On Reaching 1100

1100, to yours truly, is a large number, particularly when it comes to articles written for BRT. It astounds me to no end that this blog contains this much material, hopefully most of which is relevant and has value. One can only hope.

The 1000th article, titled 1000 & Counting,  was reached on Jan 10, 2013 with emphasis given to quality of thought and the importance of Homer, the blind poet who started it all for aspiring writers willing to expose their thoughts to the public in a form able to be understood by anyone who had the skill set to do so. With this in mind, what has transpired in the 8 short months BRT went from article 1000 to post 1100?

• For starters, Orwell lives. Black white, double think and newspeak reign supreme in the land of the free as seen by the treatment of whistle blowers being equated to traitors, thanks to Obama and Holder, even though the definition of espionage cannot be applied to what Snowden, Ellsberg and Manning did in showing us how the government systematically lied to us in areas of policy that impacts us all. 
• Global Warming, a reality accepted by all, save for flat earthers,  grows ever more ominous as we continue to burn fossil fuels at ever increasing rates even though nations like Germany move ahead of us in terms of leveraging renewables to keep their nation running. 
• Financialization, or the art of printing and manipulating money to feed the stock market, has replaced innovation as the "new" way to achieve financial success, a process equivalent to the game of musical chairs, where money, back by nothing and created from nothing, moves about at ever increasing speeds to temporarily satisfy immediate needs with the vain hope the music never stops though it inevitably will due to the ever increaseing cost of energy, the engine that kept the party going until now.
• Surveillance 24/7, something techies like myself have suspected all along, has been verified to be real at levels approaching disbelief, something most disquieting as surveillance is the first step to the creation of a police state, a condition this country is rapidly moving toward as seen by the militarization of the police, the increased control of the press via government wiretaps, the unprecedented concentration of power by the banks and corporations over government and the unprecedented attacks on whistle blowers of all types. 
• States like PA are decreasing education budgets while building new prisons because prison building is a for profit system requiring ever larger prison populations in order for it to thrive, something that will definitely occur as the populace in question becomes less educated and must resort to crime in order to survive in a society increasingly driven by science and technology.
• Drug policy stupidity regarding the delayed legalization of pot continues on even though the so called drug war is our personal Vietnam and we've lost but the DEA and other law enforcement entities march on because that's where the money is and don't you forget it. On the local side, police want pot legalized in order to go after real criminals, not those charged with a victimless crime by getting toasted on a plant man has smoked for over 10,000 years.
• The art of stupidity and inefficiency of governance continues unabated with politicos spouting off policy initiatives that boggle the mind in terms of just how out of touch they and the powers at be are in terms of what is truly happening in America and to the world as a whole. The disparity of wealth is the greatest it's ever been and where the inequity stops, no one knows. Pensions are going the way of the dodo and banksters move ever closer to getting our social security as this is the only remnant of wealth America has left.
• Healthcare, don't even go there as the cost of getting anything of significance done, costs more in this county then in any other nation in the world. Obamacare is but a weak start to a system needing a reset and then some.
• Science & technology continue to advance in spite of attacks by religious fanatics of all stripes. Quantum computing, artificial photosynthesis and the ability to manipulate stem cells to create organs in the near future to save lives are examples of research that could transform society in ways unimagined just a few years ago.
• The demand for excellence is never stated in this country because learning something new is difficult, requiring sacrifice in order to become good. Intellectual prowess is also frowned upon because not everyone is smart, something not acceptable in this age of bloviators even though society itself needs people with brains to get the job done due to the inherent complexities of an environment dependent on science and tech in order to function.
• People are now demanding to know what foods are GMO and what are not because the environment and our health may depend on it. Needless to say, Monsanto and significant others are not happy about this. This also applies to water and the right to having unfettered access to it, something Nestle wants to, in effect, eliminate as it continues to buy up water rights in places all over the world in order to control access and generate enormous profits to the one essential element on which all life on this planet depends.
• Fracking and the XL pipeline are also being questioned. PA wants a moratorium on fracking to ascertain heath risks while opposition to Keystone is increasing at exponential rates given just how dirty and polluting the tar sands product truly is. 
• Loser pays, the cessation of gerrymandering, the right to referendum and enactment of Amendment 28 are not happening, initiatives that need to happen if we are to take back control of this country.
• People are beginning to wake up and demand change. The question to ask is, can we make it happen before it's too late. As per many posts in BRT, the clock is ticking and we are running out of time.

The image above is the Earth, Moon and Sun as seen from Cassini as I feel it's important to get a true sense of perspective as to where we really stand in this part of a vast, unknowable reality in which we inhabit, something we really need to think about if we want to succeed as a viable species on a tiny speck of real estate that, as Carl Sagan once said, "we call Home".