Thursday, April 24, 2008

The error of relative pluralism is dooming the planet (among other factors)

The fact that most of the population including the

educated media does not (apparently) understand nor

acknowledge levels of awareness that are at play in all

of our politics and in our population is a huge error

that keeps the discourse chasing its tail in "Flatland"

(Ken Wilber's term) - (no depth). For instance, the evangelical Christians are at a lower, much more simplictic pre-rational level of awareness than rational atheists or pluralistic spiritual people, but the left is afraid to acknowledge that there are levels - each one more intelligent, comprehensive, and true that the ones below, because they are caught in relativistic pluralism, not integral pluralism. Ken Wilber is right that this (part of what he calls "Boomeritis") is a main contributor to our being "stuck" chasing our tails and not evolving (progressing) (in fact for the last seven years, reacting and going "backwards".)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Pigs at the Iraq war oil and defense related elite class blues

2:14 AM 4/23/2008

The Republicans have recruited a young Bob Redford clean-cut very good looking model like male Paris Hilton himbo to tout free market and no tax no regulation ideology. He must be a son of the rich or bought by them. This empty shell shills name is Reed - after his appearance on CNN was a snotty commercial for "Russell Investments" oh so daintily muted and tastefully quiet touting by Campbell Scott. Can the corporatoplutocratic big operators/outfits like TW/CNN live off of them - can our economy - ?? doubtful - they have wrung their own neck with their greed these last 7 years - Why didn't they rein in the neocons? Don't get it - except they must've been in on the big under examined profits from the war and have a great cache hidden away in foreign accounts now. But the people are angry and much more on to them now, thanks to the net and roots bloggers like myself.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Great Photo

"Reach for the Sky" by Perabl -

<a href="http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1173197584032751213WowQZg"><img src="http://thumb13.webshots.net/s/thumb4/9/75/84/173197584WowQZg_th.jpg" alt="Reach for the sky"></a>


Monday, April 07, 2008

Watching "Verdict with Dan Abrams" now

Don Siegelman (ex-gov. of Alabama) alleges that Karl Rove was substantially behind his false conviction. Who can be surprised? Who can not believe it?

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I'm sure Phil Donahue's new film is good, but he is so off-point with his answers to Dan Abrahms's questions about the deception that led up to the war, and Cheney's dismissal of the American Public's massive disapproval of the war. See the transcript - I'll post his answers, and ones I think could have been better tomorrow, after the transcript is posted at msnbc.com

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Integral Institute - does it have a slight 1st tier political right tilt bias?

I remain and ardent supporter of Ken's work and of the I.I.

I've long had a few qualms about a somewhat right-leaning bias, despite its wanting to be and succeeding to a great degree in being second-tier (transcending both political right and left).

Three points:

1) Ken's support for the Iraq War in 2002, when he failed to see the "Plan for a New American Century"'s plotters backward oil based imperialism at work.

2) The legitimization of Michael Chrichton's absurd (in my opinion) opinions about global warming, characterizing it as "a climate of fear"

3) Having john Mackee (as well as Chrichton) on the board. Mackee is a libertarian, not an integralist, and as the article below elucidates has gotten in some corrupt hot water of his own within the last few years.

I understand that the Integral Institute needs wealthy patrons, but let's have some balance - where are the progressive political voices?

-- insert ref. source here -


As today's New York Times reports Mackey was caught posting on Yahoo Finance's bulleting board under a pseudonym pumping up Whole Foods' stock and blasting its rival Wild Oats Markets. (Not content just to trick potential investors, he even praised his own coiffure: "I like Mackey's haircut. I think he looks cute!" he wrote under the pseudonym Rahobed, a corruption of Deborah, his wife's name.) The posts were discovered during a Federal Trade Commission case stemming from Whole Foods' attempt to acquire Wild Oats.

The libertarian philosophy that Mackey champions argues that government should butt out and let markets do their thing. But without government regulation, à la this FTC hearing, consumers and investors don't have the information they need to make informed choices. All too often, people who appear to be impartial tout products they have financial ties to. At the Department of Education, officials pushed a private student loan company they held shares in. Henry Blodgett of Merrill Lynch infamously pumped stocks on CNBC not because he thought they were good buys (he famously described one in an in-house e-mail as "a piece of shit") but in order to get those companies to do more business with Merrill Lynch.

Companies are supposed to compete by providing the best product at the best price for consumers and a legally-earned profit for investors, but greed has a tendency to get in the way. The business world attracts people who love money, so we need to count the proverbial silverware when they leave the dinner party. Temptation is everywhere in corporate America and businesspeople often cut corners or pull the wool over the eyes of consumers and investors. This temptation only grows stronger when conservatives are in power, gutting government watchdog agencies. Without government regulations governing conflicts of interest we get bloggers like Rahobed and touts like Henry Blodgett. Without the kind of strict anti-trust regulation libertarians abhor, companies tend towards monopoly and consumers get screwed. As John Mackey told his board members, according to FTC filings, buying Wild Oats would help the company "avoid nasty price wars in Portland (both Oregon and Maine), Boulder, Nashville and several other cities which will harm our gross margins and profitability."

The irony of Mackey's outing is delicious indeed. But shouldn't be surprised when libertarians, who after all preach that greed is good, are shown to be so greedy. And we shouldn't buy their self-serving rhetoric about deregulation.


Radical revamp-redit of my blog coming

I've been going over some old posts of mine, and have concluded that many need a major re-edit- some need expunging. Many entries are too "off the cuff" and not thought out. I will be doing this over the next few months (if anyone else out there is reading this - I wonder sometimes lol).