It's Turtles All the Way Down

I don't know why I'm so fond of that title phrase, but I'm very fond of it. It may be because it seems to fit 'hand-in-glove' with my 'stuff happens' theory.

As best as I can understand it, 'turtles all the way down' derives from some ancient cosmological notion of how the earth is held in place. In that notion, the earth is flat and round, sort of like a big dinner plate. It's held up on the back of an enormous turtle. What is that turtle standing on? -- on the back of another turtle. And what is that turtle standing on? -- on the back of another turtle. "It's turtles all the way down."

I love it! It works for me.

Now, combine that notion with my comment that "creation presupposes a creator, and who or what created him/her/it?", and you have a cosmology that looks like this:

"It's turtles all the way down; it's creators all the way up."

As unified explanations of everything go, it doesn't get any better.

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Have You Nothing Better To Do?

To the Vancouver rioters;

To Barack Obama and his legion of war profiteers;

To everyone watching TV or listening to the radio;

To the Taliban who blew away the great carved stone Buddhas in Afghanistan;

To the guy tossing litter out of his car as he drives along;

To the 'teacher' photocopying American 'educational' material to burden (not enlighten) his or her students' minds with;

To the single mom on her way to getting knocked up again;

To the bankster dreaming up new financial 'products';

I pose this question:

"HAVE YOU NOTHING BETTER TO DO?!"

JESUS H. CHRIST, PEOPLE; HAS THE NOTION OF LEAVING A PLACE BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT NEVER OCCURRED TO YOU??!!

WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH YOU ALL??!!

My dad,with his eighth-grade education, knew to leave a place better than he found it. How about it rioter, president, viewer/listener, Taliban 'fundamentalist', litter-bug, 'teacher', single mom, bankster; how about doing what my dad did and leaving places better than you found them?

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Cats and Fish and 'Evolution' and All That

My son opened up a tin of sardines in the kitchen late this afternoon for a snack. The sardine odour had barely escaped from the punctured tin before Cooper the cat came at a gallop to investigate, and start up with his "FEED ME! FEED ME!" meowing. Cooper had been God knows where in the house -- at the furthest corner snoozing for all we know -- but the odour of sardines had brought him running to the kitchen in an instant.

So, how does that little anecdote jibe with the theory of evolution?

Well, which came first? -- the cat or the fish? Or was the catfish the common, cannibalistic ancestor? Beats the bleep outta me.

Evolution makes about as much sense to me as does the notion of my workshop sweeping up after itself, and building me a better lathe and a brand new milling machine and a welding outfit while I sleep. Creation presupposes a creator, and who or what created him/her/it?

I propose a third theory. I call it the 'stuff happens' theory. It explains everything. STUFF HAPPENS!

Get over it. Your life is a result of it. Live it well and enjoy it.

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M.D.

M.D.

What does "M.D." mean, exactly?

Aside from this, it means that the bearer of those letters after his or her name sat and passed the requisite exams. That's all. It doesn't mean that he or she knows diddly-squat about healing.

I've sat and passed more than a few exams in my time, and I don't know diddly-squat about whatever it was that those exams examined. (And what do 'exams' 'examine', but one's capacity for regurgitating what one has been told of old, orthodox information?) Where's the 'learning' in that?

'Education' is a hoax. It's a racket.

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The 'Education' Racket

[Consider this an introduction to what I would like to make into a major essay. How I wish I had the intellectual wherewithal to just breeze along and finish this at one go. What little follows will have to do for now.]

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Today's National Post has a feature article about the plight of university graduates with heavy-duty credentials who can't find a job befitting their 'education'.

My heart goes out to them. 'Been there.

All I can say to them is,"You've been had. Get over it. Find another way and carry on."

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In the early 1970's, I [sort of] 'graduated' from the DeVry Institute of Technology. Two years of math, physics, vacuum tubes, semiconductors and circuit analysis had qualified me to go to work as a Xerox copier technician. If you know how to operate a vacuum cleaner, you already possess most of what qualifications you need to be a Xerox copier technician

I'd say that roughly 98 percent of what passes for 'education' is nothing more nor less than a make-work project for those who find tying shoelaces to be intellectually and physically challenging. The whole notion of 'education' is fraudulent and foundationless.

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There's a 'chicken/egg' aspect to 'education' that has long baffled me. Implicit in the notion of 'education' is the notion of 'mastery' -- that 'educators' are masters of their subjects, qualified by their mastery to impart knowledge of their subject to the student. That notion is demonstrably fallacious. The educator cannot possibly be a master of a subject that he is necessarily disengaged from by virtue of his being employed to do nothing other than to yak about it in a classroom, rather than actually work at it. How can one possibly be a master of a discipline or practice that one is not actually engaged in?

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To be continued.

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How Banking Works

Suppose you go to a banker for a loan of $20.00. You'd think that what the banker does is he reaches into the bank's 'wallet', pulls out one of these and loans it to you.

But no, he does nothing of the kind. What he loans you is something like this.

(We had barbequed chicken for dinner. That was my napkin.)

What he expects back in payment is this.

Get it?

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