Quining

i've been reading "Godel, Escher, Bach: an eternal golden braid" by Douglas Hofstadter for the past few months. This is not a book you read in a hurry. i like to read a piece at a time maybe a whole chapter so the full aspects can be digested.

A few days ago i finished reading a piece between the Tortoise and Achilles called Air on G's String. The Tortoise and Achilles interact usually following more theoretical parts of the book and have Escher paintings and Bach fugues thrown in to clear up confusion.

In this conversation between Achilles and Tortoise they discuss how peculiar a phrase can be when it talks about itself. Achilles talks about his head spinning and what kind of a lunatic mind would torment innocent people during the night by leaving a quined phrase on his answering machine. He repeats the phrase to Tortoise which i'll reproduce here but unless you've read the book it won't make much sense.

"YIELDS FALSEHOOD WHEN PRECEDED BY ITS QUOTATION"
YIELDS FALSEHOOD WHEN PRECEDED BY ITS QUOTATION.

This is only really significant to me and later to you because last night i couldn't sleep. All night long the Beatles song Blackbird was running through my mind. i tried to OM, i got up and tried to read, i got a glass of water, i tried everything but i couldn't get it to stop playing. So this morning i decided it was important, that i needed to pay attention in keeping with my philosophy not to ignore things.

i went to look up more information on McCartney. According to my research, McCartney has credited Bach with the inspiration for the music to Blackbird. "Hmmmmm Bach?" Thinks i, some may not realize it but throughout the song every single chord contains a G. "Air on G's String?" Thinks i.
So i go re-read the Tortoise and Achilles piece.

Its interesting that this song played over and over in my mind last night because it had to do with civil rights. i went to look up some more and found that McCartney had just recently sang this song to crowds at the Coachella Music Festival the end of April. He made mention of its history and said today, 40 years later, many of the negative civil rights issues had been addressed positively. The lyrics are timeless and i repeat them here in hopes that our human rights issues are addressed positively as well.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly, blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Oh you were only waiting for this moment to arise
Oh you were only waiting for this moment to be free

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXIx1nhF7rU

i bring this all up because in many ways we as a nation are quining. We make reference to ourselves but the mirror isn't always that which is reflected back. We use phrases that talk about ourselves as a nation but they don't reflect much truth.

We analyze the statement, we investigate it to find its truth but then some of us find it is synthetic.

"WE DON'T TORTURE"
WE DON'T TORTURE.
is a quinned statement my government uses. They use it in a synthetic manner, i use it analytically understanding it not to be true.......who is correct?

Petraeus and Colin Powell are finally free of those who were taking this country towards a future where our talk and our actions were diametrically opposed. This weekend in an appearance on Radio Free Europe Petraeus said that President Obama's decision to close down Guantanamo and end harsh interrogation techniques(which he has testified against and helped write guidelines that are in keeping with our agreements under the Geneva Conventions) would benefit the United States in the broader war on terror. Powell said, on Face The Nation "We're doing it(closing Guantanamo) to reassure Europeans, Muslims, Arabs, all the people around the world that we are a nation of law.

Again, we as a nation are learning to see, like the McCartney song says "learn to see". The blinders are coming off and we are working towards healing that which ails us. Let us hope we don't decide to quine instead.

When all humans are considered humans and proceed to due process under our laws and all pain inflicted is recognized for what it is...only then will we be a nation whose words and deeds mesh.

"WE DON'T TORTURE"
WE DON'T TORTURE.

Fearful citizens

Captured detainees rights is a grave issue for the likes of fearful citizens.

Why?

These captured detainees would have all kinds of legal rights unavailable in an offshore prison claims these fearful citizens.

My question is why wasn't the US just as afraid of Timothy McVeigh our own home grown terrorist who blew up the building in Oklahoma? We were able to jail him, try him and even kill him without anyone fearing his escape.

What is wrong with us that we fall for this line of propaganda that the "terrorists" are incapable of being held in our prisons. That they are more dangerous than our own home grown terrorists. That we have to shiver in our homes worried that they are "going to get us when they might escape." Have we become a bunch of "sissies" afraid of our own shadows.

But more than that what gives us the right to proclaim them "guilty" before they have had a chance to defend themselves.

Close Guantanamo, bring them here and prosecute them properly like the civilized nation we proclaim ourselves to be but certainly aren't acting like.

health is not for profit

Passion Fruit Vine

"Bureaucracy" is a dirty word in today's health care discussion. "Government" another dirty word is perceived as a dysfunctional entity by many in the US.

But is it?

In the past i published a piece that outlined all the services government did well. Building and maintaining the interstate highway system for instance, Clean Water and Clean Air Dept. including sewage treatment plants. Our air and water is significantly cleaner than it was in the 60's and could be much better. Workplace safety cutting accidents and death by 40% since inception. The National Weather Service which alerts all of us including planes and ships to inclement weather. Food and Drug Safety and Science research. Did you know government pays for 80% of the basic science research in this country?

This list could go on much further. Other clearly effective programs and policies would include our National Parks, the Voting Rights Act, Social Security and Medicare, Rural Electrification, AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Cooperative Extension Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Crime Information Center, and of course all the Military. Again, these are just the accomplishments of government on the federal level – they don't count the thousands of other successful public sector endeavors on the state and local level.

Terminology is constantly used to refocus you away from things that could benefit you.

Government is bad remember that.

When you hear the word government....think "bad".

Programming your thinking is complete when you always think government is "bad" and doesn't function. When the programming is successful you are permanently entrenched in "bad" even though all over the country government is functioning more successfully than not.

Insurance companies are claiming that working with them to modify the health care land scape will save trillions over ten years but is this accurate? They say they will slow the rise of health care costs by one and half percent per year over the next ten years. They then go on to estimate a savings total of 2 trillion over ten years.

Please note that they say nothing of cutting costs. They are counting on their clever wording to disguise that what they are really offering is to merely decrease the rate of increase. They will still be making profits off your illness.

At that rate, in ten years we will be spending $2.5 trillion dollars on health care rather than the already outrageous $1.5 trillion we spend now. Assume their estimate of a 6.2% rise in costs each year and do the math. It is an offer without substance. The sick remain a vehicle for profit.

The players in this industry have for too long exploited us. Now is the time to return health care to the caring and end the industrialization by insurance companies.



The anti-trust laws need to be changed so doctors and hospitals are unshackled.

The argument goes that insurance companies take risks by insuring you. They pool the money just as a National Health Insurance Program would pool money. There is no difference except the profit motive is removed if we opt in to a public program. You are told your taxes will increase and yes that will happen. But the increase in taxes will be less than the premium you pay for insurance and those pre-existing conditions will now be covered.

Here is one proposal for a national health plan, i'm not necessarily endorsing it but at least it is there for the public to review. It covers everything and more than my insurance plan...how about yours?
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-703

Do Republicans have detailed plans to improve our health care access and coverage and could you send it to me to review?

Health Care is not a Human Right

The experience i had last month dealing with the medical community has reaffirmed my strong belief that all human beings, whether rich or poor, should never be denied medical attention because they lack health insurance. Claiming that emergency rooms will take anyone is not true.

Researching Universal Health Care has been enlightening and rather than write about what i've found i've decided to just out and out copy it verbatim. i didn't write any of what follows and most of it doesn't address how Universal Health Care would actually work here...that will come in another post. Unfortunately, i failed to compile the authors names as i was collecting quotes originally thinking i would write my own. So the blue writing is mine and the black belongs to others but i've lost track of who they are.

Health Care is not a Human Right? Some believe this. i don't.

Have you asked yourself if our Health Care System reflects our American values? Are we a nation that doesn't believe in cooperation, that we only believe in the rights of the individual not of the community?

Is it the right of the Insurance Industry to deny us Health Care, is that a Human Right?

The fact is that health insurance corporations don't provide health care at all and yet they make enormous profits from a system that exists to provide health care.

Health Insurance Corporations profits increase when people don't get health care. That is the bottom line. The more care they deny, the more procedures they refuse to pay for the more they profit at your expense.

They provide no health care and they profit most when Americans pay for health insurance but can't get access to health care.

The health insurance industry can never engage in constructive negotiations on this issue because all they're doing is negotiating how much profit they're going to continue to bleed out of our health care system.

We look like our values put an emphasis on unbridled greed when it comes to health care.

Keep that in mind as you continue to read.

The fact is that thousands of people in America are dying every year because they can't get health care and this means nothing. The fact that over 1 million Americans go into bankruptcy every year due to medical debt — even though most of them had insurance when they got sick — means nothing.

1. Corporate health-insurance companies don't provide health care.

2. Corporate health-insurance companies draw an enormous amount of money out of the health care system as profits while increasing the paperwork costs of managing health-care.

3. Corporate health-insurance companies make the most profits when people pay for insurance but can't get access to health care.

4. Corporate junk health-insurance has caused a lot of health-insurance holders a lot of headache, heartache, and agony by denying them the access to health care they thought they were paying for when they signed up for the insurance.

The facts are clear.

1. The US system is a failure. European national health systems work. They provide 100% coverage. They cost 10% of GDP vs. US 16% of GDP and they get better health care results, we are not number 1 in health care results. Profits are.

2. The US system is killing the US economy, costing it $800B a year, 6% of GDP. GM, Ford and Chrysler and many other US businesses are in trouble because the cost of US health care makes them non-competitive.

3. Viable plans such as those proposed by Physicians for National Health Plan and "Medicare for All" provide the detailed policy framework for moving US to a competitive effective health care system where we all pay in and where we all get access.

We live in a country where average working people are one health-care crisis away from disaster.

Health crisis is the 2nd leading cause of bankrupcy in the US.

We live in a country where people with chronic illnesses are thrown away because employers cannot afford to keep covering them.

We live in a country where small-business people are shackled by the health-insurance costs of their employees.

I could go on and on. But I'll sum it up with this:

Aren't you tired of living in a country with an irrational health-care system that is based on a parasitic industry glutting itself on the illness and misfortune of others.

Should money that is spent for health care go into profits, stocks, venture capital firms etc or back into health care?

Our system is one of fear and money not health care.

We experience unnecessary medical care because of a fear of liability which drives up costs. Every extra unnecessary procedure makes money. The push for profits by hospitals and insurance companies imposes the profit motive on their employees(Doctors and Nurses)instead of good health care.

In 2005 the top pharma companies together had $222 Billion in sales out of that $32 Billion was spent on Research and Development and $71 Billion in Marketing and Administration. The argument that the high price of drugs is related to research and development is a false one. The high price of drugs is related to Marketing, Administration and obsene profits($39 Billion) or 16% when Fortune 500 companies are averaging 5%.

Some claim that Universal Health Care will ration care. Isn't it obvious that we already have rationing by insurance companies?

Some claim its socialized medicine. So what, our Veterans get socialized health care and for the most part they like it. Our seniors get socialized health care and for the most part they like it too. No system is perfect but taking the greed out of health care might finally make the US number 1 in the world.

If congress people get gold-plated coverage, and the waitress who lives next door has to put a begging can at the convenience store (because she has breast cancer but no insurance and minimum wages)... well, can you understand why I've had it with the bloated defense budget and the bailed out banks and the profit-seeking middleman called "health care companies.""

"Those begging cans common all over the country, strike me as more obscene than anything you could get at an adult bookstore."

Maybe it is time you should ask what the insurance companies are doing at the table during this discussion concerning revamping Health Care Access?
Check out this link:
http://www.ourailinghealthcare.com/

century plant inspiration

The century plant continues to inspire me. Here we are nine months since it sprouted out with the big "C". It has reached for the sky, been knocked down, didn't give up, sent out new shoots, blossomed with beautiful flowers that then turned into tiny plants. It folded up into itself protecting its new growth. It got quiet and reserved gaining strength waiting for the next step.

i look at it every day and today i'm inventing a new world...goofed on that word...meant to write i'm inventing a new word....but both would be nice. The new word for today is for spirituality, connectedness, and the divine..... without the dogma of religion.

Hmmmm!

Thinking about the composition of the three words above, spirituality, connectedness and divine, i decided to take a bit from each to create the new word.

Spirconvine (spir'kon-vin). n.v.t. 1. this word represents spirituality, connectedness, the divine and much more.

Spir......... is that little sprite that jumps around in your brain refocusing your energies towards the spiritual when the mundane and difficult have all but destroyed your day. We all have spir but we call it different things. Spiritual essence sometimes fits the bill and while others may prefer to call it soul, i like to think of it as a little sprite that refocuses me. Spir activates the emotional, feeling, compassionate part of your humanness. It helps you grow away from fear and can guide you to greater things.


The con in the middle of this new word could be regarded as negative even though it represents the terms with or together with. Con, in this sense, is involved when the secrets are revealed.....you know.....con artists who try to misdirect you...the con has already happened but now you are faced with the con which you use to correct and reconnect. This definition of con is the end point that brings you back together it is your source of strength and inspiration. The stuff in the middle you need. The concon to make you think when you go off track that the path back is really not so difficult. Right?


vine represents the ascent to the divine. Vines climb and intertwine but use other supports for growth. Some vines climb alone while others grow over other plants to reach their pinnacle. Mankind exhibits the same growth pattern vines do. Vines can colonize and adapt quickly while continuing to grow. Simple structures, such as vines, can get you to the divine without dogma to impede your progress. Vines don't invest a lot of energy trying to reach the sun so it shouldn't take much energy for man to reach the divine but historically it has. Instead of making this task difficult the vine makes it easy.

The spir con and vine go together. Use your inner sprite, your ability to recognize the cons so you can connect and cultivate that vine.

Remember, spirconvine is a simple tactic that works without a lot of fuss.