Tag Archives: society

We’re Number 18!!: Progress: Another Global Survey

22 Thursday Jun 2017

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This one measures social progress – health, wellbeing, and opportunity.

The U.S. came in 18th place, in the High (but missing Very High) category.

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As with most of these things, I’m a little dubious of some of the metrics. Others though are spot on. And the findings are pretty consistent with other surveys and rankings we’ve looked at recently.

The FULL REPORT.

Not in the U.S.? Many of you are not. In the U.S.? Most of you are. Regardless, check the charts and see how you and yours did. Hats off to the “very highs.” The full study may be accessed:

HERE.

Deep Thoughts on Imperial Decline

15 Thursday Jun 2017

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Charles Hugh Smith examines the decay of post-America, partly through the lens of the late Roman Empire.

To these lists I would add a few more that are especially visible in the current Global Empire of Debt that encircles the globe and encompasses nations of all sizes and political/cultural persuasions:

1. An absurdly heightened sense of refinement as the wealth of the top 5% has risen so mightily as a direct result of financialization and globalization that the top .1% has been forced to seek ever more extreme refinements to differentiate the Elite class (financial-political royalty) from financial nobility (top .5% or so), the technocrat class (top 5%), the aspirant class (next 15%) and everyone below (the bottom 80%).

Now that just about any technocrat/ member of the lower reaches of the financial nobility can afford a low-interest loan on a luxury auto, wealthy aspirants must own super-cars costing $250,000 and up.

A mere yacht no longer differentiates financial royalty from lower-caste financial Nobles, so super-yachts are de riguer, along with extremes such as private islands, private jets in the $80 million-each range, and so on.

Even mere technocrat aspirants routinely spend $150 per plate for refined dining out and take extreme vacations to ever more remote locales to advance their social status.

Examples abound of this hyper-inflation of refinement as the wealth of the top 5% has skyrocketed.

2. The belief in the permanence of the status quo has reached quasi-religious levels of faith. The possibility that the entire financialized, politicized circus of extremes might actually be nothing more than a sand castle that’s dissolving in the rising tides of history is not just heresy–it doesn’t enter the minds of those reveling in refinement or those demanding more Bread and Circuses (Universal Basic Income, etc.)

3. Luxury, not service, defines the financial-political Elites. As Turchin pointed out in his book on the decline of empires, in the expansionist, integrative eras of empires, Elites based their status on service to the Common Good and the defense (or expansion) of the Empire.

While there are still a few shreds of noblesse oblige in the tattered banners of the financial elites, the vast majority of the Elites classes are focused on scooping up as much wealth and power as they can in the shortest possible time, with the goal being not to serve society or the Common Good but to enter the status competition game with enough wealth to afford the refined dining, luxury travel to remote locales, second and third homes in exotic but safe hideaways, and so on.

4. An unquestioned faith in the unlimited power of the state and central bank.The idea that the mightiest governments and central banks might not be able to print their way of our harm’s way, that is, create as much money and credit as is needed to paper over any spot of bother, is unthinkable for the vast majority of the populace, Elites and debt-serfs alike.

That all this newly issued currency and credit is nothing but claims on future production of goods and services and rising productivity never enters the minds of the believers in unlimited state/bank powers. We have been inculcated with the financial equivalent of the Divine Powers of the Emperor: the government and central bank possess essentially divine powers to overcome any problem, any crisis and any conflict simply by creating more money, in whatever quantities are deemed necessary.

If $1 trillion in fresh currency will do the trick–no problem! $10 trillion? No problem! $100 trillion? No problem! there is no upper limit on how much new currency/credit the government and central bank can create.

I love comparing Empire to Empire though I don’t relish the implications. Declining morals, debased money, unending wars, foreign invasions, rank corruption, mass disparities between classes – all have been seen before. Gibbon’s work comes to mind. Luckily, we know America is the indispensable nation, completely immune to reality.

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On the Congressional Baseball Shooting

14 Wednesday Jun 2017

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Shots fired first thing in the morning. The news rehashed all day long. If you just emerged from under a rock, in a cave, on a desert island – go back! But first know what everyone else does: James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Illinois, opened fire with a rifle this morning at a baseball field just outside D.C. His targets were Congressional Republicans practicing for the annual GOP/DNC charity game.

Five people were wounded, including LA Congressman Steve Scalise. All are expected to recover. Fortunately, only the lunatic shooter was killed, dropped by Capitol Police at the scene.

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James T. Hodgkinson, crazy man (deceased).

James Hodgkinson was a deranged leftist, Bernie Sanders fanboy, and homicidal sociopath. Even CNN is covering that angle which means it must be universally understood and accepted. Enough with it.

Several things:

I have no use whatever for Republicans and Democrats. I’m glad they’ve found solidarity today. Great. “An attack on one of us … blah, blah, blah.”  In truth they almost always have solidarity in their quest to wreck the country.

The baseball game is a perfect metaphor. On the ball field, Team GOP squares off against Team DNC. They oppose each other in play on the field but the overall goal is shared: raise money for charity. If that were their entire purpose I would applaud wholeheartedly. It isn’t.

In Congress, Team GOP squares off against Team DNC. They oppose each other with idiotic grandstanding and faux ideologies but the goal is shared: raise power for their Big Club masters. More power and money for them, less of everything for you.

I’m not saying take a rifle and shoot them. I am not saying that.

The whole lot of them aren’t worth a bullet, let alone the 50 fired off this morning.

But they have, with much and great assistance, utterly wrecked and destroyed the country I grew up in. Maybe “utterly” isn’t the right word just yet. Parts linger here and there. But darned near everything is fractured, including the people.

Hodgkinson is a picture perfect example of that fracture. And there are many more where he came from. People on the left really, really hate Donald Trump, GOPers, God, and you. They make plays about assassinating Trump. They hold up a mockery of his bloody severed head. They punch people talking to journalists. They hit people with bike locks. Some, more than just one nut from Illinois, are willing to murder.

The right-wing can boast some similar ideologues, but this post isn’t about them. This is about the leftoids, the communists, the blue-hair, shrieking loonies who hate the above mentioned personas. They hate a lot of people and a lot of things. And I’m writing about the “normal” ones. Their ultra-violent criminal allies in the ghettos and their pets of the Jihad are bad enough. But the home team regulars may be the worst of all.

Yes, they are full of hate. However, lately and quietly they have seemingly gotten over one object of hate – guns. Early this morning, before the facts were clear, I think I only heard the once ubiquitous calls for gun control from two sources, two fringe sources at that. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, other Democrats, CNN, and the media have been strangely quiet about the whole “a gun did this” thing. It’s almost like they’re over it. And they might be.

Truthfully, most lefties never favored full gun control. Sure, they wanted to take your guns and mine. But they always had ways of carving out exceptions for themselves, their friends, and their security guards. Funny.

I started reading maybe back in December about the rise in liberal gun ownership. Just this time last year the same people were beating the same old, worn drum of disarmament. Remember Kersh Kuntzman almost exactly a year ago – he of the frightening AR-15 experience? My but things seem to have changed.

A year ago they were against guns. By December they had started buying them. At rallies and riots, here and there, this spring, they started toting them – in poor and uncomfortable form. Today they started using them – again, rather poorly. (Open baseball field? Clear day? AK at close range? Five wounded? Come on…). Tomorrow, however, cometh the next natural progressive step: shooting well. That’s coming about and up to speed pretty fast.

I’ve already heard some idiots making fun of the libs for being: soft, wimps, queers, etc. “They probably use little pink rifles.” Funny but more delusional than accurate.

These people are violence personified. They are the heirs of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pot, and all the other brutal leftist dictators of the 20th Century. Then, they collectively racked up a death toll of about 250 Million. That’s anything but soft or wimpy. “Dangerous” is more like it.

They may have taken a short break while they tried to take down the Second Amendment. And by “they,” I mean the ordinary liberals; their leaders never put down the sword (or the bombs). When the assault on the 2A failed and failed pretty miserably I guess they decided to get back to their more traditional ways.

This morning they stormed back in style. More of this is coming and not just against Congress.

So, what should we, the remnants of the Old America do? I’d suggest preparing for battle. One survivor of this morning’s attack credited a police officer with saving lives. As usual in these matters, things took a turn for the better as soon as a good guy with a gun showed up and started shooting back.

If the officer(s) hadn’t been there, this could have turned into a multiple homicide bloodbath. That’s the commonality with political assassination attempts, violent crimes, and terror strikes – they all rely on unarmed, soft targets.

It’s time we ended that part of the equation. Why wait for an officer who might not be there? Arm yourselves. Train yourselves. Carry everywhere. Shoot back. And win. Winning will be kind of important…

While this could have really been a stand-alone event, the insular work of a single nut case, something not likely to be repeated, it could also be something more and something much worse. Remember all the fracturing after a century of descent. The shots fired first thing this morning could well be the first shots of a new civil war.

Taki on Tacky: March of the Sunday Funnies

12 Monday Jun 2017

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A brilliant take on a highly visible sign of fallen times from Theodore Dalrymple and Taki’s Mag, perhaps the highest brow on the internet:

Ariana Grande, of whom I had not heard until Salman Abedi killed 22 people at her “concert” in Manchester, has had herself tattooed with a picture of a bee, a symbol of Manchester’s industrious industrial past, as a “permanent tribute” to the city. Apparently, the other performers in her vulgar act have done likewise. Could courage, compassion, sympathy, self-sacrifice, indeed virtue itself, go further?

This could be the start of something big: a movement called Tattoos Against Terrorism, or TAT for short. If anything could convince the Islamic suicide bombers of the superiority of the Western way of life, with its fundamental freedoms, surely this could. Alternatively, it will terrify them into giving up.

Nothing says “I’m unique” like a big old tattoo – or seven. And nothing says “decline of civilization” like half the population sporting all that uniqueness – each the same as all the rest. “Decline of Civilization” might make a great tattoo! Consult Reality Winner (Real Name?) on this point:

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“Cupping,” Molock, and a side of crabgrass??? Twitter.

Yes, I’m sure your tattoos (plural aren’t they) are very unique. Special. They mean something. Just like Ariana Grande’s new bumblebee tat. Everyone associates bees with tempered diversity in Manchester, UK after all…

Some very few are actually interesting – on men. Mostly soldiers, sailors, and bikers. I’ve never seen a woman I thought benefited by copious ink. And it’s usually copious these days. If one is good, twelve are Grande. More ink than the Sunday funnies.

Lady tats aren’t just for the bad girls anymore. Look to the melodious examples of Ariana “I hope my fans f*cking die!” Grande and Reality “Who’d she meet with in Belize??) Winner. I know a grandmother sporting some shade of gaudy illustration on her ankle. All very special. Unique. Each and every decorated “lady” at the beach or the gym or the supermarket as different and special as the next dozen.

The good news is several. First, the trend must be getting overdone. A return to modest sense surely has to be in order. Second, time permitting, a fortune could be made in the tattoo removal business. Third, time expiring (20 years, maybe), the markers may serve as just that, post-collapse; a way to … differentiate.

Or it could be time once again to ramp it down a notch. Might I suggest nose bones and lip plates. How about tree swinging and poo flinging? Blue faces for the cave set?

I’d like to congratulate Ma belle Française on keeping it clean, original, and classically feminine. La tableau est l’art.

Curmudgeonly Bonus: Vox Day’s continued exposition of the bleak batty Boomer banality. “Lifestyle” is the Boomer’s tacky tattoo.

Happy Monday morning, all!

Anxious Nation Profusely Pops Pills

11 Sunday Jun 2017

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This Article by Alex Williams for Carlos Slim’s Blog caught my attention, mine not being of the hyper-affected, disordered variety (thinking disordered, yes…).

According to data from the National Institute of Mental Health, some 38 percent of girls ages 13 through 17, and 26 percent of boys, have an anxiety disorder. On college campuses, anxiety is running well ahead of depression as the most common mental health concern, according to a 2016 national study of more than 150,000 students by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Pennsylvania State University. Meanwhile, the number of web searches involving the term has nearly doubled over the last five years, according to Google Trends. (The trendline for “depression” was relatively flat.)

To Kai Wright, the host of the politically themed podcast “The United States of Anxiety” from WNYC, which debuted this past fall, such numbers are all too explicable. “We’ve been at war since 2003, we’ve seen two recessions,” Mr. Wright said. “Just digital life alone has been a massive change. Work life has changed. Everything we consider to be normal has changed. And nobody seems to trust the people in charge to tell them where they fit into the future.”

For “On Edge,” Ms. Petersen, a longtime reporter for The Wall Street Journal, traveled back to her alma mater, the University of Michigan, to talk to students about stress. One student, who has A.D.H.D., anxiety and depression, said the pressure began building in middle school when she realized she had to be at the top of her class to get into high school honors classes, which she needed to get into Advanced Placement classes, which she needed to get into college.

330 Million people from NY to CA, and 329.8 Million of them are on some sort of drug(s). I, myself, rely on cigar tobacco, coffee, and the periodic beer. Sans those, an axe. See, I’m one of you.

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American Psycho / Lionsgate.

The article resonated with my slightly, due to the first recounted horror – that of a delayed text response. No, I’m not the anxious texter – waiting for the textee to respond within 15 sec. before I take to the socials for therapy. I really don’t care… No, I’m the anxiety-inducing textee himself. Or callee, emailee, whater-ee… If you’re my daughter or my mother, odds are I will answer right away. For about five other people I do my best to respond ASAP. A few dozen more are on the “remember to get back to” list or the concurrent “she was hot” list. Everyone else … get on Twitter or get over it.

I wish I had some advice for the legion of pill poppers out there. I truly wish I could write something that would take the edge off. Something to break the dependence on chemical comfort and reduce the urge to psychoactively alter the brain. (TeeVee and sugar are the absolute worst of those dreadful drugs by the way, not Prosac).

But, honestly, I can’t come up with a thing tonight. It is a very worrisome, troublesome world. A world and an age of utter insanity. Some need the dope to survive. They should take it. Others should reflect on why they feel the need to medicate, why they feel … whatever. To them, I say: reflect on it and then let it go.

Drink water. Get some sleep. Smoke a cigar. Go for a walk. Write something. Lift something. Hit something. Run. Flirt. Shout. Leave the city. Read a book. Buy a gun. Relax. Turn off that infernal glowing box from hell in the living room.

Come to think of it, all that sounds like advice. And I am confident it will be well received and used. Problems solved.

You’re welcome. Ring ya back when I get to it…

The Real Life Slo-Mo SHTF Meltdown in Venezuela

01 Thursday Jun 2017

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A year ago I reported just how bad things in Venezuela were getting. Bad, yes, but then just the tip of the iceberg.

Today I wrote a cautionary column for Freedom Prepper about the continuing slide of the South American nation. Please give it a read regardless of whether or not you know about or care about the crisis. Odds are you don’t (know) because of the near black-out by the American media.

Through the horrible lense of Venezuela we are witnessing the complete collapse of an entire society. This was brought about by many factors – chief among them Communism (Socialism). And it can all happen anywhere to any people – even Americans. Please learn and prepare.

I’ve written some shorts and posted some links about the crisis this year. Some few of these have proven extremely popular. If I have time, I would like to write out some fully timeline of the collapse with detailed analysis. (No promise on that).

HERE ARE BUT A FEW OF THE PROBLEMS CITIZENS ARE FACING IN THE STRICKEN NATION:

High unemployment;
No money;
Price and monetary inflation;
Food shortages;
Starvation – the average person has lost nearly 20 pounds already (some have died, more will);
People are eating rats and pets to survive;
The grocery stores are empty and closing;
Martial law;
Daily riots and ultraviolent crime;
Complete desperation;
Schools are closed;
Power is out;
Water is interrupted; and
On and on and on…

Even after I published that, Drudge reported things keep getting worse, more desperate:

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Drudge Report.

What’s happening there is terrible. For us, potentially more terrible, is the specter that this could happen in the U.S. – or anywhere.

The media did rave over Venezuela just a few years ago. The former president made scathing, hilarious, and partially (mostly?) true remarks about G.W. Bush at the U.N. The media covered that. Then the former leader sent tankers of free home heating oil to New England during a cold winter – a gesture for America’s poor. That was in part a publicity stunt. The media picked up on it.

It is strange they are so uninterested now that the nation has descended into utter chaos. Small wonder. As I noted last year, Venezuela is was a statist’s paradise, home to so many thoughtful, progressive, socialist and communist programs and ideals. Now, it seems, the chickens have come home to roost. Now the people eat rats or starve while dodging bullets in the dark.

The same people who told you life in the South American paradise was so great, then, are the same people telling you America and the West need to adopt the same systems now. It’s not that they don’t learn – they do. They just do not care. You should.

Rise of the American Super Cities: 30-Year Forecasts

18 Thursday May 2017

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As promised last night, here is a look at a new study by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and IHS Markit:

U.S. Metro Economies: Past and Future Employment Levels, May, 2017.

The study looks 30 years into the future, taking into account demographic changes in hundreds of cities. If you’re young and looking for where the jobs will be, or if you’re older and looking for where the traffic won’t be, then this is something you need to look at.

The big city is getting bigger:

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IHS Markit.

The population numbers are in Table 8, page 54 – . New York and LA will continue to hold their top stops, first and second, respectively. But there will be five metros with populations over 10 Million and several more knocking on that level.

In 2046 Tampa will have as many people as Atlanta did when I lived there 20 years ago. And Atlanta will, then, be nearly the size of Chicago today.

In South Carolina, three cities – Greenville, Columbia, and Charleston – will exceed 1 Million people. Masters Town, USA will exceed 3/4 Million. Traffic jams and crime will ensue. And jobs. The good and the bad, together.

All sizes of cities are projected to grow. Gainesville, both in Georgia and in Florida, should peak over 300,000. That’s not Gotham, but it is no longer “sleepy”.

Have a look and see where your town falls. Remember, the bigger the city, the bigger the opportunities – and the troubles.

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IHS Markit.

 

 

Way to go, Big Sleazy

11 Thursday May 2017

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I congratulate the City of New Orleans and its upstanding citizens on their successful removal of the Statue of Jefferson Davis, first, last, and greatest President of the C.S.A.

Workers in New Orleans in the early hours of Thursday took down a statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. It was the second of four such statues or monuments targeted for removal as city officials seek to erase the vestiges of an era that celebrated white supremacy and racism.

Crews, wearing masks to cover their faces, worked under a heavy police presence starting at 3 a.m. to dismantle the statue, which was erected in 1911, nearly 50 years after the end of the war, and commissioned by the Jefferson Davis Memorial Association.

Wearing masks over their faces … like the Klan. Irony lost, certainly.

Begone, era of white supremacy and racism! Begone, history, heritage, pride and civility! Hell, begone all ye old, dirty, usurping, 0-culture crackers! Comes now the era of the SJW, the post-1965 Amerika!

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Annie Flanagan / Carlos Slim’s Blog.

But, seriously, congratulations to the people of the Big High-Crime Drainage Ditch. All their problems are now solved. Never again need they fear: ridiculously, hilariously failed schools; high unemployment; crime to make Detroit wince; gangs; drugs; welfare careerism by the generation; illiteracy; an economy as stagnant as their beloved swamp; the swamp; 110% humidity; tropical diseases; public corruption; public urination; public vomiting; vagrancy; illegal gun raids; looters; Superdome sodomy and rape sprees; police looters, and; the next Katrina.

Getting rid of one old white man accomplished so much. Two men – I think they did away with Gen. Beauregard too, him and his horse. Two men and a horse gone and N.O. becomes paradise on earth. It’s like Newspeak for the statuary aware – out with the old and tainted and in with a better, brighter, if lower and dumber future. You will see this improvement immediately upon your next visit to N’Awlins. You will; I’ve made my last trip.

This pitiful episode, and the hundreds like it around the faltering U.S., do lend some optimism to the prospect of one day tearing down other monuments – those to Amerika’s favorite plagiarist, drunken womanizer, and communist. I think the FBI files will be unsealed in ten years or so.

Until then, in honor of anti-Southern hatred in N’Awlins and elsewhere, I leave you with this:

I do not give a damn!

Flying the Freezer Skies: Faults and Fate – or – “A Bunny’s Death Not in Vain”

08 Monday May 2017

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Or something.

I’ve held back on all of the steerage-class aviation disaster stories of late because there’s very little to say about them. If you’re an adult in America today, then you should know exactly what kind of torture you’re signing up for when you willingly climb aboard a commercial sardine can in the sky.

I even refrained from commenting on the terrible demise of Simon, the giant rabbit, the most famous bunny since Bugs. Today I actually looked into the story and found it more pitiful than I had imagined. Simon, alone of all the recent victims, has my sympathy. He did not independently agree to his fate.

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R.I.P. Simon. USA Today.

All of this got me thinking about “accepting fate.” That is something one does not have to do – not without a fight. For more on that, please read James Altucher’s wisdom:

How To Start Over At 40 [or any age]

Remember: as bad as it might be, you’re not Simon.

Lost in the Matrix? 20 Signs You Might Need a Red Pill

06 Saturday May 2017

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Andrew Martin came up with a list of ways to tell if you’re stuck in the pseudo-real modern world. Find the list at Modern Collective (via LewRockwell here). I decided to spice things up and answer the twenty questions or points (in rather short form). Herein I copied the points and italicized my answers after each one.

1. You spend most of your time devoted to paying off a mortgage rather than enjoying life.

I pay a lot of bills – most I’d rather not. Things change.

2. You can’t wait for the weekend to come.

Every day is the weekend (or weekday) for me. It’s nice.

3. You judge your success by the car you drive, the suburb you live in, and the size of the house you own.

I used to but I’m free now – sort of.

4. The wealthy are rewarded for plundering the earth while those trying to save it are ridiculed.

Yes and no.

5. You work in a job you don’t enjoy, thinking the money you earn will offset the misery of working in a job or career you are not passionate about.

My “job” is my passion and visa versa.

6. You think that by a taking a pill your ills will be cured.

No. A cigar, maybe. A pill, no. *Note: I just, today, put the exercise routine into overdrive. There is some … er … chemical stimulation involved. More on that later.*

7. You think that someone focused on eating healthy, organic fresh foods is weird, while eating highly processed, nutrient devoid foods is normal.

We, the healthy, are out of place these days, true; there’s nothing normal about the slow death of fast food even if it has become the norm.

8. You think buying stuff will make you happy.

Only if I can read, smoke, or drink it.

9. You watch the news on television and think this is the truth.

Hahahaha! No.

10. You’re more focused on your favourite sports team than concerned about the natural world and environment on which you depend for survival.

No. I live outside the cave.

11. You believe growth and the development of the economy is a good thing and that globalization creates jobs.

Yes and no. 

12. You conform with the status quo and never question why things are done.

Show me a rule and I immediately start thinking of ways to break it.

13. You think traffic congestion, pollution, and sensory overload are part of normal everyday life.

For the masses, yes; for me, no.

14. You think there is a difference between political parties and that they will enact real change.

Hahahahahahaha!!! Good one.

15. You think there are terrorists around every corner and they are a threat to you and your community, despite the fact that you have 150 times more chances of being hit by lightning than being involved in a terrorist attack.

Woah! I get a lot of traffic from exposing the war. I do also acknowledge it is a byproduct and relatively easily cured.

16. You think eating genetically modified food and eating fruit and vegetables sprayed with pesticides is OK.

Wash ’em and it should be okay – on the 100 year average.

17. You think the mainstream media is independent and unbiased.

Stop! My sides hurt.

18. You think constant distraction through the media such as sport, trivial affairs, and celebrity gossip is news.

Whenever I stoop to hear some BS celebrity nonsense (rare) my first thought is always, “Okay, what are THEY doing now”.

19. You think living next to a cell tower is cool because you get better reception.

For me this is a slight (very slight) convenience. The rest of you should read up on EM fields and cancer.

20. You wait in line for the next release of the latest technological gadget

I don’t wait in lines and (despite making a living with it) I hate technology.

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Warner Bros.

That’s what I got. I do not live in the Matrix, per say. However, I can visit it at will and frequently do – for now.

Try this quiz for yourself. In the original article some solutions to modern madness are offered. A few of these border on the … hippy-ish. Not to worry. As long as you’re aware of the problem, solutions will come along. Just know when to grab one.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m not going to watch TeeVee.