Miff 's CHRONICLES

Apocalypse

2006-08-21T17:24:00.000-07:00

Tell me this is NOT happening!

The Enemy is GM!

2006-05-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

A Quick Fix for the Gas Addicts underlines how dangerous General Motors is!

The sooner General Motors gets taken over by Toyota, the better off our country will be. Why? Like a crack dealer looking to keep his addicts on a tight leash, G.M. announced its "fuel price protection program" on May 23. If you live in Florida or California and buy certain G.M. vehicles by July 5, the company will guarantee you gasoline at a cap price of $1.99 a gallon for one year - with no limit on mileage. Guzzle away.

As The Associated Press explained the program, each month for one year, G.M. will give customers who buy these cars "a credit on a prepaid card based on their estimated fuel usage. Fuel usage will be calculated by the miles they drive, as recorded by OnStar, and the vehicle's fuel economy rating. G.M. will credit drivers the difference between the average price per gallon in their state and the $1.99 cap." Consumers won't get any credits if gas prices fall below $1.99.

"This program gives consumers an opportunity to experience the highly fuel-efficient vehicles G.M. has to offer in the mid-size segment," Dave Borchelt, G.M.'s Southeast general manager, said in the company's official statement. Oh, really?

Eligible vehicles in California include the 2006 and 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban (half-ton models only), Impala and Monte Carlo sedans, G.M.C. Yukon and Yukon XL S.U.V.'s (half-ton models only), Hummer H2 and H3 S.U.V.'s, the Cadillac SRX S.U.V., and the Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick Lucerne sedans. Eligible vehicles in Florida include the 2006 and 2007 Chevrolet Impala and Monte Carlo, Pontiac Grand Prix and Buick LaCrosse.

Let's see, the 6,400-pound Hummer H2 averages around nine miles per gallon. It really is great that G.M. is giving more Americans the opportunity to experience nine-miles-per-gallon driving. And the hulking Chevy Suburban gets around 15 miles per gallon. It will be wonderful if more Americans can experience that too - with G.M.-subsidized gas.

Our military is in a war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan with an enemy who is fueled by our gasoline purchases. So we are financing both sides in the war on terror. And what are we doing about that? Not only is GM subsidizing its gas-guzzlers, but not a single member of Congress, liberal or conservative, will stand up and demand what most of them know: that we must have some kind of gasoline tax to compel Americans to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles and to compel Detroit to make them.

Where are the presidential aspirants on this issue? I have yet to hear John McCain, Mitt Romney, George Allen, Al Gore or Hillary Clinton support at least a $3.50 floor price for gasoline, so that it will never fall below that level and the alternatives can really flower and spread.

But if you go to G.M.'s Web site, here's what you will see: an ad with a young African-American boy saluting an American flag, above the following offer for U.S. military personnel: "In appreciation of your commitment to our country, G.M. extends a $500 exclusive offer to active duty military and reserves when you purchase or lease select 2005, 2006 or 2007 G.M. cars, trucks and S.U.V.'s - just show your military ID!"

That's really touching. First G.M. offers a gasoline subsidy so more Americans can get hooked on nine-mile-per-gallon Hummers, and then it offers a discount to the soldiers who have to protect the oil lines to keep G.M.'s gas guzzlers guzzling. Here's a rule of thumb: The more Hummers we have on the road in America, the more military Humvees we will need in the Middle East.

You want to do something patriotic, G.M., Ford and Daimler-Chrysler? Why don't you stop using your diminishing pools of cash to buy votes so Congress will never impose improved mileage standards? That kind of strategy is why Toyota today is worth $198.9 billion and G.M. $15.8 billion. G.M. is worth just slightly more than Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle company ($13.6 billion).

President Bush remarked the other day how agonizingly tough it is for a president to send young Americans to war. Yet, he's ready to do that, but he's not ready to look Detroit or Congress in the eye and demand that we put in place the fuel-efficiency legislation that will weaken the forces of theocracy and autocracy that are killing our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan - because it might cost Republicans votes or campaign contributions.

This whole thing is a travesty. We can't keep asking young Americans to make the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq and Afghanistan if we as a society are not ready to make even the most minimal sacrifice to help them.

by Thomas L. Friedman, A Quick Fix for the Gas Addicts, NY Times 2006-05-31

The Mexican Fence: Ask Pepino

2006-05-25T18:53:00.000-07:00

The following post should be read and spread! Capital Region People: Ask Pepino Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the beginning of the end of the Republican Party in the USA.

Da Vinci Code

2006-05-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

Most of the "Jesus stuff" that you know comes from an overedited, condensed Bible that has suffered through many many translations and interpretations.

One of my favourite fables about the character Jesus is taken from a portion of the Bible "editors" removed centuries ago. It happened one day when Jesus was 8 years old. He went to another child's home in search of playmates. Jesus had already developed a reputation as "being different." Some children were frightened of Him. The boy and his playmates Jesus was searching for hid from Him in another room in the house, the child asking his Mom to tell Jesus that they weren't there. Upon being told this, Jesus told the mother he thought he heard children laughing elsewhere in the home. "Oh, those are just baby farm animals." But Jesus knew the real story. Until twilight, the children in the other room lived out the rest of that day transformed into baby farm animals.

Da Vinci Code

Move Over, Men!

2006-05-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

Politics has great changes coming! WOMEN will be playing bigger roles than ever, Hillary Clinton will lead the charge! There are others, including Loretta Nall, and there are new political parties assuming "battle stations" as we speak!
Guess some good will come of all those bras burned, after all!

The Awakening

2006-04-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

In perusing various blogs and other sources of news and information, I witness cracks appearing in the George Bush veneer. I saw many blogs doing nothing other than running a transcript of "The Great Revulsion" lifted from the New York Times pay-per-view website. (If that is why you are here, scroll down, I have posted it here as well.) However, one blogger caught my eye with a post simply titled "Beyond The Great Revulsion," which I urge you to read in its entirety.

The Great Revulsion
by Paul Krugman

"I have a vision - maybe just a hope - of a great revulsion: a moment in which the American people look at what is happening, realize how their good will and patriotism have been abused, and put a stop to this drive to destroy much of what is best in our country."

I wrote those words three years ago in the introduction to my column collection, "The Great Unraveling." It seemed a remote prospect at the time: Baghdad had just fallen to U.S. troops, and President Bush had a 70 percent approval rating.

Now the great revulsion has arrived. The latest Fox News poll puts Mr. Bush's approval at only 33 percent. According to the polling firm Survey USA, there are only four states in which significantly more people approve of Mr. Bush's performance than disapprove: Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nebraska. If we define red states as states where the public supports Mr. Bush, Red America now has a smaller population than New York City.

The proximate causes of Mr. Bush's plunge in the polls are familiar: the heck of a job he did responding to Katrina, the prescription drug debacle and, above all, the quagmire in Iraq.

But focusing too much on these proximate causes makes Mr. Bush's political fall from grace seem like an accident, or the result of specific missteps. That gets things backward. In fact, Mr. Bush's temporarily sky-high approval ratings were the aberration; the public never supported his real policy agenda.

Remember, in 2000 Mr. Bush got within hanging-chad and felon-purge distance of the White House only by pretending to be a moderate. In 2004 he ran on fear and smear, plus the pretense that victory in Iraq was just around the corner. (I've always thought that the turning point of the 2004 campaign was the September 2004 visit of the Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, a figurehead appointed by the Bush administration who rewarded his sponsors by presenting a falsely optimistic picture of the situation in Iraq.)

The real test of the conservative agenda came after the 2004 election, when Mr. Bush tried to sell the partial privatization of Social Security.

Social Security was for economic conservatives what Iraq was for the neocons, a soft target that they thought would pave the way for bigger conquests. And there couldn't have been a more favorable moment for privatization than the winter of 2004-2005: Mr. Bush loved to assert that he had a "mandate" from the election; Republicans held solid, disciplined majorities in both houses of Congress; and many prominent political pundits were in favor of private accounts.

Yet Mr. Bush's drive on Social Security ran into a solid wall of public opposition, and collapsed within a few months. And if Social Security couldn't be partly privatized under those conditions, the conservative dream of dismantling the welfare state is nothing but a fantasy.

So what's left of the conservative agenda? Not much.

That's not a prediction for the midterm elections. The Democrats will almost surely make gains, but the electoral system is rigged against them. The fewer than eight million residents of what's left of Red America are represented by eight U.S. senators; the more than eight million residents of New York City have to share two senators with the rest of New York State.

Meanwhile, a combination of accident and design has left likely Democratic voters bunched together - I'm tempted to say ghettoized - in a minority of Congressional districts, while likely Republican voters are more widely spread out. As a result, Democrats would need a landslide in the popular vote - something like an advantage of 8 to 10 percentage points over Republicans - to take control of the House of Representatives. That's a real possibility, given the current polls, but by no means a certainty.

And there is also, of course, the real prospect that Mr. Bush will change the subject by bombing Iran.

Still, in the long run it may not matter that much. If the Democrats do gain control of either house of Congress, and with it the ability to issue subpoenas, a succession of scandals will be revealed in the final years of the Bush administration. But even if the Republicans hang on to their ability to stonewall, it's hard to see how they can resurrect their agenda.

In retrospect, then, the 2004 election looks like the high-water mark of a conservative tide that is now receding.

One Nation, Out Of Control

2006-03-27T04:09:00.000-08:00

Via MichelleMalkin.com: Freedom Folks has the scoop on open-borders zealots who attacked pro-immigration enforcement activists this weekend outside a bank that offers home loans to illegal immigrants.

(pictured) Rick Biesada, head of The Chicago Minuteman Project, under attack by open-borders thugs.Source: NWTimes.com

Can someone in the Bush Republic please explain WHY potential terrorists can buy houses but I cannot?

What does Bush have to say, these days?

Bush Says He Can Disreguard The LawWhen Idiot Son George Bush signed the Patriot Act last month, he issued another one of his "signing statements" that says he doesn't have to follow what the Patriot Act law says. He issued an addendum or "signing statement" to say that he doesn't feel obligated to follow the requirement that he inform the United States Congress about how... Posted in: Progressive Minds

As questionable and ridiculous incidents continue to occur, voters are being drawn to the only thing they believe will save them: (this concept has already been pre-fed to the masses via television programs): a female president!
http://capitalregionpeople.blogspot.com/2006/03/hillary-clinton-road-to-white-house-i.html

No surprise that more and more things arec oming UNHINGED!

Tammy In The CrossHairs

2006-02-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

I had not ever intended to post anything related to "Tammy NYP." However, this is a real phenom for blog-land. Imagine a topic that draws so much attention it takes up the first five of the top 10 Technorati posts for several DAYS! Stunning! Smashing! Technorati was thoroughly TAMMIFIED!

I agree with something written today on the Capital Region People blog, the blog where I first learned about Tammy. The author asks "What are the broader social implications?" The answer: Young people are exposed to so much low-brow trash in the mainstream media it's no wonder they have no morals, no scruples. I shudder to imagine what society would be like should I do a Rumpelstiltskin and fall asleep for 50 or 100 years. they'd probably murder me when I woke up.

Cheney Under The Media Microscope

2006-02-19T10:49:00.000-08:00

The noose tightens for United States Vice President Dick Cheney!

Cheney Derangement Syndrome is rampant...

In Cheney’s Own Words

The Most Important News Story of Our Time

What Will Time Bring?

2006-01-22T07:51:00.000-08:00

The shape of things to come? PERHAPS.

Michelle Malkin Interviewed by Blogger

2005-11-29T20:00:00.000-08:00

Michelle Malkin was recently interviewed by the blog "Right Wing News"
H/T CAPITAL REGION PEOPLE

Words to Live By

2005-06-17T15:47:00.000-07:00

"When you do something,
you should burn yourself up completely,
like a good bonfire,
leaving no trace of yourself."
-Shunryu Suzuki

"The purpose of life is not
to be happy--but to matter,
to be productive, to be useful,
to have it make some difference
that you have lived at all."
-Leo Rosten

"Know the value of time,
snatch, seize,
and enjoy every moment of it."
-Lord Chesterfield

"The beautiful thing about learning is
nobody can take it away from you."
-B.B. King

"When what we are is what we want to be,
that's happiness."
-Malcolm Forbes

"As long as what you are doing at the moment
is exactly what you are doing
at that moment and nothing else,
you are one with yourself and with what you are doing.
This is Zen."
(quote from Zen in the Martial Arts)

"Heroes aren't heroes until severely tested.
Christ's discipls deserted Him in His greatest hour of need;
He had to overcome the final test alone."

001 java.io.IOException: EOF while reading from control con

2005-05-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

As messed up as this is, it is only a TEMPORARY problem which plagues the Blogger system from time to time. I know you want to get your post up there on the Net. Be patient. It is there, safe with your previous posts. But you must wait. Go away, take a walk, watch TV, surf elsewhere, come back later, and you will see all will be well.

Reality TV from IRAQ

2005-04-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well, well well!!! Here's something you might have known would be coming down the pike sooner or later!

Presenting: a REALITY TV show from IRAQ featuring brutal confessions from suspected insurgents captured and held by the Iraqi military is that country's #1 must-see-TV show!

Here's a TRANSCRIPT of a recent episode, along with VIDEO CLIPS

Who's lookin' Out For YOU?

2005-03-03T04:47:00.000-08:00

Long time ago I worked for a company that was bought out by another. The new owner stopped in one day to assure everyone "we love all of you." I was young. I believed. Years later I asked this man (who by then forgot I was one of the young professionals let go a week and a half following his reassurance speech) what advice he might give to those would aspire to be just like him. His reply: "ALWAYS LOOK OUT FOR NUMBER ONE!"

Bill O'Reilly might have your best interests at heart when he writes books such as "Who's Lookin' Out For You?" But truly the BEST advice follows:

You need to make YOURSELF Number One, simply because others will not. Understand that this attitude DOES NOT mean that your are being selfish!

Hunter S Thompson

2005-02-21T08:07:00.000-08:00

Bloggers, please bow your heads for dearly recently departed writer Hunter S. Thompson, who died after a valiant struggle with life--- a struggle he lost, he copped out, he jumped out, he shot himself in the head.

"When people show you who they are, BELIEVE THEM!"
-Anonymous

Thought For Today

2005-02-13T05:11:00.000-08:00

"Look at everything as though you were seeing it for the first time or the
last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory."
-Betty Smith

Something to Think About

2005-02-10T16:32:00.000-08:00

The world was here long before you arrived. The world will still be here long after you are gone. Meditate on this. Hold it in your mind. Caress that thought. Now take it and imagine you are crumpling it up like a sheet of paper in your fist. Toss it to the wind. Then, go live your life.

Who Moved My Cheese?

2005-01-23T15:14:00.000-08:00

Who Moved My Cheese? It was written by Spencer Johnson, who's made a career out of easy-reading material for self-improvers.
This is the best review of the book I've seen yet. It was written back in 2000, by Phillip Winn.

A coworker recently gave me a book titled Who Moved My Cheese? It's really more of a booklet, but in hardback with really large print. The basic idea of the book(let) is that we all have trouble with change, but change is as good as it is inevitable, and most of our unhappiness in life is due to our inability to recognize changing circumstances or our reluctance to change with them.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise, given that I bothered writing an article, that I disagree.

The premise of the story was that we are much like rats in a maze, chasing cheese. When the cheese moves (change happens), we stupid humans ("little people") don't always do the logical and obvious thing, which is to seek out the new cheese wherever it is. Instead we expect the cheese to magically reappear, or try to deny that our cheese has been moved, or give up on ever finding the new cheese, or any number of other stupid things. The cheese represents our happiness, which is evidently the highest goal in life.

Cheese-Chasing - Right Or Wrong?

The story and the discussions of the story within the book seem to be based on moral relativism. There was no discussion of whether a particular change was "good" or "bad", just that is was change, and therefore we must react. Being happy is presented in stark terms, comparing it with starvation.

When the post-story discussion got around to discussing relationships, the person who suggested that she ought to leave her relationship since the cheese hadn't been there for a long time was told that perhaps the new cheese was just a different way of looking at the same relationship. I suppose that ought to make me happy.

In fact, inasmuch as the book was specifically written to help people deal with change in their lives, I found it personally challenging and helpful. However, like most self-help books, I think that this one promises what it can't deliver - the key to happiness.

No Silver Bullet

There are no magical solutions to life. Life is hard. For every person who has trouble with change there is another person who shifts constantly and has trouble with stability. Often, it's the same person.

My own experience is that most people remain longer than they should in bad situations. But that is from the perspective of a man, which is a very limited perspective, even in hindsight.

As an example, when I was much younger, my family attended a church that over time grew from bad to worse. I pushed, prodded, and begged my parents to find a new church. They did not. I thought that they were just scared of change. I was at least partly right. When we finally did find a new church, we couldn't believe that we had stayed at the old one for so long. Who Moved My Cheese? would have found a very receptive audience at that point. Around the same time I was working for a televangelist. It was awful. That experience actually screwed up my life more than I realized, so that ten years later I still find myself dealing with bad attitudes I developed as a survival mechanism while working there. I needed a change, and so I goaded and pushed until I was "let go." Again, I would have been a receptive audience.

Imagine my surprise when I realized later in life that I had jumped from the frying pan into the fire, twice. While the new church pushed and stretched us in wonderful ways, teaching us many new things, it was unfortunately pastored by a man who didn't hold to quite the same ethical code of consideration that I do, and the church has now disbanded, leaving many hurt people in it's wake. As for work, I couldn't find any. Oops. The situation I did end up in, consulting, led to more misery and a broken relationship.

In fact, change wasn't the solution to those problems, though I thought it was. Superficially, it solved "the problem," but it didn't deal with the cause of the problem. The cause was me, the unhappiness was only a symptom.

After moving away from the "new" church, I ended up in a city where I couldn't find a good church. I blamed the city. Now I realize that the problem was me. I was going through a bad spot in my life and blaming other people and circumstances to avoid having to deal with my own faults and attitudes and rebellion against God.

When I found myself at my current job, the same struggles I had before surfaced again. This time I couldn't blame a televangelist - I work for a computer company. I did spend some time blaming the people for whom I work, and they certainly have a long list of faults, but I only found "happiness" when I decided to stick it out and deal with my own character issues. If you had told me then that I would still be working here now, and looking forward to my fifth anniversary, I'm not sure if I would have laughed or cried. I needed change, and to this day I'm not sure why I didn't take one of the several job offers, except for the wise counsel of my parents.

I don't pretend to have the simple answer to whatever struggles you're having. Another person who was hired here only lasted three months before leaving. Not only was he not happy here, he couldn't possibly see how he could ever be happy. His skills were mostly untapped, and what few skills of his we were using weren't the skills he most enjoyed. Would it have taught him some valuable lesson to stay here? Maybe, but probably not. In his case, he had been desperate to leave his last job situation and leaped before he looked, and when he got an offer to work for a company he had been happy working for in the past, he jumped again. Change was what he needed. Then again, he wasn't scared of it.

Beware Cheesy Answers

Sometimes change is just what is needed to make a bad situation right. Sometimes it isn't. The authors of Who Moved My Cheese? would have you believe that change is always the answer, with an emphasis on new jobs, new relationships, new everything. This is probably a reflection of our ever-changing modern society, in which change is one of the biggest forces with which to be reckoned. However, I reject much of modern society's influence as the result of hyperactive children being fed Ritalin (instead of being disciplined) and then glorified on magazine covers and television.

The Bible has a prescription for change, as well. It promises true happiness, a quenching of the thirst that can never be quenched any other way. It starts with becoming a new creature, then walking out slowly, step-by-step, the process of making sure that the old creature stays dead.

The more life changes, the more it stays the same, and jumping from cheese to cheese doesn't always solve your real problem. Sometimes it just makes you tired.

P.S. In case you've wondered, I always link to books with a non-associate link. I tried being an associate for a while, but it seemed that the payment policies always conspired to ensure I never got a check. So now I don't bother. If you still want this book, think about it a little more and skip it. But if you really want it, but it from whomever you wish.

P.P.S. I actually had two opinions about this book, and it was this nicer one which I decided to publish. A more negative review might comment on how ironic it is that most copies of this book appear to have been purchased by managers for their employees. The message there, I guess, is, "I'm going to mess with your life by changing everything arbitrarily and constantly - deal with it, because the problem isn't my incompetent mismanagement, it's your inability to cope with change." Puh-leeze.

Clark Humphrey writes on http://www.miscmedia.com/10-9-00.html

I've found wht might be the simplest, stupidest business motivation book ever made--Who Moved My Cheese... Who Moved My Cheese? has an extremely simple lesson--change is inevitable; learn to enjoy the adventure.

It teaches this lesson with a very short, very simply-written parable. It's a story set in a maze, involving two lab mice and two mouse-sized but human-minded "littlepeople."

As the story opens, our four maze-runners have found a cache of cheese and decide to stop their daily running. They settle down by the cheese station and feast heartily. But as the days go by, the cheese supply keeps getting staler and smaller. One day, it's all gone.

After some wailing and gnashing of teeth, the two mice set off in search of "New Cheese." The Littlepeople sit around moaning and asking the titular question, until one of them (named Haw) finally gets mad enough to act.

As he heads back out into the maze, he realizes he always liked his old life of running around for cheese. He has a sequence of epiphanies about the value of change and adapting to new life conditions, and writes each on the maze walls (in the book, they're printed as full-page slogans).

Haw finally finds the New Cheese, which the mice already are now at. The story ends with Haw hoping the other Littleperson (named "Hem") will eventually get off his Littleass and get back into the maze.

Johnson wants us to get our heads in gear to the inevitabily of change. Accept that your job's going to be downsized; your home's going to be demolished for luxury condos; your current job skills are going to become worthless in four years or less; your neighborhood store's going to be clobbered by Wal-Mart; your dot-com's going to go phhhhft. But it'll all be to your betterment; just as long as you get with it, give up any futile quest for stability, and become a good little manic-conformist corporate warrior.

In Johnson's worldview it's the Littlepeople, the ones with the thinking going on, who have all the troubles coping. It's the mice who instinctually know what to do and set out to do it without all that time-wastin' cognition. The mice don't wonder why they're stuck in a maze; they just seek out their next given-from-on-high cube of cheddar wherever, within the maze's confines, it may be.

When Johnson asks if you're a man or a mouse, he hopes you'll strive to become the latter.

The book's implied answer to the titular question is that nobody took away any cheese; the maze-runners merely exhausted their allocated supply.

But that answer begs another question, left unasked in Johnson's tiny book: Who put the cheese, the mice, and the Littlepeople in the maze in the first place?

Post Time!

2005-01-16T10:19:00.000-08:00

MIFF's NOTES #1 - Yeah, I know. It's been awhile and I haven't posted anything. Not because I didn't want to. I just haven't had time. I have immersed myself in REMOTE VIEWING. I've been following the concept (and hearing about it on the Art Bell Show) for several years. Despite what the "experts" say, I liken it to Automatic Writing, in that I believe the same forces are at work. I will report more on this as time unfurls...

Direct Quotes from the 48 laws of power

2005-01-11T18:36:00.000-08:00

Miff 1:5 - Direct Quotes from the 48 laws of power

Robert Greene and Joost Elffers

From: ‘The 48 laws of power’
Robert Greene and Joost Elffers
Profile books Ltd.
1998 ISBN 1 86197

P xxiii “Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a Prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires”.
Nicolo Machiavelli 1469-1527.

P 10 “Lord, protect me from my friends, I can take care of my enemies”.
Voltaire 1694-1778.

P 11 “Princes, and especially new ones, have found more faith and more usefulness in those men, whom in the beginning of their power they regarded with suspicion, than in those they at first confided in”.
Nicolo Machiavelli 1469-1527.

P 12 “Pick up a bee from kindness, and learn the limitations of kindness”.
Sufi proverb.

P 12 “Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and
Revenge a pleasure”.
Tacitus c. A D 55-120.

P 19 “Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one.
Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning”.
Baltasar Gracian 1601-1658.

P 32 “An often told tale of Henry Kissinger involved a report that Winston Lord had worked on for days. After giving it to Kissinger, he got it back with the notation ‘Is this the best you can do?’. Lord rewrote and polished, and finally resubmitted it; back it came, with the same curt question. After redrafting it one more time - and once again getting the same
Question from Kissinger - Lord snapped, ‘Damn it, yes, it’s the best I can do’ to which
Kissinger replied ‘Fine, then I guess I will read it this time’ “.
Walter Isaacson 1992.

P 33 “Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the crab sees one it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster cannot close again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him who opens his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the listener”.
Leonardo da Vinci 1452-1519.

P 40 “It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than with a bad reputation”.
Frederich Nietzsche 1844-1900.

P 151 “Men of great abilities are slow to act, for it is easier to avoid occasions for committing yourself than to come well out of a commitment. Such occasions test your judgement; it is safer to avoid them than to emerge victorious from them. One obligation leads to a greater one, and you come very near to the brink of disaster”.
Baltasar Gracian 1601-1658.

P 165 “Weak people never give way when they ought to”.
Cardinal de Retz 1613-1679.

P 211 “One should not be too straightforward. Go and see the forest. The straight trees are cut down, the crooked ones are left standing".
Kautilya, 3rd Century Indian philosopher.

P 237 “There are very few men - and they are the exceptions - who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment”.
Carl Von Clausewitz 1780-1831.

P 266 “If you want to tell lies that will be believed, don’t tell the truth that won’t”.
Emperor Tokugawa Ieyasu of Japan, 7th Century.

P 295 “Space we can recover, time never”.
Napolean Bonaparte 1769-1821.

P 396 “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things”.
Nicolo Machiavelli 1469-1527.

P 402 “It takes great talent and skill to conceal ones’ talent and skill”.
La Rochefoucauld 1613-1680.

48 Rules of Power

2005-01-11T18:22:00.000-08:00

Miff 1:4 - 48 Rules of Power

Law 1: Never Outshine the Master
Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite- inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.

Law 2: Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends, Learn How to Use Enemies
Be wary of friends- they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them. (Read the entire Law 2)

Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions
Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.

Law 4: Always Say Less than Necessary
When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open- ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation- Guard it with Your Life *
Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.

Law 6: Court Attention at All Cost
Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious than the bland and timid masses.
(Read the entire Law 6)

Law 7: Get Others to Do the Work for You, but Always Take the Credit
Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.

Law 8: Make other People Come to you- use Bait if Necessary
When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains- then attack. You hold the cards.

Law 9: Win Through Your Actions, Never through Argument
Any momentary triumph you think you have gained through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: The resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.

Law 10: Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky *
You can die from someone else's misery- emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.

Law 11: Learn to Keep People Dependent on You
To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.

Law 12: Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm Your Victim
One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once you selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift- a Trojan horse- will serve the same purpose.

Law 13: When Asking for Help, Appeal to People's Self-Interest, Never to Their Mercy
If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself. (Read the entire Law 13)

Law 14: Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy
Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying.

Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally
All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.

Law 16: Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor
Too much circulation makes the price go down: The more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired. You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.

Law 17: Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability
Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people's actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off-balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves. Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize.

Law 18: Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself- Isolation is Dangerous
The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere-everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from-it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people, find allies, mingle. You are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.

Law 19: Know Who You're Dealing With- Do Not Offend the Wrong Person *
There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs' clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then- never offend or deceive the wrong person.

Law 20: Do Not Commit to Anyone
It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others- playing people against one another, making them pursue you.

Law 21: Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker- Seem Dumber than Your Mark
No one likes feeling stupider than the next person. The trick, then, is to make your victims feel smart- and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.

Law 22: Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power
When you are weaker, never fight for honor's sake; choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you- surrender first. By turning the other cheek you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.

Law 23: Concentrate Your Forces
Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another- intensity defeats extensity every time. When looking for sources of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you milk for a long time to come.

Law 24: Play the Perfect Courtier
The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity. He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the most oblique and graceful manner. Learn and apply the laws of courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court.

Law 25: Re-Create Yourself *
Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions- your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.

Law 26: Keep Your Hands Clean
You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using others as unwitting pawns and screens to disguise your involvement.

Law 27: Play on People's Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following
People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.

Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness
If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.

Law 29: Plan All the Way to the End
The ending is everything. Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others. By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead. (Read the entire Law 29)

Law 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless
Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease. All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed. When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work- it only raises questions. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you.

Law 31: Control the Options: Get Others to Play with the Cards You Deal
The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice: Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lesser of two evils, both of which serve your purpose. Put them on the horns of a dilemma: They are gored wherever they turn.

Law 32: Play to People's Fantasies
The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant. Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes from disenchantment. Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: Everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses.

Law 33: Discover Each Man's Thumbscrew
Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That weakness is usually an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure. Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.

Law 34: Be Royal in Your Own Fashion: Act Like a King to Be Treated Like One
The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated: In the long run, appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you. For a king respects himself and inspires the same sentiment in others. By acting regally and confident of your powers, you make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.

Law 35: Master the Art of Timing *
Never seem to be in a hurry- hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. Become a detective of the right moment; sniff out the spirit of the times, the trends that will carry you to power. Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.

Law 36: Disdain Things You Cannot Have: Ignoring Them is the Best Revenge
By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and credibility. The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make him; and a small mistake is often made worse and more visible when you try to fix it. It is sometimes best to leave things alone. If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem.

Law 37: Create Compelling Spectacles *
Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of power- everyone responds to them. Stage spectacles for those around you, then, full of arresting visuals and radiant symbols that heighten your presence. Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what you are really doing.

Law 38: Think as You Like but Behave Like others
If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them. They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.

Law 39: Stir up Waters to Catch Fish
Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. You must always stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage. Put your enemies off-balance: Find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings.

Law 40: Despise the Free Lunch
What is offered for free is dangerous- it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit. It is also often wise to pay the full price- there is no cutting corners with excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.

Law 41: Avoid Stepping into a Great Man's Shoes
What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way.

Law 42: Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep Will Scatter
Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual- the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoner of goodwill. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them- they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.

Law 43: Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others *
Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.

Law 44: Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect
The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of the Mirror Effect.

Law 45: Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform Too Much at Once
Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

Law 46: Never Appear Too Perfect
Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.

Law 47: Do Not Go Past the Mark You Aimed for; in Victory, Learn When to Stop
The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.

Law 48: Assume Formlessness
By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.

Warning: The authors cautions Reversals of these Laws in certain cases. Of the 48 Laws,
only seven are irreversible- Law #5, 10, 19, 25, 35, 37, 43. These are marked with *.
Ponder on spiritual laws (Golden Rule, Karma, Prayer) that supercede all of the above.

UPHEAVAL

2005-01-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

Miff 1:3 UPHEAVAL: What's happening to us?"
We are so far removed, so out-of-synch with our cigarette-smoking highball-swilling predecessors from the late 1940's and 1950's. All of the things that served to keep us in moral check have collapsed. The Legion of Decency, formed in 1934 to combat immoral motion pictures withered away in 1975. The Hayes Code was the movie industry's version of the LOD, which went into effect for all movies made after 1934. It, too, disappeared.
Radio personality Howard Stern pushed the walls holding up decency until they were weakened beyond repair, yet Mr. Stern knew when to stop. His imitators and emulators had no clue, and they brought the walls down.
Clear Channel corporation would like to define our tastes on our behalf. No, not quite Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS, not yet, but inching ever closer as boundaries diminish

Sure, there's the V-CHIP, but how do you stop your kids from watching CHRISTINE AGUILERA videos at some other kid's house? Recent video from the pop-tart showcases two MEN in the act of French-kissing! What you do in your house behind closed doors is YOUR business, but don't do it on my TV screen, where innocent children could watch. By the way, thank-you MICHAEL EISNER for giving us LIZZIE McGUIRE.
Not so very long ago, some of us were incredulous over Pat Oliphant's editorial cartoon "The Annual Running of The Altar Boys." Today, no one would bat an eye. Priests have disgraced and damaged the church. From the gay Mychal Judge to the pedophile priests who show up in the headlines week after week...
Many of the faithful are turning to TV preachers. Jack Van Impe is a solid Bible-believing electronic pastor whose quotes and videos really are MUST SEE TV! And the wonderful Jessie DuPlanis and his stories will tickle your ribs, warm your soul, and fill your heart.
What? You're not a Christian? Muslims who feel lost or left out can find solace at catstevens.com, the fan page of the former pop icon who tossed fame and fortune aside when he converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusef Islam.
The forgotten story of REAL... that Gulf War-associated song "Show Me The Way" by STYX (the rock group named after the river that runs thru hell!) is worth a listen TODAY, as it is such an eye-opener, and a true, sad commentary on modern society and culture!
The World-Wide-Web (remember when they used to call it that?) is in fact a WEB OF DESTRUCTION at your fingertips! Try as they will to make money off it, the only thing that sells on the net is SEX. The net also serves as a conduit for perverts and pedophiles to introduce themselves (via chatrooms and e-mail) to desired victims.
The STYX song comes to mind when one recalls former U-N Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter, arrested after trying to meet a young female at a burger joint. Ritter had been trolling the internet in search of very young partners, willing or unwilling.
TRUST is dissolving, with even the accuracy and integrity of the New York Times besmirched... "The news today will be the movies for tomorrow..."
Some look upon 9/11 as a sobering moment or wake-up call... I believe it has DIVIDED us more than UNITED us! We're so paranoid and schizoid in the aftermath. The terror alerts, fear of disease and destruction... I heard a quote attributed to Lt. Col. Oliver North, that goes something like "... they've hit us with their best shot..." reportedly North's take on the incidents of 9/11... one needs only look to that World Wide Web to find a nest of conspiracy-theorist websites, some of which raise some interesting questions about exactly what went down on September 11th 2001, many many questions and NOBODY gets into it and routs out the answers!
Even in the video that I taped off TV at home on 9/11 as events unfurled, there is information and images that raise eyebrows and invite questions.
The envelope of tolerance has been pushed beyond the American dream... the 8-hour working day is gone... American women, whether by force or choice or design, must work, some are compelled to work... the stay-at-home MOM of the 50's and 60's is a dinosaur!
WHAT WE NEED
-flat income tax
-public moral code
-stabilized cost-of-living
JUDGEMENT DAY --- Whether or not you believe in an afterlife, once you DIE, your children and your children's children are left behind to make their own way, however best they can, through the world. Any material wealth or sentimental remembrances such as videotapes or photographs they have become meaningless, valueless and worthless as society becomes more and more dysfunctional.
We all started life as innocent, loving, trusting children--- raw human beings, imprinted by the lives of those adults caring for us, the parents, teachers, role models... then, one day, we are left to sail away on our own...

SHIELDS UP

2005-01-11T18:12:00.001-08:00

Miff 1:2 - SHIELDS UP
In the old "Star Trek" television series from the late 1960's, the Captain would order the deflector shields raised whenever danger threatened the starship. In these modern troubled times, we must keep our personal deflector shields raised around ourselves and our loved ones at all times. Money and finance is at the heart of our personal well-being, and we must take steps to protect our wallets and purses!
There are excellent teachings and teachers we can learn from. I do not neccessarily agree 100% with everything these individuals say. But I do recommend reading their materials and learning from them.
This blog should be considered as a workbook, a studyguide, maybe even a sort of Cliff's Notes.

Everyone would like to have more money. That's why some work an extra job, some play numbers, some gamble, some even steal. The opportunity-seekers, the network marketeers, the part-time at-home whoevers... all of these people just want to make things a little bit better, a little more comfortable, to have a little more so they can give a little more and get a little more satisfaction as the minutes of life tick by.
There are few "Real" opportunities, but they do exist. To be in Amway or Watkins or Avon demands time, attention and involvement. Too much for some. MLM opportunities are a dime a dozen. Too many people get all excited and involved, and then the wind leaves their sales and they jump to the next hot new opportunity like rats leaving a sinking ship. The opportunities that I have found, participate in, and recommend, are exactly right for me (and probably for you, if you're reading this!)

Chart your own course, and as you do, read everything you can get your hands on that these individuals have written. If you don't want to spend a lot on new books, look for used books or paperbacks, and be sure to check your local public libraries! You don't really need to keep the books, but you DO need to write down points that interest and apply to you in THIS WORKBOOK! Make your own plan! A little pocket calendar diary (not too small) is essential to write your reminders/appointments/anniversaries etc. DON'T rely on any internet-based or computer-based calendars. It's okay to use the computer as a back-up, but it is MORE important to have your thoughts, ideas and goals WRITTEN DOWN by your own hand, on paper!
When you are feeling a little down or depressed, Suze Orman can be an uplifting read. Knowledge is power- remember that! Be-Do-Have, Read-Learn-Know!

To get involved in the opportunities I recommend, there is no pressing need to file business papers or spend money you don't have... that will come later on... if you already have a DBA or a corporation, consider yourself a few steps ahead of the game! Your name and address are enough to get started. The growth and development that comes later is something YOU will handle as you are guided by the teacher-mentors I will introduce LATER.

MIFF Welcomes YOU!

2005-01-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

Welcome to MIFF!
Yesterday is HISTORY
Tomorrow is a MYSTERY
TODAY is a GIFT
that's why it's called the PRESENT...