The fundamental difference in this, between people like The Viking and people like me is that he feels he lives in a safe, fair place, where everything is orderly and above board, and good is rewarded, bad punished. For myself, i feel profoundily ill at ease in the world of human society. i see it as The Matrix, a lie, a system rigged to punish original thought and integrity, and to reward stupidity and servility. My whole life’s experience has led me here; whether that qualifies me to see clearly, or merely explains why i’m wrong, i myself cannot judge. We all think we’re right, of course.

My parents were ill-meaning buffoons. My first memory of school is, age about 5, being run into by a girl in the playground; we both fell down, she started crying; a teacher came over, pointed at me and shouted accusingly, “I saw what you did!” And so on. At every stage of education, my teachers have largely been dysfunctional morons. i did badly at school, my brain not really waking up till i was 19. i found university to be largely a self-serving system of bullshit, in which patronising lifers stifled any real thought or learning, encouraging servility either in the overt form of Literary Theory or, slightly more subtly, giving bad marks to anything that deviated too far from the official line. The exceptions had either been sacked or relegated to tiny offices and treated like scum.

i’ve been unemployed for two years, and temped - mainly at minimum wage data entry - for another three. i’ve been rejected for about 250 jobs.

Looking at myself from the outside, how could such a temp not distrust authority? 95% of the ‘authority figures’ i’ve met were fakes. i’m not enough of a Gnostic to hate the physical world; but the world of human society seems almost purposefully designed as a prison.
-Elberry

When that happens, we won't be having these fireside chats.

It will be "Mad Max" time.

Just imagine Argentina with 100 million pissed off starving lunatics.

We're faced with the same dilemma as the deep-sea diver who hears the message from the ship above, "Come up at once. We are sinking."

-Jeff Clark

And then the witch doctor, he told me what to do
He said that
ooh-ee, ooh-ah-ah
ting, tang, walla-walla bing-bang
ooh-ee, ooh-ah-ah
ting, tang, walla-walla bing-bang

Witch Doctor, Sha-Na-Na

"Life is a game in which the rules are constantly changing; nothing spoils a game more than those who take it seriously. Adultery? Phooey! You should never subjugate yourself to another nor seek the subjugation of someone else to yourself. If you follow that Crispian principle you will be able to say 'Phooey,' too, instead of reaching for your gun when you fancy yourself betrayed."

-- Quentin Crisp

Note that this (US Dollar Index) chart spans the entire Bush Presidency. Quite a report card, isn't it? Talk about "Dead Country Walking."

The Herculean market manipulation effort by our government over the past couple of years is more than apparent. Clearly, they are near the end of their string, as well.

To the Technical Analysts among you, this chart literally screams that the dollar is about to plunge beneath 70. Once that happens, the game very likely is over and they will nuke either Tehran or Des Moines, depending upon which they believe will get them the most mileage. Regardless, things then will spiral out of control and the world as we know it will be over.

-Conspiracy PenPal

Future historians will stand aghast that anyone believed the crap being shoved down our throats in this period.

-

They teach you to stretch the leg this way in Bikram yoga also. You really feel you're getting that "super stretch" (Bikram's words) on the hamstrings. You're really just screwing up your knees.

Here's a question: Will hypermobility (and the possibility of permanent, irreversible joint damage) help you drop some drunk in a bar on his ass faster? Let me know. I'm on my way to a bar.

If one defines inflation as an expansion of money and credit, then one look at M3 soaring for decades while gold sinking from $800 to $250 shows that for long periods of time (decades in fact) gold is an extremely poor hedge against inflation. In the longest of timeframes, however, every fiat currency in history has gone to zero and that is an unbeatable track record, unfortunately not a very playable one in and of itself.

-Mike Shedlock

The memory of the past unfulfilled desires traps energy, which manifests itself as a person. When its charge gets exhausted, the person dies. Unfulfilled desires are carried over into the birth. Self-identification with body creates ever-fresh desires and there is no end to them unless this mechanism of bondage is clearly seen.

It is clarity that is liberating, for you cannot abandon desire unless its causes and effects are clearly seen. I do not say that the same person is reborn. It dies, and dies for good. But its memories remain and their desires and fears. They supply the energy for a new person.

- Nisargadatta

Thought u got on this forum to warn ppl against this supposed religious cult?
The kool aid hasn't changed flavors since u left it.

You can practice more basic exercises or less. It doesn't really matter. Basic exercises are nothing more than just some examples of principles related to natural movement. Yiquan is not about learning fixed exercises. Ideally you would want to learn as little as possible in order to achieve ability of using your body in free way.

-Andrzej Kalisz

In the meantime, please remember the first rule of panic: If you are going to panic, do so before everyone else does.

Just an attempt to add beautiful colors to shadows.

- Yen

It will become the habitation of jackals and vultures.

- Roland Watson

If all is good, they fuck each other's brains out, watch a movie or a look at the stars and tell each other sweet secret somethings that matter to them, and pass the day.

-Yen

Maybe the eagle doesn't hunt flies.

But I believe the main reason a suicide attempt devastates and fascinates us is it reminds us how fragile our own hold on life is. "Here I am struggling along with my problems," Michael Simpson said, "and here's a guy who's given up. Is it possible I'm wrong in bothering so hard to try to live? Once you start discussing suicide you're asking what the grounds are for killing ourselves. The other side of that question is, 'What am I living for?' That's an ugly question for most of us because we don't usually know."

Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish they have their homeland, Jews their tradition; even the niggers got their music. But what about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?

Edward Wilson: The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.

- The Good Shepherd

I grabbed a pile of dust and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust. I forgot to ask that they be years of youth.

~Ovidius, Metamorphoses