5 Sky Events This Week: Cosmic Bull’s-Eye and Eskimo Nebula – News Watch.
Be sure to check out the sky tonight for the Orionid meteor shower. Last night it was raining my entire watch (2400-1200), so I couldn’t even see the moon. 🙁
Dianne Feinstein And The NSA Versus James Madison : Personal Liberty™.
This woman has NO idea of what the Constitution says or means. She is just an ignorant, power hungry THUG that happens to wear dresses. She is one sick evil bitch and I’ll call her that to her face.
I can NOT understand why the people of California ever elected her, much less allowed her to continue her RAPE of the Californian people and their state for all these years. Anybody from California out there with some sort of explanation?
Is it just that you Californians all are screwed by the system just like the rest of us are in the national elections? Where the media refuses to do its job and inform us of ALL the candidates and instead only allows us to know about its favorites?
The ones representing the 2 favored (really only ONE) parties who have been vetted by the owners of those media outlets? The ones who pass the tests of being…
1. members of the same elite club,
2. willing to follow orders from the leaders of those same elite clubs,
3. NOT willing to do what’s best for the country and follow their oath to protect our rights and uphold the Constitution!
It’s hard to believe there was NO one on the ballot who wasn’t a better choice. Was there NOBODY else running against her? NO ONE ELSE was ever on the ballot against her? Not once in all those years??? Cause ANYBODY would be better than her, I mean REALLY!
I’ve been enjoying a blog conversation on The Culture Monk blog. It started with his post ‘Oreos & Cocaine…REALLY???'( http://culturemonk.com/2013/10/20/oreos-cocaine-really/). There’s been an interesting bunch of comments on his post and I’ve joined in.
I think its a neat coincidence that I got that article in my email that I posted on here yesterday about scientists who think they might have found a cure for addiction of all types (http://captjillsjourneys.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/is-this-chemical-a-cure-for-marijuana-addiction/). I got it in time to add to that blog conversation.
Now this morning, I saw another post on the mindhacks blog about how the original study that started the conversation was probably not really the big deal the media made it out to be (http://mindhacks.com/2013/10/17/scraping-the-bottom-of-the-biscuit-barrel/#comment-79421). Surprise, surprise. 😉
They had a link in their post to a post on Reason.com that really makes a lot of sense to me (http://reason.com/blog/2013/10/16/researchers-show-that-cocaine-and-heroin). I’ve subscribed to their magazine for years and I’ve always liked the way they approach things. This is just one more example of some ‘reasonable’ thinking on the issue of addiction.
I think it’s great how we can use all these resources to have a worldwide conversation about all kinds of things. News and research at our fingertips. Isn’t it great! 😉
Obamacare: A Parasite Intent on Killing Its Host | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
This is a VERY good article by former Texas Congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul. I have to admit, I LOVE Ron Paul! 🙂 He has been my congressman for years and he is the ONLY politician I’ve ever met who REALLY tries his best to do the job he was elected to do.
That job is to PROTECT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION! NOT to pander to the public (like most politicians think). Regardless of how many people do or don’t want to do one thing or another, he ALWAYS did the RIGHT thing and fought to uphold the constitution and our rights.
We would be in SUCH a better place as a country if he had been elected instead of Obama. Too bad the media refuses to allow any other candidates to be heard. 🙁
I’m sure if more people actually listened to what he has to say, they would LOVE it! Just look at the reaction he gets when he visits any college campus around the country. These kids are open to new ideas, they’re not completely brainwashed yet. He gets a HUGE positive reaction from young people.
Ron Paul is absolutely correct in everything he says in this article. I know a lot of people refuse to open their eyes to the truth, but you can NOT evade human nature or the laws of economics for very long.
Obamacare IS a disaster waiting to happen. It just makes me sick that we have SO many people in this country now who, for whatever reason, still support this legislation which is completely in violation of ANY sort of respect for individual rights. Those same individual rights this country was founded to PROTECT (not to give, since we had them already-but to protect!).
In fact, the ONLY proper function of OUR government is just that, to protect our rights, PERIOD! With Obamacare, we have turned that idea inside-out and upside-down. Everything about it is a violation of our rights.
Our right to decide our own medical treatments is violated in every way! We can’t choose the price we’ll pay for those treatments. We can’t choose who we want to provide those treatments. Our privacy is totally eliminated!!
How can that mean anything other than that somebody ELSE OWNS YOUR BODY AND SO YOUR LIFE! How anyone could even imagine that it could possibly do anything but corrupt completely the principles this country was founded to uphold, bankrupt and destroy this country is just beyond belief!
I just don’t get it. Do these people who support it have some kind of switch in their brains that shuts off any logical thinking whenever the subject of Obama or his latest SCAM comes up? Or maybe they just never could think logically about anything to begin with. Or maybe its just greed that’s blinding them, the thought of all that ‘free’ stuff is just too much for them to cope with and they overload their brain cells?
They keep talking about how ‘all the other democracies have socialized medicine’ and that is somehow supposed to justify destroying ours. I don’t understand why they don’t just go to one of those other wonderful countries if they love socialism so much.
THIS country is a CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC! It is NOT a democracy and it is NOT a socialist country! If you want one of those, you have about 180 of them to choose from. Leave THIS one alone to continue to be free and an example to the rest of the world. It is only your socialism that has been dragging it down for decades now!
Let us return to the FREE country this used to be and we’ll be able to recover and prosper again. Keep pushing the cronyism, corporatism, populist and socialistic fantasies and we will just keep on whittling away at our freedom and everything that once made this country the greatest in the history of the world will go away with it. 🙁
Look to England for America’s Future | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
Good post on some history from across the pond. I would certainly think it would follow that we would wind up the same way if we follow the same path. It looks to me like that’s what IS happening here. WHY can’t we ever learn from history, instead of repeating the same mistakes? 🙁
‘Captain Phillips’ Torn From the Headlines, But Tells an Old Story | gCaptain
I did go see this movie the other day. I thought it was pretty good. Maybe its because I’m a sailor but I REALLY don’t appreciate the way the article tries to make excuses for the pirates. Yeah, they’re poor, so are a lot of other people around the world. That does NOT in any way excuse the violence, kidnappings, beatings, theft, etc of the pirates!
I thought the crew of the Alabama deserved more credit for their actions. It seems Captain Phillips got all the recognition. The crew actually managed to capture the pirate leader and traded him off for their captain. Good job!!
Remember, in the Merchant Marine, we are not allowed to defend ourselves with anything but fire hoses against these thugs with machine guns and RPGs! They still managed to take down a couple of the pirates! Good! I salute them!
I am REALLY sick and tired of hearing about how we can’t be trusted to defend ourselves, we somehow don’t deserve any kind of REAL protection when our companies send us to work in these dangerous waters!
The bigwigs sit in their penthouse air conditioned offices and debate how much we’re worth to them. Can they ‘afford’ to pay our ransom? The ransom payment is just another cost of doing business to them. It’s our LIVES on the line! We’re just out there trying to earn a living and should NOT have to put up with pirate attacks!
Seamen from all over the world are suffering severely from pirate attacks, even for YEARS AFTER they return home! There are HUNDREDS of them being held at this moment! According to the ICC International Maritime Bureau (http://www.icc-ccs.org/piracy-reporting-centre/piracynewsafigures), there have been 176 REPORTED incidents including 10 hijackings in 2013 alone!
No one is helping them. No one cares. The world depends on shipping. Over 90% of the worlds trade moves by sea, in the USA its over 95%! Yet, we mariners get a bare minimum of help from the worlds navies. 🙁
Where are the convoys like they had during WWII? Where are the marines who might be assigned to a ship to protect it? Where are the security companies and their trained armed guards??? WHY is there such an issue about giving us the protection we should have before we go anywhere near any pirate infested waters???
The ONLY reason the world even knows (or cares) about Captain Phillips and the Maersk Alabama is because it happened to be an American ship! There have been dozens of ships and HUNDREDS of sailors held in captivity by various pirate groups worldwide.
The pirates holding these mariners are NOT like Johnny Depp! They are mean, abusive, dangerous, desperate men! They have nothing to lose and they mean business!
WHY can’t we get some REAL protection? WHY can’t we at least arm our ships? It’s hard to believe but the powers that be expects us to be able to run away! If that doesn’t work (which it won’t most of the time since most ships are not very fast), then we are supposed to fight off the machine gun toting pirates with nothing but FIRE HOSES! If that doesn’t work (which it doesn’t), then we are supposed to run away and hide (again). The movie did a great job of showing just how effective those tactics are! (Totally useless! But they are the industrys’ ‘best management practice’).
I recommend the movie. It’s good entertainment if nothing else. I hope it’ll be more than that for the people who watch it. I hope it will help get people involved in trying to solve the problems of piracy. I hope it will give people ashore some idea of the things that are still going on out there in our world.
VIDEO: Animation Shows Float-On of Costa Concordia Onboard Dockwise Vanguard | gCaptain
Here’s an update from gcaptain on the Costa Concordia. They have a neat little animation showing how they plan to put the Costa Concordia on the heavy lift vessel Dockwise Vanguard.
They won’t be doing any of this til the weather settles down in the Spring. For now, they’re working on prepping it for winter and getting it ready for the move in the Spring. They make it look easy. 😉
Giant Catamaran ‘Pieter Schelte’ to Carry Worn Out North Sea Platforms Ashore | gCaptain
What an interesting ship!It looks pretty impressive from the picture. I wonder, what kind of crew they’ll have on there to work it? I hope they do get it built. It looks like it would have plenty of work to last for a while.
If they have 500 rigs in the North Sea to eventually decommission, we have thousands of them here in the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve been involved with doing some of that work already, tho not on anywhere near as advanced a vessel as the Pieter Schelte.
That sort of work is a lot more interesting then drilling, at least from a mariners perspective. I’d love to get back to doing something more challenging like that. 😉
Is This Chemical a Cure For Marijuana Addiction? | Surprising Science.
Oh boy! Let the ‘authorities’ get ahold of this stuff and it’ll be all over. We’ll all be doped into shambling zombies with no ounce of joy left to our lives. All for our own good (of course). 🙁
I’m pretty damn sure marijuana is NOT addicting! It just does not fit the definition of addiction. It’s been around forever and there would probably be ZERO negative results if we weren’t on a prohibitionist rampage against it!
Remember, it WAS legal here and anyone who wanted to could and DID use it up until the congress fraudulently banned it starting in the late 1930s. There was NO problem with it until Nixon ramped up the War on (some) Drugs in the 1970s.
Throwing people out of schools, jobs, their homes, etc because a drug test found a few NANOGRAMS of THC is NOT proof of addiction!!! It’s a circular argument, ‘they’re addicted because they have a problem with pot (they lost their jobs, etc)’, NOT!! They do NOT have a problem with pot, they have a problem with the LAW!
I don’t doubt that some people are addicted to some things. Some people are actually even harmed by their addictions. Most people are NOT addicted physically to anything really, but it suits the people in charge to say so. Once again, they take away OUR responsibility and OUR choices.
But lots of people do have emotional/psychological addictions to all kinds of things. Love, sex, adrenaline junkies like skydiving or race car driving, food addicts, drug addicts, alcoholics, smokers, etc.
There are always so many people out there who just can’t stand to see anyone else having fun! WHY? Why the hell can’t I smoke some weed if I feel like it? What the hell is wrong if I choose pot over booze? We already had a hell of a fight over alcohol prohibition and we FINALLY came to our senses and ‘let’ people drink again.
WHY can’t we come to the proper conclusion that we need to do the same thing with all the other drugs that people choose to use? WHY do so many people think THEY know best?
Most of the people who are supposedly addicted are only classed that way because something ‘interfered with their life’. I’ve seen the AA questionnaire on ‘you may be an alcoholic’, yeah, we ALL may be alcoholics if that’s the standard!
I remember thinking about one question, do you ever drink alone? My aunt drank a glass of wine with her dinner every night, she lived alone, according to AA that meant she was an alcoholic!
I have been arrested for DWI. According to the standards, that means I’m an alcoholic. I have a ‘problem with alcohol’, well NO I don’t have a problem with alcohol, I DO have a problem with COPS!
Because of that supposed “problem” with alcohol, I have been held back from many promotions, even my ability to travel has been cut off! I was recently informed by the CBP that because of my conviction, I can not be considered “low-risk”. Now what the HELL does a conviction for DWI have to do with being able to travel through the fast lane at the airport?????
Now, those controlling type people will have one more tool to use against those of us who would LIKE to be able to enjoy our lives without puritanical interference. Scientists have found that ‘kynurenic acid’ can be used to basically negate the effects of dopamine.
Dopamine is associated with the ‘pleasure center’ of the brain. When you are enjoying yourself, your dopamine levels increase. They also increase when you are using alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, etc. They also increase while you enjoy a good meal, when you have sex, when you do ANYTHING pleasurable.
I don’t know about you all, but I think we should all be able to take our pleasures any way we can! As long as you don’t hurt anybody else, you should be able to do ANYTHING you want! That DOES include getting high, on WHATEVER you choose to do the trick!
I can just imagine the horror stories to come if/(when) they start using this stuff on people. We’ll all be doped up like a bunch of zombies to treat our ‘addictions’, this stuff will be used to block any pleasure from our brains. Tone us down just enough so we can keep on being good little workers, but we’ll never be able to go out and have a good time on Friday night again, we just don’t know what’s good for us (and THEY do).
WOW! 🙁 And I thought Brave New World was only science fiction. 🙁
This is a continuation from the last post. This one is on hue, saturation, lightness and contrast. She uses some fantastic photos to illustrate. 🙂
I thought this was a very good post, lots of good information on how different lighting effects your photography. She uses beautiful photos to illustrate. 🙂
Young Adults and Obamacare | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
Another good article from Laissez-Faire. This one is another attempt to explain Obamacare. A simple explanation of insurance and markets and how Obamacare is not really either.
Personally, I think Obamacare is a purposeful attempt to screw up our health care system SO bad that everyone will soon be clamoring for a ‘single-payer’ system. Government health care in other words.
So, instead of paying attention to what really caused our system to become so totally screwed up, we just keep on proposing more of the same things that started the problem in the first place. We now have the most expensive and frustrating system on the planet. It didn’t used to be that way. We USED to have the best! It changed because of government interference in the market.
THAT is the ONLY reason our health care is so expensive, why people here fear losing everything if they get sick and don’t have insurance. Open your eyes to the true cause of the problem. Maybe then you will be able to see that Obamacare will NOT be any kind of solution. Neither will a complete government takeover!
Yeah, there are some places on the planet where government health care does (seem to) work. Costa Rica comes to mind. I haven’t been there, but from all I hear, it sounds like its a great system. Not so much the ones I hear more about: UK, Canada, even Sweden. They have serious problems with their systems too. So for getting taxed out the a$$, are they REALLY getting what they’ve paid for? Looks like that’s a no.
In case you didn’t know, Costa Rica does not have any army. We spend I don’t know how many BILLIONS on our military. So, that alone should tell you that we can NOT have anything like Costa Ricas health care system.
Somebody has got to pay the piper at some point. We can NOT just keep on printing more dollars and hope to be able to buy whatever we feel like it. Sooner or later the bills are not going to be able to be put off any more!
If you’re REALLY interested in solving the problems in our health care system, then you had better start paying attention to history and the REAL cause and effects going on. Obamacare is a disaster waiting to happen. I’m sorry the Republicans caved, but I had no doubt that they would. Why did they sign the damn bill in the first place? Cause they’re all STATISTS, just as bad as the Democrats!
We need to get back to the LIMITED government this country was founded on! Government should NOT be interfering in ANY market and most certainly NOT interfering with something as important as health care! They do NOT have that power! In case you don’t know it, our Supreme Court has been wrong MANY times in the past and their decision on Obamacare is just one more instance of their ignorance of the true purpose of OUR government (to PROTECT our rights!).
I only wonder at this point how long it will take them to throw me in jail, since I won’t be signing up for Obamacare and I will be doing my best to keep my bank accounts empty and not getting any tax refunds so they can’t STEAL my money to pay for the ridiculously expensive ‘insurance’! I’ll probably get better health care in prison then I would under Obamacare. 🙁
Too bad I’ll be costing them 50 grand or so instead of them being able to STEAL that amount out of my pay. That’s what comes from FORCING people to do things they don’t want to do, have no good reason to do, and they’re principled enough to stand up for what’s RIGHT!
Actually, I’m hoping it doesn’t come to that. If I can manage to escape to another country, I won’t be forced to submit to this scam! I’m doing all I can to get out, I just wish I could somehow move faster!! 🙁
This Is Mars in Extremely High Resolution | Collage of Arts and Sciences.
Another good article from the Smithsonian this morning. This one is about Mars. The article shows a dozen or so beautiful black and white photographs of Mars. They were taken over the years by various spacecraft. That in itself is pretty fantastic.
Now, a French photographer, editor, designer- Xavier Barral is putting together a book. Called This is Mars, it will showcase about 150 of these gorgeous pictures. I’ll have to look for it at the library. 🙂
This Alkaline African Lake Turns Animals into Stone | Collage of Arts and Sciences.
This is an interesting article (with lots of cool photos) of a deadly lake in Africa. I’ve never been to Africa but I would love to go. I always thought about taking a safari or climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, I didn’t know anything about this lake. It sounds like an interesting place. Just seeing pictures stirs up my wanderlust. 🙂
2013 Women on the Water Announcement.
It looks like I won’t be able to make it this year. 🙁
I’ll be heading back offshore on Sunday and won’t be back in time for this event (www.sunymaritime.edu/wow). I would encourage anyone living in the NY area to try to make it.
I went to the one in Galveston at Texas A & M two years ago and had a really great time. It was so interesting meeting all the people there (not just women 😉 ). We went on a dinner cruise around Galveston and had a reception on the sailing ship Elissa.
I’m sure SUNY will do a great job too!
Our World Through Thomas Paine’s Eyes | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
Excellent article by Jeffrey Tucker! I guess I’ll have to re-read Common Sense again. I liked it the first time I read it. I liked it more the next time. I’m sure my attitude toward it hasn’t changed, since my love of individual liberty is stronger than ever!
I wonder what will it take for us Americans to stand up and take back our liberty again. We did it once back then when Thomas Paine’s essay managed to stir up the people. Do we have anyone now who could do that job? I know people are trying, the internet is a big help- but most people still aren’t interested in paying attention.
We are in a much worse off position then the colonists were then. Back then, they were fighting the most powerful empire in the world. So would we be. But they were a heck of a lot more evenly matched! The King didn’t have any drones, or NSA spy programs to watch your every move, or even nuclear weapons to threaten with…
Our only real advantage now is the fact that our IDEAS are the better ones. How many people can honestly support tyranny over freedom?
How has tyranny ever lifted the standard of living in a nation? Compared to systems with some freedom allowed? How has tyranny encouraged creativity? Compared to freedom?
Even with the limited freedom we started with here (re:slavery, women, etc), we STILL became the most productive country with the best standard of living on the planet.It’s only as we threw that freedom out the window that we started going downhill.
Get the truth out there to people and they will no longer support “our” government. It HAS in fact become a tyranny.
“Tyranny- arbitrary or unrestrained use of power- oppressive or unjustly severe government.”
As the founding fathers fought the American Revolution against King George for such trivial things like a tiny tax on a few items like tea, WE have a much larger tax on EVERYTHING. As they fought against no taxation without representation, WE have no representation either (or do you REALLY think your congressman does what YOU ask them to?).
As they fought against their treatment by the Kings soldiers, we put up with daily harassment by the TSA strip searchers, DEA and police theft/destruction of your property and NSA collecting EVERYTHING you do or say! How much worse is that then the Kings men occasionally looking through your (snail) mail? And yet no one today protests. 🙁
The government right now is in a ‘shut down’ which did not in fact shut down any of the things they use to oppress us (oh my wishful thinking that they would shut all that down!!). Things like the NSA, DEA, DHS, TSA, IRS are all still open for business (and NO, we do NOT need ANY of them!). They have only shut down the things that people actually ENJOY the use of from the government. Things like the National Parks and the WWII Monument.
They are ‘shut down’ in a fight over the budget and Obamacare. Obamacare is only one more HUGE violation of our rights and the budget is already TRILLIONS of dollars over what it should be! I just keep wondering: what in the HELL is it going to take for the main part of the American people to stand up and say ‘enough is enough’?
Salted-Chocolate Pecan Pie Recipe – Kraft Recipes.
Yummy! 🙂
AND, easy to make! Two of my favorite things when it comes to food. So much of it looks and tastes delicious but when I look for the recipe, it takes too much work. 🙁
I’m not much into things that take a lot of effort in the kitchen. I do like pecan pie. I think the extra ingredients will just add to it.
I really love Utne Reader. Their reviews are one of my favorite parts of the magazine. Now that I get their emails, I can even check the music out right away online. 🙂
This time, they have 10 different artists to investigate. I haven’t had time yet to listen to any of them. I don’t want to hold you all back from some good stuff tho! 😉
Enjoy!! Let me know if you liked it, which songs, which artists? 🙂
I’m sure not going to say I’m anywhere near as intelligent as Einstein (duh!), but these quotes of his at least let me know I’m not as stupid (or crazy) as a lot of people think I am. I would much rather know Einstein agrees with me than a few yahoos on Facebook! 😉
I think everybody on this earth is in general equivalent. NOT equal, but equivalent. There is a difference! We all have brains in our heads and our capacity to reason is what makes us special (or at least a large part of it). We all have things we’re good at, things we’re not so good at, things we suck at. No one is perfect. We all have to work together to make a well functioning society. Each of us has our part to play.
One of the things I really like about shipboard life is that it’s very clear there that we’re ALL there for a good reason. We’re ALL necessary for the proper functioning of that vessel. The lowest man is just as important in the scheme of things as the master.
I think that general attitude should be more prevalent in general society. We’re all born with the same rights. We’re all equal under the law (except congress it seems- who can’t understand that they are ILLEGALLY exempting themselves from the ‘laws’ they create for the rest of us).
Our educational system has been going downhill for decades. Have you ever seen that test that’s been going around online? I think it was a grade school graduation test. I’m running out of time this morning, but I’ll try and find it and post it here tomorrow so everyone can check it out. I’ve got 2 college degrees and I would have a hell of a hard time passing it!
If you look at the history of our educational system, you’ll find that we were doing just fine up til the 1960’s or so. It took that long for the ‘public’ educational system we borrowed from the Germans to really take hold and ruin OUR system. It was based on training people to work in an industrial society.
Schools became little more than babysitters where kids were told to sit down, shut up and DON’T question authority! Back in the old days (before ‘public’ schools), everyone who wanted an education could get one. We had TRUE public schools then, founded and controlled by the COMMUNITY. Back then, people were taught to THINK for themselves!
Most people did fine without a college education. Most people TODAY would probably do fine without one (IF they could get a decent grade school and high school education).
I really hate to see so many young people get themselves into such humongous debt loads, especially when they’re just starting out in life. It’ll take them years to pay off their college loans. For what? How many people go to college now and don’t get a job in their field of study? I’m one. I’ve never seen a job in any way relating to my degree (math) since I graduated in 2001.
Our schools no longer teach people to think. They haven’t for a LONG time. Maybe we should take a long hard look at our educational system and see if we REALLY want to keep on training our kids to settle for being a ‘cog in the machine’, to fit into the corporate culture? Or do we want them to be able to develop to their full potential?
Good, short article by Utne Reader. I agree we need to rethink our present paradigm. I don’t really think WORK should be the ONLY thing that matters in our lives. Or even to be the most important thing. That seems to be the accepted practice here in the USA.
I’ve traveled around to a lot of different places in the world. In lots of places, I don’t see that dedication to WORK above all else. In fact, that is one of the many reasons I’ve been wanting to leave the US. I think it would be nice to live someplace where people live to enjoy LIFE, not to spend all their lives dedicated to miserable JOBS!
I saw it all over Europe and South America, people will take time to eat, drink, spend time with their friends and family, enjoy life!
We don’t do much of that here in America. We shovel down our food. We hardly go out for a drink with friends (tho that probably has a lot to do with our ridiculously overzealous DWI laws). We rush, rush, rush around to schedule in all the things our kids are involved in (all of which will look good on a resume and so help them get ahead in WORK later on).
I don’t know what the solution is. I would say that one thing that would be very helpful is their idea of the ‘accountablity model’. Working from home instead of wasting hours every day driving would be bound to help in lots of ways.
I think we really should try to come up with some way to tone down our obsession with getting ahead, status symbols, etc. Things like having to have the luxury car or SUV. Buying McMansions when you only have 1-2 kids. Sure, we all want and deserve to have some nice things to spend our time and money on, but money IS time!
Do we REALLY want/need to spend SO much of our lives at WORK, trying to earn enough to pay the bills when those bills are for SO much more than we really need? We’re all caught in the rat race here (myself included). Maybe we should study some of the other cultures around the world more and see how they manage their lives.
I think there ARE more important things in life than work. I’m one of the lucky ones, I DO still enjoy what I do for my work (of course, it COULD be so much better, but that’s another issue). I’m very lucky to work offshore and have a work schedule where I do get more time off to enjoy then most people do. I like what I do and I like the people I work with.
Of course, I also like the paycheck! That’s the bottom line. I work to get money so I can do all the OTHER things I want to do with my life. I just think I should be able to find a better balance and tip the scales away from work and towards the REST of life. 🙂
Universal Subjectivism: An Ethical Theory for the 21st Century
This looks like a very interesting book. I haven’t read it yet but the review in Utne Reader makes me want to try and find a copy.
I read the review and of course I agree, it would be a wonderful thing to stop all suffering. I just don’t know how to accomplish that.
The author suggests that it would be simple to just pass a law and we could stop factory farming here and so end so much suffering. I totally agree, factory farming is really a sickening situation, horrible for the animals. But how ‘simple’ would it be for us to stop it?
First of all, I’m not sure it would be simple even to pass a law like that. Our political system here is SO screwed up. Our politicians pass laws every day, THOUSANDS of pages long, they never read them, no one understands them, special interests get their little favors hidden inside somewhere, we all have to wait until the shit hits the fan to find out that maybe SOMEBODY should have READ the bills BEFORE they passed them into ‘law”!
We’re fighting Obamacare right now because of that exact same situation. Our agriculture lobby is pretty powerful too. As powerful as the insurance/pharmaceutical/medical lobby? I don’t know. I DO know they would not want to have their profits hurt even a teeny tiny bit! They’ll fight tooth and nail, spend millions of dollars to riddle whatever law comes up with benefits to them and detriments to the rest of us. That is how our politics works now a days! They ALWAYS find a way to screw the little guy! 🙁
Besides the fact that it would be a huge political issue, MY objection to the whole factory farming thing is: would it REALLY be possible to feed everybody (without destroying even more of our land and resources)? I have seen SOME things that suggest that localized, organic type farming can be just as productive, even MORE productive than factory farming, (Farmaggedon-film- was one if I remember right). It just seems so hard to believe. I would really need to learn a lot more before I’m totally convinced that is true.
The author makes the point that people starve every day tho there is enough food to feed the population of today. I would agree with that, most of the people who are starving today are in that situation because of POLITICS and not because there isn’t enough food around. Corrupt and greedy ‘rulers’ find ways to work the system to benefit themselves and their cronies and screw everyone else! The issue is getting the food (or other aid) to the people who need it. Best way to solve that problem is to get rid of politics! Get rid of ‘rulers’!! They’re nothing but thugs wearing suits!
I have to admit, I really don’t want to change my lifestyle. I’m not a vegetarian now and I don’t really want to be one. I don’t want to learn to eat worms or insects either. I travel every chance I get and I don’t want to stop doing that either. So, OK, I am not very ethical according to this author, at least according to what I can get out of the intro to the book in the review. I don’t feel bad about it. I don’t think reading the book will make me change my mind.
How in the heck are we going to get everyone to change their mindsets to this kind of ethics? That question alone makes me want to get hold of the book and find out the authors ideas. I am curious to see what other people propose to solve these sorts of problems. I can’t imagine it ever happening by choice. I have a feeling people will eventually be using force, like they say about climate change, we don’t have time to THINK about the proper kinds of solutions, it’s time for ACTION. Same old, same old here. 🙁
As usual, MY solution to the issue of suffering is the same as it is for almost every other issue… start using some BIRTH CONTROL!!!!! We sure as hell can feed 9 million people on this planet a LOT easier than we can 9 BILLION!!! We MIGHT even have some land/water/resources left over for some of the OTHER creatures on the planet if we would use our big heads instead of our little ones for a change!
To me, that would involve a whole lot less suffering for everybody. I mean, really, how hard can it be to just take a pill every day? or a depo shot every 3 months? Everybody that can have a kid, gets ONE. Maybe that policy would even encourage people to appreciate their kids for a change. 🙂
Let the people who can’t have one adopt one that is already here on this planet (instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on artificial insemination, etc). Oh, you want your own genes? Too bad, life’s not fair, it’s YOUR problem, don’t expect the rest of the world to pay just to indulge your FEELINGS. If you have the big bucks to pay for the procedure all on your own (NO insurance should cover these procedures!), then fine, maybe we’ll consider an exception if you’re some kind of genius (maybe). Instead of giving incentives to HAVE kids, give incentives to NOT have kids!
Just do the same thing as China did, establish a one child policy (must CONVINCE people of the need- NOT force them!). It shouldn’t be THAT hard. After all, most people have been convinced that people caused global warming and they’e only been spouting that story since what, the 80’s?
After a while, the population will eventually start shrinking, human suffering will lessen (and animal suffering along with it) and we can start solving the REST of the problems we have created here, such as starvation, medical care, education, engaging and fulfilling work, improving the condition of our land/water/air, maybe even make a dent in climate change. 😉
Since I’m spending some time in New Orleans and my hotel is right on Bourbon Street, I thought this might be a good time to post these cute little signs. I didn’t take these pictures, a friend of mine sent them to me a while back. I haven’t really spent much time out on Bourbon street (yet), tho I did wander through a couple of times already. I was invited to a few good private parties the first couple of nights I was here. Today I went on a plantation tour and was just too tired to go out and deal with the crowds. I’ll have to see how I feel tomorrow. There’s SO much to do here, its hard to decide what to do when. 🙂
House of Blues
OK, so sorry to all my faithful followers 😉 I’ve been SO busy! Since I got off work I’ve been going non-stop. I made it to the beach clean up (fantastic turnout there)! I managed to get some work of one of my rental houses done . I FINALLY got my taxes for 2012 turned in to my accountants (still was not really finished but there was no way to get all the information to them before time was up so I just had to drop off what I had). And now, I’m in New Orleans for the Workboat Show!
Yeah, its way early this year. Its usually the first week of December. That’s nice since the weather is cool and everything is all decorated for Christmas. It’s different this year, I didn’t think about it, but they’re already decorating for Halloween, so that’s pretty cool too.
I’m staying over a couple extra days to do some tourist stuff. I’m going on a plantation tour tomorrow and a 3-in-1 combo ‘witches brew’ tour Sunday night. I have not managed to get any pictures on the computer yet since I’ve been home, but just to whet your whistle, here are a few from last years show here.
Hurricanes at Pat O’Brians, New Orleans
Voodoo Bar Bourbon Street New Orleans
Street musician, Bourbon Street New Orleans
MLC 2006: Will it Drive Crew On Board
Well, I sure as hell hope so! I think its really pretty disgusting how some operators choose to treat their crews. The issue of communications is not even the biggest issue a lot of times. Sometimes, they can’t even get decent room and board, or the pay they’ve worked HARD to earn.
I’ve been very lucky that the communications issue has been my biggest gripe lately (as far as conditions on board go). 😉 Personally, I will never again take a job where I don’t have internet access. The last time I did, my entire life at home was totally screwed up for months! Yeah, we all used to go to sea for months at a time, stand in line for hours at the telephone office, etc. But that was long before the internet was invented.
No one at home will put up with us being out of touch for so long any more. At home, everyone has instant and constant communication and they just won’t accept it that we don’t have the same access when we’re at sea.
You think its fun to have your house ruined because you couldn’t pay the bills? Maybe your pipes freeze and burst because they shut off the heat? Or maybe it’s just your credit that’s totally screwed since you’re 4-5 months behind on all the bills and not even any attempt to contact them since you can’t get ashore to make phone calls. No one will accept the excuse that we are at sea any more and most of us just don’t have the extra money to pay our bills for months in advance when we go to sea.
I HOPE the MLC 2006 will help us get some better treatment from our employers. I have my doubts, they usually find ways to keep from doing things they really don’t want to do. We’ll all just have to wait and see if they do the right thing this time, or if it’s just going to be business as usual.
Russia Dismisses Dutch Legal Action Over Greenpeace Activists | gCaptain
Did anyone really expect anything different? I’m not sure what people are referring to when they say Russia “unlawfully detained” the Greenpeace activists. They invaded the 500 meter zone (that is illegal) after repeated warnings not to. They tried to board the Russian vessel. Some of them were actually doing it and the rest of them were helping, those are acts of piracy! It is totally and completely illegal under every maritime law of every country as far as I know.
I’m absolutely positive the US would have done the same thing. We probably would have charged them with conspiracy and a dozen other charges, or maybe just terrorism. That seems to be our fail safe lately, anyone we accuse of terrorism is pretty much automatically guilty and they don’t get to have a trial. The actions they took does make them guilty of those crimes under OUR laws (not that I am saying our laws are good ones in this case, they actually suck pretty bad as far as terrorism and conspiracy goes, everybody can be charged for pretty much anything).
Under international law, those people illegally boarded the Russian vessel, the Russians were within their rights to do what they did and actually I’m surprised they have treated them as well as they have.
I admire the Dutch for trying to help their people, but they should have been more involved in trying to stop them from acting against the Russians in the first place. That probably would have been a lot more helpful.
40 Percent of Your Chicken Nugget Is Meat. The Rest Is… | Mother Jones.
Interesting ‘study’ on just what exactly those chicken nuggets consist of. 🙂
OK, as they admit, it’s only 2 samples (out of billions) so NOT scientific at all. But I seriously doubt if those nuggets are all that much different than the ones they DID pick to study. I mean, it’s not like they somehow knew beforehand just which places would have the bad ones, right?
They didn’t even get into the issue of the breading. What all’s in THAT stuff? I’m pretty sure that’s not good for you either. Probably adds a lot of salt, fat, sugar, GMO, etc to your nugget, on top of all the ‘chicken’.
Do they add the breading to make them taste better? To make them more addictive (salt, sugar, HFCS, etc have been shown to light up the same pleasure centers in the brain as other addictions)? Or to make them LOOK better? all those icky things they throw in there might not look very appetizing.
I admit, I almost never eat chicken nuggets. I can’t remember ever really paying that much attention to them, but now I’m going to have to pick them apart and see if I can tell anything just from looking at them closely. Somehow I doubt it will be that easy to tell what’s really in there. 🙁
Why We Test for Drugs & Alcohol.
This is the first study I’ve ever seen on IF these tests do ANYTHING. I think some of the premises are false. Such as: using the post accident rates to determine if any drugs or alcohol were involved in the accident.
Just like in the Exxon Valdez incident, these figures can be totally misleading. As found after that investigation, Captain Hazelwood had NOTHING to do with that accident, so even if he WAS totally wasted, the accident had NOTHING to do with it,( if he was or if he wasn’t drinking). The fact that he had a couple of drinks simply allowed Exxon to use him as a scapegoat and get away with the FACT that it was THEIR policies which REALLY caused that accident.
I REALLY hate the fact that we use the excuse that someone, somewhere might be doing (some) drugs, to strip away the rights of millions of innocent people. There is NO authority in the constitution for either the outlawing of (some) drugs OR any sort of random drug testing to be forced on us by the federal government!
Is it worth stripping the 4th amendment, the 5th amendment from the constitution to allow these tests? Is it worth forgetting about the 9th and 10th amendments to even allow the federal government to have ANY say-so about what we choose to put into OUR bodies?? I say NO, I say HELL NO!!!
It is NEVER worth it to give up our rights! Not for ANY reason. And the fact that they haven’t even tried to show any kind of proof that their stupid rules do ANY good at all up until this just shows that they could give a flying f*&k!
Why in the heck are they even in charge of licensing us in the first place? Who the hell gave the federal government the authority to tell me if I can go to work, who I can work for, what hoops I have to jump through in order to apply for a job??? I sure as hell can’t find anything about that in the constitution. It’s NOT there. So, in fact, every single licensing law is unconstitutional and void!
Lets get the companies and the sailors together on this and eliminate the government out of the mix! Now would be a great time since they are ‘shut down” (yeah, riiiight- I only wish they really were)!
Lets come up with a scheme that would actually be sensible and affordable to the people actually involved (instead of a bunch of clueless bureaucrats). Maybe we could stop all our ships from moving overseas and get some jobs back for American sailors if we did that.
Too bad now we have to deal with the IMO. Maybe ALL the sailors around the world should get together on this. I’m sure they realize there is no one in any governmental position anywhere worldwide that is actually on THEIR side. Its always all about the money and we (sailors) don’t have any. ;-(
“A Glimpse Into The Lives Of Somali Pirates” Video Hits BuzzFeed | gCaptain
Here’s a little video of the pirates from BuzzFeed and CNN. I’m not sure how they got this film, but its really very general and not saying much other than that yes, there are really a lot of pirates out there and nobody is doing much about the problem. 🙁
Taxes: Man’s Inhumanity to Man | Laissez-Faire Bookstore.
Another great article from Jeffrey Tucker. I have to agree totally. Yes! The difference between voluntary co-operation and the use of FORCE to get your way (politics) is the difference between peace and war. It’s the same from small towns all the way up to nation states.
WHY do so many people think it’s OK to use force to get their way? Might makes right? Most people don’t bully their friends and neighbors directly, but they think it’s perfectly fine to have their stand-in (government) do the bullying for them instead. Why??? If it’s not right for an individual to do something, then its STILL not right for them to get someone else to do their dirty work for them!
The way I look at it is, if something really needed to get done, if people REALLY wanted something, then they would find a way to do it. They would be able to convince enough people to chip in and help WITHOUT having to hold a gun to their heads. Persuasion works wonders, IF something is really worth doing. If you can’t convince someone to do something with a good argument, then it’s probably NOT worth doing!
The fact that we ARE using the FORCE of government to accomplish so many things just means that most of those things are either unnecessary to begin with, or nobody really wants them much, or they’re just to lazy to do the things themselves, OR they think they can get others to pay for what they won’t pay for themselves.
Just think back 100 (+/-) years and all the things our government did NOT do for us then compared to what they do now. We still had everything we needed then, we just did it ourselves. We had a LOT more freedom and a LOT less government. That is what made this country the greatest ever in the history in the world- that FREEDOM.
That same freedom we’ve thrown in the garbage with our continuous abuse of the political way of dealing with everything. With the use of FORCE to get things done. We’re in another huge struggle right now and all set for another huge loss of our freedoms. 🙁
Russian Authorities Charge Greenpeace Activists with Piracy | gCaptain
Pirates or just ordinary criminals? Or possibly even peaceful protesters like Greenpeace insists?
OK, they are NOT just peaceful protesters like Greenpeace says. They invaded the 500 meter zone (that alone is a crime), and then ILLEGALLY BOARDED the vessel! THAT is an act of piracy! A PEACEFUL protest would have remained OUTSIDE the 500 meter zone!!!
Pirate = one who robs at sea. Technically, they DID act as pirates. By their actions, they cost the Prirazlomnaya oil platform millions of dollars. Those rigs cost hundreds of millions of dollars a day to operate. So, did Greenpeace commit an act of piracy? Yes, they did, they cost the oil company a TON of money by their intentional actions, so yes, they DID rob them.
OK, so they did not intend to cause harm. So what? Just by the fact of them invading the operations of the Prirazlomnaya, they DID cause harm and they knew they would! Maybe not much harm in the scheme of things, but they still disrupted the activities on board the oil rig. That costs time and that costs money.
Were the Russians doing anything illegal to board the Arctic Sunrise (the Greenpeace vessel), tow it to port and arrest the people on board? NO! Those people were ALL involved in criminal actions.
Nothing has come out about anyone on the Greenpeace vessel trying to prevent the boarding of the oil rig so no one is innocent. As far as I know, Russia does not have any Bill of Rights that guarantees freedom of speech, or of protests, peaceful or otherwise. They’re lucky they DID get taken to jail instead of just shot! After all, they WERE caught in the act!
Greenpeace may have some great goals they’re working for. Even I don’t disagree with their goals. No one wants to see the oceans destroyed by oil spills. No one wants to see the environment polluted. Greenpeace is just wasting time and money on these stunts and also putting peoples lives and livelihoods in danger. That is NOT the way to accomplish their goals. They need to go fight their battles where they might actually do some good. Go to the courts, go to the legislatures, go to the people who are responsible for MAKING the RULES and get the rules changed!
Even better, or more effective in any case, they should spend their resources on trying to find some way to convince people to lower the population! To stop having so many babies! If we could/would lower the human population, then pretty much ALL of our problems would be solved, or at the very least minimized. THAT would be the greatest service to the planet, why don’t they go do THAT instead of trying to stop people from getting the resources they NEED to survive and to enjoy a decent standard of living?
Personally, I would like to see every person on this planet able to enjoy a GOOD life. I would like to see them have everything they need to live on and opportunities for enjoyable, fulfilling work. Not slaving away all day in dangerous conditions for barely enough food to get them through another day. Get people into a place where they are not so concerned about their own bare survival and they become a little more concerned about the rest of the planet around them.