Interesting Links, A Movie Clip and More

Check out the links below, friends and neighbors! There are things here that will likely interest and/or entertain you for hours on end. Enjoy!

Cooking The History Books: The Thanksgiving Massacre

Global Warming Skepticism

Does Death Exist? New Theory Says 'No'

Velvet Worm News

Man Says Police Forcibly Collected Urine Sample

Top Documentary Films

Why GMO Foods Have Failed At Producing Healthy Food For More People

Paranormal News

The Creature From Jekyll Island

Propaganda, PR and PsyOps

Near Death Experience Research Foundation

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Penises and Vaginae (My guest post on It's A Lollipop World)

Buffalo Bill Dance

It's 420 Day!

A brief history of 420 Day

I'll have the, uhhhh... I forget

The Terminator getting fried

Now... this is a pipe

Even the chipmunks are chillin'

Do you, uhhh... see green people?

Yoda shares his wisdom

The M & M guys enjoying a break

A valid point being made

A brief, humorous history of the herb

Conditioning Techniques and Widespread Insanity

The first time you put your finger in a quickly rotating metal fan blade will probably also be your last. When you see the blood spurting forth from your digit like a geyser, you will have hopefully learned a lesson. And you will come away with not only a dismembered finger, but an association of the spinning metal fan blade with pain and the loss of something valuable. Like your goddamn finger!

In our everyday world, such learned associations or conditioned responses are realized in countless ways: A driver will brake at a red light in order to avoid injury or a ticket. Somebody eating shrimp and afterwards feel their throat closing up to an allergic reaction to shellfish will likely not eat it again and avoid it, entirely. A friend that steals from you will teach you not to trust that person again. And so on. These types of conditioned responses can only benefit you in the future.

These are normal, natural responses that prove useful in your life. Positive stimuli for your benefit.

And then there are the ones that aren't useful, beneficial, normal or natural. Such as: Phobias, superstitions, blindly following instead of thinking for fear of ridicule or punishment, addictions to drinking, gambling, money or anything self destructive for hollow, temporary contentedness.

People, I've always found, are an odd bunch. Even as a kid, I was an observer of society. The older I become, the more I see the flaws that get in the way of human progress. Often times, I wonder if we are devolving.

From youth to adult, we are conditioned by the commercials we see on TV or rhetoric we read from print or computer to act or feel a certain way. We're duped by ads, politicians, supervisors, friends, family and more. Conditioning techniques come in the forms of rewards and punishments. Do and act correctly, according to society as a whole and you may receive an award. If you refrain from doing what is expected or required- punishment may be inflicted in verbal or physical form.

There are only a few things that people are capable of that I can think of that are clearly acts that require punishment. Murder of an innocent human is one. Rape is another. Stealing, yet another. Telling someone a lie, in order that they do your bidding, is a good example, too. I'm sure there are more but I could be typing all night long. And that's not going to happen.

What frustrates me is the fact that people are not aware of these techniques that are used to ingrain these negative notions inside their minds. At least, that's the evidence that seems to be flaunted by most everyone. All they know is what they're told.

Religions, companies and governments are grand manipulators. Weapons they use that dig into your mind for their benefit the most? Words that instill fear so you do their bidding. Think about that, unless you haven't already.

It seems as years go by, while casually observing the public, friends, family and myself, of course, the will to think for oneself in this society has become disrupted and even corrupted. Has it always been this way with the human species? To think or act this way or else?

To be made a slave by any organized mass is the truest shame one can take on. When I see everyone in our society thinking and acting as expected or planned, it causes me to believe that we are not unwilling victims of widespread insanity but that we actually invite it, welcome it and wrap it around ourselves as if it were a warm, comfortable security blanket.

Think About This!

Most of these questions or statements are from me and will have an asterisk at the beginning. Some lines have been seen on bumper stickers. Some quotes are from real people (past and present). Their common link? I think they're all worth giving some thought to.

"When you're hit with a seemingly inescapable threat, it is best to go with the most positive option" -This was the gist of what a main character on the TV show, Fringe (one of my favorites), was saying... but not exactly. Still, this makes sense to me.

*Why do small time criminals become hardened and, at times, more dangerous, while they stay in prison and then when they leave the prison? This is a condition that should be further investigated. My feeling is... is that pain suffered in prison can be a breeding ground for anger. Then anger is channeled in many different ways after that, unfortunately. I think it may used against either the convict, himself, or the rest of society. Is there something to that? I wish more people would think about this one.

It is harder to gain wisdom than it is to gain knowledge.

"Every man is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day" -Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

"If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it." Edward L. Bernays

*Maybe you don't want to know all of the answers. Maybe you shouldn't know all of the answers. And then.... Maybe you are the answer. Dwell on that before your head explodes.

Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it.

(Regarding Lie Detector Tests) "[Polygraph screening] is completely without any theoretical foundation and has no validity... the diagnostic value of this type of testing is no more than that of astrology or tea-leaf reading" -former Supervisory Special Agent Dr Drew C. Richardson, FBI Laboratory Division

*Personally, I think a lot of what people say they think about something or someone is normally quite a bit different from what they're really thinking about that same subject or person. I would like to be wrong about that. Do you say what you feel or what others would like to hear?

*Subtlety is a form of deception.

*Everyone has an agenda -for the good or bad for others -and especially themselves.

"Irreverence is is the champion of liberty and it's one sure defense" -Mark Twain

The Gene Pool could use a little chlorine

"The Optimist: "I have no friends, no family, no money, no food, no credit, no luck, no hope and no future. However, I do have matches, toothpicks, chewing gum, paper clips, rubber bands, shoelaces and some Scotch Tape. Maybe things aren't so bad." -George Carlin

*Damn, I miss George Carlin. I think a lot of what he said pretty much revealed himself to be a realist instead of a pessimist. Things are easier to swallow when you are thrown the bone of humor first. God, he was funny as hell.

*Advertisers, in every form of media, use humor and repetition as a way to take your money while you're still looking. Gullibility is counted on. Talk about the kings of manipulation!

*A great song will change your mood. And great is a matter of perception.

*Discovery of anything is good, perhaps. What you do with it is more important.

*Do you have anything to add?

Politically Correct Mumbo Jumbo

This was sent to me by email. Thought it humorous enough to make it as a post here. If you're a past reader of this blog, you'll know that I find that all extreme forms of "political correct" behaviour are well deserved targets. Well, gee.... now that I've sucked virtually all the fun out of that... eh... here we go with this forwarded email:


Due to the climate of political correctness now pervading America ,
Kentuckians, Tennesseans and West Virginians will no longer be referred to as ‘HILLBILLIES.'
You must now refer to them as
APPALACHIAN-AMERICANS .
And furthermore
HOW TO SPEAK ABOUT WOMEN AND BE POLITICALLY CORRECT:
1. She is not a 'BABE' or a 'CHICK' - She is a' BREASTED AMERICAN. '
2. She is not 'EASY' - She is
'HORIZONTALLY ACCESSIBLE.'
3. She is not a 'DUMB BLONDE' - She is a
'LIGHT-HAIRED DETOUR OFF THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY..'
4. She has not 'BEEN AROUND' - She is a
'PREVIOUSLY-ENJOYED COMPANION.'
5. She does not 'NAG' you - She becomes
' VERBALLY REPETITIVE.'
6. She is not a 'TWO-BIT HOOKER' - She is a
' LOW COST PROVIDER.'
HOW TO SPEAK ABOUT MEN AND BE POLITICALLY CORRECT:
1. He does not have a 'BEER GUT' - He has developed a
'LIQUID GRAIN STORAGE FACILITY.'
2. He is not a 'BAD DANCER' - He is
' OVERLY CAUCASIAN..'
3. He does not 'GET LOST ALL THE TIME' - He
' INVESTIGATES ALTERNATIVE DESTINATIONS.'
4. He is not 'BALDING' - He is in
'FOLLICLE REGRESSION.'
5. He does not act like a 'TOTAL ASS' - He develops a case of
RECTAL-CRANIAL INVERSION.'
(Loved this one!)
6. It's not his 'CRACK' you see hanging out of his pants - It's
'TROUSER CLEAVAGE.'
　
　
　We, at Psycho Carnival, meaning I, actually, do condone passing this forward on forever when right until the comet hits us or we kill ourselvelves directly and we all die, not even leaving a goddamned shadow of ourselves as evidence of when we were here or that we were here.*

*This is when you laugh, heartily.

Oh shit, I'm ruining the mood again. I farted.

Thoughts And Theories On Propaganda

"History and simple observation of people around you show how easily the majority can be swayed. Put the right kind of carrot in front of them or the right kind of scare behind them and they will jump in the direction that you wish them to go." -Kelly

"No enlightened person wishes to be duped by his desires, his fantasies, his glands." Gordon W. Allport

"All coercive techniques involve, on one level or another, frightening, or threatening, or intimidating a person, so that they move into survival mode." Douglas Rushkoff

"If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it." Edward L. Bernays

"Every time you watch someone else doing something (or even starting to do something), the corresponding mirror neuron might fire in your brain..." Arleen Raymond

"I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology....Although this science will be diligently studied, it will be rigidly confined to the governing class. The populace will not be allowed to know how its convictions were generated." Bertrand Russell

"It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. They are mere words and words can be molded until they clothe ideas in disguise." - Joseph Goebbels

"We shall assume that what each man does is based not on direct and certain knowledge, but on pictures made by himself or given to him...But what is propaganda, if not the effort to alter the picture to which men respond, to substitute one social pattern for another?" - Walter Lippmann

"The notion of rational man, capable of thinking and living according to reason, of controlling his passions and living according to scientific patterns, of choosing freely between good and evil--all this seems opposed to the secret influences, the mobilizations of myths, the swift appeals to the irrational, so characteristic of propaganda." - Jacques Ellul

"There are no facts." - Michel Foucault

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad." - Aldous Huxley

Propaganda--context and definitions

"If you think about how you think, you will find your mind is made of memories, facts, and that sort of thing; you picked these up through continual reinforcement... Using a computer metaphor, your mind is hardware (the grey matter, providing you with senses, nerve endings, neurons) and software (combined from that odd core of your being that is doing the reflecting, and the material it is reflecting upon, kind of like a computer program and its data). That isn't the whole story, of course; there is an unidentified extra component, the 'wetware,' that gives you free will, volition, self-awareness. We know next to nothing about how this piece works; it appears to be an odd combination of chaotic and stochastic processes, transcending both. About the only thing we know for certain about the human mind is that we haven't even begun to utilize it to its full potential." Michael Wilson, from: "Mimetic Engineering PsyOps and Viruses for the Wetware"

Propaganda - "Systematic manipulation of public opinion, generally by the use of symbols such as flags, monuments, oratory, and publications. Modern propaganda is distinguished from other forms of communication in that it is consciously and deliberately used to influence group attitudes; all other functions are secondary. Thus, almost any attempt to sway public opinion, including lobbying, commercial advertising, and missionary work, can be broadly construed as propaganda." Columbia Encyclopedia

Propaganda - "The deliberate attempt to influence mass attitudes on controversial subjects by the use of symbols rather than force. 2. A systematic effort to persuade a body of people to support or adopt a particular product, opinion, attitude, or course of action. Propaganda and Persuasion Techniques A Guide to Identifying Manipulative Information by Virginia Stewart, M.Ed.

"Words are the new weapons, satellites the new artillery. . . . Caesar had his officers; Napoleon had his armies. I have my divisions: TV, news, magazines." -- Arch villain Elliot Carver to James Bond in Tomorrow Never Dies

"As generally understood, propaganda is opinion expressed for the purpose of influencing actions of individuals or groups... Propaganda thus differs fundamentally from scientific analysis. The propagandist tries to "put something across," good or bad. The scientist does not try to put anything across; he devotes his life to the discovery of new facts and principles. The propagandist seldom wants careful scrutiny and criticism; his object is to bring about a specific action. The scientist, on the other hand, is always prepared for and wants the most careful scrutiny and criticism of his facts and ideas. Science flourishes on criticism. Dangerous propaganda crumbles before it." Alfred McLung Lee & Elizabeth Bryant Lee, from: The Fine Art of Propaganda