Saturday, March 26, 2016
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
My Dog Loves My Truck
My Dog Loves My Truck
Maya
is a mixed breed Poodle and Dachshund commonly referred to as a Doodle. She is
a lively and overly anxious puppy 4 years old that lives to ride in the truck I
own. She will jump with excitement and unlimited bouncing energy the moment I
pick up my keys and jingle them as I put them in my pocket to hide them from
her.
She
dances around, jumping on the bed, couch or anything else that gives her the
center of attention to have the leash clipped on her collar so she can go for
that ride. Her paws beg me to take her outside by rapidly moving them in a
groveling motion so I feel sorry for her and not leave her behind.
What
can be so exciting for Maya to want to ride in the truck. Sure, she gets her
own seat by the window and loves to see the world through the glass as I lower
it down just a bit to give her a scent of where we are going. Sight and smell
create a frizzle of emotions for this little twelve-pound puppy. It’s like a
natural high for her to ride in the truck.
Sticking
her small brown snoot through the window a little bit, she seems to enjoy the
wind more than me as I ride with the window up and AC on. I can only image that
the faster I drive, the higher her air-induced ecstasy is riding in the truck.
I can only imagine what this does to her sensory capabilities and likely
putting her in shock or overload like a mild dose of LSD would to a human.
On
the other hand, it might just feel good and nothing else. I suspect it may be
both. During long trips, I put a box in the back seat for her to sleep in. She
rarely lays still enough to use the box but it is there is she gets tired.
Since
riding in my truck has a sedating effect on her, it does calm her down
eventually. I don’t let her hang her head outside the windows, I don’t worry
about her eyes or getting her goggles. I want her to feel free and the window
is always just high enough to where she cannot reach the top of the window to
put her head outside but just enough to clear her nose.
Maya
is like a wolf in many ways; she loves to roam wide open spaces and travel as
far as her short stubby legs can take her. She likes going places, anywhere
there is something to see, smell or hear that is different from the house.
She
is indeed, quite an explorer. She knows those keys she hears jingling brings
her good times and good things. It is a pure positive experience for her to
enjoy for the rest of the day. Going somewhere is associated with a good day
for the two of us.
It also
seems this truck provides the two of us a bond that tweaks her energy, emotions
and spirit. Given a choice between a long walk or a long ride, I speculate she
might choose the truck for a long ride.
Beside
a bond, it seems to give us a strong trust factor and my guess is that every
time she rides the truck, she is in seventh heaven for dogs who love to ride
with the window down a bit to smell the outside and see the new sights.
The
only thing missing is food, during the rides, she does not want to eat; she
appears to have no taste for food when riding until we hit the drive thru and
order the hamburger she wants plain with no lettuce, pickle or ketchup on it.
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Biases and Truth - hard to tell the differences today
Journalism and the Truth
Our lives are dominated with modern technologies that gives us
information in less time than ever before. We live in the age of social media
and the truth swirls around us in rapid speeds we cannot or even begin to
understand. The transfer of information is extremely powerful and if the source
provided is not truthful, then lies are spread pretending to be the truth.
Social media has become a measurement of government approval or
disapproval. Wars are fought in the dissemination of information that justifies
the means to kill people or invade countries for reasons fabricated to suit the
needs of these aggressors. So vital is the maintenance of controlling the flow
of information, people are manipulating the truth to justify the means.
Sadly, we live on the other side of this coin dubbed truth. A greater
power has wielded the ability and opportunities to spread deliriously evil
contrived fables, myths and stories with deliberate misinformation, and their
efforts to do so are at an all-time high as they not only feed the mainstream
media outlets, but they have organized bloggers spread their ideologies around
the world in nanosecond times.
Because the delivery of such untruths are so smooth, so consistent
and deliberately formulated for mind-control, this method of spreading
information has become very dangerous.
It is the core value of the foundations involved that impact the
cognitive abilities of others by establishing falsehood and misleading facts to
ensure their arguments are valid and airtight in any cross checking process as
the system has been designed to reflect consistent parroting or digital echoing
of the information already established to be labeled truthful.
So how do we know we are being misled? How do we find out if the author
or journalist has an internal bias? The best way to find out if there is a bias
is to test the author of the writings.
Step 1: Test primary source information – every story has a
genesis of fact or fiction.
Identify
primary source information within the article. Has the primary source been
reliable in the past? Do you understand the information or does it consistently
refer to a third party (not related to the source) to back up parts of, or the
entire story itself? Challenge
the information. Keep focus on the fact the “source” is not the third party but
rather the writer or journalist of the story posted. A common distraction is
place trust on the writer or journalists, rather than the primary source the
information came from. To balance this process, identifying any third party to
confirm or back up any part of the story, or the entire version, is what makes
the article written more legitimate than without it. Run your
fact-checking sources to challenge the information. Snopes, Politifact, and
others are excellent sources for a litany of links to challenge all
information delivered or written. It must be mentioned, even using these
sources is flawed and more depth may be required to find the facts consistent
with the writings.
Steps 2: Identify the bias – every writer or journalist has a
bias.
One of the best ways to identify an article’s or journalist’s bias
it to run a crude test that consists of three (3) things:
Does the
title itself create a feeling for or against one subject of the story? Does the
writer use a lot of sarcastic indicators, such as “quotes” around unspoken
words? Does the
writer paint a positive picture of one subject, and a negative picture of
another?
Preconceived
notions commonly referred to journalist’s biases are everywhere, and learning
how to identify them will help you dodge their obvious, and sometimes not so
obvious, attempts at manipulation. Ask yourself the following questions:
Has the author written any articles for or against a subject of
the article before?
Does the author have a conflict of interest?
Does the author have an announced political bias that fits the
profile of someone who would take one side or the other on a subject?
Are there political key words, codes or red flags that may be
associated to political groups or other lobbyist or propaganda associations
that may influence the writings? Is the writer known to have written or
expressed opinions as conservative, libertarian or liberal?
When
faced with multiple theories, always choose the answer that requires the least
assumptions. If it’s different than your belief, find ways to eliminate
assumptions by proving them. Follow the way of peeling the onion and remove the
layers that hide the truth, and you’ll avoid the final manipulation trap used
to damage your credibility.
Toleration, a whole different meaning than Tolerance =
Tolerance
or Toleration – there is a difference
Our laws have progressed to take us passed color
barriers of the past, yet, many are bringing those stigmas back and using the law
to exert their bigotry, biases and racism as a form of expression that is
hateful and destructive. There are intentional efforts out there to separate us
again by color for various reasons, most of them theological, personal and
political in nature.
Using religion, we have armed ourselves with fear and
opposition to change or different cultures. We, as a nation, have become
oppressed towards anything and anyone who does not look like us, speak like us,
dress like us or pray or belief in God like us.
Thus this has contradicted our laws in many ways but
quietly reinforced by those who are filled with hate and ignorance about race
or religion and not bothering to seek the truth, but rather, follow the falseness
of others who speak lies.
We have become a nation of politically correct people
who allow the practice of passively or quietly but deliberately, allowing or
permitting acts of bigotry, prejudicial attitudes or behaviors and other things
we disapprove of and say nothing. In other words, we have developed a pathway
of toleration that is self-destructive and destructive to our society.
Under the disguise of religion, we have been taught to
endure or bear the burdens of toleration. However, these "tolerations" are skewed
to benefit the sponsors of such speech, ideas or acts.
They are not fair, objective or developed to sustain
harmony or peace, but rather to attack or criticize the opinions of others who
do not conform to their own religion or practice and therefore, lash out with
harmful and damnation of words and acts that creates a fear that those
condemned beliefs, practices or racial differences, all who are different from
their own, are harmful and must cease to exist. Some religions extend this hate
and fear to the point of genocide.
We need to examine toleration when it comes to
religion and allow various cultures and groups to engage in their own beliefs
and practices without condemnation as long as their actions do not interfere or
impede the lives of others who do not want to be exposed or taught this
different way of life or beliefs.
It is acceptable to disapprove, decline or refuse to accept
other means of religions and that should be made clear. Whether you are an
atheist or a Christian, a Jew or an Arab, the matter of religion is private and
should not be interfered with unless it is imposed forcefully or illegally.
Toleration and tolerance are two different words and
have two different meanings.
You must know the differences.
Tolerance is an attitude of mind that implies
non-judgmental acceptance of different lifestyles or beliefs, whereas toleration implies putting up with something
that one disapproves of that but that is taught, fostered, mentored or sponsored
by someone else who’s influence on your own mind, frees you for thinking for
yourself.
Unfortunately,
through the evolution or revolution of time and space, an analysis of modern
doctrines today has been expanded to include political and ethnic groups,
homosexuals and other minorities, and human rights embodies the principle of
legally enforced toleration.
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