CYBERWRITIN

   Imagine cutting a nib from a goose feather, making your own ink, blotting every phrase just to write a note for the milkman. 

  How easy to take up a fountain pen instead. Lever-action ink bladder. I could carry it in my pocket for mobile writing.

   The typewriter! Yes! Instead of either drawing my calligraphy, which is great fun but time-consuming and I'll never be that good at it, I can slap down perfectly matched letters in lines horizontal across the page.

   Underneath this ink-slingin' is paper. Just toss a forest into that machine over there and, lo!, paper. You probably don't remember making your own, or taking it out of someone else's skin.

   Paper is great.

   Appears the computer! A wonderful machine. Who'd'a guessed that moving all that machinery from the physical to the more subtle plane of light and electricity, would free up the memory and communication of so much information?

   All writer needs at this juncture is a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, music backup, constant messaging, desk, chair, a drink, fruit, raw vegetables, fresh water f'crissakes!, and someone with a healing touch to massage the neck and shoulders.

   Somewhere up on that tower of time-consuming labor saving artifact I wake up realizing that I'm up a ways in the shaky, leaning Tower of Babylon. The history of really tall towers is not so good.
   Subtle energies, maybe an EMP from the sun, a gravity anomaly, or a magnetic flux, could just erase all that digital info. BLIP! Gone.
   Jet liner impact is a messy way to erase a mistake, but an EMP from the sun would reach deep.

   I'll be thinking, “Damn! I forgot to save AGAIN!” Hardcopy is the word. Look how long those parchment writings lasted in a clay bottle in Nag Hammadi.

   If it's really important to write, you know you've hit the mark when you write with your own blood on the cave wall.

WHY OBEY ANY LAW?

One thing I've noticed about the Higher Spirit, whatever religion we espouse, is that each of us is expected to keep our word. I believe this same principle applies to nations. Give a moment of thought to what others, both here at home and on the stage of the world, think of the United States if we help define and are signatory to what constitutes a war crime, then permit a faction of our government to commit such crime, and further refuse to punish those guilty of the crime.

If we permit crimes against our own Constitution and against laws we have helped establish with the agreement of other nations, the United States abdicates any moral high-ground we may have earned. Any agreement signed by the United States must then be considered a temporary expedient and reversible at our convenience. Any cooperation we request will be forthcoming not because of the considerations of honorable, altruistic men, but only because we can command compliance through superior force.

Why should I, why should anyone, why should any nation, obey any law?

ADVICE RE: SELLING YOUR MOTHER

People have said of me, as a nasty put-down, that I would sell my own mother.

I strongly object to the uncalled-for revilement — which usually comes from bleeding-heart liberals with no fiscal acumen.

Let's be realistic: she is, after all, my mother.

No doubt mothers are essential for one's first years. They give birth, They succor. They feed and clothe. They medicate, teach speech and help us start to walk. They comfort. Beyond that, of course, they are offer camouflage and a shield against random gunfire.

Fathers on the other hand are pretty much disposable after impregnating mom, unless 1) there are physical dangers (rare in present USA), or 2) they are making a lot of money. This means that selling your father early can pay extremely well; especially if they are young and promising. This money, invested early in the arms industry (war pays big!), can be a good foundation for future financial growth and building a sound economy.

Mothers remain directly useful for a number of years. They may work, keep the house straight, provide transportation and sport, and cook. She may provide funds for higher education. In fact, it is a good idea to have a mother on hand until one gets married. A mother will help persuade her own replacement that we are “a good boy” and lavish a good wedding gift upon us.

This is the point at which it is best to sell Mother. Let's face it; she's getting older. Trade-in value decreases daily from this day onward. You don't want to be stuck with an old woman who will cost you for upkeep and might actually smell bad. At the end mother can be quite an expense.

Just after you are married you have a young, vital woman to take care of all of mom's functions, and mother is pretty much used up and showing signs of age. These signs can be masked with makeup, hair styling, perfume, a new set of clothes, a fake tooth, and contacts. We call this “detailing”. Medicine, which originally was a good deal, replacing as it does some of the food she consumes, becomes more and more expensive. You don't want to be stuck with her when she reaches the age when she eats nothing but pills, not even if you live in Mexico or Canada.

At 40 she is apparently productive, attractive to some old geezers, and may yet fulfill some of her talents, the fulfillment of which she postponed to invest in you. Iffy, granted.

I recommend selling her for high-interest over time. Even though the purchaser may bitch that she isn't fulfilling the warranty — which I hope you wrote with the loophole excluding “acts of nature” (aging) — the extra money will adequately compensate for the bother of ignoring those protests.

I hope this little dissertation helps you make wise financial decisions in the future.

Now let's talk about the National Forests ...

THE OL' MUNDANE

No one has commented on any of my blogs, although i get considerable attention at editred.com. But I will continue to put stuff up here occasionally. There is really nothing to draw people to this obscure corner of the Internet, and I refuse to slip toward crowd-pleasing sensationalism, other than to say that the fscking bear tore my apple tree up and I am going to even the score. We've had a long and prosperous (for him! that ursine ugliness!) relationship and even though my place is named "sanctuary" my patience is horribly, terribly, thin right now.

Oh, if it came right down to watching him walk across my field of fire, I would probably withhold my fire. Damn! If I'd'a seen him yesterday when i discovered the damage, I might have had some bear meat, a nice bear rug, some bear grease, a bear bone to wear around my neck on a chain, and some claws to set in carvings. Some teeth? A nice new bear skull! Etc. Today I am a bit calmer.

Some day -- if I get even ONE comment -- I will write the story of the Bear Who Understood and publish it here.

Noam Chomsky on sophisiticated propaganda

"Debate" is a typical illustration of a primary principle of sophisticated propaganda. In crude and brutal societies, the Party Line is publicly proclaimed and must be obeyed -- or else. What you actually believe is your own business and of far less concern. In societies where the state has lost the capacity to control by force, the Party Line is simply presupposed; then, vigorous debate is encouraged within the limits imposed by unstated doctrinal orthodoxy. The cruder of the two systems leads, naturally enough, to disbelief; the sophisticated variant gives an impression of openness and freedom, and so far more effectively serves to instill the Party Line. It becomes beyond question, beyond thought itself, like the air we breathe.