An Open Letter to Mr. Woody Allen

Dear Mr. Woody Allen,

Hi.

Allow me to give you some perspective on this letter and myself. I received a university degree in Psychology from Western Washington University in 1984, in the division of Awareness and Reasoning, with a concentration in Phenomenology. Along with that I study cinema and focused on Hitchcock, Kubrick and of course, your esteemed self.

I grew up watching the European Auteur directors, Truffaut and those, loving their works. Also Kurosawa of course, Tarkovsky and so on. Our local PBS station in the 1960s had on many European films, Monty Python and British shows. It was like growing up in a cinema class in some ways back then. No one I knew were watching films like that back then. But then, I was watching 1950s detective shows, Perry Mason and such as a five year old when no one was watching what I was putting on TV, or I would try to watch when no one was looking and I was supposed to be in bed.

I have enjoyed watching your career from before I even knew I was watching your career. Thank you for that. Later, I loved Sleeper and saw it many times until I had access to watch all your other works. I surveyed your films and after Sleeper I saw Bananas, Take the Money and Run.

Then, when I saw Love and Death I had graduated from fan to serious fan and student of your works. Eventually Annie Hall came out and was well praised as it deserved. Then there are your books, interviews, and so on. As for your private life, I have always tried to avoid passing judgement on those in the public eye, for what I do not intimately have knowledge of.

My beloved and late grandmother had despised Charlie Chaplin whom I loved. Incorrectly too, as it turned out all for a mistaken understanding of his life and intentions, from poor media attention and mere hearsay. From that point on as a child when I discovered that, I tried to separate an artist from their art. Otherwise we might have no artists.

I saw your film Interiors at a theater in Seattle in 1992. It wasn't a full crowd but mostly people my age or older at the time and more than a few couples. I remember several times bursting out loud in laughter in my understanding of hat you were doing as a filmmaker. Even though it was irritating to some of the audience, especially the couple in front of me. I tried to curb my enjoyment but it was difficult. I felt I was understanding too much to contain it merely by watching.

I tried briefly to explain to the couple in front of me the last time I exclaimed aloud at a particularly excellent shot of yours but they didn't seem to get it. I felt I was seeing what you were doing beyond the story with the references, the homages to Ingmar Bergman, shots that tweaked my mind and memory and instilled in me a sense almost of glee.

However, I didn't get the feeling that day that anyone else in that audience was seeing what I was seeing. But then I had paid attention to cinema, studied it, studied you, and felt I got more than my money's worth that day. And they were probably just there to see a good film.

No, I was not on drugs. I was on a good education, I was on the excitement of seeing beauty in film and motion.

So for that, I thank you. I thank you for all of that and so much more over these many years.

JZ Murdock
Bremerton, WA - April 17, 2017

What to do with Sharia Law? Act Now.

I just watched a Vice News report on Indonesia and a segment about the implementation of Sharia Law.

This situation may need to be turned around and applied, to some degree, as the abusers are applying it.

We may well need a newly ratified world wide law and considered Human Right restricting ANY religion from imposing its will on ANY human being without their expressed desire or permission for it to be imposed upon them or their family.

Thereby on their discovery, the immediate disbanding of such an organization to involve if necessary, death.

Perhaps we are at that tipping point where we need to protect humanity against certain religions or sects? I know I for one am sick to death of hearing about these abuses on humanity and travesties upon human beings. I'm tired of others forcing their will on people they do not even know.

All because of a stupid and mean spirited ideology based on the ideal of an Idiot God as worshiped by a tiny minded, small sect of morons who are a very small part of a very large religion. And an idiot's view of their so called "prophet", Muhammad. Grow the hell up.

Guys, if you can't play nice with others, we can destroy you....

Monetary Distrubtion

If we consider in theory that no single person, entity, religion, company or corporation should ever have as much money as even the smallest of nations, it puts into perspective the problems we are faced with today. It is easy to lose the consideration of the individual and of those who have no power or money in the face of such vast wealth and power.

Socialism isn't our biggest problem by far. Capitalism. is. And capitalism isn't our biggest problem so much as the actuality of entities cradling so much limited wealth within their power.

Entities that have cornered the entire planet's wealth in that of a few who repeatedly do not make the best decisions for everyone. The money of the planet may belong to those who can ingeniously acquire it, but the actual wealth of the planet belongs to all of its citizens.

Even if that's not reasonable or doable, it gives one an orientation of what we are dealing with today and how much control needs to be taken back from these corporations and the wealthy.

It is not a matter of the abuse of terminology in phrases like "wealth distribution" or even "socialism", but of the reasonable allowance of the cornering of monetary availability overall.

We have suffered far too long with those such as Republicans and capitalists who twist reality to their own benefit at the disaffection and outright destruction of all others for their own benefit.

In 2015 Monaco's GNP was 5.6 billion Euros.

Only the Vatican is smaller in size but much bigger overall in wealth.

The Vatican Bank, which has about $8 billion in assets, has often been at the center of scandal and corruption since it was founded in 1942. Pope Benedict began the process of cleaning the bank up, and Francis has continued that work.Sep 24, 2015. The Vatican itself has shown deficits off and on since at least 2011 but doesn't include the value of the entire Church itself.

Traditional Conservative American Male Life View

For some...for too many men, and some women:

MAN?
 100% Important.
Sperm?
 100% Important.
Conception?
 100% Important.
Masturbation?
 100% unacceptable.
Abortion?
 100% unacceptable.
Pro Life?
 100% Important.
Birth?
 100% Important.
Childcare, education, healthcare, welfare, veteran care, social concern?
 100% unimportant
Suicide for cause?
 100% unacceptable
Cannabis for any reason?
 100% unacceptable
Logic, science, ethics?
 100% unimportant
Money?
 100% Important.
Religion?
 100% Important... or at least act that way.
Priorities?
 100% confused.


Enough of this. Try something lighter....JZ Murdock photos on Flickr

Deep State 2.0

All this talk by conservatives about the "Deep State" got me thinking.

First, it was patently funny. There are career government employees who go on administration after administration. They run the government. Thank God for that too. Especially with this new amateur administration who is stumbling along at breakneck speeds.

They have lied. They have cheated. They may have broken the laws and they may have committed treason. Time will tell.

They have done bad things and then pointed fingers claiming the other side did it. That is important. Remember it.

Now we hear talk about a so called "deep state". Nothing like a moniker, a bad guy, an enemy. Otherwise, the Republican party might go poof into a puff of smoke and vanish.

But here's the thing.

"They" actually are the deep state. They are Deep State 2.0.

They are not conservative, or republican and surely they are not democrat or progressive. Best I can figure out is they are simply, capitalists. But even that doesn't explain all their actions. Whenever that happens one has to look beyond money, to power. To the long game. But we're not seeing a long game being played. By the Russians, yes, to e sure.

But "They" now are, as best it can be explained, the Trump administration. Now you are seeing just who they are and how easily they can pull the blinds over their supporter's eyes. But people are beginning to wise up. Still they, are smart. They will find a new crises to distract as they have time and again, even with the help of Russians.

At some point we will have to wake up and ask ourselves, just who IS running America now?

It's not the people. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. It's not the electoral college. Even though they decided the new president. As the democratic president candidate lost in 2000, so too, with a bigger and better strategy, the wrong guy won yet again.

One has to ask oneself, why does this keep happening? True, President Barack Obama was an outlier THEY didn't foresee. But they woke up from that, just as they began to put to sleep most of America. And the Russians helped. Both with, and without the conscious knowledge of those now holding the White House hostage.

How else could a charlatan like Donald J Trump become the President of the United States of America? Seriously. How is that even possible?

Well, in reality? It's not. But it did happen. It's a conundrum to be sure. One that surprised even Donald J Trump.

Yet again now with this deep state nonsense, they are once more distracting. They are the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. But they are not the kind old loser. Not by a long shot.

Why is it taking government so long to out these guys? Why indeed. Government is designed to move slow. That protects the people. But the people are not the concern anymore. They are only the smoke by which the mirrors are put into place in order to fill out the agenda of those in the public eye, those who are acting right in front of us and we can't even see it.

What are they doing? That is really the question. And it is one we will uncover very soon. Hopefully, before they can lock things down so we can never writggle out from beneath he heavy weight of so much money and power. And stupidity.

Because above all other things, our one saving grace is exactly that. That they are...stupid.

Stupid because the truth always wins out. However, the "winners" also write the history. Still, we are not a one world government...yet. We have different languages, a saving grace. Because with different languages we have different concepts, different points of view. Through those views, some can obviously see what is going on.

Stupid because people are what really matters. Honesty, clarity, productivity for all and not just for some few special ones, are what matter over corporate and wealthy individual needs.

There is a lot going on in the world right now. For two decades we've been told by those in the intelligence community that there are more spies on the ground world wide right now than there ever were during the "cold war" years.

Our intelligence analysts in America have grown exponentially. But they are actually on our side.

What about this, deep state, then? Who's side are they on? An article by Al Jezeera says progressives now see the deep state as being on their side. They too indicate something awry. They too seem confused. Why is that?

It's obvious, if you just stop to think, back up and take a look at the entire picture.

The deep state is what is actually now running things. And they are pointing fingers claiming anyone else is them. They are out in the open. Exposed. Many have fallen already. More are to come. Russia and Vlad Putin have put their fingers on things which further complicated and confused things.

Obfuscation and obstruction are the rules of the day. Ask yourself. Who has been doing that the most? Who benefits the most? Who claimed they would do one thing if elected and have since done exactly the opposite. Supporters still try to rationalize ridiculous actions by their hero. Still claiming hope is solid, even in the face of massive evidence that does not support that and in fact, supports just the opposite.

So no. The deep state is not out savior. But it is also not those who the actual deep state are pointing fingers at, with the help of conservatives and conspiracy nuts, who started all this nonsense and fairy tales. Which they are really so very bad at, and think they are oh so very good at.

And so I give you, the real deep state: Money. Money, and those who control it. We see our government bow down to it, again and again and again. Within confines so it doesn't look obvious just who controls what. And yet, there they are again, and again. Making excuses, using ridiculous ideologies, abusing the system to save money, or make money, or to buy power.

And there we are, caught in the middle, wondering just what in the hell is going on. For some of us, we grab whatever reason we can find, so we feel we have some control, any control and we will believe nearly anything from what we're seeing.

Delusion, upon delusion, upon delusion.

And there is plenty more to come....stay tuned.

Like you can do anything else, right?

I Think I Found an Ancient Stone Tool

I believe I may have found a very old rock tool today. Basalt possibly. It has obvious knapping strike marks on it and an obvious design. I've found these things before and they always turned out to be nothing.

But that was before college and receiving an education in this kind of thing. I remember from a bunch of anthropology and archaeology classes I took in college and this now seems to be just what I at first thought it was.

Something about the odd shape caught my attention. I had hesitated, then walked on, stopped, went back, figured what the hell, picked it up and looked at it. I couldn't make up my mind so I just shoved it in my back pocket to examine it more closely later when I got home and had better tools to examine it with. I quickly forgot about it. But better safe than sorry.

Cutting/scraping edge on top under my thumb

I had been walking along the street side, in the street, looking for things to shoot photos of after leaving a cemetery (see, Instragram for those photos). In thinking about it, in wondering how in the world I would ever figure out if this was real, I suddenly realized years ago I had been educated in this to the point that I should now be able to tell, is it real, or not?

I used to hang at the anthro lab in college which was one big party mostly. But we were taught how to knap and make stone tools, about them and their uses, etc. It was a great group of people. Some very funny people. Several of them took Speech 101 with me. I even considered changing my major to that for a short time.

Which evokes a speech on of us gave on "The Infamous and notorious 1,000 pound Canadian beaver". A speech that had half the class confused and believing it all. A quarter of the class horrified and disturbed and the final quarter of the class (including myself and a couple of other Anthro lab students), nearly on the floor. It was a brilliant speech. Basically a comedy stand up routine. I've discussed this experience in a previous blog.

I believe this stone tool may be a tranchet, or a scraper, or a possible skinning tool. If so, in looking at other examples online, this was a nice one considering how well and comfortably it fits my hand. Also, research indicated they don't even need to be that sharp to work well. I'd even considered several possibilities such as arrowhead, or spearhead, considering potential for damage over the years in it just getting kicked around.

https://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-indian-weapons-tools/stone-tools.htm

"In archaeology, a tranchet flake is a characteristic type of flake removed by a flintknapper during lithic reduction. Known as one of the major categories in core-trimming flakes, the making of a tranchet flake involves removing a flake parallel to the final intended cutting-edge of the tool which creates a single straight edge as wide as the tool itself. A large flint artifact with a chisel-end, the tranchet flake has a cutting-edge that is sharp and straight. The cutting-edge is unmodified in most cases; sometimes, it is polished for increased durability and/or sharpness."

At first I figured it was a small stone axe head to be attached to a piece of wood. Hard to tell esp., considering wear and tear in between its original use and now. But it has dull ends, which could be useful not to puncture an animal skin when separating it from the carcass. That made me on the street think it might be a small war ax or something.

Kind of cool regardless. But how do you tell if it's just a stone, or a manufactured tool, and if it's a tool is very old or of more recent modern manufacture?

From An identification checklist:
"To distinguish between an artifact and a geofact (a flint that has been shaped by natural processes such as frost) use the following checklist. Don't pay too much attention to the overall shape or possible function (whether it would make a good borer or spear point) but ask yourself:

• Is the flint uniformly patinated?
• Is there the remains of a striking platform?
• Is there a striking point (positive bulb of percussion)?
• Have the edges been retouched?
• Is there pressure flaking on the surface?"

Okay, I don't have a proper lens for something this closeup but I used my 24x Canon prime lens and took some shots, then cleaned them up a bit, cropped and resampled to a smaller size. You can't fully see what I can when I'm holding it and unless you really know what you're looking for it just looks like a stone.

But I see knapping strike locations, polished areas from use, and at this point, esp. after reading up yesterday and reminding myself of what I once knew, I'm pretty sure it's difficult at this point for it not to be what I'm now thinking it is. Too many points of verification seem to exist. I was starting to think it was real when I started to hold it in my hand as if I was going to use it. And it fit, perfectly. As if designed to be held in that way. At that point I was pretty sold on what it was. A manufactured tool.

The question now for me is, how old is it? My old Anthro \ Archaeology professor could make good tools out of stone. But you can't really make it look like this one unless you are trying to make it look real as well as old. As in attempting to counterfeit it. Polishing it on a polisher which most modern stone tool knappers don't do. Then, for it to be polished in places would take years of a lot of use. As if it were a tool used regularly in daily life.

Also I did find it in an odd place, being next to a cemetery in some sparse gravel on a road side in town. Considering gravel is hauled in to be put on roads, the original location for centuries could be out in the middle or no where until it was dumped here in town.

At this point, I'm pretty convinced that after a life time of trying to find something like this, I finally did.

UPDATE 4/8/17:
I went back to that spot and there was no gravel. About a half block away a home had some of that type of rock gravel but nothing of note. I'm beginning to wonder. Thinking for sure, I found a rock tool someone lost. Either thousands of years ago, or more recently. But in considering it was by itself, it seems odd that it would have been there by natural causes. Rather someone else found it like I did, moved it, and lost it. Or knew what it was an lost it. Or something.
thirty three new pics from today's walkabout around Bremerton.

UPDATE 7/17/2017:

So this is cool. My daughter's friend is an archaeologist and just came by to visit. I showed her the subject of this blog and she heartily agreed, it's exactly what I had suspected it was, an ancient stone tool.

Reality Through Personal Filters Darkly

We have to stop looking at everything through these filters and start seeing what we're talking and voting about.

I get it if you vote to keep as much money as you make on each paycheck, simply because you don't make enough money. But consider if you're thinking at all about paychecks, you're simply not one of the many who never even know when they get a paycheck, just because they have so much money to begin with. You're in a different league altogether. Certainly a different social strata and definitely a different tax bracket.

But you can't vote because you do not want to be taxed or pay for someone else's healthcare. You have to expand your awareness as to why you don't make any money in the first place. Where is all that money going?

It's not just going to taxes. Because you're not, none of us are, paying ENOUGH in taxes. No one is anymore. Even though Republicans think cutting taxes is ALWAYS the answer. It's not. When you cut taxes as they have for years, down into the meat, into the bone, into the bone marrow of our country, then we have got to stop cutting taxes and start getting that money back into the government so it can once again be functional.

So, where is all that money?

When you finally do start making enough money per paycheck, for whatever reason, then you have to ask yourself, exactly when DO you have enough? According to the tenets of capitalism, you never do.

And that in itself is wrong. NO ONE ever should have as much money as a small nation because we live in a closed economic system. Either within our local municipality or nation or our entire planet. IF some take most of all the money, that becomes destructive to the whole, illiberal, unfair, and it should be outright illegal. Who fights against that? The wealthy, the powerful and then they convince the poor to argue in their place, and for their benefit.

We are so caught up in our concerns and considerations of "freedom" that we cannot even see all that to be true.

Belonging to a nation is a responsibility. You do not just get to live here for free, but you do have some inalienable rights. The wealthy want to live for free. So they must be held accountable. These grey areas that conservatives fight against in healthcare, judicial representation, and civil protections for police, fire and emergency care, should simply be rights. These are not and should not be privileges.

Because we have other things to pay for besides corporations or our massive military budget.

What the problem is here is that for many decades now, our priorities have been skewed from what they should be. We have heard too much derision and disinformation about socialism for instance. Before that it was communism. Before that probably a fear of freed slaves or of freeing slaves.

We have evolved and bettered ourselves and now we are at a point of backsliding and we need to stopgap it. End it. But fake news, the bastard child of spin has overtaken our media and our citizens.

Those who wish to stay in power have found it useful to abuse our political process and we find we are stuck with them. Beyond what is right. Beyond what is reasonable. We have had our taxes cut to where education has gone downhill. Easy access to instant media has polarized our beliefs. Beyond Russian dezinformatsiya (disinformation) which the Republican party has absconded with and made their own. Then they have turned about and blamed what they have done, when used against them, as "fake news".

We need to re-attenuate our own mental filters with real information, accurate news, truth and what is reasonable. We have to allow our ideas to fail, when they are bad ideas, rather than doubling down just to win, especially whenever it is in the worst interest of the country. Our method of democracy has been damaged, hopefully not permanently, but the abuse of politics and the discovery of disinformation.

We now have to deal with cyber attacks, hacking from Russia, China and elsewhere to a lesser extent from places like then North Korean hermit kingdom. So it is even more imperative that we get our beliefs, our filters, straightened out and correct.

It all stops with agreeing on what a fact is, on seeing the filters we use having the same basis in reality, the same criteria for what is fake and what is actual, and on our priorities being agreed upon.

Because aside from our filters are our priorities which have been broken for many decades now.

What are we, who are we first and foremost? Nationalists against all other countries and all other humans? Theists against all other religions or religion itself? Right or left leaning politicians against all others who disagree with us? Or just greedy or power hungry against all those we can walk upon in order to raise ourselves up above all others?

We have to decide these things. And we need to decide them very, very soon.