PRIVATE SEARCH ENGINE
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Heart
Turn down the lights, turn down the bed,
Turn down these voices inside my head.
Lay down with me, tell me no lies,
Just hold me close, don’t patronize.
I can’t make you love me if you don’t.
I can’t make your heart feel something it won’t.
Ardor Cools
Is this true?
Frankly I never found this to be the case, but I thought I’d put the question to you all for your consideration.
Smokers
California prohibits smoking in buildings open to the public. You get used to it if you live here.
When you are in many US states outside California or are in Europe or Latin America people smoke in restaurants, and more or less everywhere including medical offices or hospitals.
I visited a Chinese hospital a couple of years ago and literally everyone including the medical staff were smoking. There was no ventilation on the ward and the place felt as if somebody was piping automobile exhaust directly in. I found it odd.
I don’t smoke, so there you have it. My prejudice is exposed!
Where do you feel your rights begin and a smoker’s rights end (if you don’t smoke). If you do smoke, do you feel that there are places where it would be better not to light up? Have you ever considered smokeless tobacco? If you are a non-smoker, have you ever had the urge to kiss somebody who is chewing tobacco? (curious)
Please leave your response in the comments section
Politics
I think the squirrel is a Democrat. There is that Nancy Pelosi/Joe Biden thing going on.
Former Frog Man
LCDR’s LL (USN, ST-5) and Hoang (ROK – Navy, Squadron 56, ROK ST-2)
I’m not the girl with the golden orb. That’s for sure.
Lawyers
99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.
It’s simply how I feel this morning. Shakespeare was right when he wrote, “The first thing we must do is kill all the lawyers.” (Henry the Sixth, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2)
For those of you who don’t know me personally, I retired from the District Attorney’s Office in Orange County, California two years ago. Orange County is located south of Los Angeles and people make reality television shows about people who hang out there. (Real Housewives of Orange County, The OC, Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County) So I do know lawyers. I simply have a stone in my shoe at the moment for the profession.
PS – None of the reality shows on television reflect reality – this comment has nothing to do with lawyers, but I felt that I needed to have some fine print in this blog.
New Moon
Don’t you think it’s sad when a lady can’t afford a pair of jeans that fit and don’t have tears in them?
Dealing with Mexicans
Yes, it’s always manana…
Robotic Spiders
Defining arachnophobia in the 2000’s. Times change, spiders evolve, fears have to keep pace with the press of technological mastery.
Icarus
All the wide sky was there to greet him as he steered toward heaven,
Meanwhile the heat of the sun struck his wings,
And ran sweet that which once was wax.
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Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Sanding alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast
How can I escape this irresistible grasp?
Can’t keep my mind from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted – Just an earth-bound misfit
Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded wrnings, I though I thought of everything
No navigator to find my way home
Unladened, empty, and turned to stone
A soul in tension that’s learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Above the planet on a wing and a prayer
my grubby halo, a vapor trail in the empty air
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
There’s no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, a state of bliss
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things change/things remain the same
people
are
people
You must remember this,
A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.
The fundamental things apply,
As time goes by.
And when two lovers woo,
They still say, “I love you” (2)
On that you can rely,
No matter what the future brings,
As time goes by.
Moonlight and love songs,
Never out of date.
Hearts full of passion,
Jealousy and hate.
Women needs man,
And man must have his mate,
That no one can deny.
It’s still the same old story,
A fight for love and glory,
A case of do or die.
The world will always welcome lovers.
—As time goes by.
Charades
Some of us wear our disguises well. Sometimes they’re so well done that when we’ve constructed them, we realize that we’ve become the disguise. Perhaps that is the ultimate disguise – when you live the cover story.
The term of art in the intelligence business is: Creating a Legend. It starts with an operational necessity, develops as a course of action, matures as we adjust the present skin to fit within a new skin. And if we’re good – if we’re very good, nobody can tell where the old person ended and the new person began because it’s all new person. That is why when you work undercover you need a handler to whisper in your ear that you are not the new person. You’re simply the old person using this new identity to get from point ‘a’ to point ‘b’. It’s a charade, not real. Or so they whisper.
Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. It sounds simple, but it’s not because there is a duality under the skin.
What is real, what you feel, how you think — now subsumed within the visible reality of sight and perception that others see.
Life is far more complex. If you live the charade long enough, it’s difficult to know in time who you really are and that confusion results in tension. That protective shell that we draw around us like a suit of armor becomes a cage. It requires an industrial size can opener to cut off the crap. But once free of armor are we better off than we were before? Now that’s the question isn’t it?
A Regular Job
Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun,
And when at last the work is done–
Don’t sit down. It’s time to dig another one.
I’ve done regular work. I’ve had a six figure salary. I’ve done cool things with official sanction. I’ve been the rabbit.
Today is another day, and I work another way, making more money without anyone to tell me what time to do this or that and without a boss to please with the exception of myself. The things I do are easily as interesting and the people and situations are challenging without being onerous. An obnoxious client’s bill is 3x what a nice client is charged and while clients are not usually treated this way, I can fire them just as easily as they can fire me.
And life is much better. I’m not a rabbit anymore.
Worldwide Financial Crisis – Explained
In simple terms (a metaphor, sure, but not far from the point):
Alice is the proprietor of a bar in New York City. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers, most of whom are unemployed alcoholics, to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger, thereby granting the customers loans.
Word gets around and as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Alice’s bar.
Taking advantage of her customer’s freedom from immediate payment constraints, Alice increases her prices for wine and beer, the most often consumed beverages. Her sales volume increases massively.
A young and dynamic customer service consultant at the local bank recognizes these customer debts as valuable future assets and increases Alice’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for undue concern because he has the promissory notes of Alice’s customers as collateral.
At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert bankers transform these customer assets into DRINKBONDS, ALKBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These securities are then sold and traded on markets worldwide. Nobody understands what these abbreviations mean and how the securities are guaranteed, nevertheless, as their prices continuously climb, the securities become top-selling items.
One day, although the prices are still climbing, a risk manager of the bank (who is subsequently fired due to his negativity) decided that the time has come to start demanding payment from Alice for the debts incurred by the drinkers at Alice’s bar.
Unfortunately Alice’s customers can’t pay back any of their debts to Alice.
Alice can’t fulfill her loan obligations to the bank and files for bankruptcy.
DRINKBOND and ALKBOND drop in price by 95%. PUKEBOND performs better, stabilizing in price after dropping by only 80%.
The suppliers of Alice’s Bar, having granted her generous payment terms and also having invested in the securities are faced with a new and desperate situation. Her wine supplier files for bankruptcy and her beer supplier is taken over by a competitor.
The bank is saved by the Government following dramatic round-the-clock consultations by leaders from the governing political parties. They came up with a rescue plan that saved the bank.
The funds required for this massive rescue are obtained by levying a new tax on all the non-drinkers.
Searching for Truth
Believe those who are seeking the truth and doubt those who find it.
We human beings are prone to believe things that play to our prejudice as likely true or absolutely true even if there is no evidence at all to support it. This is how myths began. This is how magic got its start.
If the purported truth is counterintuitive or goes against our prejudice, we scrutinize it closely and unless the evidence is overwhelming, we refuse to believe it.
Therefore the search for truth is not merely a rearrangement of our prejudices. It is an examination of evidence in spite of our prejudice and requires an open mind. You can only seek truth if you’re unafraid of what you find.
Though I am not Buddhist, considering what Buddha taught (paraphrased into English) is useful in this discussion. “Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it’s said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because somebody else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.”