We the iSheeple

June 2013
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We the iSheeple

04 June 2013

George Rebane

The RR category ‘We the Sheeple’ has been renamed ‘We the iSheeple’ in order to keep up with the times that require starting certain words with the lower case ‘i’. Except for some outrageous ideas wrangled in these pages, RR has been pretty staid in its approach to format and matters of eye candy. During the life of this commentary there has been a steady rise in the number of media reports that acknowledge, nay, confirm that we live in a land of the ill-informed, insouciant, inane, ignorant, insane, and idiotic – hence the real reason for adorning Sheeple with an i, for it gives meaning and therefore belongs there.

For the few that may care, the i that metaphorically broke this camel’s back was a couple of insane non-sequitors in the 3jun13 Union. It seems that a band of idiots gathered recently to deny elephant rides to children attending this year’s upcoming Nevada County Fair. These same people are the local representatives of known regional and national organizations that concern themselves with such things as ethical treatment of animals and children’s safety, and other matters that in their daily round iSheeple are not capable of handling themselves.

And then we come to a local moving & storage company that now has to get rid of its perfectly good trucks and replace them with new ones prescribed by CARB, the enforcer of our state’s mega-albatross job killer AB32. To the tune of $1.3M they will comply with this certifiably insane legislation and accede to the mandated purchase of fourteen new vehicles that purportedly will sport cleaner engines. The result of the costly exercise will have absolutely no measurable effect on any clean air metric you care to dredge up, let alone any effect on providing a better quality of life to earth’s inhabitants.

Of course I could go on, and perusing my past posts shows that I have done so in abundance. More than ever, and with each passing day it is beyond any lingering reasonable doubt that we have become a nation of iSheeple – the ill-informed, insouciant, inane, ignorant, insane, and idiotic.

Posted in Agenda 21, California, Critical Thinking & Numeracy, Nevada County, We the iSheeple

164 responses to “We the iSheeple”

Ben Emery

11 June 2013

Well George get ready to go around the barn once again.
The industrial revolution created a form of violence through capitalism it cannot even be measured. Remember the term “Industrialists”?
Power through force to gain control over resources. We have gone through this before, labor and resources is what creates wealth. What the disgusting industrialists such as the Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Melon, and Gould families and so on have done is create an entire economic system based on violence. The battles were for strategic positioning of influence and against a fair proportionate distribution of the wealth created.
One of my favorite quotes
“I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half”
Jay Gould

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Ben Emery

11 June 2013

Bill,
You have lost sight of what the original protest was about. They were going to demolish a public park to put in another mall. It has escalated due to the governments response.

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Bill Tozer

11 June 2013

Yeah, and the original protest that sparked the Arab Spring was a Tunisian vender that had his cart confiscated for not having the proper permits. And boy did it escalate due to government response. Just like being back home.

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Ben Emery

11 June 2013

Bill,
That is correct. So who is our government representing? The average person or the very wealthy and big corporations? When the people stand up against those in power, don’t kid yourself those pulling the strings are not our elected officials, we get a way out of proportion response that hammer down on the upstarts.
A very good 40 minute video on democracy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rokTiJfL4WY
Some quotes from the opening segment.
“Throughout the history of the world the rich and the power have controlled it and very few people have had any control of their governments”
“The basis of democracy is the belief we were all born equal and that equality must be accepted by those in power”
“”It’s use it or you lose it”
“There is never a final victory in democracy, it is always a struggle in every generation and you have to take up the cause time and time and time again”
“Those rights can only be won collectively”
“In the attempts to win those rights many of the people have been imprisoned and tortured by those who have power and are determined to retain it”

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Paul Emery

11 June 2013

Ben
What’s happening in Turkey is much like Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland. The British came out guns blazing at a peaceful Civil Rights protest and radicalized the movement leading to 20 years of conflict.

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Bill Tozer

11 June 2013

Ben, you may be preaching to the choir here, but we all must remember that we have a representative democracy to put it in general terms….And to the Republic for which it stands.
Where you and I differ the MOST and is an continuing thread of our disagreement is plain ole human nature. I believe every kid, every teenager, every adult lies. We lie on a daily basis. Lying is just one part of the condition of the human race. Me thinks you seen mankind as inherently good, while I seen mankind that may have started off life as babes being neutral, but quickly developed a propensity to do bad things as a toddler, despite their good natures. Yes, even a toddler has an inherent sense of fairness and selfishness. “Its not fair” is the sandbox cry when the little human is enacting with his peers. Also, “Can I play with that?” is also heard from the playground with the chances being greater than 50/50 of the answer, “No! It’s mine”
So, what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? Just because you are a caring person (deeply caring) with a strong sense of fairness and defending the weak and defenseless, it don’t mean a hill of beans in the long run. Yes, you can sleep well at night, but I look how the “road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Look at the former USSR. I played host to a “homeless” woman with child when she fled the good ole USSR. She was a professor at the University of Moscow teaching both English and Art History. She made the equivalent of bucks a month and lived in a one room apartment with her son, brother, and both parents. She paid no rent and the place was inadequately heated. Meanwhile, the political bosses drove Mercedes with chauffeurs while people like her had to wait 6 months for a water pump for her old Russian peoples’ car.. Fair? No. Practice what they preach? Never.
When I was a collegiate freshman, my little private college had famous folk paid to hang out. Alan Watts, Bucky Fuller, etc. Of course we had the current Gurus that preached poverty and a simple life. They charged huge speaking fees and drove new Jaguars and had fine abodes. Poverty was for the masses, not them. Human nature. The Golden Rule perverted: those that have the gold makes the rules. Always has been, always will. Nothing you can ever accomplish will change that as long as we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
BTW, Turkish protests have expanded to the worse violence in 2 weeks. Cops fire tear gas and water cannons at the demonstrators, who in turn throw back maltof cocktails and bricks. Who is overreacting now? And, of course, the people are not protesting some mall. Nope, they are protesting the President in Istanbul for becoming more authorization for trying to impose his version of Islamic Law. Its Springtime and the sap is a’runnin.

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Ben Emery

11 June 2013

Bill,
I do think people inherently want to be good but circumstances that can be minimized put them in no win situations. Those circumstances are what I believe our democratic republic should be focusing on instead of putting band aids on as if it were major reform to rectify the situation. The problem lies with whose interests our representatives loyal too in our “grand republic”. The further down this road of government to the highest bidder we go the less representation the bottom 98% of Americans receive. There is nothing with someone become wealthy but there is something very wrong with someone becoming very wealthy due to a rigged system that exploits others. Is it fair not in the slightest sense but it is our duty as citizens of the greatest developed nation in history to try and achieve it.
You are very correct on the example of the Russian professor. It still continues to this day. My brother who lives in South East Asia experiences it daily. Living/ working in the rural villages where people literally have just enough to live if they are lucky get to see government officials driving $70,000 cars to an opening of a dam nobody wanted.

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Ben Emery

11 June 2013

Paul,
Or what happened with the very small % of Muslims called radical Islam when the US when nuts after 9/11 and made Osama bin Laden a prophet. Cheney/ Bush administration was filled with weak human beings. Since the US bs “war on terror” started we are trillions in the whole, our civil liberties shredded, due process out the window, humanity as a nation dwindled, and our credibility as a nation is virtually zero. All that along with the incidences of “terror” around the globe has exploded since 2001. For the record I believe the US is the leader in promotion terror around the planet. The more we do to keep ourselves safe the more we are doing to piss people off to the point of them wanting to attack the nation. Generally international people have no problem with the people of the US other than we allow our government to do these horrific atrocities to innocent people. It is our government the reckless us of our military they oppose and despise.

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Paul Emery

11 June 2013

Ben
For the reasons you describe Osama succeeded beyond his wildest expectations in damaging the heart and soul of our country.

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Steven Frisch

12 June 2013

Posted by: Gregory | 11 June 2013 at 06:37 AM
Yeah, Greg I would not expect you to review documents, read source material, and actually come up with an independent appraisal of an organizations planning and development proposals for the region, when a 20 second uninformed cheap shot is available.
For the edification of readers here, there are many Sierra businesses that have reviewed and been involved in the development of the above referenced documents, and who know that a development pattern that takes into account the multiple needs of the community and long range economic development objectives is good for business.
That is really why this whole A 21 thing is absolute nonsense: there may be strategies that are similar between A21 and local communities, but just because they are similar does not mean they are connected. The entire A21 approach is a logical fallacy, and the conspiracy is the linking of these two unrelated things together to sow fear, suspicion, and discontent to gain political advantage.

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Ryan Mount

12 June 2013

but just because they are similar does not mean they are connected
Correlation does not equal causation, as they say. but it makes for a fun discussion over a drink and in a blog.
Steven-
Do you have it anywhere in your charter, meeting notes, mission statements that you are following the tenants of Agenda 21? Are you, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party? 😉

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Gregory

12 June 2013

Ryan… it’s “tenets”, not “tenents”, and your reductio ad ridiculum is as inappropriate and fallacious as Frisch’s.
When the herd is moving in concert, it’s hard to say whether the elements with a plan are driving it or just going along for the ride.

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Ryan Mount

12 June 2013

Greg, I’m not talking to you.
I have no idea why you are attacking Steve. It makes no sense other than some childish pathology such as, you’re jealous you didn’t think about it first, but I’ll hide under the cloak of self-righteousness.
You’re free to read his 990s. There’s nothing suspicious there.

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Ben Emery

12 June 2013

Watch out Ryan, you might be the focus of one of Greg’s embarrassing episodes where he loses it for a couple days attacking everything you have ever said or done. He is stuck with the mentality and emotional control of a prepubescent 13 year old boy.

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