We are not alone

 "It's not what you look at that matters. It's what you see."
--HENRY DAVID THOREAU

NEW YORK CITY -- We are not alone. There are billions of galaxies, according to Carl Sagan.
Thanks to Albert Einstein who broadened the Law of Mechanics initiated by Galileo and Isaac Newton with his Theory of Relativity.
Truly, scentific achievement in the 20th century has become the major yardstick with which to measure a nation's cultural advancement.

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It is estimated that the Earth is 98 billion years old.
Dinosaurs lived on earth for about 100 million years before they were annihilated by a cometary impact, among other theories.
We humans starting from homo sapiens have not even inhabited the Earth for one million years but many of us already think we are already the most knowledgeable creatures in the universe.


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One manifestation of possible life in a certain planet is the presence of micro organisms.
Scientists have reportedly found a micro organism in planet Mars.
Was Mars inhabited by living creatures millions if not billions of years ago?
How about in Jupiter, Saturn, among other planets in and outside the Solar System not yet explored by human beings from planet Earth?

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Those who condemn the person who rejects an organized religion should study Plato's "Allegory of the cave"

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The evolution of human thought is among homo sapien's best contributions to civilization.

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Ayn Rand, author of "Atlas Shrugged", was reportedly a cougar like Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of Europe's most powerful women, Elizabeth I, Catherine II, and Mae West.

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"Who are you?" was the first question Sophie Amundsen got from an anonymous letter sender in the New York Times bestseller "Sophies's World", a novel about the history of philosophy, written by Jostein Gaarder, author of "The Solitaire Mystery"

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Sex education is a broad term used to describe education about human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and other aspects of human sexual behavior. Common avenues for sex education are parents or caregivers, school programs, and public health campaigns.

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George Washington was only 18 when he was appointed general of the Continental Army, and was the only U.S. president who didn't live in the White House.

French Revolution-like anger vs graft and corruption, abuses accelerates

“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” Che Guevara

By Alex P. Vidal

AYN Rand would have been amazed by the force and effectiveness of today’s netizens to influence and shape public opinion.

In this generation, they constitute the social media’s New Intellectuals, the most vigilant vanguards of the nation’s social, cultural, and political spectrum via the Internet.

No act of brutality, arrogance, malfeasance and demagoguery in the civilized society can escape the radar of amazing digital world.

A hailstorm of public censure and condemnation awaits those who possess the delusions of putting the law in their hands; those who think they are above the law and reason, owing to their power and influence, pelf and privileges for belonging in society’s higher social and political strata.

Gone are the days when publicly performed criminal acts and other forms of civil disobedience can be kept under wraps and the culprits getting away with impunity.

There’s always a big brother and sister watching: CCTVs and mobile phone cameras.

IDEAS

Meanwhile, objectivist Rand held that abstract ideas are man’s basic means of dealing with practical life.

She stressed that abstract ideas enable man to understand concrete issues, to evaluate them, and to act successfully to deal with them.

Rand further held that the problem with Western civilization was not that it was too intellectual, but that too many of its intellectuals accepted and propagated fundamentally wrong ideas.

Rand believed that what the world needs urgently are New Intellectuals.

As civilization marks this year the official end of the French Revolution on December 15, 1799, we begin the era of fighting graft and corruption, abuse of authority in military and government through a new wave: the social media.

We cannot afford today to give life to a modern Napoleon Bonaparte, the dictator who wanted to overrun Europe had it not been for his Waterloo defeat.

Politicians who want to overrun our treasury via pork barrel and other thinly-veiled acts of plunder and graft and corruption, are the smaller versions of Napoleon.

The specter of graft and corruption in government today is the rallying point of public anger and disgust that transformed into a bloody revolt; the tipping point that brought down the monarchy and cut off King Louis XVI’s and Marie Antoinette’s heads in the revolutionary scaffolds.  

MANTRA

Under the mantra of “Liberte, egalite, fraternity” (liberty, equality, fraternity), French society itself underwent a transformation as feudal, aristocratic, and religious privileges disappeared and old ideas about tradition and hierarchy were abruptly overthrown.

Under the mantra of “tuwid na daan”, the President has failed to curb the age-old graft and corruption.

The rich becomes richer; the poor becomes poorer.

Marie Antoinette wanted to give the French people with empty stomachs cake; our government has been giving us empty promises and empty treasury.

The wealth of the nation has been wasted.

Our leaders have abandoned the spirit that ignited the “Cry of Balintawak” or “Pugad Lawin” of the katipuneros, and the “Cry of Sta. Barbara (Iloilo)”.

We give them our votes and confidence; they gave us shame and scandal via plunder and graft and corruption.