightening. Why do we do this? Because the real source of our unease is change but that’s subtle, inevitable and hard to pin down, blaming -fill in the blank - is far easier.

How to Predict the Future

I’ve written on this subject before-strictly tongue in cheek but seriously, I find the concept fascinating. Predicting the future hinges on theories from quantum physics to spiritual divination. To answer the question of how the future can be predicted we have to answer the question -what is time? Well nobody knows least of all me.

One theory is that time is not linear i.e., the past, present and future exist simultaneously but we experience it with our limited senses as linear. It is not fixed but has an elastic quality to it.
How time proceeds is dependent on perception and expectation as anyone visiting the dentist or being at a wedding can tell you. Seeing into the future requires getting outside of that linear thinking. It’s the difference between driving down the hiway in a car or being in a helicopter above it. Another method of prophecy is based on where the past and present are and extrapolating from there.

Arthur C. Clarke, dull writer that he was, made some amazing predictions in the 60’s about computers and modern communications that were spot on. (get youtube link here). He and Jules Verne made accurate predictions because their scientific education allowed them to make good estimates of things to come. Some people see the future by accident. E.M. Forester wrote a short fantasy story in 1909 that is an eerily accurate view of modern communication. link here.

There are those who derived their predictions in mystical ways that tend to be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Despite what some critics might say about Nostradmaus and Edgar Caycee,http://www.edgarcayce.org/ they actual have a pretty good track record and should not be dismissed.

Most people try to guess about the future based on biased expectations rather than objective data. The economy will improve, we’ll find cheaper, cleaner forms of energy, I’ll win the lottery and so on. What prophets like Caycee and Nostradamus have in common is that they had no expectations about what they saw during their meditations, they just recorded the information and hoped for the best.

Using a combination of deduction and intuition I have some of my own ideas about the future to wit:
The economy will not show significant improvement for another 5 to 10 years before leveling out.

Medical care will get cheaper and rely more on natural treatment. Doctors will treat patients with techniques stemming from the mind -body connection -which until recently they have ignored.

The next president will NOT be woman. By 2025 the inauguration will be moved to another time, place or the presidency will undergo a dramatic change.

A disaster will cut global population drastically between 2030 and 2050. There will be fewer people, cars and pollution. The environment will be considerably changed for the better as a result.

The best thing Afghanistan can do is promote it’s agriculture. It will be the fruit and bread basket of central Asia.

Within 10 years there will be revelation proving the existence of extra terrestrial life. Surprise!

Get back to me in 10 years and we'll see how well I did.

Gays Vs. the Moralists Number . .Oh fuck it

"There is nothing wrong with going to bed with someone of your own sex. People should be very free with sex, but they should draw the line at goats." Elton John

The trail over Prop 8 in California has recessed for the week and it so far it's a cross between a soap opera and bizarro world as the proponent's engage in some very convoluted logic against same-sex marriage.I'm not even going to try to explain this one kids. Oh yeah and the Supreme Court blocked cameras from the trial. Damn. That would have been fun and educational but apparently the proponents of Prop 8 don't want anyone to see it. Hmm, ponder. So it's ok to televise a lurid trial like OJ Simpson but not one that challenges the constitution.

Excuse me while I get a strong drink.

She Does Get Ink

The following is my letter to the editor published last week in the Register-Guard, the local newspaper.


When did the US decide it was acceptable to torture people? On September 12 , 2001 that’s when. Before then we would decry it’s use in third world countries and banana dictatorships we propped up. But when some bad people killed some of our people we reacted like everyone else with retaliation.

After the latest incident with the bomber from Yemen, the hysterical cries of a mob gathering to stone a whore drowns out reason. None of this will end the fear of terrorist attacks, none of it will gain us valuable information, even if we caught the real leaders it will do no good, why?

Because torture is not about extracting information, it’s about extracting revenge. Even professional interrogators know this doesn’t work.

The effect will only lead to a war of attrition. “Let’s do to them what they did to us” is an ancient battle cry. We have to recognize this is merely a need to satisfy our bloodlust, not a way to stop those with fanatical egos. It suits any government to keep the populace in a state of fear, so suspicion, paranoia and angry are given loud free reign to prevent real peace from being achieved.

Military Intelligence at Work

Despite the urgent need for service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan, The military is kicking people out simply for being gay- which has nothing to do with their ability to do their job. Admittedly straight men freak out at the idea of being near a gay man but 36% of those discharged are women even though they only make up 14% of troops. Why the disproportion? It’s simple. Gay women won’t put out and these narrow minded, all beef patties resent anyone they can’t fuck to prove how manly they are. Or maybe I’m just reading too much misogyny into it.