Every Time You Say No - You're Being a Jackass!

You know, they should re-title the book “When I say No – I feel Guilty” to rather say, “When I say No – it Empowers Me” because there are certain types of personality out there.  Here's a good one, "I say NO whenever I can get away with it".  Some work on the Dr. Phil principle of a parent nagged by a kid to get candy or some toy or other treat and the kid is playing the “How many No’s have you got left in you?” game.  This is like with Mario or John bugging me for a cigarette.  It’s a wearing down process.  But there are other types of individuals like Mom and Dad, who really get off on saying “No”.  To them a Yes means Maybe and Maybe means No.  And No means “Hell No!”  That’s how they work.  Persistence is highly counter-productive with them.  I told you though that the biggest farsical falsehood in the whole Bible is the one Jesus told about the widow and the Judge - -and how constant petitioning is a steady “wearing down process”.  God isn’t like that.  God can’t be “worn down”.  Besides I’d just rather be told straight outright what the “Bottom line on this whole thing is” and not be continuously be jerked around in some “game’ I’d rather not play.  We discussed the three ways in which optimists were superior.  But first I’d like to note that on the list of twelve self improvement steps it says to “Pursue - -  optimism”.  Optimism isn’t an end in itself but a means to an end.  And as a means to some end it should be cultivated.  It’s like as in that other posting you “Pursue - - Justice” or persue love or pursue Happiness.  The Pursuit of Happiness” is not what Dennis Prager claims it to be that “Every American citizen is morally obligated to Be Happy”.   My suggestion is that Dennis start with himself, because he sure says enough negative things on the radio to bring the rest of us down.  I would say the same thing of Neil Savedra.   I would like to cite one other word - - “Temperance”.  I do not hold temperance as a cardinal virtue.  It is an effect and not a cause.  It’s something that’s done to you, for good or for bad, like “tempered” steel.  It’s the creating by outside forces of certain desirable properties within you, and Melinda Lee spoke of how “chocolate can fall out of temper if it’s melted and then refrozen”.  Capish?   I’d now like to move on to those three things - - qualities that distinguish Optimists from Pessimists and as I probably said last week, these things I basically agree with.  Let’s talk about globularity verses local nature.  This one has always been a bugaboo with me.  People assume because you have one localized problem or perhaps flaw- - that somehow it can be generalized into a condemnation of your whole nature.  Dad does this with me all the time.  You will offer a specific to the event explanation of “what you did wrong” or whatever- - and Dad will greet you with a chorus of “Always” s and “Never” s.  Here’s a clue for you all.  You can’t say “Allways” when you mean it’s happened exactly twice.  Think about it.  All means at least three things.  If it’s just two you use the word “Both”.  Capish?  Another abuse of this local verses global “problem” comes with the Tea Party, and I think Dr. Levy was out of the room or distracted when I raised this issue in class.  Because Republicans will say that Obama’s whole speech is some kind of a “Liberal boiler plate speech” meaning I don’t know what.  Because I heard the speech and it’s matter of fact and adopted to the specific problems of our times - - and shows the President’s ability to adjust and fine tune measures.  I had a problem with Health Care as you know.  But I still voted for the President even though I have basic philosophical problems with the whole concept of cumpulsary health insurance.  I question the administration’s statistics as to whether or not it saves money.  But this is a LOCAL issue and doesn’t reflect the “fact” it’s because Obama is a Moslem raised in Kenya by a Communist father and gets advice from liberals whom he hasn’t even talked to in thirty years.  But the Tea Party will constantly speak in these global generalities.  Another of the three issues is whether something is your fault or “circumstances got the better of you”.  I think many kids are given a bad rap for saying “circumstances got the better of me” and the Father will pier down on him and say “Son, that is no excuse!”  May I submit that many times – it Is.  I told Dr. Levy I think I am smart enough to know whether a particular failing was mine or that of circumstance.  And there are times when- - for instance there was “no forseeable way” you could have known.  But the next time this issue is about to come up- you can learn to be a little more circumspect- - which is a polite word for Paranoid.  I mean you’ve heard of “Defensive driving” and I have talked about “Defensive conversation”.  This is- - keep in mind that this isn’t an open field but rather a field that’s already been Mined by the other side with booby-traps and pitfalls all over the place.  The third thing is the example we gave about “chocolate falling out of temper”.  What does this mean?  Sometimes events can be WORSE than you initially think.  This is the third category of permanent verses transient.  We would all like our virtues to be permanent and our vices and shortfalls tobe temporary.  Dr. Levy reminded us that our inate talents and skills are most likely permanent.  Or it’s something like riding a bike - - that will “all come back to you” even if you haven’t been on a bike in twenty years.  So like I say- - this is what separates Conservatives from Liberals.  Conservatives see problems as one thing and liberals view them quite differently.

 It seems today we were hit by a meteor in Russia, and also had that near miss by the Asteroid from 17,000 miles away, which is a whole lot closer than the moon is.  Just to elaborate on the Russian meteor they said that thing weighed ten tons and broke up in our atnosphere sending powerful shock waves that broke glass panes for miles around and even toppled walls.  The local people were crying that it was "the end of the world" - - for Real.  But the experts in the know say "such events are not uncoomon but happen all the time".  I don't know about that.  I turned on David Cruise who volunteered he did not dare even think of “testing the line” discipline wise, with his father.  I guess being a tough disciplinarian is a good thing, unless you get carried away with it and it turns you into a freak.  David Cruise was dealing with bullies.  I think the whole problem with kids today is that they can’t accept either criticism or failure without thinking that it’s the end of the world.  There are times when I wonder if Dad secretly wished I’d just crawl away in some cave and die or something, because obviously I’ll never amount to anything.  I always had more respect for myself than either parent had of me.  Kids today are raised in this nicey-nice “kindergarten class’ environment all their lives where “everybody is special” and nobody ever fails or falls short.  The idea of self improvement or higher achievement is a concept totally lost on them.  I guess I should check my blogger numbers.  I haven’t done that lately.

Nicole Sandler was in for Randy Rhodes today and she said that NASA at some point after the Carter administration sold all of their solar technology to ARCO, who went right and got a patent on it.  Of course ARCO was gobbled up by Exxon-Mobile and apparently doesn’t exist anymore.   I find this highly disconcerting that we’ve been granting oil subsedies since 1916 to help an infant industry - - and 95 years later we are still at it.  And yet if Solar or wind seek to get any assistance at all Paul and Judy will cry “socialist subsidy”.  In Denmark and Germany and France – solar is working out beautifully for them, and we get a hell of a lot more sunshine than those countries.  I’ve always wondered why Solar never became economically feasible over the past forty years.  It has I suspect a lot to do with government meddeling.  We had chili cheese fries for lunch and true to form as I told Irvin, “We never get seconds on French fries” and it was true today.  I was saying in that blog posting about “being sure who you know who your friends really are” goes double for today.  Today Nick met with Gabriel and Kate and somehow it felt more like an inquisition than a pep talk or support session.  It’s kind of like me with [BLANK] and Judy a lot of the time.  You have to pretend “we’re all friends” because if you dare say anything else they put you down as paranoid.  Somewhere along the line Nick is going to have to go “bottom line” with these people and ask them straight out, “are you with me or not?”

 I had KNX on and they said “The Way We Were” and “Benny and the Jets” were popular on the radio at the same time.  I thought “Jets” came markedly earlier.  The President gave an excellent Saturday weekly address.  We had oatmeal and I had a pink sugar in my pocket that was starting to leak.  Finally we got a fried egg and dry toast.  At least they properly toast their toast now.  Then it was the Co Q 10 and Resveritrol and B 12 complex add till eight thirty and- - just then Dr. Levy announced his arrival so I went right down.  The room was already full of people including James Fisher, Irvin, Silva, and Leeshia.  Leeshia used to be in sales, and I believe that.  She’s quite articulate.  For once we actually continued with the pages Dr. Levy passed out last week, and I’ll have more to say about this later.  Both me and Wally were a little proactive as far as interjecting the remarks we wanted to “get on the record”.  Wally talked about times when he and Bill Wardell and Arleen were swimming in the ocean, and apparently there were multiple such trips to the beach before my arrival in the group.  Dr. Levy had coffee for me.  I accepted the three - - packets of coffee but gave the coffee filters to Leeshia because I had more than plenty.  The group lasted till twenty to ten or just later.  Wally asked whether the criteria for mental illness was the same all over the world.  The answer is that basically it is- - whether it’s in India or South Africa or in Europe or the United States.  Mental illness knows no distinctions of either race or age or socio-economic status.  It’s about one percent regardless.  We got to talking about how Stalin was responsible personally for the deaths of between forty and sixth (!) million people during his 31 year reign from 1922 to 1953.  We didn’t talk about Mao.  My point in even including this paragraph in the post is that mental illness is not "culturally determined".  It's like that Supreme Court Justice says about pornography, "Maybe I can't define it but I know it when I see it".  The idea that the "Political Left" would somehow "Define" any action of the conservative right as "Mental illness" is absurd.  Here again - - Dr. Levy said that it was a one percent figure that cuts accross all strata of the world's population.

So now we come to this paragraph.  People might ask me "Those Federation people and dead rock stars you talk to - - they always seem to be volenteering information, but how do they measure up when it comes to asking them a point blank question that demands an answer?"  Today I had the chance to ask for and get just such a response from Burt Lombard, this is a name - alias I have used for him for over 35 years.  First of all this paragraph only covers one micro issue - - of the many I could bring up now.  As you know for decades Burt was in charge of the "Ziggy lobby" so to speak that believes in some earth Messiah (or "Tommy") type figure - - that is the "Savior of the world" or at least the Young generation or something.   So then I was a bit flabberghasted when Burt said to me he was never really "into" this "Robin and Howard" romance stuff- - producing an offspring. (Zachery)   So how could he head up such an Organization dedicated to the principles thereof?  Because Burt had also told me that "Actually I kind of thought the whole Ziggy thing was about Me, if you want to know the truth.  People say "Brian Jones" and I say "Fine.  I have a lot of musical respect for Brian Jones"  (But he did not say whether actually Met him while they were both alive in the flesh.) - - -  Burt's answer to me was, "It's a religion - for Christ's sake!  Of Course- - there is a lot of Fantasy and Imagery - - and things that aren't so".  Of course maybe I haven't said lately that me and Robin were married in a previous life 140 years ago.  I've never seen how this was even relevant since Mal Evans informed me of this 31 years ago - all the way back to early 1982.  But the whole ZAC mythology - had a life of its own and seemed to function nonindependent of any actual "facts".  But the thing is - - - people have fantasies about a lot of things.  The Calvary Chapel people are always talking about the religious golden age of Solomon and how they'd like to get back to that - and how "The Lord is in his holy temple, let us keep silent before him" and taking people past the inner gates into the Holy of Holies to be forgiven" and all of that.  I guess the question is- - "Why keep silent in the Temple.  God isn't so deaf that he can't hear all the comotion outside, is he?"  These church hyms are a real riot anyhow, like the one about "Take my silver, take my gold - - not a Mite would I withhold".  Personally I go for the Michelle Bachman tea party approach.  I start off by assuming that God (like government) is something I owe zero percent of my income to.  And if it's to be anything other than Zero - - then God or the Government is going to have to Justify to me- - the reason they want my money and what they intend to do with it.