Truffles

Truffles

The black winter truffle is considered the creme de la creme of all the black truffles. That's the one that goes for about $800 a pound. But, it's always in short supply. There's a truffle that grows wild in China that is a dead ringer for it, but has, like, maybe 2% of the smell . . . but it looks just right. So, for a while, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, there was this huge surge of truffles being dug in China, shipped to Italy or France, and then sold as black winter truffles–French black winter truffles or Italian black winter truffles. But, they were all Chinese.

And, the numbers were huge. One dealer in Italy was caught with 47 tons of these Chinese truffles in their warehouse, like, 10 years back. So, it was–probably a significant amount of the black truffles being sold in the world were completely fake and were actually these Chinese truffles. And, I don't think that's true anymore, but there was a dark era there.

The Six Characteristics of the Modern Gnostic

(1) The gnostic is dissatisfied with his situation. 

(2) The gnostic attributes his dissatisfaction to the world's intrinsic poor organization (instead of attributing the source of dissatisfaction to "poorly organized," or imperfect, human beings (original sin).

(3) The gnostic believes that salvation from the evil of the world is possible.

(4) In connection with the third characteristic, the gnostic believes that the very order of existence must be changed. From a wretched world a good one must evolve historically. Instead of salvation coming through grace at death, salvation must is procured now. 

(5) The gnostic believes that a change in the order of being--the procurement of salvation--lies within the realm of human action. 

(6) The gnostic believes it is up to him, through knowledge, to alter our very existence. This characteristic reveals "the construction of a formula for self and world salvation, as well as the gnostic’s readiness to come forward as a prophet who will proclaim his knowledge about the salvation of mankind."

Venezuela

A deeply corrupted bipartisanship. The natural course of democracy.

One guy finds out he can steal from the public treasure. His friends find out they can make deals with him and get rich too. Then the friends of the friends, and the corruption rings expand. Then everybody tries to live off the state when the state has destroyed everything in its path.

Before oil, circa 1920, we were cocoa and coffee growers, 90% of the people lived rurally. Once oil started flowing, the state started building infrastructure, universities, dams, highways, ports, airports, etc. and corruption money went to the hands of politicians and cronies creating a powerful ruling class, the caracas elite. People started migrating to the cities and professionalizing.

Then we got our Pinochet, General Perez Jimenez was dictator for ten years, the best years of our whole history in development as a nation, not so much in human rights. Socialists and communists started plotting to take over the government and they succeeded in 1958. We saw twenty more years of oil bonanza while corruption slowly was metastasizing. Dams, subways, bridges, more industry. Half of the money was invested and half was stolen. Slowly the investment half was shrinking and the stolen half growing bigger. More handouts for the poor, mostly migrant from conflictive neighbors in all latin america. The state was growing incontrollable. Everybody wanted to belong to the two most important parties so they could get political positions, employment, easy credits, international scholarships, etc. We were rich and we blew it.

The eighties and nineties were the beginning of the collapse. With ten more million immigrants growing the rings of misery and poverty around big cities, more handouts were given in order to win elections. Populism and demagoguery took the driving seat in the political train and the whole country wanted to end the corruption that was destroying our beautiful nation.

We thought bringing another military iron fist like Pinochet would eradicate corruption but oh boy were we mistaken. We picked a socialist ignorant mentored by Castro, and he took advantage of his intellectual weakness promising him grandeur like our independence liberators, and chavez believed it. Psychopath with delusions of grandeur. He started buying political support with oil handouts to every single country and island in the caribbean (they have one vote in OAS so he could buy all votes all the time) and handouts for the poor in the form of social missions. Everything was stolen, every single penny. Nothing was built, not a dam, not a school not a hospital, everything stolen.

He gave billions of dollars for his socialist ideal, they stole trillions. Billions for worker coops, stolen. Billions for social programs, stolen. Billions for tourism, stolen, for social industries, stolen, social banks, stolen. Every single penny, stolen.

Then he died. The destruction of the productive apparatus was already in full swing with all the expropriations, socialization, regulation and control from the state. Capitals flew out of the country while oil revenue was malinvested and stolen.

Then came maduro and his cronies to steal and destroy what was left. More than fifty family members of his wife took state positions and they stole everything. Their two nephews charged with drug trafficking in New York had million dollars yachts and private jets. All from stolen money.

You have no idea how much money has been stolen without zero investment, only the necessary to keep the electoral machinery greased and the propaganda mill running 24/7.

The result? Shortages, blackout, riots, criminality, and no signs of stepping down. As long as a single drop of oil comes out of the wells, they'll steal it all till the end of times.

We became a kleptocracy, thieves in power.

The question of whether Zen is at least partially informed by faith, or whether it's a philosophy, or whether it is, as Alan Watts thought of Buddhism, a type of psychotherapy, is important for this post, but the question is, nonetheless, beyond it.

Kerouac’s detachment ultimately failed for the same reason Salinger’s did: It stemmed from the metaphysical system of the Oriental religions rather than love. Kerouac embraced the detachment of Buddhism. Although he never completely deserted his native Roman Catholicism, Kerouac was infatuated with Buddhism. He saturated many of his books, like The Dharma Bums,with Buddhist themes. He practiced dhyana, Buddhist meditation. He at times took vows to lead a Buddhist life. In one vow, he promised to limit his sexual activity to masturbation (apparently his idea of austerity), another time he vowed to eat only one meal per day and to write about nothing but Buddhism. He at times exclaimed, “I am Buddha”—a real possibility, given the metaphysics of Buddhism—and once asked D. T. Suzuki (a famous Zen master) if he could spend the rest of his life with him.

Read more:http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=13-08-028-f#ixzz3Rp1KiuY8

The Third Vehicle

My third main vehicle is Gamco Gold: GGN.

Bennies and Bond

While writing this post, I ran across this interesting reference about James Bond:

Ian Fleming's James Bond References[edit]

In the series of books by Ian Fleming, the character James Bond repeatedly makes use of Benzedrine in times of peak stress and typically during the climax of various books. Actually, Ian Fleming first makes reference to Benzedrine in his first book 'Casino Royale' written in 1953. Le Chiffre, alias "Die Nummer", "Mr. Number", "Herr Ziffer" and other translations of "The Number" or "The Cipher" in various languages, is the paymaster of the "Syndicat des Ouvriers d'Alsace" (French for "Alsatian Workmen's Union"), a SMERSH-controlled trade union. In the very early scenes, Le Chiffre is noted to make use of a Benzadrine inhaler as he plays baccarat. This detail is not lost in the 2006 film remake of the same name with 'Le Chiffre' played by Danish actor, Mads Mikkelsen,also uses an inhaler. Benzedrine, however, was now considered to be too 'druggy' so a platinum cased Salbutamol inhaler makes do instead.< 'Casino Royale' 1953 Ian Fleming/ 'Casino Royale' 2006 Filmref> The character of James Bond's first use of Benzedrine is in the form of tablets in the book Live and Let Die ^[8] "...He still felt perfectly fresh and the elation and clarity of mind produced by the Benzedrine were still with him..." This scene occurs as James Bond is maneuvering through an underwater coral reef toward the island of Surprise off the coast ofJamaica. The next instance of James Bond using Benzedrine is in Moonraker where early in the book he uses a champagne and Benzedrine mixed drink (to which he says "Never Again.") to stay alert to beat the villain Hugo Drax at a game of high stakes contract bridge. Additionally, when James Bond is about to deal with two gangsters in The Spy Who Loved Me over a long night at the "Dreamy Pines Motor Court motel "...He took out two and when I gave him the coffee he swallowed them down. 'Benzedrine.' That'll keep me awake for tonight." says Bond.^[9]