---------- Original Message ----------
Subject: Fwd: Fw: Fwd: Talk to a bartender
Date: Thu, 1 August 2013 16:39:54
To: Me

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, June 30, 2013 at 8:51 AM
Subject: Fw: Fwd: Talk to a bartender

* Psychiatrists vs. Bartenders *

EVER SINCE I WAS A CHILD, I'VE ALWAYS HAD A FEAR OF SOMEONE UNDER MY BED AT NIGHT. SO I WENT TO A SHRINK AND TOLD HIM:

'I've got problems. Every time I go to bed I think there's somebody under it. I'm scared. I think I'm going crazy.'

'Just put yourself in my hands for one year,' said the shrink. 'Come talk to me three times a week and we should be able to get rid of those fears.'

'How much do you charge?'

'Eighty dollars per visit,' replied the doctor.

'I'll sleep on it,' I said.

Six months later the doctor met me on the street. 'Why didn't you come to see me about those fears you were having?' he asked.

'Well, eighty bucks a visit three times a week for a year is an awful lot of money! A bartender cured me for $10. I was so happy to have saved all that money that I went and bought me a new pickup!'

'Is that so!' With a bit of an attitude he said, 'and how, may I ask, did a bartender cure you?'

'He told me to cut the legs off the bed! Ain't nobody under there now!'

FORGET THE SHRINKS – HAVE A DRINK & TALK TO A BARTENDER!

NOTES

1. Reposted –
   1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs – Blogspot / Facebook / Google Plus / Medium / MeetMe / OKCupid / Tumblr / Twitter / WordPress

Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: About the CPB, Republicans and Statism
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 19:46:48 -0600
From: Mike Blessing
To: [85 individuals]

7/26/2013 6:29 AM:

FYI: In addition to foundation money, tax dollars are also given to the CPB which runs PBS stations around the nation. The taxpayer is not asked whether he wishes to contribute. That should be stopped and we have the right to demand it.

Starting in 1994, the Republicans have been promising to do exactly this – defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – during most if not all election seasons.

From 1994 to 2007, the Republicans held majorities in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

Yet the CPB never lost a penny in funding.

Thus, either the Republicans are so incompetent that they are unable to organize enough votes to defund the CPB while they hold legislative majorities . . .

OR

There are enough Republicans for whom this particular issue is nothing more than PR copy for their re-election campaigns – "red meat for the conservatives," soon to be forgotten after getting another term. Then when CPB's budget comes up for renewal, they find "reasons" to vote in favor of it.

I disagree that "we have no voice."  We have plenty of voices. And we do have access to the media.

In these days of Blogspot, WordPress and YouTube, media access for the common citizen keeps getting easier and easier.

In my judgement the causes of the Republican point of view not being disseminated merits an essay.

What exactly is the "Republican point of view" ?

There seems to be a misconception out there in GOP circles that the Republican Party is about free markets, Constitutionally-limited government, individual rights and public sector fiscal restraint.

Given the track records of John McCain, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Richard Nixon, that can hardly be true. The federal government never shrunk much if any in terms on expense or intrusiveness under any of the administrations of the above presidents.

Even under "The Gipper" Ronald Reagan, the GOP's patron saint of the 20th Century, the expense and intrusiveness of Washington DC expanded greatly. Reagan talked a decent game, but never really walked the walk.

Nor did President-wannabe Romney shrink government at the state level while he was Governor of Massachusetts.

While Senator-wannabe Heather Wilson was in the U.S. House as a "representative" for New Mexico's 1st District, she enthusiastically supported the single biggest expansion of the welfare state in the "Oughts" of the 21st Century – Medicare Part D, signed into "law" by George W. Bush in 2003.

So why exactly should people who DO care about free markets, Constitutionally-limited government, individual rights and public sector fiscal restraint care in the slightest about the "Republican point of view" ?

He made his money through valuable capitalist methods: individual rights of privately owned property, voluntary trade, limited government and free markets.  But in his basic premises he is wedded to the welfare state, which means the principle of unlimited government. In other words: statism.

I know the original comment was about Bill Gates, but this was and is also true of Mittens Romney, the GOP's 2012 presidential offering.

_______________________________________________________________________
Mike Blessing / http://mikewb1971.wordpress.com / Phone – 505-249-1248

Who owns you? Who runs your life? Who should – you or someone else?
Freedom is the answer – what's the question?

"Government is the disease that masquerades as its own cure."
– Robert LeFevre
_______________________________________________________________________

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

1. Reason: Consultant in Chief

2. [LPNM] Carla Howell: Mitt Romney = Big Government

NOTES

1. Approximate reading level – 9.1

2. Reposted –
   1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs – Blogspot / Facebook / Google Plus / Tumblr / Twitter / WordPress / Yahoo!

   2. The Weekly Sedition – Facebook / Google Plus / Reddit / Twitter / WordPress / Yahoo!

Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

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SSN by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg

Berkley mass-market edition – Feburary, 2000, softcover, 351 pages

ISBN 0-495-17353-4

When Tom Clancy takes a direct hand in writing the books with his name on the cover, they're usually pretty good. When the writing task is handed off to someone else, it's a crapshoot as to whether you'll end up with a good read. Luckily, SSN seems to be one of the former.

SSN was based upon a CD-ROM game of the same name^[1]. Both the book and game are concerned with the U.S.S. Cheyenne^[2], a Los Angeles class nuclear-powered attack submarine of the U.S. Navy, commanded by a Captain Bartholomew "Mack" Mackey, as the Cheyenne goes into combat against the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy, which is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army^[3].

The Cheyenne starts off by engaging a Han class submarine^[4] near Hawaii, but most of the book takes place as the Cheyenne goes up against various subs and surface ships of the PLAN in and around the Spratly Islands, as China wants to establish oil-prospecting operations there.

For what it's worth, the Spratlys are currently claimed by not only China, but also Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan. Most if not all of these nations are after the oil and natural gas deposits that are suspected to be under the Spratlys^[5].

The "interview" (more properly called a "conversation" or "chat") at the back of the book reveals that the game the book is based upon offers fifteen (15) different situations for the user to undertake, playing the role of "Mack," and that while completing all of them successfully won't qualify the user to actually command an attack sub in rela-life combat, they will get a taste of what it's like. One of the participants, a Captain Doug Littlejohn, CBE (retired) from the British Royal Navy, says that the main liberty taken with the game (and thus the book) was that of time compression – tasks that take hours or days in real life are squeezed into seconds and minutes for the sake of the game, simply to avoid putting the user to sleep.

All in all, it was worth the ∅2 that I paid for it at the used bookstore.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

1. Tom Clancy's SSN (CD-ROM game)

2. U.S.S. Cheyenne (SSN-773)
3. People's Liberation Army Navy
4. Han class submarine
5. Spratly Islands

NOTES

1. Reposted –
   1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs – Blogspot / Facebook / Google Plus / Tumblr / Twitter / WordPress

Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

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My recent email to the head honchoes at Starbucks, sent via a hoplophobe website:

Dear Starbucks,

Thank you for allowing private civilians to exercise the right to own and carry weapons for self-defense in your locations. Because of this, I will go to Starbucks whenever possible over your competition.

Your support for the Second Amendment IS appreciated.

Again, thank you.

Here's the link, for those wanting to send their own:

http://action.momsdemandaction.org/page/speakout/dear-starbucks

H/T Jospeh L. Roberts

This is almost as good as when I sent Jeff Bingaman a check for ∅1 back in 1994 – he's been sending me holiday-season cards ever since.

NOTES

1. Reposted –
   1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs – Blogspot / Facebook / Google Plus / Tumblr / Twitter / WordPress

   2. The Weekly Sedition – Facebook / Twitter / WordPress

Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

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Take the test yourself – What is your political ideology?

NOTES

1. Reposted –
   1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs – Blogspot / Facebook / Google Plus / Tumblr / Twitter / WordPress

Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

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I'm already on WordPress and Blogspot – see for yourself:

http://mikewb1971.wordpress.com

http://mikewb1971.blogspot.com

I'm also a member of the Xangaville Facebook group:

http://facebook.com/groups/116326698428600/

NOTES

1. Reposted –
   1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs – Blogspot / Facebook / Google Plus / Tumblr / Twitter / WordPress

Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

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Learning the World by Ken MacLeod

1st mass-market Tor edition (October 2006) – softcover, 364 pages

Learning the World won Ken MacLeod the Prometheus Award in 2006^[1]. Should it have won? Considering that it was up against Vin Suprynowicz's The Black Arrow, I don't know. Still, Learning the World was a really good book.

Here's the plot summary from the back cover:

Humanity has spread to every star within five hundred light-years, coloring the sky with a haze of habitats. But the universe has, so far, been empty of intelligent life.

Now the ancient starship But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky! is entering  a promising new system after a four-hundred-year journey. To their immense surprise, they detect patterned signals from the system's Earth-like world.

Meanwhile, on Ground, second world from the sun, a young astronomer searches for his system's outermost planet. A moving point of light thrills, then disappoints him. It's only a comet. But something is very odd about that comet's path . . . .

For the inhabitants of the starship and of Ground alike, the world has changed. "We are not living in the universe we thought we lived in yesterday. We have to start learning the world all over again."

Basically, humanity has become somewhat posthuman (or transhuman) to varying degrees – the people on board But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky! have genetically-inheritable virtual-communication systems. Think of surfing the web, reading emails, posting to Facebook, whatever, all in your head, and you're born with that capability. Among other things – some of those on board are so adapted to the microgravity life that living on a planetary surface would be extremely inconvenient, at best.

And then there's the aliens, who also think of themselves as "human." They seem to be evolved from bat-like creatures in the same sort of way that humans here evolved from primates. Their architecture reflects this, as  well as the comment some of them make that "if the gods wanted us to build flying machines, they wouldn't have given us wings." Wings they do have, and not the vestigal, atrophied kind that ostriches have – the "humans" of Ground are perfectly capable of flight.

Of course, the "comet" that Darvin discovers behaving in a peculiar manner is But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky! (a miles-long and miles-wide generation ship) entering the star system, decelerating as it goes. Since when do comets slow down?

Anyway, the "humans" of Ground are closer to us present-day humans in terms of technology and social development than the humans of Learning the World – they're about where were in the early Twentieth Century (discovering radio transmission and heavier-than-air powered flight), where the humans of the book have been going about settling various star systems for 15,000 years, albeit limited to 0.01c^[2].

As the story progresses, the "humans" of Ground and those on board But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky! provide plenty of intrigue to keep the reader engaged and guessing.

OK – enough spoilers – if you want more, you'll have to read it for yourself.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

1. MacLeod's blog site – The Early Days of a Better Nation

2. March 2006 interview with SFRevu
3. Wikipedia pages – Ken MacLeod, Learning the World, Prometheus Award

NOTES

1. Here's the full list of Prometheus Award finalists in 2006.

2. The lower-case letter c stands for the speed of light – 299,792,458 meters per second (186,282.39 miles per second, or 670,760,005.47 miles per hour) in a vacuum. Light goes 9,460,730,472,580,800 (9.46 x 10¹⁵ in the short form) meters (5,878,625,373,183,607.73 miles) in one year, hence the term light-year.
3. Approximate reading level – 9.4
4. Reposted –
   1. Personal blogs, micro-blogs, etc. – Blogspot / Facebook / Google Plus / Medium / MeetMe / Tumblr / Twitter / WordPress

Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

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Here are the gory details, straight from the Bahais themselves.

Abstract:

Whether Baha'is may practice self-defense in times of danger, and whether American Baha'is should purchase firearms.

From the texts you already have available it is clear that Bahá'u'lláh has stated that it is preferable to be killed in the path of God's service than to kill, and that organized religious attack against Bahá'ís should never turn into any kind of warfare, as this is strictly prohibited in our Writings.

So a Bahá'í is expected to "take one for the team" in the name of the faith? If a group of whacko Islamofascists were to set upon a Bahá'í temple with physical violence in mind, the Bahá'ís are supposed to simply stand by and let it happen?

A hitherto untranslated Tablet from 'Abdu'l-Bahá, however, points out that in the case of attack by robbers and highwaymen, a Bahá'í should not surrender himself, but should try, as far as circumstances permit, to defend himself, and later on lodge a complaint with the government authorities. In a letter written on behalf of the Guardian, he also indicates that in an emergency when there is no legal force at hand to appeal to, a Bahá'í is justified in defending his life. In another letter the Guardian has further point out that the assault of an irresponsible assailant upon a Bahá'í should be resisted by the Bahá'í, who would be justified, under such circumstances, in protecting his life.

How exactly is a Bahá'í (or anyone else, for that matter) to tell if the assailant is a responsible one versus an irresponsible one?

If the assailant is a responsible attacker, is then the Bahá'í adherent supposed to refrain from resisting?

What if the Bahá'í deems the attacker to be irresponsible, and later it's determined that the thug was indeed a responsible thug?

The House of Justice does not wish at the present time to go beyond the guidelines given in the above-mentioned statements. The question is basically a matter of conscience, and in each case the Bahá'í involved must use his judgment in determining when to stop in self-defense lest his action deteriorate into retaliation.

Oh no, the horrors of retaliation!

Of course the above principles apply also in cases when a Bahá'í finds himself involved in situations of civil disorder. We have, however, advised the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States that under the present circumstances in that country it is preferable that Bahá'ís do not buy nor own arms for their protection or the protection of their families.

Here we have it – an explicit proclamation from Bahá'í officialdom that firearms ownership is discouraged.

With that, I can safely say that I am not joining and will not join the Bahá'í faith.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

1. Self-Defense, Guidance on by Universal House of Justice, first written or published 1969-05-26

NOTES

1. Reposted –
   1. Personal blogs, micro-blogs, etc. – Blogspot / Facebook / Google Plus / Twitter / WordPress

   2. The Weekly Sedition – Facebook / Twitter / WordPress / Yahoo!
   3. Tea Party Nation

Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

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Recently I decided that it's time to resurrect The Weekly Sedition as a video series or radio show or podcast or whatever – something besides a simple blog.

Since I last produced a show at Channel 27, the station has switched hands, from Quote Unquote to uPublic TV. So recently I stopped by the uPublic offices to see what the signup procedures are – I was told to go to the site, which redirected me to the uPublic meetup.com group. There I had to fill out an introductory survey to join the group. Here are my answers:

Write a short bio

I was a producer at Channel 27 for a few years and am looking to get back into the game. More information is available upon request.

Please answer these questions completely. How did you find out about his group?

UPublic -- From the web and another producer.

This meetup -- I talked to someone at the 3rd St NW office. He told me to sign up at http://upublicans.com, which redirected to here.

Why do you want to join this group?

To learn how to develop content for Channel 27 and other media outlets, and to "get back in the game."

How much television program production experience do you have?

About 12 years on Channel 27 through Quote Unquote.

Do you understand that you are required to attend two mandatory classes before getting access to any other resources?

Yes. Quote Unquote has a similar requirement. Most organizations are like that, and the ones that aren't are asking for trouble.

Besides the two mandatory classes, what other classes would you like to attend?

What's available, and what are the requirements (costs, prerequisites, etc.) ?

NOTES

1. Reposted –
   1. Personal blogs and micro-blogs – Blogspot / WordPress

Copyright © 2013 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.
Produced by KCUF Media, a division of Extropy Enterprises.
This blog entry created with Notepad++.

If the biotech and medical fields were to devise some sort of prenatal test, accurate to 99 percent, that could determine whether the baby-to-be was going to be heterosexual or homosexual, would it then be acceptable to abort that baby if it turned out to be homosexual?

This of course assumes that sexual orientation is a genetically-determined trait – something that has yet to be scientifically proven.