BLESSED MUSIC

Ah, Blessed Music


One day God was in an especially good mood. Perhaps the reason God was in such excellent sprits was due to some sort of transcendent encounter with another of his kind. You know, perhaps the Almighty’s luxurious disposition was due to a little afternoon delight with Miss or Mrs. Almostasbig (sorry Ladies). I’m just saying. But the important thing here is that regardless of the reason, Mr. Big had an attitude adjustment, and because of that attitude adjustment, Mankind has been forever blessed. Let me further explain. While God’s sprit was meandering aimlessly about the Universe, savoring the afterglow of his afternoon delight, he happened upon Earth and looked down. What he saw when he looked upon the Earth threatened to disturb his well-earned repose, and he was much troubled as a result. What He saw when he looked upon the Earth was grubby humans fighting in the dust for the attention of a particularly fetching maiden who was nonchalantly looking on with satisfying regard at the spirited goings on. And by so doing, the Maiden was contributing to the nasty mayhem as much as the actual competitors. God was appalled that something so important as a little afternoon delight should be decided by the ability to kick the butt of another for the privilege. And I have it on very good authority that He was none too pleased by the Maiden’s attitude either because it was obvious that she was enjoying being fought over while watching her brethren beat the crap out of each other during their combat in the dirt. After contemplating what he was seeing, the Almighty pointed his finger at the Earth and caused a mind expansion of the visceral humans. Where there had been nothing but pointless rage driven by pointed instincts before, a syncopated rhythm began to emerge. There was now measured beats pounding in the human’s brains in time to the liberated emotion of love (or lust), you make the call. Sweet notes soon began to merge in time with the newly discovered sensuous rhythms and the sweating Humans unclenched their fists and sheathed their teeth. The struggling humans began to make music to the object of their desire. Even though the Maiden still preferred a primordial struggle for her favors, the beauty of the music being beamed her way by the hapless combatants nevertheless moved her. She responded by taking both to her breast. God immediately saw that he had more work to do in Human relations but that was a job for another time and another place. When God saw that the newly found music was replacing the ugly competition with love and beauty, he was much pleased. In fact, He was so pleased that he rushed to be with Miss or Mrs. Almostasbig again in order to reprise the luxurious disposition that the original afternooner had begat. So there you have it. Man has been forever blessed by the beautiful music that God in his infinite wisdom caused with a pointing of his finger so that the sprit of Man could ascend to a higher plane of existence. It has been said that music is the most elegant expression of emotion ever endowed upon humans and I couldn’t agree more. We are blessed.

DUPLICITOUS GOVERNMENT

Duplicitous Government

By now most of you have become aware that Athem Blue Cross of California (A part of the Wellpoint (WLP) insurance giant) is threatening to raise premium rates for California INDIVIDUAL policyholders some 39% (Indiana was also notified of a similar rate increase). Make note that the initial rate increase is for individual policyholders, not group policyholders. This is a very important distinction in the continuing political battle for Government healthcare, and we will see why later. Let me ask you something. Do you think that the Athem Blue Cross rate increase at this particular time is incredibly stupid? Really? Do you really think a for profit business like Wellpoint would raise rates some 39% while the Government threatens to take over the healthcare of all Americans and this “fortuitous” rate increase would dramatically prove to one and all that healthcare costs are completely out of control and in need of Government takeover? Do you really think that the Grand Pooh-bahs of these insurance conglomerates, who annually receive millions of dollars in bonus payments, could actually be that stupid? Of course there’re not. So what is really happening here? The fact is that the three largest Insurance Conglomerates, United Health Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), and Wellpoint (WLP) all have a major role in Government healthcare regardless how it finally comes down on our heads. At the very least, 50 million new healthcare customers will be forced by the Government to carry Health Insurance offered by these Companies. But wait, there’s more. These Companies (behind those famous closed doors) all had a major role in crafting the healthcare bill now before Congress and they stand to make untold profits under Government controlled healthcare without the constraints that competition imposes on the free market place. Brothers and Sisters, are you beginning to see the light? It is far easier to payoff politicians in the Government than to do business under the uncertainty of competition within the free marketplace. After all, payoffs are only a business expense while competition is a business uncertainty. So why make this announcement of a 39% rate increase at his particular time? It seems obvious to me that a Cass Sunstein “choice architecture” is being formulated here that can “nudge” the dumb-butt American people to make the correct choice on this healthcare matter. The threatened rate increase is one of the prime components for the “choice architecture” that will offer a contrived choice for the American people to determine which is better, (a) out-of-control healthcare costs by the money-grubbing, unscrupulous Insurance Companies and fat-cat wall street moneymakers (just dramatized by the unwarranted and massive 39% rate increase) or (b), Big Mama Government that is only concerned about healthcare for all citizens regardless of economic status, because after all, Big Mama Government is in the people caring business, unlike the healthcare industry that is only concerned about making obscene profits off of people’s sickness and misery, right? Besides, this is American and as an American you can always vote out the Government if you are unhappy with Government healthcare but you can’t vote out the money grubbing healthcare industry, right? This “choice architecture” will be presented to the public on C-Span television during the so called “Summit” meeting with the stupid Republicans on the healthcare bill, that, by the way, is now being rewritten behind even more closed doors. The insurance conglomerates have already been convinced that it is in their best interests to make a very large rate increase announcement at this time to support the “choice architecture.” You don’t think this is happening? Let me give you a similar local example. Some time ago, Indianapolis wanted a large trash-burning incinerator to satisfy the EPA and to reduce costs of landfills. The people said no thanks. City Government hurried out and surveyed multiple landfill sites within upscale neighborhoods and said that the new landfills would be required to take care of the trash in the coming years. Of course, the citizens went ballistic about landfills in their backyards and the City Government rebutted that a large incinerator would rescind the need for the new landfills. Voila, incinerator voted in with astonishing ease by the successful implementation of a “Choice architecture.” Come on now, don’t be surprised, if there is one thing we all should have learned by now is that all Governments speak with forked-tongue, i.e., that is in modern Americanspeak, they are duplicitous when dealing with the unwashed masses. Just keep in mind the timeless and universal maxim, to wit: All politicians lie, some just lie more than others.

RULE 12 POLITICS

Rule 12 Politics

I encourage you to use a “benchmark” when trying to make sense of the various political arguments bombarding us in our new, and improved, Information Technology environment we now live in. I know it is difficult to distinguish between pure political argument and regular news in today’s “spin doctors, leaks, trial balloons, misinformation campaigns, and other devious (creating choice architecture to nudge us to make the “correct” decision) news and propaganda environment, but I believe the benchmark I’m proposing can help resolve the matter. The benchmark comes from Saul Alinsky’s political cookbook, “Rules for Radicals” and is his Rule 12 for radicals striving to force change upon the world. But before we get to the actual Rule 12, listen to what Mr. Alinsky said in the forward of his book, Rules for Radicals, “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be.” Remember I have said that the US Constitution was designed to form a Government that accommodates the nature of man while socialism seeks to change the nature of man to accommodate the lofty ideas (“from what it is to what they believe it should be”) of today’s Intelligentsia. Well, Mr. Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is the proven way to force the change that the Socialists want to force upon us, and if you study Community Organizing as it was practiced by Barack Hussein Obama in Chicago, you will quickly determine that all 12 Rules for Radicals were followed with Robot like efficiency. Indeed, the politics of President Barack Hussein Obama has been characterized as Community Organizing on a national scale. Some have even suggested that he wants to Community Organize the entire Planet. But I digress. Here is your Rule 12 benchmark.
“Rule 12. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct personalized criticism and ridicule works.)”
You will note that there is nothing in Rule 12 that addresses what is good for the country or the citizens therein, only how too destroy your opposition so that rational argument cannot proceed. Indeed, I believe Rule 12 can be greatly simplified and be more succinct, to whit: Destroy the Individual. So there is your benchmark to use in order to determine if what you are hearing is rational argument or is Rule 12 in operation. You make the call, but it certainly helps when you are aware of the rules of the game, don’t you think?

THE 17TH AMENDMENT

The 17th Amendment,
and the rise of Special Interests

There is a date other than 7 December 1941 that will live in infamy. The other date is 8 April 1913; the date that the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified. On that date the Congress and states changed Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution that required each State Legislature to select two Senators for representation in the United States Senate. The Amendment requires instead that each Senator be elected by popular vote of the people rather than be selected by their respective State Legislators, to wit, “The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years, and each Senator shall have one vote”…….. The 16th, 17th, 18th (Prohibition) and 19th (Woman right to vote) Amendments were conceived during the dawn of the “Progressive” movement that was gaining influence at the time and you will of course recall that the 16th Amendment allowed the Congress to lay and collect taxes on incomes. The Progressive movement morphed into the Liberal and then back into the Progressive movement of today and these two terms are just words that in truth mean Socialism and Socialism means that force is required to change people’s actions for the good of all. And Brothers and Sisters, as I have said on many occasions before: Taxes Are Power and the 16th is the single most important enabler of the power requirement that can force change. This Amendment was the legal basis for enacting legislation that began the collection of payroll taxes in 1937 for the Social Security Program. The 16th Amendment eventually enabled Franklin D. Roosevelt to sign into law the Payroll Withholding Tax Act in 1943, another date that infamy should lay claim to. But I digress. The importance of the original Constitutional requirement for Senator selection cannot be overstated because the Article 1, Section 3 requirement was carefully crafted to complement the Bicameral organization of the legislative branch of Government and support the concept of a Republic, not an unbridled Democracy. I really don't think I command enough of the reader’s respect to provide the reason for this, but perhaps one of the Country’s founding fathers could. I'm referring to James Madison and in the Federalist Paper No 10 he explained the reason for the Bicameral design, to wit: “Before taking effect, legislation would have to be ratified by two independent power sources: the people’s representatives in the House and the State legislatures’ agents in the Senate.” This requirement would not only provide the means to ensure the concept of Federalism but would thwart the influence of special interests because of the requirement of satisfying two separate constituencies. Mr. Madison further explained the concept in Federalist Paper No 51: “In republican government, the legislative authority, necessarily predominate. The remedy for this inconvenience is, to divide the legislature into different branches; and to render them by different modes of election, and different principals of action, as little connected with each other, as the nature of their common functions and their common dependencies on the society, will admit.” You may be surprised to learn that the original method of Senator selection was so important that it was one of the few principals that enjoyed nearly unanimous approval by the founding fathers. Because of the Seventeenth Amendment, the authority of each State has been greatly reduced and due to the power of incumbency, each Senator has become a Potentate instead of a State Agent in a Senate that is coming to resemble the Senate of Rome in its last days. Also, because the Senators are now elected, special interests have a corruption avenue equal to that in the House of Representatives to funnel money and power to ensure election and satisfy plain old greed in exchange for favors in the legislative process. Indeed, the current financial catastrophe we find ourselves in can be traced directly to the influence of special interests in causing the Gramm-Leach-Blily (GLB) act in 1999 to become law. That law was enacted in spite of repeated warnings by knowledgeable and responsible people that its enactment would produce a financial crisis of Biblical proportions. The GLB act repealed part of the Glass-Steagall act of 1933 that was enacted to prevent the same kind of financial crisis that produced the great depression. The GLB act removed most all restrictions and separations between commercial banks and all other investment and financial entities. Viola, financial crisis circa 2008, and all because special interests have gained a foothold that the founding fathers tried with all of their wisdom to prevent. I could even make the case that Article 1, Section 3, of the Constitution addressed the most fundamental special interest problem indigenous to a mature society. The special interest that I'm referring to is the special interest of the Cities versus the rest of the country. The cities always attract the most intellectual and financial capital and this concentration of wealth always demands more and more resources from the rest of the country. The ever-increasing demands of the Cities always causes a schism to develop between the whole of the people because one cannot exist without the other yet the cities keep making demands that would cause the rest of the country to fall into ruin (much like Rome in its final days). The cities can do this because they have the greater population concentration and can easily overwhelm the rest of the country with superior political power especially within a non-constitutional “one man, one vote” system that the Supreme Court pulled out the air. I refer you to the USA Today 2004 Presidential Election map down to the county level (commonly referred to as the “Red/Blue map) that clearly shows the cities (population areas) voting one way and the rest of the country another. The requirement that Senators be agents of the State instead of being directly elected by the people addressed the City/Country schism in a remarkable and effective way and supports the concept of a Republic rather than an unbridled Democracy. I invite you to consider other areas that the 17th Amendment ratification may have influenced, but suffice to say, the consequences of the 17th Amendment are far reaching and quite possibly damaging to our Republic as well.

CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

Conventional Wisdom

Well it appears that we have Conventional Wisdom, Urban Legends and Contemporary Legends loose in the land nowadays. What is common and different between these three forms of informal mass beliefs or understandings? A common characteristic is that they must have a verisimilar quality in order for them to become acceptable to the general population. The differences are that conventional wisdom is a widely held belief that is generally accepted by the population at large and may or may not be true. Urban and Contemporary legends are the stuff of folklore, myths, rumors and misinformation. Eggheads prefer the term contemporary rather than urban when describing these legends; otherwise, they are the same. Here is a prime example of either conventional wisdom or contemporary legend. You make the call because I really don’t know.
“Conservatives are mean, stupid, greedy, stingy, evil, racist, bigots, ad infinitum.” Quite a list of really bad stuff, don’t you think? Pick any two. The two I will pick is meanness and stingy. I wonder if there is any scientific proof that conservatives are mean and stingy while liberals are caring and generous? It turns out there is. There have been endless studies done on this subject and I recommend that you read the Arthur C. Brooks book, Who Really Cares?, to get a definitive and formal answer (www.arthurbrooks.net/whoreallycares/about.html). I will quote from Michael Shermer’s book, The Mind of the Market, in relaying what the Syracuse University professor (Brooks) has researched and published in his book, Who Really Cares?
“When it comes to charitable giving and volunteering, numerous quantitative measures debunk the myth of “bleeding heart liberals” and “heartless conservatives.” The opposite, in fact, appears to be true. Conservatives donate 30 percent more money than liberals (even when controlled for income), give more blood,, and log more volunteer hours. And it isn’t because they have expendable income that conservatives are more generous. The working poor give a substantially higher percentage of their incomes to charity than those on public assistance of comparable income. In other words, poverty is not a barrier to charity, but welfare is. “For many people”, Professor Brooks explains, “the desire to donate other people’s money displaces the act of giving one’s own.”
I don’t think I could define a liberal or progressive any better than the good Professor has in the above statement. As a side note, I can only speculate why liberals and progressives try to advance conventional wisdom that hold that Conservatives are mean, stupid, greedy, stingy, evil, racist, bigots and probably other accusations I have not listed. I can only wonder why.