Today, July 4th, it’s time to begin to take back our liberty from government bullies, elected officials, and corporate seducers who are seizing it from us under the guise of security. This slippery slope of claims justifying government spying on the citizenry will eventually result in dehumanizing the populace, as argued powerfully by philosopher Michael Lynch in this NYTimes article.  ¶ A protest action is called for on this holiday famous for celebration of liberty. Funds might be contributed to such respected public defenders as the Electronic Frontier Foundation or the American Civil Liberties Union (which is suing the US Government over these 4th amendment abuses of our privacy). The best way to celebrate liberty is by defending it!

This quote by President John F. Kennedy, below, may contain a chilling insight, considering how Occupy Wall Street was prevented from holding banksters accountable, and how the US Air Force has hired contractors as “sock puppets” to insert false comments into social media:

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. ~JFK

AMENDMENT IV, United States Constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I love tomatoes. I grow my own; I eat them daily; I often buy Mexican cherry tomatoes between seasons. But recently I noticed this news article about a bust at a tomato farm in Veracruz. Even more shocking than the offered (not paid) pay rate of less than $1us per hour (~$12mx) is the kidnapping and slavery perpetrated by the owners of the farm. Mexico: I love you, but you breaka my heart! The question to watch for: what will now happen to the owners?

If this crime were committed in USA (it happens; it happens) the farm owners could be at risk of life in prison, along with labor fines that would probably bankrupt the business. But if there is one thing business owners understand, it’s risk assessment. Yet the fact that such practices continue says much about both societies. ¶Sometimes it’s just hard to enjoy a meal. Yes, we’ve all gotta eat. I need to be mindful that one man’s food is another’s paycheck. And, yes, fair trade prices have a reason for being. ¶ The early economics classic WEALTH of NATIONS describes an invisible hand in the marketplace, keeping prices fair. Is that hand, today, crippled? (The author, Adam Smith, wrote about businesses which typically had only a dozen employees.) Few students of economics are aware that Smith was not an economist but a moral philosopher (in America, an ethicist), also authoring another important volume, The THEORY of MORAL SENTIMENTS. ¶ Things to ponder as we offer thanks before our next meal.

CALL CONGRESS TODAY, JUNE 18

Tell them to stop watching us. <CLICK for details: TIME®

Tell them to end PRISM surveillance.

Tell them to repeal the Patriot Act.

Tie up the phones lines until they relent.

Birthing Barbie photo by rdnckwlly at photobucket.com

In a mother’s womb were two babies.
One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?”

The other replies, “why, of course.
There has to be something after delivery.
Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.

“Nonsense,” says the other.
“There is no life after delivery.
What would that life be?”

“I don’t know, but there will be more light than here.
Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths.”

The other says “This is absurd! Walking is impossible.
And eat with our mouths? Ridiculous.
The umbilical cord supplies nutrition.
Life after delivery is to be excluded.
The umbilical cord is too short.”

“I think there is something and maybe
it’s different than it is here.”

The other replies, “No one has ever come back from there.
Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery
it is nothing but darkness and anxiety
and it takes us nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t know,” says the other,
“but certainly we will see mother and she will take care of us.”

“Mother??” You believe in mother? Where is she now?

“She is all around us. It is in her that we live.
Without her there would not be this world.”

“I don’t see her, so it’s only logical that she doesn’t exist.”

To which the other replied, “sometimes when you’re in silence
you can hear her, you can perceive her.”

I believe there is a reality after delivery
and we are here to prepare ourselves for that reality.

Sherry V Wakeman, posted to The_Now2  — found by MeridaGOround at Nonduality Highlights, issue #4949, of June 16

Judas receiving payment for betrayal of Jesus, by Giotto di Bondone

Careerism is an ugly word, but it is also a subtle form of temptation. So, what’s your price? ¶ As detailed in the link below, The United States of America has now been found to have fallen to the organized-crime mob of citizens who work for the security state. They have sold the rest of us out for a paycheck. I’m stunned. The protectors have become the perpetrators. And the evidence is huge. Friends, please read and ponder the evidence to be found in this very credible article from NYTimes by Philosopher Peter Ludlow .

Alfonse Capone, circa 1935

Capone at Alcatraz

An Open Letter to Congressman Brian Higgins (D-26th, NY) of House Intelligence Committee

Congressman Mr Higgins:

Watch this space for a book review of SCATTER, ADAPT, AND REMEMBER: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction, by Annalee Newitz. 

Here’s a link to the book mentioned above. My review is titled ARE WE THERE YET?

I’ve always been a shy guy, something I’ve mostly overcome after many decades of struggle and effort. My dad was charming, yet I could never grasp how he did it, nor even what it was. Perhaps this article would have afforded me a significant shortcut.

How sad, that a nation (Belize) would allow its antiquities, in this case a pyramid 30+ meters tall , to be used for road construction! Story linked here.

(My thanks to Douglas Fisher for sharing this, which is presently found only on Huffington Post, Canada)

I’ve long felt that “vanity” plates, as we call them here in New York State, were a bit of an extravagance, as they cost an extra $30. But I’ve changed my mind. They might serve well as a conversation starter enroute to Merida this fall. (MEXICO was already taken so I had to use a digit instead of a letter; but perhaps it reads even better.) Stay tuned.