Why Japan Is Doomed!

Happy Birthday Captain Kirk

Calling the Kettle Black

There is always a certain level of unintentional humor in the words of politicians. Clinton recently criticized Trump because there was violence at his events. I decided to post an interview with this 27 year veteran of the CIA who was roughed up at a Clinton speech a few years ago. He politely turned his chair away from Clinton in silent protest. For more on this story, click here. 

The interview discusses the interesting hypothesis that the reason for the NSA spying is to provide good blackmail information. Security is not the real reason for it. 

The interview also references torture: Trump's advocacy of torture is just another reason that voting for him is contradictory to a lot of the things I value. 

Pepsi vs. Coke

Since I have been traveling this week, I have not had time for a health blog post. Today I thought I would compare Pepsi and Coke. They taste almost identical. Years ago a friend and my secretary had an ongoing argument. She used Coke, and said it tasted better. He drank Pepsi, and actually worked for a local distributor. Since she left her Coke in my refrigerator, my friend took out the Coke from her bottle and replaced it with Pepsi. She said nothing. She later claimed that she had noticed a difference. It is said that Pepsi is sweeter than Coke. (To me Diet Coke tastes better and sweeter compared to Diet Pepsi. I try to avoid both, and except while traveling, I do so.) 

So when Coke changed its formula years ago to New Coke they made it a little sweeter. The chaos that ensued was fun to watch. "It's not really Coke," it was said. It was the greatest marketing fiasco of the 20th century. Coke switched back to its original formula. (Hint, it's the vanilla.) 

I could not help thinking about the "Cola Wars" looking at the current presidential race. "Jeb is not really a Republican." "Trump is not really a conservative." It seems to me that this is like comparing Coke with caffeine-free Coke.  Sure, they are different and choosing one might, based on the time of day, be slightly important, but ultimately its still a cola. (In this analogy, Trump is definitely not caffeine-free.) 

In the fall elections you will have the choice between Pepsi and Coke. They taste almost identical and both are toxic, just like cola. There is another choice. Don't choose any cola, not even RC. 

What Rough Beast Slouches Towards Bethlehem to Be Born?

TURNING and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

This is one of Yeats’ most well-known poems. The purpose of a poem is not to predict the future but to capture a moment. Bible Prophecy can work that way too. 

We are in a transition period. But a transition to what? That transition certainly was evident to Yeats in 1921 when this poem was published. The Second Coming, the title of this poem, is not referring to the return of Jesus. It is insisting that something else is coming. We hold our breath as it comes. I think we can all feel it—with dread. 

That is why we have so much fear. I have written against the survivalist mentality here on the blog, but I too share that dread. Something is coming that will shatter our shared culture, our shared lies. I too see the event that the "preppers" see. I just do not think one can prepare for the Apocalypse. 

That does not mean one should not have some food stored. Nor does it mean one should not reduce debt. These are the things we should do anyway. 

I am not worried about a zombie attack. Or its actual real equivalent. But I am concerned that we are headed toward a decades-long period of decline like the Great Depression in the 30's. Are you ready? Get ready. You can prepare for this scenario. 

Herb Stein once said that if something cannot continue it won't. Our current economic situation cannot continue, so it won't. We are reaching the end of our culture, and its dominance in the world. As Leviathan heads toward Bethlehem to be born the most we can hope for is that we are somewhere else when it happens. 

Here is what Spark Notes, I suppose the internet equivalent of Cliff's Notes, has to say about the poem:

... the next age will take its character not from the gyre of science, democracy, and speed, but from the contrary inner gyre—which, presumably, opposes mysticism, primal power, and slowness to the science and democracy of the outer gyre. The “rough beast” slouching toward Bethlehem is the symbol of this new age; the speaker’s vision of the rising sphinx is his vision of the character of the new world.

The reason so many people are afraid is that they see Leviathan coming and see destruction. They may be right. I suggest that instead you look for the opportunities that this time might bring—for in crisis comes opportunity.