DECLINE, DECAY, DENIAL, DELUSION, & DESPAIR

The majority of Americans seem OK with just waddling through life, accepting the lies and misinformation blasted from the boob tube and their various iGadgets by their owners, gorging themselves to death on Twinkies and Cheetos, paying 15% interest on their $10,000 rolling credit card balance, and growing ever more dependent on the welfare/warfare state to provide and protect them from accepting personal responsibility for their lives. A minority of critical thinking people have chosen to question everything they see and hear being spewed at us by the propagandist mainstream media, the corporate fascist government, and the powerful banking cabal that has an iron grip upon our throats as they choke the life out of the global economy in their never ending desire for more riches and more power.

The decline of the Great American Empire cannot be attributed to one factor or one bogeyman. There are a multitude of factors, villains, and choices made by the American people that have led to our moral, civil, social, and economic decline. The kabuki theater that passes for our electoral process is little more than a diversion from our imminent fate. Neither candidate for President has any intention of changing the course of the U.S. Titanic. Our rendezvous with destiny has been charted, and there aren’t nearly enough lifeboats. Those who built the ship and recklessly navigated it into a sea of icebergs will be the 1st into the few lifeboats. The leaders we’ve chosen, the choices we’ve made, and our unwillingness to deal with facts and reality have set in motion a disaster that cannot be averted. It’s a shame the majority of Americans have the math aptitude of a 6th grader, because the unsustainability of our empire can be calculated quite easily. Math is hard for Americans, but denial and delusion are easy.      

Oddly, a couple of late September days in Wildwood NJ were able to crystalize many of the aspects of our cultural and economic decline in my mind. I should have just enjoyed the 72 degree temperatures, a few beers, and the freedom to read a book on my deck. I wish I was just oblivious to my surroundings, but my weekend in Wildwood NJ was an eye opener. Everywhere I turned I saw something that made me laugh, shake my head in disgust, or wonder how our government could have become so inane, incompetent and out of control. We all generalize based upon our preconceived beliefs, but sometimes what you see is what you get. The weekend started normally with a morning bike ride on the boardwalk with my wife and son to the Hereford lighthouse in North Wildwood. Along the way we passed the usual suspects on the boardwalk: the obese, the tattooed, the pierced, and the blue haired. I wish I was exaggerating, but I saw a dozen hoveround and rascal scooters carrying extremely obese Americans on par with this person:

 

If I wanted to be politically correct, I’d call the fat asses cruising on their “free” rascal scooters, the weight challenged disabled on their powered mobility enhancement vehicles. You know a trend has become a massive scam, when South Park dedicates an entire show to the shame of obesity and the scooter brigade. The majority of the scooter squad jamming up the boardwalk was less than 50 years old. They weren’t disabled. They were just too obese and lazy to wobble down the boardwalk to the next junk food joint. They were certainly in the right place. The Wildwood boardwalk is home to pizza topped with cheese fries, chocolate covered bacon, fried Oreos, funnel cake topped with powdered sugar, and 64 ounce sugar laced lemonade. The place would make Nanny Bloomberg’s head explode.

   

 

We’ve all seen the commercials for the Scooter store urging anyone on Medicare to rush in and get a power scooter or wheelchair “at little or no cost to you”. The entitlement “free shit” mentality permeates our culture. There is a cost and it is over $800 million per year, paid for by the 53% who pay Federal taxes.  Records from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services show that the cost of motorized scooters and wheelchairs to the government health service for senior citizens rose 179% between 1999 and 2009, the last year for which full records are available. This data is fascinating as the number of Americans over the age of 65 only increased by 18% over this same time frame. The bill in 1999 was $259 million; in 2009 it was $723 million – and is surely over $1 billion today. This is another billion dollar scam being funded by your tax dollars, but there are no spending cuts possible according to our beloved Congressmen.

A recent report by Medicare’s inspector general also showed that 61% of the motorized wheelchairs provided to Medicare recipients in the first half of 2007 went to people who didn’t qualify for them. (Only people who cannot get around without one are supposed to be eligible.) The inspector general found that Medicare is billed an average of $4,018 for a motorized wheelchair that normally sells for $1,048. As a taxpayer, you will be shocked to find out that people are selling their “no cost” Rascal 600 B mobility scooters on eBay. I’m sure the keen eyed government drones working in the Health & Human Services agency are policing the resale of taxpayer paid for scooters. I find it amusing that scooters have various naming classes, just like BMW and Mercedes. The vast majority of people I see tooling around on their “mobility scooters” are just plain fat. They aren’t over 65 years old. On my Sunday bike ride I was flabbergasted and amused by the sight of a 350 pound woman on a Rascal with the pedal to the metal pulling a 275 pound man in a wheelchair attached by rope. The plague of slow metabolism is sweeping the countryside.    

 

While I was relaxing on my deck reading and trying to blot out the nightmare visions of obese boomers in Rascal formation like German panzers invading Poland, a brand new SUV pulled into the parking lot across the street. After five minutes, the driver’s side door opened and out sidled a four foot five, two hundred and fifty pound female senior citizen in all her girth. She waddled to the back of the SUV and opened the hatch to extract her walker with wheels. She began berating the three hundred pound dude that got out of the passenger side to come and get his walker. Then she motored off towards Laura’s Fudge, while her hubby conserved his energy waiting by the SUV. Minutes later she scooted her way back hauling a sack of fudge. They then trundled off towards the boardwalk, most likely headed for Kohrs Bros for a double dipped fudge ice cream cone or some Boardwalk fries smothered in cheese.   

  

Based upon my unscientific assessment of the people walking on the Wildwood boardwalk, I would conclude that 35% of the people are obese, 40% are overweight by 20 or 30 pounds (myself included), and 25% are in relatively good shape. After checking the government statistics, my assessment appears to be accurate. Who is to blame? The easy answer is to just blame the individual for their lack of self-restraint and inability to contain their impulses. But when you consider that 160 million out of 232 million adults in this country are either overweight or obese, along with 11 million adolescents, there must be something more sinister behind the phenomenon. There is no doubt that a major portion of the blame must be laid at the fat feet of those who could have exercised restraint over their cravings, but the words of master propagandist Edward Bernays provides another factor in the equation:

“If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without them knowing it.” – Edward Bernays

     

Bernays reveals a truth that is self-evident to those with critical thinking skills. Sadly, few Americans exhibit any thinking skills whatsoever. Our society has bifurcated into those who control and those who are controlled. The overlord Double Plus Alphas in our society consist of the Wall Street banker cabal, the executives of our mega-corporations, Federal Reserve governors, Washington DC politicians, Federal government apparatchiks, the propaganda experts in the mainstream corporate media, and the secretive billionaire set that manipulate and maneuver behind the scenes. The first step in controlling the Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons, as Aldous Huxley knew in 1931, was to indoctrinate them with propaganda in our government run schools. This mission has been accomplished. The vast majority of school children graduate from the government school system with no ability to think critically or question what has been spoon fed to them as facts. The fascist alliance of corporations and the state begin in the public schools, with product advertisements by corporations now subsidizing school budgets. The road to obesity is paved with chicken nuggets, fries and pizza dispensed by the government schools on a daily basis.

Just as in Huxley’s Brave New World, America has been built upon the principles of Henry Ford’s assembly line—mass production, homogeneity, predictability, and consumption of disposable consumer goods. In the dystopian novel, members of every class, from birth, are indoctrinated by recorded voices repeating slogans while they sleep. Huxley didn’t imagine the power of TV and other mass media outlets to do the same while we are awake. We are bombarded day and night by propaganda from mega-corporations to buy their products. Mass consumption of processed food sold by the likes of multi-billion dollar corporations Kraft, Pepsico, Coca Cola, General Mills, Nestle, and Unilever is the chief cause of the obesity epidemic in America. The few know how to manipulate the many through messaging, repetition and persistently molding the opinions of the feeble minded non-thinking masses. The billions spent by corporations on advertising to convince the masses that eating a Wendy’s Baconator, KFC extra crispy bucket, or Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, washed down with a two liter Mountain Dew or Cherry Coke, is a tribute to the invisible government running the show. Huxley and Bernays had it all figured out eighty years ago:            

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.” – Edward Bernays, Propaganda, 1928

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the masses by the invisible government Alphas has transmuted citizens into overweight, non-thinking, debt dependent, egocentric consumers. This was not a mistake. The powerful interests used their control over the banking system, media outlets, and political system to lure the willfully ignorant into a debt financed lifestyle through the Federal Reserve created inflation, Wall Street peddled credit cards, auto loans and “creative” mortgages. The manipulators convinced the manipulated that borrowing today to buy houses, cars, bling, tech gadgets, clothing, and fast food was preferable to what previous generations of Americans had done – save to buy things they wanted or needed. This behavior seems to be completely irrational as a people that once saved 12% of their income and carried a moderate amount of debt chose to reduce their savings to 0% and not worry about tomorrow.

 

It is easier to understand when you realize who benefitted from this purposeful shift in societal norms. The low debt, high savings, production era from 1950 through 1980 benefitted the working middle class, allowing millions to improve their standard of living. The rising debt, low savings, consumption era, from 1980 through today, benefits the 1% Alphas while impoverishing the middle class and sentencing the lower class to a lifetime of dependent servitude to the state. Who benefitted from debt fueled conspicuous consumption and continues to benefit today? The peddlers of consumer debt on Wall Street and the mega-corporations that convinced Americans they couldn’t live without that 5,500 square foot McMansion, BMW X5, stainless steel appliances, 84 inch 3D HDTV, iPhone 5, diamond encrusted Coach handbag, and thousands of other Chinese made trinkets that pile up in underwater homes across the land, benefitted tremendously. The proliferation of debt resulted in obscene profits for the financial sector, record profits for the mega-corporations that shipped production to Asia in order to take advantage of the slave labor, and three decades of wage stagnation and increasing debt for the average working middle class American.    

 

The financialization of America was a conscious decision by the oligarchs. They controlled the issuance of credit. They controlled the currency and level of inflation inflicted upon the masses. They controlled the corporations selling consumer goods on credit. They controlled the Congress, courts, and government agencies with their deep pocket lobbying and buying of influence. Lastly, they controlled the media messages and molded the opinions and tastes of the masses through their Bernaysian propaganda techniques perfected over the decades. In one of the boldest and most blatant acts of audacity in world history, the Wall Street/K Street oligarchs wrecked the world economy in their insatiable thirst for profits, shifted their worthless debt onto the backs of taxpayers and unborn generations, threw senior citizens and savers under the bus by stealing $400 billion per year of interest from them, and enriched themselves with bubble level profits and bonus payouts. Meanwhile, median household income continues to fall, real GDP is stagnant, true unemployment exceeds 22%, and 47 million people are living on food stamps.   

 

The propaganda being flogged by the oligarchs since 2009 is the supposed deleveraging by the American consumer and trying to convince the ignorant masses to resume borrowing and spending. It’s working. Consumer credit outstanding is at an all-time high of $2.73 trillion as the Federal government has dished out billions in student loans to 50,000 University of Phoenix MBA aspirants sitting in their basements quivering with anticipation of on-line graduation and future six figure job with Goldman Sachs. The Feds have also added the impetus to the “strong” auto sales through their 85% TARP ownership of Ally Financial by doling out 7 year 0% auto loans to subprime borrowers in urban enclaves around the country. The oligarchs aren’t worried about these loans being paid back, because they are reaping the profits today. The future losses will just be foisted onto the taxpayer, as always. Total credit market debt of $55 trillion now exceeds 350% of GDP. The National Debt of $16.2 trillion will exceed $20 trillion in 2015 no matter who wins the Presidency in November. The oligarchs adapt and control whoever occupies the White House. It is essential for our owners to keep debt growing at an exponential rate or the Ponzi scheme collapses.

Narrow minded ideologues want a simple answer to a complex interaction of generational, cultural, economic, political, and criminal factors that have conspired to put the country into a predicament that, at this point, will inevitably lead to economic collapse. The truth is the American people have learned to love their servitude. They have willfully chosen ignorance over truth. They’ve chosen to believe what their keepers have instructed them. They’ve chosen to trust the storylines generated by the corporate media rather than think critically and question everything. They’ve chosen obesity and sickness over health. They’ve chosen debt financed faux wealth over savings based real wealth. They’ve chosen safety and security over liberty. They’ve chosen dependency over self-reliance. These choices were aided, abetted and promoted by the Alphas through their ability to manipulate and control the unthinking masses. Huxley understood the power of propaganda and brainwashing decades before it was perfected by our owners.  

“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.”Aldous Huxley

The saddest part of this episode of the Decline & Fall of the American Empire reality show is the continued delusion of the majority of the populace, as their desire for material goods and fair share of the entitlement pie outweighs their sense of obligation to their children and grandchildren. Their chosen ignorance is fulfilled through their attachment to their personal digital ignorance gadgets and supported by what passes for government education. The truth is obscured and hidden under waves of triviality, reality TV, and data manipulation by our government masters. The dystopian nightmare that engulfs our country has thus far resembled Huxley’s vision of a shallow populace easily distracted by consumerism, pleasure seeking, cultural trivialities, and a never ending ability to be distracted by meaningless minutia. Orwell’s darker vision of surveillance, captivity, information control, authoritarianism and pain will become the norm once the existing social order falls.   

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.”Neil PostmanAmusing Ourselves to Death

I despair for my country that has chosen to eat, amuse and borrow itself to death. But my despair is deepest for my children and their future. The greed, corruption, myopia, selfishness, and disregard for the well-being of future generations by current and past generations has left a barren and bleak landscape for my children. The Huxley vision of America consuming and amusing itself to death is coming to a painful conclusion, as the limits of a fiat currency and debt based lifestyle become evident. Those in power are preparing the masses for a more Orwellian vision of America when they are forced to pull the plug on the existing paradigm. The Patriot Act, NDAA, military exercises in our cities, militarization of local police forces, warrantless surveillance of our communications, searches and seizures in our airports and train stations, purchase of millions of rounds of ammo by government agencies, implementation of drone technology, camera surveillance, attempts to control the internet, manipulation of economic data, and executive orders allowing the President to take over all commerce while imprisoning citizens indefinitely without charges, are the next step in our descent into a dictatorship of tears.

The question is whether we will stand idly by, fiddling with our gadgets, tweeting about Honey Boo Boo, or will we regain our sense of duty to the future generations of this country. The manipulators are powerful, rich, connected and FEW. Those being manipulated, controlled, and abused are MANY. There will be a revolution in this country whether you like it or not. The existing social order will dissolve during the next fifteen years. What replaces it is up to us. George Carlin described what our owners want.

“Politicians are put there to give you that idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations, and they’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the State Houses, and the City Halls. They’ve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies so they control just about all the news and information you get to hear.

They’ve got you by the balls.

They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I’ll tell you what they don’t want—they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interest.”

What do “We the People” want?      



 

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honestann
honestann

As bad as the physical state of westerners has gotten, the intellectual state is vastly worse.

Gayle
Gayle

Answer to Stucky

I pretty much went cold turkey. I followed a book called The Skinny Rules, which laid it out all so well and easily that it wasn’t particularly difficult.. With that plan, occasional bread and oatmeal were included. Then I stumbled onto the paleo philosophy (see marksdailyapple.com) and a short time later read about dr. Davis’s experience with patients who shunned wheat completely. Pretty amazing. I feel quite certain that I will never go back to my former way of eating. The hardest part is going to the frozen food section at Costco and knowing that 85 o/o of the stuff is unhealthy.

I can’t live without pancakes so I developed some decent buttermilk pancakes made with almond meal instead of flour. Which reminds me, do some research on coconut oil too.

Steveo
Steveo

Stucky, I provided a link to the site that has the info. You need to read the “fat switch” book. this is the latest most controversial studies of testing on animals ever performed. new data reveals that your own body can produce fructose from carbs! this is why you keep hitting a limit, with your 50% carb diets and are tired and craving more. You have to take away the fructose and carbs then ween back on them after you have turned the fatswitch off. Read the book, it is brand new, not available many places. The Mercola interview is also available with Dr. Richard Johnson who has been studying this stuff for 30+ years. They fed rats and mice and other animals diets with the same amounts and made changes to only the sugar and fructose and in different forms. Their work and publications are peer reviewed and they are changing the way we think. So to get out of your metabolic funk, you will need to completely starve the fat switch and flip it off! Its the same switch that hibernating animals use to gain fat, they eat fruits and their bodies produce fructose as well, fructokinase gets into your cells and burns them out (oxidizes them) they swell and switch to fat storage…of course i am probably not describing everything perfectly, but I am not the researcher. there are even fish that do this! So it is seen throughout the animal kingdom and they have studied this in numerous species, it works! That’s why the primal diets work. You can get by on zero carbs if you need to, your brain will use other sources for energy as well. You need to get past the idiots who are stuck in their paradigm paralysis and get up to speed on the latest real science.

Francisco Cavaleiro
Francisco Cavaleiro

To start with I’d like to show my appreciation for the positive reaction to my initial posting and also would like to thank the administrator who kindly allowed me to use the article and share it with others.
I have read the whole thing once more and as far as I am concerned, the obesity issue, even though it is important, was used mainly to illustrate one of the pitfalls faced by our modern and industrialized societies.
I would like to address different issues raised by the article but since so many people have reacted to that particular problem, I also would like to contribute with my personal experience. At this point I should probably mention that I have been a fairly active person most of my life, was into athletics and volleyball when I was young and won several competitions in my homeland. Still, I have not been as active as I should have been in the last couple of years but somehow managed not to gain weight excessively. I reckon that is due to a simple belief: if I manage to keep my mouth shut, I certainly will not be putting on weight.

I was also lucky to have had parents who cared enough for my sisters and me, to take their time to teach us about the benefits of a healthy diet and way of life, even though I have often forgotten it. My Father, who is now 95 years-old, was a visionary of sorts and didn’t drink alcohol most of his life, apart from the occasional Port glass at Christmas or birthday parties. It would have been a sacrilege if he had not done so, since he comes from the region where it is produced and my maternal Grand-Father was the person in charge of the institution that regulated production on the area, a very famous and beautiful place which has been nominated UNESCO world heritage. Nonetheless, my Father has had cardiac arrhythmia for many years now and after he was well past seventy, he found out that a glass of red wine at meals would be beneficial to his health and therefore he adopted that habit. He also had to fight colon cancer but managed to beat it once he was operated about twenty years ago.
I firmly believe that his good health arises from the advices of an Italian doctor who lived in Portugal and who had a singular approach to how people should eat. My Father developed some peculiar eating habits but it seems they have worked wonderfully for him. That started with one of the first things he did every morning after he woke up: my Mother would squeeze one lemon and would mix the juice with some lukewarm water and he would drink that without sugar. Not the most tasteful drink in the world but it was definitely a vitamin shock first thing in the morning. He would follow that by some simple gymnastic exercises for no longer than ten minutes. After, he would have some milk and most probably a piece of fruit. Still, the most important piece of advice by the aforementioned Italian doctor concerned the way we had our lunches and suppers. At home, we ALWAYS started meals – unless we had some visitors who were not used to our approach – by having fruit. We could have as much fruit as we wanted and living in Africa we treated ourselves to an incredible array of tropical fruits: bananas, pineapples, guavas, papayas, sugar cane or whatever was available in the local market. Afterwards, we ALWAYS had a vegetable soup, which would provide for the intake of even more vitamins. Usually when one cooks vegetables, the vitamins are thrown out with the water they have been cooked in and by taking soup that risk would be eliminated. It also had another side effect since we did not need to worry about buying any extra vitamins supplements and therefore sparing some money (this takes us back to the other issues on the article and how the big conglomerates create artificial needs in order to delve into our pockets every time they have a chance). After the soup, we ALWAYS had a salad, mainly composed of lettuce, tomatoes (need to be red to be beneficial to one’s health), onions, carrots, sweet peppers, radishes, cucumbers and so on, and topped with some simple vinaigrette sauce, where olive oil would never be replaced by other sorts of oil. Some herbs like fresh parsley or coriander would be added to it as well as ground cumin or other available spices. Only after having had all that we would then proceed to the main course, with some meat (white most of the times) or fish which was excellent and fresh, since our coastal waters were renowned for its quality.
The idea behind all this approach was that by eating this way, we would have had plenty to eat before diving into the main course and therefore would feel less inclined to gorge ourselves with large amounts of animal protein and fat which ultimately would be detrimental to our health.
My Father also stopped smoking when I was born and never touched tobacco again in his life, and everybody knows now what smoking does to one’s heart and lungs. He also believed in the benefits of exercise and our family would go out walking, practically every single evening after the meal, along the shore line. As I said before, he is now 95 years-old and still goes walking as much as possible even though he has had to start using a small cane for the last six months or so. Up to about two years ago, when his heart started giving him more problems, he’d go walking an average of two hours every day, and practically knew every single street in Porto due to this habit. Another thing he has always done and still does, (he never had the chance to go any further than primary school since he came from a not well-off farmer’s family and had to start working when he was ten years-old) was to improve his knowledge and cultivate himself through reading. He currently gets National Geographic Portuguese edition as well as the Reader’s Digest Selections which he reads from the beginning to the very end. But he also likes literature, especially being fond of biographies or historical books or any other sort he deems worth reading. Not a long time ago he read Marcel Proust who is not the simplest writer in the world.
I firmly believe that his longevity and quality of life is due to the right choices he took throughout his life. Mainly it comes down to recognising the important issues and priorities and be disciplined enough to stick to them.
Sorry everybody for this bout concerning my Father, but I thought it would illustrate fairly well the fact that mostly, it depends on our choices and what we are willing to do to reach our objectives.

Weight related problems are also rising in Portugal and the number of obese people – even though they have not reached the proportions seen in some Americans – is increasing here as well. As far as I can see this is also a phenomenon exported by the USA and is definitely due to the global influence of the large advertising firms which are one of the most important factors of the expansion of American values (someone has mentioned a documentary produced by BBC called “The Century of the Self” and having seen it some years ago when I was living in Germany, I certainly can recommend it for a better understanding of what is going on). American fast-food outlets and even the American fast and furious way of life are becoming ubiquitous and as far as that aspect of things are concerned, Europe has been perfectly colonised and that impact is also being felt all over the world. The big conglomerates want to raise their profits and apart from using the aforementioned advertising companies, they also count with Hollywood film industry to propagate their values and priorities, since by using it they can send subliminal and very subtle – well, sometimes not so subtle – messages that are very easy to be picked up by societies which are being pushed to think less and absorb already digested information spewed out by TV, instead of developing analytical and critical processes through reading and using imagination.
I have watched American TV programs where people went for eating competitions and firmly believed that they were into some sort of sport! How stupid can that be? Just to prove my point, a couple of nights ago I was checking the BBC News site and was confronted with a piece concerning a man who died in Deerfield Beach, Florida, after having gorged himself up in a cockroach eating competition. I rest my case.

Once again, thanks to you all for the attention you so kindly have given me. Before I go, I would like to stress the fact that even though I have used some American examples, I have tried to put them into context and firmly believe that no nation is better than others. Like human beings, they all suffer from their own idiosyncrasies and only God knows the stupidity I have observed in the several countries I have lived so far, starting with my own, where a class of corrupt politicians are using the inadequacies of the madding crowds to reach their goals. And that has been happening, since the carnations’ revolution in 1974, which was hailed as a turning point by and for the portuguese people and which had political repercussions all over the world. So many things were conquered by the people in general and workers in particular and now we are assisting the delapidation of our way of living, being guilty too, for not having realised or not caring enough about whom we were voting for and thinking that immediate and selfish gains would not have to be paid for at a later stage.

Noel Falconer
Noel Falconer

America is the Fourth Reich: compare the Homeland Security Act with the Enabling Act that legitimised Nazi Germany.

jack
jack

import cheap plastic pos from china 2$, sell to american for 4$ on credit. then sell the acount recivable as an investment product for 6$. procede to record a GDP growth of 4+6-2=8 and voila we have economic recovery

Dirty Dan
Dirty Dan

Eddie’s quote is right on: Religion is the opiate of the masses.

Chris Hitchens said organized religion asks you to check your brain at the door. Having once checked your brain it is much easier for the religious hierarchy to orchastrate and manipulate your behavior. Once the church has your brain in storage it is much easier for big brother to take his turn. Thusly, glory to god and country becomes the mantra of the young charging into battle.
It is said that 95% of the worlds people believe in an all powerful diety. Is any further evidence necessary to explain the current state of our planet.

Wyoming Mike
Wyoming Mike

We’re fine. Was at the relatives’ Sunday. Found out that…

A. GM has paid back ALL the baiilout money PLUS interest.
B. Joe Paterno knew nothing and is totally innocent. Not only that, it was not HIS responsibility to report anything.
C. Solar bailouts are great for the economy (because it gives my uncle a job). BTW, he was a homebuilder until the bubble burst making much more, but he doesn’t seem to put the cause & effect together.
D. We have a free market regardless of the amount of government intervention because you are free to buy whatever you want.

I feel much better now. Jim’s been wrong all along.

Stucky

Wyoming Mike

Jeez, that’s funny stuff! Wish I could have been a fly on the wall.

Here’s a picture you might want to print and include in this years’ Christmas card to your relatives.

comment image

John D
John D

Can’t decide on Like or Dislake. The conditions of today, world wide, and the blame game goes further back than Huxley infers — I think they began with Adam and Eve or with whomever were the first members of the human race appearing on earth. Very interesting information that only a few folks will take the time to mull over and be in agreement with. John D.

JMS

The fization of America was made profitable on the backs of selling/dimantling industry and shipping to 3rd world, driving down wages to as low as possible, then enticing us to borrow the rest. Would not have been possible without FED as a backstop.

TeresaE
TeresaE

Llpoh, I went back and looked at your chart, it is for whites only, so I wonder what those figures would look like when you include minorities (especially Asians,though I would expect they rarely, if ever, drop out) I was remembering the article that Time did (I believe it was Time) a few years back (right around either the last election or the first year of so into Obama’s reign) and that was where I got the info. The article was about the sad state of education and how we are are spending more money on the bottom 5% of IQs, than on the top 5% – more money by a factor of ten. Time was looking at the ridiculousness of spending trillions on “educating” people that are so mentally or physically challenged that they will be virtually unemployable for life.

The general consensus is that we are wasting huge amounts of China’s money on programs with little, to no, worth. People freak the hell out if you say such things though. We want to believe we are the “richest country on earth” and that somehow paying ten teachers to attempt to babysit and control 20, very sick in some cases, kids, is debt well spent. Other than enriching the teacher’s unions and gifting the parents a free babysitter, transportation, additional help and disability checks, I don’t really get it.

What I’m coming to figure out is humans are inherently non-rational, pleasure seeking, and self-centered. I just don’t see how the few of us aberrations (and that is exactly what we all are here, aberrations of genetic code) can hope to override the vast majority that are driven by emotion and self-preservation, not logic and the ability to understand the concepts of fiat, government and human nature.

So it goes.

llpoh
llpoh

Teresa – as before, I totally agree. The world is moved by great minds, by and large. And great minds need to be promoted. That the emphasis has so shifted that resources are effectively wasted is truly troublesome.

I know people must think I am truly elitist. Perhaps that is true. But the fact is, I run a business where I employ around 100 people, and I generally offer low skilled work but at reasonably good wages. The number of folks I see that are incapable of handling even low skill work is astonishing – if a significant portion of potential employees cannot handle the work I have, those people are effectively unemployable. And when you add to this number the folks with the requisite talen that do not want to work, who will not work, who will not come to work, you end up with a very high percentage of the population that is unemployable by private business and who are a net drain to the economic society. In general, I hire 5 or more people before I find 1 person who can and will do the work on offer. That is a very sad indictment on the state of the world.

The only way I see this can be overcome is by the elimination of the government welfare state. Those that are capable of working in the private sector will be forced to do so, and work for those incapable of working in the private sector needs to be provided for the rest, in return for societak support.

Pirate Jo
Pirate Jo

TeresaE and llpoh, I agree. Maybe the best thing most people can do to “make the world a better place” is to die without reproducing.

llpoh
llpoh

Admin – have you seen this article? Another instance of PA youths running rampant. These kids need to be dealt with – seriously.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/10/teen-arrested-in-suckerpu_n_1955369.html?utm_hp_ref=education

llpoh
llpoh

Sorry – my bad. I thought PA was a state, but now I find out it is a warzone with demarcations and no man’s land running north to south. Glad you are on the correct side of the line!

Otown Right Guy
Otown Right Guy

I can believe Pittsburgh is a barbarian-controlled area. Steeler fans represent a very low form of life. Just above pond scum. Maybe.

Wyoming Mike
Wyoming Mike

Hi James,

Yeah, we had a 4 day whirlwind tour for my sister’s wedding. It was nuts. I wished we had more time to visit folks (you), but we just didn’t. I didn’t even have a Yuengling.

Willy2
Willy2

Nothing a good old fashioned bankruptcy of the US won’t solve, right ?

anita
anita

Thank you to the writer of this honest article, and to all the commentators. This is my first visit to The Burning Platform and I must say, I have been moved to tears and laughter.
I write from Australia, and I view the situation from a deep well of empathy, having lived in Canada for a few years and travelled through America.

I was born in post WWll Holland and came to Oz as a child in the fifties.

For now, I want to particularly thank Francisco Cavaleiro for the beautiful Love Story offered here, on food and father and cultures and experiences. No need to apologize, as this is the essence of what really matters in life.

My parents are similar: still going strong on much the same regime as F’s, at 88 and 84 respectively; for the 50-60 years they have lived where they do, in a ‘convict’ settlement outside Sydney, their routine has never changed.
But that is a whole other story.
Thank you all and I will be back.
LoL

Novista

anita

Welcome, another land of oz person. I’m from the U.S., came to oz by way of Samoa and have lived in Hobart, Orange NSW, Melbourne, and now in North Qld.

NCredulous
NCredulous

I’m a 66 years old man and have been in a manual wheelchair full time since age 12. I do not qualify for a power chair as I am still able to wheel myself about. I don’t want a power chair as they are mostly a pain in the butt, so to speak, but the irony of The Scooter Store advertising their “no cost to you” garbage for fat Grannys is not lost on me. I look around and find it hard to recognize this America as the same one I grew up in.

Maryland
Maryland

This is my first time to this site. Thank you for this article. And so many interesting comments. Not much of this is news to me, but I’d been trying to think of a way to tie together all of these things I’d been thinking about — and this is IT!

I have a comment about the weight loss stuff. I tried a paleo diet totally out of curiosity, and was astounded how well it worked. Not only did I easily lose weight, but my appetite cravings disappeared and my desire to increase my activity occurred spontaneously. In other words, I think changing the types of food I was eating affected my appetite and energy level, which in turn affected the numbers of calories taken in and burned through activity (and I DID NOT EXERCISE). It also affected my sleep; I began enjoying full nights of restful sleep. I don’t know if everyone would have similar effects, but this is what happened to me. And basically all I did was give up grains, reduce the amount of fruit, eliminate sugar, and eat primarily grassfed/pastured meat/fat and vegetables, all “real” and organic, and not processed, for fat eat meat fat, coconut oil, olive oil, grassfed butter, avocadoes, nuts. eggs for breakfast, meat/salad for lunch, meat/veg for dinner, a bit of cheese and full fat plain yogurt with berries. After I lost the weight I wanted to lose, I added back in very small amounts of white rice or potatoes. FWIW. Good luck to all those trying to lose weight!

As for the other stuff, I’d love to hear some things to DO other than sound the alarm. I am optimistic by nature but this is really sad stuff. Already I try very hard to think before I consume, try to figure out if my thoughts are my own or are programmed into me by those who do not have my best interests at heart.

We are in a pickle: even if we stop consuming all of those brands and start making our own “everything,” what, for example, do we do if we are parents of kids about to enter college? It seems like such a conundrum. I know that an expensive college degree does not guarantee employment sufficient to pay off the student loans. But going the “no degree” route doesn’t seem like a smart way to go, either. So many employers seem to require those letters after our names these days (it is all a racket to rachet up the required credentials, to push us into getting the degrees and racking up loans that we will have difficulty paying off in our lifetime). So… what to do? My kids really, really want to go to college (and they are not low IQ kids). I don’t think they understand the implications of the loans that they would be required to take out in order to get that college experience. It seems pretty discouraging. I cannot even say anymore that we are “middle class.” (However, I don’t really think there is any such thing. There are the workers, and the owners. Oh, and the hosts for the parasites — I guess I see it that way, the poisoned/obese are part of the system, to keep things going for certain industries like pharmaceuticals and motorized wheelchair manufacturers, and doctors and insurers and government regulators. Keep them fat, keep them sick, keep them on maintenance drugs which have side effects which lead to more drugs and a slow death (above all do not share with them the fact that you have a cure for their disease — sssshhh!!!), keep them visiting the doctor regularly, keep them from thinking for themselves)

And in the background of my mind, a voice is laughing: “what makes you think there will even be a future or jobs or anything?”

I am old enough to be adaptable and self reliant and have skills and knowledge in my head (not digitally!) that would be useful if the world should fall apart, and I have lived enough years that I have had a life and don’t have so much to lose in terms of not being able to take risks in taking a stand. But I do have kids, and that makes it hard. How can I prepare them?

newsjunkie
newsjunkie

comment image

Eddie
Eddie

Maryland

Responding to your question about your kids.

The most important thing is to educate them about the true nature of things. This is not something they are likely to get from school or any form of media. In my case i have actually found it difficult to make my kids understand the gravity of our situation, because all “normal” authoriities hide the truth, and their peers are clueless.

Beyond that, my own plans are:

Acquire supplies and tech to survive an emergency.
Make an EDAP.( Energy descent action plan.)
Learn to grow food, right now, wherever you live.
Have weapons and be prepared to use them if necessary.
Acquire tools and skills for use in a world without technology.

Hopefully all this is unnecessary. But don’t count on it.

Maryland
Maryland

Eddie,

Even 2 years ago I would have thought you (and all this) were nuts. I got a crash awakening out of the blue at the hands of some government tyranny aimed at yours truly. Even THEN it took me several months to catch on and swing my views 180 degrees. My trust was broken and could not be repaired, because you can’t unsee something, once you’ve seen it. I’m 50 years old and since I was stupefied for so much of my life, I can certainly understand the mindset of being caught up in the way we are indoctrinated to think about the world. My entire family is still asleep.

So unfortunately, up until about a year ago I was participating in the mainstream indoctrination of my kids — in an entirely well meaning way, as any good parent would do. It is hard to do a turnabout without them thinking I’m nuts. I can see myself through the eyes of the way I was, all those years. I’m trying to open their eyes, gradually but as swiftly as possible.

And yes, doing ALL of those things you mention. Each one of them I have questioned, am I being a paranoid nutcase? And each time the answer comes: nope. This really IS what it really is.

Sometimes I feel like I’m living in two worlds simultaneously (like my mention of trying to figure out how to fund college without setting my kids up for a lifetime of debt). I would like to find a community of like-minded people, but that has so far been difficult.

I like your mention of acquiring tools and skills. A lot of that is mental, I think.

anita
anita

Novista
Nice to meet you here.

You sure have experienced a great range of landscapes and cultural experiences. Hope you are well in North Queensland. I am in SE Qld, right on the beach. ahhhh

Interesting topic, this nutrition.
I strongly agree on the processed white flour, sugar and fat issue.

I particularly enjoyed Francisco’s story because the food/nutritional story was inextricably bound into his Familial rituals and health : our relationships with each other and the Earth.

These have of course, been seriously sabotaged by social and scientific engineers.
I guess Francisco and I are of an age when we remember our lives not being dictated to by politicians and scientists.

All my family ancestors were farmers in the Netherlands, while my mother’s father worked on cargo boats along the river systems of northern Europe. They all owned their homes and had nil food shortage, even when city people starved during the Occupation/winterhonger.

I became a holistic health counselor, endured and suffered the wrath of the ‘establishment’ community of registered and qualified professionals. Farcical really, while my sister died of cancer at 45, trusting that registered and qualified group, and paying almost a hundred thousand dollars for ‘treatment’.

By then she was yellow, and they still offered her and my parents hope.
That was tragic, because she was born beautiful, strong and healthy.

Anyway, our ‘corporatized’ world is demoralizing and eroding the values we oldies have treasured, and there is a strong movement to overcome all this destructive, greedy exploitation of Planet Earth and its precious resources.
Peace

ThePessimisticChemist
ThePessimisticChemist

“These have of course, been seriously sabotaged by social and scientific engineers.”

Unfortunately science has not been tempered with patience or reason over the last couple of centuries.

My field in particular is heavily to blame for this. Chemistry is just like playing with tinker toys or legos once you get used to moving the pieces around, but the consequences of throwing away our “new toys” once we get sick of them grew ever more dire. Our ability to manipulate things at the molecular scale quickly outpaced our understanding of the consequences.

Its one of the million reasons why I do not partake in a large scale GMO place like Monsanto (my aunt is a highly placed scientist there) nor in a large scale pharmaceutical company (Bayer and others).

Nope, I work with animal feed and things that are Generally Recognized as Safe. For the first time in a long time I don’t feel guilty walking around without my goggles on.

PS: I hate you for living on the beach. Right now its 10 degrees celsius, windy and spitting very cold rain here. While I love a dreary fall as much as the next guy, sometimes it would be nice to enjoy 27 degrees and sunny weather.

Novista

hi, anita

It’s 26.8C here today, sunny … (hi TPC) and a surf carnival going on.

You’re right about landscapes and cultures. I should add that 1969-70 I was on a contract job in Saudi Arabia. That gives me rather a different outlook than many …

As for nutrition and diets, I think the main thing is moderation, even in moderation. I don’t shun the ‘bad’ foods as I enjoy ethnic cooking too much, thus white rice, pasta, tortillas, etc. And at 76 I am still on the normal side of BMI, just — and recovering from three weeks of hard drinking (beer and wine) as I had a visitor. Last time I saw him was 40 years ago. Now, he’s 325 pounds and all the rest …

My second wife died of cancer (so did the first) and the first thing I asked the oncologist after the emergency operation (successful, but then the scan found liver sites) was what do we do to help the immune system during the chemo. He looked at me like I had two heads.

All the specialists are interested in is their speciality, fuck the rest of it. NO advice from the hospital or local quack. But I know how to find what I want on the web. Maybe it helped.

In the course of my searches, I ascertained that diets are like opinions, everyone has one. Or maybe more like religions, every diet is right and all the others are wrong. I reckoned if I marked off all the things everyone says is bad — from ‘meat is murder’ to the whole gamut — nothing would be left.

Only thing worse that corporatism and vampire squids and globalization is the farce of governments. It’s very entertaining to have experience with both ours and in the U.S. particularly. I keep wondering why NO one wants to talk about the real issues. All the local yapping about ‘misogyny’ and other distractions and the kabuku of U.S. politions, a pox on both their houses.

max

bring back the OTTOMAN EMPIRE

anita
anita

hi Novista,
Good for you enjoying your life, no matter the adversities that have been flung at you along the way.

The trick in life is to find one’s own optimum zones, however one defines these. While I have always held fast to the notion of authenticity, I have also been too compliant in some areas, not knowing how to manoevre my way through.

I have managed that now though, and here we are on The Burning Platform, which I have added to my list of must-visit daily web sites.

Max, no more Empires please.

Looking at Australia, and America, we really would do well to nurture our own societies and regions.
In the past few years I have become acutely aware of this plan for one global government, which I believe must be resisted with everything we have.

Of course, the elites will not let go without a fight, and on Veterans Today, they are openly talking of civil war in America.

Lucre is the only thing keeping all these wars going, and I do believe City of London plus Washington, where Australia is registered as a corporation, is going for broke in Occupying Planet Earth.
Depopulation is their only other objective, and we must do what we can to show that there is a better way.
Peace

Novista

hi anita

Optimum zones, interesting idea.

Australi and America, another marriage arranged in hell. Given all the ‘friends’ that the U.S. has funded, one might be worried at ending up like Saddam Hussein et al … When Dick Cheney flew to visit John Howard about the David Hicks detention, it should have been evident which was a vassal state.

And then, not long ago, three military funerals in short order, somewhere in which a reporter asked Julia the long-term plan for Afghanistan. “Oh, we will be there for ten years.” We … maybe if they gave her an M-4 and dropped her in downtown Kabul, the Taliban would be scared into surrender.

Coalition of the willing becoming colation of the wailing …

One world government, New World Order, Illuminati Rising … it is to laugh. Brussels cannot even manage to control one small piece of the pie.

I guess those central planners are thinking bigger than Caligula: “I wish all you Romans had only one neck!”

A signoff I learned not long ago from a friend: I wish you enough.
Not sure the original source, or when, but this is the idea:

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more..

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting…
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good- bye.

Mad Max
Mad Max

People are looking for simple answers to complex questions and problems. This is different folks. OsiXs is the only group with new, real ideas about doing something. Everyone else is just blowing hot air. Sooner or later we have to do something. The question is – WHAT?

The revolution has started! It’s just waiting for you!

“Be Smart!” –
FIGHT THE CAUSE – NOT THE SYMPTOM

U.S. Citizens
Read “Common Sense 3.1” at ( http://revolution2.osixs.org )

Non U.S. Citizens
Read “Common Sense 3.2” at ( http://SaveTheWorldNow.osixs.org )

Jean
Jean

Anita @ 8 Oct 2012 6:05 PM:

I was born/raised Catholic, but I have to respond to your statement:
“Depopulation is their only other objective, and we must do what we can to show that there is a better way.”

I may just be one of the damned, but I disagree with you completely. Depopulation is the ONLY option.
Dead politicians don’t make bad public policy, after all.
The all-important “VOTE” has simply insulated them from the process of reprisal for their bad behaviors and actions. Remove the insulating bureaucracy, and let them swing from the lamp posts. BINGO! Population problems, AND behavioral issues, solved at once.

<and understand that as a US Citizen by birth, now approaching 40, I've watched the aftermath first-hand, and seen how quickly these people turn vicious. The only cure for their sociopathy is to become socipathic yourself, or pay others to do it for you. You can turn it off; you can pay others to NOT be sociopathic as well as be sociopathic; but you cannot suffer the sociopath to live free and inflict himself on you. Usually he does it with his own conscience clear: I'm doing this for YOUR OWN GOOD. That justification is in fact the proof of the sociopath…

I cannot afford illusions about who and what I am. In this you would do well to do some introspection and decide the same for yourself: will you die for THEM? They WILL send you out as a meat shield. They will not think twice about it. You are replaceable. "They" are not, "They" are important, "They" are CEOs, politicians, lawyers, accountants, doctors, AMA, APA, DEA, FBI, etc., etc, etc.

By definition, if i can't keep my nose out of my neighbor's business, we have a population problem: either I can't get my nose elsewhere, or I can't mind my own business. Either way, we have too many people.
The "Elite" (define however you wish, especially by wealth – usually money in the US, sometimes beauty, sometimes social power) WANT the slave class – and enforce through the Media (elites in their own minds) the view that anyone who questions "conventional wisdom" is in fact lunatic fringe.
Diet: FAT IS BAD, don’t eat fat, cholesterol, natural vegetables and fruits – eat our GMOs and TV dinners instead. (Paleo / Primal diet; South beach; Atkins; etc.)
Behavior: Boys are active? They must be ADHD, DRUG THEM. Girls are quiet, talk a lot? FORCE them into sports, Title IX them into STEM, put them on excitotoxins and make them run, jump, lift weights! {Go read Hooking up Smart or Heartiste – I think both are wordpress – to see where we are now, with masculine females and feminized males.}
Economics: Central planning is GREAT, ONLY OPTION! {Like USSR did such a good job? Pravda was mocking us openly – 5+ years ago now. If Mother Russia’s citizens know we can’t remove our head from our anal sphincter… Why the HELL don’t WE?}
Medical care: Doctors are GOD. {IIRC, Doctors malpractive – not talking BS lawsuits, actual MALPRACTICE – kills more these days than autos. Wish I could cite… But they DO kill more than guns, while we’re at it…}
Personal wealth: Who needs to save? Apres Moi, Le Deluge! {Of course, we know we’re just passing the buck if we don’t watch out income and save… but I’ve seen first-hand how destructive things become when you, yourself, do not maintain IRON GRIP on your finances. I trusted the woman to manage things, I went banrkupt in a year. 6 years ago, still trying to recover, still can’t ditch the parasite. She still thinks it’s ALL good… }

And let’s not even get into religion, the opiate of the masses (someone else mentioned that above anyway.)

anita
anita

Jean your pain is very raw and real. I have spent 13 years in spiritual direction/introspection.
I am 63 and blessed to be breathing after the issues/losses I have survived.

I am so sorry that you have given up on catholicism, as I do not know how anyone gets through the tough times without God.

We are all icons of God, and to turn your back on the teachings of Christ is to shut out Life-giving blessings of mercy, forgiveness and healing.

Today I received an email to say that your Greens candidate for the Presidency was arrested. So things are getting tougher by the moment in America. I am blessed to live in relative freedom and peace. I hear you on all your issues Jean, which I do not have the time to go into here. I only hope you find someone who will companion you through your anger and pain, to the other side, which really is better, and without hurting yourself or others, which only perpetuates the destruction.
Peace.

Jean
Jean

Anita,
Thank you for the kind wishes.

I am fairly certain that God is either sadistic, disinterested/uninvolved, or still on his “seventh day” (resting). There are various reasons for this – but chief among them is my notice of how the Catholic church (especially) (1) censored information, and (2) controlled both religious and secular life for several centuries, snuffing out learning, questioning, discussion, and knowledge – the EXACT actions of a dictator. IF these people had ANYTHING to do with God, they would have behaved differently. As it is, I hope there is a wamr spot in Hell for them. I’ll be along soon enough…

At the same time, sometimes hurting others is the only option – whether it is through demographic revolution or revolution by force of arms, it is violence, and must either be accepted or denied – usually through force alone. (It being difficult, for example, to out-breed an immigrating race. Ask the Native Americans…)

the Destruction you mention is part of the fall. The same Church you would ask me to accept (Catholic) is the CAUSE of a large set of problems – and in Africa, for example, is still following the same (failed) approaches, limiting knowledge, engaging the local superstitions (Christmas/Yule, anyone?), and teaching those who should be leaders that being a leader means “washing others feet” (to make it obvious how effing STUPID they are). Of COURSE a good leader takes care of his followers; no one can deny that.
But crippling those who would lead by taking care of others, by telling them anger is evil (wrath), that violence only begets violence (No enemy left = peace), that they must be “above the base impulses of others” – just constrains those leaders to failure. The “enemy” (warlords specifically come to mind) do NOT play from that same book. They reward helpful minions in the here-and-now, and physically maim and kill those who oppose them.

By all means, let’s have some violence. In the US, our rulers are too insulated from it.
Over there, violence is everywhere – preaching peace and submission DOES NOT STOP THE PROBLEMS. And even here, it only prolongs the agony.

And I won’t even start down the whole AIDS issue, which speaks to the local superstitions and Catholic conscripting of those same superstitions whenever useful. Let alone changing the effing rule book when it is KNOWN those rules don’t work.
Bear in mind, the New Testament was grown from the Old Testament; Christ was not born in a vacuum, the Jewish tradition had existed for centuries prior. Had Christ been born to a polytheistic culture, he might well have been named Muhammed. Just making the point…

America was born in the age of Enlightenment, following the Age of Empires (Spain, France, Britain being key.) Without the (relative) peace caused by those powers, there would not have BEEN an enlightenment; violence was pushed out of sight of the commoners, unless they were military or seafarers. The accumulated wealth allowed for thought, contemplation, growth of arts not seen since the Renaissance – and the Enlightenment was IIRC triggered by rediscovery of the ancient classics, Greek and Roman literature, more-literate society, accumulated wealth leading to education… Not a vacuum, no one woke up and said, “I’m going to paint the Sistene Chapel,” let alone, “Let’s go find ancient scrolls and translate them into our language!”

Sometimes we need to break eggs.
I think the problem and misconception here is, our rulers see US as the eggs to be broken.
God (Church) is no different from the “secular” rulers. Those who seek power are cut from the same cloth. Religious just torment us “for our own good,” and thuse with full consent of their conscience. (Hell, my parents sent me to Catholic schools so I could get an education like theirs – full of corporal punishment. They were very upset I didn’t get whacked with a ruler, spanked, etc. And I’m under 40, mind… Not a young man, but old and wise enough to know right from wrong, even fi I don’t always get ti right at the moment.)

anita
anita

Good morning from Australia Jean.

Yes there are many, seemingly insurmountable problems in our world. Sickness and sorrow and real evil.

If I had been limited to church life, I would have been as angry as you, but all that sustained anger does one no good.

I found a person who is an ex priest. Now married with a child and very happy,

Having raised four kids (who do not thank me for their catholic educations, for which I went out to work, to pay the fees) and studied at university and worked some more….I ended up a mess.

So the past 13 years have been devoted to unlearning old ‘conditioning’ and re learning new skills so I could fit into this very imperfect human world.

And Jesus loved the imperfect and powerless people.

For all the problems of the catholic church, there have been some truly wonderful people there, and great spiritual directors.
Just remember this: you are an icon of God, and it is your spiritual task to find out your true purpose in life.

I am not judge of any one or anything. I just pray that you find compassion and purpose and peace amongst the mess.

anita
anita

I should clarify: the person I found, ended up being my spiritual director.
I met him at a Carl Jung Society meeting.

He became my spiritual director, for which I am eternally grateful to his inordinate patience and genius.

When he met and married his wife, the Uniting Church performed the ceremony. And still, they worship in the Catholic church.
I asked if they felt any bitterness, and why do they continue and he said:

No bitterness, that is not Love. And the best saints and teachings have come down thru the ages.

I am not a regular church goer, but I do have a complete immersion in Christ, and who I am and who I was born to be and what I was born to do.
That path Jean, is what it means to be truly authentic, when we learn that humans are fallible;

who can we trust?
so for 13 years I travelled to his office, with my tears, confusion, rage, broken heart and endless questions.

Now that I have found myself, the world is diving into a worst chapter. I agree with you. But you are young and energetic and wise. So follow your conscience and do what is right for you.
Blessings on your courage and strength.

PeppermintPatty
PeppermintPatty

There is still hope that the average citizen still thinks. My friend commented the other day some of her high school students were questioning the ideas that college is valuable and taking out student loans have no risks. The students were concerned there would be no jobs for them after college graduation, let alone high school, to repay the loan. This also shows much needed moral character.

Dave Redick

Obama wins! and will try to convert the USA to socialism!

Stop Him !!

Redick for US President 2016

Press Release #1: For immediate release, Nov. 8, 2012
Contact: David Redick, [email protected] http://www.Forward-USA.org (530 words)
*********************************

Dave Redick is a Candidate for the Republican Nomination for U.S. President in 2016

The re-election of Pres. Obama will allow him to accelerate his prior efforts to convert the USA to a socialist nation (the government owns most of the major industries and has many controIs on industry and the people). He has been promoting this since his youth, and now with no re-election to restrain him, his mode will be ‘full speed to socialism !’

We must stop him! Thus, I hereby announce my campaign as a True Republican for U.S. President in 2016, and will appreciate your support. I have been active in promoting traditional Republican Principles since my run for Congress in CA District 1 with Pres. Reagan in 1984, and have a letter of support from him. My campaign theme is ‘Save the USA’, and the message is presented on my web site http://www.Forward-USA.org, and in my books; 1) ‘Rebuild America Now’ (US problems and solutions; most of the text is from the web site), and 2) ‘Monetary Revolution USA’ (allow private mints to make gold as money, and abolish the Federal Reserve System). Text of the Monetary book is at Part 2 in the left margin of the Forward-USA.org site. Both books are available on Amazon.com.

The goals of my campaign are to; 1) Set a standard for a principled approach to better government, including using my policies as a comparison to other ‘more famous’ candidates, and 2) Bring awareness to US voters of the causes of, and solutions for, our serious social, economic, and foreign problems, so we can all work toward more peace, prosperity, liberty, justice, and morality. As more people become concerned about the likely crash of the US Dollar’s value (purchasing power), and our economy, we will have mass support to bring pressure on Congress to make changes in our national policies. As your President, I will fight to implement these changes, with the help of True Republicans, and like thinkers, nationwide!

I define a True Republican as a person who works to build the GOP’s traditional principles of; 1) More liberty and personal responsibility, 2) Limited government with low tax and spend policies, 3) Sound money – the Gold Standard -, 4) Comply with the Constitution, and promote the rule of law (no Imperial Presidency, Signing Statements or Executive Orders that change or create laws and wars), and 5) A foreign policy of non-intervention abroad (no non-defense wars for oil and Empire-USA) and strong defense of our Homeland. These principles were promoted by Republican leaders I respect such as Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan.

As a personal introduction, see my bio at Part 6 in the left margin of my campaign site Forward-USA.org. My education is BS-Engineering and MBA-Economics.

We face critical problems that must be solved soon to avoid the crash of our economy and culture! Obama and Congress have shown little interest in reducing our spending for wars and welfare, so we must EVICT them. I will work closely with those few in Congress (95% Republicans) who agree with my plan. Will you join us? Thanks for your interest and support. Join the fight to ‘Save the USA’!

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Approved and paid for by the ‘Forward-USA-Redick-2016’ Committee. Bruce Rideout, Treasurer.
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Thanks, Dave 8Nov2012
[email protected]

Mi Naem
Mi Naem

A good Catholic bishop posted a reference to this article and its title in his “Eleison Comments” (to which I subscribe) of 11/12/24.
I found this site after a web search for the title. Boy, am I glad I looked! This blog is amazing, and Quinn sure knocked it out of the park with this article.

The electro-gadgeted eloi will not be quite so cooperative when hungry.
So, our people are being laid down to sleep during this Huxley phase of our enslavement where it is brutishly unfashionable to publicly concern oneself with country, culture, family, and God.
So, as we drift off to sleep, our Orwellian nightmare is being prepared for us. Shshshshs.

Mi Naem
Mi Naem

Mr. Administrator,
Thank you for clarifying that you are a bigoted a$$ whole. It is not all your fault, though. Much of the hierarchy of what remains of the Roman Catholic Church answers to authorities who do not come from Jesus, Peter, or the other apostles. Most of what has happened to the church in the last several decades was foretold by the Blessed Virgin under the title of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. The Pope and the Bishops have disregarded her clear and simple instructions that would have prevented and repaired the damage to so many souls.

But, to answer your question, I think he would not have bothered. The bishop in question is amply aware of the tragic condition of what passes for the Catholic Church, and is a leader of the movement to undo so many of the changes that have rendered the “Catholic Church” a shell and caricature of its former self. And, he is apparently quite a bit more well aware than you of the fates that likely await us here and hereafter if we continue as we have.

AWD

This was a great post. All the elements of classic TBP. Deserves a re-post.

www.guardeaqui.com

Thank you for sharing your info. I really appreciate your efforts and I will be waiting for your next post thank you once
again.

google

Good blog you have here.. It’s hard to find high-quality writing like yours these days.
I really appreciate individuals like you! Take care!!

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