Strays

I'm sure most of us have had experience with stray animals. Those of us who haven't surely have known someone who has relayed a similar story as the one I'm about to relay.

Homeless, hungry, and scared. If you offer them a kindness they are sure to repay it in gratitude, love and loyalty. A dog can recognize a hardship. And a dog can recognize a kindness. They recognize that hardship comes from a cold hard life and kindness comes from the hand of a compassionate soul.

A dog will remember the hand that feeds.

Try extending a kindness to a human. More often than not, whatever they cannot steal from you and sell they will break and shit on. And they will blame you for not having the things they stole and for the shit they left on everything else.

Humans are shit.

They're Doing It Wrong

We propose that pain intensity is not the best measure of the success of chronic-pain treatment. When pain is chronic, its intensity isn't a simple measure of something that can be easily fixed. Multiple measures of the complex causes and consequences of pain are needed to elucidate a person's pain and inform multimodal treatment. But no quantitative summary of these measures will adequately capture the burden or the meaning of chronic pain for a particular patient. For this purpose, nothing is more revealing or therapeutic than a conversation between a patient and a clinician, which allows the patient to be heard and the clinician to appreciate the patient's experiences and offer empathy, encouragement, mentorship, and hope. http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1507136?query=TOC&

The Mechanics Of A Free Society

The Mechanics Of A Free Society details some of the basic organisational structures that I believe will be necessary for living in a money-free world. I felt that such a document was missing from the various different groups and thinktanks out there, most of whom invest much of their energy discussing mechanization and cybernation. It is my view that there are more pressing and practical things that need to be understood relating to our own social behaviour.

I think such a document may also have value in helping people who have doubts about our shared vision to make that all important leap from the impossible to the possible. :)

I hope you find it useful. If you do, please feel free to share it around.

Here's the PDF:
http://www.freeworldcharter.org/files/The_Mechanics_Of_A_Free_Society.pdf

and it's also on the Freeworlder Blog too:
http://freeworlder.org/blogs/item/81-the-mechanics-of-a-free-society

You Might Not Need A Twitter Account

If you don't understand how Twitter works, You Might Not Need A Twitter Account. If you think #followfriday (#ff) is "spam", then you don't understand how Twitter works. If your default reaction to receiving recognition from Twitter Community members in the form of a mention or a shout out is to attack people with juvenile and/or vulgar name calling, then you don't understand how Twitter works, might not need a Twitter account, and likely need medication and therapy.

If you are so antisocial and sensitive that a simple shout out provokes you to violence and you really don't understand how to use the control settings of mute, block, or private account then you really don't need a Twitter account. Hell, if you're THAT antisocial, what are you doing with ANY social media account?

I tire of the hate and dysfunction of this world.

Respect Your Elders

Before you go disrespecting me, keep in mind that I probably own computers that are older and work better than you.

News To Congress

Here is some food for thought.

To legislators who believe that the system is broken and should be done differently:

It's not the system. It has worked for over two centuries!

It's the money that you accept for favors and special treatment of a select few that has distorted the system.

So, if you want to fix the system, change the way you behave within that system.

It is not the system that is broken. It is YOU!

If you don't want to be quoted, STFU!

I can't understand morons on Twitter who get pissed off when one of my papers at paper.li, which are automated news aggregators, quote a public post of theirs and shares a link they may have shared.

It's like getting pissed off at the pavement because the highway curves to the left or the right... or goes straight when they wanted to turn!

Here's an idea! If you don't want the bots of strangers to be retweeting your tweets, then make your Twitter account PRIVATE... or just shut the fuck up! But don't come crying to me when your public tweets get rebroadcast.

I could give a fuck. I'm not the one with the mental deficiency in this relationship.

Political Correctness Vs. Respect

I suppose I'm a little old fashioned. I was reared in a time and place where everyone was entitled to a certain degree of dignity and respect. Females were "Ma'am" and males were "Sir", regardless of station in life.

No, not everyone was that way. But those were the exception and not the rule.

When a person said they would do something, they did it or had a damn good reason. An honest day's work earned one an honest day's pay. In short, people kept their word and paid their debts.

Today people rarely keep their word and pay their bills; not necessarily because they can't but because they just don't care.

Being polite or kind is viewed as weakness. However, everyone seems to demand respect when they, themselves, are not willing to return it in kind.

There is no respect for age, service, gender, experience nor anything else that remotely resembles manners, culture, or civilization. Religious fundamentalist's blame it on the lack of religion in society... as they disrespect, condemn, and even threaten anyone who doesn't believe exactly as they do.

Political correctness has become the new standard for coercing those who cannot respect others to act with a certain level of quasi acceptable behavior. Manners for those who have none.

The simple fact is that hate has infiltrated every aspect of modern life and is mirrored everywhere one looks.

And the few of us who are still willing to show respect toward others are so beaten down by all of the disrespect and abuse we receive for our troubles that we grow weary.

I hope you weren't reading this in hope of finding an answer, because I don't have one. Society is too far gone.

These times are too progressive

These times are too progressive. Everything has changed too fast. Railroads and telegraphs and kerosene and coal stoves -- they're good to have but the trouble is, folks get to depend on 'em.
~Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter (Little House, #6)

And The Difference is...

Beats the hell out of me.

Why The 2nd And Not The 1st?

I've been seeing a lot of posts on Facebook and Twitter by conservative fundamentalists proclaiming the supreme authority and untouchability of the Second Amendment:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

In each case, they claim that this amendment protects their right as individuals to own and possess, and in many cases carry anywhere they wish, firearms.

I'm not debating the validity of their claim here. I am, however, pointing out their abject hypocrisy when those very same people post demands for ill conceived calls banning Islam and any practice associated with it.

The First Amendment reads:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

One can't help but wonder from what depth of ignorance comes the idea that number two is untouchable, not open to interpretation in any way, and taken in its most literal sense but number one is taken to mean that only that which applies to them, only Christianity is intended for protection.

These fascist minded reactionaries can't conceive in their pea brains the notion that banning any religion or their practices is the beginning of the end for the exercise of their own.

I'm not suggesting that some schools of Islamic thought don't call for banning the practice of religion's other than theirs. Indeed, some do! I'm simply suggesting that We are suppose to be better than that.

Or are we?

ICBA Encourages Consumers to Protect their Data during Cyber Security Awareness Month

Americans live in a mobile society, relying on smartphones, tablets and computers to gather news, make purchases, interact with friends and family, and connect with financial institutions. Increasingly, cybercriminals compromise the networks that support these devices. This often results in identity theft, which can also yield financial losses and safety for consumers. In fact, a recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that computer hackers have stolen the personal information of approximately 40 million U.S. residents.

October is Cyber Security Awareness Month, and the Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) is offering tips to help consumers avoid having their online financial information disrupted or stolen. ICBA, along with more than 6,000 community banks across the country, urge consumers to remain vigilant and protect themselves from potential credit card and bank fraud.

You can learn more about Cyber Security Awareness Month by visiting the Stay Safe Online website. Online resources for community banks regarding cyber and data security are available on ICBA’s Data Breach Toolkit.

ICBA offer the following tips to help consumers safeguard their online accounts:

• When sending sensitive information via the Internet, make sure “https:” appears in the address bar. This  means the information you are transmitting is encrypted.
• Ensure the wireless network you use is password-protected, and choose a strong password and update it frequently for your work and home wireless networks. Likewise, always use a passcode on your mobile phone or tablet to stop an unauthorized user from accessing your device.
• Don’t enter sensitive information into your phone when others can see what you’re entering.
• Set the privacy settings on frequented social network sites. Cybercriminals often learn about people and their families and friends via social media in an attempt to spoof or phish you and your network.
• Remain cautious of someone who isn’t who they say they are or if the name and area don’t match what appears on caller ID. This is often how spoofing occurs.
• Never respond to text messages, emails or phone calls from companies alleging to be your bank, government officials or business representatives that request your banking ID, account numbers, user name or password.
• Similarly, don’t click on links sent to you from unknown sources via text message because they are likely malware.
• Beware of “get rich quick” schemes; never voluntarily give out your bank account information or security credentials.

Vermont legalizes e-prescribing of Schedule II controlled substances

Vermont legalizes e-prescribing of Schedule II controlled substances Vermont has become the final U.S. state to legalize the electronic prescribing of all controlled substances, by changing its laws to allow physicians and pharmacists to e-prescribe Schedule II drugs as well as drugs classified as Schedules III, IV, and V. Link to source>>  Only about 4% of U.S. prescribers use electronic prescriptions, even though 80% of pharmacies meet U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) standards for e-prescribing, according to Paul Uhrig, chief administrative and legal officer and chief privacy officer for the health information network Surescripts. Providers must have software that meets DEA standards. Link to source>>

Restoring Faith In Humanity One Smile At A Time

Jaden asked his aunt Barbara to buy a bunch of little toys and bring him to downtown Savannah, Georgia near where he lives, so he could give them away.

"I'm trying to make people smile," said Jaden.

Jaden targets people who aren't already smiling and then turns their day around. He's gone out on four different occasions now and he is always successful.

Read the article here...

Getting Drunk: It's Like Being Poisoned, Literally

I was exposed to toxic levels of insecticides a few days ago and have been ill ever since. The day after, before I realized I'd been poisoned, I was trying to think of a way to describe how I felt. I settled for the Monday after a weekend long binge.

So, suddenly the question occurs to me, why on earth would anyone want to get drunk?

I Was On Their List And You Probably Are, Too

I worked for the Mayor of St. Louis on 9/11. As a convicted felon, I was immediately placed on the "no fly list". However, my job required travel, and quite a bit of it. So, while on government business they had to let me pass

I became physically ill and resigned my position to return to my rural home to recover. Unfortunately, rural communities are some of the most overtly fascist places in America. They began to monitor my phones and activities. But try as they might, they could not justify their actions and send me back to prison.

My point is that if you think you are one of them and have nothing to worry about you are lying to yourself. They will waste precious time and resources, YOUR RESOURCES, to hassle you... because they can... because YOU LET THEM.

Freedom is an illusion and the surveillance state/military complex has gone rogue.

I don't think they're following me as closely these days. They bore easily and a decade is a century to them. It was interesting while it lasted, though.

I hope you're proud of your creation. Enjoy it. Your herd mentality is it's reason for existence.

EdgeLeft: Why Bernie? by David McReynolds (may be reproduced without permission)

I figured I better get this written before the election is over! There has been debate and
discussion about the Bernie Sanders candidacy - I'm backing him, here are my reasons why, and the probable limits of his campaign.

Back in the 1960's when Michael Harrington was pushing the argument that we should all go into the Democratic Party, I thought he should have entered the New Hampshire primary, as a socialist, running for the Democratic nomination. I didn't urge this in a mocking way - I thought it would be very healthy for a democratic socialist to press the flesh, meet ordinary folks, let them see what a socialist looked like, and what socialism stood for. He wouldn't have won the nomination, but he would have introduced a discussion of socialism into the public dialogue. He was a charming guy, a good speaker, and might actually have helped shift the Democrats away from the their support of the Vietnam War (alas, as followers of socialist history know, Mike's approach to the Democratic Party was to support the war, until in 1972 he shifted).

Now we have another socialist doing what I thought then, and still think, is a good idea. Bernie Sanders, whom I met in 1980, and who kindly came down to New York City to speak to a Socialist Party convention (I have lost track of the year), and who put together real coalitions of real people and got elected as Mayor of Burlington, then as the Congressman from Vermont (they only have one member of the House) and then as Senator, is off and running, to huge and enthusiastic crowds.

I have heard some on the Left criticize Bernie's determination not to take part in personal attacks on Hillary. I think that is a refreshing stand on his part - I salute him for it

Others on the Left feel that Bernie is leading voters into the trap of supporting Hillary when he doesn't, himself, get the nomination. They feel he should run as an independent if he loses the race for the nomination. Let's have a little sense of history here - independent candidates for President might help throw the election to one or the other major party candidate but they have absolutely no chance of winning election. Go back to the Henry Wallace campaign in 1948, to the later efforts by Barry Commoner, John Anderson, Ralph Nader. (I leave aside the campaigns of the truly minor party candidates, of which I was one, and of which Norman Thomas was the most distinguished example, because such campaigns were not aimed at winning the office but at providing a platform for dissenting views). These were good men but the enthusiasm of their supporters did not reflect the reality of American politics.

In 1948 I  was a student at UCLA, the Cold War had just begun, Henry Wallace has been a Vice President under Roosevelt, and his supporters (at least those on campus) were convinced he might win - in the end he didn't carry a single state (though I think he helped push Truman to the left on domestic issues).

Bernie is not running as a spoiler, but as a serious candidate, reflecting that part of the Left which is, in my view, most important - it is not locked into any of the small "officially Left groups" but it is there, a sometimes almost invisible left in the labor movement, among the elderly, the youth, the people who know our politics is rotten and really want a change.

Bernie has been properly criticized for not being perfect on all issues. I agree with that, he is not perfect. He has a record of supporting some of the worst aspects of the Military/Industrial complex, and, while not nearly as uncritical a supporter of Israel as some think, he has been silent when he should have spoken out. I urge my friends in the Jewish peace movement to reach out to Bernie and try a serious dialogue (not shouting) about why the US links to Israel should be ended (or at least weakened).

The peace movement should also dialogue with Bernie. He should not get a free pass from any of us.  And it is urgent that the "Black Lives Matter" movement meet with Bernie. But let's be real - the candidate who can prove right on every one of the issues which concerns us is not going to have a very wide base of support.

Bernie is dealing with what I think are the real issues - the control the 1% has over the country, the obscene power of money in our elections, the massive disparity between the handful of the ultra-rich and the millions who live in genuine poverty.

I'm delighted Bernie is doing so well - much better  than I had thought he would.

There are a couple of practical questions. If he doesn't get the nomination, what will he have accomplished? He will have done something very important, and God help the left sectarians who don't understand this: he will have made it possible to discuss socialism. He will have made it respectable to use the term. He will have shown there is a mass of people willing to hear a genuinely radical attack on the current corporate structure.

And what happens if Bernie doesn't get the nomination and Hillary does? I do not personally dislike Hillary - I've never met her. But she has no principles other than power. I think it will be profoundly outrageous if, in November, the choice is between a Bush and a Clinton. Those of us in the "lucky states", where the electoral votes are already sure to go one way or the other, can vote our conscience (as I voted Green in New York when Obama ran, and as I will vote Green in 2016)  Whoever the Democratic candidate is, they will be as sure to carry New York as the Republican candidate will carry Texas.

But, in swing states, conscience is not so easy to satisfy - because the next President will have Supreme Court nominations to make, and in this country, those nominations are deeply important.

So yes, in this imperfect world I happily support the man who is not perfect on every issue, but very good on some key ones - and that is Bernie Sanders, a decent, smart, and very serious fellow. So serious that he has even taken to using something on his hair to keep it from flying off in all directions.

(There is a final note I must make. Twice before I have supported Democrats for high office. In 1964 I supporting LBJ because I feared Goldwater would take us into war, and because the far right - including the John Birch Society and the KKK - was backing Goldwater, and Civil Rights was the key domestic issue. Boy, was I wrong! My political record has been wrong more than once - I helped bring Max Shachtman into the Socialist Party in 1958 - a monumental error. In 1972 I supported (and still have no regrets) Senator George McGovern because I felt he was serious about the Vietnam War, and because I thought he represented a healthy shift to the Left in the Democratic Party - a shift which Bill Clinton later sharply reversed. So my record is imperfect - like real life and serious politics).

(David McReynolds was on the staff of War Resisters League for many years,
was twice  the Socialist Party candidate for President. He is retired and lives with his two cats on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He can be reached at: davidmcreynolds7@gmail.com)

Keeping The Peace

I really don't understand the disconnect:

Don't steal from me

Don't lay your hands on me or mine

Don't be uncivilized toward me at my home (remember, you are a guest)

Don't FUCK with me

and you won't get hurt.

Is it really that hard to process this social etiquette? Have you really lived under the illusion that you are shielded by society for so long that you believe you are invincible?

If that's the case, you're pretty fucking stupid... and an asshole.

Pursuing Passions on the Web

I started a website about spirituality. It was focused on eastern thought and pursuing peace within one's self. I posted a link to another website which offered classes on the matter. I was promptly charged $1500 for my trouble of promoting THEM. I shut it down immediately.

I started a website for the church I attend and offered to attempt to arrange rides for those who wished to attend but had not way. I was promptly told I couldn't offer rides. Outreach was the whole point of the website. So, I shut it down.

In fact, the content I have generated the most with the least complaint is criticism of the government. And I have awaited retribution for that act of civil defiance with a sense of inevitability and trepidation.

I'm confused though. I try to put up positive websites and am shut down. I put up negative websites and am still doing so freely.

Could this be a statement on the values of mankind in general?