Quote Of The Day

The Secret is a best-selling motivational book (and DVD) published last fall. I didn’t hear about it for a long time because I live in an intentional media vacuum. After a couple people recommended it, I read it. Twice. Not because I liked it, but because I can’t believe that people still fall for this crap.

There is No Secret: The Myth of the Law of Attraction

Another Note About The Secret: Victor Hugo

Whoa! Where did they get Victor Hugo from?! I’ve read biographies of Hugo (one of the towering giants of writerdom). Nowhere is there ever any mention of him encountering or claiming to possess secret wisdom.

I suspect he’s in The Secret because of his famous quote wihich is most recognized in this translated paraphrase:

Nothing, not all the armies in the world, can stop an idea whose time has come.

Looking at wikiquote, he also said (or most likely wrote):

You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do no bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.
— Villemain (1845)

That probably endeared him forever to Ayn Rand.

Also:

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
— BrainyQuote

And:

Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.
— BrainyQuote

Keep that last one in mind as you page through “The Catalog of the Universe” to choose what you desire for your life.

Previously in this blog:
The Secret: Don’t Be A Sucker
This Is One Part Of The Secret — The Real Secret
Last Night I Saw The Secret On DVD
The Secret Is That They Count On You To Be Stupid
The Secret: Suckers!
The Secret: Law Of (Mal-)Attraction
More On The Secret

The Secret: Don’t Be A Sucker

This is an authorized YouTube video of the first twenty minutes of The Secret.

Note that it shows and cites an Emerald Tablet as being a foundational work of The Secret. (In everything I’ve ever read that has been like The Secret, I have never, ever come across a mention of this Emerald Tablet. And I have read a lot. Books you’ve never read because they’re out of print.)

Wikipedia says this about the Emerald Tablet.

Go read it. Then tell me where the hell that could possibly fit into our modern, scientific and technological life except by putting a totally psychotic spin on it?

Here is another part of the Real Secret:

I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.
— Ecclesiastes 9:11 (New Living Translation)

Previously in this blog:
This Is One Part Of The Secret — The Real Secret
Last Night I Saw The Secret On DVD
The Secret Is That They Count On You To Be Stupid
The Secret: Suckers!
The Secret: Law Of (Mal-)Attraction
More On The Secret

More Police Abuse Of Power

Man Faces 7 Year Sentence Under “Wiretapping Law” For Filming Police
OK for police and government to film and wiretap US citizens though

A man has been charged in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with filming police officers during a routine traffic stop and faces up to seven years in prison for “wiretapping”.

Brian D. Kelly is charged under a state law that bars the intentional interception or recording of anyone’s oral conversation without their consent, reports the Patriot News.

The criminal case relates to the sound, not the pictures, that his camera picked up.

His camera and film were seized by police during the May 24 stop, he said, and he spent 26 hours in Cumberland County Prison until his mother posted her house as security for his $2,500 bail. Police also took film from his pockets that wasn’t related to the traffic stop, he said.

Kelly, just 18 years old, is obviously extremely scared and has apologized profusely for not knowing the law. He has sought the help of the ACLU in the case.

Who the hell are the police supposed to serve? Themselves or us?

I’d fire the police who made the arrest and fire all of those in the current apparatus who think this should be prosecuted.

This is an outrage.

What’s next? Being arrested for videotaping the public appearances of that pack of whores who are running for the 2008 Presidency? Being arrested for videotaping them while they’re off-stage and make a comment they don’t want exposed? (Do you remember that prune-face who appeared in that near-pedophilic Pepsi TV ad, Bob Dole, telling a voter to “Go crawl back under your rock” when the guy dared to complain to him about taxes? Could that be considered “wiretapping” in the future?)

Previously in the blog:
Abuse Of Power Still Lives In New York City

This Is One Part Of The Secret — The Real Secret

The Power of Yes: A Simple Way to Get More Out of Life

For much of my adult life I’ve been shackled by fear. I’ve been afraid to try new things, afraid to meet new people, afraid of doing anything that might lead to failure. This fear confined me to a narrow comfort zone. Recently, however, I made a single small change that has helped me to overcome my fear, and allowed me to get more out of life.

Forget The Secret and its nonsense. This is part of the real secret to success.

The Secret makes you focus on yourself and what you want. What if you instead looked outward and let the everyday unpredictability of life have its way?

The Secret reduces existence to a personal slot machine for your own desired jackpot. How do you know the gamble of life won’t provide you with a jackpot that would exceed your wildest fantasy?

–linkswipe via digg

Previously in this blog:
Last Night I Saw The Secret On DVD
The Secret Is That They Count On You To Be Stupid
The Secret: Suckers!
The Secret: Law Of (Mal-)Attraction
More On The Secret

Sue Me. I’m A Man Who Likes Women.

Bah. Generally whenever I see a link touting hot women, I pass it up. I don’t need that kind of distraction. But a link on digg promised The Hottest Female Podcasters of 2007.

Er, wut?

I still had it in my little head that podcasts were audio. So who cares what the voice looks like.

Anyway, I went to the link.

And I saw Cali Lewis of GeekBrief.TV.

I had to click, especially after it said she did a video podcast.

Oh Major Lust.

That’s all I’ll say.

Now go click.

It Should Be A Landfill. And Nothing But!

Oh boo hoo hoo. A minor politician who was probably a former G.O. President is crying crying crying over — get this! — an ice cream flavor name!

Be thankful I don’t put out ice cream. I’d name one Satan Island Shit!

Marty Krofft Q&A

Marty Krofft by Daniel Robert Epstein

What a smart guy:

We did 13 kids shows. But the big thing is we’re still independent. We’re probably the only independent left in the business. We own everything we ever did. We never made the mistake of selling everything to the majors.

Never, never, never, ever sell your rights!

I Knew This Would Happen In The Future

Public donates to UW scientist to fund backward-in-time research

It can take a village to save science — a village that so far includes a Las Vegas music mogul, Kirkland rocket scientist, Port Townsend artist, Bothell chemist, Louisiana gas-and-oil man with a place in Port Angeles and a Savannah, Ga., computer programmer.

The public has stepped forward with cash to boldly go where nobody in the mainstream scientific establishment wants to go — or, at least, to have to pay for the attempt to go.

Backward. In time, that is.

A University of Washington scientist who could not obtain funding from traditional research agencies to test his idea that light particles act in reverse time has received more than $35,000 from folks nationwide who didn’t want to see this admittedly far-fetched idea go unexplored.

Want to be one of them?

HOW TO DONATE

The University of Washington has set up a special account to which individuals or groups can contribute funds for John Cramer’s experiment.

Tax-deductible contributions to the project may be made by contacting Jennifer Raines, UW Department of Physics, at jraines@phys.washington.edu, or mailing a check made out to the University of Washington with a notation on the check directing deposit to the account for “Non-Local Quantum Communication Experiment” to:

Jennifer Raines, Administrator

Department of Physics

University of Washington

Box 351560

Seattle, WA 98195-1560

It’s a disgrace that with all the money floating around in the supposedly cutting-edge Silicon Valley that I don’t see a single Valley inhabitant listed as contributing to this. What an absolute disgrace! You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Previously in this blog:
I Think There Is Retrocausality Is There Think I

Get Up On Your Hind Legs, American! (Part One)

Americans Unready to Revolt, Despite Revolting Conditions

I have long asserted that Americans live in a delusional democracy with delusional prosperity and these and loads of other data support this view. There is a super wealthy and politically powerful Upper Class that is literally raping the nation. Meanwhile, the huge Lower Class continues to lose economic ground while their elected representatives sell them out to benefit the Upper Class. Yet no rational person thinks that a large fraction of the population is ready to rise up in revolt against the evil status quo political-economic system that so clearly is not serving the interests of the overwhelming majority of Americans. Why not?

And:

Why is there insufficient pain for revolution? This is a deadly serious issue. What is historically unique about America is that even the most oppressed and unfairly treated people are distracted by affordable materialism, entertainment, sports, gambling, and myriad other aspects of our frivolous, self-absorbed culture. Even failed school and health care systems do not drive people, paying enormous sums to fill up their SUVs, to rebellion. So, Americans are aware of their oppression, but the power elites have successfully drugged them with a plethora of pleasure-producing distractions sufficient to keep them under control. We are free to bitch, but too weak to revolt. The Internet has provided a release valve for some pent up anger and frustration. But it too has mostly become another source of distraction, rather than an effective tool for rebellion.

What is the Ultimate Distraction Strategy?

The legalization of currently-illegal drugs.

Go ahead, potheads. Keep thinking you’re fighting for freedom.

You’re fighting for more oppression, you stoned-out bastards.