Ej...................MIA ?

[aaron]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

One can only hope he is being dramatic. And I couldn't agree more with you about the rest. The events of the last four years have completely shattered my faith in humanity. The pure darkness at the heart of humanity has been revealed to me in that time. And it really makes you question whether you want to go on living.

I know where you are coming from. I have been there.

But, really, there is only pure darkness in a minority of people.

[think365]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

One can only hope he is being dramatic. And I couldn't agree more with you about the rest. The events of the last four years have completely shattered my faith in humanity. The pure darkness at the heart of humanity has been revealed to me in that time. And it really makes you question whether you want to go on living.

At the end of the day, we are all vulnerable, sensitive human beings. Thank you for reminding us.

My wife is a very good, gentle, psychotherapist in San Francisco. I have sent her your post and she asked that I take the liberty of sending you a PM with her private phone number. Do not hesitate to call if things get too dark and you need someone to talk to. Mention that you are from iTulip. There will be no charge.

Know that you are not alone. You are surrounded by a decent, caring community here. One way or the other, we will get through this.

[jiimbergin]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

This isn't about buying food or hoarding water. The required preparation is emotional and spiritual.

It can be summed up in a word: courage.

I am also convinced that Faith is even more important than courage.

[flintlock]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

I think the problem is not that he is worried about crushing the fragile flowers here. More that he doesn't want to encourage Mad Max hysteria and a "Gold Bug" atmosphere.

Also, What exactly is EJ predicting? A war in the middle east? Hasn't there been a war in the middle east for like 20 years? 30? Bad economy? unemployment? We already have that.

Try $10 gallon gas. Expanded war, unrestrained terrorism. ( what we've have had in the past was very focused and limited in scope), with the resulting reduction in personal liberties. Not to mention the resulting economic chaos.

[flintlock]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

I work for an Israeli company -- I inquired about contingency plans and the response coming back was that it's all talk, don't worry about it.

I tend to agree, but then its a volitile situation and nothing would surprise me at this point. When you really consider israel's situation and the possible outcome of doing nothing, even if highly unlikely, things get serious really quickly.

[Pascal]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

Look, EJ's expertise is economic and financial. And he's one of the best, maybe the best, I've found in many years of trying to keep my head above water. But as I am sure he will tell us, he's not a prophet. EJ likely sees very bad times coming as the collapse process of the current monetary system perhaps makes a spike move forward. Probably there will also be oil shortages and much higher prices if the madmen of the middle east start lobbing bombs. But that's all financial -- assuming the war stays localized and you're not so unlucky as to live there -- and most of us can deal with it.

The types of things that really are scary are nuclear war, attacks on domestic nuclear facilities, biological attacks, pandemics, etc. But those apocalypse type risks have been around a long time and will continue to be around for a long time. They may be more likely in a time of economic upheaval, but they're far from certain and I doubt EJ would make any such low odds prediction. Nobody has sources that good outside of maybe the Mossad, and they're probably not talking.

[flintlock]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

Lets keep things in perspective people. We're not in Poland in 1939. Most of us risk only our finances and mental health in this situation. I fear more for those in the potential war zones, those already in poverty who will suffer more because of this, and perhaps a little for my son who will be of draft age soon. Lets hope it doesnt come to that.

[shiny!]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

I doubt anything can happen to make me any more jaded.

That's just tempting fate!

[shiny!]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

This isn't about buying food or hoarding water. The required preparation is emotional and spiritual.

It can be summed up in a word: courage.

Thank you for the clarification, EJ.

Wish I was 30 years younger. Had more courage then. As I've gotten older, my comfort zone has been comfortable enough to not want to be dislodged. Makes me admire all the more the courage and sacrifices made by our Founding Fathers.

[wayiwalk]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

Maybe the change in tone if based on the more recent polls which show the the likely victor for the presidential election, despite having good "business" sense, also has a much more militaristic view.

I'm vacationing this weekend with the guys I grew up with - we're all independents, go figure. And we all shake our heads and question regarding the republican platform and increasing the military spending, and ask, WTF?

Between us, we have 7 boys between ages between 4 and 16.....and don't like the look of the future.

[leegs]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

Thank you for the clarification, EJ.

Wish I was 30 years younger. Had more courage then. As I've gotten older, my comfort zone has been comfortable enough to not want to be dislodged. Makes me admire all the more the courage and sacrifices made by our Founding Fathers.

Oh I think you haven plenty of courage Shiny. Perhaps more important than courage anyway, at least depending upon how bad things get, is the whole idea of 'expectations' and the word 'should'. Eliminating the concept of 'should', as in 'my daughter should be more motivated', or 'people should drive their cars better' or 'Obama should prosecute the fraudulent banksters' has had very positive affects on my mental well-being and temperment. Applying this on a more macro scale to abandoning the myth of progress, that things are always going to get better, that the political system will get fixed, etc etc. is relevant to the discussion we are having here.


Some related side notes: Years ago I read a sci-fi book I really liked titled Altered Carbon. Its about the doings of former super-space-commando type. Not quite as cheesy as it sounds. Anyway, one of the premises of his commando training was the complete elimination of any sort of expectations. His consciousness would be beamed to some distant planet where he had to kick ass, and he had to arrive with a nearly empty mind without expectations of what he would do or face. I was intrigued with the idea at the time, but not mature enough to put it into practice, so I continued to be irritated by the failure of things to live up to my expectations. I wish I had caught onto the value of the concept earlier.

Recently I got interested in 'mindfulness' meditation (there are many 'styles' of meditation, and as I understand it, mindfulness or Vipassanna meditation is one of the more pragmatic styles) as a means to improve my ability to concentrate as related to my efforts to learn to play guitar, and it has been of huge benefit on this subject dealing more easily with life's challenges. I don't even do any meditation, just exposure to the ideas behind it has been very valuable. Believe me when I say that this is not new-agey or even necessarily spiritual stuff - its Practical with a capital P. http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/mindf...in_english.pdf

Finally a disclaimer - I live a wonderfully comfortable easy life, so I can't claim that I am battle-tested. But I'd like to think that I'm a lot more prepared than I was few years ago.

[Alvaro Spain]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

This isn't about buying food or hoarding water. The required preparation is emotional and spiritual.

It can be summed up in a word: courage.

I don't want to sound cynical, but since experience shows that almost everybody has the courage to withstand war conditions as long as the war is not fought in his country, does it mean that you think that there is a good probability of bombs falling in USA's land?

[jpetr48]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

We in the US whether we like it or not are regarded by Iranian religious leaders as the Great Satan while Israel is the Little Satan. Their Shia eschatology says that they can hasten the end of times by eliminating the US and Israel. Once this happens then they bring on the spiritual guide and ultimate human authority of the Muslim people- 12th Imam. His actual name was Muhammad Ibn Hasan Ibn Ali. This is the end game for them. Here is a link by Joel Rosenberg http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/...days-has-come/
Joel has written several fictional books using biblical prophecy (which by the way is unfolding step by step) to educate on the seriousness of this threat starting in 2006 with the Last Jihad. The good news is that members of Congress have called Rosenberg in so they can assess the seriousness of the threats.

I doubt we will see bombs fall in US rather there will be significant confusion and fear thru cyberlike attacks that can take grid systems down along with coordinated terrorist attacks. What this Shia eschatology accomplished in 2001 will be the forerunner to a greater planned attack. What is one way to overcome fear and confusion? I agree with Eric, a strong spiritual belief system and emotional resilience. These will be needed in our lifetime especially in the US and Israel.

[lektrode]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

That's very true. It happened to me on a beautiful Wednesday morning. The birds kept singing.

yep - my little moment happened one nice afternoon week b4 last , when i popped a piece of hard candy into me kissah, bit down on it and KRUNCH!!! promptly popped off a porcelain crown (700bux for a lil piece o candy....)

and here's one for mr badjuju:



hope this helps

[cobben]

Re: Ej...................MIA ?

I don't want to sound cynical, but since experience shows that almost everybody has the courage to withstand war conditions as long as the war is not fought in his country, does it mean that you think that there is a good probability of bombs falling in USA's land?

SF2E: TSF: Midvintermörker 1.0


The Scandinavian Front: Midvintermörker
By The Scandinavian Front Team

On Boxing Day 2012, Sweden wakes up to a new world; A Sweden they have never seen before. A powerless and dark Sweden. A day everything changed. Sweden is under attack; Gotland is being invaded by Russian Forces and sabotage patrols wreak havoc in the major cities.

Försvarsmakten bets everything on one card; Operation Gudrun. They must repulse the Russians from Gotland or loose the Island forever.

Book review – Midvintermörker

The use of military force is still a fundamental and (sadly) unavoidable aspect of international relations and how we think of this (i.e. which concepts we use) will influence the future we get to live in. Swedish defence policy has undergone a revolution over the last two decades, and strangely enough, this has happened with very little debate. Today, there’s a vigorous group of defence blogs and there have been a few efforts lately to revive the issue in the media. This is a review of one such attempt, Lars Wilderäng’s “Midvintermörker”.

The book is only available in Swedish, and as far as I know there are no plans for any translations. Still, I thought it might be interesting to provide an English-language glimpse into the Swedish defence debate and there also seems to be little point in running a bi-lingual blog if you don’t translate your posts!