My World of “Ought to Be”
by Timothy Wilken, MD










Subscribe to "My World of  “Ought to Be”" in Radio UserLand.

Click to see the XML version of this web page.

Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.
 

 

Wednesday, October 30, 2002
 

Synergic Guardians—Protecting the Future

Timothy Wilken, MD writes: 1) A Synergic Guardian may not injure the EARTH or, through inaction, allow the EARTH to come to harm. ... 2) A Synergic Guardian may not injure LIFE or, through inaction, allow LIFE to come to harm, except where that would conflict with the First Law. ... 3) A Synergic Guardian may not injure HUMANITY or, through inaction, allow HUMANITY to come to harm, except where that would conflict with the First or Second Laws. ... 4) A Synergic Guardian may not injure an individual HUMAN, or through inaction, allow an idividual HUMAN to come to harm, except where that would conflict with the First, Second or Third Laws. ... 5) A Synergic Guardian may not injure the Time-binding Trust and/or Primary or Secondary Property, or through inaction, allow the Time-binding Trust and/or Primary or Secondary Property to come to harm, except where that would conflict with the First, Second, Third or Fourth Laws. (10/30/02)


  b-future:

Becoming Responsible for the Future

Peter Russell writes: It is this belief that what we have or do determines our inner happiness that drives consumerism. We believe that buying things can make us happy. I don’t think that is the case. It may appear on the surface that things make us happy, but if you look more deeply at what’s actually going on, it is clear that we are being told by the advertisers and marketers that we’re missing something–the Channel dress or whatever it is–and that we cannot be happy without it. They create an artificial sense of missing something, and with it an artificial sense of unhappiness. We want something we haven’t got, and when we do go and buy it that wanting goes, and we feel happier again. You feel a wonderful relief, because the wanting has ceased. But it does not last for long. Soon there is something else we believe we need, and again we feel dissatisfied. The point is that it is not the buying of something that makes us happy, but buying it relieves us of the feeling of dissatisfaction that we have created for ourselves. Much of what we consume we consume not because of some physical need. We consume in order to satisfy some inner need. But since no external thing can ever really satiate an inner need, we keep on seeking, keep on buying, in the vain hope that if only we bought enough of the right things we will eventually find fulfillment. But all along we are looking in the wrong place. This is a brought out in a popular Sufi tale in which the character Nasrudin is out at night on his hands and knees underneath a street lamp in front of his house. His neighbour comes by and asks what he’s doing. "Looking for the key to my house", says Nasrudin. So the neighbour gets down to help him look for it. After a while, when they still haven’t found the key, the neighbour asks where exactly Nasrudin had dropped it. "Somewhere in my house", he replies. "Well why are you looking for it out here?" "Ah" says Nasrudin "there’s more light out here". We may laugh, but that in a way is exactly what our society would have us do? We’ve lost the key to inner fulfillment. But rather than search for the answer inside ourselves we look out to the world around us because there is indeed more light out there. The human mind is still such a mystery. But the external world is a different matter. There’s more light there. We know how that works and how to change it. We can reshape it into computers, wonderful clothes, cars, almost anything we can imagine. This is the world we can manage. So we set about controlling it in some way or another, in the hope that we’ll create the right circumstances for inner peace. (10/30/02)


  b-CommUnity:

Saddam Hussein says Always Wash Your Hands!

New York Times -- Maureen Dowd writes: After Saddam wakes at 5am and has coffee, the narrator says of the dictator, he moves on to personal hygiene: "This is especially important because Saddam prefers to be greeted with a kiss near the armpit." As Saddam says, "It's not appropriate for someone to attend a gathering or to be with his children with his body odour trailing behind him emitting sweet or stinky smell mixed with perspiration." "It's preferable to bathe twice a day, but at least ... once a day," continues the clean freak who craves dirty bombs. "And when the male bathes once a day, the female should bathe twice a day. The reason is that the female is more delicate and the smell of a woman is more noticeable than the male." He's a cross between Mohamed Atta and Pithecanthropus erectus. A former Iraqi minister observes: "If you want to meet with Saddam Hussein, there are many protocols: Pat you down, check your body, you have to clean. Saddam is scared to be contaminated by people." No doubt the feeling is mutual. "Germs terrify the great leader," the minister says. "The smallest cut is dealt with immediately." Odd in a man whose stock in trade is germs. In the documentary, shot a couple of years ago, Saddam obsesses over his image. "He has a huge collection of hats for every occasion, even bulletproof hats for those pesky assassination attempts," the narrator notes snidely. "He's fastidious about his nails, and he regularly dyes his moustache a rich and regal black. Looking young ... is one of his greatest concerns. Iraqis joke privately that there are 20 million Iraqis and 20 million portraits of Saddam. As if this isn't enough, every day the cover of Iraq's biggest newspaper features a photo of his excellency in a dashing new pose." Saddam jokingly tells his people, that if a television breaks, just put a poster of him over it. There's something chilling about the anti-Semitic head of a military power who gasses people, obsessing about his moustache. Heil Hussein. (10/30/02)


  b-theInternet:

Consumer Confidence Plunges 14 Points

UPI News -- The Consumer Confidence Index in October fell more than 14 points to 79.4, its lowest level in nine years and its fifth consecutive monthly decline, the Conference Board said Tuesday. The group said its index, which uses 1985 as a base of 100, fell 14.3 percentage points from its 93.7 level for September, rattling the financial markets and indicating that the holiday season will be less than festive. "A weak labor market, the threat of military action in Iraq, and a prolonged decline in the financial markets have clearly dampened both consumers' confidence and their expectations for the near future," says Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center. "The outlook for the holiday retail season is now fairly bleak. Without the likelihood of a pickup in consumer spending, an already weak economic recovery could weaken further," she added. The Present Situation Index fell to 77.5 from 88.5, and the Expectations Index declined to 80.7 from 97.2. Consumer Confidence is now at its lowest level since November 1993, when it stood at 71.9. (10/30/02)


  b-theInternet:

A Speech by Saddam Hussein

This is a transcript of a speech delivered on August 8, 2002 by Saddam Hussein to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the "great victory" over Iran in the war that ended in 1988. It provides an opportunity for Westerners to see into the mind of this middle east dictator. (10/30/02)


  b-theInternet:

The Art of Gassing Terrorists

The Washington Times -- The incapacitating chemical the animals are darted with is etorphine, known to animal researchers as M99. M99 is a synthetic opiate more than 500 times as powerful as morphine and more than 250 times as powerful as heroin. The great danger with M99 is that the lethal dose is only a few (normally three to six, depending on the animal) times higher than the effective incapacitating dose. M99 is widely and commercially available. The Russian's "secret" is that they made an aerosol spray out of M99 (normally a powder dissolved in water), converting it into a gas. Their grave mistake was that they guessed too high on what they effective dose would be. Too much M99 causes respiratory paralysis. The muscles of your lungs and diaphragm can't move. Death from hypoxia — no air, no oxygen — comes quickly. And that's what happened to the hostages: They stopped breathing. (10/30/02)


  b-theInternet:

http://www.SynEARTH.net/
6:13:08 AM    


Click here to visit the Radio UserLand website. © TrustMark 2002 Timothy Wilken.
Last update: 11/3/2002; 7:45:15 AM.
This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.
October 2002
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    
Sep   Nov


This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here.