The WMail Newsletter
Volume VIII   [Year 2007]   Part 1

Issue #67: "The Distinction POWER"
[January 2007]

>+<    G.E. Nordell, editor    >+<

N E W S    &    L I N K S    o f    I N T E R E S T

==>  SOCIAL NETWORKING is becoming a more-important phenomenon each day; MySpace is the biggest,
        but others exist with different angles or emphases. Fans of the Working Minds philosophy are invited
        to add ‘Working Minds’ as a keyword/interest; graduates of Landmark Education should add
        ‘Landmark Education’ as a keyword/interest.

        my own social networking sites are:
        http://www.MySpace.com/95705941
        http://genordell.zaadz.com   { site long gone }
        http://genordell.gather.com/

==>  TAX-TIME REMINDER: Join the Working Minds W-9 Boycott Project at http://www.boycottW9.org

==>  GLOBAL WARMING WARNING: Ocean tankers are reporting on-board hazard alarms being set off
        from ocean-bottom venting of methane gas, which has 21 times the effect on global warming as carbon dioxide.
        story at OpEdNews

==>  WAR NEWS:
••      IRAQ OIL GIVE-AWAY: The Iraq oil fields are now producing at 55% of pre-invasion levels. Meanwhile, four
        U.S. & British oil companies are pushing legislation thru the Iraq parliament that gives them a tax-free, no-bid,
        30-year irrevocable deal to exploit the Iraq oil fields. Hey! Mission accomplished !!
        story at The Independent of London, U.K.
••      AIRCRAFT CARRIER DEPLOYMENT: George Dubya has now sent a second U.S. Navy carrier strike force
        to the waters along Iran's coast, the U.S.S. Stennis. If this is 'standard rotation', then the U.S.S. Eisenhower will
        depart in a week or two after the Stennis arrives (due late February).
••      SYRIA & IRAN: Dubya's insults during the otherwise meaningless January 10th speech and the equally-meaningless
        State of The Union address are intended to provoke one or both countries into knee-jerk military reaction as justification
        for air strikes by the U.S. Navy using 'tactical' nuclear missiles (from the Stennis & the Eisenhower).
••      Previously-released figures were lies; the actual body count of civilians for 2006 in the Oil War in Iraq was 35,000.

==>  THE NEO-FASCIST OLIGARCHY HAS NOT GIVEN UP:
••      Park rangers at the Grand Canyon National Park have been ordered not to tell visitors of the geological age of what
        they are looking at – because it might 'offend' fundamentalists or creationists. The government-funded Grand Canyon
        visitors center sells books on the bogus 'intelligent design' fantasy, while books on geology science have been removed.
••      Wal-Mart is getting the law changed to allow them to install branches of Wal-Mart Bank inside their behemoth money-pits.
••      Penalty fees account for a third of the [credit card] industry's revenue, twice the share [that] it was ten years ago.
                — per Time Magazine, October 2006

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T h e    D i s t i n c t i o n    ‘P O W E R’
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

        On a recent visit to the weekly Albuquerque Mensa Lunch, the discussion triggered a side conversation about the Working Minds philosophy, and I was going on about how the Oligarchy has no inherent Power, so they need to manipulate the sheep-ly masses into giving away their Power, which when surrendered is False Power and so is never enough, so the Culture-Structure is this perpetual machine to steal Power.
        But my fellow discourser stopped me cold by asking what I meant by ‘Power’. I tried an explanation, which did not go over at all, so I told him that I would ‘get back to him on that’.
        I pondered some, and this essay is that answer.

* *          * *          * *          * *
CLARITY
        Power is natural. Every Individual has Power, though unbe¬knownst, which is generally given away to all manner of cultural sinkholes. The methodology for thwarting the Oligarchy is to retain our natural Individual Power, simply be being an Individual.
        The central Source of Power is Clarity.
        When an Individual stands alone without consideration of others, when the Individual takes action (including speaking) because that action is the Right (Responsible) Action to take, then that Action produces a residue of Power.
        Any Action intended to cause X, or to produce X, or to be seen as X or Y, or action taken in the hope or intention or desire to be liked or admired or to win (or to lose), that Action, by its being about Something Else, produces no Power.
        It is the contamination by the Something Else that messes things up. Even if the intended result does happen to follow the Action, it is the intention for a particular result that sucks the Power out of the Action.
        Ayn Rand stood for “A is A”. This was a radical stand, because most of modern life is based on “A is not A” or on “A is something else”. Buy the latest fad fashion accessory or the newest toy so that you can be cool; over-spend so that the failed economy keeps limping along; get an over-priced college degree so that you have a better chance in the job market – which in fact then makes you over-qualified for disappearing low-pay jobs.

        The False Mind – that ever-present chatter of the Little Voice In Your Head – is designed to interfere with Clarity. When the boss orders some unethical or illegal or self-sacrificing activity – lying to the customers or working overtime with no extra pay or covering for a slacker co-worker – the Individual retains his/her Power by refusing to participate. The chatter of the False Mind will spew a barrage of reasonable-sounding (False) Reasons that cloud the issue/s: you’ll lose your job, he/she will be mad, or (ohmigod!) the Holy Bottom Line may be short a few dollars from not cheating.
        There are indeed Actions that are Wrong, which occur when empowering Higher Values are ignored or thwarted. The Clarity of Right Action gets displaced by reasons, excuses, threats, blame, cover-ups, conspiracies, lies, cowardice, stories, precedent – all the standard elements of bureaucracy and ineptitude.

        Each Individual has at any given time X amount of Power (derived from Clarity in the existential moment) and the exist¬ential Choices made therefrom either (a) retain Power, or (b) surrender Power. The surrender of Power robs that Individual of whatever existential Power is at stake, and then also hands over False Power to the other side (let’s call’em The Overlord). In either case, Power or False Power soon disappears, as is the nature of Power.
        But the surrender of Power leaves the Individual with none, while the retention of Power (1) keeps the Power where the Indi¬vidual is, and (2) prevents the False Overlord from winning, from any accumulation, even of transient False Power.
        The Oligarchy (the mean-mean Overlords), the Culture-Struc¬ture, and the False Mind all seem to have Power (though False Power) ONLY because the sheep-ly masses continue to surrender their natural Individual Power to them.
        Standing outside the Culture-Structure, one is able to see and to act with Objective Clarity, from which Actions become powerful, and Powerful Actions become a habit, and that accrual of Power becomes a wall of protection against the omnipresent Forces of Endarkenment.

        So then, how do you do that?
        The three Higher Values that provide access to Clarity are Presence, Responsibility, and Integrity.

* *          * *          * *          * *
PRESENCE
        Presence derives from shutting down all that interferes with Now. When a person is deeply involved in work or activity – engrossed in writing a paragraph or a tune, engrossed in drawing or in a sport or a meal or a book or a conversation or a craft, or playing with the kids – then there is nothing happening except that engrossing activity. In fact, that is what is different about kids: kids have not left the world of Clarity for the adult world of looking over your shoulder for agreement, of listening to the False Mind for (bad) advice, of seeking the best tactical move. Kids jump right in, into Life full-out, until they are taught not to. And taught they will be: to be False, to be strategic, because that is all that the Culture-Structure teaches.
        (Imagine being engrossed in Your Own Life!)

        The Zen-state (see Issue #30) of Clarity occurs when the Individual removes – gives up, skips, ignores, refuses – that which is Not Now.
        I am writing this while Present to hammering next door, to neighbors stopping at the mailbox across the street, and to the remnants of a snowstorm passing overhead outside my window. That I include what is Here Now and exclude what is Not Here – wishes fears, concerns, the Oil War, a dentist appointment on Monday – leaves me Present. This causative Presence is a skill, and anyone can learn it; the only hard part is that your False Mind is designed to prevent you from the practice.

* *          * *          * *          * *
RESPONSIBILITY
        Responsibility derives from a Stand for the Self. The Self has no need of excuses or reasons, that is the business of your False Mind. The bureaucrat is never Responsible; your False Mind is never Responsible; the Oligarchy is never Responsible.
        Only the Self (the Working Mind) can Stand For Something. A Stand is possible only when one invokes oneself AS the Self. This is done by stepping away from the False Mind (the internal agent of the Oligarchy) and away from the Culture-Structure (the external agent of the Oligarchy). A semi-productive methodology to attain Self-hood might be Withdrawal, but that is too often knee-jerk reaction. Not bad for a first-stage practice, but the common fault with Withdrawal is taking (or not taking) actions that later require great effort to restore agreement within the Culture-Structure. Refusing employment to ‘get my head together’ is usually followed by unpaid bills and panicked return to the world of commerce.

        The gradual assertion of Responsibility – for oneself and for others – is a much more productive plan. One of the Premises of the Working Minds Philosophy of Empowerment is that voting takes many forms. Revising the political realm by actual voting and by organized political activity are both an assertion of Responsibility. And every dollar that you spend is a critical vote for whatever product or service you buy. Being Responsible for paying your bills on time (a) has you BE responsible, (b) has your credit report describe you as Responsible, and (c) retains the unnecessary interest and fees that eventually get squandered by the Oligarchy. Buying groceries at a locally-owned market has you being Responsible for your town’s economy; buying gasoline that contains 10% ethanol has you being Responsible for the environment; buying goods made in America (or your local country) has you being Responsible for your nation’s labor force, as well as being Responsible for the elimination of sweatshop labor in China.

* *          * *          * *          * *
INTEGRITY
        Integrity derives from empowering Values. Do not confuse Integrity with the ‘morality’ that pollutes the teachings of the Culture-Structure. Morality has to do with obedience to surface rules, to not getting caught, to not going to hell. The hooferaw about Family Values fosters domination and victimhood, while kids and teens are lied to and worse. Morality always has to do with outside approval, and usually at the cost of Integrity.
        Inside Integrity, a parent will actually parent. He/she will teach by example, accept mistakes as opportunities for education, and always be Present and Responsible.
        Integrity is present when one is operating from an empower¬ing (Higher) Value. Standing for Excellence cannot be ‘getting by’ or ‘not getting caught’. Keeping Your Word is not making excuses before or after. Being Faithful or Loyal is not a part-time matter. Raising Children does not include teaching them that they are victims.
        In Integrity, the laborer does a day’s work for a day’s pay, and the employer pays the laborer for that work. In Integ¬rity, the public servant serves the public, the journalist provides news (and not opinion or propaganda), the peace officer makes the world safer, the scientist reports, the artist creates, the medic heals, and the teacher educates.

* *          * *          * *          * *
        The world is the way that it is because Mankind is not acting Responsibly, Mankind is out of Integrity, and Mankind is not Present to Objective Reality. Maybe you are an exception, but even if that is so, you are out of Integrity if you have not taken Responsibi¬lity and confronted (or enrolled or cajoled) the people around you about their taking Responsibility. Most likely, all around you wallow in the belief that there are no consequences for avoiding Being Present to their part in the general Power-lessness of Mankind.

        The solution to Power-lessness is to cause the retention of Power for one’s Self and for others by taking Responsibility, by re-establishing Integrity, and by generating Presence – to all the wonders and problems happening around you.

        The Clarity that this is so will in itself produce Power.

WMail essay #30: Radio Silent
WMail essay #37: Responsibility

[copyright 2007 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]

Each issue of WMail is posted on the Working Minds website; quotations are posted alphabetically by author.

=============
Q U O T E S
=============

"Great acting is being able to create a character. Great character is being able to be yourself."
— actor John Leguizamo

"The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth."
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [1749-1832]

"The strongest man in the world is the man who stands most alone."
— from Ibsen's 1882 play ‘An Enemy of The People’

"How did the Right To Be Exploited become the law of the land?"
— G.E. Nordell

"One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating
the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence."
— historian Charles Austin Beard [1874-1948]

"When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign,
that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."
— Jonathan Swift [1667–1745]

"The most violent element in society is ignorance."
— Emma Goldman [1869-1940]

"The only way to enter into the 'Promised Land' is to surrender to its existence."
— G.E. Nordell

"He who knows only music understands nothing about it."
— Hanns Eisler (1898-1962)

"Sadism is the hallmark of conservative culture."
— Richard Goldstein

"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
— Warren E. Buffett

"[It is] hard to remember who is more dangerous: the people who are attacking our liberties overseas,
or those who are suppressing them at home."
— Sara Paretsky

"The yawning chasm between the very rich and everybody else is making [America] a plutocratic caricature of democracy."
— David Graber

Hillel's Golden Rule: "Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you."

"Real journalism is about presenting the public with facts, not arguments."
— Claude Lapierre

"My heart is warm with the friends I make / And better friends I'll not be knowing / Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take / No matter where it's going"
— Edna St. Vincent Millay [1892-1950]

"He who knows [that] he has enough is rich."
— Warren E. Buffett

"There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference.
This weapon of television could be useful. Stonewall Jackson, who knew something about the use of weapons,
is reported to have said, 'When war comes, you must draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.'
The trouble with television is that it is rusting in the scabbard during a battle for survival."
— Edward R. Murrow [1908-65]

"Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown,
they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book."
— mystery author Mickey Spillane [1918-2006]

"Perfect courage means doing unwitnessed what we would be capable of with the world looking on."
— La Rochefoucauld [1613-80]

N E X T   I S S U E: "The Distinction LOYALTY"

FOLLOWED BY: "The Cage"

Issue #68: "The Distinction LOYALTY"
[February 2007]

>+<    G.E. Nordell, editor    >+<

N E W S    &    L I N K S    o f    I N T E R E S T

==>  WAR NEWS: The third carrier strike force being sent to Iran is the aging U.S.S. Enterprise
        (joining the Eisenhower & the Stennis).

==>  Filmmaker Robert Greenwald is utilizing the new two-minute docufilm format to alert the world
        to issues not otherwise covered in the news.
        Robert Greenwald's "The Real McCain" website [est. Jan 2007]
        Robert Greenwald's "Fox Attacks" website [est. Feb 2007]

==>  REQUEST FOR SHORT TALES OF WHAT READERS HAVE DONE
        Readers who have taken action based on WMail ezine & WM website content are invited to submit short reports.
        Maximum 100 words; may be edited for the ezine; credit will be to initials & location. What we want is not vague
        ‘WM is wonderful' comments, but actual actions taken. The plan is to include them in Issue #70 or #72,
        which will be roughly the WMail Seventh Anniversary: send Action Email here

==>  The Commerce Department reported {Feb 2007} that the savings rate for all of 2006 was a negative 1 percent,
        meaning that not only did people spend all the money that they earned but that they also dipped into savings and
        increased borrowing to finance purchases. The 2006 figure was lower than the negative 0.4 percent in 2005 and
        was the poorest showing since a negative 1.5 percent savings rate in 1933 during The Great Depression.

==>  New & majorly-revised pages on the editor’s other primary website:
        http://www.genordell.com/stores/blackhat/dtec.htm
        http://www.genordell.com/stores/blackhat/AgathaC.htm
        New & majorly-revised pages on the WM website:
        http://www.working-minds/2008election.htm

==>  THE WORLD IS CRAZY DEPT.: Saw a mail-order catalog with a gold rococo toilet paper stand for $85,
        with matching gold-color monogrammed toilet paper at $12 per roll (plus shipping!).

==>  "The income of the top fifth of American households has risen by 50 percent since the late 1970s, the next fifth
        by only about 20 percent, and the middle fifth by only 10 percent or so ... Since the late 1970s, the top 1 percent
        of households increased their income by 100 percent."
                — Jeff Madrick, in The Nation Magazine (February 2007)

==>  The Bush administration suspended posse comitatus (preventing use of the military as law enforcement inside the U.S.)
        shortly after Sept. 11; they snuck suspension of habeas corpus into the Dept. of Defense Appropriations Act of 2006,
        subverting the Constitution and allowing martial law and Der Führer Bush’s self-appointment as P.N.A.C.’s
        ‘unitary executive’ as soon as he starts World War III.
        {Bush defenders: What other conclusions can be made as to the purpose of their attempt to overthrow such laws?]

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T h e    D i s t i n c t i o n    ‘L o y a l t y’
---------------------------------------------------------

        I’ve worked a lot of diverse jobs, some of them short term, but it always seemed that the proper stance was to be loyal to my employer from Day One. Doing this was quite natural, because I cannot conceive that the opposite is ever true: that being DIS-loyal to an employer is proper.
        Over time, I became aware of a pattern: I was loyal to the company, I was screwed over in some way – somebody less capable and more political got the promotion or the raise, whatever – and I continued to be loyal, and again I was screwed over in some way, and I was still loyal, until the inevitable (and-or sudden) palace coup or takeover or merger where we all got screwed over, and then not long afterward I got fired (losing all of my accrued ‘comp’ time, of course).

        Meanwhile, many of my co-workers gave up and shut down, replacing various levels of loyalty with fear-driven willingness to agree to any compromise of business or personal ethics in order to keep their paycheck.
        Out of revenge, many actually did become disloyal to their employer. This took many forms, such as the comptroller at the freight company whose embezzlement was paying for a small yacht in Marina del Rey; such as the data entry ladies at M.G.M. who constantly bad-mouthed the movies released by the company (underneath that was also the disappointment that M.G.M. was no longer making musicals – the only valid genre in their world).
        I just couldn’t go that route, being dosloyal, so when I showed up for the first day at my next/new job, I was loyal and the company was not, and the cycle repeated.

        But really, this was not so much because I have stronger values, or better values, or because I am necessarily better in any way. What my approach and practice gave me was that I lived my life as a person who was loyal.

* *          * *          * *          * *
        When I got married, my then-fiancée never even asked me to wear a ring – I do not wear jewelry, not any – because she trusted me completely. First, that says a lot about who she was & is. Second, I have stated before that “Marriage is a hand-shake deal.” {Issue #52} By which I mean that marrying or living with someone that you do not trust is ridiculous. We were married so I was loyal to the promise of exclusivity and so was she. Now that I am single (a bachelor, actually) I am loyal to the basic premise of marriage in that I never make the smallest move toward a woman who is wearing a ring on the official wedding finger – either she is indeed married, or she does not want the attentions given to single women.
        Loyalty is an Empowering Value. Loyalty is not the same as allegiance (which includes obedience); loyalty is not the same as partnership (which is more about equal participation by both or all parties in the areas that pertain). Loyalty does not require contact: I am loyal to my country, which to paraphrase Mort Sahl, is unrequited. Loyalty does not even require an object on the other end, such as being loyal to an abstraction like Liberty (though that one is embodied in the U.S. Constitution).
        Loyalty is generally a good thing, in that when you are intentionally loyal you operate from one of the Higher Values, and you empower yourself and others when you do so.

* *          * *          * *          * *
        The flip side of the abstraction & Value of Loyalty, however, is cause for great mischief, and even Evil.
        When the term Loyalty is used to describe some other distinction, such as blind obedience or chauvinist patriotism, it is a mask for subjugation and perverse behavior: the jingoist mantra ‘if you are not for the war then you are for the enemy’, the omerta code of the Mob (sure, they appear to be loyal, but they are still killers and thieves); the false contract of college fraternities & sororities (allow us to degrade you by hazing and you get to degrade the new fools next year, rah rah, rah).

        Three things are evident in the way that Loyalty shows up in society.
        One factor is that humans need to be loyal to something. Modern folk will latch onto any thing or person to be loyal to these days: sports teams, talk show hosts, some symbol like the flag or a religious icon, teen gangs, a performer, or even some ludicrous television program like “Seinfeld” or “Cheers” or “Snakes In The City”.
        Folks may be disloyal to their country or their religion or their spouse or their employer, but they will get a tattoo of the Harley-Davidson logo, or they’ll pull a knife in a bar because you insulted the Cubs or the Raiders, or they’ll riot in the streets over a soccer/football match – and insist that they did so out of loyalty.
        The second factor is that most as-practiced Loyalty has no basis in Reason. The German masses were loyal to Hitler, many North Koreans are loyal to their wacko head of state, and Muslim jihadists are ‘loyal’ to the point of suicide bombings.
        Most folks are loyal to “X” because it is expected. Born in Chicago? Go Cubs! Born in a ghetto? Go thugs! Born in a mansion? Go NASDAQ! Born in Ireland? Up the I.R.A.! Born outside America? Yankee go home!
        Typical as-practiced loyalty takes the form of demanding respect for one’s own attributes only – country, class, school, lifestyle, neighborhood – with parallel disrespect for all others. Fighting invariably ensues.
        Loyalty, however, is given to the chosen object from free choice. I love my country and am loyal to the Constitution. I am not required to bad-mouth, much less destroy, other forms of government. My loyalty exists in and of itself. My loyalty to one ‘significant other’ relationship does not require me to treat others with dis-respect. My loyalty to an employer continues to the end of that relationship or assumed contract, at which time I have no problem being loyal to any subsequent employer.

        When I AM loyal, then I am being the kind of person who is loyal, which action – given the way that the Universe works – provides me with some amount of Power. Loyalty is an Empowering Value, and being loyal is therefore a source of Power. Works both ways too, as is the nature of Empowerment: When you are loyal to a spouse or to an employer, or even to an ideal, the giving of that Loyalty (or any other High Value) empowers the object of that Loyalty, which is the only way that one can cause one’s own Power.

        So be careful where you focus and direct your Power. Loyalty to the K.K.K. gives (False) Power to bigotry and hatred. You can never be proud of disempowerment. Loyalty to the fear-mongers and war-mongers in Washington produces fear and loathing. Loyalty to the Holy Bottom Line produces greed and unearned (in the Paleo-Capitalism sense) wealth. Loyalty to ignorance produces distance from Objective Reality. Loyalty to a ‘good time’ produces hangovers and bloody accidents.

        Look at what you did yesterday and at what got done at the end of today. Your actions and results are the perfect measure of your loyalties. If you go to church (et cetera) on Sunday and you ‘party down’ the rest of the weekend, then you have to look at the part-time nature of your loyalties. Gym five days a week and dissolution on the weekend also betoken conflicting and-or part-time and-or insincere loyalties. Fiscal responsibility on the job and maxed-out personal credit cards? Or the reverse? Righteous Christian in public, yet bigot or sexual deviate in private?
        You destroy your Power by serving two masters.

        This is the third factor about Loyalty: Loyalty has to do with choosing that one object of your Loyalty that precludes all others. One spouse or partner. Higher Values OR crass materialism. Freedom and not fascism. Dignity and not subservience (for yourself and others). Responsibility or irresponsibility. Love or hate. Empowerment or dis-empowerment.

* *          * *          * *          * *
        The Universe does not care what you do. Loyalty to the good, to the betterment of all, to a world that works, to Higher Values such as Excellence, to grace, to laughter, to reality, to Reason – or not.
        The existential choices that you make – that each and every individual makes – are what give you the Life that you have.
        You can tell how that is going by observing what is going on around you, near and far.
        The ancient Chinese saying applies: “Do not be surprised if the horse that you are riding takes you in the direction that you are headed.”

[copyright 2007 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]

Each issue of WMail is posted on the Working Minds website; quotations are posted alphabetically by author.

=============
Q U O T E S
=============

"Don't let anyone ever tell you that it isn't enough just to tell the truth."
— Molly Ivins [1944-2007]

"Money trumps peace."
— George Dubya Bush (press conference 14 February 2007)

"The law in its wisdom allows both the rich and the poor to sleep under the bridges over the Seine."
— Anatole France [1844-1924]

"The battle to prevent global warming has been lost. Now the race to survive it has begun."
— Mark Hertsgaard, in The Nation Magazine

"My first act of free will shall be to believe in free will."
— William James [1842-1910]

"An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics."
— Plutarch [46?–127 C.E.]

"The world is becoming a difficult place to live in – except for the strong."
— Hercule Poirot, as written by Agatha Christie [1890-1976], in 1948

"What an absolute savage and pirate the passion of military conquest is."
— William James [1842-1910]

"Life, you know, is inclined to make a fellow cynical."
— Agatha Christie [1890-1976]

"The entire United States [is] a giant debtors colony, one nation in the red,
subject to compound interest, indentured to Citibank."
— Dave Gilson

"Democracy works when people claim it as their own."
— Bill Moyers

"Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self-interest."
— Napolean Bonaparte [1769-1821]

"This is what we did. How did it happen? How could we?"
— Dorothea Lange [1895-1965]

"First master the rules, then discard them."
— Goethe [1749-1832]

"To vice, innocence must always seem only a superior kind of chicanery."
— author Ouida [1839-1908]

"Capitalists are hanged by the rope [that] they sell their enemies."
— James Lee Burke

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
— John F. Kennedy [1917-63]

"There are some things [that] you learn best in calm, and some in storm."
— Willa Cather [1873-1947]

"The perversity of human nature is the greatest of the mysteries of human life."
— historian Arnold J. Toynbee [1889-1975]

"A great many people think [that] they are thinking when thay are merely rearranging their prejudices."
— William James [1842-1910]

"Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's not reason not to give it."
— Agatha Christie [1890-1976]

"Where's all the freedom / that we're fighting for?"
— Merle Haggard song

"No vice flourishes without sanction."
— James Lee Burke

"Terrorism is the war of the poor and war is the terrorism of the rich."
— actor Sir Peter Ustinov [1921-2004]

N E X T   I S S U E: "The Cage"

Issue #69: "Summer Solution"
[March 2007]

>+<    G.E. Nordell, editor    >+<

N E W S    &    L I N K S    o f    I N T E R E S T

==>  GAS SHORTAGES: Valero Oil, based in Texas, has had trouble recently delivering gasoline/petrol to my local
        Valero/Shamrock dealer. They tell me that there is no known reason, but that the employees were told to expect
        only about half of their prior shipment amounts for a while.

==>  Federal report came out in March that foreign interests now own 25% of America, which is double the figure of 1995.

==>  The National March for Impeachment is set for April 28th (in many U.S. locations): http://www.impeachthem.com

==>  A report published in the scientific journal Nature calculates that the loss from Greenland's massive ice cap
        (the world's second-largest reservoir of frozen fresh water) has increased by 250 percent between May 2004
        and April 2006. The rate shown by satellite photos is now about 60 square miles per year.

==>  Based on Reagan Adnistration changes to government reporting formulas:
        1) The value of Social Security payouts is 70% less than pre-Reagan;
        2) Unemployment in 2006 [was] really 12 percent;
        3) America's trade deficit and debt payments amount to one third of the Gross Domestic Product.
        — based on radio reports by radio host Thom Hartmann, 2006

==>  REQUEST FOR SHORT TALES OF WHAT READERS HAVE DONE
        Readers who have taken action based on WMail ezine & WM website content are invited to submit short reports.
        Maximum 100 words; may be edited for the ezine; credit will be to initials & location. What we want is not vague
        ‘WM is wonderful' comments, but actual actions taken. The plan is to include them in Issue #72, which will be
        roughly the WMail Seventh Anniversary: send Action Email here

==>  WAR NEWS (at the end of March)
        •       Turkey is massing military forces on the northern border of Iraq, out of fear that the Kurds have gained
                enough internal strength to secede from the artificial Iraqi occupation government.
        •       Halliburton is planning to 'cut and run', moving their headquarters from Houston, TX to Dubai
                (for fear of accountability to Congress for their war-profiteering activity).
        •       The Dept. of Defense says that there are 23,000 injured veterans of the wars in Afghanistan & Iraq; the Veterans
                Administration and the DoD are treating 205,000 injured from those wars.
                {per Bob Woodruff interview broadcast 27 February 2007)
                see also http://www.VAwatchdog.org and http://www.IAVA.org
        •       China just raised its military budget by 17.8 percent.

==>  New & majorly-revised pages on the editor’s other primary website:
        http://www.genordell.com/stores/lantern/oscars.htm
        http://www.genordell.com/stores/lantern/oscars31.htm
        http://www.genordell.com/stores/lantern/foreignFR.htm
        http://www.genordell.com/stores/lantern/foreignIN.htm
        http://www.genordell.com/stores/lantern/foreignIT.htm
        http://www.genordell.com/stores/lantern/foreignJP.htm
        http://www.genordell.com/stores/spirit/Steinbeck.htm

==>  The election for U.S. President is 19 months away, so predicting what will happen is premature.
        But what I WANT for that ticket is easy: Gore-Edwards. Many others want similar choices, including
        the Draft Gore movement: http://www.DraftGore.com – Sign their petition!

-------------------------------------------------------------
S U M M E R    S O L U T I O N
-------------------------------------------------------------

        Part of the neo-con denial of George Dubya Bush’s blatant psychopathy is to say that the impeachment process takes too long, that before Congress can get that job done, a new occupant of the White House will replace Bush in January 2009.
        Hogwash!
        The historic reality is that the G.O.P.’s witch-hunt is what took a long time, because there were no crimes by Bill & Hillary to prosecute. The special prosecutor spent $60 million and found nothing! After manipulating the situation so that Bill Clinton lied about having sex ‘with that woman’, the actual process of impeachment took a mere two months, and the end result was that the U.S. Senate found Clinton not guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.

        If the 110th Congress manages to find the cojones to do their sworn duty, our criminal President and Vice President and their mob of fascist freedom-haters can be sent packing – either to prison or to exile – before the summer of 2007 begins.
        After regime change, America can get to work fixing the damage done by the Bush administration.

* *          * *          * *          * *
REASONS TO IMPEACH

1) VIOLATING THE OATH OF OFFICE: Abject failure to ‘uphold and defend the Constitution’; promotion & assumption of Unitary Executive (dictator) privileges; 800-plus signing statements; cancellation of habeas corpus & posse comitatus laws and other Constitutional provisions; illegal wiretapping, which began before September 11.

2) TREASON: Intentionally revealing the identity of the covert C.I.A. operation Brewster Jennings, and its chief agent, Valerie Plame Wilson – resulting in the deaths of foreign agents, and in the end of C.I.A. data-gathering on W.M.D. in the Middle East.

3) WAR PROFITEERING, which Harry S. Truman said is treason.

4) INTERNATIONAL WAR CRIMES: Invading a sovereign nation; blatant violations of the Geneva Convention; torture and murder of prisoners.

5) U.S. WAR CRIMES: Torture of innocent civilians; perpetual imprisonment of civilians at Guantanamo; rendering to ‘black site’ facilities; mistreatment of veterans and active military; abuse of National Guard and Reserve and active duty military personnel (placed in harm’s way without adequate training or equipment, redeployed without proper rest).

6) BANKRUPTING THE COUNTRY

7) BEARING FALSE WITNESS: Formal and public falsification of information given to Congress and to the American people; a string of cover-ups, and then cover-ups of the cover-ups.

8) ELECTION FRAUD, including targeted voter disenfranchisement.

9) THE KATRINA DISASTER

10) STACKING THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM: Using un-Constitutional provisions of the Patriot Act to appoint federal judges and U.S. attorneys without the ‘advice and consent’ of Congress.

11) DAMAGE TO THE ENVIRONMENT: Denial of the facts of global warming; muzzling of scientists; sell-off of natural resources; reversal of environmental protection laws; closing of the E.P.A. library; appointment of industry executives to oversight bodies.

12) George W. Bush is an embarrassment to his species.

* *          * *          * *          * *
WHAT YOU CAN DO

REGISTER TO VOTE: Any citizen who does not vote should be ashamed. Get friends & family to register.

CALL POLITICIANS: The official Capitol Switchboard phone number is 202/224-3121. Demand impeachment.

        Find out the names of your elected officials at either www.senate.gov or www.house.gov. Then call the 800 numbers of The Million Phone March – 800-828-0498, 800-459-1887 or 800-614-2803 – and they will transfer you to the office of each Senator and your Congressman. Demand impeachment.

GET INFORMED / STAY INFORMED: If Air America Radio is available in your area, listen keenly; if not available, then listen on the internet.

SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER: When neighbors & co-workers bring up crap like ‘American Idol’ or the weather, change the subject to some reality-based topic, per the list above, and-or provide them with new information from progressive news sources.

[copyright 2007 by Gary Edward Nordell, all rights reserved]

Each issue of WMail is posted on the Working Minds website; quotations are posted alphabetically by author.

=============
Q U O T E S
=============

"The promise of America leaves no one out."
— Bill Moyers

"Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good."
— William Faulkner [1897-1962]

"Fascism is capitalism in decay."
— Vladimir Ilyich Lenin [1870-1924]

"The solution to the problems of democracy is more democracy."
— Sen. Robert M. La Follette [1855-1925]

"Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government
from deceiving the people."
— Hugo Black [1886-1971], U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1937-71

"In our time, what is at issue is the very nature of humankind, the image [that] we have of our limits and possibilities.
History is not yet done with its exploration of the limits of what it means to be human."
— C. Wright Mills [1916-62]

"Ye that dare oppose not only tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth!"
— Tom Paine [1737-1809]

"The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them."
— Vladimir Ilyich Lenin [1870-1924]

"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis
and the nations will accept the New World Order."
— David Rockefeller, Jr.

"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing
is worse than you imagine."
— J. Edgar Hoover [1895-1972]

"The Justice Dept. is the new F.E.M.A."
— talk show host Bill Press

"Taking no action at all is itself an immoral act."
— talk show host Mike Malloy

"To see things in the seed, that is genius."
— Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century B.C.E.]

"I see [illegal immigration] as white people finding loopholes in the slavery laws."
— Chris Rock, interview in Time Magazine (March 2007)

"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact."
— Sherlock Holmes, as written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [1859-1930]

"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons, with the greatest for the last."
— Sherlock Holmes, as written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [1859-1930]

"Power always thinks [that] it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak,
and that it is doing God’s will when it is violating all His laws."
— John Adams [1735-1826]

++++++++++++++++++++++++

quotations from
John Steinbeck [1902-68]

"Boileau said that Kings, Gods and Heroes only were fit subjects for literature. The writer can only write about
what he admires. Present-day kings aren't very inspiring, the gods are on a vacation, and about the only heroes
left are the scientists and the poor."

"I’m in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection.
But with Montana it is love. And it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it... Montana seems to me to be
what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans."

"Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts . . . perhaps the fear of a loss of power."

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."

"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.
And this I would fight for: The freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.
And this I must fight against: Any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual."

++++++++++++++++++++++++

N E X T   I S S U E: "The Cage"

FOLLOWED BY: "Illegal Immigration"

---

        You can obtain a free e-version copy of the Preview Edition of "Working Minds: A
Philosophy of Empowerment" by visiting the WM website ebooks page at
http://www.working-minds.com/ebooks.htm
        The free Preview Edition can also be requested via the link here:
GENordell [at] Working-Minds.com - just put "FreePrvwEdition" in the Subject field, and specify your choice of Adobe Acrobat PDF file or Microsoft Reader LIT file or M/S Word DOC file.

==>  Visit and-or bookmark the Working Minds website:
        http://www.working-minds.com     [note the dash!]

==>  Forward this e-mail to anyone who is into philosophy or economics.

==>  Take a serious look at the Working Minds Manifesto: For a World
        That Works, Where Quality of Life is the Most Important Value
        http://www.working-minds.com/manifesto.htm [now in eight languages]

==>  Participate in these philosophical webrings:
        http://www.working-minds.com/ringpage.htm
        ..and the Ayn Rand Webring at
        http://l.webring.com/hub?ring=aynrandwebring

==>  Take a look at previous issues at
        http://www.working-minds.com/WMailindex.htm

        EDITORS: Want one of the previous essays for your publication?
        Not difficult. Just make a request & agree to attribute to WMail.
        See all previous issues at http://www.working-minds.com/WMailindex.htm