World Trade Center Scientific Truth

I watched a recently added documentary about the Trade Center and of, obviously, 9/11. I’ve watched many documentaries and news stories, of course, through the years, and every single time, I cry, even after all this time. This documentary was called 9/11 Explosive Evidence-Experts Speak Out. If you haven’t seen it, watch it. It’s on Amazon. I was enthralled, because these were educated, experienced scientists from specific backgrounds, people with centuries of experience, collectively. These were people you want to listen to.

I am a scientist at heart: That’s how my brain is wired, that’s part of my education, and where I spent the lion’s share of my corporate life. Science. In general, I like to know why. Why anything, why everything. I am naturally curious and I just like to know why things happen the way they do. This is the one and only reason I’d like to live another century: To learn more stuff. In the case of our national tragedy, I allowed emotion to overtake my logical side, and I just believed what I was told. That was a mistake.

After having watched many documentaries, I have finally had to face cold, hard facts of science, which clearly indicate that jets did not bring down THREE world trade center buildings: Explosives did. Now wait. Stay with me here. I am not a wacko conspiracy theorist and I do not believe our government is responsible for the deaths of thousands of American civilians. But I do believe, because the science cannot be denied, that explosives were involved in the collapse of the North and South towers, and building 7. You don’t have to believe me; look at the electron microscope images and x-ray spectra! I worked with SEM and x-ray micro-analysis for years. I know what I’m looking at. Then watch building 7 fall. Watch the penthouse go over and down first, INTO the building, and then watch the building collapse into free fall (impossible if it was due to a fire related collapse) onto its own footprint. NIST said the collapse started on the lower left front of the building. If that was true, the building would have fallen forward and to the left. No. That building fell due to CONTROLLED DEMOLITION. That, in and of itself, is the “smoking gun” as one interviewee said. I agreed, and nearly shouted with shock.

Many of the speakers in this documentary were engineers and architects, civil engineers, physicists, chemists, materials specialists, explosives experts, and my favorites, electron microscope analysts. Clearly, there is a mountain of evidence that there were explosives (Thermite) involved, to the extent that pretty much any sample of dust or paint you can find, has microscopic bits of evidence pointing to thermite. But beyond that, fundamental physical FACTS, if presented in a logical way, certainly show that the planes were “red herrings”. They were there to create a huge distraction from the truth, which was that these buildings were demolished, in a controlled and well thought out manner. They fell because a team of people, over some period of time, planted explosives in those buildings (and maybe others) and detonated them when the planes hit the buildings…except building 7, which “collapsed” later. If you watch this documentary, you will see these buildings’ collapses in a way you haven’t seen before, think about it in a way you haven’t thought about it before. And as for building 7, well there’s a reason we didn’t see much about THAT in the news: There was no red herring, no jet flying into the building. There was just a blatant planned demolition! NIST actually stated that building 7 collapsed because of burning office furniture and interior structures. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Last time I checked, a fire like that doesn’t burn at 2700 degrees. And if it DID, no way the steel would melt, all of it, at exactly the same rate, allowing the building to free fall into its own footprint. Not possible. Work with me now: The parts of the building farthest away from the fires would fall intact, last. Didn’t happen.

What disturbs me most about this path to the truth for me is this: Most of the PhDs insinuate that there are TWO stories: 1) that we have been fed a line by our government that is NOT the truth; so therefore 2) the government must be the ones who did the deed. That’s hogwash. Wouldn’t you want to believe that these talking heads would at least entertain the POSSIBILITY that we WERE lied to, and that there is a DIFFERENT possibility? This is called “groupthink” folks, when one “good” idea is put forth and everyone jumps on that bandwagon, at the expense of the “best” idea, which is left unfound and unexamined. Happens all the time. And you can bet your booty that the government spin doctors know people have narrow lenses. They know people won’t THINK. Let this be a lesson to you: PhD’s don’t alway know everything. While you’re at it, remember this lesson: Don’t stop at the first idea. Keep digging. The best idea probably hasn’t been found yet.

Consider this: I believe that the government DID feed us a line of untruths, aided by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) and others, BECAUSE they knew we couldn’t handle the real truth. In my opinion, that’s why the powers that be were so quick to remove evidence before it could be thoroughly examined. Listen, there HAD to be HUNDREDS of experts who knew, beyond a SHADOW of a doubt, that those buildings were BLOWN UP. People HEARD the explosions. I can imagine some of the demolition experts hearing those sounds and RUNNING to phones. Running.

We can debate about what happened afterward all decade and never figure that out, but I believe that the ‘government’ decided Americans couldn’t handle the truth: That there are explosives experts who can come into downtown Manhattan and bring down your safe building in seconds, without you even knowing they were there. Then they can leave, and plan their next ‘event’. Wouldn’t that shake our world more than air travel? We think we’re safe because of all of these new procedures at airports. Yes, they are needed. But what about your workplace?

Perhaps the government used this story, the one about the planes dropping the buildings, as a reason for us to jump on board with war. Either way, countries that seek to destroy our nation, to kill us, need to be stopped. Do we fight back because of planes, or do we fight back because of explosive experts? War is war. Doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Americans now feel we have some level of control of our destiny, some amount of “safety” because we get patted down before we fly. Well, nobody’s patting down anybody in high rise buildings. And there goes, my friends, our safety. And maybe that is why (idea THREE) 1) the government lied to us; and 2) they were NOT involved.

Imagine that: Another possibility.

Remember that in 1993, there was an attempt to bring down the world trade center with explosives. Remember that? I called that “practice” when it happened. And I said, “You watch. They will get it right”. And they did. When nobody was looking, they did. I don’t have a PhD and I could see that coming. I said, “Give them 10 more years”. It took them 11. Again, no PhD.

We have been told that 19 Fundamentalist Muslims brought down the twin towers and building 7. I’m here to say that those 19 men were the red herrings, the ones sent to distract attention from the REAL terrorist teams, who got into three of the largest buildings in our country, planted explosives, and demolished those buildings in controlled explosions, dropping them in seconds, killing thousands, and terrorizing a nation. Imagine if you dare, how frightening THAT scenario is. And, if I’m right, they GOT AWAY WITH IT. Or did they?

In this documentary, there are lots of government experts, talking (on video in the aftermath of the event). Now, you get to listen to their line, compared to the science that has been done in the last 16 years, and compare them. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. And I cried. The “official” story about how materials behave in certain conditions was an outright fairy tale. You can’t change the laws of physics. And for the first time, these laws, and analyst experts about them, present their results. Irrefutable. AND they state the laws about which they pontificate. Just in case you were wondering. Great stuff.

I believe there actually was a “true” investigation. I believe our government knows the absolute truth about 9/11 and I think they knew it FAST. And when the PhDs say that Americans need to know the truth? I’m not so sure. Think about how frightening the truth is if I’m right…and I’d bet a big chunk of money that I am.

The majority of Americans don’t fly every day, but a majority DO go into big buildings every day, and imagine if any/every one of those buildings could drop within its footprint in less than 10 seconds. If you think about that, you will know why we don’t want our kids and grandkids thinking about that scenario. What we were given to think about, was enough.

I guess the gist of this blog is this: I make it my JOB to try to examine multiple facets. So I watch for groupthink. And I am furious when top of the tree experts get so narrowly focused that they miss the forest for the trees. Watch the documentary and don’t believe people when they say there are two stories. There are ALWAYS more. And not that it matters to anybody but me, but it took a LONG time for me to really look at the elephant in the room and THINK about it, with the aid of some fine experts and a great documentary.

It Isn’t JUST Target…

We’re hearing rumblings in the news about the problems Target is having with their company performance. Seems like they are circling the bowl. You can feel this angst when you go into their stores, which have fallen off the rails as their stock tumbles too. Once upon a time, Target stores were clean, employees were engaged and happy; it was a great place to shop. Now it’s like walking into the place where a fight just broke up. You can feel the difference. Then there’s Amazon, and disgruntled employees, helping to nail the coffin lid. In a way, there’s a bit of poetic justice happening here, because many of these department stores deserve what they are getting and most of their employees would agree.

First of all, employees, even supervisors, are paid embarrassing wages, but are pushed like pack mules to meet so-called “stretch” goals. Well, in the corporate world, stretch goals make sense, because they are within reach with the right resources and motivation; but these “stretch” goals in retail seem to be deliberately set at a level ridiculously impossible…impossible… to reach, largely because the people setting them don’t know how to manage effectively and don’t know what a stretch goal actually is. Instead they have one ‘public’ stretch goal and one wink wink goal that’s the REAL goal just for the managers, after the employees are jerked around and bullied when everyone knows the goal is not possible to reach. What you get as a result is a bunch of otherwise good employees who know their managers are full of it AND dishonest, and who give up. And after all, what IS the point? I have seem people pushed to tears to try to meet impossible goals, and I have seen employees torn apart because they needed surgery or had to be out for serious reasons. Terrible.

The idea of terrorizing your workforce into excellent performance only works in North Korea. In AMERICA, it’s not rocket science to understand that if you are going to pay a pittance and call it a wage, you need to make employees happy. In the words of Jack Welch, “Reward them early and often”. He also said you get RID of deadwood. You do that because it is BAD BUSINESS to hire slugs and pay them the same wage as the stallions who are making things happen. Duh. But retail stores do that all the time! They hang on to people who won’t work and make everyone else work harder. That’s one huge morale buster. And bad morale is NOT undetectable by shoppers.

Stores like Target need to HIRE better. I have heard it said a hundred times, “This was all we had to choose from”. Bull. If you don’t have good candidates, don’t hire anybody. KEEP LOOKING. Yes, the disgusting wage is the FIRST problem, but there are people who actually WANT to work looking for jobs. Hire them. If stores aren’t getting them in the applicant pool, fire the ad guys and hire some who can attract the kind of workers they need. This is not rocket science. And seriously, seven bucks an hour? What do they expect?

While we are taking about hiring, it’s a BAD idea to promote people into management because just they are young girls with long blonde hair. And it’s a BAD idea to force older employees out. Those are types of discrimination. Agism, among other types of discrimination, is against the law…and Target paid a LOT of money for discriminatory hiring and workforce practices, according the news. I have been amazed to see older employees at MY Target (where I rarely go), and by the way, that workforce now looks like ME…another ‘DUH” good idea. It is IMPERATIVE to have a diverse workforce! Get this: Young employees are not going to stick around. Don’t believe me? Do the stats if you even know how, managers. And they are particularly not going to stick around if they are bullied and terrorized, unless they are bullies. Young people typically use retail as a stepping stone to BETTER jobs. So if you want to keep your trained employees, how about this? Make them happy! Think different. Steve Jobs said that.

Making employees happy doesn’t mean giving them control of the store; it means figure out what would be a good reward and then distribute that reward FAIRLY, for actual great performance, NOT to favorite buddies. Retail is a lot like junior high school, really, and that needs to stop. It’s a serious business and it’s in trouble everywhere. Time to grow up.

Here’s an idea: HIRE MANAGERS who actually HAVE management training. I am not talking about somebody who hung in there long enough that it’s just time to promote them. Just because someone worked in the store for ten years does not make them worthy of a management position. And giving someone a management position just so they won’t get MAD is just plain stupid. I’ve witnessed bullying, harassment, temper tantrums, downright meanness, fear of discipling slugs who work harder AVOIDING work than actually working (and taking it out on the ones who do work). I’ve seen managers who are afraid of creative thinking, managers who are abusive to employees, managers who got the job because they were cute, or gosh, they’ve been here for twenty years so they MUST be a great manager. And then they get busted for stealing. No wonder they are in trouble. The successful businesses are run like businesses, not like junior high school.

I have watched “managers” make themselves sick over a “plan-o-gram” and completely miss the sales numbers which show that the “plan” isn’t working. Listen, it doesn’t do any good to impress a team of district ‘managers’ if the store is dying. A good looking corpse is still a corpse, and eventually, that corpse store starts giving up and just accepting death. That’s when you walk in, take a look around and just leave…and order online. I did that at Belk recently. It just wasn’t worth slogging through the disaster to find anything. I took one look around and left. I knew some “manager’s” head was getting fitted for the chopping block. Think about it. Costco is a warehouse and it’s booming. It’s not pretty, but by golly they are selling…and their employees are happy, the store is neat and clean, and you can’t find a place to park in the parking lot. Why? They pay a decent wage, they provide good benefits and they get GOOD people to work there. Clearly the most important thing his not which shirt hangs on the front rack. It’s amusing to see the failing stores break every management 101 rule and try to whip and bully employees into success. It is actually almost fun to watch.

Next: Retail will beat the crap out of you. You work HARD in retail if you are not a store manager. So, managers should try to be flexible with the schedule, since the store pays in PENNIES and in fact, time off might be a great reward. Find out what schedule people WANT to work and try to accommodate that. If you have some, ANY creativity, you could make that work. If it takes a manger a day to ‘do the schedule’, then there’s a PROBLEM with how schedules get done! NOT rocket science. TRY ANOTHER WAY. No, retail is a think in the tiny little box world and that is one reason they will fail.

Finally, employees should have the right to deck any manager who takes out his or her bad morning on the employees the minute they walk in the door. It seems to be acceptable…and I say it’s because these people have zip management training…to treat people worse than I’ve seen anyone treated. Workplace harassment is also against the law. Good to know, “managers”.

Target needs to raise their wage, diversify the workforce, make it possible for employees to give valid feedback about what’s happening out there…and listen. Do you think when they do their “surveys” and ask your age, gender and ethnicity, they don’t know exactly whom you are? Retail deliberately skew their “valued feedback” by subtle bullying in their supposedly anonymous, MANDATORY, surveys. If you are a ship captain, do you WANT to know if your ship is leaking, or do you want to be worshipped? Don’t answer that. I already know.

The only thing department stores have to do to survive is to make shoppers WANT to go to their store. Shoppers want to FEEL good when they go to the store; and make no mistake about it, unhappy workers change the FEELING. Pay them, get rid of bully managers, stop the rah rah sis boom bah meetings and treat employees with dignity and respect instead. Hire good workers; fire the slugs. Reward the good employees, and by the way, a nickel more an hour is NOT a reward; it’s an insult.

I shopped at Home Depot the other day, and a young man came to my line with a scanner and a stack of cards. He scanned my purchase item while the person ahead checked out, and by the time I got to the register, all the check out person had to do was scan my card. Meanwhile the POLITE young man was scanning the stuff of other shoppers in line and giving them cards. He was engaging, happy, actually treated the customers like he was happy to see us. Now that makes me want to go back. See? Simple.

Post Cord-Cutting

Remember when I told you I got Roku? Well I never even look at that now. It’s all antenna TV, Netflix and Amazon…and Netflix is close to the chopping block. We really are like a bunch of mules on the cart path you know. Somewhere along the line, cable companies convinced us that we NEEDED their TV services so they could gouge us financially. Well I’m here to tell you, the weaning process works. There are a lot of other, better things to do than watch cable TV…which equals COMMERCIALS!

I’ll tell you wha’t I’m enjoying on Netflix and Amazon: British tv. I’m getting to know some of the wonderful actors and even have some favorites that I hate waiting for the next season to post. Check it out. If you like Idris Alba, I found him a long time ago on Brit TV and fell in love with him as Luther.

Life without cable TV? EXCELLENT still.

The Amazing Antenna

Every once in a while I amuse myself. You guys know I cut the cord a while back, and that I’ve been learning to juggle the Roku box I got instead. Now I like Roku just fine and I can set it up to scroll through past news segments, but getting real-time news was a head scratcher. I found that I missed being able to watch live, local news on TV and I missed weather reports, particularly when we had a storm system bearing down on us.

So I got Sling TV. Not really impressed. I find that it’s not well organized for my taste, too cumbersom to navigate through, to me. I’m just not in love with it. I aim high. I’m not going to keep Sling TV because I got this great gadget called an antenna! It’s called SLIVR and it comes with a booster, which I am sure you need. Easy to hook up, good for receiving signals from within a 55 mile radius. RADIUS. That’s a long way. And, there’s an app (oh big surprise) for finding all of the broadcast towers WITHIN that 55 mile radius, so you know which way to aim the antenna. Well why not. And you can effect the channels you receive by which way you aim the antenna. Only one direction picks up QVC so guess which way I turn it.

Installation instructions looked too easy, which immediately made me suspicious because I didn’t need an allen wrench or washers or pegs, like most self-builds do. But it really was that easy. Boom! Local TV. Clear as a bell. AND…there’s a channel that broadcasts a TON of the really old shows, like Lariat, Wagon Train, Bewitched, F-Troop, a channel that’s all crime shows. Heaven, really. OH, and also weather and news, which was the whole point to begin with. I got mine hooked up just in time for “the great blizzard of 2017” (one inch ice/one inch snow). I know.

Now the ‘amusing’ part. I was telling someone how great this antenna is, and it’s FREE to watch these channels. I’m not even sure how many there are but it’s more than three. You get where I’m going with this. While I was talking about how I LOVE my antenna, I had to stop and laugh. Yeah, antenna, like EVERYONE used before the advent of cable, those wretched grinches. So yeah, antenna use is nothing new; it’s just coming around again. And of course I HIGHLY recommend it. Amusing, isn’t it, that we completely forgot about antennae, that there were free broadcasts out there? I feel like a mule on the cart path, really. I’ve been duped!

But now, I get to watch commercials again (nothing is perfect) and above all I get the Bosley Hair Replacement commercials. How did I live without THEM? If I hear “This is MY hair, I can wash this hair” one more time I’m going to scream. You guys know: I scream at my TV all the time. But NOW I scream at NO CHARGE. Life is good.

So I think the best combo is just Netflix, Amazon (apps on smart TVs) and an antenna. Boom. Drop the remote.

Cutting the Cord, tee hee hee

News is hitting the investment platforms, finally, admitting that cable is hemorrhaging customers and the stock is starting to roll down the hill. By this time next year they can post a counter. And I have to say I’m glad about it. I don’t own the stock, and wouldn’t on principle.

Some radio show hosts call cell phone customer service providers “customere no service”, but that really should apply to cable companies. Think about it. If you are brave enough or unfortunate enough to go TO the brick and mortar shop, you get to take a number and wait an hour, while six to eight employees take turns offering three service providers to the crowd. It would be nice if all eight of them would get it in gear, but until NOW, they haven’t had to. You and I know they are slow dancing in a burning room, but they still saunter around and enjoy building a frustrated backlog of trapped customers. This tells me the ‘customer servants’ can’t see the writing on the wall, or can’t read it, not sure which.

I felt SO GOOD the day I canceled my cable service, and while I was at it I fired their internet service too. Icing on the cake. Why? Oh. Glad you asked.

Once about 8 months ago I called to cancel cable because they were raping me on the cost AND they were charging that ridiculous amount to show me COMMERCIALS. When I called to fire them they asked, “So, why do you want to cancel your cable?”

I replied, “Because I am not going to pay to watch commercials.”

Now, I had some time and I knew they would do the shuffle to reel me back in, and I was curious how that would go. So, smiling, I went along for the ride. By the time she was finished, she had RAISED my already unacceptable bill by THIRTY DOLLARS. So I said, “Hmmm. Does that actually work with people who are calling to fire you?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

I said, “People want to cancel because the bill is too high, so you RAISE the cost and they actually agree? Does that really WORK?”

She got very quiet. Until she started typing again to try to make me happy watching commercials for a lower price. Well she gave me some free movie channels and lowered my bill, so I stayed a while. But when the free stuff ran out? The bill was AMAZINGLY high. In other words, they made up for free stuff in a big way…or thought they would. I am not stupid and neither, as it turns out, are more and more customers.

So I fired them.

Here’s the deal. Cable companies have raped their clients for years and they got away with that AND horrible customer service because they could. Then when Hulu, Netflix and Youtube came on the scene they thought they could stick it to us again by hiring FRIENDLY people to rape us. Once upon a time, that would have worked. But NOW…we have other options. Lots of them.

So cable is one market segment, the demise of which I plan to watch while I kick back, prop up my feet, pour a glass of red wine and celebrate. I’ll be smiling, thinking about the jerks sweating bullets and scrambling to make it…you know, like we CUSTOMERS have done for years. Only, I could turn in my cable equipment; they can’t turn in their mansions.

Good riddance cable. Won’t miss you at all. Oh and you other guys? The replacements? Learn something. Because some of us have gotten used to no TV at ALL much of the time. Tick tock.

Real Estate and Millennials

I just read an article that says it’s hard to get ‘Millennials’ into the DIY stores these days, but hope springs eternal as the older ones in the cohort are reaching the median age for home buying. That’s a mouthful. It’s true that they are aging like the rest of us, and it gives me something else to watch swirl around the drain as the marketing folks miss the mark again.

Millennials are buying new homes much of the time, not old homes that need work, and their DIY days are way ahead of them. I’ve watched business after business change their paradigm to cater to Millennials and fail miserably at it. Why? They don’t have a clue. They read the articles that say Millennials are at shopping age OMG! Well heads up people. Millennials don’t shop. They save, they pay student loan debt and they are not baby boomers who live beyond their means.

The impending focus by the big box DIY stores toward Millennials is just another example of how people get on the cart path, so to speak, trying to change things to satisfy the media hype, rather than paying attention to their clientele. Look around you in the DIY stores. There are no DJs or Wifi boutique areas. It’s a big old tool and garden shop. It smells like plywood and there’s always an aisle full of guys on their knees searching through the bin for that perfect screw or bolt. Which still makes me go hmmmm. And I don’t see any Millennials! Not one! Could you envision one of them being interested in the LEAST about that perfect bolt? Not unless you hide a cell phone in the bin as a prize.

It would benefit these businesses to look at JC Penney, for example, who tried to change everything to cater to the young people. Look at their stock price real quickly. I’ll wait. See? Disaster. When JC Penney shut out their foundation clientele you could hear the toilet flushing their income stream. It’s the older generation who are the bread and butter, the ones who made these stores ‘big box’ to start with. They can change things around to be ready for Millennials to arrive, and they can listen to crickets chirping…you know like JC Penney did.

For DIY stores, it’s a bad idea to negate the needs of the foundational clientele, because they are older folks (and I mean over thirty) who have kids who need a nice yard in which to play, kids who make you need to paint, grandkids who break things and flush things that shouldn’t be flushed. And Millennials don’t have kids or are just getting started and they don’t need yards. But all of that aside, the Millennials are not shoppers. Not yet. Electronics? Yes. But that’s about it for now.

They are not ready for big box DIY. They couldn’t care less about planting a flower bed and if they do, chances are it will be neglected and die because…they have other things to do! Fun things! They go to their friends’ weddings, or their wedding. They go clubbing, they go biking and hiking, they date. Or they get ready to date, or they start a family. It’s that time of their lives. DIY and flower beds are way out there on the radar, if at all.

Some of my all time favorite clients are Millennials. They exhibit true partnership in choosing a home and defining a price range. They never want to max out their purchase power; rather, they stay conservative and realize that they also want to continue to play, or think about starting a family. They don’t need a palace to start with. Don’t get me wrong, they want a nice home, but they are smart about it. They plan to HIRE people to fix things because they are on their computers and iPads and iPhones…or Samsung Galaxies. Millennials budget in repair people! They do not plan to be one.

Oh I know they WILL be one, but they don’t know that yet.

Millennials are tech savvy, not circular saw savvy. They are VERY okay with electronic interaction, including documentation…which is my absolute preference…and they are fun. They also have a true partnership. They think about things together, each has input, and I swear, one person NEVER makes the decision without looking at the other and saying, “What do you think?” And…you might find a Millennial doing some DIY but it’s usually because his father is helping him and Dad is the one shopping for plywood. Young son has researched the issue online so he knows what’s going on, but it’s DAD who is doing the work. Trust me.

On the flip side: There are some Millennials who buy fixer-uppers, but its to save money. And when something breaks, they freak out. They don’t run to the DIY center; they call Dad or somebody they know “who does this stuff”…usually NOT a Millennial. True! Usually a parent or older friend with kids and a big truck and lots of bills who does this work to make extra money…not a Millennial paradigm at all.

And another thing: Better to start catering to women in these places because the Millennial women are strong and smart and engaged. They will be one half of all buying decisions about those nuts and bolts when the time comes. That’s the cohort behavior. A great idea would be to look at how many women are already shopping there and cater to them. Right now. The Millennials will be there in 15 years but if you look around, you will see a lot of women in these places right now…but you won’t see them at the bolt bin. To us a bolt is a bolt.

I know, men think all casserole dishes are the same too.

Fallen Leaves

There is an Asian philosophy which encourages reflection on serenity, the deeper meaning of life, even the beauty of its passing. This sort of reflection certainly appeals most strongly to left brain dominant introverts, the ones who live inside our own minds and who seek a deeper meaning in the people and events that swirl around us in chaos. We don’t have a choice in the matter; it’s how we’re wired. I’m not sure whether its a blessing or something else, but it’s never dull nor shallow.

I study things, people, events, because that’s unquestionably more interesting than gossip or television shows or parties. I would rather think about where lightening originates and what was the fuel for the “big bang” if there was no universe to provide fuel, or what makes a person behave in certain ways, than waste brain time on trivia. Obviously I’m not usually the life of the party and that’s okay. There is a world of unanswerable questions and beautiful conundrums to contemplate, and challenges which can never be bested…at least not in this lifetime, or dimension. You choose.

I buried my mother last week. You can’t prepare for that, even if you understand the course ahead of you, even if you know the suffering will end, even if your mother is tired and ready to go. You can’t prepare. But if you slow down and think, you realize there is beauty in the end of life which may be more spectacular than its beginning or even the rises and falls within it. There is no question that suffering is the worst image of humanity we ever see, particularly when it is a loved one who suffers, but when the bond between the physical world is released to that of the spiritual one, there is a peacefulness and beauty not seen at any other time in life in my observation. And I think it is beautiful because leaving the place where, upon entry you immediately begin to die, to a place where your sprit is released from physical degradation to unity with the universe, is unimaginably exciting. That’s part of it.

I have been at the bedside of several loved ones and good friends as they passed on to the next dimension. There is great honor to be able to stand beside someone you love as they leave, to witness their going, to stand guard for them, as it were. It is frightening to contemplate ending until you realize that the spirit does not end; it goes somewhere else but it does not end. It is the greatest contradiction of which I know, to feel such pain and confusion and beauty simultaneously. And yet, there it is, every time.

As my first grandchild was born, I held my daughter’s hand and for a split second I was in the past as my child was born, and in the present as her child was born. It was as though for some segment of a second, I was not in my body, but elsewhere, observing the passing of time from a distance and obviously not sequentially. It was past and present at once. As my mother passed, I was pulled all the way back to early childhood, feeling the panic I felt as a little girl when my mommy walked away from me, and yet I was an adult mourning my loss now. These events remind me that we live within our reality, but not necessarily THE reality. There is a perspective we simply cannot see clearly from our point of reference.

I am reading a book about people who experienced death, called “near death”, but I disagree. It’s death. It’s brief, not permanent death, but it is death. In any case, without fail these people describe time as being nothing like what we experience in life. I know. I get that. I’ve felt a hint of it three times now. And there’s another extended time ahead of me. Nobody gets out alive.

I try to feel better about never being able to see my mother’s face again, or touch her, or hear her voice in conversation. I know I will never stop missing her. I can say that falling leaves of Fall are never so beautiful as they cling to the tree throughout Spring and Summer. I can say that there is great beauty in the fallen leaf as it wafts to the ground, coming to rest atop other fallen leaves waiting to decompose and contribute to the circle of life. I can try to convince myself to feel okay about death being a part of life. It doesn’t work. Pain is what I feel. I grieve. And yet, great grief is a sign of great love. There is love in grief and beauty in the fallen leaf.

The Dumbing Down of Entertainment

Shock value has become the simple minded avenue through which writers attempt to nab viewers. Perhaps the “shock” paradigm is working because there are few other choices and so few engaged viewers; but I think it’s a flashing neon sign that creativity is dead and intelligent thought is a dead activity. I believe people are becoming less ABLE to think, because nobody really has to anymore. Everyone wins, everybody gets to retake tests until they “pass”, everybody’s entitled, the fun thing is to pull one over on the world and put an unqualified body in a position of power and importance, and if you can read it online somehow that qualifies you as an expert. Faking it and lying have become art, an aspiration. What happened to America? Even a college degree has become unimportant and therefore a useless waste of time because universities are giving them away for financial benefits. So now? BS degree? No big deal. My dog has one.

By the way, a REAL college experience develops creativity and by “real” I mean one where you actually work and lean something. We might be on to something here.

Some of my saddest moments are when I look around at the sheer laziness of people, and some of my most frightened ones are when I see creativity either dying or being killed, before my eyes. People are lazier and dumber by the year, and it seems to be okay, because dumb is a whole lot easier than smart and inquisitive and engaged. But it is also far less rewarding, and unfortunately these unengaged lazies are the ones making rules and running the show. I want a renaissance! I want an end to entitlements and I miss intelligent, engaged people! I miss original thinking, creativity, NEW ideas.

I know I am not the only one who has noticed “remakes” ad nauseam, to the point where we are thrust back in time to think about what led up to the great story someone ELSE once wrote. And I am tired of the practice of ‘sampling’ of others artists’ works because musicians have no talent to create their own good body of work. Forget great; I’ve given up on great. But “sampling” used to be called plagiarism and was not only frowned upon, but also was illegal. EVEN if you gave credit to the person from whom you ‘borrowed’ ideas. Commercials, also known as television, are reduced to using sex and violence as the draws. Why? Because it takes no ingenuity nor creativity to know that men respond to sex and violence. You’ve heard it: Sex sells. And it does, because that’s the norm now. It’s what we teach our children is most important. You know, base animal behavior. That’ll get you a great job. Be an animal.

There’s nothing wrong with sex, but you don’t put man on Mars by watching sexy commercials or porn. You do that by physics, chemistry, action, fitness, bravery, ingenuity and plain old hard work! OH, and lets not forget competition! That’s a dirty word unless you’re talking sports. By the way sports was one way dictators controlled the masses, did you know that? Think gladiators. And now think about how important the NFL has become. We are lemmings.

And don’t tell me there’s nothing new under the sun; there’s new, we are just too lazy and uncreative to search for it.

We used to exist in what we were told was the golden age of television, and perhaps it once was. We saw the birth and development of talk shows with substance, news shows that were truly balanced, and television shows that made you think at least a little bit, about life and circumstances. We saw shows that made you laugh, about real life, not some twisted idea to garner ratings. I recall watching talk shows with political themes where the commentator was almost invisible in the grand scheme, because he (yes usually he) intended the spotlight to be on the guests. Now, the commentator has to be the STAR, and their political views are thought to be somehow more important than anyone else because they have the microphone. But lets face it; reading a teleprompter or a stack of notes does not make you smarter than I, nor entitled to make up MY mind about what’s happening in the world. I need you to stand down and let me listen to the people who may or may not be qualified to make laws by which I will be required to live.

Do you remember Firing Line with William F. Buckley? He was the person who really started the whole idea of political talk shows. His show was truly a show for intellectuals, but what he did was provide a platform for ALL of the views. Everyone came prepared to state his position and to defend it, in a civilized manner, and everyone expected to be treated with dignity because anything else was unheard of. It was the audience who made up their minds, not some commentator doing it for them. Now, if you want to watch politics, you choose the one that repeats back to you what you want to hear, which adds NO intellectual value at all, and you nod and drool at the oracle commentator who thinks just like you! Nobody wants to entertain the other views or God forbid actually give them a platform, because it has become all about emotion. No brains needed. Dumbed down. Next they’ll just sing it to us as they serve alcohol or drugs.

Lately we see commercials with peoples’ heads exploding, or cannibal cereal bites. Are you kidding me? Do we have ten year old boys writing this stuff? It’s not cute; it’s not amusing; it’s subliminal violence and it’s a red flag, waving frantically, that the creators are unintelligent and uncreative and juvenile, and WE, the consumers are idiots for watching this mess. I don’t. I turn it off. And I wonder where the creative ones are.

And while we are on the subject of turning it off, let’s talk about TV again. I called the cable provider to fire them, and of course they asked me why. I told them I was tired of paying for advertisements. I don’t CARE about what this medication or that medication does, and no I won’t ask my doctor to prescribe it because I also hear the side effects in those ads…which the pharmaceutical companies are trying to make go away, by the way. So far their efforts haven’t worked because there are still some intelligent people out there. But watch. Pretty soon they will disappear from the ads. Why? Because the masses have become so lazy and dumb, so enamored by drugs, that they would rather memorize the ACTUAL names of the plethora of drugs in their cabinet, than get an education and see that these drugs CAUSE most of what ails us these days. Bottom line? Most people clearly don’t mind a continuous stream of advertisements AND don’t mind paying big bucks for them. I’m shaking my head. Where is the substantive content? No longer on TV.

All I’m saying is that I lived in the world where innovation was natural, where great ideas bloomed every day. I lived in the world where people used their imagination and intelligence and enjoyed it. I lived in the world where competition was fostered and where it fomented even greater ideas as a result. I didn’t live in the world where everyone ran around with a bloodsucker raised, frantic to insert it, at any cost, into a host.

Sanders keeps citing Scandinavia as the blueprint for a utopian America, but what he fails to report, or fess up as it were, is that these countries are stumbling under the weight of all of the bloodsuckers weakening the host, and under the weight of the demise of work ethic, which made these countries great to begin with. So their recoveries happened when they adopted more “right leaning” policies…in other words to scrap the entitlements and send the bloodsuckers elsewhere, stop paying people to NOT work. Reward innovation, creativity, a desire to become better!

There’s no such thing as utopia. Instead there’s steady decline as the host dies, unless people get busy and start using their god-given brains. I barely tolerate lazy, and I rage against extortion. But mostly I feel sad at how dumb and lazy we have become, and I know I might see the day that this behavior causes this country to fall. In the meantime, I watch documentaries on Amazon. At least there’s usually some good information there.

What it boils down to is this: The entertainment we are served is a recipe for the environment in which we live. What I’m seeing makes me very sad, because I have seen the “golden age” and this? Nothing like it.

Checking in

Hi folks. I haven’t written much lately. You know, you go through times when you think you don’t have anything to say anyway…at least I do. And then there are times when I do have something to say but I’m an introvert, so I don’t find it necessary to make noise come out of my head all of the time. Anyway, it’s hard to know where to start these days, with everything going on in the world to which we have access. And then there’s the media slant.

I’m loving the pictures of Donald Trump, for example. ALL photographs depict him with his face scrunched up or have him looking REAL mean…which I LOVE. Makes me laugh out loud. Point is, liberal media will not ever publish a good photo of him because, well, they despise him.

But you know, the smooth-brains won’t get the subliminal nuances and will just think he’s mean. CLEARLY there’s more to him than meanness, but back to the smooth-brains. I am smart enough to see the manipulations and actually get a kick out of them. But it frightens me to think that this stuff actually influences my future. I’m watching the candidates with an eye to who is pulling their strings, funding their OWN agendas, mastering the puppets. Now that’s scary.

I have to laugh at what I imagine to be the Politically Correct knee-jerk reactions to Trump’s outlandish rhetoric. Point is, it’s just enjoyable to hear somebody who isn’t answering to someone’s wallet, somebody with audacity and somebody who says exactly what we say when we are not on stage…well not always, but you get my drift. Translation: I despise political correctness.

I read a lot of news online and see accompanying photographs, and I can’t help but notice how much of the time my back-of-the-mind-cut is, “I wonder how much of this I can believe?” Now that’s a shame. I can’t look at a single photograph without wondering whether or not it’s been photoshopped.

Ah, I remember the good old days (violins please) when a newspaper was a NEWS paper. It had the news, just that. And it was a big paper, not a placemat sized junk publication with mostly ads and the rest so slanted you couldn’t rest a round object on it. We could trust that the media were sure their facts were accurate and what they published was true. Now, I fish out the crossword puzzle and chuck the rest. Wish they wouldn’t drop it on my lawn anyway; I don’t pay for it. But hey, free crossword puzzle.

But printed news isn’t news anymore like it used to be. Hmmm, I wonder how much of that was really true.

SEE WHAT I MEAN? Check you later.

brendabriggsrealtor

Welcome to my world!

Category Archives: What’s on my mind…