How can people know that the state is a powerful club, yet still believe it to be omni-benevolent? Why do people continue to believe the government exists to help them when the phrase, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” is known as an irony to one and all? How can anyone think their health-care system will improve once it’s operated by the kind of people who run the DMV? —– What do you do if you’ve already enacted your own personal austerity regime and you’re still not making it? Why will some people glibly answer that…
Category: Mind and Spirit
Spirituality, moods, feelings, and thinking free to live free.
Good news and think pieces only today. How mindfulness (aka meditation) might improve brain power. (H/T. JB) Young goldendoodle saves pregnant woman and her unborn baby. (H/T ML) Also, while this “news” isn’t new, it’s a nice v*te of confidence for bully breed dogs. (One of my neighbors has the most gorgeous, most sweet pit bull/American bulldog mix — aka aka Bullypit or Colorado bulldog. I could fall in love.) “Why I’m getting rid of most of my stuff.” By the inimitable (and slightly crazy) James Altucher. (I can identify. I’ve been in an accumulating mode since buying this house;…
You’d think — you really would — that if you were in a place where a man had just shot a cop and the cops were setting up a siege (which would ultimately end with more shooting and a house going up in flames), you’d see immediately that something dangerous was going on. And you might logically take action to avoid the area. But nope. Happens that a friend and I were driving down a street yesterday where a cop had just been shot. Squad cars were zooming in. Lights were flashing. Yada yada. When my friend remarked, “Something big…
Re-reading Atlas Shrugged for the umptieth time (but the first time in 10 years) has inspired that dangerous activity: thinking.
One part of the book that still holds up for me is Francisco’s money speech. That’s despite it being a speech. In the middle of a novel. It’s short, it’s brilliant, and it serves a plot-related purpose. I especially like this part:
Not having a TV has led to complete, catastrophic cultural isolation. As an example of this savage, self-caused social disconnect: I never learned to pronounce the name “Duchovny.” And now I cannot tell you whether the name “Kutcher” is sounded like more “crutch-er” or “cooch-er.” It’s a tragedy of unfathomable proportions. After first giving up the telescreen, I even had to forego watching great commercials. Since they are among the great creative gems of our time, it was nearly an unbearable loss. Somehow I soldiered on. Eventually the miracle of YouTube brought the Budweiser clydesdales — and those wonderful Dalmatians…
A lot of people have my email address these days (unlike in the past when I still imagined a private life was compatible with being on the Internet). Most of those who have it are good people. Many are good friends. Many also help by sending me news links. And it really has been helpful; there are days when nearly everything I post comes from such emails. Or when one of those emails leads to some productive train of thought. But enough. If you’ve been sending me links to bad news, please stop. I don’t need to know about the…
Since last week’s Five Freedom Questions led to such excellent discussion, let’s do that again. And maybe semi-regularly from now on. A multi-parter for today and this weekend: A. How old were you when you got your first glimmer of freedomista consciousness and what brought it about? B. How old were you when you became (or realized you already were) a full-blown, principled freedomista and what brought that about?
You know, it takes a lot more brainpower to write long, thoughtful, personal posts than it does to toss out a little news (maybe accompanied by a bit of snark or righteous indignation). So while I continue working on the “Perspective” Blog Tome, news (and one really good laugh) it is for today. “Anonymous has left the building.” “The logic of surveillance.” (H/T JG) This isn’t exactly nooz. It’s from last month. But it makes me proud that the Northwest is a national center of anti-surveillance activism. You go, monkeywrenchers! This pertains to yesterday’s “Perspective” blog. Gretchen Rubin of The…
Over the winter, I lost perspective. I did precisely what I warn against: I let other people — evil, agenda-driven, elitist, even downright moronic people — control my mind. From the day of the Newtown shootings, I felt braced against some invisible force, as though I were trying to push back against something powerful but at the same time something not there. Something that had to be resisted, that would be resisted, but was too formless to resist. Eventually, the force took shape, as we all knew it would: the media onslaught of lies, ignorance, and strident demands about firearms…
Working on a Blog Tome right now. In the meantime, here’s something to make you smile and maybe bring a tear to your eye. It’s “just a commercial,” but … (Source for those who can’t see the embed) H/T to L.