What's more convenient than to camp right at the mall. To assure I won't be "bumped" I play the boondocker trump card for the second time this year. Look carefully at the right front wheel--see the jack? And the Note in the window---explaining my presence. Worked like a charm--slept undisturbed.
While I'm at it I'll show you another campsite--at Home depot--one of my favorites--along with Wal-Mart. Love the convenience--especially when I'm working on "tweaking " projects.
This is my Ex---Leigh--a truly delightful and courageous personality. 25 years ago we lived together for 5 years and have intermittently kept in contact. We had much to catch up on---so we talked for 9 hours almost nonstop. Compared to her, I am timid! She has roamed the far side of the world--lived in Asherams--studied exotic religions--Danced with Sufi Masters--and much much more that I cannot tell you. Long ago, she set her general life course--spiritual awakening--no children---independence---service. (she is social worker specializing in alcoholism) What a thrill to get the story--one highlight was enumerating our lovers---took awhile---lots of surprises!
When I'm adrift in a city, I find the farmers market---and Tigard has perhaps the finest.Did you know there were this many varities of tomatoes?
And I board the transit system--for the experience of it. Portland has a super duper one. This is a progressive city--are you surprised that it votes democratic? Only the Democratic party can think of the populace collectively--as a very large tribe -- which to some extent--cares about all its members. (Yes, I know, the Democratic party has a sappy, sentimental, element that stupidly wants to divide the pie evenly---a really bad idea--but still nobler than the Republican right wing religious nuts who want government to implement their "revealed" values, and the greedy Republican contingent who believes that transactional wealth(dealmaking wealth) is deserving of the huge money they collect) (HEY! just had a great idea---someone help me discover a "republican" city --I'll go visit and see how its philosophy (" every person for themselves" -- expresses itself in infrastructure, tone, services, creativity, and social ambiance) Brilliant idea!! help me out people--where are Americas' hard-core Republican cities. I'll go live among those insular SOB's just to see if "GREED IS GOOD".
Where was I before I threw a tantrum? Oh yes --adrift in the city. This is the entrance to the greatest bookstore in America---Powells----Oh my Oh my---You readers are in for a treat--millions of used (and new) books at reasonable prices--beautifully sorted and accessible---really great personnel to guide you. Note this lovely carved pillar--a very thoughtful compendium of the 8 greatest books ever written:
They are listed on this poster--can you make them out? Psalms--The Whale (Moby Dick), The Mahabharata (The Bagavad Gita etc), War and Peace, One Thousand Nights and a Night, Tao Te Ching, Hamlet, TheOdyssey. How many have you read? (I can't get through War and Peace)
Love wandering around the heart of downtown--I'm guessing this is a statue of Ganish the Hindu Elephant God.
Bums fascinate me--don't know why--perhaps I'm a closer relative that I'm comfortable admitting.
Perhaps it's because I too am a failure. My relatives say of me "He threw his life away". I've learned to embrace my failure and enjoy the freedom that comes from doing that. Occasionally I will give a pep talk to a dispirited bum--urging him to do likewise. The magic in doing this simple courageous resolve is that the tension--resistance--goes away--and allows a person to "move on."
And I board the transit system--for the experience of it. Portland has a super duper one. This is a progressive city--are you surprised that it votes democratic? Only the Democratic party can think of the populace collectively--as a very large tribe -- which to some extent--cares about all its members. (Yes, I know, the Democratic party has a sappy, sentimental, element that stupidly wants to divide the pie evenly---a really bad idea--but still nobler than the Republican right wing religious nuts who want government to implement their "revealed" values, and the greedy Republican contingent who believes that transactional wealth(dealmaking wealth) is deserving of the huge money they collect) (HEY! just had a great idea---someone help me discover a "republican" city --I'll go visit and see how its philosophy (" every person for themselves" -- expresses itself in infrastructure, tone, services, creativity, and social ambiance) Brilliant idea!! help me out people--where are Americas' hard-core Republican cities. I'll go live among those insular SOB's just to see if "GREED IS GOOD".
Where was I before I threw a tantrum? Oh yes --adrift in the city. This is the entrance to the greatest bookstore in America---Powells----Oh my Oh my---You readers are in for a treat--millions of used (and new) books at reasonable prices--beautifully sorted and accessible---really great personnel to guide you. Note this lovely carved pillar--a very thoughtful compendium of the 8 greatest books ever written:
They are listed on this poster--can you make them out? Psalms--The Whale (Moby Dick), The Mahabharata (The Bagavad Gita etc), War and Peace, One Thousand Nights and a Night, Tao Te Ching, Hamlet, TheOdyssey. How many have you read? (I can't get through War and Peace)
Love wandering around the heart of downtown--I'm guessing this is a statue of Ganish the Hindu Elephant God.
Bums fascinate me--don't know why--perhaps I'm a closer relative that I'm comfortable admitting.Perhaps it's because I too am a failure. My relatives say of me "He threw his life away". I've learned to embrace my failure and enjoy the freedom that comes from doing that. Occasionally I will give a pep talk to a dispirited bum--urging him to do likewise. The magic in doing this simple courageous resolve is that the tension--resistance--goes away--and allows a person to "move on."
Stated succinctly by Werner Erhard in his famous aphorism: "IF YOU COULD REALLY "GET IT" THAT YOU WEREN'T "OK"---- THEN YOU COULD STOP PROVING THAT YOU WERE OK. THEN YOU COULD " GET IT" THAT ITS "OK" TO NOT BE OK.---- AND IF IT'S OK NOT TO BE OK---THEN YOU'RE OK---GET IT? In the arcane language of Philosophy it's stated as follows: RE-CREATION CAUSES DISAPPEARANCE. Or in common speech ---- If you look at something long enough---it disappears.
This is the most subtle truth that I know---Not even sure I know it---BUT I'M HAPPY!
Visiting Portland--Ya just gotta visit its famous Rose Garden--Acres and acres of this.
And the City puts on free shows: Wonder if Republican cities have free shows---doubt it! This one featured exhilerating Japanese Drummers.
Lovers in a hidden nook. AAAAAhhhhh---how appealing---I'm gonna find someone for myself.
I leave you with this interesting mystery---did not see the figure in black till yesterday--I was photographing the lady in red---and (as in the movie Blowup) I caught this strange ominous figure in the bushes.----what's he got in his hand?
This is the most subtle truth that I know---Not even sure I know it---BUT I'M HAPPY!
Visiting Portland--Ya just gotta visit its famous Rose Garden--Acres and acres of this.
And the City puts on free shows: Wonder if Republican cities have free shows---doubt it! This one featured exhilerating Japanese Drummers.
Lovers in a hidden nook. AAAAAhhhhh---how appealing---I'm gonna find someone for myself.
I leave you with this interesting mystery---did not see the figure in black till yesterday--I was photographing the lady in red---and (as in the movie Blowup) I caught this strange ominous figure in the bushes.----what's he got in his hand?PHILOSOPHY? Think I've overdone that already. What I notice about myself is that I write my most controversial stuff when I am feeling high--as I am today---hhhmmmm---Mania?
What about the Republican town of Cut and Shoot Texas? (N of Houston)
ReplyDeleteA small town of 1000-maybe 1500-friendly people.
In his hand is a taser. Focusing on his target, he did not notice you, innocent photog in the wrong place.
ReplyDeleteSo, Randy, just what ARE free shows? Shows where the performers got free gas to get to the venue and got free groceries from the grocer and free rooms from the inn keeper while they were there to play? Or are you talking about shows paid for by an unwilling or unaware public for the benefit of those who happen to like that particular kind of music? Just asking.
ReplyDeleteRick: Help us out and state succinctly Your vision of society: Are we all in this together?--in some sense---or is it everyone for themselves? What really happens, Rick, is that with very limited government (you seem to favor) corporations would become super powerful, protective of ITS PROFITS, ITS MEMBERS, only--leaving vast segments of the population impoverished, angry and ultimately revolutionary. Corporations, unregulated will repeat the financial disaster we have just experienced. Enlighten us Rick with a hint of your vision.
ReplyDeleteHmm Randy. You artfully dodged my attempt to get you to clarify the meaning of "free" in the context of the concert that you mentioned and made assumptions about my beliefs and politics based on a few sentences that I wrote, but ok, I'll play.:)
ReplyDeleteI think that corporations become powerful in the kind of regulatory environment that we have right now in this country. When you have Barney Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee (who literally had Franklin Raines dick in his mouth) defending the financial soundness of Fannie and Freddie and blocking an audit shortly before they collapsed and dragged the economy down with it, it sort of calls into question the kind of regulatory environment that you seem to espouse. Our current convoluted system of regulation is actually to the benefit of large corporations who are able to pay the whores in DC to do their bidding and stifle competition. Even the complexity of the tax code benefits them by making it difficult for small start-up businesses to compete.
So, you asked about my vision? It's a society in which associations and transactions are voluntary, where charity is given freely and not at the point of government's gun. Where government's basic function is protecting citizens from force and fraud and it otherwise stays out of the way.
Anonymous: I agree with your analysis of the current situation but you are living in LaLa land with your vision of leave largely alone government. Without trust busting--a handfull of corporations would own America. Consider the history of movie-making or computer software, or the early oil monopolies. Those who got established first would use every trick in the book to edge out reasonable competition. You libertarian--types have more ill-informed faith than christians and are sorely in need of a course in human nature. Yes we need Govt oversight to make competition viable and doing it right is exceedingly tricky. Too much and too little have serious consequences and is not nearly as easy to accomplish as you seem to believe. History man! Please read some History. Did you know that early movie makers owned the theatres--eliminating meaningful competition--The "brutal hand of govt" separated the two and ushered in fair competition and a surge of creativity. Get it?
ReplyDelete1. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
ReplyDelete2. A free show means nothing out of my pocket.
3. It looks to me that our society is already being run for corporate profits.
4. Portland is a great town! Not just Powells books but I still want to get down and ride that sky train.
5. Randy you get some odd comments & people on your blog (this blog also qualifies as 'free' entertainment even if I have to own a computer and have internet access).
6. Trolls do exist.
Sorry about the "anonymous" thing, my friend. Checked the wrong box.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that preventing collusion and price fixing and maintaining a competitive environment are legitimate functions of government in a free society, I believe that we are way beyond that and regulation has become more an instrument of control and a way for the political class to reward friends and punish enemies and maintain power.
I was ignorant of the tidbit about the movie industry. But I would maintain that anyone who does not see government as the enemy of freedom is ignorant of history generally. It is a necessary evil that warrants close watching.
And you've failed completely to share your thoughts regarding government taking the property of some for the benefit of others or your thoughts on the increasingly intrusive interference in what should be private decisions.
Rick: Till you reached your last paragraph, I thought we might be in agreement.So OK here are my thoughts on taking peoples property and giving it to others: Very often, that's what taxes do--of necessity. Tell us Rick whether the incredible bonuses and golden parachutes and salaries of some CEOs can legitimately be called THEIR PROPERTY? Libertarians are at the height of their naivete when they assume that these outrageous compensations are "legitimate property." They distort the economy, imoverish the politically weak, create class envy and possibly revolution. Tell us Rick: what is legitimate ownership of property--Is the issue really as clear as you pretend? Ask me the hard question Rick: And while you're at it, tell us how you would deal with societies casualities?
ReplyDeleteQuestions and not much in the way of answers, Randy. So far as compensations go, I think that if a sports team views some basketball player as being worth 20 million a year that's between him and the owners. Likewise if shareholders through their elected board of directors think the guy running the company is worth 9 million a year (the actual salary paid the current head of government motors) that's an issue between the owners of the company and it's head. In real life that doesn't always work out the way that it should.
ReplyDeleteBut too many questions and no answers from you. I'm done playing. See ya.
Did you say hi to Leigh for me ?? (LOL)
ReplyDeleteRandy, a history lesson as well as some causation would serve you well...
ReplyDeleteCorporation, in fact incorporation itself, is a GOVERNMENT PROGRAM! The government holds the reins, and reigns, not corporations (which is not to claim that corporations are good, only to point out that you grossly misunderstand the causal relation when celebrating the worst offender and blaming the lesser offender)
As for the demoncraps being the "only ones who see us as a collective" well, obviously this is not the case since the repugnicans as well treat all individuals as merely the means to an end. Both faces of the one party see individuals as the source of their nourishment, of their power, but not as a loving appreciative child, but rather as a blood sucking leech. True the dems have treated us as mere tools, as a "collective" in hateful programs such as the latest in the long round of hateful programs: the insurance corporation subsidy. Rather than abolishing the regulations, the IP laws, the absurd protectionist barriers, and other causes of increased health costs, Obama and the dems forced through a subsidy to the massive insurance corporations, paid for by the poorest amongst us (like me) upon the threat of massive fines and prison time. Obama of course received more money from the health insurance corporations than any politician in the past.. jfyi.. So yes you are right in noting that the dems do not care whatsoever for the suffering of any person, but rather see their collective dystopian visions as infinitely more worthwhile.
As for your responses to anon.. you claim that without these severe regulations on the peaceful actions of individuals, corporations would own the US, but of course that ignores all, absolutely all, of the facts. It ignores the fact that the government claims ownership of us all. It ignores that it is ONLY through the weapon of government that corporations are provided the protections that allow for behaviors similliar to government. It ignores that in a freed society, when individuals act as government agencies, such as Haliburton (which the big O has wholeheartedly embraced) they are penalized. Such entities are protected under your totalitarian state and allowed to thrive as long as they pay their "protection money" to the state..
As for the current economic troubles, familiarize yourself with the depressions of 1921 and 1929 and their important differences. Since 1929 (actually prior to that) the US government has embraced Keynesian "economic" theory, which states amongst other things, that debt creates wealth, that massive bureacracies are the health of the economy, and that totalitarianism (which you have repeatedly celebrated) is economically preferable. Of course all of the claims of Keynesian "economic" theory have been proved wrong. Examples such as the USSR to Greece today show that Keynesian nonsense leads to the very failures we are experiencing. Germany, the early years of the US, and of course the era of the Scottish Enlightenment demonstrate that a freed market, or more freed market, results in not only a FAR superior economy, but an improved state of being for the lowest representative man (to use Rawlsian terms).
I've asked this before (I believe) and would ask it again since it is key to your totalitarian dystopia: Upon what principle do you base this premise that you (or anyone) has the right to own another person?
Andy--yes I did say hi to leigh--we had fun reminiscing about your special negative chemistry. It strokes my self image to know that I loved you both--spanning so great a personality gap.
ReplyDeleteWow Storm! Thanks--Great essay even though we seemingly live on different planets. I'd like to digest this one awhile before responding.
ReplyDeleteIll have to come back when I have more time to really consider what everyone has said here..
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, how did the test go?
Randy,
ReplyDeleteLove your blog except when you talk politic.
Dixie: I understand that the "heavy" comments require more thought --I'm still pondering them myself--groping for my truest feelings to respond. Can't help but appreciate that I have such intelligent readers---Its a joy to be so rigorously challenged--hopefully will call out the best in me. Where are you? Hope ou will consider using my e-mail address to update me on your adventures. And the test--of course I'm "clean" and negative--never doubted it! I do the test as reassurance for any potential partner and because the experience of being tested is interesting in itself---had a great interview with the young guy testing me about how his patients react when their results appear--positive and negative. (might make a good blog entry)
ReplyDeleteRex: Thanks for the wake up call! I've re read some of my stuff and it is a little embarassing to see myself being so overtly political. The old book by Hoffer "The Passionate State of Mind" sort of describes me at my most intense. And I can see that it is a turnoff and a distraction to the main thrust of what I have to offer: Inexpensive, adventurous life on the road.
ReplyDeleteRandy,
ReplyDeleteI think it great that you talk about politics, that defines you, and your experiences.
Randy, based on your experiences and understanding of the democratic pary what do you think about the 6 richest US Senators in 2008 were Democrats?
1.Kohl
2.Warner
3.Kerry
4.Rockefeller
5.Lautenburg
6.Feinstein
and why have all the major wars in the 20th century (tens of thousands died) WW1 - Wilson, WW2 - Roosevelt, Korea - Truman, Vietnam - Johnson occurred under democrats? Do you have an opinion on all those US solders deaths during democratic presidencies?
Not a flame - just curious