The smart thing to do?

Israel protest against terror -

I do not regard myself as smart.

Though, I do regard myself as knowledgeable, a condition I attribute mostly to the fact that I am old and have been around long enough to collect a lot of knowable things…

Plus, I read a lot, which enables me to collect even more knowable things.

Yeah, knowing a lot doesn’t make one smart…

Knowing what to do with the things one knows, now that’s smart.

Smart people know how to leverage knowledge in ways that benefit them, however they may define it.

Probably they define it mostly as success, money, happiness, power, etc.

Or so I suppose.

I also suppose the fact that having a lot of knowledge doesn’t necessarily equate to being smart is also why calling someone a “know it all” is usually not a good thing.

Yeah…

But, unfortunately, there are some nuts in life that are so tough to crack that even truly smart people do not know what to do about them.

Climate change.

Trump.

The problems between Israel and Palestine.

Yeah, especially that one…

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Weaponized Words

scribbles on wall

It is the ongoing global war of misinformation that, long term, I am beginning to fear most.

The damage that has been done by it just from weaponizing social media sites alone is incomprehensible to me.

And yet, for the most part, this phase of the global misinformation war is being executed by slow-moving, mistake-prone, carbon-based humans…

When AI is fully engaged in the battle…

Oh boy*…

That’s when, I reckon fearfully, the doomsday clock strikes T-minus kaboom.

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God only knows…

Ostrakon with Biblical Text

Suppose two men are fighting and hit a pregnant woman, causing the baby to come out. If there is no further injury, the man who caused the accident must pay money—whatever amount the woman’s husband says and the court allows. But if there is further injury, then the punishment that must be paid is life for … Read more

If it’s not yet time to start worrying…

It’s getting awfully close. BTW, if you’re wondering whether the creep in the video has the street cred to back up his Earth-ending bombast, he is affectionately known in Russia’s kleptocratic circle as “Putin’s mouthpiece.” I wonder what the Vegas odds are for a Russian-induced nuclear holocaust by year’s end… #whatmeworry

Chemical Warfare

Speaking from my privileged First World perspective, our, meaning the United States’, response to the Syrian war has always been a very conflicting and troubling issue for me.

Poor me, right, when there’s somewhere around 500,000 Syrians dead and over 10,000,000 displaced.

Poor me, indeed.

But since all pain is relative, all I can do is acknowledge/empathize with/pray for the atrocities external from me while focusing on finding some way to mitigate or at least reconcile with the conflicts and turmoil internal to me.

So far I’ve been unsuccessful…

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WAR IS OVER

I’m a BIG Yoko Ono fan and I really dig her WAR IS OVER campaign. I especially dig all the free WAR IS OVER downloads she offers in a multitude of languages at http://imaginepeace.com/warisover/. And I especially especially dig this WAR IS OVER message written in flag-speak! #itsanavything #youwouldntunderstand