I feel a little divorced from reality this morning- suspended in air, if you will. I could chalk it up to aphelion, the longest point out there of the elliptical orbit of the earth around the sun.

It is one of those paradoxical facts that it is going to be the hottest week of the summer when we are actually the furthest from the sun. Well, not quite; the actual furthest point away was on the 4th of July at 94,511,923 miles. The shortest distance- perihelion- was on January 3, when Earth was two and a half million miles closer.

Distances like that are relatively small, in a universal context, but still more than I can process. Like the budget or the debt. I increasingly think of numbers as more elegant ways to spin fantasy. Hotter, though further away. More spending fixes debt.

I would say this is like Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” though Wonderland actually makes sense in comparison to the complexity of the world around us. I wrote yesterday that everything we know is wrong.

A noted economist and former championship team-mate wrote to summarize how it works:

“When a GOP is President, the Dems will publicize the alternate rates of inflation and unemployment as a way to show how the GOP is “cooking the numbers. When a Democrat is President, the GOP will publicize the same alternate rates as a way to show how the Dems are “cooking the numbers.”

They each argue that the sitting President sucks by citing these alternate numbers.

When a Dem is President (Obama) then the GOP and Fox will say that: “Obama is cooking the numbers MORE than the other Presidents did.” When a GOP is President (Bush Junior) then the Dems and MSNBC will say that “Bush is cooking the numbers MORE than the other Presidents ever did.” Thus, they both complain that the sitting President is worse than all other Presidents.

Anyone who is complaining about this NOW is a Republican.

Anyone who complained about this from 2001 through 2008 was a Democrat.

Most things I know are wrong; but the above is an observation based on teaching about Inflation/Unemployment since 1976.”

It made sense. Actually, it started to appear more like a unifying field theory for relativity. The information we get is all a variation on the same theme; fact is subjective and based on world-view, rather than any scientific objective standard.

At least if it has anything to do with humans, like Zimmerman and Martin, or even if it doesn’t, like the weather. Or is it climate? We have to believe in things- even those of us who make a profession in believing and fully trusting anything. It is the way we are wired.

Add in our natural venality, it is perfect. White really is black, and vice versa. This is very liberating. It was extremely good calibration for that Aphelion season.

Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com