A NICE LITTLE PLACE IN SPOKANE

I could imagine Jack Kerouac stopping here while he was blowing around the country with Neal Cassidy and Ginsburg. Inside, it's deep and narrow with a coffee counter to the left. . . and here's a buddy inside the Satellite passing out fliers for our local progressive radio station, Thin Air Radio 92.3 on your dial.








VIETNAM, VIETNAM, VIETNAM, VIETNAM, VIETNAM.... QUAGMIRE, QUAGMIRE, QUAGMIRE, QUAGMIRE.... CUT AND RUN, CUT AND RUN, CUT AND RUN, CUT AND RUN.... OIY! MY HEAD HURTS WITH DEJA VU

". . . few members of Congress return from visits to Iraq buoyant about the likelihood of ending the insurgency any time soon without a massive infusion of additional American troops that, according to [Congressman] Murtha, would require the reinstitution of the draft. 'I saw how discouraged these commanders were,' the congressman told Newsweek. 'They say what the White House wants them to say, but they don't have enough troops to secure the border.' " —Newsweek, Nov. 28, p.33

And since this article, the situation has only gotten worse.

UNCERTAINTY'S A GOOD THING, SPECIALLY IF YOU CAN QUANTIFY IT

"There is much that we are unsure about in science. Where science scores over alternative world views is that we know our uncertainty, we can often measure it's magnitude, and we work optimistically to reduce it." —Richard Dawkins

A BIG IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME

Awhile back, the local Inlander weekly asked readers to suggest big ideas for the Inland Northwest. I knew this is not what they were looking for, but I sent it off in hopes I might interest them, but....

Subject: A big idea whose time has come....
Date: Friday, January 28, 2005 4:38 PM
From: George Thomas
To: Inlander

Dear Ed.,

Here’s a BIG IDEA not just for the Inland Empire but for all mankind in all places and in future times. This idea is not just a suggestion; it’s an inevitability and just needs the “brights” here and everywhere to get on the bandwagon to get humanity to acceptance of the new reality as quickly as possible:

The course of evolving human nature is irreversibly toward freedom.

We now know that in the distant past human precursors had no language or consciousness and, hence, nothing remotely like “free will”. Slowly, adaptation by adaptation, language and consciousness emerged and, later, cultural adaptation, until human consciousness now begins to wrestle with its more superficial animalistic behaviors.

In early hunter/gatherer groups each individual’s consciousness (what there was of it) was harnessed to group needs. Then came theocratic city-states and medieval kingdoms in which individual freedom was extremely limited by station in religious and royal hierarchies. Prelates, kings, lords and princes were most free. (Many humans are still trapped in those evolutionary, vertical power structures, unable to surrender belief in imaginary heavenly kingdoms and princes. They still unconsciously bow to animal pecking orders.) Eventually, democracies arose in which citizens exercised still more “conscious choice”.

A future of complete human freedom is upon us in the consciousness of atheism which understands that humans can someday be completely free and must accept full responsibility to deal with their animal history. True freedom requires the courage to lay down our eternal lives and pick up our human burden of mortality, consciousness and responsibility, to step out of the darkness of superstition and into the light of consciousness.

That’s a BIG idea!

Sincerely,

Geo