Chapter 11
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of San Jose, and they dwelt there.
And they said, to one another, “Go to, let us make webs, and join them thoroughly”
And they said, “Go to, let us build a worldwide city and a network, and let us make a name for ourselves, and so they called their city “Silicon”.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the network, which the children of men builded.
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language, for they have Google, and they have automatic translator algorithms.
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
So the Lord created viruses and Trojans, and He created worms. The Lord brought spyware, and malware, and adware, and botnets. He brought “virus protection software” to steal resources and charge for the service, and He brought help desks and security czars to bog down, shut down, arrest and frustrate all those with imagination and vision. He brought hackers and leakers and service interruption attacks and identity theft.
So the Lord bogged down the network til the weight of the overhead brought all creative endeavor to a complete standstill.
And He brought crushing debt upon the region of San Jose until all city services came to a halt.
Therefore is the name of it Gaggle for it soundeth and meaneth like the calling of geese.
And he brought Menlo when the speed of all communications reached Park.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Genesis
Chapter 1
In the beginning, God created Plymouth rock. And Jamestown.
And God said, “Let there be light” and there was Westinghouse.
And God saw the light, and it was good.
And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
Waters”, and He created US Steel.
And God said, Let the land bring forth profits, and there was
B & O Railroad, and American Tobacco, and Western Union, and Standard Oil.
And God said, “Let there be lightweights in the capital to divide
The people and their wallets” and he created the Presidency and the Congress.
And God saw everything that he had made, and told everybody
That it was very good.
Chapter 2
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
And the Lord God formed Woodrow Wilson and caused him to be elected
From the dust of the nation. And He gave him dominion over all the land
And all the citizens.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “of every effort thou art
Free to tax, but thou mayest take only what thou needest, thou mayest
Not create a central bank thereupon to take and keep and withhold from
The people, for if thou creates a central bank thou shalt certainly die.”
Chapter 3
Now the banker was more subtle than any beast of the field which the
Lord God has made. And he said unto Congress, “Yea, hath God said
Ye shall not create a central bank?” And Congress said, “We may tax any
Fruit of the garden, but God said we may not partake of a central bank.”
And the banker said, “Look ye, woman. See how the economy goes in waves
And in circles. See how the hard times follow the good times, see how
The citizens suffer joblessness and hunger, in cycles. Know you that risk
Can be mitigated? Did He tell you that you can take compassion on your
People, help them out, and buy their votes in the next election? Did
He tell you that you can have higher highs, whiter whites, and new and improved
nigh unto eternity? Perhaps He wants to keep all the fun and glory to
Himself? Have you ever thought about keeping a little reserve?”
Chapter 4
And Congress took a bite of the apple, and handed it to Wilson, and he also
Took a bite, and they found that it was sweet and juicy, and they wanted more.
And so they created the Federal Reserve. And henceforth,, when there were good times,
The tax receipts were plentiful. And when there were bad times, the Federal Reserve created more paper money and created money to be borrowed, and the losses were postponed, and the
Tax receipts were STILL bountiful.
And they created insurance companies and the FDIC and the SEC and Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac and Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and nuclear deterrents and all manner of protection against all manners of losses, any loss that anybody could think of or imagine.
Chapter 5
And one day it came to the attention of the man in the street that one loss, one little possible loss, had not been insured, contracted, mitigated, indemnified, incorporated, or otherwise protected against, and that was the loss of everything-all-at-the-same-time. The whole nine yards, the kit-and-kaboodle, the cat’s meow. And other people began to read and to hear and to understand and to fear, against this one little item. And a fifteen minute call to Geico went unanswered. And all of the preachers and the Pharisees and the Sadducees arose and penned opinion pieces for the local newspapers that such a thing could never come to pass and y’all need to quit worrying about it and go back to cheering for American Idol and the Pittsburg Steelers. But real estate prices fell and people lost their jobs and had their homes foreclosed upon and the dark clouds continued to build over Noah’s town and the people became more and more fearful…
{snip}
Chapter 7
…
He sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated. But the dove found no rest for her foot, and she returned to him. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, that the waters were dried up from the earth. And God said, look okay, I did it again. But still I have not destroyed everything. I give you another chance. But please, this time, stay away from snakes and bankers!
In the beginning, God created Plymouth rock. And Jamestown.
And God said, “Let there be light” and there was Westinghouse.
And God saw the light, and it was good.
And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
Waters”, and He created US Steel.
And God said, Let the land bring forth profits, and there was
B & O Railroad, and American Tobacco, and Western Union, and Standard Oil.
And God said, “Let there be lightweights in the capital to divide
The people and their wallets” and he created the Presidency and the Congress.
And God saw everything that he had made, and told everybody
That it was very good.
Chapter 2
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
And the Lord God formed Woodrow Wilson and caused him to be elected
From the dust of the nation. And He gave him dominion over all the land
And all the citizens.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “of every effort thou art
Free to tax, but thou mayest take only what thou needest, thou mayest
Not create a central bank thereupon to take and keep and withhold from
The people, for if thou creates a central bank thou shalt certainly die.”
Chapter 3
Now the banker was more subtle than any beast of the field which the
Lord God has made. And he said unto Congress, “Yea, hath God said
Ye shall not create a central bank?” And Congress said, “We may tax any
Fruit of the garden, but God said we may not partake of a central bank.”
And the banker said, “Look ye, woman. See how the economy goes in waves
And in circles. See how the hard times follow the good times, see how
The citizens suffer joblessness and hunger, in cycles. Know you that risk
Can be mitigated? Did He tell you that you can take compassion on your
People, help them out, and buy their votes in the next election? Did
He tell you that you can have higher highs, whiter whites, and new and improved
nigh unto eternity? Perhaps He wants to keep all the fun and glory to
Himself? Have you ever thought about keeping a little reserve?”
Chapter 4
And Congress took a bite of the apple, and handed it to Wilson, and he also
Took a bite, and they found that it was sweet and juicy, and they wanted more.
And so they created the Federal Reserve. And henceforth,, when there were good times,
The tax receipts were plentiful. And when there were bad times, the Federal Reserve created more paper money and created money to be borrowed, and the losses were postponed, and the
Tax receipts were STILL bountiful.
And they created insurance companies and the FDIC and the SEC and Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac and Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and nuclear deterrents and all manner of protection against all manners of losses, any loss that anybody could think of or imagine.
Chapter 5
And one day it came to the attention of the man in the street that one loss, one little possible loss, had not been insured, contracted, mitigated, indemnified, incorporated, or otherwise protected against, and that was the loss of everything-all-at-the-same-time. The whole nine yards, the kit-and-kaboodle, the cat’s meow. And other people began to read and to hear and to understand and to fear, against this one little item. And a fifteen minute call to Geico went unanswered. And all of the preachers and the Pharisees and the Sadducees arose and penned opinion pieces for the local newspapers that such a thing could never come to pass and y’all need to quit worrying about it and go back to cheering for American Idol and the Pittsburg Steelers. But real estate prices fell and people lost their jobs and had their homes foreclosed upon and the dark clouds continued to build over Noah’s town and the people became more and more fearful…
{snip}
Chapter 7
…
He sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated. But the dove found no rest for her foot, and she returned to him. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, that the waters were dried up from the earth. And God said, look okay, I did it again. But still I have not destroyed everything. I give you another chance. But please, this time, stay away from snakes and bankers!
Monday, July 11, 2011
Gold's Gym
Patent medicine. The elixir of youth. Land in Florida. Penny Stocks.
Subprime Real Estate, ARM mortgages, chain letters, the eat-all-you-want-to-all-day-long diet, John Law and The Mississippi Company, and dutch tulip bulbs.
None can compare with this one.
You are going to do what? "Work out"? um, how much are they paying you????? Tom Sawyer would be so proud ....
Do I really have to say anything more?
Subprime Real Estate, ARM mortgages, chain letters, the eat-all-you-want-to-all-day-long diet, John Law and The Mississippi Company, and dutch tulip bulbs.
None can compare with this one.
You are going to do what? "Work out"? um, how much are they paying you????? Tom Sawyer would be so proud ....
Do I really have to say anything more?
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Sitaka
So many of my experiences in Ethiopia were of the kind that "you had to have been there." On the other hand, so many of my peers now suspect or accuse me of such dark pessimism, and they just don't know, so feeble as they may be I will make some attempts.
"Sitaka" means "gift" in our language. This was the name of the live-in servant girl of the family where I stayed on my first trip. Yes, there is that dirty little secret that the National Geographic and all of the "save an orphan" organizations do not want you to find out, namely, that most of the middle class in Ethiopia have live-in servants.
She must have been around seventeen. The occupation is a major alternative for a young woman who does not accept an early marriage (choices of schooling and other occupations are very limited.) She worked from around sunup to around sundown, seven days a week. Her pay consisted of her own little room, and food, the same as the
family, and a stipend equal to $20/month.
She had all sorts of activities and it seemed to me that she was always busy. She prepared most of the meals and she washed the dishes afterwards. There was a single faucet in the back yard, the extent of the running water in the compound. She did the dishes in the sun and let the brightness dry them. She swept out the entire compound every day. She fed the chickens and the cat. She washed all of the laundry, bending over two large pans on the ground that looked like the bottoms of oil drums, hung it on the line to dry, pulled it in before evening. She owned two sets of faded, raggedy dark outfits that she alternated; those were probably all
her possessions in the whole world.
Sitaka turned my whole understanding of the world completely upside down, as I spent weeks and weeks watching her, interacting lightly. She never worked hard but always went easily, lightly to her tasks. She sang, usually softly, sometimes more loudly, while she bustled about. She played, with Tadios, with the chickens, with the cat. She was ALWAYS smiling, she was ALWAYS happy; Nagast even said about her that she was the happiest person that he even knew.
This simple truth, that we tell each other, in church, and to our young people and in our greeting cards and our little sermons to one another, but none of us believe it for a moment and no one would dream of giving up anything they had to attain what she has ... but that is what you have to do, that is all you can do, put down your own stuff and trust in the Lord, and thank Him constantly
for everything He gives you. There is no other way to happiness.
If that is really what you want.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Sex
I’d prefer for this issue just to go away, quietly. I’d prefer for me just to ignore it. But nearly everybody around me seems to be obsessing about it. Since, imho, they are all missing the mark by a pretty wide margin, I am impelled to shoot my arrow into the maw.
One of the important experiences in my past was a long-drawn-out negotiation of divorce and property settlement with a former wife, and her attorney, and my attorney. There really was not all that much to fight over and most of what there was the ownership was pretty clear. The main problem, as I see it from retrospect, was that the woman had an unholy desire to hurt and take advantage of me in any way that she possibly could find. This was coupled with an education and career in the twists and turns of the written English language. Bluntly, she employed every subterfuge and device that she could imagine. Actually, I suspect that she borrowed most of them from the real estate and mortgage industry of this great country. The long and the short of it was that we struggled for over two years, it became the major concentration of my time and energy and affected every part of my life. Even the lawyers, on both sides, got tired of it. At the end, she ended up having to pay me over twice what I had originally asked for, in return for the property of mine that she held back for herself.
Another set of experiences also has a strong impact on my point of view. During a period in my life when I was single and moderately wealthy, I had opportunities to idyll and play for weeks at a time under the roves and mingling with people in a very different and foreign culture, that of modern Ethiopia. I ate, drank, danced, partied, prayed and slept with natives. Previously I had had some vague suspicion that the prevailing attitudes, standards, laws, and mores of my own culture, having to do with sexuality, might be a bit twisted and perverted. The profound experience of being able to look back at it from the outside, has taught me a great deal that few around me can see.
Just for example, I remember a particular discussion I had with an older Ethiopian gentleman about the drug Viagra. I can still see and hear his belly-laugh at the americans who believe that such a drug could be beneficial or pleasant or helpful.
For the longest time on my bulletin board I had posted a quote from Bishop Desmond Tuttu descrying the ruckus about priestly pedophilia, in a world where problems of persisting violent struggles, starvation and disease plague large populations. Only in America, where anything sexual is perfectly permissible in public so long as it is used to sell something, but highly improper for pleasure, could such a brouhaha arise.
Where am I going here? The issue of the day, at least in the newspapers and the discussions at my church, is “gay marriage”. Maybe the tv too, I wouldn’t know. Is it right or wrong. I can envisage some pretty thorny legal situations arising. A same-sex couple can marry in one state, then move to another where their marriage is no longer accepted. Or a hetero couple can marry, then one of the members submit to medical science’s wizardy and physically and legally change their sex, in a state where even cohabitation in certain venus may be punishable by law. The variety and kind of ridiculous fabricated conflicts that could arise, boggle the mind.
We base our culture and our laws, to a high degree, on the writings of a misogynist from almost two thousand years ago, who spent all his time with other men, never married and barely tolerating others who did. He did, in fact, devote considerable discourse and energy on the subject of whether or not a grown man must have his penis mutilated in order to gain admittance, upon death and leaving his body, of the most hallowed permanent vacation place. It escapes me why his opinions are considered to be paramount, especially on this subject.
So the reason I am bothered enough to write is this: hearing and reading all the discourse, debate, and acrimony, on both sides of the aisle, I have yet to read or hear one person correctly identify, even mention, the root of the difficulty, the true foundation of the problem.
As usual, it is money. Not sex or morality at all, but lucre.
To go back to that failed marriage, I recall after that experience being truly regretful that no one in this culture will ever tell young people in consideration of matrimony, the nasty truth of what marriage (ANY marriage) really is about here in this land. It doesn’t matter if you pretend to do it in a church or synagogue or mosque or Las Vegas chapel, or just the office of the justice of the peace, or maybe even out in the woods. Before you can do it you have to get a license, that should be a clue. The plain fact is that making a marriage is an act of creating a contract. Most importantly, it is a three-way contract, between two individuals and the state. No one is told, in advance, that there is simply reams and reams of fine print which is written upon that contract and which both individuals must accept and adhere to. Obviously even fewer people ever actually READ the fine print. Not until one or the other actually finds themselves in a lawyer’s office discussing the opportunities of divorce, do they begin to understand the breadth and depth of all of that verbiage.
When you marry, it changes your financial status in all kinds of ways. It immediately changes your withholding and tax status. It affects your last will and testament, whether duly recorded or simply assumed. It affects all the contracts you have with insurance companies, health, automobile, hazard, whatever. Amounts of money that you pay to these various entities will change, immediately. Money, money, money. In most of these situations, you will find that you will benefit, financially (at least, until you show up in divorce court!)
People cannot rationally discuss whether or not gay marriages should be legal until they recognize and accept that society grants substantial financial advantages to couples who sign this marriage contract and agree to all of its terms.
The simple way (KISS) out of all this morass is to change all of the laws and regulations to be transparent to marriage. Make it a religious and only religious institution, which has no effect legally, has no affect on anybody's wallet. Then, all this nonsense about same-sex marriages would fade like the fog on a September morning. Ain’t gonna happen, is it. People just have to make drama, don’t they. Sigh ….
One of the important experiences in my past was a long-drawn-out negotiation of divorce and property settlement with a former wife, and her attorney, and my attorney. There really was not all that much to fight over and most of what there was the ownership was pretty clear. The main problem, as I see it from retrospect, was that the woman had an unholy desire to hurt and take advantage of me in any way that she possibly could find. This was coupled with an education and career in the twists and turns of the written English language. Bluntly, she employed every subterfuge and device that she could imagine. Actually, I suspect that she borrowed most of them from the real estate and mortgage industry of this great country. The long and the short of it was that we struggled for over two years, it became the major concentration of my time and energy and affected every part of my life. Even the lawyers, on both sides, got tired of it. At the end, she ended up having to pay me over twice what I had originally asked for, in return for the property of mine that she held back for herself.
Another set of experiences also has a strong impact on my point of view. During a period in my life when I was single and moderately wealthy, I had opportunities to idyll and play for weeks at a time under the roves and mingling with people in a very different and foreign culture, that of modern Ethiopia. I ate, drank, danced, partied, prayed and slept with natives. Previously I had had some vague suspicion that the prevailing attitudes, standards, laws, and mores of my own culture, having to do with sexuality, might be a bit twisted and perverted. The profound experience of being able to look back at it from the outside, has taught me a great deal that few around me can see.
Just for example, I remember a particular discussion I had with an older Ethiopian gentleman about the drug Viagra. I can still see and hear his belly-laugh at the americans who believe that such a drug could be beneficial or pleasant or helpful.
For the longest time on my bulletin board I had posted a quote from Bishop Desmond Tuttu descrying the ruckus about priestly pedophilia, in a world where problems of persisting violent struggles, starvation and disease plague large populations. Only in America, where anything sexual is perfectly permissible in public so long as it is used to sell something, but highly improper for pleasure, could such a brouhaha arise.
Where am I going here? The issue of the day, at least in the newspapers and the discussions at my church, is “gay marriage”. Maybe the tv too, I wouldn’t know. Is it right or wrong. I can envisage some pretty thorny legal situations arising. A same-sex couple can marry in one state, then move to another where their marriage is no longer accepted. Or a hetero couple can marry, then one of the members submit to medical science’s wizardy and physically and legally change their sex, in a state where even cohabitation in certain venus may be punishable by law. The variety and kind of ridiculous fabricated conflicts that could arise, boggle the mind.
We base our culture and our laws, to a high degree, on the writings of a misogynist from almost two thousand years ago, who spent all his time with other men, never married and barely tolerating others who did. He did, in fact, devote considerable discourse and energy on the subject of whether or not a grown man must have his penis mutilated in order to gain admittance, upon death and leaving his body, of the most hallowed permanent vacation place. It escapes me why his opinions are considered to be paramount, especially on this subject.
So the reason I am bothered enough to write is this: hearing and reading all the discourse, debate, and acrimony, on both sides of the aisle, I have yet to read or hear one person correctly identify, even mention, the root of the difficulty, the true foundation of the problem.
As usual, it is money. Not sex or morality at all, but lucre.
To go back to that failed marriage, I recall after that experience being truly regretful that no one in this culture will ever tell young people in consideration of matrimony, the nasty truth of what marriage (ANY marriage) really is about here in this land. It doesn’t matter if you pretend to do it in a church or synagogue or mosque or Las Vegas chapel, or just the office of the justice of the peace, or maybe even out in the woods. Before you can do it you have to get a license, that should be a clue. The plain fact is that making a marriage is an act of creating a contract. Most importantly, it is a three-way contract, between two individuals and the state. No one is told, in advance, that there is simply reams and reams of fine print which is written upon that contract and which both individuals must accept and adhere to. Obviously even fewer people ever actually READ the fine print. Not until one or the other actually finds themselves in a lawyer’s office discussing the opportunities of divorce, do they begin to understand the breadth and depth of all of that verbiage.
When you marry, it changes your financial status in all kinds of ways. It immediately changes your withholding and tax status. It affects your last will and testament, whether duly recorded or simply assumed. It affects all the contracts you have with insurance companies, health, automobile, hazard, whatever. Amounts of money that you pay to these various entities will change, immediately. Money, money, money. In most of these situations, you will find that you will benefit, financially (at least, until you show up in divorce court!)
People cannot rationally discuss whether or not gay marriages should be legal until they recognize and accept that society grants substantial financial advantages to couples who sign this marriage contract and agree to all of its terms.
The simple way (KISS) out of all this morass is to change all of the laws and regulations to be transparent to marriage. Make it a religious and only religious institution, which has no effect legally, has no affect on anybody's wallet. Then, all this nonsense about same-sex marriages would fade like the fog on a September morning. Ain’t gonna happen, is it. People just have to make drama, don’t they. Sigh ….
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
The economic death-spiral has been triggered.
http://www.philstockworld.com/2011/05/30/the-economic-death-spiral-has-been-triggered/
yes, yes, yes, I know ....
I'm just another crackpot.
Please pay no attention to that man behind the curtain ....
yes, yes, yes, I know ....
I'm just another crackpot.
Please pay no attention to that man behind the curtain ....
Saturday, June 11, 2011
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