THE ABORTION DEBATE HAS A NEW AUDIENCE

Horrors, I've just listened to a new generation arguing against abortion with all the same arguments that were shot down when Roe vs Wade was passed.  Someone quoted 'some' research that showed that 96% of abortions are for vanity!  I suppose they don't believe the Holocaust happened and that Obama isn't a US citizen..  Will they ever be exposed to the real facts of life?

Right now, it isn't people just disagreeing and offering a good debate on any subject.  Too many are as paranoid as McCarthy and as ignorant of the world and most hermits.  The rest have been brainwashed by a variety of convincing snake oil salespeople.

If only people could accept the fact that a fetus is a 'seed' of life only and not yet a person it would be more accurate.  But those who are still stuck in B.C. thinking, refusing to accept neurological fact, will preach to others while proclaiming the government should get smaller and stay out of people's lives.

Meanwhile, we seem to be headed towards an oligarchy, if the Koch brothers get their way.  I will grieve for democracy for the few remaining years of my life and hope that my needs will not exceed my income as food and all product costs double or triple.  Marketers play on,  Even toilet paper rolls are now narrower, but contain more sheets.  I'm sure someone used a calculator to squeeze a bit more profit out of each sheet offering the illusion of more sheets. .

RELIGIONS HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF DYING

Greek Gods

Research is showing that more countries are giving up religion by their people.  One research description writes as follows:   "In a large number of modern secular democracies, there's been a trend that folk are identifying themselves as non-affiliated with religion; in the Netherlands the number was 40%, and the highest we saw was in the Czech Republic, where the number was 60%."  Click here for more on the research.

Even if we were to believe as Karl Marx did, that "religion is the opiate of the people." we must also believe that there are times when humans need opiates.  The most widely used medical prescription for a morphine drip is when a patient is dying and in severe pain.  How humane of us since we don't allow a patient to take his/her own life and spare the inevitable gruesome demise. Yet, comics joke that people ready to die tend to become religious, 'studying for their finals'.  It is hedging all bets, so to speak.

The real question being asked is, "Religion going extinct in most Western countries -- Why does it still dominate our politics?"  The second obvious question is why is it being tolerated when it is a violation of the Constitution to use religion in governing.  The separation of church and state is pretty clear, is it not, in the Constitution?  Why have we turned over the country to these ideologues?

RESEARCH ASSUMPTIONXS AND ERRONEOUS CONCLUSIONS

Today I heard a newscaster relate the findings of some research on women.   The conclusions were bizarre .  From what was mentioned, researchers took a random number of women but with no mention of criteria...it was apparently those who meditated and those who did not,  Their criteria was not specific to stress level, hormones or chemical balance.  They then concluded that women who meditate have much less stress than women who do not.    To me, that is a chicken and egg sort of issue.  Might it be that only a woman who is capable of relaxing and freeing her mind is capable of meditating.  I do not meditate because I have ADD and can't sit still that long trying to empty my head.  For me that is far more stressful than other techniques I have used to handle the rare stress I may feel.   In fact, I am rarely stressed feeling stressed..

While I have no problem with whatever people find that works for them, I do have a problem with assumptions based on faith...the assumption here being if you can teach yourself to relax, empty your head,  think positive thoughts, you will help yourself become stress free. Might it be that those who are capable of reaching the necessary state are also capable of a degree of self-hypnosis? What if your stress in increased by your inability to take 15 minutes of your day to force yourself to this exercise because your body wants to move and your senses scream that they are idle and need more than an empty head.?

No matter what I try to focus on, I usually am asked to see things in a one-size-fits-all perspective.  Meditation, like so many other things,  only works for people capable letting go the need to keep their senses engaged like a juggler...always more than one ball in the air.  I find that engaging all my sense keeps me calm.  Since my world is usually seen as a half full glass, I don't have to work at not thinking negatively.  I don't worry about anything over which I have no control and live as Nikos Kazantzakis  describes on his tomb, :"I fear no one, I want nothing, I am free"

LEGAL SPAM

It is currently legal for companies to tap into your computer clicks and file away all sorts of personal information about what you buy and where you go on the Internet.  This is so they can better tailor advertising to what may suit your needs and tastes whether you wish it or not.  Another concept of 'one-size-fits-all' gone astray..

I am what might be called a senior-senior.  However, All the drug stores who offer me a discount on any prescriptions I transfer to them are wasted as I take no prescription drugs.  My hearing is still relatively acute so I don't need free hearing tests so that I will buy thousands of dollars worth of hearing aids.  I live in the home from which I intend to live until I die unless I lose my health and mind.  I drown in offers of free home appraisal and offers to sell my home.  In either case I will not be in need of a town house or "cottage" at a retirement home which requires astronomical down payment and monthly fees and which sports several levels of opportunity for care before your cremation.  Nor am I looking for a nursing home though they seem to be looking for me.

While my knees are not great,  I do not need a hover chair or scooter, nor an electric chair lift from my  basement to the second floor for which I could trade my annual food budget and jujst float up on my own. If I dare to buy a product from a disabilities catalog  (I happen to like talking clocks though I am still sighted) I am advised whenever there is a new model of raised toilets, walkers, shower aids, and every other goodie known to man for people who are missing their senses or mobility.

Actually, I prefer getting this legal spam on my computer because deleting has not yet caused carpal tunnel syndrome.  However, I begrudge that I am totally ignored when I try to stop the demise of trees. Those poor dead trees no longer give off oxygen but bring me catalogs of fashion for the black woman (though I am Caucasian), products for pets (though I don't own one), and (because I bought a sexual aid for a shy patient once years ago) I am unable to turn off the equivalent of the ocean salt machine of offers for titillation that would make a woman-of-the-night blush.

Since my ISP provider likes to make decisions for me as to what is junk, whether I wish it to or not, I must, therefore, go through my junk folder for those misdirected.  The mail provider also thinks it is kind to put back deleted items that have not been opened, assuming that I might be missing something of import to me!

I am a modern Diogenes who is looking for someone who will not try to make decisions for me!

EFFORTS TO CUT OUT SPAM

Recently, The Times of India reported that Microsoft took down a major spam mailer.  "Rustock was reported to be among the world's largest spam botnets and was capable of sending as many as 30 billion emails per day.  Microsoft worked with Viagra-maker Pfizer and network security firm FireEye during a months-long investigation that culminated with using US warrants to seize "command and control" servers in the western state of Washington.
Rustock was knocked offline on Wednesday when the connection was severed between infected computers and the machines used to give them orders, according to Boscovich"

Paul Mah writes in Fierce CIO Tech Watch:. "The notorious Rustock botnet was finally shut down on Thursday last week in a takedown operation involving Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), industry partners and federal law enforcement agents. According to Symantec, the Rustock botnet was responsible for a large proportion of the world's spam (39 percent); the illicit computer network powering the botnet was thought to consist of close to a million compromised client computers.

The road to getting Rustock offline was not a short one; it was the culmination of a year-long investigation by Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit with assistance from various industry partners. The DCU essentially compiled a long list of pertinent information such as the domain names, IP addresses and hosting companies that botnet operators were determined to be using. In a civil suit filed last February, Microsoft sought a judge's permission to gain control of the IPs of 'controller nodes' of Rustock--and which number in the hundreds.

CNET News writes:  "The Wall Street Journal first reported that it was Microsoft's digital crimes unit, working in concert with U.S. marshals, that raided seven hosting facilities across the country and seized the command-and-control machines that ran the network. Those are the servers that send instructions to the fleet of infected computers to dish out spam messages hawking such items as phony lottery scams and fake and potentially dangerous prescription drugs.  The takedown was known internally as Operation b107".

The WSJ article referred to by CNET must be the one by Nick Wingfield:  "Microsoft says it confiscated dozens of hard drives and a handful of computers from the hosting providers as part of the raid. Most of the equipment was leased from afar by customers, some of whom listed addresses in Azerbaijan, according to Mr. Boscovich

None of us using PCs wiill likely know whether our own computers were infected.  Since there are others out there with botnets, we are free from infection without lots of protection.  After all, Rustock was only 39% of spam.  It seems to have eminated for