"The  Philippines press enjoys all the freedoms of the US system but fails  the people: a wildly partisan press helped Philippines politicians flood  the marketplace of ideas with junk and confuse and befuddle the people  so that they could not see what their vital interests were in a  developing country. And, because vital issues like economic growth and  equitable distribution were seldom discussed, they were never tackled  and the democratic system malfunctioned. Look at Taiwan and South Korea:  their free press runs rampant and corruption runs riot. The critic  itself is corrupt yet the theory is, if you have a free press,  corruption disappears. Now I'm telling you, that's not true. Freedom of  the press, freedom of news critics, must be subordinated to the  overriding needs of the integrity of Singapore and to the primacy of  purpose of an elected government.


“Singapore’s  domestic debate is a matter for Singaporeans. We allow American  journalists in Singapore in order to report Singapore to their fellow  countrymen. We allow their papers to sell in Singapore so that we can  know what foreigners are reading about us. But we cannot allow them to  assume a role in Singapore that the American media play in America, that  of invigilator, adversary and inquisitor of the administration. If  allowed to do so, they will radically change the nature of Singapore  society, and I doubt if our social glue is strong enough to withstand  such treatment."  

-A Third World Perspective on the Press. RH Lee Kwan  Yew, Prime Minister of Singapore. C-SPAN, APRIL 14, 1988

Every day I take my dog out for a walk. I actually do it twice a day. It is first thing in the morning and at the end of the day after the evening meal. We live on the beach, and there is a nice long park right in front of the house (it is a boardwalk) with an absolutely magnificent view of the ocean and the skyscrapers of Macao in the distance. While we are out there enjoying the morning air and watching the joggers on the beach, our dog is nose-to-the-ground and smelling everything like a canine vacuum cleaner. He really enjoys it. He cannot wait to smell the latest news on the road, and contribute a post or two of his own.

Every morning, I too much check out the latest news. However, as of late it is so boring and predictable that I just simply scan the headlines. It’s always the same old news, just repackaged. Buy more stuff! Support a war! Be afraid! Hate Trump! Pay higher taxes! Oh, and don’t forget Global Warming! Russia! Russia! Russia!

Are we any different? Humans are just as bad as canines. This has gotten me thinking…

About Dogs

I personally like dogs.  While I am, I suppose, a “cat person”, dogs are very special to me personally. There is nothing better than coming home from work, and my loyal buddy (Shao PiPi) is lying down at the door waiting for me. (I know, my wife takes photos to show me.  He gets in position about a half an hour before I arrive home.  Cat’s too.  But my little buddy is special.) Then he gets so excited, grabs his little toy (an old sewed up sock ball), and wants to play with me with it. Then he is all over me in happiness. It’s the best!

Animal haters won’t understand.

Dogs are wonderful creatures.  From when they are puppies to their old and grizzly old age, they are wonderful, loyal and quite compassionate.  However, you and I both know, they are not human.  No matter how much we may want to dress them up in clothing, teach them to “speak”, take them out and tell them not to eat out of the trashcan, the fact remains, dogs are dogs. For them, poop is wonderful, trash (the smellier, the better) is an adventure, and there is nothing better than smelling another dog’s ass.

(BTW, someone had best describe this to the folks in China. They don’t treat dogs as dogs. They treat them as little children. They just love to dress up their dogs in clothing including underwear, hats, socks, and shoes. Well yeah, even my dog has socks and shoes. But, really, it does tend to be a little strange, especially with all those ever-changing doggie hairstyles that seem to come and go with the local doggie fashions of the day. Indeed, China can sure be weird at times. The Chinese, for the most part treat their pets as family members. Oh, one more thing… Dog lovers far outnumber the dog eaters in China. Don’t fall for all the anti-China propaganda.)

Anyways, dogs are dogs. That is neither good nor bad.  It is a statement of reality.  Dogs, regardless of the breed, are members of the canine family.  They have certain individual differences depending on which breed, but overall they will all act like dogs. You can dye their hair fashionable colors, and dress them up in outfits. You can put socks and shoes on them, and give them eyeglasses and a LV handbag, but you can’t change who they are. Dogs are dogs.

Dogs can do things that humans cannot. We might not want to recognize this fact, but it is (after all) a fact.

Dogs can Smell

Duh!

What I know about dogs come from personal experience. I never studied anything about our canine friends. What I have learned about dogs comes from the Internet. (In addition, perhaps an odd television program or two as well.) So the reader can take my opinions however, they want. I am decidedly not an expert. I am at best a generalist who has the ability to put various “puzzle pieces” together in very interesting ways.

I’m just an average dog lover. Maybe like you? Eh?

You (the reader) should realize this, but many people do not. Dogs can smell much better than humans can. Whoa… let’s replace “much better”, with “unbelievably, superbly, and stunningly better”.  It is really true, and I am not at all exaggerating in the least. In fact, a dog’s brain is specialized for identifying scents.

While we need room in our brains to think, and work, dogs use a huge portion to analyze scents.  We use our brain to help us think and reason. They use their brain to smell. We use our brain to better understand the universe. They use their brain to smell better. We use our brain to try to fix and repair things. They use their brain to best understand the ways of smelling.

There are all kinds of reports and studies on just about how much better a dog’s sense of smell is than ours. The problem is that there are so many variables that it’s nearly impossible to quantify or perform comparisons. In a true sense, it is like comparing a black and white photo of an apple, with a freshly baked pizza hot out of the oven. There just isn’t really any good and real way to compare the two.

Real Estate

A dog’s sense of smell may be much better than over 1000 times better than ours, making it the most sensitive (and vulnerable) part of its body. (Other reports place this figure much higher.) Comparatively, if you look at the mechanism of smell between humans and dogs, you can see a striking difference. The human nose has only three-square centimeters of olfactory membrane. While, compared to dogs such as Bloodhounds, can have as much as 150 square centimeters of scent-sensing material in their noses. So that means, we have three (3x), and (some) dogs has one hundred and fifty (150x) cm squared of area to smell with. More is better, right?

A small parabolic dish might be able to pick up a satellite signal with come careful positioning, but a larger one will have a much better change in getting the signal and locking on to it. The same is true with dogs. Their snozes give them ability.

Brain Power to Process the Scents

Dogs also have forty times more scent processing cells in their brains than humans. They need this computation power to be able to handle the enormous sensory input from their huge snoozes. It’s never just an issue with size, it’s an issue about what you can do with the larger members and capacities. (No sexual references, here please.)

“Dogs can smell 100,000 times better than humans.  In tests, dogs have been able to detect a chemical in a solution diluted to 1 to 2 parts per trillion. The human brain has a large area devoted to vision, while dogs have a large portion dedicated to olfaction, in fact, 40% more of a dog’s brain than a human’s is committed to smell.  The average person has 5 million smell receptors, while the average dog, depending on breed, has 125 to 250 million smell receptors.  The Bloodhound has an incredible 300 million smell receptors!  Dogs can smell things up to 40 feet underground.  Dogs can even smell human fingerprints that are a week old!”

- The Incredible Sense of Smell in the Dog

We who hang around dogs, know that they can “feel” or sense our emotions.  If you are around dogs (or cats) and haven’t noticed this, I would be truly surprised. It’s a very common thing. Not only is it common, but research seemingly proves this as well. Indeed, it’s quite likely that dogs can actually smell emotions.  (I would say that it is a given, but you know there are always exceptions to the rule.) Dogs can smell fear, anxiety, even sadness. The flight-or-fight hormone, adrenaline, is undetectable by our noses, but dogs can apparently smell it. In addition, fear or anxiety is often accompanied by increased heart rate and blood flow, which sends telltale body chemicals more quickly to the skin surface.  Oh yeah, your dog will most certainly know your feelings. Not only that, but there are indications that dogs can even smell if you have cancer.

 “Dogs read about the world through their noses, and they write their messages, at least to other dogs, in their urine.” 

- Stanley Coren

Doggie Facebook

I know, I know, the dog is spending way too much time smelling a fence post, or a pile of shit. You are getting impatient, and want him to get a move on. But, he is just there, oblivious to the world around him, just totally absorbed in what he has just “discovered”. I know that it’s tempting to drag your dog away from that pile of shit. I have actually done so myself (when we used to walk him out on a leash).

But… even though he’s sniffing everything with an annoying slowness, maybe we should give him a break and let him spend some time at that post (get the pun?). Let him have some time to smell the local neighborhood gossip.  And, if he is satisfied with it, let him give a “like” to it. Let him do a posting on his own.

Dog urine is the “ink” of the dog social-network. Think of it as an exciting blog post on Facebook or your favorite social networking platform. Instead of “Face-book”, it’s “Doggie-ass” and just as important.

Information is Hidden within Scents

When dogs start sniffing each other’s asses, the chances are that they’re really learning a lot. It’s far, far more than what we can comprehend. Indeed, it is obviously much more than just simple idle chitchat. The ability to smell given the geometry of the nose, and the ability to interpret that information in the brain can lead us to some interesting conclusions.

Exactly what the dogs are learning, and what they do with that information, is unknown. As of this writing, no one has figured it out yet. (No one is even studying this, as far as I know.) Many people claim that it is “simply” just “marking their territory”.  However, it’s probably much more than that. In fact, it’s very likely far beyond “this is my territory, keep out!”

I really don’t know.  But, I would guess that it’s probably more along the lines of, “Oh, you’re a nice male dog, 3.26 years old. You are a collie and beagle mix. And… I notice that you’ve been hanging around the park on Dixon Avenue again, you had some baked chicken wings recently (that you found on 8^th street), and you like to sleep on your left side.”

Links

Here’s some great links on dog’s ability to smell;

• Stanley Coren on Understanding a Dog’s Sense of Smell
• Dog.com on Dog’s and their Ability to Smell
• NOVA on Dogs’ Dazzling Sense of Smell
• The Incredible Sense of Smell in the Dog
• Scents and Sense-Ability
• Understanding a Dog’s Senses
• Dog intelligence

Humans communicate through the Written word

While dogs communicate through the sense of smell, humans communicate through the written word. (Yes, I know that there are other mediums. Let’s not get off track here.) We communicate through writing our thoughts down in printed media. This can be electronics or on paper.

It wasn’t always that way. It used to be carved in stone, but that is rarely done these days.

In the “old days” people would chisel their writings into stone for everyone to know and remember. These records would spell out major events, and accomplishments. They would tell stories and help us understand our relationships with the Gods of Heaven. It was written and carved to be everlasting.

Ah, but you know, Humans are a mercurial lot.

When individuals come to power, they want something that is easily erased and written over. In the old days, they would have to chisel off the names of their predecessors on all the temples and government buildings. It took a while, and left garish scars on otherwise beautiful structures.

For what ever it is worth, let it be well understood that the Egyptians were pretty bad at this.

Ozymandias

Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792 - 1822

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Now, let it be known; the printing press really rocked our world. Not only could things be printed on paper and mass produced, but governments and individuals in power can host periodic burning of books and records. They could rewrite history to fit their new narrative. (Maybe sort of, like how a dog will try to over pee another dog’s urine.)

Ah. Yah don’t say…

Book burnings are very common. They go by many names. Progressive liberals and their established socialist governments always have book burnings. It’s their thing. It’s kind of like how they like to wear white sheets, hate Catholics, and use masks to cover their faces.

The progressive socialist nationalists of Germany (Nazi for you under-educated folk) held massive book burnings. They really took the time to make them impressive. They would have uniforms, orchestrated dance and march movements, flags and special effects. It must have been impressive. Huge barn fires rising up into the Heavens. People dancing around in uniforms with crazed people throwing books into the fires.

The Nazi’s really loved to use school kids to do it. They would organize these rallies and allow the school children to leave the school. The kids were, of course, happy to do so. There, the kids would gleefully destroy their own history.

The Chinese which is also a progressive liberal government structure (officially socialist with Chinese characteristics ) held massive book burnings during the Cultural Revolution.  They also used children to promote their agendas. This included the full range from gun control to destruction of history, to (of course) book burnings. Unlike the Germans, who able to recover about two decades later after a global war, the Chinese took around four decades to recover, and in many ways the cuts and destruction were too deep. Various aspects of the Chinese culture never really recovered.

Darn those progressive democrat socialists. Always trying to mess up everyone else’s lives!

In many ways, the Antifa movement is a cross between the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the German Socialists of the 1930’s. (I do cover this in another writing elsewhere.) You know, you don’t really need to be a student to history to know any of this.

You just need to be awake and listening.

Which, I am sad to say is a real rarity today. For the record, book burnings occurred in the Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba, and Argentina as well as just about any other nation in the world.

Now that everything is migrating to the internet, the ability to erase and rewrite history has never been easier. Indeed, the internet is like one large “white board”. You erase what you don’t like, and rewrite it to fit your new revised narrative. There are all kinds of examples. I have covered one myself on the subject of Calexit and the American Civil War by President Obama.

It is the way that it is done. There isn’t too much that we can do about it. Except change our behaviors and be skeptical of all the news. Especially to take notice to avoid any kind of pre-approved or “fact checked” news deemed worthy by others. Indeed, that is the most dangerous.

War with Russia

News from the media today is all about dragging the United States into yet another war. Jeeze! Can’t we ever get a break. The USA has been at war almost every year since it was founded.

Hey, have you been watching the news lately?

Have you noticed any trends? Man, I’ll tell you it seems like everyone is writing on and on just how bad Russia is, and that there will eventually be a world war between the great powers. How can that be? Bill Clinton was paying Russia to keep it’s military intact through most of the 1990’s. Now why would they want to nuke us now? Didn’t Hillary Clinton just give them 25% of our nuclear stockpiles? It just doesn’t make too much sense.

We’d make a far better trading partner than an enemy. But, anyways… Now what do you all think is gonna happen once, the USA and Russia nukes each other? It’s a great question. It’s one that deserves some thought. What do you think is going to happen once the USA gets involved in a nuclear war?

Do you believe that the world will be over? Is that what you really think will happen? Do you believe that since the USA is number one, that the rest of the world will just scurry under rocks or something?  Is that what you think? Ha!

Not. Going. To. Happen.

What do you think China will do while both Russia, Europe (of course the EU, as they are driving this war narrative), with the USA are in ruins with radioactive rubble for cities?

Do you think that the rest of the world will continue to live like a scene from a “Save the Children” commercial? Do you think that it will make a big difference in the lives of other people in Sydney, Australia? How about Osaka, Japan? What about Sao Paulo Brazil?

Do you think that they will care…?

The rest of the world has a vibrant middle class. There are factories, farms, subways, tollbooths, ATM machines, and McDonalds all over the world. They have toothpaste, football, cars, cable television, and the internet. If American shuts itself off from the rest of the world… the rest of the world will go on as if nothing happened. America will just be a footnote in the latest Wikipedia entries as maintained from Beijing servers…

So…

Do you think that the USA will still be able to project “it’s interests” globally? Do you think that the domestic issues, internally, will be just the same-old same-old script? Nope, boys and girls, it is going to be awfully hard for most Americans. Especially those from the cities.

Most especially for those urban or suburban folk.

What are they going to do when Starbucks runs out of coffee? When Wi-Fi has zero hot spots, or when girls will need to “put out” for a half-bowl of pea soup? Know your history people. How do you think that the young lasses of Germany survived when the Russians moved in through the devastated countryside? How do you think the people of Cambodia, and Burma survived? I cannot predict the future, but I can report on what happened in the past when this situation raised it’s ugly head.

Oh sure, the surviving Americans will try to leave the glassed rubble of their cities. Though, I doubt that they will make it very far into “deplorable land”. You know with all those squads of “good ol’ boys” hunting down all the urban folk escaping from all that glassed wreckage.

Oh, their Prius or Tesla might make it a few hundred miles into “flyover country”. They might even get some militia assistance. Oh, some will make it to FEMA camps. There, of course they will be pre-screened and set to work.

Ain’t nothing for free in this world. We all will have to pay the tolls. The tolls will, or course, be guarded by men with guns.

While the USA is all busy straightening out it’s house, the rest of the world will continue as if nothing happened. Since the exports to the United States account for around 11% of what China makes, there will certainly be an impact.

However, it won’t be life-threatening. China will survive. The nuclear exchange between the USA and Russia will be noted. Maps will be redrawn with huge “Forbidden to Enter” areas marked in red. But that will be about it.

China will take over. Not a bad thing. I’ll tell you what.

War with the President

Oh but not all the news is about trying to get people to go to war. Jeeze! This is not 1960 people! While America might be populated with half-asleep sheep, they do know when they are being manipulated. At least the older ones do. The news is really pretty obvious. The only way that you wouldn’t notice the obvious propaganda is if you were on some kind of drug like a painkiller, or an anti-depressant…

Anyways, the other news concerns president Trump.

It’s a non-stop hate fest. I have never seen such vitriol and hate from the American propaganda mills. These idiots actually believed that Hillary the Horrible could actually be elected. They thought that the game was rigged in her favor, and even if she did manage to become President that no one would bat an eye and it would be accepted. Hah! I’ll tell you, these people are absolutely delusional.

So, when I see the “Russia, Russia, Russia!” anti-Trump narrative, it just bores me. It’s not news. There just isn’t any news there.

It’s just a bunch of attractive actors reading scripted lines, and being paid large bucks to make up news.

I’m beyond bored with it. I will honestly say that I haven’t seen ABC, NBC or a CBS newscast in over a decade. It’s all just junk. CNN? Give me a break. I was turned off from them way back in the 1990’s when they were caught staging a protest.

It’s all propaganda with a set agenda that benefits the richest people in the world.

• Using plastic will cause your penis to get small
• Black female college to accept non-black transgenders
• Drinking coffee causes cancer
• Bird Flu will cause Pandemic Zombie Outbreak
• Having sex is dangerous and horrifying
• Child suspended to making his fingers look like a gun

War with Non-Official News

That is why it is important to read grass-root reporting. Read from small-time bloggers, and get your news from other sources. Of course, the powers-that-be don’t want you to do that. No sir ree! You can bet that those in the oligarchy want their control over all thought, ideas and media. You will follow their directions or not at all. The Bill of Rights, and the first Amendment can just go to hell as far as they are concerned.

Here is Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein on her attack on people who have a “five dollar blog”…

Diane Feinstein talking about the need to only allow properly vetted, government “approved”, people to have “Free Speech”. Doesn’t she look like the teacher from Hell? (Image Source.)

You can watch the video here where she argues against average people having opinions. You can also read on Reddit on what people think of her redefining a Right as a Privilege that the government provided.

You can read about the Democrat efforts to eliminate or “water down” the first Amendment here.  You-tube also has a recording on this attack on the First Amendment. Here is another response to the attacks on the first amendment.

I wonder why there are no progressive liberal attacks. I guess that it is just ok to take away freedoms… how about we start with Facebook, then Tumblr, Pinterest, Google, Snapchat, for starters.

Unless you have lived under a rock for the last ten years, what constitutes news out of the United States today is anything but news. It has become a complete political propaganda machine that is populated by highly paid actors and actresses reading scripted lines. There is a science to this, and there is a feedback loop that dictates what propaganda that should be dished out to the American population at which specific times.

Real news would tell us details about the hidden cavity in the Great Pyramid, or a review of NASA funding for the next fiscal year. It would cover topical news; a protest here, a murder there, and a car crash there in brief one or two sentence bites. When a President speaks, they would play his entire speech, not show him speaking with the audio off and then translate for us what he is saying.

They would not have “panels of experts” who are just actors with nice titles (not nice titties, or… um I take that back), farmed out by rich organizations for propagandized purposes. They would provide balance of different viewpoints (if they wanted a broad viewership base). Or not have any dissent on the editorial sections if they wanted to become the foremost expert in their political narrative.

It’s ALL fake.

Creeping propaganda doggie style

This reminds me of an incident in my own house with my own dog…

Our floor is mostly hardwood and tiled marble. It’s the Chinese way. That is unlike the States, where the floor is carpeted (wall to wall) over a plywood floor if the house was built after the 1980’s. In China, most houses have a stone floor. The stone is typically cut at a ¼ inch thick sliced tile, polished, and provided into two feet square sections. Most floors use a light colored granite or marble. In upper-scale homes, wood floors are provided in the bedrooms. Cheaper flooring methods such as linoleum or carpeting are never used.

As such, we have a few throw rugs to lie down and make the house a home.

Now our dog knows, absolutely knows, that peeing in the house if forbidden. We have a rule that he must pee and crap in the bathroom (if not outside). We have trained him to use a blue mat (Indoor/outdoor carpeting that is blue instead of green.) just for this purpose.

In fact, the reader should know, that the way we trained him was that we got a really large mat, and put it in the shower. (In China, the showers do not have a tub. Therefore, the shower goes straight down to the floor.) Once the dog knew that he could do all the peeing and crapping he needed to do, on the shower, that is where he went. Over time, we cut the mat down smaller and smaller. It was one yard by one yard, then it became two feet by two feet. Then one foot by two feet, then one foot by one foot. We kept cutting it down. Finally it was one square inch, and you should have seen him trying to aim and hit that tiny little mat.

Anyways, long story short, he knew that he could only pee in the shower.

Well, we also have a few throw rugs. We decided to not use them when he took up the (terrible) habit on peeing on them.

Now, I really don’t know why he would pee on them. Maybe it was because he was trained to pee on mats due to his bathroom training. Or, perhaps, maybe he wanted to make the house feel more lived in and “doggie friendly”.

Whatever.

One day, we decided to lay down this black and white shag rug that we have. (Yeah, I know that it is shag, but it fits with our modern Asian décor.) We wanted to make the living room area more comfortable, and that would include a rug nested in between the sofas and the various chairs. However, we were very concerned because our dog had a propensity to pee on the rugs.

So we laid the rug down. We told him, in no uncertain ways, that it was “off limits” to pee upon. We then watched him like a hawk.

I can tell the reader that he knew not to do anything. He would walk near the rug with a hunched back look, and with tail down. He was afraid to do anything with that rug. Indeed, he would walk around it rather than walk on it.

All was well. Then one day, the wife saw him do a “dryless pee” on the rug. That I mean to say is that he pretended to pee for a split second, but no pee came out. She chalked it up to him getting old, and let it fly. Of course, the reader might say, “Hey, why don’t you simply lift up the rug, you moron?”. Well, we couldn’t. The rug was under this massive marble coffee table. It is an enormously heavy sheet of brown veined marble (Also known as Adobe Granite, Golden Brown Marble, Canadian Mahogany, or Deer Brown granite.) that is at least one inch thick, with beveled sides. It weighs a ton. It is far too heavy for me to move alone, or even to have two people move it. You actually need four strong men to move this friggin’ coffee table.

Well, the design (with the cold gold metal sides, and the glass bottom) looks a lot like a KTV table. Which wasn’t our intention, but hey the wife picked it out and now we have it. Anyways, the other ends of the rug are buried under large sofas and leather chairs. So for us to move everything about, would take a lot of effort. It wouldn’t be something that we would ever do casually. So, we just let it slide.

A few days later, I thought that I smelled pee, but the rug was dry. It must have been my imagination, I reasoned.

A few weeks later, my wife too smelled something. It was driving us crazy. The rug was dry, but the smell of urine was unbearably strong. We had been watching him carefully but he wasn’t doing anything. When it looked like he would pee, nothing came out, and so we took no action. So, to us, it was very perplexing.

Finally, around six o’clock on a Saturday, we couldn’t stand it any longer. We moved the sofas out, and the (enormously heavy) coffee table away. Then we lifted up the rug.

My God! The entire underside was wet and saturated with dog urine! Somehow, the shag carpet stayed dry on top, no matter how wet it got. But the underside acted like a massive sponge. It absorbed the urine and just collected it there. It was absolutely horrid and disgusting. Weeks of moldy pee saturated the matting making it look and smell like an outdoor shithouse in the middle of August.

Apparently what had happened was that our dog knew that it was wrong to pee on the rug. However, when it wasn’t punished for tiny efforts to pee, it thought that it could pee at will as long as it wasn’t caught. We were delusional in thinking that the dog would not do this. The end result was that our intention (of a pee-less rug) never materialized. Our dog thought it could pee away… as long as it could not be caught.

I guess that is what happens when we let people get away with things that are wrong. Unless we stop them in the early stages, their behavior will get worse and worse over time.

I have seen that this is true, and I am sure that the reader knows examples of this. Perhaps with children. Maybe with criminals. With classmates, and with other things as well. It just seems that if you do not have limits, it is within our nature to treat things as without limits. As such, we tend to keep pushing and pushing until we start to hit some roadblocks.

News and Politics

Which of course, brings us back to the Democratic Senator from California, Diane Feinstein and her attempt(s) to ban the first amendment. (Now, she like any other “good” Democrat is off trying to ban everything from ice cream to baby pacifiers. It’s in their nature. However, for now, let’s just focus on this one particular instance, and not get sidetracked.)

You know, she (and others of her ilk) believes that they can get away with their actions simply because no one is stepping up and stopping them. Like our dog, who needed a good hard paddle after his first attempted pee, this woman needed to spend five years at hard labor when she first started to suggest banning a Right. It would have stopped her dead in her tracks, and served as a notice to others who might try to follow in her footsteps.

Newsflash to everyone; Senators are just like everyone else. The only thing that they have that you (the reader) do not have is a title, and a good PR firm. They must follow the rules. It doesn’t work that way of course. But it should.

Ah…

The young millennial asks “what rules, and what laws are you referring to?”

To this, I must teach the reader something that is a very well-kept secret. Yes, it is. Why it is the “Preamble to the Bill of Rights” of course. This is one of the most secretive documents in the entire United States. Everyone tries to hide it, because it clearly and plainly says what a Right is, and what the purpose of a Right is. Hey! Surprise! Here it is so you can read it for yourself.

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

And, for those of you who only have a public education, let me translate for you.

The Bill of Rights is a special set of rules inside, yet set apart from the Constitution. It is designed to prevent the Constitution to be used to harm the citizens of the United States. It offered protections in that it clearly stated that no elected official, nor anyone appointed by them, could influence, takeaway or disparage any of the RIGHTS listed in the Bill of Rights.

That’s correct.

No one, let alone a Senator can even consider taking or limiting a right. That means ANY right, for those of you who are confused out there. Now there are ten Rights. The first group of Rights is in a collection known as the first amendment. One of these rights is, of course, the Right of freedom of speech. Which means that you can say anything, or write anything, or even think anything NO MATTER WHAT. You offend someone… tough cookies. You swear or use profanity…meh. You  call a person a bad name, or say something that someone doesn’t like… no problem.

The RIGHT to speak your mind; America used to stand for this freedom. Not anymore apparently.

Ah… but I digress yet again.

Bad Behaviors

Wouldn’t you think that being a Senator, and not following the Constitution is wrong? Wouldn’t you think that it is a “bad behavior”? I would.

But, you know, defining what “bad behavior” is and what isn’t is really meaningless unless there is an enforcement arm.

When we were all children, we knew that there were things that we were not permitted to do. If we crossed the line, and did those “naughty” things, our parents would get angry and punish us. Now, we all had friends who could seemingly get away with anything. Their parents apparently didn’t care in the least. They were always on our case, acting like bullies or worse. Their parents were either oblivious, or defensive of their actions. It was truly frustrating. However, now that I am much older I see where the lack of discipline and parental guidance led the kids. It wasn’t pretty.

I would guess that perhaps one of the reasons why the United States is in such a mess today is partially because there just hasn’t been any enforcement to follow the Constitution. People could seemingly get away with anything. As such, they never would get in trouble. Look at Louis Learner, and the rest of her ilk, and how they were never punished.

This all reminds me of my dog, and when he’s acting poorly.

Being in the Dog House

Here in China, it is very crowded. As such, there is a necessity in making sure that everyone follows certain basic rules. Because, one or two odd balls behaving badly can cause all kinds of trouble in a crowded environment. Now, that is not to say that China has their act together, as there are many things about China that could use some improvement. However, there are things that they do right.

One of the things that they have in China that just isn’t so popular in the United States is security guards in every building for the purposes of keeping order. That differs from the United States, where security is used to enforce laws. In China, while laws might be enforced or not, the primary purpose of a baoan (security guard) is to keep order.

In a crowded place, especially a residential building, excessive noise is not tolerated. If you think that you can jam with your stereo up all night long and not have the rest of the building lynch you, you are sorely mistaken. You will have a baoan knock on your door, and if you are not corporative, they will pick up your stereo and toss it of the 65^th floor below. If you complain, they will arrest you and in China, this is decidedly NOT a good thing.

Anyways, back to my dog.

For a while we had two dogs. Our current dog (Pipi) and a younger dog named “Super”. Super was a beautiful dog. The problem with him is that he hated my guts. He just could not stand me. When I would come home, he would bark at me all night long. It would continue hour after hour. He would be bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, and his voice would be hoarse, but he would keep it up like it was his duty. He would bark like there was no tomorrow. You could hear his voice getting hoarser and hoarser. It would crackle and dry up, yet still he barked. Then when I would leave the house, he would collapse in his bed from exhaustion. I know, as my wife would show me pictures of him collapsed from exhaustive barking. He would lay there on his back, his mouth open and his tongue out exhausted.

For my wife, she loved the loyalty of the dog. However, she saw that it was a problem. On more than just a few instances, we would have the guards knock on our doors to get the dog quiet. One time they were going to toss him off the 63^rd floor, if we didn’t get him quiet. Indeed, for a long time it was a real problem. That is… until we consulted a vet about what to do.

When confronted with this problem, many Chinese simply cut the vocal cords of the dog. That way, they can live their life normally, but they will no longer be able to bark. Now, before any reader has a heart attack, please relax. We didn’t do any such thing. Instead we turned to technology for an answer.

We put on a barking shock collar on him.

Whenever there was a loud sound the dog would get a three second beep. If the barking continued, there would be a shock. The collar would then wait for five minutes. If there were additional loud sounds in those five minutes, there would be four louder beeps and a louder shock. This continued up the scale to ten. If the dog were still barking after fifty minutes (10 x 5 minutes = fifty minutes) of barking, a very loud shock would be released.

Super was a smart dog, and quickly discovered how the system worked.

Anti-barking shock training collar for dogs. (Image Source.)

Problem solved. Right?

Now Super whispered his barks. Instead of BARK! BARK! BARK!, it was bark… um, bark,  … bark. (Timidly.) It was cute, and it did work. Our dog had figured out how it worked and realized that he could no longer bark in the house. There weren’t any more visits from the building guards. Great right? Of course it wouldn’t work if the dog were not bright or slow. But Super was smart, so it worked.

But then, again our other dog (Pipi) was smart as well.

And he too discovered how it worked. He discovered that he could shock Super by barking at him. Super could be sleeping, and our dog would walk up to him and bark right into his collar. What a shocking way to wake up! Oh, my goodness! What hath we wrought?

One day we came home to barking and howls of pain from Super. Our other dog Pipi was pacing around Super barking crazily, and watching him get shocked. Then he gleefully would start up again, to watch it all over again.

We had to put an end to this mess.

We initially didn’t know what to do. We were afraid that if we removed the collar that Super would start barking again. There was a real and serious risk that he would find out the hard way how to fly. We needed to do something. We discussed it back and forth, over wine (as was our preference) and decided a solution. We put shock collars on both of them.

That’s right. Now it wasn’t fair. But it was the best thing to do.

We had a small cage for both of them, and put them both in it with shock collars. We then put on a camera and watched them from our cellphones, and left the house for dinner.

Sure enough, our one dog would start barking and Super would start to cower in fear. The only difference now was that both collars started to beep. Now, both dogs got a shock. Our dog didn’t know what was going on, so he started to bark and attack Super. Then off goes the stage-two beeps…then shock. It continued, and then Super started to fight back. He started to bark back. There was a mess of fighting, howling, beeping and electric shocks. It took maybe two hours before they all collapsed from exhaustion.

Neither dog would bark after that.

After that one massive battle, everything went quiet and peaceful. Neither dog barked. Though, they didn’t look at each other either. They would take turns eating and they would stay in separate rooms in the house. The good news is that Super wasn’t thrown out the window, no dog had a operation to stop barking, and the Baoan never visited us again. Mission accomplished.

That makes me think…

It makes me think that maybe we should have shock-collars for everyone in Congress. The moment they start to put restrictions on people and any of their Rights, that they get graduated electric shocks. Maybe that would teach them that they couldn’t violate the Constitution no matter what their excuses are. Try to ban free speech, get a shock. Try to ban guns, get a shock. Try to ban religion… get a shock. Try to ban large sodas… get a shock. Try to ban straws… get a shock. Try to ban bikini’s… get a shock. Try to ban chewing gum… get a shock. Try to ban bacon…get a shock. Try to ban knives and forks… get a shock.

It’s a win-win situation!

When does information stop and propaganda begin

Well, isn’t that the way life works. You start talking about dog shit and end up talking about putting shock collars on American Senators. Ah, my goodness,  life as an American.

People say that we live in an “information age”. I disagree. We live in an “age of manipulation”. I say this because never before have we ever been so assaulted upon by propagandized media, and surveilled so severely. Face the facts.

All, the totality of, American media is owned by only six people.

Why use propaganda unless you want to manipulate, and why utilize surveillance if you have no intention about using the information you obtain. The answers to both questions point squarely towards manipulation.

This being stated…

How does the news benefit you?

Really, how does the “news” benefit you? If you were to go without watching, reading, or listening to the news for a week, would your life collapse? Would your quality of life decrease? Would your income drop?

Do you like being afraid of the latest pandemic being shoved right before your morning coffee?

I am willing to bet that your quality of life would increase. Your stress level would definitely decrease, and your levels of happiness would increase. I think that maybe we have become so addicted to the news that we have forgotten it’s relative importance in our lives. Since most of the news is used to manipulate and alter your way of thinking, it is refreshing to ignore it.

People who ignore the news, and the warnings about all the wars and troubles in other nations, go out and are happy outside of the USA. They are not afraid.

Those who ignore the news, don’t know that they cannot do certain things, so they do them anyways. They survive and succeed. News in many cases, is like a big weight around your neck that weighs you down and holds you back. It holds you back.

So, like a dog, I would suggest that you ignore that big pile of shit on the sidewalk. Let other dogs smell it. There are other trees to pee on. Other places to run and play. Don’t let anyone tell you that you must smell that pile of shit and no others. You can choose your very own pile of shit and do with it as you may.

You, yes YOU, can choose your own pile of shit to smell. Don’t let anyone tell you what shit to smell.

What you can do

To steal a quote from the movie “Forrest Gump”, life is like a box of chocolates, you don’t know what you are going to get. But, my dear friends, you can most certainly choose the box. Don’t listen to the propaganda.

"Ben Rhodes from Obama’s national security apparatus made the comment that your average journalist today is 27. They don’t know anything; they believe everything we tell ’em. It was a snap. 

It was right out of the page of Jonathan Gruber, who was the architect of Obamacare, who after it was signed into law, ran around the country bragging about how easy it was to lie to the American people about it because the American people are essentially ignoramuses."

-Rush Limbaugh

Likewise, don’t do what all the other dogs do. Don’t go towards the biggest and most popular pile of shit. Be different, be selective in which shit that you smell. Only pee where you want to be.

Don’t go from tree to tree peeing indiscriminately. Use some thought and planning. I am sure that your life would benefit from some judicial peeing responsibility.

We cannot change the world, and maybe we shouldn’t even try. All that we can change is ourselves.

If there are something’s that I urge the reader to do, I would suggest the following;

• Stop watching, reading, and viewing all the “major” media outlets. (CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS, etc.)
• Replace the time with something involving food, fresh air, friendships, or animals. (Oh, sex and pizza with wine would be a good thing also.)

Now, that should take care of most of your need to take medication (if you are an American). Now, in addition I would also suggest a phased approach of the following suggestions;

• When you go on the internet, do not visit any of the “minor” news sites. (Drudge, Huffington Post, Forbes, WaPo etc.) Give yourself a break.
• Replace the sites with websites that have interesting and in depth stories. (History, Discover, Messie Nessie, Dark Roasted Blend, The Art of Manliness, etc.)
• Avoid sites that promise to tell you “the truth”. Or “fact check”, they will just inform you of what the truth is relative to the person who paid them. They are always lying for financial gain. While Snopes is perhaps one of the most famous, all of them utilize a financial model that promotes one version of the truth over others for financial gain. There is nothing free out there. You have to pay a price for everything. Being “educated” so you are manipulated is the price that you must often pay as an American.
• Avoid “Social media”, like Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, or any of the others. If you need to go on it, pledge to stop using “likes”, and responding to posts.

Go there, do your task, and leave. A kitchen timer helps too.

The goal to all of this is to simplify your life by removing the anxiety and excitement of the internet from your life. You don’t need it. It hasn’t helped you at all, and it has only made your life miserable. Forgetaboutit.

I’ve noticed that in my rush to check out Tumblr, that I ended up acting like my dog anticipating a great pile of stinky poop. I just couldn’t wait to what was on my feed. But you know what? It’s just another addiction. It doesn’t really matter. Don’t be like my dog that just cannot wait to smell the freshest pile of shit in the park. Then he just has to pee on top of it. You don’t need it. It’s addictive, and other people know that you are addicted to it, and use that to control you.

Other people control you this way.

Some Final Comments

This being my opinions, and with the world populated with others, there will be some disagreements. Maybe some readers won’t like my comparisons between American news and dog shit. But, you know, that is exactly how most of America views the media, reporters, and those who are on the news shows. We think that they all stink.

Idea: 689,003 Facebook users participated in a social experiment during which researchers wanted to see what would happen if people started reading bad news every day. For an entire week, some users had to view news posts which had negative information, some of which were incredibly stressful emotionally. The opposite was also tested out by using positive news instead of negative posts.

Result: Like a lot of us instinctively predicted, reading lots of negative news over 7 days changed Facebook users' behavior online. Not only were they more prone to posting similar information as in the negative news more often, they were also more likely to emphasize negative emotions. Meanwhile, positive news stories made people feel happier, act more compassionately and kindly towards others. In other words, the news that we consume on social media shapes how we react because, on some level, we feel that what we see and read happens to us in reality.

Maybe some readers will take offense on what I have to say about Nazi’s, Liberal Progressives, and similar organizations like the Antifa and the KKK. Well, heck, that is what the First Amendment is for; the ability to speak your mind. Or to paraphrase the good Democrat Senator, “to express non-approved ideas on my five dollar blog”. Well, there is a solution that will prevent you from getting upset. Don’t read any of my opinions. Leave. Thank you.

This entire article is based on one thing; the musing that I had while I was walking my dog along the beach in front of my house. I noticed how excited he was smelling crap and his urgency to pee everywhere. In turn, I too wanted to see what the latest feed was on the news. And then, for a brief second of clarity, it became totally clear to me. Dogs and humans are the same.

We are the same, and you cannot convince me otherwise.

In my desire to keep my dog focused, and to keep him from getting hit by a car, I would often need to direct him. He cannot crap in the middle of a road, and not run blindly across a road to smell a fire hydrant. It is dangerous in many ways. As such, I need to help him and to protect him.

Isn’t that the same with us humans?

If we blindly react to the canned news that is fed to us, and the manipulative narratives that tug at our hearts and souls, we can get ourselves into a great deal of danger and hurt. I suggested the Russian narrative that is really being pushed by CNN, MSNBC, and Drudge. But other narratives are just as dangerous. America has been at war for over two hundred years. Don’t you think we all ought to give it up and chill out some? Really!

Take Aways

Well, there are some take aways from this dialog;

• Dog poop is stinky.
• Dogs like to smell things, and what they smell is more than we humans can understand.
• News can be compared to dog crap.
• There is no reason for us to be so interested in the news, as MOST news does not affect us personally.
• News or Social Media is addictive to humans. It is like stinky shit to a dog.
• Addiction to news can be dangerous, and it MIGHT be a contributor to the opioid problem in America today.
• Manipulation of the news is equally dangerous, and could result in a most terrible turn of events.
• I think that it might be a good idea to have Senators wear shock collars
  

FAQ

Q: Do you think that all news is bad?
A: No. I am just concerned that all news is used to manipulate. Our addition to news and Social Media might be harmful to us.

Q: Do you hate dogs?
A: No. I actually love them. I also think that they should be permitted to smell all the stinky stuff they want. They just need to be careful so that they don’t get hurt in the process.

Q: Do you hate Senator Feinstein?
A: No. I think that she is more than a little confused.

Old age does that, you know. You forget things and your sense of judgment tends to be distorted. She came to Congress when telephones had dials and hung on walls. There was no such thing as computers, and people wrote letters with “Bic banana” pens. Everyone was saying “Groovy”, and the movie Jaws just came out.
I think she should have retired three or four decades ago. Like when Microsoft DOS first came out.

Q: Do you read the news and listen to it?
A: Yes I do. However, I have been actively trying to reduce the impact of it in my life. I think that I have been far too involved in it in the past. Looking back, I can see how silly it has been.

Posted On Free Republic

This article was posted on Free Republic in the chat section on 31JUL18. It was edited as the language was deemed improper. It used the word “shit”. The comments can be read HERE.

Posts Regarding Life and Contentment

Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society within communist China. As there are some really stark differences between the two.

More Posts about Life

I have broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little different, in subtle ways.

Stories that Inspired Me

Here are reprints in full text of stories that inspired me, but that are nearly impossible to find in China. I place them here as sort of a personal library that I can use for inspiration. The reader is welcome to come and enjoy a read or two as well.

Articles & Links

• You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
• You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
• You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
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Notes

1. Drafted 25MAR18.
2. Updated 11APR18.
3. Internet ready 28APR18.
4. SEO check 8MAY18.
5. FR posting update 1AUG18.