Monthly Archives: September 2013

Tea Party Kool-aid? #212 –Robert M. Shelby, 9-30-13. [398 txt wds]

For the last few years the Tea Party has been storing up Kool-aid for the rest of us. They think it’s an all-healing ambrosia, a magic elixir that solves the problems posed by the creeping menace of Socialism. They have been wrong. Their Kool-aid is laced with a poison fatal not just to democracy but […]

To the harsh critic, J__P___. #211B –Robert M. Shelby, 9-27-13. [543 txt wds]

We should all grasp that our president, Barack Obama is not omniscient. But neither are you, Mr. Harsh Critic, who sees him and all he does darkly through glasses of — scotch? Viewing from outside the foul-line of Too-far-Right Field, you find nothing but vacuous incompetence and vacillation in decisions or actions taken by Obama. […]

Re.: “What has happened to the GOP?” (Benicia Herald Forum, 9-13-13.) #211A –R. M. Shelby, 9-13-13. [440 txt wds]

Once again, J__ P___ seems to assume all he says is clearly evident to his readers. To me, His piece comes across as a pastiche of unsupported claims that form no logical argument but which web together another of his usual rants against everything Obama is, says and does. The insidious strength of P___’s writing […]

The meaning of base. #210 –Robert M. Shelby, 9-26-13. [398 txt wds]

We have two homophones, words that sound the same but differ in spelling. Bass, as in bass fiddle or bass singer, signifies the lowest range of sound, vocal or instrumental. In this sense, “bass” comports with “base” in its moral dimension. Ignoring its chemical, geometric, architectural and logical meanings, when “base” is used in reference […]

Consuming the gods of consumption. #209 –Robert M. Shelby, 9-25-13. [600 txt wds]

Sophocles, for one, wrote (in Antigone): “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Any nation is crazed by splitting its populace into factions opposing each other. Persons go insane from wanting two or more incompatible things with equal intensity, such as orderly conduct and joyful abandon. Our nation wants both abundant, cheap energy […]

Non-religious Meditation On Prayer, #208 2-27-05/9-24-13.–Robert M. Shelby [371 txt wds]

The important thing about prayer is not what we imagine we pray to, but that we can pray to no one or nothing in particular, and that it is as good for us, and as necessary communal experience. Our prayer draws us toward meditation if we are quiet about it, not trying to drown out our […]

The Pollyanna proclivity. #207 –Robert M. Shelby, 9-16-13. [476 txt wds]

The Pollyanna proclivity is the face of a psychological coin, so to speak, that has denial as its reverse. This balancing proclivity compensates for denial. The two go together like two sides of one coin. Optimism refaces pessimism as a defense to preserve the ego’s equanimity, imaginarily saving the self from its ego. When one […]

Two ways our world can end. #206 –Robert M. Shelby, 9-13-13. [517 txt wds]

1 — With A Bang. Geophysicists are aware that Earth’s magnetic field has been steadily weakening. The cause may be cyclic, but likely has to do with industry’s practice of spreading iron and steel all over the globe’s surface, in the form of cars, railroads, planes, home appliances, ships, heavy equipment and structural framing in […]

To Mr. J__ P___, Benicia, CA. –Robert M. Shelby, 1-18-18.

You’re an upstanding, fellow citizen of our town. I wish I could really respect you for your accomplishments in life, including financial status. But, I cannot feel what should be your due, for it seems that somewhere in your life you quit learning from experience, shriveled into a narrrow perception of our world and started […]

Burnt-earth economics? #205 –Robert M. Shelby, 9-1-13.  [347 txt wds]

There is a moral cesspool around Wall Street, Treasury & Fed that threatens everyone. The following information from Greg Palast about Larry Summers and Tim Geithner should be known by every citizen in the Anglo-sphere, i.e., the English-speaking world. <http://www.alternet.org/economy/larry-summers-and-secret-end-game-memo?akid=10868.315724.EHPdNL&rd=1&src=newsletter890083&t=9> John Paulson and Lloyd Blankfein CEO of Goldman Sachs come off as criminals of the worst […]