Changes

”自分が変わったら、世界は変わる。”

"When you change, the world changes."


- Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Priest

Attachment

"Attachment leads to jealousy.  The shadow of greed, that is."


- Master Yoda

Merry Solstice

Tree with lights symbolizing the end of darkness and the return of light to the Earth

Lincoln

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet."


- Abraham Lincoln 

Solaris

Solaris (1972 film)

 "I only wanted to create a vision of a human encounter with something that certainly exists, in a mighty manner perhaps, but cannot be reduced to human concepts, ideas or images."


- Stanislaw Lem, author of Solaris, discussing the extraordinary physical and psychological "alienness" of the planet Solaris

Karma

"Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future."

- Sonmi-451, Cloud Atlas

Every day I'm Star Hustlin'

Greetings, greetings, fellow star-gazers!

Some people hustle pool. Some people hustle cars. But have you ever heard about the man who hustles stars?

Meet Jack Horkheimer, Star Hustler, former director of the Planetarium in Miami and host of the public television show Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler for 36 seasons.

He had a unique way of educating audiences watching in the wee hours of the night about the constellations that could be seen in the night sky, comets that would be traveling past our planet in the coming days, and everything else going on in the Heavens - all the while reminding viewers of our place in the vast expanse that is the Universe.

For those of us who remember watching his marvelous little show on PBS he will be missed.

And remember, as Jack always said, "Keep looking up!"

Bronco Bama Holds On!

Now git 'er dun!

We Are Not Alone

"Houston, this is Discovery.  We still have the alien spacecraft under observance."


- Intercepted radio transmission from Discovery pilot Colonel John Blaha to Houston Control during a space flight in March 1989

Riding my bicycle

Here comes the bride

No Barriers

Gen. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier again today, this time in an F-15, instead of in the X-1, as he did for the first time on this date in 1947.  He is 89 years old.

This publication would like to salute this legendary pilot and American hero and say on behalf of all young Americans:

Well done, Sir!

"My mule don't like people laughin'"

Caballero:  Listen, stranger, did you get the idea?  We don't like to see bad boys like you in town.  Go get your mule.  You let him get away from you?


Manco:  Well, see, that's what I wanna talk to you about.  He's feelin' real bad.


Caballero:  Huh?

Manco:  My mule.  You see, he got all riled up when you went a fired those shots at his feet.

Caballero:  Hey, you makin' some kinda joke?

Manco:  No, see, I understand you men were just playin' around.  But the mule, he just doesn't get it.  'Course if you were to all apologize...

[The caballeros laugh]

Manco:  I don't think it's nice, you laughin'.  See my mule don't like people laughin'.  Gets the crazy idea you're laughin' at him.  Now, if you apologize, like I know you're going to, I might convince him that you really didn't mean it.


- A Fistful of Dollars

Risky Business

 "Sometimes you gotta say, 'What the @#$%'"


- Joel, Risky Business

"Dyin' aint much of a livin', boy"

Bounty Hunter:  I'm looking for Josey Wales

Josey Wales:  That'd be me.

Bounty Hunter:  You're wanted, Wales.

Josey Wales:  I reckon I'm right popular.   You a bounty hunter?

Bounty Hunter:  Man's gotta do something for a livin' these days.

Josey Wales: Dying ain't much of a livin', boy.  You know, this isn't necessary.  You can just ride on.

...

Bounty Hunter:  I had to come back.

Josey Wales:  I know.


- The Outlaw Josey Wales

Vanishing Point

"This radio station was named Kowalski, in honour of the last American hero to whom speed means freedom of the soul. The question is not when's he gonna stop, but who is gonna stop him." 


- Super Soul, Vanishing Point

Anticipation

"Some say I have a 'sixth sense' . . . Baloney. I've just learned to guess what's going to happen next. its anticipation. It's not God-given, its Wally-given. He used to stand on the blue line and say to me, 'Watch, this is how everybody else does it.' Then he'd shoot a puck along the boards and into the corner and then go chasing after it. Then he'd come back and say, 'Now, this is how the smart player does it.' He'd shoot it into the corner again, only this time he cut across to the other side and picked it up over there. Who says anticipation can't be taught?"


- Wayne Gretzky a.k.a. "The Great One"

What, me worry?

Breaking Bad, yo

"Yeah, Mr. White!  Yeah, science!"


- Pinkman, Breaking Bad

Law: Texas Style

"You may be big, but you wanna see how bad you are?  C'mon!"

Click here to watch how depositions are taken in Texas. 

Triumph of the Will

“The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.”  

- Hitler

"Apache 3-6 out"

Players

  

 "You're all players, Sonny...getting high off the action."



- Miami Vice

The Kurgan Lives!

"Father!  Forgive me.  I am a worm..." - The Kurgan, circa 1986

"Don't...ever...speak to me...again.  Do you understand?  Good..." - The Kurgan, circa 2012

A Modern Masterpiece

Ferrari 308 quattrovalvole

The Fall of Crockett

Hackman:  I sure as hell know the same way you couldn't let an innocent man be executed that you can't shoot an unarmed man.



Crockett:  Wrong.


- Miami Vice

"Did you see the sunrise this morning?"

Ivan:  You are still schoolboy, Thomas, using schoolboy tricks.

Magnum:  No tricks.

...

Ivan:  If you are going to shoot me, do it now....You won't...You can't...I know you, Thomas.  I had you for three months at Duc Wei.  I know you better than your mother.  Your sense of honor and fair play.  You could shoot me, if I was armed and coming after you.  But like this...Thomas...never.  Goodbye, Thomas.  Dasvidanya.

Magnum:  Ivan, did you see the sunrise this morning?

Ivan:  Yes, why?


- Magnum, p.i.


Click here to watch the scene.

Going for the Gold

The Dark Night Rises

The horrific incident in Colorado last week brought the sick state of our society to the forefront of our national attention.

Over the past few decades, higher human values of compassion and selflessness have been replaced by the Gods of greed, narcissism, and violence.  Investment banks ruin the lives of millions of people as they rake in record profits and then pass on huge losses to those same people.  Defense contractors lobby for wars that destroy countless lives.  The healthcare industry fights tooth and nail to prevent legislation that will provide medical care to millions and the oil and coal companies destroy the environment in their insatiable desire for even more money.  And in a testament to how much we've fallen from grace, a psychopathic corporate raider has the support of about 50% of the electorate and may become the next president. 

Except for unusual cases such as major scandals or catastrophic accidents, it is difficult to see the degree to which greed and selfishness have come to dominate because their expression is usually subtle and in the form of business decisions made in board rooms.

But the latest manifestation of that narcissism, selfishness, and lack of empathy, however, came in the form of a young man dressed in black and wearing a gas mask opening fire on a crowd in a theatre, killing and wounding scores.  Upon careful inspection, it will become clear that the same motivations and thought-processes that drove James Holmes to commit mass murder are in actuality not very different from what is driving many of the key players in our society today.  As such, the tragic incident in Aurora, Colorado last Thursday is but merely a symptom of a much larger illness.

The Psychology of the Mass Shooter

The following was taken from a blog post entitled 'The Common Motive of a Mass Shooter Attacker: Immortality"on the Washington Post's website:


Dr. Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist who is chairman of The Forensic Panel, a practice in New York City, has worked on mass-shooting cases for many years and shared some general thoughts about these kinds of incidents:


“Mass shooting cases have the common motive of an attacker seeking immortality. Each of the attackers have different degrees of paranoia and resentment of the broader community. Some are so paranoid that they’re psychotic. Others are paranoid in a generally resentful way but have no significant psychiatric illness. But you have to hate everyone in order to kill anyone. The threshold that the mass shooter crosses is one in which he decides that his righteous indignation and entitlement to destroy is more important than the life of any random person that he might kill.” 

“This is why mass shooting are invariably, invariably carried out by people who have had high self esteem. They are people who had high expectations of themselves. It’s not at all surprising to hear about these crimes in people who either valued their own intelligence or their own career prospects at one time.” 

“They’re people who are unfailingly unable to form satisfying sexual attachments and their masculinity essentially gets replaced with their fascination for destruction.”

“The overwhelming majority of folks who do this are male because of how, in our culture, masculine identity is so closely tied to the capacity to destroy.”


The motivation underlying the killer's behavior is a desire for immortality -- a fundamentally narcissistic goal that he is selfishly willing to achieve at the expense of other people's lives.

Greed is Good: The Psychology of the Capitalist

The same can be said for the Uber-capitalist.  He is willing to ravage everything is his path for the sake of power and wealth, hoping that in some way, he may attain the immortality of the Gods.  In his case, however, he does not open fire in a crowded theatre; he lobbies legislatures so that environmental regulations that prevented him from drilling and destroying a natural habitat are repealed, he finds ways to sabotage and avoid laws that make it illegal for him to gamble with other people's retirement money and capitalizes off the profits or leaves them holding the bag if he bets wrong, and he deviously spreads lies about critical legislation that would actually make millions of people healthier and save them billions of dollars -- all because they will cut into his bottom line.

A killer in a $5,000 suit

The behavior of the mass shooter and the Uber-capitalist are different in form but not in fundamental nature.  Both are driven by greed and narcissism and unconcerned about the effects of their actions on others.  In the past few decades those values have not been held in check by greater values of co-operation and the fundamental value of all life.
  
Not all power-hungry, selfish people are in a position to run an investment bank or an oil company.  Some are only able to buy a few guns from the local Walmart and kill their neighbors in a movie theatre.  But in a society that has glorified the pursuit of power and self-promotion they've got to make a name for themselves somehow.

So why should we be surprised when they do?

Over the Top

"What's the matter, Dillon?  CIA got you pushing too many pencils?"

Bushido

Gretzky:  Hello, Marty.

Castillo: It's been a long time.

Gretzky:  Are you the same man I used to know, Marty?

Castillo:  We change.

Gretzky:  Not you.


- Miami Vice

The Ultimate Question

Algren:  What do you want from me?

Katsumoto:  What do you want for yourself?


- The Last Samurai

Views of Taisekiji - Small Bench

Small bench near the Demon Gate, Taiseki-ji Temple, Japan

Contact

"The universe was made on purpose, the circle said.  In whatever galaxy you happen to find yourself, you take the circumference of a circle, divide it by its diameter, measure closely enough and uncover a miracle -- another circle drawn kilometers downstream of the decimal point.  There would be richer messages farther in.  It doesn't matter what you look like, or what you're made of, or where you come from.  As long as you live in this universe, and have a modest talent for mathematics, sooner or later you'll find it.  It's already here.  It's inside everything.  You don't have to leave your planet to find it.  In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature.  Standing over humans, gods, and demons, subsuming Caretakers and Tunnel builders, there is an intelligence that antedates the universe."

- Carl Sagan, Contact

The Wall (live), World Tour, San Francisco, 2012