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Collected Thoughts, 1/16/2002:
Oversight?
Here is a quotation from John G. Russell "If you ain't the
lead dog, the scenery never changes." I found this quote
in a book on publishing by Dan Poynter. I don't know any more
about it than that. Recently I noticed that Daimler Chrysler is
using a slightly rearranged version of it in the TV ads for their
Dodge truck line. I did not noticed that they gave any credit
to the source of the quote. It must be simply an oversight, wouldn't
you think? Surely, no decent advertising executive would take
credit for an idea which was not his own.
What's Next?
I saw Peter Jennings with a special report on ABC news, Channel
12, December 3, 2001. A new terrorist alert was issued by the
administration. How surprising! If they create a big enough atmosphere
of fear in the American people, Ashcroft will be able to get away
with any fascists maneuvers he pleases. We are being dragged around
by the nose on these phony alerts.
What is happening to our Constitution? Now, according to news reports, our government wants us to have national identification cards. "We know who you are. We know where you are. We know what you're doing!" Will there also be armbands required for people of Middle Eastern backgrounds? When will they start to insist on tattoos? Shades of Nazi Germany. They did this same thing in Europe. It did not help them in the long run and it will not help America.
Rules:
In life we have rules. It is important to understand the nature
of the rules. Some must be followed and some are more or less
optional. Examples of rules which must be followed are those in
administering medications. We count on our druggist to follow
the rules slavishly. Examples of rules which are more or less
optional are those in mixing the ingredients for recipes.
In following rules, we can find the extremes in some people. One extreme are those who always obey slavishly, because they cannot function any other way. They need rules so they can know what to do. Otherwise they are dysfunctional. Without rules, they would perish. On the other extreme are the people who refuses to be bound by rules at all. These folks like to pretend that they are free thinkers or revolutionaries of one form or another. In fact, it is not a matter of freedom, it is a matter of discipline. These people have none. They too are dysfunctional.
Man in masses:
Mass movements are wrong, be they Christianity or the Klu Klux
Klan. They subvert the human spirit and mind. They make a man
a parody of himself and a puppet of the mob instinct. Man separately
is a conscious being, but man in mass becomes an unconscious process.
Madison Avenue:
I noticed a cover caption on Health Magazine January/February
2002. The caption was "Transform your look. 12 make over
secrets from the pros." I decided not to read the article.
What I get from the caption is that nobody is okay the way they
are. This is what sells. This is Madison Avenue at its ugliest,
most disgusting, and contemptible. Health magazine, by the way,
is a dishonest title. It is not a magazine about health. It's
a "Woman's" magazine. You could say the rag is for and
about women, but that would be off the mark. It is really for
Madison Avenue and about conning women. I guess they think they
can con women easier than they can con men. If they believe that,
they should take a look at Playboy Magazine. Hefner has been conning
adolescent men of all ages for decades.
Who's party?
The republicans have sold out. The party has changed. They used
to be an honest conservative party with sound basic values which
had to do with the limitation of government power and intrusion.
Now they are an insane coalition of bible thumpers, fascists,
and gun crazy anarchists. Most knee jerk republican true believers
have not yet realized this. When they begin to, the republican
party will disintegrate.
The truth:
I saw on TV that some University of Pennsylvania scientist claims
he can use a brain scan to tell if someone is lying. It's supposed
to be the ultimate lie detector. If it works it won't reveal anything
because it will turn out that everyone is lying.
Reaping what we sow:
I saw in a nursing magazine that a hospital in Hilton Head South
Carolina is offering a ten grand signing bonus for nurses. That's
great. They asked for it. They brought it on themselves. They
thought they could treat nursed like interchangeable parts. They
acted like they could substitute semi professional technicians
for nurses. They created the shortage by driving the best people
away from the profession. Now they must pay the piper. There are
simply not enough nurses and no one in their right mind would
want to become a nurse. They have given nurses scab shop treatment.
Now, they must pay the difference.
Cloning:
It is a mistake to drive cloning science out of this country.
At least here, we can control how it is used. If we drive it to
rogue nations, who will control it? The crooks, that's who. It
will be done. It is just a matter of who and where. Would we really
rather have it done in China or Iraq?
Conservation:
Naturalize Americans are better Americans that the rest of us.
They had to earn it and in so doing they learned respect for our
system. It is always the people who had to make no effort to acquire
their rights who have the most contempt for our laws, processes,
and institutions. I speak particularly of these ne'er-do-well
green freak terrorists. They like to pretend that they are conservationists.
Very soon, the word conservationist will be in as much disrespect and contempt as the word adult. It will become a synonym for jackass just as adult is now a synonym for smut. It's a shame, because a true conservationist is a scientist, not a uneducated brainless green freak.
Always wrong:
Mrs. Gaffer used to put notches in her broom handle whenever she
proved that I was wrong. It happened so often that she had to
stop doing it after she whittled away two perfectly good brooms
in a single year.
Teaching and learning:
Once you teach a kid to read, you have taught them pretty much
everything that it is possible to teach them. If you pretend to
be teaching them from then on, you are probably hurting them more
that you are helping them. Once they learn to read, you should
not be a teacher, you should be a guide. You should lead them
to the sources which will satisfy their interests. Most kids who
do poor in school do so because the are simply not interested
in what's being crammed down their throats.
Catharsis:
I wrote a book called "The Gaffer's Shorts." It's a
book of short pieces which are expressions of my most personal
thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Everyone should write their own
Gaffer's Shorts, even if they never get it published. Everyone
needs a catharsis. That kind of self expression is a healing experience.
It is even better if you can get even one other person to read
it.
NBA:
The NBA is flat out dishonest. They should not draft or accept
players who are not old enough to have graduated from college.
They cannot force the kids to get educated, but they can stop
putting those kind of temptations in their way. It is a criminal
act to do that.
Terrorist:
I saw, on television, a huge fat red-faced Orangeman terrorizing
a tiny girl on her way to school. That is no different in kind
than an Al-Qaida desert rat. It is savagery in the extreme. We
must stop pretending that one is just something which is unfortunate
while the other is evil. They are both beyond evil.
Lazy reporters:
I cannot believe these media people. They are actually whining
that the government is not giving them enough information about
this war on terrorism. What kind of lazy crap-heads are they?
They claim to be reporters and journalists. I say, get off your
butts and try to be what you claim to be. Go investigate for God's
sake. Get out of the press room. Get out of the bars. Go to work.
Quit sitting around waiting for the government to do your job;
to hand you press releases. Do you also want a Pulitzer for sitting
on your butts and publishing handouts?
The Pope:
Sure the Pope is a nice old guy, but let us be honest. He has
no more influence on the events of the world than a French pumpkin
farmer. He comes around with his traveling circus. People keel
down and pray, wave their arms, weep, moan, and shout hosanna.
Then he leaves and they go back to business as usual. Nothing
changes.
The doctor's role:
We define the doctor's role as that of a healer. He works in the
healing arts. However, we tend to think of that doctor's role
as one of preventing death. I see the doctor's role as somewhat
different than that. To me, the doctor's role is not that of preventing
death, but of healing and minimizing pain and suffering. It is
impossible to prevent temporal death. To the extend that the doctor
sees that as his role, he must always fail. To minimize pain and
suffering and heal when possible is the legitimate goal of the
healing arts. Preventing death and prolonging life at any cost
is not a legitimate goal.
Please don't misunderstand to think that I agree with Kevorkian.
I do not. Deliberately causing death is not a legitimate goal
either.
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