Awake

-Are you a God?
- they asked the Buddha.
- No.
- Are you an angel, then?
- No.
- A saint?
- No.
- Then what are you?
-
I am AWAKE.



Einstein

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure of
the universe"-Albert Einstein-


Om Mani Padme Hum

Matthew 25:40

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 7 1-6


1. Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
6. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Update on Mini-Stroke??? Ear Infection??? More Latest Info on the Diabeties That I've Also Been Told I Have

Been a diabetic for a bit over 2 months now, since they told me on May 20th. I'll tell you what that scared me. It runs in the family, on both sides so I probably shouldn't have been surprised, but I was.  I gave up a 35 or 40 year habit of drinking soda, first RC and for the last 20 years or so Pepsi, that day. Well I did have a couple glasses the next day, but then I tested my sugar level with the meter they gave me, and haven't had any since. I actually have about 8 two liter bottles sitting here, untouched, and untouched, by me, they'll remain.  Within a week or so, I started taking Bitter Mellon, an herb from India, China and other parts of Asia, that is considered, a plant insulin, a viable and effective herbal treatment for type 2 diabeties. I'm on my fourth bottle of bitter melon now. My blood sugar has come down, to a consistent 150 or less, my lowest reading of 128 was on 7/15 and second lowest of 134 on 7/22. This tells me that the bitter melon is working, of course in conjuction with giving up Pepsi, and limiting sugar and salt. But you can read all about that in my last post on this subject.
What's new is when I was researching bitter melon, I also found out about another herb, called Black Seed or Nigella Sativa. It also is very well known throughout the world. Even the prophet Mohammed mentioned it as being able to cure anything except death. Among other ailments it's good for diabeties too. I looked for it locally and was unable to find it in any health food stores. So I just ordered 3 bottles on line. It'll be interesting to see what the two working together can do.

Lee Murray

Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking. Here Are the Stats to Prove it Article from The Business Insider, via Yahoo Financial


Here is an eyeopener that showed up on my homepage from Yahoo Finance...YAHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!  Unfortunately this is not something that surprises me, because my friend Bill,  Morongobill's Backporch, has been talking about it seemingly forever. But it may be new to those of you who read this. As I've told him, while I don't doubt the truth of what he says, and articles like this, I find it difficult to accept because this is not what I want to see.  I would be willing to bet that the majority of people feel exactly the same way. I've said for years, half-kidding, that if you ignore something long enough eventually it will go away.  Truthfully, much of the time, that works. But, as Bill, and articles like this say, much as we'd all like things to go back to normal, which I guess would be when we were as strong economically as we allegedly are militarily, when we actually produced things instead of just consuming them, it's not going to happen. At least not until we get our collective heads out of our collective asses, and...well, never mind, I think it's too late... The USA is on a fast downhill slide to third world status, and as a nation we've been living on our credit cards too long.   
The Middle Class in America Is Radically Shrinking. Here Are the Stats to Prove it



Posted Jul 15, 2010 02:25pm EDT by Michael Snyder in Recession

From The Business Insider


Editor's note: Michael Snyder is editor of theeconomiccollapseblog.com    The Economic Collapse


The 22 statistics detailed here prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence in America.
The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.
So why are we witnessing such fundamental changes? Well, the globalism and "free trade" that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects. It turns out that they didn't tell us that the "global economy" would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough.
Here are the statistics to prove it:
• 83 percent of all U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1 percent of the people.
• 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
• A staggering 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved up for retirement.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
• In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
• As of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
• The bottom 50 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did just 15 years ago.
• In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
• More than 40 percent of Americans who actually are employed are now working in service jobs, which are often very low paying.
• or the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
• This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
• Approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
• Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the United States rose a whopping 16 percent to 7.8 million in 2009.
• The top 10 percent of Americans now earn around 50 percent of our national income.


Giant Sucking Sound
The reality is that no matter how smart, how strong, how educated or how hard working American workers are, they just cannot compete with people who are desperate to put in 10 to 12 hour days at less than a dollar an hour on the other side of the world. After all, what corporation in their right mind is going to pay an American worker 10 times more (plus benefits) to do the same job? The world is fundamentally changing. Wealth and power are rapidly becoming concentrated at the top and the big global corporations are making massive amounts of money. Meanwhile, the American middle class is being systematically wiped out of existence as U.S. workers are slowly being merged into the new "global" labor pool.
What do most Americans have to offer in the marketplace other than their labor? Not much. The truth is that most Americans are absolutely dependent on someone else giving them a job. But today, U.S. workers are "less attractive" than ever. Compared to the rest of the world, American workers are extremely expensive, and the government keeps passing more rules and regulations seemingly on a monthly basis that makes it even more difficult to conduct business in the United States.
So corporations are moving operations out of the U.S. at breathtaking speed. Since the U.S. government does not penalize them for doing so, there really is no incentive for them to stay.
What has developed is a situation where the people at the top are doing quite well, while most Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to make it. There are now about six unemployed Americans for every new job opening in the United States, and the number of "chronically unemployed" is absolutely soaring. There simply are not nearly enough jobs for everyone.
Many of those who are able to get jobs are finding that they are making less money than they used to. In fact, an increasingly large percentage of Americans are working at low wage retail and service jobs.
But you can't raise a family on what you make flipping burgers at McDonald's or on what you bring in from greeting customers down at the local Wal-Mart.
The truth is that the middle class in America is dying -- and once it is gone it will be incredibly difficult to rebuild.

Lee Murray

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Jaguar XJS (from Wikipedia)

Below you'll find an informative article from Wikipedia about the Jaguar XJS.  As an owner of one let me first tell you about it first hand. The XJS was my fourth Jaguar, my first was a 1954 XK120M roadster. I bought it in 1966 or 67 for $375.00. It was a used car that had been used but not misused. It's body and interior were typical of a 13-14 year old car, but mechanically it was mint, and drove beautifully. I was a kid, not earning much money, and so the tires I bought were not great, but try to find 16" tires in the 60's, it wasn't like today. I drove it for awhile, until one day leaving to go somewhere I shifted into second and a front tire took off ahead of me. The splines holding the wheel were worn and allowed the knock off to come off, then the wheel. So I sold it for 300.00 to a commercial airline pilot who lived in Yorba Linda. The fastest I ever had it was about 130 mph during rush hour on the Riverside freeway, proving to the guy that dated the girl next door it would go, at 130 he backed down.  My next was a 1962 E Type coupe that I bought in 1972 for $2000. It would only drive on full choke. Took it into a garage Britalia, that was located on Stanton Ave, just off Beach Blvd. in Stanton or Buena Park. At the time it was owned and run by Bill who specialized in Jaguar and Aston Martin.  I'd had it maybe two days and it cost me 120-130 to get it running. The guy I'd bought it from had bragged about rebuilding the engine himself. Well, Bill found that the cam bearings had just one bolt each and no safety wires, it had a Mallory dual point distributor put in backwards, and the carburators were way out. When I got it back it ran good, but that was temporary. I had it several months and it was in the garage more than it was on the road. When it was running it was a scalded dog, fast, very fast, 120 on the 55 to 90 freeway like it was on rails, but finally I took it back to the guy I bought it from and he returned part of my money. I bought a 65 Mustang. By now I had about come to the conclusion that they were great cars but not meant to be only cars. My next was a 67 XKE convertible, that I bought from a guy at work in 1978 for 300.00. He never maintained or even washed it. I spent a couple weeks cleaning it, tuning it up, rebuilt the distributor, tuned the carburators. Actually only put about 100. in it, then I drove it for awhile, my regular car then was a 72 T'Bird, so it was different. A guy saw it and offered me 700., I wanted to buy camping equipment, so I sold it.  I still was of the opinion they weren't meant to be only cars, even though while I had that one, after correcting the problems created by the guy I bought it from, it had been pretty dependable. That brings us to my 1995 XJS, bought in 2003, with 57k on the odometer for 17k. I put some money into it, did the 60k service, front brakes, added some accessories. It's up to 74k now and it's been one of the most dependable cars I've owned. I wouldn't hesitate to use this car as a daily driver, it's so good that in 06 I bought a 1996 XJ6 sedan that was as good, just sold that one, and the XJS is for sale to finance my move back to Calif. So, the point is that yes I'd love to have another 120 or E Type, if I was going to drive just one car I'd buy a later Jaguar, as dependable as any car out there.  
My XJS

The Jaguar XJ-S (later the Jaguar XJS) is a luxury grand tourer produced by the British manufacturer Jaguar. The XJ-S replaced the legendary E-Type (or XK-E) in September 1975, and was based on the XJ saloon. It had been developed as the XK-F, though it was very different in character from its predecessor. Although it never had quite the same sporting image, the XJ-S was a competent grand tourer, and more aerodynamic than the E-Type.[3] The last XJS was produced on 4 April 1996, by when 115,413 had been produced during a 21-year production life. The model was replaced by the XK8.
1976
The first XJ-S appeared in 1975 as a 1976 model. Power came from the Jaguar V-12 petrol engine with a choice of a manual or automatic transmission, but the manual was soon dropped. V-12 automobiles were unusual at the time, with notable others coming from Italian luxury sports car makers Lamborghini and Ferrari. The specifications of the XJ-S compared well with both Italian cars; it was able to accelerate to 60 mph (97 km/h) in 7.8 seconds and reach 142 mph (229 km/h). The first series of XJ-S cars had a Borg-Warner Model 12 transmission with a cast iron case and a bolt-on bell-housing. In 1979 GM Turbo-Hydromatic 400 transmissions were fitted. The TH400 transmission was an all aluminium alloy case with an integrated non-detachable bell-housing.
Jaguar's timing was not good; the car was launched in the wake of a fuel crisis, and the market for a 5.3 litre V12 grand tourer was very small. The styling was also the subject of criticism, including the "flying buttresses" behind the windows. These so restricted rearward vision that they conflicted with safety regulations in Germany where the authorities refused to give the model (along with a similarly adorned contemporary Lancia model) type approval: it was for a time necessary instead for German XJS buyers to obtain type approval for each individual car when registering it.[4]
Jaguar did seize promotional opportunities with the television series The New Avengers and Return of the Saint. The New Avengers featured Mike Gambit (Gareth Hunt) who drove an XJ-S. Return of the Saint saw Simon Templar (played by Ian Ogilvy) driving an early XJ-S with the number plate "ST 1". Miniature versions were made by Corgi and proved popular. A decade and a half before, Jaguar had turned down the producers of the earlier Saint series when approached about the E-type; the producers had instead used a Volvo P1800.
Responding to criticisms that the XJ-S was not a worthy E-type successor, Pininfarina revealed a sporty show car in 1978 based on XJ-S mechanicals and called Jaguar XJSpider.[5] The car never went into production.
1980s
From July 1981, XJ-S received the new High-Efficiency engine for much better economy; as a by-product, power was increased to 220 kW (295 hp) or 196 kW (263 hp) in North America.[6] At the same time, the XJ-S received changes to its exterior and interior (new five-spoke alloy wheels, chrome inserts on the upper part of the bumpers, wood inserts on dashboard and door cappings). In 1982, the new V12 XJ-S won first and second at the RAC Tourist Trophy race at Silverstone.
In 1983, a new cabriolet version débuted with a new 3.6 litre Jaguar AJ6 engine I6, the XJ-SC. In the XJ-SC, the rear jump seats were eliminated making it only a 2-seat car. The XJ-SC was not a full convertible but had a non-removable centre targa-type structure and fixed cant rails above the doors. The rear quarter windows remained as well. With the introduction of the AJ6 engine in the XJS chassis came the availability of a 5-speed manual transmission for the 6-cylinder cars. This model with a Getrag manual transmission was not imported by Jaguar into the United States. (The US had to wait until the facelift manual 4 litre XJS coupe & convertible were available and even then they were bought only in very low numbers). A limited number of earlier 5-speed AJ6 cars did enter the US as grey market personal imports however. A V12 XJ-SC did not emerge until 1985. The two-seat XJ-SC targa-type model was replaced with a two-seat full convertible in 1988. Prior to that there was a special full convertible version called a Hess & Eisenhardt XJS offered through dealers starting in 1986. The Hess & Eisenhardt coachbuilding firm was located in Ohio and built approximately 893 of these cars under contract from Jaguar before the official Jaguar built XJS convertible appeared in 1988 to be offered as a 1989 model.
The Hess & Eisenhardt convertible differed from the later Jaguar convertible XJS as its unpadded top folded down deeper into the body structure of the car resulting in a cleaner rear profile when the roof was lowered. In order to accommodate this design element, the Hess & Eisenhardt convertibles have two separate fuel tanks, positioned to allow for the roof to fully retract. The process of converting the stock Jaguar XJS Coupe into the H&E Convertible included the post-production removal of the roof, cutting the body in several sections, the addition of steel reinforcements behind the driver's seat, and 20 lb (9.1 kg) weights placed just behind the headlights to eliminate harmonic resonance caused by the significant modifications to the car. H&E XJS convertibles are easily identified by the lower folding top, as well as two small badges located just behind the front wheels. The later Jaguar full convertible had a heavier padded top that did not fold into as small a bundle when in the lowered position, but retained nearly all of the original components of the coupe.
The true number of H&E Jaguar XJSes is not known, due in part to a fire at the Hess & Eisenhardt factory that destroyed most of the records pertaining to the Jaguar XJS conversions.
In 1988 and 1989, a special XJR-S version of the V12 5.3 litre car was produced by TWR to celebrate Jaguar's win at Le Mans. A numbered limited edition of 100 of these cars were made for European sale only. This car had a distinctive TWR-fitted body kit, special alloy wheels and suspension and handling improvements. Between 1988 and 1989 a total of 350 XJR-S cars were produced with the 5.3 litre engine. After September 1989 the change was made to a special 6.0 litre engine with a Zytec engine management system (234 kW (314 hp), later 245 kW (329 hp)). This was different from the standard 6.0 litre engine used in the late XJS models. The XJR-S stayed in the line until 1993; a total of 1,130 cars were built.[7]
Jaguar did consider a luxury Daimler version tentatively called Daimler-S, without the flying buttresses, but this vehicle was not put into production, although one prototype was made in 1986.[8] Paul Banham did produce some custom notch back coupes without the flying buttresses, larger rear side windows, and a narrow C-pillar. In the mid-nineties, Banham also made a re-worked version called the XJSS based on the XJS. This set of front and rear styling modifications was also available for a while as a DIY kit.
Throughout the life of the XJS, British company Lynx sold a high-quality four-seat full convertible conversion. Lynx also produced 67 hand-built two-door estate/shooting brake/station wagon versions of the XJS marketed under the name of "Lynx Eventer". The Eventer was a very elegant model, which succeeded in the overall design because it removed the flying butresses, incorporating them into the estate design. Jaguar were urged to market their own version but never did. Most Eventers are believed to still exist although build quality, especially on the early versions, was at best variable.
1991–1996
The car was re-engineered in 1991 and renamed XJS. All XJSs from this time are referred to as "facelift" models. The rear side windows appeared enlarged (although the body glass aperture was actually the same size as the earlier car), and the flying buttresses stayed, as designer Geoff Lawson argued that they were part of the car's character. The car got a new 4 litre version of the AJ6. In 1992 a 4 litre convertible was added to the range. The V12 was upped to 6 litre in May 1993 (227 kW (304 hp)). At the same time the car benefited from a revision to the rear brakes, they were now fitted with outboard rear disc brakes, instead of the more complicated inboard items on previous models. With the introduction of the 6.0 litre V12, the transmission was also updated to a GM 4L80E with a 4th gear overdrive, whilst the automatic 4 litre models continued with the electronic ZF4HP24E transmission. A 2+2 convertible was also introduced, as was a customised insignia line. At the same time the car received more aerodynamic front and rear bumpers. Cars from this period are oft referred to as "Big-Bumper" cars. 1992 thru 1994 were the only years the 6-cylinder with 5-speed manual transmission XJS was exported to the United States. Exact production figures are unknown, though it is likely there are fewer than ten. In April 1994 substantial revisions were made to the 4 litre AJ6 engine which became the 4.0 litre AJ16 with coil on plug ignition being the most noticeable change. In 1995, the final specification changes were made and the car was referred to as the Celebration model to celebrate the 60th year of the Jaguar company. The 6 litre V12 had all but disappeared by this time and was only available during the last year of production by special order. The car was discontinued in 1996, after 21 years in production. It was replaced by the XK8.
Motorsport
For 1977, the "Group44" racing team had a very successful season in Trans Am with a race car based on the actual production XJ-S chassis and running gear. The team won the series' 1977 drivers' championship cup for Bob Tullius but missed winning the manufacturer's title by two points (only one Jaguar was competing in the Trans-Am series compared to many more Porsche entrants). In 1978, a purpose-built tube-frame "silhouette" style XJS race car was constructed which greatly reduced the weight compared to the full production chassis car campaigned in 1977. This silhouette car had only the production car's roof panel as the sole piece of factory XJS sheetmetal on the car. Group 44 succeeded in again capturing the driver's championship for Bob Tullius and also captured the manufacturer's title as well, by entering Brian Fuerstenau driving the 1977 car at some venues to gain additional manufacturer's point for Jaguar. The silhouette car survived and has surfaced recently in the SVRA historic sports race series. The 1977 factory chassis race car is believed to still be in the hands of Group 44's Bob Tullius.
In April 1979 a Jaguar XJS driven by Dave Heinz and Dave Yarborough was entered into Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, widely known simply as the Cannonball Run. They completed the 2,863 miles (4,608 km) from New York to Los Angeles in a record time of 32 hours and 51 minutes, a record that stood for 4 years, until it was beaten by David Diem and Doug Turner in a Ferrari 308. Diem and Turner covered the same distance in 32 hours and 7 minutes on the US Express, an unofficial successor to the Cannonball Run. [1]
In 1984 Tom Walkinshaw captured the Drivers’ title of the European Touring Car Championship with a Group A version of the XJ-S, entered by TWR. During the championship season the TWR team had also won the Spa 24 Hours race with an XJ-S driven by Tom Walkinshaw, Hans Heyer and Win Percy.
In 1985, XJ-S drivers John Goss and Armin Hahne won the James-Hardie 1000 for Group A Touring Cars at Bathurst, New South Wales in Australia. This car was the third of a trio of XJS's entered for the race by TWR. Walkinshaw and Percy finished third in the lead Jag after oil line problems late in the race.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Thou Shalt Not Kill - Like hell

The commandments say a lot of things are prohibited, among them is killing one another. What a pile of crap. Watch the news, tv programs, movies, listen to stories, read books (including religeous books), any other source you can think of that I haven't, the one thing that humans do seemingly at the drop of a hat is KILL each other, usually for little or no reason.  Ok you say, yes there are some crazies, criminals and others of that ilk that do commit murders but not normal people, oh no.
But the truth is that no other animal kills, or loves to kill like a human being. Another truth is that like manure, killing flows downhill. Presidents and Kings kill every day, throughout history. The difference is that they hire (or draft) police departments and armies to acually pull the triggers. The only real difference between Obama, for instance, and your average gang leader or drug dealer  is just in the scale of their murders. Our religous leaders preach constantly about the evils of killing. But at the same time never seem to have a problem sending our sons, and daughters to war, or out in the streets to kill.  It's been going on as long as there've been people.
The 6th Commandment says Thou Shalt Not Murder.  It doesn't say except (insert exception here)....

Lee Murray

Update on Mini-Stroke??? Ear Infection??? More Latest info

Saw the heart specialist yesterday, Tuesday, a very nice guy, Dr. Iskander. Explained about the two types of holes that are  found in the atrial wall of the heart. Apparently there are two kinds, an actual hole, or a valve that never closes or never fully closes from birth.  I'm supposed to talk to the Neurologist and determine if there was in fact a stroke, and then get back to him. If we go ahead and fix the heart there are two ways to go, a camera down the throat to get a closer look, and then come up through the artery from the groin to install the umbrella, or do it in a single step, the camera from the groin and if necessary then the umbrella at the same time. He also agreed with me at least in theory that I've survived this long and if it's not huge, leaving it alone, since if a clot had passed through using asperin and the blood thinning herbs may preclude anymore clots removing the danger. Plus as I told him, men on both sides in this family have largely all died in their 60's plus or minus, so I'm a short timer, he didn't comment on that.
As to the diabeties that I was informed about May 20th, as I've said I started taking Bitter Melon, in addition to the vitamins, Garlic, Apple Cider Vinegar, and Cinnamon I was taking for thinning the blood and the colesterol.  My blood sugar meter was showing as high as 436 and consistent readings of 300 plus or minus at the start, and has been declining in steps, I broke 200 the first time on 5/28, then have stayed around 200 plus or minus, under 200 with an occasional spirt over, but gradually dropping lower. Today I got my lowest reading yet, 128...  I'm told normal is 80-120, and the Dr would be pleased with a consistent reading of 100, or so.  Considering I didn't know I had a problem until May 20th, and on July 15th, not even two months later I have a reading nearly normal, I have to say that something is working, and I think it's a tribute to the Bitter Melon, probably helped by the other herbs, watching my sugar intake, not slavishly but watching it, lowering my salt intake, again, not eliminating it but lowering it, and as a good friend pointed out giving up my Pepsi was a big contributor. Talking to my sister she pointed out that she saw on an episode of Oprah, the Dr. that's on the program said that sugar is like glue in the arteries and veins, thickening the blood and causing high blood pressure, plaque or narrowing. So it has occured to me that possibly part of my progress has been simply getting the sugar out of my system.  I could be wrong about that, but it does seem to make sense.  I've been drinking Pepsi and previously RC for forty plus years, and who knows how it's built up, or if it has, but apparently it's not just flavored water as I've always said.

Lee Murray

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Another Comment to Decline of the Empire

Made another comment, I understand that guy may not be a big fan after the one yesterday, but this one I couldn't agree more.  This is actually a very good site, and I recommend it highly.    Decline of the Empire

Here's my comment:

I couldn't agree more, having worked in magnetic media, hard drives, audio and video tape in three different companies, in engineering, during the 70's and 80's, all of whom were absorbed, or sent out of the country, and in sales since. At one a Memorex plant in Anaheim, where I worked for seven years 74-81,I went to work one day, and was told there was to be a meeting in the lunchroom, where we were all simply told the plant was closing and we could all go home.
I have watched with dismay as everything from steel on down is closed and workers laid off. Here in the little town near where I now live, there was a pharmaceutical company that employed a large part of the town. My sister and her husband were employed there. A couple years before I moved here, the company was closed with no warning, putting a large portion of the town out of work. There was a science fiction story I read years ago, don't remember the title, but the point was that in the story, the US had become a giant Disneyland for the rest of the world, primarily the Orient, and the we were all workers, fast food, restaurants, hotels, casinos, to the more seamy jobs, serving the flood of tourists...
Every day more people are laid off and the unemployment keeps growing, both drawing unemployment and drawn out but not working, yet the government tells us the recession is over blah, blah, blah. Who do they think they're kidding, I talk to people every day, a perk of sales, and NOBODY believes it's ending.
When you say the machine is broken and the good, read high paying, jobs are never coming back I'm afraid you're right. The good news is I'm old enough for social security so I'll have some time, until the government goes broke, but I already have a spot picked out for my cardboard box.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Comment to a post at Decline of the Empire

Very interesting makes you think. On the other hand I personally, as an American, and as far as I know everybody I know, would welcome Geert or any other Dutch or other nationality to clean up the gulf. I get so sick of what ever you may be if not an ist of some kind laying the arrogance bullshit at the door of all Americans. Yes it may be true of the idiots in office and their minions, but I didn't vote for them, of course the idiot I did vote for probably would't be any better, and yes the agencies with all their stupid rules are making it more difficult than it needs to be but that goes back to the idiot and his minions.

Also I am so sick of people like you calling the US an empire, it isn't and never was. The Roman Empire and The British Empire were empires, the Germans, French and Spanish had pretentions, and may even have attained empire status briefly, but WE have never been an empire. You might mention Iraq, but we are occupying it and spending make that throwing away God knows how much borrowed money after an illegal war against them, nor (not) through a desire to make them part of an empire. I also (disagree) with those who describe the US as Imperial...

I refer the following articles some of which I agree with some of which I don't:

http://hnn.us/articles/1237.html

and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_imperialism

and http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j24/garrison.asp

and http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance8.html

and http://askville.amazon.com/United-States-Empire/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=2608517
 
The original Blog article that I commented about is here, read it and see if you agree or disagree:
 
http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2010/07/how-not-to-contain-an-oil-spill.html#comments
 
Lee Murray

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Suicide Attempts in TV and Movies a Bad Joke?

I've seen probably hundreds of attempted suicides in cop movies and tv shows over the years. One thing always stands out above everything in most. Picture the scene, the murderer, it's usually a murderer, is chased to the roof by the hero cop, or cops.  He, or she, runs to the edge and screeches to a halt, yelling don't come any closer or I'll jump. The cop, or cops, stand guns out, pointed at the murderer, ready to blow him, or her, away with the slightest whisper of an excuse. Yet at the same time, pleading with the murderer not to kill him or herself. It's not the way out, they say, give yourself up, live, blah, blah, blah.
Every time I see one of these scenes I wonder what idiot wrote it, and what reality it's supposed to represent.  If I were a murderer who had made it to the edge of a roof, would I choose to let myself be thrown down, handcuffed, dragged to jail, beaten, tried, and thrown in prison for several lifetimes or sent to death row to be executed? Or, would I laugh at the insincere lies as they tried to get me to submit to their system of justice, then step off the roof? 
I honestly don't know how this plays out in real life, never having been a cop or a murderer, but it seems to me that if I were a cop, I'd encourage the murderer to jump. Justice is still served, there's probably less paperwork, and there's no chance he, or she will get "back on the street" and do it again.
Just a thought....

Lee Murray

Comment to a Blog

A friend turned me on to your posts emailing a link. Very interesting. I have felt my grandfather watching over me since he passed away when I was 4 or so, and a girlfriend, for lack of a better term, although the relationship was more, and less, than that, of many years died of breast cancer at 46 in '98, I hear her talking to me constantly, but then she always told me it would take more than dying for me to get rid of her... I tell people she's here, and they think I'm nuts, so I don't anymore. I recently, in Dec and again in Feb had something happen, dizziness, numb right side of face, constant headache. My opinion of Drs is similar to yours, and when this happened everybody said see a Dr, go to the hospital, blah, blah. I waited to see if it would go away, saying can't afford it, no insurance, and if I do they'll run thousands of dollars in tests and not know anymore than I do from googling, then tell me to take an asperin, which I'd already started. It didn't go away on its own, I applied for and got insurance through NYS, so I went to the Dr, and, and, and...exactly what I said, seen several Drs, GP, Cardiologist, Neurologist, scheduled for Heart and Brain Surgeons, they've run tests, I've heard possible mini strokes, ms, brain tumor, strokes, now back to mini strokes, and the guessing goes on. Last I heard the cardiologist says small hole in upper chamber of heart that I was probably born with may have passed a clot, and needs to be fixed, the neuologist thinks, but isn't sure an artery in the back of my neck may, yes may, be partially blocked and causing the symptoms and should be fixed. The only thing they've said that I can prove is low scale diabeties, so I'm taking the blood pressure and cholesterol and have added cinnamon, garlic, ginkgo bilboa, apple cider vinegar, for the arteries and blood thinning, and bitter melon for the diabeties. It's just as I figured the Drs don't have a clue.

Lee Murray

Thinking About Destiny Again

Still thinking about the groundhog post the other day.
I'm constantly hearing and seeing in person, in the news, and in dramas the plantive cry that "he, she, it, went too soon." Of course our loved ones, friends and relatives would think it's too soon, no matter when we die.  Possibly the groundhog's friends and relatives are saying it went too soon, who knows?  But, it's a little shocking to see or hear "he or she went too soon," in the media, who, with few exceptions, never even heard of us, let alone met us.
What's the truth?  Is it even possible to die too soon?  I can understand that if a baby or young child dies, whatever the cause, the natural reaction is to blame ourselves, or somebody, there must be something wrong, their life had just begun after all, and they had years ahead, it's clearly too soon to lose them.  The truth is, and nobody, even me, wants to face it, that death could have happened to us at any time, from the moment of conception. Not birth, but conception is when the body is created and starts the trip to death. When the soul or spirit actually enters that body is another conversation, I think also at or soon after conception, but I could be wrong. I have heard of studies that proved children were capable of learning in the womb though.  Yes, I said children, speaking about the body growing in the womb, not fetus' or any of the other quasi-scientific names that make the murder committed by abortionists less abhorrent.
Anyway, to answer my question, I don't believe it's possible to die before your time. Your time to die may be after 100 years or 1 minute, but that's when you'll go, not one millionth of a second sooner.  Speaking from personal experience, so far, I've had several opportunities of being killed before my time, and have walked away without a scrape every time. I've said as long as I can remember that I'm not afraid of dying. It's still true, in theory.
I know we're all spirit, that goes without saying. I've said, also pretty much as long as I can remember, that for us to believe this body is who we are, ie for me to believe I'm Lee Murray and that's all, is about the same as you climbing into your car, and believing you're a Ford, or Chevy, etc.  These bodies of ours aren't real in any sense, other than that they're vehicles allowing us to exist in this level. Every level has a body, neccesary for survival in that plane, but they're all nothing more than just vehicles for the real you, the spirit. 
When I do die, I have a good idea of what happens, where I'll go, and that more than likely I'll be back, so it's not terrifying.  On the other hand, I learned recently when I had the stroke or whatever the hell it was that I'm in no rush to die. One thing that does scare me though is becoming crippled or blind. If it happens it's probably for a reason, pre-destined, and I'd deal with it, who knows I may even learn something, but avoiding that is one reason for seeing the Drs.
It's taught that each life we live is for a purpose, what it is few if any of us know, but we're always here to learn something, or to teach something. The first thought I had after saying that is, so serious, so what you're saying is we don't just come to hang out, kill some time? Sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll?  Or something similar... 
It sure seems like that's all some are here for. I suppose it's possible, maybe this world is like a time share for the astral, some of us come to serve, to fulfill a purpose, while others are on vacation, enjoying the flesh, experiencing the experience of living in this world. Anything's possible I guess, but it's not what I've been taught, and personally, while I've overall had a pretty good life, if I just came to hang out I'd like to kick the butt of the astral time share salesspirit that sold me on the idea.  It seems that lots of lives, lots of lives, are spent having and raising kids, that's it just raising kids, or so it seems. 
But the truth is, whether we spend our lives drunk, loaded, and banging anything with a heartbeat (or without), having and raising kids by the carload, working to the exclusion of anything else, winning the Pulitzer or Nobel prize, or whatever, the real reason we incarnated, the big picture, is a mystery to most, if not all, of us.
One premise that's taught is that prior to each life, we sit down with the others that are going to be with us during the life, to plan and discuss what's going to happen, birth to death. Nobody ever seems to know if it's a second by second pre-destination plan, or just a big picture with lots of room for free will type plan.  Then after death, arriving back in the astral, we sit down for a debriefing, or analysis of the life just finished. Again, nobody seems to know why.  Just to see if we passed?
Also another question, does each and every spirit, (parents, grandparents, relatives, friends, aquaintences, workmates, boyfriends, girlfriends, strangers you interact with, etc.), who's interacting with me in my life have their own plan? Are they all there just for me this time, and me for them next time? Instead are we all reincarnating together with a common goal or lesson to learn? How about the souls who're already here before our birth, older people grandfathers, grandmothers, parents?  If they're already here, living their lives, according to their destiny or plan, I can understand that my birth could be part of their plan, but when did they take part in my pre-birth meeting? It's taught that we leave our bodies and go to the astral, whenever we're unconcious or asleep, some can do it conciously. Perhaps that is when they did it?
Have you figured out yet that I'm as confused as anybody else about this?  I've studied and read about this for years and while it makes sense, at the same time it doesn't.
Another question I've brought up before, is why are our past lives in a linear time frame? At least so far as I know, they're starting in the past and moving closer to the present. If we are, in fact, spirits, coming here from a spirit plane, call it astral, or etheric, whatever, where time as we here know it doesn't exist, then why couldn't we incarnate in any time on this plane?  Time is after all a concept of this world, and probably a purely human concept at that. Cats, dogs, and cows may have a concept of time too, but I haven't asked any so I don't know.
That's enough for now I think...

Lee Murray

Whoops not the Astral plane...

Friday, July 2, 2010

Ran over a Groundhog Today... Destiny?

I was on my way to Joe's down in Sherburne tonight to pick up the lasagna that I'd ordered for dinner. I was driving my van down the road toward Rte 12 when a groundhog ran out from the side of the road.  Normally they turn and go back when they see the lights or feel the vibrations of a car, but this one ran right under the wheels of my van.  It started me thinking, was it his destiny to die being run over? Was it my destiny to cut his life short? Did I cut his life short?  When we were planning our coming lives was this part of the plan? It had to be. One second either way and he'd still be alive.  It sure makes you think.

Lee Murray

Haunted or Imagination??

In 1962 were living on a farm in Tyner, NY. The house burned down, leaving only a gaping hole where there was once a two story house. My father determined that he was a farmer, got another in South New Berlin, NY after a time of moving around living with various relatives. We moved there in June 1962. It was a big old farm house on the corner of Copes Corners Rd and Nelson Rd as I remember, near the gun club which bordered on our property.  I have no idea how old the house was or what had happened there. But my room, at the top of the stairs over the living room, had a large walkin closet. We lived there a bit over a year, and in all that time I was never able to make myself go into the closet at night, the closest I ever came was to lean in and grab. I have no idea why, I just had a creepy feeling. In the daytime no problem. Was it haunted or was it the imagination of a kid? I do know that according to real estate people I've spoken to the house was purchased by somebody that lived out of the area soon after we left moving to California in 1963 and was boarded up and hasn't been lived in since. It's still boarded up, I know because I always drive by when I'm in the area.
On the subject, are there ghosts? Yes, they're all around us. My father died in 1997, he'd had a colostemy and wore a bag, that smelled now and then, after his funeral my mother and sisters swore they smelled him here in the house. During the last few months when he was in the Vets Home down in Oxford, his fondest wish was to come home. I'm sure he made it and is waiting for my mother and perhaps the rest of us to join him.
There are now movies, tv shows and books dealing with the theory that after death many of us either don't realize or don't believe we're dead. I know, don't ask me how, that this is true. I've known my grandfather was watching out over me, my guardian angel so to speak, for as long as I can remember. He showed up once in a wegee board session, my first and last. A girlfriend, among other things, of many years who passed in 1998 after losing a 5 or 6 year fight with breast cancer is always here. It's not theory or guessing, I can feel her and hear her talking to me. Which I suppose isn't unusual between two people who saw each other or talked almost every day for twenty-five years or so. She once me told me that no matter how much I tried, even death wouldn't seperate us, I guess she was right...or is that my imagination?

Lee Murray