Wednesday, January 28, 2015

SUPER DEFLATEGATE BOWL / SEAHAWKS WILL PREVAIL


The Patriots are building a Public Relations moat around Tom Brady in deflategate similar to the one around his new 20 million dollar castle but it won't keep the NFL from fining the Patriots for playing loose with the rules or, for that matter, the Seattle Seahawks from storming the walls and bringing Brady and the Patriots back to earth: Allen L Roland, Ph.D

 
It is obvious to me that Brady knew the balls were deflated (as suggested by John Madden and Troy Aikman) and elected either to go along with the illegal balls or suggested the rules violation.

 
Mark Leibovich, New York Times, interviews Tom Brady and offers a candid view of New England's elusive superstar in which he explores the Patriot's (under coach Bellicheat) seeming willingness to bend the rules under the guise of winning at all costs.
 
Excerpts: "But the Patriots of this century have been widely resented for reasons that go well beyond any jealousy. Fort Belichick is known as a paranoid and joyless place whose inhabitants are not above pushing the rules in the name of achieving a competitive edge ~ though Patriots haters prefer the far less euphemistic term “cheating.” It’s a charge that has stemmed from the so-called Spy gate incident of 2007, in which a Patriots employee was caught illicitly videotaping the hand signals of opposing coaches. For critics, that episode is emblematic of a team willing to do “whatever it takes” to win….His (Brady's) ruthless competitiveness is legend, as is his reputation among players for trash talking, whining to referees and general unpleasantness on the field….Brady called the Deflategate charge “ridiculous” that day, but when he called me from his home on Wednesday, he seemed to be venturing into a most un-Brady-like territory: nervousness….“I’m always a thinker ~ I’ve got to outthink them,” Brady told me once, referring to his competitors. He talked a lot about flouting conventional wisdom. But does that extend to flouting rules? Suddenly, the story of Tom Brady’s season shifted from a tale of pushing limits to one that included suspicion of sneaking past them …As Brady’s news conference wound down, he seemed to regain his footing through a familiar theme: adversity. The Patriots would rally around one another. Brady had previously said to me that he tends to view most things in his life through the prism of people who doubt him ~ his abilities, his age, even the legitimacy of his biggest achievements. And now, his integrity" ~ which I add is now on fairly shaky ground,

Full article by Mark Leibovich
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/magazine/tom-brady-cannot-stop.html

 
Perhaps only parody can do full justice to this comedy of errors of deflated footballs and exposed and deflated egos. SNL live Press Conference ~
http://digg.com/video/saturday-night-live-patriots-press-conference-cold-open

 

Allen L Roland, Ph.D
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/super-deflategate-bowl-seahawks-will.html
 

 
Heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor Allen L Roland can be contacted at  allen@allenroland.com . Allen is also a lecturer and writer who shares a weekly political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com. He is also a featured columnist on Veterans Today and  guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

 

 

Sunday, January 25, 2015

GLOBAL WARMING HITS SF / CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL


  Click on photos to enlarge
 
King Tide on San Francisco Embarcadero on Tuesday, January 21, 2015 offers a glimpse into the not too distant future of Climate Change: Photo credit, Mike Flippoff, SF Chronicle

 
The Earth has a unique method of delivering its innate message of its demand for social cooperation and altruism and global warming and climate change just may be the vehicle for that long overdue message. If we humans do not voluntarily take action to preserve our planet and its occupants ~ we will be dramatically forced to respond and it won't be painless: Allen L Roland. Ph.D

 
“If we can't love our one and only home, what can we love? If we're unwilling to defend what we love, then what are we?”
~  
Michael Carter, Kingfisher's Song: Memories Against Civilization

 
2014 was the hottest year on record for California and 2015 is starting out on the same track as global warming, like a never ending creeping fog, inevitably changes our coastlines and way of life and ushers in the hard cold reality of Climate Chang


" This is what San Francisco will look like on an average day in 2050," said Marina Psaros, co-founder of the Kings Tides Project, an environmental group that studies the phenomenon. "Water levels are higher because the Earth is warmer ~ there's nothing theoretical about it, nobody with a real stake in the game, people like city planners and insurance underwriters ~ is denying global warming anymore."

 
The big climate news last week was NOAA and NASA announcing that 2014 was the hottest year on record, breaking the highs of 2005 and 2010 ~ but the bigger story got buried: Global warming has continued unabated in recent years. As climate expert Prof. John Abraham writes in the UK Guardian, “The oceans are warming so fast, they keep breaking scientists’ charts.”

But I maintain that we are already beyond the point of no return ~ because the release of previously trapped arctic methane stores into the atmosphere will magnify the gradual effects of feedback loops, climate disruption and the rapid rise of sea levels.




The looming specter of an abrupt methane release in the artic is not only real but likely and could lead to an immediate temperature rise of 5 to 6 degrees ~ possibly within a decade as explained by Dahr Jamail in Truthout;

Excerpt: " Vast amounts of methane lie frozen in the Arctic. It's not news that the Arctic sea ice is melting rapidly, and that it will likely be gone for short periods during the summers starting as early as next year. Losing that ice means releasing larger amounts of previously trapped methane into the atmosphere…..In the simplest terms, here's what an ice-free Arctic would mean when it comes to heating the planet: Minus the reflective ice cover on Arctic waters, solar radiation would be absorbed, not reflected, by the Arctic Ocean. That would heat those waters, and hence the planet, further. This effect has the potential to change global weather patterns, vary the flow of winds and even someday possibly alter the position of the jet stream. Polar jet streams are fast-flowing rivers of wind positioned high in the earth's atmosphere that push cold and warm air masses around, playing a critical role in determining the weather of our planet…In the atmosphere, methane is a greenhouse gas that, on a relatively short-term time scale, is far more destructive than carbon dioxide. When it comes to heating the planet, methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide, per molecule, on a 100-year timescale, and 105 times more potent on a 20-year timescale - and the Arctic permafrost, onshore and off, is packed with the stuff.” See article ~ http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/28490-the-methane-monster-roars

What Dahr is saying is that a 50 gigaton release (Burp) of Methane from thawing Artic Permafrost beneath the East Siberian sea is highly possible at any time ~ "This means that methane releases from decaying frozen hydrates could result in emission rates that "could change in order of magnitude in a matter of minutes," and that there would be nothing "smooth, gradual or controlled about it"  ~ as it would affect the whole planet immediately.

A Methane time bomb ticking away in the artic and holding the whole world hostage unless we evolve collectively from ego consciousness to soul consciousness.

Here's more recent evidence of global warming and the effect on rising sea levels ~ Meltwater lakes in Greenland are fast draining off due to rising temperatures in the region, with some of them disappearing within weeks. One of the sub-glacial lakes that once held about 6.7 billion gallons of water disappeared within a single season ~ and the second one has filled and emptied twice in the last two years.

Scientists already know that sub-glacial lakes exist in Greenland, but they were not aware that they drain out to sea at almost 57,000 gallons per second ~ until now; and this appears to be the main cause of rising sea levels. See NY Times article ~ http://www.thetimesgazette.com/due-to-rising-temperatures-greenlands-lakes-are-disappearing-within-weeks/652/

There is something very right about this global warming message ~ Unite and cooperate or perish ~ are we ready for dramatic needed action?

The earth is growing impatient and demands an answer through climate change.

 
“Men argue. Nature acts.” ~ Voltaire

 
Allen L Roland, Ph.D
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/global-warming-hits-sf-climate-change.html


Heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor Allen L Roland can be contacted at  allen@allenroland.com . Allen is also a lecturer and writer who shares a weekly political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com. He is also a featured columnist on Veterans Today and  guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

 

Monday, January 19, 2015

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR'S LAST SPEECH 1968


 
Listen to the words of Martin Luther King, Jr in his final speech in Memphis, Tennessee a day before he was assassinated ~ listen to the impassioned eloquence of his words, listen to the truth of his heart felt message and recognize he was a prophet of our times whose words still resonate in our souls and demand a response: Allen L Roland, Ph.D

 
On April 3, 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last speech called "I Have Been To The Mountaintop" in support of the striking sanitation workers at Mason Temple in Memphis. This is that speech in full and in honor of his memory / 46 riveting minutes / King was assassinated the next day on April 4th, 1968.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixfwGLxRJU8&feature=player_embedded

 
“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr


 

Allen L Roland, Ph.D
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/martin-luther-king-jrs-last-speech-1968.html

 
Heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor Allen L Roland can be contacted at  allen@allenroland.com . Allen is also a lecturer and writer who shares a weekly political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com. He is also a featured columnist on Veterans Today and  guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

 
 

Sunday, January 18, 2015

HAVING FUN AT 81


Allen L Roland,  spiritually guiding Marina, on Skype, as she heals herself by facing and going through her early childhood fears.

 
There can be no greater feeling of satisfaction, as a heart centered advisor and consultant, than guiding someone through their deepest fears to the euphoric joy of embracing and giving a voice to the innocent and fearless child within themselves. Every step and relationship in my life has prepared me for this heart centered work particularly with combat veterans with PTSD. At age 81, I feel completely in sync with my destiny, I'm most definitely in service from a place of celebration and I'm making a difference: Allen L Roland. Ph.D

 
"We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity." - Paulo Coelho

 
I love this quote by Paulo Coelho for the parenthesis in my precious moment in eternity is my constantly demonstrated Unified Field ~ the basic underlying and uniting force of the universe is a psychic energy field of love and soul consciousness (the Unified Field) which lies not only beyond time and space but also beneath our deepest fears ~ and whose principle property is the universal urge to unite.

 
Finding the Unified Field was an act of surrender. Owning and proving it has been an act of courage. Initially, it was surrendering to and embracing an alone little boy within me who always knew this truth. Then it was a slow process of finding the courage to stand alone, own my truth, and speak it, regardless of the risks.

Let me make this clear ~ every tenet of my Unified Field is based on my own personal experience and my experience with my clients. Which is why it took eight years for me to fully prove it and which is why I no longer call it a theory.

What follows are the three basic tenets of the Unified Field.

Tenet One

The basic underlying force of the universe is a psychic energy field of universal love, within which gravitational and electromagnetic fields, the strong and weak forces in the atom, and all other forces of nature, including time and space, are merely conditions of state. Within this psychic realm of love, paranormal events such as clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition and near-death experiences are also conditions of state. The principal property of this field of love is its propensity to unite, complete and fulfill all living beings within a constantly evolving loving plan. This field of love is the absolute constant of the universe in that within it, time and space do not exist. Thus, we are instantly joined with the past, present and future of a universe which is in the process of uniting, completing and fulfilling itself.

Tenet Two

The consciousness of the observer is the determining factor in being able to perceive the Unified Field, and the depth of one's sensory experience is what determines this consciousness. In that regard, our most profound sensory experience is the total surrender to what is deepest within ourselves, that is, the surrender to love and a joyful state of soul consciousness - which is the awareness of an evolving loving plan and the taking of responsibility for one's function within that plan. The Unified Field is therefore a state of soul consciousness. That state which limits or denies our perception of the Unified Field is ego consciousness.

Tenet Three

It would appear that the pain of not feeling loved for oneself and being seemingly separated from our original state of soul consciousness and the Unified Field is of such deep psychic proportions that, early in childhood, processes are triggered in the hypothalamus which result in a left brain imbalance and dominance as well as the denial, mistrust and forgetting of our connection to the Unified Field and the love and joy and a state of soul consciousness deepest within us. It is from this dark tunnel of pain, aloneness, despair and apparent death that the ego and ego consciousness is born - for survival and protection purposes only. As such, death or the idea of death, is an illusion measured by the limits of our consciousness.

Think of the ego as a protective cocoon that is eventually meant to be shed. The Unified Field can be visualized as a grid of great luminosity joining all living beings within its energy field of love. The words of Longfellow would seem appropriate in describing this all-encompassing field or grid: "The thread of all sustaining beauty that runs through all and doth all unite."

I have personally demonstrated during my life and work that a Unified Field of love, joy and soul consciousness exists beneath our deepest pain and fears ~ and I have guided hundreds including combat veterans, who were taught to kill, to this same place of gratitude, self-forgiveness, joy and love deepest within themselves. See article ~ http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/02/12/miracle-of-heart-centered-counseling-is-self-healing/

 
For guidance, here's a link to my completely updated kindle eBook on Amazon:


And here's a link to the YouTube sessions of the self-healing process I teach ~ watch, in the first 20 minutes,  how Marina conquers her deepest fear and demonstrates that beneath her pain is boundless joy, See video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r12MoNnwPKg&feature=youtu.be

 
Marina is the perfect example of how early childhood pain or the seeming separation from love can cause us to emotionally stop growing, create a self-protective ego and go through our life unconsciously recreating our original pain and separation in a vain attempt to find a lost and alone child within ourselves.

 
Our life, as such, becomes a QUEST to return to our original wholeness and I spiritually assist them, as I did with Marina, to connect the dots of that quest, thank the key players and then find the courage to face and go through their original pain of separation and, like Marina, surrender to their original joy, intention and purpose.

 
I still am in many ways that 6 year old boy who closed his heart when taken away from my grandfather and our maid Delia and by surrendering to love and going through my fears I have not only accessed my original joyful state of soul consciousness but have also found the courage to give a voice to what I feel and see, as well as write and own my Unified Field  and empower others, like Marina, to claim the grand prize ~ themselves.

 
At age 81, I feel my life is really exciting and fun since my spiritual work has never been more powerful or empowering and that is the source of my truest delight ~ for it is precisely my true vocation and the real reason I'm here on this planet.

 
William James words sum up my feelings ~ " I am done with great things and big things and great institutions and big successes, and I am for those tiny invisible molecular moral forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets or like the capillary oozing water, yet which, if you give them time, will bend the hardest monuments of human pride. "

 
With every precious soul that I experience in my work as a spiritual consultant, like Marina re-discovering the immense joy beneath her deepest pain and aloneness, I feel the pure delight of being in service from a place of celebration, gratefulness and joy.

Of course, I am especially grateful to my loving, loyal and supportive partner Keiko ~ who understands my work and mission and enhances it with her wisdom, strength and perseverance.

 
"The only right love is that between couples whose passion leads them both, one through the other, to a higher possession of their being" ~ Teilhard de Chardin

 

Allen L Roland, Ph.D
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/having-fun-at-81.html

 
Heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor Allen L Roland can be contacted at  allen@allenroland.com . Allen is also a lecturer and writer who shares a weekly political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com. He is also a featured columnist on Veterans Today and  guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

 

 

Sunday, January 11, 2015

AMERICA'S LOVE AFFAIR WITH DARK SIDE / DRONE ATTACKS


Click on cartoon to enlarge

America is still exploring Dick Cheney's dark side path of fear through Drone attacks and that path has led to anger, hate and immense suffering as well as significant blowback. As a result, we have obviously not only lost track of who we are but also our moral bearings. Like a Black Hole in space, unless we begin to explore the path of light and our evolutionary innate need to love as well as social cooperation and altruism ~ we will eventually be consumed and destroyed by the dark side: Allen L Roland, Ph.D


President Obama has killed more people with drones than died on 9/11. On January 06, 2015 as reported in "ICH"  Washington's Blog  ~ Law school teacher Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild wrote  "Obama has killed more people with drones than died on 9/11. Many of those killed were civilians, and only a tiny percentage of the dead were al-Qaeda or Taliban leaders."

Guess what, She is correct .…

Excerpt:

"The Council on Foreign Relations estimates that U.S. drone strikes outside of Iraq and Afghanistan have killed 3,674 people. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports that up to 4,404 people have been killed ~ just in Pakistan and Yemen alone ~ between 2004 and 2014. While it’s hard to estimate how many additional people have been killed by drone in Iraq and Afghanistan, a December 2012 report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that US and UK forces had carried out over 1,000 drone strikes in Afghanistan over the previous five years.  Given that numerous people are often killed by  each drone strike, it is reasonable to assume that several thousand people have been killed by drones in that country. And many Iraqis have also been killed by drones … long before ISIS even appeared on the scene.    So ~ altogether ~ the number of people killed by drones is probably well above five thousand…..In contrast,  under 3,000 people were killed on 9/11….  The West is intentionally targeting farmers, small-time drug dealers and very low-level Taliban members with drone assassination. And the process for deciding who to put on the “kill list” is flawed. People are often targeted by the metadata on their phones, a process which a former top NSA official called the drone assassination program “undisciplined slaughter.

See article ~ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40635.htm#.VKyvUclNdn4.email

 
Make no mistake it ~ Obama's targeted Drone assassinations are a trip on Cheney's infamous dark side and we are still on that path with our current ongoing Drone attacks and obvious blowback. The White House let the CIA run wild, under Cheney's directions ~ but more importantly Obama and the Democrats are letting them get away with it.
Marcy Wheeler, ICH, spells it all out ~  This Was Dick Cheney's Coup:
Why America's Torture "Reform" Is A Total Sham

Excerpt: " Until you note that the summary language makes it clear the White House itself decided to keep the torture program hidden from Powell. Or you read the fine print that describes how White House counsel Alberto Gonzales first eliminated any mention of waterboarding from talking points that would be used to brief the president. Then someone (Cheney) ~ the report doesn’t say who ~ informed “‘Dr. Rice … that there would be no briefing of the President on this matter,’ but that [CIA Director George Tenet] had policy approval to employ the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques.”After 9/11, CIA worked together with the White House to craft a programmatic “Finding” authorizing a range of counterterrorism policies that would give CIA significant flexibility in implementing those policies, while giving the White House enhanced deniability about their conduct …The White House used that “finding” not just to authorize torture, but also to authorize CIA’s drone-killing of top al-Qaida officials, a policy Obama expandedBut aren’t drone strikes targeted attacks on terrorists … unlike 9/11, which was an attack on civilians?  Unfortunately, no …The West is intentionally targeting farmers, small-time drug dealers and very low-level Taliban members with drone assassination. And the process for deciding who to put on the “kill listis flawed.  People are often targeted by the metadata on their phones, a process which a former top NSA official called the drone assassination program “undisciplined slaughter.” And people are targeted for insanely loose reasons.  As the New York Times reported in 2012 See article ~ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40657.htm


Mamana Bibi was a 67-year-old Pakistani grandmother and midwife, killed by a U.S. drone strike on October 24, 2012. One year ago, the family of Mamana Bibi came to Washington, D.C., to share their sad story with Members of Congress.  Only five Members of Congress came to hear this family's testimony. Only five listened to the real impact of one of America's most ruthless, extrajudicial, error-laden and enemy-producing war policies. The briefing was organized by both Rep. Alan Grayson, and Director Robert Greenwald. It was part of their effort to change discourse about drone warfare. It also led the release of a new drone documentary, Unmanned: America's Drone Wars. The film told these and other drone victims' stories, focused on the government's shadowy "signature strike" policy which allowed spy agencies to target and kill hundreds based on suspicion alone, and posed difficult questions that far too many lawmakers and national security officials still want to evade or duck.

America's Drones Are Still Killing Scores of Innocents ~ Three minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OvhAFyeGk4&feature=player_embedded

Drone warfare is thinly disguised mental and emotional torture ~ an act of intimidation and control meant to terrorize and subjugate its victims. It has slid us deeper into Dick Cheney's dark side of fear and we are losing our soul in the process ~ a risk many Americans are willing to take but not all Americans.


“A drone strike is a terror weapon, we don’t talk about it that way. It is; just imagine you are walking down the street and you don’t know whether in 5 minutes there is going to be an explosion across the street from some place up in the sky that you can’t see. Somebody will be killed, and whoever is around will be killed, maybe you’ll be injured if you’re there. That is a terror weapon. It terrorizes villages, regions, huge areas. It’s the most massive terror campaign going on by a long shot.”  ~  Noam Chomsky

Allen L Roland, Ph.D
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/americas-love-affair-with-dark-side.html

 
Heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor Allen L Roland can be contacted at  allen@allenroland.com . Allen is also a lecturer and writer who shares a weekly political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com. He is also a featured columnist on Veterans Today and  guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

 

Sunday, January 4, 2015

1.1 TRILLION DOLLAR F 35 / SYMBOL OF AMERICA'S MISPLACED PRIORITIES


F 35 Supersonic all weather single place Strike Fighter ( 2015 )  
Development Cost = 1.1Trillion Operational ( Maybe never )

Approximately 45 cents of every dollar of Government spending goes to the Military and much of it is wasted dollars and misplaced priorities such as the current 1.1 Trillion dollar F 35 Strike Fighter. With the advent of Drones, the future of manned military aircraft is dimmed considerably and a restructuring of America's priorities is necessary ~ particularly in light of our rapidly fading infrastructure and inadequate social welfare programs. The question still remains, are our super expensive fighter planes and interceptors here to protect the fleet or to provide an intimidating presence of control and dominance in a world that increasingly longs for peace: Allen L Roland, Ph.D

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" ~ Indian philosopher Sri Chinmoy Ghose.

America’s $400 billion Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35, is slated to join fighter squadrons next year ~ but missing software will render its 25mm cannon useless. Dave Majumdar, The Daily Beast, lays out the sad story of misplaced priorities:

" Even though the Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35, is supposed to join frontline U.S. Marine Corps fighter squadrons next year and Air Force units in 2016, the jet’s software does not yet have the ability to shoot its 25mm cannon. But even when the jet will be able to shoot its gun, the F-35 barely carries enough ammunition to make the weapon useful….“There will be no gun until [the Joint Strike Fighter’s Block] 3F [software], there is no software to support it now or for the next four-ish years,” said one Air Force official affiliated with the F-35 program. “Block 3F is slated for release in 2019, but who knows how much that will slip?”

However, the Air Force official said that very fact the F-35 will not have a functional gun when it becomes operational is symptomatic of a deeply troubled program. “To me, the more disturbing aspect of this delay is that it represents yet another clear indication that the program is in serious trouble,” the official said. F-35 maker “Lockheed Martin is clearly in a situation where they are scrambling to keep their collective noses above the waterline, and they are looking to push non-critical systems to the right in a moment of desperation.”  See article http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/27824-15-trillion-f-35-joint-strike-fighter-cant-fire-its-own-gun-until-2019

 F 3H Demon after-burning supersonic all weather single place Interceptor (1960)
Development Cost = 250 Million
Operational ( 3 years ~ replaced by F4H two place multimillion dollar Phantom )

Now let's compare this with the 250 million dollar F3H Demon which I flew for three years as a Naval Aviator in Advanced Fighter training in Miramar, California in 1959 ~ as well as approximately 150 all-weather landings on the USS Ranger on the Sea of Japan in 1960/61.

 The F3H 'Demon' served as the U.S. Navy's strong arm in the air from 1956 to 1965, when its younger brother, the famed F4 Phantom took to the skies. The Navy desperately needed a high performance fighter to meet the challenge of the swept-wing MiG-15 encountered over Korea. Later models, predesignated F3H-2M, were equipped to fire the Raytheon AAM-N-2 Sparrow and later the Sidewinder air-to-air missiles ~ both of which I carried and fired. Deployed aircraft carried both types of missiles, the Sparrow on the inboard rails and the Sidewinder outboard. Cannons were not used in carrier air defense applications, but they were installed and armed when situations (such as the Cuban Missile Crisis) dictated, and where the aircraft might be deployed against surface targets.

Due to excellent visibility from the cockpit, the Demon earned the nickname "The Chair". Demon pilots were known colloquially as "Demon Drivers" and those who worked on the aircraft were known as "Demon Doctors". The unfavorable power-to-weight ratio gave rise to the less flattering nickname "lead sled," sometimes shortened to "sled". 

As an accomplished Demon Driver, I grew to love this sled for it proved to be highly maneuverable and forgiving when landing on the carrier ~ particularly at night and in all weather conditions.

I also spent a year at the Navy electronics school in Memphis, Tennessee in order to learn the intricacies of the Demon's elaborate and advanced radar system.

It took a tremendous commitment to  become a carrier based Demon Driver and I vividly remember sitting in my cockpit on the number #1 catapult preparing for a rare early morning launch on the South China Sea in 1960, with tears running down my cheeks, as I fully realized I was living my dream ~ but that was just a prelude for later finding the courage to fully open my heart, go through my deepest fears and finally discover and own and prove my Unified Field of love and soul consciousness which lies not only beyond time and space but also beneath our deepest fears.

But I digress ~ at a cost of well over 250 million and overcoming costly engine as well as ejection seat problems ~ 519 Demons were built up to the end of production in November of 1959 and finally retired in 1964.

That's two years of flight operations at an operational cost of over a quarter of a Billion dollars.

Now, 55 years later, we have a 1.1 trillion dollar (over 100 Billion dollars) joint Strike Fighter F35 which is not even operational and may not be by 2019 and whose mission is somewhat diminished by Drones and the out of control appetite of a greed driven Military Industrial complex.

The unanswered question still remains, are our incredibly expensive fighter planes and supersonic Interceptors here to protect the fleet ~ or to provide an intimidating presence of control and dominance in a world which increasingly longs to unite in a spirit of peace, altruism and social cooperation.

"I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: 'Our country, right or wrong!' They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: 'Our country-when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.'" - Carl Schurz

 
Allen L Roland, Ph.D
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2015/01/11-trillion-dollar-f-35-symbol-of.html

Heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor Allen L Roland can be contacted at  allen@allenroland.com . Allen is also a lecturer and writer who shares a weekly political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com. He is also a featured columnist on Veterans Today and  guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net