(Gamerofall) - This a single segment of "The Ring of Power" which documents various "conspiracies" and secrets of American imperialism: banking, war, and wonder. This documentary searches for the truth behind appearances. The world we see -- the consensual reality -- is manufactured. We have long been asleep, so truths are difficult to process.
But once the entire picture is glimpsed, the mind will not allow one to believe the lies any longer. One begins to recognize what has been going on. More than the symbolism all around in movies, news stories, "myths," there is an actual "awakening" process.
Discomfiting at first, eventually one is healthier and saner and able to understand what is going on. The price of oil, the rise and fall of empires, deteriorating banks, the endless drumbeat of war...only add evidence to fill in the big picture. Investigate, inquire, question reality. The mundane truth of how the world works is at hand.
Tim Paradis (AP)
NEW YORK – Wall Street ended a tumultuous two-week run relatively quietly Friday, finishing another back-and-forth session mixed as investors were cheered by signs of easing in the credit markets and managed to absorb lackluster economic news with equanimity. But while there was less volatility than during recent sessions, analysts warned that the market still faces rough times.
The expiration of options contracts helped tug stocks in different directions. Still, the Dow Jones industrial average traded within a narrower range than it had in much of the past two weeks and ended down 127. The market's big rallies on Monday and Thursday gave all the major indexes gains of well over 3 percent for the week — but that was just a partial recovery from the devastating double-digit drops of the previous week.
"The stock market has finally realized one thing — that the governments around the world have thrown in a lot of money and they're using all the tools that they possibly can" to restore order to the credit markets, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners Inc., a New York brokerage house. "I'm sure we'll still have a strong bear grip to the market but I do believe the market was way oversold. I do believe we've made a bottom."
Why you're not Rich
Britney's Comeback Video
"There are, O householder, five desirable, pleasant, and agreeable things that are rare in the world. What are those five? They are long life, beauty, happiness, fame, and (rebirth in) a heaven. But of those five things, O householder, I do no teach that they are to be obtained by prayer or by vows. If one could obtain them by prayer or vows, who would not do it?
"For a noble disciple, O householder, who wishes to have long life, it is not befitting that one should pray for long life or take delight in so doing. One should rather follow a path of life that is conducive to longevity. By following such a path one will obtain long life, be it divine or human.
"For a noble disciple, O householder, who wishes to have beauty... happiness... fame...[or] (rebirth in) a heaven, it is not befitting that one should pray for them or take delight in so doing. One should rather follow a path of life that is conducive to beauty... happiness... fame... (rebirth in) a heaven. By following such a path one will obtain beauty, happiness, fame, and (rebirth in) a heaven."
(AN 5.43)
Riches
"Householder, there are five reasons for getting rich. What five?
"...A noble disciple with riches gotten by work and zeal, gathered by the strength of the arm, earned by the sweat of the brow, justly obtained in a lawful way, makes oneself happy, glad, and keeps that happiness; one makes parents happy, glad, and keeps them so; so likewise one's spouse and children and servants.
"...When riches are thus gotten, one makes friends and companions happy, glad, and keeps them so.
"...When riches are thus gotten, ill-luck...is warded off, and one keeps goods in safety.
"... When riches are thus gotten, one makes the five oblations to kin, guests, spirit-beings, kings, and deities.
"...When riches are thus gotten, the noble disciple institutes offerings of lofty aim, celestial, ripening in happiness, leading heavenward, for all those recluses and brahmins who abstain from pride and indolence, who bear all things in patience and humility, each mastering self, each calming self, each perfecting self.
"Now if the riches of that noble disciple, heeding these five reasons, come to destruction, let one consider: 'At least I've heeded those reasons for getting rich, but my wealth has gone!' — thus one is not upset. And if one's wealth increases, let one think: 'Truly, I've heeded those reasons and my wealth has grown!' — thus one is not upset in either case."
(AN 5.41)
The importance of the preceding discourses is further emphasized by the fact that the Buddha impressed them again on the multi-millionaire on another occasion in a slightly different form. On that occasion the Buddha said to him:
"Householder, there are these four conditions (to realize which is) desirable, dear, delightful, hard to win in the world. What four?
"(The wish:) 'Oh may wealth by lawful means come to me!'
"'Wealth being gotten by lawful means, may good report attend me along with my kin and teachers!'
"'...May I live long and reach great age!'
"'...When the body breaks up, on the other side of death, may I attain a heavenly world!'
"Now, householder, to the winning of these four conditions, four conditions conduce. What four?
"Perfection of faith, perfection of virtue, perfection of generosity, and perfection of wisdom."
(AN 4.61)
Many of the occasions when the Buddha gave instructions to the millionaire have been recorded in the Pali canon. They constitute a comprehensive code of conduct for the conscientious lay follower of the Buddha, so that a single multi-millionaire has also become a benefactor to all those in future times who are trying to follow the Teaching. These discourses, which are contained in the Numerical Discourses (Anguttara Nikaya) range from the simplest message to the most profound. A few are mentioned here, beginning with the most basic advice to the laypeople:
"Householder, possessed of four things, the noble disciple has entered on the householder's path of duty, a path which brings good repute and leads to the heavenly worlds. What are the four?
"Herein, householder, the noble disciple waits upon the Order of monastics with the offer of a robe, almsfood, lodging...and medicines for use in sickness. These are the four things."
(AN 4.60)
"Householder, there are these four kinds of bliss to be won by the householder: ...the bliss of ownership, the bliss of wealth, the bliss of debtlessness, the bliss of blamelessness.
"...A person has wealth acquired by energetic striving, amassed by strength of arm, won by sweat, lawful and lawfully gotten. At the thought: 'Wealth is mine acquired by energetic striving...,' bliss comes to one, satisfaction comes to one. This, householder, is called, 'the bliss of ownership.'
"...A person by means of wealth acquired by energetic striving...both enjoys wealth and does meritorious deeds therewith. At the thought: 'By means of wealth acquired...I both enjoy my wealth and do meritorious deeds,' bliss comes to one, satisfaction comes to one. This, householder, is called 'the bliss of wealth.'
"...A person owes no debt great or small to anyone. At the thought: 'I owe no debt, great or small, to anyone,' bliss comes to one, satisfaction comes to one. This, householder, is called 'the bliss of debtlessness.'
"...The noble disciple is blessed with blameless action of body, blameless action of speech, blameless action of mind. At the thought: 'I am blessed with blameless action of body, speech, and mind,' bliss comes to one, satisfaction comes to one. This is called 'the bliss of blamelessness.'
"Such, householder, are the four kinds of bliss to be won by the householder..."
(AN 4.62)
NYC National Debt Clock runs out of digits
NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2008 -- One year ago today, the stock market reached an all-time high (14,164). In a sign of the times, the National Debt Clock in New York City has run out of digits to record the nation's growing debt.
As a short-term fix, the digital dollar sign on the billboard-style clock near Times Square has been switched to a figure — the "1" in $10 trillion. It's marking the federal government's current debt at about $10.2 trillion. The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year by adding two digits. That will make it capable of tracking debt up to a quadrillion dollars. The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to what was then a $2.7 trillion debt.
How Much is a "Trillion"?
Wikipedia/NPR/NASA/Carpe Diem
If you spent a $1,000 a day, how long would it take you to spend a trillion dollars? The answer may surprise you: 2.7 million years. If you took a stack of hundred dollar bills, a million of them would be four feet high. A billion would be three Sears Towers high. A trillion would be 789 miles high (or 144 Mt. Everests stacked on top of each other), to say nothing about the National Debt. We get closer to a Buddhist nahuta (a staggering number) or a kalpa (a bogglingly long aeon).
Technically it is either of the two numbers (see long and short scales for more detail):
But how much is it really?
Talk of the Nation, 2/8/08: The 2009 budget proposed this week by President Bush weighs in at $3.1 trillion [raising the national debt to $10.2 trillion]. But just how large is a trillion, anyway? It is a thousand, thousand, thousand, thousand, or a million million. To put it into perspective, current estimates put the number of stars in the Milky Way at somewhere between 100 and 400 billion. The U.S. population is slightly over 303 million, and the world population is around 6.6 billion. $1 trillion would be enough money to buy about a 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies for every person in the United States.
Author David M. Schwartz talks about other ways to visualize a trillion, and how to wrap our heads around really big numbers. If we started counting from one to a trillion at the rate of one number per second, it would take 317 centuries before we were done.
A trillion seconds ago, no one on this planet [we know of] could read or write. Neither the Roman Empire nor the ancient Chinese dynasties had yet come into existence. None of the founders of the world's great religions today had yet been born.
Six trillion seconds equals 189,276 years.
Along with the nearly six trillion miles in a light-year, there are nearly five trillion dollars in the current U.S. national debt [uh, make that 10 trillion and growing thanks to Bush]. Is it any wonder even Republicans in Washington are concerned?
If one were to count the National Debt at the rate of one dollar per second, one would have to use a mechanical counter to click off the digits. If the counting were done out loud -- "one, two, three..." -- there would be numbers whose names are so large, it would take more than a second of clock time to pronounce them. For example, "nine hundred and ninety nine billion, nine hundred and ninety nine million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine" takes about 9 seconds to pronounce.
"This does not mean that the government is actually acting in the best interests of the poor, only that what the poor want is similar to what the rich want in terms of how the government appropriates its funds," Ellis said.
