“The nature of most classrooms, regardless of the subject matter, socializes students to be passive and directed by others, to follow orders, to take seriously the rewards and punishments of authorities, to pretend to care about things they don’t care about, and that they are impotent to affect their situation.” 

Children need to be more trusting of their support system and parents and in turn gain confidence in their own choices and intuition. Nowhere does it say the laws of the current dysfunctional universe must apply to the language and definition of a child’s universe. The only universal language is math and it comes intuitively, but not necessarily in units that are defined in the same terms. 

I’m watching the shuttle crew move out to the launch facility for the very last shuttle mission. Can’t help but notice the classic Airstream bus. For someone is barley old enough to recall the debut of the Columbia with his dad in 1981 it is somewhat nostalgic.  Right mow, the Nasa commentator is narrating the bios of the crew.  Amazing that the four crew members have focused their entire professional lives for this opportunity.  

Devoting a lifetime skillet torwards total mastery of specific methods and procedures for preping, mounting and driving incredibly complex flight system.

What happens to all of that energy after this?

What happens to all of that infrastructure there on the pad and scattered through that Florida complex and a dozen more around the world. All for a machine that will never fly again? 

Ideas need momentum. Skills need usage or they atrophy. Granted when one door closes another opens. I do have to wonder.   Goverments investment in space flight certainly has pulled forward the accomplishments far before any private enterprise would have decided it was feasible. Good for a short sprint in terms of human innovation. Can we do this sustainability?

I think a good start would be to not let the assets in place at Nasa languish under government control and out of the hands of investors who would buy up the knowledge and assents tomorrow.  Right now we have all our eggs in once basket here on planet earth. For the Human race to thrive the stars are the only place to go. 

When someone is dependent on you, and they are getting sicker, I imagine it would be hard not to feel obliged to facilitate healthcare for them.  

Applying Freedom absolutly depends on being in a position to step outside yourself and to be the example others look to. Often you may not feel like it but its important to stetch to where you can be charitable and nieghborly.  To make it easier every single person has to be fit to give themselves the biggest measure of reserve possible to face the challanges of the day.

 For many without a sound faith in their own abilities its an impossible task.  To change from one set of circumstances to another people always have to make a personal investment.  Its enormously helpful to have those personal examples to look to.

“People don’t resist change; they resist being changed” —the late mgmt consultant Peter Scholtes 

 I think that starts with striving to have a fundamental understanding of your own health and health factors. Not just nodding along at the doctor and knocking back whatever pills they prescribe. The problem is this country is being poisoned by a culture of apathy. 

My take is that many Americans are ill because of a poorly understood diet.  Few have any resources in their personal lives to teach them any other way of ‘being’  or even how to ask the questions needed to get out of the mental box they are in. The dangerous things about the medical ‘standard of care’ is that it blinds people that their could be anything worth questioning.

I question why not investigate the following…

-Things like strains of heirloom veggies being narrowed from 345+ local varieties to 3 commercially grown GMO infused varieties being the only ones avalaible 

- Why do we encourage a grains heavy diet for people with already heavy in takes of sugar, besides insulin being a vasular stressor the problems from too much yeast (which loves sugar) are hardly talked about.

- What are the real stats for ‘gut inflammation’ (scarring) and the damage it causes. I hear 1 in 100 ( I think along the lines of fudged unemployment where its likely as low as 1 in 30)

- How exactly does being allergic to wheat break the bodies fundamental abilities to absorb nutrients (especially B12)

 - Why are we so lacking in fermented foods found in so many other cultures which are useful to acclimate people to their local climate of beneficial microbes (things like Kombucha or Sour-kraut)

 - The purpose of the Appendix is a mystery to modern medicine, why? One theory for the Appendix is that beneficial microbes hide out there when the gut floor gets wiped out by bout of    dysentery.

- Apple Cider vinegar is considered a miracle supplement, why?  Maybe something to do with helping the bodies B12 absorption..

- Why is a low fat diet so common when most veggies have little or no nutritional value without also being accompanied by some fat?  ie.. fat solutabile vitamins and minerals.

 - Why are so many allergies presenting? Perhaps, coming back to the wheat thing again, most people like start off not allergic to most things but perhaps only a single item, but exposed at a very young age that damages their gut to the point that the inflammation reacts to the big 8 (Eggs, Wheat, Soy, Dairy, Treenuts, Peanuts, Shellfish, and Fish) and likely some others.  

- Why are most foods fortified with Folate and  Vitamin C (Absorbic acid) derived from possible food allergens from many people- Why not cook from whole ingredients when food allergens for many are infused into almost every prepackaged food. 

All of this is just works for my family. We are trusting  our own judgement based on some sound investigation. It wasn’t easy personally,  but I had someone to help me out.  I think that’s missing for a lot of people, the standard of care in the medical community will not  utter a word about it. I had to be taught all of this, but I was taught by example. From someone who was very intuitive and did not usually listen to common ‘wisdom’  

Sam, our newborn has grown in length phenomenally and is off the charts for the docs. My take is that he is lucky to have a momma with a good intuition not to eat some things that she knows she has problems with, even some things she was ok with but  that Sam seems to get fussy about. By being mindful about them Samuel can spend less time coping and more time growing.   

For some extra Reading I would recommend:http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocente…ns/vitaminB12/ (insightful on Homocystines, stomach PH, and cholesterol) http://www.amazon.com/Could-Be-B12-Epidemic-Misdiagnoses/dp/1884956467

From the article linked in the header

“The colonists had a sweet deal in 1775. Great Britain was the second freest nation on earth. Switzerland was probably the most free nation, but I would be hard-pressed to identify any other nation in 1775 that was ahead of Great Britain. And in Great Britain’s Empire, the colonists were by far the freest.”

Gary goes on to say that with a 1% Tax rate the colonists had no idea what they were giving up and that Jefferson’s assertions of  injustices by the king were not true.

My commentary:  Thomas Paine outlined very nicely in Common Sense the frustrations of the American Colonies with the perceived injustices of the British crown.  More importantly Common Sense was a rallying cry for the American people to step out from dependence on the British crown. With a 1% tax rate you can be sure many endeavors in the colonies were indeed being subsidized by Britain. Those with healthy appreciation for the human experience yearn to be free, not comfortable and everyone yearns to be heard, or at least acknowledged.   

Paine acknowledge that dynamic in Common Sense and then he challenged the people of the continent to step out from a dependent relationship and seize an opportunity. From June 11th to July 4th 1776 representatives crafted a well articulated statement of non dependence on Britain. Refusing to participate in an arbitrarily inherited arrangement. Subservient to someone born into the responsibility of lording over them, with no expectant way for that lord to have any earned appreciation or empathy. More importantly, in a state of perpetual ‘ there would be no expectation for the King of Great Britain to challenge the american colonists to reach their full potential. 

This is all beside the point of weather or not the American people, like some ambitious youth, did not appreciate the cost of what was involved with our independence.  Without trying, this country would have never known. 

I sometimes think that we have tired after running out of the house of Great Britain. As a people we were full of good intentions to claim an endless journey self-acquired opportunity. Now we have simply gotten frustrated and sat down on the side of the road to accept handouts. We have abstained responsibility for ourselves.   Instead of running back to the house of Great Britain we are constructing it around us again where we lay. We bemoan that things are too hard and we need that security.

I think not. 

Gary North falls into the Aspergerian trait of missing the context and the intent behind some actions. His argument follows the logic of the day and the presumption that we should have remained comfortable. The past is important to understand, but it is a fatal mistake to transpose the same logic Gary is using with what is proper. In that thread it becomes shame and guilt.

A good meta physical existence is about reaching out for opportunity despite the lack of comfort or the possibility of anxiety. We have made some tremendous mistakes and fowled our  guiding principles and Rule of Law. These things are akin to the missing the first stepping stone on the path to opportunity or if you will entertain the notion, a metaphysical trail-head.   

Let us return to our principles and our intent for an independent pursuit of opportunity and not be ashamed or concerned by our past. It would be sad to distract from finding that first step. It is something each and every generation has to do for itself.   

Please read the article linked in the header. 

This economy has borrowed from its current levels of productivity (GDP) for nearly the last 100 years based on a policy of debt financing.  The push for ‘green energy’ may be far more costly to the environment than many would like to admit.

Good tools and efficiently utilized sources of energy save us from wasteful ‘hammer misses’ as we try to build the society and products people need. Consumerism and the terminology of needs, and wants not withstanding frustration at the lack of ‘progress’ often translates to more regulation.

Regulation begets unintended consequences, such as expenditures of effort far out of proportion to the task at hand. Conservation and mindfulness are thrown out of the window for drives across town or transoceanic shipments for the sake of satisfying arbitrary rules and regulations. Besides, now matter the regulations how accountable are the regulators in a monolithic bureaucracy?  

Accountability should stop squarely at the doorsteps of the companies participating in our society. They should not be able to hide liability and personal respectability (the term corporate person-hood cuts both ways) behind claims that government ‘regulations’ are being met. 

Behind every unit of GDP is a unit of Energy and we will need every bit of it to pull out of this economic depression.  Green energy that takes as much energy to construct as it prioduces while borrowing from the productivity of 100 years from not to subsidize it will not cut it.  

I offer Thorium Nuclear Power coupled with the Topic-Fischer conversion process for gasoline as only one possibility. It will not be a possibility you will hear whispered from the halls of congress which are permeated with special interests looking for both convectional and green energy green energy handouts.  Nor from the Defense department who has stoked anxiety fro 60 years to keep this country at the apex of the nuclear weapons race and as the arbiter of exporting nuclear technology to prefered regiems. 

Controlling tendencies often take you in the opposite direction of where you would like to be. Governments as a point of principle should not be able to do anything you as an individual would not be able to do. 

NYTimes article by Kate Zernikie

Kate Zernikie is perhaps one of a few progressive leaning journalists who has troubled themselves to spent time closely examining the Tea Party for its actual motivations.  This article is a rather excellent observation that I will offer some commentary on later.  As F.A Hayek stated in the Road to Sefdom, in the absense of a Rule of Law, people will often turn to tradition. 

The power of paradox is appreciation.  The only acceptable narrative in the political process there is no room for appreciation. The absolute authority and resultant polarization is powerful. The Rule of Law, at its essence, dictates that government is force, backed by the point of a gun.  Out of scope it is arbitrary. Arbitrarily trapped many would chew off their own limbs to be free. 

In the case of the ‘freedom message’ it is imperative that those who would normally look to tradition be open to appreciating ‘change’. Not the change of Barack Obama but the change of disruption. Freedom is not freedom from anxiety. Reaching the desired outcome for all of  that energy depends on the ability of stakeholders to articulate a respect and a nod to tradition while at the same time embracing disruptive technology and the uncertainty that comes with it.  

It may help to look to a philosophy or faith. The goal there should be to prepare yourself to cope, especially with your own hypocrisy. Be fit to fight your own re-activity and instead embrace a spirit of charity and personal responsibility. If you are responsible for the energy you put out into the world (to quote Oprah) you will be the examples for the ideas you would like to champion. I’m looking at you Tea Party.