The real risk will be when they get real weapons they can deliver- right now it is 1949 in the middle east- one side is equipped, but the other is still working on it. Throw in the spectre of an absolute view of religion, and you have an inevitable course.
There is very little organic morality outside of religion in that region. In some ways, whatever was reasonable in Arab culture was destroyed when the riders off the steppes started in on a much more civilized middle east in the 10th century. Ever since then, there has been the viewpoint of the Khan and Tamerlane lurking just under the surface. That attitude has done more to hold them back than all the interference from the West.
Despotism is usually very unenlightened.
Further complicating the situation is that endowment of oil. When that is gone, that part of the world will be truly bereft of any western support, with an unsustainable population right now without external support.
Population pressures alone will dictate that from India to Turkey and Egypt there will be no peace in my time, or two or three generations from now.
In other words, demography and religion will make the place a true misery- as long as the West has provided wealth and a safety valve, they have kept the lid on it.
Nuclear weapons removes the lid.
Further impotent actions against the West met with savage reprisals have led to a built up cultural rage that defies logic.
Yay. I've been lax on this, and hopefully haven't missed my last chance at some fine duds...I try to avoid wearing labels whenever possible, but sometimes...
Since the last thread got pigged, but we are all doing our CVs: B.S. - Chemistry
sorry if this has been posted already, but this demonstrates why the "continuing claims" number is useless, as it only measures people on the 26 week state programs. it tells us little about the true state of unemployment in our country.
lawyerliz, 15 million dollars sounds like too much to me. I could spend 5million doing a lot for myself and others, 5 more for endowments, after that it just sounds like a lot of stress. I'd like to go to Europe and see castles, not live in one. Oh, and Happy Belated Birthday!
@Pavel - She doesn't have anything recent posted on this, but my favorite source of information for all things biological, infectious (transmissible) and epidemiological, I highly recommend Tara C Smith's Aetiology Blog. I do wonder if the next round will be more extreme.
In my small world I don't see anger. I see fear. I see people worrying about immediate needs, not far away people who screwed them but exist in another universe. It is when you realize, and accept that this is it - possibly forever, that I think you will see anger.
We are ahead of the curve here. My own anger peaked last year, and all my efforts to stem the tidal wave of money thrown at banksters failed.
Now I am simply adjusting to the new reality and trying to create the best outcome. But I have a whole new attitude and approach to banks and mortgages and taxes, and it will not help the fraudsters.
I always go back to my titanic analogy. My tribe, having been denied access to a lifeboat, are at least in the best place we can be. At the stern, holding on to the railing, trying to be the last ones in the water.
Anything above $10mm is waaay more than enough, interest alone is enough to live the champagne life on a beer budget without having to lift a finger beyond rolling over muni bonds, even after accounting for future value of money. Beyond accounting for FVM, I try to squander every nickel I have every 5 years.
This is exactly what everyone expected they would do! Why not, the banks run the country!
Panel: Banks underpaying gov't to exit bailout
Treasury plan to unwind bailout leaves billions of dollars on the table, oversight panel says
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Treasury Department is selling its financial stakes in bailed-out banks for one-third less than they're worth, potentially shorting taxpayers up to $2.7 billion, a bipartisan congressional watchdog says.
Considering the double tax break that Dawg mentioned, it might be worth buying these at 0.70 to 0.90 on the dollar...
Before you get too excited about double-tax free, be aware of a pretty significant development in the muni market, not good at all for investors.
The IRS is now renegging on its prior guidance in regard to some revenue bonds...
Florida Communities Pay Attention to a Tax Case
"The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in Central Florida, has become embroiled in a dispute with the I.R.S. over tax-exempt bonds and back taxes."
@ lawyerliz
Enough is remarkably small, too much money? Never. I'd build the finest (public) freshwater aquarium this world has ever seen. Okay, maybe somewhere above 5 billion, because at that point I'd try to meddle into the affairs of a third world country, fund education and basic infrastructure (but not local politics?) to see if they can sustain themselves after the grinding daily needs are met. I'd fund a fiber optic video link to the bottom of the canyons off the California coast to see what new shows up. There are so many things that I could think of that I'd like to see, that personally, except for the hassle of saying no to people, there would never be too much.
WestSac_grrl (profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 11:02 am
I'm closer to Liz:
1 million is plenty
2 mill would allow me to fund item 4 below
3 mill would be too much but maybe I'd start a winery where all workers owned a share of the business (think american apparel but for agriculture).
1) buy acreage with cash and build a modest, energy efficient home using straw bale or shipping containers. Build extra housing for friends and family if needed.
2) finish school as either a doctor or architect
3) start an educational endowment
4) start a non-profit business that develops housing and community run farms in urban areas - think of it as a non-religious version of habitat for humanity crossed with the slow food movement that focuses on urban vs suburban or rural development.
oho sez I, looks like one of them cashout mortgage scams (from your link in reply)
The I.R.S. agent investigating the district, Dominick Servadio, has questioned why the Village Center Community District used $60 million in bond proceeds to buy guardhouses, golf courses and small parks that cost Mr. Morse’s family-owned company less than $8 million to build. Mr. Servadio suggested that such a deal would not have occurred if it had been an “arms-length transaction.”
I still like that quote attributed to Einstein that has been going around for ever now...insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. That sums up the human race.
With regard to unemployment benefits. Typical benefits last 26 weeks, but not everybody qualifies (only ~ 40% qualify according to NPR) In June of 2008, Congress extended benefits for an additional 13 weeks. Last November, Congress again extended benefits by 7 weeks. Going forward, that 46 week benefit period will be ending for more and more people.
The employment situation is worse than the official numbers show. This economic downturn is so long many of the usual measures and indicators are no longer valid.
Off any topic: Robert Reich's take on economic recovery: "When Will The Recovery Begin? Never."
That's a title that gets your attention; conclusions not so different than what are here, but he has a new "letter" for the recession: an "X"-shaped recession, X for "unknown."
I think that is one of the downfalls of this new virtual world....do virtual experiences teach anything like the real world does? The further we get away from reality the easier it will be for history to 'rhyme' or repeat because even though we have the models we don't have the experience to 'know' it.
I was laid off at the end of May. I filed for Unemployment by email (in CA.) Five weeks later, not a word. Then I made an inquiry by email. Took another week for an email response that said you should recieve a letter from EED in 10 days. I was given the 10 anwser when I filed,6 weeks ago. Thank God for a pantry! I can't imagine how some people are making it.
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site. $18M Being Spent to Redesign Recovery.gov Web Site - The Note
"I was laid off at the end of May. I filed for Unemployment by email (in CA.) Five weeks later, not a word. Then I made an inquiry by email. Took another week for an email response that said you should recieve a letter from EED in 10 days. I was given the 10 anwser when I filed,6 weeks ago. Thank God for a pantry! I can't imagine how some people are making it."
For anyone filing for UI in CA. Make sure to file online, not by mail or anything else. The turn-around is much faster.
We try to travel once a year somewhere in the third-world. Living in the Bay Area it is very easy to get sucked into the "normality" of life here. In March we were in Vietnam and one afternoon were walking around near the local Oncology Hospital where the rural farmers were lined up outside hoping to get in to see a doctor. We also try to speak to the locals wherever we travel and get off the beaten path. It always reminds me to be grateful that I won the cosmic lottery by being born in the West. It also reminds me how trite my problems are compared to 95% of the world.
Vonbek: The further we get away from reality the easier it will be for history to 'rhyme' or repeat because even though we have the models we don't have the experience to 'know' it.
"Reality" is what you perceive and experience. Period. Most of what you "know" -- especially history and social geography, etc, is no more "true" or "false" than a video game. You weren't there, you only know a reductionist comic book of the real events, written by the winners to serve their ends. I would not privilege the "real". The part where you can touch it and interact with it merely deceives you about how it's mostly made of lies.
Regarding UI benefits in CA. I found a website called Tip and Tricks: What We've Learned from our Collective ED Nightmares. It gives tips on how to talk to a live person on the EED line. My favorite on is to press the number for a Mandarin speaking operator,( they are bi-lingual) then act like you did it by mistake. Several commenters said this works.
"Off any topic: Robert Reich's take on economic recovery: "When Will The Recovery Begin? Never." "
Wow. Thanks for that link! Amazing to hear something from a guy like that. Most of the politically connected are in denial. I like his point:
"The X marks a brand new track -- a new economy. What will it look like? Nobody knows. All we know is the current economy can't "recover" because it can't go back to where it was before the crash. So instead of asking when the recovery will start, we should be asking when and how the new economy will begin. More on this to come."
The real risk will be when they get real weapons they can deliver- right now it is 1949 in the middle east- one side is equipped, but the other is still working on it. Throw in the specter of an absolute view of religion, and you have an inevitable course.
There is very little organic morality outside of religion in that region. In some ways, whatever was reasonable in Arab culture was destroyed when the riders off the steppes started in on a much more civilized middle east in the 10th century. Ever since then, there has been the viewpoint of the Khan and Tamerlane lurking just under the surface. That attitude has done more to hold them back than all the interference from the West...
In some sense I think religion in the middle east is "working" in that demographically the Muslim population is beginning to dominate the world. That's why I think people who attack "irrational" religious beliefs ignore the big picture - i.e. any individual might honestly say that birth control has made their life better while the people who "irrationally" believe that it's bad end up taking over the world through sheer dominance of population.
From that perspective someone might argue that the religious people are the rational ones as a collective. And I think this is why religion is so dominant in human history.
I think the real problem is how technology and the modern economy have changed the world so fundamentally in ways that religion hasn't kept up with or addressed. So a belief system that advocates annihilation of one's enemy even at the cost of one's own life may have been a very useful way of thinking in a hostile world where one or a small group of people can't cause mass destruction (that kind of belief is how you get people to fight wars so your city/state isn't destroyed by some other hostile group).
But that kind of "useful" belief can overnight become terribly dangerous when a society achieves the ability to destroy all life on the planet.
The real question then is whether things like religion are somehow essential to social structures - their dominance throughout history seems to suggest that perhaps that is the case.
If so, then maybe the real crisis facing humans is that technology has rendered a certain vital part of human culture unworkable or obsolete for the first time in history.
I don't know if this is really the case, but it's interesting at least to consider that we've reached a critical point in our evolution where some dangerous paradox has developed for the first time that literally threatens our existence.
Byz, I am not saying that book learning is reality or experience. I have touched the Roman Fortifications on the Rhine. Traveled the terrain of Operation Market Garden. Read first hand accounts of the American Revolution, not just what a Prof 200 years later wrote to meet the requirements for his tenure. Now maybe that doesn't tell me how the people of the time really lived or thought because I lack the perspective of the time...I will concede that...but at least I know that water flows down hill and I don't need a goggle map app running on an iphone to tell me which way to jump next.
Byzantine_Ruins (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 1:32 pm
Vonbek:
The further we get away from reality the easier it will be for history to 'rhyme' or repeat because even though we have the models we don't have the experience to 'know' it.
"Reality" is what you perceive and experience. Period. Most of what you "know" -- especially history and social geography, etc, is no more "true" or "false" than a video game. You weren't there, you only know a reductionist comic book of the real events, written by the winners to serve their ends. I would not privilege the "real". The part where you can touch it and interact with it merely deceives you about how it's mostly made of lies.
The realization that 80% of reality is bullshit serves to increase the importance of the remaining 20%.
BTW, I've argued before this whole financial crisis is the perfect example of how the brightest and most educated people in the world behaving in their own best interest (i.e. rationally) can destroy everything around them. The same thing applies to people in the government or any other aspect of society.
The question this is how do you deal with the problem of "rational" behavior leading to aggregate disaster?
You can't say the answer is law or regulation simply because there's no guarantee that the regulators will not simply behave in their own self interest at the expense of the "common good".
Again, as person I would have to admit to being pretty much agnostic. But more and more I find myself wishing those guys on Wall Street and in Washington DC had the "Fear of God" in them.
IF you bought them at that amount then IMO you "might" break even. I for one think that they are going to be worthless come the time of the supposed date of redemption. I sure wouldn't be counting on any of it happening in the way it's been presented though.
Assume Crash Positions (profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 1:45 pm
"The realization that 80% of reality is bullshit serves to increase the importance of the remaining 20%."
Not mention the value of being able to discern with at least some degree of accuracy which part actually falls into the 20%.
Agreed. Which means the ability to make that discernment adds value, somehow. The "information economy" is not wrong to suggest that it should also have a price.
CA IOU update.
Yesterday I was offering 94.1¢ plus $18 processing. This covered IRR and the taxable portion of potential capital appreciation.
Today's number is 90.0¢ based on the likelihood that there will be special tax considerations and retroactive rules covering the transactions. There's also a rumor that the repurchases may not be timely or at par. If it keeps degrading I'll bump the processing fee and raise the purchase price to avoid the entanglements.
The deconstructivist view of history absolves us all from doing any more work. Because it's all bullshit, so never mind doing any research or anything. Feh.
the real crisis facing humans is that technology has rendered a certain vital part of human culture unworkable or obsolete for the first time in history.
It's not the first time.
Just off the top of my head, I can name condoms and birth control pills.
i am so glad that we finally got the spanish-american war (1898) paid off in 2006 using a phone subcharge. so dont worry about your children,grandchilden,great grand childen they will just join us paying off our national buy now pay later plan and they can worry about their children etc.etc/
another thing if i can google mortage calculator and pull up 10 pages, why couldnt the banks mortage lenders do the same. might have been information that maybe some people would not be able to pay mortage because they didnt have enough income.
okay thats it for a while.maybe but this red-headed step child is a tiny upset with the way the fed has been running this country.
at least I know that water flows down hill and I don't need a goggle map app running on an iphone to tell me which way to jump next.
The virtual is to the real as infinity is to unity. From one banal seed, an endless jungle of dreams. Pretending mankind didn't create an artificial spirit world or cursing you luck for being forced to learn to be a warlock won't change anything.
In some sense I think religion in the middle east is "working" in that demographically the Muslim population is beginning to dominate the world. That's why I think people who attack "irrational" religious beliefs ignore the big picture - i.e. any individual might honestly say that birth control has made their life better while the people who "irrationally" believe that it's bad end up taking over the world through sheer dominance of population.
I disagree. Breeding immense numbers of folks for the equivalent of cannon fodder facing a modern opponent is a disaster. Especially when you will not be able to feed those folks, or get them to anywhere you can reasonably conquer without having most of them die on the way. Most of the middle east is beyond sustainability, even with modern technology. Both Iran and Egypt are demographic nightmares. Yet, they have repressive governments that attempt to keep the lid on through all means necessary. Imagine a true jihadist dictatorship taking over a very large country in the middle east- it can launch large armies that will be met with ultramodern armaments that can kill more than almost anybody on the ground can imagine. But faced with starvation, they will drive those armies into the meatgrinder.
The Iran/iraq war was a preview of the callous nature of Islam- Inshallah.
If so, then perhaps the real crisis facing humans is that technology has rendered a certain vital part of human culture unworkable or obsolete for the first time in history.
My point precisely. Revolutionary leadership will grasp primitive versions of modern weapons, and think they are the equivalent of the large advanced modern states. They will fail, and in failing doom large proportions of their population to oblivion. A good example of failure of the leadership in Iran is the absolute failure to build critical parts of the industrial infrastructure necessary to even operate a modern society. If you can't even make large quantities of gasoline, you quickly fall back to the level of Haiti. Building nuclear reactors with outside help shows the shallow nature of their industrial capacity. The idiot in N.K. proved you can brute force your way into a bomb- but what use is it when your opponents have more and better? What would the South Korean military leadership decide to do if idiot boy nuked Seoul? The anger and ability to quickly implement their revenge would be astonishing to Kim- once again he has built a huge machine based on large numbers of people and relatively primitive weaponry.
In some ways, bin Laden is right, we in the west are a far bigger threat to their existence, but that threat is through taking their best and brightest, paying a pittance for their resources, and leaving them bigger fools than ever. The most devastating thing we could do would be to ultimately close the west and keep developing our technology behind a new iron curtain- instead we have chosen engagement with the Middle East. I would have closed the west, and let Putin deal with them as he wished- for his oriental despot mindset is willing to simply kill enough of them to get his peace.
"BTW, I've argued before this whole financial crisis is the perfect example of how the brightest and most educated people in the world behaving in their own best interest (i.e. rationally) can destroy everything around them. The same thing applies to people in the government or any other aspect of society."
You've described the Tragedy of the Commons.
"You can't say the answer is law or regulation simply because there's no guarantee that the regulators will not simply behave in their own self interest at the expense of the "common good"."
Right you are.
"But more and more I find myself wishing those guys on Wall Street and in Washington DC had the "Fear of God" in them."
the real crisis facing humans is that technology has rendered a certain vital part of human culture unworkable or obsolete for the first time in history.
It's not the first time.
Just off the top of my head, I can name condoms and birth control pills. Smile
If you get the good ones though you don't feel like you're obsolete.
Scone: The deconstructivist view of history absolves us all from doing any more work. Because it's all bullshit, so never mind doing any research or anything. Feh.
Is that what it does? I had wondered.
The story tells at least as much about the person telling it as it says about the subject.
broward (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 1:51 pm
the real crisis facing humans is that technology has rendered a certain vital part of human culture unworkable or obsolete for the first time in history.
It's not the first time.
Just off the top of my head, I can name condoms and birth control pills. Smile
Evolution took how long to perfect a working system that didn't result in die off, or in overpopulation, but also didn't result in stagnation? And we expect to circumvent it and have a stable society in less than a century of experimentation? Now there is some wisdom.
'"Reality" is what you perceive and experience. Period. Most of what you "know" -- especially history and social geography, etc, is no more "true" or "false" than a video game. You weren't there, you only know a reductionist comic book of the real events, ..."'
There are so many bright people here. It gives one a bit of faith in people.
Byz, See, I am just not to where you are yet. I have parked myself right on the edge of the abyss. I like to star-gaze, but I do get uncomfortable and pull back. I like to think of myself as a free thinker, but in reality I probably am not. I always look backwards for 'original' forms instead of accepting that we are all poor imitations.
pavel.chichikov (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 1:56 pm
Substitute 'Love' and you've got it right.
Monetarism has taken on almost all the features of a religion, and the market has taken over the traditional role of God or the gods... So in a sense they do "love" its god.
Most people deny that they are acting like apes, even when it is glaringly obvious. Unless people are willing to accept that are driven by now useless urges, they will never evolve past them.
A zero sum worldview and trying to rationalize it through traditional and modern religion is not going to help. Environmentalism is Catholicism without an official church.
Clever is not Intelligent. But people confuse the two.
"Monetarism has taken on almost all the features of a religion, and the market has taken over the traditional role of God or the gods... So in a sense they do "love" its god."
But it's not real love, in which one selflessly sacrifices oneself for the beloved.
pavel.chichikov (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 2:03 pm
"Monetarism has taken on almost all the features of a religion, and the market has taken over the traditional role of God or the gods... So in a sense they do "love" its god."
But it's not real love, in which one selflessly sacrifices oneself for the beloved.
Definitely not. Actually, it can't be, since the doctrine of selfishness has no other option than to interpret altruistic behavior as actualizing some sort of personal benefit at some time in the future for the one who engages in it.
Evolution took how long to perfect a working system that didn't result in die off, or in overpopulation, but also didn't result in stagnation? And we expect to circumvent it and have a stable society in less than a century of experimentation? Now there is some wisdom.
Therein lies the (potential) problem - what if the progression of technology has amplified the costs of instability beyond a critical threshold?
I think this is why people like Stephen Hawking argue that humans have to find a way off the planet ASAP.
It's almost as if you think of it in abstract terms (like the economists like to do) where both systemic complexity and potential energy output (via nukular fission/fusion and solar flux capture) are increasing within a sphere less than 9000 miles in diameter, you gotta wonder if that's a situation that's going to go on for very long.
"It's almost as if you think of it in abstract terms (like the economists like to do) where both systemic complexity and potential energy output (via nukular fission/fusion and solar flux capture) are increasing within a sphere less than 9000 miles in diameter, you gotta wonder if that's a situation that's going to go on for very long."
Byz,
the eternal dream is just that, a dream, a pleasant escape from life that distracts from life.
a cosmic cul de sac,
leads to contemplation of the void,
but leads to action when the void smiles back.
The entire concept of the wheel of life, western transubstantiation, eastern mysticism, or pagan belief is to empower those who lack temporal power and console them in their lot.
Religion is best left to the very old, and they should not instruct the young, but allow the young to find what suits them.
Religion enslaves the mind by binding it to concepts that have served its purposes in the past, but may destroy it in the future.
This is why I am an accelerationist- for those who would not enslave others to their vision of religion.
The subtle hum
Nature’s frequency
Alive and buzzing
Beyond the veil
Drawn shut from human eyes
A field of life
Flows from the source
Dizzy we tiptoe through the stars
Searching for answers in the dark
The politics of the afterglow
Left for mortals to sort out
And still in the darkest corner of the void
The subtle hum calls to us
And together we dance in the dark
Our feet following a path we call free will
But the pied piper knows the truth all too well
Byz,
the eternal dream is just that, a dream, a pleasant escape from life that distracts from life.
Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things.
a cosmic cul de sac,
leads to contemplation of the void,
but leads to action when the void smiles back.
I'm sure any reasonable person would have run, yes.
The entire concept of the wheel of life, western transubstantiation, eastern mysticism, or pagan belief is to empower those who lack temporal power and console them in their lot.
The story tells at least as much about the person telling it as it does about the subject. Since you are speaking about all of religion in a single sentence, I would say the content is entirely you-oriented, as there is not going to be any actual information on the entire topic of the human spiritual existence in that sentence.
Religion is best left to the very old, and they should not instruct the young, but allow the young to find what suits them.
Religion enslaves the mind by binding it to concepts that have served its purposes in the past, but may destroy it in the future.
Religion is what you make of it, and what you let it make of you. I think you are a silly materialist who doesn't understand how important stories of the gods and heroes are to the human psyche. I don't have a problem with people who advocate making your own gods up, but thinking you don't need them? 19th century naive rationalism on parade.
We are finite beings; hence in an ultimate sense, everything is a religion to us, objective truth being unknowable. The finite in its attempts at reaching towards the infinite is a quintessential part of the human story, as it shows not merely what has been accomplished but what was being reached toward.
!
pigged comment re middle east and morality:
The real risk will be when they get real weapons they can deliver- right now it is 1949 in the middle east- one side is equipped, but the other is still working on it. Throw in the spectre of an absolute view of religion, and you have an inevitable course.
There is very little organic morality outside of religion in that region. In some ways, whatever was reasonable in Arab culture was destroyed when the riders off the steppes started in on a much more civilized middle east in the 10th century. Ever since then, there has been the viewpoint of the Khan and Tamerlane lurking just under the surface. That attitude has done more to hold them back than all the interference from the West.
Despotism is usually very unenlightened.
Further complicating the situation is that endowment of oil. When that is gone, that part of the world will be truly bereft of any western support, with an unsustainable population right now without external support.
Population pressures alone will dictate that from India to Turkey and Egypt there will be no peace in my time, or two or three generations from now.
In other words, demography and religion will make the place a true misery- as long as the West has provided wealth and a safety valve, they have kept the lid on it.
Nuclear weapons removes the lid.
Further impotent actions against the West met with savage reprisals have led to a built up cultural rage that defies logic.
Someday this war's gonna end...
Speaking of pigs, this from our friends at the BBC:
"A form of Ebola virus has been detected in pigs for the first time, raising concerns it could mutate and pose a new risk to humans."
BBC NEWS | Health | Concern over Ebola virus in pigs
Yay. I've been lax on this, and hopefully haven't missed my last chance at some fine duds...I try to avoid wearing labels whenever possible, but sometimes...
Since the last thread got pigged, but we are all doing our CVs: B.S. - Chemistry
...with an emphasis on the BS...
sorry if this has been posted already, but this demonstrates why the "continuing claims" number is useless, as it only measures people on the 26 week state programs. it tells us little about the true state of unemployment in our country.
Obama’s Jobless Safety Net Torn by Rebecca Alvarez (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
Obama’s Jobless Safety Net Torn by Rebecca Alvarez
lawyerliz, 15 million dollars sounds like too much to me. I could spend 5million doing a lot for myself and others, 5 more for endowments, after that it just sounds like a lot of stress. I'd like to go to Europe and see castles, not live in one. Oh, and Happy Belated Birthday!
We have a more immediate problem than infectious Ebola:
Florida, U.S. prepare for swine flu battle | McClatchy
Vonbek777, here's proof satire isn't dead: Autoworkers Compete to Keep Jobs, Livelihoods on New Reality Show | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
How weird. CNBS is running internal promotions for a medical ganja picture library.
Is this a good side-effect of being a late boomer? People catering to my needs?
@Pavel - She doesn't have anything recent posted on this, but my favorite source of information for all things biological, infectious (transmissible) and epidemiological, I highly recommend Tara C Smith's Aetiology Blog. I do wonder if the next round will be more extreme.
my ed CV got pigged - somehow apropos
Comment by energyecon from thread '"Substantial Doubt" Initial Filings'
MS - Thanks for your response re: IOUs being bonds.
Considering the double tax break that Dawg mentioned, it might be worth buying these at 0.70 to 0.90 on the dollar...
For H1N1, see also:
(opinion)
CDC 2009 H1N1 Flu
CIDRAP >> Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
FluTracker - H1N1 Swine Flu and Influenza Outbreak Tracking from Rhiza Labs
Effect Measure
Flu Wiki Forum
www.fluwiki.info (opinion)
nova wrote (two threads back!):
In my small world I don't see anger. I see fear. I see people worrying about immediate needs, not far away people who screwed them but exist in another universe. It is when you realize, and accept that this is it - possibly forever, that I think you will see anger.
We are ahead of the curve here. My own anger peaked last year, and all my efforts to stem the tidal wave of money thrown at banksters failed.
Now I am simply adjusting to the new reality and trying to create the best outcome. But I have a whole new attitude and approach to banks and mortgages and taxes, and it will not help the fraudsters.
I always go back to my titanic analogy. My tribe, having been denied access to a lifeboat, are at least in the best place we can be. At the stern, holding on to the railing, trying to be the last ones in the water.
Interest on CA IOU's is not taxable. Any capital appreciation is.
Anything above $10mm is waaay more than enough, interest alone is enough to live the champagne life on a beer budget without having to lift a finger beyond rolling over muni bonds, even after accounting for future value of money. Beyond accounting for FVM, I try to squander every nickel I have every 5 years.
And no, I can't help you.
This is exactly what everyone expected they would do! Why not, the banks run the country!
Panel: Banks underpaying gov't to exit bailout
Treasury plan to unwind bailout leaves billions of dollars on the table, oversight panel says
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Treasury Department is selling its financial stakes in bailed-out banks for one-third less than they're worth, potentially shorting taxpayers up to $2.7 billion, a bipartisan congressional watchdog says.
Yahoo! 404 - Page Not Found
Before you get too excited about double-tax free, be aware of a pretty significant development in the muni market, not good at all for investors.
The IRS is now renegging on its prior guidance in regard to some revenue bonds...
Florida Communities Pay Attention to a Tax Case
"The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in Central Florida, has become embroiled in a dispute with the I.R.S. over tax-exempt bonds and back taxes."
Florida Communities Pay Attention to a Tax Case - NY Times
Thanks, Comrade Scott.
@ lawyerliz
Enough is remarkably small, too much money? Never. I'd build the finest (public) freshwater aquarium this world has ever seen. Okay, maybe somewhere above 5 billion, because at that point I'd try to meddle into the affairs of a third world country, fund education and basic infrastructure (but not local politics?) to see if they can sustain themselves after the grinding daily needs are met. I'd fund a fiber optic video link to the bottom of the canyons off the California coast to see what new shows up. There are so many things that I could think of that I'd like to see, that personally, except for the hassle of saying no to people, there would never be too much.
One motto for the human race might be:
"How was I supposed to know that?"
To which you could add:
"We couldn't see it coming."
from the last pigged thread
WestSac_grrl (profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 11:02 am
I'm closer to Liz:
1 million is plenty
2 mill would allow me to fund item 4 below
3 mill would be too much but maybe I'd start a winery where all workers owned a share of the business (think american apparel but for agriculture).
1) buy acreage with cash and build a modest, energy efficient home using straw bale or shipping containers. Build extra housing for friends and family if needed.
2) finish school as either a doctor or architect
3) start an educational endowment
4) start a non-profit business that develops housing and community run farms in urban areas - think of it as a non-religious version of habitat for humanity crossed with the slow food movement that focuses on urban vs suburban or rural development.
rich,
oho sez I, looks like one of them cashout mortgage scams (from your link in reply)
The I.R.S. agent investigating the district, Dominick Servadio, has questioned why the Village Center Community District used $60 million in bond proceeds to buy guardhouses, golf courses and small parks that cost Mr. Morse’s family-owned company less than $8 million to build. Mr. Servadio suggested that such a deal would not have occurred if it had been an “arms-length transaction.”
A little old lady was sitting on a park bench in The Villages, a Florida Adult community.
A man walks over and sits down on the other end of the bench.
After a few moments, the woman asks, "Are you a stranger here?"
He replies, "I lived here years ago."
“So, where were you all these years?"
"In prison," he says. "Why did they put you in prison?"
He looks at her, and very quietly says, "I killed my wife."
"Oh!" said the woman. "So you're single...?"
I still like that quote attributed to Einstein that has been going around for ever now...insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. That sums up the human race.
With regard to unemployment benefits. Typical benefits last 26 weeks, but not everybody qualifies (only ~ 40% qualify according to NPR) In June of 2008, Congress extended benefits for an additional 13 weeks. Last November, Congress again extended benefits by 7 weeks. Going forward, that 46 week benefit period will be ending for more and more people.
The employment situation is worse than the official numbers show. This economic downturn is so long many of the usual measures and indicators are no longer valid.
Rich, are you still in favor of gold and silver, or is it time to go back for the ultra-shorts?
Off any topic: Robert Reich's take on economic recovery: "When Will The Recovery Begin? Never."
That's a title that gets your attention; conclusions not so different than what are here, but he has a new "letter" for the recession: an "X"-shaped recession, X for "unknown."
Robert Reich's Blog: When Will The Recovery Begin? Never.
Thanks Bob
I liked that. X marks the spot. I know it is hubris to say we have never been here before, but I feel that way.
It's a new label, if nothing else. And I think "Recession X" has got a nice ring to it.
This time it's different, really!
Different than the last time, that is for damn sure...
I think that is one of the downfalls of this new virtual world....do virtual experiences teach anything like the real world does? The further we get away from reality the easier it will be for history to 'rhyme' or repeat because even though we have the models we don't have the experience to 'know' it.
I was laid off at the end of May. I filed for Unemployment by email (in CA.) Five weeks later, not a word. Then I made an inquiry by email. Took another week for an email response that said you should recieve a letter from EED in 10 days. I was given the 10 anwser when I filed,6 weeks ago. Thank God for a pantry! I can't imagine how some people are making it.
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site. $18M Being Spent to Redesign Recovery.gov Web Site - The Note
"I was laid off at the end of May. I filed for Unemployment by email (in CA.) Five weeks later, not a word. Then I made an inquiry by email. Took another week for an email response that said you should recieve a letter from EED in 10 days. I was given the 10 anwser when I filed,6 weeks ago. Thank God for a pantry! I can't imagine how some people are making it."
For anyone filing for UI in CA. Make sure to file online, not by mail or anything else. The turn-around is much faster.
Credit enema is coming,
And you know it will still be hackable after the expensive facelift.
We try to travel once a year somewhere in the third-world. Living in the Bay Area it is very easy to get sucked into the "normality" of life here. In March we were in Vietnam and one afternoon were walking around near the local Oncology Hospital where the rural farmers were lined up outside hoping to get in to see a doctor. We also try to speak to the locals wherever we travel and get off the beaten path. It always reminds me to be grateful that I won the cosmic lottery by being born in the West. It also reminds me how trite my problems are compared to 95% of the world.
Vonbek:
The further we get away from reality the easier it will be for history to 'rhyme' or repeat because even though we have the models we don't have the experience to 'know' it.
"Reality" is what you perceive and experience. Period. Most of what you "know" -- especially history and social geography, etc, is no more "true" or "false" than a video game. You weren't there, you only know a reductionist comic book of the real events, written by the winners to serve their ends. I would not privilege the "real". The part where you can touch it and interact with it merely deceives you about how it's mostly made of lies.
insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. That sums up the human race.
Sums up applying for jobs, too.
That sums up the human race. - V
And yet you've added 2 units to the strength.
Regarding UI benefits in CA. I found a website called Tip and Tricks: What We've Learned from our Collective ED Nightmares. It gives tips on how to talk to a live person on the EED line. My favorite on is to press the number for a Mandarin speaking operator,( they are bi-lingual) then act like you did it by mistake. Several commenters said this works.
"Off any topic: Robert Reich's take on economic recovery: "When Will The Recovery Begin? Never." "
Wow. Thanks for that link! Amazing to hear something from a guy like that. Most of the politically connected are in denial. I like his point:
"The X marks a brand new track -- a new economy. What will it look like? Nobody knows. All we know is the current economy can't "recover" because it can't go back to where it was before the crash. So instead of asking when the recovery will start, we should be asking when and how the new economy will begin. More on this to come."
credit enima:
how's the pawn broker business these days? are you swamped with inventory?
Byzantine Ruins,
That is very true. People often dismiss the Internet in favor of the "real" without critically thinking about the basis of the so called " real".
pigged comment re middle east and morality:
The real risk will be when they get real weapons they can deliver- right now it is 1949 in the middle east- one side is equipped, but the other is still working on it. Throw in the specter of an absolute view of religion, and you have an inevitable course.
There is very little organic morality outside of religion in that region. In some ways, whatever was reasonable in Arab culture was destroyed when the riders off the steppes started in on a much more civilized middle east in the 10th century. Ever since then, there has been the viewpoint of the Khan and Tamerlane lurking just under the surface. That attitude has done more to hold them back than all the interference from the West...
In some sense I think religion in the middle east is "working" in that demographically the Muslim population is beginning to dominate the world. That's why I think people who attack "irrational" religious beliefs ignore the big picture - i.e. any individual might honestly say that birth control has made their life better while the people who "irrationally" believe that it's bad end up taking over the world through sheer dominance of population.
From that perspective someone might argue that the religious people are the rational ones as a collective. And I think this is why religion is so dominant in human history.
I think the real problem is how technology and the modern economy have changed the world so fundamentally in ways that religion hasn't kept up with or addressed. So a belief system that advocates annihilation of one's enemy even at the cost of one's own life may have been a very useful way of thinking in a hostile world where one or a small group of people can't cause mass destruction (that kind of belief is how you get people to fight wars so your city/state isn't destroyed by some other hostile group).
But that kind of "useful" belief can overnight become terribly dangerous when a society achieves the ability to destroy all life on the planet.
The real question then is whether things like religion are somehow essential to social structures - their dominance throughout history seems to suggest that perhaps that is the case.
If so, then maybe the real crisis facing humans is that technology has rendered a certain vital part of human culture unworkable or obsolete for the first time in history.
I don't know if this is really the case, but it's interesting at least to consider that we've reached a critical point in our evolution where some dangerous paradox has developed for the first time that literally threatens our existence.
Hey credit- which refiner is the best to establish a relationship with- or should I just use the local aggregator large coin dealer?
Most of the local pawns use him.
Just interested- coins are crashing now too.
Someday this war's gonna end...
Byz, I am not saying that book learning is reality or experience. I have touched the Roman Fortifications on the Rhine. Traveled the terrain of Operation Market Garden. Read first hand accounts of the American Revolution, not just what a Prof 200 years later wrote to meet the requirements for his tenure. Now maybe that doesn't tell me how the people of the time really lived or thought because I lack the perspective of the time...I will concede that...but at least I know that water flows down hill and I don't need a goggle map app running on an iphone to tell me which way to jump next.
Byzantine_Ruins (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 1:32 pm
Vonbek:
The further we get away from reality the easier it will be for history to 'rhyme' or repeat because even though we have the models we don't have the experience to 'know' it.
"Reality" is what you perceive and experience. Period. Most of what you "know" -- especially history and social geography, etc, is no more "true" or "false" than a video game. You weren't there, you only know a reductionist comic book of the real events, written by the winners to serve their ends. I would not privilege the "real". The part where you can touch it and interact with it merely deceives you about how it's mostly made of lies.
The realization that 80% of reality is bullshit serves to increase the importance of the remaining 20%.
What is the O/U for BFF?
POIC,
Unless the poorest "brown" people have a decent living standard, your livelihood is only one wage arbitrage away from reaching theirs.
But you too much hubris, too much belief in your "innate superiority and indispensibility".
"The realization that 80% of reality is bullshit serves to increase the importance of the remaining 20%."
Not to mention the value of being able to discern with at least some degree of accuracy which part actually falls into the 20%.
Blackhalo, I'd say O/U this week is 5. They're probably still a little spent from last Thursday.
BTW, I've argued before this whole financial crisis is the perfect example of how the brightest and most educated people in the world behaving in their own best interest (i.e. rationally) can destroy everything around them. The same thing applies to people in the government or any other aspect of society.
The question this is how do you deal with the problem of "rational" behavior leading to aggregate disaster?
You can't say the answer is law or regulation simply because there's no guarantee that the regulators will not simply behave in their own self interest at the expense of the "common good".
Again, as person I would have to admit to being pretty much agnostic. But more and more I find myself wishing those guys on Wall Street and in Washington DC had the "Fear of God" in them.
"Reality what a concept" - Robin Williams.
IT-
IF you bought them at that amount then IMO you "might" break even. I for one think that they are going to be worthless come the time of the supposed date of redemption. I sure wouldn't be counting on any of it happening in the way it's been presented though.
Ciao
MS
Assume Crash Positions (profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 1:45 pm
"The realization that 80% of reality is bullshit serves to increase the importance of the remaining 20%."
Not mention the value of being able to discern with at least some degree of accuracy which part actually falls into the 20%.
Agreed. Which means the ability to make that discernment adds value, somehow. The "information economy" is not wrong to suggest that it should also have a price.
CA IOU update.
Yesterday I was offering 94.1¢ plus $18 processing. This covered IRR and the taxable portion of potential capital appreciation.
Today's number is 90.0¢ based on the likelihood that there will be special tax considerations and retroactive rules covering the transactions. There's also a rumor that the repurchases may not be timely or at par. If it keeps degrading I'll bump the processing fee and raise the purchase price to avoid the entanglements.
The deconstructivist view of history absolves us all from doing any more work. Because it's all bullshit, so never mind doing any research or anything. Feh.
Whoa Nelly....
the short covering rally in AIG is outstanding. CIT-looks to be on a direct path with the Sheila.
the real crisis facing humans is that technology has rendered a certain vital part of human culture unworkable or obsolete for the first time in history.
It's not the first time.
Just off the top of my head, I can name condoms and birth control pills.
"I'd say O/U this week is 5. They're probably still a little spent from last Thursday."
That sounds about right. I'd have to go for the under though.
i am so glad that we finally got the spanish-american war (1898) paid off in 2006 using a phone subcharge. so dont worry about your children,grandchilden,great grand childen they will just join us paying off our national buy now pay later plan and they can worry about their children etc.etc/
another thing if i can google mortage calculator and pull up 10 pages, why couldnt the banks mortage lenders do the same. might have been information that maybe some people would not be able to pay mortage because they didnt have enough income.
okay thats it for a while.maybe but this red-headed step child is a tiny upset with the way the fed has been running this country.
at least I know that water flows down hill and I don't need a goggle map app running on an iphone to tell me which way to jump next.
The virtual is to the real as infinity is to unity. From one banal seed, an endless jungle of dreams. Pretending mankind didn't create an artificial spirit world or cursing you luck for being forced to learn to be a warlock won't change anything.
In some sense I think religion in the middle east is "working" in that demographically the Muslim population is beginning to dominate the world. That's why I think people who attack "irrational" religious beliefs ignore the big picture - i.e. any individual might honestly say that birth control has made their life better while the people who "irrationally" believe that it's bad end up taking over the world through sheer dominance of population.
I disagree. Breeding immense numbers of folks for the equivalent of cannon fodder facing a modern opponent is a disaster. Especially when you will not be able to feed those folks, or get them to anywhere you can reasonably conquer without having most of them die on the way. Most of the middle east is beyond sustainability, even with modern technology. Both Iran and Egypt are demographic nightmares. Yet, they have repressive governments that attempt to keep the lid on through all means necessary. Imagine a true jihadist dictatorship taking over a very large country in the middle east- it can launch large armies that will be met with ultramodern armaments that can kill more than almost anybody on the ground can imagine. But faced with starvation, they will drive those armies into the meatgrinder.
The Iran/iraq war was a preview of the callous nature of Islam- Inshallah.
If so, then perhaps the real crisis facing humans is that technology has rendered a certain vital part of human culture unworkable or obsolete for the first time in history.
My point precisely. Revolutionary leadership will grasp primitive versions of modern weapons, and think they are the equivalent of the large advanced modern states. They will fail, and in failing doom large proportions of their population to oblivion. A good example of failure of the leadership in Iran is the absolute failure to build critical parts of the industrial infrastructure necessary to even operate a modern society. If you can't even make large quantities of gasoline, you quickly fall back to the level of Haiti. Building nuclear reactors with outside help shows the shallow nature of their industrial capacity. The idiot in N.K. proved you can brute force your way into a bomb- but what use is it when your opponents have more and better? What would the South Korean military leadership decide to do if idiot boy nuked Seoul? The anger and ability to quickly implement their revenge would be astonishing to Kim- once again he has built a huge machine based on large numbers of people and relatively primitive weaponry.
In some ways, bin Laden is right, we in the west are a far bigger threat to their existence, but that threat is through taking their best and brightest, paying a pittance for their resources, and leaving them bigger fools than ever. The most devastating thing we could do would be to ultimately close the west and keep developing our technology behind a new iron curtain- instead we have chosen engagement with the Middle East. I would have closed the west, and let Putin deal with them as he wished- for his oriental despot mindset is willing to simply kill enough of them to get his peace.
Someday this war's gonna end...
"BTW, I've argued before this whole financial crisis is the perfect example of how the brightest and most educated people in the world behaving in their own best interest (i.e. rationally) can destroy everything around them. The same thing applies to people in the government or any other aspect of society."
You've described the Tragedy of the Commons.
"You can't say the answer is law or regulation simply because there's no guarantee that the regulators will not simply behave in their own self interest at the expense of the "common good"."
Right you are.
"But more and more I find myself wishing those guys on Wall Street and in Washington DC had the "Fear of God" in them."
Substitute 'Love' and you've got it right.
what will happen to CA IOU after today?
the real crisis facing humans is that technology has rendered a certain vital part of human culture unworkable or obsolete for the first time in history.
It's not the first time.
Just off the top of my head, I can name condoms and birth control pills. Smile
If you get the good ones though you don't feel like you're obsolete.
Scone:
The deconstructivist view of history absolves us all from doing any more work. Because it's all bullshit, so never mind doing any research or anything. Feh.
Is that what it does? I had wondered.
The story tells at least as much about the person telling it as it says about the subject.
broward (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 1:51 pm
the real crisis facing humans is that technology has rendered a certain vital part of human culture unworkable or obsolete for the first time in history.
It's not the first time.
Just off the top of my head, I can name condoms and birth control pills. Smile
Evolution took how long to perfect a working system that didn't result in die off, or in overpopulation, but also didn't result in stagnation? And we expect to circumvent it and have a stable society in less than a century of experimentation? Now there is some wisdom.
'"Reality" is what you perceive and experience. Period. Most of what you "know" -- especially history and social geography, etc, is no more "true" or "false" than a video game. You weren't there, you only know a reductionist comic book of the real events, ..."'
There are so many bright people here. It gives one a bit of faith in people.
Byz, See, I am just not to where you are yet. I have parked myself right on the edge of the abyss. I like to star-gaze, but I do get uncomfortable and pull back. I like to think of myself as a free thinker, but in reality I probably am not. I always look backwards for 'original' forms instead of accepting that we are all poor imitations.
Evolution is not a suicide pact!
pavel.chichikov (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 1:56 pm
Substitute 'Love' and you've got it right.
Monetarism has taken on almost all the features of a religion, and the market has taken over the traditional role of God or the gods... So in a sense they do "love" its god.
ac,
the real problems with humans are..
but dude, I like roll with a shamanic tradition more than the warlock thing...
THE DREAM
The green splayed mitts of sassafras
Three-fingered
Catch the light of summer evening
No matter all the corpuscles
Or particles
Of summer light they catch them
Streams and ripples through the trees
Rise up
Attain the leaves and they are caught
Thus so the triune sleeping soul
Absorbs
What flows around it from the future
And those who can remember
Will survive
The burning cities, broken, and the walls
-- Pavel
"Monetarism has taken on almost all the features of a religion, and the market has taken over the traditional role of God or the gods... So in a sense they do "love" its god."
But it's not real love, in which one selflessly sacrifices oneself for the beloved.
Markets open in 25 minutes.
It is an extension of the cult of Mammon under different guise, no?
"Evolution is not a suicide pact!"
Bravo, broward. That is true wit. Now I have to wonder if it's true.
Citizen AllenM - you take a pretty dim view...yikes. Putin would like nothing better though, you're right about that.
pavel.chichikov (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 2:03 pm
"Monetarism has taken on almost all the features of a religion, and the market has taken over the traditional role of God or the gods... So in a sense they do "love" its god."
But it's not real love, in which one selflessly sacrifices oneself for the beloved.
Definitely not. Actually, it can't be, since the doctrine of selfishness has no other option than to interpret altruistic behavior as actualizing some sort of personal benefit at some time in the future for the one who engages in it.
Evolution took how long to perfect a working system that didn't result in die off, or in overpopulation, but also didn't result in stagnation? And we expect to circumvent it and have a stable society in less than a century of experimentation? Now there is some wisdom.
Therein lies the (potential) problem - what if the progression of technology has amplified the costs of instability beyond a critical threshold?
I think this is why people like Stephen Hawking argue that humans have to find a way off the planet ASAP.
It's almost as if you think of it in abstract terms (like the economists like to do) where both systemic complexity and potential energy output (via nukular fission/fusion and solar flux capture) are increasing within a sphere less than 9000 miles in diameter, you gotta wonder if that's a situation that's going to go on for very long.
The west had been hanging itself in slow motion for the last 30 odd years.
"It is an extension of the cult of Mammon under different guise, no?"
Probably.
If there is a crisis of some sort this coming fall and winter, we will all discover the true worth of our 'loves', and perhaps what true love is.
"It's almost as if you think of it in abstract terms (like the economists like to do) where both systemic complexity and potential energy output (via nukular fission/fusion and solar flux capture) are increasing within a sphere less than 9000 miles in diameter, you gotta wonder if that's a situation that's going to go on for very long."
That's a fascinating way of thinking.
pavel.chichikov (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 7/10/2009 - 2:06 pm
"It is an extension of the cult of Mammon under different guise, no?"
Probably.
If there is a crisis of some sort this coming fall and winter, we will all discover the true worth of our 'loves', and perhaps what true love is.
Pavel, there may BE no other alternative remaining that allows for a human future.
Byz,
the eternal dream is just that, a dream, a pleasant escape from life that distracts from life.
a cosmic cul de sac,
leads to contemplation of the void,
but leads to action when the void smiles back.
The entire concept of the wheel of life, western transubstantiation, eastern mysticism, or pagan belief is to empower those who lack temporal power and console them in their lot.
Religion is best left to the very old, and they should not instruct the young, but allow the young to find what suits them.
Religion enslaves the mind by binding it to concepts that have served its purposes in the past, but may destroy it in the future.
This is why I am an accelerationist- for those who would not enslave others to their vision of religion.
Democracy is also a form of religion too.
Someday this war's gonna end...
The subtle hum
Nature’s frequency
Alive and buzzing
Beyond the veil
Drawn shut from human eyes
A field of life
Flows from the source
Dizzy we tiptoe through the stars
Searching for answers in the dark
The politics of the afterglow
Left for mortals to sort out
And still in the darkest corner of the void
The subtle hum calls to us
And together we dance in the dark
Our feet following a path we call free will
But the pied piper knows the truth all too well
Byz,
the eternal dream is just that, a dream, a pleasant escape from life that distracts from life.
Once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn't know he was Zhuangzi. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuangzi. But he didn't know if he was Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi. Between Zhuangzi and a butterfly there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things.
a cosmic cul de sac,
leads to contemplation of the void,
but leads to action when the void smiles back.
I'm sure any reasonable person would have run, yes.
The entire concept of the wheel of life, western transubstantiation, eastern mysticism, or pagan belief is to empower those who lack temporal power and console them in their lot.
The story tells at least as much about the person telling it as it does about the subject. Since you are speaking about all of religion in a single sentence, I would say the content is entirely you-oriented, as there is not going to be any actual information on the entire topic of the human spiritual existence in that sentence.
Religion is best left to the very old, and they should not instruct the young, but allow the young to find what suits them.
Religion enslaves the mind by binding it to concepts that have served its purposes in the past, but may destroy it in the future.
Religion is what you make of it, and what you let it make of you. I think you are a silly materialist who doesn't understand how important stories of the gods and heroes are to the human psyche. I don't have a problem with people who advocate making your own gods up, but thinking you don't need them? 19th century naive rationalism on parade.
We are finite beings; hence in an ultimate sense, everything is a religion to us, objective truth being unknowable. The finite in its attempts at reaching towards the infinite is a quintessential part of the human story, as it shows not merely what has been accomplished but what was being reached toward.
Head and sholders will probably fail. too many underwater short sellers are anticipating it
. if it does materialize it will stick a fork in the efficient market hypothesis. Target
8400 next week. And then 9000. Interesting Finance & Economic articles