Aligning your world

Is beauty important for your career when you are not beautiful?

Is curiosity important for your personality when you are a journalist?

What kind of person are you now?

What kind of person were you before?

What kind of person do you want to become?

The answer to these questions have more to do with our choices in friends than we ever might have imagined. What we must do to survive is quite different than what turns us into slam-dunk winners. What turns us on and keeps our interest is very different than workin' for the man. "Finding your bliss" is a new age saying that rings of spaced-out fairies and useless losers who have nothing better to do than hug a tree. 

Or does it? 

The path of least resistance to an object is certainly when it holds our attention.  Nothing holds attention of the average American better than passion addiction and fun. Regardless productive humans require leadership, skills and an interest in real education.  This ups the anti and allow for a more challenging game.  All this is great but without people we're fucked.  Right or wrong, good or bad extrovert or introvert... we need people. We want to admire useless dreamers but when it comes to the business of life and pursuit of human potential we need the best.  That's when the hypocrisy shows up and we become the mirror.

Is beauty important for your career when you are not beautiful?

Is curiosity important for your personality when you are a journalist?

What kind of person are you now?

What kind of person were you before?

What kind of person do you want to become?

The answer to these questions have more to do with our choices in friends than we ever might have imagined. What we must do to survive is quite different than what turns us into slam-dunk winners. What turns us on and keeps our interest is very different than workin' for the man. "Finding your bliss" is a new age saying that rings of spaced out fairies and useless losers who have nothing better to do than hug a tree. Or does it? The path of least resistance to an object is certainly when it holds our attention, and nothing holds attention better than passion addiction and fun. Regardless productive humans require leadership and human skills that up the anti and allow for a more challenging game. We need people. When this is so we can love and admire useless dreamers but when it comes to the business of life and pursuit of human potential we need the best.

It all has to do with the people you know and weather or not they will fully support you or subtly suppress you. The distinction is not always that clear. Morticia Addams once said "Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc!" Which translates to: "We gladly feast upon those who would subdue us." Not just pretty words! They (The Adaams') had no need for others. We, however must align ourselves with honorable useful teams of people who know the game of life take our interests seriously, and who in very real terms would carry us, living or dead, home.  Who are your people and are they good enough ...really good enough to cut it when the mustard gets cut?

Reaching your potential is all about the people who live within your sphere of influence. The same applies to criminals in the "hood" and in Washington and in your world too. The South Central Gangs of Los Angeles bear a striking similarity to congressmen the "suits" on Wall Street and in the board rooms of Monsanto, Dow Chemical or even Google. Secret societies, exclusive clubs and informal but rigid family credo's enhance and structure beliefs that literally carry humanity and at the same time defines the modern human family spirit into the darkest corners of mob mentality. To be alone or on the outside of such human structures is to be truly alone. The absence of "we" in your vocabulary renders you powerless as a subject at risk of domination from any number of more powerful agencies whether it be a boss, a family, a business government or gang. Without the right people you're toast.

Watching life with the sound off while at some level hoping you will die during the commercial is who most people really are in this country. The lies we tell each other begin with the lies they tell themselves. Everyone is searching for "real" love and "real" people with "real" lives while taking less responsibility for their own reality as they often foist more upon their constituents, mates or family than they would ever consider taking on themselves. It is literally the emotional equivalent of a ponzi scheme where the takers take more than they ever intended to give. It is for this reason that choosing your friends, boss, the company you work for and your mate are the most important choices you will ever make. You are literally the Human Resources department of your life. You hire and fire your employers, you set the bar for friends and you create the reality of your world when you set the criteria to which, willing or not, the world must comply.

I must have missed the boat, in fact I know I missed the boat. I should have been a journalist. We can't all be journalists but we can push ourselves to tell the truth of our lives. We can tell the real story by tearing away the soft and comfortable lies that surround us as we slowly begin to reveal our true interests, our genuine dreams and the facts of our lives even the facts that speak to limits, fear and inspiration. Understood that daily life should be explored with energy and endurance at what ever level one is capable. And if you are one of those people who's life is spoken for by obligations commitments to the world and others I pity you. Or if you are a person who has fallen to depression or if you have lost faith or simply given up then your prison IS your life. The key is to know that it is not your fault.

In a world of excuses and shifting blame to anybody but yourself the key to surviving your lies is knowing that it is not your fault. Man is not an island they say. And the wisdom of the Addams Family writers makes it clear to wit we must celebrate our inner warrior as we feast upon forces that would limit us. When we shift our view of life in such a way we begin to crack the walls of our prison, much of which was built by others who profit upon our passivity.

When we know the game, if we survive the instruction manual, we can then live life unencumbered. The "sheep", the "walking dead," The "silent majority," all must wake. I myself must continually awaken as I shake life down for all it is worth - what ever that means to me, or what ever yours means to you it is those whom we choose to walk through it all that matter, and frankly... nothing in life matters more.

Orange Juice, what you don't want to know.

May 14, 2009

Ask an Academic: Orange Juice

Alissa Hamilton is a fellow with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and the author of “Squeezed: What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice,” which comes out this month from Yale University Press. An edited version of my conversation with her appears below.

Why orange juice?

In general, I am interested in how the food-processing industry is affecting the growing of major agricultural crops in the United States. It struck me that orange juice would be a perfect case study, because so many drink it, and the product is essentially processed oranges.

In your Introduction, you write that most orange-juice drinkers are “misinformed about what it is they are drinking.” Is it the “processed” part that most consumers are misinformed about?

That’s part of it. Most are surprised to hear, for instance, that the big brands, which market their product as “pure” and “simple,” add flavor packs to their juice to make it fresh. But people are also misinformed about the growing of juice oranges. A flight attendant once told me that he gets far more requests for orange juice on flights to Florida, because there’s still a strong association of oranges with the state. Yet most of the juice he’s serving now comes from Brazil, where there are fewer environmental regulations, and labor and land for growing oranges are cheaper.

Woah. Back up to the flavor packs. Why doesn’t orange juice taste fresh naturally, especially if it’s “not from concentrate”?

Flavor packs are fabricated from the chemicals that make up orange essence and oil. Flavor and fragrance houses, the same ones that make high end perfumes, break down orange essence and oils into their constituent chemicals and then reassemble the individual chemicals in configurations that resemble nothing found in nature. Ethyl butyrate is one of the chemicals found in high concentrations in the flavor packs added to orange juice sold in North American markets, because flavor engineers have discovered that it imparts a fragrance that Americans like, and associate with a freshly squeezed orange.

Freshly squeezed orange juice tastes fresh naturally, and some supermarkets do sell it. However, “from concentrate” and most “not from concentrate” orange juice undergo processes that strip the flavor from the juice. The largest producers of “not from concentrate” or pasteurized orange juice keep their juice in million-gallon aseptic storage tanks to ensure a year round supply. Aseptic storage involves stripping the juice of oxygen, a process known as “deaeration,” so the juice doesn’t oxidize in the “tank farms” in which the juice sits, sometimes for as long as a year.

Are these recent inventions?

The tank farms that have come to play a central role in the large-scale production of “not from concentrate” orange juice are a fairly recent innovation. In the nineteen-eighties, Tropicana’s solution to providing a year-round supply of Pure Premium “not from concentrate” juice was simpler: it stored frozen slabs of freshly squeezed juice in above ground tunnels. In the early nineties, it replaced most of these tunnels with the cheaper aseptic storage tanks. Some say Tropicana used to taste better. Considering the degree to which aseptically stored juice must be doctored to taste like orange juice, it’s not surprising that those who have been drinking Tropicana long enough can taste the difference.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to ask you this, but what was your take on the Tropicana redesign controversy?

The controversy was mostly over aesthetics. I don’t have much of an opinion about that, and don’t feel entitled to one, because I don’t buy the product. However, I do have something to say about a statement I noticed on the top of the new and now discontinued carton: “squeezed from fresh oranges.” Although meaningless as is (I would hope the oranges Tropicana squeezes for its juice are fresh), it looks and sounds a lot like “fresh squeezed” and could easily be read that way by supermarket shoppers. It isn’t the first time Tropicana has tried to reinvent its juice from the outside rather than the inside. In the late nineteen-eighties, it came up with the phrase “not from concentrate” to distinguish its pasteurized orange juice from the cheaper “from concentrate” or “reconstituted.” The idea was to convince consumers that Tropicana’s juice was a fresher, less processed product than reconstitute, and therefore worth paying more for. Then, unlike now, the effort was successful: within five years of the name change, sales doubled and profits almost tripled.

Thoughts on health attitude and culture from the soul

I can't believe it's not Summer! Early October always represents a shift in local weather here in Southern California. It is such a beautiful place but "winter" snaps in exactly now, in early October. Now is the time we pull out all the vegetables that have stopped producing or feed the ones that can eek out a few more lame tomatoes or peppers or whatever.

Next year I am planting HOT peppers and now that I know they do not die in coastal winters it is even more exciting. Chili peppers are really good for you! And they spice up food without the use for salt. I really have to focus on planting beans so I get a big harvest this fall. The snow peas are already six inches high and I have to cage them somehow.

As you all know Americans are reklessly in pursuit of the truth. So in this vein I may go see the Michael Moore movie "Capitalism" and get all upset. Certainly I can take a Xanax before paying my nine dollars to see his "not for profit" movie. I wonder what Moore does with the profits? Have you ever heard of a Michael Moore Foundation? There might be one but I never head of it!

All is calm on the homefront. Taters and beats are baking, lots of organics in the fridge and six weeks under my belt on the Gerson Therapy. I am wondering how to simplify the therapy to make it work for people who have no access to organice or as many organics as well as those who can not afford it? Some things you have to pay for I guess. At the end of the month I'm going to tally up how much I spent at Trader Joes Whole foods and the Ocean Beach "Co-Op" called Peoples Market. I never saw a more profitable "Co-Op." Sure appears to be rather profitable to me considering their prices SUCK.

Locally produced foods usually means expensive because we are supporting local farm families who have to pay all the bullshit taxes and fees and real estate nonsense we all have to pay. So stuff gets expensive. That's why the quality at large chain stores is poor. They ship GMO, artificially raised on life support crops from one distant place to their stores in large trucks that pollute adnauseum. Then expect us to eat what looks good but which is in reality a slury of chemically enhanced crap lacking in nutrients and trace minerals and God knows what else.

I think I would rather eat less, support local farmers and cut out all the middle men including the small chains and "Co-Ops" like Peoples. Also at People's Market they say their quality is better than Whole Foods. Well, it might be true but their produce looks like hell sometimes. Not "old" just tattered and lacking in some way. It might actually BE better that the glistening organics at Whole Foods. Still whole foods has the largest and most beautiful butter lettuce I have ever seen. And it tastes great.

The coolest thing about eating organic and drinking distilled water on this diet is when you go eat something or drink something fake. They taste gross. I rinsed my mouth out with shower water yesterday and it tasted putred. I spit it out and shook my head like a dog that just ate peanut butter. It was dis-GUSTING. Now I am usually pretty easy to please bu this time it was no contest. I have to put in a household water filtration system. Gary is NOT going to be happy about that when I ask him to pay for it. Yeah, that'll happen.

I find myself purifying the air in my house and the water I drink. Not even the reverse osmisis system that cost almost five hundred dollars does a good enough job to clean up my water in terms of what is required by the Gerson Therapy.

The last word on whether or not people should pursue the Gerson Therapy is this: If you are getting achey stuffed up allergic, cranky without explanation, depressed, arthritic, or have low spirits all the time you are probably toxic. Your liver is probably not processing properly. The vegetarian diet, the liver cleansing and the remarkable ability of caffeine to help the liver dump toxins is an effective way to clean up your act. But you must have a good juicer. Centrifical
juicers destroy most of the desired properties of juice. Juice must be ingested immediately after juicing. There is something about this fact that works. They really do not know why. It just does. Time after time Max Gerson tested these theroies. We can thank him for his amazing work and his many discoveries. He cured Albert Schweitzer and Alberts family of many chronic and terminal ailments. That is why Schweitzer called Gerson "the most preeminant genius of our time."

Septillion!

There are six septillion things going on in your body every ten seconds. Is it any wonder that we should feed our bodies better? Chew on that one!

Gerson Therapy Diet daily timing

Gerson Therapy timing:

Meal and Juice Timing:

9:00 am Juice two oranges
Start oat meal with stewed fruits of many kinds
10:00 Carrot / Apple juice /w 4 tsp potassium
11:00 Carrot / Apple juice /w 4 tsp potassium
11:30 Green Juice NO potassium
1:00 Lunch of Hip Soup, Salad and cooked vegetables and fruit
2:00 Carrot / Apple juice /w 4 tsp potassium

5:00 Dinner of Hip Soup, Salad and cooked vegetables and fruit
Evening snack organic lemon lemonade with stevia, plain popped corn with flax oil mixed cold with dill and garlic powder

Vinegar found to be best fabric softener!

Naural Organic Fabric Softener:

Many people love to use fabric softeners in their washing machines and dryers to help keep their clothes soft and plush and also smell nice. Understandable, yes, but many people do not realize that fabric softeners and dryer sheets contain many harmful chemicals that stay in your clothes and are absorbed by your skin. Some of the chemicals are highly toxic and have been linked to brain damage and cancer.

Below is a list of some chemicals commonly used in fabric softeners and dryer sheets:

Benzyl acetate: Linked to pancreatic cancer

Benzyl Alcohol: Upper respiratory tract irritant

Ethanol: On the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Hazardous Waste list and can cause central nervous system disorders

Limonene: Known carcinogen

A-Terpineol: Can cause respiratory problems, including fatal edema, and central nervous system damage

Ethyl Acetate: A narcotic on the EPA's Hazardous Waste list

Camphor: Causes central nervous system disorders

Chloroform: Neurotoxic, anesthetic and carcinogenic

Linalool: A narcotic that causes central nervous system disorders

Pentane: A chemical known to be harmful if inhaled

The chemicals in fabric softeners and dryer sheets do not smell very good on their own especially when heated, so manufacturers have to add very strong perfumes and scents to mask the poisonous smell of thses toxic chemicals. This can also cause skin irritation and possibly even cancer in certain individuals.

So what is the solution? How can people have a healthy natural and organic fabric softener that is not toxic?

The Solution - A Natural, Cheap and Organic Fabric Softener?

White Vinegar with a few drops of and essential oil!

That's correct, white vinegar makes the best fabric softener you could find, and it also has the added benefit of neutralizing the soap reside in the clothes. Just add it to the fabric softener compartment in your washing machine with a few drops of essential oil. The vinegar leaves no smell residue, even if used without the essential oil.

An natural alternative to dryer sheets is to put a few drops of an essential oil (lavender smells nice and is antibacterial) on to a sock, and put it in the dryer. The smell will go through all the clothes.

Interestingly enough, the reason vinegar is so effective is because it is acidic and washing powder and soaps are alkaline, so the vinegar neutralizes the soap residues during the rinse cycle which help keep the clothes soft.

The skin of humans is naturally acidic, so using vinegar will be good for your skin also. Many skin problems such as ringworm, jock itch, athletes foot, tinea, dematitis and more are actually caused by using soap in our washing machine and in the shower. Soap disrupts the skins natural PH balance, killing the natural protective friendly bacteria that thrives on your skin, thus allowing unfriendly bacteria and fungus to enter into the skins pores. Many people with fungal skin rashes have found a cure by simply switching to a neutral PH mild natural body wash and not using soap on their skin. Also using vinegar in the washing machine will help.

Beach Anyone? What to buy?

I need to get a beach chair and umbrella. I wonder which kind is the best or if Costco still has those cool combo backpack ones in stock? And I absolutely have to get to whole foods for decent sunscreen. Whole foods UGG so spensive!

It's 1:33pm now and I am contemplating the beach. Coronado, PB, even OB or should I go to Tourmaline or perhaps up to Windansea? Just south of La Jolla cove are some nice beaches down below the cliffs. Blacks is nice but too inconvenient - and too many naked people pervin'. So many beautiful beaches, so little sunscreen.

I love the fact that I now know that the sun is our friend. 20 minutes in the sun does a wonder of good for the body. I have also learned that 50mg of Niacin 3 - 6 times a day is remarkably good for you in so many ways it is amazing. Like juice it can not be patented so the doctors do not "sell" it. The "cancer cures" in western medicine are mostly scams for your and your insurance companies buck. Well meaning or not this industry of death must be enlightened by the truths of life. Nutrition based healing is the way to more health than a body can stand. My rant for today.

There are too few moments in life when we reflect on what matters most. Here is a beautiful excerpt from The Beautiful Truth movie that really makes you think about what really matters.

It would not be so bad if we all could get along but there are forces in our world that aim to control us, and not to our benefit. The food, chemical, drug, health industries and wall street elite are immortal cartels, corporations that grow like a deadly virus eating away at the life force in you and your family. Integrity, morality and the treasure of the human mind and spirit are cast down by these organizations and labeled "consumer."

We are not consumers we are citizens and we are the highest form of life in the known universe. Just because there are 9 billion of us on the planet is no reason to exploit and control poison and pillage entire populations of people while greed reigns supreme. We are truly still in the dark ages where mankind plunders and steals and hoards for vanity, security and from abject insecurity has arisen demons who offer human sacrifices en mass but they do it legally and with YOUR CONSENT. It is time to wake up people.

Five Star Scallops and Shrimp - In Yogurt Dill and Garlic Sauce

Finally I get to eat real food! Tonight I created this recipe to go with my Gerson six week diet program. Little did I know I was creating one if the best recipes ever. It is a MOST AMAZING dish!

Garson!
Scallops and Shrimp - For modified Gerson diet for "once a week fish" dish lovers.

Pre-heat serving plates in oven at 200 degrees (serves two)

12 large scallops, obtained from well known clean fishery
7 large shrimp (12-20 count) obtained from well known clean fishery
5 cloves garlic (more if desired)
1 tsp Dill (fresh or dried) more if desired
1/3 cup Organic non fat yogurt
5 tbs water
2 tbs olive oil (can be deleted from recipe with no significant consequence)

Bring six cups water to a boil in a large sauce pan.

Prepare the sauce:

• Pan roast finely chopped garlic cloves in three Tbs water for 3 minutes on medium heat. Add water as needed.
• Turn off the heat and and pour off excess water. As the pan cools toss in two tbs olive oil in with the water braised garlic and saute with no heat for 15 seconds. Then add the dill and yogurt to mix. Saute another 15 seconds allowing it to warm up a bit in still-warm pan. Do not reheat - keep flame off! Allow to warm from residual heat.
• Pour the garlic mixture into a hand mixer container or medium bowl. Mix for ten seconds on low. The sauce is now done.

Prepare the shrimp and scallops:

• Place the shrimp and the scallops in boiling water
• Remove the shrimp in no more than 1 1/2 minutes (1 minute for small shrimp)
• Remove the scallops in 3 minutes.

Remove plates from oven and place them on the counter. Pour half of the mixture onto each plate then place and arrange the shrimp and scallops on the plates artistically and serve!

Eating suggestion: Cut shrimp in 4 pieces and slurp up with a soup spoon to get the maximum sauce with each bite as it is a little thin. But the flavor is astoundingly fresh and the sauce goes remarkably well with the shrimp and scallops.

Note: Olive oil is briefly warmed off of direct heat in this recipe.

September 2nd 2009

Oy veh! Is it hot!
I am totally happy I have A/C that works enough to keep me from dying already!!!

I cannot remember a hotter summer in San Diego. it was 99 degrees the other day. It has been years. I hope this extreme means that we will have lots of rain later. ??

Hope everyone is doing great. I'm tired and heading off to bed. Heat exhaustion - sort of.

Great Website regarding Cognitive Distortions and psychological insights.

Cognitive Distortions and Insights

Quotes about truth
We leave you to contemplate some wise words about this subject:

"To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day,
thou canst not then be false to any man."
William Shakespeare

“To treat your facts with imagination is one thing,
to imagine your facts is another.”
John Burroughs

“You can only find truth with logic
if you have already found truth without it.”
G.K. Chesterton

“Much truth is spoken,
that more may be concealed.”
Lord Darling

“It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Sherlock Holmes

“A truth that’s told with bad intent,
Beats all the lies you can invent.”
William Blake

“The truth that makes men free,
is for the most part,
the truth which men would prefer not to hear.”
Herbert S Agar

“ ’Tis strange — but true;
for truth is always strange.”
Lord Byron

“Be so true to thyself,
as thou be not false to others.”
Francis Bacon

“True and False are attributes of speech,
not of things.
And where speech is not, there is neither Truth nor Falsehood.”
Thomas Hobbes

“It’s easy to make a man confess the lies he tells to himself;
it is far harder to make him confess the truth.”
Geoffrey Household

“There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths.
It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil.”
A.N. Whitehead


“Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now — always.”
Albert Schweitzer

Re: No time for healing...

I have been talking to friends who are really stuck in a paradigm of all American bad habits. I want you all to know that NOW is the time we must get our acts together and move forward rapidly and accurately! Persistence! Take no prisoners! Slay the dragons!

Home Made Tomato Sauce

My new video. This is a play-list on YouTube. My first instructional video: How to make Tomato Sauce from home grown vegetables and herbs.

Here is the link to the play list.  Enjoy!

July 31st 2009

The elegance afforded by a simple vegetable garden this summer has been a great blessing. There is something about the process of life as we witness it in the growth spurts of plants that feed us delicious food. Encouraging life is a lovely elegant and very positive human pursuit. I guess that is why farmers are happy even when they are poor. I bring life and sustainability to my world in ways few people on the planet do. I recycle, save water, compost and limit waste to a greater degree than most of my contemporaries but without suffering or feeling lack. I indulge myself in a hot tub and a few luxuries but I do not deliberately off-gas bad things into the environment. I think I am doing a pretty good job while providing about 1/20th of my food grown right here at home. I am so lucky to have this house. Being a home body type person it means more to me than the home means to many single men or women. So I get an extra big kick out of the space the large yard and yet the city is only three minutes away. Not bad for a guy with my IQ and SAT scores.

A lovely feeling comes over me when I think about some of the people in my life. I know they are far from perfect and yet some of them really shine. Some of them are massively disappointing and some of them can not see their nose in front of their face, the forest for the trees or the writing on the wall.

I have my challenges too. Depression dragging my days into the LaBrea Tar Pits I feel like a Woolly Mammoth! Drag my ass out the pit up into the light only to be pulled down by the dark forces of despair illusion and self indulgence. But sometimes I escape the gravity of it all and I can see the world from a nice light elegant place where I can view my accomplishments, joys pain and challenges - and from this place, from this point of view it does not appear to be so hard... and I am reminded of my power. But then the forces grab my ankles again and drag me under. Sometimes I wonder if I need anti-depressant drugs again. I never really can tell.

Therapy with Liz Baxter appears to serve only to remind me of the pain thus increasing it by recognizing it and refreshing the ideas behind it. I am almost certain to change therapists for a more future oriented therapy type. This no mans land between Freud and New Age therapy is not good.

Exhausted now as it is very late. I will Twitter the highlights and head to bed.

Eating as an act of love

Check the toxicity of your food on these two great websites

Pesticide Database for your foods
What's on my food webstie

Karl Denninger talks about Obermann over the top

A great video from karl Denninger regarding the bail out of mortgages.

A great link to some seriously great poetry and poets

A great link to some seriously great poetry and poets

Here is one of my favorites - Amiri Baraka who has been a force in American life and literature for almost fifty years.

Open letter to Barbara Boxer conderning the environment

Hi Barbara,

Great to hear from you about the clean energy economy. I think it is wonderful you are pointed in that direction. I am concerned however. Some of the very best technologies that are here now are being suppressed. Corporate domination of energy and the changes that threaten them make it very difficult for revolutionary answers to energy when they threaten change that either is too fast for the corporations or loss of business and/or control of business turns these giants into pretty nasty political and sometimes dangerous adversaries for the little guys with the best ideas. I won't go into too much detail but I think you know what I mean. It is not entirely the fault of the energy companies but rapid change and free energy ideas are very threatening in many ways not only to the status quo organizations but to society in general.

In a time when we need rapid change the most creative people are silenced by government and by industry in power while they scramble to figure out how to keep control of the revenue and power over the consumer/citizens while cleaning up the environment. It is almost an oxymoron. A lot of evil confronts some of the best solutions. Free energy while fighting for funding, support will never be met with open arms by the political and corporate figures who would stand to lose revenue (and taxes) from its appearance on the world stage. I worry that much of what "clean" solutions we push forward that we will always be silencing the voices of those with the most brilliant answers while remaining in the dark ages of very mediocre answers to the most important questions of out time.

There needs to be much more funding for product development and deployment of the most exotic technologies where creativity and the best of human consciousness and science are encouraged when we hear time after time of people being killed silenced or bought off by the very companies that need to clean up environmentally.

Greed and the fear that accompanies potential loss of power and control of economic strangle hold is too great a threat for real progress to be made on the scale that is required to meet the needs required by our dying planet.

This is your dilemma, and I do not envy your position. It is hard to believe that our kids will all be wearing oxygen tanks is a hundred years and to look ahead two, three or four generations is a frightening prospect for our children who we love so much. It is a daunting task. I wonder what goes through your mind particularly when I am rather certain you know the players, the game and the solutions (all of the solutions) as well as anybody. Scientists with answers who have made videos on YouTube say that Al Gore will not even return their letters or calls when they have amazing science to contribute. But their science is SO GOOD that it threatens multinational corporations. Whether this is true, half true or not we know that you can not move an elephant that does not want to walk? We may be dealing with an elephant that does not "have to" walk at a time when we approach a tipping point where our answers will not produce the necessary change and the environment will begin turning on us and Mother Nature will begin her march of revenge on a people who have so very much negleced her.

These new facts presented to us regarding polar ice melt and the fact that global climate change is much more rapid than we knew just a few years ago places before us a mandate for change that is politically and economically impossible without a dictator style rule. These words are very hard for me to write but how on earth can politics and business make changes when casualties with thier ranks will be massive when the going gets tough? Democracy and free enterprise will not fare well under the demands of a rappidly declining environment.

I would be very interested in hearing your candid views regarding these thoughs.

Bill Zimmermann, San Diego

Reaching potential

I think the most important thing friends can do is encourage one another to do things they might not otherwise do. To be encouraged to push yourself in ways only friends can perceive and who have the bravery to propose for consideration ideas that can help us move past our self-imposed limitations. I think this is the mark of true friendship. I do not have any friends like this. In fact rarely does anyone take enough interest in me to see that I have dreams. This is not self indulgent pity-pot thinking. It is a sad fact. Of course I do not make my self available and quite often I repel people with forbidding flashes of intimidation - I'm sure that does not help much. Fear and abuse mixed with wisdom and experience make for very strange bed fellows. I suppose issues do not always evaporate with therapy meditation or Life Spring retreats. But we still need the input of each other. Especially friends who ponder our perplexing lives, friends who take the time to think through our illusions delusions and denial. Going it alone is hard enough when few if any other person finds you important enough to intently listen to the beat of your drum. I miss having people like this in my life, but I do not know people who are capable of such trust. I have many good friends that I love dearly but they all appear to be selfish with not enough to occupy them or they are overwhelmed by life having few moments to think about anything more than solving daily problems of their own.

Participating in the process

Twitter, Facebook, etc. The increase in the connectivity of large groups of people will be what forms the future. How is marketing theory embracing / using this?

Dale Street gardens today June 21st 2009 Video

It is time to get back to the fun of life. Saving the world and understanding how we can change it for the better is all well and good, but balance must win in the end. Here is a video I did today after my dear friend Cheryl Simon arrived. Much of the garden is still germinating so what you see is aging and established, but new stuff is about to shoot up from the dirt.

Just for fun the original ASTEROIDES updated

ASTEROIDS

Turning Yourself ON !!! (oh no he didn't !!!)

TURNING YOURSELF BACK ON... RULES FOR STAYING HEALTHY . . .

1.
Learn to accept whatever decision is made. Do your best to keep your peace of mind. Peace is a healer.
2.
Learn from your mistakes and allow others the same right. Don't stand over people, supervising every move. Learn to give others the opportunity to grow and grow up. We are all bound to make mistakes. Let's not gloat over them or live in remorse about them.
3.
Learn to forgive and get on with your life. Many studies have now shown that forgiving enhances health and helps prevent chemical changes in the body that may lead to disease.
4.
Be thankful and bless people. These are two of the main secrets to a health life. Have an attitude of gratitude.
5.
Live in harmony. Be a peacemaker. Stand up for the one not present. Listen for the one not there to hear, see for the one without sight, and give praise and credit to others whenever you are able.
6.
Don't talk about your misfortunes or illnesses. It doesn't do any good for you or the person you tell, and it presents an opportunity for them to do the same to you. Save it for your doctor. He's paid to listen to your troubles.
7.
Don't gossip. Gossip that comes through the grapevine is usually sour grapes. Be the person who speaks for the one who cannot.
8.
Spend at least 10 minutes a day meditating on how you can become a better person. Replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
9.
Exercise daily. Keep your spine and joints limber, develop your abdominal muscles, expand your lungs with specific exercises on a regular schedule.
10.
Walk 10 minutes barefoot in the dewy grass or sand every day. You'll sleep better.
11.
No smoking or drinking alcohol. Both nicotine and alcohol are depressant drugs. Both require energy to detoxify, energy which is better used for life healing processes.
12.
Go to bed by 9 P.M. when you can. If you are tired during the day, rest more. Rest allows the body to give its full attention and energy to healing and rebuilding tissues. Write down your problems at the end of the day and go over them first thing in the morning when you are refreshed, so you can look at them with a fresh mind and body.

TURNING IT ALL OFF !!!

This post is a entry "of contrary." For those of us who work hard must play hard to balance our souls and keep in tune with happiness, enjoyment of life friends and activities. Tuning off the world, people and optional obligations is a right each and every person on this planet has. As we move into new centuries and new cultural nuances as well as radical shifts in culture we must stay in touch with our humanity. The body of humans has not changed at all in thousands of years. Our organs, brain and such have remained the same though now we expose them to all kinds of alien and chemical stresses. So take it easy and work a plan that does not ruin your days.

Questions from a novice ecoist... Re: Plastic

Greetings from San Diego,

I am becoming a novice ecologist. I recycle more than most, drive the Prius car and I am more careful about what I put into the environment in terms of fertilizers, household chemicals and other consumer goods including food. I also compost about 15% of my total household kitchen waste.

I share these facts with you because I am puzzled about plastic. After all paper, glass and some plastics are placed in the recycle bin what appears to go into the trash can (to the land fill) are light weight plastics non recyclable containers made from a combination of paper and plastic and Styrofoam. It appears to be that plastics are a big problem!

In every day terms I was completely unaware of how to keep packaging plastics and mixed plastic-paper containers in the recycling circle of re-use. Some must be disposed of but I am finding a disturbing shortage of information on what the city will take for recycling and what must be transported to specialty recycling plants?

It is not beyond the scope of people to band together to recycle over 90% of all waste.

My greatest concern is the braising ignorance that I personally maintained up until 2009 and how much I still do not know. I am not so much "disturbed" by my own ignorance of what to do with plastics but rather why those who do not care what they do with all of their waste still throw everything in the trash to go to the land fill?

I recently leaned that there is a river of plastic in the Pacific Ocean the size of Texas. As this decomposes it will be consumed by sea creatures greatly impacting the health and reproductive ability of many ocean species. From what I have read these plastics combined with an array of other pollutants, but primarily the plastics could damage the oceans ecosystem permanently much like deforestation is destroying the rain Forrest.

Can you please comment on this and let me know what organizations are working most effectively on research and solutions with regard to this problem in its many aspects?

An additional question I have is why can we not produce all plastics to be bio-degradable and zero-impact? If GM was capable of planning the obsolescence of cars why can we not plan the decay rate of plastic - and make doing so Federal Law?

Thank you.

Bill Zimmermann, San Diego

Open Letter to Congressman Wexler

What about prosecuting Bush and Cheney for lying about 911? Anybody with a brain now (by now) understands that 911 was an inside job, a contrived Pearl Harbor and that the Bush Administration orchestrated. It is not enough to "slap wrists" with impeachment. These men need to go to trial before an international tribunal (or equivalent) along with their corporate backers and political cronies. Fixing the United States and the future of mankind requires more aggressive adherence to ethics and standards than ever before. These men should be in prison along with Madoff and half of Wall Street.

Absorbing the news - releasing the stress

I have learned a lot about our world today. The last few posts are movies that can really set your head back into a time of deep mental depression if you are not careful. The truth certainly annihilated any age of innocence that still existed in my head. But now we turn to brighter thoughts and ideas for the creation of an excellent life experience despite what may happen in the world. In the Seth books Jane Roberts writes that we "create our own reality." Simple words for an industrial concept. It does not seem to matter how many times I read The Nature of Personal Reality the degree to which I have implemented the lessons in the book is close to zero so I should not be surprised that they do not work. As I have grown older I have exchanged raised consciousness for in-the-moment living and a good dose of numbness. I grow tired of the day to day insanity and this frightfully scary world where things keep getting scarier. I really do not want to live in the "America's" any more but the U.S. is still the best place on earth (of the few where citizenship is possible) TO live. Right now I am thinking Hawaii. I just want out. I am not sure if Hawaii is the answer, but to be clear I know it is not, I repeat NOT too small for me to live my life well stimulated and in productive good form. At 53 I do not know if I can start over again. But if I am going to start over it should be soon. Perhaps all this is nonsense and all I need is a good new chair. I sit a lot and I simply love a good orthopedic chair.

I am sure anyone who reads this thinks I am quite a bit more nuts that they thought, but in my defense I have to say the last few videos in this blog were shocking to the degree of mental upset. I can't even think about it any more. It is making me nuts. "This" is how I get when I am scared.

Forgive me all.

On the lighter side. Bill Hicks - comedy

On the lighter side... check out Bill Hicks comedy here

An absolute must see movie. ZEITGEIST, The Movie Remastered / Final version

This is probably the single most important documentary that has ever confronted the consciousness of the American people if not the people of the world. Watch it in its entirety and learn who we were, who we are and what might be. I am not saying it is all true, but of the many facts presented some appear to have credence. About 2 hours long. Use "full screen" button for best viewing.

What is the Zeitgeist Movement?
The Zeitgeist Movement is a grass roots campaign to unify the world through a common ideology based on the fundamentals of life and nature. This movement ignores politics, religion and the like, and instead attempts to communicate how all humans are the same at the fundamental level and how it is time we start to work together on a global scale to end the seemingly perpetual conflict and suffering in our current world society.




Now the addendum:

How similar we are...

While going through my photo album from Aix en Provence I came across a photo that I took from the home I stayed at for the month of July 2006 located in La Ciotat France - the home exchange family. The photo is of their back yard behind the shed just like at my home. Then I looked more closely, virtually everything you see stored here out of doors is exactly the same stuff I have stored behind my home.

What a joy it is to know people can be so similar so far apart. Perhaps our mutual bold stroke to join Intervac.com was kismet or providence moved to create magic?

Scribbles and thoughts of drugs and genuine progress...

It is a strange time when depression leaves very little energy for much of anything. When depression speaks it says "There are few real people in this world who understand or wish to understand me. I am alone in my heart and in my mind. I am happiest there with people shut out the quiet preferred over the chatter of people scrambling for words that say something to validate their meaningless existence." This is how great and powerful the disease behind the curtain can be. But in truth, like OZ it is just a little man no different than anybody. So depression is and so it should be treated.

Understanding creation is a big job. Having been blessed with a mind that enjoys ignorance while at the same time works toward more noble pursuits of truth and cosmic reality is clearly unnatural. But I have been dealing with these contrasts since I was 17. Transcendental Meditation, the study of the Seth Material and other spiritual books have brought me to a place where I see enough growth to know how very little I have actually grown. Now I have discovered acupuncture meridians and working with feelings via ETF or "Tapping" / www.tapping.com. Releasing negative emotions forever, a very big claim that is likely too good to be true is my current focus on growth, release of potential addictions and ill feelings allusions and behaviors. But something has to replace big pharma. For they will take your life as quickly as the drug dealer on the corner. Let us not deceive ourselves.

We have an anxiety disorder in this family. It is genetic. It leads to substance abuse in most of us. Some hang on. I did for 25 years. Essentially sober from 27 to 51 years old. I have recently experimented with Xanax to relieve anxiety and emotional pain. It works well but it makes me clumsy and a bit lazy in that I am so relaxed I do not force activity and growth in favor of the relaxed bliss of the enjoyable days without painful worry, real and imaginary threats and emotions.

I know I am just masking the symptoms best dealt with cognitively while not directly confronting them. I have been ensnared in a mentality that pills bring permanent relief when I know full well that strength through awareness is the key. Our prescription drug culture is so very effective and yet falls short of any legitimate healing. So we must summon the strength from within, charge the gates and force our growth, painful though it may be in sobriety. Certainly there will be moments when we make exceptions out of compassion for our selves, but where do we firmly draw that line?

To remain anxiety riddled through very bad times like during a break up or after a death of a friend is foolish. Not to medicate can, at times be as foolish as taking Xanax because you are painfully stricken with boredom.

In there lies the challenge. “Love yourself” they say. Why asks depression: "Why should I love myself when I disapprove of my own behavior? Love is earned at any level. I just walk around in this body numb and feeling like a victim, disenfranchised most the time. Depression I suppose, I am used to it. I do not expect anyone to love me though I am glad when they do but I do not invest in myself or commit to people much anymore. Again depression I suppose. I have never been able to get a quality man to love me “enough” to be comfortable in a relationship. So why should I respect myself more than is necessary to provide the survival comforts and basic needs for myself from now until I pass on. Certainly self-respect is based upon track record. Certainly I must care a sufficient amount not to damage myself. Certainly I must love myself enough not to damage my psyche. But self respect comes from a lifetime of tests and lessons that can be best described as Buddhist Koans found in Zen poems and literature. I respect my thoughts and morals enough. I don’t plot to hurt steal or swindle anybody really. I would not be able to take the guilt if I did. I know that others do not feel the same. I feel good when I help others and I am still learning about what it means to give and to take. But I do not appear to have the ambition or drive to add to my world in remarkable new and interesting ways. Or do I? Inspiration and muse is a luxury for the rich, the indomitably happy and the undamaged zeal of youth. For old gays in their fifties with little money and fading sex appeal we are left to, at best, our imagination and at worst the genetic betrayal that is out legacy." As this diatribe of mind-talk takes possession of your soul it makes a good argument that is as counterproductive as suicide. Depression, like any self deceptive concoction of ideas scrambles to make sense while it takes your time and your life.

Regardless of how depressed, morbid or locked away in emotional storage we become; regardless of the circumstances, habits, morals and internal drive we might have we have got to maintain a high standard of living. No mansion or sports car, can satisfy us like positive thinking, clean good thoughts backed up by sobriety and clean living. A solid understanding of human behavior and self awareness is also useful. This understanding comes about in small epiphanies. They occur often when we vanquish the problems of daily life through the spiritual exercises provided by our dear friend reality. These lessons can not deliver their full effect when we are drugged with psycho-active agents. They do not improve your nervous system brain function or spiritual lives. They do not improve our understanding or enhance general consciousness. Drugs and tranquilizers do not add meaning they prevent feeling. Using them to block trauma temporarily is a difficult decision while we balance growth with psychological protection. Until we can deal with reality and adapt to the unexpected in daily life without drugs we hamper our growth. Hence our energy should be directed at diet and exercise as well as meditation massage, study and a strong effort to remain focused on deliberate diligent work. Drugs slow progress even when they are not abused. Even when they are used judiciously they can curb or abbreviate our life experience. This is particularly evident in the use of opiates and Marijuana. I suppose the bottom line question is: Do you want to rust out or do you want to wear out? The answer to which has many probable futures attached. I suppose that is my first original Koan.

To the faithful...

I think I finally figured out why I never use credit cards. I have about the best credit there is out there. I see friends using credit well beyond their means with no guilt or worry. Why is this? I think it is because they have made plans for new products, alternative businesses and new ventures. They pamper and take care of themselves with credit and then allow the universe to cover them. It appears to work but I think it is still wise to be frugal especially when you do not have plans for alternative business or projects that may be profitable in the immediate or distant future. Credit is credit and if you don't have money one should not be spending money. Even if you do have money spending it flagrantly is a mistake.

If they lied to me about Aspertame ... what about the other stuff?

Artificial sweeteners and the FDA. Politics, evil and organized business. And of course Monsanto. Once a regulatory agency is formed they are born captured.
VIDEO Donald Rumsfeld and Monsanto can kiss my ass. The only low calorie sweetener anyone should use is Stevia. Period.

The Beautiful Truth

The Beautiful Truth is an important film associated with Cancer and natural treatments for all diseases.

The remarkable Ma Roller

I have owned what is called a Ma Roller for decades. I have used it in the thing over all these years without knowing its true effect meaning or cosmic beauty of the alignments. I found this image that shows the acupressure points that are effected. After using this tool intuitively for 20 years I have found I am actually using it right. When you are tired stressed or sick or have not exercised for a while and your body feels creeky and locked up is always a great time to use this wonderful ancient tool. Get one for yourself and see! They are great.

Rip out that lawn !!!

According to www.heavypetal.ca "the lawns in the United States consume around 270 billion gallons of water a week - enough to water 81 million acres of organic vegetables, all summer long."
So why do some counties in some states fine you if you rip out your lawn and plant vegetables?

Another day on Dale Street

Simple pleasures and the elegance of urban homesteading in a sub-urban setting is remarkably satisfying. Being in what must have been an early suburb of the city Southpark or what some people call North Hills area of North Park is a pleasure few enjoy in the City of San Diego. Like New Yorkers San Diegans convince themselves that this place is the "best place in the world to live." It takes less self deception here in California but we have our challenges, very different challenges, than New York.

Life mimics fiction here more than back east where life tends to mimic harsh reality. The kindnesses that exist here in California definitely do not exist anywhere back east. At least not to my recollection. I love San Diego. However you either love or hate the pitfalls of living in a society so braising vain and self absorbed that it can sometimes make you nuts. Still, back east you have the same vanity but they are unapologetic and never feel guilty about their self indulgence there - i give you Wall Street.

This lovely old home has been my salvation for the last nine years. I find myself surviving and occasionally thriving here. The terrors of the past alleviated by consistency and continuity of income and reliable friends and stable affordable rent for extraordinary homes.

There is a kindness here that translates across the network of friendships and associations. People who work for quality of life outnumber those who do not. Ignorance runs roughshod over bright and inspiring people but I suppose that is a global problem. I had never seen so many sloppy pig like people and incomplete tasks before I arrived in San Diego. And I had never seen apathy in construction, from doctors offices to coffee houses and restaurants San Diego has always been" laid back." Missing moldings, gaps in wall joints, dirty corners and filthy bathrooms were common here and it does not take much looking to find them still today - even in the most lovely of neighborhoods. I have decided to find it charming. Running into these laid back care free (careless) people of the region is hardly terrorists but they reflect the good nature and priorities of the people. What they lack in interior design they make up for in warmth and pure laziness. Lazy people are always friendly.

Today San Diego resists the horrors of urban blight and suburban decay by retaining its value by which it escapes the national disaster of middle class poverty. Many people who come here do not make it here. I almost did not, but I saw no choice to leave. And though this choice was real I stuck it out and stabilized my life with a creativity and ambitious fervor that in hindsight I am very grateful for.

Now I face being and "older" American and that presents a whole different set of challenges here in Southern California. To be old here is to be unwanted they say. Some reality might validate that claim but life of the East coast was simply too hard and simply too nasty to tolerate. I am glad I left. My friends here are more real and I feel as though my efforts in these relationships are paying off not only for me but for them. The return does come back to me every time from these dear folks but it always comes back sometime.

I try to allow people to bring to my table what they will. No demands and no expectations. That can be a dangerous prospect in a place where so few people are well rounded and broadly educated. Everyone voluntarily forgets that Southern California is the deep south of the west and we have our share of narrowly focused workers who know little more than their jobs.

Must write... having to write what I see.

"I am not calling for a second chance. I am screaming at the top of my voice. Give me reason but don't give me choice because I'll just make the same mistake again." (James Blunt).

Desert This

Great friends like great loves are rare. Fortunately great friends are more common and thank goodness for that since great loves are almost mythical. Nothing in this world is more satisfying than being a part of a group of people who protect you. Short of gang activity groups of ethical law abiding friends can move mountains. There are plenty of sappy lyrics in the world but when it comes time to pay the bills you have to bring this awful thing called reality into focus and you must deliver. When people fall through the cracks what money can't buy is useless. They need money. And they need it like a transfusion - we all do. It's the law. Without money we die, period. Our western society is built on this silent but omnipresent law. It is enforced with German precision, for without money we have less than many of the poorest people of India or Africa as there is often no mechanism to save people from the ravages. Especially for sudden falls from grace. Those are the hardest falls... falls that knock you to the ground with crushing force and numbing psychic shock. To get up off the ground disoriented broken and helpless has to be one of the most terrifying experiences imaginable. One stands up broken and confused and aware that today is very different than yesterday. It is at this time they must gather energy that appears to require more than we can give at that moment, but we must find that 110% simply not to fall again. God is summoned and held to account. And friends are tested as much as our faith in ourselves. The silent indifference of the careless ones falls away from us as the true ones come near to hold us as we take our first steps back into productivity. And so we begin again. Our days start with the inspiration from those who had faith and from the faith we rebuild our confidence and deploy love and ambition and express our gifts in useful service... we press on and go on to build a more beautiful stable and secure future. We go on to become protectors and guardians. Ones who possess the knowledge of one of the sweetest secrets of life deeply imbeded in our souls. Without the help of others we can fade into oblivion forever. And with any luck we will remember them 0r others like them if life turns against them. You will take great joy in the process as you tend to their needs. As you help them stand up, shaken and oblivious, you will know exactly what to do.

Less Parinoid

My last post about trust was rather paranoid, but you have to understand that people come into our lives at time when they all appear to want something. Then other people enter our lives who will not give. They will not give love, time or resources unless there is something in it for them. And usually what is "in it for them" outweighs what they must give in order to satisfy them. It is a selfish cynical world and perhaps I have joined in the ranks of those who find our world, our American "culture" to be disgusting. Perhaps I am just a victim or perhaps I created a victim lifestyle but the truths of our lives, our history and our experience speaks to the truths of our honest and unbridled words. The longer I live the more I appreciate my own personal virtues. If I separate out genuine virtue from fanciful imagined virtues and completely delusional ideas I myself might actually have a little bit of genuine virtue in my life. At least enough to claim that I "did no harm."

....The vision I have for tomorrow rolls out before me with changes to the fabric. Each change an improvement based on newly-calibrated illusions (An illusion is a false mental image produced by misinterpretation of things that actually exist)whereby I do not dismiss the idea that I might be "a little bit off" in my interpretation of reality but closer to identifying the truth in any given matter.
....Identifying Truth is tough. It is tougher than one might think, especially as we get older and get more honest with ourselves. Honesty and truth are not mutually compatible concepts. It is this fact that helps me to understand that life is not automatically a clear perception of truth when stuff gets processed through our prejudices, learned (bad) behaviors and ideas as well as cultural trends and influences. Harsh words like "lie and self-deception" do not escape the honesty in this discipline. Most of us lie to ourselves constantly and we lie to others. .....A truly disturbing fact. "Opinion" being the literal battlefield where ego meets truth and truth meets genuine reality. These enemies are all lies great and small. Lies we tell ourselves every day. It takes a noble strong and brave person to face them. Distilling these lies down to a workable mass then removing our ego and self-deception from them, then literally moving outside ourselves to view them to dissect them and re-assemble them into coherent harmony with universal truth can be daunting task. Once re-entering the atmosphere of our selves the new application of the new formulation can lead to a better life and a more satisfying existence. However to integrate this new information into life takes a masterful manipulation of political and emotional change to realize any genuine results from such changes. In fact as personal truths get closer to universal reality our lives change in ways that can not be imagined but until we have forced our deepest lies and painful illusions through the filter of truth we are fed into a loop of denial, selfishness and ego that will destroy us quite completely without this examination. All the while wondering why our lives have not changed. It is at this point that we begin the cycle if self-deception once again. Only to realize the same outcome. Change is never easy. Truth is often hard to take. Still we are privileged to live in this century of rapid change. To survive as the humans we hope to become there is little room left in the world for lies. Sadly reality can be too harsh to face for many people, but it encroaches anyway with harsh lessons for the uninvolved which makes them part of the problem. I guess the buck stops in the comfort zone. The comfort zone is certainly another topic for another post. All the best for now.

Dangerous Women

“There are dangerous women in this world.
Some are lovers blind to the consequences of their actions.
Some are wives enraged by the betrayal of those they trusted.
Others are predators, deviously setting traps to get what they want.
If you're unlucky enough to come upon one of these dangerous creatures, the safest thing to do is run the other way.” .........I do not trust people. This year even less than last. Women less than men. It is a good day when the smelling salts finally hits your cerebellum only for your to realize that people CAN suck so wildly that most of them APPEAR so useless as not to benefit us in any meaningful way and will always be suspect. Gay straight male or female all people are potentially dangerous. The realities of life our parents worked so hard to shelter us from hit us harder when they finally blow through our lives. Sometimes our disbelief forgives too quickly the sins cast against us and we delude ourselves in fantasies of denial. For some of us this practice is repeated until the day when the lesson finally connects our brains with the truth. People can not be trusted. The paradigms shift and the greatest paradox of life takes its place as the sad fact of life that it truly is. Which is if one man can take away something from another man (or woman) he/she will. Once we have learned and understood this lesson we can still trust people but we verify, check and re-check and we allow time to season relationships and we test the waters of trust more and for longer periods of time. We look for character flaws and weakness in spirit. We watch for pretensions and disorders while we seek out good mental health and a relaxed confidence of one whom might not subdue us. But in the end as the stakes get high we stand to loose it all - everything we have worked for to another we have trusted. A wife, a husband, a child or in a court of law. What we have is so easily taken from us as the line people who would rob us grows longer as times get tougher we must take great care in giving to others and also to make sure when we take from others that it is agreeably our due.

Re: Days of silent wandering and fear.

Xanax calms fears and anxiety when living in a world where one is convinced that either he has lost his mind or every else has lost theirs. When you are relatively convinced that it is they who have lost their minds one relaxes a bit but only to discover that as one gets older one must form bonds with people one can trust absolutely. In this regard I see the need for secret societies, groups of people dedicated to protecting one another.

In fact I would be honored to be a member of such a society such as the Elks, Free Masons, or the like. Often churches play the same role but to a much less secretive degree. Groups are essential to survival and we who have shunned them for reasons only we might know live at risk. That is why I believe I will begin to research the different secret societies. Ferret out what they consist of and try to understand the full embodiment of a choice group tailored to my needs. Everyone needs a family and quite often we Americans find ourselves, as we grow older, alone. We have much to give as older Americans and service becomes more important.

This is why I believe it is time to research which club or organization I will join. Many are by invitation only. And quite often they are completely inaccessible. If anyone is aware of an interesting club or group let me know?

Ashoka, India and the US.

If you are cruel to animals you will be cruel to humans. Throughout history there have been many empires of the sword but only India created an empire of the Spirit. From the edicts of Ashoka was there a logic of humanity of Dharma, a just law of life. Personal morality and politics, social welfare religious tollerance, the conservation of forests. Moving the sphere of politics away from the sanctions of religion and magic to the rule of reason and morality. The extraordinary work of Ashoka's law. And when Ashoka was old, legend tells, that he was a man stripped of everything. ....we have moved away from this in our country. The more I learn about India and the teachings of the Buddha I can not help but believe the message of the Buddha as being true. The morality of Ashoka feels true as well. The politics in these United States never feel right. The corporate juggernauts caught in poisonous pursuits of money disease vanity and ill=will toward humanity animals and the enviornment. It is a sad and lonely place these United States. I wonder if I could stomach leaving?

Of God and Man

By William Zimmermann

Rythm's of life move in and out.
Like sound to our ears the music of life is rhythm.
Each day we rise and each night we fall asleep in time and in spaces where we find ourselves alone. The tides turn into dreams that unfold our destiny, as the ticking mind of the cosmos reminds us how small we really are.
People take and lie and cheat. They steal souls and line their pockets with the futures of young men. Machinations spin around objectives in secretive silences that history will remember differently. But the planets and stars and the vast empty space of the universe do not know us. There is no awareness to know us. Even if there were others who could observe us we would not inspire interest for those who may have mastered the vastness of space and time deal in the currency of this time and in this space where human ambitions are irrelevant.

We are a flicker of time in the history of the universe. We came and went unnoticed and without a single care. Our only hope is that time and space both are illusions. If so who are we then? It would appear we are ego to the degree to which we have constructed ourselves in a imaginary "Gods." For as the fabric of the universe unfolds the face of God remains not only blank but it remains unwaveringly indifferent - the purest definition of hate. We are here by the grace of sheer luck at a time when the beauty of life is enjoyed by the few humans who were lucky enough to evolve from virus to beings. Nature will flush us down the Darwinian toilet in good time as nature will deal with us on its own terms and in its own time. God is simply a manifestation created by the powerless and fearful. Soon we will be gone and with it we will take our gods, the animals and our dreams of domination. Our fanciful dreams, reckless pursuits and unique arrogance will be laid before us shortly before our end. Then, and only then like person at the threshold of death will we see the errors of our ways. There is no hope and there is no need to hope. I amazes me that every person I know does not realize in 20 years we will be erased from this place and from these bodies. We have twenty years left. Maybe. And what we do with those years does not matter to the deaf ears of those rocks that circle about the black hole of Andromeda. The Milky Way hovers above us as our home but does not know we are here. It would seem only we think we contain some magical gift when in the view of pure science humanity is nothing more than a virus gone wild. A cancer with a mind of its own. We are nothing to the blind eyes and ears of a god who never existed. But we comfort ourselves by creating one so we can sleep at night feeling as though we are being cared for. The truth is that God is not dead, he is simply a myth that comforts us in times of strife. We develop him when we should be developing our own network of emotional and psychological mechanisms based on the truth. Knowing this is a great relief. Humanity was a great coincidence. It was a nice little ride in the land of mortality. But we are just animals with a few special skills. And that is all. The rest is just imaginary.

The question is "what do we do with our lives?" Now that we know that absolutely nothing matters. I suppose we can feel free to do anything at all. Express ourselves unrestrained and with as much dignity or violence as we care to perpetrate upon the world. Regardless of how much we love hate create or destroy the universe will expand and shrink and expand again regardless of what we do. To the universe we are infinitesimally small and insignificant.

I want to believe in an after life. Flying around the cosmos in an anti-gravity spirit body or a trans-dimensional body that folds space. Socializing with bright minds and having let go of my mortal constraints with my mind clear, brilliant and unencumbered. And to arrive with a job that allows me to contribute to a celestial family with a whole new body of knowledge to pursue. I do not want to die thinking I will simply END. But the logic and reason of the after life is only fear based fantasy expressing itself as an ultimate lie perpetrated by ninety percent of the population of the world. The ultimate self deception and the ultimate lie that behaviorally speaking can only perpetuate the ease of which other lies can be told. This is the danger of religion and has the potential to end mankind prematurely... all based on a lie. The only one or thing that will have cared will be us. We are alone, we had better get used to it.

Shifting the focus of American ideals

By William Zimmermann

I was watching Spin City with Michael J. Fox. It's a sitcom made in the early nineties when Mike was at his best in his role as manager of the Mayors office in New York City. It occurred to me that I was feeling strangely nostalgic for the early nineties. It was a time when the world was prospering and I felt as though life was passing me by - in many ways. Everyone was working, earning great money, some making huge money and some had only begun to plunder the real estate swing that would last for a decade. The images of a greater New York with the twin towers still intact and Michael J. Fox in prime health serves to remind us to preserve our health and our world. The question "How do we preserve our world?" comes to mind. Many tragedies can be prevented. To balance risk is a great way to enjoy life and preserve it all at the same time. Unfortunate genetic luck as in the case of Mike Fox can not be avoided. But look at the good he and others like Christopher Reeves had done after their focus was inextricably glued to their own personal survival.

How will we survive these days? What challenges will befall us? How can we avoid the big things? Perhaps we can't but we can take the same posture as Mike and Christoper did after their luck changed. We can prepare plans to prevent calamity and we can focus on helping others each day. There is so much need in the world. There is so much each and every American can do to save lives, feel good and help other people to live better and more human lives. We do not need to get a disease to raise money for a cure. We don't need to fall to circumstance if it can be avoided. I know for a fact that I do not give enough back to a world, a country that has been so good to me. Certainly Americans do not connect with each other enough. We are a country of litigation and social programs that cut checks and do little else in support of the health and well being of one another. It is sad that our system of medicine and the structure of care, of education and of industry is so very consumer based that we forget who is doing the providing. It truly is us, but so indirectly that nobody can give from their heart or receive in gratitude the great gifts of this generous country. Out taxes are gathered by Washington and doled out in anonymous philanthropy via Social Security and other programs without as much as a word from those who provided it for us. Medical insurance, the industrial Medical business, the military and all the major systems in this country work about the same way.

There is no opportunity to give generously your gifts when they are sucked in by the government and distributed by the government. Even corporations work the same way. Funny how that is. The individual goes on disconnected. The individual, so very entrenched in this system goes on in complete ignorance of why he or she feels so disconnected. In this age of quiet desperation people need to work together to re initialize the economy with real value, genuine integrity and real products that work well for the people who need them. I think president Obama's idea of a green energy economy is remarkable but I also think it will get lost in corporate and governmental red tape. The purpose of this post is to comment on our need to focus on those who need us and to give genuine value to the world. Americans need to step up to the plate and use resources more creatively. Resources that do not necessarily come from institutions, but from those who give their gift freely. For example: Lets say there is a man who has been studying History for a lifetime but he does not have a teaching "certificate." Who would you rather your child be taught History by? A passionate Historian or a teacher "of history" who probably has more interest in a paycheck than history itself? This concept applies to government, corporations, organizations, institutions and the like. We, as a society need to re-orient ourselves to life in a more natural and less monolithic way in order to get the education we need to express our individual talents properly and to maximize them completely. We can no longer sit in classrooms that fall short of excellence simply because a "certificate" is required to teach them. We can no longer afford to substitute passion with mediocrity. The time has come for each American to take a hard look at life with the same focus as Michael Fox and Christopher Reeves. See into life and find out what really matters. What really truly matters?

The Truth About Solitude

I have been thinking a lot about balance lately. Balance of work, balance of choices, balance in personal discipline. When you live alone there is no one to tell you what to do or to pressure you to be someone or do something you may not want to do or that may be actually good for you. It is a solitary world with only the echo of your own voice inside your head to answer to. I know this voice well and sometimes it becomes deafening. Not really. And I am glad mine doesn't! Generally I get away with doing as I please. I have learned to balance income with liesure, rest with work, sacrifice with taking. It's all in balance yet the voices of the outside world are at bay. They are not welcome here as much as I might need them they are banished, for they are unreliable historically and are not to be trusted. The "voices" of course are the people I might have let in but did not. Which four letter word do you with to pick? I can't deal with outside influences. People rattling on about what I should or should not do as if I do not know. Most people are so vain they do not even know I exist let alone have a life or make interesting moves. Most people that I know are so self involved that they can't see the subtleties of my life. And that is fine but their words bounce off my world like rubber balls, mostly because they really have nothing to say that adds value to my world. It's all about them, their struggle, their challenges and their pain. I have one or two friends that force themselves to listen occasionally, and that's cool. But for now I am happy with no voices. No criticism and no pedantic behaviors to annoy jostle and pollute my daily routine. It's lovely actually. I love being alone. Send in the clowns. Nah, why bother?

Organic Eating - The Fundamentals

Do you know what vegetables

to buy organic and what is not worth the trouble?

Organic vegetables are wonderful, and well worth their price, say some. Growing your own organic vegetables is best, of course. You feel safer knowing exactly what was used on your vegetables before they got to your table. But if you cannot grow your own organic vegetables, the argument goes, it is worth the trouble to find a store or farmers' market where you can buy them. So let's suppose you take that trouble. Let's suppose you find a source of organic vegetables.

Do you know what vegetables to buy organic? Are all organic vegetables worth the higher price?

Organic vegetables that are certified organic under U.S. Dept. of Agriculture regulations must be produced without most synthetic pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, antibiotics, growth hormones, and feed made from animal parts.

Organic certification sounds like something most of us would want, but is it always necessary? Is it worth the extra money?

What Vegetables to Buy Organic

These 5 organic vegetables are usually worth the higher prices, since conventionally grown versions contain high amounts of pesticide residues.

1. Green beans: Conventionally grown green Beans can contain three organophosphates that are toxic to the nervous system: acephate, dimethoate and methamidophos. They can also contain endosulfan, an insecticide that disrupts endocrine secretion.

2. Potatoes: Non-organic potatoes are increasingly being exposed to pesticides, according to the Consumers Union. These potatoes may contain dieldrin and methamidophos. While this is bad enough for adults, children who eat potatoes are at risk for a high dose of aldicarb, a pesticide that pervades the inside of the potato.

3. Spinach: Spinach is ahead of all foods when it comes to DDT. Other pesticide residues are claimed to be falling as U.S. farmers are learning to use less quantities of synthetic insecticides. Nevertheless, spinach still can contain permethrin and dimethoate. Permethrin is thought to be potentially cancer-causing.

4. Tomatoes: Tomatoes grown by conventional means have been found high in chlorpyrifos. Chlorpyrifos, also known as Lorsban for farm use and Dursban for home use, is the most heavily used insecticide in the United States.

5. Winter Squash: When tested, two-thirds of winter squash samples exceeded the safe daily limit for a young child of Dieldrin, a chlorinated, carcinogenic insecticide. Heptachlor, another powerful carcinogen was also found. Winter squash in baby food contained DDT.

What Fruits to Buy Organic

Organic vegetables are only part of the picture when it comes to produce. Organic vegetables are often peeled and cooked before eating. Organic fruits are often eaten unpeeled, especially by young children. Young children also consume much greater amounts of fresh fruit per pound of body weight than do adults. The pesticides are concentrated more highly in children.

So while you're thinking about what vegetables to buy organic, you should also consider these 7 fruits.

1. Apples: Apples can contain methyl parathion. Whether fresh apples, applesauce, or baby food, they can also contain chlorpyrifos.

2. Cantaloupe: Like tomatoes, cantaloupes grown by conventional means have been found high in chlorpyrifos.

3. Grapes: Imported grapes can contain dimethoate. Grapes grown in the U.S. contain methomyl and methyl parathion. Methomyl is a carbamate insecticide listed as an endocrine disruptor.

4. Peaches: Peaches are perhaps the worst of all fruits when grown conventionally. They contain high amounts of iprodione residue, classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a probable human carcinogen. Peaches also contain methyl parathion, an organophosphate insecticide.

5. Pears: All conventionally grown pears, whether fresh or in baby food, can contain methyl parathion, as well as other insecticide residues.

6. Raspberries: Organic raspberries may be expensive, but you will be avoiding the fungicide captan, iprodione and carbaryl.

7. Strawberries: If you go for the beautiful red color of conventionally grown strawberries, you should know that it is caused by the fungicide captan, believed to be a possible human.

What Organic Vegetables Should You Buy?

Some organic vegetables are probably not worth the extra cost. When organic vegetables and fruits pose a health risk high enough to be listed by Consumers Union, however, you may want to take notice.

I wrote this post on www.forbetterlife.org. It is about my hero. Bobby Snow. "This is a story about my Aunt Bobby. She was the most loved person I ever knew. As a boy I remember visiting her and her husband Bob, son Randy and daughter Patty at their Gross Pointe home in Michigan. I arrived one summer after school had let out. I found a family filled with love and a home that ran smoothly but with the usual family drama. But there was a difference in this home. There was no sadness. Jokes and silly fun made a light- hearted home a dream from what I knew back east. I learned that Bobby had started the first Boy Scout troop in Michigan, and was involved with Girl Scouting and Brownies clubs. She and her husband Bob were chosen to be the God Parents by every family on their street. At the time I thought that was pretty cool. As the weeks went on I learned how to read and I learned how to love through her firm way of coaxing me to learn. I was a very sad child from a very sad home in a very sad city. Bobby is my hero because she knew how to live and she knew how to love and she knew how important it was to be fair even when it did not give her the advantage. She knew that winning was not always good and she knew that losing was not always bad. There was something about her and her husband Bob I have never seen before in any person then or even today. It was a kind of class, a kind of knowing that they had that made them glow with cheer and confidence. There was a kind of mystery about them like they knew something that they held dear that they knew was special. I think it was love. The kind of love that is refined and yet easy, natural and filled with life joy and humor. I tell my friends today that they do not make folks like that any more. Bobby S. was my aunt and my hero because she knew right from wrong and she practiced the Golden Rule to the letter. She always said you could not go too far wrong if you stuck with the Golden Rule. I have ever since. And though my life does not have the sparkle or the glee that their family did I got to see it and feel the love of people who I knew for certain loved me. That is why Bobby and her husband Bob are my hero's."