US Congress Owned by the Military Industrial Complex

In a Wall Street Journal news article published today, titled "Defense Firms Gird for Fight to Find Profits", it was reported that, "the Pentagon doesn't want more C-17 transport jets, which Boeing has produced for years, though Congress is pushing to keep on buying them".

If this doesn't show the relationship between the large defense businesses and our chosen representatives, I don't know what does. It is clear that Congress takes its queue on what to buy from the providers of defense goods, rather than the Pentagon. Who would know what we need to operate our current defense strategy more than the Pentagon?

I can't wait to hear all of your thoughts on this one. But, if you are going to tell me that this is not surprising, then I hope you will either enlighten me on why this is either a good thing, or how we can try and take back our government.

It would seem that as long as various defense related businesses are employing large numbers of Americans all around the country, that it is going to be a hard sell to get any representative to stand up to them. Even though the Pentagon doesn't want more C-17 Globemaster III aircrafts, there are jobs attached to the creation of those planes. If stopping their production is going to cause the loss of tens of thousands more jobs in this already troubled economy - who among those who refused to let other private sector businesses fail will stand up and say enough is enough?

With war being such a big business in our country, how can we ever hope to bring about peace? It seems clear to me that the only way to overcome this bellatorious-cancer is to create more jobs that yield higher pay than those offered by the war-machine. So, get your thinking caps on. Ready? Go!

New England Man Charged in Terror Plot

Today the Wall Street Journal reported that a dual US-Egyptian citizen was charged in a terror plot that did not unfold because of the groups inability to obtain automatic weapons.

Our society seems to brandish a heavy axe called despair. Anyone who dares to suggest change, must place their head on the chopping block, and survive the popular opinion that things are all beyond our ability to change them for the better.

It is this belief that peaceful means are useless which perpetuates violence as a means to a political end. At the same time, our US system was designed to be change-resistant; because, too much change, too quickly, leads to an unstable government.

Have we in fact found our way into a tyranny? Is any real change impossible through peaceful means? Tarek Mehanna, a graduate from a pharmacy-school; and, the man charged in the above mentioned terrorist plot must have thought so.

What do you think?

Google AdSense Account Disabled

Cross-posted from our cyber-jutsu blog...

Some of you may have noticed that the cyber-justsu dojo walls seem a little bare. The Google Advertisements are missing.

Google has disabled our AdSense account.

In an email, they have asserted that our "AdSense account has posed a significant risk to [their] AdWords advertisers".

This would appear to happen frequently enough, that they have a FAQ established to provide more information.

From the FAQ:

"Because we have a need to protect our proprietary detection system, we're unable to provide our publishers with any information about their account activity, including any web pages, users, or third-party services that may have been involved.

As you may know, Google treats invalid click activity very seriously, analyzing all clicks and impressions to determine whether they fit a pattern of use that may artificially drive up an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings. If we determine that an AdSense account may pose a risk to our AdWords advertisers, we may disable that account to protect our advertisers' interests.

Lastly, please note that as outlined in our Terms and Conditions, Google will use its sole discretion when determining instances of invalid click activity."

So, we really have no idea why our account was disabled. If any of our readers have been randomly or blindly clicking on advertisements, you have not helped us. In fact, you may have shut down what might have been a great source of passive income for our blogs.

We have petitioned google to reinstate our account. If that happens, I encourage you all to only click on advertisements which are of interest to you. Don't be afraid to click on advertisements, that is why they are there - but please refrain from just clicking because you know it is generating revenue for us.

I don't usually cross-post between these blogs - but I will put this message on all of the blogs.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Sensei Metajunkie

Escaping Reality... Burn the Witches!

With Halloween almost upon us, i thought I'd write a little bit about a virtual witch-hunt that has been going on for generations, with each new generation identifying the next witch to tie to the stake.

I have heard many people talk down to others for a perceived notion that they are "escaping reality". The judgement would seem to be that the escapist is engaging in something that is harmful or unnatural. Such a judgement also carries with it the implied belief that the judge is free of such behavior. It would seem, however, that what is termed escapism by one person, is relaxation and stress compensation for another. In deed, some of the largest escapist-witch-hunters I have had the displeasure to meet, have been some of the most tightly wound individuals one would ever hope to meet, and/or self-deceived hypocrites.

I do not mean to imply that anyone should avoid responsibility, or refuse to be held accountable by their community. The virtues of personal accountability cannot be stressed enough in this time of bail-outs, bankruptcies, and foreclosures. So, when I speak of "escaping reality", I do not mean avoiding responsibility. While the avoidance of responsibility must be shed as we transform from child to adult, the ability to escape reality would seem to be an essential part of a happy life.

I wonder why it is that we all seek to escape reality from time to time. I know there are those among you who just read that last sentence and said, "Speak for yourself. I don't escape reality." I hope we can first all agree that we have at some point in our lives sought solace in constructs of the mind. I will argue that we all, you included, escape reality on a daily basis; and, that it is not only a good thing, but necessary for our happiness. For those of you who are stubbornly thinking that you are not a part of this reality escaping demographic, lets look at some examples.

Lets start with perhaps one of the most basic of all human experiences: Day Dreaming. We have all had day dreams, just as we have all dreamed in our sleep. Both would seem to be hard-wired into the consciousness of our being. Anyone who has seen a cat or dog twitching in their sleep might also be able to confirm that it would seem to be present in those creatures as well. I'm starting with this example, because I want to show that the escape of reality, or the experience of alternate realities is natural.

For those of you who think that you do not dream, that simply isn't the case. The reality is that you may not recall your dreams upon waking, but rest assured, you did dream last night. If you didn't, there is actually a serious problem. For example, alcoholics who perpetually drink themselves to sleep every night never enter the dream state. When such a person tries to stop drinking the dreams return with a vengeance, often causing them to go back to the bottle. There is a gap between the conscious mind and what has been called the sub-concious mind. I personally think the term "sub-concious" is a misnomer that would be better termed "super-concious"; but, I'll continue to use the standard terms for sake of clarity.

In the morning, when we recall our dreams, information is crossing the gap between the conscious mind and sub-concious. The more we cross that bridge, the stronger it becomes. The stronger a person's bridge between their conscious and sub-concious mind, the greater their imagination would seem to be.

Some people have a more exercised imagination than others. It would stand to argue that such people's dreams and day-dreams might be more elaborate than those of another who for one reason or another shut down the bridge between the conscious and sub-conscious mind. Yet, we are all still craving the escape. If this were not so, most of the entertainment industry simply would not exist.

Before we dive head on into blessing "escapism", let me throw out the standard disclaimer. Anything in excess has the capacity to destroy us. Taken to an extreme, we have seen that even water consumption can cause death. If even too much water can kill us - I think it is worth taking a look at the notion of moderation. While we are at it, we should also have the capacity to see how insane it would be to outlaw or regulate how much water a person could purchase on the open market. Yet, if there were a rash of water-overdose deaths, would we scream for regulation? Why is the idea of regulating water consumption so ridiculous? I would argue the notion is silly only because everyone also needs water to survive. Because we are united in the reality that it is a vital part of life. But is escaping that reality any less a real need?

So, what's your poison? Have you ever read a novel or short story? Isn't that escaping from reality for the time you spend in the author's imagination? That author's ability to imagine is no doubt greater than yours - or you would put the book down and go back to day-dreaming.

What about movies? There is a huge industry in America that owes its existence to the imaginations of the many people who come together to bring us a two-hour escape from reality. In fact, we have seen that during the last few recessions that we have had, that the movie industry has not suffered as other industries have. If this isn't proof of the need to escape, I don't know what is.

What about television? From the daytime soap opera to the evening situational comedy, the television is packed full of escapes of all sizes shapes and colors. When we tune into our favorite show, we leave behind the bills, and the unpleasantness of a long commute or the pressures of business. In short, we escape.

Now we come to the digital experience. For many who haven't embraced the technologies responsible for video games, this sort of "escapism" might seem silly, or extreme, or a waste of time. However, it is no different from any of the above escapes, in that it provides a momentary cease fire between the conscious mind and the real world. Where it does differ is in its ability to truly engage the "escapist".

In my youth, I recall reading a few 'create your own adventure' books. In these books the reader would be given a choice. For example, "If you choose to fight the dragon, turn to page 72. If you choose to run away, turn to page 90." I could be wrong, but I don't think they ever really caught on. Allowing the participant to determine the plot of a story they would help unfold became the purview of the video game. Video games have mastered the art of bringing the participant into the imaginary world they create, and this has pushed the envelope.

If video games pushed the envelope, online video games tore it wide open. A community experience has always been a part of our more successful escape strategies. For example, watching a movie in a theatre full of people provides a very different experience than watching the same movie on a DVD at home. I would argue that this is not only because of the size of the viewing screen and sound system. The fact that others are there with you helps to reinforce the experience. In a similar fashion, reading a novel which is on the best sellers list provides a quasi-communal experience. While the act of reading is solitary, the knowledge that you are one of a million other people who has read this particular book invites you into a sort of virtual community.

Enter the online virtual community. On MySpace, or Facebook you can actually sign up to be a member of a group that has read the same book as you, or enjoyed the same movie or artist. In the online world, you can surround yourself with people who like the things you like, and believe the things you believe. You can banish those who are too different. So, it would seem that even the act of participating in an online community, as such, would in a way be an escape.

Of course the actual depth of the online escape goes far beyond that. What the video game did for the short story or novel in terms of enabling the participant to interact with the imaginary world, services like orkut, myspace, facebook, and others have done in terms of interacting with others who want to enjoy the same escape.

I recently joined facebook. I added a few friends and thought, "this is OK - nothing special really". I had a hard time understanding why the same people I had been trying to get to email me for years were suddenly easily accessible via their virtual wall (for the uninitiated, the facebook 'wall' is basically a virtual bulletin board). Then I decided to use facebook as a way to help build an online community. To this end, I started inviting many people that I didn't know to become friends with me on facebook. Suddenly, the game, this new online escape, changed. I was flooded with micro-posts about requests to help in various games, virtual gifts and gift requests, and more invitations to grow my "friend" list even further. All of the facebook games promote this sort of interactivity - it is almost unavoidable. As it turns out, with a large group of virtual facebook friends, the experience is transformed into one of hyper-interaction. There is always someone on doing something in some game. It is as steady as the rotation of our planet.

In the end, who doesn't want to feel successful, fearless, powerful, and loved? While these online games don't provide a physical reality of any of this (except for the people making money from them) - they do provide a very real escape. And since all of these notions about our well being are our own mental constructs, who's to say that these forms of escape aren't more real than virtual? Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go drain someone's blood in Vampire Wars. ;)

LOL - no really I'm LOL

For the uninitiated, text communications via the Internet and cell phone text messaging may be daunting at first. Humans tend to use abbreviations every chance they get. So, in online chat and elsewhere we end up with terms like LOL, for "laughing out loud", and AFK, for "Away from keyboard", etc.

A strange thing has happened though. Now that we are able to actually talk over the internet via VOIP (voice over IP), the strangeness became apparent. It seems we have bred a new generation of users who pronounce all of these abbreviations, where possible. They have in fact taken the abbreviation and turned it into a new word.

Recently, I was in a live voice-chat with some people, and someone kept making this strange sound. Without any aparent emotion, he kept saying "lol" and/or "lolz" after other people stated something of interest.

Eventually I caught on to what he was doing. "Are you pronouncing 'el oh el'?" I asked him. There was a longer than usual delay in the conversation as he paused to consider my question. Then he said "yea" and proceeded to laugh out loud.

So, it seems from this and the liberal use of the letters LOL everywhere I look in cyberspace, that when people are typing LOL, they aren't actually "laughing out loud" anymore. It is now being used more to acknowledge that something was amusing or of interest.

But fear not, dear reader - If you chat with me and see those blessed three letters in combination, I will have, in reality, "laughed out loud" ... or at least let out a quick chuckle. I am taking a hard line position on this one. If no happy audible emotion has bubbled forth from my body, you won't catch me throwing around the LOL carelessly.

If everyone was laughing as much as they are typing LOL - we would probably be on our way toward world peace.

To all of you unrighteous LOLerz out there - knock it off ;) My gift to you all is an alternative that you can post liberally without regard : nod or NOD or nodz

What does that mean? It means that you are nodding your head in agreement - which is really how you have been treating my beloved LOL.

LOL

Actually that was a small chuckle... maybe I should have used something new... CKL :)

Morality in a Digital World

How is our digital world shaping or changing the morality of our society? I suppose before I can ask that question, I would have to ask: is our digital world changing our mores?

I think it is. First, lets look at something not directly linked to the subject at hand. Lets look at, and think about marketing in general. We know that the amount of money a person or organization spends on marketing is directly linked to their success with other people. Whether you are selling soda pop or a National Healthcare System, the more money you spend to get your product or idea in front of the people you are trying to convince, the better. Why is this?

It would seem that our brains tend to accept things they are exposed to frequently and/or repeatedly which do not induce pain. While consuming potato chips on the proverbial couch, and consuming advertising sound bites simultaneously, we in fact set ourselves up to more readily appreciate the things we are being shown. Have you ever found that the song you decided was garbage, the first time you heard it, you started tapping your foot to after hearing it a few more times? Maybe it isn't so bad after all. Having Heard it on your favorite radio station another ten times, you might have been caught singing it at the top of your drunken lungs at the local gin mill.

On the other hand, have you ever found yourself watching the television, while eating or drinking something, when something you don't care for strongly crosses the air-waves to your eyes? Do you remember putting down your drink, or your handful of chips from your mouth? I have. In a moment of political disgust, I have stopped consuming - usually to bark something obscene at the cable pumping junk into my mind.

You might say I stopped only to bellow like a barbarian at the television; but, I argue here that I stopped, firstly because I subconsciously did not want to enjoy my treats while consuming visual or auditory unpleasantness. And, then I bellowed like a barbarian. But the first thing was to stop the mixture of pleasure and pain. Give me one or the other - but don't confuse the reptilian part of my brain.

Meanwhile - back at our conversation about morality in the digital world...

I wonder what percentage of Americans took pornographic photos of themselves when the only means of developing their photos was to have an outsider develop them on their behalf. I wonder how that percentage has changed now that people can use a digital camera to do the same without anyone else being involved. Viewing them on a personal computer can also be done in relative privacy. Sharing them with others who share and share alike - this too would seem easier, perhaps "safer" than ever before.

I wonder what the massive amount of pornographic material available on the Internet has done to "advertise" a belief that it is acceptable. When I was a child there was a very small number of TV networks. Those TV networks played a big part in forming, or at least informing and reinforcing our societal values. Some will say that those same networks are changing to no longer uphold the same values that were once prized. This would seem to be the case. In the networks defense, and in an attempt to broaden the depth of this conversation, I will say that there was and continues to be new pressures that must be taken into account. The market landscape is changing.

One of these pressures, the first may have been the explosion of channels and content that came with the invention and commercialization of Cable Television. Let us quickly fast forward from that time to today. Today, we have something more vast than most of us can actually imagine. We have massive multimedia on demand by and large without censorship via the Internet. Everyone in the world with an Internet connection is potentially their own producer and distributor of "rich" multi-media content, for better or worse.

If a society can be based upon acceptable norms within a community of like-minded individuals, then it would seem that the Internet is giving birth to numerous societies of varying moral difference. What one group would find unthinkable, another embraces. Providing a minimal amount of anonymity, or at least the illusion of anonymity, two or more people who might have never crossed paths if they lived, say, in the 1950's, can find each other at the speed of fiber-optic light today.

More and more, the details of our personal lives are finding their way onto the Internet for consumption and judgement by people all around the world. Sometimes those details are in the form of text posted in chat channels and blogs like this one. So, certainly the development of online communities cannot be villainized wholesale. ;)

Just as surely, the more a person's morality, or lack of morality, is reinforced by their society (whether that is a physical society, a society subscribed to by mail order, or an online society) the bolder they will become in allowing others to see who they really are.

The Information Age is only just dawning. Will we tear each other apart as we come to find out that members of our neighborhood, village, or town seem alien to us? Or, will we be able to accept the differences of others and find solace in the fact that we know we can remove them from our "friends list"? After all, most work places discourage or forbid really getting to know anyone you work with through written or unspoken policies of "forbidden topics" such as religion, sex, and politics. The US Military says: "Don't ask, don't tell." The message is clear.

Do your work and go home - where you can go online and talk about how strange everyone else in the world is in the safety of your group chat room or Google Wave. The strangest thing of all this, to me, is that we spend more time at work than we do anywhere else in a waking state. What a strange life it would be, if I was only really myself with people I've never even met in the physical world.

Blog Action Day Topic: Climate Change

15 October, Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

There have been people on both sides of the Climate Change issue claiming that the other side is just plain wrong. It is difficult to know who to trust.

I think the only thing that everyone agrees on is that the climate is changing. Everything changes. Change is the natural state of things. If anyone disagrees, and thinks the climate is not changing, please let me know - I'm willing to listen.

So - if we can all agree that the climate is changing, the next question is: How and why is it changing? Well, I guess that is two questions.

Let's take them one at at time. How is the climate changing? Most say the climate is warming. This is a global phenomenon. Based upon the Summer I just experienced, my personal empirical evidence cannot support a global warming trend. But, I can say we had a very wet Summer in New York, this season past. I have acquaintances in Europe who have insisted that we are lucky to be warming, because otherwise we would already be slipping into another ice-age. Yet we see evidence of large quantities of ice melting - and poor polar bears swimming for their lives. From a polar bear's perspective, this warming trend would seem less than ideal.

The second part of the question - they "why" part - is fueling many a flame war in cyberspace (for those still new to this sort of jargon - I mean people are screaming ugly things at one another via online means). Some argue that this warming trend is natural, and we cannot contribute to it significantly enough, one way or the other, for us to care about our actions. Others insist that this warming trend is in fact a man-made phenomenon which our industrial societies are directly responsible for. In the middle, there are various opinions using the arguments of each side of the debate as a smorgasbord to fill their opinion plates.

How much of what you believe about this issue is convenient for you? Regardless of the truth - let's assume there is a truth for a moment, and put that on the side. Let us assume for a moment that your opinion is not based on the truth, but actually based upon a personal need. What would that need be? Let me give a few examples.

You could believe what you do about the issue of climate change because you have a need to feel the joy of being a part of something, such as a political party. Perhaps your personal identity is intertwined with a group that you see as a symbol of strength in you life. Certainly, your identity is more important to you than whether a polar bear has to walk or swim to work every day.

Maybe you believe what you do about the issue of climate change because you fear something. If you believe that we are responsible for global warming, perhaps you believe that because you are afraid of acknowledging that there is nothing we can do, and a great multitude of us will be doomed. Or, perhaps you believe that we have nothing to do with global warming because you fear that if you acknowledge that our actions are causing the problem, your standard of living will change. Certainly, your fears are more important to you than whether or not some tribe in Africa's water supply has dried up and they have started killing their neighbors for water.

Maybe you care about the truth. Maybe that is actually what is important to you. Perhaps, you care about the truth because you have a need to be right. You don't actually care about the polar bear, or the Africans, or the ice-caps; but, the ability to lord the truth over your neighbor rules your ego.

As for me - to be perfectly honest. I don't know. I don't know who to trust, because it seems there are gains attached to the "truth". I see politicians who want to convince me that all of this is the fault of our way of living. I'm watching them put more and more legislation together to remove more and more of my liberties. For example, the Cap and Trade bill (aka Cap and Tax) actually has provisions in it for the government to send inspectors into our homes to check on the types of light-bulbs, water-heaters, toilets, air conditioners, refrigerators, etc. All in the name of forcing us to "retrofit" our houses with "government-approved" versions of these appliances. There is no way the government would be able to pass such a law, and assume such power, if humans were not responsible for this global warming trend. However, this bill has already passed the House, and is in the Senate right now.

On the other side, we have those who clearly profit from a belief that we are in no way responsible for global warming. Corporations can save untold amounts of money through relaxed environmental regulations. Some will argue, that those who put forth the argument that global warming is a myth - or at least that we are not responsible for it, are profiting directly from such Industrial entities whose profits go up when regulations go down.

When people have something to gain - be it an internal function of who they are or who their ego thinks they are - or an overt power play for control by organizations both governmental and commercial, how can we be sure that the "truth" we are buying into is actual reality and not just a convenience? I don't think it is a coincidence that we have a traditional order of the values of Life, Liberty, and Property (or the pursuit of happiness if you prefer). I think that short list is in a proper priority level. However, the growing complexity of our society makes it difficult to see what should be plain truths.

This Blog about ideas

We can think about things, and talk about things, and blog about things - but things are beyond our control until we act upon them. Even then, a man or woman cannot hold back the force of a tsunami. However, most things in life do not come at us with the force of a tsunami.

If we prepare ourselves for the decisions that will no doubt be thrust upon us by the reality of the world, we can be ready to act consistently in our lives. Only through consistent action can we have a say in what our individual futures will be.

One way to assist this consistency is to align our thoughts, words, and deeds. Those are the three-secrets. That is the beginning techniques for mastering one's own life. Before we can apply those techniques we have to know what we want.

This question of what we want can be examined through many different lenses. One way I propose is to look at the values you cherish the most.

What values do you cherish?

What other way might you propose that we examine what a person wants? What matters most in life?

In the end, I hope that our discussions are more than just written ideas. I hope that they translate into actions for each of us - so that we might bring more of the things we want into the world.

I look forward to your participation. If you have any questions, please let me know.