8.30.2012

What they won't tell you about Clint's Speech

People are already making a big deal about Clint Eastwood's speech at the RNC.
Hell, George Takei is already tweeting about it

But if you pay attention, at about 8m and 40s, he stops giving a speech to the RNC and starts giving one to America. Look at what he's actually saying here emphasis mine, (parenthesis me).
I would just like to say something, ladies and gentleman. Something that I think is very important.
It's that you, we.. we own this country.
Yes, we own it, and it's not you owning it and it's not politicians owning it.
Politicians are employees of ours. 
(not leaders, not Gods)
So, they're just going to come around and beg for votes every few years. It's the same ole deal.
I just think that it is important that you realize that you're the best in the world.
(I disagree with that. For the view I agree with, see the youtube video at the bottom of the post)

Whether you're a democrat or whether you're a republican or whether you're libertarian or whatever, you're the best, and we should not ever forget that.
When somebody does not do the job, we gotta let 'em go.
Just remember that, and I'm speaking out for everybody out there.
It doesn't hurt, we don't have to be
*gets heckled*
*plays along*
What I'm saying is that we don't have to be mental masochists and vote for somebody that we don't even really want, in office, just because they seem to be nice guys.
(I'm sorry, but try and describe Mitt Romney as anything but the candidate none of the Republicans wanted to back until they took away the other choices.... just try).

Here's a reality check for the Best in the World belief:

)





8.14.2012

People of Earth

Atheists, rationalists, reasonable thinkers, scientists and philosophers,
When is the last time you let your mind play?

Republicans & Democrats:
I know there's an election on, but deep down you know we're screwed whoever wins..so, you have no reason not to.

Libertarians, Tea Partiers, Occupiers:
You know on the surface we're screwed whoever wins..so, you have no reason not to.

Consider this:
It's the year 2012.

In a little over 4 months, all that is over. In that time, one of three things is going to happen:

1. Absolutely Nothing
Most rational people will tell you, most professionals will tell you, hell, most recently homeless and unemployed will tell you (and I guarantee the main stream media, your 'actually concerned about your welfare' governments, and all the bankers will tell you): Nothing is going to happen.

2. OMG it's the End of the World!
We'll all die. It doesn't matter, what we do. We're all worm food.

3. It's the End of the World (as we know it)!
The New-Agers say that we're entering a period of awakening and consciousness expansion. That we'll move to a mental level where the status quo will fall away like a dream fading in the morning. That'd be nice.

Regardless of who you are, this is your last best hope to consider the possibility of something other than #1, and there's motive to do it. Number 1 is pretty shitty. Watch the news. Tumbling economies in the US and Europe, nasty ass drought that's going to make food prices go up, oil prices are still going to go up. Why would you not want something to happen?

Can you change the world for the better in the next 4 months? Can you do more than cast an arguably meaningless ballot? Then by all means - keep rooting for #1.

If all you can do is vote, do you honestly think there's enough people that haven't already picked a side?Is paying attention to the polls and the latest gaffs really going to change the outcome?

Knowing full well, that #1 is the most likely scenario, I say let's seriously investigate the other options. Let's not jump on the first counter-argument we read, or worse, just go off what we already believe. Let's seriously consider the evidence the conspiracy theorists put forth, rather than assume it's bullshit just because it's coming from a conspiracy theorist. It's 2012, the most rational time to investigate the unlikely. Come January we won't have ancient calendars pointing to possible significant events. What if our solar system is coming into a once-in-thousands-and-thousands-of-years alignment? Let's do the homework before we call bullshit for a change. It is 2012 after all, it's the year for conspiracies.

It's only for 4 months. Be extra open minded, on purpose, even if you know better...put it in the back of your head and play along. Last chance.

8.12.2012

Wordless Thought

Do you have an inner monologue?
Is it incessant?

It literally just occurred to me that there can be thought without language. Well, it was more of a realization, as everything I've thought that didn't pertain to movement has constantly been translated into language by my brain until that point...as far as I was paying attention. Perhaps to facilitate understanding, perhaps to facilitate storage, but perhaps mainly as a precursor to potential sharing.

We think before we move, but it's fast. Is that speed because we just think, without translating it into language? We don't think: I'm going to grab that cup of coffee and lift it to my mouth, open my mouth slightly, contract this muscle or that to tip the cup. We might monologue, "I could use a drink of coffee," but we just do it. Thought precedes motor function, but it is typically without conversion to language.

If we have no intention of externally communicating our thoughts to another, there is no reason to translate it into language. Will it be beneficial? Have we been slowing our amazing minds down via useless translation?

 It's something I'm going to try practicing - and according to neuroplasticity, anything we practice/do our minds reshape themselves to be better at. Hopefully it will result in faster thought - and less lopsided thought favoring the left hemisphere.

8.11.2012

The Everything Hypothesis

Once Upon a Time...
There was One.

One was a fourth dimensional intelligence. The fourth dimension is consciousness. He didn't know where he began and where he ended, and he didn't really have a gender it's just a convenient pronoun.

There was nothing but One and void. He was alone. Being consciousness, he knew this. He was without language, but being consciousness had thought.

One day, he thought:
"What if I wasn't alone?"

BANG. The Universe happened.

8.09.2012

Fuck Labels


Political labels are a box. Why do people put themselves in a box? Does it make them feel safe? Is it so they can generalize and pretend they have it all figured out.

Do you believe what you believed 10 years ago? 5 years ago?

Has your beliefs not grown and changed? Was new evidence not introduced that changed what you believe enough for you to put yourself under a different political label?

Oh, everyone else is labeling themselves too... must conform or label myself a nonconformist.

Labels bind you. You're telling people what you believe and it creates a fixed self-image that you're socially pressured to maintain - Willfully enhancing your cognitive bias by tying it to your own self worth.
#fucklabels

8.03.2012

2012: The End of Western Civilization

There is no shortage of apocalyptic prophecies for 2012, but my favorite isn't what most people would consider when toying with the word apocalypse. There are those that see the end of the Mayan calendar as the beginning of something new - the end of a galactic night, a time when our level of consciousness will increase much the way wakefulness creeps over us after a long sleep.

It occurred to me today, that with one tiny change in our ability to perceive, Western Civilization as we know it would fall down around us like a house of cards. If a tiny change in our perception gave us all the ability to tell a lie from truth, in person and on television, and less likely via written word, nothing would ever be the same.

True Christians Support Gay Marriage

"I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,'" 
- Dan Cathy, the president and COO of Chick-fil-A

Okay. So then, what is God's judgment?

God's Judgment

Revelation 20:11-12 -King James Version (KJV)
11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Matthew 25:31-34
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

I mean, true Christians WANT Jesus to return, right?
Judgment Day, Inheriting the Kingdom.... those are things true Christians look forward to, right?

So why would true Christians stand in the way of things that invite God's Judgment?

As for me, I say:

Bring it Yahweh
I'm tired of seeing all the suffering. 
Step forward and judge me, oh Lord. 


If you're real, that is...




Sources:
[1] http://www.christianpost.com/news/chick-fil-a-president-says-gods-judgment-coming-because-of-same-sex-marriage-78485/#Pm5gt1s6cvC4Lfms.99
[2] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=revelations%2020:11-12&version=KJV