Congress Our Way

There is this email going around now, first time I've seen it anyway, titled: "Congress Our Way". I read it. I found it interesting. I have some amendments to it which I'll put in brackets.

Here it is:

This is not a Republican or Democrat thing.

 “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests”.
- Patrick Henry -

[so true, or it should be]

This email has been totally cleaned of all other names and is being sent to you in hopes you will keep it going and keep it clean. This is something we can all fight for and I hope you will read it all the way through. I believe you will be glad you did.

The 26th Amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months, 8 days to be ratified!  Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

[One should note that this was a special period in time for America and that the young were coming to awareness for the first time of a right to vote and the ability to institute changes during a time of high duress, and a knowledge of the top heavy capabilities of their youthful cohort.Something it would be nice, if the young now would take note.]

Of the 27 Amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list, in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really needs to be passed around.

[The proposed] Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

[This sounds good, except for a few things. The issue isn't so much a problem with those few of the hundreds of millions of citizens in existence, who govern; but then this is a big benefit to get people into office as they don't get that much once IN office. The issue is more that they stay there for so long and have to strive to maintain their office or tenure. That means they tend to do what will get them voted in, and not necessarily what is right, or needed, that benefits the nation, but rather what benefits their keeping their office. It is good they represent their people, but it is bad that this is not always (or typically) the case.

So we have this unbalance of where our laws and efforts go and, have you noticed how corporations have taken over America? How the American workers are working harder, longer, for less? Why, do you think that to be the case? Because those in office are making the best decisions for their people? Then why aren't their people having longer vacations of a month or two per year? Or making more money? Or, why aren't we yet, working 6 hour days and 4 day work weeks?]

2. Congress (past, present and future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

[I have to say, this one sounds good. Although I don't have a problem with them receiving retirement for having served, I do think they need to share the same pool and if they are peeing in it, they need to be getting the foul fluids in their mouths, also]

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

[Again, what goes around, really should come around]

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

[I'm not sure this is the best solution, but I do think this is onto an interesting idea. ]

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

[ibid]

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

[ibid, kind of all goes without saying, doesn't it?]

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time.

[Yeah, well this never really works, does it? Like everyone not buying gas one day a year, but hey, it's fun to think about. Still, it IS good to talk about these kinds of things, to write about them, and hey, who knows? Maybe some day, something WILL happen.]

THIS IS [kind of] HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!!

Anyway, as I said, it's all fun to talk about it....

Weekend Wise Words

Be Smart! Be Brilliant!

Whenever you find yourself on that long, low road to "cool", just remember... if you have to search for cool, you'll never find it. If it's not already inside you, you can never find it outside of you, unless someone else has it. You can get close to cool, but you can never absorb it.

Wikipedia defines "cool" as: Something regarded as cool is an admired aesthetic of attitude, behavior, comportment, appearance and style, influenced by and a product of the Zeitgeist.

You are either meant to have it, or not. You can build towards having it, but it has to come naturally. And so the only way you can really get it, is to just have it, as it comes from within; you can't force it. Just be yourself.

Now that... is being cool.

The weight that hovers above us all

I'm watching "Igby Goes Down". The central character, Igby, has an interesting set of parents. A scary mother played most excellently by Susan Sarandon, but a much nicer mother than I've had to deal with the last half of my own life and an excellent father played by Bill Pullman, as his schizophrenic dad. There is a scene with Pullman, who loses it while showering with his silk pajamas on. He starts raging behind the translucent glass door, smashes it with his fist and then sits there in the shower as his young son tearfully watches him. Dad (Pullman, in a tour de force, performance) says:

"Igby, I feel this great, great pressure... coming down on me. It's just, constantly, coming down on me. Crushing me."

Bill Pullman

Can you relate? I can relate. I think we all can relate. And we are all at risk of our parent's phobias, paranoia and psychosis.

But it got me to thinking. How is it, this general fear, paranoia, crushing pressure of Life, doesn't crush us all.

I think for many, they simply don't feel it, they are oblivious. some of us are too stupid to see it, some, too intelligent, or are simply such good Artists that they are generally rewarded and recognized and are constantly slipping out from under it.

Others, bear it with no difficulty. Some, bear it with some, or all, duress. Some, simply cannot handle it, some complicatedly cannot handle it; they flip out, run off, are flighty, flaky, or lost.

If you feel it then, I think you are intelligent. At least, in some way. How you handle it, is the thing, you see. Because it is always there, for everyone. It's simply how you handle it that matters.

And I started to wonder: how do I handle it?

I realized, if I looked at it, with my "inner eye", that I could see it, hanging there above me. A dark shadow, a heavy dark weighted thing, suspended there above me, always, waiting to crush me. But I handle its being there simply by, ignoring it.

Sisyphus rollin' that ball up that hill

I'm aware it's there. And I do things to keep it there, keep it from descending upon me; I have a buffer between myself and it. It is a fearsome thing, that weight, but one that needs to be kept at bay. For it is only when that buffer does close in upon you, crushing you, that things can then become dangerous.

We are all at risk. We all have things to keep at bay. It's all in the dignity you choose to show, the actions you choose to play to keep it at bay, that give you the quality of your life. It's your Life. It's the quality you want to have, your choices, that give you that happiness in life, or that great sadness. It's your choice.

Choose well.

Virtual Reality Lovers?

Yes. We are getting very close.

Very close to what? You ask?

Watch the video first. Then consider... just what's next?

And while we're at it, here's my contribution to this topic, a short sci fi story I wrote, "Simon's Beautiful Thought".

Did you know that there are already many kinds of remote manipulators?

There are suits you can wear (like the Vivid Cyber Sex Suit), hooked up over the internet to someone else of your choice, where you can each manipulate the other person's body, like virtual touch.

This suit was killed by the FCC for lack of proper testing issues, but come on, it's really only a matter of time.

There have been "waldos" for some time, allowing you to manipulate a mechanical glove located anywhere in the world. Surgeons are using devices like this now to perform surgery half a world away from them. This was a concept that has been around since before I was born and that now, was a long time ago. I remember reading about "waldos" when I was a kid and had first started reading Sci Fi back in the 60s.

According to Wikipedia: Waldo (1942) is a short story by Robert A. Heinlein originally published in Astounding Magazine in August 1942 under the pseudonym Anson MacDonald. It is available in the book Waldo & Magic, Inc., as well as other collections. This story is not related to the story "Magic, Inc." other than both stories being about magic in one form or another.

"The essence of the story is the journey of a mechanical genius from his self-imposed exile from the rest of humanity to a more normal life, conquering the disease myasthenia gravis as well as his own contempt for humans in general. The key to this is that magic is loose in the world, but in a logical and scientific way.

"Waldo Farthingwaite-Jones was born a weakling, unable even to lift his head up to drink or to hold a spoon. Far from destroying him, this channeled his intellect, and his family's money, into the development of the device patented as "Waldo F. Jones' Synchronous Reduplicating Pantograph". Wearing a glove and harness, Waldo could control a much more powerful mechanical hand simply by moving his hand and fingers. This and other technologies he develops make him a rich man, rich enough to build a home in space. In the story, these devices became popularly known as "waldoes". In reference to this story, the real-life remote manipulators that were later developed also came to be called waldoes."


There are and have been for many many years, devices that mimick Human sexual organs and give pleasure, in some forms, going back thousands of years. One can already hear someone who isn't there, or see them; we now have videophones, for real, something that was for decades the domain only of science fiction movies.

Now you can also touch them and they can touch you. Finally we can create an attractive, real looking individual out of thin air, or from others, as a composite of your perfect ideal of a mate, as in the case of the virtual Japanese Rock Star.

AI is coming along nicely and it won't be long before you cannot tell that you are not talking to a real live person.

What's next? Obviously, The Virtual Lover. A fully computer generated, love and lust interest that simply does not exist and is always there at your beck and call. Literally. In wearing the right suit, or simply having the right components, you will not only not be able to tell that it is not a real person, but you will come, possibly, to prefer the fake over the real. Because as they say, no one can make lover to you, like you. Really? Well, some think so.

And having a virtual lover will be much easier and will come before a virtual Romantic Lover, because motion is always going to be easier to mimic than intellectual romance. But don't think that won't be next somewhere down that road. You can already buy a mock up of a male or female porn star. That hot person on the screen you lust after you can indeed feel what they are like close up and personal. What will it be like when you can have Brad or Angelina living with you at your home, at your beck and call, for every blow by blow action you could possibly require or desire?

I kind of makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.

I remember reading a sci fi story decades ago about a guy on another planet that ran androids. Realistic looking robots, that a good "handler" could handle up to 9 or 13 at a time when working in the field digging or whatever. They had houses of ill repute for the Human laborers in these communities on these outer planets.

And as happens in real life, as has happened in the Old West, one of these guys comes to fall in love with one of the "prostitutes" only to find in the end, that it was a robot wired to a bed with a receiver beneath the bed that read his thought waves and responded in sexual responses to give him the most responsive and intense lovemaking session that could be possible. Think about it, ever been making love with your lover and they kept not quite doing what you needed and it was frustrating?

But think about that a little further and you begin to see the weirdness. He was basically making love to, himself. Maybe masturbation isn't a big deal, but when you actually fall in love with your hand, the object you are using for physical pleasure, when you actually have fallen romantically in love with a physical component such as a machine... that can't be good for the Human Race as a whole.

I suspect women have this problem more than men, actually, as men tend to be a bit more coarse in their actions and desires. But in this case, that would, could, never happen. Except in those moments when you don't know what you need and your partner magically just, does. But even that can be rectified over time as the AI would "learn" what you need and figure it out eventually, giving you exactly what you need, when you needed it. So, do you think people, especially some people, would find that addicting? See a problem here?

When you toss in that there are already life sized, realistic looking dolls (around $7,000)  where you can feel you are in the room with almost a real person, throw in some mechanics, speakers, a remote, maybe bluetooth connection to a very fast computer and some mobility and balance, voila, you have a real date. Even if the mobility issues are somewhere in the future, the rest is all pretty doable. Scary. You will literally be able to have a lover that you can keep in the closet until you want her. Or him.

Then there is the issue one article mentions, is having sex with a robot (or a doll), cheating?

At some point (for some, there will ALWAYS be some for whom) there will no longer be any reason  to even have a mate of their own. As a soul mate, (more like a CPUMate) will be able to be manufactured. What does that say when we no longer need to work for our relationship, we just design it to work with us?

Sean Young in BladeRunner

That doesn't even bring into call the whole BladeRunner concern, we're still just talking machines here.

But, that still brings along with it some serious, real concerns.

If you take a couple, who have a strange orientation, even antisocial, and turn them loose with one another, you can get some very interesting, and scary things. Serial murder partners, rapists partners, strange fetishists, weird psychosocial behaviors. Because they support one another's beliefs and ethics and spiral into very strange areas. Areas that may be counter to a healthy society. Surely, there will be some countermeasures and some situations that are very positive for the world.

Surely this will be good for some, especially those "objective fetishists" types who can get turned on my a street sign, a clock radio or a toaster. But what about normal Human relations? How will all this affect, that?

Then again maybe, finally, those Aliens will come down to Earth and show some interest in interacting and shaking things up a bit.

Win the battle, or win the war?

One of the biggest, the most important things that I have learned in life, is two part.

First, to try to eliminate ignorance when and where ever I can. You know, there is so much ignorance, misunderstood facts, misinformation and disinformation, that whenever one can, we really have a responsibility to speak up. Now, we have to be careful there because if we have that misunderstood / misinformation or disinformation (something the world learned from the old Soviet KGB days), well, we don't want to be spreading around the insanity, do we?

So I always try to be sure of my facts, to triangulate in a good journalistic (old) fashion attempt to be as correct as possible and to STOP talking when I get into grey areas. Better to say, "I don't really know about that" than to keep talking on what you THINK is true. At least say, I THINK this is true, but I'm really not sure. That too is dangerous, but at least you placed the caveat to emptor.

 
Second, I need to know when to drop the discussion and just let it go. One can, as they say, win the battle and lose the war. I want to win the war, as it were.

Sometimes, it is so easy to get caught up in winning the battle, or making your point, or pushing it to where the other person has to nearly (perhaps only in their minds) kowtow to you, that you lose them in the end.

About that, I don't think I really count. It is true that the chest beater will get the attention and move up in the world, I've seen it many times. People who call attention to themselves, sometimes when I was even the one to point things out and they got the profit. The thing about that is, you have to know that you are making a difference. Many times people have come back to me to say, "Hey, you said that first" or "He got that from you." Which feels pretty good. And later, they have a deeper appreciation for my sensibilities and I reaped a later benefit that was more hidden.

Still that being said, I have learned that putting your head down and working hard, can easily get you nothing. Certainly not as much as the chest thumpers. So you have to let people know, you are intelligent, especially if you are wise, that you are knowledgeable and have a good sense of self and purpose. When you do that, I've seen many times, that those in power, deferred to me, who was quiet in the back of the room at times, over that of the noise in the front, much to their disdain as I had "stolen their thunder". But I didn't, did I? I think it is good if you come across as smart, and classy, rather than otherwise.

Anyway, it is really too easy to get caught up in winning that battle. And you really don't want to lose them in the end. It is many times better to simply make your point, and move on. Frequently with people I have known, if I did that, they would later come to say they see things in that way, or claim it as their own discovery, disclaiming my responsibility in their change in attitude or understanding.

But really, what is more important? That they now see things more clearly, more correctly? Or that I get due credit for making the world a better place?

Religion as disease and addiction

NPR had an interview on Fresh Air on June 23rd recently on the topic of "Compass of Pleasure" why things feel so good. It was about addiction, from sex to junk food. Researcher and Editor in chief for the Journal of Neurophysiology, David Linden talked about the science of pleasure and addiction. Usually I try to be tight and one step in front of the other, but I'm going to just throw some things out there this time, so don't take it too seriously; but it should be interesting....

It was his contention that we do not find someone has heart disease, and then treat them as criminals or defects. Rather we educate them and treat them for their issues and expect them to take care of their situation in order to continue living a good and full life.

So too, he said, we should treat addicts. Once they know what their situation is, we should expect them to be responsible enough to seek the right way for them to make it through life. If we apply this same theory to those people who believe in religion, and it is very much a similar kind of thing, perhaps we can get them the help they need in order to make it through life without living their delusion so they can then become stronger and more productive Human Beings. When you look at how many take on religion to replace things like addictions, exchanging one for the other may seem like a good thing, but there is a downside.

Fred Previc who wrote, "The role of extrapersonal brain systems in religious activity", said: "...the final expansion of DA could have prompted the rise in abstract reasoning, human creativity in the form of art and music, and religious behavior....Both abstract reasoning and religious thought involve an emphasis on nonvisible (distant) space and time, and both are linked to the upper field....It might also seem strange that two ostensibly antagonistic processes--religious behavior and abstract (scientific) reasoning--may have co-evolved....both phenomena are concerned with abstract concepts and comprehensive frameworks with which to comprehend spatio-temporal events in the external environment".

This is something I've been alluding to for some time now. Though I've proposed it goes back further in time and evolution as to the beginnings and what sparked this to begin in the first place. 

So, in taking another route beyond the creation, to it's abuse, one has to ask, "is Religion a disease"?

Dis-ease? Is it an addiction? Do you receive dopamine rewards by believing? Is it the energy of God the religious feel? Or, does believing in something outside of yourself, thus abdicating yourself from all responsibility because of the "Will of God", simply give you a rush, or flush your nerves with chemicals? Consider how pleasant religion makes the religious feel. Have you ever seen the face of a "believer" in church, in the "raptures". Kind of looks like a heroin addict just after they shoot up, doesn't it? Now, consider how leaving it, leaves one in withdrawal.

Try, being a severely religious person, then stop it. Look to the Middle East. Consider that those suicide bombers, may very well have been "losing their religion" and so, the only way out, was suicide and hey, why not take out as many "infidels" (and other "True Believers") with them.

So try being a religion addict and suddenly stop. See what happens.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July Independence Day, America!

This is the day, two days after Independence was declared, that the Declaration of Independence was finally decided upon, and a month and four days before it was first signed by John Hancock and the others.

Yes, it's good to remember every 4th of July (and daily in-between I might add) exactly what we are celebrating.  One might think we are celebrating fireworks, over eating and drinking.

And actually, I think we are. We are celebrating a reason to celebrate. That's fine, as long as we don't lose sight of what exactly the celebrations were originally all about.

Freedom.

But what does that mean? Well, if you don't know yet, go read a book. Or, if you can't handle that, watch a good movie. I have a really good suggestion for a good movie on that topic, but I can't make it yet, as I'm currently writing it. But when it comes out, go see it. It's going to be really fun.

To really understand what the celebration is about, you cannot just hear what it is about, you have to know what it was like to live back then. I don't think we can even imagine now what it was like. No technologies like we have now, much fewer people, only 13 states, most of the US under other's control or a vast possibility beyond the Mississippi.

But it meant no more control by England. Free to pursue our own devices. Taxation with Representation. Immigrants were welcomed. Years later for America, commerce was King, not the King of England.

First and foremost, American Independence meant spilled blood. That of our ancestors, or the founders of this country, not just the Founding Fathers, considering, they lived through the war.

On a more positive side, France gave us a great symbol that has turned into the symbol for America, the Statue of Liberty, "Lady Liberty" herself.

Frédéric-Auguste BartholdiLady Liberty Banquet
Re-created by Chef David Féau

“In 1871, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, who had already won a measure of success with patriotic sculptural works, was commissioned by Edouard de Laboulaye, a prominent scholar and politician, to sculpt the goddess Liberty; Laboulaye planned to give it to the United States to commemorate the historic relations between the two nations at the time of America’s centennial anniversary of independence. The iconography of the monument was based upon French and Roman models. It was to take the form of the Roman goddess Libertas, which had long been a symbol of freedom in Europe. . . . Laboulaye approved Bartholdi’s clay study model for the statue in 1875, and then he inaugurated the Franco-American Union, which was to have full responsibility for the monument and the raising of money to pay for its construction.


"One of the great fund-raising events in the pains to build the Statue of Liberty was its kick-off banquet given at the Hotel du Louvre on Saturday, November 6, 1875, by the Franco-American Union. . . . The event was a glittering affair of some 200 guests, which included such distinguished names as French president Patrice de MacMahon, U.S. ambassador Elihu Washburne, descendents of Marquis de Lafayette . . . also present were prominent liberals Victor Borie, Louis Wolowski, and Henri Martin. The event, which raised 40,000 francs, was thus enormously successful both financially and socially.

"Based on newspaper reports, the banquet was described in Hertha Pauli’s 1948 classic volume, I Lift My Lamp: The Way of a Symbol: ‘The splendid dining room of the Hotel du Louvre was decked out in the red, white, and blue colors of the American and French republics. Two hundred guests, French and American (all male; the affair was strictly stag) sat at three tables forming a large U. At the end a gorgeously colored transparency depicted the proposed work. Its arms seemed to rise from the sea.’ The dinner was at once scrumptious and symbolic. Its leading dishes were specially named for the occasion.”

 Lady Liberty Banquet
Serves 6

• Potage Pritanier—Mock Turtle à l’Américaine
• Hors d’Oeuvres variés
• Turbot à la Hollandaise—Croustades à la Washington
• Buissons d’Écrevisses de la Meuse (Sauce à la truffle noire)
• Filet de Boeuf Lafayette
• Cotelettes d’Agneau aux petit-pois
• Poularde Caroline
• Faisan et Perdeaux Bardés
• Salade de chicorée
• Haricots verts à la Mâitre d’hotel
• Turbans d’Ananas au Kirsch
• Parfait glace au café
• Dessert assorti

Wines: Marsala, Bordeaux en Carafon, Haut-Sauternes, Cos d’Estournel 1865, Chambolles 1858, Clos Vougeot 1868, Veuve Clicquot extra sec, Clicquot superior

When Lady Liberty was commemorated, a poem was read, written by. Emma Lazarus and is now permanently engraved on a tablet within the pedestal on which the statue stands. Most people only know of it, a part:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses...."

But there is more. Years later, one man made it his goal to see that poem on a plague on her base. It spoke to the world and welcomed those who needed protection. We forget sometimes, that we have traditionally been that big brother, or big sister to the world. It's a heady and heavy responsibility we have sometimes not wanted. We have wanted to hole up in a cave, to be isolationist.

The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Here in Seattle, we will celebrate with fireworks around our own statue of sorts, The 1964 World's Fair Space Needle. They have taken to making it quite a spectacle and something to be seen in person.

Have a happy, healthy and pleasant 4th of July, 2011!

Happy Birthday America!