Brainwashing and other reasons to bathe...

"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal." Albert Einstein

I have never been susceptible to hypnosis. Maybe.

Which is to say; in controlled situations where I have been aware of the hypnosis being attempted, I was too aware of the methods (or too left-brained) for the desired effect to be achieved. Self-hypnosis tapes have never had the desired effect on me, and subliminal messaging has been a waste of the messenger's time. Or has it?

I have been aware at times of being directly manipulated by those wishing to sell me something. For instance, I am wildly aware of the psychological tricks employed by stores to encourage repeat business or additional buying. I noted a particularly clumsy effort by a former employer, a large store chain. At some point in July, the store began repeatedly playing songs in which Christmas was mentioned or a few bars of a familiar Christmas melody were repeated. While those around me seemed not to notice, I would make a point to ask my customers (I was at the sales desk) whether any of the items purchased were gifts (ostensibly to remind them to keep the receipts for returns). After each incidence of the "Christmas in July" music, there was a noticeable uptick in 'gift' sales. I would hear other employees humming Christmas songs to themselves, though when I asked them what they were humming, none could say.

Needless to say, none of this was exactly scientific. But it was compelling. A few bars of music familiarly associated with a heavily commercialized holiday and sales went up. Makes you feel dirty, doesn't it?

I am new to the field of Neuropsychology, but I am wildly aware of the implications of knowledge regarding exactly how the brain works and how we can train it. Behavioral psychology has long been in use in schools, especially in regards to special education. It is also in use by our armies, to create unified bodies of soldiers trained to do difficult and dangerous work.

Technology can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Knowing how that technology is being used can have the effect of defusing it to some extent.

Read this slowly, let it sink in, VOTE in November

This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be � please read the entire article.

The article below is completely neutral, not anti republican or democrat.

Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel has hit the nail directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day.

It's a short but good read. Worth the time. Worth remembering!
545 vs. 300,000,000

EVERY CITIZEN NEEDS TO READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS JOURNALIST HAS SCRIPTED IN THIS MESSAGE. READ IT AND THEN REALLY THINK ABOUT OUR CURRENT POLITICAL DEBACLE.

Charley Reese has been a journalist for 49 years.

545 PEOPLE -- By Charlie Reese

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.... . The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? Nancy Pelosi. She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million can not replace
545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red ..

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ , it's because they want them in IRAQ If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power..

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.

Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees...

We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

What you do with this article now that you have read it......... Is up to you.



Sales Tax
School Tax
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Excise Taxes
Property Tax
Cigarette Tax
Medicare Tax
Inventory Tax
Real Estate Tax
Well Permit Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Inheritance Tax
Road Usage Tax
CDL license Tax
Dog License Tax
State Income Tax
Food License Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Gross Receipts Tax
Social Security Tax
Service Charge Tax
Fishing License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Building Permit Tax
IRS Interest Charges
Hunting License Tax
Marriage License Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Personal Property Tax
Accounts Receivable Tax
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Gasoline Tax (currently 44.75 cents per gallon)
Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes
Telephone Recurring and Nonrecurring Charges Tax


Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, & our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What in the hell happened? Can you spell 'politicians? ' I hope this goes around THE USA at least 100 times!!!
YOU can help it get there!!!
GO AHEAD - - - BE AN AMERICAN!!!

PS.
If you do the right thing and pass this on - which is entirely up to you -
please do the right thing and highlight and delete any addresses you receive with it.

Thank You

Research project

This is going to probably sound awful to anyone stumbling upon this but I had an idea for a research project. I would like to perform standard IQ testing on a portion of the population, and ask them simple questions, such as education, sex, married/unmarried, gay, straight, republican, democrat, Teapartier...And then so a straight across comparison. Democrat to republican to Teapartier. I'm willing to bet that your average Teapartier wouldn't score much about 100, while your average democrat would score between 115 and 150. Self identified republicans would likely score between 90 and 120. Except those in power. They'd score below 90. All of them
That's my hypothesis and I'm sticking it to you.

I'm determined....

Determinism... Its not the same a predestination; this is not the belief that every action and resulting consequence is pre-played by whatever god you believe in on some great strategy board somewhere. This is the belief that our lives are governed by many factors beyond our direct control (nature/nurture is a deterministic argument).
From a standpoint of pure linguistics this is a very postmodern debate. The words we use can make a huge difference in the message we get across and therefore how that message is received and perceived by our audience. For instance; it's been argued that a kindergarten teacher, using iterations of the words "good little worker", can "indoctorinate" children toward a blue-collar existence; making being a cog in the industrial process rewarding rather than frustrating.
It becomes necessary for us then to examine our language and our use of it. What things do you say, consciously or unconsciously that alter the perceptions of others? All words are meant to make a difference.
Michael Apple argues in "Ideology and Democracy" for examining the psycholinguistic characteristics of the language we use with children to encourage a post0industrial mindset. I recommend this book, but be warned; the language and philosophy are dense.

Stumbling on greatness

I love Stumbleupon... If you haven't used it, it works like this; you download a toolbar, and then you choose what subjects or areas you are most interested in. For instance, I chose, art, environment, sustainable living, writing and grammar amongst others. Today, I hit my "stumble" button and it took me to a page full of incredible sketches by an artist I'd never heard of. I sat and stared at his drawings for nearly an hour. (His name is Wesley Burt, by the way, and I have a new artistic hero).

I am very much of the opinion that you should strive to learn something new every day. Discovery is primary to learning and discovering what is on the web, out of the hundreds of thousands (or millions, or billions) of documents, pages, blogs, archives, videos, and bullshittery that is out there is one great way to do that.

NIHILISM! is this backed up by the existence (or non-existence) of particle theory in quantum physics? If things do not exist in a single state, do they not exist at all? Human definitions of existence are defied by quantum mechanics, because our senses are not acute enough to detect the changes in the atoms around us. We pick an image for something, an idea or ideal, and and hold the object to that idea. However, that image is not immutable. Does that make the ideal transitory? At the base level, the sub-atomic, quantum level, do things actually exist? I know the spatula may not be a spatula, though it looks like one to me, and it may change form for another person, be another object entirely, because of the force that simple observation has on the particles at the quantum level. But if I can simply deny that something exists, because I refuse to observe it, does that mean it does not exist?

Coffee...

I have this overblown expectation of life: when things go well they should go perfectly. Its a form of emotional masochism, really.