Derelict Pentecostal Preachers

Derelict Pentecostal Preachers

Those of you who know me, know that I love a good laugh.  I am the last person to judge harshly anyone, because I know that the more mistakes we make the higher the probability of us getting the right answer.

However, this subject is so hilarious, that I have to both laugh and make fun of these clowns.  So, what is this all about?  Well, read on.

There is this equation that we Ex-Pentecostals bring up all the time:

The Self-Righteousness of a Pentecostal preacher is directly proportional to the number of skeletons he has in his closet.

I am laughing out loud as I write this.  I know of at least ten pentecostal preachers who are with their second or third wife, and are raising kids from their present wife - another man’s kids.  So, they are raising another man’s kids and spreading another man’s sperm for the next generation.  How much of a chump!  And, to make things even more hilarious, their present wives are refusing to have children for them!  So even their wives see them as chumps who are not even worth breeding with - they see them as a paycheck only with the occasional resentful act of sex perhaps once per month or every two months. What a bunch of chumps!  

How can a so-called “Man” have any authority as a Man when he is his wife’s number 3 (only counting marriages!) and she does not even breed with him???!!!  My friends, these are the so-called leaders of Pentecostal churches.  These are the pathetic derelicts who are “leaders” of these organizations.  

I just spilled my coffee writing this stuff!  I mean, you cannot make this stuff up, it is so hilarious and pathetic!

So, what are you to do when another self-righteous Pentecostal preacher talks about holiness and not smoking, drinking, etc, and other minor vices?  Well, see if they broke the Ten Commandments of “Thou shalt not commit adultery!”  Remember smoking, drinking, and cursing are not violations of the Ten Commandments!  

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So, you screwed up in the past right?  A few divorces, a few kids scattered about the country - we all get it.  No problem!  But, you cannot be a Holy Man.  Period.  So shut your trap and find another line of business, but you are not a preacher and you never were one, and stop pretending - NOW!  Or else…a power that is ten times as strong as you will arise from the ashes and unleash the Furies of Hell upon your head.

Subliminal Communications

Subliminal Communications

Richard Nongard, an expert therapist who specializes in hypnotherapy - usually to help people break harmful habits such as smoking - explains that hypnosis is simply a relaxed state of mind akin to meditation.  The brain frequencies are a little higher than sleep, but much lower than for something like driving your car in heavy traffic, where the frequencies are much higher given the focus needed to stay alive!

I have been studying body language for about 2 years in the field now in both sales and with social experimentation.  The magisterial source on body language is What Every Body is Saying by Joe Navarro.  After some experimentation and understanding of the animal brain (or lizard brain, or amygdala), I made a diagram that explains what is going on.  

Our conscious minds communicate mostly with words and simple gestures.  However, the Lizard Brain communicates also, but it operates below the level of the conscious mind.  Once you study and practice the subject of Body Language from experts like Navarro, you can read what the Lizard Brain is thinking and communicating.  Have you ever spoken with someone and felt a sense that something was wrong, but you could not explain it?  Have you fallen into a feeling of closeness with someone but you had not known them before and you cannot explain what happened?  Well, it is all very simple!  You Lizard Brain is the answer to these questions!

Our animal or Lizard Brains are prehistoric and ancient.  It developed way before the neocortex where consciousness and language reside.  The animal brain is exactly that - it operates on an instinctual animal level, and we cannot directly control it.  Nobody except psychopaths can control their body language.  Nobody cannot not communicate!  Read that previous sentence again…  When speaking with someone, our Lizard Brains are sending and receiving messages on an unconscious level.  It instantly reads body language, and it instantly communicates at all times with all the Lizard Brains in the same room.  You have to understand this point to really get this.  (1) The Lizard Brain cannot not communicate, and (2) The Lizard Brain is instantly and always communicating with all other Lizard Brains it is in contact with in the same space.  

So, it sends and receives signals of body language, sight, smell, touch, taste, etc at all times.  How does this happen?  I created a diagram to illustrate my findings of this phenomenon from my personal perspective.  Look at my diagram below:

How do we use this information if the Lizard Brain cannot be directly controlled?  Good question.  The answer: we can indirectly control the Lizard Brain.  We can change our body language through the techniques used in Method Acting.  With the use of our visualization and imagination, we can fool the Lizard Brain to react in any way we choose - if we have the skills to imagine that we are really in a particular situation.

For example, if you want to imagine yourself as powerful and care free, imagine that you are driving a Ferrari, with a pile of money on the back seat in wrapped rubber bands containing one million dollars in cash.  Imagine you are driving 80 miles per hour and the wind is blowing in your hair and you are thinking about this cash in your back seat.  Feel and imagine.  Guess what?  Your Lizard Brain will emit the body language of a care free millionaire enjoying a fine ride in a fine car!  And then what?  All the other Lizard Brains around you will sense this and respond appropriately.

It is that simple.  There is a lot more to this, but this should give you a rough sketch.  Have fun!

Joe Istre

Science as Divine Revelation

The last few nights I have been re-watching the Jeffrey L. Kasser lectures on the Philosophy of Science.  These lectures could be the foundation of a new type of learning if people recognize its importance.  The conclusion of this series of lectures is that we have no good way of defining science; neither do we have any good way of defining anything as un-scientific, or even pseudo-science.  Point by point Kasser dissects every attempt through the ages to define science, and we come up empty.  The biggest bogey is Astrology.  Can we reject Astrology as pseudo-science?  It is not clear how to do this.   Can we say that it cannot make accurate predictions?  No, because medical science often cannot make accurate predictions, and neither can climate models.  Some times the predictions are inaccurate.  In fact, often, in some cases, the predictions are wrong, as in Psychology.  Can we deny the scientific status of medical science, climatologists, and Psychologists?  No, but using this methodology, neither can we deny Astrology.  Another proposal is that science always makes progress, and we can call Astrology pseudo-science because it has not made any progress in centuries.  On the contrary, chemistry has not made any significant progress in over 100 years, but it is a solid, indisputable science - without question.  Another argument is that science always has repeatable results.  Many hard core experimenters fall into this trap.  However, this is false.  Again, medical science is not always repeatable, and neither is climate science, or Psychology.  Our cures for cancer in many cases have no clear repeatable results.  Nobody can predict hurricanes.

We can go on and on forever, finding criteria for defining science versus pseudo-science, but in all cases, the criteria are failures.  The criteria become too strong for some cases, and too weak for other cases.  

Another interesting subject within the sciences is the establishment of Causation.  Typically, we collect data in numerical form about one thing, and compare it to the data for another thing.  How do we say one thing causes another thing?  The strange answer: there is no method to establish causation.  We all establish cause by saying, “I know it when I see it.”  When I was in college studying circuits and signals, one method used to establish practical causation was superposition.  When I changed the input and had a proportional change in the output, I can infer that the input causes that particular output.  However, this is a pragmatic rule of thumb in engineering, and not a scientific principle that establishes that something caused another thing.  

So, if we have a few rules of thumb in both science and engineering used to establish things as true, can we claim Scientific Privilege?  Science is supposed to be special.  We have solid rules of thumb in construction, and within the trades to establish methods to accomplish things and determine facts.  Is science just another trade like plumbing and welding?  Well, the more we look into what goes on within science, the more it appears that it is no different in principle from welding and building construction.  

There is a lot of support for the idea that pragmatic men working on problems in business or in the trades discover principles that are later integrated into science.  Issac Newton, the greatest genius of the ages, took the practical work of Kepler and others and integrated this into a whole in the most magnificent scientific theory of the ages: Newton's Laws of Motion.  Einstein did the same thing when he investigated the data from previous decades, and made the magnificent observation that everyone misinterpreted the data because they assumed that physical objects and time were constant instead of assuming that light was constant and everything else changed.

Many advances in science appear to be accidents that a genius recognized, synthesized, and then introduced to the world.  

True advances in science have nothing to do with methods.  They use the same methods plumbers and construction workers use.  What makes science magic is the geniuses that have vision, and receive a revelation from God, and then it all comes together in an instant at one point in time - as all revelations do.  Teasing out a revelation is what takes time and effort - writing the book, etc.  But, science, at root, is Divine Revelation.

Aristotle’s Great Souled Man

Aristotle’s Great Souled Man

I make notes here on Aristotle’s description of the Great Souled Man.

All of the sources for this post come from Roger Crisp and his article “Aristotle on Greatness of Soul,” which can be found here.  Source text is in blue italics.  

 (1) Risk and danger  (IV.3.1124b6–9):

The great-souled person, because he does not value anything highly, does not enjoy danger. He will avoid trivial dangers, but will face great ones, and, again because of his attitude to goods, will be unsparing even of his own life.

The Magnanimous Man faces great dangers.  Trivial dangers are below him.  He even faces deadly dangers.

 (2) Giving and receiving benefits  (IV.3.1124b9–18):

The great-souled person is inclined to help others readily, but he is ashamed to be a beneficiary, since it is a sign of inferiority. If he is benefited, he will repay with interest, to ensure that his benefactor becomes a beneficiary. He will remember with pleasure benefits he has conferred, but will forget those he has received and feel pain on being reminded of them.

The Magnanimous Man tends to be prepared to help others.  Getting help shames him, since this signals inferiority in reference to the benefactor, so he will repay the debt with interest.  Memories of giving bring him pleasure, but he will forget received gifts because the memory will bring him pain.

 (3) Attitude to others  (IV.3.1124b18–23):

The great-souled person will be proud [megas] in his behavior toward people of distinction, but unassuming toward others. For superiority over the former is difficult and impressive, while over the latter it is easy and vulgar.

He carries himself with pride and honor among honorable men, but becomes unassuming when among common people.  Effort is required to carry himself among the honorable - a worthy task, but impressing the common people is easy, and thus, not a worthy task.

 (4) Level of activity  (IV.3.1124b23–6):

The great-souled person avoids things usually honored, and activities in which others excel. He is slow to act except where there is great honor at stake, and he is inclined to perform only a few actions, though great and renowned ones.

He preserves his effort for only those things involving great honor.  He avoids the usual honor of things thought of as excellent.  

 (5) Openness  (IV.3.1124b26–31):

Because the great-souled person cares little for what people think, he is open in his likes and dislikes. And because he is inclined to look down on people, he speaks and acts openly, except when using irony for the masses.

He speaks his mind about likes and dislikes among the honorable people, since he cares little for what others think.  He will tend to look down on others.  When speaking to the common man, he will speak with irony.

 (6) Independence and self-sufficiency  (IV.3.1124b31–1125a16):

The great-souled person will not depend on another, unless he is a friend, because to do so would be servile. Because nothing matters to him, he is not inclined toward admiration, resentment, gossip, praise of others, or complaining. His possessions are noble rather than useful, because this is consistent with self-sufficiency. Again because nothing matters to him, he will not be rushed: His movements are slow, his voice is deep, and his speech is measured.

He does not depend on others, which would make him a servant.  He only depends on friends.  He does not much admire or complain.  The things he has are symbolic, and not necessarily useful.  He is not in a hurry.  He moves slowly.  He has a deep voice, and he speaks with efficiency.

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Commentary

This description seems like a fragment.  I am not sure how many ancient texts survived these two millennia, but this feels like a sketch or a draft.  Aristotle, in his greatness, must have written much more on this subject.  Some believe that we have only one-third of his original works.  

Depth of feeling is not one of the traits.  Today, after the Romantic Era from 1820 to 1900, we have a tradition of honoring deep feeling.  Perhaps the ancients thought that this was self-indulgent.

Spirituality is not apparent here.  A man of rituals, with meditation and contemplation, seems not to be one of this type.  Can a great priest be a Great Souled man?  It is perhaps not conceivable with this description.  

Figures that come to mind with this description are Frederick the Great, Napoleon, George Washington, Wellington, Arnold Schwarzenegger (no joke, I read his biography several times), George Patton, Louis XIV, among others.  Jacques Barzun may also be a candidate.

These people tend not to be likable, except to their friends, with the exception of Schwarzenegger, which may turn many off, although he is definitely a Great Man, with no exaggeration on my part.

So, is Aristotle describing a great general?  A soldier?  He is definitely not describing a priest.  For every society, the two leaders that emerge are Priest and Warrior.  This description fits more closely to the warrior type.  

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Freddy Martini

Notes on The French Attack

The Symbolism

Again, whomever did this made the dates symbolic.  World War I ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month: November 11, 1918.  The attacks took place just after Veterans Day - two days after, on Friday the 13th, of all dates!  We Americans shun this type of thing, but he rest of the world is plugged into insinuation and symbols more than we would like to admit.

This will be construed as a taunt, to those who know their history, also.  What was World War I for France?  It was the worst thing to happen to France because most of French men were exterminated during this war, and left them very weak for decades to come - they could not even put up a good fight in World War II because of the mass devastation of World War I twenty years earlier.

So, the leaders of this attack are apparently taunting France into another blood bath to exterminate another generation of Frenchmen.

Multicultural Complications

A strange little fact many people do not know about is that just about every famous and effective Islamic terrorist has roots, and usually spent a lot of time, in France.  Islamic Terrorism is the action of Westernized Muslims out of France.  Thomas Sowell performed tons of research on this subject in his trilogy on Conquests, Race, and Culture.

In the United States, the great multicultural group is mainly hispanics: Spanish, Indian, and Mestizo Catholics, mostly.  The United States was founded as a Protestant nation, and the Catholic Church is very strong here, so, the multicultural question in the United States is not as much of an open warfare question as much as it is in Europe.  In the US, it is mostly a case of everyone trying to get along.

In Europe, with its Catholic and Protestant cultural roots, cannot exactly assimilate a people who cannot conceive a separation between church and state, and a different religion at that.

In the United States, hispanic Catholics can become assimilated within one generation.  In France, we are told, muslims even to the third generation have not yet assimilated in to French culture.  

ISIS

As far as we can tell, this is not a terrorist organization, this is a State.  They have conquered land, and are establishing control over a territory.  These are not frustrated men blowing stuff up, but warriors and kings establishing real power on earth.

France is a secular nation, and will probably have to go to war - in some form  - against this ISIS State.  The only problem is the Faith of the French.  In any war or battle, it is not the men with the biggest guns that win in the long term, but those who have the most Certainty in their Cause.  The Cause does not matter.  It only matters what the nation believes.  Whomever is more Certain will win the war.

The United States was driven out of Iraq after we stayed there for over a decade and overthrew the government and executed their King.  Our enemies had more Certainty and Faith than we did, and we were defeated.  The same thing will happen to France unless they have something we Americans do not have: Absolute Certainty in the Cause - more so than your enemy.

The history of France suggests that they are up for very bloody fights to the death.  The question is do they believe in themselves more than ISIS (or whomever in the hell actually blew up Paris yesterday).

American Military Anecdotes

Anecdotal evidence suggests that in the last five years, the American military has gone through a transformation of morale to the point where we can no longer fight any serious wars.  We could not defeat the forces within Iraq even after trillions were spent.  So, in some estimates, it is doubtful that the US would have the will for a supporting bloody war in support of France - which we are militarily obligated to do as a member of NATO.

Final Thoughts

We are all instinctively in support of France at this moment.  We want to wield the sword and defend the Land of Louis XIV and Napoleon.  But, after time goes by, we will lose our Certainty as we did after the War or Terror, and lose Faith in the Cause.  I hope I am wrong.

We spent trillions thus far, and the heart of the West - Paris - was attacked openly and brazenly.  So, what did we accomplish with the War on Terror beginning in 2001?  Almost nothing.  Paris is the West, and the West is Paris.  When Paris falls, the West falls, and we no longer exist.

Is this the End of the West as we know it?

Let us pray that the French have something we do not have, and are absolutely Certain about it.

Priorities

Priorities

Success minded people at the beginning of their day have some idea of what they want to accomplish.  Those who have been at their craft for many years may be able to keep a list in the mind.  Many of us begin the day with a written list.  For some reason the ritual of making the list imprints it upon the day and the focus is sharper than otherwise.

Stephen Covey

Covey wrote the classic work on effectiveness with his Opus, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.”  The book has no peers.  I will summarize the habits below, from memory:

• Be Proactive - No excuses, you are fully responsible for your life
• Begin with the End in Mind - Create the vision before executing
• First Things First - Important things are never subordinated to unimportant things
• Seek first to Understand then to be Understood - This sequence is important for Influence
• Think Win-Win - Think long term when making deals.
• Synergize - If you can get the group into a creative zone, with ideas flowing, you understand this.
• Sharpen the Saw - take care of you Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit or you will pay the price of neglect.

Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss in his book, “The 4 Hour Workweek,” explains the 80-20 rule of a priority list.  What are the 2 things I need to do today that will give me the greatest output in accomplishing my goals?  No more than 2!  In time, you may get to the higher level of effectiveness where  you only put one item on the list - this is when you know you really have yourself together!  For us mortals, no more than 2 items on the list.  

Priority Means Focus

When I began my career, I followed a training program that a Covey spinoff suggested, using a Franklin Planner.  You would list all the things you had to do for the week, and then put them on schedule for each day of the week.  Then, for each day, you would label each item on the checklist A, B and C.  A items had to be done today. B items may slip until tomorrow, but no further.  C items could be done anytime that week, or could slip to the next week.  

What is the problem here?  There is no focus.  There is a list of crap on paper.  We need to delegate and outsource everything to a point where we have no more than 2 things on our list every day as Priority.  

When you have a list of crap that you “have to do,” most people are overwhelmed and often give up and go back to the “seat of the pants” life of the moment.  This is not good.  You have to write down what you need to accomplish, and you have to do it in a way that you are not overwhelmed.  So, one or two priorities!  There is nothing wrong with a list in the background that you look at every week or so.  But, you cannot be looking at the long list every day, because you will lose focus on the Priority Item - Number one and number two.  

Maturity

Someone famous once said that the essence of maturity is making choices.  When you choose one option, you destroy the alternative.  When you spend one hour eating lunch in New York, you destroy the option of eating lunch in Miami.  Time cannot be gotten back.  

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Freddy Martini  

Mac versus Windows

Mac versus Windows

Broad Trends in Computers

For the past 10-15 years, computers have settled into categories and there is not much experimentation going on as there was in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.  After Internet became a fact of life for the masses, things became standardized and experiments are all done except at the irrelevant margins.  Nowadays, it seems like the desktop, workstation and laptop are also going away for the masses as handheld computers, i.e., smartphones, take over the market.  Dell laptops are dinosaurs, but clueless companies still hand them out.  Applications are all standardized: spreadsheets, word processors, PDF, JPEG, video, audio, etc have all been sorted out.  

Appliances and Reliability

A computer is now an appliance like a microwave oven.  Everyone knows what is expected, and it should do as expected all the time unless it needs the rare repair.  You may be laughing now if you have ever switched from lower tiered products to Apple.  And, you should laugh.  Now, think about this.

Do you ever expect your microwave oven to freeze up in the middle of warming your coffee?  Does it require a reboot when you have 30 seconds left on the timer for warming coffee?

What would you do if your refrigerator just quit working and required you to unplug it and then replug it to work again?

In either of these cases, you would have a defective product, and would be justified in asking for your money back.

Computers and Reliability

Why do we accept the low quality behavior of Windows based machines like a Dell?  You may be in the middle of a million dollar deal, and your computer can display some ridiculous pop-up with the message “An error has occurred,” and your computer will freeze.  You are left hanging.  You will have to reboot, and this will take another ten minutes.  Wasted time is the worst offense for Top Players.  When you are in the Big Leagues, you cannot waste time.

Apple Experience

I hesitated for many years getting an Apple product.  I come from software and engineering where we have lots of fun programming and tweaking, and there is some value in being “computer savvy” in many places.  But, what does this all mean, being “computer savvy”?  It means that the appliance is defective.  If you need technical help to do something, the appliance was not designed correctly.  It is a basic rule in Product Design: the design should reveal its function.  A handle tells you where your hand belongs - no need to read a manual or spend hours screwing around figuring things out.  A new product that requires more than a few minutes to figure out has a defective design.

When I switched to a Mac, the experience was amazing.  It worked like a Microwave oven - it never crashed.  Everything that happened was expected and intuitive.  Nobody should have to read an owner’s manual for a vacuum cleaner.  We have valuable time and do not want to waste time because a product designer was not doing his job correctly.  When I open my Mac, it is immediately ready - I do not have to wait even one second.

Everyone knows that Apple products cost a little more.  However, when you calculate the time lost on working with Windows systems with failures, reboots, bugs, latency, booting up, etc, in the long run, the Windows system will cost perhaps ten times more, if not fifty times more.  Effectiveness-minded people put a premium on time.  And wasted time is the most hideous loss one can have.  I mean, when was the last time you had to update the “Configuration File,” or lost a Word file due to the computer automatically rebooting due to an “Important Software Update.” When was the last time your computer just stopped working, you rebooted, and it worked again, and you have no freaking clue what just happened?

After being around since the middle of the 20th century, and after the integration of Internet to computers, and a few years after that of market sorting of standard applications, there is no excuse at this time for computers to not be an Appliance, and not a fun toy for hackers.

The Solution

When purchasing a product, you must always calculate the long term cost.  There is the price tag.  Then, there is the cost in terms of time from failures, repair, frustration, reputation, etc.  Will you purchase a chair or table from Wal-Mart?  Probably not, if you are looking for long term value.  

At this point in time, using both types of machines, I must say that Windows is for people who do not mind wasting time, while the Apple products are for people who want to get on with living life, and see computers as an appliance, and not something to be fiddled with.

Look for things that have some beauty.  Apple products are designed to be beautiful.  Windows is drab and blue.  Life is about excitement.  Being bored is the root of all evil.  Purchase things that get your heart beating faster, and lift your spirit.

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Freddy Martini