Men and their Dogs

Dogs are the role model for living life. You can make a fool of yourself and your dog will make a fool of itself too, while laughing with its tail. HOW TO UNDERSTAND MEN THROUGH THEIR DOGS is a book written by Wendy Diamond, informing women how to judge a man by the breed of dog he owns. Since I have a keen insight into men and dogs, I can save you the price of the book. I have absolutely no insight into women but it seems irrelevant under the circumstances. SPORTING DOGS · Pointers, retrievers, setters and spaniels are field dogs bred for hunting. · A man who owns a sporting dog is a lazy outdoorsman who needs a dog to do most of the work, like finding and retrieving game. · He also wants a woman who will do most of the work, including stocking and retrieving beer. · But he isn’t too keen on pointing, especially someone pointing at him. · If you want to be a waitress, this is your guy. HOUNDS · They're used in hunting too but have a different personality. · They sniff out a trail and make lots of noise, called baying. · When not hunting, hounds are very lazy and spend a lot of time napping. · If you want a man who is primarily a couch potato, when he’s not out sniffing around and making lots of noise, a hound man is for you. WORKING DOGS · This category includes boxers, pinchers and huskies, plus very large dogs such as Great Danes, Rotweilers and Mastiffs. · Men who have large dogs, particularly pit bulls, are men who have difficulty coping with the world. · They’re macho on the outside and frightened on the inside. Their dog is their protection. · Dangerous paranoid men have dangerous paranoid dogs. · If you seek danger and paranoia, join the military. NON-SPORTING DOGS · This category includes Bichon Frises, Shar-peis, Lhasa Apsos, Schipperkes and Shiba Inus. · These are pretentious dogs with pretentious names. · A man who owns one of them is a pretentious man who probably thinks a slick necktie is hot and jazz is cool. · He owns a trendy car, wears fashionable clothes, sniffs his brandy and checks for lint. · Unless you’re a fashion model or a Capricorn, you won’t be pretentious enough for him. TERRIERS · Feisty dogs, bred to kill vermin, this breed has little tolerance for other animals, including other dogs. · A man who owns a terrier is a feisty man who has little tolerance for others, including his alter ego. · If you have a psychological need to have a man snarling at you, find a man who has a terrier. TOY DOGS · Members of this category are miniature versions of the real things. · Men with toy dogs are miniature versions of real men, unless they live in an apartment and there’s no room for a bigger dog. · They usually have limp wrists and a flair for decorating a room. · If you want someone to do your hair or nails, find a toy dog man. Otherwise move on. HERDING DOGS · This group is made up of shepherds, collies and other breeds that control the movement of animals, primarily cattle or sheep. · They are highly intelligent, easy to maintain and have a natural instinct to nibble at the heels of whatever they are herding. · One of my previous dogs was a female Australian Cattle Dog, also known as a Queensland Blue Heeler. They're magnificent creatures, much like their owners. Just make sure to keep them from nibbling at your heels. MUTTS · A mutt is a dog of mixed breed and low status. · It’s more carefree than purebreds because it doesn’t have to live up to some meaningless standard. · Mutt men don’t live up to meaningless standards either. · My current dogs are mutts. As best as anyone can tell, they're part terrier and part goofball. · I'm part Swedish, part German, part English and part rebel. · Mutts are very good at frolicking with skunks and I'm very good at avoiding the rest of the world. · If you want a carefree man of questionable status, find a mutt man. · Be sure to check for fleas. A man without a dog has no soul. If a man has nothing to give a dog, he has nothing to give a woman. A man with more than two dogs has too much responsibility. If a man pays too much attention to his dogs he has no time for a woman. Either way, you’ll be ignored. Owning a cat is like owning a fuzzy rock that changes position once in a while. A man who owns a cat prefers indifference to companionship. If you want to be treated like a fuzzy rock, find a cat man. Certain dog men make good companions. If you scratch their bellies, they’ll aim to please. ___________ Quote for the Day – "The average dog is a nicer person than the average person." Andy Rooney ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a couple dogs and an imaginary girlfriend named Trixie "Boom-Boom" O'Toole. ___________ - -

UFO Reality

In 1971, Dr. Edgar Mitchell (PhD from M.I.T.) was the lunar module pilot for the Apollo 14 moon mission. He, along with fellow astronaut Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest moon walk ever. On July 4, 2008, Dr. Mitchell appeared on the "Larry King Live" program on CNN and claimed that high ranking officials, both military and civilian, have told him that the UFO phenomenon is a reality and in part a non-human gathering of intelligence of Planet Earth and the human race. On July 23, 2008, Dr. Mitchell made the same assertions on a London radio station interview, stating that he was aware of many UFO visits to Earth during his career with NASA, but each one was covered up. . "I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge..." Dr. Mitchell claims, "We've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real. It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it." He also confirmed an extraterrestrial craft crashed in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. On July 4, 1947, several reliable witnesses saw a distant object crash to the earth near Roswell, New Mexico. This unidentified object was spotted on Army Air Force radar and an armed unit was dispatched to the area. Later, Mack Brazel discovered a large amount of unusual debris scattered over his ranch near Roswell. Major Jesse Marcel, intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group at the Roswell Army Air Field, had personally gone to the Brazel Ranch to recover the wreckage. He described the metal as being incredibly tough, yet paper thin. It couldn't be burned or cut, and contained strange inscriptions. On July 8, 1947, Lieutenant Walter Haut, public relations officer, issued a statement to the press that began, "The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence officer of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc." The following day, on the orders from the base commander, Colonel William Blanchard, Lt. Haut issued a subsequent press release explaining that the previously reported flying disc had actually been a weather balloon. Lt. Haut died in 2006. He left a sworn affidavit to be opened only after his death. That statement was made public in June of 2007. In it, Haut asserts that the weather balloon claim was a bogus story to cover up the truth. According to Haut, the real unidentified flying object (UFO) had been recovered by the military and stored in a hanger. Haut also declared that he had seen the recovered craft, as well as several recovered alien bodies. He described the craft as being a 15-foot by 6-foot egg-shaped object with no windows, no wings, no tail and no landing gear. The recovered bodies were approximately four feet tall with disproportionately large heads. For decades, local Roswell undertaker Glenn Dennis claimed that he had been summoned by an officer at the Army Air Field to deliver four "child-sized" coffins to the base, which he did, shortly after the crash incident. Haut's sworn affidavit went on to mention a meeting he had with base commander Col. Blanchard and the Commander of the Eighth Army Air Force, General Roger Ramey, and others. They examined the wreckage material and were unable to identify it. Plans were made to divert public attention away from the incident and recover debris from both sites. There had also been a second crash site that was kept from the public. Col. Phillip J. Corso was a Pentagon Army Intelligence officer and former Inspector General of the 7th Army. He wrote a book in 1997 (shortly before his death) titled THE DAY AFTER ROSWELL. He went into great detail about the cover-up of the UFO crash near Roswell, and about how he and Lt. Gen. Arthur Trudeau, the chief of U.S. Army Research and Development, used some of the debris from the crash to conduct further military research. Either Haut, Marcel, Brazel, Dennis and Corso are all liars and trying to pull an elaborate prank on the American public or they're telling the truth. And if they're telling the truth, it means that one or more UFOs crashed in New Mexico in 1947 and our government has withheld the truth from us for some 60 years now. Astronaut Gordon Cooper (1927 -- 2004) wrote a book in 2000 titled LEAP OF FAITH. He described how he chased UFOs as an Air Force pilot while stationed in Germany in 1951. He also wrote about how he shot film of a UFO encounter from Gemini 5 that was quickly classified by President Johnson and confiscated. In the final paragraph, Cooper wrote, "For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us." Haut, Marcel, Brazel, Dennis, Corso, astronaut Mitchell, astronaut Cooper, a former director of the CIA, the former chief of the British Royal Navy, highly ranked military personnel, prominent government officials and others have all stepped forward to reveal the truth about the UFO phenomenon. Yet the mainstream media scoffs at the mere mention of UFOs and it provides fodder for late night TV comedians. On July 24, 2008, the evening following Dr. Mitchell's London radio interview, David Letterman's Top Ten List was the top ten excuses NASA hasn't revealed UFO contact. 1) Our leader isn't as bright as their leader 2) Busy trying to confirm evidence of A-Rod/Madonna sex video 3) Too upset to talk after what happened to Pluto 4) No number 4 – writer abducted by aliens 5) Hey chillax, bro 6) We were waiting to reveal it on a very special episode of "The Tyra Banks Show" 7) Been sort of preoccupied with this giant asteroid that's headed toward Earth 8) Too much Tang 9) We would like to visit these aliens but gas is so damn expensive 10) Didn't think it was a big deal Of course, the real reason is that the government wants to keep the cycle of production and consumption going full throttle without any distractions. The revelation of the validity of UFO activity might cause fear and panic, thereby hampering the primary objective of the government which is to sustain its ferocious appetite for growth. Most of the human race goes through life in a hypnotic state, too apprehensive to accept the truth, or too self-centered to give a damn. They're trapped in a system of self-imposed slavery, obedient to an illusion, struggling to acquire things, oblivious of unperceivable truths. They would rather be comfortable with their false view of reality, or their escapism from reality, than to learn the true nature of existence. We are not alone. ___________ Quote for the Day – "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known" Carl Sagan ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where too much Tang is rarely a problem. ___________ - -

HAPPY NATIONS

Adrian White, an analytic social psychologist at the University of Leicester in England, has collected data from more than 100 studies around the globe and created a list that ranks 178 countries on the basis of happiness -- the subjective perceived well-being of the populace within each country. Participants in the various studies, some 80,000 people worldwide, were asked questions relating to satisfaction with life and personal happiness. According to Professor White, "a nation's level of happiness was most closely associated with health levels, followed by wealth, and then provision of education." Believe it or not, the top 20 happiest nations are: 1) Denmark 2) Switzerland 3) Austria 4) Iceland 5) The Bahamas 6) Finland 7) Sweden 8) Bhutan 9) Brunei 10) Canada 11) Ireland 12) Luxembourg 13) Costa Rica 14) Malta 15) The Netherlands 16) Antigua and Barbuda 17) Malaysia 18) New Zealand 19) Norway 20) The Seychelles Some of the more prominent nations with large populations and/or significant global influence include: 23) USA 35) Germany 41) England 62) France 82) China 90) Japan 125) India 167) Russia. And at the bottom of the list: 176) Democratic Republic of the Congo 177) Zimbabwe 178) Burundi. As expected, the smaller nations tend to be the happier ones -- less people, less problems. Large countries with a multi-cultural populace have more internal conflict -- it's difficult to accommodate a wide variety of views. Obviously, freedom wasn't a significant factor in this study. The countries at the top of the list are highly socialistic where taxes are burdensomely high and the government operates a multitude of social services. In a collectivist society, people become dependent upon government thereby lowering individual initiative, causing economic stagnation. It also diminishes the pride and joy of personal accomplishment. It's not too surprising that a social psychologist would consider "well-being" factors as the primary elements of happiness. But to many people, individual freedom is far more important than a government handout. Weather certainly wasn't a major consideration either. Six out of the top seven nations are Nordic countries near the Arctic Circle where the air is cold, the nights are long and everyone drinks vodka just to stay warm. In 2004, a liberal friend of mine was so upset with the Bush administration he decided to move to Finland because they have all sorts of government benefits. He also indicated he wanted to teach his sons to be self-sufficient. When I pointed out that Finland had a high incidence of depression and the highest suicide rate in the world, he argued it was genetic. When I mentioned that socialism was the opposite of self-sufficiency, he growled at me. When I told him the search for happiness was one of the main reasons for unhappiness, he told me to eat dirt and die. I don't think he ever did move to Finland, but don't know for sure. Our friendship ceased when it became apparent he was a blithering idiot. Wherever he landed, I'm certain he feels entitled to the earnings of others -- after all, that's what self-sufficiency is all about. The USA is far from perfect. But it's big enough, from sea to shining sea, to explore until you find your niche, be it the backwoods of Arkansas, the lakes of Minnesota, the mountains of Colorado, the desert of Arizona, the beaches of Florida, the hills of Tennessee, the expanse of Alaska, the islands of Hawaii, the shores of Carolina, the big sky of Montana, the bayous of Louisiana, the bustle of New York, or the fantasy of California. You can live a happy life in the USA. There are plenty of lifestyles to choose from; or you could end your pursuit of happiness and just be happy. If you can't find happiness within yourself, you won't find it elsewhere. Besides, if you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn't be human – you'd be a game show host. ___________ Quote for the Day -- "Mystical references to society and its programs to help may warm the hearts of the gullible but what it really means is putting more power in the hands of bureaucrats." Thomas Sowell ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a dog named Donner and where happiness is an inside job. ___________ - -

Abundant Black Gold

The USA controls three percent of the world's proven oil supply yet consumes 25 percent of the world's oil, thereby allowing foreign governments, corrupt political leaders and terrorists to have leverage on our economy. Plus, the USA production of crude oil has been stymied due to environmental concerns. Under these conditions, oil industry insiders reap large profits and cause economic instability. The USA has become dependent on foreign crude oil suppliers, particularly from the Middle East where self-centered sheiks and tyrants squander zillions of dollars on themselves while their subjects struggle in poverty. But suppose the supply of oil was somehow regenerating itself and not in danger of being depleted after all. Dr. Thomas Gold is a physicist at Cornell University. Some of his accomplishments include landmark research on the workings of the ear, developing the mathematics of the rules of cosmology, and overseeing the construction and operation of the world's largest radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Dr. Gold is also a proponent of the abiotic theory of oil. Developed by the Russians in the 1950s, the abiotic theory states that oil is not derived from decayed plant and animal life, but is rather a bio-product of a continual biochemical reaction below the surface of the earth that is forced to attainable depths by the centrifugal forces of the earth's rotation. In other words, oil is continually being produced (created) deep within the planet and "seeps" toward the surface by the centrifugal force of the rotation of the planet, which rotates at a speed of over 1,000 miles per hour at the equator, as Planet Earth travels through the Universe at 67,000 miles per hour. THE DEEP HOT BIOSPHERE: THE MYTH OF FOSSIL FUELS is Dr. Gold's groundbreaking book, published in 1998, promoting the idea that oil is not a fossil fuel and, contrary to popular belief, is a renewable resource. While conventional scientific wisdom dictates that life is formed on the Earth's surface, with the aid of the sun, Dr. Gold believes that most living entities reside deep within the Earth's crust at temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Celsius, living off of methane and other hydrocarbons. Although highly regarded as a physicist, Dr. Gold has had a history as being a maverick. In the 1950s, the first radio astronomers discovered odd radio sources in the sky and thought they were unusual stars. Dr. Gold claimed they were actually distant galaxies. Years later, with new technology, Dr. Gold was proven to be correct. In the 1960s, a different type of radio source was detected in the skies, flashing on and off with regularity. Dr. Gold wrote that these pulsars were neutron stars, the existence of which had been predicted but had never been seen. Although many of his colleagues scoffed at this explanation, once again Dr. Gold was proven to be correct. Jerome R. Corsi (PhD from Harvard) is the author of 18 books, including ATOMIC IRAN and UNFIT FOR COMMAND. Craig R. Smith, Chairman of the board of Swiss America Trading Company, is the author of 24 scholarly books. Corsi and Smith have co-authored a book titled BLACK GOLD STRANGLEHOLD, which shares the notion that oil is continually created deep inside the planet and contends that the so-called scarcity is a marketing ploy to charge higher prices. For example, researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, as well as other studies, have demonstrated that fossils from plants and animals are not necessary to create crude oil or natural gas. It's a fact that numerous capped wells which were formerly dry have been discovered to be plentiful once again after many years. Perhaps this is newly created oil "seeping upward" by the pressure of the expansion of newly created crude oil (and centrifugal force). According to various sources, including NASA, USGS and many oceanographic institutes, there is a "natural" oil seepage into the earth's oceans, estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 million gallons of crude oil per year. Once again, this is clearly an example of "seeping upward" on the ocean floor from lower depths below the floor surface -- highly unlikely to be extinct dinosaur juice "trapped" under the depths of the ocean. In 1542, Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo used tar from natural oil seepage, known to sailors as asphaltum, off the coast of North America to waterproof his ships -- just as the Native American Chumash Indians did with their canoes. In 1792, English explorer George Vancouver noted in his log that parts of the Pacific Coast were covered in all directions "with an oily surface so thick that the entire sea took on an iridescent hue." Natural seepage of oil under the ocean, which is currently monitored by NASA, continues to this day. And 75 million gallons of crude oil seeping upward from the ocean floor every year is no small amount -- additional evidence of the possibility of oil perpetually regenerating itself. The Middle East is in continual extreme turmoil. World War III may be on the horizon. And it's all about the availability and production of crude oil, supposedly a limited resource formed millions of years ago by decaying vegetation and extinct animals. However, all of this bloody unrest in the Middle East may be unnecessary. Perhaps oil is a renewal resource, continually generating additional crude oil deep within the earth whereby it seeps upward toward the surface on a regular basis. Perhaps there are those within the oil industry (and elsewhere) who are aware of the abiotic phenomenon but remain silent (or prevent disclosure) of this fact in order to remain highly profitable. ___________ Quote for the Day – "Truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water." Miguel de Cervantes ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where chiggers seem to seep up from the ground. ___________ - -

South of the Border

In 1980, when I was married and living in Los Angeles, my wife and I took a trip to Club Med in Playa Blanca, Mexico. We boarded a 707 passenger jet, chartered by a travel agency, on a Friday night bound for Manzanillo. To my surprise, the plane landed in La Paz on the Baja Peninsula where each passenger was given a card by the stewardess and told to fill it out. Then we all disembarked from the plane, stood in line in the terminal, handed the cards to a customs agent, got back on the plane and eventually took off for our original destination. Apparently, this exercise in inefficiency was standard procedure for entering Mexico. Even though no one got on or off at La Paz, it was a "port of entry" into the country so we all had to go through this bureaucratic absurdity. While my ex-wife always seemed to enjoy our travels, this sort of nonsense generally caused my blood to exceed the boiling point of tungsten. But it's nothing compared to the rigors involved in moving to Mexico. A director with SW Bell in St. Louis recently posted an Internet account of his ordeal in relocating to Mexico. In order to receive a permanent work visa, called an FM3, the man had to submit the following original items: · Birth certificate (plus his wife's birth certificate) · Marriage certificate · High school transcripts and proof of graduation · College transcripts and proof of graduation · Two letters of recommendation from supervisors he had worked for at least one year · A letter from the Chief of Police of St. Louis indicating he had no arrest record, no outstanding warrants and was "a citizen in good standing" · He also had to personally write a letter about himself clearly stating why there was no Mexican citizen with his skills and explain why his skills were important to Mexico The above documents then had to be certified as legal transactions, notarized and translated into Spanish. Next, he and his wife spent five hours, accompanied by a Mexican lawyer, visiting various government offices where they were photographed and fingerprinted three different times. At four separate locations, they were instructed on Mexican tax law, Mexican labor law, Mexican housing law and Mexican criminal law. The couple paid out a total of $4,000 in fees (and bribes) to complete the process. They were required to obtain a Mexican driver's license. Once again, photographed and fingerprinted. They were instructed that if ever stopped by a policeman to never give their driver's license to the policeman (instead, hold it against the inside of the window) otherwise they would have to pay a ransom to get it back. At that point, the man was issued a "permanent" FM3 work visa, which was good for three years and renewal for two more years after paying additional fees. Hell hath no fury like a bureaucracy scorned. As U.S. citizens, the couple was not allowed to purchase a home and required to rent in compliance with Mexican law. In addition, to submit their annual Mexican income tax required about 20 legal-size pages. The U.S. Congress has been currently working on new immigration legislation that may include some improved security across the southern border, temporary work permits for Mexican laborers, etc. However, the Mexican government is opposed to any such legislation because they consider it to be an insult and inconvenience to their people. “The greatest power of bureaucracies is to make the smart act stupid and the good to act evil.” Raul Ramos Note to the Mexican government -- Life is a two-way street and convenience isn't exactly your specialty. The USA needs seasonal Mexican laborers (jobs most Americans won't do) and the laborers need the work. There must be a simple solution to this problem, but adding more government bureaucracy probably isn't it. In an imperfect world, where fruit grows on trees, there are growers and pickers and consumers -- and those whose sole purpose in life seems to be to make it more difficult for everyone to venture from Point A to Point B. ___________ Quote for the Day – "Remove the document and you remove the man." Mikhail Bulgakov ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and has no plans to venture south of the border. ___________ - -

Beyond Earth

Planet Earth is orbiting the sun at 67,000 miles per hour -- it is also rotating on its axis (spinning) at 1,000 miles per hour at the equator. Our solar system (the sun and its 9 planets) is travelling through space at 515,000 miles per hour. Our sun is a single star within a galaxy of stars, called the Milky Way. Our Milky Way galaxy, home of our solar system, is 100,000 light years across -- it would take about 230,000,000 (230 million) years at the speed of light to travel all the way around the outside perimeter of the Milky Way galaxy. There are about 300,000,000,000 (300 billion) stars within the Milky Way galaxy alone, a modest-sized galaxy compared to most other galaxies in the known universe. Our known universe contains some 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) galaxies, with each galaxy potentially containing multiple billions of stars. On a clear night, the average person is able to view approximately 3,000 stars with the naked eye. On July 22, 2003, CNN News reported that astronomers announced there are 70 sextillion stars in the visible universe. A sextillion is a 1 followed by 21 zeroes -- that's 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 known stars in the universe, more than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the entire Earth. This is not the total number of stars in the universe -- it's the number within the range of present day telescopes. The true number could be a zillion times higher. Our single star (the sun) contains 9 planets -- imagine how many potential planets are contained within 70, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000 known stars (other suns). Keep that in mind the next time you complain about finding a convenient parking spot. Also, keep that in mind if you assume that Planet Earth is the only spinning orb in the universe that contains intelligent entities, such as human beings, whose intelligence is often highly questionable. ___________ Quote for the Day – “Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.” Albert Einstein ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where the universe is a fairly large place. ___________ - -

New Madrid Fault

On January 12, 2010, the Caribbean island nation of Haiti experienced an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude, claiming between 100,000 and 200,000 lives. Earthquakes are not new to Haiti. In 1751, a quake destroyed every masonry building (except one) in Port-au-Prince. Twenty years later, a 7.5 magnitude quake again leveled Port-au-Prince, killing 200 people. In 1842, a quake on northern Haiti killed 10,000 people. In 1946, a magnitude 8.0 quake produced a tsunami that killed 1,800 people. Earthquakes are not new to the USA either. New Madrid, Mo., is on the west bank of the Mississippi River, about a hundred miles upstream from Memphis, across the river from the Kentucky and Tennessee state lines, just above the Missouri boot heel. The population in 2010 is approximately 3,200. On December 16, 1811, the 400 people who lived in New Madrid were awakened by a powerful earthquake. It was the largest seismic event east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, over 8.0 in magnitude. The tremor lasted from three to five minutes. The ground visibly rolled and most buildings were completely destroyed. Large areas of land sank, new lakes were formed and over 150,000 acres of forest were decimated. It also caused the Mississippi River to flow backwards for several hours and changed the course of the river. The shake was felt as far north as Quebec City, Canada, and it rang church bells in Boston, Mass., over 1,000 miles away. The towns of Point Pleasant and Little Prairie, both in Missouri, located on points of land jutting out into the Mississippi River, were completely swept away without a trace. During the next few weeks, there were 2,000 aftershocks, including three more quakes in the 8.0 range. This event became known as the Great New Madrid Earthquake of 1811-1812 because its epicenter was in a sparsely populated area near New Madrid. The New Madrid Fault system extends 120 miles south-southwest from the area of Cairo, Ill., through New Madrid, down to Blytheville, Ark., all the way down to Marked Tree, Ark. The New Madrid Fault averages some 200 measured events per year (1.0 or greater). About once every 18 months, there is a shock of 4.0 or more, causing minimal local damage. On Thanksgiving of 1996, there was a 4.3 quake which was felt by people in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois and Mississippi. An earthquake of 6.0 or greater could cause serious damage to structures, particularly older masonry buildings, from St. Louis to Memphis. This occurs about every 80 years. The last event was in 1895. The New Madrid Fault is overdue for a jolt. An earthquake of 7.5 or greater would be felt throughout the entire United States and would cause damage in 20 or more states. This happens once every 200-300 years or every 500-600 years, depending on which seismological study one chooses to believe. The last such event occurred in 1812. Earthquake prediction is not an exact science. Most experts believe there is about a 90% chance of a quake of 6.0 or greater by the year 2040. Some experts believe there is a 3% chance of a major earthquake (7.5 or greater) along the New Madrid Fault by 2040, while other experts believe there is a 25% chance by 2040. The Earth's surface is made up of a series of tectonic plates, much like pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle. These plates are in constant motion, traveling a few inches per year. As these plates build up stress over time, energy is occasionally released in the form of an earthquake. It's not a question of "if" there will be another massive earthquake along the New Madrid Fault, but "when." And when it occurs there will be catastrophic destruction, particularly in southeastern Missouri, northeastern Arkansas, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and southern Illinois. We live on a very precarious planet. Besides dealing with the injustice inflicted upon others by evil people, we must also contend with natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, volcanoes, fires, floods, mudslides, droughts, meteors, extreme temperatures, pandemics, crop failures and so on. And you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. Beyond the folly of politics and the nefarious manipulations of global elitist greed-heads, human destiny is primarily a series of unforeseen events guided by invisible forces. Whatever happens tomorrow is meant to happen and there's nothing you can do about it. If you live anywhere near the New Madrid Fault, don't despair -- just stock up on beans and ammo, and live life to the fullest. The future is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you're going to get. ___________ Quote for the Day -- “Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, ‘Thank God, I’m still alive.’ But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again.” U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Cal) ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and too close to the New Madrid fault for peace of mind. ___________ - -

Dim Bulbs

Life is often stranger than fiction. Compiled from various sources over time, the following items are purported to be true stories. Obviously, we can’t all be the brightest bulb on the tree. California, the land of fruit and nuts, always has more than its share of dim bulbs. In Modesto, a man attempted to hold up a bank using a thumb and a finger to simulate a gun. In a typical dim bulb maneuver, he failed to keep his hand in his pocket, making his apprehension a laughing matter and an easy task. In Los Angeles, police were conducting a lineup. They asked each of the men in the lineup to say, “Give me all your money or I’ll shoot.” One of the suspects shouted: “That’s not what I said!” Needless to say, another dim bulb bit the dust. In San Francisco, a man walked into a Bank of America, wrote a robbery note on a deposit slip and stood in line waiting for his turn. He became impatient so he went across the street to rob a Wells Fargo Bank. The teller told him she couldn’t accept a note written on a Bank of America deposit slip and that he’d either have to rewrite it on a Wells Fargo deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. So the dim bulb, a mighty dim bulb indeed, went back to the Bank of America and stood in line until some men in blue came along and escorted him to jail. In Bakersfield, a young couple bought a brand new speedboat and went to a lake to take it for a spin. They got the motor started just fine but it seemed very sluggish. They eventually made it to a nearby marina and had it examined by a mechanic. Upon inspection it was discovered that the trailer was still securely strapped under the boat. Dim bulbs have been known to run in pairs too. Dim bulbs aren’t restricted to California, although it would be helpful if they were. In Topeka, Kansas, a man attempted to hold up a convenience store. Finding the amount of cash on hand to be less than expected, he tied up the store clerk and began working the counter himself, hoping to accumulate more money in the process. He was arrested three hours later, still on duty behind the counter. He may not have been the sharpest tool in the shed but he had a good work ethic. Too bad he didn’t get a job in the convenience store in the first place. In Atlantic City, an elderly woman won a bucket of quarters on the slot machines in one of the casino hotels. On the way up to her room, two black men joined her in the elevator. Suddenly, one of the men said, “Hit the floor” whereupon the woman threw her bucket of quarters up in the air and sprawled on the elevator floor. The man politely explained that he meant for her to push a button for her floor; then they both helped her gather the scattered coins. The following morning the woman received a dozen roses. The card read: “Thanks for the best laugh we’ve had in years.” It was signed: Eddie Murphy and Michael Jordan. In Boston, a Catholic priest was standing on the sidewalk having a conversation with an older woman when a thug grabbed the woman’s purse, knocking her to the ground, and hit the priest with a club, rendering him unconscious. The woman had two sons – one was the priest she was talking to and the other was the top crime boss (Mafia) in the city. Somewhere in Boston is a dim bulb with the wrong purse and plenty of reason to avoid guys named Carmine, Vito or Big Tony. Relocating to somewhere beyond Jupiter might be a wise move. In Finland, where taxes are among the highest in the world and the national pastime is depression, there is an office building full of dim bulbs. A tax official in his 60s died of a heart attack at his desk. Two days passed before any of his 30 co-workers noticed he had expired. Apparently accountants look like they’re still working even though the distance between their face and the top of their desk is zero. Dim bulbs provide an important benefit to mankind -- they make the rest of us look fairly intelligent. ______________ Quote for the Day – "Be alert, the world needs more lerts." Woody Paige ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where dim bulbs roam freely. ___________ - -

A Noble Person

Paul Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in a suburb of Cleveland. On September 26, 2008, at age 83, he passed on to the Great Beyond. His father was Jewish and ran a sporting goods store. His mother was a Slovakian Catholic who converted to Christian Science when Paul was five years old. Newman made his acting debut at the age of seven, playing the court jester in a school production of Robin Hood. He briefly attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. His plan to be accepted into pilot training failed when it was discovered he was color blond. After boot camp, he was trained as a gunner and radioman in torpedo bombers. In 1945, he served aboard the USS Bunker Hill during the battle for Okinawa. After the war, he graduated from Kenyon College. Later, he studied acting at Yale University and under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio in New York City. Paul Newman was a brilliant actor. He made over 50 movies, starting in the 1950s, and was nominated for a best actor Academy Award 10 times, winning once and receiving two Oscars for lifetime achievement. He also received two Golden Globe Awards, an Emmy, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award and many honorary awards. On the silver screen, he was Hud, Cool Hand Luke, Harper, Hombre, The Hustler (Fast Eddie Felton) and Butch Cassidy. And he was magnificent every time. Politically, Newman was very liberal. He supported Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 presidential election race, which landed him on Richard Nixon's infamous Enemy List.. But unlike other show biz liberals, he lived far from the glare of Hollywood, in Connecticut. And unlike other show biz liberals, his philanthropy didn't include attacking successful people and corporations. Instead of trying to confiscate money from others, Newman founded a company called Newman's Own, in 1982, which carries a line of food products. The company policy is to donate all proceeds, after taxes, to various charities. To date, this effort has distributed in excess of $200 million to worthy causes, mostly toward children worldwide. He not only talked the talk, but he walked the walk. Newman was survived by his wife of 50 years, Joanne Woodward, five daughters, two grandsons and his older brother. His son, Scott, died in 1978 of a drug overdose. Rest in Peace. ___________ Quote for the Day – "A noble person lives by doing what needs to be done, not by thinking about doing or thinking about what to think when finished doing." Bret ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and an imaginary girlfriend named Tequila Mockingbird. ___________ - -

Reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe

In April of 2007, I wrote a newspaper column about a woman in Toronto named Sherrie Lea Laird who had been deemed to be the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe by a psychiatrist who specialized in hypnotic regression therapy. It turned out to be one of the major turning points in my life. At age 11, Sherrie was wondering about the beauty mark above her lip (similar to Marilyn Monroe) as her aunt began singing, "A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but diamonds are a girl's best friend." When she asked her aunt about the song, which seemed so familiar, her aunt explained it was sung by Marilyn Monroe in a movie called GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDS. "It was just like an explosion in my mind," Sherrie declared. Even though she didn't even know what Marilyn Monroe looked like, she began having dreams and flashbacks about Monroe. Afraid to tell anyone about it over the years, she eventually spiraled into alcohol and drugs. By the 1990s, Sherrie had become a rising pop singer in Toronto, Canada. Her song "No Ordinary Love" had been at the top of the music charts in Canada and Europe. But she was still traumatized by feelings of being haunted by an internal demon. In 1998, Sherrie discovered Dr. Finkelstein's website and e-mailed him concerning her repressed feelings and anxieties about being possessed by another person. Dr. Adrian Finkelstein is a graduate of the prestigious Menninger School of Psychiatry, a former chief of the outpatient of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center, a former assistant professor of psychiatry at Chicago's Rush Medical School and served as assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA, where he taught past-life regression therapy. Now in private practice, Dr. Finkelstein has been a pioneer and expert in past-life regression therapy for 30 years, and has performed over 5,000 past-life regressions. He has also created and patented a Past and Present Lives -- Iris Recognition Comparison Test (PPL-IRCT). Sherrie and Dr. Finkelstein worked together, on and off, for more than eight years. Soon, Dr. Finkelstein became convinced that Sherrie Lea Laird was the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe. In addition to sessions of video-taped past-life regressions in a somnambulistic hypnotic state, other analytic methods were also conducted, including bone structure, eyes, voice patterns, handwriting analysis, personality traits, linguistics, etc. Under hypnosis, Sherrie revealed a multitude of things about Marilyn Monroe, many of which could not have been known by anyone except those close to Monroe or by Marilyn herself. "The more evidence I gathered the harder it was to disbelieve." Finkelstein said. "Not only are there physical similarities between Sherrie and Marilyn, the details she was able to provide were just phenomenal." Under hypnosis, Sherrie (in Marilyn Monroe's voice) revealed she had had an affair with both John and Bobby Kennedy. Her relationship with JFK started in 1954 and ended two months before her death. Her true love was former husband Arthur Miller and she admitted that former husband, Joe DiMaggio, was boring and jealous. She also claimed to have had an affair with Tony Curtis, which was publicly acknowledged by Curtis at a later date. In a session on Nov. 11, 2005, Sherrie stated that her death was caused by an accidental overdose of drugs she had taken while in a sorrowful mood and had not been murdered as speculated by many conspiracy theorists. Sherrie was born 11 months after Marilyn Monroe died. Coincidentally, Sherrie's mother had suffered a miscarriage just two months before she became pregnant with Sherrie. Sherrie believes she had also been the miscarried child. Under hypnosis, Sherrie's daughter, Kezia (age 20 at the time), surprisingly declared that she was the reincarnation of Marilyn Monroe's mother, Gladys. Coincidentally, Kezia had been conceived within days of Marilyn Monroe's mother's death. Sherrie is a singer – Marilyn Monroe played a singer named Cherie in the movie BUS STOP. They each had an Aunt Anne, have similar bone structures, mannerisms and hand-writing techniques, share the same astrological moon nodes, and so on. Dr. Finkelstein wrote the book MARILYN MONROE RETURNS – THE HEALING OF A SOUL which was the basis for the Sherrie Lea Laird mystique. He and Sherrie have appeared on many TV shows, including Geraldo Rivera Live, The Scarborough Report, Inside Edition, etc. In April of 2007, I met Sherrie Lea Laird on the Internet when she responded to my newspaper column. We soon became friends and corresponded regularly for many years. Unfortunately, she eventually drifted on to another phase of her life, out of my life. Somewhere along the way, Sherrie changed her name to Aven Roth. I suspect she had enough of being Sherrie Lea Laird, wanting to escape the endless sensational notoriety and get on with her musical aspirations. She and her life companion, lead guitarist Chris Blakk, originally had a band called Pandemonia, which has somehow evolved into a band called Black9. Sherrie is a shining light in a dark world -- I am proud to call her my friend. ___________ Quote for the Day – "Marilyn Monroe is not back because she was famous, she's back because she's human." Sherrie Lea Laird ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where some like it hot. ___________ - -

Chocolate

Life is like a box of chocolates -- it’s full of temptation and eventually becomes empty. The cacao tree, also known as “Theobroma cacao” to those who prefer scientific names, is native to the tropical, equatorial slopes of the Andes in South America. Theobroma is Greek for “food of the Gods.” The ancient Aztecs worshipped the cacao tree and used the beans as currency. Their main god, Quetzalcoatl, was the guardian of the cacao tree, considered the source of strength and wealth. The Aztecs crushed the beans into a paste, added spices, and drank it. Cacao seeds (beans) are the source of cocoa, cocoa butter and chocolate. Early explorers brought the cacao bean back to Europe in the 1500s. With the invention of the moulding process in the 1800s, cacao beans were crushed into a fine powder, heated, and poured into moulds, forming shapes as it cooled. Thus the first chocolate candy bar came into being. All modern commercial chocolate products contain substantial amounts of sugar, which may partially explain why chocolate can be so addictive. According to research at New York University, there is a genetic reason some people crave sugary foods. Researchers identified a gene that was different between groups that craved sweets and those who didn’t. An ability by prehistoric humans to identify nutritional foods, such as fruits, while avoiding bitter plant material, which could be toxic, may have led to a genetic trait present today through human evolution. Chocolate, like other sweet foods, stimulates the release of endorphins, natural body hormones that generate feelings of pleasure. A craving for chocolate could be a craving for pleasure. From a chemical point of view, chocolate is the world's most perfect food. There are over 300 chemicals in chocolate, many of which may also promote craving. For example, chocolate contains magnesium and iron, thus would satisfy anyone with a shortage of these minerals, such as pregnant women. Chocolate contains a small amount of caffeine, a stimulant of the central nervous system. Another stimulant present is theobromine, which relaxes the muscles in the linings of the lung. This compound is safe for human beings but metabolizes more slowly in dogs and other domestic animals, and could even kill them. Many studies show that some chocolate ingredients affect the brain. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that transport electronic signals between nerve cells in the brain, causing changes in emotions and sensations. Chocolate contains tryptophan, which creates a neurotransmitter called serotonin. High levels of serotonin can produce feelings of ecstasy. Coincidentally, the designer drug called Ecstasy also works by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. Another chemical named phenylethylamine works as an amphetamine by stimulating the brain’s pleasure centers, generating feelings of excitement, attraction and apprehension. Anandamide is another neurotransmitter in chocolate that acts on the same brain structure as THC, the active ingredient in cannabis (marijuana). They also discovered other similarities between chocolate and marijuana, but can't remember what they were. However, the amount of tryptophan, phenylethylamine and anadamine in chocolate is so small, one would have to consume vast quantities to produce an euphoric state similar to street drugs. According to neuroscientist Daniele Piomelli, chocolate works “indirectly” to produce its high. It contains chemicals known to slow down the breakdown of certain compounds, therefore prolonging the action of the natural stimulation in the brain. Dark chocolate contains flavonoids, including procyanidins, epicatechins and catechins. These compounds are antioxidents, which lower oxidation levels in LDL (bad) cholesterol and increase levels in HDL (good) cholesterol. They also reduce blood clotting, increase blood vessel flexibility and improve blood flow. A study conducted at Harvard University suggests those who eat chocolate three times a month will live almost a year longer than those who don’t. Chocolate is terrific stuff. It tastes great, gives you an emotional lift and promotes a natural high. But don’t tell the government about it or they’ll take that away from us too. ___________ Quote for the Day – "Life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you're gonna get." Forrest Gump ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and has an occasional chunk of dark chocolate for health & pleasure. ___________ - -

Junk and Luxury

One of the fastest ways to fail in life is to work so hard your manager will think you're after his job. In 1976, one year before our semi-blissful marriage of five years, my ex-wife and I went on a sailing adventure in the West Indies. We paid good money to be deckhands on a 248-foot, four-mast schooner, island-hopping the Leeward Islands of St. Martins, St. Barts, St Eustatius, St. Kitts and Nevis for two weeks. After a few days, we hooked up with a couple from Philadelphia and a couple from Alaska. One day the six of us were wandering the neighborhood back streets of a town on Nevis. Some of the locals were sitting on the front porches of their modest houses, playing dominoes or watching the tourists pass by. The couple from Philadelphia (liberals) mentioned how poor everyone seemed and suggested there should be an influx of government money to help everyone out. The couple from Alaska (conservatives) wondered why no one seemed to be working very hard and suggested an influx of private industry to kick-start the economy. My ex-wife was too busy looking for a shop where she could buy some more useless junk to notice anything. However, I noticed and wondered if I was the only sane person in the group. Everyone I saw along the street appeared to be perfectly content in their existence. You could see the happiness in the twinkle in their eyes. It was beyond my comprehension why anyone would want to barge in and spoil a perfectly desirable way of life. Apparently, there's a big difference between liberals and conservatives and relatively sane human beings. On the Orb of Wounded Souls, being enslaved by dependency on government handouts or being enslaved by becoming a cog in the giant economic engine of production and consumption (mindless growth) are both forms of enslavement. Clearly, there must be a more reasonable way of life. Once upon a time in America, the Europeans had not yet arrived to spoil a perfectly desirable way of life. There were indigenous people (Native Americans) scattered throughout the continent, doing just fine until the white man arrived on the eastern shore, stuck a flag in the ground and declared it to be a "discovery." Some of the indigenous folks had permanent settlements while others were hunter-gatherer nomads. A hunter-gatherer society consisted of small bands of nomadic people who lived in an area where it was too harsh to allow permanent settlements. They survived by foraging for edible plants and wild animals. Basically, they wandered from one food source to another. Everything they owned, they carried on their backs. One of the major areas of concentration of hunter-gatherer nomads was the Great Basin Desert area of the southwest (Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, etc.). These societies were part of the Shoshonean bands of Indians (Hopi, Piute, Mono, Comanche, Kawai, Panamint, Chemehuevi and others). In an article titled THE ART OF NOTHING, Thomas J. Elpel declares, "Hunter-gatherer societies succeeded in working only one or two hours per day, yet in our efforts to reproduce their lifestyle we end up working all day." Elpel is the director of Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School in Montana and author of many books on survival. According to Elpel, the hunter-gatherers "had a lot of time on their hands because they produced almost no material culture." They basically sat around all day doing nothing. This helped conserve energy, an economical imperative so they wouldn't be forced to harvest more food each day to feed themselves. They also produced no unnecessary material goods, including artwork. Whenever they were forced to move on, they needed to do so with a minimal of effort. They didn't want to be dragging junk or luxury items with them. In our materialistic culture where the objective always seems to be growth, we love junk and luxury. Often they're the same thing. We work 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, just to stay even. In fact, we're less than even since our national debt is in the multiple trillions and continually rising. But we're too busy "getting ahead" to notice. So, you can be a go-getter and spin your wheels in pursuit of junk and luxury, or you can be a do-nothing and observe the folly of the go-getters as they work harder and harder while getting deeper and deeper in debt. Work is something you do because it's necessary for survival -- work you do beyond that is called a burden. Instead of continually clamoring for jobs, jobs, jobs, we should make quality of life our common objective. This would include a shorter work-week, less government control, less monetary insanity, less military adventurism, etc. • The corporate world wants everyone working at full capacity to maximize profits. • The government wants everyone working at full capacity to maximize tax revenues. • Financial institutions want everyone working in order to perpetuate their credit schemes to expand their control of the monetary system. • The military-industrial complex wants a world of bloody conflict to justify their costly existence. A shorter work-week and a less stressful way of life for the masses goes against the greedy ambitions of those who control the puppet strings. Endless, mindless growth is a cancer -- sooner or later, the puppets are going to figure it out. ___________ Quote for the Day – "The sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being." Carl Jung (1875 - 1961) ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where happiness comes from being satisfied with what you have, not with yearning for more, more, more. ___________ - -

Assassinating John Wayne

Marion Robert Morrison was born in Winterset, Iowa, on May 16, 1907. At age four, his family moved to Los Angeles. He was a gifted athlete who lost his football scholarship at USC due to a body surfing accident. Soon, he found work in small bit parts at local film studios, where he eventually changed his name to John Wayne. John Wayne appeared in 142 motion pictures, often in Westerns as a heroic character, and won an Academy Award for his role as a U.S. Marshall in the movie TRUE GRIT. Throughout his life, John Wayne was a staunch political conservative, opposing communism and politically liberal viewpoints. He passed on to the Great Beyond in 1979 due to stomach cancer. According to a book titled JOHN WAYNE -- THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH by Michael Munn, there were three assassination attempts on Wayne's life. In 1949, Joseph Stalin (communist dictator of the USSR) learned about John Wayne's anti-communist fervor from Russian filmmaker Sergei Gerasimov during a peace conference in New York. Stalin soon decided Wayne should be killed. The plot to assassinate John Wayne was also reported by Russian filmmaker Alexei Kapler (who had been imprisoned by Stalin) and Russian filmmaker Sergei Bondahuck, later confirmed by Gerasimov. According to Munn's book, John Wayne's good friend, legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt, had "saved his life" in the early 1950s. The FBI had discovered that Russian agents were being sent to Hollywood to assassinate Wayne and notified him of the problem. Supposedly, Wayne told the FBI to let the agents show up and he would deal with it. Wayne then devised a plan, with help from a screenwriter named Jimmy Grant, to dissuade the assassins from carrying out their plans. While the details of the incident were never revealed to Munn, the prevailing rumor was that a group of stuntmen abducted the agents and drove them to a beach where they staged a mock execution. Thereafter, the agents supposedly remained in the USA and worked for the FBI. Subsequently, Wayne rejected any FBI protection and relocated with his family to a more secure house surrounded by a large wall. In addition, a group of Hollywood stuntmen pals infiltrated communist cells in America and learned of additional plots to kill Wayne In 1953, another attempt on Wayne's life was initiated in Mexico by a communist cell when Wayne was filming the movie, HONDO. This plot also failed. Joseph Stalin died in 1953 whereby Nikita Krushchev became the new communist leader of the USSR. In a private meeting in 1958, Krushchev told Wayne that he had cancelled Stalin's orders to assassinate him. "That was a decision of Stalin during his last five mad years. When Stalin died, I rescinded that order." The third attempt on Wayne's life occurred in 1966 when he was visiting U.S. troops in Vietnam. An enemy sniper who had been captured claimed, "There was a price on John Wayne's head, put there by Mao Tse Tung (communist leader of China)". To some John Wayne was a grand hero, emblematic of American values. To others, he was a symbol of what was wrong with America, as a self-righteous bully who conquered others through force. From FEAR AND LOATHING IN AMERICA by Hunter S. Thompson -- "John Wayne is a final, rotten symbol of everything that went wrong with the American dream -- he is our Frankenstein monster, a hero to millions… The brainwaves of 'The Duke' are like those of the Hammerhead Shark… He is a ruthless stupid beast with only one instinct -- to attack, to hurt & cripple & kill… John Wayne, a cowboy movie actor whose only real talent was an almost preternatural genius for brainless violence. The Duke wasn't satisfied with just killing people; he beat them into bloody, screaming hamburger." Love him or hate him, John Wayne was bigger than life. He was a proud American who understood that communism was a form of human slavery, serving the bureaucratic masters who rule the Government Plantation. More government control means less individual freedom. Power does not corrupt people -- positions of power attract corrupt people. Those who yearn to control others, even if they regard it as benevolence, are simply demanding the right to create their own version of heaven on earth. The struggle for freedom never ends. Whether or not John Wayne was a hero is debatable. Perhaps the true heroes are those who go gently through life treating others with tolerance, compassion and forgiveness. ___________ Quote for the Day – "Life is tough -- it's even tougher if you're stupid." John Wayne ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains in the Land of Ark with a few dogs and where stupid is as stupid does. ___________ - -

A Dragonfly Tattoo

Women are a mystery -- the ones that are easy on the eyes are never easy on the nerves. They speak several languages, one of which is verbal. I once stood in line in at Wal-Mart behind an attractive woman who had a tattoo of a dragonfly on the small of her back. I asked her if she knew the significance of the dragonfly whereupon she asked me if I knew the significance of minding my own business. As relationships go, it was remarkably short. Dragonflies, much like tattooed women, have their fair share of weirdness. They make themselves invisible to airborne prey by using a system called “motion camouflage.” It tricks the victim’s retina into perceiving the dragonfly as a stationary object blending into the background. Thus, the dragonfly becomes “invisible” even though it’s moving forward. Often, the pursuing dragonfly will fly away from its target rather than toward it to maintain the disguise. I had become familiar with the dragonfly years earlier when I lived in the Arizona desert where a man who claimed to be a shaman gave me a reading using 44 Native American Indian medicine cards. He explained that as we come into the Earth Walk, there are seven directions, each aligned with a particular ability or challenge, surrounding our bodies -- East, South, West, North, Above, Below, and Within. Then I drew seven medicine cards representing the seven directions in my Earth Walk. • East – Wolf. The wolf awakens the teacher within to understand the Great Mystery of life. • South – Armadillo. The armadillo teaches us to define our boundaries or space. • West – Dragonfly. The dragonfly reveals the illusionary facade of physical reality. • North – Hummingbird. The hummingbird encourages us to enjoy the succulent nature of life. • Above – Bat. Bat medicine teaches that to become your future, you must die and be reborn. • Below – Whale. Whale medicine people have the psychic ability to tap into the universal mind. • Within – Antelope. The antelope empowers us to honor the gifts sent from the Great Mystery. The West medicine card reflects the internal solution to your present life challenges and reveals how to reach your desired goals. In my case, this is represented by the dragonfly. According to the shaman, this world is full of nature spirits. Dragonfly medicine indicates knowledge received from the spirits of the four basic elements of air, earth, fire, and water. Dragonfly medicine is the essence of the winds of change. Messages of enlightenment and knowledge were supposedly being communicated to me, especially during the dream-time, causing a transformation where illusion was being replaced by true wisdom. I was indeed going through a transformation at the time. The physical world seemed more like a robotic world of worker bees toiling in a giant rat race to maintain an economy that seemed more like a pyramid scheme than an intelligent way of life. Humanity was being duped into a self-perpetuating system of servitude to a formation of suffocating governments and mega-corporations whose only purpose was to ensure their own growth. For a government or mega-corporation, it meant survival -- to an individual human being seeking peace of mind, it was madness. When I returned home from Wal-Mart, a dragonfly was perched on my mailbox, reminding me to always be aware of the world around me. For example, a woman who wears a tattoo is a woman who wants to be noticed. And a woman who wants to be noticed is a woman who wants to be admired. But the moment you express a hint of admiration, the same woman will instinctively reject you. Men may rule the world but women rule the men. A dragonfly tattoo is a subtle form of camouflage – you can admire it but must pretend you don’t notice it. ___________ Quote for the Day – "You think I am a fool, but you are a greater fool." Sitting Bull ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and an imaginary girlfriend named Tequila Mockingbird. ___________ - -

THE SENILE SEVEN

The Senile Seven in Cherokee Village, Arkansas. Originally from Wisconsin and Minnesota, my parents retired in Cherokee Village, Arkansas, in the 1980s. Cherokee Village is a retirement community in north central Arkansas that is primarily occupied by retired Yankees. It was developed back in the 1950’s when it was determined that Yankees had a propensity to drift south after they retired and there was a need to confine them to a single area so they wouldn’t contaminate the local way of life. I wrote a newspaper column about Cherokee Village in 2002, titled "The Senile Seven". It was awarded first place by the Arkansas Press Association in 2003, for humor columns written the previous year in medium-sized newspapers (about 40 of them). I was subsequently awarded first place in 2006, 2007, and second place in 2004 in the same humor category, as well as winning awards in other categories. The Senile Seven was my first newspaper award. I was very pleased with the honor. But then again, in Arkansas you also win awards for spitting, both accuracy and distance. __________________________ THE SENILE SEVEN Within Cherokee Village is a select group of old coots who call themselves the Senile Seven. There are two requirements to be chosen for membership into this private club. First, you must be senile. In other words, you must exhibit a loss of mental faculty characteristic with old age. If your mind has degenerated to the point where you can’t spell “senile” or know what it means, you’re probably qualified to join the group. The second requirement is that you must be able to count all the way to seven. That way when one of the members passes away, the others will know that one of them is missing. Initially, they were only six of them, known as the Senile Six, but one of the members kept getting “six” confused with “sex” -- which was even more confusing for the other members who mostly forgot, or never knew, anything about sex in the first place. So they had to search Cherokee Village for another senile old coot, a fairly simple task, to bring the count up to seven. Al, Don, Floyd, Harlan, Jack, Jim, and Wes are the current seven members. They only use first names because that’s about all they can remember from day to day about each other. Wayne and Bill are substitutes. Apparently, they’re not quite senile enough yet to join the club but are well on the way. The Senile Seven is not to be confused with the Magnificent Seven who were seven fictitious characters in a western movie that were quick on the draw, had good posture and most of their original teeth. The Senile Seven do everything in slow motion, slump a lot and have about a dozen good teeth between them. Many retired Cherokee Villagers spend their free time involved in community beautification, such as clearing litter off the roadways and planting flowers in cul-de-sac islands. Apparently they don’t want to be reminded that they live in Arkansas. Others stay active by helping the elderly, caring for stray animals, doing various volunteer tasks and becoming involved in local government affairs. The Senile Seven also does a great deal of good for the community. They play cards. In fact they play cards every day for hours and hours without ever moving, except for an occasional squirm in a chair or a quick run to the restroom. By remaining indoors at all times, these old codgers are not out in their vehicles terrorizing other drivers trying to remember where they are going and wondering why the clutch pedal is missing. They’re very considerate when it comes to turn signals though. They’ll put the left turn signal on when they leave the driveway, knowing that somewhere down the line they’re apt to make a left and will have one less thing to worry about. My father is a member of the Senile Seven. The rest of the family couldn’t be more proud. As I understand it, he’s the only one who always shows up at the card games with matching socks. Naturally, that’s because all 51 of his socks match. Slightly younger than most of the others, my father didn’t get the opportunity to vote for Chester A. Arthur and wasn’t actually in the Spanish American War. He was born shortly after the end of the war to end all wars, now commonly referred to as World War One. Somewhere down the line, it was discovered that world wars were good for the economy and quite profitable for certain sectors, so they decided to start numbering them and get another one going. In high school, my father learned many useful things, such as the dangers of the dangling participle, the inner workings of the steam engine, and that the earth wasn’t really flat after all. My father has a bit of a problem remembering much of his past. He thinks the Great Depression started the day I was born. I can’t imagine why. Basically, we never grow old. We mature in one sense and remain childish in another. The past and future dictates our present, and our state of mind manifests our being. We are what we are because of what we have been and what is yet to come, and what we choose to do about it. Age only matters if you're a bottle of wine or a block of cheese. ___________ Quote for the Day – "The hardest years in life are those between 10 and 70." Helen Hayes ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books -- my father (Wes) passed on to the Great Beyond at age 92 in December of 2011 and my mother joined him at age 97 in June of 2015 -- Wonderful memories of my parents -- Rest in Peace. ___________ - -

Creatures of the Id

If our subconscious thoughts were pleasant, we wouldn't have to bury them so deep. The "id" is one of three categories of the human psyche. Completely unconscious, it is the source of psychic energy derived from instinctual desires -- the subconscious mind. The other two categories are ego (consciousness, perception of reality) and super-ego (sense of morality, guilt). According to Sigmund Freud, the id is "the dark, inaccessible part of our personality.... striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle." In other words, the id is lurking deep within us, remaining hidden from our conscious thoughts, driven by primal instincts. Actor Leslie Nielsen died on November 28 2010, at age 84. He had appeared in over 100 movies. Known primarily for his comedic roles in movies such as AIRPLANE and NAKED GUN, he was featured in the 1956 MGM classic science fiction movie THE FORBIDDEN PLANET as the commander of a spaceship on a rescue mission, only his second film. The plot and characters of THE FORBIDDEN PLANET were inspired by William Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST. The thrust of the story-line includes a "plastic educator" device which advances one's intelligence. However, it also has the capacity to create "Monsters of the Id" -- manifesting malevolent beings that kill the subjects of the subconscious anger of the person utilizing the device. Thus, the monsters are an extension of the id of the person unknowingly creating them. Sometimes, so-called reality is stranger than fiction. In October of 1943, the U.S. Navy conducted a Top Secret exercise in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard that attempted to render a vessel (the USS Eldridge) invisible to radar detection. Part of the experiment also dealt with investigating possible military applications of rotating magnetic fields applied to humans, as a potential psychological warfare tool. It was part of an operation called "Project Rainbow," later dubbed the Philadelphia Experiment. The results were unfavorable to catastrophic, depending upon which version you read. According to various sources, researchers from the Philadelphia Experiment met in 1952-53 whereupon they obtained approval and funding from the U.S. Department of Defense to develop a weapon that would induce symptoms of psychotic disorders and schizophrenia. It was called the "Phoenix Project" and initially began operations at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York. For several reasons, it was soon moved to a nearby decommissioned U.S. Air Force Base at Montauk, New York. By 1967-68, all the equipment and operations had been moved underground beneath the former Air Force base. In 1969, the surface area became a wildlife refuge, while everything underground was designated a "D1 Base" and property of the U.S. Air Force. Many experiments were conducted as part of the Montauk Project. These supposedly included time travel and contact with intelligent beings beyond Earth. In 1983, one of the resident psychics (Duncan Cameron) sat in the "Montauk Chair" and visualized a monster. The monster then materialized and went on a rampage. Described as 25 feet tall, the monster developed a mind of its own and began destroying everything in its path. It was a real-life creation of a "Monster of the Id" and it apparently got everyone's attention in a hurry. Scientists hacked away at equipment with axes until the power finally went down. The Monster then dematerialized and the project was soon abandoned. Beware of what you visualize -- it may come storming angrily out of your id into reality and scare your cat. I have a friend in California who had a very serious Near Death Experience (NDE) in 2002. Ever since, she has experienced elevated psychic abilities, plus a much wider visual and auditory sensory range than before. Everything we see is made up of a vast array of frequencies (vibrations). Human senses are based on frequencies. The frequency range of human sight and hearing is exceedingly small compared to what exists all around us. My friend's sensory frequency ranges have expanded. She now has the ability to see "entities" drifting into and out of and nearby other people. She continually sees them around us in our daily lives. Perhaps these are Creatures of the Id, being formed in a nearby dimension (frequency). My friend senses they are with us always, yet out of our sensory range of frequencies. Some are malevolent -- perhaps Monsters of the Id. Others are angelic -- perhaps spirit guides. And many seem to be benign -- perhaps observant watchers. Everything we perceive in our material world is made up of atoms -- electrons orbiting a nucleus of protons. It's an assembly of energy, not solid matter. And it's more than 99 percent empty space. Basically, everything we perceive as solid is merely a glob of energy. We are not objects, we are perceivers of objects. In fact, there are those who believe the entire universe is manifested by a collective consciousness. Creatures of the Id are almost certainly globs of energy as well, surfacing when compelled by another frequency (the host) or whatever. Delving into the mysteries of the universe and beyond is not for the timid. I don't know all the answers, but I do have a lot of the questions. In the movie AIRPLANE, when told, "Surely, you can't be serious." -- Leslie Nielsen uttered the famous line, "I am serious, and don't call me Shirley." R.I.P. Leslie Nielsen -- Shirley, you will be missed. ___________ Quote for the Day -- "Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives." Robert Collier ___________ Bret Burquest is the author of 12 books. He lives in the Ozark Mountains with a few dogs and where monsters of the Id fear to tread. ___________ - -