ParaTopics: Segregation, Balance, or Wheat From Chaff?

[operator kos]

call your STATE senator

Some would scoff at appealing to elected representatives, but it can make make a difference sometimes. They say writing a letter is taken more seriously than a phone call, and talk to them in their language, i.e. use a business-letter format and make one's point short and clear.

You'd be surprised. Given that few people even know who their state-level representatives are, these guys actually get very few calls (or letters, which are even better, as you said). As I mentioned before, I actually work as a lobbyist for a relatively mainstream enviro group in California, and a state legislator told me once that as few as a dozen calls will make a difference in his vote for a bill he's on the fence about.

Also, it came as a great shock to me to learn that there are actually some altogether decent people in the state legislature, at least in my state. With smaller elections, it's actually possible to get a grassroots, well-meaning person elected. Corporations do still spend money, and there still is fraud and corruption, but not nearly on the endemic level as at the federal level.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Notice that W.O.O. has no effect on the quality of life of the needy of the world.

Notice that focus on fascist humans and military-intelligence crimes has a HUGE effect on same.

[barracuda]

I'm not so sure about that Hugh. There was a time when discussions regarding human flight, solar power, engineered agriculture and x-ray machines would have been viewed as pipe dreaming woo-woo. As well, you might say that any number of subjects, for example astronomy or music, have no real pragmatic effect on the lives of the world's needy. Yet hopefully there exists enough bandwidth on the forum to bring minds to bear on their mysteries as well as your particular focus of interest.

[kool maudit]

Notice that W.O.O. has no effect on the quality of life of the needy of the world.

Notice that focus on fascist humans and military-intelligence crimes has a HUGE effect on same.

why should we share your fascinations and prime directives? why should you be able to tell us where to concentrate our curiosities?

for an anti-fascist, you are a remarkably controlling personality.

[Elvis]

There was a time when discussions regarding human flight, solar power, engineered agriculture and x-ray machines would have been viewed as pipe dreaming woo-woo.

Get real. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. William Thomson, aka Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), said so. And Thomson was no slouch: he went to the best schools, his lasting advances in science and engineering were numerous and often profound, he was a fellow of the Royal Society, and hell, he's buried next to Sir Isaac Newton. I use to use his Kelvin temperature scale all the time in photographic work.

Thomson also said that the then-new x-ray machine was a "hoax"...that is, until his rather smug view was changed by the evidence.

Some other educated know-it-all once said that 35-mph train travel would never pan out because at that unheard-of speed, passengers wouldn't be able to breathe and their internal organs would be pulled apart (maybe he just owned stock in a mule team company).

[nathan28]

Notice that W.O.O. has no effect on the quality of life of the needy of the world.

Notice that focus on fascist humans and military-intelligence crimes has a HUGE effect on same.

why should we share your fascinations and prime directives? why should you be able to tell us where to concentrate our curiosities?

for an anti-fascist, you are a remarkably controlling personality.

No, see, you're just not cleared for whatever mysterious background information the Manatee has access to. After you see that, it all makes sense.

[barracuda]

Get real. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. William Thomson, aka Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), said so. And Thomson was no slouch: he went to the best schools, his lasting advances in science and engineering were numerous and often profound, he was a fellow of the Royal Society, and hell, he's buried next to Sir Isaac Newton. I use to use his Kelvin temperature scale all the time in photographic work.

Thomson also said that the then-new x-ray machine was a "hoax"...that is, until his rather smug view was changed by the evidence.

For this reason, I propose that all subjects previously referred to a "woo" be henceforth known as "sheer poppycock".

Some other educated know-it-all once said that 35-mph train travel would never pan out because at that unheard-of speed, passengers wouldn't be able to breathe and their internal organs would be pulled apart.

That one is actually true. I know because it happened to me while traveling on the Amtrak drinking car between Chicago and Springfield.

[nathan28]

There was a time when discussions regarding human flight, solar power, engineered agriculture and x-ray machines would have been viewed as pipe dreaming woo-woo.

Get real. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. William Thomson, aka Lord Kelvin (1824-1907), said so. And Thomson was no slouch: he went to the best schools, his lasting advances in science and engineering were numerous and often profound, he was a fellow of the Royal Society, and hell, he's buried next to Sir Isaac Newton. I use to use his Kelvin temperature scale all the time in photographic work.

Thomson also said that the then-new x-ray machine was a "hoax"...that is, until his rather smug view was changed by the evidence.

Some other educated know-it-all once said that 35-mph train travel would never pan out because at that unheard-of speed, passengers wouldn't be able to breathe and their internal organs would be pulled apart (maybe he just owned stock in a mule team company).

I hate to break this to you, but a bunch of prevaricators, fabulists, fabricators, mythomaniacs, charlatans and hoaxers have thoroughly infiltrated "para"-everything discussions.

And what is smug about disbelieving something outrageous until evidence is presented? Nothing. Do you remember the Steorn debacle? Long on vague generalities ("we've got this thing, it does stuff"), short on actual anything but confidence games? Most of what passes as parapolitics or even paranormal in one way or another involves and implicates real historical individuals in acts of treason or mass dissimulation. Regardless, it suggests that someone somewhere is culpable of something--and doing so is levying a charge. But to do so without evidence? That's a recipe for witch-hunting.

Not only that, but most of the basic narratives you find in para-fields are fraught with all sorts of questionable and thinly-veiled devices.

So pardon my increasing skepticism, especially when it comes to the "hidden technology" myth.


Waste even more of your life and more gasoline
on the COMMUTE OF THE FUTURE

[kool maudit]

i wonder, then, what made jeff's line of inquiry so attractive to some of you, seeing as how it has always been totally intertwined with esoteric and spiritual concerns.

it was never just a standard political blog.

[JackRiddler]

i wonder, then, what made jeff's line of inquiry so attractive to some of you, seeing as how it has always been totally intertwined with esoteric and spiritual concerns.

it was never just a standard political blog.

Cos the stuff he writes is really smart. Intertwined? I don't know, generally there's research or at least reading and an effort to say something new and genuinely thought-through as well as felt in each of his articles. He's not borrowing some niche-marketing scheme that throws Sasquatch in with Oswald to capture a demographic. Plus the graphics are spectacular. And he keeps his quotient of undisciplined meta-mixing (or plain intellectual laziness) to a minimum, unlike many here. For a human, anyway.

Beyond that, we have been attracted for whatever reason and now we're talking it all through on an open forum. Different thing. (As a matter of fact, after reading Jeff for years I got an invitation from someone else here to check out the scene.)

[nathan28]

i wonder, then, what made jeff's line of inquiry so attractive to some of you, seeing as how it has always been totally intertwined with esoteric and spiritual concerns.

it was never just a standard political blog.

why.png

So until Bigfoot starts sending $$$ my way and nationalizing the health care system, he's on the shitlist.

[barracuda]

What, are you like the reverse Kramer of conspiro-taintment, shilling for the paranormal shorts?
SELL SELL SELL UFO SELL BIGFOOT SELL PARANORMAL SELL SELL SELL SELL SELL SELL UFO SELL BIGFOOT SELL PARANORMAL SELL SELL SELL SELL SELL SELL UFO SELL BIGFOOT SELL PARANORMAL SELL SELL SELL

[JackRiddler]

People used to kill each other in person, now they're doing it online.

[kool maudit]

i still think it is bad form to try and direct the board away from what is obviously one of jeff's main fields of interest.

if you wish to discuss your political concerns, you're free to do so.

this attempt to ghettoize and eliminate all matters spiritual, esoteric & occult is pushy, limiting, obnoxious and swollen with self-regard. it's a core RI subject. deal with it.

there are many, many other political boards where the many evils of the worldly powers can be enumerated. there is only one RI.

[JackRiddler]

i still think it is bad form to try and direct the board away from what is obviously one of jeff's main fields of interest.

If you wish to discuss your political concerns, you're free to do so.

No one is trying to direct the board as a whole and I missed it if Jeff complained. You're free to start discussions on any topic, others are free to reply and that's when the field usually gets interesting.