The Dark Side of Knowledge
Let’s take a walk. Let’s take a walk down my favorite walking trail that is a converted railroad bed (The Monon). Instead of mighty steel monsters belching billows of fearsome black smoke while clamoring up and down gleaming rails that caused the earth to shake and quiver as they made their way to and fro, the railroad legacy is now a rail free path with a grown-up canopy of trees and flora complete with busy critters that hardly takes notice of Nike clad feet softly treading to and fro in search of exercise and solace instead of forgotten steam engines straining for commerce and schedule. If you happen to get on the trail in the early morning, most of the indigenous critters you see are fully engaged in their business and are not in the least alarmed with the passage of fashion conscious bipedal critters aimlessly meandering to and fro along the trail. More likely than not, you will hear the absolutely beautiful clear notes of Red Cardinals birds singing away to the absolute delight of the walking and jogging bipedal creatures. I always like to think that the Red Cardinal birds are singing their beautiful song for my pleasure but I know in reality that they (the Red Cardinals) are instead sending out a warning to others of their kind to stay the hell away from their territory. Knowing this reality is the dark side of knowledge. I would rather believe that the songs the birds were singing were because the birds were happy and the singing was a declaration to all who could hear that the world is a beautiful place that merited the gorgeous notes being sprayed into the wind. I would rather believe this because it enriches my soul. But the knowledge of why they (the birds) are really singing only enriches my mind. Sometimes it is much better to have one’s soul enriched rather than having one’s mind enriched. There are many examples of the dark side of knowledge other than the whimsical example above. Take, for example, the knowledge of evolution as first detailed by Charles Darwin in his seminal book, On the Origin of Species. This knowledge of the evolution of life into more complex life, and the notion that survival of the fittest is the basis for the natural selection of those chosen to evolve, was all the intellectual rage in the time of Hitler and this knowledge became the basis for his book, “Mein Kampf”. Mein Kampf would become the political foundation for the Nazi movement that promoted the practice of eugenics to help create the master (German) race because it was believed that natural selection for evolution by survival of the fittest was as applicable to human races as it was to lower animal species. Therefore, to the Nazis, the German people were the fittest of all of the human races and elimination of inferior races and undesirable humans was only the fittest humans being naturally selected in accordance with the natural selection process described by Darwin. All of this knowledge of evolution and natural selection by survival of the fittest became the basis and justification for the murdering and killing of millions and millions of innocent people by the Nazis and German people in order to evolve into the “Master Race.” Again, the dark side of knowledge. A more contemporary example of the dark side of knowledge is the economic collapse that we are currently undergoing. Nefarious people, driven by greed, have used the knowledge of economics, finance and human behavior to concoct ruinous financial instruments in order to gain monetary advantage over others. Rather than to use knowledge to benefit all, the dark side of knowledge drove supposedly honorable people to ruin million and millions of innocent people. Other knowledge, such as how to split the atom and release the power of the universe, was first used to build a bomb in order to kill people rather than use the knowledge for a benign purpose. In this case, the dark side of knowledge may well doom us all.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The War of 1787
The War of 1787
On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified and we became a unified nation as a Republic (not a Democracy or Federation). There were deep divisions among the citizens at the time pertaining to what type of government the new nation would embrace. There was a sizable faction that argued that only a Federation of States could preserve the freedoms and rights of the individual citizens and were vehemently opposed to a Republic because they felt that a Republic would foster a strong central (federal) government that soon would abridge the rights and privileges of free men and the sovereignty of the states. Those who were opposed to a Republic being formed were collectively known as the “Anti-Federalists”. The Federalist Papers were published as a means to answer the concerns of the Anti-Federalists and were authored by Hamilton, Madison and Jay. The Federalist papers codified in print the reasoning and thought of those who championed a Republic and the papers in fact became the foundation for the subsequent Constitution of the United States. The Anti-Federalists lost and the Federalists won and so the first battle was fought, won and lost, in a war that is continuing to this day. The first battle was a political battle fought by the Anti-Federalists (Federation form of Government) and the Federalists (Republic form of Government) and even though the Federalists won the battle, they have not yet won the war. Indeed, the first political battle sowed the seeds for a much larger battle that resulted in an armed conflict that nearly tore this nation apart. That battle was called The Civil War. Make no mistake about it, the civil war was fought to succeed from the Republic and form a Confederation of the several states. Slavery was only one of many issues that sparked the conflict, not the fundamental reason for it. Other issues could have just as well started the inevitable war that was started by ratifying a Constitution for a Republic instead of a Federation. Things such as taxes, individual freedoms, unfair trade, ad infinitum, would eventually produce a fracturing of the Union just as well as the just abolishment of slavery. The right to enslave another human being or any other thing held dear to those in certain states would be allowed in a Federation that the central Government of a Republic would not permit. Even though Slavery was an abomination that had to be outlawed, the seeds for the Civil War were sowed in the political battle fought during the founding of our nation, not the issue of slavery of itself. The Constitutional Convention that produced the Constitution attempted to address the concerns of individual freedoms and states sovereignty that was championed by the Anti-Federalists by immediately including, by amendment, a bill of rights codified in Amendments I-X (1-10) of the Constitution (The Bill of Rights). Of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, the tenth is the most important (The Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.) and has been thoroughly trashed by the Supreme Court to become meaningless ink stains upon an ignored treasure. One could say that the concerns of the Anti-Federalists have been realized in our day by the continuous erosion of individual rights as well as anything that resembles the sovereignty of the states (States Rights). The war has continued on with political battles being fought and won by the Federalists in the form of Presidents Wilson, Lincoln and Roosevelt that has enabled the Federal Government to become ever more stronger and stronger by being involved in every aspect of a citizens life and in the operation of every state. And now comes this President, Barack Hussein Obama. Just as the Civil War, WWI, The Depression and WWII provided the means to advance a stronger central federal government, the current economic crisis (see the Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel’s quote, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before”) will present President Obama and Company with the golden opportunity to nearly complete the transition to a Socialist government by using the laws of the Republic and a swooning electorate to do so. I really don’t think the war will be ended by the new battle being waged by the overreaching of President Obama but I do believe a new battle is shaping up as the citizens finally become aware what is happening. I can only hope it will be a political battle and not another armed conflict that will distinguish the upcoming battle. Just like the Anti-Federalists feared would happen is happening as our individual rights and freedoms are vanishing right along side the loss of States Rights because of a central federal government that grows ever stronger with each passing day and crisis.
On September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified and we became a unified nation as a Republic (not a Democracy or Federation). There were deep divisions among the citizens at the time pertaining to what type of government the new nation would embrace. There was a sizable faction that argued that only a Federation of States could preserve the freedoms and rights of the individual citizens and were vehemently opposed to a Republic because they felt that a Republic would foster a strong central (federal) government that soon would abridge the rights and privileges of free men and the sovereignty of the states. Those who were opposed to a Republic being formed were collectively known as the “Anti-Federalists”. The Federalist Papers were published as a means to answer the concerns of the Anti-Federalists and were authored by Hamilton, Madison and Jay. The Federalist papers codified in print the reasoning and thought of those who championed a Republic and the papers in fact became the foundation for the subsequent Constitution of the United States. The Anti-Federalists lost and the Federalists won and so the first battle was fought, won and lost, in a war that is continuing to this day. The first battle was a political battle fought by the Anti-Federalists (Federation form of Government) and the Federalists (Republic form of Government) and even though the Federalists won the battle, they have not yet won the war. Indeed, the first political battle sowed the seeds for a much larger battle that resulted in an armed conflict that nearly tore this nation apart. That battle was called The Civil War. Make no mistake about it, the civil war was fought to succeed from the Republic and form a Confederation of the several states. Slavery was only one of many issues that sparked the conflict, not the fundamental reason for it. Other issues could have just as well started the inevitable war that was started by ratifying a Constitution for a Republic instead of a Federation. Things such as taxes, individual freedoms, unfair trade, ad infinitum, would eventually produce a fracturing of the Union just as well as the just abolishment of slavery. The right to enslave another human being or any other thing held dear to those in certain states would be allowed in a Federation that the central Government of a Republic would not permit. Even though Slavery was an abomination that had to be outlawed, the seeds for the Civil War were sowed in the political battle fought during the founding of our nation, not the issue of slavery of itself. The Constitutional Convention that produced the Constitution attempted to address the concerns of individual freedoms and states sovereignty that was championed by the Anti-Federalists by immediately including, by amendment, a bill of rights codified in Amendments I-X (1-10) of the Constitution (The Bill of Rights). Of the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights, the tenth is the most important (The Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.) and has been thoroughly trashed by the Supreme Court to become meaningless ink stains upon an ignored treasure. One could say that the concerns of the Anti-Federalists have been realized in our day by the continuous erosion of individual rights as well as anything that resembles the sovereignty of the states (States Rights). The war has continued on with political battles being fought and won by the Federalists in the form of Presidents Wilson, Lincoln and Roosevelt that has enabled the Federal Government to become ever more stronger and stronger by being involved in every aspect of a citizens life and in the operation of every state. And now comes this President, Barack Hussein Obama. Just as the Civil War, WWI, The Depression and WWII provided the means to advance a stronger central federal government, the current economic crisis (see the Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel’s quote, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before”) will present President Obama and Company with the golden opportunity to nearly complete the transition to a Socialist government by using the laws of the Republic and a swooning electorate to do so. I really don’t think the war will be ended by the new battle being waged by the overreaching of President Obama but I do believe a new battle is shaping up as the citizens finally become aware what is happening. I can only hope it will be a political battle and not another armed conflict that will distinguish the upcoming battle. Just like the Anti-Federalists feared would happen is happening as our individual rights and freedoms are vanishing right along side the loss of States Rights because of a central federal government that grows ever stronger with each passing day and crisis.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
National Sales Tax
National Sales Tax
Here is a reasonable guess about how BHO and Company is going to get us to approve a National Sales Tax. First, you need to revisit my piece, “Prepare To Be Nudged” because you will recall that part of the science on how to get people to make the decisions you want them to make is to create the proper “Choice Architecture” in order to assure that the decision taken will be the targeted decision. The choice architecture must be constructed to not only limit the choices that will be available to make but it (choice architecture) must also guide the decision maker to the targeted decision because it seems to be the most reasonable and fair choice. You can rely on Professor Cass R. Sunstein to know how to create a choice architecture to enable BHO and Company to get the swooning citizens to support a National Sales Tax. Here is how you construct the choice architecture and how it will be done. Below is a chart on who paid what portion of the personal income tax in collected 2006 (AGI= Adjusted Gross Income):
Percentile by AGI........................ Percentage of Tax Paid
Top 1%................................................ 39.89%
Top 5% ...............................................60.14%
Top 10% ............................................70.79%
Top 25%............................................ 86.27%
Top 50%............................................ 97.01%
Bottom 50%...................................... 2.99%
First you propose to raise taxes on the wealthy (top 25% who already pay almost 90% of personal income taxes). This BHO has already done. When it is pointed out that excessive tax on the Government designated wealthy will not only run the risk of killing the golden goose, it is unfair as hell as well to keep punishing the productive of our society and rewarding those who contribute little. Notwithstanding that the bottom 50% are the very ones who receive the most from the Government after the Government takes it from others. It seems only reasonable that in a Democracy, all should contribute, right? Voila, a National Sales Tax by acclamation. Only the Dems could pull this off because they are the designated Party of the People.
Here is a reasonable guess about how BHO and Company is going to get us to approve a National Sales Tax. First, you need to revisit my piece, “Prepare To Be Nudged” because you will recall that part of the science on how to get people to make the decisions you want them to make is to create the proper “Choice Architecture” in order to assure that the decision taken will be the targeted decision. The choice architecture must be constructed to not only limit the choices that will be available to make but it (choice architecture) must also guide the decision maker to the targeted decision because it seems to be the most reasonable and fair choice. You can rely on Professor Cass R. Sunstein to know how to create a choice architecture to enable BHO and Company to get the swooning citizens to support a National Sales Tax. Here is how you construct the choice architecture and how it will be done. Below is a chart on who paid what portion of the personal income tax in collected 2006 (AGI= Adjusted Gross Income):
Percentile by AGI........................ Percentage of Tax Paid
Top 1%................................................ 39.89%
Top 5% ...............................................60.14%
Top 10% ............................................70.79%
Top 25%............................................ 86.27%
Top 50%............................................ 97.01%
Bottom 50%...................................... 2.99%
First you propose to raise taxes on the wealthy (top 25% who already pay almost 90% of personal income taxes). This BHO has already done. When it is pointed out that excessive tax on the Government designated wealthy will not only run the risk of killing the golden goose, it is unfair as hell as well to keep punishing the productive of our society and rewarding those who contribute little. Notwithstanding that the bottom 50% are the very ones who receive the most from the Government after the Government takes it from others. It seems only reasonable that in a Democracy, all should contribute, right? Voila, a National Sales Tax by acclamation. Only the Dems could pull this off because they are the designated Party of the People.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Womb Government
Womb Government
Rosy Fingered Dawn comes creeping up over the eastern darkness and the birds and other critters acknowledge the new day mistress by beginning to stir from their nocturnal sojourn. Hesitant chirping and animal mutterings signal that a new day is about to begin as the rosy glow gently changes night into day. Be it a day of new challenges or boring sameness, only time will tell. The soft colored light begins to filter through your bedroom window and starts the process of washing out the gray scale images of fitful sleep by bringing color and revealing structure to your bedroom and nuance to your consciousness. If you’re fortunate enough to have a loving mate, you resist the urge to awaken further by pulling closer to the warmth and security that is yours for the taking. Instead of springing out of the warm embrace of your bed, you instead wriggle down into the covers much like the vice grip hold that Linus always has on his security blanket. If the above describes in any way your routine of meeting the day, don’t feel too bad about it. We all do the same thing in one manner or another. I believe it has something to do with a primordial instinct that is plumbed into us all and that is to seek the warmth of security in order to put off the harshness of reality and the uncertainty of life and living. Some have even said that our craving for warmth and security is a universal longing to return to the womb where it was always warm, safe and secure notwithstanding that everything was not only comfortable but all of life’s requirements were being provided for as well. Some have even likened Mother Earth as being a womb that shelters us all while proving for all of our needs during our sojourn here on this beautiful blue planet. That’s a fanciful notion I could believe in. The thing about being safe and warm in the security of a Mother’s womb is that you are not free to do everything you would like to do, in others words Brothers and Sisters, there is never a free lunch. There are some really, really smart people that know all about Mark 1 Mod 0 humans longings for the warmth that security brings to the human condition and that, most generally, we are prepared to give up a great deal of freedom to obtain it (security). These really smart people use this knowledge to their advantage as they create programs and situations that are irresistible to us in our desire for the warmth of security that having all of life’s requirements provided for us brings. Why do these smart people do this? Come on now, you can’t really be that naïve, can you? They do it to obtain and hold onto power. As responsible adults (removed from the real womb, that is), we all know that we really can’t get something for nothing, (like government provided universal health care, social security, welfare for the poor, education for all, housing and shelter for all, food for all, etc.,) but we always buy into the notion that it is the other guy who is going to pay the price. Some have called this kind of Government that is so kind and caring “Nanny Government”, but I really think a much better term would be “Womb Government”. Well the price we all must pay for Womb Government not only comes out our paychecks but it is also paid for with our loss of freedom as well. The country’s founding Fathers were also very smart and they knew about the human condition much better that most of the Flim Flamers of today. They struggled mightily with the rare opportunity to start with a clean slate and create a kind of government that would not only preserve the dignity of man but guarantee freedom for all as well. The Government that was finally decided upon is called a Republic and not a Democracy. That form of Government, Republic, is being systematically destroyed by the notion and desire for Womb Government. The founding fathers were deathly afraid of the “Tyranny of the Majority” because the founding fathers knew that the majority can be easily manipulated by the clever (womb to tomb benevolence) to obtain and keep power and that’s why a Democracy was feared. History proves the founding fathers wisdom in this regard. A Republic uses the rule of law to ensure liberty and justice for all and it’s not at all surprising that the “Justice System (Supreme and federal courts)” is the vehicle used to change the Constitution and establish law to create a Democracy where none existed before. This is being done in order to enable the far left agenda that uses Womb Government to further that agenda. We good people unknowingly further the far left agenda by not insisting on change back to our Republican form of Government but by accepting the silly notion of Womb Government as well. My friend Dick Blaker has dug out an amazing video that is the best I’ve seen to further explain this Government thing. I hope you will take the time to view this very important work. http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/
Rosy Fingered Dawn comes creeping up over the eastern darkness and the birds and other critters acknowledge the new day mistress by beginning to stir from their nocturnal sojourn. Hesitant chirping and animal mutterings signal that a new day is about to begin as the rosy glow gently changes night into day. Be it a day of new challenges or boring sameness, only time will tell. The soft colored light begins to filter through your bedroom window and starts the process of washing out the gray scale images of fitful sleep by bringing color and revealing structure to your bedroom and nuance to your consciousness. If you’re fortunate enough to have a loving mate, you resist the urge to awaken further by pulling closer to the warmth and security that is yours for the taking. Instead of springing out of the warm embrace of your bed, you instead wriggle down into the covers much like the vice grip hold that Linus always has on his security blanket. If the above describes in any way your routine of meeting the day, don’t feel too bad about it. We all do the same thing in one manner or another. I believe it has something to do with a primordial instinct that is plumbed into us all and that is to seek the warmth of security in order to put off the harshness of reality and the uncertainty of life and living. Some have even said that our craving for warmth and security is a universal longing to return to the womb where it was always warm, safe and secure notwithstanding that everything was not only comfortable but all of life’s requirements were being provided for as well. Some have even likened Mother Earth as being a womb that shelters us all while proving for all of our needs during our sojourn here on this beautiful blue planet. That’s a fanciful notion I could believe in. The thing about being safe and warm in the security of a Mother’s womb is that you are not free to do everything you would like to do, in others words Brothers and Sisters, there is never a free lunch. There are some really, really smart people that know all about Mark 1 Mod 0 humans longings for the warmth that security brings to the human condition and that, most generally, we are prepared to give up a great deal of freedom to obtain it (security). These really smart people use this knowledge to their advantage as they create programs and situations that are irresistible to us in our desire for the warmth of security that having all of life’s requirements provided for us brings. Why do these smart people do this? Come on now, you can’t really be that naïve, can you? They do it to obtain and hold onto power. As responsible adults (removed from the real womb, that is), we all know that we really can’t get something for nothing, (like government provided universal health care, social security, welfare for the poor, education for all, housing and shelter for all, food for all, etc.,) but we always buy into the notion that it is the other guy who is going to pay the price. Some have called this kind of Government that is so kind and caring “Nanny Government”, but I really think a much better term would be “Womb Government”. Well the price we all must pay for Womb Government not only comes out our paychecks but it is also paid for with our loss of freedom as well. The country’s founding Fathers were also very smart and they knew about the human condition much better that most of the Flim Flamers of today. They struggled mightily with the rare opportunity to start with a clean slate and create a kind of government that would not only preserve the dignity of man but guarantee freedom for all as well. The Government that was finally decided upon is called a Republic and not a Democracy. That form of Government, Republic, is being systematically destroyed by the notion and desire for Womb Government. The founding fathers were deathly afraid of the “Tyranny of the Majority” because the founding fathers knew that the majority can be easily manipulated by the clever (womb to tomb benevolence) to obtain and keep power and that’s why a Democracy was feared. History proves the founding fathers wisdom in this regard. A Republic uses the rule of law to ensure liberty and justice for all and it’s not at all surprising that the “Justice System (Supreme and federal courts)” is the vehicle used to change the Constitution and establish law to create a Democracy where none existed before. This is being done in order to enable the far left agenda that uses Womb Government to further that agenda. We good people unknowingly further the far left agenda by not insisting on change back to our Republican form of Government but by accepting the silly notion of Womb Government as well. My friend Dick Blaker has dug out an amazing video that is the best I’ve seen to further explain this Government thing. I hope you will take the time to view this very important work. http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Beggar Man, Thief
Beggar Man, Thief
I listened very carefully to BHO’s plan to help fix the home mortgage problem. Most all agree that the home mortgage situation is the root problem of the current financial meltdown so until someone comes up with a viable way to fix the root problem, flailing away at the overall problem will continue to be the rule of the day. Unfortunately, I don’t think what is being offered is going to help all that much, but to be truthful, BHO and company should get an attaboy for coming up with a well thought out plan to address as much of the problem as possible. But, the mortgage fix plan is mostly a political façade to address as many of the concerns of the electorate as possible, and cannot possibly fix a problem that only the marketplace can solve. Well duh. I guess people will never understand that politicians will always do political things when the government “solves” citizen’s problems. Most all of you know I have a Real Estate Company with my son and so I have some first hand knowledge of how the problem evolved. Until five or six years ago, the real estate market was responding to traditional forces and then in response to Barney Frank and the Congress to get as many people into housing as possible, interest rates began to rapidly go down unrelated to any normal financial or market forces. For example, I was looking at property in Cape Canaveral Florida as a winter home and most of the Mon and Pop houses were going for about $130-150K. Within three of four years, the same house was selling for $300K instead of $150K. The inflated price was being driven up by low interest rates and easy money and because money was so cheap and banks were lending based on the inflated price with little regard to ability to pay (because of the implied Government backing and guarantee), many people bought at the inflated price. When everything crashed, the price of the Mon and Pop house quickly returned to the traditional market determined price of about $150K. The financial problem is that the banks require real estate prices to go back up to the inflated price in order to fix their balance sheet problem because people are walking away from a house that has a $300K mortgage and has a value of only $150K. In other words, the market will always determine the price of a house and when the artificial loan rates and the inflated prices that the government intervention caused are removed (the financial crash) the price of a home will revert back to its market determined value and not the artificial political social engineered price. So the BHO plan can in no way drive the current price of a home back up to the artificial inflated price to really fix the value problem and the plan will be mostly ineffective. Now stick with me as I put the finishing touches on this perfect storm of irresponsibility. Because of government inspired (make that directed) low interest rates providing cheap money the prices of all homes were going up regardless of whether you were selling or not. So the easy money scumbags began to offer home equity loads based on 100-120% of an artificially inflated price. Voila, free money for the masses. I have set at the real estate closing table and tried to explain to a seller that he has to pay $35K to sell his house because of his home equity loans and the fact being he has already spent his equity in the house and the buyer is not going to bail him out by paying over market price for his house. Remember all of my raving about people thinking they can get something for nothing? Now lots of people who took out home equity loans are upside down as hell and can’t afford their mortgage payments because everything has crashed which is causing jobs to be lost, etc., etc.; the cascade to ruin I’ve been talking about. Oh well, I hope that BHO’s plan can fix the mortgage problem, but I really don’t think it can.
I listened very carefully to BHO’s plan to help fix the home mortgage problem. Most all agree that the home mortgage situation is the root problem of the current financial meltdown so until someone comes up with a viable way to fix the root problem, flailing away at the overall problem will continue to be the rule of the day. Unfortunately, I don’t think what is being offered is going to help all that much, but to be truthful, BHO and company should get an attaboy for coming up with a well thought out plan to address as much of the problem as possible. But, the mortgage fix plan is mostly a political façade to address as many of the concerns of the electorate as possible, and cannot possibly fix a problem that only the marketplace can solve. Well duh. I guess people will never understand that politicians will always do political things when the government “solves” citizen’s problems. Most all of you know I have a Real Estate Company with my son and so I have some first hand knowledge of how the problem evolved. Until five or six years ago, the real estate market was responding to traditional forces and then in response to Barney Frank and the Congress to get as many people into housing as possible, interest rates began to rapidly go down unrelated to any normal financial or market forces. For example, I was looking at property in Cape Canaveral Florida as a winter home and most of the Mon and Pop houses were going for about $130-150K. Within three of four years, the same house was selling for $300K instead of $150K. The inflated price was being driven up by low interest rates and easy money and because money was so cheap and banks were lending based on the inflated price with little regard to ability to pay (because of the implied Government backing and guarantee), many people bought at the inflated price. When everything crashed, the price of the Mon and Pop house quickly returned to the traditional market determined price of about $150K. The financial problem is that the banks require real estate prices to go back up to the inflated price in order to fix their balance sheet problem because people are walking away from a house that has a $300K mortgage and has a value of only $150K. In other words, the market will always determine the price of a house and when the artificial loan rates and the inflated prices that the government intervention caused are removed (the financial crash) the price of a home will revert back to its market determined value and not the artificial political social engineered price. So the BHO plan can in no way drive the current price of a home back up to the artificial inflated price to really fix the value problem and the plan will be mostly ineffective. Now stick with me as I put the finishing touches on this perfect storm of irresponsibility. Because of government inspired (make that directed) low interest rates providing cheap money the prices of all homes were going up regardless of whether you were selling or not. So the easy money scumbags began to offer home equity loads based on 100-120% of an artificially inflated price. Voila, free money for the masses. I have set at the real estate closing table and tried to explain to a seller that he has to pay $35K to sell his house because of his home equity loans and the fact being he has already spent his equity in the house and the buyer is not going to bail him out by paying over market price for his house. Remember all of my raving about people thinking they can get something for nothing? Now lots of people who took out home equity loans are upside down as hell and can’t afford their mortgage payments because everything has crashed which is causing jobs to be lost, etc., etc.; the cascade to ruin I’ve been talking about. Oh well, I hope that BHO’s plan can fix the mortgage problem, but I really don’t think it can.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Rich Man, Poor Man
Rich Man, Poor Man
I just finished doing my taxes and tucked the completed forms into the mail for transport to the giant Black Hole located in a Galaxy far, far away called the US treasury. I happened upon something while doing my taxes that you might be interested in. And please don’t take my word for it, breakout the 1040 booklet that Uncle Sam sent you and go through the numbers yourself to verify what I have observed. What I am talking about here is that if you are a married couple filing jointly, and you make $43K, the Government declares that you are Poor and you qualify for an Earned Income Credit and the Government will take some money from someone else and give it to you. If you are married and filing jointly, and you make $70K, you qualify for the Alternative Minimum Tax and the Government will declare that you are Rich and take money from you and give it to someone else. That’s right, it only requires $27K to separate the Rich from the Poor in this Country. I could have played some games with single filers versus other filers and came up with a separation of only $3K between being Rich or being Poor, but that would have put me into the same league as Flim Flam Politicians. If there was ever a more classic definition of Redistribution of Wealth, I don’t know what it would be. Oh, by the way, there is a stench in the air and I smell it. A national sales tax is coming.
I just finished doing my taxes and tucked the completed forms into the mail for transport to the giant Black Hole located in a Galaxy far, far away called the US treasury. I happened upon something while doing my taxes that you might be interested in. And please don’t take my word for it, breakout the 1040 booklet that Uncle Sam sent you and go through the numbers yourself to verify what I have observed. What I am talking about here is that if you are a married couple filing jointly, and you make $43K, the Government declares that you are Poor and you qualify for an Earned Income Credit and the Government will take some money from someone else and give it to you. If you are married and filing jointly, and you make $70K, you qualify for the Alternative Minimum Tax and the Government will declare that you are Rich and take money from you and give it to someone else. That’s right, it only requires $27K to separate the Rich from the Poor in this Country. I could have played some games with single filers versus other filers and came up with a separation of only $3K between being Rich or being Poor, but that would have put me into the same league as Flim Flam Politicians. If there was ever a more classic definition of Redistribution of Wealth, I don’t know what it would be. Oh, by the way, there is a stench in the air and I smell it. A national sales tax is coming.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Milgram Experiment
America circa 2009 and the
Milgram Experiment
I hope all who begin to read this piece has the fortitude to become fully engaged in the subject presented because if one carefully considers what the frightful ramifications are, then perhaps you can have a greater understanding about what is going on today. First, you would be well advised to Goggle “Milgram Experiment” and find the time to read up on what the experiment was about and the fact that the experiment has been repeated many, many times by many, many different professionals and the results have always been the same regardless of where the experiment was performed or under what conditions. Indeed, researchers at California’s Santa Clara University just recently replicated the 1961 experiment in 2006 and the results were not only similar but the experiment was done under much more stringent and ethical conditions than the original Milgram experiment in order to address professional and ethical concerns about the experiment itself. Stanley Milgram began his work on this subject while working on his Phd at Harvard University with the experiment being conducted in 1961 by Milgram when he was Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University. The experiment was done during the Israeli court trial of the Nazi holocaust architect, Adolf Eichmann, and (the experiment) was an attempt to answer critical questions concerning following lawful orders even when those orders results in crimes against humanity. The trial once again raised very serious moral and ethical issues concerning the dichotomy of following a country’s lawful orders that result in pain, suffering and death to others, or not following orders because of ethical or moral concerns about inflicting pain and suffering to another human being. Not following a country’s lawful orders usually results in penalties to the one disobeying the orders or laws and that situation greatly complicates the issue. One should very carefully consider this question because it is a very, very complicated question and it is just as relevant today as it has been throughout the history of mankind. The question goes to the very heart of the ideology struggle that the one world government movement is waging today, and that is: Is one a citizen of the world (Humanity) or a citizen of your respective country, or even, are you a citizen of the world (Humanity) first and then of your respective country second? An important question because the World Court in the Hague can and does haul people in and tries them for crimes against humanity and other such crimes and the penalties are real to the one following lawful orders of one’s country. Bear in mind that the greatest moral and ethical country the world has ever seen, the USA, has rained death and destruction upon enemy and innocent alike during wars, and even dropped the atomic bomb upon ordinary people to end WWII. No one brought Harry S. Truman to a court of law because of crimes against humanity. The reason being, of course, we won the war! But if we had lost instead of winning the war, old “Give-em Hell Harry” would have swung from the gallows just like Eichmann did. Of course winning or losing should not determine moral or ethical righteousness, but for now they do and the One World Government folks will correct the winning/losing attribute by subjecting all peoples of the world to the same ethical and moral standards that One World Government will then adjudicate and thereby solve the dichotomy problem of who’s orders to follow. Well I guess this would at least resolve the latent penalties problem. The Milgram experiment was not designed to answer such complicated social questions as these even though the results of the experiment did illuminate the ethical and moral problems in greater detail, it was instead, designed to determine if ordinary people could follow orders even when real pain and suffering resulted to others in the course of following those orders. The experiment has answered that question without a doubt. Regardless of how many times the experiment is conducted, upwards to 80% of ordinary people willing follow orders and inflict pain and suffering even to the point of death upon fellow humans. This experiment goes a long way into understanding how ordinary Germans could inflict such horrendous pain and suffering upon other people. They were just following orders. The experiment proves that it is a deeply held human trait that can allow upwards of 80% of us to inflict pain and suffering upon others and we can do so because following orders somehow relives us of any universal, biological or cognitive moral/ethical imperative not to do so. Good God, many people in the experiment even enjoyed using the power associated with having life and death decisions over others of their kind. Some later experiments have even demonstrated mere peer pressure is almost as effective as lawful orders in mitigating moral or ethical concerns while harm is being done to others. All of this brings us to today. I’m sure you, as well as I, have been bewildered by the likes of Bernard Madoff, Banks, Financial Services Executives and other such scum bags that could knowingly inflict such pain and suffering upon their fellow man. They were either following orders to make profit because greed is now a virtue or excessive peer pressure relived them of concern for their fellow man. In short, they were only following orders, and they really can’t understand why people are so angry with them for doing so. Their problem is, orders aside, they have lost and will now suffer the consequence. Most of us ordinary law abiding (make that order following) citizens keep on following Governmental, Institutional, and Official Orders while acquiescing to Peer (Media) pressure that is at odds with our personal moral and ethical underpinnings even though we know in our hearts that relying on following orders to mitigate the moral/ethical responsibility of a free people will not leave to our progeny the same country that was left to us. This is the same old dichotomy that’s always been with us. When do we rise up as a free people and say we are no longer going to follow lawful orders (laws) but instead remove those who will not follow the same moral/ethical imperatives as the rest of us? As the Milgram experiment has demonstrated many times over, we will more than likely keep on following orders because doing so relieves us of any personal responsible for what happens, in short, we become enablers by following orders. All of this brings to mind the Son of God riding into Jerusalem upon an ass, carrying a palm leaf to signify peace and bringing a message of love to hapless humans who to this day, can’t decide if love should rule or just take the easy way and follow orders.
Milgram Experiment
I hope all who begin to read this piece has the fortitude to become fully engaged in the subject presented because if one carefully considers what the frightful ramifications are, then perhaps you can have a greater understanding about what is going on today. First, you would be well advised to Goggle “Milgram Experiment” and find the time to read up on what the experiment was about and the fact that the experiment has been repeated many, many times by many, many different professionals and the results have always been the same regardless of where the experiment was performed or under what conditions. Indeed, researchers at California’s Santa Clara University just recently replicated the 1961 experiment in 2006 and the results were not only similar but the experiment was done under much more stringent and ethical conditions than the original Milgram experiment in order to address professional and ethical concerns about the experiment itself. Stanley Milgram began his work on this subject while working on his Phd at Harvard University with the experiment being conducted in 1961 by Milgram when he was Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University. The experiment was done during the Israeli court trial of the Nazi holocaust architect, Adolf Eichmann, and (the experiment) was an attempt to answer critical questions concerning following lawful orders even when those orders results in crimes against humanity. The trial once again raised very serious moral and ethical issues concerning the dichotomy of following a country’s lawful orders that result in pain, suffering and death to others, or not following orders because of ethical or moral concerns about inflicting pain and suffering to another human being. Not following a country’s lawful orders usually results in penalties to the one disobeying the orders or laws and that situation greatly complicates the issue. One should very carefully consider this question because it is a very, very complicated question and it is just as relevant today as it has been throughout the history of mankind. The question goes to the very heart of the ideology struggle that the one world government movement is waging today, and that is: Is one a citizen of the world (Humanity) or a citizen of your respective country, or even, are you a citizen of the world (Humanity) first and then of your respective country second? An important question because the World Court in the Hague can and does haul people in and tries them for crimes against humanity and other such crimes and the penalties are real to the one following lawful orders of one’s country. Bear in mind that the greatest moral and ethical country the world has ever seen, the USA, has rained death and destruction upon enemy and innocent alike during wars, and even dropped the atomic bomb upon ordinary people to end WWII. No one brought Harry S. Truman to a court of law because of crimes against humanity. The reason being, of course, we won the war! But if we had lost instead of winning the war, old “Give-em Hell Harry” would have swung from the gallows just like Eichmann did. Of course winning or losing should not determine moral or ethical righteousness, but for now they do and the One World Government folks will correct the winning/losing attribute by subjecting all peoples of the world to the same ethical and moral standards that One World Government will then adjudicate and thereby solve the dichotomy problem of who’s orders to follow. Well I guess this would at least resolve the latent penalties problem. The Milgram experiment was not designed to answer such complicated social questions as these even though the results of the experiment did illuminate the ethical and moral problems in greater detail, it was instead, designed to determine if ordinary people could follow orders even when real pain and suffering resulted to others in the course of following those orders. The experiment has answered that question without a doubt. Regardless of how many times the experiment is conducted, upwards to 80% of ordinary people willing follow orders and inflict pain and suffering even to the point of death upon fellow humans. This experiment goes a long way into understanding how ordinary Germans could inflict such horrendous pain and suffering upon other people. They were just following orders. The experiment proves that it is a deeply held human trait that can allow upwards of 80% of us to inflict pain and suffering upon others and we can do so because following orders somehow relives us of any universal, biological or cognitive moral/ethical imperative not to do so. Good God, many people in the experiment even enjoyed using the power associated with having life and death decisions over others of their kind. Some later experiments have even demonstrated mere peer pressure is almost as effective as lawful orders in mitigating moral or ethical concerns while harm is being done to others. All of this brings us to today. I’m sure you, as well as I, have been bewildered by the likes of Bernard Madoff, Banks, Financial Services Executives and other such scum bags that could knowingly inflict such pain and suffering upon their fellow man. They were either following orders to make profit because greed is now a virtue or excessive peer pressure relived them of concern for their fellow man. In short, they were only following orders, and they really can’t understand why people are so angry with them for doing so. Their problem is, orders aside, they have lost and will now suffer the consequence. Most of us ordinary law abiding (make that order following) citizens keep on following Governmental, Institutional, and Official Orders while acquiescing to Peer (Media) pressure that is at odds with our personal moral and ethical underpinnings even though we know in our hearts that relying on following orders to mitigate the moral/ethical responsibility of a free people will not leave to our progeny the same country that was left to us. This is the same old dichotomy that’s always been with us. When do we rise up as a free people and say we are no longer going to follow lawful orders (laws) but instead remove those who will not follow the same moral/ethical imperatives as the rest of us? As the Milgram experiment has demonstrated many times over, we will more than likely keep on following orders because doing so relieves us of any personal responsible for what happens, in short, we become enablers by following orders. All of this brings to mind the Son of God riding into Jerusalem upon an ass, carrying a palm leaf to signify peace and bringing a message of love to hapless humans who to this day, can’t decide if love should rule or just take the easy way and follow orders.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Prepared To Be Nudged
Prepare To Be Nudged
Have you ever had an unexpected foreboding? You know, you are minding your own business and suddenly, from out of the blue, your narrow personal vision of the current world is expanded into an apprehensive wide-eyed search for whatever it is that your instinct is trying to warn you about. Sometimes seemingly small and insignificant things happen that only in retrospect become the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and ushers in the unappreciated flood of apprehension. I’ve been living with such an unsettling foreboding for some time now and something just happened that I think will be proven to be the small and insignificant signal that will shed light upon what is causing instinct to give rise to the foreboding. The “straw that broke the camel’s back” moment occurred when I happened to read a New York Times article entitled, “When Humans Need a Nudge Toward Rationality”, by Jeff Sommer in the February 8th, 2009 edition of that bastion of liberal thought. A humorous example of “Nudging” provides insight into what the two Professor Authors (Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein of the University of Chicago) have documented in their current book on the subject, Nudge. The example goes like this: The image of a housefly was etched into the porcelain near the drain of the urinals which are located in the Men’s room at the Amsterdam Airport. The fly images were added to the urinals to facilitate an experiment in human behavior. After the fly images were added to the urinals, “spillage” on the men’s room floor fell by 80%. The explanation for the reduced “spillage” was that men are competitive creatures and so the fly images peaked their competitive nature by focusing their attention to aim at the flies rather than just haphazardly urinating without too much regard to where their un-aimed stream was going. Isn’t science wonderful? The essence of this experiment and the subject of the book is that when officials, authorities or whomever would like to guide human behavior to a more desired and directed outcome, enlightened nudging of human behavior is a splendid way to do so. How this is done is for the enlightened to create “choice architecture” (their words, not mine) in order to nudge human behavior to a more desirable outcome. The creation of a “choice architecture” is the deliberate imposition of structure in an environment (etching flies in a urinal) to induce people to made better choices. I’ll just pause a moment to let all of this sink in…………(I wonder who gets to make the determination on what constitutes a “better choice?”) Now comes the defining “break the camel’s back” moment. Professor Sunstein has been named by President Obama to be administrator of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, or as Professor Thaler light heartily said, “Sunstein would be the Nudger in Chief.” I’ll just pause again for another moment to let that sink in as well…….. I don’t know about you but I think I’ve already read about these kinds of goings on when I read George Orwell’s seminal work, “1984” a number of years ago. I believe my foreboding is caused by the recognition that “Nudging” can be a more clandestine way to bring about thought and other governmental control over people that George Orwell saw fit to conjecture about in his book. The seemingly insignificant event of naming Professor Sunstein to be Nudger in Chief is enough to make any free man or woman apprehensive and afraid.
Have you ever had an unexpected foreboding? You know, you are minding your own business and suddenly, from out of the blue, your narrow personal vision of the current world is expanded into an apprehensive wide-eyed search for whatever it is that your instinct is trying to warn you about. Sometimes seemingly small and insignificant things happen that only in retrospect become the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and ushers in the unappreciated flood of apprehension. I’ve been living with such an unsettling foreboding for some time now and something just happened that I think will be proven to be the small and insignificant signal that will shed light upon what is causing instinct to give rise to the foreboding. The “straw that broke the camel’s back” moment occurred when I happened to read a New York Times article entitled, “When Humans Need a Nudge Toward Rationality”, by Jeff Sommer in the February 8th, 2009 edition of that bastion of liberal thought. A humorous example of “Nudging” provides insight into what the two Professor Authors (Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein of the University of Chicago) have documented in their current book on the subject, Nudge. The example goes like this: The image of a housefly was etched into the porcelain near the drain of the urinals which are located in the Men’s room at the Amsterdam Airport. The fly images were added to the urinals to facilitate an experiment in human behavior. After the fly images were added to the urinals, “spillage” on the men’s room floor fell by 80%. The explanation for the reduced “spillage” was that men are competitive creatures and so the fly images peaked their competitive nature by focusing their attention to aim at the flies rather than just haphazardly urinating without too much regard to where their un-aimed stream was going. Isn’t science wonderful? The essence of this experiment and the subject of the book is that when officials, authorities or whomever would like to guide human behavior to a more desired and directed outcome, enlightened nudging of human behavior is a splendid way to do so. How this is done is for the enlightened to create “choice architecture” (their words, not mine) in order to nudge human behavior to a more desirable outcome. The creation of a “choice architecture” is the deliberate imposition of structure in an environment (etching flies in a urinal) to induce people to made better choices. I’ll just pause a moment to let all of this sink in…………(I wonder who gets to make the determination on what constitutes a “better choice?”) Now comes the defining “break the camel’s back” moment. Professor Sunstein has been named by President Obama to be administrator of the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, or as Professor Thaler light heartily said, “Sunstein would be the Nudger in Chief.” I’ll just pause again for another moment to let that sink in as well…….. I don’t know about you but I think I’ve already read about these kinds of goings on when I read George Orwell’s seminal work, “1984” a number of years ago. I believe my foreboding is caused by the recognition that “Nudging” can be a more clandestine way to bring about thought and other governmental control over people that George Orwell saw fit to conjecture about in his book. The seemingly insignificant event of naming Professor Sunstein to be Nudger in Chief is enough to make any free man or woman apprehensive and afraid.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Mister Cellophane
Mister Cellophane
I finally got rid of my 17year old stereo Receiver/Amp and installed a new 7.1 Super Duper Audio/Video Receive/Amp in its place. This new thing is capable of pumping out 735 watts of window busting, pulsating noise that can rival a fully loaded 747 taking off. A cynical and knowledgeable expert suggested that this new 7.1 hunk of technology has as much computing power that all of NASA had during the 1970s. Oh, by the way, it (the A/V Receiver/Amp) was not developed, designed or manufactured in the USA, but it was promoted, marketed and sold in the USA. But I digress. So after I got everything tested, adjusted and calibrated, we considered what would be an appropriate way to test this new civilian entertainment manifestation of the space age. What we came up with was the gritty and visceral Bob Fosse movie masterpiece, Chicago. The DVD movie was presented in full magnificent widescreen that was never realized on my old 21inch color TV and in spectacular Digital Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround sound that was never realized by my old 17year old stereo amp for that matter. However, with my 7 carefully located and compensated speakers, aided and abetted by 2 massive self-powered subwoofers and a 55inch high definition TV, Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah were brought strutting, singing and dancing right into my living room with such clarity and bigger-than–life sound, I nearly forgot what all of this stuff cost. The home theater experience and sound was so overwhelming the effervescence was knocked right out of my cold brewski before I could even dispose of it (the beer) properly. When the movie progressed to the point where the hapless and sappy husband movie character Amos Hart finally sang his song, Mister Cellophane, I could not help but notice the similarity of the character John C. Reilly was singing about and that of the hard working, “play-by-the-rules”, American Citizen. The similarity was made all the more persuasive by the blatant co-opting of Emmett Kelly’s “Weary Willy” Tramp Clown routine of sweeping the spotlight thing by dressing in the Weary Willy costume, right down to the oversized shoes and all. The very last verse of the Mister Cellophane song goes like this:
Mister Cellophane
‘cause you can look right through me
Walk right by me
And never know I’m there
Never even know I’m there.
During this “Bailout” and “stimulate the economy” frenzy and orgy, if there was ever was a Cellophane Person, it’s surely the tax paying, hard working, play by the rules sap, the American Citizen. Maybe you are more perceptive than me, but it seems to me that those who are formulating this bailout/save-the-economy policy doesn't know that the American Citizen is even standing there, i.e., they look right through him and only see the fat cats that caused the problem in the first place. You know the more this goes on the more angry we all should become because they keep on punishing people who had nothing to do the current mess and keep on rewarding those who did. How much longer can this country endure when they keep on punishing citizens that do the right thing while rewarding those who contribute little and are irresponsible to say the least? Mister Cellophane? Yeah, that’s about right.
I finally got rid of my 17year old stereo Receiver/Amp and installed a new 7.1 Super Duper Audio/Video Receive/Amp in its place. This new thing is capable of pumping out 735 watts of window busting, pulsating noise that can rival a fully loaded 747 taking off. A cynical and knowledgeable expert suggested that this new 7.1 hunk of technology has as much computing power that all of NASA had during the 1970s. Oh, by the way, it (the A/V Receiver/Amp) was not developed, designed or manufactured in the USA, but it was promoted, marketed and sold in the USA. But I digress. So after I got everything tested, adjusted and calibrated, we considered what would be an appropriate way to test this new civilian entertainment manifestation of the space age. What we came up with was the gritty and visceral Bob Fosse movie masterpiece, Chicago. The DVD movie was presented in full magnificent widescreen that was never realized on my old 21inch color TV and in spectacular Digital Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround sound that was never realized by my old 17year old stereo amp for that matter. However, with my 7 carefully located and compensated speakers, aided and abetted by 2 massive self-powered subwoofers and a 55inch high definition TV, Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere and Queen Latifah were brought strutting, singing and dancing right into my living room with such clarity and bigger-than–life sound, I nearly forgot what all of this stuff cost. The home theater experience and sound was so overwhelming the effervescence was knocked right out of my cold brewski before I could even dispose of it (the beer) properly. When the movie progressed to the point where the hapless and sappy husband movie character Amos Hart finally sang his song, Mister Cellophane, I could not help but notice the similarity of the character John C. Reilly was singing about and that of the hard working, “play-by-the-rules”, American Citizen. The similarity was made all the more persuasive by the blatant co-opting of Emmett Kelly’s “Weary Willy” Tramp Clown routine of sweeping the spotlight thing by dressing in the Weary Willy costume, right down to the oversized shoes and all. The very last verse of the Mister Cellophane song goes like this:
Mister Cellophane
‘cause you can look right through me
Walk right by me
And never know I’m there
Never even know I’m there.
During this “Bailout” and “stimulate the economy” frenzy and orgy, if there was ever was a Cellophane Person, it’s surely the tax paying, hard working, play by the rules sap, the American Citizen. Maybe you are more perceptive than me, but it seems to me that those who are formulating this bailout/save-the-economy policy doesn't know that the American Citizen is even standing there, i.e., they look right through him and only see the fat cats that caused the problem in the first place. You know the more this goes on the more angry we all should become because they keep on punishing people who had nothing to do the current mess and keep on rewarding those who did. How much longer can this country endure when they keep on punishing citizens that do the right thing while rewarding those who contribute little and are irresponsible to say the least? Mister Cellophane? Yeah, that’s about right.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Flim Flam Enablers
The Flim Flam Enablers
Psst, Psst. Hey, you there. Yes, you. You are the one, aren’t you? One the many anonymously hiding right there behind all of your righteous indignation about Government running amuck, CEOs lavishly rewarding themselves with millions and millions, society with no morals and no sense of right and wrong, everything going to hell in a hand basket, your IRA, savings and retirement stash fading to chump change. Yes, I thought it was you. Well to be honest, it’s also me too. We are all part of the vast American majority that stands shoulder to shoulder in our infamy; we are the Great American Flim Flam Enablers. The good ole Politicians, Grift’ers, Money Managers, Corporation Moguls, Stock Brokers, you know, the Flim Flammers who rely on us enablers to keep the Flim Flamming vocation alive and functioning well. Come on now, be honest, you know what I’m talking about here, don’t you? I mean you’re not really averse to getting something for nothing, are you? You know, supporting taxing the hell out the “rich” so that you can get a break on your health care and stuff like that. Oh, by the way, now that I broached the subject of taxes, let’s talk about how taxes really work, OK? Now don’t forget, Taxes are power, i.e., more taxes equals more power and less taxes equals less power. So, if you want more power, how do you do it? Well let’s look at how they did it in Indiana. They latched on to the idea of imposing a “sin tax” on cigarettes as a win-win situation because increasing taxes on cigarettes would reduce consumption and improve the general health and the increased revenue from the “sin tax” would be used to establish a program to provide health care for underprivileged children. Now who could be against something like that? Bear in mind now, the Flim Flammers don’t do bad things by advocating bad things, like taxing cigarettes to get more money to increase their power, oh no, they always wrap their Flim Flamming around something glorious, like providing health care for needy children. So, let’s think this through to the logical end. A big tax increase is imposed on cigarettes and the result is indeed a reduction of cigarette consumption. Let’s say they impose a really large tax (like the American tea tax that shifted tea consumption to coffee consumption during the revolution) and cigarette consumption went to effective zero. What happens to the underprivileged child health care program? Do you really think the program will be stopped because of the loss of cigarette tax revenue? Not hardly. You will be taxed to continue the program because who could be for stopping the health care program for underprivileged children. Brothers and Sisters, we have been Flim Flammed into a situation where there is no good solution and we did it to ourselves because we voted for a new tax that increased the power over us and we did it willingly because we thought we could get something for nothing by taxing the despicable cigarettes and their addicted multitudes to pay for child health care that we really didn’t want to pay for ourselves. In short, we enabled the Flim Flammers. But I digress. A word about Flim Flammers might be in order about now. Most people think Flim Flammers use deception and trickery (see above cigarette tax discussion) to affect a dishonest gain from unsuspecting and sometimes cognitive challenged people. The truth is, Flim Flammer use their deception and trickery to target dishonest people (that would be us All-American electorate) because dishonest people are amenable to the suggestion that cheating other people for gain is acceptable (we cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you). This dishonest attribute makes us easy prey, because it’s not too difficult for a cleaver person (Politician) to orchestrate situations that will appear to the dishonest that they are getting something for nothing. When we listen to, believe and vote for Politicians who tell everyone that they are going to reduce taxes and increase benefits for all, well now, we are enabling the power hungry Flim Flammers because we actually believe their tripe that we are going to get something for nothing. How can we continuously be so stupid? It one thing for the Slugs of society to work the system to get all they can get from the productive citizens because they are simple thieves, but it is quite another thing when good, basically honest and hard working people succumb to the notion that it is alright to get something for nothing. Somehow greed has been turned into a virtue by the Flim Flammers because why else would we think that getting 20 and 30% interest on our money while everyone else is getting 1.2% is because we are so cleaver and not because we are stupid enough to actually buy into a Ponzi scheme with our hard earned money. When the current economic situation cascades into an awful depression as I have predicted, don’t go blaming the Flim Flammers because, Brothers and Sisters, we are the very ones that enabled the Flim Flammers to bring ruin upon our heads, not anyone else.
Psst, Psst. Hey, you there. Yes, you. You are the one, aren’t you? One the many anonymously hiding right there behind all of your righteous indignation about Government running amuck, CEOs lavishly rewarding themselves with millions and millions, society with no morals and no sense of right and wrong, everything going to hell in a hand basket, your IRA, savings and retirement stash fading to chump change. Yes, I thought it was you. Well to be honest, it’s also me too. We are all part of the vast American majority that stands shoulder to shoulder in our infamy; we are the Great American Flim Flam Enablers. The good ole Politicians, Grift’ers, Money Managers, Corporation Moguls, Stock Brokers, you know, the Flim Flammers who rely on us enablers to keep the Flim Flamming vocation alive and functioning well. Come on now, be honest, you know what I’m talking about here, don’t you? I mean you’re not really averse to getting something for nothing, are you? You know, supporting taxing the hell out the “rich” so that you can get a break on your health care and stuff like that. Oh, by the way, now that I broached the subject of taxes, let’s talk about how taxes really work, OK? Now don’t forget, Taxes are power, i.e., more taxes equals more power and less taxes equals less power. So, if you want more power, how do you do it? Well let’s look at how they did it in Indiana. They latched on to the idea of imposing a “sin tax” on cigarettes as a win-win situation because increasing taxes on cigarettes would reduce consumption and improve the general health and the increased revenue from the “sin tax” would be used to establish a program to provide health care for underprivileged children. Now who could be against something like that? Bear in mind now, the Flim Flammers don’t do bad things by advocating bad things, like taxing cigarettes to get more money to increase their power, oh no, they always wrap their Flim Flamming around something glorious, like providing health care for needy children. So, let’s think this through to the logical end. A big tax increase is imposed on cigarettes and the result is indeed a reduction of cigarette consumption. Let’s say they impose a really large tax (like the American tea tax that shifted tea consumption to coffee consumption during the revolution) and cigarette consumption went to effective zero. What happens to the underprivileged child health care program? Do you really think the program will be stopped because of the loss of cigarette tax revenue? Not hardly. You will be taxed to continue the program because who could be for stopping the health care program for underprivileged children. Brothers and Sisters, we have been Flim Flammed into a situation where there is no good solution and we did it to ourselves because we voted for a new tax that increased the power over us and we did it willingly because we thought we could get something for nothing by taxing the despicable cigarettes and their addicted multitudes to pay for child health care that we really didn’t want to pay for ourselves. In short, we enabled the Flim Flammers. But I digress. A word about Flim Flammers might be in order about now. Most people think Flim Flammers use deception and trickery (see above cigarette tax discussion) to affect a dishonest gain from unsuspecting and sometimes cognitive challenged people. The truth is, Flim Flammer use their deception and trickery to target dishonest people (that would be us All-American electorate) because dishonest people are amenable to the suggestion that cheating other people for gain is acceptable (we cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you). This dishonest attribute makes us easy prey, because it’s not too difficult for a cleaver person (Politician) to orchestrate situations that will appear to the dishonest that they are getting something for nothing. When we listen to, believe and vote for Politicians who tell everyone that they are going to reduce taxes and increase benefits for all, well now, we are enabling the power hungry Flim Flammers because we actually believe their tripe that we are going to get something for nothing. How can we continuously be so stupid? It one thing for the Slugs of society to work the system to get all they can get from the productive citizens because they are simple thieves, but it is quite another thing when good, basically honest and hard working people succumb to the notion that it is alright to get something for nothing. Somehow greed has been turned into a virtue by the Flim Flammers because why else would we think that getting 20 and 30% interest on our money while everyone else is getting 1.2% is because we are so cleaver and not because we are stupid enough to actually buy into a Ponzi scheme with our hard earned money. When the current economic situation cascades into an awful depression as I have predicted, don’t go blaming the Flim Flammers because, Brothers and Sisters, we are the very ones that enabled the Flim Flammers to bring ruin upon our heads, not anyone else.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Getting Riled Up While Parked In a Lazyboy
Getting Riled Up While Parked In a Lazyboy
Getting older is such a drag, and I really do mean drag, i.e., So many reasons not to do something; Looking longingly at a Playboy pin-up; Wondering if there will be enough money to bury your wrinkled old ass; The humiliation of young people shooting you the bird during your driving experience. I could fill a few pages with this kind of draggy stuff, but you get the picture. I am also apprehensive about writing this piece in the first place because when and if a young person ever reads this, they might become frightened that this is how they will end up one day (if they are lucky, that is). After reading this piece, they (young people) might even be inclined to uphold the Bob Dylan advisement to “never trust anyone over 30”. Oh, by the way, Robert Allen Zimmerman, Bob Dylan, will be 68 on 24 May, and it’s hard to believe old “All of the Tired Horses” Bob would ever say; Never trust anyone over 70. No, he wouldn’t say that, would he? However, I would hazard a guess that even good old “Blowing in the Wind” Bob has come to realize that old age is a moving target, i.e., as you get older the notion of old is an age more advanced than yours, and getting a young person to trust you is not part of the aging agenda anyway. The agenda of old age is to remain upright and on the sunny side of the grass for as long as possible and staying the hell out of the way while doing it. But I digress. I was just thinking, while staying the hell out of the way, how it seems to me that nowadays people seemed inclined to be angry a lot. They seem to be angry at every thing. Things big and small, important and trivial, personal and impersonal, etc., you name it and chances are there is an angry person out there ready to cause a ruckus about it. I’ll swear that a lot of people examine every word spoken to them to see if there is some reason they should be insulted, disrespected, or just plain ticked-off and they are always eager to be angry and confrontational about it. Because I am getting older, I tried to think back to earlier times in order to determine if people were as angry then as they seem to be now. I can’t really recall people ever being as angry as now even if my “Tired old Horses” brain can’t recall reality as good as it used to. God only knows that people in days gone by certainly had much more cause to be angry than people nowadays because life was rather rough then and not nearly as good and convenient as modern living is now. Perhaps I should clarify that last remark. When I say things are much better in the modern world, I meant from a physical perspective of just staying alive and getting enough to eat while hoping you didn’t wear out your body with physical labor, you know, stuff like that. I guess a case could be made that living is more stressful now than in the older and simpler times because we have nuclear war hanging over our heads, terrorism, investments and IRAs, endless gadgets to get and maintain, cars to constantly feed, HD Television and on and on. Living during modern stressful times could certainly make a case for being angry in general because things that cause stress in today’s world seem to be beyond anyone’s personal control. Older things, like staying alive, getting enough to eat and the like, were more physical things and were mainly in one’s personal control. Perhaps it’s the not being in control of our own lives that is causing people to be angry all of the time. That very well could be true, but I think there is something else just as fundamental that is causing all of the anger. Believe it or not, I think we are too connected nowadays. E-mail, texting, 24-hour news, cell phones in our pockets, political correctness, credit cards, goggle and on and on. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing all of the time. For example, do I really need to know that the Tutsi are hacking to death every Hutu they can find in Africa, or is it Hutus killing Tutsi? I remember when I lived in on the north shore of Hawaii many years ago we had no TV, one FM radio station and did not receive a newspaper. We walked on the beach, read books and were not angry with anyone mainly because we didn’t know what other people were doing most of the time. Here is something else to think about. Remember when we used to write letters to communicate with people? It took a lot of time to compose a thoughtful letter. Enough time in fact that when one reread the letter before posting, one would have time to remove any unintended offensive rhetoric before it could do harm and cause a person to be angry. Now we can bang away with “quick fingers” on e-mail or a text message and the communication can be in the recipient’s domain before regret can have its say and save the day. I try not to be angry today but Lawyers, Flim Flam politicians, Hedge funds, Bailouts, religious fanatics of every stripe would make any thoughtful person angry and knowing every possible detail about these and endless other crappy things causes me to be as angry as everyone else. Being old also causes me to notice things like this “everybody is always angry” thing and small wonder young folks like to steer a course around old fuddy-duddies mouthing off about such esoteric things. Well excuse me as I recline back in my Lazyboy, get my “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” brain back into gear, and receive my nightly anger fix by clicking onto Lou Dobbs Tonight.
Getting older is such a drag, and I really do mean drag, i.e., So many reasons not to do something; Looking longingly at a Playboy pin-up; Wondering if there will be enough money to bury your wrinkled old ass; The humiliation of young people shooting you the bird during your driving experience. I could fill a few pages with this kind of draggy stuff, but you get the picture. I am also apprehensive about writing this piece in the first place because when and if a young person ever reads this, they might become frightened that this is how they will end up one day (if they are lucky, that is). After reading this piece, they (young people) might even be inclined to uphold the Bob Dylan advisement to “never trust anyone over 30”. Oh, by the way, Robert Allen Zimmerman, Bob Dylan, will be 68 on 24 May, and it’s hard to believe old “All of the Tired Horses” Bob would ever say; Never trust anyone over 70. No, he wouldn’t say that, would he? However, I would hazard a guess that even good old “Blowing in the Wind” Bob has come to realize that old age is a moving target, i.e., as you get older the notion of old is an age more advanced than yours, and getting a young person to trust you is not part of the aging agenda anyway. The agenda of old age is to remain upright and on the sunny side of the grass for as long as possible and staying the hell out of the way while doing it. But I digress. I was just thinking, while staying the hell out of the way, how it seems to me that nowadays people seemed inclined to be angry a lot. They seem to be angry at every thing. Things big and small, important and trivial, personal and impersonal, etc., you name it and chances are there is an angry person out there ready to cause a ruckus about it. I’ll swear that a lot of people examine every word spoken to them to see if there is some reason they should be insulted, disrespected, or just plain ticked-off and they are always eager to be angry and confrontational about it. Because I am getting older, I tried to think back to earlier times in order to determine if people were as angry then as they seem to be now. I can’t really recall people ever being as angry as now even if my “Tired old Horses” brain can’t recall reality as good as it used to. God only knows that people in days gone by certainly had much more cause to be angry than people nowadays because life was rather rough then and not nearly as good and convenient as modern living is now. Perhaps I should clarify that last remark. When I say things are much better in the modern world, I meant from a physical perspective of just staying alive and getting enough to eat while hoping you didn’t wear out your body with physical labor, you know, stuff like that. I guess a case could be made that living is more stressful now than in the older and simpler times because we have nuclear war hanging over our heads, terrorism, investments and IRAs, endless gadgets to get and maintain, cars to constantly feed, HD Television and on and on. Living during modern stressful times could certainly make a case for being angry in general because things that cause stress in today’s world seem to be beyond anyone’s personal control. Older things, like staying alive, getting enough to eat and the like, were more physical things and were mainly in one’s personal control. Perhaps it’s the not being in control of our own lives that is causing people to be angry all of the time. That very well could be true, but I think there is something else just as fundamental that is causing all of the anger. Believe it or not, I think we are too connected nowadays. E-mail, texting, 24-hour news, cell phones in our pockets, political correctness, credit cards, goggle and on and on. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing all of the time. For example, do I really need to know that the Tutsi are hacking to death every Hutu they can find in Africa, or is it Hutus killing Tutsi? I remember when I lived in on the north shore of Hawaii many years ago we had no TV, one FM radio station and did not receive a newspaper. We walked on the beach, read books and were not angry with anyone mainly because we didn’t know what other people were doing most of the time. Here is something else to think about. Remember when we used to write letters to communicate with people? It took a lot of time to compose a thoughtful letter. Enough time in fact that when one reread the letter before posting, one would have time to remove any unintended offensive rhetoric before it could do harm and cause a person to be angry. Now we can bang away with “quick fingers” on e-mail or a text message and the communication can be in the recipient’s domain before regret can have its say and save the day. I try not to be angry today but Lawyers, Flim Flam politicians, Hedge funds, Bailouts, religious fanatics of every stripe would make any thoughtful person angry and knowing every possible detail about these and endless other crappy things causes me to be as angry as everyone else. Being old also causes me to notice things like this “everybody is always angry” thing and small wonder young folks like to steer a course around old fuddy-duddies mouthing off about such esoteric things. Well excuse me as I recline back in my Lazyboy, get my “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” brain back into gear, and receive my nightly anger fix by clicking onto Lou Dobbs Tonight.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
President Barack Hussein Obama
(BHO)
PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
Without any reservations at all, I am hopeful that Pres BHO will be successful as President and lead our country with a consensus of the all of the people. I also hope that now that the Dems, lefties and ideologues in the mainstream media have had their satisfying orgy of demonizing Pres Bush, the personal destruction of our leaders will become a thing of the past. I also have hope that I will win the lottery any day now, but what the hell; we shouldn’t lose hope just because the odds for success are so formidable. But wait, you know what, I think that Pres BHO will probably be a success because I believe the man has shown definite signs of being a gamer and a winner and not just another political ideologue. If you are one of those who have read my book, “Flim Flam”, I am hopeful that you became aware that the inspiration for the book was Pres Bill Clinton and the basic point of the book was that Pres Bill Clinton was also a Gamer, and not just another political ideologue. And if Clinton or any other big time Gamer decides to play in a game, they are winners, because Gamers won’t play in a game they can’t win. That’s what I mean by being a winner. You will recall that Pres Clinton had his Triangulation method of co-opting all of the positions of an issue into his position thereby making his triangulated position the one that would achieve the most support from the greatest number of people. This is how a winner does it because he is not so much interested in or married to any particular position on an issue (a strategy for losing), he is only interested in using the issue to demonstrate that he alone always has the solution to an issue that most people agree with, i.e., this is how you play so you cannot lose. You will also note that Clinton augmented his Triangulation method of consensus building with continuous polling of carefully selected people to ensure his triangulated position being taken was being met with approval from a cross-section of the political spectrum. Again, this is how a (political) winner does it. Now if you carefully consider the political career of BHO to date, you will note many similarities in the successful Modus Operandi of Bill Clinton and MR. BHO. For example, during BHO’s time in the Illinois Legislature, there were an extraordinary number of contentious issues that BHO abstained from voting on. A lack of backbone you say? Not hardly. Mr. BHO was not yet into a position where he could triangulate a position and take credit for it, so he did the next best thing. He abstained from voting and therefore he never had to be on the losing side of a contentious issue or create a possible harmful legacy, this is how a winner operates. Also there are those who say that BHO is in reality a Socialist at heart because so many of the causes and programs he has supported during his political formative years seem to support a socialist agenda notwithstanding how comfortable he appears to be with socialist rhetoric. Lets think about this. If one considers the political arena that HBO grew up in, south side of Chicago, this is what a political person would do and sound like if they were expecting to be popular and enjoy success with the local electorate and political hierarchy. In other words, BHO did what he had to do, and took the necessary positions to be successful in his inaugural career and it is not at all likely that these sophomore positions represent an ideological framework that will support his Presidency. It instead, looks more like a potential winner doing “on the job training” to me. As proof of what I just said, consider that there are a growing number of positions that had to taken during the primary and general elections that are now being triangulated and morphed into a more popular (winning) position for the general electorate. Winners do this, political ideologues don’t. Also, think back during the primary and general elections and you will recall that a number of people were dismayed by the soaring rhetoric and generalizations that substituted for positions and presented nothing of any substance for opponents to grab hold of. Winners know you only take potential positions under duress, and charm and grace created an adoring public that shielded Mr. BHO against potential duress. And the winner soldiers on. One other thing you might want to consider. There were a number of people who were saying that Mr. BHO was following the philosophy of Vito Corleone that holds that you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well that might be how old Vito did it but that not how political winners do it. Think about it. Mr. BHO gathered up the students and practitioners of the Clinton triangulation formula for political success and these people require no OJT, “On the Job Training”, they already know what the game is and they are comfortable with it. Well Brothers and Sisters, I think we have a winner here and you know what, that may not be a bad thing at all. What I mean here is that thinking back to the Clinton Presidency, notwithstanding the blue dress thing and other peccadilloes, most objective people will agree that it was a very successful presidency. And you know why? A gamer and winner may as close as one can get as an ideal leader who will do the will of the people because he wants to be a winner and not force a potential losing agenda upon the people. Sounds like practical Democracy to me.
PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
Without any reservations at all, I am hopeful that Pres BHO will be successful as President and lead our country with a consensus of the all of the people. I also hope that now that the Dems, lefties and ideologues in the mainstream media have had their satisfying orgy of demonizing Pres Bush, the personal destruction of our leaders will become a thing of the past. I also have hope that I will win the lottery any day now, but what the hell; we shouldn’t lose hope just because the odds for success are so formidable. But wait, you know what, I think that Pres BHO will probably be a success because I believe the man has shown definite signs of being a gamer and a winner and not just another political ideologue. If you are one of those who have read my book, “Flim Flam”, I am hopeful that you became aware that the inspiration for the book was Pres Bill Clinton and the basic point of the book was that Pres Bill Clinton was also a Gamer, and not just another political ideologue. And if Clinton or any other big time Gamer decides to play in a game, they are winners, because Gamers won’t play in a game they can’t win. That’s what I mean by being a winner. You will recall that Pres Clinton had his Triangulation method of co-opting all of the positions of an issue into his position thereby making his triangulated position the one that would achieve the most support from the greatest number of people. This is how a winner does it because he is not so much interested in or married to any particular position on an issue (a strategy for losing), he is only interested in using the issue to demonstrate that he alone always has the solution to an issue that most people agree with, i.e., this is how you play so you cannot lose. You will also note that Clinton augmented his Triangulation method of consensus building with continuous polling of carefully selected people to ensure his triangulated position being taken was being met with approval from a cross-section of the political spectrum. Again, this is how a (political) winner does it. Now if you carefully consider the political career of BHO to date, you will note many similarities in the successful Modus Operandi of Bill Clinton and MR. BHO. For example, during BHO’s time in the Illinois Legislature, there were an extraordinary number of contentious issues that BHO abstained from voting on. A lack of backbone you say? Not hardly. Mr. BHO was not yet into a position where he could triangulate a position and take credit for it, so he did the next best thing. He abstained from voting and therefore he never had to be on the losing side of a contentious issue or create a possible harmful legacy, this is how a winner operates. Also there are those who say that BHO is in reality a Socialist at heart because so many of the causes and programs he has supported during his political formative years seem to support a socialist agenda notwithstanding how comfortable he appears to be with socialist rhetoric. Lets think about this. If one considers the political arena that HBO grew up in, south side of Chicago, this is what a political person would do and sound like if they were expecting to be popular and enjoy success with the local electorate and political hierarchy. In other words, BHO did what he had to do, and took the necessary positions to be successful in his inaugural career and it is not at all likely that these sophomore positions represent an ideological framework that will support his Presidency. It instead, looks more like a potential winner doing “on the job training” to me. As proof of what I just said, consider that there are a growing number of positions that had to taken during the primary and general elections that are now being triangulated and morphed into a more popular (winning) position for the general electorate. Winners do this, political ideologues don’t. Also, think back during the primary and general elections and you will recall that a number of people were dismayed by the soaring rhetoric and generalizations that substituted for positions and presented nothing of any substance for opponents to grab hold of. Winners know you only take potential positions under duress, and charm and grace created an adoring public that shielded Mr. BHO against potential duress. And the winner soldiers on. One other thing you might want to consider. There were a number of people who were saying that Mr. BHO was following the philosophy of Vito Corleone that holds that you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Well that might be how old Vito did it but that not how political winners do it. Think about it. Mr. BHO gathered up the students and practitioners of the Clinton triangulation formula for political success and these people require no OJT, “On the Job Training”, they already know what the game is and they are comfortable with it. Well Brothers and Sisters, I think we have a winner here and you know what, that may not be a bad thing at all. What I mean here is that thinking back to the Clinton Presidency, notwithstanding the blue dress thing and other peccadilloes, most objective people will agree that it was a very successful presidency. And you know why? A gamer and winner may as close as one can get as an ideal leader who will do the will of the people because he wants to be a winner and not force a potential losing agenda upon the people. Sounds like practical Democracy to me.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Peace
PEACE
Peace, She is a shadow,
A Phantom cast from every Man’s longing.
Deliciously dancing just beyond reach,
A dichotomy that cannot soothe the weary soul.
As you can see from the above verse, I believe that Peace is unobtainable, i.e., if indeed Peace is a shadow of every man’s longing, then if one were to obtain Peace, there would be no more longing for Peace that produces the shadow that is peace. Therefore, the longing for Peace and obtaining Peace are mutually exclusive making it (Peace) a dichotomy. I hope I didn’t lose you in explaining the verse, but hopefully a further explanation of why I believe that Peace is indeed a shadow will be helpful and then perhaps the verse can be accepted as the truth in the matter. First, most all agree that Peace is in reality, the absence of strife. The absence of strife, best described as being a human condition where mindless bliss would prevail, is a situation where only mindless life could enjoy. Because mankind has been blessed with a cognitive mind that is always on the job, bliss is more of a fanciful notion rather than human reality. Therefore, I believe that strife is as much a part of human life and living as eating, drinking, thinking and breathing, so living without strife, is another mutually exclusive situation. The reason that I believe strife is a part of life is due to the nature that life has been designed, or has developed, if you prefer. Most agree that we all have a survival instinct hard wired into our life’s architecture and that instinct drives us to compete with other life for the planet’s resources to ensure survival of ourselves as well as our families. That competition for the planets resources, in its most basic form, is that if life is to endure on this planet, life must feed upon life to do so. You may think that this is an unpleasant situation, but it does not change the fact, and the reality is, humans sit atop the food chain. If any of the readers of this piece has been brave enough to read my book, The Grace of Being, you will know that I went into a very long and boring logical explanation why life is required to feed upon life. Nevertheless, regardless if you believe it or not, or understand the reason for it, life must feed upon life in order to survive and endure. I always marvel at the naiveté that vegetarians display when they explain they are vegetarians because they are abhorred at the thought of feeding upon once living flesh while they instead feed upon plant life and the embryos of plant life (seeds like wheat, oats, etc.) that is endowed with the exact same life giving DNA as animal life. Make no mistake about it, DNA is that which defines all life on this beautiful blue planet, and plant DNA is as much alive as animal life (which includes humans). But I digress. Competing for resources is a very stressful and the resulting competition promotes strife in all of its forms and this situation makes peace a dichotomy. I further believe that in addition to the survival instinct there is also a dominance instinct that drives us to be competitive amongst those of our own kind (humans) in order to satisfy the “survival of the fittest” demands of evolution. The continuous competition that our instincts demand will ensure that strife will be our companion as long as we enjoy the gift of life and there can be no such thing as peace, indeed, only death (the absence of life) brings peace. This should be a very sobering realization that we all personally and collectively keep striving for something that is unobtainable. However, this situation, if true, should not be cause for despair. The human race has developed into a social society that has made use of our cognitive abilities to institute rules, laws and behavior conventions to manage strife by fostering benevolent civil competition as a substitute for unbridled competition that our instincts demands. History has proved that a law-based society that requires benevolent civil competition as a nondestructive means to advance and endure, is a workable situation that is as close to peace as can be managed even though it still creates manageable strife. Surely you can immediately see that when our laws, social and behavior conventions fail, and our most basic instincts are allowed to gain control, unbridled competition will foster the greatest competition of all. War. And if our advanced technology is use to gain advantage in a great war, then the destruction of us all will be our reward, and at long last, Peace.
Peace, She is a shadow,
A Phantom cast from every Man’s longing.
Deliciously dancing just beyond reach,
A dichotomy that cannot soothe the weary soul.
As you can see from the above verse, I believe that Peace is unobtainable, i.e., if indeed Peace is a shadow of every man’s longing, then if one were to obtain Peace, there would be no more longing for Peace that produces the shadow that is peace. Therefore, the longing for Peace and obtaining Peace are mutually exclusive making it (Peace) a dichotomy. I hope I didn’t lose you in explaining the verse, but hopefully a further explanation of why I believe that Peace is indeed a shadow will be helpful and then perhaps the verse can be accepted as the truth in the matter. First, most all agree that Peace is in reality, the absence of strife. The absence of strife, best described as being a human condition where mindless bliss would prevail, is a situation where only mindless life could enjoy. Because mankind has been blessed with a cognitive mind that is always on the job, bliss is more of a fanciful notion rather than human reality. Therefore, I believe that strife is as much a part of human life and living as eating, drinking, thinking and breathing, so living without strife, is another mutually exclusive situation. The reason that I believe strife is a part of life is due to the nature that life has been designed, or has developed, if you prefer. Most agree that we all have a survival instinct hard wired into our life’s architecture and that instinct drives us to compete with other life for the planet’s resources to ensure survival of ourselves as well as our families. That competition for the planets resources, in its most basic form, is that if life is to endure on this planet, life must feed upon life to do so. You may think that this is an unpleasant situation, but it does not change the fact, and the reality is, humans sit atop the food chain. If any of the readers of this piece has been brave enough to read my book, The Grace of Being, you will know that I went into a very long and boring logical explanation why life is required to feed upon life. Nevertheless, regardless if you believe it or not, or understand the reason for it, life must feed upon life in order to survive and endure. I always marvel at the naiveté that vegetarians display when they explain they are vegetarians because they are abhorred at the thought of feeding upon once living flesh while they instead feed upon plant life and the embryos of plant life (seeds like wheat, oats, etc.) that is endowed with the exact same life giving DNA as animal life. Make no mistake about it, DNA is that which defines all life on this beautiful blue planet, and plant DNA is as much alive as animal life (which includes humans). But I digress. Competing for resources is a very stressful and the resulting competition promotes strife in all of its forms and this situation makes peace a dichotomy. I further believe that in addition to the survival instinct there is also a dominance instinct that drives us to be competitive amongst those of our own kind (humans) in order to satisfy the “survival of the fittest” demands of evolution. The continuous competition that our instincts demand will ensure that strife will be our companion as long as we enjoy the gift of life and there can be no such thing as peace, indeed, only death (the absence of life) brings peace. This should be a very sobering realization that we all personally and collectively keep striving for something that is unobtainable. However, this situation, if true, should not be cause for despair. The human race has developed into a social society that has made use of our cognitive abilities to institute rules, laws and behavior conventions to manage strife by fostering benevolent civil competition as a substitute for unbridled competition that our instincts demands. History has proved that a law-based society that requires benevolent civil competition as a nondestructive means to advance and endure, is a workable situation that is as close to peace as can be managed even though it still creates manageable strife. Surely you can immediately see that when our laws, social and behavior conventions fail, and our most basic instincts are allowed to gain control, unbridled competition will foster the greatest competition of all. War. And if our advanced technology is use to gain advantage in a great war, then the destruction of us all will be our reward, and at long last, Peace.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
War
WAR
From my book, The Grace of Being.
“First there was the fist and the tooth,
Then there was the stick and the stone,
Then there was the club and the ax,
Then there was the arrow and the sword,
Then there was the bullet and the bomb,
Then there was the chemical agent and the biological agent,
Then there was the mystery and energy of the universe let loose.
All of these things that increasing knowledge has wrought only brings conflict and strife at increasingly greater levels, and portents ruin, not glory.”
You will be hearing a lot about December 21, 2012 in the coming days. That’s the precise day your world will end and is well past the day you got married. December 12th, 2012 is the day the Mayan Calendar ends its Long Count at 13.0.0.0.0 and coincides with the Earth’s winter solstice on that date. Also at that precise date and time, the sun will pass the center and galactic equator of our Milky Way Galaxy and this event is considered by many to signal the: End of Days. The End of Days, if it comes, will be brought about by a great war, cosmic cataclysm, planet earth ruin, or any other infinite number of catastrophes that might happen be it manmade or act of nature. There are many prophesies out there about the End of Days occurring approximately in the same 2012 time period, depending upon interpretation, but for my money, a great war will be the most likely cause of man’s demise and the Mayans never predicted or knew about weapons of mass destruction that can cause a final war (God, what a detached and dreadful phase, “Weapons of Mass Destruction”). For example, look at this remarkable prophecy by the Hopi Indian, White Feather of the Bear Clan:
“The fourth world shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The signs over the many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.
This is the first sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana men who took the land that was not theirs (note: Pahana means “Lost White Brother” and is the Hopi messiah) and men who struck their enemies with thunder.
This is the second sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes---the white man bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.
This is the third sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White feather saw with his eyes—the coming of white men’s cattle.
This is the fourth sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron.
This is the fifth sign: The land will be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web.
This is the sixth sign: The land will be crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun.
This is the seventh sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it.
This is the eight sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom.
This is the ninth and last sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star (note: the Hopi Blue Star of Kachina is the star Sirius). Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.
These are the Signs that a great destruction is coming. The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle against other people in other lands – with those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as White Feather has seen the white man make in the deserts not far from here. Only those which come will cause disease and a great dying.”
I really don’t know if there are such things as prophecies, however, I do believe war will be the likely cause of man’s demise, if that is our fate, because I am agreement with Carl Sagan’s hypothesis that the reason that there is not abundant life being observed throughout the universe is because life always develops to a point where it discovers technology and 99.99% of the time, technology is used to destroy the very life that discovered it due to great struggles and wars. So, at any point in time, there is little alien life to observe because what life had been before has already vanished because they destroyed themselves. This theory does not provide an optimistic outlook for the fate of mankind that already knows war and has the technology to make war ever more destructive. There is little doubt man’s technology has advanced to the point where we are capable of destroying ourselves many times over and man’s history shows a willingness to engage in war to either resolve problems or gain mastery over others. Perhaps war is inevitable because of how life is designed, i.e., for life to survive, it has a dominance and survival instinct that is hard wired into our beings and these instincts makes it impossible to resist our destructive inclinations, even while we destroy that which we all hold dear (life). We all engage in war on a personal level every day due to these driving instincts. We battle each other for a better job, for a better life, for more power, for sex, for money and on and on. So when we engage in bigger and bigger impersonal wars, it’s a road we all have traveled many times on a personal level and provides for a sense of propriety. There are those who have subscribed to the notion that war is glorious and is the engine that drives man’s advancement. Well, that might have been true when sticks, stones, arrows and swords were technology’s offerings, but with today’s and tomorrow’s weapons of mass destructions, no alien life will even be around to stop by and wonder at our ruin and demise (instead of glorious advancement).
From my book, The Grace of Being.
“First there was the fist and the tooth,
Then there was the stick and the stone,
Then there was the club and the ax,
Then there was the arrow and the sword,
Then there was the bullet and the bomb,
Then there was the chemical agent and the biological agent,
Then there was the mystery and energy of the universe let loose.
All of these things that increasing knowledge has wrought only brings conflict and strife at increasingly greater levels, and portents ruin, not glory.”
You will be hearing a lot about December 21, 2012 in the coming days. That’s the precise day your world will end and is well past the day you got married. December 12th, 2012 is the day the Mayan Calendar ends its Long Count at 13.0.0.0.0 and coincides with the Earth’s winter solstice on that date. Also at that precise date and time, the sun will pass the center and galactic equator of our Milky Way Galaxy and this event is considered by many to signal the: End of Days. The End of Days, if it comes, will be brought about by a great war, cosmic cataclysm, planet earth ruin, or any other infinite number of catastrophes that might happen be it manmade or act of nature. There are many prophesies out there about the End of Days occurring approximately in the same 2012 time period, depending upon interpretation, but for my money, a great war will be the most likely cause of man’s demise and the Mayans never predicted or knew about weapons of mass destruction that can cause a final war (God, what a detached and dreadful phase, “Weapons of Mass Destruction”). For example, look at this remarkable prophecy by the Hopi Indian, White Feather of the Bear Clan:
“The fourth world shall end soon, and the Fifth World will begin. This the elders everywhere know. The signs over the many years have been fulfilled, and so few are left.
This is the first sign: We are told of the coming of the white-skinned men, like Pahana, but not living like Pahana men who took the land that was not theirs (note: Pahana means “Lost White Brother” and is the Hopi messiah) and men who struck their enemies with thunder.
This is the second sign: Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes---the white man bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.
This is the third sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White feather saw with his eyes—the coming of white men’s cattle.
This is the fourth sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron.
This is the fifth sign: The land will be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web.
This is the sixth sign: The land will be crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun.
This is the seventh sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it.
This is the eight sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom.
This is the ninth and last sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star (note: the Hopi Blue Star of Kachina is the star Sirius). Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.
These are the Signs that a great destruction is coming. The world shall rock to and fro. The white man will battle against other people in other lands – with those who possessed the first light of wisdom. There will be many columns of smoke and fire such as White Feather has seen the white man make in the deserts not far from here. Only those which come will cause disease and a great dying.”
I really don’t know if there are such things as prophecies, however, I do believe war will be the likely cause of man’s demise, if that is our fate, because I am agreement with Carl Sagan’s hypothesis that the reason that there is not abundant life being observed throughout the universe is because life always develops to a point where it discovers technology and 99.99% of the time, technology is used to destroy the very life that discovered it due to great struggles and wars. So, at any point in time, there is little alien life to observe because what life had been before has already vanished because they destroyed themselves. This theory does not provide an optimistic outlook for the fate of mankind that already knows war and has the technology to make war ever more destructive. There is little doubt man’s technology has advanced to the point where we are capable of destroying ourselves many times over and man’s history shows a willingness to engage in war to either resolve problems or gain mastery over others. Perhaps war is inevitable because of how life is designed, i.e., for life to survive, it has a dominance and survival instinct that is hard wired into our beings and these instincts makes it impossible to resist our destructive inclinations, even while we destroy that which we all hold dear (life). We all engage in war on a personal level every day due to these driving instincts. We battle each other for a better job, for a better life, for more power, for sex, for money and on and on. So when we engage in bigger and bigger impersonal wars, it’s a road we all have traveled many times on a personal level and provides for a sense of propriety. There are those who have subscribed to the notion that war is glorious and is the engine that drives man’s advancement. Well, that might have been true when sticks, stones, arrows and swords were technology’s offerings, but with today’s and tomorrow’s weapons of mass destructions, no alien life will even be around to stop by and wonder at our ruin and demise (instead of glorious advancement).
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Fear, It's Frightening
Fear, It’s Frightening
Most of us have seen the old newsreel of Franklin D. Roosevelt sitting there during the depth of the depression in 1932 and with jutting jaw and his trademark clinched teeth smile say to the Congress and American people, “The only thing we have to fear, (patented FDR pause for dramatic effect) is fear itself.” Of course the reason that this quote comes to mind nowadays is that unbounded fear is spreading throughout the land once again because our economy is collapsing just like in 1929 and the leadership that is responding to this crisis are the very same ones that permitted and encouraged greed to replace honest enterprise, and without a doubt, greed is the primary cause for the cascading collapse that our economy is experiencing. We all should be very much frightened because greed is not being addressed in any manner whatsoever in the headlong rush to mitigate the continuing economic crisis. In fact, rather than stamping down greed, it (greed) is being encouraged to take advantage of the bankrupting of America as dollars are flowing from the Fed printing press to the very same Financial Services Robber Barons that enabled greed to replace honest enterprise in the first place. To bring this more into focus I am going to quote what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standingarmies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issueof their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks andcorporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people ofall property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent that theirfathers conquered”.
What I am talking about here is the fact that Financial Services (a synonym for practical greed) enabled our manufacturing sector to go from 25% of the nation’s GNP in the 1970s to less than 12% of GNP today and they accomplished this feat by replacing honest enterprise with greed. How this occurred is that financial entities, such as Hedge Funds, have bought into Public Corporations using worthless leveraged money and gained overwhelming control. Once in control, they (financial entities) demanded more and more profits until the only way to satisfy the insatiable demands was to ship jobs and factories overseas in the search of cheap labor and intellect in order to boost profits until today the displacement of our manufacturing sector is nearly complete. The result being that we are becoming a country that can no longer “make it here.” This is important because when countries (like the old British Empire) can no longer make its goods and things domestically, they lose control of their destiny and become relegated to third world status. Greed is causing this to happen (see my pieces “OBL and the 3rd Deadly Sin and One World Eggheads and Credit Default Swaps”) because greed only craves money, not the necessary honest enterprise that is required to make money that represents something of value (like an automobile, corn, house, pig, intellectual property, etc). Sometimes we forget in order for money to be viable, it has to represent something of value that people have faith and trust in and greed just makes money off of money and does not really represent anything of value. Oh, by the way, Financial Services now represent over 21% of our national GNP today. Think about it. A segment of our economy that makes nothing of value is 21% of our GNP. Now that’s something to become frightened about Mr. FDR.
Most of us have seen the old newsreel of Franklin D. Roosevelt sitting there during the depth of the depression in 1932 and with jutting jaw and his trademark clinched teeth smile say to the Congress and American people, “The only thing we have to fear, (patented FDR pause for dramatic effect) is fear itself.” Of course the reason that this quote comes to mind nowadays is that unbounded fear is spreading throughout the land once again because our economy is collapsing just like in 1929 and the leadership that is responding to this crisis are the very same ones that permitted and encouraged greed to replace honest enterprise, and without a doubt, greed is the primary cause for the cascading collapse that our economy is experiencing. We all should be very much frightened because greed is not being addressed in any manner whatsoever in the headlong rush to mitigate the continuing economic crisis. In fact, rather than stamping down greed, it (greed) is being encouraged to take advantage of the bankrupting of America as dollars are flowing from the Fed printing press to the very same Financial Services Robber Barons that enabled greed to replace honest enterprise in the first place. To bring this more into focus I am going to quote what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standingarmies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issueof their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks andcorporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people ofall property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent that theirfathers conquered”.
What I am talking about here is the fact that Financial Services (a synonym for practical greed) enabled our manufacturing sector to go from 25% of the nation’s GNP in the 1970s to less than 12% of GNP today and they accomplished this feat by replacing honest enterprise with greed. How this occurred is that financial entities, such as Hedge Funds, have bought into Public Corporations using worthless leveraged money and gained overwhelming control. Once in control, they (financial entities) demanded more and more profits until the only way to satisfy the insatiable demands was to ship jobs and factories overseas in the search of cheap labor and intellect in order to boost profits until today the displacement of our manufacturing sector is nearly complete. The result being that we are becoming a country that can no longer “make it here.” This is important because when countries (like the old British Empire) can no longer make its goods and things domestically, they lose control of their destiny and become relegated to third world status. Greed is causing this to happen (see my pieces “OBL and the 3rd Deadly Sin and One World Eggheads and Credit Default Swaps”) because greed only craves money, not the necessary honest enterprise that is required to make money that represents something of value (like an automobile, corn, house, pig, intellectual property, etc). Sometimes we forget in order for money to be viable, it has to represent something of value that people have faith and trust in and greed just makes money off of money and does not really represent anything of value. Oh, by the way, Financial Services now represent over 21% of our national GNP today. Think about it. A segment of our economy that makes nothing of value is 21% of our GNP. Now that’s something to become frightened about Mr. FDR.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Change and Chance
CHANGE and CHANCE
All of the knowledge
That can ever be earned,
And all of the wisdom
That can ever be gained,
Will never give the hand of Man
The power to stop the flow of Change
Or prevent the Happenstance of Chance.
Change and Chance is like
Wind and Wave,
They both will blow and roll
To wherever they will go.
Folly will reward all who try
To change the Wind and Wave,
Because they will always blow and roll
To wherever they will go.
So set your sail to Wind and Wave
To mount the unstoppable forces,
And ride your splendid advantage
To wherever your fancy advances.
Knowledge and wisdom can be your sail
To set to the forces of Change and Chance,
And you can cruise to your good fortune
With bended might for your circumstance.
All of the knowledge
That can ever be earned,
And all of the wisdom
That can ever be gained,
Will never give the hand of Man
The power to stop the flow of Change
Or prevent the Happenstance of Chance.
Change and Chance is like
Wind and Wave,
They both will blow and roll
To wherever they will go.
Folly will reward all who try
To change the Wind and Wave,
Because they will always blow and roll
To wherever they will go.
So set your sail to Wind and Wave
To mount the unstoppable forces,
And ride your splendid advantage
To wherever your fancy advances.
Knowledge and wisdom can be your sail
To set to the forces of Change and Chance,
And you can cruise to your good fortune
With bended might for your circumstance.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Honk if you love Peace and Quiet
Honk If You Love Peace & Quiet
I am as guilty as anyone else when it comes to taking note of what we consider negative things or trends while ignoring the many positive things that constantly surrounds us. Indeed, if one reads all that I have written lately, the conclusion would certainly be that I only feel compelled to give voice to things that I consider wrong or at least, not correct. Sadly, I can say that upon rereading my stuff, few words can be found that point out what is going well with the world, only wording that promotes concern and worry. Perhaps the reason for this imbalance is that I am only running the master DNA program that God, or Mother nature if you prefer, programmed into all of us standard Mark 1, Mod 0 human type people, i.e., we have a survival instinct that is inherent to us all and this programmed instinct causes us to focus on negative things more than positive things so that we can consolidate our actions to prevent circumstances from disturbing our well-being, or worse still, cause our ruin. Well, that my ten-cent theory, if you have a better one, I would like to hear about it. One thing I know for certain is that how we look at things to determine if they are positive or negative depends in large measure upon our perspective and our perspective is a result of our respective life experiences to date. For example, my Grandfather had a sign over his desk that he would always point to when I complained about a perceived injustice or that everyone always seemed to have more desirable stuff than I had. The sign read:
“I complained I had no shoes to wear until I saw a man with no feet.”
I think that old sign sums up the perspective thing rather nicely. I can also remember how my Grandmother once told me how wonderful things had gotten during her lifetime (circa 1887-1954). She said the most important improvement was that people are so much better looking now than in her day because modern faces are no longer being scared by the Pox and everyone was more graceful because contemporary people were no longer being broken by hard physical labor. I know about the hard physical labor thing because labor killed my Stepmother’s Father before he could reach 50 years. His premature death was a result of the hard physical labor required of him by being a laborer in the Stone Quarries of Bedford Indiana and he was done in before disease and other age related infirmities could take their due. My own personal perspective about things like this is that I can remember winters in Indianapolis when the primary heating for residents was coal fired stoves and the like. The coal burning produced black soot that fell from the smoke stacks and covered everything and everyone so that just staying clean and breathing was a full time job. With this coal soot perspective in mind, it’s understandable why someone like me would find it difficult to get all excited when the Penthouse Environmentalists* tell us that we must continuously do more and more to help Mother Earth get back to a pristine state of cleanliness or we all are gonna die while gasping for breath in polluted air that will not sustain life worth living. So when a contemporary person’s perspective about air quality is that today’s air is dirty, it is because they have been repeatedly told that the air is indeed dirty and needs to be made completely void of man’s byproducts in order to arrive at the final desired state of cleanliness. Of course my perspective about today’s air is that the air is wonderful compared to what I lived in during my younger days when we had soot, sulfur, and God only knows what, to breathe. My perspective about clean air causes me to be concerned about the necessity of wrecking our economy and jobs to arrive at an unreachable and mostly academic notion of clean air when today’s air, while not perfect and can always be prudently improved, is a remarkable improvement over what was before. As a matter of fact, I am thankful that the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) was created and is responsible for the wonderful air we have today. Here is the problem. Once an Agency is created and the bureaucrats are entrenched, they must continuously expand their reach and authority in order to remain viable. This means that the air will never be clean enough, the water will never be clear enough and the environment will never be pristine enough. So how do we determine when enough is enough of a good thing? Therein lies the dilemma of being positive or negative. In any event, young people have no idea what a blessing modern life is today and the idealistic notion that we need to get to a more natural state of living is naivety at its grandest folly. I just wonder when today’s youth grow up to become old geezers like me, will their perspective be that their modern lives are much better than when they were young? I hope so. However, I’m afraid they too will be mostly negative about things because they also want things to continuously improve just like those who proceeded them and that requires that we be mostly negative. So keep on honking those horns for peace and quiet, it’s really not as illogical as it sounds.
* Penthouse Environmentalists.
Those well meaning, but out of touch souls, who bang on Teflon covered pots and stainless steel pans about the necessity of saving Mother Earth from the evil humans. They have actually persuaded the ideologues in the Environmental Protection Agency to rule that the exhaled breath of animals, which includes humans, is a pollutant. I kid you not. All plant life will also be surprised at the news that CO2 is a pollutant, because CO2 is the building block for all things green. After a hard day’s work saving Mother Earth from all things human, the Penthouse Environmentalists climb into their Beamers to go home to their electrically wired, air-conditioned and WiFied Condos, and feel really good.
I am as guilty as anyone else when it comes to taking note of what we consider negative things or trends while ignoring the many positive things that constantly surrounds us. Indeed, if one reads all that I have written lately, the conclusion would certainly be that I only feel compelled to give voice to things that I consider wrong or at least, not correct. Sadly, I can say that upon rereading my stuff, few words can be found that point out what is going well with the world, only wording that promotes concern and worry. Perhaps the reason for this imbalance is that I am only running the master DNA program that God, or Mother nature if you prefer, programmed into all of us standard Mark 1, Mod 0 human type people, i.e., we have a survival instinct that is inherent to us all and this programmed instinct causes us to focus on negative things more than positive things so that we can consolidate our actions to prevent circumstances from disturbing our well-being, or worse still, cause our ruin. Well, that my ten-cent theory, if you have a better one, I would like to hear about it. One thing I know for certain is that how we look at things to determine if they are positive or negative depends in large measure upon our perspective and our perspective is a result of our respective life experiences to date. For example, my Grandfather had a sign over his desk that he would always point to when I complained about a perceived injustice or that everyone always seemed to have more desirable stuff than I had. The sign read:
“I complained I had no shoes to wear until I saw a man with no feet.”
I think that old sign sums up the perspective thing rather nicely. I can also remember how my Grandmother once told me how wonderful things had gotten during her lifetime (circa 1887-1954). She said the most important improvement was that people are so much better looking now than in her day because modern faces are no longer being scared by the Pox and everyone was more graceful because contemporary people were no longer being broken by hard physical labor. I know about the hard physical labor thing because labor killed my Stepmother’s Father before he could reach 50 years. His premature death was a result of the hard physical labor required of him by being a laborer in the Stone Quarries of Bedford Indiana and he was done in before disease and other age related infirmities could take their due. My own personal perspective about things like this is that I can remember winters in Indianapolis when the primary heating for residents was coal fired stoves and the like. The coal burning produced black soot that fell from the smoke stacks and covered everything and everyone so that just staying clean and breathing was a full time job. With this coal soot perspective in mind, it’s understandable why someone like me would find it difficult to get all excited when the Penthouse Environmentalists* tell us that we must continuously do more and more to help Mother Earth get back to a pristine state of cleanliness or we all are gonna die while gasping for breath in polluted air that will not sustain life worth living. So when a contemporary person’s perspective about air quality is that today’s air is dirty, it is because they have been repeatedly told that the air is indeed dirty and needs to be made completely void of man’s byproducts in order to arrive at the final desired state of cleanliness. Of course my perspective about today’s air is that the air is wonderful compared to what I lived in during my younger days when we had soot, sulfur, and God only knows what, to breathe. My perspective about clean air causes me to be concerned about the necessity of wrecking our economy and jobs to arrive at an unreachable and mostly academic notion of clean air when today’s air, while not perfect and can always be prudently improved, is a remarkable improvement over what was before. As a matter of fact, I am thankful that the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) was created and is responsible for the wonderful air we have today. Here is the problem. Once an Agency is created and the bureaucrats are entrenched, they must continuously expand their reach and authority in order to remain viable. This means that the air will never be clean enough, the water will never be clear enough and the environment will never be pristine enough. So how do we determine when enough is enough of a good thing? Therein lies the dilemma of being positive or negative. In any event, young people have no idea what a blessing modern life is today and the idealistic notion that we need to get to a more natural state of living is naivety at its grandest folly. I just wonder when today’s youth grow up to become old geezers like me, will their perspective be that their modern lives are much better than when they were young? I hope so. However, I’m afraid they too will be mostly negative about things because they also want things to continuously improve just like those who proceeded them and that requires that we be mostly negative. So keep on honking those horns for peace and quiet, it’s really not as illogical as it sounds.
* Penthouse Environmentalists.
Those well meaning, but out of touch souls, who bang on Teflon covered pots and stainless steel pans about the necessity of saving Mother Earth from the evil humans. They have actually persuaded the ideologues in the Environmental Protection Agency to rule that the exhaled breath of animals, which includes humans, is a pollutant. I kid you not. All plant life will also be surprised at the news that CO2 is a pollutant, because CO2 is the building block for all things green. After a hard day’s work saving Mother Earth from all things human, the Penthouse Environmentalists climb into their Beamers to go home to their electrically wired, air-conditioned and WiFied Condos, and feel really good.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Why, Why, Why
Why, Why, Why
Why do they put rear pockets on women’s jeans? Why does my brother do a comb-over? Why does our Government think it can pay off a credit card with a credit card? Why did God put all of that easy to get oil in the middle of Islam lands? Why does gray hair look awful on a woman but great on a man? Why is it that only bellies and ears get larger with a man’s age? Why does Osama bin Laden smile when he says that all Infidels must die? Why be a dirty old man when you can’t do anything about it? Why do women’s breasts succumb to gravity while their butts seem to defy gravity? Why doesn’t hair on your arm grow longer? Why are black people called African Americans but white people aren’t called English, French, German, Irish, Indian, Italian, et all Americans? Why does my Sunday Newspaper contain 90% ads and 10% news mostly gathered by outside sources? Why is my Newspaper called a Newspaper? Why are the chairs called Lazy Boys when nothing but Lazy Men buy them? Why are they allowed to advertise “Free” with purchase? Why can only white people be racists? Why do Brides smile so broadly when they say, “I do” while Grooms have a vacant, almost innocent look on their faces? Why are prisons called “Correctional Facilities?” Why do I fall asleep watching television? Why is the Democratic Party called the Democratic Party? Why do small children and old men keep asking why? Why do Politicians swear an oath? Why does Dolly Parton seem so different? Why does Hip Hop produce a mind-numbing throb? Why is it called Social Security? Why are women generally referred to as “Ladies?” Why aren’t men generally referred to as “Gentlemen?” Why does Senator Barney Frank look like a fag? Why do all of the really smart people live in Hollywood? Why is it called investing? Why do little old people buy really big automobiles? Why is it called the “Armed Services?” Why are most Lawyers rich? Why did they put the pointy ends on a football? Why do they build Churches so big? Why did the great scientist Albert Einstein believe in God? Why do they build Schools so big? Why does beer make you fart but wine doesn’t? Why do new cars go 120 mph? Why do Thongs cost more than Mumus? Why do they pass the plate before the sermon? Why does my childhood house seem so small now? Why do I have an urge to say, “Have a Nice Day”, to strangers? Why does “thinking outside the box” only works for others? Why is it when I have a 50/50 chance of being right, I’m always wrong? Why do long lines (queue) move faster than short lines? Why does it require force to produce good change but bad change is spontaneous? Why do I become frightened when a woman says “Fine.” Why do men try to understand women? Why don’t women want to understand men? Why are black people color blind to the red color of stop signs? Why do white people think Perry Como is the greatest singer of all time? Why won’t grocery carts go in a straight line? Why does too much sleep make you tired? Why do women wear bras? Why do men wear really big belt buckles? Why are gay people really not? Why does the phrase “Oh, By The Way” cause a cardiac arrest?
Why do they put rear pockets on women’s jeans? Why does my brother do a comb-over? Why does our Government think it can pay off a credit card with a credit card? Why did God put all of that easy to get oil in the middle of Islam lands? Why does gray hair look awful on a woman but great on a man? Why is it that only bellies and ears get larger with a man’s age? Why does Osama bin Laden smile when he says that all Infidels must die? Why be a dirty old man when you can’t do anything about it? Why do women’s breasts succumb to gravity while their butts seem to defy gravity? Why doesn’t hair on your arm grow longer? Why are black people called African Americans but white people aren’t called English, French, German, Irish, Indian, Italian, et all Americans? Why does my Sunday Newspaper contain 90% ads and 10% news mostly gathered by outside sources? Why is my Newspaper called a Newspaper? Why are the chairs called Lazy Boys when nothing but Lazy Men buy them? Why are they allowed to advertise “Free” with purchase? Why can only white people be racists? Why do Brides smile so broadly when they say, “I do” while Grooms have a vacant, almost innocent look on their faces? Why are prisons called “Correctional Facilities?” Why do I fall asleep watching television? Why is the Democratic Party called the Democratic Party? Why do small children and old men keep asking why? Why do Politicians swear an oath? Why does Dolly Parton seem so different? Why does Hip Hop produce a mind-numbing throb? Why is it called Social Security? Why are women generally referred to as “Ladies?” Why aren’t men generally referred to as “Gentlemen?” Why does Senator Barney Frank look like a fag? Why do all of the really smart people live in Hollywood? Why is it called investing? Why do little old people buy really big automobiles? Why is it called the “Armed Services?” Why are most Lawyers rich? Why did they put the pointy ends on a football? Why do they build Churches so big? Why did the great scientist Albert Einstein believe in God? Why do they build Schools so big? Why does beer make you fart but wine doesn’t? Why do new cars go 120 mph? Why do Thongs cost more than Mumus? Why do they pass the plate before the sermon? Why does my childhood house seem so small now? Why do I have an urge to say, “Have a Nice Day”, to strangers? Why does “thinking outside the box” only works for others? Why is it when I have a 50/50 chance of being right, I’m always wrong? Why do long lines (queue) move faster than short lines? Why does it require force to produce good change but bad change is spontaneous? Why do I become frightened when a woman says “Fine.” Why do men try to understand women? Why don’t women want to understand men? Why are black people color blind to the red color of stop signs? Why do white people think Perry Como is the greatest singer of all time? Why won’t grocery carts go in a straight line? Why does too much sleep make you tired? Why do women wear bras? Why do men wear really big belt buckles? Why are gay people really not? Why does the phrase “Oh, By The Way” cause a cardiac arrest?
Monday, November 24, 2008
Standarization and the US Constitution
Standardization and the
US Constitution
The other day I went to my neighborhood Home Depot to purchase a much needed bathroom faucet replacement. After clucking like a mother hen over the price of faucet assemblies that now range up to and exceed $200, depending on how fancy you want to get, made our selection, self-checked out with a swipe of a well-worn Visa, set off the “please step back” shoplifting alarm because I didn’t rub the faucet box over the “integrated security device” disabling area on the check-out stand, headed home with the “please step back” automated voice ringing in my ears while muttering over and over about how in the hell can a made in China faucet cost $200 when the Government says inflation is fully contained, got home, started the process of hauling out tools that would eventually empty out my entire tool stash, pre-positioned the band-aids, said a few out-loud cuss words to warm-up, pulled my work pants low enough to expose the butt-crack so that I could at least look professional, and got to it. Finally got the old faucet assembly removed and slipped in the new assembly that fit nicely into the 4 inch on-center holes that is the standard precut that comes with all bathroom sinks here in the good old USA. All of this sounds like just another day in paradise, don’t you think? Thank your luck stars that it is routine. Sometimes the most mundane and “take for granted” things, particularly in the physical world, are the most important because they make our everyday world, “practical”. What I am talking about here is the esoteric and very boring world of Standardization. The new faucet assembly fit into my old sink because of the standardization of the precut holes, pipe threads that would accept the old fasteners, and on and on. This standardization allows real competition in the market place because everyone who wants to manufacture and sell a faucet assembly must comply with a whole range of standardization requirements so that competition will be on the basis of price and quality and not because only company Z’s widget will only fit Company Z’s widget holder and so company Z can charge anything they want because competition can’t really work in such a old world regimen. I know a lot about standardization because I spend most of my professional years as a design engineer working for the US Navy (Government). Most people are surprised to learn that most of our present day standardization has come about through the mechanism of Military and Government Specifications because when you are in the South China sea doing battle with bad guys, you can’t afford to have your really big gun not shoot because a broken bolt can’t be replaced. Why can’t the bolt be replaced? It can’t be replaced because the idiots that stocked the replacement bolt didn’t use the proper specification and the replacement bolt won’t fit. I could fill the Library of Congress about the benefits of standardization that most of us learned about in grade school when we were taught about how the railroads standardized their rail gage, and viola, commerce began to roll on standardized tracks and America became a great nation. My cluttered mind thought about these things when it occurred to me because America is the world’s greatest marketplace and to participate in our marketplace you must comply with our bazillions of standardization requirements and by so doing we are inadvertently making the physical world a common place that transcends politics and national borders. Oh my God, Globalization done on behalf of pipe threads and on-center holes. Well what the hell, if Globalization is good enough for faucets, it should be good enough for politics and Governments too. When you began to think like this it is rather a small leap to consider that the US Constitution is in reality a Standardization Specification about how to establish and maintain a society that is peaceful, prosperous and stable, you know, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, i.e., if you standardize the behavior of people in accordance with the US Constitution, you will have a just and stable society. History proves this so. This can explain why the current Globalization effort is such a contentious issue because the world does not have, or will it accept, a proven Constitution like the US Constitution to standardize global human behavior. If the world had such a Global Constitution, then its varied people could socially compete in a meaningful way to obtain and maintain peace and prosperity much like companies can all build faucet assemblies and compete equally on the basis of price and quality. Standardization of human behavior is the only current mechanization to ensure common justice and equality without sacrificing personal liberty. It seems to me that the League of Nations and the current United Nations are the first attempts at Globalization but the League of Nations is long gone and the United Nations is doomed because it is not relevant and will suffer the same fate as the League of Nations because the United Nations Charter is in no way a Constitution that can standardize human behavior in a just way. Indeed, just like Washington DC is the place where reality goes to die the United Nations is the place where Common Cause goes to die. So until someone can come up with a better way, the US Constitution, and others like it, should become the template for the world to standardize human behavior that will in turn, standardize justice and equality so that the world can ensure the peace and promote prosperity for all humankind. In short, Standardization not only enables equality, it is your friend.
US Constitution
The other day I went to my neighborhood Home Depot to purchase a much needed bathroom faucet replacement. After clucking like a mother hen over the price of faucet assemblies that now range up to and exceed $200, depending on how fancy you want to get, made our selection, self-checked out with a swipe of a well-worn Visa, set off the “please step back” shoplifting alarm because I didn’t rub the faucet box over the “integrated security device” disabling area on the check-out stand, headed home with the “please step back” automated voice ringing in my ears while muttering over and over about how in the hell can a made in China faucet cost $200 when the Government says inflation is fully contained, got home, started the process of hauling out tools that would eventually empty out my entire tool stash, pre-positioned the band-aids, said a few out-loud cuss words to warm-up, pulled my work pants low enough to expose the butt-crack so that I could at least look professional, and got to it. Finally got the old faucet assembly removed and slipped in the new assembly that fit nicely into the 4 inch on-center holes that is the standard precut that comes with all bathroom sinks here in the good old USA. All of this sounds like just another day in paradise, don’t you think? Thank your luck stars that it is routine. Sometimes the most mundane and “take for granted” things, particularly in the physical world, are the most important because they make our everyday world, “practical”. What I am talking about here is the esoteric and very boring world of Standardization. The new faucet assembly fit into my old sink because of the standardization of the precut holes, pipe threads that would accept the old fasteners, and on and on. This standardization allows real competition in the market place because everyone who wants to manufacture and sell a faucet assembly must comply with a whole range of standardization requirements so that competition will be on the basis of price and quality and not because only company Z’s widget will only fit Company Z’s widget holder and so company Z can charge anything they want because competition can’t really work in such a old world regimen. I know a lot about standardization because I spend most of my professional years as a design engineer working for the US Navy (Government). Most people are surprised to learn that most of our present day standardization has come about through the mechanism of Military and Government Specifications because when you are in the South China sea doing battle with bad guys, you can’t afford to have your really big gun not shoot because a broken bolt can’t be replaced. Why can’t the bolt be replaced? It can’t be replaced because the idiots that stocked the replacement bolt didn’t use the proper specification and the replacement bolt won’t fit. I could fill the Library of Congress about the benefits of standardization that most of us learned about in grade school when we were taught about how the railroads standardized their rail gage, and viola, commerce began to roll on standardized tracks and America became a great nation. My cluttered mind thought about these things when it occurred to me because America is the world’s greatest marketplace and to participate in our marketplace you must comply with our bazillions of standardization requirements and by so doing we are inadvertently making the physical world a common place that transcends politics and national borders. Oh my God, Globalization done on behalf of pipe threads and on-center holes. Well what the hell, if Globalization is good enough for faucets, it should be good enough for politics and Governments too. When you began to think like this it is rather a small leap to consider that the US Constitution is in reality a Standardization Specification about how to establish and maintain a society that is peaceful, prosperous and stable, you know, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, i.e., if you standardize the behavior of people in accordance with the US Constitution, you will have a just and stable society. History proves this so. This can explain why the current Globalization effort is such a contentious issue because the world does not have, or will it accept, a proven Constitution like the US Constitution to standardize global human behavior. If the world had such a Global Constitution, then its varied people could socially compete in a meaningful way to obtain and maintain peace and prosperity much like companies can all build faucet assemblies and compete equally on the basis of price and quality. Standardization of human behavior is the only current mechanization to ensure common justice and equality without sacrificing personal liberty. It seems to me that the League of Nations and the current United Nations are the first attempts at Globalization but the League of Nations is long gone and the United Nations is doomed because it is not relevant and will suffer the same fate as the League of Nations because the United Nations Charter is in no way a Constitution that can standardize human behavior in a just way. Indeed, just like Washington DC is the place where reality goes to die the United Nations is the place where Common Cause goes to die. So until someone can come up with a better way, the US Constitution, and others like it, should become the template for the world to standardize human behavior that will in turn, standardize justice and equality so that the world can ensure the peace and promote prosperity for all humankind. In short, Standardization not only enables equality, it is your friend.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
A PC Holiday Greeting
A PC Holiday Greeting
Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral, winder solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your particular choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion, as well as those who choose not to practice any religion at all. Additionally, a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures, whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to race, creed, color, religion or sexual orientation.
(Disclaimer: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.)
Courtesy of the December 2008, American Legion Magazine.
Best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral, winder solstice holiday, practiced within the most joyous traditions of the religious persuasion of your particular choice, but with respect for the religious persuasion of others who choose to practice their own religion, as well as those who choose not to practice any religion at all. Additionally, a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures, whose contributions have helped make our society great, without regard to race, creed, color, religion or sexual orientation.
(Disclaimer: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and no responsibility for any unintended emotional stress these greetings may bring to those not caught up in the holiday spirit.)
Courtesy of the December 2008, American Legion Magazine.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
The 17th Amendment
The 17th Amendment,
and the rise of Special Interests
There is another 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 “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 has morphed into the “Liberal” movement of today and these two terms have come to mean 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. 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 Bicameralism, “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 inconveniency 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 representative 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 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 there have the greater population concentration and can easily overwhelm the rest of the country with superior political power especially within a “one man, one vote” system. 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. I invite you to consider other areas that the 17th Amendment ratification may have influenced upon but suffice to say, the consequences of the 17th Amendment are far reaching and quite possibly damaging to our country as well.
and the rise of Special Interests
There is another 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 “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 has morphed into the “Liberal” movement of today and these two terms have come to mean 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. 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 Bicameralism, “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 inconveniency 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 representative 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 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 there have the greater population concentration and can easily overwhelm the rest of the country with superior political power especially within a “one man, one vote” system. 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. I invite you to consider other areas that the 17th Amendment ratification may have influenced upon but suffice to say, the consequences of the 17th Amendment are far reaching and quite possibly damaging to our country as well.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Credit-Default Swaps
One World Eggheads
And
Credit-Default Swaps
It has been a surprise to me how the banking and capital generation system works in the real world. To say I am ignorant about the finer points of the current financial system that is in such disarray today would be a colossal understatement, however, with a little research and in simple terms that normal people can understand, I believe this is how it works. You deposit one ($1.00) dollar in your local bank, get your receipt, and feel good about putting a little away for a rainy day. Your bank is now authorized to provide a loan to a credit worthy person in the amount of ten ($10.00) dollars for every one ($1.00) the bank has on deposit of the real money real people deposited. Where did this $10.00 of “artificial” money come from to lend to a credit worthy person desiring a loan? A very good question Holmes. The $10.00 is borrowed from the Central Bank at the “discount rate” to provide the money for the loan. The Central Bank is part of the U.S. Federal Reserve System and the money it supplies is printed-up money based on some esoteric reasoning usually influenced by political reality. The Federal Reserve System was created for a number of good reasons but the main reason was its ability to provide for an “elastic currency”. The Federal Reserve officially defines “elastic currency” as: “currency that can, by the actions of the central monetary authority, expand or contract in amount warranted by economic conditions” or in everyday terms, it can print-up money or take money out of the system. Now if the loan originated by your bank happened to be a large amount backed by a physical asset as collateral, such as your home mortgage, the bank will sell the loan to another financial entity, like Fannie May or Freddie Mac for a fee and the fee received now provides more “real money” the bank can then leverage into even more loans. Fannie May and Freddie Mac (or other financial entities) takes your loan and bundles it with other loans it bought (some made to not so good credit risks and distributed within the bundle to hid them) and then sells the investment bundle to investors at a profit, of course, for its stockholders. It should be noted that Fannie May and Freddie Mac had the implicit backing of the Federal Government to “insure” that the investment package being sold was safe so the investment bundles being sold are very marketable. Other financial entities also buys bundled investment packages but they lacked the implicit government guarantee of safety so companies, like AIG, issued “Credit-default Swaps” policies for a big profit-making fee to insure the bundled investment instruments and the “Credit-default Swaps” insurance policy made the investment packages marketable to all investors. “Credit-default Swaps” is just one of many so called “derivatives” offered to investors (like your local government, IRA accounts, insurance companies, ad infinitum) by various financial institutions that are, in reality, instruments that further leverage money on top of leveraged money in order that everyone in the food-chain can continue to make a handsome profit without ever providing something tangible in return that would provide real value in exchange for the money earned. You may be surprised to learn that some financial entities have leveraged already leveraged money up to 30 or 40 times (not just the 10 times your bank did) to sell investment “derivatives” for big profits to “Hedge Funds” and other really smart people who then leverage the money that the “derivative instruments” represent to buy real companies that make things and provide jobs to real people. A case in point, Carlyle Capital, a division of the Carlyle Group, loaned out leveraged money at a ratio of from 20 and 30 to 1 and has, of course, failed. If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, it should. There are a large number of criminals in the slammer serving time for concocting such schemes as these and these schemes, when done on an individual basis, is call a Ponzi or Pyramid scheme. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves promising or paying abnormally high returns (“profits”) to investors out of the money paid in by subsequence investors, rather than from real net revenues generated by real business (it was named after Charles Ponzi). Well if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, what the hell, it really must be a duck. If all of this hasn’t started to make your stomach churn, I know something that will turn you into a fetal ball. Christopher Cox, Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, wrote in a 19 October 2008 New York Times article that there are $55 Trillion Dollars in outstanding “Credit-default Swaps” out there right now. Oh by the way, $55 Trillion Dollars is more money than all of the GNPs (Gross National Product) of all of the nations on earth combined. I’ll just pause here a moment to let that fully sink in. So what does this have to do with One World Eggheads? Thomas L. Friedman writes in the same New York Times issue that the current leveraged mess is indeed a Global mess and only a fully connected Global economy and regulations can properly “fix” the mess. The One World Eggheads are dancing in the streets.
And
Credit-Default Swaps
It has been a surprise to me how the banking and capital generation system works in the real world. To say I am ignorant about the finer points of the current financial system that is in such disarray today would be a colossal understatement, however, with a little research and in simple terms that normal people can understand, I believe this is how it works. You deposit one ($1.00) dollar in your local bank, get your receipt, and feel good about putting a little away for a rainy day. Your bank is now authorized to provide a loan to a credit worthy person in the amount of ten ($10.00) dollars for every one ($1.00) the bank has on deposit of the real money real people deposited. Where did this $10.00 of “artificial” money come from to lend to a credit worthy person desiring a loan? A very good question Holmes. The $10.00 is borrowed from the Central Bank at the “discount rate” to provide the money for the loan. The Central Bank is part of the U.S. Federal Reserve System and the money it supplies is printed-up money based on some esoteric reasoning usually influenced by political reality. The Federal Reserve System was created for a number of good reasons but the main reason was its ability to provide for an “elastic currency”. The Federal Reserve officially defines “elastic currency” as: “currency that can, by the actions of the central monetary authority, expand or contract in amount warranted by economic conditions” or in everyday terms, it can print-up money or take money out of the system. Now if the loan originated by your bank happened to be a large amount backed by a physical asset as collateral, such as your home mortgage, the bank will sell the loan to another financial entity, like Fannie May or Freddie Mac for a fee and the fee received now provides more “real money” the bank can then leverage into even more loans. Fannie May and Freddie Mac (or other financial entities) takes your loan and bundles it with other loans it bought (some made to not so good credit risks and distributed within the bundle to hid them) and then sells the investment bundle to investors at a profit, of course, for its stockholders. It should be noted that Fannie May and Freddie Mac had the implicit backing of the Federal Government to “insure” that the investment package being sold was safe so the investment bundles being sold are very marketable. Other financial entities also buys bundled investment packages but they lacked the implicit government guarantee of safety so companies, like AIG, issued “Credit-default Swaps” policies for a big profit-making fee to insure the bundled investment instruments and the “Credit-default Swaps” insurance policy made the investment packages marketable to all investors. “Credit-default Swaps” is just one of many so called “derivatives” offered to investors (like your local government, IRA accounts, insurance companies, ad infinitum) by various financial institutions that are, in reality, instruments that further leverage money on top of leveraged money in order that everyone in the food-chain can continue to make a handsome profit without ever providing something tangible in return that would provide real value in exchange for the money earned. You may be surprised to learn that some financial entities have leveraged already leveraged money up to 30 or 40 times (not just the 10 times your bank did) to sell investment “derivatives” for big profits to “Hedge Funds” and other really smart people who then leverage the money that the “derivative instruments” represent to buy real companies that make things and provide jobs to real people. A case in point, Carlyle Capital, a division of the Carlyle Group, loaned out leveraged money at a ratio of from 20 and 30 to 1 and has, of course, failed. If all of this sounds vaguely familiar, it should. There are a large number of criminals in the slammer serving time for concocting such schemes as these and these schemes, when done on an individual basis, is call a Ponzi or Pyramid scheme. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves promising or paying abnormally high returns (“profits”) to investors out of the money paid in by subsequence investors, rather than from real net revenues generated by real business (it was named after Charles Ponzi). Well if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, what the hell, it really must be a duck. If all of this hasn’t started to make your stomach churn, I know something that will turn you into a fetal ball. Christopher Cox, Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, wrote in a 19 October 2008 New York Times article that there are $55 Trillion Dollars in outstanding “Credit-default Swaps” out there right now. Oh by the way, $55 Trillion Dollars is more money than all of the GNPs (Gross National Product) of all of the nations on earth combined. I’ll just pause here a moment to let that fully sink in. So what does this have to do with One World Eggheads? Thomas L. Friedman writes in the same New York Times issue that the current leveraged mess is indeed a Global mess and only a fully connected Global economy and regulations can properly “fix” the mess. The One World Eggheads are dancing in the streets.
Monday, October 13, 2008
John McCain
John McCain
Have you ever decided to do something with the feeling that if you go ahead and do it, there is a good likelihood you will eventually regret that having done it? Has that ever happened to you? Trying to decide if I should vote for John McCain leaves me with that kind of conflicted feeling. But of course there is another option and that is, I could abstain from voting and avoid this whole decision conflict thing altogether. However, lets think about trying to decide whether to vote or not to vote. On the one hand, if I vote for John McCain, I will be voting for the lesser of two evils and I have grown weary of always voting for the lesser of two evils because it somehow violates my sense of dignity to keep doing something that is contrary to my real beliefs and values. On the other hand, if I do not vote at all, I will, in effect, enable those who do vote to multiply their vote due to my abstention by increasing twofold the value of their vote should they vote for the greater of two evils. Why are real life decisions like these always so complicated? Why even ask why. I believe John McCain is the lesser of two evils because there are a number of times I do not agree with the positions taken by him or agree with a large number of his votes cast over the years while serving in the United States Senate even though he has identified himself as being a Republican. I believe there are those who call John McCain a RINO (Republican In Name Only) because of his positions taken and votes cast. Nevertheless, Senator McCain wistfully celebrates his record as being proof that he is in reality a “Maverick” and not a prisoner of any particular dogmatic persuasion and that is the reason his record does not coincide with any one party philosophy or another. His position is that his Maverick record should be celebrated and not condemned because he is beholding to no one or any one party. When I reflect about this notion of being a potential “Maverick” leader, one has to consider the value of a leader who does not adhere to any particular philosophy to guide his decisions other than his own notion of what is fair and right. I’m not so sure what we need is a “Maverick” in our complicated world full of nukes, religious fanatics, ideologues, greed hustlers and tree-hugging raised to a religion notwithstanding the everyday complications of governing the most powerful country in the world. Having said all of this, one cannot help but admire the man who has served his country so unselfishly and endured what would break the resolve of most any man. I could even make the case that being mistreated and tortured during his captivity as a prisoner-of-war has made him hypersensitive about the treatment of people to such an extent that it is very likely that his judgment ability is impaired (witness his calling Obama a good and decent man and his refusal to condemn Obama’s nefarious associations and actions). Even though he may be the lesser of two evils in my mind, John McCain is certainly not the greater of two evils that the other potential President represents. So on November 4th, the dilemma of voting for the lesser of two evils or not voting at all requires all of the wisdom that Solomon could ever muster up. This voting dilemma can be placed squarely at the feet of John McCain because he is in reality, just the lesser of two evils.
Have you ever decided to do something with the feeling that if you go ahead and do it, there is a good likelihood you will eventually regret that having done it? Has that ever happened to you? Trying to decide if I should vote for John McCain leaves me with that kind of conflicted feeling. But of course there is another option and that is, I could abstain from voting and avoid this whole decision conflict thing altogether. However, lets think about trying to decide whether to vote or not to vote. On the one hand, if I vote for John McCain, I will be voting for the lesser of two evils and I have grown weary of always voting for the lesser of two evils because it somehow violates my sense of dignity to keep doing something that is contrary to my real beliefs and values. On the other hand, if I do not vote at all, I will, in effect, enable those who do vote to multiply their vote due to my abstention by increasing twofold the value of their vote should they vote for the greater of two evils. Why are real life decisions like these always so complicated? Why even ask why. I believe John McCain is the lesser of two evils because there are a number of times I do not agree with the positions taken by him or agree with a large number of his votes cast over the years while serving in the United States Senate even though he has identified himself as being a Republican. I believe there are those who call John McCain a RINO (Republican In Name Only) because of his positions taken and votes cast. Nevertheless, Senator McCain wistfully celebrates his record as being proof that he is in reality a “Maverick” and not a prisoner of any particular dogmatic persuasion and that is the reason his record does not coincide with any one party philosophy or another. His position is that his Maverick record should be celebrated and not condemned because he is beholding to no one or any one party. When I reflect about this notion of being a potential “Maverick” leader, one has to consider the value of a leader who does not adhere to any particular philosophy to guide his decisions other than his own notion of what is fair and right. I’m not so sure what we need is a “Maverick” in our complicated world full of nukes, religious fanatics, ideologues, greed hustlers and tree-hugging raised to a religion notwithstanding the everyday complications of governing the most powerful country in the world. Having said all of this, one cannot help but admire the man who has served his country so unselfishly and endured what would break the resolve of most any man. I could even make the case that being mistreated and tortured during his captivity as a prisoner-of-war has made him hypersensitive about the treatment of people to such an extent that it is very likely that his judgment ability is impaired (witness his calling Obama a good and decent man and his refusal to condemn Obama’s nefarious associations and actions). Even though he may be the lesser of two evils in my mind, John McCain is certainly not the greater of two evils that the other potential President represents. So on November 4th, the dilemma of voting for the lesser of two evils or not voting at all requires all of the wisdom that Solomon could ever muster up. This voting dilemma can be placed squarely at the feet of John McCain because he is in reality, just the lesser of two evils.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Expediency
Expediency, Expediency
Hurry me down to Calamity.
I wish I knew who was responsible for maintenance of the Seven Deadly Sins list because I would waste no time in lobbying for an addition to that deadly list. The most urgently needed addition that should be added to the malevolent list of deadly sins would be the most pervasive sin of all, Expediency. Those of us who have bought and paid for all of the gray hair that has so graciously adorned our bowed heads know exactly what I am talking about when we consider the ramifications of Expediency. You know, when we do something in a hasty manner because it is more convenient to do so and the supposed need is so great and urgent that there is no time to carefully consider all aspects of the decision. For example, who among us has not rationalized a quick decision to buy that 60inch flat screen television because we really did not want to invest the time or effort to consider the worth, value or necessity of the 60 easy payments because, after all, it was extremely important that the Colts versus the Patriots game be viewed in a manner befitting the august nature of the contest. And now we, as a collective people, are faced with all of the ramifications of a Governmental decision to “Bail-out Wall Street” that was done with all of the haste and urgency that Expediency could ever demand. Never mind that we will print $700 billion new dollars to enable the “bail-out” and that those printed-up dollars will be added to the currency now in circulation and further devalue our already shrinking dollar value. I believe when that happens it is called inflation and inflation is the cruelest tax of all. That’s right, we will not only pay for that printing press money someday (make that our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will do the paying) but we will be taxed tomorrow to pay for this spending by the most cruelest tax of all, Inflation. And never mind that greed and irresponsibility is being rewarded by the “bail-out” while those who acted responsible and played by the rules will once again get slapped in the face as a reward for their prudence. Have we all not been appalled by the lady dressed to the nines getting out of her new SUV to buy the finest cut of meats with food stamps while sneering at us poor dopes for working two jobs to pay for the whole thing. This “bail-out wall street” thing just keeps the disincentives coming for the good productive citizens while the leaches and gamers keep on getting rewarded with other peoples hard earned money. Not only will we have the welfare professionals sneering at us dopes as they buy their choice cuts of meat with food stamps, we will now suffer the indignity of the wall street fat-cats sneering at us dopes for being too dumb to play in the new economics game and for not getting on the gravy train with the rest of the smart people. Expediency is also being employed to justify many other things today, for example, the supposedly global warming “crisis”. There is no doubt that human activity is causing some perturbation of earth’s climate, but how much and is the effect positive or negative for humankind? I direct your attention to a Scientific American article by William F. Ruddiman (a marine geologist and professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia) published in March 2005 to help answer the question. The article is entitled “How Did Humans First Alter Global Climate?” and suggests, backed-up with scientific evidence, that human activity may have well prevented an ice age that all scientific evidence suggests was due several thousand years ago. If the predicted ice age had occurred and was not prevented by human activity warming up the climate modern human society, as we know it today, would not even exist. Here are some additional facts to factor in when considering the question of Global climate change having either a positive or negative effect for mankind. The only time humankind has ever advanced is when there has been a climate warming. The reason for this is, of course, obvious. Also, which is more catastrophic for human society, a mile-deep ice sheet over our heads or a 12inch rise in the oceans? The reason this question is so important is because before all of this Global climate change became the expedient cause du jour, science was predicting that a modern ice age was coming upon us. So perhaps, global warming due to human activity can once again prevent another major ice age and save mankind. The Lord surely does work in mysterious ways. So the burning question is: Why all of the expediency to act to prevent global warming from continuing? My theory is that the One World Eggheads, along with other ideologues, have co-opted the Global Warming issue to advance their goal of one world government by proclaiming only world government can address a global problem. Also, why all of the expediency to bailout wall street with printed-up money? I don’t think we will truly know until all of the facts are fully known but what I do know is that when Expediency is employed calamity is usually along for the ride. Why? Because used car salesmen and government always use expediency to cloak the real reason for acting urgently.
Hurry me down to Calamity.
I wish I knew who was responsible for maintenance of the Seven Deadly Sins list because I would waste no time in lobbying for an addition to that deadly list. The most urgently needed addition that should be added to the malevolent list of deadly sins would be the most pervasive sin of all, Expediency. Those of us who have bought and paid for all of the gray hair that has so graciously adorned our bowed heads know exactly what I am talking about when we consider the ramifications of Expediency. You know, when we do something in a hasty manner because it is more convenient to do so and the supposed need is so great and urgent that there is no time to carefully consider all aspects of the decision. For example, who among us has not rationalized a quick decision to buy that 60inch flat screen television because we really did not want to invest the time or effort to consider the worth, value or necessity of the 60 easy payments because, after all, it was extremely important that the Colts versus the Patriots game be viewed in a manner befitting the august nature of the contest. And now we, as a collective people, are faced with all of the ramifications of a Governmental decision to “Bail-out Wall Street” that was done with all of the haste and urgency that Expediency could ever demand. Never mind that we will print $700 billion new dollars to enable the “bail-out” and that those printed-up dollars will be added to the currency now in circulation and further devalue our already shrinking dollar value. I believe when that happens it is called inflation and inflation is the cruelest tax of all. That’s right, we will not only pay for that printing press money someday (make that our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will do the paying) but we will be taxed tomorrow to pay for this spending by the most cruelest tax of all, Inflation. And never mind that greed and irresponsibility is being rewarded by the “bail-out” while those who acted responsible and played by the rules will once again get slapped in the face as a reward for their prudence. Have we all not been appalled by the lady dressed to the nines getting out of her new SUV to buy the finest cut of meats with food stamps while sneering at us poor dopes for working two jobs to pay for the whole thing. This “bail-out wall street” thing just keeps the disincentives coming for the good productive citizens while the leaches and gamers keep on getting rewarded with other peoples hard earned money. Not only will we have the welfare professionals sneering at us dopes as they buy their choice cuts of meat with food stamps, we will now suffer the indignity of the wall street fat-cats sneering at us dopes for being too dumb to play in the new economics game and for not getting on the gravy train with the rest of the smart people. Expediency is also being employed to justify many other things today, for example, the supposedly global warming “crisis”. There is no doubt that human activity is causing some perturbation of earth’s climate, but how much and is the effect positive or negative for humankind? I direct your attention to a Scientific American article by William F. Ruddiman (a marine geologist and professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia) published in March 2005 to help answer the question. The article is entitled “How Did Humans First Alter Global Climate?” and suggests, backed-up with scientific evidence, that human activity may have well prevented an ice age that all scientific evidence suggests was due several thousand years ago. If the predicted ice age had occurred and was not prevented by human activity warming up the climate modern human society, as we know it today, would not even exist. Here are some additional facts to factor in when considering the question of Global climate change having either a positive or negative effect for mankind. The only time humankind has ever advanced is when there has been a climate warming. The reason for this is, of course, obvious. Also, which is more catastrophic for human society, a mile-deep ice sheet over our heads or a 12inch rise in the oceans? The reason this question is so important is because before all of this Global climate change became the expedient cause du jour, science was predicting that a modern ice age was coming upon us. So perhaps, global warming due to human activity can once again prevent another major ice age and save mankind. The Lord surely does work in mysterious ways. So the burning question is: Why all of the expediency to act to prevent global warming from continuing? My theory is that the One World Eggheads, along with other ideologues, have co-opted the Global Warming issue to advance their goal of one world government by proclaiming only world government can address a global problem. Also, why all of the expediency to bailout wall street with printed-up money? I don’t think we will truly know until all of the facts are fully known but what I do know is that when Expediency is employed calamity is usually along for the ride. Why? Because used car salesmen and government always use expediency to cloak the real reason for acting urgently.
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