Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force previews The Super Bowl.

South Carolina to Clintons: "No you didn't"

Actually, that's bullshit. A vote for Barack Obama in a Democratic Primary isn't necessarily a vote against Clinton or Edwards. Democratic primary voters just believe that Barack has the best chance to win by turning the page on the old anti-Democrat arguments, much in the same way Arnold did for California Republicans. Of course in Arnold's case this was mostly due to issue obfuscation, Barack is reflecting back what his voter's want to see and there happens to be much more accuracy in Barack's selling points.


The current dynamics of the presidential race are as such. The right most wing of the GOP is pushing hard for Romney because they loathe John McCain. Example 1, example 2.

The Democratic race between Barack and Hillary is still up for grabs, South Carolina and Iowa have demographically unique turnouts in their respective primary and caucus. Hillary has the Feb. 5 edge, unless Bill really wants to run this shit into the ground for her.

The kicker is this, I think McCain can beat Obama or Clinton. I don't think Romney can beat either Clinton or Obama. So the question is this. Will the GOP be too stupid to nominate John McCain because of his positions, anti-torture, pro-campaign finance reform, and pro-immigration reform, and risk losing all for a Bush redux in Romney?

There is a third dynamic. Democratic voters feel Obama is more electable in general in South Carolina and Iowa, and I think that reality tends to follow that which people feel. It could be that regardless of who the GOP nominates they get beat by Obama due to a mounting presence of inevitability.

This video is from the future, it was sent to blow your mind into a trillion tiny pieces only to be reasembled in the new corrected order. If you are psychic, do not click!






Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow developed a theory of personality that has influenced a number of different fields, including education. This wide influence is due in part to the high level of practicality of Maslow's theory. This theory accurately describes many realities of personal experiences. Many people find they can understand what Maslow says. They can recognize some features of their experience or behavior which is true and identifiable but which they have never put into words.

Maslow is a humanistic psychologist. Humanists do not believe that human beings are pushed and pulled by mechanical forces, either of stimuli and reinforcements (behaviorism) or of unconscious instinctual impulses (psychoanalysis). Humanists focus upon potentials. They believe that humans strive for an upper level of capabilities. Humans seek the frontiers of creativity, the highest reaches of consciousness and wisdom. This has been labeled "fully functioning person", "healthy personality", or as Maslow calls this level, "self-actualizing person."

Maslow has set up a hierarchic theory of needs. All of his basic needs are instinctoid, equivalent of instincts in animals. Humans start with a very weak disposition that is then fashioned fully as the person grows. If the environment is right, people will grow straight and beautiful, actualizing the potentials they have inherited. If the environment is not "right" (and mostly it is not) they will not grow tall and straight and beautiful.

Maslow has set up a hierarchy of five levels of basic needs. Beyond these needs, higher levels of needs exist. These include needs for understanding, esthetic appreciation and purely spiritual needs. In the levels of the five basic needs, the person does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied, nor the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on. Maslow's basic needs are as follows:

Physiological Needs
These are biological needs. They consist of needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in the person's search for satisfaction.

Safety Needs
When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.

Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness
When the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.

Needs for Esteem
When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.

Needs for Self-Actualization
When all of the foregoing needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." "A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write." These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short, restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it is very easy to know what the person is restless about. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.

The hierarchic theory is often represented as a pyramid, with the larger, lower levels representing the lower needs, and the upper point representing the need for self-actualization. Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move well in direction of self-actualization is because of hindrances placed in their way by society. He states that education is one of these hindrances. He recommends ways education can switch from its usual person-stunting tactics to person-growing approaches. Maslow states that educators should respond to the potential an individual has for growing into a self-actualizing person of his/her own kind. Ten points that educators should address are listed:

1. We should teach people to be authentic, to be aware of their inner selves and to hear their inner-feeling voices.
2. We should teach people to transcend their cultural conditioning and become world citizens.
3. We should help people discover their vocation in life, their calling, fate or destiny. This is especially focused on finding the right career and the right mate.
4. We should teach people that life is precious, that there is joy to be experienced in life, and if people are open to seeing the good and joyous in all kinds of situations, it makes life worth living.
5. We must accept the person as he or she is and help the person learn their inner nature. From real knowledge of aptitudes and limitations we can know what to build upon, what potentials are really there.
6. We must see that the person's basic needs are satisfied. This includes safety, belongingness, and esteem needs.
7. We should refreshen consciousness, teaching the person to appreciate beauty and the other good things in nature and in living.
8. We should teach people that controls are good, and complete abandon is bad. It takes control to improve the quality of life in all areas.
9. We should teach people to transcend the trifling problems and grapple with the serious problems in life. These include the problems of injustice, of pain, suffering, and death.
10. We must teach people to be good choosers. They must be given practice in making good choices.

From:

Psychology - The Search for Understanding
by Janet A. Simons, Donald B. Irwin and Beverly A. Drinnien
West Publishing Company, New York, 1987

Tell your Senator to vote no on Mitch McConnell's cloture vote on the FISA bill. A yes vote would kill Chris Dodd's FISA filibuster



Visit Sen. Chris Dodd's FISA filibuster page for all the little details.

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Superstar rising. It was a big gamble taking this kid out of High School a few years ago considering his size at the time, his speed in addition to now a steady jump shot make Monta unguardable as of late. The Warriors essentially replaced the very quick Speedy Claxton with a 2 two guard who can put the ball in the hole. With Baron Davis at the point, Biedrins and Harrington in the post, and a wing rotation of Stephen Jackson,Ellis, Kaleena Azubuke, and the fiercely under rated Matt Barnes, the Warriors are living more then dieing by the metaphorical three point jump shot sword because they're driving and getting to the stripe enough and they're making just enough free throws. The keys going forward for the Warriors are offensive rebounding and better FT shooting up and down the line-up.

Either use Pietrus or move him, the Warriors could use a veteran post player and a veteran point guard to back up Baron. P.j. Brown is unused by the Bulls and Gary Payton has expressed interest in joining the Warriors. If the Warriors are going to make it further then they did last year in the playoffs, they need a few more pieces. It would also further Golden State's cause if they got their rookies Bellineli and Brandon Wright enough seasoning so that when the inevitable injuries come they can maintain. What the Warriors really need, is the same thing that every NBA team needs, a dominate post player like Dwight Howard or KG, or a dominate post player negator in addition to Biedrins to share some minutes and allow for foul trouble, Al Harrington despite his size really isn't a post player but rather a big three, (small forward.)

Gerri Willis on The Daily Show, talking about the economy.

My opinion in short, a $300 rebate is pretty much a political bribe, it won't be very stimulative. Recession is coming. Gerri and Jon explain it better.

Finally, my review of Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg



Yeah, maybe that was a bit intellectual and highbrow compared to Jonah's intellectual musings. He may be able decipher the various key points. Actually, Jonah's book is an intellectual dwarf compared to that music video and if you have to ask why maybe you just don't really want the answers, but instead to purposely lead the inquisitor in the wrong direction. I dunno.

Philosophy without substance, it's not the real thing, it's Poundcake.

Multiple Definitions of Is

Preview this book. Liberal Fascism by The Editors. Live the passion. Feel the Dream.

Some of the good stuff from Porcupine Tree and The Mars Volta.


Way out of Here - Fear of a Blank Planet


Fear of a blank Planet




Anesthetize parts 1 and 2 - Fear of a Blank Planet


Radioactive Toy - The Delirium Years


The Rest Will Flow - Lightbulb Sun


Making of Deadwing Album

There is no shortage of fine Mars Volta vids here.










Televators

Askepios

Aberinkula

Goliath

Wax Simulacra

Buy this book, Liberal Fascism by The Editors

The complete, untold story of the Keyboard Kommandos, the forgotten heroes of the War On The Terrorists and Their Liberal Allies.

Hilarity will ensue.

So I'm running some tests with video.

This is not an official band video I randomly found. It features the concerns very serious Norwegians being chased by John Wetton through the delusional dreams of 20 million parakeets. Forward to 6:50 for some action

I've realized that our economy might not ever realty tank like the good ol' days of economic tanking because Republican investors are delusional about the reality of the economic fundamentals. If you're a person who sees the world through Friedman's Kaleidoscope, the rich are getting richer and that's a great thing because supposedly that money will turn into capital investment. The truth is that America will never see that money back in real investment like India, China, and Singapore will.



When you take advice from these guys, baby Jesus cries.



I don't want a loss in the market. No one does. If this fantasy keeps middle-class's portfolios in the black then that sounds like good news to me. *gulp*



Or,



Shorter Kudlow & Huckabee

I don't represent a coalition of concerned citizens who are anti-laser. We’re the National Assoc. Massing Back Laser Action. Here are the facts that Big Laser doesn't want you to know.

1. Lasers = Death

2. Anyone who as seen documentaries like "Star Wars" and "Battlefield Earth" know that lasers are here to kill us.

3. They want to put the lasers in your eye. Your eye! What? Have they seen documentaries like "Star Wars" and "Battlefield Earth"?

4. Don't let them tell you that you can ride a laser. You can't.

5. Lasers will burn your ass. Don't find out like we did.

6. Lasers prey on our children with their various cool colors. Fuck you Big Laser, stay off my boy's lunch pail!

7. Everyone is pro-laser? Wrong, we're anti-laser. See?

8. A Laser killed Obi-Won Kenobi. Big Laser will tell you otherwise, all they're interested in creating the next generation of photon torpedoes, laser swords, light sabres, and even now laz-o-chucks. Laser Nun chucks! Who's side is Big Laser really on? The Chinese, the Russians, and the Cylons, that's whose.

9. How annoying are laser pointers, really?

10. You can't even go light-speed dude, you're twin will get all old, and you'll only be going -.1 the speed on light. Who has time for that?

10. The Bussard Ramjet is the ONLY technology that will, 1. Clean the environment, 2. Keep good jobs here at home, 3. stop the greed in D.C., and 4. Not kill us to death like lasers.

and here’s a third #10!

10. We can’t even mention the number of times in the Bible Christ or Lord and Saviour who sits on the right hand of our Father til Perditons Adevent, warned his followers to resist the temptation of lasers.


Thank You,

- Not a Lobbiest for Big Ramjet.