"God bless you," she said. "He just did," I said. She got it, and was stirred at the thought. I was sitting on the asphalt with my back toward the Aldi parking lot eating a can of $0.87 corn beef hash I had just purchased for lunch. May I give you this, she asked? And she placed several curled up dollar bills in my hand. I recognized her from the checkout line where she was just before me and as she was leaving she turned quickly and said to me, I love Jesus too. To which I said, as you do unto the least of these you do unto me. She didn't say anything to that and I thought maybe she didn't like me saying it. So I was surprised that she got my attention in the parking lot. Moments later there was a car behind me and I heard a gentleman's voice and looked, it was her husband, she was driving the car. They wanted to speak more and know what I was doing. They were moved at this Mission, what I'm doing. It was typical of quite a few such encounters when I was in a Walmart parking lot, Home Depot parking lot, elsewhere around town, Caribou Coffee earlier in the morning. Where are you going, they ask. Wherever Hearts can be stirred, I replied. Where is your home? Like my teacher said, the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.
4.14.2017
4.13.2017
The lady before you paid for the next few customers. No charge for your medium cup of coffee." Maybe this was exactly true. More likely I think is that someone bought for Ho......
Inconceivable to proceed without a winning strategy, the professional, surgical, military team.... Activists? Cruel suggestion!
Inconceivable to proceed without a winning strategy, the professional, surgical, military team.... Activists? Cruel suggestion!
True activists are exactly those who are oblivious to the excruciating pain of criticism. They experience it but.....
True activists are exactly those who are oblivious to the excruciating pain of criticism. They experience it but embrace and transcend it because all they care about is winning for their constituents, for their cause. For those one-in-a-million, Mission success is everything and no personal price is too great, no personal pain is too huge to bear. And they are the first to criticize themselves and the last to discourage others from doing so for the risk of losing valuable input and insight.
Fellow Boomers, we unleashed the environmental, political, and economic Armageddon. Stop waiting to die and get out and fix it.
Fellow Boomers,
we unleashed the environmental, political, and economic Armageddon.
Stop waiting to die and get out and fix it.
Male, female, native, non-native, etcetera... We've already lost if all we can do is replace one dominant group with another.
Male, female, native, non-native, etcetera... We've already lost if all we can do is replace one dominant group with another.
What is more evil than seeing a group pursue a fatal path, and not speaking up? Such a coward I am not.
What is more evil than seeing a group pursue a fatal path, and not speaking up?
Such a coward
I am not.
Am I a Christian, they often ask? No, I reply. I just stand with the man Jesus, as best I can.
Am I a Christian, they often ask? No, I reply. I just stand with the man Jesus, as best I can.
Fatal flaw of the Giants Hedges and Chomsky: never will they criticize their followers. Only empty flattery.
Fatal flaw of the Giants Hedges and Chomsky: never will they criticize their followers. Only empty flattery.
4.12.2017
Activism is such an amazing group. It exists to pass judgement on others and never on itself, not by itself, not by anyone else. Extraordinary
Activism is such an amazing group. It exists to pass judgement on others and never on itself, not by itself, not by anyone else. Extraordinary
Certain failure is expected of those not embracing criticism from within and without, no? Activists?
Certain failure is expected of those not embracing criticism from within and without, no? Activists?
Here’s why the D.C. pundits came to love Bill Clinton: He almost did it. He almost achieved that great coalescence of the professional and business classes.
Here’s why the D.C. pundits came to love Bill Clinton: He almost did it. He almost achieved that great coalescence of the professional and business classes.
Washington and the prosperous, well-educated fellows who inhabit it. Every one of them knows that the real problem with government is what they call entitlement spending, meaning Social Security and Medicare; that the obvious solution is some sort of privatization; and also that every
### “All agreed”; “all accepted.” It’s difficult for outsiders to understand the kind of hypnotic appeal such invocations of consensus hold for Washington and the prosperous, well-educated fellows who inhabit it. Every one of them knows that the real problem with government is what they call entitlement spending, meaning Social Security and Medicare; that the obvious solution is some sort of privatization; and also that every other responsible, professional-class person either agrees on this matter or else is a charlatan or demagogue of some species or other.
I have heard some expression of this consensus since the day I met my first congressional staffer back in the Eighties. I’ve heard it from certain kinds of Democrats as well as Republicans; from losers as well as winners. As with free trade and welfare reform, there is no amount of reporting or argument that will budge this idée fixe; people of a certain educational background simply know it to be true. Thomas Frank, listen liberal
4.11.2017
"Well, solar energy is still pretty expensive," the shopkeeper said. "I think destroying our children's future is pretty expensive," I replied. "Well, that's true," he said, seeming to mean it.
"Well, solar energy is still pretty expensive," the shopkeeper said. "I think destroying our children's future is pretty expensive," I replied. "Well, that's true," he said, seeming to mean it.
Stop asking, how can I fix everything? Start asking, what is my best attempt right now? Do that. Keep asking.
Stop asking, how can I fix everything?
Start asking, what is my best attempt right now?
Do that. Keep asking.
Traveling through Minnesota is heartbreaking. The only employment, Walmart. People are unnecessary, just their remaining pennies.
Traveling through Minnesota is heartbreaking. The only employment, Walmart. People are unnecessary, just their remaining pennies.
4.10.2017
To see no honest path to Victory, no matter how remote, is to unilaterally accept defeat. The 'left' for decades.
To see no honest path to Victory, no matter how remote, is to unilaterally accept defeat.
The 'left' for decades.
A very dear, Christward-looking fellow posted today directing his followers to a beautiful nature scene and suggesting they look for the beautiful around them. My reply: Friend, I share this.....
A very dear, Christward-looking fellow posted today directing his followers to a beautiful nature scene and suggesting they look for the beautiful around them. My reply: Friend, I share this as a duty as a brother. I will unfollow you because I find posts like, that beautiful nature scene, it's so important to find the good things around us, so dissonant with My Soul. I don't have the energy for the distraction, not that you should care, and absolutely I mean no offense. The Jesus that I know never would have written such a thing, never thought such a thing. The Jesus that I know realized that life, Joy, is in looking in the opposite direction. Yes, the ultimate counterintuitive. Life is found in seeing, in looking for, in finding, the most in pain, the most suffering, and serving in solidarity from the soul to improve their situation or die trying. Joy is in the exact opposite direction of pleasure. Does Someone Like Jesus not find positive experience in a beautiful sunset? Of course. It comes with the territory. Do they look at it? Do they look for it? Do they direct others there? As you do unto the least of these you do unto me. I am not trying to reopen a dialogue. We've discussed this many times. Your brother forever, no matter what, James
To an acquaintance that has some familiarity with my writing and work of the last year: "It is odd to me that no one understands I have always fought to win. With every.....
To an acquaintance that has some familiarity with my writing and work of the last year: "It is odd to me that no one understands I have always fought to win. With every breath I fight to win and that includes seeing how the victory can be achieved through my action despite how infinitesimally likely that is. In my entire adulthood I have never allowed myself the luxury fighting without a vision that is reality based in how Victory can be achieved thereby. This could be the entirety of why I fight alone." The fellow replied, respectfully and kindly, in a way that suggests he found what I said ridiculous. As near as I can tell everyone finds what I write and say ridiculous at the core. A superficial level many people like it. But at the deeper level at which I try to operate, ridiculous. "If at first the idea is not absurd, and has no hope." Albert Einstein
I would infinitely rather be deliberately ignored, disliked, considered......
I would infinitely rather be deliberately ignored, disliked, considered ridiculous, or even hated, than to simply be enjoyed, unnoticed, or taken for granted.
4.09.2017
Are you going through Ohio, a nice fellow asked. I replied, Creator knows. Seriously. I watch for signs of where I can do the most good. I have.....
Are you going through Ohio, a nice fellow asked. I replied, Creator knows. Seriously. I watch for signs of where I can do the most good. I have some interest in Flint and Detroit. Those are in the directions of Ohio. Also some interest in the pipeline fight in Lancaster Pennsylvania. But so far near zero support either Financial or places to plant my sleeping bag and or tent are materializing. That could grind things to a halt pretty soon.
Not quite sure how this 65 year old body does it. Maybe it's nothing significant. From pretty much a standing start, yesterday was 30 miles.... M
Not quite sure how this 65 year old body does it. Maybe it's nothing significant. From pretty much a standing start, yesterday was 30 miles and today was another 30. my knees are bothering me a bit. unlike my Sprint to Standing Rock from North Carolina, this time I am using the vehicle as a bike assisted by the Sun. I'm really quite amazed and delighted. In addition to me there is a 250 pound payload, the vehicle and what I carry. I'm amazed that on gentle terrain such as this part of the country traveling at 9 miles an hour on a overcast, zero Sun, day like today, I leave with a full battery and I arrive with a full battery. I'm doing about half the work according to my torque sensor, About 15 watt per mile, and the Sun and motor are doing about the same. 5 solar panels, 500 watts , is just about right. On sunny days it will provide enough energy that instead of averaging 9 miles an hour I can stay battery neutral at probably 12 miles an hour. I was a bit worried about carrying a 4th panel on the trailer because that made it longer but so far my concern seems to be unfounded. the strong suggestion from me is that others need to start pulling solar trailers behind their electrified bicycles to encourage renewable energy for others and for the fun of it.
"Be safe," "Be careful," kindly folks often say to me. From the neediest on Earth and in the future I hear something different, "Keep yourself In Harm's Way," "be effective," "live our emergency," "save us or die trying."
"Be safe," "Be careful," kindly folks often say to me. From the neediest on Earth and in the future I hear something different, "Keep yourself In Harm's Way," "be effective," "live our emergency," "save us or die trying."
4.08.2017
Save the world now. Nothing less is worth the effort.
Save the world now. Nothing less is
worth the effort.
4.07.2017
If the choice is between global thermonuclear war that rapidly annihilates all of the human plague, or status quo, I choose war.
If the choice is between global thermonuclear war that rapidly annihilates all of the human plague, or status quo,
I choose war.
Those whose future I fight for have a duty to support this mission. The worker, the soldier, is due his wages.
Those whose future I fight for have a duty to support this mission. The worker, the soldier, is due his wages.
By virtue of our DNA design we are agents of Creation in small tribes, and the Agents of Destruction in larger and or hitech groups.
By virtue of our DNA design we are agents of Creation in small tribes, and the Agents of Destruction in larger and or hitech groups.
No, everything is not fine. My depression has been periodic in my life, an inspirational and creative friend. Yes I have understandably.....
No, everything is not fine. My depression has been periodic in my life, an inspirational and creative friend. Yes I have understandably worked to surmount the depression. I no longer find that this is called for for me. My job, the job of all of us is and must be, to stir people's hearts. Fun, Pleasant, nice to be around, is not what the world needs from me, or you. Disturbed, mildly depressed. Not as an act, but as the only sane response to what is being done by us to all creation. One of the few great psychologists, Abraham Maslow, was asked at an august convention where he was speaking, dr. Maslow you cite Abraham Lincoln as iconic of human health , yet Lincoln was known to be depressive. Maslow replied, you think someone being depressed in the midst of a civil war Slaughter is a sign of unhealthy?
4.06.2017
In a couple more days it will be ready to roll. Major progress.....
In a couple more days it will be ready to roll. Major progress on the punch list again all day today. The notion of a solar trailer is pretty significant. This is a second generation of the trailer. Some important upgrade features are noted in the photographs below and a description of each photograph. The challenges include lightweight, low cost, reliability even in moderate wind conditions, the ability to tie down in the event of extreme winds. The ability to angle the panel left or right to catch full sun. The ability to have panels extended Way Beyond the vehicle so that if the vehicle is casting Shadows at least some of the panels will still be generating electricity. And on and on. I suggest that if you are really interested in promoting renewable energy that you do something like I have even if you don't extremely need it. As it sits here this vehicle is about $12,000, but it is only a third of that or less and functional parts, $3 to 4000. and then it's basically free except for $120 in tires every thousand miles ( quite standard on a bike) and $0.10 a mile for the depletion of lithium ion batteries. And in another couple of years it'll be less than that simply because there will be places to rebuild the batteries which is very inexpensive. The stylish cab from Organic Transit, don't buy it unless you want zero, zero, zero, support, the stylish cab is needed or beneficial for the full-time campaign I wage. It is 80% of the cost. It could easily be an under $500 Schwinn tricycle with a $600 motor. Or it could be a more sophisticated two thousand-dollar motorized trike. Or most likely still it could simply be a motorized bicycle with just one or two panels. If you can commute around a city like I did around Washington DC with a motorized bike and a panel you wouldn't plug your batteries in anytime within a year most likely. Why aren't you doing something like this? If you're serious about getting people to think about renewable energy, in time for it to matter, you'll seriously consider this and some of you will do it. Oh, and the American flags you wonder? Yes, I detest with every cell in my body the America that behaves as it does today and for most of its existence. But I refuse to surrender what I was told it stood for when I was in kindergarten, freedom and justice for all, give me your tired your poor your huddled masses yearning to be free. I refuse to surrender that.
4.05.2017
Left Right and Center hate the Truth. They love what confirms their biases.
Left Right and Center hate the Truth.
They love what confirms their biases.