Youth Under Attack

It's been 45 years since Dr. Leary wrote the "Declaration of Evolution" and correctly identified the enemy of Youth and Mankind. It seems the enemy is back, and in force. Across the globe and certainly in the good ol' USA, young, well-educated folks are denied decent work with living wages and any semblance of benefits. They're constantly badgered by the mass media to make their contribution to society by buying products and being good consumers. They're constantly being pressured by politicians to lower their expectations and learn to accept a future with no safety nets or consumer protections. They're constantly being derided by religions as having inadequate faith in the traditional beliefs. They are told they're somehow not worthy of inheriting their rightful place in the world, and that their rightful places have all disappeared.

And just who's doing the badgering, pressuring and deriding? None other than the "White, menopausal mendacious men" Dr. Leary spoke of. Why, you'd think these old white men would have died out by now... after all, even Leary has kicked the bucket. In fact they have died out, but did a masterfu job of training their replacements - younger white menopausal mendacious men who now look every bit the same as the curmudgeonly greedy assholes of the 60's.

But the worm is turning. Just look at how the youth in the Middle East have rejected outright the religions, monarchies, government tyrannies and monopolistic games of their masters! It's on its way to the USA, too, if our greedy puppet-masters don't wake up and realize these kids have just the scissors to cut the puppet strings.

Young or old, I encourage you to read The Declaration of Evolution, The cycle can never be stopped unless we know the players and their parts. And The Declaration is turning out to be a prophetic commentary on this cycle.

Or we can simply turn our backs on our children and feign righteous superiority. And that would be the proper end to Humanity.

A Tyranny of the Minority Owns Your Universe

Democrats in power: Republicans cry foul. Republicans in power: Democrats cry foul. Both parties have fallen into a pattern of "game-ism" that celebrates winning at all costs. To both parties' ideologies, it is unthinkable that the "other" should win. With the number of registered party members reaching an almost 50/50 split, it would seem that American voters should be satisfied that one or the other political philosophies will triumph at any given time. What a meaningless distraction;, and a fundamental lie of the democratic process!

Here's the truth of the matter. Combined, the rolls of both registered Repubicans and Democrats is less than 50% of the total population of eligible voters in the country. This means that at any given time, America's political system is being decided by the minority. How? The two dominant parties virtually control the electoral process and the candidates we have to choose from. And since they're locked in a battle-to-the-death feud for ideological supremacy, they're dragging the rest of us along in their insipid game. Don't believe me? Choose the political institution of your political favor and look at their statistics. Then look beyond and beneath their statistics where the real American majority exists.

Think of the venerable bell-shaped curve. On the left and right of the curve, around 25% fall off rapidly on either side. Moderates, independents, more-or-less rational Americans are in the center and the top of the curve. That's the sweet spot, my friends, and statistically represents the actual Will of the People.

So tell me again why we allow these two minorities to make a mockery of the governance process? Why are the statistically insignificant kooks on the left and right allowed to represent the will of the obvious majority? This sure doesn't sound like James Madison's concerns that the majority will somehow dominate the minority and disenfranchise them. It sounds and smells like tyranny to me.

Fully Exteriorized and On His Way

My good friend of 40 years, Lace Haug, left the planet yesterday. He was at the end stages of a horribly painful and hopeless condition. He asked me to take him to the hospital for what he undoubtedly knew was the end. And he thanked me.

Lace was a hell of a musician, a great friend, and a seeker. He was never satisfied with mere scientific or religious explanations for why, and continuously studied and searched all paths available to him. In the end he achieved a peace he probably never saw during his life.

One of his last statements to me was that he was disappointed in the behavior of humanity, especially the Western world. He said, "I can't accept the rampant bald-face lying by those in power, who only want more power and wealth. It's gotten way out of hand. If this is the way the world is evolving, I would rather die now than see it get worse." He, like I, was disgusted with greed, bigotry and intolerance. These are sentiments that my children have recently echoed as they tell me they will not bring children into an evil world.

Perhaps this is a final lesson: The gentle and pacific people of the Earth must leave and let the dull-witted and evil to inherit this existence and accelerate its destruction.

Farewell, Lace. You're already missed. And farewell to the hope for the transformation and ascension of humanity. Still, some of us will maintain hope. I just can't see how.

Pitchforks, Hell! Grab your Ankles!

This is a follow-up to my last posting about the greedy rich fleecing the citizens of the good ol' USA.

Perhaps you haven't heard the recent news; During the financial crisis of the last two years, the Federal Reserve made nine trillion dollars in profit from emergency loans made to the Wall Street too-big-to-fail entities like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, to name just two. See the CNN Money article.

Nine Trillion Dollars. Isn't that several times greater than the deficit and all projected shortfalls? Wouldn't that provide enough money to flow back to the neighborhood banks so Main Street folks and small businesses could obtain workable loans? It looks like this: $9,000,000,000,000,000. You'd think they would have run out of zeroes by now.

Yet, it's become painfully obvious that the Fed and its buddies are totally unwilling to move that money back into circulation. They're hoarding it as if it actually belonged to them and they earned it fair-and square. The audacity!

It's hard to march on the mansion with pitchforks and torches when you're bent over a barrel getting serviced up the kiester by some fat cat bastard you don't even know.

Grab Your Pitchforks

Throughout this recession, the rich got much richer, while everyone else got considerably poorer. How could this happen? Rather than spouting off some arcane and flimsy economic theory, let me put the obvious in blunt terms:

The wealthy and powerful privatized their profits and socialized their losses.

What, you say? Think about it: Corporate profits went through the roof. CEOs and Wall Street execs took the money and ran. In other words, they privatized profits, primarily by removing them off the books and putting them into their own private holdings. And when it came time to pay back small investor losses, they got the U.S. government (read: U.S. taxpayers) to foot the bill. Socialism, pure and simple.

We got fucked, brothers and sisters. Next time, I want some say in how I get fucked. Or at least get a reach-around while I'm being reamed.

Intro Level Theremin

Last week I popped for an introductory-level theremin.  It came from Dan Burns, and is this model.  Dan express-shipped it to me in time for the C3 March 2008 show.  For under $100, I'm quite pleased.  There are a few drawbacks:  the scale is limited to about 1 foot from the antenna and it's pitch-only so a volume pedal is required.  Still in all it worked well and totally fascinated the audience.  I ran it thru an old digital delay rack and beefed it up with long, cascading echoes.

Gosh, if I had ten of these at the show, I could have sold every one of them for $200 cash on the barrel.  At every break, the audience lined up to play the theremin.  Musicians begged me for the URL to order one.  Perhaps I can become a reseller and make enough money for a high-ticket theremin with MIDI.  In the meantime, the theremin serves C3 well and is a sure-fire source of amusement for all!

Echoplex Hell

Acme Guitar failed to solve the bad component problem.  So, the Echoplex once again sits in the basement awaiting repair.  One last time:  I've found a repair source through referral on the ProsoundWeb site.  The repair guy said, "I will fix you Echoplex, and you will love it when I'm done."

Meanwhile I've been given a cast-off Digitech digital delay rack, old but still pretty nice.  Still, it will never compete with the 'plex.

Tell me why I'm pursuing this repair again???!@$