We The People Say ....NO MORE!

Listen up, Congress people! You are NOT going to disintegrate our country because of your petty bickering, pandering and posturing. You who have been sent to our nation’s capitol to represent and serve us—the very men and women we elected to get us out of this mess—cannot seem to tie your own shoe laces, much less offer a solution to our economic problems. Instead, you have sold our votes cheaply to those who would profit from your political ineptness …. The banksters, lobbyists and corporatists. But NO MORE!

We The People are coming together in a coalition as diverse as the left-leaning 99% Occupiers and the conservative Tea Partiers to sweep you and your oligarchical cronies into the dustbin of history. We are slowly arising to take back our Republic, to reestablish our constitutionally guaranteed Rights and the Rule Of Law .... with Justice.

And the first order of New Business will be to revise the size and complexity of our institutions and practices of governance. Nothing should be “too big to fail” if it means that our beloved country falls as a result. You, the politicians, could have led in this renewal effort, but to your everlasting shame you have not. So we say to you, NO MORE!

Go home and be replaced by those who are no longer constrained by either ideology or political obligation, by those of our fellow citizens who will sit down in the spirit of compromise and find solutions for the good of the whole country and its citizenry. It CAN be done. It MUST be done.

Wandering Down Woo-Woo Avenue

Any damned fool knows that pyramid power and such belongs in the province of Tinfoil-Hat-wearing weirdoes, right? …. Right? Well, let me share a little journey down Woo-Woo Street I recently took.

For almost a year there has been a quite beautiful little piece of "art sculpture" sitting on my coffee table. It has the look of something that Terrance McKenna's "self-replicating Elves from DMT-space" might have crafted. And yes, it was in a pyramid shape, made out of a clear resin and about six inches high.

Through the resin could be seen a coil of copper around a large crystal sitting on a bed of what appeared to be tiny metal shavings. There was a "machine" look to it, but certainly no outer controls to turn it on … or whatever. And so it sat there.

Then a couple of days ago I was sent a link to a video presentation. Imagine my surprise (if that's not too tame a word) when I saw what appeared to be a duplicate of my "art sculpture" that the speaker was holding and discussing. It was, he said, "an Orgone Generator" created to attract and then amplify the orgone energy first described by Wilhelm Reich back in the 1930s. AH-HA! The proverbial palm slapped my forehead in startled recollection. Yes, THAT Wilhelm Reich!

I had read all about Reich back in high school …. about the fact that he was the only scientist to ever have his books and research papers burned by minions of the U.S. government. The poor fellow, who was either a genius or a medical madman, was also tossed into prison where he died shortly thereafter in curious circumstances. I remembered thinking at the time that the government spent a lot of effort to shut this supposed nut-case up, and wondered if there wasn't something to the good doctor's claims after all. And here was one of his inventions …. sitting right on my own coffee table.

So with the wriggle of my fingers and a pushing around movement of my hand, my computer keyboard and mouse led me to a consultation with the Great Oracle Google. My little "objet 'd art" was, I discovered, a powerful devise for transmuting the negative energy of electrical impulses into the positive polarity of organ energy. Hm-mmm. OK, that supposedly meant that the little "machine" zapped the low frequencies emitted from my computer, the neighborhood cellular towers, CIA Scalar waves, HAARP signals and all the other conspiracy theory electronic "smog" in my immediate environment. WOW! Not only that, but it was reported THE best delta-level deep sleep inducer ever invented!

Now that was something that non-scientist Patrick could check out for himself, and I did. Guess what? For the last three nights in a row my little iPod application that captures sleep habits indicated that I enjoyed almost seven straight hours of deep, deep delta-level sleep each of those nights. What I personally experienced was three nights worth of the most incredible technicolor dreaming that I can ever remember having …. after I moved the little pyramid out of the living room and onto the bedside table right next to my head. It was without doubt the best night's sleep I'd had in years.

The end result of my impromptu experiment is that I'm trying to find a king-sized version of the Orgone Generator and see if I can't sweep all of the errant electronic dust out of Vilcabamba itself. But now I find out that there are many such devises "chugging away" here in Vilcabamba, supposedly helping to maintain our pristine environment. And maybe it's why the Old People of Vilcabamba have so much energy and live so long. Little did I know!

A hold-your-breath report will follow from a newly minted member of the Woo-Woo Club. .

For all those who feel that I have been too gloomy in my view of the markets, and thus the economic health of the U.S., the following should somewhat vindicate my position:

Denver based Barnhardt Capital Management is a futures brokerage firm that focuses on agriculture and cattle futures, round-the-clock broker access, and inexpensive commissions. At least, it used to be.

BCM shuttered its operations yesterday. The firm's founder Ann Barnhardt posted the reasons online for the entire world to see:

"I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets' because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse."

Ms. Barnhardt further explains that markets are completely fractured... that the rule of law in the United States no longer exists. She decries Jon Corzine of MF Global for having outright stolen customer funds, and various exchanges and government regulators for having frozen out customer accounts as a result.

Given that the entire industry is "suicidally-leveraged" and exposed to "European sovereign junk debt", Barnhardt recommends that ALL customers "withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity."

I couldn't agree more with this sentiment. Leave the markets to the speculators and hotshot young brokers with itchy fingers poised over the BUY or SELL buttons of their high speed computer trading platforms. To believe that you can win in this kind of financial Ponzi game environment is simply suicidal!

Lawyerly Complexity

If, dear reader, you are anything like me, then you are probably scratching your head and trying to understand exactly what the recent financial industry legislation is all about. More important, will these new rules and regulations keep another global financial meltdown from happening.

Take, for example, the so-called Volker Rule, a cumbersome part of the even more unwieldy Dodd-Frank financial reform act. This sprawling 2,000 plus page red-headed stepchild of regulations is a ludicrous example of complexification. The reason? Lawyers! Almost if not all of the people writing these rules are lawyers, and lawyers by training and proclivity detest simplicity when drafting laws, regulations, contracts, or indeed any sort of legal document designed to govern behavior.

They do this because they want to forestall future disputes and potentially expensive litigation by exhaustively codifying behavioral rules and spelling them out under every conceivable circumstance. Since when have you not seen a lawyer sorely tempted to insert an "except that" or “provided, however” phrase into the simplest contract?

So what does that mean for the Volcker Rule and financial reform in general? Well, one might argue that the best solution is to scrap that overlawyered piece of legislation and go back to the original suggestion of the author, Mr. Volker.

“I’d write a much simpler bill. I’d love to see a four-page bill that bans proprietary trading and makes the board and chief executive responsible for compliance. And I’d have strong regulators. If the banks didn’t comply with the spirit of the bill, they’d go after them.”

From that simple statement to the monstrous two thousand page creation of the Dodd-Frank legislation, with the lawyerly help of the professional nit-pickers. Perhaps it is long since time to pass yet another law ….. one that prohibits lawyers from serving in congress or on congressional staffs. Maybe then ……….

My New Art Sales Manual Has Been Published At Amazon.com/Kindle

Those of you who are artists may find of significant interest a sales manual that has just been published on Amazon.com. It was written at the peak of my own art gallery career, just before my retirement. It is an up-to-date primer that explains in easy to understand language how an artist can go about selling his or her own art.

The majority of the more than one million new artists that come onto the scene each year will not be able to get their work into a commercial art gallery. This means learning how to sell your own art in the marketplace. The Secrets of Selling The Artist's Art explains the anatomy of the sales process, how to maximize your studio as a selling tool and even how to establish your own Internet presence. Check it out for yourself. Click on the image below. Oh, and the price is right: only $4.99 .... and EVERY artist should have $4.99 worth of curiosity about how to sell their artwork in a BILLION dollar market.

Video-style Presentation About Vilcabamba

Many of you are still asking me about this magical Shangri-la in the Andes Mountains of South America that I call home. So in conjunction with the publication of my new book ...."An Operations Manual For Humankind" .... I've created a kind of video (Power Point Presentation) that helps describe this hidden-away spot called The Sacred Valley Of Longevity. It's about 16 minutes long and, depending upon your bandwidth, may take a moment to load.... (but then, you probably already knew that ;-)

The presentation will start and move along automatically. It is professionally narrated and I think that you'll find it interesting. Just click HERE . Once on that page, click on the image of my latest book, "An Operations Manual For Humankind", which will start the video. You will be glad you did. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

What's in your jar?

A philosophy professor stood before his class with some items on the table in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, about 2 inches in diameter.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The small pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand filtered down through the pebbles and rocks, completely filling up the jar.

He then asked again if the jar was full. This time the students responded with a unanimous “Yes.”

“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, your children – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter – like your job, your house, your car.

The sand is everything else. The small, inconsequential stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued “there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take a long moonlight walk with your partner. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party and repair the disposal.

Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

"I'm Mad As Hell And I Won't Take It Anymore"

Click Here To See Video

Can you sense it? Can you hear that still faint murmuring of dissatisfaction that is slowly evolving into a full-throated roar of anger? It’s there. Listen!

Even the 45% of citizens who either work for the US government or are recipients of its largess, and thus in thrall to The Leviathan, are beginning to stir and grumble at what’s happening. As well they should! It is time for change. Not the political slogan of “change we can believe in,” but change that will dissolve the Police State that the US government and its financial masters have created to rule us.

Jessie Ventura, the outspoken former Minnesota Governor, has spelled it out for all of us in his declaration of outrage directed at The Powers That Be:

“You control our world. You’ve poisoned the air we breathe, contaminated the water we drink, and copyrighted the food we eat. We fight in your wars, die for your causes, and sacrifice our freedoms to protect you. You’ve liquidated our savings, destroyed our middle class, and used our tax dollars to bailout your unending greed.
We are slaves to your corporations, zombies to your airwaves, servants to your decadence. You’ve stolen our elections, assassinated our leaders, and abolished our basic rights as human beings. You own our property, shipped away our jobs, and shredded our unions. You’ve profited off of disaster, destabilized our currencies, and raised our cost of living. You’ve monopolized our freedom, stripped away our education, and have almost extinguished our flame. We are hit…we are bleeding…but we ain’t got time to bleed. We will bring the giants to their knees and you will witness our revolution!”

Unfortunately, not even we who have "gotten out of Dodge" are exempt from most of the above. We are just a bit ahead of the curve .... but we can hear the cries of frustration and anger even from here.

There is in the Declaration of Independence a passage that makes governments shiver in frieght and particularly political and financial establishments more than any other. It reads as follows: Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

I was once called a 'Dunce', and made to sit in front of the class wearing a fool's cap …. simply because I sat and stared out the window, dreaming of becoming an aviator. Of course, today I'd be prescribed some pharmaceutical drug for an Attention Deficit Disorder.

After that humiliating experience, I decided that I didn't want to be a 'flier' after all. I wonder how many of our children today are not going to be able to 'fly high' because they dared to dream? I wonder if Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple fame, both of them dreamers, ever wore dunce caps?

I wonder when we, as a people, are going to honor and encourage our dreamers instead of making them wear silly hats?

"Dreams are answers to questions we haven't yet figured out how to ask." - From the X-Files

PS: Almost forgot that ultimate dreamer, a guy named Einstein!

My Book Is Published!

I am delighted to announce the publication of the long and patiently awaited book on "living long and well", which I've been scribbling away on for what seems to have been forever.

Thirty years of research, two full years in the writing, "An Operations Manual For Humankind" is indeed a complete compendium of natural health. You can read the entire Introduction at www.vilcabambahealthyliving.com .

This is actionable information that is especially beneficial for Baby Boomers, but it's never too early to start making the kind of lifestyle and dietary choices that will add life to your years and years to your life. The manual tells you how to take charge of your own health choices the natural and far less expensive way. It's all in there.

A recent review stated: “A tour guide to health and longevity, skimming the surface of its topics in an easy, conversational style. From the ageless health practices of our ancestors to cutting-edge longevity science, attaining maximum wellness by properly ‘fueling’ the body is addressed in an easy-to-understand manner.

“The manual doesn’t teach as much as it reminds, helping the reader to remember the cultural truths about nutrition that were handed down by mothers and grandmothers. These ‘forgotten secrets’, particularly the chapter on the energetic Life Force of food, is priceless actionable information.”

It will be available as an instantly downloadable E-Book with the retail price set at $19.95. However, check out the pre-publication offer just below at:

CLICK HERE

There is a whole chapter devoted to "The Living Laboratory Of Longevity", the magical South American Andes Mountain Shangri La that is called Vilcabamba ... said to be one of the four healthiest places on earth, with more Centenarians than can be found anywhere else on our planet.

And that is just one of the twenty-five chapters devoted to healthy nutrition and robust aging. Facts, not filler, truth instead of Big Pharma's and the medical establishment's propaganda. Check it out at: www.vilcabambahealthyliving.com

Says Who?

Recently, my email inbox has been filled to overflowing with messages of Doom & Gloom that surpass even my own curmudgeon mumblings. The truth of the matter is that things are far less dire than the pundits, prognosticators, and pettifoggers would have us believe. So much of what passes for informed opinion is "ignorant twaddle, tendentious, misinformed bullshit, or thinly-veiled axe-grinding" .... as someone with far more adjectives at hand than me once put it.

On the other hand, as the investment guru Doug Casey says: “The nasty things that you think are coming always take longer to arrive than you think they will, but once they get here, they make up for their tardiness by being worse than you thought they’d be.”

Be that as it may, but maybe it's time for us to take a deep breath, sit back, and remember the words on an Enlightened Being some 2,500 years ago, before turning on the nightly news or surfing the internet Blogosphere:

All of which can be reduced to THINK FOR YOURSELF!

A Picture Is Worth A 1000 Words

"What Inflation?
Fed Chairman Benoccio

The Longevity Secret of Vilcabamba

Those of you who know me best realize that I have been researching the field of health for many, many years. What some may not know is that about a year and a half ago I put together a very special web site to share some of this kind of information with others. It is at: www.www.vilcabambahealthyliving.com

What you will find there is the amazing story of the Centenarians of Vilcabamba. In this hidden-away valley in the Southern Andes Mountains of Ecuador, you find people who live longer than almost anywhere else in the world. I set out to discover why it was that these people regularly live to be a 100 years or more in good health. It is a story that I think you'll find to be quite interesting and exciting … with some unexpected twists and turns.

There's actually two parts to what you will find there, the introduction and then there is an invitation to download a completely free report called "Vilcabamba Secrets of Renewed Good Health." If you are at all interested in your state of health (and who isn't?), then I recommend you check out the web site. It's a labor of love … nothing is for sale, no donations are requested. It's my way of saying thank you for having lived this long, a way of sharing my information gained over a thirty year period. Check it out, you'll be glad you did.

www.vilcabambahealthyliving.com

Is This Shocking, Or What?

OK, move right along folks. Nothing to see here, no one hurt, nothing to worry about, just keep moving right along to "recovery".

Afraid To Tell The Truth?

Here is what one U.S. President had to say about the "transparency" and openness of government, and how he would have answered those who feel that WikiLeaks is aiding and abetting "Terrorism". He was also assassinated for such remarks, among other affronts to the Powers That Be. Listen and remember well his words.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

All You Troublemakers, Misfits and Freethinkers ...

If this video doesn't stir your heart, put a lump in your throat and bring a tear to your eye .... well, then you need to call 911 at once and ask for an emergency trauma team for help. You're already dead or dying!

Augustus Owsley Stanley III R.I.P.

Last Sunday, on an obscure roadway in Australia, the former psychedelic entrepreneur named Augustus Owsley Stanley III, took his final "trip". For those who in the 1960's availed themselves of his "Owsley Purple", a heartfelt tip of the hat is offered at his passing. By mass-manufacturing a hallucinogen that the authorities hadn’t gotten around to criminalizing, Owsley was able to singlehandedly create a market where none had existed, and with it a large part of what would become the “counterculture.” I must admit that I was one of his loyal customers ... back then when it was legal.

The only one we know who was as much a perfectionist in his product design and quality as Augustus Owsley is Steve Jobs, the equally brilliant co-founder of Apple. It is rumored that Jobs was also an afficianado of Mr. Stanley's "Purple Pill", a color that Apple has used only once. Steve Jobs is often credited for creating a “reality distortion field” around his products.

Augustus Owsley Stanley III knew a thing or two about that.

Rest In Peace.

The Great 2011 Recovery

Happy days are here again! Stock and commodity markets are strong, company profits are up, bankers are making record profits and bonuses, unemployment is declining, and inflation is non-existent. Obama and Bernanke are the dream team making the US into the Superpower it once was. Hallelujah! We are saved!

Yes, it is amazing the castles in the air that can be built with paper money and deceitful manipulation of all economic data. Excuse me! But I just don't buy it.

Behind the curtain, the Wizards of Ozs who continue to manipulate the silver and gold market are feverishly propping up the $US. The $100 TRILLION in derivatives still have not been settled … and yet, and YET, Happy Days Are Here Again? Hey, call me a conspiracy Wingnut, but something just doesn't smell right about this so-called Green Shoot Recovery. Please wake me up after the political commercial is finished, it's time for me to take my meds!

Dude ... There's No Food!

Newsflash just in from George Ure's Urbansurvival.com Newsletter
(with some editorial additions of my own):

THIS IS SERIOUS STUFF! We are quickly approaching the moment when we have no food to spare. There's no way we can feed the whole planet! We've got that freeze in Mexico which will hit US food prices inside 45 days, we've got Australia offline, Brazil offline, part of Africa, Russia's winter wheat is now freaking wiped out between fires and Europe's freeze, Indonesia's rice fields are flooded, China has got drought and they're now upping their grain purchases through the roof!

Doesn't anyone have any idea how serious this is?

If you do absolutely nothing …. well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out where you and your family will be in another 60 days. Our Mormon friends have the right idea, as a matter of the practice of their faith, in laying aside food stuff now for when the bad days come. Hey, guess what? They're here! My suggestion: "Do ye likewise unto the wisest of them that hast ears to hear and eyes to see!"

Oh, and don't forget to get a veggie garden started, if you haven't already. Mine provides me with around 75% of my daily food intake ... for mere "pennies-a-pound". There are no food stamps in Ecuador, none are needed! Everyone grows their own. Just sayin'.

The Red Pill

According to the movie The Matrix, those who ingest the Red Pill begin questioning their lives, refusing to dismiss strange events. Well, it seems that someone slipped such a pill into my oatmeal and I've been caught up in a kind of exuberant playing with possibilities and probabilities ever since. Especially when it comes to Planet X, The Super Wave from the center of the Universe and other such esoteric world-as-we-know-it-ending concerns.

Vilcabamba seems to be a hotbed of "2012 Galactic" activity, but I'm doing my very best to maintain an open and inquisitive mind on all this insistent "Hark, The End Of The World In Nye" kind of Red Pill hullaballoo. A lot of this 2012 stuff is the result of New Age pundits, prognosticators, and pettifoggers, whose Internet blogging and radio interviews have attempted to explain the Great Singularity, as the late Terrance McKenna dubbed the Mayan calendar End of Time. However, I must admit that SOMETHING is happening to quicken the pace of our lives and raise our vibrational level to a near-quivering level of expectation.

To try and get a handle on all this, I have been dusting off a number of long-unused books, reading new ones lent me by well-meaning friends and familiars AND spending a lot of time in front of my computer screen. I'm very much afraid that all of this work has left me with a hopeful yet puzzled attitude of expectation and anticipation, akin to the days of my youth when awaiting the next episode of The Shadow or Green Hornet. Although with those old radio dramas I always knew the Good Guys would win out in the end. This time I'm not so sure.

Perhaps this supposed shift in consciousness (if not in poles) is our one and only answer to all the environmental madness and ceaseless war on this planet of ours. Living here in South America as I do, I tend to pay attention to the mutterings of Mayans and the sayings of Shamans … but I also am aware of the Latin sense of humor: