See Hear Now!
A Child wants what he can see.
(Russian Proverb)
The above Russian Proverb may provoke a knowing smile from most of us because, of course, it’s true. Rather than trying to deconstruct the Russian Proverb with a bunch of child psychobabble, suffice to say, the truth of the Proverb is that children lack the wisdom of experience to judge whether or not what is set before their eyes is in their best interest to have. My Grandmother instructed me long ago about the same general subject but in a different manner, to wit: The difference between an adult and a kid is that an adult can walk down the street with $20.00 in his pocket and return home with the $20.00 still secure for another day while a kid will spend the $20.00 at the first opportunity. Ah yes, the eternal wisdom of Grandmothers. I think an adjunct that is equally true can be added to the Russian Proverb and it goes like this: A child believes what he can hear. Of course, you deep thinkers will immediately understand that the Russians who quoted the Proverb over and over to their fellow Russians were not really commenting on children’s lack of wisdom, they were making a judgment about the dumb adults who still behave as children. The latest manufactured “crisis”, The Broken Private Run Health Care System, is the very reason that the Russian Proverb comes to mind because the Government takeover of health care is being promoted as yet another entitlement of the people and this new entitlement is a created vision that has been set before our naive eyes that induces childlike want. When we talk about entitlements, it is vital that we all understand, once and for all, that the Government has no money to provide for the entitlements it seeks to provide. Money can only be created by the productive people of society (see my piece, “Stimulus”) and was created in antiquity as a means to facilitate commerce, not as a means to facilitate politics. The Government can only take money from people and redistribute it in a manner to its political liking. A perfect example of the political judgments Government makes with other people’s money is the $787 Billion Stimulus that has most of it’s impact in time for the 2010 elections, and you wonder why I’m cynical, but I digress. I am reminded of my Grandmother’s lecture about walking down the street with money in your pocket when I consider Government entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, etc. What these Government Programs represent is our collective inability to “walk down the street” with our money remaining in our pockets to secure for the rainy day of required medical care, retirement, and the like. Because of our inability to be “adults”, and manage our own money and our own living affairs, we allow the Government to take our money to do with it what we are unable to do, that is, to provide for our welfare. The truth is we seem to be increasingly satisfied with being less and less free and in charge of our own destinies as time rolls by and even more content to scuffle like hungry dogs for the largess scraps secured by the Government from other people’s tables. Amazing. I’m always surprised how easy it is for the Government, or other policy activists, to create a vision to set before our eyes and cause our childlike instincts to want it. We never seem to understand that the promoters are the ones who are creating the vision for our eyes to behold and the rhetoric for our ears to hear and are thereby creating the “want” and the “belief” that only they can satisfy. If you think I’m again being too cynical, I refer you to my piece, “Prepare To Be Nudged”, which discussed the science behind creation of “Choice Architecture” to influence human judgment. Creating “Choice Architecture” is the deliberate imposition of structure in an environment to induce people to make a second party (in this case, Government) shaped choice. It is our elected Government that now has scientific experts hard at work to create “Choice Architecture” after “Choice Architecture” in order for the citizens to make the necessary choices about Cap and Trade, Stimulus, Health Care, etc. and will result in our elected Government having nearly complete control over our lives, fortunes and destines. Those wacky Russians and their goofy proverbs.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Gracious Tyranny
Gracious Tyranny
I really like my car. I can get into my Detroit Clunker any time I want to, turn the key, endow life to my belch-fire eight engine, grasp the ergonomically correct shifter knob, authoritatively yank the transmission into drive, lead foot the pedal, and head out to anyplace my prerogative dictates. Does this sound somewhat familiar? Of course it does. We all do it as many time as we wish, sometimes, many times in a single day. And when we head out, we traverse on endless ribbons of concrete and asphalt that go to any one of the greatest or least of places within any part and parcel of this vast country, and we go without impediment of any sort, save our ability and desire to do so. It has been said that the private automobile and the web of highways and byways are the ultimate practical enabler of personal freedom because if a place where you are located becomes undesirable or oppressive, well now, you just load up the old freedom machine and take off to a more friendlier place and time. And if the authorities don’t like the thought of your unauthorized rearrangement, well, they can just smell your departing exhaust. Getting into our private vehicles and going to wherever we want to go is such a commonplace occurrence in this country that we hardly ever think about the importance of the personal privilege that this represents in regards to our practical individual freedom and liberty. I am now going to ask for your indulgence as we use the above ordinary account of your personal automobile usage as a surrogate to illustrate the thought processes, rationale and justification that the “progressives, socialists, liberals, et al”, that have now gained prominence in our Governance and national life, would employ if they selected personal automobile usage as a “crisis” that required fixing at the national level. The surrogate example of your personal automobile usage “fixing” is intended to illustrate the same thought process, rationale and justifications that are now being employed by our Federal Government to “fix” your personal health care, usage of the environment, real and personal property rights, cap and trade, legal and illegal immigration, financial meltdown, failing economy, unemployment, ad infinitum. Be advised, there will be even more urgent “crisis” to be identified later on that require national “fixing”, as fortuitous situations warrant. In all fairness I hasten to point out that the “Progressive” movement started in the 1900s, and now fully employed in our Government, is not a wholly evil movement regardless of what Mr. Glenn Beck alludes to in his book, “Glenn Beck’s Common Sense.” The Progressive movement is responsible for child labor laws, woman suffrage, and a rather impressive list of worthwhile accomplishments that enhances our personal freedom as well as promoting civil justice for all. However, like all good things when taken to the extreme, they can injure and cure with equal vitality, but I digress. Let’s say that a Governmental Educated Idiot (or Idiot Savant), perhaps even one of the current 24 National Czars, commissioned a select panel of “experts” to study the cost effectiveness and social morality of our current personal transportation system. Select portions of the expert study began to trickle out which showed the costs that our personal automobiles were incurring on the environment and economy were staggering, notwithstanding the social injustice that was being done to those unable to afford a personal automobile equal to that of the more affluent of our society. The study clearly shows that the estimated costs being incurred were beyond anything approaching a cost effective way of transporting people about and the social unfairness of the current personal transportation system was a disgrace to an enlightened and civilized people. A series of recommendations began to surface from the Government that not only highlighted the cost effectiveness of public transportation over the current private transportation system but also how a national regulated transportation system would slash the appalling carnage on our nation’s streets and road that are now exceeding 43,000 a year. This tragic loss of life on our highways is a loss we can no longer endure as a Nation and the Government must act on behalf of the people to fix this inexcusable loss of life and treasure due to the inefficiency and unrestrained nature of the current personal transportation system. The study also pointed out that those who now drive on the nation’s roads have not had any kind of uniform national training to ensure safe driving across state lines and this situation will be addressed by a national public transportation system that will have uniform trained and licensed operators of public transportation vehicles and systems to safeguard all citizens. Of course, in order for the new Public Transportation System to become effective, private transportation must be suppressed through “true cost” taxation on private automobiles and supporting infrastructure along with other fair and appropriate Governmental means to supplant a Private Transportation System with a viable National Public Transportation System. I could go on and on, but there is no point of further burdening you with more conjured Governmental scenarios that should be frightening to a freedom loving people because they are as real as today’s news. One salient that should be remembered at all costs, the mortal enemy of liberalism is personal freedom, and this is why we are slowly coming under the sway of what I call Gracious Tyranny, i.e., it’s a Tyranny because an Oligarchy of an elite few are perverting the democratic process to assert complete control of the nation’s society and culture, for the Gracious good of us all, of course.
I really like my car. I can get into my Detroit Clunker any time I want to, turn the key, endow life to my belch-fire eight engine, grasp the ergonomically correct shifter knob, authoritatively yank the transmission into drive, lead foot the pedal, and head out to anyplace my prerogative dictates. Does this sound somewhat familiar? Of course it does. We all do it as many time as we wish, sometimes, many times in a single day. And when we head out, we traverse on endless ribbons of concrete and asphalt that go to any one of the greatest or least of places within any part and parcel of this vast country, and we go without impediment of any sort, save our ability and desire to do so. It has been said that the private automobile and the web of highways and byways are the ultimate practical enabler of personal freedom because if a place where you are located becomes undesirable or oppressive, well now, you just load up the old freedom machine and take off to a more friendlier place and time. And if the authorities don’t like the thought of your unauthorized rearrangement, well, they can just smell your departing exhaust. Getting into our private vehicles and going to wherever we want to go is such a commonplace occurrence in this country that we hardly ever think about the importance of the personal privilege that this represents in regards to our practical individual freedom and liberty. I am now going to ask for your indulgence as we use the above ordinary account of your personal automobile usage as a surrogate to illustrate the thought processes, rationale and justification that the “progressives, socialists, liberals, et al”, that have now gained prominence in our Governance and national life, would employ if they selected personal automobile usage as a “crisis” that required fixing at the national level. The surrogate example of your personal automobile usage “fixing” is intended to illustrate the same thought process, rationale and justifications that are now being employed by our Federal Government to “fix” your personal health care, usage of the environment, real and personal property rights, cap and trade, legal and illegal immigration, financial meltdown, failing economy, unemployment, ad infinitum. Be advised, there will be even more urgent “crisis” to be identified later on that require national “fixing”, as fortuitous situations warrant. In all fairness I hasten to point out that the “Progressive” movement started in the 1900s, and now fully employed in our Government, is not a wholly evil movement regardless of what Mr. Glenn Beck alludes to in his book, “Glenn Beck’s Common Sense.” The Progressive movement is responsible for child labor laws, woman suffrage, and a rather impressive list of worthwhile accomplishments that enhances our personal freedom as well as promoting civil justice for all. However, like all good things when taken to the extreme, they can injure and cure with equal vitality, but I digress. Let’s say that a Governmental Educated Idiot (or Idiot Savant), perhaps even one of the current 24 National Czars, commissioned a select panel of “experts” to study the cost effectiveness and social morality of our current personal transportation system. Select portions of the expert study began to trickle out which showed the costs that our personal automobiles were incurring on the environment and economy were staggering, notwithstanding the social injustice that was being done to those unable to afford a personal automobile equal to that of the more affluent of our society. The study clearly shows that the estimated costs being incurred were beyond anything approaching a cost effective way of transporting people about and the social unfairness of the current personal transportation system was a disgrace to an enlightened and civilized people. A series of recommendations began to surface from the Government that not only highlighted the cost effectiveness of public transportation over the current private transportation system but also how a national regulated transportation system would slash the appalling carnage on our nation’s streets and road that are now exceeding 43,000 a year. This tragic loss of life on our highways is a loss we can no longer endure as a Nation and the Government must act on behalf of the people to fix this inexcusable loss of life and treasure due to the inefficiency and unrestrained nature of the current personal transportation system. The study also pointed out that those who now drive on the nation’s roads have not had any kind of uniform national training to ensure safe driving across state lines and this situation will be addressed by a national public transportation system that will have uniform trained and licensed operators of public transportation vehicles and systems to safeguard all citizens. Of course, in order for the new Public Transportation System to become effective, private transportation must be suppressed through “true cost” taxation on private automobiles and supporting infrastructure along with other fair and appropriate Governmental means to supplant a Private Transportation System with a viable National Public Transportation System. I could go on and on, but there is no point of further burdening you with more conjured Governmental scenarios that should be frightening to a freedom loving people because they are as real as today’s news. One salient that should be remembered at all costs, the mortal enemy of liberalism is personal freedom, and this is why we are slowly coming under the sway of what I call Gracious Tyranny, i.e., it’s a Tyranny because an Oligarchy of an elite few are perverting the democratic process to assert complete control of the nation’s society and culture, for the Gracious good of us all, of course.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Bad Moon
Bad Moon Rising
I see the bad moon arising,
I see trouble on the way,
I see earthquakes and lightin’,
I see bad times today.
John Fogerty
The Southern Poverty Law Center, USA Today, CBS, Associated Press, Digital Journal, Cleveland Leader and Politics Daily all report that Militias in the USA are surging. Why is this happening? What motivates good and peaceful Americans to think that the only remaining way to protect the American Constitution and liberty is to become a member of a local Militia? Before we search for the answer, I respectfully request you revisit my piece “God and Guns” posted be me some time ago. You may recall that I advanced the idea that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution was not really about the right to keep and bear arms. The amendment was enacted to ensure that the people had the right to form and maintain citizen Militias and in order for a Militia to be viable, the citizens must have the right to keep and bear arms, after all, that’s what the 2nd Amendment said in plain language. In other words, the citizens of the United States of America have a Constitutional right to form and maintain citizen Militias and the right to keep and bear arms only makes a Militia viable. Let’s revisit what James Madison said in the Federalist Paper #47 about Militias, to wit: “Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.” Perhaps the colloquial language used in bygone days is somewhat confusing today and the meaning of what Mr. Madison was saying prohibits understanding in today’s world. I believe what Mr. Madison said was that armed citizens organized into Militias was the final safeguard against a usurping Government. And I again urge you not to buy into the hooey that the National Guard is the people’s Militia. The National Guard is an adjunct to the standing United States Army and citizen Militias are Ad Hoc organizations formed from the citizens at large to address a specific threat, two very distinct and different organizations. During times of national peril in days past, citizen Militias were formed and equipped by the citizens themselves and then inducted into the United States Army to meet a current national threat. After the national threat was attended to, the Militia went home, disbanded, and the citizens went back to farming and the like. The Founding Fathers said over and over again that they were deathly afraid of standing armies and the citizen Militias were a protection from the nefarious use of a permanent standing army. The National Guard is funded, equipped, and is part of the United States Army Chain of Command and so it can in no way resemble a citizen’s Militia and in truth is part of the standing army that the founding fathers were so afraid of. The National Guard is not a Militia, period. How diabolical it is that the US Government has went to such great lengths to foster the notion that the National Guard is a Militia, i.e., why are they so afraid of citizen Militias that has been guaranteed by the Constitution? I will wager the entire stimulus package amount that if you are part of a local Militia and went public about it, you would be labeled a cult or something worse, prosecuted forthwith, and the Federal man would come and take you far away. I guess a Constitutional guarantee nowadays is only worth the paper it’s written on. But wait, I believe that we have just discovered what it is that people are getting all riled up about enough to seek out and join a local clandestine Militia. Here are a few things that people are upset about: the Constitution has been systematically disregarded and rewritten without the benefit of the Constitutional amendment process, citizens find they are unable to affect their own government, an unprecedented move by the Federal Government to usurp not only citizen Constitutional rights but local governments as well in a headlong rush to gain complete control over the country at large. The current Universal Health Care plan just might be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back”, and oh Lord, I see a Bad Moon Arising.
I see the bad moon arising,
I see trouble on the way,
I see earthquakes and lightin’,
I see bad times today.
John Fogerty
The Southern Poverty Law Center, USA Today, CBS, Associated Press, Digital Journal, Cleveland Leader and Politics Daily all report that Militias in the USA are surging. Why is this happening? What motivates good and peaceful Americans to think that the only remaining way to protect the American Constitution and liberty is to become a member of a local Militia? Before we search for the answer, I respectfully request you revisit my piece “God and Guns” posted be me some time ago. You may recall that I advanced the idea that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution was not really about the right to keep and bear arms. The amendment was enacted to ensure that the people had the right to form and maintain citizen Militias and in order for a Militia to be viable, the citizens must have the right to keep and bear arms, after all, that’s what the 2nd Amendment said in plain language. In other words, the citizens of the United States of America have a Constitutional right to form and maintain citizen Militias and the right to keep and bear arms only makes a Militia viable. Let’s revisit what James Madison said in the Federalist Paper #47 about Militias, to wit: “Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.” Perhaps the colloquial language used in bygone days is somewhat confusing today and the meaning of what Mr. Madison was saying prohibits understanding in today’s world. I believe what Mr. Madison said was that armed citizens organized into Militias was the final safeguard against a usurping Government. And I again urge you not to buy into the hooey that the National Guard is the people’s Militia. The National Guard is an adjunct to the standing United States Army and citizen Militias are Ad Hoc organizations formed from the citizens at large to address a specific threat, two very distinct and different organizations. During times of national peril in days past, citizen Militias were formed and equipped by the citizens themselves and then inducted into the United States Army to meet a current national threat. After the national threat was attended to, the Militia went home, disbanded, and the citizens went back to farming and the like. The Founding Fathers said over and over again that they were deathly afraid of standing armies and the citizen Militias were a protection from the nefarious use of a permanent standing army. The National Guard is funded, equipped, and is part of the United States Army Chain of Command and so it can in no way resemble a citizen’s Militia and in truth is part of the standing army that the founding fathers were so afraid of. The National Guard is not a Militia, period. How diabolical it is that the US Government has went to such great lengths to foster the notion that the National Guard is a Militia, i.e., why are they so afraid of citizen Militias that has been guaranteed by the Constitution? I will wager the entire stimulus package amount that if you are part of a local Militia and went public about it, you would be labeled a cult or something worse, prosecuted forthwith, and the Federal man would come and take you far away. I guess a Constitutional guarantee nowadays is only worth the paper it’s written on. But wait, I believe that we have just discovered what it is that people are getting all riled up about enough to seek out and join a local clandestine Militia. Here are a few things that people are upset about: the Constitution has been systematically disregarded and rewritten without the benefit of the Constitutional amendment process, citizens find they are unable to affect their own government, an unprecedented move by the Federal Government to usurp not only citizen Constitutional rights but local governments as well in a headlong rush to gain complete control over the country at large. The current Universal Health Care plan just might be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back”, and oh Lord, I see a Bad Moon Arising.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Rabbits and Squirrels
Rabbits and Squirrels
Some time ago, when I was more intellectually active, I recall being engaged in an absorbing discussion concerning the meaning of life and why hair on your arm doesn’t grow any longer, when one of my peers looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Do you know why there are more rabbits than squirrels?” This seemingly non sequitur question, that came out of the blue and stopped the more serious give and take about “palming the ball” during dribbling in professional basketball, caused a mostly vacant stare aimed at the Einstein who had asked the question. The answer to this dumbfounder wasn’t long in coming. With somewhat watery eyes and slightly slurred speech, the Einstein answered his own question thusly: “because, have you ever tried doing it in a tree?” The answer, of course, highlighted the importance of the practical aspects of life to the discussion participants in general and so had an obscure link to the current discussions about the meaning of life in particular. More importantly, the citizen who asked and answered the question seemed to derive a great deal of intellectual satisfaction from the exchange. To this day, I don’t know why this exchange could generate even a small amount of intellectual satisfaction from anyone, but I digress. This obscure bit of personal history popped into my nomadic musings the other day while trying to understand the esoteric explanations of the proposed Universal Health Care plan by the proponents of the plan and their supporters. The only reason that my brain forced an involuntary recall about the mating habits of Rabbits and Squirrels during the current inane health care discussions must be because of the intellectual satisfaction being displayed by both sides of the proposal when they make their points about the plan. Again, I don’t know why anyone could derive even a small amount of intellectual satisfaction from the current discussions, which reflect, in so many ways, the meaning of life discussions held so long ago by my intellectual peers. But wait, you know what? The difficulty of doing it in a tree versus the straightforwardness of doing it on the ground being an explanation of why there are more rabbits than squirrels can also go a long way in understanding what is going on in the current dustup over Universal Health Care. The only reason that the rabbits and squirrels explanation makes any practical sense at all is because you must juxtapose the difficulty humans would have “doing it in a tree” with that of the perfectly adapted squirrel, who can instead, do it in a tree with considerable ease. In the same manner, the Government proposal for Universal Health Care being advanced fails the practical test because the Government wants it’s citizens to juxtapose their personal health care with a Government run health care system. Ah yes, therein lies the problem. Most free citizens instinctively know that Governments cannot make personal health care decisions because Government is a political entity and therefore can only make political decisions, not personal health care decisions. So it is patently impossible for a free citizen to juxtapose their personal health care requirements with the political decisions that would be made by a Government running a Universal Health Care system. This is exactly why the current Universal Health Care proposal being advanced by the Government makes no sense to free citizens. The juxtapose health care impossibility results in the complete frustration of the still free citizens in trying to reconcile what the Government is trying to do with their personal health requirements without really knowing what is going on and why the Government proposal is so wrong other than the Government simply hungers for the power that a Government run health care system would bring. Of course, the result of this frustration being that voices and blood pressures continue to raise in direct proportion to the continuing Government advocacy of this plan. Hum, I wonder why there really are more rabbits than squirrels?
Some time ago, when I was more intellectually active, I recall being engaged in an absorbing discussion concerning the meaning of life and why hair on your arm doesn’t grow any longer, when one of my peers looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Do you know why there are more rabbits than squirrels?” This seemingly non sequitur question, that came out of the blue and stopped the more serious give and take about “palming the ball” during dribbling in professional basketball, caused a mostly vacant stare aimed at the Einstein who had asked the question. The answer to this dumbfounder wasn’t long in coming. With somewhat watery eyes and slightly slurred speech, the Einstein answered his own question thusly: “because, have you ever tried doing it in a tree?” The answer, of course, highlighted the importance of the practical aspects of life to the discussion participants in general and so had an obscure link to the current discussions about the meaning of life in particular. More importantly, the citizen who asked and answered the question seemed to derive a great deal of intellectual satisfaction from the exchange. To this day, I don’t know why this exchange could generate even a small amount of intellectual satisfaction from anyone, but I digress. This obscure bit of personal history popped into my nomadic musings the other day while trying to understand the esoteric explanations of the proposed Universal Health Care plan by the proponents of the plan and their supporters. The only reason that my brain forced an involuntary recall about the mating habits of Rabbits and Squirrels during the current inane health care discussions must be because of the intellectual satisfaction being displayed by both sides of the proposal when they make their points about the plan. Again, I don’t know why anyone could derive even a small amount of intellectual satisfaction from the current discussions, which reflect, in so many ways, the meaning of life discussions held so long ago by my intellectual peers. But wait, you know what? The difficulty of doing it in a tree versus the straightforwardness of doing it on the ground being an explanation of why there are more rabbits than squirrels can also go a long way in understanding what is going on in the current dustup over Universal Health Care. The only reason that the rabbits and squirrels explanation makes any practical sense at all is because you must juxtapose the difficulty humans would have “doing it in a tree” with that of the perfectly adapted squirrel, who can instead, do it in a tree with considerable ease. In the same manner, the Government proposal for Universal Health Care being advanced fails the practical test because the Government wants it’s citizens to juxtapose their personal health care with a Government run health care system. Ah yes, therein lies the problem. Most free citizens instinctively know that Governments cannot make personal health care decisions because Government is a political entity and therefore can only make political decisions, not personal health care decisions. So it is patently impossible for a free citizen to juxtapose their personal health care requirements with the political decisions that would be made by a Government running a Universal Health Care system. This is exactly why the current Universal Health Care proposal being advanced by the Government makes no sense to free citizens. The juxtapose health care impossibility results in the complete frustration of the still free citizens in trying to reconcile what the Government is trying to do with their personal health requirements without really knowing what is going on and why the Government proposal is so wrong other than the Government simply hungers for the power that a Government run health care system would bring. Of course, the result of this frustration being that voices and blood pressures continue to raise in direct proportion to the continuing Government advocacy of this plan. Hum, I wonder why there really are more rabbits than squirrels?
Monday, August 3, 2009
Waltzing Lady Liberty
Waltzing Lady Liberty
When Bill Maher recently declared that America was a “stupid country”, my sprit soared, because Maher’s assertion that our country is stupid is like the Devil declaring that the righteous are wicked. My sprit soared because Maher’s contemptuous contention is a fortuitous counterpoint that shines a rare bright light on what is “smart” about our country, i.e., it is the ultimate confirmation that the country must be heading in the right direction because it is analogous to when an enemy speaks ill of you. You have commanded the ultimate confirmation of your rectitude from an impeccable source. I’m not saying that Maher is an enemy of America, I’m only saying that Maher is just another unofficial mouth-piece for many of our self-assured elite of this country, and he, and others of his kind, gives meaning and dimention to the wise words spoke by Heraclitus so long ago (circa 540-480 B.C.), to wit: “Much learning does not teach understanding”. I don’t know why Maher and his brethren have so little understanding of America that would cause them to declare that America is “stupid” but perhaps it’s because of their long association with the disconnected segment of our society that continuously reinforce their insular beliefs by an elite groupthink mentality. It really matters little because his specious remark has given us an opportunity to rediscover what is “smart” about America. America is really smart because with each passing day, race matters less and less, just as it has always been. America continues to be a “melting pot” of a just and enlightened people that really cares little about color or race, Americans care about freedom, character and responsibility and we fought a great war to enforce that principle. America is really smart because liberty has real meaning here because you are in actuality free to succeed or fail because of equal opportunity for all. America is really smart because it is a Democratic Republic that gives meaning to freedom by maintaining a free marketplace open to all. America is really smart because you can worship any God or no God if you so choose and you can educate yourself or remain ignorant of modern ways if you are of a mind to do so. America is really smart because we are a mostly civil society that practices patience when others are uncivil. America is really smart because people like Bill Maher can say stupid things with no fear. I could fill many pages about why America is smart and I hope you will take the time to reflect on the many ways that America is, indeed, “smart.” In the meantime, lets all, Bill Maher included, keep on Waltzing Lady Liberty, it’s the smart thing to do.
When Bill Maher recently declared that America was a “stupid country”, my sprit soared, because Maher’s assertion that our country is stupid is like the Devil declaring that the righteous are wicked. My sprit soared because Maher’s contemptuous contention is a fortuitous counterpoint that shines a rare bright light on what is “smart” about our country, i.e., it is the ultimate confirmation that the country must be heading in the right direction because it is analogous to when an enemy speaks ill of you. You have commanded the ultimate confirmation of your rectitude from an impeccable source. I’m not saying that Maher is an enemy of America, I’m only saying that Maher is just another unofficial mouth-piece for many of our self-assured elite of this country, and he, and others of his kind, gives meaning and dimention to the wise words spoke by Heraclitus so long ago (circa 540-480 B.C.), to wit: “Much learning does not teach understanding”. I don’t know why Maher and his brethren have so little understanding of America that would cause them to declare that America is “stupid” but perhaps it’s because of their long association with the disconnected segment of our society that continuously reinforce their insular beliefs by an elite groupthink mentality. It really matters little because his specious remark has given us an opportunity to rediscover what is “smart” about America. America is really smart because with each passing day, race matters less and less, just as it has always been. America continues to be a “melting pot” of a just and enlightened people that really cares little about color or race, Americans care about freedom, character and responsibility and we fought a great war to enforce that principle. America is really smart because liberty has real meaning here because you are in actuality free to succeed or fail because of equal opportunity for all. America is really smart because it is a Democratic Republic that gives meaning to freedom by maintaining a free marketplace open to all. America is really smart because you can worship any God or no God if you so choose and you can educate yourself or remain ignorant of modern ways if you are of a mind to do so. America is really smart because we are a mostly civil society that practices patience when others are uncivil. America is really smart because people like Bill Maher can say stupid things with no fear. I could fill many pages about why America is smart and I hope you will take the time to reflect on the many ways that America is, indeed, “smart.” In the meantime, lets all, Bill Maher included, keep on Waltzing Lady Liberty, it’s the smart thing to do.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Readin', Writin' and Money
Readin’, Writin’ and Money
I think we all understand the education of our children is a key element in the survival of a viable democratic Republic, i.e., a population that is ignorant about our history, philosophy of Government, responsibility of freedom, unable to effectively read or write, etc., will be unable to function successfully as a free and responsible citizen. For some time now, we, as a people, have been encouraged to throw more and more money at the education establishment in the hope of stopping the continuing downward spiral of education achievement. Good luck with that. Without knowing one wit about the educational system, anecdotal evidence abounds that educational achievement is inversely proportional to the money allocated to it. My personal anecdotal evidence supports this notion as well. For example, I went to a two-room school in Jordan Indiana, in my younger years, that had a pot-bellied stove for heat, an outhouse, a hand pump for water, lawyer-free discipline and not a piece of recreational equipment in sight and yet learned to read, write and do arithmetic. I also was taught our country’s history and how our government governs, and most importantly, how to be civil. I began to think about how badly our public education system has become when I was reading a small book about New England lighthouses by Bruce Roberts and Ray Jones. The authors were recounting a tale about the Matinicus Rock lighthouse, located some 25 miles out to sea off the coast of Maine, and included a letter by a lighthouse resident who was a girl of seventeen years (Abbie Burgess) and had written to her pen pal about the place, to wit:
“You have often expressed a desire to view the sea out on the ocean when it was angry. Had you been here on 19 January (1856), I surmise you would have been satisfied. Father was away. Early in the day, as the tide rose, the sea made a complete breach over the rock, washing every movable thing away, and of the old dwelling not one stone was left upon another. The new dwelling was flooded, and the windows had to be secured to prevent the violence of the spray from breaking them in. As the tide came, the sea rose higher and higher, till the only endurable places were the light towers. If they stood, we were saved, otherwise our fate was only too certain. But for some reason, I know not why, I had no misgivings, and went on with my work as usual. For four weeks, owing to rough weather, no landing could be affected on the rock. During this time we were without assistance of any male member of our family. Though at times greatly exhausted with my labors, not once did the lights fail. I was able to perform all of my accustomed duties as well as my father’s.
You know the hens are our only companions. Becoming convinced, as the gale increased, that unless they were brought into the house they would be lost. I said to my mother, “I must try to save them.” She advised me not to attempt it. The thought, however, of parting with them without an effort was not to be endured, so seizing a basket, I ran out a few yards after the rollers had passed and the sea fell off a little, with the water knee deep, to the coop, and rescued all but one. It was the work of a moment, and I was back in the house with the door fastened, but I was none too quick, for at that instant my little sister, standing at the window, exclaimed, “Oh look! Look there! The worst sea is coming.” That wave destroyed the old dwelling and swept the rock. I cannot think you would enjoy remaining here any great length of time for the sea is never still and when agitated, its roar shuts out every other sound, even drowning our voices.”
This girl of seventeen years, who could only go to school on the mainland whenever the sea permitted a boat to make the trip to the little school, and yet she, Abbie Burgess, wrote this beautiful letter. I have hired graduate Engineers who could not string two coherent sentences together and yet this isolated girl of 1856, without computers or modern technology, was educated to the extent that she could communicate with her fellow man by the written word that should be the envy of us all. How is this possible? I have never heard a convincing argument of how this can be other than a lot of very thoughtful people have placed the starting point for our public educational system decent at the same point in time when the “Progressive Movement” started in the 1890s. Could this be? I really don’t know either, but I do know that continuing to throw money at the educational system does not work and only demonstrates our collective lack of understanding on how to educate our children nowadays. This is particularly frustrating because, as Abbie Burgess’s letter demonstrates so skillfully, we used to know how to do it.
I think we all understand the education of our children is a key element in the survival of a viable democratic Republic, i.e., a population that is ignorant about our history, philosophy of Government, responsibility of freedom, unable to effectively read or write, etc., will be unable to function successfully as a free and responsible citizen. For some time now, we, as a people, have been encouraged to throw more and more money at the education establishment in the hope of stopping the continuing downward spiral of education achievement. Good luck with that. Without knowing one wit about the educational system, anecdotal evidence abounds that educational achievement is inversely proportional to the money allocated to it. My personal anecdotal evidence supports this notion as well. For example, I went to a two-room school in Jordan Indiana, in my younger years, that had a pot-bellied stove for heat, an outhouse, a hand pump for water, lawyer-free discipline and not a piece of recreational equipment in sight and yet learned to read, write and do arithmetic. I also was taught our country’s history and how our government governs, and most importantly, how to be civil. I began to think about how badly our public education system has become when I was reading a small book about New England lighthouses by Bruce Roberts and Ray Jones. The authors were recounting a tale about the Matinicus Rock lighthouse, located some 25 miles out to sea off the coast of Maine, and included a letter by a lighthouse resident who was a girl of seventeen years (Abbie Burgess) and had written to her pen pal about the place, to wit:
“You have often expressed a desire to view the sea out on the ocean when it was angry. Had you been here on 19 January (1856), I surmise you would have been satisfied. Father was away. Early in the day, as the tide rose, the sea made a complete breach over the rock, washing every movable thing away, and of the old dwelling not one stone was left upon another. The new dwelling was flooded, and the windows had to be secured to prevent the violence of the spray from breaking them in. As the tide came, the sea rose higher and higher, till the only endurable places were the light towers. If they stood, we were saved, otherwise our fate was only too certain. But for some reason, I know not why, I had no misgivings, and went on with my work as usual. For four weeks, owing to rough weather, no landing could be affected on the rock. During this time we were without assistance of any male member of our family. Though at times greatly exhausted with my labors, not once did the lights fail. I was able to perform all of my accustomed duties as well as my father’s.
You know the hens are our only companions. Becoming convinced, as the gale increased, that unless they were brought into the house they would be lost. I said to my mother, “I must try to save them.” She advised me not to attempt it. The thought, however, of parting with them without an effort was not to be endured, so seizing a basket, I ran out a few yards after the rollers had passed and the sea fell off a little, with the water knee deep, to the coop, and rescued all but one. It was the work of a moment, and I was back in the house with the door fastened, but I was none too quick, for at that instant my little sister, standing at the window, exclaimed, “Oh look! Look there! The worst sea is coming.” That wave destroyed the old dwelling and swept the rock. I cannot think you would enjoy remaining here any great length of time for the sea is never still and when agitated, its roar shuts out every other sound, even drowning our voices.”
This girl of seventeen years, who could only go to school on the mainland whenever the sea permitted a boat to make the trip to the little school, and yet she, Abbie Burgess, wrote this beautiful letter. I have hired graduate Engineers who could not string two coherent sentences together and yet this isolated girl of 1856, without computers or modern technology, was educated to the extent that she could communicate with her fellow man by the written word that should be the envy of us all. How is this possible? I have never heard a convincing argument of how this can be other than a lot of very thoughtful people have placed the starting point for our public educational system decent at the same point in time when the “Progressive Movement” started in the 1890s. Could this be? I really don’t know either, but I do know that continuing to throw money at the educational system does not work and only demonstrates our collective lack of understanding on how to educate our children nowadays. This is particularly frustrating because, as Abbie Burgess’s letter demonstrates so skillfully, we used to know how to do it.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Qui Tacet Consentire
Qui Tacet Consentire
The Pew Research center is reporting a rapidly changing political landscape. The latest research of political party identification indicates that as of April 2009, 33% of the people identified themselves as Dems, 22 % as Pubs and 39% as Indies. If one adds the above percentages the total would be 94% which leaves nearly 10% who are either apolitical or are the traditional 10% who just never goes along with the rest of the people. The Pew Research Center is one of the most respected polling organizations around and is generally viewed as being apolitical so the above political identification trend data probably reflects a great deal of reality. However, just as Will Rogers repeated the famous retort that “there are lies, damn lies, and statistics”, polling and the resulting published data and analysis can be manipulated just as easily as statistical data and analysis. That is to say, polling results should be viewed with a great deal of suspicion, and by all means, one should never accept polling data from any political entity as truthful because such political polling is the AK-47 of political combat. In general, one should always be skeptical of any polling data, even data from the Pew Research Center. Here is anther reason why. I always refuse to participate in polling because I don’t think it is anyone’s business what I think, notwithstanding my natural resistance to being manipulated by some existential psychology major who has crafted leading and deceitful questions for me to answer along with God-only-knows-what other modern polling tomfoolery. In other words, I take the Don Vito Corleone instruction to Sonny very seriously, "Never tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking." And besides, when they hold elections in a democracy, they will find out rather quickly what the electorate is thinking. If I, and others like me, refuse to participate in polling, how is that situation accounted for in the polling data? For example, lets say 30% of the people contacted were just like me and refuse to be polled. Lets also conjecture that of that 30% that refused to be polled, 70% now consider themselves Independents. How is this data factoid accounted for in the Poll analysis and final published data? There is an even a darker side to political polling. The Flim Flam politicians that sponsor polling are trying to find out what is trending in the general population so that they can craft positions and expenditures to gain advantage over other politicians. In other words, the politician is only concerned about the expediency of the moment and the polling is the time-honored way of gaining political Intel in order to do so. Polling is not required if a Politician presents their political philosophy and positions and then debates the advantage of their candidacy in today’s circumstance. Why should anyone trust a Politician’s position that always twists and turns with expediency that polling has enabled? Here is even a greater problem with polling. People read and digest polling data and the ensuing debate in the media provides for a feeling that the people are being heard. Nothing could be further from the truth because those who design the polling are establishing the agenda and resulting conversation. In other words, the national political conversation is not the spontaneous voice of the people, it is instead, contrived dialog designed and manufactured by those in power in order to control popular political thought and remain in power. I believe most people understand what is going on but there is a general feeling of hopelessness because the political system as outlined in the Constitution is not working and so the great silent majority remain just that, silent. I believe the silent majority remains silent not out of apathy, but they are silent because most of us believe we have no real say in our Government and there is no way for our voice to be heard. I believe this is why people are rapidly changing their political identification as Independent rather than Dem or Pub because there is no real difference between the two national parties and the two political parties are corrupt to the extent they only view the electorate and citizens as vehicles to maintain personal power and so care little about what the public really thinks. The current Professional Politicians populating the national political Parties are people only interested in obtaining and remaining in power and they can hardly be described as patriots worthy of a vote or affirmation. Herein lies the problem, Qui Tacet Consentire. (Who is silent gives consent.)
The Pew Research center is reporting a rapidly changing political landscape. The latest research of political party identification indicates that as of April 2009, 33% of the people identified themselves as Dems, 22 % as Pubs and 39% as Indies. If one adds the above percentages the total would be 94% which leaves nearly 10% who are either apolitical or are the traditional 10% who just never goes along with the rest of the people. The Pew Research Center is one of the most respected polling organizations around and is generally viewed as being apolitical so the above political identification trend data probably reflects a great deal of reality. However, just as Will Rogers repeated the famous retort that “there are lies, damn lies, and statistics”, polling and the resulting published data and analysis can be manipulated just as easily as statistical data and analysis. That is to say, polling results should be viewed with a great deal of suspicion, and by all means, one should never accept polling data from any political entity as truthful because such political polling is the AK-47 of political combat. In general, one should always be skeptical of any polling data, even data from the Pew Research Center. Here is anther reason why. I always refuse to participate in polling because I don’t think it is anyone’s business what I think, notwithstanding my natural resistance to being manipulated by some existential psychology major who has crafted leading and deceitful questions for me to answer along with God-only-knows-what other modern polling tomfoolery. In other words, I take the Don Vito Corleone instruction to Sonny very seriously, "Never tell anybody outside the family what you're thinking." And besides, when they hold elections in a democracy, they will find out rather quickly what the electorate is thinking. If I, and others like me, refuse to participate in polling, how is that situation accounted for in the polling data? For example, lets say 30% of the people contacted were just like me and refuse to be polled. Lets also conjecture that of that 30% that refused to be polled, 70% now consider themselves Independents. How is this data factoid accounted for in the Poll analysis and final published data? There is an even a darker side to political polling. The Flim Flam politicians that sponsor polling are trying to find out what is trending in the general population so that they can craft positions and expenditures to gain advantage over other politicians. In other words, the politician is only concerned about the expediency of the moment and the polling is the time-honored way of gaining political Intel in order to do so. Polling is not required if a Politician presents their political philosophy and positions and then debates the advantage of their candidacy in today’s circumstance. Why should anyone trust a Politician’s position that always twists and turns with expediency that polling has enabled? Here is even a greater problem with polling. People read and digest polling data and the ensuing debate in the media provides for a feeling that the people are being heard. Nothing could be further from the truth because those who design the polling are establishing the agenda and resulting conversation. In other words, the national political conversation is not the spontaneous voice of the people, it is instead, contrived dialog designed and manufactured by those in power in order to control popular political thought and remain in power. I believe most people understand what is going on but there is a general feeling of hopelessness because the political system as outlined in the Constitution is not working and so the great silent majority remain just that, silent. I believe the silent majority remains silent not out of apathy, but they are silent because most of us believe we have no real say in our Government and there is no way for our voice to be heard. I believe this is why people are rapidly changing their political identification as Independent rather than Dem or Pub because there is no real difference between the two national parties and the two political parties are corrupt to the extent they only view the electorate and citizens as vehicles to maintain personal power and so care little about what the public really thinks. The current Professional Politicians populating the national political Parties are people only interested in obtaining and remaining in power and they can hardly be described as patriots worthy of a vote or affirmation. Herein lies the problem, Qui Tacet Consentire. (Who is silent gives consent.)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
We're Going To Save Money
We’re Going To Save Money
No Matter How Much It Costs
For those of you who have spent a fair amount of your life in a corporate or company work environment, the above statement should bring forth fond memories of past work-place follies. You know what I’m talking about here, don’t you? Come on now. Think back to when a big meeting was called at your respective workplace and the Harvard Business School trained suits would do a stand-up about how the latest management brain-fart would save the Company, reap huge profits, and probably save the free world from tyranny in the bargain. Wow, a delicious Chris Matthews type shiver runs down my leg just thinking about it again. Do you remember how we would go back to our workstations with the soaring buzzword laced rhetoric ringing in our ears as we bent our intellectual backs to the company wheel in order to make happen what the suits and management said needed to be done. After a fair amount of management-induced enthusiasm had worn off, reality began to kick in when the graybeards of the company begin to question the wisdom of the new program or policy. The graybeards actually had numbers to show that the new “thing” would cost five times any conceivable return on investment, wreck the engineering department, and make it impossible for the field salespeople to operate. The usual response from the suits and management, after concerns were expressed, was to label the graybeards as dinosaurs and accuse them, and everyone else associated with them, of being obstructionists and an unnecessary impediment to business progress. One of two things usually happened at this point. (1) Mouths would snap shut for fear of losing one’s job and the employees would work around the new thing in order for business to remain profitable thereby saving one’s job in spite of the suits and management new directives. Of course, this course of action by the employees was accompanied by sincere sounding lip service to management’s cause while doing what was necessary to keep the company ship afloat. (2) Even though the responsible employees knew that the suits and management new directives would wreck the company, they would follow the directives right down to the last crossed “T” and dotted “I”. This course of action would come to be called “Malicious Compliance” because it would eventually demonstrate to management that they had their collective heads stuck up somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine while avoiding being labeled an obstructionists and impeding management directives. All in all, this method of responding is a rather intellectual and oblique way for mere employees to support management. I keep hoping that a merciful and benevolent God will some day point his finger down at the Harvard and Yale business schools and cause great sinkholes to swallow them up before the country is driven into final ruin. But I digress. I got to thinking about this saving money at all costs while observing the goings on in Washington these days. You know, “Cap and Trade’, “Health Care for All”, “Government Motors”, “Financial Collapse”, etc., because most of these programs have been presented as absolutely necessary in order to save money and the country from ruin even though we all know that these programs are in reality “Trojan Horses” that provide a fortuitous way for the Government to expand their power in order to implement great social change. I guess people will never learn that it is impossible for the Government to make business decisions because Government is a Political entity that can only make political decisions. When the graybeards challenge the wisdom of the programs by pointing out that there is no way on this beautiful blue planet that these programs can save money, they, along with all of their associates, are labeled obstructionists and even worse. It looks like responsible graybeard citizens, and those who are of like political persuasion, are beginning to react with a “Malicious Compliance” course of action in order to let reality demonstrate to a swooning public that these current Government actions will be the cause of their eventual loss of freedom and wealth.
No Matter How Much It Costs
For those of you who have spent a fair amount of your life in a corporate or company work environment, the above statement should bring forth fond memories of past work-place follies. You know what I’m talking about here, don’t you? Come on now. Think back to when a big meeting was called at your respective workplace and the Harvard Business School trained suits would do a stand-up about how the latest management brain-fart would save the Company, reap huge profits, and probably save the free world from tyranny in the bargain. Wow, a delicious Chris Matthews type shiver runs down my leg just thinking about it again. Do you remember how we would go back to our workstations with the soaring buzzword laced rhetoric ringing in our ears as we bent our intellectual backs to the company wheel in order to make happen what the suits and management said needed to be done. After a fair amount of management-induced enthusiasm had worn off, reality began to kick in when the graybeards of the company begin to question the wisdom of the new program or policy. The graybeards actually had numbers to show that the new “thing” would cost five times any conceivable return on investment, wreck the engineering department, and make it impossible for the field salespeople to operate. The usual response from the suits and management, after concerns were expressed, was to label the graybeards as dinosaurs and accuse them, and everyone else associated with them, of being obstructionists and an unnecessary impediment to business progress. One of two things usually happened at this point. (1) Mouths would snap shut for fear of losing one’s job and the employees would work around the new thing in order for business to remain profitable thereby saving one’s job in spite of the suits and management new directives. Of course, this course of action by the employees was accompanied by sincere sounding lip service to management’s cause while doing what was necessary to keep the company ship afloat. (2) Even though the responsible employees knew that the suits and management new directives would wreck the company, they would follow the directives right down to the last crossed “T” and dotted “I”. This course of action would come to be called “Malicious Compliance” because it would eventually demonstrate to management that they had their collective heads stuck up somewhere where the sun doesn’t shine while avoiding being labeled an obstructionists and impeding management directives. All in all, this method of responding is a rather intellectual and oblique way for mere employees to support management. I keep hoping that a merciful and benevolent God will some day point his finger down at the Harvard and Yale business schools and cause great sinkholes to swallow them up before the country is driven into final ruin. But I digress. I got to thinking about this saving money at all costs while observing the goings on in Washington these days. You know, “Cap and Trade’, “Health Care for All”, “Government Motors”, “Financial Collapse”, etc., because most of these programs have been presented as absolutely necessary in order to save money and the country from ruin even though we all know that these programs are in reality “Trojan Horses” that provide a fortuitous way for the Government to expand their power in order to implement great social change. I guess people will never learn that it is impossible for the Government to make business decisions because Government is a Political entity that can only make political decisions. When the graybeards challenge the wisdom of the programs by pointing out that there is no way on this beautiful blue planet that these programs can save money, they, along with all of their associates, are labeled obstructionists and even worse. It looks like responsible graybeard citizens, and those who are of like political persuasion, are beginning to react with a “Malicious Compliance” course of action in order to let reality demonstrate to a swooning public that these current Government actions will be the cause of their eventual loss of freedom and wealth.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Governor Sarah Palin
Governor Sarah Palin
Did you see her? Did you see Governor Palin in chest waders pulling a net full of fish? This all-American woman who can fell a moose with a high-power rifle, work a fish net (can you just imagine Jackie Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt or Michelle Obama pulling a fish net?), run a huge state as Governor, deal with lying cheating politicians, and all with a kid on her hip, and yet, still find time to look like a woman. Sarah Palin reminds me of the original All-American woman, the quintessential pioneer woman of the plains, multi-tasking with her husband to help build a home and family in the wilderness. You would think an original like Sarah Palin would be celebrated by press and mainstream media, but think again, how Governor Palin has been treated by the mainstream media and the agents of personal destruction is a total embarrassment for this magnificent country. For example, the following is just one example of the multitude of nastiness that has been written about Sarah Palin. This particular piece was written by Paul Lewis Hackett and published in the Daily Kos on 12 Sept 2008, to wit:
“The message (would be) simple and the professionals can refine it but essentially it should contain these elements: Sarah Palin? Can't keep her solemn oath of devotion to her husband and had sex with his employee. Sarah Palin? Accidentally got pregnant at age 43 and the tax payers of Alaska have to pay for the care of her disabled child. Sarah Palin? Unable to teach her 16 year old daughter right from wrong and now another teenager is pregnant. Sarah Palin? Can you trust Sarah Palin and her values with America's future?”
If you have been reading my pieces posted on Bangingthedrum, you will remember that I have fearlessly made two predictions in the past:
1. The economy will tank during the late summer period of 2009 when the cascade of job losses and funny money begin to have their full impact.
2. The Educated Idiots in Washington will complete their mastery over the home of the brave and the land of the free when they enact a National Sales Tax either in the form of a VAT Tax or one taken at the cash register.
I will make a 3rd prediction and this one concerns Sarah Palin. I believe that Palin will run for the office of President in 2012 and do it after organizing a new political party that will probably be called “The Independent Party”. Think about it. Most people are coming around to the notion that there is really no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties because most of the politicians associated with the two major parties are in reality Professional Politicians only interested in personal power. The Pew Research Center indicates that people identify themselves with the political parties in roughly the following manner: 1/3 Democratic, 1/3 Republican and 1/3 Independent. This make up of political identification has been rapidly changing lately. It is now approximately ¼ Democratic, ¼ Republican and ½ Independent. Now when you consider that the conservative base of the Republican Party and the Blue Dog Democrats are basically of the same political persuasion and the fact that these political elements are becoming increasingly “out of step” with their party leadership, I believe you have the same opportunity available now as when the Wigs morphed into the Republican Party due to the issue of slavery. The issue now is Constitutional America or Socialist America. I believe that these political elements would probably jump at the opportunity to be associated with an a new political party that represents basic American Constitutional values and if they joined with those identified as Independents, you would have a new Political Party with a considerable majority. All in all, a rare opportunity for a patriot with vision and the will to go down the road less traveled. Sure sounds like Sarah Palin to me. Well, let’s just sit back and see what happens.
Did you see her? Did you see Governor Palin in chest waders pulling a net full of fish? This all-American woman who can fell a moose with a high-power rifle, work a fish net (can you just imagine Jackie Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt or Michelle Obama pulling a fish net?), run a huge state as Governor, deal with lying cheating politicians, and all with a kid on her hip, and yet, still find time to look like a woman. Sarah Palin reminds me of the original All-American woman, the quintessential pioneer woman of the plains, multi-tasking with her husband to help build a home and family in the wilderness. You would think an original like Sarah Palin would be celebrated by press and mainstream media, but think again, how Governor Palin has been treated by the mainstream media and the agents of personal destruction is a total embarrassment for this magnificent country. For example, the following is just one example of the multitude of nastiness that has been written about Sarah Palin. This particular piece was written by Paul Lewis Hackett and published in the Daily Kos on 12 Sept 2008, to wit:
“The message (would be) simple and the professionals can refine it but essentially it should contain these elements: Sarah Palin? Can't keep her solemn oath of devotion to her husband and had sex with his employee. Sarah Palin? Accidentally got pregnant at age 43 and the tax payers of Alaska have to pay for the care of her disabled child. Sarah Palin? Unable to teach her 16 year old daughter right from wrong and now another teenager is pregnant. Sarah Palin? Can you trust Sarah Palin and her values with America's future?”
If you have been reading my pieces posted on Bangingthedrum, you will remember that I have fearlessly made two predictions in the past:
1. The economy will tank during the late summer period of 2009 when the cascade of job losses and funny money begin to have their full impact.
2. The Educated Idiots in Washington will complete their mastery over the home of the brave and the land of the free when they enact a National Sales Tax either in the form of a VAT Tax or one taken at the cash register.
I will make a 3rd prediction and this one concerns Sarah Palin. I believe that Palin will run for the office of President in 2012 and do it after organizing a new political party that will probably be called “The Independent Party”. Think about it. Most people are coming around to the notion that there is really no difference between the Democratic and Republican parties because most of the politicians associated with the two major parties are in reality Professional Politicians only interested in personal power. The Pew Research Center indicates that people identify themselves with the political parties in roughly the following manner: 1/3 Democratic, 1/3 Republican and 1/3 Independent. This make up of political identification has been rapidly changing lately. It is now approximately ¼ Democratic, ¼ Republican and ½ Independent. Now when you consider that the conservative base of the Republican Party and the Blue Dog Democrats are basically of the same political persuasion and the fact that these political elements are becoming increasingly “out of step” with their party leadership, I believe you have the same opportunity available now as when the Wigs morphed into the Republican Party due to the issue of slavery. The issue now is Constitutional America or Socialist America. I believe that these political elements would probably jump at the opportunity to be associated with an a new political party that represents basic American Constitutional values and if they joined with those identified as Independents, you would have a new Political Party with a considerable majority. All in all, a rare opportunity for a patriot with vision and the will to go down the road less traveled. Sure sounds like Sarah Palin to me. Well, let’s just sit back and see what happens.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Right and Wrong
Right and Wrong
Right and wrong, good and evil, just and unjust, fair and unfair, biased and unbiased; these are just a few of the arguments that each of us try to resolve on a daily basis as we make necessary personal decisions about what to do, how to do it, and react and adjust to circumstances beyond our personal control. The problem is, of course, each of us makes a subjective judgment about what is right or wrong within our particular circumstances based on our personal experiences, education, social pressure, state of comfort or discomfort, ad infinitum, and these differences in personal circumstances leads each of us to have a different opinion of what is, right or wrong. This leads us to the notion of Relativism that argues that ethical truths (right and wrong) in society depends upon the individuals and groups holding them (ethical truths) versus a steady Moral Compass that argues that ethical truths (right and wrong) in society are an unequivocal moral standard that is indifferent to subjective circumstances. Here is the problem with these two notions. Relativism can justify any social behavior and a Moral Compass cannot allow for changing circumstances. For example, racial discrimination against white people is allowable today in order to balance out the past racial discrimination against black people, i.e., relativism argues it’s Right to racially discriminate against white people in order to correct the Wrong of past racial discrimination against black people. As you can see, it’s no longer the unequivocal notion that racial discrimination is always wrong regardless of when, were or whom, it’s relative to the circumstances of blacks being racially discriminated against in the past that makes it Right to racially discriminate against white people today. How about an even easier example of relativism? Within a civil society it is wrong to kill another human but relative to a time of war it is right (or at least not wrong) to kill another human who is an enemy combatant. A Moral Compass can argue that it is unequivocally wrong to racially discriminate, and if everyone agrees with that ethical truth, all is well within the body social. But what happens when circumstances are such that racial discrimination is practiced as an ethical truth (right)? For example, the Germans practiced eugenics in order to produce the Master Race. This practice of eugenics to create the Master Race was an extension of the theory of evolution that held that survival of the fittest justified the mass murder of Jews and others thought to be inferior races. If you are a Jew or another of a race that the Germans sought to eliminate, is it right to racially discriminate against Germans by killing Germans until the Germans stopped killing Jews? In this circumstance, a Moral Compass that unequivocally says racial discrimination is wrong would be an objective ethical guidance that lacks a subjective equilibrium, and as such, would be an impractical and deadly compass for a moral people. On balance, I believe that a Moral Compass is a greater problem than Relativism. I say this because the unequivocal right and wrong that a Moral Compass promotes can be misused for nefarious purposes by those in power and authority, and indeed has been misused throughout the history of mankind, i.e., right and wrong are only subjective metaphors that twist and turn with expediency rather than a real social construct that offers eternal moral guidance. Further, an unequivocal right or wrong relieves the individual of the necessity of subjectively deciding what is right or wrong within a civil society and thereby does not serve the cause of individual liberty. All of this cogitation about right and wrong is really about what is going on today in our country and society. I believe that to try to assign right or wrong, good or bad, etc., to the Bernie Madoffs, Flim Flam Politicians, greed, dishonesty, and on and on, offers no solution or true understanding of problems facing us today. That is to say it is the essence of democracy to judge, decide and vote on the basis of individual liberty and justice and not on a notion of right or wrong. In so doing, correct decisions and judgments will be rendered and collective society will be served.
Right and wrong, good and evil, just and unjust, fair and unfair, biased and unbiased; these are just a few of the arguments that each of us try to resolve on a daily basis as we make necessary personal decisions about what to do, how to do it, and react and adjust to circumstances beyond our personal control. The problem is, of course, each of us makes a subjective judgment about what is right or wrong within our particular circumstances based on our personal experiences, education, social pressure, state of comfort or discomfort, ad infinitum, and these differences in personal circumstances leads each of us to have a different opinion of what is, right or wrong. This leads us to the notion of Relativism that argues that ethical truths (right and wrong) in society depends upon the individuals and groups holding them (ethical truths) versus a steady Moral Compass that argues that ethical truths (right and wrong) in society are an unequivocal moral standard that is indifferent to subjective circumstances. Here is the problem with these two notions. Relativism can justify any social behavior and a Moral Compass cannot allow for changing circumstances. For example, racial discrimination against white people is allowable today in order to balance out the past racial discrimination against black people, i.e., relativism argues it’s Right to racially discriminate against white people in order to correct the Wrong of past racial discrimination against black people. As you can see, it’s no longer the unequivocal notion that racial discrimination is always wrong regardless of when, were or whom, it’s relative to the circumstances of blacks being racially discriminated against in the past that makes it Right to racially discriminate against white people today. How about an even easier example of relativism? Within a civil society it is wrong to kill another human but relative to a time of war it is right (or at least not wrong) to kill another human who is an enemy combatant. A Moral Compass can argue that it is unequivocally wrong to racially discriminate, and if everyone agrees with that ethical truth, all is well within the body social. But what happens when circumstances are such that racial discrimination is practiced as an ethical truth (right)? For example, the Germans practiced eugenics in order to produce the Master Race. This practice of eugenics to create the Master Race was an extension of the theory of evolution that held that survival of the fittest justified the mass murder of Jews and others thought to be inferior races. If you are a Jew or another of a race that the Germans sought to eliminate, is it right to racially discriminate against Germans by killing Germans until the Germans stopped killing Jews? In this circumstance, a Moral Compass that unequivocally says racial discrimination is wrong would be an objective ethical guidance that lacks a subjective equilibrium, and as such, would be an impractical and deadly compass for a moral people. On balance, I believe that a Moral Compass is a greater problem than Relativism. I say this because the unequivocal right and wrong that a Moral Compass promotes can be misused for nefarious purposes by those in power and authority, and indeed has been misused throughout the history of mankind, i.e., right and wrong are only subjective metaphors that twist and turn with expediency rather than a real social construct that offers eternal moral guidance. Further, an unequivocal right or wrong relieves the individual of the necessity of subjectively deciding what is right or wrong within a civil society and thereby does not serve the cause of individual liberty. All of this cogitation about right and wrong is really about what is going on today in our country and society. I believe that to try to assign right or wrong, good or bad, etc., to the Bernie Madoffs, Flim Flam Politicians, greed, dishonesty, and on and on, offers no solution or true understanding of problems facing us today. That is to say it is the essence of democracy to judge, decide and vote on the basis of individual liberty and justice and not on a notion of right or wrong. In so doing, correct decisions and judgments will be rendered and collective society will be served.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Seadog Rhapsody
Seadog Rhapsody
The restrained movements of the boat on anchor and the first light of dawn beginning to filter through the forward hatch are combining to gently nudge consciousness into existence after a sound night’s sleep. There is something about sleeping on a boat that is securely anchored in a snug harbor, it promotes a restful sleep that can’t be had in a landlocked bed held firmly in place by gravity. Some have speculated that the gentle rocking of the boat at anchor mimics the gentle movements we experienced while warm and secure in our sweet mother’s womb and this is why sleeping on a boat is so restful. Some may find it hard to believe that a rough and ready sailor sleeping on an anchored boat could earn a lovely metaphor like being all warm and secure in your mother’s womb, but stranger things have happened, you know, like really smart people giving Bernie Madoff all of their money. Slowly your eyes begin to adjust to the brightening environment, and now fully awake, it’s time for the rituals of awaking to begin, you know, rubbing the sleep from your eyes, sloughing your tongue around a foul mouth that still has the telltale remains of last’s night feasting and drinking, stretching muscles back into shape, the pure pleasure of reaching down and scratching your, well, you know what I’m talking about here. It’s time to swing the legs out of the rack and onto the deck and test the old trusty lower limbs to see if they can still answer the call to walk about fully upright like a proper bipedal. Speaking of answering the call, you hurry to the head and find sweet relief after a full night of not once getting up to satisfy a more urgent than sweet relief. You slide open the main deck hatch and expose the morning sky and the fresh sea air. Sweet Jesus, that smells good. You stick your head up and look around to survey your surrounding and the sounds of seabirds begin to fill the air, especially the gulls. The gulls are laughing like a madman mocking the sane people. Off to the galley, fill the on- stove coffee percolator with water and coffee grounds, you know, the one that still has a small glass bulb on top so that you can watch the coffee get darker and darker until its “just right.” One of the last pure pleasures in life is smelling coffee brewing in an honest to God on-stove percolator that has really hot coffee bubbling up into that little glass bulb so that you can watch it, and watch it, and build up the anticipation of sipping your first cup of really hot steaming coffee. It is absolute nirvana to smell hot percolating coffee and fresh sea air all mixed in together. With the treasured hot cup of coffee clutched firmly in your hands, you enjoy the beginning of a new day while sitting in the cockpit of the boat and contently watching the world come alive after a hard day’s night. Well enough of the finer things in life, it’s time to ready the boat for some serious sailing east so that the Bahamas banks can be made at “Memory Rock” before the brand new day can turn into night again. Go below, secure everything that can become loose in high seas, secure the hatches, set the battery switch to “battery 1”, turn on all navigational instruments including the GPS, turn on VHF radio and set to the international hailing and emergency channel 16. Hurry back up topside, don life vest, place engine control to neutral, fire up the Yanmar diesel, check the exhaust to make sure the engine water pump is pumping cooling water out the exhaust port, check the charts for tides, verify a waxing tide by reading the current going by the boat, go forward and haul the “delta” and “danforth” anchors and be quick about it before the boat follows the current into some other boats at anchor. Hurry to the helm, engage the engine and head for the channel while avoiding boats at anchor and constantly reading depth because there are many places where you can run aground while navigating the harbor to the channel. Locate the green channel buoy and make way while keeping the green buoy to starboard and the red marker buoy to port. Now, very carefully make your way against the strong current out to sea between the red/green channel buoys and finally into blue water and good seas. It’s always very comforting to watch the water depth go from 6 to 7 feet and start dropping off to 10, then 50, and eventually to over 100 feet. The seas don’t become orderly until you can get into at least a 100-foot of water depth. Adjust the GPS to the proper chart and visit the NOAA weather channel on the VHF radio one last time to verify favorable weather, wind and wave. Confirm that a 10-15 knot wind is making headway from the southwest and set an initial compass course to 120° magnetic. Carefully observe the wind vane on top of the main mast and determine that you have a starboard wind that will allow a starboard reach. A beam reach is a very favorable point of sail and you will have it this day with seas running about 3 to 5 feet and a slowly building swell out of confused seas while still in the lee of the land. You should never cross the gulf steam with a north wind blowing because the gulf stream flows northward and a wind from the north will blow against the current and generate very bad waves that will increasingly become steep and treacherous. These kind of seas are the cause of many a boat to founder while trying to make way across the gulf stream when a spirited north wind is blowing. A direct course to Memory Rock is 99° magnetic but you must calculate the amount of drift northward the gulf stream current (4-6 knots) will have on the course of the boat, depending, of course, on the speed of the boat, i.e., the slower the boat, the more time in the gulf stream current and the more northward you will be taken instead of the east heading of the boat at 99° magnetic. So you will set a heading of 120° to allow for a northward drift and carefully monitor your GPS course in route to make the necessary corrections in order to arrive at memory rock at the end of the day instead of someplace where you don’t want to be. Having steadied the boat on a 120° heading, throttle back the engine enough to make head way straight into the wind and come starboard until the wind is straight onto the bow. Engage the autohelm to maintain the boat heading into the wind and carefully make your way on top deck to the mainmast to change the main sail furling ratchet from “ratchet” to “free” which will allow the main sail to be pulled from the furling inside the mainmast once the outhaul line is unblocked from the line clutch. Set the boomvang to 2 inches for a beam reach while at the mainmast in order to set the proper sail twist for a reach, and carefully make your way back to the helm in order to avoid falling into the sea. If you are the only one on the boat and you fall into the sea, you will become another unexplained missing at sea incident. Back at the helm, unblock the mainmast furling line from the line clutches and wrap the main sail outhaul line 3 wraps clockwise around the starboard winch, insert a winch handle and grind away on the winch until the mainsail is fully extended from the mainmast. Secure the mainsail outhaul line. Unsecure both the starboard and port headsail sheet lines and unsecure the headsail furling line. Because the wind is to starboard, the headsail will fill to port so wrap the port headsail sheet line three wraps around the port aft winch and while holding the headsail furling line with just enough pressure to make a firm wrap around the headsail furling hub, insert a winch handle into the port aft winch and grind away until the headsail (jib) is fully extended. Secure the jib sheet to the port aft winch and secure the furling line. Now disengage the engine by placing the throttle into the neutral position and pressing the engine “Stop” button to turnoff the engine. Place the engine throttle into the reverse position in order to stop the propeller from turning while the boat is underway which will cause a drag that will slow the boat speed through the water. Disengage the autohelm and bring the boat heading port back into a 120° heading and engage the autohelm to maintain a heading of 120°. Slowly ease the jib port sheet line until the headsail fills, and while watching the telltales on the jib sail, adjust the headsail point of entry into the wind until most of the telltales are streaming aft. Secure the port jib sheet line to the port aft winch. Locate the mainsail sheet line and wrap 3 turns clockwise around the starboard forward winch and while holding fast to the line, unblock the mainsail sheet line from the line clutch and slowly ease the mainsail port to take the wind. While watching the mainsail leach telltales, adjust the mainsail point of entry to the wind until the telltales are streaming aft. Secure the mainsail sheet line with the clutch block and remove the line from the winch. Locate the mainsail outhaul line and wrap 3 turns clockwise around the winch and while holding fast to the outhaul line unblock the line from the clutch block. Slowly ease the outhaul line until the draft of the mainsail is about 12 to 14 inches windward from the mainsail boom and secure the outhaul line with the clutch block. Disengage the auto helm and take control of the helm by taking manual control of the rudder. Keep adjusting sails until you can obtain maximum boat speed while balancing the helm. The boat is now taking a fine 15° list to port while making 5-6 knots on a starboard beam reach with a freshening wind blowing a fine mist of salt water that tastes great when you lick your lips. The boat is making a beautiful wake and cutting into the waves nicely as you make you way on a 120°heading. Surely God must be a sailor.
The restrained movements of the boat on anchor and the first light of dawn beginning to filter through the forward hatch are combining to gently nudge consciousness into existence after a sound night’s sleep. There is something about sleeping on a boat that is securely anchored in a snug harbor, it promotes a restful sleep that can’t be had in a landlocked bed held firmly in place by gravity. Some have speculated that the gentle rocking of the boat at anchor mimics the gentle movements we experienced while warm and secure in our sweet mother’s womb and this is why sleeping on a boat is so restful. Some may find it hard to believe that a rough and ready sailor sleeping on an anchored boat could earn a lovely metaphor like being all warm and secure in your mother’s womb, but stranger things have happened, you know, like really smart people giving Bernie Madoff all of their money. Slowly your eyes begin to adjust to the brightening environment, and now fully awake, it’s time for the rituals of awaking to begin, you know, rubbing the sleep from your eyes, sloughing your tongue around a foul mouth that still has the telltale remains of last’s night feasting and drinking, stretching muscles back into shape, the pure pleasure of reaching down and scratching your, well, you know what I’m talking about here. It’s time to swing the legs out of the rack and onto the deck and test the old trusty lower limbs to see if they can still answer the call to walk about fully upright like a proper bipedal. Speaking of answering the call, you hurry to the head and find sweet relief after a full night of not once getting up to satisfy a more urgent than sweet relief. You slide open the main deck hatch and expose the morning sky and the fresh sea air. Sweet Jesus, that smells good. You stick your head up and look around to survey your surrounding and the sounds of seabirds begin to fill the air, especially the gulls. The gulls are laughing like a madman mocking the sane people. Off to the galley, fill the on- stove coffee percolator with water and coffee grounds, you know, the one that still has a small glass bulb on top so that you can watch the coffee get darker and darker until its “just right.” One of the last pure pleasures in life is smelling coffee brewing in an honest to God on-stove percolator that has really hot coffee bubbling up into that little glass bulb so that you can watch it, and watch it, and build up the anticipation of sipping your first cup of really hot steaming coffee. It is absolute nirvana to smell hot percolating coffee and fresh sea air all mixed in together. With the treasured hot cup of coffee clutched firmly in your hands, you enjoy the beginning of a new day while sitting in the cockpit of the boat and contently watching the world come alive after a hard day’s night. Well enough of the finer things in life, it’s time to ready the boat for some serious sailing east so that the Bahamas banks can be made at “Memory Rock” before the brand new day can turn into night again. Go below, secure everything that can become loose in high seas, secure the hatches, set the battery switch to “battery 1”, turn on all navigational instruments including the GPS, turn on VHF radio and set to the international hailing and emergency channel 16. Hurry back up topside, don life vest, place engine control to neutral, fire up the Yanmar diesel, check the exhaust to make sure the engine water pump is pumping cooling water out the exhaust port, check the charts for tides, verify a waxing tide by reading the current going by the boat, go forward and haul the “delta” and “danforth” anchors and be quick about it before the boat follows the current into some other boats at anchor. Hurry to the helm, engage the engine and head for the channel while avoiding boats at anchor and constantly reading depth because there are many places where you can run aground while navigating the harbor to the channel. Locate the green channel buoy and make way while keeping the green buoy to starboard and the red marker buoy to port. Now, very carefully make your way against the strong current out to sea between the red/green channel buoys and finally into blue water and good seas. It’s always very comforting to watch the water depth go from 6 to 7 feet and start dropping off to 10, then 50, and eventually to over 100 feet. The seas don’t become orderly until you can get into at least a 100-foot of water depth. Adjust the GPS to the proper chart and visit the NOAA weather channel on the VHF radio one last time to verify favorable weather, wind and wave. Confirm that a 10-15 knot wind is making headway from the southwest and set an initial compass course to 120° magnetic. Carefully observe the wind vane on top of the main mast and determine that you have a starboard wind that will allow a starboard reach. A beam reach is a very favorable point of sail and you will have it this day with seas running about 3 to 5 feet and a slowly building swell out of confused seas while still in the lee of the land. You should never cross the gulf steam with a north wind blowing because the gulf stream flows northward and a wind from the north will blow against the current and generate very bad waves that will increasingly become steep and treacherous. These kind of seas are the cause of many a boat to founder while trying to make way across the gulf stream when a spirited north wind is blowing. A direct course to Memory Rock is 99° magnetic but you must calculate the amount of drift northward the gulf stream current (4-6 knots) will have on the course of the boat, depending, of course, on the speed of the boat, i.e., the slower the boat, the more time in the gulf stream current and the more northward you will be taken instead of the east heading of the boat at 99° magnetic. So you will set a heading of 120° to allow for a northward drift and carefully monitor your GPS course in route to make the necessary corrections in order to arrive at memory rock at the end of the day instead of someplace where you don’t want to be. Having steadied the boat on a 120° heading, throttle back the engine enough to make head way straight into the wind and come starboard until the wind is straight onto the bow. Engage the autohelm to maintain the boat heading into the wind and carefully make your way on top deck to the mainmast to change the main sail furling ratchet from “ratchet” to “free” which will allow the main sail to be pulled from the furling inside the mainmast once the outhaul line is unblocked from the line clutch. Set the boomvang to 2 inches for a beam reach while at the mainmast in order to set the proper sail twist for a reach, and carefully make your way back to the helm in order to avoid falling into the sea. If you are the only one on the boat and you fall into the sea, you will become another unexplained missing at sea incident. Back at the helm, unblock the mainmast furling line from the line clutches and wrap the main sail outhaul line 3 wraps clockwise around the starboard winch, insert a winch handle and grind away on the winch until the mainsail is fully extended from the mainmast. Secure the mainsail outhaul line. Unsecure both the starboard and port headsail sheet lines and unsecure the headsail furling line. Because the wind is to starboard, the headsail will fill to port so wrap the port headsail sheet line three wraps around the port aft winch and while holding the headsail furling line with just enough pressure to make a firm wrap around the headsail furling hub, insert a winch handle into the port aft winch and grind away until the headsail (jib) is fully extended. Secure the jib sheet to the port aft winch and secure the furling line. Now disengage the engine by placing the throttle into the neutral position and pressing the engine “Stop” button to turnoff the engine. Place the engine throttle into the reverse position in order to stop the propeller from turning while the boat is underway which will cause a drag that will slow the boat speed through the water. Disengage the autohelm and bring the boat heading port back into a 120° heading and engage the autohelm to maintain a heading of 120°. Slowly ease the jib port sheet line until the headsail fills, and while watching the telltales on the jib sail, adjust the headsail point of entry into the wind until most of the telltales are streaming aft. Secure the port jib sheet line to the port aft winch. Locate the mainsail sheet line and wrap 3 turns clockwise around the starboard forward winch and while holding fast to the line, unblock the mainsail sheet line from the line clutch and slowly ease the mainsail port to take the wind. While watching the mainsail leach telltales, adjust the mainsail point of entry to the wind until the telltales are streaming aft. Secure the mainsail sheet line with the clutch block and remove the line from the winch. Locate the mainsail outhaul line and wrap 3 turns clockwise around the winch and while holding fast to the outhaul line unblock the line from the clutch block. Slowly ease the outhaul line until the draft of the mainsail is about 12 to 14 inches windward from the mainsail boom and secure the outhaul line with the clutch block. Disengage the auto helm and take control of the helm by taking manual control of the rudder. Keep adjusting sails until you can obtain maximum boat speed while balancing the helm. The boat is now taking a fine 15° list to port while making 5-6 knots on a starboard beam reach with a freshening wind blowing a fine mist of salt water that tastes great when you lick your lips. The boat is making a beautiful wake and cutting into the waves nicely as you make you way on a 120°heading. Surely God must be a sailor.
Friday, June 19, 2009
President Barack Hussein Obama (BHO)
President Barack Hussein Obama
(BHO)
A Tiger would be more successful if it looked like a Labrador Retriever.
(BHO)
A Tiger would be more successful if it looked like a Labrador Retriever.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
In God We Trust, All Others Cash
In God We Trust,
All Others Cash
Most people believe when Jesus cleared the Temple of Money Changers it was because of the despicable business the Moneychangers were doing within the confines of the holy Temple. However, most scholars agree that the primary reason that the Moneychangers were tossed from the Temple was that they were causing such a ruckus doing business that it was impossible to do the church’s work. But, of course, there was more to this episode than simply eliminating noise and commotion because when Jesus cast the Moneychangers out he said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Why would Jesus say that the Moneychangers were turning the Temple into a house of thieves if the Moneychangers were only causing a disturbance? Well, it seems that the Moneychangers had a monopoly on creating a certain coin that was used by worshipers in the Temple and the Moneychangers used this monopoly to charge interest on the coin (money) they created and in so doing had become quite wealthy making money off of money. Wait a minute. Does this sound vaguely familiar? Of course it does because the United States Federal Reserve Banks, the United States Federal Reserve, AIG, Financial Institutions and endless others in today’s modern economies, does exactly the same thing, i.e., they create money and then charge interest on it when other people or entities use it. This begs the question; why did the charging of interest for the use of money motivate Jesus to call the Moneychangers thieves? The answer to this question is much easier than it would seem because throughout the history of civilization the charging of interest for the use of money was considered a grave sin and an abomination. Anyone who engaged in such a despicable business of making money off of money was shunned as being not worthy of any honorable standing in the community. I will leave it to each reader’s conjecture that perhaps this dishonorable practice of making money off of money is where a particular racial discrimination got its start and still exists throughout much of the world today because it was, in general, been only one race of people that thought it was not dishonorable to engage in the business of charging interest on the use of money. The fact that this race of people were nearly the exclusive practitioners of this business of making money off of money can go far in explaining how this age old scourge of discrimination got it’s start. Well that was then, and this is now. I will wager that most people consider the charging of interest for the use of money is only another way of making a profit and therefore this profit making is Capitalism in operation, i.e., if it’s Capitalism, then it cannot be a dishonorable thing to do nowadays as it was in days gone by. Well perhaps. I won’t bore you with a standard definition of Capitalism but basically one invests their real money into a privately or Corporate held business and that business then does business well enough to make a profit that is returned to the investors. The investor now has a capital gain in addition to the original capital invested and the investor can now use the capital gain to invest in new businesses, and viola, a vibrant economy. The profit earned from doing real business was earned by creating something of real value that the business sold, so therefore, the capital gain achieved is real money because was created by the real bussiness creating something of real value. You see, here’s the thing about making money off of money, it’s not a real business. You might turn a profit from making money off of money but in so doing, nothing was added to the economy because no real business was done to earn the profit and create real money. The money made off of money is not real money because nothing of value is the basis for the profit money. And it follows if the economy is awash in “not real” money, money will lose its value to the point where the economy will eventually fail. The only way an economy can continue that is constituted with “not real” money is for continuous inflation to occur and constant inflation is indeed the characteristic of the modern American economy. The political trick is to keep inflation as low as possible in order to continue the economy for as long as possible, but it will eventually fail for some future generation. This, of course, gets us to the subject of credit. Credit is the modern, new and improved, way of making money off of money, but the results are the same; the money made from extending credit is not real money and the economy will eventually fail. You can see first hand what credit can do when multiplied by “leveraging”, credit default swaps, and endless other ingenious ways of making money off of money but, of course, the money made is not real money and this “not real” money is what is causing the current financial crisis. Oh well, In God we trust, all others cash.
All Others Cash
Most people believe when Jesus cleared the Temple of Money Changers it was because of the despicable business the Moneychangers were doing within the confines of the holy Temple. However, most scholars agree that the primary reason that the Moneychangers were tossed from the Temple was that they were causing such a ruckus doing business that it was impossible to do the church’s work. But, of course, there was more to this episode than simply eliminating noise and commotion because when Jesus cast the Moneychangers out he said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Why would Jesus say that the Moneychangers were turning the Temple into a house of thieves if the Moneychangers were only causing a disturbance? Well, it seems that the Moneychangers had a monopoly on creating a certain coin that was used by worshipers in the Temple and the Moneychangers used this monopoly to charge interest on the coin (money) they created and in so doing had become quite wealthy making money off of money. Wait a minute. Does this sound vaguely familiar? Of course it does because the United States Federal Reserve Banks, the United States Federal Reserve, AIG, Financial Institutions and endless others in today’s modern economies, does exactly the same thing, i.e., they create money and then charge interest on it when other people or entities use it. This begs the question; why did the charging of interest for the use of money motivate Jesus to call the Moneychangers thieves? The answer to this question is much easier than it would seem because throughout the history of civilization the charging of interest for the use of money was considered a grave sin and an abomination. Anyone who engaged in such a despicable business of making money off of money was shunned as being not worthy of any honorable standing in the community. I will leave it to each reader’s conjecture that perhaps this dishonorable practice of making money off of money is where a particular racial discrimination got its start and still exists throughout much of the world today because it was, in general, been only one race of people that thought it was not dishonorable to engage in the business of charging interest on the use of money. The fact that this race of people were nearly the exclusive practitioners of this business of making money off of money can go far in explaining how this age old scourge of discrimination got it’s start. Well that was then, and this is now. I will wager that most people consider the charging of interest for the use of money is only another way of making a profit and therefore this profit making is Capitalism in operation, i.e., if it’s Capitalism, then it cannot be a dishonorable thing to do nowadays as it was in days gone by. Well perhaps. I won’t bore you with a standard definition of Capitalism but basically one invests their real money into a privately or Corporate held business and that business then does business well enough to make a profit that is returned to the investors. The investor now has a capital gain in addition to the original capital invested and the investor can now use the capital gain to invest in new businesses, and viola, a vibrant economy. The profit earned from doing real business was earned by creating something of real value that the business sold, so therefore, the capital gain achieved is real money because was created by the real bussiness creating something of real value. You see, here’s the thing about making money off of money, it’s not a real business. You might turn a profit from making money off of money but in so doing, nothing was added to the economy because no real business was done to earn the profit and create real money. The money made off of money is not real money because nothing of value is the basis for the profit money. And it follows if the economy is awash in “not real” money, money will lose its value to the point where the economy will eventually fail. The only way an economy can continue that is constituted with “not real” money is for continuous inflation to occur and constant inflation is indeed the characteristic of the modern American economy. The political trick is to keep inflation as low as possible in order to continue the economy for as long as possible, but it will eventually fail for some future generation. This, of course, gets us to the subject of credit. Credit is the modern, new and improved, way of making money off of money, but the results are the same; the money made from extending credit is not real money and the economy will eventually fail. You can see first hand what credit can do when multiplied by “leveraging”, credit default swaps, and endless other ingenious ways of making money off of money but, of course, the money made is not real money and this “not real” money is what is causing the current financial crisis. Oh well, In God we trust, all others cash.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Rust Never Sleeps & Weeds Don't Rest
Rust Never Sleeps &
Weeds Don't Rest
If you awoke soon enough from your nocturnal regimen this morning you might have been treated to the sight of Rosy-Fingered Dawn pulling herself up over the eastern sky while dragging Old Sol behind to begin lighting up the world. It’s a reassuring sight. So, while all warm and fuzzy in your queen size cocoon, you rub the sleep and crud from your rested eyes and turn to see if the world is still out there. Sure enough, Old Sol is beginning to light up the world so that the struggling masses can pursue labor’s rewards and assure lazy-butts still in bed that the world is also, still there, bathed anew in fresh light and ready to go. Some apprehension about what a new day might bring is very understandable because, after all, just before hitting the sheets, you were treated to your nightly ration of murder, mayhem, avarice, natural and man-made calamity, guesses about tomorrow’s weather, without which, you would find it impossible to function without such prior knowledge of impending climatic conditions, and all brought to you by your favorite and smiling Nightly Television News Team. Small wonder then that a rational person would greet a new day with some apprehension about what might be coming their way after bearing eyewitness to such routine calamitous television events. I guess one of the realizations that increasing age brings is that it’s wise not to get too excited about what’s going on around you because, quite frankly, there is very little you can do about it anyway so what’s the point in getting all riled up and becoming personally concerned? In other words, with gray hair and sagging butts comes the knowledge that rust never sleeps and weeds never rest. This is as it has always been and will always be. The only difference is today’s modern world inundates us with nonstop information that for the most part is about the decay (Rust) of human nobility and the uncivilized (Weeds) louts causing mayhem so that the beautiful and gracious is most often drowned out by the raucous clamor of information flow. This situation contributes to a general feeling of depression and can lead to drink and dour demeanors. How about some good news? I have tried the following two things and they have always worked without fail to brighten ones day and change a dour demeanor into a pleasant and comfortable disposition. Of course, you could always stay in bed all day and avoid all contact, but most of us are not quite ready for that situation yet so I encourage you to try my two remedies because they cost nothing and are quite effective. The first one is quite easy and only requires the use of a single finger to switch channels on the television whenever the news comes on and to never pick up your reading glasses to read a newspaper. I know, it sounds extreme, but turning off television news and never reading a newspaper really works and besides if something really important is going on you will know about it soon enough from friends and neighbors. I am almost embarrassed to disclose the second remedy because it will sound like one of those feel-good, up with people things. I have run this experiment many times and the results are always the same, so try it, you’ll like it. Whenever you are out walking about, always smile at the stranger you pass. Now don’t flash a great big smile, just a small smile acknowledging the person that you are passing and what will happen next will surprise you like it has surprised me every time. The person you smiled at will more than likely smile back at you, and in addition, most likely will say, “good morning” or some other pleasantry in return. Presto! Dour attitude destroyed and outlook much improved and the prospect for an agreeable and profitable day is now at your doorstep. We all know rust never sleeps and weeds don't rest but we really can do without the constant reminder of their nefarious activities that can change our precious life into a frightened drag. To hell with that.
Weeds Don't Rest
If you awoke soon enough from your nocturnal regimen this morning you might have been treated to the sight of Rosy-Fingered Dawn pulling herself up over the eastern sky while dragging Old Sol behind to begin lighting up the world. It’s a reassuring sight. So, while all warm and fuzzy in your queen size cocoon, you rub the sleep and crud from your rested eyes and turn to see if the world is still out there. Sure enough, Old Sol is beginning to light up the world so that the struggling masses can pursue labor’s rewards and assure lazy-butts still in bed that the world is also, still there, bathed anew in fresh light and ready to go. Some apprehension about what a new day might bring is very understandable because, after all, just before hitting the sheets, you were treated to your nightly ration of murder, mayhem, avarice, natural and man-made calamity, guesses about tomorrow’s weather, without which, you would find it impossible to function without such prior knowledge of impending climatic conditions, and all brought to you by your favorite and smiling Nightly Television News Team. Small wonder then that a rational person would greet a new day with some apprehension about what might be coming their way after bearing eyewitness to such routine calamitous television events. I guess one of the realizations that increasing age brings is that it’s wise not to get too excited about what’s going on around you because, quite frankly, there is very little you can do about it anyway so what’s the point in getting all riled up and becoming personally concerned? In other words, with gray hair and sagging butts comes the knowledge that rust never sleeps and weeds never rest. This is as it has always been and will always be. The only difference is today’s modern world inundates us with nonstop information that for the most part is about the decay (Rust) of human nobility and the uncivilized (Weeds) louts causing mayhem so that the beautiful and gracious is most often drowned out by the raucous clamor of information flow. This situation contributes to a general feeling of depression and can lead to drink and dour demeanors. How about some good news? I have tried the following two things and they have always worked without fail to brighten ones day and change a dour demeanor into a pleasant and comfortable disposition. Of course, you could always stay in bed all day and avoid all contact, but most of us are not quite ready for that situation yet so I encourage you to try my two remedies because they cost nothing and are quite effective. The first one is quite easy and only requires the use of a single finger to switch channels on the television whenever the news comes on and to never pick up your reading glasses to read a newspaper. I know, it sounds extreme, but turning off television news and never reading a newspaper really works and besides if something really important is going on you will know about it soon enough from friends and neighbors. I am almost embarrassed to disclose the second remedy because it will sound like one of those feel-good, up with people things. I have run this experiment many times and the results are always the same, so try it, you’ll like it. Whenever you are out walking about, always smile at the stranger you pass. Now don’t flash a great big smile, just a small smile acknowledging the person that you are passing and what will happen next will surprise you like it has surprised me every time. The person you smiled at will more than likely smile back at you, and in addition, most likely will say, “good morning” or some other pleasantry in return. Presto! Dour attitude destroyed and outlook much improved and the prospect for an agreeable and profitable day is now at your doorstep. We all know rust never sleeps and weeds don't rest but we really can do without the constant reminder of their nefarious activities that can change our precious life into a frightened drag. To hell with that.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
E Pluribus Unum
E Pluribus Unum
I would like to advance a thought on a subject that perhaps we haven’t given much purchase to as we look at what going on in our world today and try to make sense of it all. If we step back and try to list all of the things, from our perspective, that has been going wrong and identify all of the current and potential problems that our country has to face, the list would be as varied in number and subject as there are people making up the lists. This would be so because we all bring a different perspective to the table when we advance an opinion about what constitutes a right or wrong, or, what is a problem or not a problem. Having said all of that, it becomes obvious that personal perspective (e.g., a teenager view versus a senior citizen’s view) is the bottom-up method of constructing a society perspective about what is right or wrong, and, what is a problem or not a problem. For example: a Muslim society, Christian society, Secular society and a Spiritual society would each look and behave differently because each society is a composite of all the people that make-up those societies and each society in general would be reflective of the beliefs and values of the people in common. If you again step back, and look at what has just been said, I think we all would agree that what we are discussing here is the culture of a given society. The subject of culture is the subject I alluded to in the beginning of this discussion. For the record, let’s give Webster’s definition of the most pertinent meaning of culture from an Anthropology perspective, to wit: the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of humans beginnings and transmitted from one generation to another. It has always been an opinion of mine that culture is the single most important factor when trying to understand what is happening and why it is happening to us. Bearing in mind, of course, that culture is never static. Culture is dynamic and is always changing because it is made up of continuously changing people. I believe that culture is the only way of understanding what is going on in our society because most of what goes on is simply reflective of what our changing culture now believes and values. For example, rampant greed is understandable if the culture has changed from a spiritual society governed by beliefs in a higher order morality about honesty, fairness, truthfulness, etc., into a secular culture that is now governed by the notion that materialistic things are more important than spiritual things and therefore society has come to believe that “Greed is Good.” So condemning greed as the culprit that is ruining our country offers no way of correcting the offense of greed because greed is only a symptom of what a changing culture has spawned. The only way that greed can be brought to bay is a culture change from a Secular society that believes materialistic things are paramount into some different kind of society that comes to believe that materialistic things are not paramount and therefore, “Greed is Bad.” If we are to correct what we think is wrong and is a problem for our society then we must first understand what caused our culture to change in the first place. I will advance, for your consideration, four events I believe caused the greatest changes in our society that has in turn changed our culture and spawned so many of what many of our citizens think are our troubles and problems of today. Bear in mind that all of the citizens might not think that that our culture has changed for the worst, because after all, this is our new culture and this culture reflects the new values and beliefs of the majority. I believe the pace of change quickened in our culture as a result of the great depression and is the first of four great events that changed our culture the most. The great depression was the event that caused people to vow that they would never again deprive their families of the materialistic necessities of life and so began that transformation into a more materialistic society. The second great event that occurred was World War II. World War II facilitated the actual liberation of women by unshackling females from home and family and thereby into equal and full citizens. The actual equality of women that WWII facilitated began the transformation into a more liberal society. The third great event was the creation of civil rights by inclusion of civil rights into the Constitution. The civil rights codified into law and practice transformed guaranteed society rights into guaranteed individual rights and thus began the transformation of a homogeneous society into an individual and special interest society. The fourth, and I think the event of utmost importance, was society’s acceptance of the notion of diversity rather than the guiding principal of E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one). This event completed the transformation from a homogeneous and “melting pot” society that allowed for a unified culture into a discontinuous society with no unified culture at all. The notion of diversity has promoted the acceptance of subcultures (drug culture, race culture, science culture, this culture and that culture and has resulted in no viable culture at all. The point being that some of the things that facilitated the making of a great country, like basic honesty, truthfulness and fairness were products of a unified culture and these cultural traits made business easy and profitable, human relations civil, and in general, made for a just and fair society without the necessity of endless laws and courts to enforce what was willing enabled by the force of culture. Finally, the current fractured culture we now have will continue to change as events dictate and the troubles and problems attendant to our current situation will remain unresolved because they are a product of our culture. However, there are a large number of people, particularly the young, who believe in the culture we now have and nothing short of a great event will change things in a meaningful way regardless of how some of the citizens think. But never ever forget, it is now and forever, The Culture.
I would like to advance a thought on a subject that perhaps we haven’t given much purchase to as we look at what going on in our world today and try to make sense of it all. If we step back and try to list all of the things, from our perspective, that has been going wrong and identify all of the current and potential problems that our country has to face, the list would be as varied in number and subject as there are people making up the lists. This would be so because we all bring a different perspective to the table when we advance an opinion about what constitutes a right or wrong, or, what is a problem or not a problem. Having said all of that, it becomes obvious that personal perspective (e.g., a teenager view versus a senior citizen’s view) is the bottom-up method of constructing a society perspective about what is right or wrong, and, what is a problem or not a problem. For example: a Muslim society, Christian society, Secular society and a Spiritual society would each look and behave differently because each society is a composite of all the people that make-up those societies and each society in general would be reflective of the beliefs and values of the people in common. If you again step back, and look at what has just been said, I think we all would agree that what we are discussing here is the culture of a given society. The subject of culture is the subject I alluded to in the beginning of this discussion. For the record, let’s give Webster’s definition of the most pertinent meaning of culture from an Anthropology perspective, to wit: the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of humans beginnings and transmitted from one generation to another. It has always been an opinion of mine that culture is the single most important factor when trying to understand what is happening and why it is happening to us. Bearing in mind, of course, that culture is never static. Culture is dynamic and is always changing because it is made up of continuously changing people. I believe that culture is the only way of understanding what is going on in our society because most of what goes on is simply reflective of what our changing culture now believes and values. For example, rampant greed is understandable if the culture has changed from a spiritual society governed by beliefs in a higher order morality about honesty, fairness, truthfulness, etc., into a secular culture that is now governed by the notion that materialistic things are more important than spiritual things and therefore society has come to believe that “Greed is Good.” So condemning greed as the culprit that is ruining our country offers no way of correcting the offense of greed because greed is only a symptom of what a changing culture has spawned. The only way that greed can be brought to bay is a culture change from a Secular society that believes materialistic things are paramount into some different kind of society that comes to believe that materialistic things are not paramount and therefore, “Greed is Bad.” If we are to correct what we think is wrong and is a problem for our society then we must first understand what caused our culture to change in the first place. I will advance, for your consideration, four events I believe caused the greatest changes in our society that has in turn changed our culture and spawned so many of what many of our citizens think are our troubles and problems of today. Bear in mind that all of the citizens might not think that that our culture has changed for the worst, because after all, this is our new culture and this culture reflects the new values and beliefs of the majority. I believe the pace of change quickened in our culture as a result of the great depression and is the first of four great events that changed our culture the most. The great depression was the event that caused people to vow that they would never again deprive their families of the materialistic necessities of life and so began that transformation into a more materialistic society. The second great event that occurred was World War II. World War II facilitated the actual liberation of women by unshackling females from home and family and thereby into equal and full citizens. The actual equality of women that WWII facilitated began the transformation into a more liberal society. The third great event was the creation of civil rights by inclusion of civil rights into the Constitution. The civil rights codified into law and practice transformed guaranteed society rights into guaranteed individual rights and thus began the transformation of a homogeneous society into an individual and special interest society. The fourth, and I think the event of utmost importance, was society’s acceptance of the notion of diversity rather than the guiding principal of E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one). This event completed the transformation from a homogeneous and “melting pot” society that allowed for a unified culture into a discontinuous society with no unified culture at all. The notion of diversity has promoted the acceptance of subcultures (drug culture, race culture, science culture, this culture and that culture and has resulted in no viable culture at all. The point being that some of the things that facilitated the making of a great country, like basic honesty, truthfulness and fairness were products of a unified culture and these cultural traits made business easy and profitable, human relations civil, and in general, made for a just and fair society without the necessity of endless laws and courts to enforce what was willing enabled by the force of culture. Finally, the current fractured culture we now have will continue to change as events dictate and the troubles and problems attendant to our current situation will remain unresolved because they are a product of our culture. However, there are a large number of people, particularly the young, who believe in the culture we now have and nothing short of a great event will change things in a meaningful way regardless of how some of the citizens think. But never ever forget, it is now and forever, The Culture.
Friday, May 29, 2009
God and Guns
God and Guns
Do you remember back in April 2008 when the Presidential Candidate, Barack Hussein Obama (BHO) confided to his urbane buddies in California about the small town residents in Pennsylvania? Here is the quote, “It’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant, or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations.” I think most people took his remarks as an anti-gun statement as well as confirmation of an elitist attitude. My take on the quote was that it reminded me of an old time aristocratic English explorer sitting comfortably in a massive leather chair within the privileged confines of an exclusive Explorer’s Club, and while sipping gin with the other fellow aristocrats, explained the social workings of a primitive tribe he had discovered while exploring some far-off land. I say that because the quote certainly has an “us and them” quality about it, you know, he did not describe the small town Pennsylvanians as “my fellow Americans”, he instead described “them” in an antiseptic and diagnostic manner. But I digress. Well regardless of my take on the quote, most people took the remark as an anti-gun statement and of course any political statement about guns brings us at once to the Bill of Rights and the second amendment of the Constitution, to wit, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Please indulge me now. I ask you to carefully reread the amendment and do not fixate on the right to keep and bear Arms. My point being that the second amendment is not about the right to keep and bear Arms, it is instead about the right of the free people of this country to form and maintain a Militia. I think the argument about the second amendment has been purposely transformed from one of the people’s right to form and maintain a Militia to one about the right to keep and bear Arms. In other words, how can you have a Militia if the citizens do not have a right to keep and bear Arms? Think about it. A Militia is an ad hoc formation of citizens (not a professional standing army) that relies on the necessity of a citizen to be armed in order for the Militia to be able to viably respond to threats to community or freedom. The political Gun control people are really concerned about the right of the citizens to form and maintain a Militia and if they can criminalize the keeping and bearing of arms, then the people cannot have a viable Militia. And when you think about it, the right to keep and bear Arms must mean Arms equal to that of the Government or again, a Militia cannot be viable. For example, if it was finally decided that citizens could be armed but the authorized weapon could not exceed a 22 caliber single shot pistol, then you have effectively disarmed the Militia. Additionally, arguments about assault rifles, machine guns, etc., is really only another way for the Federal Government to effectively usurp the right to form and maintain a viable citizen Militia by limiting the type of Arms they (the citizens) can keep and bear. Further arguments about the ability to hunt and personal protection, while worthy arguments, are not at all germane to the Militia right. And please, don’t buy into the baloney that the National Guard is the Militia. The National Guard is indeed National and an official and Federal Government funded auxiliary arm of the standing United States Army, not a citizen Militia. My previous piece, “The War of 1787” stated that the anti-federalists insisted on the bill of rights as a protection from a strong central Government’s ability to usurp the individual rights of citizens and the second amendment attests to the importance of the amendment concerning citizen Militias and the maintenance of a free state to ensure those freedoms. Why did the founding fathers attach so much importance to the right of citizens to form and maintain a Militia? As usual, the Federalist Papers is the reference the founding fathers promulgated to explain the language of the Constitution and one can find discussions about Militias in Federalist Papers numbers 24, 26, 28, 29, 47,53, 56 and 69. Of these, Federalist Paper number 47 by Madison is the most illuminating of all. I quote from that paper, “Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.” It really never occurred to the founding fathers that a free people could ever be denied the means of procuring and maintaining their freedoms when the laws of the Republic failed to do so because free people have an inherent right as free people to be fully armed in order to form and maintain militias to ensure their freedoms. The second amendment was expressly crafted to ensure the people had the armed means to resist a usurping Federal Government bent on complete authority over the people, to wit, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state.” If anyone feels that armed militias have no place in a modern society, then by all means take your case to the people and obtain the consent of the people to amend the Constitution accordingly.
Do you remember back in April 2008 when the Presidential Candidate, Barack Hussein Obama (BHO) confided to his urbane buddies in California about the small town residents in Pennsylvania? Here is the quote, “It’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant, or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations.” I think most people took his remarks as an anti-gun statement as well as confirmation of an elitist attitude. My take on the quote was that it reminded me of an old time aristocratic English explorer sitting comfortably in a massive leather chair within the privileged confines of an exclusive Explorer’s Club, and while sipping gin with the other fellow aristocrats, explained the social workings of a primitive tribe he had discovered while exploring some far-off land. I say that because the quote certainly has an “us and them” quality about it, you know, he did not describe the small town Pennsylvanians as “my fellow Americans”, he instead described “them” in an antiseptic and diagnostic manner. But I digress. Well regardless of my take on the quote, most people took the remark as an anti-gun statement and of course any political statement about guns brings us at once to the Bill of Rights and the second amendment of the Constitution, to wit, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Please indulge me now. I ask you to carefully reread the amendment and do not fixate on the right to keep and bear Arms. My point being that the second amendment is not about the right to keep and bear Arms, it is instead about the right of the free people of this country to form and maintain a Militia. I think the argument about the second amendment has been purposely transformed from one of the people’s right to form and maintain a Militia to one about the right to keep and bear Arms. In other words, how can you have a Militia if the citizens do not have a right to keep and bear Arms? Think about it. A Militia is an ad hoc formation of citizens (not a professional standing army) that relies on the necessity of a citizen to be armed in order for the Militia to be able to viably respond to threats to community or freedom. The political Gun control people are really concerned about the right of the citizens to form and maintain a Militia and if they can criminalize the keeping and bearing of arms, then the people cannot have a viable Militia. And when you think about it, the right to keep and bear Arms must mean Arms equal to that of the Government or again, a Militia cannot be viable. For example, if it was finally decided that citizens could be armed but the authorized weapon could not exceed a 22 caliber single shot pistol, then you have effectively disarmed the Militia. Additionally, arguments about assault rifles, machine guns, etc., is really only another way for the Federal Government to effectively usurp the right to form and maintain a viable citizen Militia by limiting the type of Arms they (the citizens) can keep and bear. Further arguments about the ability to hunt and personal protection, while worthy arguments, are not at all germane to the Militia right. And please, don’t buy into the baloney that the National Guard is the Militia. The National Guard is indeed National and an official and Federal Government funded auxiliary arm of the standing United States Army, not a citizen Militia. My previous piece, “The War of 1787” stated that the anti-federalists insisted on the bill of rights as a protection from a strong central Government’s ability to usurp the individual rights of citizens and the second amendment attests to the importance of the amendment concerning citizen Militias and the maintenance of a free state to ensure those freedoms. Why did the founding fathers attach so much importance to the right of citizens to form and maintain a Militia? As usual, the Federalist Papers is the reference the founding fathers promulgated to explain the language of the Constitution and one can find discussions about Militias in Federalist Papers numbers 24, 26, 28, 29, 47,53, 56 and 69. Of these, Federalist Paper number 47 by Madison is the most illuminating of all. I quote from that paper, “Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of.” It really never occurred to the founding fathers that a free people could ever be denied the means of procuring and maintaining their freedoms when the laws of the Republic failed to do so because free people have an inherent right as free people to be fully armed in order to form and maintain militias to ensure their freedoms. The second amendment was expressly crafted to ensure the people had the armed means to resist a usurping Federal Government bent on complete authority over the people, to wit, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state.” If anyone feels that armed militias have no place in a modern society, then by all means take your case to the people and obtain the consent of the people to amend the Constitution accordingly.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Political Parties
Political Parties
Has this ever happened to you? One day you look at something that has always been a part of your world and suddenly you discover, hey, why I am still using this? For example, a short time ago I looked at my landline telephone and then at my cell phone and said; why do I have my old telephone hanging on the wall when I have a personal telephone in my pocket? All I ever get from the old telephone is unsolicited calls from the FOP and roofing contractors, so why am I still paying for this thing? So I discontinued the telephone service that has been a part of my life for over #?X!** years and I have not missed the old ring-a-ding thing at all. There are a number of other things like the telephone that could be used to make the point, but I think we all understand that we make similar changes every day as circumstances allow and dictate. The point being that time marches on and technology, modern circumstances, personal preferences, etc., all play a role in changing what we need in the modern world to either get along or make life easier. After I wrote the previous piece, “The Decline and Fall of the GOP”, I suddenly thought, who needs political parties in this day and age anyway? Think about it. What is the purpose of a political party in a Democratic Republic? Perhaps in the old days a political party could provide a needed service to the electorate by distilling a political philosophy into every day terms that could be more readily understood by the people. The party could then promote a doctrine that reflected the stated political philosophy and take positions that a citizen could either support or oppose. Well that was then and this is now and the fact is that people nowadays have much more educational opportunities than was available in the good old days and we all should be wiser about all things political as a result. Also, in the good old days, communications was either by word-of-mouth or newspapers, but today we are completely overwhelmed by information coming in from every direction, constantly. So there is no reason on this beautiful blue planet why anyone should not be informed as to what is going on in the world and this knowledge should provide us with all of the wherewithal required to make informed judgments and vote accordingly. So why do we still need political parties telling us what they want us to hear? As a matter of fact, the two party system now entrenched in our political system is more interested in providing misinformation and spin in order to stay in power rather than actually providing an objective political service to the electorate. What the hell, we might as well call a rose a rose; the ruling political parties are corrupt and you cannot believe one word they say. So I say; we don’t need no stinking political parties anymore, let them go the way of the telephone! Let’s all become Independents and trust our own judgments rather than let the self-serving political parties lead us to where they want us to go. Enabling technologies and modern times provides us all with the means to be completely independent, and for goodness sakes, now is the time to do so. This is something we can actually do, and by so doing, it (become Independents) could well be the first meaningful step by the people to take back control of our country. Think about it. I can’t imagine a more freedom-enhancing situation than having a completely Independent electorate guiding the country.
Has this ever happened to you? One day you look at something that has always been a part of your world and suddenly you discover, hey, why I am still using this? For example, a short time ago I looked at my landline telephone and then at my cell phone and said; why do I have my old telephone hanging on the wall when I have a personal telephone in my pocket? All I ever get from the old telephone is unsolicited calls from the FOP and roofing contractors, so why am I still paying for this thing? So I discontinued the telephone service that has been a part of my life for over #?X!** years and I have not missed the old ring-a-ding thing at all. There are a number of other things like the telephone that could be used to make the point, but I think we all understand that we make similar changes every day as circumstances allow and dictate. The point being that time marches on and technology, modern circumstances, personal preferences, etc., all play a role in changing what we need in the modern world to either get along or make life easier. After I wrote the previous piece, “The Decline and Fall of the GOP”, I suddenly thought, who needs political parties in this day and age anyway? Think about it. What is the purpose of a political party in a Democratic Republic? Perhaps in the old days a political party could provide a needed service to the electorate by distilling a political philosophy into every day terms that could be more readily understood by the people. The party could then promote a doctrine that reflected the stated political philosophy and take positions that a citizen could either support or oppose. Well that was then and this is now and the fact is that people nowadays have much more educational opportunities than was available in the good old days and we all should be wiser about all things political as a result. Also, in the good old days, communications was either by word-of-mouth or newspapers, but today we are completely overwhelmed by information coming in from every direction, constantly. So there is no reason on this beautiful blue planet why anyone should not be informed as to what is going on in the world and this knowledge should provide us with all of the wherewithal required to make informed judgments and vote accordingly. So why do we still need political parties telling us what they want us to hear? As a matter of fact, the two party system now entrenched in our political system is more interested in providing misinformation and spin in order to stay in power rather than actually providing an objective political service to the electorate. What the hell, we might as well call a rose a rose; the ruling political parties are corrupt and you cannot believe one word they say. So I say; we don’t need no stinking political parties anymore, let them go the way of the telephone! Let’s all become Independents and trust our own judgments rather than let the self-serving political parties lead us to where they want us to go. Enabling technologies and modern times provides us all with the means to be completely independent, and for goodness sakes, now is the time to do so. This is something we can actually do, and by so doing, it (become Independents) could well be the first meaningful step by the people to take back control of our country. Think about it. I can’t imagine a more freedom-enhancing situation than having a completely Independent electorate guiding the country.
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Decline and Fall of the GOP
The Decline and Fall of the GOP
Times They Are A-Changin’ (Bob Dylan). Well of course times are a-changin’, nothing in this universe is ever static and the fact that the affairs of mice and men are still a-changin’ in our time is just as inevitable as death, taxes and Oprah giving advice to the eager. Listening to Colin Powell, Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Tom Ridge, John McCain and others mix it up over the future of the Republican Party (GOP) is about as boring as watching paint peel and listening to rusty wheels squeak, but as often is the case, the boring stuff can be the most important stuff in the grand scheme of things. Squeaking wheels and peeling paint aside, the mutterings of the aforementioned could well be the death rattle of the Grand Old Party and the possible demise of this very important force in American Body Politic should be the cause for serious introspection by the body citizenry. Let us not forget that the Republican Party grew into a National political force from the ashes of the Whigs when the Whigs as a national political party could not agree to support or oppose slavery, and as a result, fractured into obscurity as a national political force. Notable people, such as Abraham Lincoln, switched to the Republican Party from the Whigs because the Republican Party opposed slavery while the Whigs that supported slavery switched to the Democratic Party and aligned themselves with the southern political contingent. Rank and file Whigs that opposed slavery switched to the Republican Party and became aligned with the northern political contingent. And so the stage for the great Civil war was set, rather boring stuff, huh? For the life of me, I can never understand the bloc support by the Black Community for the Democratic Party when it was the Republican Party, and not the Democratic Party, that supported the abolition of slavery, and indeed, as late as 1964, it was the Republicans that provided the support needed to pass the Civil Rights act when the Dixiecrats (southern Democrats) as well as other Democrats opposed the passage of the Civil Rights Act. But I digress. When discussing the decline and fall of important social entities, like the GOP, people often return to the seminal work of Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776) to make sense of it all. I too returned to that work and found what I was looking for and I will quote the passage of interest: “The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principal of decay;” This quote about ancient Rome suffering from the effects of “Immoderate Greatness” could certainly apply to the GOP and indeed the USA as our power and influence on the world stage has been without peer and our immoderate greatness propelled a prosperity that was the envy of all. But alas, “Prosperity ripened the principal of decay”, describes the great engine of social change because decay always follows closely on the heels of unbridled success. Few could argue that decay has not set in where prosperity once ruled the day, not only for the GOP, but for the USA as well. Lets look at the GOP and the total success it enjoyed when it inherited a balanced budget and surpluses “as far as the eye can see” from President Bill Clinton in the year 2000. Not only did the GOP inherit a sound economy (for the moment), the GOP gained a massive political advantage granted by an electorate that had grown weary of silly peccadilloes and the secret dealings of a cult Government. What did the GOP do with its “Immoderate Greatness”? It totally focused on the maintenance of personal as well as party political power and spent the country into ruin while propelling us deeper into a bigger and bigger socialist style Government of entitlements and rights. The prosperity that can ruin a country can also decay a Political Party into obscurity as quickly as it can ruin an individual indulging in excess. The sound economy for the moment that the GOP inherited from President Bill Clinton was in reality a ticking time-bomb because the GOP as well as the Dems had a hand in passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) act in 1999 that repealed part of the 1933 Glass-Steagall act. The passage of the GLB act set the stage for the financial disaster that has befallen us today by, in general, virtually eliminating regulation of lending and banking and that lack of prudent regulation allowed greed to take flight and ruin citizen and countries alike. Another insight can be gained about the effect of the GLB act on our current financial disaster from the historians Arnold Toynbee and James Burke. Toynbee and Burke argue that ancient Rome was doomed from the start because its economy was basically a “Raubwirtschaft” or plunder economy based on looting existing resources rather than producing anything new. When GLB was passed, it accelerated our decent into a consuming economy fueled by making money off of money. Making money off of money is the new and improved modern way of managing a plunder economy that simply loots existing resources gained from things of real value and multiplies (substitute the modern financial term of leveraging here) the real value into an inflated value that cannot sustain a real economy. In short, our modern 70% consumer economy is based on plunder looted from existing resources and was enabled by passage of the GLB act that the GOP and Dems can both take credit for. But again, I digress. I believe the GOP is doomed and I say, good riddance. All in all, what a dumb and stupid end for the Grand Old Party that rose into prominence by championing the abolishment of the scourge of slavery. I hope one day soon to say that the Democratic Party is also doomed and we all can say, good riddance. With each passing day, more and more citizens are finally waking up to the fact that a periodic revolution at the ballot box is no longer possible with the corrupt entrenched two-party system that we now have. Realizing this situation is accelerating the identification of being an Independent rather than Republican or Democrat and we can only hope our enlightened youth will step into the void with some new leadership some day soon.
Times They Are A-Changin’ (Bob Dylan). Well of course times are a-changin’, nothing in this universe is ever static and the fact that the affairs of mice and men are still a-changin’ in our time is just as inevitable as death, taxes and Oprah giving advice to the eager. Listening to Colin Powell, Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Tom Ridge, John McCain and others mix it up over the future of the Republican Party (GOP) is about as boring as watching paint peel and listening to rusty wheels squeak, but as often is the case, the boring stuff can be the most important stuff in the grand scheme of things. Squeaking wheels and peeling paint aside, the mutterings of the aforementioned could well be the death rattle of the Grand Old Party and the possible demise of this very important force in American Body Politic should be the cause for serious introspection by the body citizenry. Let us not forget that the Republican Party grew into a National political force from the ashes of the Whigs when the Whigs as a national political party could not agree to support or oppose slavery, and as a result, fractured into obscurity as a national political force. Notable people, such as Abraham Lincoln, switched to the Republican Party from the Whigs because the Republican Party opposed slavery while the Whigs that supported slavery switched to the Democratic Party and aligned themselves with the southern political contingent. Rank and file Whigs that opposed slavery switched to the Republican Party and became aligned with the northern political contingent. And so the stage for the great Civil war was set, rather boring stuff, huh? For the life of me, I can never understand the bloc support by the Black Community for the Democratic Party when it was the Republican Party, and not the Democratic Party, that supported the abolition of slavery, and indeed, as late as 1964, it was the Republicans that provided the support needed to pass the Civil Rights act when the Dixiecrats (southern Democrats) as well as other Democrats opposed the passage of the Civil Rights Act. But I digress. When discussing the decline and fall of important social entities, like the GOP, people often return to the seminal work of Edward Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776) to make sense of it all. I too returned to that work and found what I was looking for and I will quote the passage of interest: “The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principal of decay;” This quote about ancient Rome suffering from the effects of “Immoderate Greatness” could certainly apply to the GOP and indeed the USA as our power and influence on the world stage has been without peer and our immoderate greatness propelled a prosperity that was the envy of all. But alas, “Prosperity ripened the principal of decay”, describes the great engine of social change because decay always follows closely on the heels of unbridled success. Few could argue that decay has not set in where prosperity once ruled the day, not only for the GOP, but for the USA as well. Lets look at the GOP and the total success it enjoyed when it inherited a balanced budget and surpluses “as far as the eye can see” from President Bill Clinton in the year 2000. Not only did the GOP inherit a sound economy (for the moment), the GOP gained a massive political advantage granted by an electorate that had grown weary of silly peccadilloes and the secret dealings of a cult Government. What did the GOP do with its “Immoderate Greatness”? It totally focused on the maintenance of personal as well as party political power and spent the country into ruin while propelling us deeper into a bigger and bigger socialist style Government of entitlements and rights. The prosperity that can ruin a country can also decay a Political Party into obscurity as quickly as it can ruin an individual indulging in excess. The sound economy for the moment that the GOP inherited from President Bill Clinton was in reality a ticking time-bomb because the GOP as well as the Dems had a hand in passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) act in 1999 that repealed part of the 1933 Glass-Steagall act. The passage of the GLB act set the stage for the financial disaster that has befallen us today by, in general, virtually eliminating regulation of lending and banking and that lack of prudent regulation allowed greed to take flight and ruin citizen and countries alike. Another insight can be gained about the effect of the GLB act on our current financial disaster from the historians Arnold Toynbee and James Burke. Toynbee and Burke argue that ancient Rome was doomed from the start because its economy was basically a “Raubwirtschaft” or plunder economy based on looting existing resources rather than producing anything new. When GLB was passed, it accelerated our decent into a consuming economy fueled by making money off of money. Making money off of money is the new and improved modern way of managing a plunder economy that simply loots existing resources gained from things of real value and multiplies (substitute the modern financial term of leveraging here) the real value into an inflated value that cannot sustain a real economy. In short, our modern 70% consumer economy is based on plunder looted from existing resources and was enabled by passage of the GLB act that the GOP and Dems can both take credit for. But again, I digress. I believe the GOP is doomed and I say, good riddance. All in all, what a dumb and stupid end for the Grand Old Party that rose into prominence by championing the abolishment of the scourge of slavery. I hope one day soon to say that the Democratic Party is also doomed and we all can say, good riddance. With each passing day, more and more citizens are finally waking up to the fact that a periodic revolution at the ballot box is no longer possible with the corrupt entrenched two-party system that we now have. Realizing this situation is accelerating the identification of being an Independent rather than Republican or Democrat and we can only hope our enlightened youth will step into the void with some new leadership some day soon.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Rock In Tree
Rock In Tree
Lets say that your television set crapped out, and in desperation for something else to do, you meandered down to Brown County Indiana. Further, after stopping at the Dairy Queen for a “Death by Chocolate” blizzard, a local yokel directed you towards the very small town of Needmore Indiana (wouldn’t you just love to find out how the town of Needmore Indiana got it’s name?), because, he said, there was evidence that aliens from outer space had visited the area and proof of the outer space visit could be found in the Yellowwood State Forest. Well now, vegetating in front of a TV is one thing, but looking at a potential full-scale adventure is quite another, and so with eager anticipation radiating from your gullible big-city face, you ask the knowledgeable Hoosier for directions to where you could find the evidence for the out-of-this-world event. After much arm waving about this crook in the road and that turn-off next to the scum-covered pond, and, oh by the way, what out for ticks (don’t wear white clothing) you are directed to a country gravel road in the middle of no place, where, no doubt, the Owls make love to the Chickens in the dark of night. And so fortified with an ice-cold brewski, you put on your hiking boots and prepare to hike to a most unusual place, a place where few have even heard about and fewer still have even bothered to go. If you have a GPS, you’re in luck. Punch in the following coordinates, 39°, 12.204 North and 086°, 21.995 West. Take your time in getting to the GPS point because the forest is about the way it was before there was even a people called Hoosiers milling about in the area and so there is much to see as you walk in the privileged area. Perhaps you will notice that the flora and critters haven’t changed all that much since the time when the last continental Glacier ground to a halt on this very spot and before the stout Hoosiers began to chop down the old growth trees in an attempt to eke out a living in these parts. If you would have gotten to the designated GPS coordinates a couple of years ago, you would have found a mighty 80 foot Oak tree on the banks of Plum Creek (or Plum Crick as the indigenous folk call it), and if you looked up, you would have seen a 400 pound boulder wedged in a branch fork about 30 feet up. No doubt you have noticed that I mentioned that if you would have gotten to this place a couple of years ago, you would have seen what is pictured above, because a mighty storm racked the area a awhile back and felled the once mighty and storied tree with the terrestrial interloper still locked in it’s branches. The tree fell with the pictured stone still firmly wedged in its fork and it now lies on the forest floor instead of reaching for the sky with its strange burden trying to pull it down. But wait, there’s more. There are a number of trees that are still standing around in the same area that have big rocks in their branches. Here are the GPS coordinates for two more of them: N39, 14.986, W086, 18.492 and N39, 14.984, W086, 18.560. I have went to these places and seen the strange sight of boulders in the tree tops with my own eyes and have speculated, along with many others, as to how heavy rocks could find themselves, up in a tree. Many experts have speculated about how the rocks defied gravity and lodged themselves in the tops of trees, but in reality, no one knows. There are two prominent theories concerning this mystery and they are, (1) drunken IU students put the heavy stones in the trees by some unknown means and they did so because it seemed the thing to do at the time with the added benefit of confounding the local Hoosiers by doing so, (2) a UFO visited the area and put the stones up in the trees. I personally think that theory (1) is the most plausible theory because I have seen the many implausible and mysterious things that drunken IU students have done in the past. As far as the UFO theory, think about it. Why would a people smart enough to build space ships that can motor about the cosmos find it necessary to go to Needmore Indiana in order to place rocks in the tops of trees? Would they do so to confound Hoosiers? I think not, because there are many lesser things that confound Hoosiers, e.g., Hoosiers are still confounded about the change to daylight saving time, so placing heavy rocks up in the trees would not seem a worthy endeavor by an advanced race of greenies. But there is something else about these rocks in the trees. Rocks do not belong in the top of a tree; they belong on the ground with all of the other rocks. As I looked up at the trees this obvious truth became apparent because like the rocks stuck up in a tree, there are those among us that are also stuck in a place where we do not belong. Some call these out-of-place people Contrarians, because they always seem out of place with their contrary opinions and counter arguments. In these days and times, I feel more and more like a Rock in a Tree.
Lets say that your television set crapped out, and in desperation for something else to do, you meandered down to Brown County Indiana. Further, after stopping at the Dairy Queen for a “Death by Chocolate” blizzard, a local yokel directed you towards the very small town of Needmore Indiana (wouldn’t you just love to find out how the town of Needmore Indiana got it’s name?), because, he said, there was evidence that aliens from outer space had visited the area and proof of the outer space visit could be found in the Yellowwood State Forest. Well now, vegetating in front of a TV is one thing, but looking at a potential full-scale adventure is quite another, and so with eager anticipation radiating from your gullible big-city face, you ask the knowledgeable Hoosier for directions to where you could find the evidence for the out-of-this-world event. After much arm waving about this crook in the road and that turn-off next to the scum-covered pond, and, oh by the way, what out for ticks (don’t wear white clothing) you are directed to a country gravel road in the middle of no place, where, no doubt, the Owls make love to the Chickens in the dark of night. And so fortified with an ice-cold brewski, you put on your hiking boots and prepare to hike to a most unusual place, a place where few have even heard about and fewer still have even bothered to go. If you have a GPS, you’re in luck. Punch in the following coordinates, 39°, 12.204 North and 086°, 21.995 West. Take your time in getting to the GPS point because the forest is about the way it was before there was even a people called Hoosiers milling about in the area and so there is much to see as you walk in the privileged area. Perhaps you will notice that the flora and critters haven’t changed all that much since the time when the last continental Glacier ground to a halt on this very spot and before the stout Hoosiers began to chop down the old growth trees in an attempt to eke out a living in these parts. If you would have gotten to the designated GPS coordinates a couple of years ago, you would have found a mighty 80 foot Oak tree on the banks of Plum Creek (or Plum Crick as the indigenous folk call it), and if you looked up, you would have seen a 400 pound boulder wedged in a branch fork about 30 feet up. No doubt you have noticed that I mentioned that if you would have gotten to this place a couple of years ago, you would have seen what is pictured above, because a mighty storm racked the area a awhile back and felled the once mighty and storied tree with the terrestrial interloper still locked in it’s branches. The tree fell with the pictured stone still firmly wedged in its fork and it now lies on the forest floor instead of reaching for the sky with its strange burden trying to pull it down. But wait, there’s more. There are a number of trees that are still standing around in the same area that have big rocks in their branches. Here are the GPS coordinates for two more of them: N39, 14.986, W086, 18.492 and N39, 14.984, W086, 18.560. I have went to these places and seen the strange sight of boulders in the tree tops with my own eyes and have speculated, along with many others, as to how heavy rocks could find themselves, up in a tree. Many experts have speculated about how the rocks defied gravity and lodged themselves in the tops of trees, but in reality, no one knows. There are two prominent theories concerning this mystery and they are, (1) drunken IU students put the heavy stones in the trees by some unknown means and they did so because it seemed the thing to do at the time with the added benefit of confounding the local Hoosiers by doing so, (2) a UFO visited the area and put the stones up in the trees. I personally think that theory (1) is the most plausible theory because I have seen the many implausible and mysterious things that drunken IU students have done in the past. As far as the UFO theory, think about it. Why would a people smart enough to build space ships that can motor about the cosmos find it necessary to go to Needmore Indiana in order to place rocks in the tops of trees? Would they do so to confound Hoosiers? I think not, because there are many lesser things that confound Hoosiers, e.g., Hoosiers are still confounded about the change to daylight saving time, so placing heavy rocks up in the trees would not seem a worthy endeavor by an advanced race of greenies. But there is something else about these rocks in the trees. Rocks do not belong in the top of a tree; they belong on the ground with all of the other rocks. As I looked up at the trees this obvious truth became apparent because like the rocks stuck up in a tree, there are those among us that are also stuck in a place where we do not belong. Some call these out-of-place people Contrarians, because they always seem out of place with their contrary opinions and counter arguments. In these days and times, I feel more and more like a Rock in a Tree.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Reconstructing America
RECONSTRUCTING AMERICA
Think back to when you were, lets say, 20 years old. Come on now, put your feet up on the old La-Z-Boy recliner and let your mind meander back to the days when you were an indestructible know-it-all that had all of the answers to all of life’s vexing problems. Perhaps a strong libation or two would help the recall process along, notwithstanding that the tasty chemical depressant might even help dull the edge of age-related embellishment of the actual facts and sharpen the honesty of the recollection as well. Are you back to the glory years yet? Ok, don’t dwell on that fantastic red headed babe you almost got next to or the muscled-up incredibly suave and debonair hunk that danced with you at the sock-hop, focus instead on what you thought life had in store for you. You know, perhaps you would be an airline pilot, with all of the prestige of flying happy people to and fro on vacation or powerful people to incredibly important business meetings that relied on your fantastic cool flying skill to save the day. Or perhaps, you would become a world famous female Medical Doctor that due to your incredible knowledge and expertise would not only cure the sick and balm the hurt, you would pave the way to expand the horizons of all females of great character to reach beyond the glass ceiling and fulfill their complete potential. Of course, there is the possibility that you were one of those who didn’t have a clue as to what you would become down the line, but you should had at least some sort of fuzzy vision of where you thought life would eventually take you. So the moment of truth has arrived, now that you have gotten “further down the line”, did you end up where you thought would be after gravity has taken its toll and too many brewskis have made their indelible mark? I would be willing to wager General Motors Corporation’s future that where you are now is probably not where you thought or hoped you would be when the blush of youth was on your cheeks. On thing for sure, how you and I got to where we are was not the result of some incredibly complex conspiracy by unknown people or entities. Instead, our life’s journey was facilitated and enabled by our heredity, parental training, formal education, personality, culture, society and the countless decisions made by us and others that affected the course of our journey into geezerdom. I like to think that our country, America, is very much like a singular citizen because, after all, a country is little more than the sum of its collective people. So the journey of our country into maturity (as reflected by our evolving culture) is no doubt similar to that of a singular citizen making his or her way towards maturity, aided and abetted by life’s circumstance and happenstance, i.e., the country’s journey into maturity is not as a result of an incredibly complex conspiracy by unknown people or entities, it is the result of the same forces that enables and facilitates its least indivisible part. Suffice to say, where our country is now is probably not what the founding fathers envisioned and codified into the Constitution when the blush of youth was on our country as well. When our country was young and vigorous, our culture reflected our youth by being a personally responsible and self-reliant people that resulted in a “Can-do” society that could do anything it believed in. The Constitution was the country’s holy foundation that enabled our youthful sprit to soar and was not subject to interpretation by the shifting winds of whim or fancy that has so transformed the holy document into what it has become today. Somewhere along the line, we have been transformed from a personally responsible and self-reliant people into a timid and hesitant people that can no longer build a highway system or pursue the cause of simple justice and has perpetrated an entitlement culture that now spreads responsibility for everything to everyone. (I will bet that if a scholarly study was done, it would be determined that the speed of a country’s decent into mediocrity is proportional to the number of lawyers it has.) The present day entitlement culture is now a fact and the likelihood of a return to our youthful culture and Constitutional foundations is as unlikely as an individual’s unwinding the years back into youth. So hang-on American, the reconstruction of America is in full force and the youth of today will inherit a American quite unlike what was envisioned in her youthful days.
Think back to when you were, lets say, 20 years old. Come on now, put your feet up on the old La-Z-Boy recliner and let your mind meander back to the days when you were an indestructible know-it-all that had all of the answers to all of life’s vexing problems. Perhaps a strong libation or two would help the recall process along, notwithstanding that the tasty chemical depressant might even help dull the edge of age-related embellishment of the actual facts and sharpen the honesty of the recollection as well. Are you back to the glory years yet? Ok, don’t dwell on that fantastic red headed babe you almost got next to or the muscled-up incredibly suave and debonair hunk that danced with you at the sock-hop, focus instead on what you thought life had in store for you. You know, perhaps you would be an airline pilot, with all of the prestige of flying happy people to and fro on vacation or powerful people to incredibly important business meetings that relied on your fantastic cool flying skill to save the day. Or perhaps, you would become a world famous female Medical Doctor that due to your incredible knowledge and expertise would not only cure the sick and balm the hurt, you would pave the way to expand the horizons of all females of great character to reach beyond the glass ceiling and fulfill their complete potential. Of course, there is the possibility that you were one of those who didn’t have a clue as to what you would become down the line, but you should had at least some sort of fuzzy vision of where you thought life would eventually take you. So the moment of truth has arrived, now that you have gotten “further down the line”, did you end up where you thought would be after gravity has taken its toll and too many brewskis have made their indelible mark? I would be willing to wager General Motors Corporation’s future that where you are now is probably not where you thought or hoped you would be when the blush of youth was on your cheeks. On thing for sure, how you and I got to where we are was not the result of some incredibly complex conspiracy by unknown people or entities. Instead, our life’s journey was facilitated and enabled by our heredity, parental training, formal education, personality, culture, society and the countless decisions made by us and others that affected the course of our journey into geezerdom. I like to think that our country, America, is very much like a singular citizen because, after all, a country is little more than the sum of its collective people. So the journey of our country into maturity (as reflected by our evolving culture) is no doubt similar to that of a singular citizen making his or her way towards maturity, aided and abetted by life’s circumstance and happenstance, i.e., the country’s journey into maturity is not as a result of an incredibly complex conspiracy by unknown people or entities, it is the result of the same forces that enables and facilitates its least indivisible part. Suffice to say, where our country is now is probably not what the founding fathers envisioned and codified into the Constitution when the blush of youth was on our country as well. When our country was young and vigorous, our culture reflected our youth by being a personally responsible and self-reliant people that resulted in a “Can-do” society that could do anything it believed in. The Constitution was the country’s holy foundation that enabled our youthful sprit to soar and was not subject to interpretation by the shifting winds of whim or fancy that has so transformed the holy document into what it has become today. Somewhere along the line, we have been transformed from a personally responsible and self-reliant people into a timid and hesitant people that can no longer build a highway system or pursue the cause of simple justice and has perpetrated an entitlement culture that now spreads responsibility for everything to everyone. (I will bet that if a scholarly study was done, it would be determined that the speed of a country’s decent into mediocrity is proportional to the number of lawyers it has.) The present day entitlement culture is now a fact and the likelihood of a return to our youthful culture and Constitutional foundations is as unlikely as an individual’s unwinding the years back into youth. So hang-on American, the reconstruction of America is in full force and the youth of today will inherit a American quite unlike what was envisioned in her youthful days.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Car Business
Car Business
On 5 December 2008 the first of several Congressional hearings about the automobile industry was conducted. The televised hearing was typical Congressional theater that had pompous Congressional finger-wavers in full throat about the awful Automobile CEOs who dared to come to the peoples Washington DC in their Corporate jets to beg for public money to survive. There were several things that struck me as important during the hearings. The first thing that struck me during all of the bashing of the domestic automobile industry was what was not addressed. There was never any analysis of how the foreign automobile makers had managed to capture so much of our domestic market other than foreign car makers all made far superior cars and the management of the foreign car makers were as close to Greek Gods as one could possibly get. Not once was it pointed out that most of the imported cars had an average of 19% VAT advantage over American cars. Here is how it works. Value Added Tax (VAT) countries like the EU, China, Canada and Mexico are rebated their VAT when their product is exported to a non-VAT country, like the USA. The typical VAT on a complex product, like an automobile, can be as much as 10%. So when a foreign VAT manufacturer exports to the USA, it enjoys a 10% discount that reduces the production cost, and therefore, the price of the car for sale in the USA. But wait, there is more. When a non-VAT country, like the USA, imports into a VAT country, a VAT of 10% is added to the import price at the border, voila, a typical 19% disadvantage to the USA when trying to sell cars on the foreign market (the foreign car maker gets 10% back while the USA gets tagged 10% when trying to sell in the foreign country, a 19 to 20% total disadvantage to the USA manufacturer.) This has nothing to do with quality, style or gas consumption, it a clear unfair trade practice. Another advantage foreign car companies get when they build a factory here in the USA is that the states fall all over themselves giving tax abatements, infrastructure, and God only knows what else that permits a Toyota to build a very modern, new and highly efficient manufacturing facility to compete with GM that has 90 year old inefficient plants that pay all kinds of taxes and is never in line for tax abatements. I could list many other disadvantages that our domestic manufacturing has to endure at the hands of our Government, but I think you get the idea. The most striking thing about the hearing was the universal condemnation that was heaped upon the domestic automakers for paying good wages and benefits to the employees. Think about it, our elected Government representatives, berating GM, Ford and Chrysler for being so dumb as to pay good wages and benefits to our citizens that are not in line with third world wages. What was not discussed at the hearing was the fact that current labor costs, inflated or not over foreign costs, contribute about 10% of the price of a automobile manufactured and sold in the USA (go online and conduct the research, it’s true, labor makes up about 10% of the price of a domestic car). Think about it, if one cut the labor costs to zero, there would still be a 10% disadvantage to the domestic car manufacturer’s due to VAT alone. This wage comparison thing got me to thinking about Henry Ford and how he managed to put together his magnificent company that brought personal freedom to all of America’s citizens by manufacturing affordable and reliable automobiles to the masses. Back when Henry Ford got going with his assembly line, the labor on the line was very hard and Henry could not hire people fast enough because of the attrition rate of people quitting. It was reported that for every 1,000 people working, Henry had to hire 960 more just to keep up with the attrition. The current rate of pay was $2.38 per day with no such thing as benefits other the benefit of having a wage-paying job. On January 5, 1914, Henry Ford announced to the nation that he was implementing a new minimum wage of $5.00 per day in addition to a profit-sharing plan for his employees. Henry was hailed as a friend of the worker and branded as an outright socialist. The result of the unilateral wage increase was that the company’s profits doubled in the next year. Henry Ford said of his wage increase, “The payment of five dollars a day for an eight-hour day was one of the finest cost-cutting moves we ever made.” One has to wonder why we must continuously learn the same lessons over and over again like paying Coolie wages does not result in a viable business, regardless what brilliant and enlightened Government people think. One other thing Henry Ford got right. He said that another reason he arbitrarily raised wages was so that he could sell more cars as a result of people having enough money to buy a car. Brilliant. Lets do the math, when we all are making Coolie wages, how are we going to buy a $25,000 automobile, notwithstanding sending our kids to College and paying the ever increasing taxes? Brothers and Sisters, wages and benefits paid to our laboring autoworkers is not the reason for the current problems in our domestic automobile business.
On 5 December 2008 the first of several Congressional hearings about the automobile industry was conducted. The televised hearing was typical Congressional theater that had pompous Congressional finger-wavers in full throat about the awful Automobile CEOs who dared to come to the peoples Washington DC in their Corporate jets to beg for public money to survive. There were several things that struck me as important during the hearings. The first thing that struck me during all of the bashing of the domestic automobile industry was what was not addressed. There was never any analysis of how the foreign automobile makers had managed to capture so much of our domestic market other than foreign car makers all made far superior cars and the management of the foreign car makers were as close to Greek Gods as one could possibly get. Not once was it pointed out that most of the imported cars had an average of 19% VAT advantage over American cars. Here is how it works. Value Added Tax (VAT) countries like the EU, China, Canada and Mexico are rebated their VAT when their product is exported to a non-VAT country, like the USA. The typical VAT on a complex product, like an automobile, can be as much as 10%. So when a foreign VAT manufacturer exports to the USA, it enjoys a 10% discount that reduces the production cost, and therefore, the price of the car for sale in the USA. But wait, there is more. When a non-VAT country, like the USA, imports into a VAT country, a VAT of 10% is added to the import price at the border, voila, a typical 19% disadvantage to the USA when trying to sell cars on the foreign market (the foreign car maker gets 10% back while the USA gets tagged 10% when trying to sell in the foreign country, a 19 to 20% total disadvantage to the USA manufacturer.) This has nothing to do with quality, style or gas consumption, it a clear unfair trade practice. Another advantage foreign car companies get when they build a factory here in the USA is that the states fall all over themselves giving tax abatements, infrastructure, and God only knows what else that permits a Toyota to build a very modern, new and highly efficient manufacturing facility to compete with GM that has 90 year old inefficient plants that pay all kinds of taxes and is never in line for tax abatements. I could list many other disadvantages that our domestic manufacturing has to endure at the hands of our Government, but I think you get the idea. The most striking thing about the hearing was the universal condemnation that was heaped upon the domestic automakers for paying good wages and benefits to the employees. Think about it, our elected Government representatives, berating GM, Ford and Chrysler for being so dumb as to pay good wages and benefits to our citizens that are not in line with third world wages. What was not discussed at the hearing was the fact that current labor costs, inflated or not over foreign costs, contribute about 10% of the price of a automobile manufactured and sold in the USA (go online and conduct the research, it’s true, labor makes up about 10% of the price of a domestic car). Think about it, if one cut the labor costs to zero, there would still be a 10% disadvantage to the domestic car manufacturer’s due to VAT alone. This wage comparison thing got me to thinking about Henry Ford and how he managed to put together his magnificent company that brought personal freedom to all of America’s citizens by manufacturing affordable and reliable automobiles to the masses. Back when Henry Ford got going with his assembly line, the labor on the line was very hard and Henry could not hire people fast enough because of the attrition rate of people quitting. It was reported that for every 1,000 people working, Henry had to hire 960 more just to keep up with the attrition. The current rate of pay was $2.38 per day with no such thing as benefits other the benefit of having a wage-paying job. On January 5, 1914, Henry Ford announced to the nation that he was implementing a new minimum wage of $5.00 per day in addition to a profit-sharing plan for his employees. Henry was hailed as a friend of the worker and branded as an outright socialist. The result of the unilateral wage increase was that the company’s profits doubled in the next year. Henry Ford said of his wage increase, “The payment of five dollars a day for an eight-hour day was one of the finest cost-cutting moves we ever made.” One has to wonder why we must continuously learn the same lessons over and over again like paying Coolie wages does not result in a viable business, regardless what brilliant and enlightened Government people think. One other thing Henry Ford got right. He said that another reason he arbitrarily raised wages was so that he could sell more cars as a result of people having enough money to buy a car. Brilliant. Lets do the math, when we all are making Coolie wages, how are we going to buy a $25,000 automobile, notwithstanding sending our kids to College and paying the ever increasing taxes? Brothers and Sisters, wages and benefits paid to our laboring autoworkers is not the reason for the current problems in our domestic automobile business.
Monday, April 6, 2009
It's A Matter of Trust
It’s A Matter of Trust
Trust what I say
And do what you’re told
And surely all your dirt will turn into gold.
(Van Morrison, from the song, “The Mystery”)
Never trust a skinny Chef or fat Banker.
Never trust a sickly Doctor or poor Lawyer.
Never trust a loud musician or rich artist.
Never trust an eloquent Politician or tight-lipped executive.
Never trust a farmer in a business suit or a preacher in blue jeans.
Never trust an indispensable man or a man for all seasons.
Never trust a stampeding mob or solitary man.
Never trust a swaggering Captain or a man who kills animals for sport.
Never trust a man who is obsessed with his looks or a woman who cares little about grooming.
Never trust a man who considers himself a citizen of the world or a man fearful of life beyond his family.
Never trust a multinational business or a church with a worldwide reach.
Never trust a man who does not drink or a woman who does not cry.
Never trust a free lunch or 15% interest.
Always trust the wife who says, it really matters little or the husband who says, I’ll take care of it, somehow, someway.
Always trust the little girl with bouncing curls and giggling gate as she throws her arms around your neck and says, give me a kiss, grandpa.
Always trust the little boy with flashing sneakers and a dirty tee shirt and says, let’s shoot some baskets, grandpa.
Always trust an angry man and a vengeful woman.
Always trust your heart in matters of love and your gut in matters of finance.
A final quote:
“The world’s cemeteries are full of indispensable men.”
Trust what I say
And do what you’re told
And surely all your dirt will turn into gold.
(Van Morrison, from the song, “The Mystery”)
Never trust a skinny Chef or fat Banker.
Never trust a sickly Doctor or poor Lawyer.
Never trust a loud musician or rich artist.
Never trust an eloquent Politician or tight-lipped executive.
Never trust a farmer in a business suit or a preacher in blue jeans.
Never trust an indispensable man or a man for all seasons.
Never trust a stampeding mob or solitary man.
Never trust a swaggering Captain or a man who kills animals for sport.
Never trust a man who is obsessed with his looks or a woman who cares little about grooming.
Never trust a man who considers himself a citizen of the world or a man fearful of life beyond his family.
Never trust a multinational business or a church with a worldwide reach.
Never trust a man who does not drink or a woman who does not cry.
Never trust a free lunch or 15% interest.
Always trust the wife who says, it really matters little or the husband who says, I’ll take care of it, somehow, someway.
Always trust the little girl with bouncing curls and giggling gate as she throws her arms around your neck and says, give me a kiss, grandpa.
Always trust the little boy with flashing sneakers and a dirty tee shirt and says, let’s shoot some baskets, grandpa.
Always trust an angry man and a vengeful woman.
Always trust your heart in matters of love and your gut in matters of finance.
A final quote:
“The world’s cemeteries are full of indispensable men.”
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Bend Down
Bend Down
Bend down. Bend down low and hear my lament:
Who will cry out and care for the forgotten when the fog of crisis blinds and frightens virtuous fools and unscrupulous mavens alike? The virtuous fools, who are now blinded and bewildered by the fog of crisis now becoming reality, are those who swooned and stampeded like ignorant children into believing that an effortless Nirvana awaited us all, if only we just believe. Yes, those virtuous fools who feasted upon “feel-good” ideas and soaring rhetoric that promised a new world of enlightenment that would educate the ignorant, bring wealth to the poor, justice to the downtrodden, healing to the sick and respect from the world at large, and all to be gained by just believing. The virtuous fools cannot cry out and care for the forgotten because they still believe in the carefully constructed hooey that was designed to bring power to those who strive to remake us into something that we are not. Could it be, Pogo, that we have met the virtuous fools and the virtuous fools are us? The unscrupulous mavens, who only worship greed and lust for power, are only freighted by the unfolding crisis because they must blindly hurry in the resulting fog to find a way to turn a profit and retain power from the very mess that they created and they care not one wit about the forgotten. And who are the forgotten and what is the crisis? The forgotten are our progeny, our children and grandchildren, who will inherit a broken country that renders freedom meaningless. The crisis that I am speaking of is unfolding before our very eyes and is the changing of our democratic Republic into a broken third-world wreck by the Educated Idiots (or the French, Idiot Savants, if you prefer) in the form of BHO and Company who are heel-bent to remake our country into some kind of Socialist thing and remake the world for good measure. My lament is that our innocent children and grandchildren will not benefit, as we did, from the careful husbandry of our magnificent country by those who preceded us that not only blessed us with freedom, wealth and unlimited opportunity, but also instilled within us, a sense of morality that was the envy of the world.
Fall down. Fall down and hear my despair:
The wrecking of our country will occur not from bullets or bombs rained down upon us by despots or fanatics, the wreckage will be perpetrated by the Educated Idiots we ourselves place into Governance over us. The cascading financial debacle, perpetrated by greed and lust for power, will be used by the Educated Idiots as a fortuitous vehicle to purposely debauch our money into worthless pieces of paper and thereby make us all beholding to the Government instead of ourselves for our livelihood and well being. What an inglorious legacy for such a glorious country.
Bend down. Bend down low and hear my lament:
Who will cry out and care for the forgotten when the fog of crisis blinds and frightens virtuous fools and unscrupulous mavens alike? The virtuous fools, who are now blinded and bewildered by the fog of crisis now becoming reality, are those who swooned and stampeded like ignorant children into believing that an effortless Nirvana awaited us all, if only we just believe. Yes, those virtuous fools who feasted upon “feel-good” ideas and soaring rhetoric that promised a new world of enlightenment that would educate the ignorant, bring wealth to the poor, justice to the downtrodden, healing to the sick and respect from the world at large, and all to be gained by just believing. The virtuous fools cannot cry out and care for the forgotten because they still believe in the carefully constructed hooey that was designed to bring power to those who strive to remake us into something that we are not. Could it be, Pogo, that we have met the virtuous fools and the virtuous fools are us? The unscrupulous mavens, who only worship greed and lust for power, are only freighted by the unfolding crisis because they must blindly hurry in the resulting fog to find a way to turn a profit and retain power from the very mess that they created and they care not one wit about the forgotten. And who are the forgotten and what is the crisis? The forgotten are our progeny, our children and grandchildren, who will inherit a broken country that renders freedom meaningless. The crisis that I am speaking of is unfolding before our very eyes and is the changing of our democratic Republic into a broken third-world wreck by the Educated Idiots (or the French, Idiot Savants, if you prefer) in the form of BHO and Company who are heel-bent to remake our country into some kind of Socialist thing and remake the world for good measure. My lament is that our innocent children and grandchildren will not benefit, as we did, from the careful husbandry of our magnificent country by those who preceded us that not only blessed us with freedom, wealth and unlimited opportunity, but also instilled within us, a sense of morality that was the envy of the world.
Fall down. Fall down and hear my despair:
The wrecking of our country will occur not from bullets or bombs rained down upon us by despots or fanatics, the wreckage will be perpetrated by the Educated Idiots we ourselves place into Governance over us. The cascading financial debacle, perpetrated by greed and lust for power, will be used by the Educated Idiots as a fortuitous vehicle to purposely debauch our money into worthless pieces of paper and thereby make us all beholding to the Government instead of ourselves for our livelihood and well being. What an inglorious legacy for such a glorious country.
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