Not down and out yet, and the perils of mile high blogging

Exactly one day after writing what was to be my last political post ever, have I had decided to shelf my quitting because Chalmers Johnsons Evil Empire article needs to be addressed. It turned up practically everywhere I read and actually said many things which needed to be said, but failed to address some key problems. All in all, it was generally comprehensive and mentioned things I now feel I can readdress (redress?) (<- that looks like red dress :-)

The reason for quitting, mentioning some of the crap I had been put through, most of which should never have happened, capped off recently by being turned down (not that I am upset by that, but was weird given my record) by the only school I can study at (I can still go there but not in the program I wanted, but not the point) I felt more than entitled me to not have to care anymore.

I love when I get to say that, and this time probably it was warranted, but I also did a good job at explaining why I really think it is not my place to 'interfere' with what is about to happen, very strange things in Washington, at a time when the world's fate and democracy at home hang by a hair.

I figured since the only way forward for me in my chosen path, schooling, was blocked at the only University I could reasonably attend (the asylum thing probably rules out going to school out of the country at the moment and this is the only state I would live in), and a public school at that, was a good reason to STFU for awhile. But what Chalmers article raised should neither fall flat nor be unchallenged critically. It is a good step forward.

What I called the press's No Maas moment has not blossomed fully yet but has been surprisingly budding. What I said needed to be 'real time' challenging of the lies has actually occurred. ABC News referred to false claims (again) about a 'rebel' leaders death in Iraq as 'propaganda' and it was. I put 'rebel' in quotes because an overwhelming number of Iraqis want us out of the country, a majority of their Parliament has asked us to begin to withdraw, and it is getting ridiculous that our government still has any pretense that we are their for the Iraq people and not for their oil, or that the attacks against us are a 'minority' or 'criminals' and not what the public at large could do if they only had the ammunition, and not without good reason. Our troops know this is how the public there feels toward their presence, have overwhelmingly said so, and now have been silenced about it on the Internet. Also a leaked poll showing growing animosity of our troops toward innocent Iraqi citizens because of their unwelcomeness there is more damage being done to us, to our soldiers, and our reputation, what is left of it anyway.

And on the real time challenging of lies, talking points, et all, Chris Matthews even had enough yesterday. "There's no German that's fired on an American since 1945. That's not a fair comparison…That is not an acceptable argument! These comparisons to previous eras…it's lazy thinking, Congressman. It's the kind of propaganda that does not help this country understand the situation. You stepped into a dishonest comparison. Some people come on this show over and over again saying things that-JUST-aren't-true." All true and valid except admitting it was he and all the other press who let politicians think they could, and have, gotten away with such distortions and never been called on it, and had no reason to believe he or any other 'journalists' would. But it is progress.

So my polite statement of how the worlds problems are no longer my problems because I have something to seize upon to show I have nowhere academically to turn, no real way forward in my chosen direction other than being made to bide my time and wait, will have to wait a little while. I will 'interfere' a little more though hopefully it will go unnoticed but Chalmers raised some good points, which I will speak about soon.

The Power and the Mana at Truthrevival.org I wanted to mention the backstory about and so will now. It took months to write that because of the logistics involved. I literally started writing it the moment the quote mentioned occurred, which was weird since I did not know the person at the time. The best I could say about her since I did not know her was to refer to her as 'someone I respected' and later, that actually came true. I saw her go out of her way to help others at possible cost to herself repeatedly, not least of all me, for no selfish reason whatsoever. That is the best way, and sometimes the only way others can get my respect, which is why many may have my goodwill and empathy, but never my respect.

The logistics and timing of it depended on several factors. I wanted to write it on the same mountain where it began, Haleakala, which raised problems. One, is I needed a full day to travel up the mountain. Two, unless I used a paper notebook, I needed a notebook computer with a good enough battery to last for several hours to write it all at once. Third, I needed good brakes on my bike, my only transportation at the moment. With my cars, when I had cars, putting them in neutral, they would still speed up to about 70 mph just by rolling.

It took about 6 months for all those 3 factors to line up all at the same time. Even with fairly decent brakes, I still ended up going about 40 mph or more with the brakes almost fully on! On the way down I paraphrased one of my favorite lines from my notes pages to sum up the idea of braking. "The goal ought not to be to stop, for that is impossible. Therefore the goal ought to be to slow down enough so that, if need should arise to stop, death is not a certainty."

Really it did not have to be written on the mountain, but that was where I wanted to write it, and I loved the view from Rice Park, many thousands of feet above the coast. I new that spot and had not been there in years. It took hours to walk and bike up there and minutes to get back down, but high recommended. It will fry your brakes quickly though.