Some thoughts for the blog for the month of December and January. Privacy is a growing concern. People who attack privacy are basically evil. They may be knowing or unknowing about it but they are still pursuing an evil agenda.
Once again, I point out that the world is basically run by people who are not qualified. As soon as you are a politician you should automatically be distrusted by everybody. The very fact they want to be politicians makes them suspect.
You have people who are relatively intelligent like Putin and Xi Jinping, and people who are idiots like Trump, and Bolsonaro, and to some extent I suppose the president of my adopted country Milei. But smart or stupid, they still can’t be trusted. Putin is pursuing some asinine gold based on Russia being a great power and he’s proving it by waging war against a small country and failing. I personally believe that Xi Jinping and his elite are driven by the “I’m gonna show them” mentality for the humiliation visited upon China during the 19th century by the British Empire. And it works because they propagandize this. Honestly? Do you think the average young or middle-aged person in China gives a rat’s ass about that?
They (politicians in general) are utterly convinced that they know what they’re doing but the truth is they have no clue. Well, they are very clued in to personal gain and power, but in terms of economics, technology, the environment, etc. they are morons.
A comment from a show I watched the other day:” Some people simply shouldn’t be allowed to walk on this earth.” Decide for yourself who that applies to but some of the names above are definitely on the list.
I have included some links here, but privacy Is increasingly under attack worldwide. Much of the time, under the guise of “we have to protect our children”. In India they are trying to force a level of surveillance on people that is unheard of and their excuse is “we are protecting people from online cyber scams.”
The worst is the issue with Samourai Wallet, a way of keeping crypto-currency transactions private. If you watch nothing else, DO watch this video on YouTube from NBTV. This is one of the most appalling things I have ever seen and what it says about the so called justice system is crushing.
I would highly suggest that the best way to battle these things are:
a) Forcing parents to be responsible for their children
b) educate people about being online.
But the governments don’t really want to do that because they, deep in the recesses of their dim little brains, understand that more control means more power. If you don’t have privacy, it is extremely easy to control a populace. For my gift giving this Christmas season, although I have some stuff I am doing for myself personally, I am donating money to the Electronic Freedom Foundation for both the United States and Europe.
On a completely different note, I have to wonder whether or not I have really changed so much over the years. I look at myself now and although I lacked maturity when I was younger (duh), I feel like I very much have the same point of view now that I did when I was young, just highly refined.
I have no idea if I wrote about this in a previous blog, but I am convinced that the majority of my psyche and my personality were formed by the massive amount of reading that I did when I was a young child. And the vast majority of what I read were murder mysteries, fantasy, and science fiction. And it’s good that I did, because I don’t seem to remember getting much guidance from 2 alcoholic parents. But the books I read consistently talked about coming of age, how to deal with different cultures, philosophy, psychology, science, economics, politics … There was a strong emphasis on being in the military in my science fiction, which probably accounts for why I went into the military.
In the months that I have been, not exactly bedridden, but certainly apartment confined due to my back, I have had a good deal of time for introspection. I realized that this is where I get most of my personality. This is how it was formed. Authors like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Gordon Dickson, Arthur C Clarke, JRR Tolkien, and so many others. These are the people who were my parents to all intents and purposes. And I cannot say that they were bad ones.
As the people who read this blog may know, I’m an atheist. I have no religious leanings whatsoever. But Christmas is still one of my favorite times of year. Mainly because it is a good time to be a little bit more present about seeing people, staying in contact, being generous, although, as far as I’m concerned, I have always followed the maxim from A Christmas Carol, to keep Christmas in your heart all year round.
I hope all passed a happy holiday season. My best wishes to you and a happy new year.
My goals for the new year are to stay closer to home. Study more. Focus on investments. Try to get my back and body in the best shape of my life. Stay in better touch with my friends. Cut back on expenses and make up for some atrocious financial decisions I made last year. 😊 But all is well.
And – as a parting note, I took the opportunity to look back on 2025 and realize I accomplished (personally) a tremendous amount. It was a watershed year for me in many aspects, the most important of which was that I shut down my household in the Philippines and moved to Thailand permanently. 16 months on from starting this process I am still very happy to have done it.
0 Comments