DOUGLAS E. CASTLE - The Daily Burst Of Brilliance™

Monday, May 20, 2013

Best Way Back To Yourself - Douglas E. Castle

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This is actually a re-posting of an article that I just posted to my "hobby" blog, RadioDAZZ. The reason for putting it here is simple. As a species, we are losing touch with the very best aspects and virtues of our Humanity. My experience has taught me that there is nothing quite like the right music to bring you back into your most vulnerable, most impressionable, most innocent self. And while you're listening, you're becoming a bit closer to who you truly are, and less of that persona that others have taught you to be. Oh -- almost forgot -- the image at the top of this article bears no relevance whatsoever to the content which follows. - DEC

Best Of The Spinners - Rare And Beautiful - DAZZ Music Breaks

Posted: 16 May 2013 03:26 PM PDT

A Father And His Young Daughter. You turn away for one selfish moment and she's gone. You're never the same. RadioDAZZ. Your Uncle DAZZ. The RadioDAZZ Guy.

Yep. Everyone's heard of the Spinners -- a fabulous sound out of the laboratories of Gamble and Huff. A middle to late 1970's Motown meets soul meets a bit of tasty disco, these guys had the best composing, arranging and production of any of their contemporaries. They got me hooked with "It's A Shame" and "I'll Be Around," a song with only two chords but with dynamics and crescendos to keep your attention. Like the Stylistics, Donna Summer, Al Green, The Intruders ("I'll Always Love My Mama") and so many other funksters who infiltrated the disco world and kept it soulful and real for a good while, they were just amazing. They even had beautiful choreography. They were the ultimate class (and classic) act.

They sang of ghetto life, of the love of a good mother (they sang "Sadie" at the Westbury Theater In The Round, and you couldn't find a dry eye anywhere). The lyrics were soulful, but clear and sincere. They took you to church. They were so holy with harmony that they could bring you to your knees.

The two great songs which follow, are the most beautiful and delicate by far. The first speaks about the fear of letting the one you love go free. The second has a story to it -- listen very closely, and the tears will rain down. It's not about a man and his woman. It's about a father who loses his precious daughter. It is an incredibly sad song, with an electric sitar instrumental that is so simple, yet so emotionally profound that you won't be able to hear anything else in your world. Uncle DAZZ knows some mighty, mighty secrets.

I DON'T WANNA LOSE YOU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDoTYZdr2NA

HOW COULD I LET YOU GET AWAY?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I8cWRXe51k

Your Uncle DAZZ loves you. He knows what it's like to have to be two people -- the sensitive one, and the tough, defensive one. I feel for you. You know I do. It's okay to yell, or to cry. Anything's better than no sound at all. It's only silent like that when you've lost everything.

I feel for my friend, Douglas E., who gave it all up because he didn't trust his own feelings.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, please resume your normal operations whilst I get back to business of providing original thought, commentary, information and insightful intelligence.

Thanks for indulging me.

Douglas E. Castle

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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Using Government Agencies As Political Tools

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government abuses of power, partisan politics, IRS targeting president's political rivals, abuses of power by FBI and other government enforcement arms, partisan politics, untrustworthy government, decline of the American Empire, politics as usual, when a government no longer serves the people, Douglas E. Castle, http://www.douglasecastle.com, The CFI Group Of Companies, the abuse of trust, the decline of trustworthiness, http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/douglascastle, expert bloggers, Sending Signals Blog, Mad Marketing Tactics Blog, Blogs By Douglas E. Castle, self-growth, career advancement, accumulate wealth...

This is like saying "Oops!" after running a man over with your truck.

The article excerpt which follows appears courtesy of Associated Press and gives an ironic little synopsis (ironic because a politician is trying to gain mileage by pointing out that another government agency is is being used to gain political mileage -- I'm reminded of that old adage about "the pot calling the teakettle black" -- although I have never seen any pots or teakettles that were, in fact, black -- most have been silver):
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans said Sunday that the Internal Revenue Service's heightened scrutiny of conservative political groups was "chilling" and further eroded public trust in government.

Lawmakers said President Barack Obama personally should apologize for targeting tea party organizations and they challenged the tax agency's blaming of low-level workers.

"I just don't buy that this was a couple of rogue IRS employees," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "After all, groups with 'progressive' in their names were not targeted similarly."

If it were just a small number of employees, she said, "then you would think that the high-level IRS supervisors would have rushed to make this public, fired the employees involved, apologized to the American people and informed Congress. None of that happened in a timely way."

The IRS said Friday that it was sorry for what it called the "inappropriate" targeting of the conservative groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.

But according to a draft of a watchdog's report obtained Saturday by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner, senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011.

The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week.

Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, said last week that the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias.

But on June 29, 2011, Lerner learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog's report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with "Tea Party," ''Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says.

The 9/12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said "the conclusion that the IRS came to is that they did have agents who were engaged in intimidation of political groups is as dangerous a problem the government can have."[more]

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Here's a link to another beauty from Reuters via Yahoo! News:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/irs-kept-shifting-targets-tax-071821874.html

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The end result is that the President, needing to absolve himself (as presidents of both prevailing parties always do) of any association with, or knowledge of the scandal made a sacrifice to the gods of public opinion by throwing the IRS' Commissioner under the bus of politics-as-usual (like the "Scooter Libby Shuffle" to protect Karl Rove and George W. Bush) to appease the masses [or as my late father would likely have said, "Them asses."]

Here's another article that was, in its substance, completely predictable to every politics fan (I'm not one) and to every Global Futurist (I am one):

"With three congressional probes of the IRS looming and Republicans' calls for firings at the agency growing louder, Obama said he told Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to demand the resignation of Steven Miller, the acting IRS commissioner. Lew had done so, the president said.

"I'll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again by holding the responsible parties accountable, (and) by putting in place new checks and new safeguards," Obama told reporters in the White House's East Room.

Obama's remarks came on a day in which he tried to regain the initiative amid a series of controversies that have threatened his second-term agenda. The Democratic president said new leadership was needed at the IRS to restore public confidence in the tax agency, whose reputation for political independence has taken a hit because of scandal.

"Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it," Obama said. "I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the IRS, given the power that it has and the reach that it has into all of our lives."

The IRS revelations have added to a sense of a White House under siege, and a president struggling to recover his political footing in the face of fast-moving events.

Republicans continue to attack the administration's handling of militants' deadly attack last year on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya. On Monday, the Justice Department came under fire for seizing phone records of journalists from the Associated Press as part of a criminal probe into intelligence leaks."
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Let's all watch and see who will have to sacrificed for the travesty and tragedy of Benghazi.

One thing is certain - Government agencies have always been used to target either potential adversaries of those in power, or personal enemies of those persons who are ultimately responsible for running those agencies. It almost always starts at the top, and rolls down, like a wheelbarrow full of manure, upon either an expendable party or a well-paid party (with a great parachute).

The other thing that is certain - the parties who are ultimately responsible for the greatest abuses of power, privilege and public office are never the ones hit by the wheel barrow or thrown under the bus.

No problem has ever been solved by merely blaming, shaming and scapegoating.

It's a darn good thing thing that the government and its agencies aren't entrepreneurial enterprises...

As always, thank you for reading me, and thank you for sharing my articles with your connections and colleagues through your many social media channels.

Douglas E. Castle

p.s. Please have a look at the most recent article about communications and the existence of other, newly acknowledged Human senses for perception and messaging on The Sending Signals Blog. If you are a fan of the notion of neuroplasticity, there's more than an ample bonus for you there.

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

World's Most Annoying Computer Message

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THE MANAGEMENT IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SPELLING OF ANY MEDICAL CONDITION

I've heard about or seen just about every annoying thing that can appear on a computer screen - the BSOG ("Blue Screen Of Death"), the "Install The Latest Version!" Pop-Up [that keeps reappearing continuously like a jack-in-the-box, regardless of what your click on to kill it] the "you have too many screens open at once and you're about to lose your last two hours' work" hourglass [which always makes me think of a witches' egg timer], the message with the picture of sad little robot icon that says "Your Quicktime Plugin Has Crashed." These signs get my adrenalin flowing and my blood pressure up so high that I feel the throbbing in my temples...

But the one that makes me want to take up my flintlock and shoot either my screen or the webmaster in charge of the site which I am visiting is this little bugger...

Round and round it goes, while you quietly kick and curse. It doesn't care about you. It mocks you with its indifference.

I have determined that the only thing to do when this monstrosity from the very depths of hell sits on your otherwise blank screen, is either to 1) look in your refrigerator for the oldest cold cuts you've got (which haven't developed a white coating, blue-green blotches or a rotten cabbage smell), and make a sandwich at a leisurely pace, only going back to your computer after an hour or so, or 2) immediately go to your favorites or bookmarks collection, and get something either funny or musical in order to give yourself a change of screen, and then, test the site again. If the circle demon appears, just forget about the site and look for your information (or her high-resolution photograph) somewhere else.

I'm glad I got that out of my system. Thank you.

Yours Faithfully,

Douglas E. Castle