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Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Why We Believe What We Believe

Why do Jihadists believe what they believe. Why do we believe what we believe?

We're all born as tape recorders. Our experiences are recorded based on what we see,

feel, smell, taste, and touch. Our beliefs are based on what we're told. The old addage "Garbage-in...Garbage-0ut" is true for everyone.

Even our most revered leaders have some "garbage" programmed into their beliefs
Nothing is perfect and will never be.

The purpose for this blog is to get you to think about your beliefs. Where did they come from? Who put them there? Was there a purpose for someone influencing you in a
certain way? (Are you being programmed to strap a bomb onto yourself and blowing yourself up? Did your teachers do it? Hmmmmm.....)

Will finish this blog later, but please think about your beliefs until then. Where did they come from? Do you love? Do you hate? Are you better than someone else? Why?

Global Warming

We've all heard about global warming. Are we responsible? Don't know yet.

Does global warming exist.....Yes, but so does global cooling sometimes.

Here's what I've heard..
  1. We are spewing out carbon dioxide like it's going out of style. Our plants and plankton can't absorb the CO2 as fast as we and our volcanoes spew it out. So, the level of CO2 raises with a consequential warming of our planet.
  2. Our earth goes through natural processes and there were times on our planet when CO2 levels were much higher than they are now. The earth was much colder and warmer than it is now.
  3. One theory about global warming states that these hot/cold spells are dependent on the orientation of the earth's axis relative to the sun as it is traveling around the sun in its elliptical path. So, sometimes, the summer orientation also happens to coincide with when the earth is closest to the sun. VOILA!, its hotter in the summer = more snow melt=more dark ground exposed = more methane released from permafrost = more greenhouse gases = warmer planet.
  4. Our solar system travels around the galaxy askew from what's called the galactic plane. This means that the solar system will cross the galactic plane twice on its journey around our galaxy. The galactic plane has different forces at play; I'm thinking a more directional gravitational tug from the stars that are in the plane. So, what happens to the sun when it crosses the galactic plane... it's stretched. The internal structure of the sun changes with a resultant increase in nuclear activity... i.e. the sun warms up! (Like mixing around embers in a campfire.) Our earth will be at the center of the galactic plane circa 2012. (Hmmm! Mayan Calendar?)
  5. There's evidence that our whole solar system is warming up... not just the earth. The polar ice caps on Mars are melting, the frozen moons around Saturn and Jupiter are melting, Pluto is warming up.

We know just enough to be dangerous.


My opinions, comments and suggestions are these....
  1. All of the above are responsible to some degree.
  2. What a GREAT! way to spawn new technologies to sell. Selling the same old thing with modifications is getting boring to me. Thanks Al Gore!
  3. Create a nuclear winter (not my idea) not on earth (my idea), but in orbit between the earth and the sun. Place it and size its particles so that the solar wind will push it out of the way when we won't need it anymore.
  4. Fertilize the plankton in our oceans so that they absorb more
    CO2, create more limestone, and sink.
  5. Let's start shifting our economics so that we can painlessly use "Free Energy" (more on this later.)
  6. Let's start reducing our population so that we produce less CO2. (more on this later - remember, a economic and human friendly way.) If none of us had babies, we'd all be gone in 100 yrs.

Is the Iraq War Justified?

This is a tough question. So.. let's look at both sides.

Side one - Yes

Let's pose some questions.

1) How many Iraquis died daily under Saddam Hussein?
2) When all is said and done, will the Iraquis be better off after the conflict?
3) With oil as a major concern in our world, do we want that oil under the control of other nations?
4) What other nation is willing to let the Iraqi people to keep their revenue from oil?
5) With all the oil Iraq has, won't Iraq eventually be as rich as Dubai?
6) Wouldn't it be nice if the US had a base convenient to the tumultuous middle east?
7) Don't more Iraqis want to be free than under the control of radical Islam?
8) Are we willing to let millions of innocent be slaughtered while we pull out?
9) Didn't Iraq hold down the ambitions of Iran? Don't we still need to hold Iran's ambitions at bay?
10) Doesn't the Iraq conflict keep the terrorists off our shores?

If the answers to these questions are: 1= thousands(average), 2= yes, 3= no, 4= none, 5=yes, 6= yes, 7= yes, 8= no, 9= yes. Then the Iraq war is justified. 10=yes.

Side 2 = No, the Iraq war is not justified.

1) Doesn't the Iraq war weaken our forces?
2) Is the US just there "for the oil?"
3) Is the threat of terrorism a political play?
4) Are more terrorists being made because of this conflict?
5) The Iraqi people can take care of themselves and will accomplish peace between their warring factions.
6) President Bush got us into this war, not because of weapons of mass destruction but because he wanted to finish what his dad started. (Saddam tried to have Bush's daddy assassinated.)
7) The weapons manufacturers promote this war because they can make a lot of money.
8) Do the Iraquis resent being force fit into a society they don't want? (Capitalism.)
9) Does Iraq want us out?

If the answers are 1=yes, 2=yes, 3=yes, 4=yes, 5=yes, 6=yes, 7=yes, 8=yes, 9=yes then
the Iraq war is unjustified.

As I look at these two scenarios, I want to think the Iraq war was justified. I feel there are fewer Iraqi people dieing today, even under war conditions, than died or were tortured under Saddam Hussein. I also feel there were weapons of mass destruction (you can find sites on the internet that have maps showing where they are.) Russia supplied them and helped Saddam move them to Syria and bury them in Iraq near the Syrian border. Do we really want to finger Russia as the culprit behind Iraq's WMDs? That's a war we don't want to start!

6/1/2007 Just heard another reason why we got into the Iraq war. Regardless of some of the supposedly inaccurate reasons why we got into the war, the war was inevitable because Saddam Hussein kept defying U.N. Sanctions. The course was set and Iraq had to be dealt with. In other words, sanctions didn't work, the inspections were interfered with, and in the end, Iraq had to be dealt with. (Remember Kuwait?)

Our world is different now. One of the tactics of war is the spread of mis-information. We can be led down a path that is directed by our enemies that sounds so very convincing (with forgeries of "official documents", carefully edited videos, and outright lies). Look at this website and look at the headlines. There is an overall picture that comes out that leads me to believe we're being fooled by carefully crafted "news". Doesn't the progression seem kinda weird to you?

Conspiracies? YOU BETCHA! Are they true? YOU BETCHA Do they have an impact? YOU BETCHA.... BUT.... doable? NOT A CHANCE! Our government is too big to keep any conspiracy under wraps. How can we keep a conspiracy secret with circa 21 million government employees involved? Especially when most government employees are honest, dedicated, responsible, fine people.

I hate the idea that we lost circa 4000 of our troops in the 4+ years of the war, but I wonder how many Americans would be dead if we didn't focus the terrorists away from our shores.

(We lost more than 50,000 US troops in Vietnam in a shorter period of time.)

I lost a brother in Vietnam and it took me decades to bring my grief to a manageable level so I empathize with all of our patriotic families who lost loved ones in Iraq. May they always be remembered in history as heroes.

Enough for now.

I'll spew tomorrow. God Bless you all.

INTRODUCTION

We all have an incomplete understanding of why things are the way they are. Our perception of reality is based on our experiences and our limited ability to sense our surrounding environment.

Is the Iraq war justified?
Who's responsible for global warming?
Why do Jihadists believe what they believe.
Why do we believe what we believe?
Is our government really corrupt?
Is there really a conspiracy driving the news?
Why is my teenager being so hard to control?
Is there such a thing as "Free Energy"?
How can we control world population? (I have a humanitarian way to do it.)
Will we survive?
Is there a God?

This list goes on and on.

I have thoughts about all of these issues and am constantly trying to keep on top of them.
Being terminally curious has led me to my perception of why things are the way they are.

You'll agree with some of what I say and disagree with the rest. My sole purpose here is to plant seeds of thought, not dictate.

This is just stuff that's in my head.

One of my craziest thoughts is.......

If I combine eternity with probability, all things are possible and all things exist. This includes God, Buddha, Gaia, flying saucers, evolution and dinosaurs.

P.S. Remove spirituality and things start getting a little limited. "All things energy are possible and exist."

I tend toward scientific observations and try to relate various findings to what's really happening. I search for truth just like everyone else. The truth is very hard to find and my "truths" will be different than your "truths".

Till later.

Eric