The politics of low pay

HE LIKES the work; but at $9.60 an hour, stacking the shelves at a Walmart in east Los Angeles does not pay Anthony Goytia enough to cover the bills for his family of five, he says. He supplements his fortnightly pay of $560-600 with the odd catering job, by subjecting himself to clinical trials of a treatment for his psoriasis, and with federal and state assistance. He was recently approved for food stamps; that should make Christmas a little jollier.

America is going through one of its periodic fits of agony over the minimum wage. In recent weeks several states and municipalities have approved rate rises; most dramatically in SeaTac, a suburb of Seattle consisting of a large airport, where voters raised the hourly figure to $15. On December 4th Barack Obama called for a higher federal minimum wage. He has previously suggested that it rise from $7.25 to $10.10. It has lost 5.8% of its purchasing power since it was last raised, in 2009.

Between 1979 and 2007 the incomes of the top 1% of American earners rose by 275%, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Those of the bottom 20% rose by 18%. Had the federal minimum wage kept up with productivity gains since 1968 it would have reached $21.72 last year, estimates the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), a leftish think-tank. Campaigners gripe that the government should not have to top up the pay of workers like Mr Goytia (who agrees); this “hidden subsidy” amounts to $7 billion in the fast-food industry alone, according to one study.

There is no consensus among economists about the extent to which minimum wages kill jobs. But recent research suggests that relatively low rates (America’s is 38% of the median wage) are not harmful, and that small increases can be beneficial. They not only lift workers’ purchasing power; they also make them more loyal, and so reduce the amount companies must spend recruiting new people.

Mr Obama will not convince Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote for an increase. But by raising the idea he may help Democrats in next year’s midterm elections, particularly in red states where local minimum-wage rises are on the ballot. Republican voters do not recoil at the prospect; 58% told Gallup in November that they would support a rise to $9 an hour; overall, 78% of Americans agree.

Advocates for a higher federal minimum wage point out that, in real terms, it is well below its peak in 1968. That is true, but misleading. First, the big drop came in the 1970s and early 1980s, not recently. Second, as David Neumark of the University of California, Irvine, has pointed out, the earned-income tax credit, a federal subsidy for low-wage workers, makes up for a lot of the losses.

Moreover, the proliferation of state and municipal minimum wages means that the federal rate covers far fewer people than it once did. In 1979 7.9% of workers toiled at or below the federal minimum wage; last year 2.8% did. From January 1st 21 states will have a minimum wage higher than the federal one (see map). More may introduce one next year; others will raise theirs further.

Variable minimum wages make sense for a large country with variable costs of living. But they can have unexpected consequences. The campaign in SeaTac became a big issue during the concurrent mayoral race in Seattle; there, both candidates backed a $15 rate. John Burbank of the Seattle-based Economic Opportunity Institute now reckons the city will approve a $15 rate next year. Washington, DC and two neighboring counties recently co-ordinated huge rate rises to stop firms playing them off against each other.
Such quirks are inevitable when politicians are left in charge. Most countries with a minimum wage outsource rate-setting to independent technocrats. Eleven American states and several cities index their rates to inflation; this can be awkwardly inflexible when economies stumble, but it does mean firms and workers avoid nasty shocks. Elsewhere, and at the federal level, minimum wages are subject to the fancies of politicians and voters.

Some agitators for higher pay focus on specific industries or companies, such as McDonald’s. Last week hundreds of union-backed workers went on the latest of a series of nationally co-ordinated strikes calling for a $15 wage. That figure, according to a recent business-backed survey, would lead to “personnel decisions” (management-speak for cutting jobs or hours) at 86% of fast-food and other franchises. Ron Shaich, the boss of Panera, a chain of 1,800 eateries, is an exception in the industry; he backs an increase in the minimum wage so long as it applies to everyone.

Other business leaders feel differently. The solution to the “wage problem” said Jim McNerney, the boss of Boeing, this week, is not a minimum wage but “an economy that’s growing”. But John Schmitt of the CEPR says the demand for a $15 wage is best understood as a broader push for collective-bargaining rights. Perhaps some employers can be convinced to pay higher wages as part of a strategy to reduce job churn, he suggests.

This happened with caretakers (janitors) in the late 1990s, after a decade of campaigns. An industry once staffed by ill-paid part-timers now pays workers in unionised cities $15 or more an hour.
http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21591616-americas-minimum-wage-debate-has-rolled-round-again-raising-floor

***It's not that hard to see the effect of lack of wages.
Like in small towns the hardship on businesses because of slow sales
from many poor staying home on the weekend.
You get what you pay for! You can make it but can they afford to go there?
Will there be enough customers to keep the place open, if the poor eats at
a restaurant once a month like many do these days.

When you have many poor that voluntary repossess their car to get more money
for higher rent, food stamp cuts. That puts a light in your town that many see as
poverty. The best way to get your pay up is to make the town look poor,
show a reason for better pay!

Over everything better pay is needed it's the foundation to build on.
Why make it they can't afford it! Getting money from paying your workers
low wages is not worth the cost of making a poor town. It's all connected!

Labor Board Sides With Workers: Wal-Mart Can’t Silence Employees Any Longer

~~~~Labor Board Sides With Workers: Wal-Mart Can’t Silence Employees Any Longer.
Wal-Mart’s 1.3 million workers won a big victory Monday when the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the retail giant had broken the law by firing and harassing employees who spoke out — and in some cases went on strike — to protest the company’s poverty pay and abusive labor practices.

The federal agency will prosecute Wal-Mart’s illegal firings and disciplinary actions involving more than 117 workers, including those who went on strike last June as part of a growing movement of company employees. The ruling is likely to accelerate the burgeoning protest movement among Wal-Mart employees, upset with low pay, stingy benefits, arbitrary work schedules and part-time jobs.

Over the past year, protests against the world’s largest private employer have escalated, led by OUR Walmart, a nationwide network of Wal-Mart workers. Last fall, the group announced that it would hold rallies outside Wal-Mart stores in dozens of cities on the day after Thanksgiving — the busiest shopping day of the year, typically called Black Friday. In response, Wal-Mart executives threatened disciplinary action against workers who participated in rallies and strikes, even though they are perfectly legal. Speaking on national television, Wal-Mart spokesperson David Tovar threatened workers, saying that “there could be consequences” for employees who did not come to work for scheduled shifts on Black Friday. Despite the threats, several hundred Wal-Mart workers joined tens of thousands of supporters at the Black Friday protests around the country.

In June, over 100 striking Wal-Mart workers, along with allies from labor, community and faith-based groups, trekked to Wal-Mart’s annual shareholder meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas, the company headquarters, to tell shareholders about the company’s abusive practices. When these workers returned to work, Wal-Mart — hoping to knock the wind out of the sails of the growing movement — systematically fired at least twenty-three workers and disciplined another forty-three employees despite their legally recognized, protected absences.

In its statement, the NLRB explained: “During two national television news broadcasts and in statements to employees at Wal-Mart stores in California and Texas, Wal-Mart unlawfully threatened employees with reprisal if they engaged in strikes and protests on November 22, 2012.” It also ruled that “Wal-Mart stores in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington unlawfully threatened, disciplined and/or terminated employees for having engaged in legally protected strikes and protests.”

Under the NLRB ruling, Wal-Mart could be required to reinstate the workers and award them back pay. The board could also require Wal-Mart to inform and educate all employees of their legally protected rights. (Federal labor law doesn’t allow the NLRB to impose fines on companies that violate workers’ rights).
This is not the first time that the NLRB has sanctioned Wal-Mart for labor violations. In California, the Board recently decided to prosecute Wal-Mart for eleven violations of federal labor law for threats that managers made around Black Friday last year. In Kentucky, Wal-Mart reached a settlement with Aaron Lawson, whom the company fired after he distributed flyers and spoke out against the company’s attempts to silence those who called for better wages and consistent hours. As part of the settlement, Wal-Mart agreed to rehire Lawson and provide full back wages for the time that he was out of work.

In fact, Wal-Mart has a long history of law-breaking, not only in retaliation for employee activism but also in exploiting immigrants, paying women less than men for the same jobs, breaking environmental laws and bribing Mexican officials, among many other infractions. Wal-Mart has also recently earned well-deserved negative publicity for its complicity in thwarting safety improvements at Bangladesh sweatshops that make clothes sold in Wal-Mart stores. One of them was the eight-story Rana Plaza factory building near Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, where last April at least 1,100 workers were killed after the building collapsed — the deadliest garment industry disaster in history.
Prior to the extended strike in June, American Rights at Work/Jobs with Justice released a report documenting Wal-Mart’s extensive and systematic efforts to intimidate employees. At that time, there were more than 150 incidents in stores across the country, but that number has now skyrocketed in response to the growing organization and militancy of Wal-Mart workers.

“It is time for Wal-Mart to obey the law,” said Joseph Hansen, international president of the United Food and Commercial Workers, which has been supporting Wal-Mart workers’ organizing efforts. “A message was sent loud and clear, far and wide, that the company must change.”
“Wal-Mart continues to show that it’s afraid to have real conversations about creating better jobs, but would rather scare us into silence,” said Tiffany Beroid, a Wal-Mart worker from Laurel, Maryland. “But change at Wal-Mart is too important to our economy and for our families for us to stop speaking out.”
The new ruling makes it more likely that many more Wal-Mart workers will be willing to stand up to the company and participate in OUR Walmart’s efforts to improve pay and working conditions. In fact, the NLRB decision happened to come on the same day that OUR Walmart was announcing another series of Black Friday protests, scheduled for November 29. OUR Walmart leaders said that the number of rallies and demonstrations this year will exceed those that occurred a year ago.

Last week, in anticipation of the Black Friday protests, 500 labor, faith-based and community activists rallied in front of a Wal-Mart store in Los Angeles’s Chinatown neighborhood, and fifty-four were arrested. On Monday, Wal-Mart employees and community supporters in Ohio — about 50 in Evendale (a Cincinnati suburb) and seventy in Dayton — demonstrated outside Wal-Mart stores to build momentum for the Black Friday actions.

At this year’s Black Friday protests, workers will demand that Wal-Mart increase hours so that employees work full-time, ensuring a minimum wage of $25,000 a year, and end the company’s illegal retaliation against those who speak out for better jobs. Bill Simon, CEO of Wal-Mart US, recently told financial analysts that 475,000 employees make more than this amount. In doing so, Simon confirmed that more than half and as many as two-thirds of the company’s American employees — as many as 825,000 workers — make less than $25,000 a year because of low wages and not getting enough hours. (In what has become yet another embarrassment for the company, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported Monday that a Wal-Mart store in Canton, Ohio, had organized a food drive for its poorly paid employees. The store set up several plastic bins in an employees-only area with a sign that read: “Please donate food items here so our Associates in Need can enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner”).

Raising Wal-Mart workers’ wages to at least $25,000 would not only lift them and their families out of poverty but also stimulate economic growth and create additional jobs in other sectors because of what economists call the “multiplier effect.”
Wal-Mart has become a symbol — and a major cause — of the nation’s widening gap between the super-rich and the rest. The company’s controlling family, the Waltons, have a net worth of more than $144 billion. This is more than the total wealth of 40 percent of all Americans — over 125 million people. Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke received over $20 million in compensation last year. Last year Wal-Mart made $17 billion in profits.

Even Fortune magazine — hardly a radical rag — observed that “Wal-Mart can afford to give its workers a 50% raise,” without hurting its stock value.
http://billmoyers.com/2013/11/22/labor-board-sides-with-workers-wal-mart-can%E2%80%99t-silence-employees-any-longer

 ~~~~NLRB Office of the General Counsel Authorizes Complaints against Walmart, Also Finds No Merit to Other Charges.

The National Labor Relations Board Office of the General Counsel has investigated charges alleging that Walmart violated the rights of its employees as a result of activities surrounding employee protests.  The Office of the General Counsel found merit in some of the charges and no merit in others.  The Office of the General Counsel has authorized complaints on alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act.  If the parties cannot reach settlements in these cases, complaints will issue.
The Office of the General Counsel found merit to alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act against Walmart, such as the following:

• During two national television news broadcasts and in statements to employees at Walmart stores in California and Texas, Walmart unlawfully threatened employees with reprisal if they engaged in strikes and protests on November 22, 2012.
• Walmart stores in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington unlawfully threatened, disciplined, and/or terminated employees for having engaged in legally protected strikes and protests.
• Walmart stores in California, Florida, Missouri and Texas unlawfully threatened, surveilled, disciplined, and/or terminated employees in anticipation of or in response to employees’ other protected concerted activities.

The Office of the General Counsel found no merit, absent appeal, to alleged violations of the National Labor Relations Act against Walmart, such as the following: 

• Walmart stores in Illinois and Texas did not interfere with their employees’ right to strike by telling large groups of non-employee protestors to move from Walmart’s property to public property, pursuant to a lawful Solicitation and Distribution policy, where the groups contained only a small number of employees who either did not seek to stay on Walmart’s property or were permitted to remain without non-employee protesters.
• Walmart stores in California and Washington did not unlawfully change work schedules, disparately apply their policies, or otherwise coerce employees in retaliation for their exercise of statutory rights.

The National Labor Relations Act guarantees the right of private sector employees to act together to try to improve their wages and working conditions with or without a union.
http://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/nlrb-office-general-counsel-authorizes-complaints-against-walmart-also

***There is change going on. It takes workers to stand up, it takes shoppers!
http://walmartramen.blogspot.com/2013/11/walmart-workers-black-friday-protest.html

If you want to know go ask a worker how they are making it!
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-Walmart-RVW1937558.htm

Chaos Theory, Butterfly Effect, More than you want to know!

To start, I need to point to a part of chaos theory that shows the need to understand
the whole system around you, called your life!

In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependency on initial conditions
in which a small change at one place in a deterministic nonlinear system can result in
large differences in a later state. The name of the effect, coined by Edward Lorenz,
is derived from the theoretical example of a hurricane's formation being contingent
on whether or not a distant butterfly had flapped its wings several weeks earlier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect

Since their day, every important new advance in scientific discovery has confirmed the
Marxian outlook although scientists, because of the political implications of an association
with Marxism, seldom acknowledge dialectical materialism. Now, the advent of chaos
theory provides fresh backing for the fundamental ideas of the founders of scientific
socialism. Up to now chaos has been largely ignored by scientists, except as a nuisance
or something to be avoided. A tap drips, sometimes regularly, sometimes not; the
movement of a fluid is either turbulent or not; the heart beats regularly but sometimes
goes into a fibrillation; the weather blows hot or cold. Wherever there is motion that
appears to be chaotic and it is all around us—there is generally little attempt to come
to terms with it from a strictly scientific point of view

~~~Chaos and Dialectics
It is as yet too early to form a definitive view of chaos theory.
However, what is clear is that these scientists are groping in the direction of a dialectical
view of nature. For example, the dialectical law of the transformation of quantity into
quality (and vice versa) plays a prominent sole in chaos theory: "He (Von Neumann)
recognised that a complicated dynamical system could have points of instability critical
points where a small push can have large consequences, as with a ball balanced at
the top of a hill."

And again:

"In science as in life, it is well known that a chain of events can have a point of crisis
that could magnify small changes. But chaos meant that such points were everywhere.
They were pervasive." These and many other passages reveal a striking resemblance
between certain aspects of chaos theory and dialectics. Yet the most incredible thing is
that most of the pioneers of "chaos" seem to have not the slightest knowledge not only
of the writings of Marx and Engels, but even of Hegel! In one sense, this provides
even more striking confirmation of the correctness of dialectical materialism.
But in another, it is a frustrating thought that the absence of an adequate philosophical
framework and methodology has been denied to science needlessly and for
such a long time.

For 300 years, physics was based on linear systems. The name linear refers to the
fact that if you plot such an equation on a graph, it emerges as a straight line.
Indeed, much of nature appears to work precisely in this way.
This is why classical mechanics is able to describe it adequately.
However, much of nature is not linear, and cannot be understood through linear
systems. The brain certainly does not function in a linear manner, nor does the
economy, with its chaotic cycle of booms and slumps.
A non-linear equation is not expressed in a straight line,
but takes into account the irregular, contradictory and frequently
chaotic nature of reality.

"All this makes me feel very unhappy about cosmologists who tell us that they’ve
got the origins of the Universe pretty well wrapped up, except for the first millisecond
or so of the Big Bang. And with politicians who assure us that not only is a solid dose
of monetarism going to be good for us, but they’re so certain about it that a few million
unemployed must be just a minor hiccup.

The mathematical ecologist Robert May voiced similar sentiments in 1976.
‘Not only in research, but in the everyday world of politics and economics,
we would all be better off if more people realized that simple systems do not
necessarily possess simple dynamical properties.’"

The problems of modern science could be overcome far more easily by adopting
a conscious (as opposed to an unconscious, haphazard, empirical)
dialectical method. It is clear that the general philosophical implications of
chaos theory are disputed by its scientists.
Gleick quotes Ford, "a self-proclaimed evangelist of chaos" as saying that chaos
means "systems liberated to randomly explore their every dynamic possibility…"
Others refer to apparently random systems. Perhaps the best definition comes from
Jensen, a theoretical physicist at Yale, who defines "chaos" as "the irregular,
unpredictable behaviour of deterministic, non-linear dynamical systems."

Rather than elevate randomness to a principle of nature, as Ford seems to do,
the new science does the opposite: it shows irrefutably that processes that were
considered to be random (and may still be so considered, for everyday purposes)
are nevertheless driven by an underlying determinism—not the crude mechanical
determinism of the 18th century but dialectical determinism.

Some of the claims being made for the new science are very grand, and with the
refinement and development of methods and techniques, may well prove true.
Some of its exponents go so far as to say that the 20th century will be known for
three things: relativity, quantum mechanics and chaos.
Albert Einstein, although one of the founders of quantum theory, was never
reconciled to the idea of a non-deterministic universe. In a letter to the physicist
Neils Bohr, he insisted that "God does not play dice." Chaos theory has not
only shown Einstein to be correct on this point, but even in its infancy, it is a
brilliant confirmation of the fundamental world view put forward by
Marx and Engels over a hundred years ago.

It is really astonishing that so many of the advocates of chaos theory, who are
attempting to break with the stultifying "linear" methodology and work out a new
"non-linear" mathematics, which is more in with the turbulent reality of ever-changing
nature, appear to be completely unaware of the only genuine revolution in logic in
two millennia—the dialectical logic elaborated by Hegel, and subsequently perfected
on a scientific and materialist basis by Marx and Engels. How many errors, blind
alleys and crises in science could have been avoided if scientists had been equipped
with a methodology which genuinely reflects the dynamic reality of nature, instead
of conflicting with it at every turn!
http://www.marxist.com/science-old/chaostheory.html

~~~Butterfly Effect and Edge of Chaos

It is clear that the disturbance to the natural environment caused by the oil gusher
is more than the flapping of the butterfly's wing, which represents but a small change
in the initial condition of the system. Given the change that the unprecedented oil
gusher is bringing about in the global ecosystem, this is likely to cause a chain of events
leading to substantial large-scale phenomena.

Had this butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been
vastly different. It leads to the possibility of "Chaos", that whatever is the most
unexpected thing at the time happens, ie, a true "Black Swan".
As a result, nothing is predictable and even the slightest action can
have the most complex reaction. According to the Upanishads, some of which date
back nearly 3,000 years, "As is the human body, so is the cosmic body.
As is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind. As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.
As is the atom, so is the universe!"

The views of the "Father of Chaos Theory" -- Edward Lorenz (1917-2008), who was a

Meteorologist and Professor at MIT -- are worth noting. Among some of Lorenz's famous

findings: 

1. The discovery of "Deterministic Chaos" brought about "one of the most dramatic
changes in humankind's view of nature since Sir Isaac Newton," concluded the
committee that awarded Lorenz the 1991 Kyoto Prize for basic sciences.
The "Lorenz Attractor" is a relatively simple attractor with complex behaviour.
This becomes the typical characteristic of chaos: the step by step manifestation of
 complexity out of simplicity.

2. The Butterfly Effect, the scientific concept that small effects lead to big changes,
is illustrated by the Lorenz attractor. The butterfly was originally a seagull in
Lorenz's paper written in 1963 for the New York Academy of Sciences.
One meteorologist remarked that if the theory were correct, one flap of a
seagull's wings would be enough to alter the course of the weather forever!
Once the weather changes, so does the history of humankind. 

By the time of his talk at the December 1972 meeting of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC, the sea gull had evolved into
the more poetic butterfly -- the title of his talk was, "Predictability: Does the Flap of
a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil set off a Tornado in Texas?"

3. Every day things are chaotic, chaos leads to creativity and life. 

The "Edge of Chaos" is where creativity happens!

Lorenz's discovery continues to influence the scientific world, which has yet to grasp
its implications fully. Chaotic systems have been recognised in all branches of science.

As mathematicians started to unravel its mysteries, science reeled before the
implications of an uncertain world intricately bound up with chance.
The human heartbeat is chaotic, as indeed are the stock market, the solar system and
of course the weather. In fact the more we learn about chaos the more closely it seems
to be bound up with nature. Fractal structures seem to be everywhere we look: in ferns,
cauliflowers, the coral reef, kidneys... Rather than turn its back on chaos, nature appears
to use it and science is beginning to do the same. When will large scale corporate
capitalism and government structures metamorphose to embrace the butterfly effect and
make us live sustainably at the edge of chaos? When each one of us changes!
Mahatma Gandhi said, "As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able
to remake the world that is the myth of the atomic age as in being able
to remake ourselves!"

 http://www.mi2g.com/cgi/mi2g/press/250610.php

 ~~~The Butterfly Effect of Recognition
The Butterfly Effect, it turns out, is an interesting notion from Chaos Theory that has
some eye-opening implications for organizational development and change management.
(And not, as you might be thinking, anything to do with Ashton Kutcher.)
In 1979, a meteorological researcher named Edward Lorenz suggested that the flap
of a butterfly’s tiny wings somewhere in South America could set off a tornado in Texas
a month from now. He was using the example to illustrate the idea that one tiny change
can result in a huge impact on a large complex system—like weather patterns.

Or like organizations.
That’s because it is in the “chaos” of the small day-to-day activities of employees and
managers that we often see the most far-reaching and unpredictable effects
(positive or negative) on organizations. Here are a few things about complex,
nonlinear systems that we can take from Chaos Theory:

Systems are very sensitive to initial conditions, which set the stage for the ultimate behavior.

Systems tend to cluster their activity around and iterate on a typical behavior, called an attractor.

Systems tend to be dissipative, meaning without a continued driving force they cease to move.

These three ideas are really important as we look at how organizations behave and as we
seek to create a productive, engaged workforce.
The Butterfly Effect itself is not predictable in its outcome, because it is such a tiny,
singular event. But what if you multiplied those events exponentially, as you can do
with organizations? Then you would begin to see many little events that have a strong,
iterative and ongoing effect on your outcomes, consistently driving a controlled
change for the better. I probably don’t even need to say that employee recognition
can be this kind of Butterfly Effect, but I will.

Recognition is an ideal initial event to create change in a complex system, because it is
organic and inspired, and because it is self-propagating.

The iterative (repeating and growing) nature of public recognition means recognition
worthy behavior is constantly being reinforced and replicating itself, but because it is
guided by your stated values, it stays close to the attractor you have designated.

Recognition begets recognition. A healthy, well-designed recognition program becomes
a constant driving force to keep the organization moving forward.

Recognition is a terrific change management tool because it flourishes within parameters
you set for your company: the values and goals that form the award criteria.
This essentially harnesses the chaos of day-to-day activity and directs it into the
advancement of your organizational objectives.
http://www.globoforce.com/gfblog/2013/the-butterfly-effect-of-recognition-what-we-can-learn-from-chaos-theory

~~~The butterfly effect gets entangled
A hidden partnership between two of the hottest topics in physics quantum entanglement
and chaos theory may have been uncovered by a series of ingenious experiments with
caesium atoms. The relationship could provide clues about where the quantum realm ends
and the classical world begins.

Chaos theory describes how the slightest change in the starting conditions of a system can
have dramatic effects on how it develops. It's usually explained using the 'butterfly effect',
in which the atmospheric changes caused by the beating of a butterfly's wings in one
location could eventually lead to the production of a tornado in another.

Chaos is usually thought to be a large-scale phenomenon, associated with classical physics
and absent from the microscopic quantum realm. But now Poul Jessen, at the University of
Arizona in Tucson, and his colleagues have found the fingerprints of chaos in a
quantum system. Their discovery links chaos to entanglement the purely quantum property
in which multiple particles can become inextricably intertwined, so that making changes
to one instantly affects its partners.

"They've brought together two sexy concepts in physics that are usually thought to
operate in completely different regimes," says optical physicist Nir Davidson at the
Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. "That is surprising and interesting."

Quantum kick

Jessen's team searched for signs of chaos within a set of cooled caesium atoms, using
them as the quantum equivalent of an everyday object that displays chaotic a child's
spinning top. Just as the axis of the spinning top changes direction and can wobble
wildly if it is nudged, each caesium atom can be characterized by an internal quantum
property known as spin — the direction of which will change if it is 'kicked' by
applying pulses of a magnetic field. The goal was to see if kicking this 'quantum top'
caused the spin to change direction chaotically.

According to the team's calculations, if the quantum top behaved like a classical top,
then kicking it should produce two possible outcomes depending on the initial
direction of its spin. If the top's initial spin direction lay in one of three subsets
of possible directions dubbed islands of stability — each successive kick would
knock the spin in a regular way, sending it around a stable orbit within that island.
If, however, the initial spin direction lay outside these islands, in the 'chaotic sea',
the spin should jump around rapidly and unpredictably.

When they did the experiment, they found almost exactly that behaviour — if the
quantum top started out in an island of stability, its spin changed in a regular way,
but if not, chaos ruled and its spin direction changed quickly and erratically.
"It looks like the quantum system knows about classical boundaries and respects
them," says Jessen. Physicist Fritz Haake of Duisburg-Essen University, Germany,
was one of the first to propose that chaotic signatures might show up in a quantum
top, and admires the experimental achievement. "It has taken both ingenuity and
advances in technology to demonstrate quantum chaos this way," he says.

Tangled up

Having seen chaotic behaviour, Jessen's team then explored its possible ties to
entanglement. Caesium atoms contain electrons that orbit a nucleus, and it is possible
for the direction of an electron's spin to become entangled with that of the nucleus's
spin. The team began their experiment with a set of atoms that did not display this
kind of entanglement and then checked whether kicking the atoms would provoke
the electron and nuclear spins to entangle.
"We found that atoms starting out in one of the islands of stability remained
unentangled, but for those that started out in the chaotic sea, the electron and nuclear
spins rapidly became entangled," says Jessen. "This suggests that chaos may have some
fundamental connection to entanglement."

The finding has implications for building quantum computers that, in principle, work by
closely controlling the entanglement of atomic spins. "This underscores how hypersensitive
quantum systems are to slight perturbations," says Jessen. "You really have to worry about
how easily errors can be generated — which, of course, those trying to build
[such systems] have already seen."

The result also touches on a fundamental question in physics: where does the exotic
quantum realm end and the familiar classical world begin? The study supports long
standing ideas that there is no single sharp boundary between the quantum and
classical worlds, says quantum physicist Wojciech Zurek of the
Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
"The obvious thing to do now is to look at which classical features emerge first
and which quantum features last longest," he says. Jessen and his team hope
to investigate how larger quantum systems blend into the classical regime.
"It's a challenge," says Jessen. "But we're taking our first baby steps in that direction."
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/091007/full/news.2009.980.html

 ***There are many ways to put all of this.
Life is entanglement and it is everywhere!
 "Quantum entanglement isn't only spooky, you can't avoid it."
 http://www.gizmag.com/quantum-entanglement-ubiquitous/27836

Or like the quote I like to say.
"No man is an island. No one is self-sufficient; everyone relies on others."
From the seventeenth-century English author John Donne.

Or even is beliefs, legends when you kind of look at them!
"The red string of fate, also referred to as the red thread of destiny, red thread of fate,
and other variants, is an East Asian belief originating from Chinese legend and is also used
in Japanese legend. According to this myth, the gods tie a red cord around the ankles
of those that are to meet one another in a certain situation or help each other in a certain
way. Often, in Japanese culture, it is thought to be tied around the little finger.
According to Chinese legend, the deity in charge of "the red thread" is believed to be
Yuè Xià Lǎ"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_string_of_fate

Looking in to all of this relating to your life is kind of like a Fractal Zoom but it's
a start of your journey!
(Note I went to a vocational school in the 80's with one of Mandelbrot kids,
they are a Strange crew!)

Alien Transmissions 1977 and open door!

I am sure you know there is more going on than everyone knows.
Humanity is getting closer to the open door of knowing!

~~~"The Secret Life Of Nikola Tesla"
 Nikola Tesla became aware early in the 20th century that the planet was heating up, 

so much so that by the first decades of the 21st century, Earth would be almost 

uninhabitable for the human species. Tesla's source of information was the weird
voices he was picking up off of his specially modified radio receiver.

These mysterious voice broadcasts were the outcome of Tesla's initial research 
into strange radio signals he picked up during his experiments at 
Colorado Springs in 1899. By now, Tesla had improved his receiving equipment 
to enable him to pickup voice broadcasts. However, these voices were being
heard on frequencies that were suppose to be unable to carry these kinds 
of transmissions, but they were there nevertheless.

Tesla wrote that these voices were of men from other worlds -men who 
had lived on Earth sometime in its prehistoric past, had developed the
technology to colonize nearby space and were still interested in the 
inhabitants they had left behind. These men had colonized the planet 
Mars as well as maintaining bases on the moon.
Others of their kind had gone deeper into space, out of our solar 
system altogether to explore the galaxy.

It had been decided that the Earth was to become a reserve so to speak, 
to allow nature to take its course and new species to evolve and fill the
niches left vacant by the departure of its first inhabitants. 
However, some things were not left to nature alone. The first men decided
to leave behind remnants of themselves in the form of our early ancestors. 

Tesla's description of the re-seeding of planet Earth with intelligent hominids 
sounds very much like genetic manipulation.

This could explain why reports of UFO occupants, who claim extraterrestrial 
origins, look so much like us. The majority of contacts with beings who step
out of UFOs all agree on their human-like appearance. 
With very few exceptions, all alleged extraterrestrials possess very human
features. One head with two eyes a nose and a mouth, two arms, two hands
with five fingers, two legs and feet. Many have been reported to be so 

human in appearance that they are indistinguishable from normal humans. 

Maybe this is because they are human -the first humans.

Of course, Tesla died before the modern UFO wave, but his descriptions 
of his purported extraterrestrials bear an uncanny resemblance to our 
UFO occupants.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/tesla/lostjournals/lostjournals08.htm
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/tesla/lostjournals/lostjournals01.htm

And more is the 1977 transmissions etc! The "WOW" transmission SETI found,

Vrillon live broadcast!,

Voyager 2, an unmanned probe that has been in space since 1977

~~~"The Wow! Signal: Intercepted Alien Transmission?"
SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, has seen astronomers scouring
the sky for decades in hopes of receiving artificially generated radio signals 
sent by alien civilizations. But then, there’s a good chance we’ve already 
found just such a signal. And 1977 saw the most tantalizing glimpse ever.

Nicknamed the “Wow!” signal, this was a brief burst of radio waves detected by 
astronomer Jerry Ehman who was working on a SETI project at the Big Ear 
radio telescope, Ohio. The signal was, in fact, so remarkable that Ehman 
circled it on the computer printout, writing “Wow!” in the margin — and 
unintentionally giving the received radio signal the name under which it 
would become famous.
http://news.discovery.com/space/alien-life-exoplanets/the-wow-signal-130524.htm

 ~~~"Southern Television broadcast interruption."
The Southern Television broadcast interruption was a broadcast interruption 
through the Hannington transmitter of the Independent Broadcasting Authority 
in the United Kingdom at 5:10 PM on 26 November 1977. It is generally
considered to be a hoax, but the identity of the intruder is unknown.

At that time, the Hannington UHF television transmitter was unusual in being
one of the few transmitters which rebroadcast an off-air signal received 
from another transmitter (Southern Television's Rowridge transmitter on the
Isle of Wight), rather than being fed directly by a landline. 
As a consequence it was open to this kind of signal intrusion, 

as even a relatively low-powered transmission very close to the receiver could
overwhelm its reception of the intended signal, resulting in the unauthorized
transmission being amplified and rebroadcast across a far wider area. 
The IBA stated that to carry out a hoax would take

"a considerable amount of technical know-how" and a spokesman for 
Southern Television confirmed that "A hoaxer jammed our transmitter
in the wilds of North Hampshire by taking another transmitter very close to it."
However, like the Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion a decade later, 
the identity of the intruder was never confirmed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Television_broadcast_interruption

When you hear the message you kind of see the point today!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQNQEzsekHw

    * This is the voice of Vrillon, a representative of the Ashtar Galactic Command,
speaking to you. For many years you have seen us as lights in the skies. 

We speak to you now in peace and wisdom as we have done to your brothers
and sisters all over this, your planet Earth.

    * We come to warn you of the destiny of your race and your world so
that you may communicate to your fellow beings the course you must 
take to avoid the disaster which threatens your world, and the beings on 
our worlds around you. This is in order that you may share in the great 
awakening, as the planet passes into a New Age of Aquarius. 
The New Age can be a time of great peace and evolution for your race, 
but only if your rulers are made aware of the evil forces that can 
overshadow their judgments.

    * Be still now and listen, for your chance may not come again.

    * All your weapons of evil must be removed. The time for conflict is now past 
and the race of which you are a part may proceed to the higher stages of its 
evolution if you show yourselves worthy to do this. You have but a short time 
to learn to live together in peace and goodwill.

    * Small groups all over the planet are learning this, and exist to pass on the
light of the dawning New Age to you all. You are free to accept or reject their 
teachings, but only those who learn to live in peace will pass to the higher 
realms of spiritual evolution.

    * Hear now the voice of Vrillon, a representative of the Ashtar Galactic Command,
speaking to you. Be aware also that there are many false prophets and guides
operating in your world. They will suck your energy from you - the energy you 
call money and will put it to evil ends and give you worthless dross in return.

    * Your inner divine self will protect you from this. You must learn to be sensitive
to the voice within that can tell you what is truth, and what is confusion, chaos 
and untruth. Learn to listen to the voice of truth which is within you and
you will lead yourselves onto the path of evolution.

    * This is our message to our dear friends. We have watched you growing
for many years as you too have watched our lights in your skies. 
You know now that we are here, and that there are more beings on and around
your Earth than your scientists admit.

    * We are deeply concerned about you and your path towards the light and
will do all we can to help you. Have no fear, seek only to know yourselves, 
and live in harmony with the ways of your planet Earth. 
We of the Ashtar Galactic Command thank you for your attention. 
We are now leaving the plane of your existence. 

May you be blessed by the supreme love and truth of the cosmos.

 ~~~"Aliens ’hijack’ Nasa’s Voyager 2 spacecraft, claims expert."
Hartwig Hausdorf, a German academic, believes that the reason Voyager 2, 
an unmanned probe that has been in space since 1977, is sending strange 
messages that are confusing scientists, is because it has been taken over
by extraterrestrial life.
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=10977

 ~~~"NASA Decoded Alien Transmission From Saturn."
Speech patterns have been found in a radio signal released by NASA
almost 3 years previously in 2004.
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyAbNIF3qx8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ3S6hmd-Ow

Secrets have many people with them that want to keep it a secret!

~~~"India's Nuclear Scientists Keep Dying Mysteriously."
Indian nuclear scientists haven't had an easy time of it over the past decade. 

Not only has the scientific community been plagued by "suicides," unexplained 
deaths, and sabotage, but those incidents have gone mostly underreported 
in the country—diluting public interest and leaving the cases quickly
cast off by police.

Last month, two high-ranking engineers—KK Josh and Abhish Shivam—on 
India's first nuclear-powered submarine were found on railway tracks by workers. 

They were pulled from the line before a train could crush them, but were already
dead. No marks were found on the bodies, so it was clear they hadn't been 
hit by a moving train, and reports allege they were poisoned elsewhere before
being placed on the tracks to make the deaths look either accidental or like
a suicide. The media and the Ministry of Defense, however, described the 
incident as a routine accident and didn't investigate any further.
http://www.vice.com/read/why-are-indian-authorities-ignoring-the-deaths-of-nuclear-scientists

~~~"Karen Silkwood"

"She worked at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site plant 

near Crescent, Oklahoma, United States. Silkwood's job was making plutonium

pellets for nuclear reactor fuel rods. She joined the union and became an 

activist on behalf of issues of health and safety at the plant as a member 

of the union's negotiating team, the first woman to have that position

at Kerr-McGee. In the summer of 1974, she testified to the Atomic Energy Commission

about her concerns."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Silkwood

***Personal note, there is a cave on a side of the road close to the dam in 

Fort Gibson Oklahoma that was rumored to have some kind of nasty in it! 

Coal Ash, or might even be related to the Kerr-McGee plant~Silkwood! 

Many people said the cave is big like to drive a truck into it.
They always get chased out by the ranger going into the cave!

But the main point is cover ups happen but the door is always still open and
we all will get there sometime!

Alien transmissions? In the light there are too many of them to be not!
Even the strange video "Dying nasa scientist shows audio/video of alien transmission."
has something.

I heard a few things relating to the video with people that say they have had a
OBE and have seen and heard the music and visual of the video.
So a transmission might be what it is!
"In surveys, as many as 85% of respondents tell of hearing loud noises, known
as "exploding head syndrome" (EHS), during the onset of OBEs."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience

Also noted is the part on the video at 0:17 that tends to point at Nikola Tesla's
electric motor. Being Tesla was hearing transmissions, makes you wonder!

 

*Warning about the end of the video. Think it's a self destruct telling your 

body to get cancer. It you didn't respond by then you are defective so...

Entitlement? You payed taxes for it!

In the world of the Tea Party about entitlement, like how Liberals want others to
pay their rent. It's like the Tea Party is not able to understand people like Liberals
payed taxes and have a right to use it. It's your money what do you pay taxes
for just for the fun of it? Well I guess in the world of the Tea Party!

It's like getting your pay check then looking at how much social security gets
taken out. And you don't use it when you need it. Like hard work won't kill ya, but
I'm not taking any chances! But in fact they work them selves right into the Hospital.
Really when you think about it! If you work your ass off than how are you to take care
of your kids when you have no ass?
I worked till my leg fell off but at least I got the job done!
But now you have one leg and how are you to get to the finish line with your kids in toe?
Are they going to make it with you dragging them down?
You cant get there so Y'all stuck in the mud!

Now are you to just sit there and let stupid happen?. Teachers in a class with a bad kid
will not! So that Teacher is a bad hateful person for not letting the stupidly grow?
It's like my saying "Always Argue with stupid people because they vote stupid!"
Sort of like how Bush JR got in office! With his DUI any many knowing he was still
a drunk! Look at us now! So are you to just sit there and let him do his thing?
Or just kill stupidly anyway you can, because you don't want to die from them!

Anyway you see it let the Tea Party have it. And please let them know why because
they don't understand!

dUg Pinnick of King’s X: The Naked Truth interview too cool!

Like the song from King's X there is no room in a box.
Well really there isn't and I am as many glad dUg got out of the box!
This is an interview of dUg by By Jeb Wright of classicrockrevisited.com.

 ~~~"dUg Pinnick of King’s X: The Naked Truth"
King’s X made a big splash as a Christian rock band in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
While they like to downplay their Christian status today, even claiming that the early records
were not necessarily religious, they were, nonetheless, considered a Christian rock group
by the record buying public back in the day.  They were, perhaps, the first band to really put
rock music first, and their beliefs second.  In addition to this, King’s X had a very unique
progressive hard rock style that caught the attention of rockers who could care less what
they were being preached to about.  The band consisted of fabulous musicians blurring racial
and religious lines.

While King’s X is still together, the members of the band all have a life outside of
their day gig. Bassist dUg Pinnick has four of five bands, all of them featuring
original music. One of the reasons for his creative output is to deal with his
personal issues. He creates to heal himself from abusive situations in his past, as
well as a way to deal with the disease of depression.

On May 7, 2013, Pinnick will release a solo album titled Naked, in which the artist
bares his soul for the world to see.  Over the past several years, Pinnick has started over,
financially, emotional, mentally and spiritually.  He has been close the edge and, on
occasion, stared over the edge in the abyss.

What follows is a very open and honest interview with a tortured artist who is doing the
best he can, despite himself.  dUg fights his demons with music, and so far, it is a
prescription that is working.  Like the music on Naked, Pinnick is an emotional and
fragile artistic personality.  He is, however, continuing to fight the good fight, always able
to find a flicker of light, even in the deepest and darkest of tunnels.

Jeb: Before we even get into your solo album, Naked, I want to tell you that Pinnick, Gales, Pridgen is an amazing album and I am totally hooked on it. 
dUg: That is awesome.  I just got home from San Francisco where we are finishing up the second one.
Jeb: Don’t tease me…is it more of the same?
dUg: It is more of the same.  I think the songs are better.  It was a lot of fun to make this record.  We took a little more time to do the second one.  Mike Varney called me up and said, “Do you want to do another PGP record?”  I said, “Yes I do, but I have just written five records and I have nothing to give you.  I’m burnt.”  When I went to San Francisco to make the record, I was in the middle of mixing my blues band, Grinder Blues, and putting vocal tracks on this other side project called KXM with Ray Luzier from Korn and George Lynch.  George texted me the other day and wants to know when we can get together and work on this.
I told the guys at Magna Carta, the record company, that I had nothing to give, but I got there and they told me Tom was going to be here for four days to do the drums, so we had to write fifteen songs.  I was like, “God damn it.”  I grabbed my guitar and within 45 minutes I had written a song.  I wrote five songs in two days.  We tracked them and the funny thing is that they decided to do a video on this instrumental track.  They said, “dUg, we need you to come up with some lyrics for that song so we can do the video.”  I went back to the house, where I was staying, and I wrote them.  We shit out a bunch of lyrics and music, but we did it.  It was stressful, but not in a bad way.  It was work to get there and hash out the parts, but it was a wonderful experience.

Jeb: Musically, Eric Gales and you two are a good match. 
dUg: I have known Eric since he was a teenager.  Back in the day, he opened for King’s X.  He is like a little brother in some ways.  I watched that boy go through his thing.  He lost his band and he went to prison for armed robbery. I don’t see him or talk to him hardly at all.  He is just one of those people who pop in and out of my life.  We have a kinship, but other than that…he always looked up to me in King’s X.
He has grown and he is running neck and neck with me now.  It is neat to hang with him and make music, but we don’t know each other really well anymore.  We make music and then I go back to where I am hanging out and he is with his wife.
Jeb: Tell me about what you’re doing with George Lynch. 
dUg: We are called KXM.  We have three songs that we are shopping right now.  We’ve got a whole album almost done.  We have Ray Luzier from Korn playing drums.  It is good stuff.
Jeb: You are in a creative whirlwind.  How many different things do you have going on? 
dUg: I don’t know what is going on, but I have five different projects going on right now.  When I moved to California, I decided to break my neck and that is what I did.
Jeb: What are the plans for King’s X?
dUg: We are getting ready to start rehearsing and we have about ten shows coming up in the next month.  We are getting revved up.
Jeb: You did some shows with Kansas.
dUg: That was a few months ago.  They asked me to be in the band a long time ago; Kerry Livgren called me. That was like twenty years ago.  I feel camaraderie with them, but I didn’t get to know them well.  Getting to hang out with them and talk with them was great.  Plus, they play some of my favorite songs and I got to watch them every night.
Jeb: It is interesting that King’s X and Kansas were both known as Christian bands.  Kansas, actually were not, until nearly ten years into the band when Kerry became Born Again.  
dUg: They weren’t.  When Kerry became Born Again and started to change the lyrics to Christianity, that’s when Steve Walsh said, “I’m done guys.  We can talk about spiritual stuff, but when you put it in an ultimatum then I’m done.”  Christianity was not cool for a rock band back then.  Now, every band is Christian and they drink and they smoke and they do everything.  “We don’t say fuck, but we fuck our girlfriends.”  Everybody has their little niche, it is so funny now.
Jeb: Let’s talk about your solo effort that is coming out May 7^th, titled Naked.  Are you playing all of the instruments on this thing? 
dUg: On one song called “Ain’t that the Truth” there is a lead break by Tracy Singleton, who played with Fishbone and Mother’s Finest.  Other than that, I did everything.  I like that song.

Jeb: You are not playing guitar like a bass player at all!
dUg: [laughter] Bass is my main instrument, but I always write music on guitar.  It keeps getting better and better the more I do it.  I don’t consider myself a guitar player, I just have been writing songs on the guitar for forty years and, as a result of that, I’ve learned to play guitar.

Jeb: You have all of these different projects going on, so why do these songs make this album instead of one of the other projects?
dUg: I don’t categorized my songs, I just give whatever I’ve got to whatever I am doing at that time. The Naked album is a very deeply personal record for me because of the lyrics, so I didn’t want to give these songs to everybody.  It’s my little thing and I wanted to put it out like that.
I was going through a lot of deep shit when I was making that record and it’s my deep shit, and not anybody else’s.  I just feel like this record is all me being me and no one is going to come in and take these songs and change them, or do anything different with them, other than what I gave to them.
Jeb: It sounds like you are taking this very seriously.  

dUg: This is very important to me because of the state I was in when I wrote these songs.  I had to move to LA because I wasn’t making any money.  I didn’t know what I was doing.
I was sleeping on the floor; I came out here basically with my clothes and a few guitars and decided I was going to live like I was twenty years old again.  My brother moved into my house and he took over all of my payments and bills and I just left.
I’ve been out here for three years and I finally feel like I’m alive again.  I am getting a life and I’m making music and doing things.  Naked is a result of all of that; those three years of trying to figure myself out.  It was a pretty rough time for me.  I am not complaining because everybody has rough times.
Jeb: You talk about all of this, even your brother on one of the songs.  
dUg: “Whatcha Gonna Do” is the song.
Jeb: So that is all true.  
dUg: Everything written on Naked is true shit.  The only song that is just made up is “That Great Big Thing.”  The chorus in that song makes no sense, but the verses are really deep.
Jeb: People think that you’re a rock star, so how can you have trouble paying the bills.  
dUg: We can’t have problems with that, or depression, or loneliness because everybody loves us.
Jeb: King’s X was a great band and you were successful, but you didn’t sell albums like the Who.  Reality is reality. 
dUg: Exactly, and that is what I try to let people know.  We didn’t sell millions of records and I am not sitting in a mansion up on a hill like the record executive that signed us.
Jeb: I can quote the song titled on Naked…”Ain’t that the truth.”  
dUg: [laughter] yeah, ain’t that the truth!  That song was about Jerry [Gaskill] having his heart attack.  I didn’t know what to do with myself when that happened because he is in New Jersey and I am out here in California.  Everybody was at the hospital with him and I am stuck in LA because I can’t afford to go out there.  I wrote three songs when that happened.  “Courage,” “Ain’t That the Truth,” and “I am Not Going to Freak Out” I wrote while we were waiting for Jerry to come out of a coma.

Jeb: Sometimes it is the hard times that spawn that creative spark. 
dUg: My best songs come from my worst times.
Jeb: That sucks. 
dUg: It does suck, but it’s true.  If I don’t have any drama going on in my life then I don’t have anything to write about.  I have accepted it over the years. I took Wellbutrin for a while for depression, but I found that I couldn’t write any lyrics on it.  There was nothing getting to me because I didn’t care.  I just didn’t have any deep feelings about anything. When I got off the stuff and almost tried to kill myself, because Wellbutrin will do that when you come off of it.  After I got through that—no more of that stuff.  I just smoke weed and deal with it.

Jeb: Where do you go from here?  How do you lift yourself back up? 
dUg: I just will keep going like I do.  I laugh a lot about things because you have to laugh to keep from crying.  Everybody has their problems in life and what they have to deal with, from childhood abandonment, or abusive parents, or other deep, deep things.
My childhood was much different than most people and I look at things differently and it is the reason I have depression.  I have just had to learn to live with it.  Whatever life has dealt you then you have to deal with it and you can’t blame anyone anymore. What I try to do is to write songs about how I feel, without blaming anyone. I try to say that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that you can work this out and that you just need to hang on.
Sometimes I don’t think I’m going to make it, but we all get to those places in our life where it is so dark that you just don’t think you can make it but, somehow, the light comes on and you just keep on going.  That is what I like to write about.  I don’t like to write about anything final like I want to kill myself.
Jeb: Do you? 
dUg: Well, I did write a song called “I Want to Kill Myself Tonight” and I ended up changing the lyrics.  I knew that even though, right then, I wanted to do that, I knew I wasn’t going to do that.  That song would be out there forever and everyone would be able to judge me for that, you know.  Twenty years later I don’t want someone to write me a letter saying, “dUg, why do want to kill yourself?”  It’s not like that.
Jeb: I relate to you as a creative person.  I think sometimes we use the creative process, and writing about those dark times, as a way to heal ourselves. 
dUg: It is totally healing.  I have this thing called Abandoned Child Syndrome.  To make a long story short, my mother and father did not raise me.  I was left at an age when I was just beginning to bond.
When they left, it put me into a traumatic place.  I have lived with this all of my life and I’m just beginning to understand what it is and how to deal with it.  It affects how I look at myself and my relationships with people.  You don’t feel like you fit in and you don’t feel like anyone cares about you and you don’t feel like you’re worth a people’s time.  You are a piece of shit, basically.  In every aspect, you’re a complete piece of shit, because the people that you needed to tell you that you were okay were not there to tell you that and the people that were there would yell at you.  I grew up with this outlook on life like I’m a piece of shit and that nobody cares.  When I got up on my feet, I realized I had a gift to write music.  I had to write songs and sing about things and I was an artist, so I wanted to draw things as well.  What was I going to draw or sing about?  I wrote and sang about whatever I had in my heart and what I felt.  I still do.
If you sing about sex all the time then you might be a sexaholic.  If you write about love all of the time then you might be obsessed with love.  Everybody has certain things that they sing about.  As a result, we show the world who we are through our songs, as artists.  My songs are pretty dark, but hopefully there is a light.  That is how I live.  I live in this darkness and I feel like I’m drowning, but when I come up I can see land.  I know it is out there, so I go back down and deal with it—that’s how I look at it.
Jeb: You can feel your energy on the songs on Naked.  I really like your guitar playing on the album. I love the solo on “I Hope I Don’t Lose My Mind.”
dUg: Thank you, that really means a whole lot to me, you have no idea.  I really struggled putting that solo on the record.  I was afraid all guitar players were going to say, “dUg, you really tried but you didn’t get it.”
Jeb: Do you get in touch with the emotion through the music or through the lyric? 
dUg: When I write a song, I pull up the drum programming first.  I reach inside my soul and try to figure out how I am feeling.  Whatever energy I have, I channel into the drums and make up some beats.  Then, I pick up my guitar and start coming up with chords.  Usually, that is the fun part for me; I like to make up interesting guitar parts. When I get the parts done, then I piece them together and make it into a song and I listen to it, without any words, or any vocal melodies at all.  I play the music over and over in my headphones until I hear a melody in all of the overtones that are coming through the cymbals, the guitars, the bass and everything. All of a sudden, I will hear a melody come out of it. Something will hit me where I am just depressed.  I will wake up in the morning and it hits me really hard and I feel really bad.  I go, “Aw, fuck, I’ve got to get back on track.”  I did exactly that when I wrote “Feeling Down Again.”

My phone rings all of the time because people want to see how I am doing.  You can’t explain to people who do not live in a depressive state of life what it is like because all they want to do is to be able to fix it. After a while, they get tired of hearing you complain about how you feel.  They are like, “Why don’t you change?”  People don’t realize that traumatic things that happen to you in life stay with you the rest of your life.  You have to learn how to deal with it and one of the ways I do that is to write songs about it.
Jeb: I am an emotional person and I drive my wife crazy.  She literally needs breaks from me.  
dUg: That’s the way I am.  I am such deprived person when it comes to needing attention and love that as soon as I find someone, then the only thing left for them to do, by the time I am done with them, is for them to run.
Jeb: “The Point” is a lyrically amazing song. 
dUg: That song is half about me and half about Jerry.  Jerry actually died and came back.  Jerry went to that point of no return to where that next step is forever and that is what that song is about.  I think that is one of my deepest songs, lyrically.
Jeb: “If You Fuk Up” is a really strong lyric.
dUg: That is a serious song for sure.  It was the way I was feeling when I wrote the song.  The serious side of that song is that you need to talk to someone when you’re depressed.
What happened was that I had gotten to a place to where I was so depressed that I wouldn’t talk to anyone about it.  I was learning great ways to hide it.  I realized that when you start hiding those feelings…the people that I know who killed themselves were people that I didn’t know were depressed.
I found myself becoming part of that state of mind.  It scared me to get to that place.  A friend of mine texted me and said, “Are you okay?”  I said that I was fine and he texted back and said, ‘If you fuck up and don’t tell anyone, then none of us will forgive ourselves for what you’ve done.  You mean something.”  I was in tears.  I got up and the chorus just came; I had the music.  I sat down with the music and the words just flowed.  They all came out and it was just exactly how I was feeling at the time.
Jeb: I know you were raised in a very religious atmosphere.  King’s X was a Christian band.  I know you have now rejected that.  Creativity is very spiritual to me.  Where are you at with all of that now?
dUg: I went through a bunch of different emotional attitudes towards the concept of God.  It is always changing, but where I am now is that I don’t know what is responsible for all of this, or if anything is responsible for it, but I totally respect it.  I don’t think that it has talked to me, or spoke to me in anyway that I know.  I believe that something keeps and eye on me because things happen in my life that I can’t believe are a coincidence.
When I think that I am going to breakdown and that I am not going to make it, then I will cry out and say, “I don’t know anything, but I am asking for help.”  I don’t attach any names or religion to it.  Whatever God is, I don’t know, but I am at peace with that.  For me, personally, I just want to be in the groove of whatever this all is.  I try to create peace and I try to love.  I want to be at peace when I die.  I want good energy flowing all the time.
I believe all religions, and Jesus, talked about this all of the time.  It is the flow of life, the good and the band and accepting it all.  That is where I am at with the whole spiritual situation.  Sometimes I sit down and I really want to write a song, but I dry up and have nothing.  I go, “Give me some music.” Within an hour, I come up with something really cool that I like.  I don’t know where it comes from, what it is, or why it is, but, to me, it is something outside of me.
At this point in my life, I am not open for anyone to tell me what it is.  I am open to hear what another’s concept is, and how it works for them.  I have total respect for that but, in my life right now, if someone comes up to me and talks about the old religious ways of doing things, I just tell them that I can’t do that anymore.  That kept me in depression.
Being a Christian, the first thing you learn is that you’re not worthy and that you’re not good enough.  You are going to be judged and if you don’t do this, or that, then you are going to go to hell.  Since I am a really depressed person, who came from a shame based sort of a psychology, religion is not good for me.  The religion that I was a part of didn’t lift me up to love myself and to love my maker.  It made me feel like I wasn’t good enough.
Jeb: Acknowledging your gay did not help.  
dUg: Especially because I’m gay, in the Christian world that is a no-no.  There is a place in the Bible where God says that is an abomination.  When a preacher gets up to preach, he says that an abomination is what God hates more than anything else. God hates a lot of things in the Bible, but when God says something is an abomination, then you’re going to hell and God has nothing to do with you and there is no way you’re going to change that.
I didn’t know what to do anymore and I had no one to help me.  I just tried to find my way out of that hole.  I started to look back and realize that it was just another religion and that they all have their own thing.  I realized it was not the only way.  People need something to believe in and they need to feel a part of something and they need spiritual awareness.  I have nothing against it, but when they legislate and tell people what they have to do in order to get with God, I say, “Not anymore.  You’re way didn’t work and I’ve have a new way.”
Jeb: Are you getting on with things? 
dUg: I had an episode a couple of days ago where I was screaming and yelling and breaking down, but something came to me and I feel like I got another piece of the puzzle. I feel like my life is a broken puzzle and I’m trying to put the pieces together.  I found another piece, so today, I am sort of…you know how you feel like when you run a marathon, or you’ve had a long fight with somebody?  You just feel drained and weak and you shake…that is how I feel right now.
I had not had one of those emotional episodes in a long, long time.  It had been years.  I don’t know what happened, or what triggered it.  It never ends.  What keeps me going is knowing that I’m not the only one. Everyone has problems.  You were talking about you’re problems and we all have them, and that is what makes me want to keep writing about them.
A person can put Naked on and they know where I am at, as they have sat in their room crying.  They know that somebody else has been through the same thing.  I write songs for me, and for other people, to not feel alone.
Jeb: You are a tortured artist.
dUg: That’s what they call me. You have to find a way to make yourself that way.  Sometimes I think I might be addicted to it.

Jeb: Like most tortured souls, however, you have a great sense of humor.
dUg: You have too.  How else will you survive?  When you see somebody and they say “My grandfather raped me when I was three years old” then they make a joke about it.  They have too.  It is the only thing that they can do is to joke about it.  You don’t joke about it, but that’s how you deal with it.  If you would put your emotions into what you just told somebody that is that heavy, then you will breakdown and break them down too.  Why bring everybody down?
Jeb: It could be worse.  Just look at Eric Gales.  He went to prison. 
dUg: That is what keeps me going. It really could be worse.
Jeb: George Carlin said, “No matter how bad you have it, someone has it as worse as you but they have a fucking headache.”  
dUg: [laughter] George Carlin is my pastor.  If there was a Church of Carlin then I would join.  He’s my guy.
Jeb:  Last one:  Where did you come up with the dUg way of spelling your first name?
dUg: I am an artist.  I paint and I do stuff like that.  I always wanted to be a stenographer.  My handwriting is really beautiful.  I have always taken pride in it. One day, now that we type everything and nobody writes, I accidentally put a big “U” and a small ‘d’ and a little ‘g’ and I thought it looked cool, so I have been doing it ever since.
Check out dUg on Facebook
http://www.kingsxrocks.com

http://www.classicrockrevisited.com/show_interview.php?id=972

***I need to note that life is hard for "famous people." more than many know!
"Sister of late Beatle George Harrison, 82, lives broke and alone in rural Missouri after
his family 'cut her out of his $300million will and stopped the allowance he paid to support her"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2514041/Beatle-George-Harrisons-sister-Louise-82-lives-broke-rural-Missouri.html

So all in life you all are not a lone!

A New Day dUg, A new Day!

There is no room in a box, get out of the box!

 ~~~"Getting Out of the Box: Thoughts On Living An Authentic Life."
Marla Maples and I had the most lovely chat this morning, and I have to say I totally have a crush on her now. You might know Marla as the ex-wife of tycoon Donald Trump, but I know Marla as this loving, spiritual, awakening being longing to shed the baggage of her past and serve the world with her gorgeous heart.

My heart goes out to her. Imagine living in a world that sees you not as you are, but as some artificial montage of what the media has crafted together in the tabloids. What you’ve read in the magazines is not the Marla I spoke with today. Just as my Perfect Storm lifted me into the cyclone and landed me on my spiritual path, Marla’s oh-so-public divorce catapulted her into discovering her calling- to help the world awaken and discover that we are all interconnected, that we are all One World of Love (the title song of the CD she is creating).

Shedding the Masks Society Expects Us to Wear
I know what it feels like for society to put you in a box.  My box has been the doctor box. While it has never felt authentic to who I am as a spirit, others try to cram me into this mold of respected physician- wearing a white coat, standing on a pedestal, distancing myself, and talking down to people, as if I am the “Expert” and patients (ie. “Others”) should listen to me. This has never resonated with the heart of who I am.

I have rebelled against that box from the moment someone handed me the hard-earned white coat. I have never seen myself as different from my patients. I am a doctor, but I am also a woman, who has straddled the stirrups, given birth, gotten an STD, and walked the spiritual path, ever-seeking. As such, I feel connected, not separate, from every woman who walks into my office.

Yet, when I tried to publish my memoir, which is all about the spiritual journey that ensued after my Perfect Storm (my agent jokingly called it Eat, Pray, Vagina!), publishers wanted me to don my white coat and rewrite it. I refused. That’s just not me, and at the end of the day, you’ve gotta stay true to who you are.

It Takes Courage to Resist the Box
Marla encountered the same resistance. She wrote a book, All That Glitters Isn’t Gold, about the spiritual journey she has traveled since her divorce. She wrote the book about her journey back to herself, about connecting to Source, about being true to who she is at the core. And yet the publishing world resisted. They wanted her to write a tell-all something they could splash all over the tabloids. In essence, they wanted her to get back into her box. Just like me.

Marla has worked hard to shed the box society puts her in.  As a public figure, others want her to stay stuck in the past, to capitalize on what it means to be Donald Trump’s ex-wife, but this is not her journey. That was twelve years ago. She has moved on, and the experiences of her past have informed her present life but do not define her.  Instead, she feels called to use her influence to help heal the world, to remind us all that we are united by Divine Love, to create music that touches the soul, and to serve.  I admire her. I say “You go girl.”  I love who she is, sans box, and encourage her to hold her head high and stay true to the authentic Marla. Why would anyone ever want to be anything other than who they really are?

Retaining Your True Shape
It’s not easy to resist the pressures to conform into the boxes society expects us to stay in.  In her book Kitchen Table Wisdom, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen writes of a vision that came to her in meditation of a white rectangle. She assumed it was a business card, but upon further reflection, she reinterpreted the white rectangle as her former self- a fluffy round marshmallow- that has been subjected to pressures from all sides until it was squashed into a flat white rectangle. When I read this story, I burst into tears, thinking “Me too! Me too! I’m a marshmallow, not a rectangle.” I felt comforted to know I’m not alone. After reading that, I gave myself permission to fluff back up, to resist the pressure, and to be ALL ME, ALL THE TIME in my marshmallowy glory.

I see Marla doing the same, and it makes me smile….

How have we done this? How did Marla and I escape our boxes and stay true to who we are? Some tips.

Tips For Getting Out of the Box and Living An Authentic Life

1. Know thyself- As long as you define yourself the way others define you, you’ll find it challenging to escape the box. Do whatever it takes to know yourself deeply- write in a journal, meditate, talk to a counselor, share with friends, tell your story on Owning Pink’s forum- whatever it takes. But be honest with yourself, even if you don’t always like what you see.
2. Send your inner critic to time out- Once you know who you really are, love yourself right where you are. Don’t try to be something you’re not. Be your own best friend, and hold your own hand as you resist the pressure to flatten your inner marshmallow.
3. Let go of expectations- By resisting the box, I failed to get my memoir published. But in doing so, another book deal that allowed me to be real showed up on my doorstep. You never know what will happen when you get out of the box but you have to trust that it will all work out.
4. Release fear- If you’re ruled by the fear that you won’t be accepted out of the box, you’ll never be able to escape it. Trust. Believe. Know that being real will always serve you better than conforming to a shape that isn’t you.
5. Summon the courage to shed your masks- Imagine if we all just stopped wearing masks that cover who we really are. Imagine if we just greeted each other, spirit to spirit.  Imagine if you were loved for who you really are, not for who others expect you to be. Trust me- it’s possible.

What about you? Are you able to escape the box?  Do you remember what’s true at your core?  What would your life look like if you resisted the pressures that push you into boxes and allowed yourself to be whole, to be real, to shine your bright light in the world?  Tell us your stories. Show us your inner marshmallow…

Marla Maples and I had the most lovely chat this morning, and I have to say I totally have a crush on her now. You might know Marla as the ex-wife of tycoon Donald Trump, but I know Marla as this loving, spiritual, awakening being longing to shed the baggage of her past and serve the world with her gorgeous heart.
My heart goes out to her. Imagine living in a world that sees you not as you are, but as some artificial montage of what the media has crafted together in the tabloids. What you've read in the magazines is not the Marla I spoke with today. Just as my Perfect Storm lifted me into the cyclone and landed me on my spiritual path, Marla's oh-so-public divorce catapulted her into discovering her calling- to help the world awaken and discover that we are all interconnected, that we are all One World of Love (the title song of the CD she is creating).

Shedding the Masks Society Expects Us to Wear
I know what it feels like for society to put you in a box. My box has been the doctor box. While it has never felt authentic to who I am as a spirit, others try to cram me into this mold of respected physician- wearing a white coat, standing on a pedestal, distancing myself, and talking down to people, as if I am the "Expert" and patients (ie. "Others") should listen to me. This has never resonated with the heart of who I am.
I have rebelled against that box from the moment someone handed me the hard-earned white coat. I have never seen myself as different from my patients. I am a doctor, but I am also a woman, who has straddled the stirrups, given birth, gotten an STD, and walked the spiritual path, ever-seeking. As such, I feel connected, not separate, from every woman who walks into my office.
Yet, when I tried to publish my memoir, which is all about the spiritual journey that ensued after my Perfect Storm (my agent jokingly called it Eat, Pray, Vagina!), publishers wanted me to don my white coat and rewrite it. I refused. That's just not me, and at the end of the day, you've gotta stay true to who you are.
It Takes Courage to Resist the Box
Marla encountered the same resistance. She wrote a book, All That Glitters Isn't Gold, about the spiritual journey she has traveled since her divorce. She wrote the book about her journey back to herself, about connecting to Source, about being true to who she is at the core. And yet the publishing world resisted. They wanted her to write a tell-all something they could splash all over the tabloids. In essence, they wanted her to get back into her box. Just like me.
Marla has worked hard to shed the box society puts her in. As a public figure, others want her to stay stuck in the past, to capitalize on what it means to be Donald Trump's ex-wife, but this is not her journey. That was twelve years ago. She has moved on, and the experiences of her past have informed her present life but do not define her. Instead, she feels called to use her influence to help heal the world, to remind us all that we are united by Divine Love, to create music that touches the soul, and to serve. I admire her. I say "You go girl." I love who she is, sans box, and encourage her to hold her head high and stay true to the authentic Marla. Why would anyone ever want to be anything other than who they really are?
Retaining Your True Shape
It's not easy to resist the pressures to conform into the boxes society expects us to stay in. In her book Kitchen Table Wisdom, Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen writes of a vision that came to her in meditation of a white rectangle. She assumed it was a business card, but upon further reflection, she reinterpreted the white rectangle as her former self- a fluffy round marshmallow- that has been subjected to pressures from all sides until it was squashed into a flat white rectangle. When I read this story, I burst into tears, thinking "Me too! Me too! I'm a marshmallow, not a rectangle." I felt comforted to know I'm not alone. After reading that, I gave myself permission to fluff back up, to resist the pressure, and to be ALL ME, ALL THE TIME in my marshmallowy glory.
I see Marla doing the same, and it makes me smile....
How have we done this? How did Marla and I escape our boxes and stay true to who we are? Some tips.
Tips For Getting Out of the Box and Living An Authentic Life
1. Know thyself- As long as you define yourself the way others define you, you'll find it challenging to escape the box. Do whatever it takes to know yourself deeply- write in a journal, meditate, talk to a counselor, share with friends, tell your story on Owning Pink's forum- whatever it takes. But be honest with yourself, even if you don't always like what you see.
2. Send your inner critic to time out- Once you know who you really are, love yourself right where you are. Don't try to be something you're not. Be your own best friend, and hold your own hand as you resist the pressure to flatten your inner marshmallow.
3. Let go of expectations- By resisting the box, I failed to get my memoir published. But in doing so, another book deal that allowed me to be real showed up on my doorstep. You never know what will happen when you get out of the box but you have to trust that it will all work out.
4. Release fear- If you're ruled by the fear that you won't be accepted out of the box, you'll never be able to escape it. Trust. Believe. Know that being real will always serve you better than conforming to a shape that isn't you.
5. Summon the courage to shed your masks- Imagine if we all just stopped wearing masks that cover who we really are. Imagine if we just greeted each other, spirit to spirit. Imagine if you were loved for who you really are, not for who others expect you to be. Trust me- it's possible.
What about you? Are you able to escape the box? Do you remember what's true at your core? What would your life look like if you resisted the pressures that push you into boxes and allowed yourself to be whole, to be real, to shine your bright light in the world? Tell us your stories. Show us your inner marshmallow...
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/owning-pink/201006/getting-out-the-box-thoughts-living-authentic-life

~~~"Get out of the BOX."
One of the greatest feelings in the world is overcoming a seemingly unconquerable mountain; doing something that you thought you’d never be able to do. That euphoria that comes from accomplishment and achievement. True, noticeable growth comes when you STEP out of your comfort zone and push yourself erected boundaries and limits.  
“If we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone.”

Forget the hypothetical *box* we put ourselves in. forget the four invisible walls that surround us and restrain our growth. Step out the box into new possibilities, challenges and experiences. Stretch yourself beyond what feels comfortable. Do things that challenge you. Face your fears. Usually, the thrill we get from conquering our fears and insecurities is bigger than the fear itself.
http://tashy-b.blogspot.com/2011/01/get-out-of-box.html

***True as it is in your own life or not, you still see it, if not in yourself but in others,
when you stand back and start to notice people!
Being in a box comes in many forms. Poverty is a box in the way it tends to make decisions
for you. In that case you would need to know to let things go.
Like in a view of saying "Oh well I never needed it anyway!" so you go on
living within your means, or make it yourself, why do without?
http://failblog.cheezburger.com/thereifixedit

Drink some beer go fishing. Beer is not that costly anyway.
I can see more money spent on your electric bill than anything!
So go spend a small part of your money on beer and most on the electric bill!

The fact of the matter is like the saying, "People that work don't know fishing!"
So being rich and all the work to be rich comes with a cost, as in less time
for your self, driving a BMW that has a $500 oil change cost etc.
House insurance that cost more than many poor peoples cars.
Or like in my town many rich have cars that cost more than poor peoples homes!
I know I looked them up! http://www.zillow.com

That alone says it all. Get out of the box and find it for your self!
Yes many rich drive cars that cost more than peoples homes!
And many rich kids have more costly technology in their bedroom
than a poor person has in their whole house!
The more you have the more you spend.

Other than that you just need to get out and know it takes you.
It's a test of life, that comes with a test http://getoutofthebox.com
If there is a fire in the kitchen get out and find your happiness
or who makes you happy!

So know there is no room in a box, so get out of the box!