I awoke this morning out of a horrid dream.  It was a lot like the movie alien, where the creature comes out of the guy’s stomach, but in this dream it came out of a woman’s face.  It was bigger than the creature was when it emerged from the guy, this thing was just about the entire size of the inside of ones entire face.  And it was dark and slimy just like Alien.  I awoke just as it emerged, my wife moved to untangle herself from blankets and that woke me up.

     As it happens, I did watch some sci-fi just before going to sleep but it wasn’t Alien, it was This Island Earth which is one of my favorite old sci-fi films.  I was a real electronics junkie in my youth so I can identify well with the lead character and enjoy the whole film.  I would very much like to own an Interocitor, although I’d prefer one not prone to self-destruction.

     I went and saw Baby Gramps play at the Northwest Folk Life Festival today. This video is not from that performance but one in 2010 at the Oregon State Fair but it’s fun none the less. Enjoy the Scrotum Song.

     For those not familiar with the Taylor rule, it is a suggestion that we set the Fed interest rates according to gross national product and inflation.  The problem with that is that gross national product can be limited by things other than money supply, most recently that has been energy supplies.  In this situation, we can simultaneously fail both targets no matter what we set the interest rate to.

     We’ve seen a pattern for the last couple of decades where the economy grows, energy consumption expands, energy prices sky rocket, the economy shrinks.  As much as I’d like to see an end to the fed, the Taylor rule, replacing the fed with a simple algorithm isn’t going to suffice as a substitute.

     2014 was the first year that we saw economy growth world wide without a corresponding increase in carbon dioxide.  This is because we finally have enough renewable capacity in place that it was able to provide additional energy needed for that growth to occur.  I am hopeful that this trend will continue.

     If it does, and then we can have high gross national product grown, low unemployment, and low inflation simultaneously.  However, we still have the problem of .1% of the population owning more than 50% of the wealth.  That somehow has to be addressed and I am confident will be.  It’s just a question of whether it will be addressed peacefully or violently.

     A couple of centuries ago, children were considered their parents properties, their parents made their decisions for them.  Today, they are the states properties,the state makes their decisions for them.

     I wonder if we will ever get to the state where they’re considered people and not property, not as big or fully developed, or as competent perhaps but people none the less.

     In as much as I accept that they might not be equipped to make some decisions for which they don’t yet understand the lifelong implications, I am even less convinced that the state is equipped, or even has the right motivations.  As near as I can tell, as much as it gives children’s welfare a lot of lip service, the states only real concern is the well being of the ruling elite and their further concentration of money and power.

     I believe that if they were allowed to participate in society to a greater degree, have a voice in it, the world would be a better place.  Education would be more successful because they would have a better understanding of what is relevant to their lives.

     I remember sleeping through history class most days and never really had an interest in it, until I had a teacher that had one arm, having lost the other in the Viet Nam war, and all of the sudden history became relevant and I never slept through class again.

     I wonder, if kids had more say in society, would we still have wars, global warming, nuclear waste?  I wonder if they had some say in the beginning, if they might be more fully participatory and less apathetic as adults?

     I first saw this as I was leaving my home for the post office. It morphed a bit by the time I got to the post office but I was able to get a picture there without wires and other distractions.