News Used and Abused

Posted on December 12, 2011 by ehurst

All of us are abused in one way or another.
How would we classify it? There’s folks who don’t know they are being abused, but we can’t always pity them if they like it or just don’t care either way. There’s folks who know it, but we don’t usually pity them unless they seem genuinely powerless. Too many folks simply assume they are powerless when it’s not necessarily true, or at least not true in the way they assume it. Most of the time I can’t even begin to figure out what is actually going on, but if it seems to affect me, I do try to pay attention.
So we have this wild story of troops, probably American, who were redeployed from Iraq to Jordan, of all places. This would be somewhat obviously in preparation for military operations against, and perhaps inside, Syria.
You’d have to decide if Sibel Edmonds is likely reliable on the subject. Then you further have to decide if her sources are likely reliable. The idea itself is wholly plausible, given what we know of past military idiocy in that region, particularly given my own experience with military idiocy in general. Further, we should hardly be surprised if the MSM is quiet on this. Finally, we should expect a decreasing level of reaction from the general public, particularly in the US, once the story of such operations is officially announced, or leaked, having been so thoroughly pummeled by propaganda against the current Syrian government. The whole publicity campaign is highly reminiscent of my training in using a more literal artillery to soften up a target prior to assault.
But the whole thing calls to mind the wider question of propaganda itself. Back when I was attending East Anchorage High School (Alaska) in the early 1970s, I never would have imagined living through my own experience of Animal Farm when we read it in class, or 1984, which I read later on my own. Particularly the latter, as I’ve been watching the cases of folks like Susan Lindauer and Edgar Steele. Do we call it a conspiracy when agents of the government do what governments have always done, but lie about it in the most implausible ways? What sort of traffic runs through your mind when someone holds a gun to your head, literally or figuratively, and demands you must not say, “water is wet”?
It’s not as if there is much we could do to stop our government from invading Syria or any other country, for the simple reason we can’t stop them from invading our own homes, or even our very conscious thoughts. I’m not sitting anywhere near the border between Jordan and Syria, so I can’t even verify any of this. A part of me cares deeply about the needless suffering sure to come, just as our troops have afflicted so many others in that part of the world. On the other hand, ours is just the latest wave of several thousand years of such wanton bloodshed and general mayhem.
Yeah, I believe in prayer, but that’s another book I probably need to write some day.
Right now, the one thing I know for certain is if I don’t struggle with the information available, regardless of what I decide about it at any point on the timeline of my existence, I’m cannot rise above the liars, enablers, commanders and killers. I may not be any better however you evaluate such things, but if I don’t try, I’m not worth evaluating at all, not worth knowing, contributing nothing against the implacable demand upon my soul to fight evil.
We can’t afford to ignore even what we cannot affect.

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Recommended Listening: Judith de los Santos

Posted on December 11, 2011 by ehurst

You cannot compare artists objectively. You can only say what it is you like most. That’s what art is about. I suppose for some of us, music does that. It touches something inside, and for each of us, there is some particular mix of music and musicians who touch us in the place deep inside which has no name.
Then comes along every once in awhile a performer who does that for so very many people, they justifiably gain fame. Or could, if the awful pit of Hell reserved for the music business didn’t destroy so many. But a few escape, at least for a time, that hideous murdering mass of exploitation and their songs are heard by those who never get enough of the beauty.
Perhaps you remember Karen Carpenter. We may never know the truth, but it seems she was destroyed by one manager who lied to her about her physical beauty, suggesting she wasn’t quite perfect enough. At any rate, she died from complications of anorexia in 1983. And we who loved her angelic singing are yet angry these many years later that so much was taken from us all too soon.
So while we do not sanely compare one with another, we know when that touch comes again. I’d like to suggest you, too, may be touched by the haunting beauty of a voice I’ve not heard of before. Judith de los Santos recorded a cover of something written, of all things, for a computer game by Jeremy Soule. I’m willing to bet she found something in that song even Mr. Soule didn’t know was there. Instead of having to wade through the music business moguls, she’s making good use of the Internet. Go ahead and visit YouTube and listen for yourself: here.
Update: Judith’s performances are also covered under the name “Malukah.”

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Tidbit: Economies of Scale

Posted on December 10, 2011 by ehurst

Take a quick read, and consider this thought:
There is only one excuse for seeking the benefits of economic consolidation, only one “benefit” — it’s makes it possible for plutocrats to rob everyone at once. No other long term benefit has ever come from it.
Here in the US, there is now only one vague hope for redress: Jury Nullification.

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The Right Tribe

Posted on December 10, 2011 by ehurst

Most Christians today are ill-equipped to understand what’s happening in places like France.
I’ve been watching for some years the rise of right-wing nationalist groups in Europe. I won’t pretend I know the subject well, because that would require staying in Europe far longer than I did with the US Army, and having more time to explore it directly. I do my best to make sense of the news reported in both the mainstream and alternative sources. As with all things, we have to recognize the tension between each major figure and the various influences versus the overall effect we can observe as generalities. The basic rule of social studies is to create generalizations, knowing they are accurate enough, but never exactly the truth.
Let me take a moment to remind my readers I am no right-winger. That is, unless you understand I don’t stop at merely “conservative” (hoping to conserve what has been) nor even “reactionary” (trying to recover something now almost lost), but an extreme primitivist. I am more conservative than any reactionary could dream of being, because I assert the pinnacle of human society was long before Christ, far back in ancient prehistory. At the same time, I am all for maximum freedom for the individual, which I assert is a very primitive value, despite the popular mythology about such things. I propose to evaluate all things from such a perspective.
God has said mankind after the Fall can do no better than live in a tribal social structure. The original concept of “nation” is roughly equivalent to “tribe.” The resurgent urge to nationalism, versus mere patriotism (statism), reflects this ancient truth. By no means does it come off so well as it might, in most cases. It doesn’t require hating the outsider to preserve what God ordained for your people. Having a strong national identity is necessary for God’s blessings under His Laws: prosperity, stability and safety. You should expect each nation to shamelessly boast in their own traditions, while honoring that of others.
But even the pugnacious and provocative acts are correct at times. If Muslims in France whine because Bloc Identitaire serves pork soups with wine to the homeless, let them whine. By no means should anyone suppress such charity, because exclusion of outsiders is fundamental to human nature, and not a moral flaw. The right to decide what one shall do in terms of charity with their own resources is fundamental to understanding God’s Laws.
The problem is the question of moral balance which brings Muslims into France. France perverted their national pride in times past into an excuse for oppression and exploitation. They invaded and colonized nations which are now predominately Muslim, and remain rather proud of that. If your nation invades another, you cannot justify keeping that population outside your ancient borders.
On the other hand, it is entirely appropriate to hold them in their own little neighborhoods. Of all modern identities, it is Muslims who remain most tribal. We could easily justify some of the French colonizations as pay back for the original Muslim drive to conquer the world. Frankly, Muslims drew the first blood, demanding others surrender their own traditions. But the only reason they were so successful is their strong tribal identity. While Western Civilization has outstripped them in the science and technology of destruction and warfare, it’s entirely normal for Muslims to carry out a reverse colonization which takes advantage of the arrogance of claiming to have “civilized” the world.
In other words, there is no clear high moral ground. On the one hand, Muslims will continue their peaceful conquest, because they are closest of all modern societies to what God had in mind. They are adhering to the moral fabric of the universe with greater accuracy. They will win, but it will be very messy. The only proper response is to claim the same moral fabric. Since Muslims do not in truth actually acknowledge the Creator, but worship a paganized perversion which they claim is Him, they stand to lose to the first nation which actually matches their basic moral probity, enhanced by honoring God as He revealed Himself.
I don’t expect to see that happening any time soon. Meanwhile, I watch with some amusement the various threads of competing rightness, wondering who will find God’s favor this week or the next. I am utterly convinced He controls the outcome, and right now I don’t see anyone competing too well against Muslims in the long term. Depending on where this rising right-wing tribalism goes, they may score some interesting victories. It’s not just in France, as this Bloc Identitaire has reached out to all sorts of similar movements all over the world.
It would be totally unfair to paint them all as fascist, because that serves merely to excuse not paying attention. There are fascists who would love to find their place at the table, even co-opt the whole thing, but they will never again rise to dominance. Except in the US, that is. People forget fascism is simply government by and for merchant conglomerations, who exercise their power through the apparatus of the state. The state as an artificial construct becomes the focus of all attention, the mythology by which the subjects are oppressed. It’s socialism in disguise. To the degree the right-wingers are more tribal, more about people than the state, they are doing it right (pun intended).
I dare say most of the modern world has no clue how much this matters to God, even among those who claim His Name.

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Christmas Grammar Grouch

Posted on December 9, 2011 by ehurst

I really don’t have any great words of wisdom, nor any diseased mutterings to share.
Instead, I’m going to grouse about some things which have made me grouchy regarding the decline in precise grammar. But first, a factoid: You know that silly story about the frog sitting in pot of water with the oh-so slowly rising temperature? It’s been tried, and it doesn’t work. I’ll leave it to you to look it up, but when it gets too warm, those suckers do jump out. Pick yourself another metaphor.
It’s not “baited breath” because you aren’t catching anything with your halitosis. It’s “bated breath” which a colloquialism for “abated breath.” It means you almost dare not breathe because of the tension of the moment.
In the military, we line up carefully, and the standard is the toes of our boots are in perfect visual alignment. It’s called “toe the line.” It means follow orders, do what you’re told, take your assigned place. You don’t “tow the line” because you aren’t dragging anything around.
At least I haven’t had to endure any “irregardless” or “floormat” instead of “format.” Of course, those or more often oral errors, and I really haven’t had any long conversations in quite a while. In case you don’t see what’s wrong with “irregardless” it works out like this. If you regard something, you evaluate it. It counts for something. If you make a decision regardless of that thing, then it no longer counts. If we add the prefix “ir-” then we reverse it one more time; now it means something again.
There are a couple of really good writers out there who acknowledge their poor grammar and punctuation. Those who humbly refuse to put on airs can be forgiven, because communicating some things is simply too important to worry about rules. I’m sure you can scan back through some of my previous posts and find typos and such aplenty.
I grouch at myself, too.
Addenda: This one bothers me so much it was worth coming back to add it. You hone a knife using something which restores the edge. You might hone some skills, but if you don’t stop writing “hone in” when you are supposed to write “home in” you have need to hone your grammar skills.
In times of old we used homing pigeons for the Internet. Take them anywhere you like, tie your tweet or short email on the leg and let it go. That bird will always return home. When you fire a smart missile, it will home in on the target. Sometimes I wish I had a smart missile to chase folks who insist on writing it wrong.

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Beside Himself

Posted on December 8, 2011 by ehurst

Until you know yourself, you can’t hope to step outside yourself.
Is this madness? So very many claim to be objective, or claim to strive for objectivity. Is it even possible? I assert it is possible only in a limited sense. The greatest barrier to what little is possible is refusing to be objective with the self first.
Over the years, as I played the role of counselor, the whole mission could be summed up in helping people face reality, to recognize fantasy for what it is, and embrace however much of reality as comes within the reach of the individual. In order counsel others, I first had to be in the habit of discarding my own fantasies. The task is never done, but you have no hope if you can’t internalize the habit of seeking out those blind spots. A mystical commitment to truth means nothing if you can’t find even a sliver of operational truth.
That operational level of truth is really all we have. I count it a fantasy to expect the full truth to be in human reach. What we need is just enough to face our own individual reality. You don’t need to learn how to fly if you spend all your time tunneling and mining in the earth. Writing a few books on my own search would prove somewhat pointless, but encapsulating those few threads of my own experience which seem to be common is the basis for my claim to counsel.
I can’t stand to see people suffer needlessly, but I’ve learned long ago you are the only one who can set you free, in a certain sense. If what I share doesn’t touch you, then I have to let it fall to the ground, wither and die. If my ranting and mumbling amuse you, there is at least that. If they strike a chord of recognition, stick around; I may have something useful to say. Otherwise, make your own path. Let me at least assure you it can be done.
Whether that path is Utopia (literally “No Place”) or Eutopia (“Good Place”) is what you have to decide. Choose your vision; do this intentionally. Refine it forever. Question all things you have been told until you begin finding yourself in the jumble, then stay at it. That’s the real objective, because you can’t be objective otherwise. You can’t hope to compare the vision of others with reality if you don’t find at least something reliably “real” for you. You can’t help others discern a method until you have a working method yourself.
All I can offer is what I’ve found. I can’t even offer that if I haven’t been through the finding process. I realize I can’t possibly know what I am, and I surely discovered long ago I can only sometimes do what I think I should. So it’s not a question of being nor really of doing, but more of who I am. I am the sum of my commitments, the collection of things from which I cannot escape. There is just enough commonality among us humans we can certainly share some things. When I have a good idea who I am, only then would I be in a position to evaluate some measure of that common experience.
Who are you? Pleased to meetcha.

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More on Those Concentration Camps

Posted on December 7, 2011 by ehurst

I’m not the only one who sees the concentration camps as getting real close.
Of all the writers associated with Alex Jones, Kurt Nimmo is about the only one I give any credibility. I followed him long before he found it necessary to hang out with Jones in order to keep eating. Nimmo sticks with stuff he can prove, and is the first writer to show me the evidence al-Qaeda was fake, a CIA operation. Thus, you’ll notice the linked article isn’t overwrought the way Jones does when writing by himself.
What we have here is another smoking gun, in the form of contracts being let to actually run those FEMA camps.
The only problem is, I’ve not seen any good reports which actually give the location of such camps. Keep in mind, I was trained to work military detention camps and know a good bit about how to build them. Yes, I’ve seen some hyped reports listing various facilities, but two of them are right here in my backyard. One is the not-at-all-secret air terminal used by the US Marshals at Will Rogers World Airport. It’s capacity is something like 800, and it’s pretty full most of the time. The building is pretty secure, but the fenced area around it would be pretty hard to use as a camp.
The other location is more probable. There is a substantial portion of a square mile area (called a “section” here in Oklahoma) which had been a decent but aging middle class neighborhood just north of the Tinker AFB runway. Because of how catastrophic the crashes were in the 1970s, Tinker bought out most of that section. They fenced it all in and began using it for storage and some peculiar training exercises. From what I can see outside that fence, it could conceivably be converted to a detention camp without much trouble. For example, all the sewage lines from several hundred houses are still in the ground, I believe. So far, I’ve seen no evidence of that conversion, and I pass there several times every week.
Most of the infamous photos of such sites from REX 84 look like simple Military Police training sites. That is, they aren’t actually built to use as genuine detention facilities. There are a large number of details in the difference between a mock up and the real thing. There are some big fenced in resettlement centers, as famously seen in one of Jesse Ventura’s TV episodes, the one they didn’t actually televise, that you can find on YouTube and other places. Those places I’ve seen before, and they are frankly more expensive and civilized than I would expect for the more sinister purposes alleged as FEMA camps, which would be labor camps.
Need a job?

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Reprise: Linux Elitism

Posted on December 6, 2011 by ehurst

I stand by my almost-three-year old post about the elitist attitude of Linux fans.
To restate in fewer words, the attitude of Linux users reflects to a large degree that of the developers. The Open Source culture is developer-centric. The guy or gal who writes the code gets to make all the decisions, because they do it in their own time. That’s only fair. The results aren’t too bad, but only if you are attracted to what the developer considers important. The relatively small fan base reflects something obvious to everyone except the Linux evangelists:
Superiority of any computer software is decided by the user.
The purity of your developer’s vision has no bearing on whether it really is better. The expectations of the user count for something. When Linux evangelists make their pitch, it’s always in terms of what they consider important in computer use. It falls flat when what they offer is of no use, or frankly hinders the pattern of use most people possess when they come to the keyboard.
It matters not a whit how the user came by those habits and expectations. If you won’t meet them where they are, don’t pretend you care about them.
The Open Source community is wrapped up in their vision of computing nirvana, and are often completely out of touch with the common computer user. They believe the problem is the user, not the software design. This vast gulf of understanding is not accidental; it reflects the standard temperament of code geeks. They see themselves as the Truth Police, the Chosen Few who truly understand. If you aren’t inclined to agree, the problem is you. There is zero objectivity about the problem and solution in terms of what meets genuine human need. This hateful demand everyone bow down at the altar of their beatific vision for purity in computing is what keeps Linux in the minority.
Yes, that may mean some day theirs will be the only computers still able to access the Net when some doomsday virus hits all the Windows boxes. But if most computers become unusable for whatever reason, the common computer user will find something else to fill that void. The likelihood that would mean a mass migration to Linux or other Open Source operating systems is quite small. It’s more likely they’ll abandon the whole thing. Then the Net will be relegated once again to the rarefied domain of geeks and elitists it was in the beginning. Most of them would like that.
In other words, virtually no one in the wider Linux and Open Source community gives a damn about you.
I understand all too well how much easier it would make things if there were no viruses because they simply didn’t work, and malware didn’t work, and spam would be reduced, etc. But I’m not sure I’m willing to exclude most of the world to have that. Computer geeks would be quite happy with that. If there is to be a doomsday virus to take down all Windows computers, it would have to come from a member of the elitist Truth Police of Computing.
The real computer criminals are only interested in milking the current computer ecosystem; they love Windows and want even more people using it, so long as these users don’t become smart about it. They are elitist, too, just for a different reason.
What makes Linux users bristle at my three-year-old post even today is some silly notion elitism is inherently evil. I never said that. In a recent post, I stated my contention elitism was God’s plan. The problem here, as always, is which elite should rule? My thesis is, since the Open Source elite despise most of the world, and the criminals are basically the same as any other predators, the whole issue would benefit from a little benevolence, a class of developers who somehow manage to adopt the shepherd’s instinct of caring about the people they lead. Shepherds know better than trying to reprogram sheep; the lead sheep as they are. They realize sheep are what they are, which is part of what makes them so beneficial. They value what sheep are because of what sheep provide, but even more so, what it means to those they love.
It’s possible you can get just a little of that from a closed-source commercial developer process, but not much in the modern Western Merchant Culture. The whole existence of the Open Source culture is a group of people who don’t like being controlled by the big commercial elites, so they create their own coder elite. Most of them frankly do not like real people, and prefer the company of computers.
If there is to be any shepherd instinct, it is least likely to come from the Open Source Linux crowd. Open? Yes. Useful? Only by accident. You can trust Linux developers only in that they will not prey on you; that’s because they would rather you didn’t exist, unless you are a fanboy.
Oh, and I forgot to mention: Since I wrote that original post three years ago, I have since seen the Linux desktop become so utterly foreign and useless, I gave up. I’m using Windows 7 now.
Update: That didn’t last long. I switched back to CentOS 6 when it came out.

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Solving Drug Abuse

Posted on December 5, 2011 by ehurst

I’ve been on the front line of this issue most of my adult life, and almost no one is serious about stopping it.
For those who want credentials: I served in the US Army Military Police for several years, making big drug busts. I served as a DARE Officer and even managed the program with other DARE Officers working under me. We went into the DoD schools in Europe and taught the kids strategies which were supposed to help them say “no” to drug abuse. I ran this program at the school where the kids from several embassies attended, all sponsored by the US Embassy in Bonn, Germany. I worked as a counselor in churches were drug problems were a significant issues, watched as friends slipped into that dream world, and generally fought this beast on every level except as a medical doctor or technician. I even faced it in my own family. I studied as much as my brain could absorb the very psychological mechanics of drug abuse.
I know about drug abuse as much as any human can claim to know it. I am forced to conclude there is no serious intent to solve the problem anywhere in America.
It’s not enough to realize on one level The Powers That Be are using the entire racket as a means to collecting and using power over the masses. I have seen it on every level. Nor would I be so simplistic as complaining the drug treatment industry has kicked God out. There are plenty of religious programs which have received the official government sanction and even money. No, at every level, the system works to destroy the very effect it claims to produce.
Here’s an example. Does busting users really work? We may never know, because the biggest users never get busted. I worked as a cab driver in Oklahoma City for about a year: May 1993 to June 1994. I drove the night shift all over this county, and was well acquainted with the centers of illicit drug trade in the OKC Metro — I was an informant calling an unlisted police phone number. I watched on the news huge drug busts at addresses I passed to the police department. I can assure you the folks who get busted are those designated for such harassment, regardless of their crimes, or even lack thereof. Rather, the comfortable middle-class customers who really do put big money into the business are never busted. I ferried lots of thugs and losers to their connection, but for each of them, there were three more from the pricey suburbs.
Yes, these people used and managed it well enough to keep their place in this world. Not every addict ends up on Skid Row. That’s another of those popular official lies. But if arresting users is going to work, it will have to include those currently protected by the system as the biggest source of illicit income for dope dealers. I won’t even mention drug abuse within the medical system with bogus prescriptions and massive sales of unneeded pharmaceuticals.
I could go on at length, because the same crap went on in the military, and it surely goes on in Washington, DC. It goes on in the counseling centers, in churches, in prisons — every part of the entire system. In other words, the whole War of Drugs is a huge massive fraud.
Solving drug abuse is both simple and impossible: Make people stop caring about the sorrows of this life.

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Radical Management: Measuring Success

Posted on December 5, 2011 by ehurst

If you listen to the MBAs’ lies about what defines success, you’ll always be a moral failure.
My prescription is simple: If you adhere to God’s Laws — or Cosmic Moral Principles, if you prefer, it’s all the same — you’ll have as much worldly success as is proper. The world is fallen, broken, and failure is built in, if you measure by terms of material success. If you seek to fulfill human desires of the flesh, entertainment or appeal to vanity, you’ll make a fortune and blow a fortune. You’ll be a high roller. But if you seek to fulfill genuine human need, you’ll prosper, create social stability and reduce human suffering. It’s not quite the Golden Mean, but it would resemble it on the surface. You need to see beyond the surface and mere mechanics.
The proper aim is to help people not be so hung up on the mere mechanics of life. Success is setting people free from those lower inclinations, from being stuck in the materialist mode. Aim for the proper goal of raising humanity to a higher consciousness and all this other stuff will take its proper place.
Yes, it sounds like pie-in-the-sky, but the world really does work that way. Our modern Western Merchant Civilization cannot help but implode soon because the basis on which it’s built is a big lie. The core has already rotted away, and we shall soon see all the things for which we scrambled, things we thought we had gained, will slip through our hands. It wasn’t because we didn’t follow our own rules; we followed them all too well. They were the wrong rules, the wrong plans, the wrong goals. It’s all gone, now. That’s not so pie-in-the-sky, is it?
Do what’s right; make that your goal of success, and all the rest will fall into place.

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