I just recently resigned from a security position at a large convention center. I've been in the security field for five years in various posts, including position at a majot local airport. In this latest position I held the rank of lieutenant, and was charged with directing the actvities of security personnel, guarding this enormous venue and so, you might say, I've seen it from all sides. What I have seen is not good. In fact it stinks!
I left to pursue other business opportunities, so there was no bad feeling on anyone's part; in fact they were sorry I was leaving (and even threw a little going away party), but in looking back it was the right thing to do. No regrets. In fact it serves as a "moment of truth" as, contrary to what my state license represents, I wasn't really doing much security work. Quite honestly, I was "playing the game".Much of the security industry (funny what they call 'industries' nowadays) is not at all what the term implies. Funding is erratic, personnel are poorly trained, and the people running these shows display a wide variance in competence, dedication, and plain ol' common sense. Cronyism and corruption also play a part in many instances. Take this last assigment.
The convention center is a major attraction in this city and one would think that the local government would install security to protect taxpayer funded assets, and to ensure public safety on the premises. But that isn't why they have security; it's because they get a substantial reduction in their insurance if they have something called 'security' guarding the premises. They have, but it is the furthest thing from security imaginable.
The security company the city hired was chosen by a single criterion: it submitted the lowest bid. That's it! Little or no thought was given to the quality of the service this company would provide and, as an employee of the company in certain high-visibility, adminstrative security positions, I was effectively shielded from the down-and-dirty, ground level aspects of the job. The year and a half I spent at the convention center was revealing.
First let us consider the hiring practices of this now-defunct company. If you could find the convention center, had no missing body parts, and could correctly spell your name, you were in! The starting pay wasn't bad, well above minimum wage, but it was a 'blind alley' in that there were no raises. So the combination of hiring off the street and no incentive to excell resulted in a turnover rate of 85%, and we were almost always short handed. The full compliment there is twelve security officers to guard a four acre installation. Many nights there were only five of us, and replacements were slow in coming. This was ot due to an unavailability of appliacnts; when we were short handed the city was still billed for the full crew and the extra money found its way into the account manager's pocket. The payroll was short a lot of the times the result of someone tampering with the time reports; the payroll would be shorted, the agrieved parties would complain, and in time the corrections would be made, but not before the regional manager booked these shortages as 'cost reductions' and collected a bomus. Once the check was cut, then the records were straightened out - and nobody caught on to what was happening.On the city government's part, this gigantic facility was poorly kept up and nobody seemed to care. There were 36 CCTV cameras, of which fourteen actually worked. The displays in the 'nerve' center were poor owing to the 1970's technology that wasn't adequate to the task. The radios were damaged and held together by tape, the NiCad batteries had 'memory' problems that necessitated changing batteries every two hours; an electronic wand and button security control was dropped because the city didn't want to spend the money to download the data from the wands. The golf carts were in a miserable state of disrepair and once, quite recently, I checked the oil on one that I was using and found it to be 2½ quarts low: the thing only holds about three quarts. But equipment failure and poor maintenance are only part of the problem; there is alo the matter of authority.
Private security officers have little or no enforcement powers. Here we are not talking about Blackwater-like goon squads, just common, ordinary, civilian security. Their mission is to 'observe and report', make sure buildings are secured, and bar access to facilities to unauthorized persons. Security officers are no police and do not have anything like the powers granted to law enforcement. For one thing, most security personnel are unarmed, may not use physical force except under very specific conditions, and when confronted by hostile persons they must retreat. A couple of weeks before I left I foiled a felony-in-progress: a woman was being sexually assaulted on the property. When I intervened the perpetrator left the premises quickly; as he was off the property I was unable to apprehend, the police had to be called, and by the time they showed up (twenty minutes) the woman had already been taken by ambulance to the hospital. One of my officers watched from a distance and we both furnished consistent descriptions of the perpetrator, who was by this time long gone. Armed security officers have it even worse.
To qualify as an armed guard or officer requires classroom instruction and range time amounting to three days, in some instances an entire week. If the security company pays for it, you're fine, if not be preared to pay between $800 - $1,000 to complete the cycle. This includes all the gear; weapon, gun belt, safety holster, handcuffs, et al. The weapon itself counts for at least half the cost; and what do you get for all that?
You get to wear the weapon. Actually getting to shoot it can be a very dicey matter.
In fact, armed officers are in greater danger than their unarmed colleagues. It's all about the rules governing the use of a weapon by security personnel. They are very stringent: you practically have to wait to be shot before you can act. And it's great if you have witnesses who can testify that your life was in danger when you fired. Police can use deadly force; you can't. There has to be a clear and present, mortal danger to you or to another person before you can use your weapon; even then you can count on being arrested, booked, and relieved of duty until an investigation clears you. This is without pay in most instances. You are guilty until proven innocent.
As to the perils an armed security officer faces, these are very real. If you have a suspect covered and he reaches for his wallet, a cop can shoot if he feels that the party is going for a weapon; you can't. Make a mistake like that and you'll face manslaughter charges at least - the cop won't. Then there is the clear and present danger of confronting an armed perpetrator, say in a robbery. He wants to get away with his crime and won't abide any threat to his success. You. Unless you see him first and act quickly, you could end up dead. An unarmed security officer poses no threat to the perpetrator. He too may get shot but his chances of survival are much better than yours.
It's a dangerous game.
And it's played for the most part by amateurs. Private companies fund security staffs and appoint directors by the eenie-meenie-miney-moe method, a pet employee gets the job - or more often than not someone just gets stuck with it. That's when the fun starts. I have personally checked out an installation that was supposedly secured by a top company. I walked up to a keypad door, pulled on the handle - and it opened!
Nobody had noticed that the lock mechanism had hung up and the tongue wasn't seating in the receptacle on the jamb - and this was at an airport! This same venue had emergency exits from each classroom; they looked secure but when I pushed on them with some force - they flew open! Another door, this one in a kitchen had paper stuffed into the jamb plate to prevent the door from locking; the caterers wanted to keep from having to use a key each time they entered the building to prepare lunch for the staff and trainees. When I found this breech it was evening, well past lunch time, and the place was deserted. But that was nothing compared to the "bomb" a group of us were charged to find.
This was at another site, a nationally known insurance company. They played the security game" to the hilt, holding meetings every so-often to discuss strategies that were seldom implimnted and didn't work very well when they were. At one of these meetings, on a bright sunny morning in June, the director of security told us that she had secreted a 'bomb' somewhere in or around the building: we were to find it, all thrity-two of us. I knew we wouldn't succeed. There was one vital piece of equipment that no none had, and with which we would have found the 'bomb' in a matter of minutes: a flashlight.
Yes, a flashlight! It was a bright and sunny morning and folks don't usually need a flashlight on a glorious spring day. But when you're poking around bushes that surround the building on three sides, the sunlight causes deep shadows to form in the inner reaches of the bush - you can't see a thing! But a flashlight can easily penetrate the gloom, highlighting irregular shapes and reflecting light from metallic objects. As it was, thirty-two security officers searching for over an hour couldn't find the "bomb".
Security is not a game for amateurs.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
The World Tomorrow
This is my first posting in over a month. I've been busy, but I have been watching developments over thepast few weeks, especially with the elections and the Congress, both of which are enough to make a person puke. Longtime visitors to my website know that mine was one of the voices raised on the Internet, speaking out against Bush and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Myself, Jason Raimond, Michael Rivero, Noam Chomsky, and several others were warning against military action in the wake of 9/11.But the Congress of the United States ( and Israel ) laid down, rolled over, and played dead, allowing Bush and his Neocon supporters to go ahead with the wars. Now we are seeing the correctness of our evaluation, not only of the military situation, but of George W. Bush himself; a thief and a liar, a mass murderer, a war criminal, a traitor, terrorist, and a coward. We were right, but this is one area where being right is an unenviable distinction. We are losing the two wars badly, the economy is in a shambles, the dollar is losing value, and now the Crackpot in Chief is very likely to attack Iran before he leaves office. It would be insane, but that's what Bush is: a ne'er do well, dry drunk, lout bearing a strong resemblance to the Roman emperor Caligula; he spoke with God too, until he came to beieve that he was God. The Praetorian Guard skewered him one morning on the way back from the Coliseum where the good emperor sat watching men and women kill each other in that era's verion of "bread and circuses."
And I'm betting that I am right in my further analysis, also on the website at the time, that we'll win back our nation from the greedy, vile, and corrupt individuals who hijacked it in 2000 and again in 2004. But it won't be Barak Obama who brings this happy conclusion about; he is one of the corporate-controlled media's hand picked candidates. Look at the short shrift they gave Ron Paul, a true statesman and patriot. Ron who? Oh, no: they don't want anyone in their who will threaten their Fascist hold on America - but they are fools, and will lose in the end.Why? Heard of the Campaign for Liberty? It's out there; I'm a member, as well as of Break the Matrix, a new online news source that will specialize it telling the truth.Join us in our continuing and growing effort to make government responsible to the people of the United States, and to stop supporting the Nazi-like terror that Israel commits against the Palestinians ( whose land they stole with our help. We are going to pursue our campaign like a pack of wolves, calling attention to those elected officials who are serving special interests, and themselves, and getting them out of office and in jail, if that's what their activities call for. The people are waking up; they are sick of war, a ruined economy, crumbling infrastructure, low wage jobs, high unemployment, and fiat money. And that's not all. The IVAW ( Iraq Veterans Against the War ) are growing stronre and more vocal, and they are being joined by active duty soldiers who are also sick of the death abnd destruction they've seen and in some cases directly participated in; and they are spirtually disturbed, many suffereing PTSD. The army is helpless to bring any stability to Iraq; the longer we remain the worse it gets. The truth is out now: it was about oil, nothing else - and now the major oil companies are ready to sign contracts that will give them control of Iraq's enormous reserves. And all the while, our young people in the military suffer repeated deplyments ( in some cases six ), " stop loss " retentions; AWOLs are at an all-time high, soldiers are refusing to follow orders of their cowardly commanders, and suicide rates among them are also at an all-time.It's time for a change - and we're going to make it. We warned you about Bush and you didn't listen. Now we're wanring you about Obama ( and Hillary ): pay attention this time.John McCain? He is a certifiable nut case. Just watch his videos on YouTube. A vote for McCain is a vote for war without end. A vote for Obama id a vote for tyranny without end. He recently said " America needs the Clintons "; yeah, like New Orleans need another Katrina.Here are your instructions.* Join the Campaign for Liberty.* Stop watching the propaganda mills: FOX, CNN, and MSNBC, and get your news from WHATREALLYHAPPENED.com, the Huffington Post, the Rense blog, and others.* Pay attention to what's going on.* Call and email your congressperson; let him/her know you're watching and demand that they start serving the people, not the special, moneyed interests, follow the US Constitution, get rid of the Federal Reserve, and end these stupid, wasteful wars, or we'll remove them from office."We the People" includes you too, dummy!
And I'm betting that I am right in my further analysis, also on the website at the time, that we'll win back our nation from the greedy, vile, and corrupt individuals who hijacked it in 2000 and again in 2004. But it won't be Barak Obama who brings this happy conclusion about; he is one of the corporate-controlled media's hand picked candidates. Look at the short shrift they gave Ron Paul, a true statesman and patriot. Ron who? Oh, no: they don't want anyone in their who will threaten their Fascist hold on America - but they are fools, and will lose in the end.Why? Heard of the Campaign for Liberty? It's out there; I'm a member, as well as of Break the Matrix, a new online news source that will specialize it telling the truth.Join us in our continuing and growing effort to make government responsible to the people of the United States, and to stop supporting the Nazi-like terror that Israel commits against the Palestinians ( whose land they stole with our help. We are going to pursue our campaign like a pack of wolves, calling attention to those elected officials who are serving special interests, and themselves, and getting them out of office and in jail, if that's what their activities call for. The people are waking up; they are sick of war, a ruined economy, crumbling infrastructure, low wage jobs, high unemployment, and fiat money. And that's not all. The IVAW ( Iraq Veterans Against the War ) are growing stronre and more vocal, and they are being joined by active duty soldiers who are also sick of the death abnd destruction they've seen and in some cases directly participated in; and they are spirtually disturbed, many suffereing PTSD. The army is helpless to bring any stability to Iraq; the longer we remain the worse it gets. The truth is out now: it was about oil, nothing else - and now the major oil companies are ready to sign contracts that will give them control of Iraq's enormous reserves. And all the while, our young people in the military suffer repeated deplyments ( in some cases six ), " stop loss " retentions; AWOLs are at an all-time high, soldiers are refusing to follow orders of their cowardly commanders, and suicide rates among them are also at an all-time.It's time for a change - and we're going to make it. We warned you about Bush and you didn't listen. Now we're wanring you about Obama ( and Hillary ): pay attention this time.John McCain? He is a certifiable nut case. Just watch his videos on YouTube. A vote for McCain is a vote for war without end. A vote for Obama id a vote for tyranny without end. He recently said " America needs the Clintons "; yeah, like New Orleans need another Katrina.Here are your instructions.* Join the Campaign for Liberty.* Stop watching the propaganda mills: FOX, CNN, and MSNBC, and get your news from WHATREALLYHAPPENED.com, the Huffington Post, the Rense blog, and others.* Pay attention to what's going on.* Call and email your congressperson; let him/her know you're watching and demand that they start serving the people, not the special, moneyed interests, follow the US Constitution, get rid of the Federal Reserve, and end these stupid, wasteful wars, or we'll remove them from office."We the People" includes you too, dummy!
Monday, May 26, 2008
Ron Paul Wins Republican Nomination!
This is an imagiinary headline. Most folks would just blow it off and say, It can't happen! Oh, yes it can, and I believe it probably will. Why? Because Dr. Paul can win and bery likely willif he becomes the Republican Party candidate. He has overwhelming support among the people across this war-weary land, and his position on the issues accurately reflects the will of the people. He knows he can win, the people know he can win - and so do the people on the Republican National Committee.
It's a no brainer.
Speasking of No-Brainers John McCain seems to be the leading candidate of the GOP but he is such a nut job that his position on the war in Iraq is sure to lead to his ignominious defeat if he is the Republicans' choice. I believe he won't be. There is an old saying: When you have both dfeet in your mouth you haven't a leg to stand on; McCain's got both feet so deep in his throat that he is practically kissing his own ass (a major shift, since McCain is notorious for kissing anyone's ass who can further his ambitions, or get him out of a jam a la Keating). No, John's star is fading fast and it's all part of the plan. In fact I believe that McCain is being encouraged to appear to be another Bush. Whitechapel had one Jack-the-Ripper, they aren't in the mood for another one. Oh, the plan? Actually it's a game plan; first the game, then the plan. The game is a variation of Good Cop, Bad Cop. The Bad Cop side is that the GOP seems to be backing McCain and that is scaring a lot of people, and pissing many more off. But for the time-being McCain's the man.
Then he says something stupid, something so obnoxious that the Republicans will have no choice but to dump him. Then in a showy change of heart the RNC will come out strongly behind RON PAUL! Hey, he's been there all the time, and thos media rock heads have been trying to shove Obama (JFK with a shoeshine box), Hillary Clinton, and our pal John down our throats. Why those dirty so-and-sos! Well, we're going to make things right! Get out and vote for Ron Paul, the people's choice. And the nation will celebrate the complete change that has come over the Republicans; now we can honor the Constitution, eliminate the Federal Reserve, end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, bring the troops home. All the troops! Yippee! Why the people will be so happy they's probably vote straight Republican tickets right across the board. And that's exactly what the RNC wants! Who says (besides me, that is)?
Sen Tsui.
The legendary ancient Chinese military genius who wrote the Art of War told us how to capture Nanking. It's one of his strategies, the "plan" part of this discourse. What he said was: to capture Nanking, attack Shanghai! In other words, convince the enemy you are after one objective, when all the while it is quite another goal your strategy is aimed at. In the present context it works like this: Make everybody think you're after the White House - and win control of the Congress! Hey, put Ron Paul on the ticket and who wouldn't vote Republican? The Democrats have only a finger hold on the Legislature - a couple of key wins could give it right back to the GOP; then we'd have it made; right? After all, Republican president and a Republican Congress? What a combination!
Not so fast.
Suppose that Republican Congress is hostile to the president of its own controlling party. They vote to extend the war, Dr. Paul vetoes it, they override the veto, and we have the same situation as before only with the shoe in the other foot.
In the end, they will lose.
It's a no brainer.
Speasking of No-Brainers John McCain seems to be the leading candidate of the GOP but he is such a nut job that his position on the war in Iraq is sure to lead to his ignominious defeat if he is the Republicans' choice. I believe he won't be. There is an old saying: When you have both dfeet in your mouth you haven't a leg to stand on; McCain's got both feet so deep in his throat that he is practically kissing his own ass (a major shift, since McCain is notorious for kissing anyone's ass who can further his ambitions, or get him out of a jam a la Keating). No, John's star is fading fast and it's all part of the plan. In fact I believe that McCain is being encouraged to appear to be another Bush. Whitechapel had one Jack-the-Ripper, they aren't in the mood for another one. Oh, the plan? Actually it's a game plan; first the game, then the plan. The game is a variation of Good Cop, Bad Cop. The Bad Cop side is that the GOP seems to be backing McCain and that is scaring a lot of people, and pissing many more off. But for the time-being McCain's the man.
Then he says something stupid, something so obnoxious that the Republicans will have no choice but to dump him. Then in a showy change of heart the RNC will come out strongly behind RON PAUL! Hey, he's been there all the time, and thos media rock heads have been trying to shove Obama (JFK with a shoeshine box), Hillary Clinton, and our pal John down our throats. Why those dirty so-and-sos! Well, we're going to make things right! Get out and vote for Ron Paul, the people's choice. And the nation will celebrate the complete change that has come over the Republicans; now we can honor the Constitution, eliminate the Federal Reserve, end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, bring the troops home. All the troops! Yippee! Why the people will be so happy they's probably vote straight Republican tickets right across the board. And that's exactly what the RNC wants! Who says (besides me, that is)?
Sen Tsui.
The legendary ancient Chinese military genius who wrote the Art of War told us how to capture Nanking. It's one of his strategies, the "plan" part of this discourse. What he said was: to capture Nanking, attack Shanghai! In other words, convince the enemy you are after one objective, when all the while it is quite another goal your strategy is aimed at. In the present context it works like this: Make everybody think you're after the White House - and win control of the Congress! Hey, put Ron Paul on the ticket and who wouldn't vote Republican? The Democrats have only a finger hold on the Legislature - a couple of key wins could give it right back to the GOP; then we'd have it made; right? After all, Republican president and a Republican Congress? What a combination!
Not so fast.
Suppose that Republican Congress is hostile to the president of its own controlling party. They vote to extend the war, Dr. Paul vetoes it, they override the veto, and we have the same situation as before only with the shoe in the other foot.
In the end, they will lose.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
What the...?
I buy Reader's Digest almost every month. Some of the stories are inspiring tales of heroism, others exposés of fraud, theft, and corruption; there are entertaining features like Word Power, Laughter, and the puzzles. Do I sound like a fan?
I'm not. For me it's a matter of taking the fleas with the dog. Sometimes there are more fleas, it seems, than dog. I believe that the regular feature Humor in Uniform is a example of apalling bad taste, considering the present losing wars our military is embroiled in in Afghanistan and Iraq. Over four-thousand (that's the official count, the truth is far worse) young men and women have lost their lives in these wars based on lies. Many more have lost body parts and have suffered mental and emotional trauma. Desertions and suicides are up and there are Anti-War actvist groups made up of veterans of these wars. One candidate wants to bring the troops home - now! And over 80% of the American people want the same, so it was with particular revulsion that I noted an aticle in the current issue: the Facebook Election.
Reader's Digest conducted a poll among the current generation of under-thirties. What I found particularly telling was in the part of the article under the caption, Who Do You Love? Ron Paul wasn't on the list; George Bush was, and got 27 favorable opionions and 67 unfavorable. Fine, but what's with those 27? Have they been living in a cave for the last eight years? There is a definite disconnect here somewhere as noted under the section called In Their Own Words.
* Twenty respondents - a lot for an open-ended question - registered their opposition to the war in Iraq, the majority condemning the armed conflict itself, as summed up in the one succinct answer: "We hate war." OK, so where was Ron Paul in the Who Do You Love? segment? Dr. Paul is the only candidate on either side whao has consistently expressed his intention to end the war and bring the troops home. The rest of the field, the usual suspects; two Clintons, Obama, Gore, and McCain, either have taken no like stance on the war but, as with McCain, seem intent on continuing Bush's disastrous policies for ten or a hundred years more! McCain doesn't hate war.
Another twenty of those questioned expressed the fear that Social Security won't be there when they're ready to retire. Can it be that the billions of dollars that we are wasting on a war based on lies might have something to do with that? Lyndon Baines Johnson tried the "guns and butter" thing back in the Sixties - and we got more guns and less butter. There were other concerns aired; Global Warming ("It's real!" despite the fact that dozens of top scientists have identified solar activity as the true cause. Shall we have apresident who can control the sun?); jobs being sent overseas, the ease with which people can get into debt, and four participants felt that the government had become "too secular." Governments are secular: we have presidents and congresspersons, not popes and bishops - it has something to do with the First Amendment. And then there were the four.
Four persons interviewed stressed the importance of personal integrity. "We need someone with good morals and an open mind to run this country and inspire us," said one respondent. Another longed for a President "with a soul" and who is more than "just a politician." Only four young people? Let's reiterate the question; where is Ron Paul mentioned in this piece?"
Ron Paul has consistently voted against the war in Iraq from the first, has voted against funding this disaster, hase never voted a raise for himself, has never accepted a PAC money, stands for the Constitution and the personal liberties that are protected by that august document. If that doesn't reflect soul, if that isn't statesmanship, then what is? What soul is there in torture, renditions, stonewalling, lying to the people, serving the special corporate interests that are destroying this nation?
The only expalanation I can come up with is that the people questioned may be readers of this spectacularly successful monthly publication. Reader's Digest has been a leader in one respect; while people have expressed concern that Big Pharma is marketing directly to the public. RD has been doing that for many years.
Have these kids been taking those drugs?
Follow the money.
I'm not. For me it's a matter of taking the fleas with the dog. Sometimes there are more fleas, it seems, than dog. I believe that the regular feature Humor in Uniform is a example of apalling bad taste, considering the present losing wars our military is embroiled in in Afghanistan and Iraq. Over four-thousand (that's the official count, the truth is far worse) young men and women have lost their lives in these wars based on lies. Many more have lost body parts and have suffered mental and emotional trauma. Desertions and suicides are up and there are Anti-War actvist groups made up of veterans of these wars. One candidate wants to bring the troops home - now! And over 80% of the American people want the same, so it was with particular revulsion that I noted an aticle in the current issue: the Facebook Election.
Reader's Digest conducted a poll among the current generation of under-thirties. What I found particularly telling was in the part of the article under the caption, Who Do You Love? Ron Paul wasn't on the list; George Bush was, and got 27 favorable opionions and 67 unfavorable. Fine, but what's with those 27? Have they been living in a cave for the last eight years? There is a definite disconnect here somewhere as noted under the section called In Their Own Words.
* Twenty respondents - a lot for an open-ended question - registered their opposition to the war in Iraq, the majority condemning the armed conflict itself, as summed up in the one succinct answer: "We hate war." OK, so where was Ron Paul in the Who Do You Love? segment? Dr. Paul is the only candidate on either side whao has consistently expressed his intention to end the war and bring the troops home. The rest of the field, the usual suspects; two Clintons, Obama, Gore, and McCain, either have taken no like stance on the war but, as with McCain, seem intent on continuing Bush's disastrous policies for ten or a hundred years more! McCain doesn't hate war.
Another twenty of those questioned expressed the fear that Social Security won't be there when they're ready to retire. Can it be that the billions of dollars that we are wasting on a war based on lies might have something to do with that? Lyndon Baines Johnson tried the "guns and butter" thing back in the Sixties - and we got more guns and less butter. There were other concerns aired; Global Warming ("It's real!" despite the fact that dozens of top scientists have identified solar activity as the true cause. Shall we have apresident who can control the sun?); jobs being sent overseas, the ease with which people can get into debt, and four participants felt that the government had become "too secular." Governments are secular: we have presidents and congresspersons, not popes and bishops - it has something to do with the First Amendment. And then there were the four.
Four persons interviewed stressed the importance of personal integrity. "We need someone with good morals and an open mind to run this country and inspire us," said one respondent. Another longed for a President "with a soul" and who is more than "just a politician." Only four young people? Let's reiterate the question; where is Ron Paul mentioned in this piece?"
Ron Paul has consistently voted against the war in Iraq from the first, has voted against funding this disaster, hase never voted a raise for himself, has never accepted a PAC money, stands for the Constitution and the personal liberties that are protected by that august document. If that doesn't reflect soul, if that isn't statesmanship, then what is? What soul is there in torture, renditions, stonewalling, lying to the people, serving the special corporate interests that are destroying this nation?
The only expalanation I can come up with is that the people questioned may be readers of this spectacularly successful monthly publication. Reader's Digest has been a leader in one respect; while people have expressed concern that Big Pharma is marketing directly to the public. RD has been doing that for many years.
Have these kids been taking those drugs?
Follow the money.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Unscrambling the Egg
I've been viewing everything I could find on YouTube concerning 9/11. It's a mixed bag to say the least. The evidence I've seen convinces me that it was definitely not consistent with the official inquiry's conclusions on the matter. It was a conspiracy. The question that remains is; why all the confusion? Why is this tragic incident continually pored over by experts, eyewitnesses, and interested parties? The answer is, I believe, DENIAL.For many years we have lived in a bubble of comfort and relative safety. Our intel services, our military, our government, all seemed to support the prideful mantras: It can't happen here! and They wouldn't dare!It did, they did. But who are "they"?
OUR OWN GOVERNMENT? Was 9/11 a Reichstag fire?
It was. There is no doubt. The evidence linking the present regime to this disaster is overwhelming - if you care to look at it. Not only that, but more information has come to light linking Prescott Bush, Dubya's grandfather, to Hitler and the Nazis in the 1920's and '30's. The same influences that brought Hitler to power are still active and have virtually taken over this country: the Militray-Industrial complex.The same war-profiteers who brought Hitler to power brought Bush to the White House and the Neo-cons into positions of power. If you care to research the matter you will see that Hitler, the seventh member of the fledgling Nazi party in 1923 became chacellor of Germany only a decade later. This too a lot of money; where did it come from? Well, if we follow the money, look where it all went.
Corporations. Then it was Krupp, I.G. Farben, Seimens, Boeing, Curtis, Kaiser; now it's Halliburton, Kellog Root Brand, Bechtel, and others. What's the difference? We are now embroiled in two losing wars; who's making the money? While our own veterans are being deprived of care, many living on the streets; while out infrastructure is crumbling, our education system a shambles, health care in the hands of Big Pharma, we carry on these senseless, purposeless wars that waste lives and treasure on both sides; and who wins?
It's time to stop the insanity and there is one man who stands for the people of this country: Ron Paul. There are still people who ask; Ron who? But these numbers are dwindling quickly. The fact is however, that the same corporate powers that saw to it that the criminal-idiot Bush became president, are now trying to promote a new field of poseurs to succeed him. The corporate controlled media grind out piece after piece about Obama, Clinton, and McCain; but who do the people want?
Ron Paul. But please, please, don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.There is a feature on Google called Trends. Just type that word into the browser and you'll be taken there. In the new browser type the names of any "mainstream" candidtae and Ron Paul. Separate the two with a comma and hit "search". What you will see is the number of visits the websites of the respective candidates received.Ron Paul swamps every one of them. See for yourself. Then look at the graph running aong the bottom of the display. This is the measure of mass media exposure given the candidates, and it shows that all the other candidates on both sides received much more coverage than Dr. Paul.
The message is clear. While Gallup and AP poles sample a few thousand, the Internet seves millions, and of those millions the vast majority support Ron Paul. And I do too. The revolution has begun, and we will win!
OUR OWN GOVERNMENT? Was 9/11 a Reichstag fire?
It was. There is no doubt. The evidence linking the present regime to this disaster is overwhelming - if you care to look at it. Not only that, but more information has come to light linking Prescott Bush, Dubya's grandfather, to Hitler and the Nazis in the 1920's and '30's. The same influences that brought Hitler to power are still active and have virtually taken over this country: the Militray-Industrial complex.The same war-profiteers who brought Hitler to power brought Bush to the White House and the Neo-cons into positions of power. If you care to research the matter you will see that Hitler, the seventh member of the fledgling Nazi party in 1923 became chacellor of Germany only a decade later. This too a lot of money; where did it come from? Well, if we follow the money, look where it all went.
Corporations. Then it was Krupp, I.G. Farben, Seimens, Boeing, Curtis, Kaiser; now it's Halliburton, Kellog Root Brand, Bechtel, and others. What's the difference? We are now embroiled in two losing wars; who's making the money? While our own veterans are being deprived of care, many living on the streets; while out infrastructure is crumbling, our education system a shambles, health care in the hands of Big Pharma, we carry on these senseless, purposeless wars that waste lives and treasure on both sides; and who wins?
It's time to stop the insanity and there is one man who stands for the people of this country: Ron Paul. There are still people who ask; Ron who? But these numbers are dwindling quickly. The fact is however, that the same corporate powers that saw to it that the criminal-idiot Bush became president, are now trying to promote a new field of poseurs to succeed him. The corporate controlled media grind out piece after piece about Obama, Clinton, and McCain; but who do the people want?
Ron Paul. But please, please, don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.There is a feature on Google called Trends. Just type that word into the browser and you'll be taken there. In the new browser type the names of any "mainstream" candidtae and Ron Paul. Separate the two with a comma and hit "search". What you will see is the number of visits the websites of the respective candidates received.Ron Paul swamps every one of them. See for yourself. Then look at the graph running aong the bottom of the display. This is the measure of mass media exposure given the candidates, and it shows that all the other candidates on both sides received much more coverage than Dr. Paul.
The message is clear. While Gallup and AP poles sample a few thousand, the Internet seves millions, and of those millions the vast majority support Ron Paul. And I do too. The revolution has begun, and we will win!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Learning the Ropes
I would bet that at one time or another you received an envelope in the mail labelled "Urgent", "Important Information", or something like that. When these items appear in my mailbox the first question I ask is; Important to whom?Not to me. But this brings up a point worth expanding upon: Importance. The Truth is that nothing in the world is important at all, save food, clothing, and shelter. I kid my friends by adding another "basic need": a good tan, but that's me! Anything else has an assigned value: one that is attached to it for a variety of reasons. I used to have a black luxury sedan that I fawned over, until I wrecked it. It always had a brilliant shine, whitewall tires immaculate: these things were inmportant because that car made up a significant part of my self image. I had a nice car, nice clothes, a fine watch; I was somebody! Don't believe me? Why, just look at all the stuff I have!The Treasury Department reports on economic conditions in this country; the key indicator in their analysis is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It's currently down and one reason given is that people aren't spending as much money as usual. Much of the GDP is comprised of consumer spending - getting stuff. And is there ever a lot of stuff to get; satellite TV, SUVs, cell phones, Ipods, Xboxes, and other such. This mania for buying stuff has led to high credit card debt, mortgages for homes a lot of people can't really afford, and other forms of debt. The savings rate among Americans is abysmal, most people live from pay check to pay check, and in most cases the money is already spent before it comes in. But that's Consumerism for you. A stable economy stands on two legs: Production and Consumption. When one leg is shorter than the other the economy stumbles, short enough and it falls. With all the outsourcing of jobs overseas and to Mexico, Latin America, and Haiti, the production component is at its weakest in years. That means that the Consumer is the target of such unprecedented attention that the mask has come off in some instances: Dow Jones money reports dealing with retail sales have stated the case clearly: getting the consumer to spend money. That's it! Just spend money - on anything, everything: therin lies the Urgency. Spending money is, well...patriotic!No. It's idiotic, the way we Americans do it. And there is a multi-billion dollar business out there geared to getting consumers to spend money: Advertizing. How many times have you heard a product being touted, the pitch closing with the offer to send you "free information"? What is that if not free advertsizing and promotional material? Send for this "free information" and your name goes on a list that's sold to marketing firms; then watch your snail- and e-mail boxes fill up! I don't bite but still get promotional (junk) mail. I must have gone wrong somewhere along the line.And it's nothing new. Highland Park is an island community near the heart of Dallas, Texas; it's where the well-to-do live. The zip code is 75205, possibly the most sought after in the United States when it comes to promtional material. I lived there, in a one-bedroom apartment; the junk mail I got was mostly from stock brokers, mutual funds, portfolio managers, financial advisors, and the like. I was a software developer and teacher at the time, comfortable, but not flush (or dumb) enough to invest in stocks, bonds, CDs, mutual funds, et al.. But I still got all this stuff because...my zip code was 75205.Targeted? What do you think? Everything's being "targeted" these days; notice? In Iraq and Afghanistan we are targeting "suspected" Al Qaida or Taliban enclaves and a lot of innocent people die. One would think we value our paranoid suspicions over the lives of our fellow beings on this insignificant mote of dust in the infinite universe. Is that the kind of world we want; to live in perpetual fear, to lash out at anyone who doesn't want to drink the water from our poisoned well? Richard Nixon had ann "enemies list"; remember? And whose names were on that list? Fellow Americans: political rivals, dissenters, and anyone else who threatened his royal ambitions. But that's history: "Get over it!"
The foregoing is a quote, the source is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in an interview that may still be on YouTube. The subject of the 2000 election came up and that's what Scalia said: "That's history, get over it." The Supreme Court usurped the electoral process, ordered the re-count of the disputed votes to stop, and appointed one of the most morally corrupt creatures on the face of the earth president of the United States. And we're supposed to "get over it"? How about we tell the Iraqis whose nation we have destroyed to just "get over it"? Chile? Hey, we made a boo-boo when we overthrew the democratically elected Allende administration and opened the way for seventeen years of terror and "disappearance" under Pinochet.Guys? Hey, look, get over it. Why don't we go to some grief counselling sesions and tell that to the folks there, people who have lost loved ones. Daughter raped and murdered? Get over it! I guess we just say that to everybody we've dealt with in our toxic foreign policy.
No wait! Israel! Remember the Holocaust? Er, maybe you don't as most of you weren't even born when that happened. But I'll bet you know something about it; at least you've heard about it, I'm sure. No? Well, the just visit a Holocaust Museum - and while you're there just tell the people running the place to get over it.It's history! If Justice Scalia thinks we should get over something that happened eight years ago, shouldn't we tell the Israelis to get over something that happened over SIXTY YEARS AGO to "get over it"? And it didn't happen only to Jews, this terrible experience they cling to so tenaciously; gypsies, slavs, homosexuals, the metally retarded, anyone who spoke against the regime, or were suspected of doing so. Sound familiar?
So, what is truly important? Are you happy? Are you secure? Do you feel worthwhile, loved? If not then turn off your electronic toys and get out into life. Surround yourself with the beauty of nature, find something that needs doing and do it, and above all be open to personal contact with your fellow men and women. Stop buying into the warped reality that the media presents to us with such urgency. You are so much more than your station in life, your credit score, or any of the other ways in which society measures us. You are not a sheep and Jesus wasn't the "good sheperd"; he was a Master of Life, and he tried to teach us how to live in peace, happiness, and contentment. He told us that the Father "who sees in secret will reward yu openly"; isn't that better than wiretapping, airport searches, Internet snooping, and all the rest of the devices that the paranoid, delusional cockroaches driven by fear and suspicion use? Is there any doubt about that?
I don't think so. Turn inward to your Father who awaits you, to do the works, and without which you are notihing. "Be still and know that I am God," says the little voice that speaks to us through our thoughts. "Be in the world, not of it." "Think not what you will eat or wear...the Father knows ye have need of these things." Do these simple things and you will find happiness.
At least, I suspect so.
The foregoing is a quote, the source is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in an interview that may still be on YouTube. The subject of the 2000 election came up and that's what Scalia said: "That's history, get over it." The Supreme Court usurped the electoral process, ordered the re-count of the disputed votes to stop, and appointed one of the most morally corrupt creatures on the face of the earth president of the United States. And we're supposed to "get over it"? How about we tell the Iraqis whose nation we have destroyed to just "get over it"? Chile? Hey, we made a boo-boo when we overthrew the democratically elected Allende administration and opened the way for seventeen years of terror and "disappearance" under Pinochet.Guys? Hey, look, get over it. Why don't we go to some grief counselling sesions and tell that to the folks there, people who have lost loved ones. Daughter raped and murdered? Get over it! I guess we just say that to everybody we've dealt with in our toxic foreign policy.
No wait! Israel! Remember the Holocaust? Er, maybe you don't as most of you weren't even born when that happened. But I'll bet you know something about it; at least you've heard about it, I'm sure. No? Well, the just visit a Holocaust Museum - and while you're there just tell the people running the place to get over it.It's history! If Justice Scalia thinks we should get over something that happened eight years ago, shouldn't we tell the Israelis to get over something that happened over SIXTY YEARS AGO to "get over it"? And it didn't happen only to Jews, this terrible experience they cling to so tenaciously; gypsies, slavs, homosexuals, the metally retarded, anyone who spoke against the regime, or were suspected of doing so. Sound familiar?
So, what is truly important? Are you happy? Are you secure? Do you feel worthwhile, loved? If not then turn off your electronic toys and get out into life. Surround yourself with the beauty of nature, find something that needs doing and do it, and above all be open to personal contact with your fellow men and women. Stop buying into the warped reality that the media presents to us with such urgency. You are so much more than your station in life, your credit score, or any of the other ways in which society measures us. You are not a sheep and Jesus wasn't the "good sheperd"; he was a Master of Life, and he tried to teach us how to live in peace, happiness, and contentment. He told us that the Father "who sees in secret will reward yu openly"; isn't that better than wiretapping, airport searches, Internet snooping, and all the rest of the devices that the paranoid, delusional cockroaches driven by fear and suspicion use? Is there any doubt about that?
I don't think so. Turn inward to your Father who awaits you, to do the works, and without which you are notihing. "Be still and know that I am God," says the little voice that speaks to us through our thoughts. "Be in the world, not of it." "Think not what you will eat or wear...the Father knows ye have need of these things." Do these simple things and you will find happiness.
At least, I suspect so.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Facing the Problem
Pastor Jeremiah Wright raised some hell with the Obama campaign when his destructively edited remarks were aired a couple of weeks ago. "Our chickens are coming home to roost," was the essence of his remarks reflecting, as anyone with the intelligence of a turnip understands, the idea that the United States brought on the WTC attack in the form of retalliation for the many excesses of our toxic foreign policy. Well, it seems that FOX (Fascist Obsessive Xenophobia) News didn't air the whole story. The good pastor was actually quoting former Ambassodor Edward Peck, a white man - the full video is available on YouTube. It's what he went on to say that inspires this installment because he is so right!
It's amazing sometimes how two widely disparate movements can intersect so perfectly; in this instance Pastor Wright enunciated the point I intended to make, and will make in this essay. "Self examination," he said. "What is my personal relationship with my God?"
Perfect!
When the pain of living became too great, when there was no one else ot blame for my misery, and when all else failed, I was alone. Talk about keeping bad company! While it is true that many of my problems originated with a dysfuntional family when I was too young to deal with them, it is also true that the means and methods I employed to deal with life were destructive. I couldn't see it, so pervasive was the fear I mentioned in the last post that I was blind to the Truth: that my thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, were wrong and the root cause of all my suffering. Was it my fault that my life became a living Hell?
Good question. Alcoholism is a disease, and I have it. The difference is that today I can have it without suffering from it, and the key to understanding is Self Examination. We call it "taking inventory". Self examination. By at long last embarking on this adventure I soon discovered the one thing that drove me.
Fear. Plain and simple, but like a cancer, if left untreated it spreads. Fear is a corrosive thread and my soul was shot through with it, but for many years I tried to deal with life according to worldly standards: be tougher, smarter, and quicker than everyone else; people are out to get me, to own me, to control me; everyone is out only for himself, beat them to the punch or back off and bide my time; don't get mad, get even, and most important - be a survivor! Something had to change.
Me.
When I finally "hit bottom" (what I call my Final Judgement)some loving friends told me that I wasn't a bad person trying to get good, but a sck person trying to get well. I had a lot of help, which I needed badly, and finally started coming to terms with my arch-enemy: myself.
But then there was the God thing; you know. I spent my formative years in a Catholic parochial school, where spinsters in way-out-of-style wardrobes filled my head with a lot of religious nonsense about Heaven, Hell, and Jesus. That angry son of a bitch in the sky wasn't my friend; by sixth grade I was a confirmed atheist - and rightly so, because it wasn't God I turned my back on but, rather, my CONCEPT of the Spirit of the Universe. I told my friends that I was having trouble with the "God thing" and they handed me a key.
"Design you own God," they said. "Make a list of everything you want God to be."
What a revolutionary idea! Galileo once posed a question: If you offered a man the choice between a handful of perfect diamonds in one hand, and a glass of cold water in the other; which would he choose? A No-brainer; right? But then the inventor of the telescope said: Now suppose that the man had spend three days in a desert: THEN which would he choose? This was my spiritual glass of water. Design my own concept of God?
Worth a try? You bet! I did and the list was relatively short. I wanted God to be my friend, my protector, my guide; I wanted peace and happiness, to feel useful, to be a part of life instead of apart from life. Over time that single sheet of paper morphed into a ream, and that isn't enough still: each day brings a new awareness. Today the Spirit of the Unverse (the term "God" has been so corrupted) is my Father Hey! Jesus had some good ideas after all! Once I got all the ideaological crap out of the way things started making un-common sense. It's a simple idea.
But it isn't easy. After forty-two years of sinking into the qicksand of my own polluted soul there was a momentum, a habit pattern that had to be broken. A freight train loaded with pig iron doesn't stop on a dime. For me it was like carving the faces on Mount Rushmore with a nailfile - but that doesn't matter! Getting on with it is all that matters. If my mind is roaring, my thoughts scattered and confused one day, and the next I have five minutes of peace, that's an improvement! It's a lot more than just coming down front for the "laying on of hands" though that's part of the process. Today people touch me, pat my shoulder in passing, hug me, sometimes even kiss me - and I love it. It's a new world.
But it took work to get here, lots of work. I had to understand that I was driven by deeply embedded forces of which I was totally unaware, so ingrained in my personality had they become. It was a "war in heaven" and I fought it all alone: there is no other way. I had to come to understand that whatever I perceived to be wrong with the world was actually wrong with me. Not that the world was alright, it isn't. The problem was that I had imported the misery and suffering of the world into my Secret Place of the Most High; the Father "in me which doeth the works" was there alright, under siege. My fear-driven motivations led me to a number of life-threatening situations that my escape from them were, in some instances, nothing short of miraculous. I attributed these rescues to "luck" but now I see it was much more than that. Then my luck ran out.
I was defeated, utterly and completely. The pain of living became too great and I came to the ultimate crossroads: do away with myself or find a new path to follow. It was my personal Final Judgement; on the one hand, Perdition, on the other, Hope.
The rest is history.
The world is still a deadly, dangerous place, and I wish it could be different, but that doesn't matter: I must be different! I stopped wondering about the Underworld when I realized that this is it! Purgatory: a little bit of Heaven, a little more Hell, and a whole lot of In-between. My job is to follow the Inner Leading of the Father; to allow Him to edit my remarks and guide my steps; to see others as my fellow travellers along the Highway of Life, not enemies and spoilers but ones who struggle with their own inner turmoil.
So, in the end, it isn't the world that's right or wrong, but my place in it. I am reminded of a song sung at the Unity Church; it begins with the words, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me." Turn inward and find your true source of strength.
The world needs you.
It's amazing sometimes how two widely disparate movements can intersect so perfectly; in this instance Pastor Wright enunciated the point I intended to make, and will make in this essay. "Self examination," he said. "What is my personal relationship with my God?"
Perfect!
When the pain of living became too great, when there was no one else ot blame for my misery, and when all else failed, I was alone. Talk about keeping bad company! While it is true that many of my problems originated with a dysfuntional family when I was too young to deal with them, it is also true that the means and methods I employed to deal with life were destructive. I couldn't see it, so pervasive was the fear I mentioned in the last post that I was blind to the Truth: that my thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, were wrong and the root cause of all my suffering. Was it my fault that my life became a living Hell?
Good question. Alcoholism is a disease, and I have it. The difference is that today I can have it without suffering from it, and the key to understanding is Self Examination. We call it "taking inventory". Self examination. By at long last embarking on this adventure I soon discovered the one thing that drove me.
Fear. Plain and simple, but like a cancer, if left untreated it spreads. Fear is a corrosive thread and my soul was shot through with it, but for many years I tried to deal with life according to worldly standards: be tougher, smarter, and quicker than everyone else; people are out to get me, to own me, to control me; everyone is out only for himself, beat them to the punch or back off and bide my time; don't get mad, get even, and most important - be a survivor! Something had to change.
Me.
When I finally "hit bottom" (what I call my Final Judgement)some loving friends told me that I wasn't a bad person trying to get good, but a sck person trying to get well. I had a lot of help, which I needed badly, and finally started coming to terms with my arch-enemy: myself.
But then there was the God thing; you know. I spent my formative years in a Catholic parochial school, where spinsters in way-out-of-style wardrobes filled my head with a lot of religious nonsense about Heaven, Hell, and Jesus. That angry son of a bitch in the sky wasn't my friend; by sixth grade I was a confirmed atheist - and rightly so, because it wasn't God I turned my back on but, rather, my CONCEPT of the Spirit of the Universe. I told my friends that I was having trouble with the "God thing" and they handed me a key.
"Design you own God," they said. "Make a list of everything you want God to be."
What a revolutionary idea! Galileo once posed a question: If you offered a man the choice between a handful of perfect diamonds in one hand, and a glass of cold water in the other; which would he choose? A No-brainer; right? But then the inventor of the telescope said: Now suppose that the man had spend three days in a desert: THEN which would he choose? This was my spiritual glass of water. Design my own concept of God?
Worth a try? You bet! I did and the list was relatively short. I wanted God to be my friend, my protector, my guide; I wanted peace and happiness, to feel useful, to be a part of life instead of apart from life. Over time that single sheet of paper morphed into a ream, and that isn't enough still: each day brings a new awareness. Today the Spirit of the Unverse (the term "God" has been so corrupted) is my Father Hey! Jesus had some good ideas after all! Once I got all the ideaological crap out of the way things started making un-common sense. It's a simple idea.
But it isn't easy. After forty-two years of sinking into the qicksand of my own polluted soul there was a momentum, a habit pattern that had to be broken. A freight train loaded with pig iron doesn't stop on a dime. For me it was like carving the faces on Mount Rushmore with a nailfile - but that doesn't matter! Getting on with it is all that matters. If my mind is roaring, my thoughts scattered and confused one day, and the next I have five minutes of peace, that's an improvement! It's a lot more than just coming down front for the "laying on of hands" though that's part of the process. Today people touch me, pat my shoulder in passing, hug me, sometimes even kiss me - and I love it. It's a new world.
But it took work to get here, lots of work. I had to understand that I was driven by deeply embedded forces of which I was totally unaware, so ingrained in my personality had they become. It was a "war in heaven" and I fought it all alone: there is no other way. I had to come to understand that whatever I perceived to be wrong with the world was actually wrong with me. Not that the world was alright, it isn't. The problem was that I had imported the misery and suffering of the world into my Secret Place of the Most High; the Father "in me which doeth the works" was there alright, under siege. My fear-driven motivations led me to a number of life-threatening situations that my escape from them were, in some instances, nothing short of miraculous. I attributed these rescues to "luck" but now I see it was much more than that. Then my luck ran out.
I was defeated, utterly and completely. The pain of living became too great and I came to the ultimate crossroads: do away with myself or find a new path to follow. It was my personal Final Judgement; on the one hand, Perdition, on the other, Hope.
The rest is history.
The world is still a deadly, dangerous place, and I wish it could be different, but that doesn't matter: I must be different! I stopped wondering about the Underworld when I realized that this is it! Purgatory: a little bit of Heaven, a little more Hell, and a whole lot of In-between. My job is to follow the Inner Leading of the Father; to allow Him to edit my remarks and guide my steps; to see others as my fellow travellers along the Highway of Life, not enemies and spoilers but ones who struggle with their own inner turmoil.
So, in the end, it isn't the world that's right or wrong, but my place in it. I am reminded of a song sung at the Unity Church; it begins with the words, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me." Turn inward and find your true source of strength.
The world needs you.
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