Thank God for Evil and Disobedience

If we did everything we are told, there would be no traffic cops or cameras at intersections.

We wouldn’t have “soul” music or the “blues” or “rock” or M & M.

If we didn’t use illicit drugs and looked after ourselves there would be mass lay offs in the health care field, we keep them busy.

The law enforcement fields would also notice the decline of work they had to do.

If we didn’t throw our garbage outside, what would the people doing community service and garbage pickers have to do?

There would be no spam or hacking so all these high priced security IT people would be out of work.

If we cooked healthy food all the time the fat producers and many fine eateries such as Mickey Dee’s would go bankrupt.

Greenpeace would have to shut its doors.

Al Gore wouldn’t have anyone to seminar to.

Cage wrestlers and fighters would lose weight and muscle.

Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds would not be suspect.

We wouldn’t drive cars but use public transportation and kill off  the auto industry.

What would they discuss at church, in the synagogue or in the mosque?

The news media would go broke as no one likes “good” news.

There would be no cartels.

We wouldn’t have anything interesting to talk about and gossip would be a dying art form.

Come to think of it, the bad guys produce most of our employment.  If everyone were honest and good there would be no need for auditors, military, cops, investigators, private eyes, security guards, safe manufacturers, barrier manufacturers, banks, government regulatory agencies, and the list goes on.

We never give the evil people and the disobedient enough credit for making life interesting do we?

Twiddling thumbs would become the newest national pastime.

I think I’ll go to a bar, have a drink and a cigarette and listen to some sweet blues music and contribute to the economy.

Now I am a Murderer

Second hand smoke kills.

I smoke only outside so that means the world is exposed to my smoke.  When I used to smoke in bars, all the others around me were exposed and I was exposed to their second hand smoke as well.

I suppose I also contribute to global warming.  They may have to hang my portrait next to Stalin and Adolf.

We are not only murderers but suicide victims.  However some of us aren’t dead yet.

The government which rakes in a ton on “sin” taxes is also guilty of accessory to murder and causing people to commit suicide because revenue is more important than health.  They treat us like dirt, although we pay more taxes into the system than what we receive.  I guess they haven’t learned the word “respect” yet.

If they quit selling cigarettes, a few of us may lose our marbles and kill in more traditional ways

Then the opportunity would arise for us to sell illegal tobacco products, netting us fortunes and starting the “War on Tobacco” which will benefit everyone except the poor slob buying it and of course, the dead soldiers and “bad” guys in the “Tobacco” wars.

We can even buy our own lawyers and judges and politicians because it is only a matter of price.

What a dilemma we are in!

Maybe they should send all of us smokers, including Obama, to a nice warm country with tobacco plants where we can live decently and not have to worry about murdering innocents or committing suicide.

On the other hand maybe I should quit buying government taxed cigarettes and see what they will do then to make up the sortfall.

I think I will, quit smoking, just to teach them a lesson.   Now that I am thinking about it it may take a year or so to put into action. 

Warren’s inauguration prayer…

Dear God

On this day that we inaugurate our new president, please help him bring financial security and wealth back to the USA.

Make everyone fear and respect us again.

Could you help us wipe out those Taliban and Iraqi insurgents and keep Hamas under control or put a plague on them?  If you could do that it would be nice of you.

Help us control the oil or come up with new energy sources.  It would be nice if you could set the temperature down a little on this planet to keep Al Gore’s people quiet for a while.

Help us stay number one and we’ll help you become the number one God.

We need a new amendment to the Constitution to make Christianity America’s only religion as those heathen non believers are a pain in the ass.

That is about it, except our church is running short for a new cable channel so could you have your donors cough up a little more coin in this time of our need, it is costing a lot more to get your message out this year.

Oh by the way, could you fry Osama for us, he needs to be taught a lesson.

We also need to have the world know that China and Russia are not in the same league as us, so please put them in their place.

After all we have done for you lord, this is but a little request.

Amen

Would the real God please step forward

As I grow older I discovered there are many Gods in this world and it is becoming a confusing mess of beliefs and faiths that followers of every God that happened to survive believe theirs is the only one.

There is God the spirit.

There is the “He” God.

Then some believe Jesus is God.

There is an “Our” God, implying more than one.

There is a Lord of Hosts God.

There is God the “Father”.

There is God the creator.

There is the God of Israel and the God of the Palestinian.

There is the God of Africa which is still not finished observing slaughters and starvation and disease and poverty.

There is the God of Third World countries.

There is the God who is called God and one called Allah and one called Great Spirit and Jehovah and Yahweh and Odin and Zeus and Venus and so on.

Some Gods love and some damn.

God created the Devil and made everyone imperfect.

Some Gods forgive and some don’t.

Some Gods force our actions, whether they be good or evil.

Some Gods require constant adulation from their creations.

Some Gods are merciless and don’t care whether entire populations are murdered, starving or wiped out due to natural or unnatural causes.

Some Gods convey harsh sentences to your children and your children’s children for what you do.

God appears to be pretty good at making  ‘Hell on Earth’ or is it all our fault?

Then there is the God of Wall Street, which will make life for the poor even more appalling.

For some people God is love and for some God is vindictive.

Some Gods only communicate through intermediaries such as Popes and priests and pastors and prophets and Rabbis and Ayatollahs and Clerics and  some Gods have time and allow personal one on one contact.

People pray to God for help in winning wars or sporting events.

Some people pray to God for an end to all war and sporting events.

God lives in Heaven or in “His” house which would be a cathedral, church, synagogue, mosque, town hall, school, etc.

God has many different groups of people who worship God, well into the thousands, from Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, Shiites, Sunnis, Hindus, Buddhists, Taliban and the list hasn’t even started yet.

The only consistency I see in the above is the fact that no one truly knows God.

Most people depend on writings from centuries past, before birth control, universal education, space travel, flight, television, Internet, the United Nations, secular governments, tax based relief and food programs, antibiotics, discovery of DNA and genetics,  decent government and legal systems, and the list goes on.

There are still those in the world who would do away with all man’s discoveries and achievements to live as God had intended them to live, in the dark ages where they can make women and the poor as servile domestic beasts.

Now, when the world is getting ready to harbor tough economic times, people are searching for God to help them out.

Which one?

Who is right?

Which book is the best?

Is the Devil still alive?  Did the Devil exist?

Only God knows for sure as it appears Mankind can’t agree on a God that makes sense.  It would be nice for those of us who like to think that God would or could make the most sense.

The Damned living in the Hell of Palestine

The Arab Nations who claim to be brothers will not absorb the refugees into their society as equals, they would prefer to show the world their opulence in Dubai.

Meanwhile Israel said it no longer occupies Gaza but, “They control the water, the sky and the passages. How can you say occupation is over?” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in 2005.

Hamas spokesman Moussa Abu Marzouk placed the blame for the worsening situation in the Strip upon Israel, stating that the constant pressure of economic sanctions upon Gaza resulted in the “real explosion”.

Put people into a vice such as this with the backing of the best military machines in the world in charge of tightening the vice and what do you get? Twenty four year old registered nurses who become suicide bombers out of desperation.

One journalist wrote, “Today I have seen people shot before my eyes, I heard the screams of terrified women and children in a burning building, and I argued with gunmen who wanted to take over my home. I have seen a lot in my years as a journalist in Gaza, but this is the worst it’s been.”

That has to tell you something.  Who in their right mind would walk into a crowd with explosives tied around their waist if there was hope?

Israel needs to let Palestinians live like human beings, not as fodder for death camps.

Gaza is to the Palestinians as the Warsaw Ghetto was to the Jews.

The Palestinians have nothing to lose but their lives.  The Israelis’ have much to lose.

references Wikipedia.com

London Bobbies used to enforce the law without firearms

When I grew up that story, whether wholly true or not, was told to us.

Imagine in this day and age a modern city without “Swat” teams, shotguns centered in black and whites or cops and pseudo cops carrying weapons on their hips.

Probably not doable as the criminal element has no respect for life and well being of anyone except their own.

I am not naive enough to believe that criminals are better behaved then than now, but how was that possible for decades in London and not now?  What is the difference?

There are great disparities in crime rates of cities the world over.  In some murder rates are catastrophic, such as in New Orleans and CD Juarez and in other cities  it is quite safe.

I used to live where bars on windows and doors were required for safety of property and life in the United States and Mexico and now live where you do not see bars on businesses or residences.

Why is that?

It is not that there is no crime here, there is.  Just not in the epidemic stage that other places in the world experience.

Maybe it has to do with population density.  When too many people are crammed together in cities where there is no peace such things as sexual deviation, aggressiveness and anger are more prevalent.

Who knows, it is only a guess.

“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her”

That is a question that made a big impression on me and still does.

We forget the obvious at times until it is pointed out and hypocrisy is a human trait that requires exposure when seen for what it is.

The funny part of this little story in which a woman was caught having sex with a married man and the locals were set to stone her is it did not appear in the original manuscripts the bible was founded upon, but inserted at a later date.

Because it follows with the teachings of Jesus it fit.  However if the Word of God can be compromised so easily, how much of the other is true?

It is a fair question I think.  If any human endeavor appears suspicious we should question as the consequences for not questioning may be serious as in the Bernie Madoff fraud or the Nazi Concentration Camps.

Whoever wrote the story had compassion and an understanding of humanity and life.

It is too bad we will never know who wrote those words or how it came to being, yet it is the story itself that is important and what it attempts to teach.

Poor Palestinian Animals

They must be animals because the world considers them less than human.

The “victims” who stole their lands and kicked them out of their homes a half century ago are bent on killing ten of them for every victim lost.

If I were an Israeli or Palestinian I would want to get the hell out and let the people who love to fight argue over that pile of rock in the Middle East.  The problem is their brothers and sisters in other countries don’t want them either.  Witness the Egyptians shooting at Palestinians trying to reach safety.

The world forgets that Israelis’ used terrorism to kick the British occupiers from the “promised land”.  You never hear of the King David Hotel bombing from Israel, yet it happened.

The nations of the world not knowing what to do with the Jewish population there and feeling sympathy and guilt over the holocaust allowed a new nation to be born.

That was a big mistake.

Creating a country from a peoples’ lands always causes strife.  There is resentment and anger on both sides for loss of loved ones, injuries and homes and possessions lost.

This will never settle in peace as there is too much hate, distrust and deceit on both sides of the fence.

With those emotions and attitudes prevalent, what will come next, the annihilation of the Palestinians?

It appears the Palestinian is akin to the Jew prior to and during the second World War, hated and despised for no other reason than the fact that they exist.

Maybe we should let the Russians or Chinese go in there and work out a peace plan that works, because the last half century it appears that the Western way is not benefiting the oppressed, only the other side benefits.

Imagine being a terrorist or a nation desiring to fight a war and have no money for weapons

Guns, rockets, ammo cost bucks.  Big bucks.

Only the societies or organizations which have plenty of green can really fight a modern day war.

Basically the biggest punch is usually thrown through missile and bombing attacks where there is little in the way of life remaining in the vicinity of the landings.

Missiles, support staff, parts, launchers and the supply chain to keep them alive and functional in areas of deployment are not cheap.  Neither are bombers, as old, second rate airplanes can be easily shot down prior to reaching a bomb target.

In other words, it is not superiority of intelligence, officer staff, or other things which makes a winner, it is the outfit with the most resources and an effective propaganda machine to make it appear justified as being right so they won’t be damned by the rest of the world.

When the day arrives a terrorist organization or country is denied arms or munitions by manufacturers due to inability to pay then you will see a change in the world in respect to the way wars are fought.

Ignoring the real miracle

In our quest to see or verify a “miracle” such as the Red Sea parting, raising the dead, walking on water or raining manna from the skies, all things this current generation and preceding ones have yet to experience, we ignore and take for granted a genuine miracle.

Procreation or reproduction.

There is no life form on this planet that is immortal.  People, animals, birds, insects and bacteria die.

They all have the means to create new members of their species.

From virtually nothing except the act of mating in most cases, a new creature or creatures are formed and eventually see the light of day, that will live till they die.  All species have the capability of surviving on this planet with what is provided naturally.

It is beyond miraculous.

This is something man can not emulate through artificial means.

Life spans vary as do populations.  They are all alive with the tools provided to survive and procreate another generation.

How can any miracle compare to this?

Why would we need another miracle to supplant this?

When Mankind can overcome religion we may discover peace

Israel is a country created based upon religious writings.

Without the Old Testament to substantiate its claims of ownership, it would not be here.  There really is no way to verify the accuracy of  ancient writings, except for the fact that there is no evidence the world was flooded at the time of Noah.  There is no way that every animal species could fit into a wooden boat and looked after by only one family.   If all the species were on the ark why are there no giraffes in Australia and no Kangaroos in the US and no elephants in the Yucatan?   The Red Sea could not be parted unless you dropped a nuke on it and there are so many other questionable stories you have to wonder.

Religious police and archaic forms of government in the Middle East would not exist if it were not for religion.

The Taliban and its efforts to move Afghansistan back to the dark ages is primarily caused by religion.

The Constitution of the United States and the fathers who wrote it were not religious.  If you think otherwise, read Our Godless Constitution.

The social benefits of universal health care, unemployment insurance, welfare, cheap housing are largely based on secular government systems.

The references to the Holocaust, as evil as it was, always refers to the six million Jews who perished, but in reality there was twice that number exterminated.  The other six million or so didn’t count by societies standards because they were not religious.  The other six million included  political dissidents, gays, Jehovah’s Witnesses, blacks and others.

There is much we have to learn but the popularity of these old time religious teachings prevent the whole world from benefiting.

It all starts with education.  To enforce laws based on dogma will always keep man at the level of animal, and it behooves us all to over come this.

Being “good” is not contingent on a religion as much as the attitude and compassion of the person.

‘Now the time has come to fight.’

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke those words.

Usually fighting means just that, two combatants opposed to each other doing physical battle.

This is not fighting.  This is retaliation in the use of a technological killing machine that obliterates targets.

There is no fighting in this war.

Only carnage.  Those with the most and best weapons wins.

At least Ehud Barak could be honest about this out of respect to the innocents that die on both sides while the arms manufacturers are rubbing their hands together with glee.

If God decided to take the world back what would you do?

One day God was thinking and decided that mankind was a little too uppity and greedy.

An edict was sent to earth saying God wanted all people to leave Europe, Jerusalem and the United States because there are some major renovations required to make these places look like they looked like thousands of years ago.

Would you comply or would you wait to see what happens?

You can’t fight God as God is invisible and is not material either, so radar and sonar won’t work.

It would be interesting would it not?  How many other countries would absorb the refugees?

God could order them to comply.

Israel, Hamas, the Innocent and God

Israel killed over 200 in Gaza last night in an effort to stop Hamas from sending rockets into Israel.

There are probably plenty of civilians on both sides who want no part of this warfare, Israelis and Palestinians.

Those are the people who live everyday lives, go to work and try and raise families if they have any left.

But the warmongers on both sides won’t have that.  They don’t like sharing either.

It’s all or nothing.

Meanwhile there is plenty of “collateral” damage.  Children and mamas and papas who pay the “price”.

God is up there or somewhere watching all of this going on.

I suppose God is taking a hands off approach to see how mankind deals with it.

If it were me, I would take an army in there and take all the weaponry away.  That way the warmongers can go after each other like they did in the old days and maybe less “collateral” damage is inflicted.

In any case it seems to be a never ending game of death and destruction over a peace of land.

Is it worth it?

Does God care?

Be patriotic and go into debt up to your eyeballs to get the economy going

Don’t whimper and cry at the 30% interest rates and pay your bills.

Buy junk you don’t need, it is the thing to do.

Let us start another war to keep the good arms manufacturers from dipping into the bail out pool.

If we all contribute with other peoples’ money we will be able to retire like fat cats with all the stuff we own rusting in our back yards.

The recycling business will be happy because the packaging will increase.

The sheiks will continue to make mile high towers when they jack up the price of fuel again.

The world is a wonderful place when we spend and spend.

When we stop spending, all you hear are gripes and depressing stories.

Let’s all go into debt and be happy

The Universe

Is a big place.

Or so we are led to believe.

It stretches beyond our capacity to imagine.

It’s origins are unknown.

Many theororize on the beginning of the Universe.

No one knows how or if it ever began.

Does it really exist?

Why are there pyramids on both sides of the Atlantic?

Considering that it is accepted that people assumed the world to be flat only six or seven hundred years ago, it is a bit amazing that peoples from ancient societies and cultures would build pyramids without having gone to the same school of architecture.

The fact that these stone built symbols were a feat of construction in and of  themselves makes it even more incredulous.

We assume that we are the greatest generation as we have machinery and technology.

The pyramids illustrate that is not quite true.  It may also suggest that maybe people were less ignorant and more traveled than previously thought.

If  the suggestion is accurate,  it may throw another kink into the theory of man’s evolution.

A lifetime passes and are we anymore intelligent or knowing than children?

I sometimes wonder.

After living on this planet more than half a century, I discovered that my beliefs and thoughts are very much the same as they were when I was twelve years old.

My thinking is a little more mature, but other than that it appears that I spent a good portion of my life learning and unlearning things.

If it weren’t for the journey my education of life itself could be compared to an exercise in futility.

Sometimes children have a knack for discerning the truth and will question that which seems most obvious.

We, being the smarter and wiser usually resort to different tactics to evade the uncomfortable questions.  That alone illustrates our deceitful nature.

The innocence of youth is worth recapturing.

Yes it is possible.

‘A man can do as he wills, but not will as he wills,’ has been a real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life’s hardships, my own and others’, and an unfailing wellspring of tolerance.

Albert Einstein was reported as saying this.

This is from a man whose theory of relativity was not proven until a century later.

He was an observer of life.  A Jew turned Christian turned to something else as he traveled along life’s path.

He was reported as saying, “I’m not an atheist. I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”

That is from a person who dared explore life and his mind stretched beyond what limited others’ thinking.

I cannot disagree with his view on this matter.

This is not about persecution, it is about truth.

I do not hate people.

This blog is not against religion, faith or things of that nature.

It does question the source they use to evangelize and attempt to convert those like myself, who did fall into that trap in my lifetime.

I dare question that which many do not.  If there is truth, there should be no fear of questioning.

It is like this Bernie Madoff scandal today.  Being as he was always held to a higher standard, the SEC and his investors did not question.  His credentials were out in the open, that is excluding his credentials for fraud.

The books many people take to be the “Word of God” or “Inspired by God” all had men or women writing them.

Were they the Bernie Madoff type no one questioned?

The greatest evils that mankind has endured were wrought by people.

Those that no one opposed when the opportunity was there.

Like a disease, it spreads.

Power and wealth and adulation from many is too tempting for many to resist.

The man or woman at the pulpit is but a human, subject to the same desires and whims as the rest of us.

They are no better and no worse.

They are not gifted with a knowledge that anyone doesn’t have.

The power, wealth and adulation can skew much in this world.  Politics and Wall Street are current examples of this at its most prevalent.

We can be better.  Do we desire to lose the power, wealth and adulation to achieve this?

Judging the twelve tribes of Israel

When it is time to go and after we are gone, then comes the judgment. Judgment over all things good and evil and God is said to be the judge as only God knows our lives, motivations, actions and thoughts.

Except for Israel and the twelve tribes.

“That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Will Judas be a judge as well?

I think that being a Gentile may be a good or maybe not good thing in this scenario.

Are those of us not Israelites exempt from all this, to be excluded?

Or are we Israelites and don’t know it?

Are the twelve tribes different really the different races on this planet?

Or is the bible mainly for the Israelite and the rest of us are fodder for whatever comes?

These are a few of the questions I have asked myself that no one has an answer to.

Why am I questioning these things?

I don’t doubt the existence of God the creator of life.  This grand design called life is a miracle unto itself.

The fact we are here is miraculous.

He said, “this generation shall not pass.”  Which generation does he refer to?  A human life generation or another generation as in the age of humanity?

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Did Jesus do something wrong to say these words?

He put up with doubting Thomas, and Thomas was there.

Would he think less of people who were not there reading arcane messages questioning the words written after his time?

I think not.

Walking Away

There is one element about many religions which confuses.

For example, Christianity.  It is said that God commanded the following;

Exo 20:3  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Jesus was straight forward in some of his teachings.

Mat 19:17  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

He also made it clearer when he said the following,

Mat 6:6  But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Ecclesiastes reinforced Jesus’ words before Jesus’ time saying,

Ecc 12:13  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

The way I finally understood this is simple.  Believing Christ to be God actually puts a human face or image on God which is against God’s original commandment and therefore Idolatry.  Jesus referred to himself quite often as the Son of man.

If it this thing called the trinity were meant to be, would God not have warned us or inserted a caveat in the original ten commandments?

It appears that Jesus’ and Ecclesiastes’ foundation were the Ten Commandments as were most other prophets’ and teachers’ foundations.

Being a mere mortal, this is how I perceive it and can see no other way.

Either that or some parts of scripture are closer to the truth than others, that is why the theology business is so good.

They are like attorneys who try to decipher what man’s laws really mean.  And sometimes they get that wrong.

This is not about faith.  This is about what is right or wrong or truth.

When something like this confuses, is it no wonder people walk away?

There were evangelists around when Christ was alive. What were they promoting then?

Mat 23:15  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

I think the words written above speak for themselves.

Were they converting people to God, away from God, to other entities?

Were they preaching something else?

It would have been nice if the writer was a little more informative to what these people converted to, wouldn’t it?

I mean, there are many people today who compass land and sea to “convert” or “proselytize” people.  Are they going to “hell” or not.  Which ones?

A little confusing at times isn’t it?  Maybe it is best not to listen to the speakers.  That way you don’t have to be “converted” to anything and be yourself.

The Father, the Son and How do You Know It’s the Holy Spirit?

Because you feel good?

There are a lot of things that can make you feel good.  A little music, a charismatic speaker articulating words that sound good to your ears, smiling faces and euphoria, and there you go.  Hook, line and sinker.

Companies who promote direct marketing, motivational speakers, advertisers and snake oil salesmen have been using this method since they discovered how easy it is to manipulate their brothers and sisters.

Religion uses the same tools and they have budgets that help them utilize these tools for maximum effectiveness.

That is the con.

When you are feeling the “good” feeling enjoy it.  Feeling good is healthy.

It does not necessarily mean that there is a “Holy” spirit entering you.

It means you are feeling good and that is it.

Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?

A good question voiced by Jesus Christ in the Gospel according to Luke.

I don’t remember reading of him telling anyone directly he or she is going to hell nor did he order his followers to physically capture, detain, torture, imprison, punish or humiliate anyone for committing a non violent sin.

He could have done so.

He could see past mankind’s weakness.  The Son of Man knew it was not his place to take the role of judge upon himself.

It would have been so easy for him if the stories of his popularity were true, but then again the crowd voted for the crucifixion, so who is to know?

There are more important things in life than enforcing ridiculous codes of dress, behavior, dogma and faith.

That is something that causes a lot of problems in this world.

From the Spanish Inquisition to the current Catholic Church’s belief it is the only “true” church, judgment and vanity is a basis for all.

What do we know?  Can we see into a person’s heart and soul to determine if it is “good” or not?

After all, Jesus denied being “good”.  We don’t hear that one very often do we?

And if he denied being “good”, why?

Requiem for the Man from Galilee

It has been two thousand years since he walked the shores or sailed upon the Sea of Galilee.

Every year billions celebrate his birth and death.

I often wonder what he thought as he walked along the shores of Galilee.

Did he realize his own martyrdom?

Did he know he was to be idolized by millions for centuries?

What was on his mind those last few years?

He was a teacher, unfolding the truths of life to his students, setting an example for living that was not appreciated then or now.

He was a man of peace.

He had no love of hypocrisy according to those who described him.  They also said he loved other people without condition.

He appeared to be a fair and just person, one who knew his creator.

A man walking along the shores of Galilee.  A simple, kind man who had not much use for conventions of man.

He died for his way of thinking and acting out his beliefs

His deeds did not justify martyrdom.

His life set an example for others and so was his crucifixion.

Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for the corporation

Apparently AIG still has seven corporate jets after the $150 Billion bail out.

Iceland, a country with a population of 320,000 has been raped and left to die alone by those who financially ruined it.

America is going down the tubes and the fat cats who made all this happen, like Madoff and his gang, get house arrest or less.

The SEC, another gang of bumbling idiots are too impressed with the Gods with fat bank accounts to go after them.

Screw the bail outs and force them into bankruptcy and use terrorism laws to get their assets.

Do something before everyone is out of work, pissed off and motivated to do war.

Because that is where this is leading to.

The big corporations are flaunting it in the faces of the customers who put them where they are, us.

It is time we do something and if those pandering “elected” officials can’t or won’t do it, impeach them and get someone who can.

The same crowd is in the new government with the same policies.

So much for change.

“Word of God” is not worthy of God.

For those of you who choose to ignore what we learned as compared to what was known two thousand ago and decide to live your lives according to writings of that time, be warned, you may be making a mistake.

Human behavior is one thing, and there are a few concepts of that time which still apply today, like loving thy neighbor, the ethic of reciprocity and not judging other people for the way they live or act as long as it is not detrimental to the life or well being of another.

How can I be so sure?  Raising the dead, impossible miracles and evil spirits are what make ancients writings obsolete and totally without merit.

In those days modern psychiatry, medicine, life sustaining machinery and procedures did not exist.  Neither did knowledge exist of much that we take for granted today.

What was written then in respect to evil is not applicable when it comes to mental deformity, chemical imbalance or other known physical causes.

A madman in those days may have suffered from a malady that lithium or other medication would alleviate today.  It is not his or her fault if they cannot control their behavior because it is caused by something physical.  Dementia, senility and Alzheimer’s are other ailments people would have attributed to evil spirits in the past because people did not know what caused it, so they used Satan or God as a cause.

I know of people who could not exist with other people if it were not for modern medicine.

The same goes for heart disease and cancer treatment and so on.  And there is so much more to be learned.

It is likely Lazarus or Jesus never died, but appeared to be dead.  Modern medicine has resuscitated clinically dead people many times.  There are countless articles and examples of this as there are survivors today.

There are people on this world who choose to make decisions detrimental to others based on greed, lust or selfishness.  That is brought on for many reasons and part of that lies with human nature.  That is what we are.

The difference between man and the rest of life is we are intelligent enough to realize that a good life with a conscience at peace can only be achieved by overcoming the animal within us.

We have that choice.  We can love someone, offer aid, be part of or ignore other people.  We can also take from others and look only after self, even if others suffer due to our actions.

That is what it is all about.  It is about living, not about ancient texts written by people who likely believed the earth was flat, had no knowledge of the Western Hemisphere and were not exposed to any knowledge we take for granted today.

Modern society only recently allowed teaching of human reproduction in schools.  There was much opposition to teaching sex or family education by prudish people and religious groups.

The unnatural control over people by false religious dogma creates many problems for the world.

Where I live the number of places of worship per capita is high, so are teenage pregnancies and alcoholism.  What does that tell you?

Ignorance and prudishness produced the Virgin Mary concept.  That is why they have “celibate” priests today who attempt to live life suppressing their natural urges and usually it comes out later in unnatural actions.

Those who want to believe these old written works are free to do so, but it also inhibits freedom of thought and ignore that which made progress achieved to date possible.

For the above reasons the ancient works should not be passed off as the “Word of God”, because God would have been aware of what we know today and even beyond that which we know.

The so called “Word of God” is not worthy of God.

What’s God or Satan got to do with it?

You are an aggressive bully.

You love to fight and win, so the weak ones are your natural prey as they are easy.

Did God or Satan make you that way or you?

You decide it is time to do God’s work and humiliate and discriminate against others for doing what you secretly desire yourself.

Did God or Satan make you go after them or you?

We all have brains and for most of us they are fairly functional.

We don’t use them as much as we should.

We are lazy so it is easier to blame God or Devil when the only problem we have is us.

I care about you

I do not know you but I care about you.

I hate people not being able to live  life the way it should be lived.

There is no reason for people to do without.

That is not to say they can not work for it if able.

As long as the wages of work are not an insult to your time on this planet.

Five dollars a day for work in this day and age is unreasonable.

There are many on this planet that do not even get that and there are no opportunities.

Babies and children should have a chance.

Food, shelter, security and medical attention should be available to the young, who have no say or ability to overcome their environment.

I care.

I don’t care what you believe or not.  I don’t care what color you are.  I don’t care that you are poor and not educated.

You are my brothers and my sisters.

You need someone to care and give a hand.

One day it may be I who needs a hand and maybe you will care about me.

How much food and clothing can an AK47, M16 or Nuke buy?

Ask yourself that.

Then look at all the places in the world where terrorism and strife rule.

Most of those places, if not all, are have not societies.

While we flex our muscles with the newest and greatest  weapon of mass destruction, they are going without and are pushed around from one camp to another.

Anytime they try and stand up for themselves we label them as terrorist or insurgent and try out our new toys on them, inevitably taking out a few innocents along the way.

That’s OK.

They’re poor and worthless anyway.

Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.

Aung San Suu Kyi is attributed to that quote.

There is much fear out there today.

Does that mean we are no longer civilized?

I think we may be losing our civilization.  That is why fear rules.

A woman walking alone at night

A pervert sees her and rapes her.

It’s her fault.

You forget the keys in your car.

Someone steals it and it’s your fault.

You get a mortgage and they tell you lies and hand you a ton of paper you can’t understand to sign and you do, because you want a home and are willing to pay for it.  The promises are not what the paper says.

They take the house and it’s your fault.

You walk on a sidewalk and see a hole and break your leg trying to step over it instead of going around it.

It’s not your fault.

The hole shouldn’t have been there

I ain’t paying anymore taxes for war toys and bail outs while kids are going hungry.

My money and work is going to go where I want it to go, not where “they” choose.

There is no need for arms escalation, nukes or cluster bombs in this world.  A stone or a rifle can kill anyone just as dead or the lack of food will bring the same results, death by starvation.

There are many who don’t have and can’t get because they are in a place where there is no help or work that pays decently.

There would be plenty if their leaders weren’t buying arms.

Loving cluster bombs and hating gays

UNITED NATIONS – Alone among major Western nations, the United States has refused to sign a declaration presented Thursday at the United Nations calling for worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality.

In all, 66 of the U.N.’s 192 member countries signed the nonbinding declaration — which backers called a historic step to push the General Assembly to deal more forthrightly with any-gay discrimination. More than 70 U.N. members outlaw homosexuality, and in several of them homosexual acts can be punished by execution.

Not long ago the US, Russia and China were a small minority in refusing to outlaw cluster bombs.  That is because they make and use them.

What message are our esteemed leaders sending us.

Get a cluster bomb and kill gays?

No wonder the world seems to be falling apart financially and morally.

It makes me a little sick to my stomach reading garbage like this on the news.

The desire to leave society altogether and start  new improved life, without all the restraints and sicknesses that bind us in this one we live in, is getting stronger.

The Human Gods

“We know better.”

We hear that all the time but it is never voiced.

From youth onwards there are people and vocations society tell us to look up to.  We are encouraged to emulate those we hold in esteem.

“Johnny, go to school, become a doctor, lawyer or President.  People will love you and you will be rich!”

Society is wrong.

No one is above the other and neither is an occupation.

One man’s time on this world has as much value as another.

It is how we allow he or she to affect our lives that make a difference.

They put on the uniforms of success in oak paneled conference rooms and play God and we fools let them.

They say worship and we are on our knees.

Who the hell are they?

People we put on pedestals.  Once they are placed there they actually believe they are above it all.  The human gods.

And we are the “human sheep”.

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

According to the “Word” of God, these were the last words he spoke before he died.

You don’t hear these words very often do you?  Why is that?

I am sure people in places around the world are saying or thinking those words.  The victims of cluster bombs, oppression, hunger and greed.  Those who lost loved ones or watch the ones they love suffer.

Why didn’t he shout out, “Don’t worry world, I’m coming back to save you. My Father and I are one”.

Those last words he uttered contradicts much.

To me it sounded like, “What did I do to deserve this?” or “Where are you when I need you?”.

He made history.

Not for dying or his supposed miracles.  He had the guts to go against what was and try and promote a better way.

A way many voice allegiance to, but don’t really want to follow.

He paid the price as have so many before and since.

He died for his principles.  For what he felt was right.

It was reported he did no wrong, but they strung him up anyway, to please the crowd.

I don’t think he wanted people to make a caricature of him and worship him like some cheap idol.  A false God.  That is why he referred to himself as the son of man, or so the book claims.

He tried to improve the world and his teachings went against what those in power desired for themselves.  They would lose too much money and power allowing his teachings to influence the “sheep”.

Christmas today is nativity scenes, garish lights, presents, stress and bullshit.

Everything he stood for is made a mockery of at Christmas.

He also said, “let the dead bury the dead”.

Raping Lady Liberty

Paulson, the mastermind who engineered the help for all his Wall Street peers because they were too big to fail, suggests orderly “bankruptcy” for the big three auto manufacturers.

The man speaks with forked tongue as does everyone at the top.

Meanwhile they keep on throwing billions for bailouts at the problem.  Bailing out what?  A ship at the bottom of the sea?

At least a man on the street could see the stuff the big three manufactured.  The evidence is everywhere.

The only things derivatives manufactured is a way to siphon money from those who had it to those who wanted more and the only results you see with financial instruments such as these are the homes in “Palm Beach” and the three hundred foot yachts that countries would have difficulty funding operations for.

It’s time for a “change” all right.

It’s time to take away the ability for these snake oil salesmen to throw our futures away.

Paulson and Bush will be known as the people who represented a failed government that allowed crooks like Madoff and company to steal more than the State of California and the Big Three need to survive.  They will be known as the people who allowed companies like AIG to gang rape lady liberty and laugh while doing it.

The biggest threat to liberty, democracy and capitalism was not Osama Bin Laden, it is the disease that was allowed to grow and prosper in Wall Street and Washington.

If Obama were smart, he would start slimming down the committee he has for every little purpose.  He already has too many there now to move effectively in these times.  Advisers and experts saturate his new administration.

They are just going to confuse an already sick America and ailing world.

If the Devil really existed why do they call disasters “Act of God”

Satan, Devil, Lucifer and Beelzebub are all aliases that the fallen Angel is known by.

The people who first discovered that blaming something else for their misfortune or actions to take the “heat” away from themselves, such as in “pass the buck”, invented the Devil.  It was preferable to suffering punishment.

All of the evil man creates is blamed on Satan.  Natural disasters, famines and Wall Street are “Acts of God”.

Very rarely is man or woman to blame for his or her own actions.

There are some people with screwed up brains who do evil things.  That is caused by imperfection.  You don’t get over six billion people with a few of them failing quality control for one reason or another.

Most are harmless enough but there are a few dangerous ones.  That is not the Devil’s work, it is biology, nutrition, environment and peer pressure.

No one has seen this snake or horned demon.

The fact that the Devil’s existence is questioned does not negate the fact that people have and will commit evil deeds.  Some people commit crimes which are unthinkable and cause great despair and suffering.

When I was young it was a popular concept that a person’s childhood experiences affects his or her actions later in life.

The devil is really Mama. 

OPEC “take a hike”

That is what OPEC can do. The world is on the ropes financially and they cut production so the prices can go through the roof again and hurt everyone more in order that their Sheiks can build mile high towers and refrigerated beaches and send their cars by air to England for an oil change.

I am going to cut back my use of fuels more than their stupid production.

I want gas stations to specify where their crude comes from and I’ll buy from other countries who really need the money.

Wall Street used to look down upon us peons

All those six figure plus “financial gurus” were the toast of the world. When they spoke or defecated the world knew about it.

It was a brutal fall from the stratosphere of self importance  and deserving.

I don’t feel sorry for any of them.

It is now the peon who has no respect for the “financial guru”  or “expert” as it is now proved they are all incompetent and forgot the fundamentals they told others to follow.

Wall Street is now synonymous with corruption, greed and plain old ignorance.

As the old saying goes, you can’t take it with you.

And Deliver us from Evil

I admit it.  I believe in God.

Not the same God as a lot of people believe in.  I really don’t know God that well.

I can’t speak for God or say God is one thing or that.

Many times I go outside and speak out loud, slowly, softly and it helps my mood.

I call it talking to God.  There were times I was pretty upset with God in my life and either voiced my anger and frustration or just ignored the fact God existed.

To me God is not a he or God of love or anything like that.

God just is.

Maybe I am deluding myself, but if I am, it is of the innocence of a child believing in fairy tales.  I used to like these stories of fantasy as a child.

I don’t believe God will come out from the sky one day and teach everyone a lesson or save a few select individuals.

Tonight I had evil on my mind.  I am not stranger to it as are many.  I was not thinking of evil in the sense of performing it, just wanting to be away from it and I sensed the world is on the brink of something not good.

If there is one thing in this world that is as constant in our lives as the day and night it is good and evil.  I have come to appreciate and cherish good, regardless who is performing it or what they believe or not.

I have little patience for evil these days.

So I talked to God tonight out under the freezing cold of the night sky and just said, “and deliver us from evil”.

If the ex-head of Nasdaq is a crook, it explains the billions in Wall Street bonuses

There you have it, the sleazy little paper pushers are being paid big bucks by their sleazy bosses to keep their big mouths shut as they fleece America and the world.

In this day and age Genghis Khan doesn’t drive a horse, he has a Rolls or Bentley or Ferrari and has his picture hanging from a corporate office somewhere.

They should burn those pictures.

While the Vietnamese are working twelve hours a day for a few dollars, their bosses, the people who are sitting behind the desk 100 stories above ground are charging teenagers’ parents $250 for sneakers it cost them ten to make in Vietnam because they are “hot”.

Life is soooooo good.

I think I wanna be a Wall Street exec.

My motto will be steal from the poor and give to my buddies.

Maybe they should level Wall Street and build a park there, or put up a memorial to the “good” old days.

The only thing is their won’t be any icons left with a solid enough reputation to feature on the memorial.

Oh well, that’s life.

Madoff stole my Golden Years and Robin Hood

Son of a gun.  Now I will be broke and begging for hand outs and eating pet food when I am 75.

It’s bad enough losing your hair, shape, butt and have your nose and ears grow.  To add insult to injury I will be broke.

My landlord demanded his rent three weeks ago and I told him that I was waiting for Paulson to send me a bail out check.  Bernie, the other fed, only charges a percent or so interest and my credit card is jacking me around for thirty.

Life is so grand, isn’t it?

I would go and live with my kids, but they are all unemployed and don’t want to look at my mug.

Maybe I should rob a bank.  If I get caught I get free medical benefits, a secure room and three squares.  If I get away, the French Riveria sounds nice.

On the other hand, crime may pay pretty good.  The cartels all have private armies, submarines, judges and politicians.  That isn’t cheap.

I could dabble in smuggling.  The only one who loses is the government, they won’t miss it after the trillions they threw away.

Yeah, smuggling will pay for a decent retirement and no one gets hurt.

Maybe the Somali pirates will use me on one job.  The take on that one  is good enough for me.  Rob from the rich and give to the poor.  I like that and Robin Hood made out pretty well.  He was a hero.

Hell, if Madoff can do it, why not I.  After all, what have I got to lose? 

Global Warming? North Pole Melting? Ha, Ha, Ha, Ho, Ho!

The joke is on us, ain’t it?

I’ve been waiting with anticipation for the green house gases to warm up the winters where I live.

Yesterday it was -51 degrees below zero Fahrenheit with the wind.  Who cares what the scientists say, all I know is the wind was coming from the North, where the ice was supposed to have melted last summer.  You know the place “scientists” found rocks from Mars, although the scientists wouldn’t  know a Moon rock from a Mars rock or Labrador rock.

And it was no fun.

Especially if you have been working your ass off out doors for two days to clear driveways so you can reach civilization, start non-starting vehicles, deal with water in diesel tanks,  thaw out water lines and walk around looking like an Eskimo.

The only “trend” I see is an ice age, the same one they predicted thirty years ago.

If Wall Street funded those scientists who predicted global warming, can you really trust them?  Just think AIG and Bernie Madoff and ask yourself again, can I trust them?

After all, I was counting on Global Warming, that is why I bought all those lots last year hoping for a real estate bubble in the new utopia.

We deserve a nice winter too once in a while.  Why should all those Sun belters get all the warm winters?  The winters haven’t changed here since I was a kid, I froze then and I freeze now, what’s one or two degrees when you can die from exposure in a short time regardless?

Now that the global warming theory is being questioned, they are pulling new “warnings” out to try and justify their salaries.  I mean how many job opportunities can there be for “global warming” experts when they can’t even forecast the weather accurately a week from now?

Real Estate on Moon for Sale

Be one of the first to own a piece of the moon where there is no real estate bubble yet.

Own an acre on the sunny side or for a 50% discount an acre the dark side.

There is no pollution, vehicles, crude oil, middle east, war, oxygen, water, driveways, streets, urban sprawl, green stuff, life  or any of the things people don’t like on earth.

Ichabod’s Rip Offs Incorporated is proposing a gated community, to protect you from aliens and an acre of land ready for development inside the protected zone for the paltry sum of $25,000.

I own the moon as no one has declared ownership yet and I will be issuing land titles in six months to qualified parties.

There will be no sub prime or any other type of mortgages so the title will be free and clear and the views of earth are fantastic.  Foreclosures will be non existent and there will be no taxes whatsoever.

There is no law up there so you may do as you please.  The moon is an ideal home for sex offenders, murderers, CEOs,  State Department Officials, CIA, BlackWater, Dictators, Taliban, Religious Extremists, Polygamists and so on.

Getting there is your responsibility.

If you can’t make it you can always check on your property from earth with a telescope.

I will be opening a gated community on Mars next month.

Fanny and Freddy and AIG and Madoff  Ponzi Investments and CitiGroup will be happy to lend you the money from the bail outs they are receiving.

Once your check for the property clears, I will be a good citizen and spend it to help the economy.

The gates, walls and security will be provided by 2049 

Bush is lucky it was only a size ten shoe.

There are a few more at the top in government and heads of corporations who need to have something thrown at them as well.  In common terms it is the “book’.

As in “book ‘em, Danno”

Or throw the “book” at them.

Or put ‘em behind bars and “throw away the keys”.

I cannot believe a “civilized” country which touts all these great things about itself would have so many crooks running so many schemes under the guise of “Wall Street.”

Madoff was suspected of something in 1999 but the SEC ignored it.

General Motors apologized for breaking the trust.

The head of Barclay’s Bank says that banks should apologize for the lending practices which helped cause this world wide mess.

With the lives and incomes affected the world over, Bush is lucky it is only a size ten shoe, but the throwing of it illustrates the anger out there.

What does a good horse cost?

You know, the one without a radio, air conditioning or heater.

Forget GPS, power steering or bakes or a shift lever.

They like hay and oats and water and their droppings are good for fertilizing crops.

You don’t need a driver’s license or insurance to drive a horse and there is no Department of Horses to make your life miserable.

They can kill you if you aren’t careful and are known to spook on occasion.

They are great off road vehicle but don’t have much room for going to a supermarket.

We will need a few of these to get around once all the car manufacturers go broke.

The nice thing about horses, you don’t need to manufacturer them.  All you need is a stallion and a few mares and they “manufacturer” their own, no bail out needed.

Wall Street is guilty of murdering Santa Claus

Many will go without during this time of year.

Santa’s factories in China are closing their doors.

Malls will be closing as are many stores that hire fake Santas.  What are all of these unemployed, overweight, bearded, senior citizens going to do to make ends meet?

The reasons these things are happening are twofold.  There are no female Santa Clauses, that is discrimination based on sex and that is a no no.

Wall Street’s Bernie Madoff was in charge of holding on to Santa’s working capital, you know the money he needed to buy material so his elves could make I-Pods and video games for all those poor starving kids in the world.

That dumb Madoff invested Santa’s money with Lehman Brothers and AIG without checking them out first.  It appears one con was outconned and Santy was the victim.

While all these experts were getting drunk at the investor’s expense, Santa being overeight and old suffered from a heart attack and expired.

Santa was Wall Street’s biggest victim.

Merry Stressmas or Happy “Santa don’t like us poor people” Day

The time of year that is fraught with lies.

About a bearded old man in a fancy red suit who lives at the North Pole but doesn’t exist.

A flying sleigh and reindeer that have never been seen because they don’t exist either.

There is no such thing as an elf.

No Virginia, it was a nice article, but not true.

The Son of Man was not materialistic.

The Nativity scene is really against God’s wishes.  Bible believers conveniently forget “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth”.

No one knows which day Jesus was born.

I really don’t think Jesus would appreciate that this time of year is also a time for more suicides and loneliness for many.

Sometime in life the children discover the truth and wonder why their parents and everyone else lied to them.

Only people with money can afford to give gifts, the toy making factory at the North Pole never was, although China comes close.

What do you tell the children who have no tree or gifts under it?  “Santa doesn’t come to places where the chimneys are too small. or Santa don’t like us poor people.”

Can you visualize Jesus dressed up as Santa Claus flying around with a sleigh filled with city blocks of toys in the trunk.

This is the second biggest genocide day for Turkeys next to Thanksgiving.

If we used the logic we used for Christmas in every day life we would be locked up in a padded cell or put on drugs for being insane.  Imagine telling your boss, don’t worry about paying bonuses or dividends this year, Santa is going to leave a money making machine under the tree for you.

If we lied about all these things what makes the rest true?

Change is no longer an election “Promise”, it is a requirement for survival

Business as usual in respect to the way people play with money is no longer possible.

Capitalism and free markets are fine.  Competition is necessary.  These are good things.

What needs change is the people we entrust to invest our money and the governments that spends our current and future incomes without accountability.

The Madoff fiasco is only one of many scams that became financial time bombs that were not caught by sleeping regulators.

Governments pork barrel and siphon funds for many projects and pay exhorbitant amounts for questionable consultants and contractors where there is never value realized.

The top requires change.  White collar crime is becoming epidemic in the country.   There are too many incompetent experts and too much paper no one understands.

A return to honesty, simplicity, oversight and regulation in the financial arena will ensure progress, if we survive this storm that is.

Headed for another World War….

……history and the financial meltdown of stable industrialized countries are forecasting this to happen.

When it will occur is anyones’  guess, but it will happen and it will make the last two world wars look like pea shooter try-outs.

The poor and starving are used to having not in this world.  It is a horrendous thing to say and true.  Because they have no money, food or education they are held at bay.

The trouble will come from the haves who will become have nots.

They will look to the people they voted in and in charge for relief.

When that doesn’t come in a meaningful way, they will rebel and do so with force, for they will see no other way.

This is staring to happen in the world today with work stoppages, riots and polarization between groups as to what action should be taken to resolve this mess.

There is a way out, but the ones who own the most will say “no”.

Those who own the least will resent the “no”.

In a year or two we will be sitting on one huge powder keg.  All it will require is one small spark from man to embroil all of mankind.

“One worker in 10 makes something, down from one in two in 1950.”

And what are the nine out of ten doing?

Providing services.

How many of these services are over priced and how many can we do without it affecting the daily lives of many?

Probably seven or eight out of ten.

That is not reading well on future employment possibilities does it?

What ever happened to the “War on Poverty”?

We have the “War on Drugs”, “War against Terrorism”, “War in Afghanistan”, “War in Iraq” and so on.

There are “Czars” all over the place reporting to vast committees to oversee the wars.

As more and more people fall into the classic definition of “poverty”, scrounging for food and a roof over their heads, never mind medical attention or pharmaceuticals, it appears that this “War” has been conveniently forgotten.

Carlos Slim, the world’s wealthiest man a year or so ago and the head Mexico’s telephone company is offering loans through the telephone company to its subscribers, provided they have a good record paying their telephone bills.  The interest rates are more reasonable than the ones charged by the banks, which make a loan shark’s rates seem a pittance.

That is what was told to me and it requires verification.

This is one way to start the money moving again.  People who borrow this money will circulate it.

Is a grand idea.

Wall Street is a bottomless pit where no money is secure and no one knows what is owed.

Amazing isn’t it.  I know what I owe and so do my customers, businesses which have balance sheets where the assets and liabilities are fairly accurate.

A great lesson for many isn’t it?

Fall Out

After the nuke explodes there is always fall out. You know, when people start shining in the dark and once living things are fried crispy critters.

Now that Wall Street has exploded, and I am sure this Madoff scheme will have repercussions, what about the fall out?

Is the paper so difficult to understand they do not know who owns what and who lost how much?

Are people spending money today who do not have money?

Scary isn’t it?

Is your grandma or grandpa going to move from their comfortable little jail called a retirement home and moving to a homeless shelter?

Why doesn’t anyone know?

Or were these so called failures fake?

Is there anyone in the financial sector who isn’t a felon?

Rip Off Incorporated. How many Madoffs are out there?

One man orchestrated a $50 billion dollar fraud on Wall Street.

That is more than four times the amount that was not approved for the Big Three automakers.

Wall Street, a place where emotion is not supposed to exist.  The place where “hang in there” prevails as the market always comes back.

Except for Lehman Bros., Bear Stearns, AIG and Madoff  Rip Off Inc.

If one man can get away with a $50 billion heist in the form of a Ponzi scheme, what else lurks beneath the storied place called Wall Street?

Now I realize why the place is oft referred to as “storied”.

The cons have a lot of tales to tell.

The bankrupting of America, where worthless paper is worth more than an industry

While young people are overseas putting their lives on the line for “Freedom”, the White House, Congress and various states have are doing their best to screw up what the young are fighting for.

The feds and states are no better than the people who purchased homes with those felonious mortgages.  Spending more than they earn, throwing money at the money lender and refusing a lifeline to the major manufacturing entities so they can reshape and retool.

The lawmakers must desire to see America on the ropes, going down for the count.

Congress should have given all this some thought as AIG and others received hundreds of billions and the people who actually produce something besides worthless paper are left with nothing.

Bye, bye Uncle Sam, this does not bode well.

Culture of Corruption 2000 years ago

The new buzzwords “Culture of corruption” was  invented to do away with derivatives and sub-prime because we are all sick of the latter two terms.

The Culture of Corruption is fairly prevalent today.  From Governors committing felonies, senators lying and soliciting for hookers to congressmen selling their services to the highest bidder, it appears that no office or position is immune to corruption.  This is no different with leaders in the corporate sector.

We tolerate corruption, that is why it is a culture.  With the explosion of technology even college kids are more prone to plagiarize or cheat on assignments and exams and it is reported that these activities are far more prevalent than a generation ago.

Employee resumes are not to be trusted.

This is all accepted and tolerated.

What is wrong is made right and what is right is often portrayed as wrong.

No wonder Wall Street is in a shambles.

Two thousand years ago it was no different.  Society was enjoying its moral corruption and a man with a few followers decided to try preaching honesty, compassion, love and selflessness.

They did make an impact as they are still known today and many people follow their example of living.

They are still a minority, the true followers that is.  You know the ones, the ones that actually walk the walk and don’t buy the garbage that is fed to us.

Even the message that these people taught so long ago is often bastardized, yet there are some beautiful truths in their teachings, for those who have ears, let them hear.

The blank check

AIG, that nice little Wall Street darling who can do no wrong and is too big to fail like its little counterparts, has no clue what it’s liabilities are.

Yesterday it was reported it owed another $10 billion to Wall Street firms and is into the US piggy bank for $150 billion already.

Why?

They haven’t unwound all their derivatives yet.  They don’t know  how much they have covered in “bets”.

While the CEOs of the big three auto manufacturing firms are driving to Washington to “beg” for a pittance to survive and the state of California is on the edge and may have to stop necessary projects this week for lack of funds and is projected to run out of cash in March, the few on Wall Street are getting away with financial “murder”.

The “experts” are forecasting that we will come out of this recession late in 2009.

Who are these “experts”?  The real recession will be starting in 2009 and will likely turn into a depression as the damage Wall Street has incurred is too great.

AIG should be put on moratorium now.  Find out where they truly stand first and let them unwind before they “spring it on us”.

I am starting to like the term bankruptcy a whole lot more than bail out.  The only problem is the damn foreigners.  They have their savings in Wall Street too and they have guns.

Some of them aint going to be happy are they?

Walk a mile in my shoes

There were a few times in my life when I reacted opposite to what I would have preferred or against what I believed was the proper action.

We expect people to be trustworthy when we as people cannot even trust that which we have some control over, ourselves.

That is why it is difficult to judge others.  When somebody commits a crime, especially a violent one, society is quick to protect its own and lock them up for the safety of all.

However, we do not really know if we would or would not commit the same deed if the same circumstances and life’s experiences of the perpetrator and our own lives were the same.

“Walk a mile in my shoes” is a truism that is too often forgot.

The Conspiracy Phenomena

Now that the Governor of Illinois was caught trying to make a little coin on selling Obama’s vacant senate seat, Obama is drawn into the fray.

Everything has to be a conspiracy nowadays doesn’t it?

What’s the matter, can’t people commit nasty, criminal or immoral acts on their own anymore?

Is there always someone to conspire with?  Or is it a way to cash in on some free publicity?

The governor of Illinois was just practicing capitalism.  What is wrong with making a few dollars on a senate seat?  If he was upfront about it he should have auctioned it off on E-Bay and it would have been OK.

Who ever gets it will be saving on advertising, long despicable campaigns and make life a little nicer for the voters who have to endure.

Maybe the governor has a good idea.  They should sell all the seats to the highest bidder.

Isn’t that what they do now and they refer to it as lobbying?

Space Dust

With all that the world’s countries have discovered out there in space, nary a mention of dust.

After the billions that NASA has spent, I haven’t heard anything of it except for their claims they found rocks from Mars on earth.

If I reflect a little on history and archeology, the earth must be getting bigger as everything they seem to find of significance is buried underground or under the sea.

As a matter of fact they have discovered cities and villages underneath the earth.  That is why they love to hang around “digs” as anything worth finding is very rarely above ground.

I have been on this planet only a short time but when I see old architecture in various places in the world I don’t see them half covered with dirt on their way underground.

Big Ben, the Towers of London, St. Peter’s Square, The Mayan Pyramids and other structures are not sinking or being covered with space dust, are they?

Those rocks from Mars that scientists discovered on earth.  That is a classic.  How can they be sure they are from Mars?  Was there an inscription on it, “Made in Mars”?

If that is possible, why didn’t the astronauts report seeing rocks in space from Mars on their way to earth?

Isn’t it dangerous flying space ships with rocks and dust all around?

Something to ponder.

The five great mysteries

When something is considered extremely valuable or significant to mankind you would think people would protect it wouldn’t you? At least hide it where it would be safe from possible destruction with someway determined for future generations being able to find it.

I was thinking of five things we humans have lost through the ages that should have been kept as proof of the actual stories that spawned from the mention of their existence.  More so, since entire belief or faith systems revolve in part that these objects or things played in the history of mankind.

These five things I would consider important are Noah’s Ark,  the staff or stick Moses waved at the Red Sea to make it split in two,  the second set of the tables of stone with the ten commandments written on them, the Ark of the Covenant and the undisputed site of Jesus last resting place.

Considering the impact of the history these items may or may not have had, they were all lost or misplaced or maybe they never existed.

I am not sure, but even if they were destroyed, you would think someone would have mentioned it somewhere.

Maybe they were confiscated by a government or religion somewhere and are sitting in warehouses or an ancient cave.

So where are they?

Two Josephs and two Marys.

Sometimes people go a little over board in their desire to prove a point and in so doing they alienate those they desire acceptance and equality from.

In this case it is a few gays insulting heterosexuals and religion.

Foxnews reports that  a “Pink Christmas” festival will be held for the first time in Amsterdam, featuring a manger stall with two Josephs and two Marys.  ProGay group chairman Frank van Dalen said Monday the event is intended to increase the choices for homosexual men and women during the Christmas holiday week.

I do not agree with religion much but recognize many good people are religious and non judgmental.

The gay organization is stirring embers where none need to be stirred.  They do not realize religion is not the biggest factor in people not willing to allow the gays equality in respect to marriage and rights.

This is illustrated time and time again in areas where warfare and anarchy is prevalent.  When the animal in the human takes over in many cases.  Rape is commonplace when soldiers and others victimize an oppressed people.  The majority of victims by far are women raped and gang raped by men.  This is because the oppressor thinks they can get away with it and also illustrates how the dog like nature of mankind can reveal itself in its ugliness when these things occur.

For the most part it is human nature.  To many non religious people homosexuality is something they do not and never will understand.  For most people, if they don’t have to see two men or two women making love, they are content with gays living their lives.  Many heterosexuals do not like straight pornography either.

When it is pushed into peoples’ faces, that is another thing.  Trying to make a new born baby a result of something that could not occur is an insult to common sense, even to homosexuals who are religious, and many claim to be.

I do not understand what they are trying to achieve with this open display of disrespect toward what many men, women and children believe in.

Where will it stop?  Should I now pretend I have a mommy, mommy and daddy, daddy when it doesn’t exist?

Acceptance and integration is one thing, this is something else altogether.

It isn’t about money any more, it is about something far more important…..

…..it is about security, peace and a full belly.

While the markets are in yo yo land the news reports about the economy are getting increasingly dire and so is the frustration of people who are affected by the fallout.

The only businesses in America that appear to be thriving are corporations like Wall-Mart and McDonald’s which are notorious for low income labor and low prices at the cash registers.

There are many places in the world today that are virtual powder kegs of anger waiting to erupt.  All they need is an excuse, such as the riots in Greek cities for the last few days and the ones in France some time ago.

There really is no need for this but the powers that be refuse to change their ways and will not accept the new reality, that the old methods will not work.

The level of technology and communications in the world today is unprecedented.  The corporate grip has grasped the world’s throat and is shaking it.

Those on the outside are feeling the pain.

They say it started with sub-prime and falling real estate prices.

They are going to have to come up with a new system for the 6.6 billion on this planet in order that they may lead peaceful lives with full bellies.

War isn’t going to cut it or shouldn’t.   However, if enough people expire in conflicts, the rebuilding afterward will provide plenty of employment for those who survive.

The same scenario will occur again until they come up with something better,  if that is at all possible.

“the glory is departed”

This is one of the origins for the name of Ichabod in the Hebrew text.

Ichabod is also the poor soul terrorized by the Headless Horseman.

I chose the name for the latter reason but the Ichabod described by the title of this post may apply for  some who read this blog.

The issue I believe is one of honesty.

Honesty with myself and the Entity that created life.

If I question, have doubts or just don’t believe what others believe and have good reason for it, should I lie about it?

There were times I had doubts and carried on believing anyway, burying my misgivings about the deception within myself and lying to myself.  That is also when I cared for other peoples’ opinions of me and I knew if I were honest with them their opinions would diminish.  I would be considered a “back slider” or one where  “the glory is departed”.

It is not that I don’t care what people think of me.  I now have the courage to be honest and if my relationship with others is the victim of that decision, so be it.

It is never pleasant having been judged and wanting by others for no other reason than being honest.

I believe that God, the Great Spirit or Allah would rather me be honest than not, for when one is communicating with the Creator, how can one even consider otherwise?

Our attitudes and thoughts make us who and what we are.  I believe that is what is important and not what I should or should not believe.

I like to put myself in God’s place once in a while and I wonder how it appears.

For us humans, being pious and holy appearing is great, but if the heart is blackened by hate and deceit, the facade is short lived is it not?

I do not believe the Son of Man, if alive today, would banish me to hell for eternity because I do not believe his death sanctified all those who believe in him from sin.

I do not believe the Son of Man is God, however I do believe in God.

I do not believe God to be so short sighted that an Old and New Testament were required.  I believe that whatever created the universe and life would be above that, beyond our understanding and intellect.

God would be above all that humans tried to attribute to God.  Many books  love to shower praise on God and give God human attributes.

If God were a man or woman, I suppose it would be logical to bestow human attributes to God, but I don’t believe that God, which is, was and shall be, is human like in the slightest.

I am sure that God appreciates our appreciation, but God created us and many of us have minds and emotions.

Why give us the tools if we aren’t supposed to use them?

Why create deception and truth if we aren’t supposed to choose?

“At times we violated your trust by letting our quality fall below industry standards and our designs became lackluster.”

At least General Motors admitted it publicly according to a news story in Yahoo.com.

Now they are on their knees begging for help they continued the explanation, “We have proliferated our brands and dealer network to the point where we lost adequate focus on the core U.S. market,” the ad said. “We also biased our product mix toward pick-up trucks and SUVs.”

That is fine.  In other words they screwed up, but they are no different than any other business.  Those of us who started our own businesses and failed paid the price, why should they be exempt?  Another corporation can buy their assets and they have a trained workforce at their disposal.

If they screwed the consumer once or more than once, will they not do so again?

That is the question.

I wonder when the financial firms and investment houses will come clean with their apologies?

Obama is a “smoker” and so am I

With a weird sense of vindication I read with amusement that the next President of the United States of America and Commander in Chief has the same addiction to drugs, “nicotine and tar”, that I do.

This does not bode well for the world.

How can we have a person heading a country as powerful as America with human frailties?

Couldn’t we vote in a person who didn’t have these disgusting habits?

One who won’t die from cancer and emphysema.  Who stinks from smoke?

Do you think his mind is affected?

Maybe they should impeach him?  Do you think they will give him an ashtray at a fancy restaurant?

I can’t believe in this age they voted in a smoker.

If we have discovered that nothing in life is perfect….

….at least in the eyes of mankind, what makes us think that a book or way of life is perfect?

Then again we should question our own understanding of the word “perfection”.

I have come to think that the only thing about life that is perfect is life’s imperfections.  Like a grand design that leaves everthing in it open to question, yet it works and works grandly.

Everyone has his or own concept of perfect.  My idea of perfect may be entirely different from what is generally accepted.  Does it make it less perfect?

Who is to say?

It is relatively simple to have people believe in something.  Tell them what they like to hear, smile a lot and make them feel part of.

History has shown us that people will believe anything if the subject matter is “sold” properly.

We are fairly malleable aren’t we?

And life goes on perfectly in the imperfect sense of it all. 

One Hundred Percent Absolutely Certain…..

……This is what it all comes down to doesn’t it?

I am referring to belief, non belief and everything in between.

To be or not to be, to follow or not, to believe or not and to live according to the path you set.

Let’s face it, aside from the influence of teachers, books, words, peers and loved ones, how much of our own belief can be construed as absolutely certain and unshakable.

Even if you believe it, is it correct?

There are extremists for many causes and faiths the world over who would give their lives for their ideals and have done so.  Does that make what they believed in more acceptable or right?

For me to offer my life for a faith I would have to be certain it is 100% true.  In my mind at least I have found nothing that can pass this test in it’s entirety.  Many faiths or religions have some great words but there was something always lacking somewhere, at least in my conscience.

For example, if my Creator decided to have me perform the ridiculous action of getting killed to prove that God exists, I would need to know it is really God and not a hallucination that is asking that of me and whether God were sober or not because that is one hell of a thing to ask of a person who you claim to love and have created.  That and the fact people who are alive will probably do more for you than dead ones.

I would like to add that this blog is not meant to shake people’s faith or beliefs or to make one human less than or greater than another because of faith or belief.  This blog is a reflection of my own thoughts and questions which I have discovered are unanswerable for the most part.

Nation within a Nation

I read with interest a post titled “Bye Bye Canada!  it was nice knowing ya’”.

This post lead me to the Mohawk Nation News a site which a part of it’s mission is stated below:

1. The impossibility of legitimately alienating our land according to our constitution, the Kaianereh’ko:wa/Great Law;
2. The original constitutional relationship between us, the United States and Canada is nation-to-nation as governed by the Two Row Wampum Agreement;
3. Resistance to the illegal misrepresentation of our people by “foreign” federal, state and provincial entities and their band, tribal and other corporations which constitutes genocide according to international law; and
4. To repudiate all colonial reasoning and practices.

The issue of sovereignty that the Ongwehonwe claim as theirs appears true.  They never gave up their claim as a Nation and the governments in North America use stonewalling tactics, ignore them or use means of intimidation to deal with the original citizens of the Western World.

Personally, I agree to what these people are claiming.  A contract or treaty should be honored.  Just because it would inconvenience many to have to comply is no excuse.

They are a Nation historically and in the present.  Many of us live in their Nation.

I understand their anger.

Judging the Judge

Many people on this world believe we will be judged for all our actions on this planet, whether they be good or evil, after our time is done here.

According to some, we never had much choice in the matter because we were born imperfect or we were sentenced to a life of “sin” after Adam and Eve screwed up in the Garden of Eden.

So we pay and pay and pay.  Some of us do pretty well and life is OK or life is actually pretty good.

Some believe if we place our faith in a man dying on a cross, we will be saved regardless of our actions on this planet.

There are a multitude of other faiths and non-faiths that people follow in their lives and many times these beliefs are not even considered in normal daily activities.  The preponderance of “will I go to jail if caught” or “will I get caught” appears to take precedence over control of their actions.

It is society that controls many people.  Police, military and man’s law prevent a lot of abuses from occurring.

What about the Entity that will do the judging after we are no longer here?

I have given this a lot of thought in my life.  I am aware of all the transgressions I have made and a few good things too.

I know I am not perfect.

I am not entirely blameless for being me because I did not create me.  I am also not responsible for what was taught to me as a child and that which formed my character.  Once I determined it was all not it was claimed, there is a lot of unlearning to do and it isn’t always easy.

They say God also created the fallen Angel, whose sole purpose is to destroy God’s creation and make life miserable for God.

It is said God has the power to discipline or control this spoiled creature, but God chooses to let this devil run amok.

This other spirit tempts us and puts all these crazy ideas in our minds.    You know, all those things that “good” people find unacceptable.  That is what we are told anyway.

Maybe God or Allah should take parenting classes.

There are a few other things to consider as well.  Many people have faith God is love.  That may be so, but why would God allow people to have children and then put them in places where there is no food, water or security so their enemies can slaughter them?

We are all told that God has the power to stop all of this and sometime in the future it will be fixed.  The imperfections I mean.  A few who overcome this obstacle course called life will be “saved” and go to the perfect place called Heaven.

The rest are going to be living with the  “fallen Angel”.

There is not much logic in this whole scenario is there?  Yet many propose we believe in this  concept or theories even though it does not make sense.

Maybe it is true, maybe not.  Life does not make sense, so who really knows for sure?

Some may consider this post blasphemous or or presumptuous.  Yet the prevailing belief at one time was the earth was flat and it was written to be so.

Just because it is written somewhere does not mean it is true, is it?

After all, my words are now “written somewhere” and who knows whether they are true or not?

I think some would call all this insane, and some would call it sanity.

A lot of people can’t handle the truth

Truth can be very painful at times, especially when it is directed to yourself and is not very flattering.

Many times self defense kicks in and we ignore it, deny it or attack the truth teller.

Far fewer times we take what is said and weigh it to see if it is true or not.  How do we really appear in his or her or their eyes?

Maybe they are right.

Maybe we aren’t as perfect as we thought we were.  Is this little critique something we can do something about?  Should we try and change it or are we going to lose friends or family because we don’t care, don’t think we can change or don’t understand what the problem is?

Then you have the other side of the coin.  Not all truth should be bandied around either.  To tell someone they are ugly and pathetic because they are fat, is not only not true, but in many cases not something that can easily be controlled.  What good does the truth do in that situation?

Truth is only good if something positive can be achieved by it.

And that does not always hold true either, does it?

What goes around comes around, Karma and consequences

The OJ Simpson saga is now at an end, I think.

The one aspect of this outcome, his sentencing, and subsequent opinions I have heard and read surprised me.  Many excerpts in the news quoted people as saying “what goes around comes around” or the word “Karma”.

The fact that this was said so often makes me wonder if there is a new awareness in the world.

It is as if people are aware that actions or words have a way of coming full circle for good or for bad.

I have always believed that.

It is also something that reinforces my belief in God or supreme being or entity existing.  Why else would this thing we call Karma be so true for so many.

I do not believe that it is mere coincidence and the odds of a “scientific” explanation being discovered is in favor of a “greater power” or spiritual reason.

There is much we do not know or understand.  There has also been many misrepresentations in the words from the past.

It is something to think about isn’t it?

Life is not designed to be predictable or orderly

The news media would have everyone believe that this recession is the end all and be all of troubles for the masses in the “developed” world.

Nothing is for certain except birth and death for those alive today.

There is no such thing as “security” or guarantees.  We may delude ourselves for a bit at times.  We can fashion a life that appears that it is what we wish it to be, but the control and direction are oft not in our power.

Then out of nowhere change is forced upon us.

Natural disasters such as flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes or drought will change many peoples’ lives forevermore.

When “acts of God” are not at play, it is “acts of People” which cause lives to change, for better or for worse.

Changes in governments, policies, oppression and war have consequences for many and have the power to end lives as well.

Life has never been static, always dynamic and that is why it is referred to as life.

There will be people suffering from lack of a few things and may lose a few material possessions in this economy, but they will survive and as long as there is life, they have the opportunity to see another day with challenges.

That is something we should be thankful for.  This dynamic force called life.

To be or not to be, that is the question

William Shakespeare was no fool.

He must have lived an outrageous life to be able to impart wisdom and observations in the form of the written play.

We are all faced with this question, are we not?  To be or not to be?

From the choice of religion or non religion to our choice of environment and friends.

To be or not to be?

Even animals have that choice.

If we aren’t aware of it, we all make the decision don’t we? If we don’t decide and go along for the ride that is a decision in and of itself.

To be or not to be is a good question.

We are so impressed with our intelligence it illustrates our ignorance

Human beings are the bane of humanity.

Whoever or whatever created this thing called life had a sense of humor.

The human being is most humorous and not that bright.

The fact that we were given brains is overshadowed by the other gift we have, emotions

The word “feel” is used so often today we don’t pay attention to it, do we?

I “feel” there is a God.  I “feel” they are wrong.  I “feel” they can be trusted or are telling the truth.

The word feel is used about as often as the word “think” which is just as dangerous.

I “think” he or she is guilty.  I “think” that won’t work.  I “think” those people are “evil”.  I don’t know what to “think”.

It is amazing we have survived as long as we have.

No one is immune from the contradiction of self.

If this doesn’t make sense to you it is OK.  It makes sense to me and that is why I wrote it.

the birthday suit

One thing all of us have in common and no one is exempt, regardless of social status, religion, economic status or nationality, is the fact we all have birthday suits.

There are 6.6 billion of us on this planet and we are all born naked.

Many of us feel embarrassed by our natural appearance without “clothing” covering our perceived flaws.

Some of us are so used to wearing man made skin covers we feel humiliated when our true skin shows.

Some of us don’t appear attractive to others in our natural state.

We may not have as many friends or lovers if they saw us bare in the light of day.

This phenomena illustrates how sick we are as people.  We even have laws that prevent people from showing their all as it is deemed to be socially unacceptable.  Some members of society think naked people are evil.

Imagine telling that to a dog.  “Cover up Fido you look disgusting.”

In the warmer climes it is  acceptable walking around with more skin showing as it is more comfortable. These people are probably more intelligent that the ones who hate nakedness.

It is such a rarity for an attractive birthday suit to be shown, people actually pay to see it and many get aroused.  Especially when the female kind shows all.  Men go crazy if the suit is attractive.

Maybe that is why birthday suits are unlawful.  Could it be arousal?  I have seen both kinds, the arousal kind and the turn off birthday suit.

I don’t believe mankind has to worry about a population explosion caused by people wearing birthday suits.

Maybe being in the buff will encourage people not to have sex.

Then again, do you thing that the heads of state would appear as authoritative if they were nude?  How about judges, generals or police officers?

This is a simple illustration of how illogocial we really are.  It is like telling God that we weren’t made attractive enough so we put together our own design and called it fashion.

Who owns the paper on your home?

With the bail out frenzy of 2008 and Fannie, Freddie, AIG and others receiving government funds to stay alive, who owns the paper on your home?

Uncle Sam or the lender or the “packaged” securities purchaser?

Will Uncle Sam work with you to keep your home if you lose your income?  What about your lender, are they prepared to let you go for six months or a year without making payments and let you start where you left off without restrictive penalties?  Will someone move into your home six months from now?

What about the money you have invested in it?  Is it all gone and will someone else benefit?

Why don’t they answer these questions so people will know where they stand if they lose their jobs?

I believe there is such a thing as a just war.

The Pugnacious Irishman made that comment to a post I had written titled an eye for an eye.

I have to agree.

We all prefer peace, yet how can we sit back in the comfort of our homes, well fed and healthy for the most part knowing our brothers and sisters are being decimated somewhere or oppressed to the point of not being able to survive?

World War Two is an excellent example of what may happen when a nation or nations take it upon themselves to purge this planet of an entire peoples.

The death camps and the people who devised, worked in and ordered their construction is the epitome of evil.

Without the allied interference where would it have stopped?  Who would have been chosen as not worthy of life and liberty?

Afghanistan is another example of a just war.  The simple fact of the oppressed women in that country and the restrictive policies of a religion gone bad have made the justification for invading even easier knowing they actively supported and trained the groups that invaded the USA on 2001.

There is no room in a world for a peoples or nations that will resort to imposing their own sick agendas to their own peoples.

My former attorney used to be a magistrate in Uganda prior to Idi Amin Dada’s rise to power there and had to leave as many of the educated normally do when an oppressive regime takes control.  The alternative is cruel incarceration, torture or death.

This was the case in Germany prior to the last great war.  Many struggled to find a way out seeing what the disease was doing to their country.

It could happen anywhere if the conditions are right.  No one is immune.  When a peoples are subject to that type of a regime without the ability to fight back and the will to do so sapped out of them, there may be no way out except for the aid of the outside world in the form of armed intervention.

It is not an easy thing to admit if one is inclined to be a Pacifist, but the world is far from perfect and if it were not for those who sacrificed themselves to help another, this world would not come close to what it is today.

Our children would be wearing uniforms and marching to the songs that the state deems appropriate.  The women would be less than chattel and anyone who is physically, mentally or by nationality or religion deemed not worthy would be subjected to a life of slavery or killed.

Life is harsh and fortunately many people are insulated from the reality that is.

An eye for an eye

I love peace and am a peaceful person.

I will not fight under most circumstances if the reason is not justified.  Words are not justification nor is theft.

There are times you just live with the consequences of life that is dealt to you and you move on.

However there are times in life when a person must fight.

In defense of others under attack or self defense.

When a murderer is intent on taking off your head with a machete, do you accept it or try and stop him?

What about stopping someone intent on raping or doing bodily harm on a young woman or a child and it is in your power to help?

That is not a time to “turn the other cheek” as it were.

I could never live with myself if someone is screaming for help and I turned a deaf ear.

Anyone who does and is in a position to help has a lot to think about.  How can they redeem themselves after that?

There are times that you know in advance that resistance may be futile, and wisdom and reason has to prevail, but many times that is not the case.

In the news you hear of people being assaulted or murdered and passerby won’t even take the time to call authorities.

What is wrong with a society that cares for naught except self?

Fortunately there are the few who will intercede and give aid, putting themselves in the gravest of peril in doing so.

Some of them lose their lives in the process.

It is better dying in the process of giving aid than standing idly by.

It is better to give your life for another than live knowing what you really are.

For the Christian who chooses to turn the other cheek, would Jesus stand idly by while Mary is being gang raped?

This is not discussed in the bible, but it happens today and through history.

I think Jesus would step in and defend Mary.

Too dangerous for law and order

I read recently of Pakistani police quitting their jobs for fear of losing their lives to the Taliban terrorists.

I read about Police in Mexico quitting in fear of their lives and some even asking the US for asylum.

The police in these countries, the honest ones, have every reason to be fearful.  Retribution is quick and ruthless and could happen anywhere.

The bad guys have no fear of being apprehended and no respect for law, they are their own law.  A law that civilization thought it eradicated years ago.

The murderers will drive up to a police station in broad daylight and murder those inside it.  If there are innocents killed in the process, oh well, that’s life.

These people who perform these acts are no longer human.

Why give them the dignity of a human response.

Without an honest and compassionate security buffer such as police to protect and serve the general population, what will the general population be forced to do to insure safety?

Buy weapons and invoke vigilante justice?

There does not appear to be many alternatives does it?

Every man, woman and child on this planet deserves protection against those who wish to do bodily harm.

If that protection cannot be provided then every man, woman and child should be able to protect themselves and have the tools to do it with.

The government and many peoples are not going to like this, but there is no other way if police won’t work because it is too dangerous.

This is not a matter of choice any more, it is a matter of survival.

It also is a matter of survival for the governments in power if they can’t provide the security.  If security cannot be provided the government is useless.

With some of the people who are causing this mayhem, negotiation will not work.  Their self interests rule.

If it is a matter of the basics, such as food, shelter and clothing, give it to them for peace.

If it is for the green back and the indulgences it can buy, give them what they give others, a bullet.

Corporations, Bailouts and the Ethic of Reciprocity

The ethic of reciprocity is another term for the Golden Rule, which is commonly defined as do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  There are many variations on this theme but they pretty much mean the same thing.

It is also widely accepted that banks and other lending institutions do not lend money to people who really “need” it, but only those who could get by with out it it were necessary.

When have you ever heard a for profit institution bailing out a small business owner or individual when they were in dire straits?  Lending them money when they knew the income wasn’t there to pay them back or the debts were so huge that bankruptcy were inevitable?

They would say “Sorry, but you don’t qualify or your credit score is too low or you just owe too damn much.”

The little fellow would go bankrupt, lose his or her shirt and maybe home as well and be left to fend for themselves.

These same players who treat the little people with such compassion are expecting a lot from the same people they would not give the same consideration too.

The golden rule works two ways.  You wouldn’t do it for us, we can’t do it for you.

It is a basic principle in life that should not be forgotten.

Someone will pick up the assets for a dime on the dollar, the top management will be forced to adjust their lifestyles and their employees will eventually find work with the companies that picked up the assets and business of the failed firms.

This bail out which is costing dearly is going to cost a lot more when the Government needs the money to help the taxpayers and itself.

Throwing the green into the toilet now is not a sign of fiscal responsibility is it?  It isn’t helping the odds for next year which by all accounts appears to be worse than this year.

Maybe it is time the politicians listened to the will of the people.

The ethic of reciprocity applies to politicians and their minions as well as the masses doesn’t it?

The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.

Noam Chomsky said those words and when one looks at the center stage of the world today, the mega corporation is standing front and center.

These are the firms classified by many as “too big to fail”.

The ones who dictate to their employees their conduct and direction.  The businesses who take control of a human life to a whole new level.  Where they insure that their workers are available to answer to their whims at all times.

They “suggest” who their employees should vote for.  Some will even fire a worker for smoking in the privacy of their own home and electronic surveillance is commonplace.  Where the business is first and dignity of the human is in second place.

Corporations who spend millions lobbying and paying under the table for lucrative contracts.

Businesses who by their own admission find themselves in severe crisis and now demand billions upon billions of dollars from taxpayers to “help” them out.

If the shoe were on the other foot, they would crush you like a bug before raising a finger to help.

The world doesn’t need companies that are “too big to fail”.  If they are truly “too big to fail” they are too big to exist and must face failure, for the good of the people.

When this is understood by the people who are charged with the responsibility of spending the taxpayers money wisely, we may be taking the first step forward out of this economic crisis.

Waiting for the promised land

There are many people in this world waiting for God to send down that elevator to bring them to their mansions and virgins in the sky, depending on which faith they believe in.

If you were God, why would you have all those people who trashed this nice planet in Heaven so they can lay waste to it?  If religious extremists and fundamentalists go to heaven will they have terrorism there too?

Who is more acceptable to God?

Maybe the Jews or Jehovah’s Witnesses.  We can’t forget the Catholics and Muslims and Buddhists or Hindus or Evangelicals.

In any case the point is moot as we all die eventually and then we will find out if the joke is on us or not.  Or maybe we won’t find out because we are not comprehending anything anymore.

Meanwhile we are sitting on this great piece of real estate that we cordoned off so we can squabble with each other and point fingers deciding who will be on the up elevator or the down elevator.

That is akin to entering Auschwitz during the Holocaust and someone determining which line you are to proceed in.

Isn’t man tired of playing God yet?

Why don’t we approach this game a little differently from now on and try and make God proud that God created us?

If that is possible I mean.

Someone should sit down with all the World’s leaders and put it to them straight

Look we have a problem.

Too many of our peoples are suffering.  This planet is turning into a huge concrete garbage can and the beautiful places are disappearing because of construction and urban blight.

Let us formulate a plan and work together and solve these issues.  Force and suspicion are not the way.  We’ve already tried that and after the smoke is gone we have to deal with the fall out and agony.

We have to come to a solution acceptable to all.  Security and peace are priorities as are looking after those who need help.

We need to put away the artillery and nuclear weapons and make sure no one on this planet has them.

Ethnic cleansing must be stopped.

The poor that are helped must be encouraged to contribute for the aid they receive as best they can.  Idle hands breed contempt and trouble.

Ways must be devised for peoples to attain self sustenance with out ruining the environment.

People should be paid fairly for their work.  One dollar or five dollars for ten hour work days isn’t acceptable in this world.

People must be allowed to live free and with respect and they should respect in return.

There will always be those who disagree.  Let us through demonstrating our firm resolve with positive results minimize opposition.

What kind of species are we if we don’t try and fix these problems?

We can do it if everyone is willing.

It is up to you and together we can make it happen.

The alternative is unthinkable.

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”

Dom Helder Camara said those words and they are true.

With all the brainpower we have on this planet who have given us the ability to split atoms, read DNA and send men and women into space for prolonged periods of time, you would think we could come up with a system of governance and economics that will serve the poor as well as the wealthy and in-between.

Where everyone will be guaranteed the basics of life, food, clothing, shelter, water and those that wish to excel, be rewarded accordingly.

Where a corporation has no control except over its employees.

Where government is truly for the people and by the people.

Where deficit spending is not allowed.

Where Wall Street is no longer capable of wreaking the havoc that it has done, more than once.

It would be worthwhile to spend some money to come up with something that works and that servitude to economic masters is no longer the accepted way.

I am not recommending an end to capitalism, but recommending an initiative to reality.  There are more people on this planet than what we have good paying jobs for, that only guarantees social instability, poverty and hunger for millions.

We can do better than that, can we not?

Keeping your own money is a crime in most of the developed countries.

Taking it from you to build weapons of mass destruction, torture facilities, undercover entrapment scenarios, payoffs to criminals and bailouts to the poor deprived corporations that are too obese to fail are legal and OK.

If they run short, they’ll just reach in and take some more.

The right hand giveth a little, the left hand is around your throat.

They build prisons for rich prisoners and poor ones with your money so they can throw people like Martha Stewart in the clink for trying to save her own investment, but think nothing of letting a president go on about his business after starting two wars.

Your wallet is responsible.

Problem is they take it before you see it.  The money never reaches your pocket because your employer is the official tax collector.

How can you fight that?

It is not all bad of course.  Food stamps, unemployment insurance, medicare, welfare, education, reasonable defense, police, fire protection and roads and bridges are some examples of necessary government spending and tax dollars are the most efficient way of performing these services for the public good.

What about the rest?

Don’t worry, big bro will look after you as long as you comply.  Don’t stop giving or you will be sorry

Thou shalt persecute the Jew, the Palestinian, the Gay, the Alien and those who do not conform…..

Thou shalt honor the wealthy, idolize the actor and pay homage to the athlete.

Thou shalt listen to the rantings of the man on the pulpit as he is of the “cloth” and can do no wrong.

Thou shalt listen to your leaders, even if they have never been trained for what they do, are incompetent or use deceit to manipulate their desires.

Though shalt take over nations who dare defy you.

Thou shalt strive to appear like the ones you idolize.  Even if it means surgery for that “look”.

Thou shalt conform and be like the other “sheep”, even if there are a few poor victims who die in your stampede to glory and the “better” deal.

From what I read in the media about religion and politics, I would have to conclude that my new commandments have more validity than the old ones as they appear to be followed more often.

It is funny, I don’t read the Son of Man saying any of these things or the Preacher.

Christ said the peacemakers will be blessed.  He saved an adulteress from a certain death by stoning,  The Son of Man reattached an ear of a soldier determined to take him in for certain torture and death.

Not the words or deeds of a cluster bomb manufacturer are they?

He healed those who could not or would not be healed by man.

Sound like your favorite health care insurer to you?

If someone screwed up, he said go and sin no more.

The government keeps records till you die.  Nothing is forgotten or forgiven.

He said “Do not judge, lest you be judged.”

That is a good one.  Ever blog and news outlet are judgmental, including this blog.

He did not want children hurt.

Over 250,000 kids rot in prisons in America.

He did not believe in violence.

Tell that to the 100,000 plus civilians who died in Iraq, not including the injured or the Soldiers who lost their tomorrows.

He told his followers to give to those that need.

As the Ferrari rumbles through the ghetto.

And above all, he said forgive for every time it is asked.

Only if you pay homage to what we say.

The disease of ignorance

Ignorance is not really a disease but it is acting like one.

Once ignorance gains a foothold somewhere it is surprising how contagious it is and how fast it grows.

There are so many areas ignorance can effect.  When even the simple things in life are challenged by people who don’t know better but should know better, it leaves one to wonder doesn’t it?

If enough people are ignorant and have the power to vote based on their knowledge which is very limited, what kind of government will represent them?

An ignorant one.

The streets “Paved with Gold” are an illusion

The call for many to come to the Americas where the streets are “paved with Gold”, a reference to unlimited opportunity, are no more.

The place is now no different from many countries around the globe.

What happened?

In the last two hundred years the masses left oppression and poverty to settle in a place where there was an “opportunity” to live a better life, but the better life is now increasingly limited to the “select” few.

Government intervention and control have ballooned and the people administrating are increasingly incompetent and political.

What is the problem?

Too many people?  Not enough trust?  Too much crime and deception?

The Boston Tea party illustrated what is possible when people revolted against what they perceived as excessive taxation, which was then a fraction of what it is today.  Granted the government provides services that were not available in those days.  But these services account for only a small portion of all the tax collected.

Something is out of control.

Is it expectations?

Judging by the gated communities springing up across America over the last generation it may be concluded that security also appears to be a problem.  People don’t feel safe in typical suburbia anymore.  They would rather live within walls like the castles of days gone by.

It is a reflection of the times is it not?

Thirty One Million Americans on Food Stamps and a Drug War on it’s Border

It was reported today in Yahoo.com that 31 million Americans depend on food stamps. This number does not include the people who were forced to go to food banks or soup kitchens, etc.

I suppose that it is a good thing the food stamp program exists, otherwise there would be a lot more going hungry than there are.  Last week it was reported almost two out of ten Americans went hungry at one time or another in 2007.

The Cartel killed a Mexican Federal Prosecutor in CD Juarez in Mexico last night and 37 were murdered, many decapitated in Tijuana last weekend.  These numbers are becoming a weekly statistic of late.  The bombings in Iraq are making headlines for years, yet are being eclipsed by what is happening right on the border.

The violence in respect to drug related murders is having a devastating effect on Mexican border cities where police, government officials and prosecutors are murdered in broad daylight on a daily basis.  Innocent victims including children are being murdered with impunity in increasing numbers.

The violence South of the border is a result of the high demand for illegal substances such as marijuana, cocaine, crystal meth and such North of the border.

I can understand 2 0r 3 percent of Americans requiring aid and a few murders on occasion due to rifts between the Cartels, but the numbers are indicative of a disturbing trend and next year promises to be worse.

What are the respective governments going to do about it?

Drugs are an escape from reality for many.  A little bit of pleasure for those who have none.  They purchase without regard to the cost in human lives.  The numbers caught in the need for food stamps and aid are indicative of a land not doing well economically.

There is something seriously amiss in America.  Two wars are being waged on “Terrorists” on the other side of the world.  Wars which are expensive to maintain.  American coffers are being drained supporting a life line to the financial sector and people are losing jobs anyway.

Is there no control anymore?

The next real threat comes not outside its borders, but from within.  America’s citizens who are desperate and angry will rise up.  The Russians predict that America will split up into different regions in the future.  At first I thought the prediction was ludicrous, now I am not sure.

Looking from the outside in, that is a possibility isn’t it?

When the basic needs of life are threatened, such as food, security and shelter what is one to do?  Sit idly by while you watch your family and loved ones suffer?

This does not bode well.  It is time for some creative thinking and action as the weeds are growing thick and tall, an ideal haven for rats to hide.

Raw Talent!

I invite you all to go to this link and take a look at LuRain Penny’s filmette.

It is worth the time and trouble.

I loved it.

http://lurainpenny.wordpress.com/

Behind Closed Doors

When I drive somewhere I invariably pass homes, apartments, condos, motels and hotels.

These are places where people live.  Most always the doors to the outside world are closed.

I don’t know who lives there or what they do behind closed doors.

As long as someone isn’t being tortured, murdered, humiliated, raped or hurt, what concern is it of mine?

The people who live behind closed doors are living their lives as they seem fit to do, for the most part anyway.

If there is more than one person behind that door, what they do should be between them and not for others to dissect and judge.

I perceive that to be an issue with the world of late.  The door is being forced open and the “evil” eye of condemnation glares within.

What one does behind closed doors is no longer yours.

Slowly the protective veil of liberty is being drawn away.

When the day arrives when the closed door is no longer closed, what then?

The difficulties of communicating

I write in English to people who read English.

What my intent is when I put it into the written word does not always come across with the meaning I desired for the reader.

That is the bane of the written word.

We all have different levels of reading comprehension and vocabulary available at our disposal.

There are many different forms of English dialects and many words have diverse meanings.

The fact that we communicate at all is a miracle.

Many times we argue about something when we really agree, but a comment or phrase is misinterpreted.

I wonder how many wars were caused by this.

Some people are so far over my head with their skills I have to work hard to grasp what they mean.

It is always good to question if you don’t know.

“What do you mean by what you just wrote or said,” is a good way to start.  It may prevent bodily injury

Burma Railway and Memories

My mother finished reading a novel and it sent her back into time.

“The historical background the author used is factual,” she said to me, “I lived it and know what it was like.”

My mother’s brother was a 33 year old Dutchman with a new bride and children.  She was Indonesian.

My Uncle had a huge fight with my grandfather about his choice of bride and left Holland without the two of them mending the rift.

My uncle died in the second world war building the Burma railroad.

His wife and children suffered in Japanese concentration camps and I do not know whether they survived the ordeal or not.

My grandfather suffered a lot from the guilt of not having made peace with his son and it was then too late when he heard the news.  He died shortly thereafter.

My mother told me stories of the hardships she had to endure through the Nazi occupation.  She remembers Jews disappearing in the middle of the night and other atrocities and horrors.

She said there were a few good memories through this dark hole of history.  People became closer.  Heroism was known and noble deeds became a reality.

My mother does not get depressed thinking about those times.

“It is my life,” she said.

The USA, Russia and China’s refusal to ban certain weapons tell us what they are made of, doesn’t it?

Nearly one hundred nations have signed a pact to ban cluster bombs, according to a recent article in Yahoo.com.

The three countries who refused, manufacture them, sell them and use them.

They all proclaim “peaceful” intent, of course.  You know they need these cluster bombs for self defense.  Like the picture above illustrates, collateral damage is the cost of maintaining security.

Why do they “need” cluster bombs?  The bomb’s sole purpose is to inflict as much “collateral carnage” as possible,

I have no respect for any nation which has no respect for us, the people in this world, who are defenseless against these so called “weapons”.

If any of the leaders of the “Big” three had any courage they would sign the pact and set a precedent for peace and goodwill, using humility to force the others into compliance if possible.

If they don’t, we can only assume that the leaders’ minds are clustered with insanity.

“It’s your life, I can’t tell you what to do”

“I only took the one Vicodin Dad, but she tells me she doesn’t like it.  What do you think?”

“Are you asking me for advice?”

“Yes,” my son answered.

“Look, I’ve done all that stuff one way or the other when I was your age too.  Cigarettes and alcohol do much worse harm that some of the other drugs, but they are accepted, the other drugs are not.  What does it do for you?”

“Makes me feel good and relaxed,” he answered.

“You don’t feel good and relaxed without it?”  I asked.

“Yes, but you know!” was the reply.

“How does she feel about it?” I asked.

“It’s the drugs or her,” he answered.

“Put yourself in her place or change the situation around.  What would you think of her doing this stuff and maybe abusing it?  Would you like it?”

The response was slow in coming, “No.”

“You don’t need it.  She fell in love with you for who you are.  Taking it reduces you in her eyes,” I informed him.

Silence.

“What do you think?” he asked again.

“I love you.  You’re my son.  That won’t change regardless.  You asked and I’m going to give you my honest opinion whether you like it or not because I love you.  Take it from me, there is no mood altering substance that is worth anything.  I’ve done it and so have you.  It gives you a buzz, makes you happy for a bit and there is a down side too.  I don’t miss any of it and life is good.  Take it from me, it reduces you.  In any case it is your life and your decision to make but keep in mind, if you love her, consider what she said.”

That was the end of the conversation.

It’s cold out there and I wondered…..

….about the pioneers or people who lived here before the Europeans came.

There was no electricity, electronic devices, vehicles, pharmacies, dentists, health insurance, doctors, modern homes, plumbing, sewage, water pumps, government, supermarkets, convenience stores, police or fire departments.

This was not that long ago.  I knew people who lived under some or all of these conditions in their youth.  When I was a child, after we immigrated, we did not have running water for six years till I was twelve.  We chopped wood for the cooking stove in one house we lived in for about a year.  That is all history now.

I remember as a child watching the Indians live in a tee-pee beside the Red River for a full winter and was amazed how they did it.

When something went wrong, there were no telephones or anyone to call.  Fresh fruits or vegetables were non existent in the winter.

Most walked to where they had to be.  Many of them carried a lot of weight with them when going from place to place.

They made love and had babies without the benefit of training or hospitals.

They were a tough breed back then.  A lot tougher in many ways than what we can hope to be.  How many of us could survive under those conditions?

Making your own clothes and hunting and fishing for food.  Some tilled with horses or oxen and harvested with a scythe, all performed by bare hands and strong backs.

If the crop didn’t come in or game or fish not to be had, there were no food stamps or food bank to fall back on.

They did it, didn’t they?

“Nothing to look forward to when we’re dead”

A comment made on a video from a Christian discussing the nativity scene opposite a notice by Atheists announcing that angels and gods do not exist.

“I would rather look at a baby that was born for us,” the Christian said.

The Atheists maintain that Christmas had evolved from paganism.

Many ignore the current life in desire of an after life, a promise they believe is true.

I am inclined to agree with the Atheists on this issue.

The problem I see is the lack of tolerance for either side toward the other.

Atheists are heathen and Christians are superstitious hypocrites, according to what each side believes and what is popularized.

Not all of them are critical of each other, but the non-critical are a minority on either side.

What does it matter?  Christ taught peace and many Atheists are peaceful.  Christians are taught to be kind and generous, and many Atheist are that way as well.

Faith is what each person has for his or her self.  It is very subjective and should not be made a tool for aggression.  Atheists have faith that God doesn’t exist, Christians have faith God does.

It isn’t worth killing or hurting anyone over is it?

After all if God exists, it will be known.  If God doesn’t exist, who will be hurt by believing or not believing.

Our actions toward each other will determine how our life is on this planet.  Live together in peace or apart in turmoil.

The CEO of Ford will work for a $1 a year with a bail out, what about without a bail out?

It is a very generous offer, working for virtually nothing for a year in order to make a good impression.

I am sure he is sincere, there is not much room for anything but in these times.

However the headlines can be read more than one way can’t they?

You mean he won’t work for nothing without the bailout?

It is something to think about isn’t it?

You can’t claw your way to the top of the snake pit without having some of it rub off.

Lately politics has been in the news too often and not enough honesty displayed by anyone participating in the political arena or those making their living reporting or analyzing it.

Deal making behind the scenes and promises not kept.  That is the norm.  Even Obama is guilty of it and he was supposed to represent change.

You can’t claw your way to the top of the snake pit without having some of it rub off.

What is wrong with honesty?

I don’t know, I made a mistake, I can’t do that, I won’t do that, it’s my fault, I didn’t see it coming are phrases they don’t like, but at least can be understood by the rest of us because that is reality.

Promises are a way to buy votes.

Breaking them is a slap in the face to voters, who soon forget.  Politicians, the snake part of them anyway, know this.

Peace and Good Will to All

This is the time of year when those words are repeated the most often.

They could be repeated all year, but aren’t, unfortunately.

Why not?

When I was a kid, you could sense when this time of year approached.  On the index of compassion and tolerance, the mood of peace generally increased .5 %.  Above analysts’ expectations.  Then tax season came shortly thereafter, spoiling the mood of goodwill at least.

It appears that the peace and goodwill part is no longer a factor today.  For many it is stress, loneliness, incurring of debt and the feeling they can’t wait until the day is done and on to the New Year’s festivities.

We should rename this holiday to the Day of Peace.  I am sure Christ would have no problem with that if he was still alive.  After all he promoted peace.

That way there won’t be any religious hangups to worry about.  Atheists, Agnostics, Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and everyone on this planet could do with a little peace and goodwill, could they not?

They gave me a 25 year mortgage and I won’t live that long.

It isn’t subprime, it’s common sense, isn’t it?

I’m not complaining, but they gave me a twenty five year mortgage this year and I turned 57 this year.

The average life expectancy is 72 years or was anyway.  I happen to smoke so I don’t have life insurance.  Life insurance isn’t worth what I have to pay for premiums, not to me anyway.  They probably won’t be around to pay the beneficiaries anyway.  I am thinking AIG.

I am expected to retire in eight years and have nothing put away for that.  I am going to be in default in eight years unless the recession makes it sooner and my income fizzles out.

Were the underwriters really thinking?  Were they going to make out like bandits after they foreclose and my home appreciates?  What if it depreciates?  I think it already has.

Anyway, this is my homestead now and I ain’t moving for no one, foreclosure or not.

I have nothing left to lose, so they will be looking at a mean old bastard holding a baseball bat if they try and take it.

After all who wants to live on the street, not I.

How many people are virgins when they marry?

I have met and associated with thousands of people during the course of my life and I daresay very few were virgins when they married.

That sure blows a big hole into the “Though shalt not commit adultery” command in the old Testament doesn’t it?

Is this defiance of one of the commandments a Western thing?

I don’t believe so.

It is very difficult to stay a virgin after puberty decides to step in and make fools of our good intentions.  Being a man I know this, having lost mine at a very young age to a young lady who had lost hers even earlier.

What happens next?

I remember feeling ecstasy the morning after, and a little guilt, wondering if I was going to take the mass transit to Hell.

I mean God wasn’t going to like this was He?

Life went on pretty much as it had prior to me losing my virginity except I wanted more of that and every sultry looking, seductive female person was a candidate.

The hunt was on.

Now having a chance to reflect on things, would I have wanted it any different?

No.

I would have exploded if it didn’t happen, the sex I mean.

Does anyone really know what adultery means?  That is the only commandment they included which has no clear concise definition.  Sure, you can go a few pages further and it describes some things which may or may not be defined as adultery, but God wouldn’t have fine print, would He?

The commandment would have been a lot more understandable if it said, “Thou Shalt not have Intercourse until you get married and no screwing around after that”.  But it didn’t say that did it?

Adultery is the only word in the big Ten that could take books to define.  Maybe it was put there to screw with our minds, like a game.  It is one commandment that make hypocrites out of a lot of believers.  If you don’t believe me, as Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker, Bill Clinton, Ichabod  and Pastor Haggard.

The ones not on this list just haven’t been caught yet.

I prefer God’s first commandment, “Go forth and multiply”.

When police and firefighters are laid off, what will come next?

CHULA VISTA – City officials in Chula Vista may eliminate 165 staffers, including police officers and firefighters, close down the nature center, the EastLake Library, a pool and a gym under a proposal being rolled out to the public Monday night.  source, sighnonsandiego.com.

It is starting to feel like it is going to get pretty ugly over the next two years unless they can turn it around and that is not likely.  The state of California is also dealing with a fiscal emergency and if they don’t solve it will run out of money in three months.

Police and fire protection are the base of what we expect for our tax dollar.  We can do without a lot that they pay for, but security and safety are paramount.

When criminals realize it will be easier to commit crimes and not be apprehended, they will commit more.  Until the system breaks, like in Tijuana where 37 people have been murdered last weekend alone.  Those are only the ones they know about.

The pressure on people with work or benefits is forcing a few to consider doing that which they have not done before,  break the law to survive.

If Ghosts really exist, how do you know if you haven’t spoken to one?

Many people believe in ghosts.

They may not admit it in public as they are very protective of their status in the community, but they do believe.

That is why many people sleep with a light on at night, to keep the ghosts away.

My thinking is that if ghosts were real, they would not be solely relegated to the midnight shift.  My thinking is that they would be around all the time when they are not sleeping of course, assuming a ghost needs a little rest now and then, or has a ghost job to do.

If my theory is correct and ghosts do exist, then they may be walking and talking like the rest of us.

Maybe that’s what Caucasians are, ghosts.  They look ghostly.  I am a Caucasian but I am blessed with a good tan most of the time.

Maybe the fellow you were speaking to on the airplane is a ghost and you don’t know it.  Maybe you sleep with one?  Scary huh?

I suppose the only way you can tell is if they are always cold.

I really don’t know, do you?

“Yes, I am my brother’s keeper”

“I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death.” …Eugene V. Debs from a 1908 speech.

The days are arriving when many people will be facing their time in history.    A time that may not be pleasant, for there are brothers and sisters who will be caught up in the insanity of self and nationalism to perform harm on others.

As these brothers and sisters commit their deeds against the weak and the poor, people will have to take the other side.

Immigrants are looked upon with suspicion and ire.  The poor are looked upon as less than human, to be insulted and spit upon for they have the nerve to ask for food, shelter or a hand.  They have no choice.  The only alternative is to ask from someone who has to give.

For those who preach that education, hard work or religion will overcome, that is not always true.

The people who preach such things have not lived in circumstances wholly beyond their control.  These circumstances do exist although many will deny it so.

What good is hard work when the wages barely if at all pay for a few morsels?  What good is education if there is no opportunity to practice it?  What good is a savior when you are starving and watch your babies waste away?

The corporation does not care for these things.  The corporation only cares for its own prosperity, survival and collective pride.

That leaves the people who care.

The people who don’t mind extending a hand and touching another.  Those who will give from their table to those in need.  Those who will share whatever is necessary to ensure a brother or sister has that opportunity we should all have.

Eugen Debs got it right.

I am my brother’s keeper and he is mine.

I changed my mind

I suppose that is something I have done many times in my life.

There were times it was necessary, sometimes not.

Last week I decided I was going to quit this blog.

It has become part of me and I did not realize it.  It is my “voice” as it were.

I read the news, put up holiday decorations, started a tractor that wouldn’t start and twiddled my thumbs.

I even started a new blog, which I’ll keep.

I have met friends that I consider dear and have had diverse communications with.

This was a creation to keep me occupied, and when I quit last week I discovered it was more than that.

It has become something it was not meant to be, part of me.

The crowd is a body without a mind

I read with dismay about the employee murdered and others injured in trying to save him, as the rush of “shoppers” overwhelmed the WalMart employee when the store opened the doors on Black Friday.

There is no excuse for this pandemonium.

The crowd is a mindless body that just does.

Because of this tragedy, the store decided to close its doors and shoppers were “indignant”.

I man lost his life and others were injured and the perpetrators were “indignant”?

The people who pushed and shoved and trampled the body as if it were a welcome mat should be charged with murder or manslaughter.

Is a “bargain” worth a person’s life.

It appears so in many areas of the world.

Very few have respect, patience or are willing to extend a courtesy to another.

I suggest the store is closed permanently. Not out of respect, but to teach the people who shop there that there are limitations to disorderly behavior and a line was crossed.

Adios mi compadres

The Headless Horseman beckons and it is time for me to move on my journey.

Today was a day of reflection and I decided writing is no longer my forte.

There is much to do in this planet and I am not done yet.

It is not my way to spend my life as I have over the last few years in front of a monitor.

My way is to be with real people, real music, real grit and living real life and not to wallow and stagnate.

My motto has always been to work hard and play well.

Too much of one without the other can make a man other than what he should be.

It is time to find the other.

Thank you for reading and commenting on this printed journey.

Regards

Ichabod

ps

I have changed my mind since writing this post, but there are comments here that I treasure so I’ll keep this this post alive.

Give unto Cesar

Miss Penny said a prayer for me today.

I went outside as I do every evening and looked upon the blackness above and was struck with awe as I observed the celestial bodies hanging in eternity.

I felt the spirits from the ancients around me.  It was almost tangible.

A spinning ball of rock, lava and water, surrounded by a thin layer of atmosphere, orbiting around a heat and light giving star.  This body is one of an infinite number in this galaxy and universe.  It is our home and we are but minute life forms who live upon it.

It is poetry of life.  A fine balance that defies logic.

We insignificant mortals choose to believe we are greater than we are or that which caused us to be.

There is “God”s law and the law of “Man”.

Every faith and religion in this world which accounts for anything lays at its foundation the cornerstone of peace, and it is defiled by the followers of every religion and faith on this planet.

Peace only begins with looking after those who cannot look after themselves.  It is the putting of others before oneself.  It is respect for all and their respect in return.

No one is above the other or lesser than.

Cesar demanded total and absolute devotion.  It is an aberration to that which is willed by powers and laws far greater than Cesar can imagine.

It is up to us to choose which master we shall follow in this life.  All will die as they have died throughout history.

As one ancient described many centuries ago and the phrase was told before and after with different words, but went something like this:  “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

You don’t have to be religious or of any particular faith to see that these words have a meaning today as they have had in the past and will have in the future.

When people go hungry in a land of plenty, when political expedience takes precedence over compassion and giving,  when societies’ budgets are weighed down from excess and the burden of maintaining awesome weaponry when children and brothers and sisters die for lack, there is a major problem with Cesar.  This is not only one society or culture that is guilty of this, it is with all.

We all have a choice.

This can be a world in which Cesar rules or peace and love prevail.

Peace and love know no judgment.  Only Cesar demands judgment.

Cesar is mortal, the Other is not.

I wrote Miss Penny a comment after I wrote this on her post “Dog is God spelled backward – bless his big black head – a tribute by LuRain, part 1″

LuRain;

Your prayer for me sent a tremor in the spiritual fabric of this thing called life and touched my soul which spawned one last post which started with “Miss Penny said a prayer for me today”, and the post is titled “Give unto Cesar”.

I am not superstitious by nature or religious in the popular sense, but the words that I wrote did not come from my brain per se, but flowed from an outpouring of inspiration and truth which I believe was prompted by your prayer and the thoughts you shared with your live in friend.

That was my last post as nothing needs to be said after that.

I thank you for the gift of that prayer, it touched and I touch you and Codifier back with one of my own.

Peace and love.

Ichabod

Is there any “Good” news out there?

If you are in a cold climate, much of the time is spent indoors.

Consequently people watch television, go to the Internet or focus on games and hobbies.

I daresay 99% of all is negative and the world is going to hell in a hand basket.

Most companies are still in business, the vast majority of workers have jobs and money is circulating.

The attacks in India has the world focused on “terrorism”.

The truth is a tiny fraction of the world’s population is affected.

For most the sun still sets and dawn arrives as per schedule.

Why is it we are so focused on the negative?

It feeds upon itself and grows, sometimes for no reason.

Do Atheists Celebrate Thanksgiving?

If so, who or what are they thankful to?

Maybe they don’t celebrate it and just take the day off.

The concept of thanksgiving is to be thankful for our lives and abundance thereof.

There is no human on this world that is worthy of such gratitude.

So it must be something else people give thanks to.

Is it superstition?

We all have some superstition don’t we?

Maybe they thank themselves for their own good fortune.

Or maybe not.

Life based soley on logic is not as much fun as having a little superstition in it.

That is why so many people choose to believe in something else beside themselves.

The phrase “Oh my God” is often spoken during extreme events.

There is no thought made when the words are spoken.

They come.

It is a thought that came to me this morning.

There is an answer I am sure.

What it is eludes me.

Maybe it is not for me to know.

We are all part of something far greater than I

Many of us don’t know it, recognize it, see it, feel it or acknowledge it.

Sages, prophets, children, fools and drunks know it to be true.

The masses need to be reminded.

Have you never once wondered about it?

Why we are here of course.

Why we struggle with the burdens, raise children, enjoy, laugh and cry.

Is it just to grow old and die?

I think not.

Unless we regress to the mind set of youth, when everything is a wonder and still is, it is so easy to be jaded by our attitudes and experiences on this planet.

For many of us it is taught to us that way, but the teachers who taught us this, peers, parents, society and business, are not the teachers we should listen to sometimes.

There are other teachers on this planet who do not speak.

They are all around us.  We never take the time to notice our teachers.

Although they have no voices, their lessons are extremely profound and enlightening.

I speak of life, for the living.

The Fundamentals

“I’m sorry, he can’t come to the phone he is in a meeting.”

“Leave a message, I will be back in two days and will return your call.”

“Press one for enquires, press two for the main menu.”

Does anyone “work” anymore or are they too busy having meetings and formulating what they plan on doing?

Then you have people with job titles so ambiguous you or the person holding the title have no idea what it means or what they have to do.

It takes almost 17 years of a person’s life to go to kindergarten, graduate from high school, obtain a degree and then they have to add on some more time as their employer trains them for their job.

That is a lot of time to spend to earn $50,000 a year isn’t it?

Maybe this society of ours had best rethink a lot of things.

No wonder we are all living longer.  We need the time to accomplish the same thing we accomplished when the lifespans were shorter.

I call this bullshit.  Others call it progress.

The undoing of it all, the Black Market

Ever since I was a kid, in every country I have lived in, there existed a Black Market.

For those who aren’t aware it means “The illegal business of buying or selling goods or currency in violation of restrictions such as price controls or rationing.”

Most prevalent black markets in the industrialized nations trade in illicit drugs, arms, illegal labor, sex and booze.

The people who offer goods or services not sanctioned by those in power tend to make enormous sums of money for the risks to freedom and life they undertake and the consumers of black market goods benefit from receiving something they could not otherwise have.

We have all heard of shadow banking, the black market is the shadow economy.

In some areas of the world the black market supplies basic needs such as food and clothing.

The biggest fear any government and peoples have is anarchy.  Total loss of control.

There is a fine balancing act to be done by governments in the future.  If they lose control to the point that they are too expensive to maintain or their rules are too much for the populations to bear, this will act as an ideal breeding ground for black markets everywhere.

They will be the new employers of tomorrow, the new hope for the oppressed and poor.

They will not be burdened by regulation.  Regulation is their air, food and water.

They may be a force to be reckoned with, politically and economically.  If they grow too large, the regular economy will never recover.

For the leaders of the world spending the trillions to shore up “interests”, remember there are other “interests” waiting to step in.

In either case, the money machine will survive.

A Murderer’s Motivation

Every day there are reports of murders by “Terrorists”.

Mumbai, New York, Baghdad, Africa, Mexico and other places are witness to these events.

What is their purpose?

Do the religious extremists want people to convert to their religion?  Do the cartels want people to consume more drugs?  The oppressed want more freedom?

Or are they all endowed with the gene that makes serial killers what they are and would murder regardless?

Are their actions going to further their cause?

Are dead women, children and men in a bus or busy market showing the world how sane and right their cause is?

Maybe they hate people?

Should the world build more insane assylums and insure there are plenty of barred windows and padded cells withing?

Killing innocents has never served a purpose has it?

No one knows God

Those who make claims for God do not know any more than those who don’t.

Since the beginning, mankind has been aware that he and she is not alone.

Effects, anecdotal experiences and the plain weird and inexplicable happen in life where there appear to be no other explanation than it’s from God.

We have discovered laws we mostly obey.  We discovered a long time ago that to cohabit on this planet with others like us, these laws require following.  When broken, they seem to echo through the Universe and the reverberations cause a disturbance which eventually returns to the source.

It has not be disproved.

God can not be disproved.

What people claim is of God and what is true is another matter entirely.

Dead Beat

Dead Beat is a description for a person who strikes no chord in life.

I love children.

I have my own children and have not always been there for them.  Not because I didn’t want to, but circumstance oft made it impossible.

I had faith that when they needed a man in their life to take their father’s place in a moment of need, someone would come to fill the void.

When I see a child in need, I am there to take someone’s place for a moment in time.

I believe what goes around comes around.

I am not a dead “beat”.

I bang the drum!

It’s not God’s job, it’s our job

Thanksgiving is a day many people will stuff their faces and pray to God for thanks.  Many won’t.

People in the “rich” countries with a large proportion of “middle class” citizens are fortunate and should be thankful for what they enjoy.

Millions don’t have anything, including the opportunity to eat or be educated or receive medical attention.

The picture on this post has had an impact on me from the day I saw it.

This little person is my avatar, my symbol.

The little boy or girl pictured may not be alive any longer.  He or she did not appear to be in the best of shape.

There is no hope there.  God didn’t seem to care one way or the other about this little creation.

He or she could have grown to be a fine human being if given the chance.

The child is probably dust again.

Maybe it is not God’s job to see that people are looked after.  Maybe it is ours and we failed.

When you are thanking God, think of this little person.

The Turkey Holocaust

I am a turkey.

I Just gobble away and mind my own business.  I look after all my turkey wives and turkey children and life is pretty good.

Then this two legged monster comes into our pen with an axe and decapitates us all.

I am writing this post from turkey heaven.  They tell me I will be reincarnated at around Easter next year.

When I come back, I am going to start a turkey revolution.  We are going to grow teeth and twenty or thirty of us will get one of those two legged monsters with the axe and cook him for Thanksturkey dinner.

Wouldn’t they be shocked!

Happy Thanksgiving folks

How Stupid can they get?

Peace and security.  How do you achieve that?

Making sure people have food, shelter and clothing.

When people are going hungry, they get desperate.

They kidnap, steal and murder to get what they need.  After the first successful attempt, it becomes easier as it goes along till the criminal becomes animal in human skin.

Forget Wall Street and the banks.

Fix the two out of ten hungry people in America first.

Otherwise they will turn on you with a vengeance.

From the frying pan into the fire

An article in FoxNews.Com reports:

A Russian scholar is predicting that the United States’ current financial crisis will lead to the breakup of the country.

Igor Panarin, a professor at the diplomatic academy of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the newspaper Izvestia on Monday that America will break apart into six regions following the crisis.

“Dissatisfaction is growing, and it is only being held back at the moment by the elections, and the hope that [President-elect] Obama can work miracles,” according to a translation by Bloomberg. “But when spring comes, it will be clear that there are no miracles.”

Panarin predicts the U.S. will split into: the Pacific, the South, Texas, the Atlantic coast, the central states and the northern states, and hinted that Alaska could be Russia’s for the taking.

The professor said China and Russia will become the world’s great regulators.

For a scholar that sounds a little ridiculous doesn’t it?  Unless he is privy to some knowledge the rest of us don’t have.  The Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, holds a very dire view of America’s future as well.

America went through a revolution, civil war, a couple of World Wars and the Great Depression and it hung together.  Why should it be any different today?

The Separated States of America, SSA.

That sounds ominous doesn’t it?

Fifteen year old hero

My nineteen year old son was cut off by a car tonight. As he pulled into his driveway in Southern California with his girl friend, six men climbed out of the car and accosted my son.

Apparently fists flew and one of the assailants tried to steal my son’s watch.

While this was going on, a fifteen year old boy jumped out of nowhere into the fray to help my son.

My son is 160 pounds soaking wet and he said the fifteen year old was smaller than he.  They were fighting men a lot larger than they.

When the kid got involved, the six decided to depart in a hurry.

My faith in humanity went up today big time.  In the news you hear so often about crimes being committed and no one willing to help.

The odds were stacked in favor of the six assailants and the kid jumped in anyway.

I wish I knew his name.  I’ll find out tomorrow.

My son will be all right, just a few bruises, scrapes and a black eye.

Last post on Uncle Sam’s finances

This blog is done writing about the obvious, Uncle Sam’s empty wallet.

Obama has his work cut out for him and George W. isn’t finished wreaking havoc yet.

There is nothing a lowly blogger like moi can do to alleviate the situation, so why write anymore about it when countless others are happy to point out all the shortcomings of this economic crisis.

I hope for the American people that they come out of this better than when they came in.

It appears it may be a struggle but the opportunity exists to show fellow man what patience, tenacity and good old hard work can do to overcome.

It will be good for those who never learned what the word work or sacrifice means yet.

That is what you call character building, not only for the nation, but for the individual as well.

This is not meant to demean America, this is meant to wish them well.

Go for it.  Show them what you are made of.

Truth is always stranger than fiction

There are novels galore in reader land and people buy them and lose themselves a bit.

Television and movies also promote the fantasy of our existence,

From what I observe in life, I don’t think there is a work of fiction out there that can compare to what really happens on this planet.

Imagination is real good for us.  Once imagination is stimulated, who knows what can and may happen.  The Star Trek television series is said to have spawned a few ideas that came to be fact in our world.

Dreams have made us stand above other life forms.  Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci and Albert Einstein are but a few examples of dreamers who made contributions to life.

It is good to promote imagination and not suppress it.

The world will always find enough labor.  To discover a dreamer who achieves, those are rare.

Johnny Walker’s Eulogy

I was standing in front of my home in Mexico one Sunday morning with a coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other, enjoying the weather. I turned to see a man standing some fifty feet from me, head bent forward, staring at his feet. His knee was bandaged, his clothes ragged.

I remembered seeing him staggering past my home at different times, drunk or stoned.

For some reason I said “Good morning” in English.  He was obviously a Mexican, so I don’t know to this day why I didn’t say it in Spanish.

He looked up and replied, “Good morning. I had an unfortunate accident on a fishing boat a few weeks ago and need to rest more often when walking.”

His response startled me.  Not only in English, but apparently educated as well.

He called himself “Johnny Walker” because he liked the spirits with the same name. When he was young he claimed to be a top amateur boxer and basketball player, representing Mexico in California.  He met Wilt Chamberlain and had crossed paths with Kim Bassinger in Puerto Nuevo.

He laughed, said good bye and walked down to the village.

A few months had passed and I heard an old boat that was stored on an empty lot a block from my house had burned.  Two men died in that fire.  I found out later one of them was Johnnie Walker.

I don’t know him and this is probably the only eulogy he received.  At least someone remembers you Johnnie and believes you were not always a drunk. Farewell.

The Surgeon and the Earthquake

I was driving through the village on a Sunday morning and I noticed the doctor’s office was open. I had injured myself some three months earlier and a wound on my chin was not healing.  So I stopped in.

There was no one in the waiting room or reception if you could call it that.  It was a room with a few chairs, a desk, a computer, a few diplomas on the wall and a picture of who I assumed was a doctor.

The door opened to the back room and a slight man walked out and greeted me.  He did not look like the Doctor in the picture.

There was dandruff on his coat and his hands were shaking terribly.  I assumed he was on drugs or had an alcohol problem.

I showed him my injury and he looked at it and said it should be operated on.  The other doctor would do it if I would care to wait.

He put me in the back room in a dentist’s chair and reclined it and started prepping me while we waited.  He frittered about from one cabinet to another and kept saying “OK, OK.” in his quest for things.

Then he asked me if I could handle pain.  I thought to myself they probably wanted to save on anesthetic.   I was so tired of the wound I was prepared to go without the drug.

“No,” he laughed, “I was concerned the needle may disturb you.  I want you to be comfortable.”

I would have been more comfortable with the other doctor.

He called  the doctor but he was running late, so he decided to do it himself.

I felt him shaking as he steadied himself on my chest as he removed a foreign object from my chin and sewed me up.

After it was done we stood outside and talked.  I asked him why he shook so much.

“Remember Mexico city in 1985, the earthquake?” he asked.

“Yes”

“I was a trauma surgeon then.  My team and I were performing surgery when the hospital collapsed.  I was buried under the rubble for three days on top of the dead patient.  I was the only one who survived.  The pain and stench was excruciating and I kept losing consciousness.  I heard the jack hammers looking for survivors and the only thing that kept me alive was the thought of my two young boys who needed me.  I’ll never operate again except for minor surgeries like yours.”

There was something about the experience and the Surgeon that made my day.  You can never judge a person by apearance can you?

I left feeling so good about life and people.  It was an experience one cannot truly describe.

The Artist and the Musician

Paco and Armando were in a heated discussion. It was three in the morning and the three of us were talking about many things and the inevitable happened between the two masters of their crafts.

“I believe that art contributed more to society and culture than music,” declared the fiery Armando, a sculptor and painter.

“Not close,” countered Paco, a guitarist, with a temper and pride second to none.

I sat back and enjoyed, ready to intercede if it catapulted beyond mere words.

It didn’t, but came close.  I don’t believe the two of them spoke after that.

When they left I thought about it.

Then I remembered the sound of war drums and how they made a soul stir.

The plaintive wail of the pipes made one feel far away.

The emotion felt listening to blues, happy or sad.

The vibrant excitement of rock and roll.

I have seen many forms of art, some pretty some not.  After I left the memory disappeared.

When I listen to a trumpet wail and another reply in the distance there is no comparison to music and how it connects to the soul.

That is how I feel.

Only in Mexico hey Paco, hey Armando!

Wise words

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change

Courage to change the things I can

And wisdom to know the difference.

The talk all over and in the news is mostly about issues we cannot change.  Not individually or as a society.

There is palpable fear and suffering being felt in many parts of the world and we know it is real.

Not a damn thing we can do about it is there?

There are many things that do come into our little realms that we may have an opportunity to affect the outcome of.

That is something we may be able to change.

It is more than anyone can ask for.  That one little opportunity to make a little difference for self or another.

The rest is really not worth getting into, is it?

Come, Come, Whoever You Are

Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow

a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.

A poet by the name of Rumi penned this poem six or seven hundred years ago.

There is something about it that appeals to me but I can’t really say what it is.  It seems so unconditional without boundaries or prejudice.

These are words you don’t hear that often today.

Maybe because the world is too fearful of throwing something like this out there.

They should print a different color on bail out funds

When the cash starts circulating, people will be able to see for themselves who, what and where, it is benefiting the most and how much it really represents.

It will also be a barometer for accountability and responsibility.

It may not be much as cash is so infrequently used, but it will keep the taxpayer aware six months from now when this is normally forgotten.

Obama has plans, will he have the money?

The Fed is throwing hundreds of billions at the financial system again. Instead of promoting fiscal responsibility like the individual should practice, they are promoting credit.  Didn’t credit cause this mess?

Who are they working for?  The Mafia?  The Cartels?

That is “your” tax money they are spending.

Actually that is not correct.  Your current tax money is gone and then some.

That is future tax money and they won’t have enough without digging their hands deeper into your pockets.

What will be left for the taxpayer, peanuts?

Or a fancy bill with terms only a roach can read.

Maybe if I gain a hundred pounds I’ll be too big to fail

That is the reasoning in Washington lately.

Too big to fail.

Maybe they are using the wrong terminology.

I didn’t see a corporate size gauge anywhere did you?

How big do I have to get before I am too big to not make it?

The government is feeding the obese, surely killing those who they want to save.

We all know excessive size is bad for your health.

What is true with the individual is often just as true for the corporation or government.

They just can’t see past the layers of fat, can they?

Unless you have experienced it, how will you know?

I remember the recession in the early eighties. I was out of work and managed to get three jobs in two months.  Those three prospective employers each called me prior to my start date informing me that the position was no longer available due to the economy.  “Sorry to tell you…….”

None of the firms survived.

That forced me into self employment.

It looked good for a while.  When the business started having a few problems I borrowed against my home to keep it going.  I was racing to the wall and listened to everything but common sense.

I can keep it going I convinced myself.  Hard work always pays off.

Not really.  Luck is always a factor.  There was a wall there and I thought I could go over or around it.  They call that self delusion.

When I hit that wall one day, I was left with nothing.  Literally.  I walked away from a home I built myself and had almost been paid for and left with the clothes on my back.  My marriage was in ruins as well.

Forget about credit.  People and companies who had welcomed me with open arms because I had a stellar rating now treated me like a pariah, even though they all pretty much got paid, if not the interest at least the principle.

I often said the downside to going into business and losing is greater than if I were a mugger and grabbed an old lady’s purse.  At least the mugger would get three squares and not have to worry where it is coming from.

I know what hunger is.  I went five days without food, just water.  I could have asked, but my pride said no.

When the check finally arrived I went out and bought a cheeseburger and got sick because my stomach couldn’t handle it.  I went out that evening and spent half the check in a bar, forgetting and losing myself to the music.

When you are young, pride is a powerful voice.  Pride left a long time ago, I wasn’t fun for pride anymore and it got bored.

I am still self employed and had tasted defeat a few more times, just as bad as the first.

Now I am on my third or fourth revival and I see what is happening out there and I think, no not again.

After a while you get tired of picking up the pieces and starting anew.

This time if I hit the wall again, I’m going to say screw it, move somewhere I can pick bananas off the trees and fish in blue waters and leave the money machine to history.

And I’ll die happy

The Dog Conversation

Down south on the US border with Mexico two dogs met.

The Mexican dog looked thin and his fur left a little to be desired.

The Mexican pooch looked with envy upon his American friend who was well fed, groomed and had a manicure.

The American friend looked at his Mexican brother and invited him over to live with him.

The Mexican dog thought that was great and wagged his tail.

The American dog cautioned the Mexican dog about the rules.

“What rules?” asked the Mexican dog.

“The master puts a leash on us and takes us for a walk so we can take a dump.”

The American dog did not realize the Mexican dog had stopped and turned around.  When he finally noticed he called out, “Where are you going?”

“Back home.  At least I can bark there!”

What will happen to all these blogs ten years from now?

Nobody will have the time or patience to read all this garbage.

Will it be used against us?

What happens if the CIA starts searching all of them for clues?

Will you go for a job interview and will they have your printed posts on the desk in front of them.  Will they  have smirks or disapproval written on their faces?

Or a new love walks into your life and she or he reads your blog and discovers they don’t like you.

My blog is a way to pass a little time between events in my life as there are always many events.

I really do not care if my blog survives or not.

I probably won’t remember in a year all the posts I have written and if I were to read them, I’ll probably assume someone else had written them.

Even in my own mind I realize the blog is only temporary.

It is our way of speaking to the world and saying, “Hey, I am alive and here.”

Good Night All

The Soul

We hear it often enough, the word soul that is.

What is it?

There are many definitions for it.

I feel mine and it is not easy to describe.

It responds to many things and events.  My soul loves people, music, a tequila now and then, beautiful places, privacy, accomplishment, creativity, imagination, nobility and life.

As a matter of fact I think my soul is life itself.  Soul is just another word for it.

We don’t appreciate our souls as much as we should.  Many people want to live forever but don’t do anything with their lives.  They are just too scared to let it go.

Others take life too lightly and it is no longer life but something expected.

Life is a privilege, not a right.

We have no control who is born to whom.

We have no control when our final day will be.

Knowing that, we should make the most of our soul, for our soul’s sake.

Is technology going too far?

I admit there are many things I like about technology. My income, my cell phone, the resources the Internet makes available at the click of a button and so many other things.

I do believe that we are getting too dependent on it and it is costing.

I was at a supermarket where you priced, bagged and paid for your own groceries.  I prefer dealing with a human cashier and she or he has a job.

You can’t go anywhere and technology insures “they” can find you.  Even if it is none of their business.

People spend more time alone playing electronic games, surfing the web or watching television than being with people.

When was the last time you had a family meal, played cards with friends or socialized a bit?

How many times do we say we are busy but really aren’t?  We are just consumed by the electronics.

The corporations would have us believe we can’t live without an IPod or Blackberry.

I could do without.

Maybe there would be more work, smaller corporations and less Government intrusion and we would all have more friends.

The ATM ripped me off

In the middle of a transaction it went burp, spit my card back at me, took the money from my account, charged me for the privilege and didn’t spit out any coin.

Fortunately I was in a Credit Union.  I dutifully reported it to the nice people inside.

They told me I had to wait two days till they counted it.  I gave them printouts of my hijacked bank records.

I waited two days and received a call.

“Yes, we verified that you were not given the money.  We are over the exact amount you claim as being shorted.”

“Good, I’ll come over for the money.”

“We can’t give it to you,” she told me.

“Why not.  It’s your machine and I’m out the money?”

“We have to have your bank ask us for it first.”

That was two weeks ago.

I called the police and they won’t do anything.  My bank says to wait three weeks as they have to “investigate”.

If it were the other way around we all know what would happen wouldn’t we?

Government “smoking” hypocrisy

Smoking will kill us.  We are murdering those within sniffing distance and therefore they can tax the hell out of us after we are addicted to help us “quit”.

They are so kind aren’t they?

The government sues everyone in the growing and manufacturing of tobacco and throws the money somewhere.

I quit once for twelve years and started again.  It’s over $9 for a pack now.

They used to advertise menthol cigarettes as being soothing for your throat.

Now we are in a financial crisis and I do not really think our Cartel educated government wants to see all of us quit because we are supplying more money than we are using.

So the government thinks its OK for us to commit slow burning suicide and murder others with second hand smoke as long as they get their cut of the action.  That is what I call hypocrisy.

If a cigarette were a gun, we would all be in the slammer.

Is there such a thing as right or wrong or is it all negotiated compromise?

Compromise is a good thing.

Right and wrong are too.

Serial killing and activities like that are definitely wrong, right?

Being a right wing person doesn’t necessarily make you right and being left wing doesn’t make you wrong.  In those cases compromise is probably good.

But right, wrong or compromise can be used inappropriately.

Sometimes too much compromise reduces the effectiveness of right or wrong.

Too much right or wrong screws around with compromise.

There is a balance here, isn’t there?

What are the Feds going to do if all of Citigroup’s depositors switched to someone else?

It only makes sense doesn’t it?

A government bank versus one that is managed properly and doesn’t need a bailout.

I would rather put my money where I know big bro has no control.

What would they do then? 

Bail out a bank with no money in it?

Maybe that is the best idea.

Move the good money and bankrupt the bad.

Then people won’t feel so bad when the car companies are refused a bail out.

Expecting in others what we don’t have ourselves

Our idea of perfection.

No matter how good and intelligent someone is,  somebody will search for and find a flaw, real or perceived.

The news media is great at this.  We all are.

If we take the measuring stick of perfection that we apply to others and apply it to ourselves, how do we fare?

Me, I’m no fool, I’m not going to admit to anything

World leaders and the person on the street all have something that can be criticized.

When you really think of it, the perfection that makes this world perfect is imperfection, isn’t it?

Obama makes a great speech, can he walk the walk?

It was change he talked about.

I just read an article in Yahoo.com that any thought of trials against persons authorized or engaged in harsh interrogations of suspected terrorists in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will not be pursued for trial.  Some constitutional scholars and human rights groups want the incoming administration to investigate possible war crimes

As long as you are in the employ it is OK.  Why did we try those Nazis after the Second World War or Saddam?

The Nazis were following orders too.  Saddam was his country’s ruler and Iraq was a member of the UN since 1945.

Obama is filling his cabinet with Clintonettes.

His choice for Treasurer is involved with the bail outs today.

He makes a great speech and will spend billions next year and the year after to build roads and repair bridges, like in the 30’s.

And bail out more crooked firms.

I am having difficulty seeing change.

He motivates with words.  We all know talk is cheap.

I am not passing judgment as he has not had his day yet, and he is entitled.

This blog endorsed Obama, so it is not a party or hate thing.

So far, I see no change, do you?

A free ride but are you allowed on it?

Wow the stocks are up again as Citigroup gets a hand-out.

Does that change the way they treat their customers?

Are they going to reduce or increase credit card interest rates?   What about other fees?  Will they still put you out on the street if you are behind on mortgage payments?  Will it be a kinder, gentler Citigroup or will they bite the hand that feeds them?

After all you now own part of them.  Maybe you should remind them of that.

Desperado….the new age

Grandmas, wives, husbands, fathers, young singles and grandfathers are turning the way of the Desperado to survive.

In the news more and more reports are appearing of desperate people doing desperate things.  An elderly woman shoots herself in preference to having her house foreclosed.

A grandmother commits a bank robbery.

A man murders his wife, children and mother in law before killing himself because of financial stress.

A millionaire jumps in front of a train in Europe leaving his wife and eight year old daughter to fend for themselves.  Again it was due to economic reasons.

These are basically normal productive people who cannot deal with it any longer.

People who are not used to seeing their lives ripped asunder and are now worrying about survival.

It is one thing to lose status.  It is humiliating for the person suffering economic defeat.

Everyone is talking money and bail out.  What about a hand for these folk.  Sometimes a little encouragement will go a long way.

The money, that may be in short supply for a while, but survival is possible with out  becoming a Desperado.

I fear the age of the Desperado is coming due.

The Lady, the Devil and the Fool

Were having a conversation one day.

They all had blogs or contributed to blogs.

The stats for all were impressive, but no one or very few left their mark.

The Lady and the Devil wondered why?

“Why does no one participate?  Leave an opinion pro or con?  What could it possibly be?  It can’t be body odor or bad breath as Blogs aren’t smelly.  There is plenty of diverse content on these blogs, interesting, humorous and controversial.  Are the stats people out of their minds or are readers clickers, not interested, looking for something else or lazy?  Why do some blogs get lots of response and some not?”

The Fool, not being very bright, decided to put up this post and ask the reader.

It will be interesting.  If there are no replies, the blogs we are wondering about may be stats counted on another planet

So what do you, the reader make of this?  Leave a comment so we can sleep at night knowing the stats are half way accurate.

The Lady, the Devil and I will appreciate it.

Thank You.

A solution to the Global Crisis may be this one…..

……and some people are not going to like it.

Since the late 1940’s many countries started increasing their labor pool substantially by indulging two income families.

At the same time, technology has emerged to remove many jobs from the world.  Computers, robots, improved manufacturing, shipping and inventory processes have eliminated much labor and businesses.

Then came the inflow of massive credit allowing these two income families to take on burdens that they literally could not afford.

The one avenue of possible correction may be to limit employment to one income per household and increase the income for the one worker so that food, shelter, clothing and medical costs may be borne easily by the one member.

With the reduction in work force it would balance out to actual work requirements in the world.

It is only one area which may be addressed and there are a few other benefits.

Hard times may require harsh measures for a time.  The elimination of jobs at the current rate is forcing this scenario anyway.

To me it does not work well having a number of two income families working and other families having no income at all.

The disparity will cause problems that will be far greater than is necessary.

What they aren’t saying is scary

George W Bush’s remarks to world leaders meeting in Washington recently was an eye opener. He admitted he was not in favor of the $700 billion dollar bail out until they convinced him the alternative would be “depression greater than the Great Depression.” Source Yahoo.com

Today an article in Yahoo.com stated that ” Riots have shaken dozens of countries across the world over the past year as poor people have found themselves unable to pay the rocketing prices for staples such as rice, corn and sugar.”

A recent report stated that almost 2 out of ten Americans experienced hunger last year.

On June 29, 2008 De Telegraaf published this article http://www.telegraaf.nl/dft/nieuws_dft/1359966/__Amerikaanse__meltdown__reden_geldinjectie_Fortis__.html

It is in Dutch, but the body roughly translates to this;

AMSTERDAM – Fortis expects within a few days to weeks to complete collapse of the U.S. financial markets. That explains the bank insurers interventions of the series Thursday at dealing with ?8 billion to strengthen. “We are ready at the last minute. It is in the United States far worse than thought,” says Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens, who maintains that CEO Votron Fortis expects bankruptcies among 6000 U.S. banks that now lack coverage. “But also Citigroup, General Motors, there begins a complete melt down in the U.S..”

The above article was played down as an internet hoax and most people did not believe it.  Except for the time line it appears that they were not far off.

We the people are starting to realize that it is not pretty out there and it is a world wide phenomenon.

I am starting to believe that the people who are hoping this will be just a recession or over in 18 months are dreaming.

The scientists studying population growth in the 1960’s and 1970’s forecast this day was coming.  Not so much in the economic sense, but definitely in the area of food shortages and political climate change.

These are tough times we are entering and that does not bode well.  The Government report which came out recently forecasting the good possibility of a reduction in US world status and nuclear war before 2025 may not be far off.

Securing borders, feeding and employing citizens, will be a major challenges for many countries in this world.

Telling the people the truth instead of running scared would help gird the nation for hardships and planning for the worst.  Better to be prepared than not.

Citigroup more important than GM, Ford and Chrysler?

Congress and the administration are hedging on bailing out the automobile industry.

According to a recent article in Yahoo.com they are working with Citigroup to bail them out.

Citigroup is such a large, interconnected player in the financial system that if it were to collapse it would wreak havoc on already fragile financial and economic conditions.

The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve have been in discussions over the weekend to devise a strategy to stabilize the company, according to people familiar with the talks. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were ongoing.

Personally I am tired of this too big to fail nonsense.

There is chapter 7 and 11 that Citigroup can indulge in.  Let them play like everyone else.  I am sure Wells Fargo will buy them for ten cents on the dollar and it won’t cost the government anything.

To me, the government is only playing with the financial people and everyone else be damned.

The government is cherry picking bail outs.

You have to wonder if some of these people are in bed with the bail out people.

Waterboarding for dollars

The CIA and other government agencies are and were under fire for torturing people.

I think they went about it the wrong way.

These people they tortured and water boarded did not appreciate the experience.  Some were innocent and information derived questionable because a person tortured will say anything to save his behind.

However, especially during this economic crisis, the CIA and those torturing agencies can get their jollies off, stay out of trouble and fill government coffers from people who will pay to be tortured.

This will help Paulson give our money away in bailouts.  After all Citigroup, AIG, GM, Ford and Chrysler are desperate.

I believe the Sado-Masochist-Bondage crowd will be happy to turn themselves over for anything starting with a mild spanking and working up the pain threshold.

This will be their way of contributing to the patriotic cause of bail outing.

This is my idea to help the country in time of need.

No charge

Preaching a non message.

There are many people “called by God” to preach “His message”

According to Yahoo.com, Ted Haggard a disgraced evangelical preacher and former head of the 30 million member National Association of Evangelicals decided to do a Jimmy Swaggart and return to the pulpit in lieu of getting “straightened out first.”

He believes his message is that powerful.

I think these 30 million or so God fearing folk should have the opportunity to listen to another message.

I think it’s about time that someone started preaching a non-message from someone who isn’t called by God to do anything in particular.  This way these people will see both sides of the fence and can determine for themselves on which side the pasture is greener.

I already did my screwing up and consequently I don’t think they’ll be too disappointed.

And like Haggard, I’m in it for the money, but I’ll be open and honest about it.

I figure a paltry one dollar a year “donation” from each member of the 30 million folk adds up to about $30 million big ones.

I’ll pay taxes, help some poor folk and live well.

Do you think Ichabod is a good handle for a non-preacher? 

Does inspiration reside in the brain?

There is too much garbage in that gray mass upstairs to come up with something as profound and wonderful as inspiration.

There are many people alive today that are very inspired.  You see this in art, music, science and just plain living.

Most people are afraid to use their creative inspiration abilities so they shut them off.  Decades later they have no clue and it is too late.

The stuff of dreams needs to be nourished and allowed to grow.

Whatever it is that plants the seed is phenomenal.

It seems to come out of nowhere and like a bright light hits you between the eyes and you say wow!

It is a good thing inspiration can not be controlled by government, dictators and religions.

This world would be a dull place without it.

Driving on the river

For those of you living in warm climes this may seem a little strange.

Last year I decided to impress someone and show them a different side of life.  I took my pickup truck and dove a piece down the river on the ice.

It felt kind of surreal.  We drove under the bridge we usually drive on to get across the river.

I had known a few truckers who made their living bringing supplies to the North on winter ice roads.

They told me it was fairly safe but when it started cracking their nerves would crack with the ice.

When I was in the heavy equipment business they lost a crawler tractor that way.  It was worth a lot of money and they ended up leaving it there as they had nothing to pull it out with.

The world is a diverse and strange place.

This planet is wonderful isn’t it?

I watched him stick the syringe into his forearm

There was an elastic band restricting the circulation so his veins would appear.

The apartment looked like animals lived in it.

I thought to myself, what the f**k am I doing here?

Friends of mine decided to deviate from our route to stop in and say hey to a buddy.  We parked our bikes on the street in front of a three story nondescript apartment building.

The fellow was injecting heroin into his system.

I walked out and waited for my friends outside.

They came out a few minutes later, about as shocked as I was.  We were no angels but none of us were strung out on that stuff.

“Wow man, I never thought he would go that way.  He was always a stand up kind of guy,” my friend assured me.

I believed him.

The Partnership

I few years ago I met a young couple who had recently purchased a house.

They were excited as new couples are wont to be.

She told me they were not married and had an open relationship.  They lived together and shared their lives like man and wife but could have an open relationship with whoever they wanted.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yup, and I am looking forward to doing that this year!” he pronounced.

“You mean you haven’t done it yet, either of you?”

“No,” they answered in unison.

Playing the devil’s advocate, I directed my next question to her, “So it is really OK with you that he is humping someone else while your in your new home waiting for him?”

First she nodded yes and then it hit home, the hurt.

She looked at him and me then shook her head no.

I don’t think he liked me much after that

Trade that jades

I watched a short video interview with the madame of the Mustang Ranch in Nevada. She was shown picking up a new employee at the airport in a limo.

The madame explained that demand for the ladies’ services was high but customers were spending less.  Yet new prostitutes would make much more at this trade than working retail for example.

She said that they were getting more applications due to the economy.

The new employee said she sent out 20 or 30 resumes to no avail and the young beauty decided to rent out her body and persona for a while so she can live the good life.

Now we have something else to blame Wall Street on.  Making hookers out of mothers.

What people do with their lives is their own business.  Hookers are people and so are madams.

But it is a trade that jades.

Marketability for motherhood and “normal” living is reduced.

Most young men would not want to bring a prospective bride home to his parents and say, “She works at the Ranch Ma!”

Sometimes people make decisions that will affect their future, not realizing what damage it may do to self.

If they are happy it is OK.  But I suspect anyone having to concede their own self respect, desires and wishes for money can’t really be happy, can they?

The great ego builder or crusher – the Blog and such

There are millions of them out there.

All types from FaceBook YouTube, MySpace, Google Blogspot, WordPress and so on.

Many are private for sharing pictures and thoughts etc.  Like watching home movies.

Then there are those like this one.

Some people are in it for the money.

I’m not.

Some get hits.  Some get very few hits if any.

Some get uplifting comments.  Some get obscenities.

These experiences can make or break a person’s image of self.

The poor little ego can shrink a whole lot or expand til that object sitting on the neck swells beyond recognition.

Blogs are good for the therapist industry.

I don’t know what other useful purpose they serve, do you?

The man accused of murdering JFK was killed by a Mob man.

It always struck me as a little incredulous that the man accused of killing JFK was murdered easily enough as he was being transported from one place to another.

Jack Ruby walked right up to him and pulled the trigger.

Lee Harvey Oswald was conveniently delegated to history.

Was someone trying to “cover up” a trail of evidence?

Ruby didn’t appear to be the type to be so distraught over an assassination to risk certain life in prison.

I may be wrong, but even my 12 year old brain at that time suspected something amiss, and I had no clue who these people were.

For the longest time I suspected LBJ, after all he had a great motive, second banana to Boss status.  But then what does an 12 year old know?

It came from Santa’s mail room.

It was sitting in my e-mail inbox this morning.  A message from Santa’s corporate headquarters and it said:

Hello,

We hope we caught you at a good time. We understand that Christmas is
still a few weeks away, but right now is the BEST time to order your
children, grandchildren, niece or nephew, or any child in your life for
that matter, a hand written PERSONALIZED letter from Santa Clause

Also, for the next 48 hours if you buy 2 of these letters from Santa
then we will give you a third letter for no cost at all!

I wonder if Santa is alive or just decided it is time for an end to free stuff?

It sounds as if he is going the way of sports and Hollywood stars, selling his autograph.

This doesn’t sound like St. Nick to me.

What kind of lies will it hold inside?

Rudolph and the other reindeer are not going to like corporate America telling them what to do.

It used to be fun, now it’s work!

You can tell that corporate America is in a recession when there are offers from the North Pole sitting in your e-mail.

I wonder what Santy will do when the North Pole melts from Global Warming?

How can they offer a personalized hand written letter from someone no one has seen?

Did Al Gore consider that his news will have a depressing effect on millions of little people?

I think not.

“What sign are you?”

At one time, that was the first thing people asked of you when you first met.

“What sign are you?”

At first I didn’t know what they were referring to.  Then I got educated in the horoscope and astrology.

Aha!  Now I am going to find out who and what I represent.

Turned out it was a bug.  A lowly little bug!

I couldn’t be a king of the beasts, the lion.

I felt better after a while when I realized that a Scorpion was poisonous.

In any case I read my horoscope for a while, then it dawned on me that there were billions of us out there with millions being born every day.

My horoscope would say something like, “New romantic interest will walk into your life or expect wonderful financial news.”

It wouldn’t matter that I was married or single or what I did for a living or that these little fortune telling snippets never were accurate.

Therefore the same stupid prediction or advisory applied to millions of us.

That didn’t set well either.

So I dropped that “what sign are you” jargon from my vocabulary and said “Hi” instead.

Life has been better after that and my association with a stupid insect is over.

He was murdered in his prime 45 years ago and the world mourned.

Most people today recognize the initials JFK.

The initials represented America’s leader during times of change.

He was young, brave and stood tall when the need arose, and the needs were great.

His death made many of us cry and we realized we had lost something special.

In the ensuing years, there is something about his death that is just as horrendous as the murder itself, it is the truth behind it.

There was a knoll where other shots were fired from.

It was proved in a film.

“Authorities” still deny it was so.

When will the truth ever be known?

The biggest enemy I ever had was me, myself and I.

I was a curious non conformist and still am, but a lot more careful

When people told me, don’t hang out with them they are bad, or don’t believe what they say or don’t do that, I did.

Many times it was not what was presented to me.  When I looked for good in a person or decided to give them an opportunity, many times I was pleasantly surprised.

The ones I was told were great, I found I trusted the least.

That went for a lot of things.  Not all the time but a disturbingly high percentage of the time.

I can honestly say that every time my life suffered a severe emotional crisis, looking back, I had a major role in it.  Even if the facts presented looked like I was innocent.

Somewhere along the line I was weak when I could have been stronger.

I fell into temptation when I should have resisted.

Being that as it may, I often wondered if it was meant to be and part of character.

That is what I am not sure of.

I know what I don’t like and what I cherish.

I suppose that is a start.

We baby boomers had a good thing going and we screwed up!

I remember the peace movement, free love and movements stopping the carnage in Viet Nam.

We were at the threshold of something great.

Then we discovered that which we abhorred in our youth.

Materialism.

Then came the wars…..again.

And now the financial crisis.

We screwed up, didn’t we?

I just hope our children can forgive us our human frailties as we have not set a good example for living this life.

Fundamentalists and extremists

I am tired of the words fundamentalists and extremists.

These are words coined by fundamentalists and extremists to describe what they abhor.

We are all guilty of pointing fingers and trying to impose our will and beliefs on others.

If we don’t like what they say or believe, they are “ignorant”.  But we don’t really know them do we?

The obvious is ridiculous, like “religious police and CIA tortures and Jihad or Suicide Bombings.”  Different excuses, same results.  Neither is the stuff of love or respect.

With the world in chaos and turmoil suffered financially and spiritually, maybe it is about time we used our brains and banks of fancy computers and come up with something simple that we can live with, enabling cohabitation without killing or maiming or oppressing.

It would take a little while to educate the masses and there would always be exceptions.  Some people have physical or mental anomalies that prevent them from acting like others.  Most are not dangerous, a few are.

We have to protect ourselves and we can, without resorting to biological or nuclear warfare.

This may not make sense to you but it does to me

What is wrong with loving thy neighbor?

One definition for neighbor is “fellow human”.

If all of us on this planet were to adopt this simple little commandment, there wouldn’t have been a 9/11, Iraq, Nukes, Viet Nam, World War Two and I could go on.

The Son of Man or Jesus Christ as he is called said that loving thy neighbor is the second greatest commandment that our Creator wishes us to follow.

Some humans are extremely difficult to “love”.  I don’t think that Jesus meant a “huggy kissy” kind of love or the love of the type you have for spouses, children, parents or friends.

I think he meant love as in respect for their right to occupy and live their lives in peace on earth.

Jesus also said “Judge ye not, lest you be judged”.

He was right.

His namesake religion and many followers do not take his teachings to heart or live by them, giving his name a bit of a blot.

That is not his doing.

His life story or biography was written many years after he died.  The words have been translated and edited over time many times over.

We cannot trust some of what we read.  However the things he spoke of in respect to living on this planet with other people appeal to my sense of common.

He did not like hypocrites and people who had nothing better to do than create laws to burden the little fellow and ignore the same laws themselves.

That happens today.

Beyond the Scope of our Intelligence

The one thing that we will never “get” is life.

Life defies everything we have learned from life.

Life mocks logic, common sense and all those little attributes people like to ascribe to their thinking.

Many of us forget that people aren’t the only life forms on this planet.  As a matter of fact I suggest the whole planet and solar system and universe is of “life”.

So we, the “experts on life and living” have no clue about life.

Albert Einstein who was the most well regarded and known genius in the 20th Century understood this.

In the old days they recognized this as well.  “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”  This was written thousands of years ago.

Across the Atlantic Geronimo said a little over a century ago “I cannot think that we are useless or God would not have created us. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all the children of one God. The sun, the darkness, the winds are all listening to what we have to say.”

Since time began, the people who thought about it came to the same conclusion, that there was no conclusion.

Life spawned physics, chemistry, medicine, law, superstition and myth.

Those are just a few things.

Who or what really has the most important role if any, in this road of life has to be determined, if that is possible.

To not know or understand can be frustrating.  To understand that it will not be known and to be able to live with it is peace.

The “Boss”

Everyone has “them”, even I.

Considering I have not much use for people “lording” it over me, I have many Bosses.

Even when you have no job you have a Boss.  Usually it is the people who give you unemployment “benefits”.  They put conditions on your receiving insurance so you won’t get fat and lazy.

Some people have a spouse as a Boss.  Others have children or parents as Bosses.

Religious people have a book and the person at the podium as Boss.

There are many who have different titles and they are all Bosses.  President, Ayatollah, God Father, Chief Executive Officer, King, Emperor, Commandant, General, Mayor, Governor, Wife, Husband, Spoiled Kid, Therapist, Pope, Bank and the list is endless.

We can’t survive without the Boss and he or she would not be a Boss if it weren’t for us.

When the Bosses finally figure that one out we may move forward in our evolutionary quest to achieve betterment for people as a whole.

After turning the water into wine, do you think he had some?

I look at the industry that promotes Christianity and those glossy, hope filled pious covers with the feel good words and I wonder if any of these people really lived on this planet.

I think he probably relaxed with his friends.  After all he was at a wedding feast and the wine he made was far superior in quality than the stuff they had on tap.

I have no problem with him kicking back with a little vino, smiling and enjoying the present.

He probably enjoyed watching the people dance and hearing them sing those old time standards of his day.

People helping people

The Feds are fortunate, they can print money.

State, county and local governments like San Diego and California and New York can’t print money.

They are in it up to their ears, debt that is.

They can sell bonds, but who will buy them if bankruptcy is possible in the future?

Their only recourse is the citizen who can’t afford anymore government largess of any kind.

This situation is akin to the old adage, “between a rock and a hard place”.

They can cut back on services, many of which the taxpayer won’t miss too much, but the people working for the government will be unemployed, aggravating the whole system even more.

The smaller governments can go bankrupt, but the people who supply goods and services won’t get paid, aggravating the system further.

The states, counties and cities can do it’s part by being fiscally responsible.  The Feds have a duty to help them first, not the private corporations.  The free market will recover by itself.  By its very nature and design it is guaranteed if left alone.

Governments which cannot distribute currency or have any other means cannot recover on their own.

If bail outs are necessary, those are the ones bail outs should be considered for and that will be helping the taxpayer the most.

Moving personnel from one state or local agency and cutting expenditures and moving them to food banks etc make the most sense.  For example government agencies that promote growth and have budgets can be eliminated and the people moved and budgets moved.

People helping people.

Protecting those who cannot protect themselves

A recent comment by distributorcapny prompted this post.

I am getting older, officially past my prime ( government bullshit) as are so many others in this world.  People are far less willing to employ older people for decent wages than those just climbing the career ladder.

We the aged are starting to discover that life is not all roses and cherry pie and now have an inkling of understanding what minorities, immigrants and “different” people have to endure.

If you haven’t “made it” in the first forty or fifty years the odds are against you.  Even if you have made it, the chances of being a target for the unscrupulous are far greater than when young or powerful.

That is what civilized society should do.  Attempt to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

In days of yore, people had large families and having eight or ten children were not uncommon.  My parents both came from large families.

When people aged, the family would look after them and they would be regarded as sources of wisdom and would teach the youngest ones.  The strong would go out and do whatever it takes for the family unit to survive.

Today, that picture is largely history.  In many places older people are stuffed away into personal care facilities which is a fancy word for adult child care center with no freedom or left out in the streets to fend for themselves.

When societies disrespect members of its own and discard them as they would packaging of store items they purchase, they leave no hope for the generation in power today.

Is there and will there be an answer to this?

We will find out the hard way after we discover how severe this economic crisis really is won’t we?

God gave us two ears and one mouth, ever wonder why?

When I was in sales, I realized after a few years the best way to start a productive conversation was to ask the business owner “how’s business?”

They all loved to talk about what was close to their heart, their business.

That opened up a range of possibilities for my visit and what I was attempting to sell.

I always discovered something in the conversation that would give me a key to achieve my objective.

Listening did that.

Like one wise person told me, God gave us two ears and one mouth, ever wonder why?

I love to talk, but I also love to listen and people love to be heard.

It makes them feel like somebody gives a damn.

We all like the feeling someone gives a damn about what we say or us as people don’t we?

When no one listens it sure feels lonely.

The love kick

I am starting to dislike the word love.

For most it means anything but.

People love money, cars, homes, junk, sex, jewelry, jobs, food, drugs, booze, cigarettes, religon and basically everything there is to love including pets.

People love everything they could possibly love except people.

Why is that?

Loving someone with a head and torso that breathes and appears like us.

Why is it that we can not love people like we love other things in life?

When I was a kid I was driving my motorcycle down an avenue in suburbia with a passenger.

A small dog ran in front of me and I hit it, forcing the bike on its side and the two of us were flung to the boulevard.

People ran out of their homes to investigate.  They were gathered around the dog which was unhurt.

My friend and I were slowly getting up.  No one bothered to ask us whether we were OK until they were satisfied the dog was alright.

I was disgusted with my fellow man.

It taught me a lot.

Not all people are like that, but a lot more than you think.

It is time to set priorities in order.

People are more important and worthy of love than things or animals.  When we get that straight this world will be an infinitely better place.

A religion that attempts to coerce you to its will is not of God

One aspect of God I think I understand is the concept free thought.

We are all one and individual at the same time.

Our freedom of thought has enabled us to climb to precipices heretofore unknown.

The greatest minds in history were able to make lasting contributions that would have been impossible if they lived in a society where the rule of religion, no matter which one, controlled.

Ignorance, distrust and judgment control.

Education, tolerance and love means liberty.

The former is evil the latter is good.

That’s my take on it.

All they want is a little love and everyone is too damned busy to give a little

Today’s world is nothing short of despicable in some aspects.

A 19 year old college student committed suicide on-line.  Viewers taunted him and others attempted to talk him out of it.  None really believed it was real until it became obvious he was dead as a doornail.

We are the electronic generation.  Television and web browsing make our lives so busy we have no time to give of ourselves to those drowning in loneliness.

There was this old story of a king who desired to know what language infants would learn to speak if there was no exposure to a spoken word.

Apparently five hundred babies were rounded up for the test.  They were fed and looked after and that was the extent of it.  After a few years the King decided to look upon his experiment and discovered the children had all died.

He wondered why.

A wise person told him that the babies were not loved and died because of it.

That is more true than anyone realizes.

The problem with Idolatry today

One definition of Idolatry is “blind or excessive devotion to something.”

In America the people who practice idolatry have made a multi-billion dollar industry of idolizing.

Everywhere you go you see it on magazine covers, television shows and other media.

People genuflecting to and worshiping porno stars, fashion models, sports figures, CEOs, politicians, actors, boxers, fighters, rich geeks and the list goes on.

There is always someone or something to pay homage to.

After a while one asks him or herself, do these people I honor and look up to, do they deserve my devotion, time and money?

The answer is no.

When we as a nation finally figure that one out there will be real change and not until.

A blast from the past

I never had much use for history when I was a kid. Memorizing dates of events centuries ago in order to pass a grade held no meaning for me.

Now my attitude is totally different and it has affected my life tremendously.

My interest in history was aroused after I had a minor disagreement with a fellow Christian ( at that time I was Christian).  I decided to check into the matter of the trinity a little further as I always had trouble accepting and believing in it.  At the time I had nothing to dispute this belief.

Then I discovered how Constantine the Emperor invited bishops to Constantinople and they hammered out the Nicene Creed and adopted it as the cornerstone of the Church.  This was in 325 AD or there about.

I also read that some of the Eastern Bishops had second thoughts about what was achieved and recanted some of this.

This is recorded history.

History is time evolution.  What is spawned in the past often affects us today and what we do spawns the future.

After being made aware of the Christian history I ended up departing from it.

I also realize why Jesus’s teaching sometimes appear to contradict.

History has a place and the knowledge of it reduces ignorance substantially.

Sometimes it is good to know the history of what you intend to sacrifice your now and future time on before wasting your time.

Capitalism is still the best economic system around, bar none.

Lately there has been much criticism and debate over capitalism.

My life has been totally capitalistic.  It is the only system around that a person who has the desire, heart and work ethic to make something of him or herself  can achieve success in the economic sense but may also realize a sense of self actualization and accomplishment.

Companies have lasted centuries based on the free market premise.

Countries, having adopted other systems such as communism, discovered they were competing with huge black markets (form of capitalism) and that communism was not working.  They converted.  The former Soviet Bloc countries including Russia are but a few examples.

China has adopted a free market system of sorts as well.

There are many benefits to capitalism including quality, efficiency, production and competition.

As Kelso’s Nuts wrote, “It’s harder to sell the idea that “capitalism” is neither good nor bad, but it’s the efficient system that the human race at this stage of development is ready for and needs. It’s up to us to make “capitalism” a word all ideologies can own for themselves in their own way. “Greed” and “indifference” only mean “greed” and “indifference”. They do not MEAN “capitalism” unless a state that is ALSO “capitalist” has greed and indifference as core national values.”

I have to agree with Kelso’s definition.

What is happening today is not the fault of capitalism.  It is a result of greed, indifference and dishonesty.

It is not capitalism which is causing the economic crisis we all face, but the bastardization of the free market which is causing this financial hell.

What would it take for you to break the law?

Reports are increasing in the news of people doing disparate, illegal actions to survive in this increasingly difficult time for many.

Someone broke into my home once and there was little or no damage done. The police caught them and threw them in jail.

The next day I discovered they had broken into a few homes and stole only blankets and clothing.  They had not taken electronics or any other valuables.

To me it was apparent these people were desperate for clothing and bedding to keep themselves warm.

I went to the police and suggested to them to let them go after another day or so.

I have no sympathy for the thief who is supporting a bad habit or is too lazy to work.

I do have sympathy for people who would normally be honest and are pushed by desperation and circumstance to do something out of character.

Have you ever wondered where your threshold may be in respect to breaking the law?

What they don’t teach in business school – survival

There is much going on in this world many people don’t understand and everything appears to be on the verge of collapsing.

What I don’t see happening, particularly in this technological age where the health of a business is apparent almost instantly versus months down the road, is the survival methods used to keep on going.

They don’t teach this in business school.

They keep on going as if there is no wall there and there is.

Companies are purchasing debt laden companies because their eyes are bigger than their stomachs’ capacity to hold them.

Extras and frills soak profit money away.

Hard line approaches and negotiation are required.  “You want you a job?  This is what we all have to do to keep it.  If you don’t like it, leave.”

Don’t expect an employee to do anything you couldn’t or wouldn’t do yourself.

It is an all for one, one for all scenario and don’t let the government or creditors stop you.  You have nothing to lose.

I was in a situation where I had to meet payroll for 35 employees the next day.  I discovered the tax boys froze my bank accounts and I had been paying it down, the taxes.  I owed considerably less than six months previous.

I called them and said “The keys are on my desk.  Come pick them up.”

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“I have 35 people to pay tomorrow and I haven’t paid myself in two months.  They buy groceries, pay mortgages and circulate their money and vote.  Now I can’t pay them because you froze my account when I was working with you.  You obviously think you can run this place better than I so here it is.  It’s all yours.” I slammed the phone in its cradle and sat there with my feet on the desk wondering how I was going to pull off one more miracle.

Twenty minutes later I got a call.

“Your account is no longer on hold.”

I thanked them and told them they could still have my company, but they didn’t want it.

I made it last another year and finally decided to wind it down, but did it in such a way the employees kept their jobs and the customers were given continued service.

That, they don’t teach in business school, and that I don’t see happening.

The will to keep it going for the employees’ sake.

No laughing matter

Hiroshima after one nuclear bomb was dropped

The next two decades will see a world living with the daily threat of nuclear war, environmental catastrophe and the decline of America as the dominant global power, according to a frighteningly bleak assessment by the U.S. intelligence community.  Source…FoxNews.Com

The above statement does not paint a bright landscape for the future of mankind on this planet.

For the young or people who are easily worried about such predictions, there is much solace to be derived from an other point of view besides the pessimistic view.

Reports like these are based on assumptions and calculations following a certain logic.

Anything could make this prediction moot in six months.

No one had ever accurately predicted the future to our knowledge.

The end of time that Jesus spoke of he prefaced with “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” and indeed there were lot of events that had taken place in and around 67-70 AD that could have fulfilled his prophecy.

Being as it may, many books were written after the individuals who made predictions died.  Prophecies can be made to appear accurate well after the fact.

The world is facing many challenges.  It faced many challenges before.

To assume a nuclear holocaust or global warming as inevitable is taking on a role no one can fill.

We cannot accurately predict the weather a week from now.  There are many learned and reputable scientists who dispute the cause of global warming and argue that this is another natural cycle and that the earth was warmer one thousand years ago.

In many countries the population is aging thereby naturally thinning out the ranks when they expire.

The intelligence services were wrong about Saddam and Iraq and that was the present.

Do not fear this report, it is only speculation.

Who or what will buy Citigroup Inc.?

Here is one bank that is “too big to fail”, hemorrhaging money and buying other banks which are hemorrhaging from the same disease and now they think it may be a good idea to sell it.

Citigroup Inc. has lots of depositors and assets and employees.

It also owes a lot of money.

What’s it worth, ten cents on the dollar?

Who can get financing for that or will Microsoft buy it because it has a ton of money and is used to updating its customers because they are frustrated.

The situation is  so dire that instead of standing and fighting, the managers decide to capitulate because they can’t take the heat for their incompetence.  They should not be able to get away with it.

Get some new management and make it work.

It’s possible.

Make deals.  Do you guys not remember how to work a deal for survival?

Selling is the easy way out for you and no way out for your shareholders.

The Pelosi weight loss program

We are all down on Bush, Pelosi and Paulson and the large corporations.

We should be thankful.  They are working their butts off trying to help us.

One fantastic side effect is the improvement of the nation’s collective health.

We know America is obese.

They tell us this constantly.  I am 6′2″ , two hundred and ten lbs without a spare tire and I am obese.

I need to drop sixty or seventy pounds or I will suffer from diabetes, AIDs, second hand smoke and expire.

They finally came up with the solution.

Poverty.

They figure by keeping me poor I will no longer eat that much and I will lose weight.

For a little while I’ll look great and then the Auschwitz Syndrome will kick in.  That would be great if I was a woman and wanted to appear on the cover of a fashion magazine.

I am not a woman.

Thank you Washington for making me less than I am.

Zero percent interest OAC gets you every time.

Every where you looked a few years ago you saw advertising like that.

You wondered how people could make money with offers such as these.  Now we know.

Credit cards, furniture and vehicles were all offered with this ploy.

Now that you are paying over 20% for your 0% what do you think?

The feds offer their best customers and a select few less than 2% interest for our money.

The OAC in fine print was to get you in the door.  When you walked in to make the deal they would be all smiles.  “Sure we can do anything,” they say.  After you get seriously interested in buying whatever it is they are selling, there is always a little hiccup.

“You were late on your phone bill 25 years ago.  Your credit score is not perfect but we want to keep you as a customer, how much can you afford to pay a month?”

“Yeah, but I was down with Malaria while digging the Panama Canal and couldn’t get to the post office to mail it.” you respond.

You wonder if this is worth it and think of leaving, but they have your wallet and keys somewhere.

The pressure is on.  You feel like a prisoner being questioned under a solitary light bulb in Gitmo by the CIA.

They don’t even put the interest rate charged on monthly statements because they know you will drive that new poverty inducing vehicle through the dealership’s front showroom windows.

Ten years later you are still paying and wonder why.

Then you find out the Mafia invested into legitimate businesses years ago.  The Godfather movies illustrated that.

There is no zero percent for anyone.

Everyone pays.

We find out we are broke and now the farmers are feeling it. What are we going to eat?

Every time we walk into a super market we see isles full of stuff and food.

The food part I am the most interested in right now as I can’t eat stuff.

And I like living.

I had a recent conversation with a gal who collects money for a major agricultural equipment manufacturer who shall remain nameless.

She informed me that a growing number of farmers and cattlemen are having difficulty making payments on their equipment loans because they are not getting very good prices for their goods if they can sell it at all.

This surprised me and it didn’t.

Every time there is a recession the Ag industry gets hit.

Next year they will cut back on crops because they can’t afford to plant them.  That means less food so it will go up in price for those of us who have less to pay for it.

That scenario translates into hunger.

When a person gets hungry enough they don’t feel it anymore, for awhile.

Then that person isn’t here anymore.

See what misplaced bail outs do.

How did Albert know that?

Good old Albert has the last laugh on all of us.

We thought for a while that he may have been a little off on his famous equation which no one can understand.

It only took a century to figure out Einstein was a genius.

He did this without a single computer.  Just a piece of paper and a pencil.

It was reported on Yahoo.com: PARIS (AFP) – It’s taken more than a century, but Einstein’s celebrated formula e=mc2 has finally been corroborated, thanks to a heroic computational effort by French, German and Hungarian physicists.

What blows me away, is how did Albert know that?

Prophylactic industry asks Congress for a bail out

Recently lobbyists for the Condom industry, those glossy little packets found behind the counters of convenience stores every where, have been going after the new tag team in Washington, Paulson and Pelosi,  because the cost of raw materials to make these little prophylactics has gone through the roof.

They can no longer afford to subsidize birth control.

People watching their budgets decided to forgo protection and enjoy life the way it is meant to be enjoyed.

Children are starting to use them for water balloons again, humiliating the industry.

The Little Three have been watching the futile efforts of the Big Three and decided to throw their hat in the ring for some dinero.

The beleaguered taxpayers are asked to spend their childrens’ futures for a little protection today and the Senate is tired of all these Corporations walking hat in hand “begging” for funds.

In keeping with their peers the CEOs of the Little Three took their company owned private taxi cabs to Washington to confront congress.

Condom shares have dropped substantially in the tiny Dow index and Goldman has reduced it to a “sell” rating which is what they are trying to do.

What next?

Pentagon bull dung

The headline on FosNew.Com screamed

Pentagon Hit by Unprecedented Cyber Attack

As many people may be aware, cyber attack normally is initiated by malware or viruses people get from browsing through porn sites and blogs like this one.

They did the prudent thing and ordered all flash drives and CD/DVD writers use to be discontinued immediately.

To me the real reason for discontinuing portable information transportation devices is to prevent people walking away from the Pentagon with flash sticks full of security info and secrets they sell to Russia, China, Iran and North Korea so they can pay their sub-prime mortgages and the Pentagon is fed up with this.

Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Those were supposedly God’s words when it was discovered that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, condemning us to a life of 40 or more hours of work a week for most of our lives to see someone steal what we thought we had saved for our retirement years.

That is what they call “exercise in futility”.

Now, the powers that be, those false Gods in the administration and heads of corporations and their adviser minions are helping us do to our offspring what Adam and Eve did to theirs.

Old Adam and Eve had it made, hanging around paradise with no creditors or worries and they really didn’t have too much to do except name all the animals, which wasn’t hard work at all.  This is how it went.  “We’ll call that one a sheep because it doesn’t have any fur, that will be known as horse as we can ride it and that one procreating in the middle of the street we shall call dog.”

Then they ate the “Grapes of Wrath” .

Adam and Eve screwed up big time and insulted the Big Guy upstairs thinking He wouldn’t discover their crime.

Just like the idiots that squandered our economic lives in their quest for “more”

Makes you want to throw up, doesn’t it?

“Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Pelosi was referring to the auto manufacturers in the above statement.

In and of itself, that is a wise statement.

However, I didn’t read or hear about all the other beneficiaries of bail out money to date having to offer a business plan.

It takes awhile to put these types of plans together, more time than what Paulson took before bailing out Wall Street firms.

It appears that the Treasury can do what it will without plans as it is obvious they are changing in mid stride frequently.

Maybe Henry Paulson should offer the US Taxpayers a “business plan”.

If Pelosi is only now realizing that plans are important for companies of this size to have any hope of meeting their objectives, she should look for a new line of work.

A rare perspective from someone who knows

Kelso’s Nuts was kind enough to share his thoughts on this blog about the inner workings of Wall Street. He has an intimate knowledge of some of these things that most of us can’t begin to understand.

Kelso is an Editor for “Editorials from Hell’s leading daily newspaper” and he posts there daily.

The following comment I find to be extremely interesting and enlightening.

ICHABOD: The concept in financial engineering you’re referring to is called “FAT TAILS” or to be more precise “FAT RIGHT TAILS.” Most securities are distributed log-normally meaning the natural logs of their daily changes pertain to a Bell Curve. The non-stationarity of time-series securities data means that there’s tons of errors in the parameters for one and the error that is most often missed is the “act of god” — a devastating loss because of an occurrence much more likely than the Bell Curve would predict.

The 1998 Long-Term Capital Management crisis was more surprising because it really hung on an unexpected world event. Everybody knew there was a Russian debt and currency crisis coming. Everybody had hedged for a chance of a default on debt or a devaluation of the Ruble. The freak-out scenario happened. They defaulted on all debt. They devalued the Ruble sharply. And they imposed very strict bank and currency controls such that people who had hedged with GKO, MinFin and Ruble put-options could not collect their winners from Russia but had to pay off their losers. Meanwhile, in the crisis mode there was this fast flight to quality as the USD, EEU, CHF and JPY skyrocketed and every exotic security in the world correlated as they ever had before. That was an “act of God.”

The results of the popping of the real estate bubble were worse because the bubble’s pop fell well within the bounds of what all the math guys like me had predicted just using normal math. We saw the debt. We saw the deficit. We saw the wars. We saw the commodity boom and huge economic expansion in Europe, Canada, Oceania, South Africa, Russia, the FSU, and South America. But we also saw that the Fed was determined to keep cutting interest rates despite all those factors so as to preserve the housing boom and all the reckless betting by banks that were just greedy johnny-come-latelys and didn’t have the trading experience of either the hedge funds or the trading houses like JP, Goldilocks, Citi, BT, Deutsche, Swissbank/O’Connor, ING, etc.

You’re seeing a terrible immorality play happening here. LONG-TERM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT was made to work at slave wages, with all the General Partners deep in the hole so as to try to pay back the Fed and a Summers-organized consortium of banks who had “bailed out” LTCM but not bailed out either the General of Limited Partners. LTCM took their losses and responsibilities like men and dealt with it despite personal hardship.

Meanwhile, the losers in the far more predictable crisis — the bursting of the housing bubble — are being given Willy Wonka golden tickets!

GROTESQUE!

Send us the money today!

“I don’t have it!”

“That’s your problem, get it from your family or friends if you don’t have it,” is the sarcastic reply.

“I don’t owe you anything.  You are a third party collection agency.  I signed a loan with someone else.  Go hang yourself,” and the phone is slammed into its cradle.

This is occurring with increased frequency all over the world.

If the Corporations can get away without paying without putting up with this bullshit, why are they letting the sharks eat the little people?

Yes there are some con artists at all levels.  Most people want to repay debt.  If they can’t, why are these idiots so aggressive?

You can’t get blood out of a stone, whether it be AIG, Bear Stearns, IndyMac or the guy living next door.

The Lawsuit

One of my customers years ago, a small airplane manufacturer, had quit improving it’s planes.

I asked them why.

“It’s like this.  If a part has proved to be efficient, we won’t touch it.  If someone takes off drunk and forgets to put fuel in the tank, after the crash the lawyers will try and get the nut and bolt manufacturers as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.  At least the stuff we have in the plane albeit decades old in design is proved.  Many times It is still cheaper to pay what they are asking for than to mount a defense.  If it is a new component design, all hell would break loose,” was the response.

I have known of many small companies, some of them my customers who have been sued, some more than once.

Sometimes they fought the suit and many times they just paid.

The problem with this thinking is responsibility.  If an employee is a lecher, the employer is responsible for his or her actions.

It is akin to being at fault for car theft when you left your keys inside by accident.  To me, the thief had no business taking it regardless.

The law doesn’t look at it that way.

If there is a hole in the sidewalk and you fall in, the only one not responsible for you falling in is you.

That is how bad it is getting.  Now if you are blind, it is one thing.  But most of us aren’t blind.

That is one reason why insurance and Medical costs are so high.

Yeah, there are a few Doctors that shouldn’t be doctors, but they have criminal courts for that and insurance for the victims.

Nowadays a Doctor can’t afford a tiny mistake.

And who doesn’t make them?

Are we victims or are we the problem?

They wouldn’t have a war on drugs if there wasn’t a demand for the stuff. They wouldn’t have an economic crisis based on the lack of purchasing and paying of debts if we the people had kept our financial houses in order.  Many did but many didn’t.

They wouldn’t have had this crisis on Wall Street, but there were too many of us who wanted 20% plus interest a year on the 401ks and other instruments.

We all wanted to be millionaires, have maids and butlers and toys and live the good life while working as a janitor.  For a brief moment in time that almost happened.

We vote for who has the most signs on the block saying vote for me, instead of trying to understand what the candidates are promising and what they stand for.

We can blame George W and his bunch all we want, but who put them there and who allowed it to go on for another four years?

The people, or at least a slim majority of them voted for George.  Not that the other side is that much wiser or better.

And the same people who got us into this mess, that is us, are going to have to get us out of it.

If they can’t survive and pay their bills now, what makes one think bail outs will be repaid?

That is the bottom line.

Free enterprise or capitalism is risk based.

In order to succeed, there are many factors that must be satisfied to make a profit.  The majority of start ups fail within the first three years.

Everything in today’s commerce has an element of risk.  Any CEO would have to be aware of this.

That is why business makes a profit when times are good.  When lenders lend they realize there will be some portion that they will never recover.  That is factored in to the loans they make and interest they charge.

People invest in companies in order to help them expand whereas the companies would not have the capital to do so otherwise.  The investor shares in the profit and receives a dividend.

If the company fails, the investor loses his shares.

Now many companies are at the doors of government asking for money to tide them over.

The risk is very high as the economy is shrinking.  So the lender, the Government, charges a high interest rate to protect itself.  But the high interest rate is a very heavy burden on a company that has a hard time making it as it is.

For the above reasons there should be no bail outs of any kind.

Providing food or shelter or medical aid to people in need is a far better idea then saving companies from their own manufactured hell.

Many fools deny its existence, but it is alive and well.

The one law that supersedes every law.

Philosophers, religions and others have been aware of this since the beginning and it is with us now.

This law is the based on the Ethic of Reciprocity or the Golden Rule.

Jesus Christ spoke of it and the old testament laws are based on it.  So are other Religions of all kinds.

The Golden Rule gave birth to old adages like, “those who live by the sword shall die by the sword” or “what goes around comes around”.

For anyone who has lived will find out by doing his fellow man no good it will come back to haunt him or her and good will also come back.

It has happened to me and everyone that I know.

No one escapes.

It is like we are watched all the time.

If it appears that this law has escaped someone it is because we are not aware of all things which happen.

It is a good law, the Golden Rule.

If you abide by the good portion there of.

The Golden Rule serves evil as well.

Where is the self righteous indignation?

As of late the Mormon Church and other Religious groups were funding that marriage bill in California.

What are these churches doing about the crisis facing America today?

Where the Hell were they when George W told friends and allies of the US and the United Nations to screw themselves while he started a war based on fabricated evidence?  A war that killed more babies and innocents than gay marriages do.

Where were they when the evidence of torture emerged from secret and non secret prisons around the world?  Torture administered by Americans employed by the government.

Where is the outrage when some of these victims were found to be innocent?

Where is the outrage when the Constitution is being reduced to the status of toilet paper?

Where is the outrage at every-man’s pocket being picked to bail out companies like AIG, Lehman Bros, Bear Stearns and others?

Where is the outrage while billions are spent, almost two out of every ten Americans experiences hunger?

Where were they when companies like Halliburton and Blackwater received immunity from all law in Iraq and their employees raped and murdered without fear of retribution?

Where is the outrage when American missiles are used to attack on Allies soil without their consent and innocent lives are lost?

No, they have more important things to do like fight abortion and gays when the country is committing crimes and going broke.

It is like a cloud of insanity covered parts of America over the last decade.  Now that the rains of deceit have passed through, no one seems to realize what is right anymore.

Retirement Fiasco

Invest $5 a week for twenty years and you’ll have a million.

Wander over to the clubhouse on the course by the sea where you will live in style.

Retire at fifty and live till a hundred in opulence.

Never mind you lived in a shack during your working years and was employed by the post office as a carrier.

You’ll do well.

I wonder if the ghost called Wall Street will be issuing retirement checks a year from now.

Let the Big Three die for the want of $25B but let AIG have $150B

There is something wrong with this picture.

Why one corporation and not the other?

I would have let AIG go first, now it’s too late.  They already got the cash.

Is that favoritism, an educated decision or lobbyists’ desires or plain ignorance?

Our leaders don’t walk a straight line.

Looks like congress and the administration have been on a “party”

Maybe the same one as Wall Street attended and is suffering a “hangover” from?

If you had Alzheimer’s when you died and were judged….

….for something you couldn’t remember doing while on this planet, do you go to hell?

Or died drunk or high on drugs?

Would your soul be inebriated too?

I guess that would be good for that hot basement apartment, wouldn’t it?

The drugs and the booze you could do something about, the other thing you can’t.

Maybe we can get Wall Street to issue an insurance policy for this scenario.

That way if you go to hell, you will get compensated for it so you will have some money down there.

Something to think about isn’t it?

Maybe if they fed and clothed some of these terrorists they may not be….

…terrorists anymore.

But don’t be foolish about this.  Give it to the people directly and not through their bad ass bosses who will just sell it to someone else so they can live in luxury.

Most, if not all of these terrorist acts are caused by angry people who are at the bottom of the social economic class and they are tired of it.

Maybe I am wrong, but then again this war isn’t working out too well either is it?

Can a President pardon himself?

This one more than any other should have reason to be a little fearful of the LAW.  Not our stupid laws.  I mean the laws that govern life and humanity.  The ones you can’t hide from.

He broke so many.

Torture, depriving the right to a fair trial in a reasonable length of time.  Authorizing little armed sorties into allied territories.

Murdering thousands of men, women and babies.

Maybe if we told the population that many dogs and cats got killed, there may be more of an uproar.

Don’t worry.

His pen is probably signing his freedom document right now.

The mad dog blog race

For many it is about numbers.

Who has come by today?  Where did they come from and how long did they stay?

Aha, I had a good day, maybe they like what I had to say?

Maybe not.

Why do we do what we do?

Who knows?

Why should we care?

There are enough problems and stresses in the world for everyone.

Why feel sorry for people if they won’t or can’t defend themselves or feed or shelter themselves?

I think it is our belief that some of us can rise to be strong and we realize not everyone is like that.

Then again, some people pretend to be “weak” in order to suck the life blood from you.

Yes, Vampires do exist.

We just have to be wise enough to know the difference between victims and vampires.

If it is meant to be, it will be

One thing I have learned in life, if it is meant to happen it will.

It is amazing how that is isn’t it?

We think we have control, but we don’t.

Sometimes we don’t even have control of ourselves.

I have come to understand that and yet I still play the game.

We are so limited, we have no clue.

Even the wisest and most educated have their shortcomings.  Though they may be genius in one area, they are probably the fool in another.

Just like me.

We only see that which we are capable of understanding.  Some more, some less.

That does not make one person better than another.

A fool can be wise at times.  If you only take time to listen and hear.

There are times when I have come to understand it is not meant to be, regardless how I desired.

Contrary to popular belief, there are times you have to let go.

It is not always easy.

We learn from that.

Then there are times when you have to dig in your heels and push back.

Not that you want to.

It is meant to be.

I looked up to the heavens tonight and wondered

The sky was blue black with clouds and in one small area I could see the moon’s white silhouette trying to break through.

The snow on the ground was in sharp contrast to the sky.

What a life, I thought to myself.

I am on the downside now.  I am no longer an impressive figure to entice the young.

Just a soul with plenty of experience and what good is it?

They will continue to do as they will.

I worked hard.  I created and loved,  fought and made peace,  planted and cut down,  destroyed and was crushed.

And I came back.

My children are all on their own and self sufficient.

It is beautiful tonight I think.

All the trials and tribulations going on about the world seem so far away.

Do I need to concern myself any longer?

What good does it do?

I have no control over “them”.

As I am about to go inside, a rush of something churns within.

No, there is a reason for me being here.  I have skirted death way too many times in my life for it to have been for naught.

I am glad I don’t know what that reason is.

Who needs to sleep in a bed of fear?

TARP – Treasury Aid for Rich not Poor

It must be noted that it is not the obligation of government or anyone to feed people.

However, seeing that they tax everybody for everything, it should be assumed that at least the hungry Americans are fed with TARP.

People forget that every time they buy fuel, stuff in stores, rent a hotel room, use telephones or Internet  the government gets a cut.  That isn’t all either.

Now they are trying to figure out what to do with what is left of the $700 Billion TARP.

I would suggest maybe providing food to the almost two out of ten Americans who are going hungry.

If that isn’t considered, how can these leaders sleep at night?

Sending astronauts into space, sending military all over the world,  prisons bulging at the seams, a health care system that is a license to impoverish its customers and bailing out the fat cats while people are on the ropes is a little unconscionable, isn’t it.

I don’t feel sorry for Blackbeard’s prey this time

Blackbeard was a notorious pirate of yesteryear.

Yahoo reports a Saudi supertanker full of crude was pirated off the coast of Somalia.  All 25 crew members were safe at the time of this writing.

Considering how my wallet and millions of other wallets were pirated with the insane pricing of gasoline and home heating fuels during the last twelve months, I think it is hilarious.

What goes around comes around.

The Matador

He was a surly man, yet every time he saw me he had a smile on his face.

Not too many people liked him or he them.

Jorge was a powerful man.  He gave me a bear hug once and almost squeezed the breath out of me and I was not a small person either, at six feet two inches and two hundred and twenty pounds.

We used to share a bottle of Tequila on occasion at a bar close to the ocean.  He spoke Spanish and me English and somehow we understood one another.

He had been famous in Mexico City in his youth and when he got up to show me his moves, without the cape, I could see that he was the Matador.

He shot another friend of mine in a bar one Wednesday afternoon.  He spent two months in jail and my wounded friend spent a month in the hospital.

They both recovered from the ordeal.  It was over a woman.

I hadn’t seen him in over a year and thought he had moved until one day when a friend was driving my car this fellow with road rage steaming from his ears cut us off wanting to fight.

We had no idea what was going down and we stopped in front of the police station except there were no cops.

I decided I might as well get out and deal with this, expecting the worst.

The Matador came flying out of his car in a rage like the Tasmanian Devil.

Then he saw my face and started laughing.

Only in Mexico, hey Jorge

What happened to romance?

I look around where I live and view the news and hear and see so much of everything except romance.

I don’t remember the last time I saw a couple walking holding hands and smiling.

I don’t see men opening doors either.

Is it just me or where I live?

I remember I once hired a fellow in a Gorilla outfit to impress a woman I loved.  She loved it.  It may not have been romantic but it is the thought that counts, I hope.

Or buying a necklace when it isn’t a birthday or Christmas.

Or pick a bunch of flowers to make a bouquet for her.

Or get up on the roof of your house and yell out “I love you!”

Or a candle lit dinner on the beach with a great trio serenading.

Or buying her one of those big stuffed teddy bears.

Or dance with someone special under the moon lit sky listening to the soft moods of a brilliant guitar and you see eyes sparkling and lips curled upward in a smile.

Today I think we have become too focused on the mechanics of it all.

There was something special about romance.  I hope it hasn’t become extinct.

More than one out of ten Americans suffered from hunger in 2007

This was reported in MSNBC.Com.  The following is an excerpt from the article:

WASHINGTON – Some 691,000 children went hungry in America sometime in 2007, while close to one in eight Americans struggled to feed themselves adequately even before this year’s sharp economic downturn, the Agriculture Department reported Monday.

The department’s annual report on food security showed that during 2007 the number of children who suffered a substantial disruption in the amount of food they typically eat was more than double the 430,000 in 2006 and the largest figure since 716,000 in 1998.

Overall, the 36.2 million adults and children who struggled with hunger during the year was up slightly from 35.5 million in 2006. That was 12.2 percent of Americans who didn’t have the money or assistance to get enough food to maintain active, healthy lives.

If the above is true, what will 2008/2009 foretell?

When one corporation gets $150 billion dollars in aid and money is pouring from the coffers like water at Niagara Falls, why are so many Americans without?

That is a lot of people going hungry within the borders of a “super power”.

“If he is not a dictator, at least he seems it”

Marisabel Rodriguez spoke those words in reference to Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez as reported in FoxNews.Com.

The amazing aspect of this accusation is that Marisabel Rodriguez was once married to Hugo Chavez who is apparently losing some of his popularity with his countrymen.

Marisabel Rodriguez is running for mayor in Barquisimeto, Venezuela’s fourth largest city,

They have been airing out their dirty laundry in public for some time now.

You would think there are more important issues for a country to focus on than two people who were once wed throwing barbs at one another.

If there is no heaven, what the hell are you going to do?

Throughout history there have been many claims made, theories promoted and much speculation about the afterlife.

Some of these include heaven, hell, limbo, reincarnation, joining the universal mind and so on.

Much time on earth is spent on the afterlife and how to achieve the most desirable state.

Many people are not happy in this life.  They suffer through it in the hope of achieving heaven or another preferred state.

What if there is no afterlife?

What if our life is it?

We only have one go around that we are one hundred percent sure of.  That is the now.

Would not life be more pleasurable with a change of attitude?

Is it not possible to have a good life, somewhat like heaven on earth?

We all know hell on earth exists.  We have all felt one aspect of it or another.  We have all experienced a little joy and peace on earth as well.  For some of us we forget either experience with time.

Is it possible that this is what the philosophers and prophets of old attempted to convey?

I know some people who are quite content with their lives.

I have been fortunate to have many periods of happiness in my life.

My attitude or mind set during those times was considerably different that the times I lived in hell.

I have come to the conclusion that the here and now is the most important time of all.  How I live it determines how I will remember it in the future.

“Every aspect of the political economy in which I put my belief is torn on this”

The subject is the bail out.  The author of the above quote is Kelso’s Nuts, one of the editors of Editorials from Hell’s leading daily newspaper.

I have come to know the man somewhat and I am convinced he knows finance, economics and political systems intimately.

He has commented on this blog often and his in-depth views are always welcome as he tells it like it is with knowledge and wisdom supporting him.

When a man with his background and experience is “torn”, you realize there is no simple answer.

I am not in favor of bailouts,  For people like myself, who see little alternative for America’s economy and the big three manufacturers except for bail out, Kelso’s comment made me think.

A decision for or against a bailout can so easily be a major bust or a wise move.  One little piece of information that is not divulged or known can rattle this thing to pieces.

The decision is so evenly weighted on both sides of the argument, you may as well toss a coin to determine which side wins.

A simple illustration how powerless we are at times to make the best possible decision for no one can guarantee the future.

“They need to restructure. If they get bailed out they are not going to do it.”

That was a comment from an article in Yahoo.com describing Americans’ reluctance to bail out the auto firms.

GM, Ford and Chrysler are cognisant of the need to change and to be honest, they always responded to the market, otherwise they never would have lasted this long.

The fuel went up very quickly in price, like the 1970’s.  Financing dried up for potential customers.

It takes time and money to restructure.

Without the loans, there may be nothing left to restructure.

It appears that they are rapidly approaching a wall.  Any business would be hard pressed to survive with such a dramatic reduction in revenue in such a short period of time.

Then it will be too late except for the tears.

Are those of us who don’t believe what they believe……evil?

According to what many organized religions teach we won’t enter the great place upstairs after we die, so that sets us apart. They believe we need to change our thinking or we are cast asunder.

For the many who have never heard what organized religions believe it sets them apart as well.

There was more than one continent on this planet earth which had no exposure to this thinking for countless centuries and there are many today who have no awareness of this.

I wish no harm on any man, woman or child,

I don’t agree with oppression.

I hate to see people suffer and all should have food, clothing and shelter.

I believe we should all enjoy liberty.

I believe we should all respect one another.

I believe we are all created equal.

If that makes me evil, so be it.

I have no hatred for these people but they dislike me.

I do not begrudge them their mansions in the great place upstairs.

I don’t want a mansion.

I love peace.

I’ll take my chances as I have faith that not all is as it appears to be.

Obama is doing it right

I just read this article on Yahoo.com and I have to admit it appears Obama has his priorities in order.

It is like a breath of fresh air.

“He also said: “We shouldn’t worry about the deficit next year or even the year after. … The most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession.”

The president-elect confirmed reports that he intends to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and “make sure we don’t torture” as “part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.”

It makes one feel good that there is someone at the wheel of the great ship America who has his head screwed on right.

When I saw him on the bench I thought “Oh Jesus”

No, it wasn’t a park bench, he was a Judge, and I was a defendant.

I recognized this Judge from some time earlier.  He had confronted me on a side street with a baseball bat because I was driving a motorcycle without mufflers in a suburban area on a Sunday morning.

He was not a happy camper at the time.

He looked at me and I tried to be nonchalant.  My brain was numb.

My lawyer, a former magistrate from Uganda, put his hand on my shoulder.  He was as nervous as I.

“I believe you are guilty,  but the evidence doesn’t support a conviction.  If I see you in front of me one more time it will be two years without question.”

He had spoken, I couldn’t believe it.

Needless to say, I didn’t have to be reminded.  It was about thirty years ago and I kept out of trouble pretty much after that.

You can never assume anything.

Pay it forward

I was on an airplane catching a flight home. I was gone for a week and had to purchase some clothes a few days prior to my departure from Sally Ann.

I am a white knuckled flier so I probably smelled pretty bad.  I had helped my friend a week earlier drive cross country so he could be at his father’s funeral.  We ran out of cash and got separated.

I was accidentally thrown in jail for standing too close to six individuals who were rounded up in a paddy wagon, me included.

Finally, they admitted they didn’t know me.

I was sitting next to a retired judge on the airplane.  He bought me a couple of drinks to sooth my nerves.

I thanked him and said I would send him the money when I returned to my job.

He said, no need.  When you are in a position to help another, think of me.

I do.  Think of him.

Without hope, what have we got?

We have today.

We can strive for self improvement.  No one is so perfect there is not an area which could use a little improving.

We can only do it by our little lonesome.

The desire has to be there of course.

When you look at a fellow human, try not to place him or her on some kind of gauge of humanity, determining whether you are above or below him or her.

Suffice to look at yourself.

It isn’t easy.

It is always easier to point a finger at another.

What about me?

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

That is a statement made by the Son of Man which is oft ignored by his so called followers and his enemies alike.

He has been a source of controversy since he appeared on this planet.

Even the book that tells of him is full of commentary, like the news media experts of today, which bastardize the message and cause pain and strife among fellow men.

His message was known before he arrived and people who came  after voiced similar ideals.

It is a good message, which many of us seem to forget in these times.

We are more concerned about the free pass to a promised land which may or may not exist after we depart.

He is also reported to have said the following:

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

He said this and many ignore it,

And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

There was another man they wrote of in the book they call the bible who was referred to as the Preacher.  He said this,

And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Reading the above is a damning testimony for those alive today.  Where are the peacemakers?

There is a rush to judgment and for revenge and retaliation.

If you don’t believe as they, you are damned.

That is not love or the stuff of peace.

I am not a “Christian”

I am only a man.

Brother against brother, father against son

It disturbs me deeply the things I observe.

Most of it is in the news and comments to various news stories on the web.

It does not matter what the subject is, there is ignorance and venom aplenty out there.

This little world may appear to be peaceful for a bit on the outside but there is something deeply troubling within.

There is no patience or caring for the other in this world.

People are opinionated as never before.

Derision and guffaws are common place.  Profanity directed to persons for no reason other than the sharing of an opinion is plentiful.

People who profess to be of faith are as guilty as the faithless.

There are the seeds of massive discontent and anger and self righteousness.

The world has gone through two World Wars in less than 100 years and it appears the groundwork for number three is being laid.

This economic crisis will spawn the self fulfilling prophecies of many who wish to believe.

Only love and compassion and forgiveness by all parties will prevent what may occur in the next generation or this.

Are we big enough?

Or do we wish to remain small?

Rest In Peace

Can the United States survive its current status without an auto industry?

In this day and age, I think not.

The country is turning into an importer for fossil fuels, clothing, small appliances and such.

There are a lot of service and financial related businesses in America, but who will need those when the “real” businesses go under?

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are fine, but the world existed before their predominance a few years ago and can continue with out them if need be.  They are only a blip on the economic front.

The naysayers to the big three and foreign auto manufacturers forget all the suppliers and such that service this huge manufacturing complex.

Let them go and America is bust.

Lehman and Bear Stearn were nothing as compared to GM and Ford and what they do for the “real” economy.

Main Street, watch out where your future is being spent.

If they drop the auto industry, America may as well say good-by to super power status.

I believe it is already too late to make a difference.  The die is cast.

The only commandment we follow and find out we are good at is killing us

Gen 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

We have written books about this commandment with instructions on how to do it, created a multibillion dollar industry devoted to it and tried to make it interesting when interest fades.  We even have drugs for the libido.

Now there are six billion six hundred million of us here.

Many are having trouble finding enough to eat, evading aggressive fellows, finding clean air or water and our sewage and garbage are piling up into mountains.

What do we do?

Disobey God and quit creating?

Enforce longevity restrictions?

It is a little perplexing is it not?

The only commandment we follow and find out we are good at is killing us.

Is the world tired of America?

America is well known to be the largest economy and consumer nation in the world.

It’s military is spread out over the globe to ensure it’s national interests.

The “American Dream” has been advertised to the poor and oppressed for centuries, and they came.

There was only one way in the world until 2008, and that was the “American” way, like it or not.

Now, with the uncertainty that is, that which America enjoyed over the last century is eroding.

People are tired of the double standard, the deceit, the wars, the inability to find one terrorist and his gang, invading sovereign allies’ turf to wage war against “suspected terrorists” and killing innocents in the process.

The “war on drugs” which claim more lives than the drugs do.

The “preemptive strike” against a nation based on paranoia and lies.

Yes, America has done some great things and has many fine people living within its borders.

They have been overshadowed by the excesses and arrogance which control the country.

When that is resolved, America may be great once again.

Until then, it is a helluva tall mountain to climb.

Like kids in a candy store

That’s us, those living in the free industrialized world.

Many of us are ignorant of the squalor that people live in to make the “candy’ for us.  What we take for granted, people in many parts of the world consider obscene wealth.

While we gorged on the sweets around us the decay started and we did not notice.

There were those among us who would never be satisfied with a portion, they wanted it “all”.

One day we woke up and reached for our favorite candy, to find it spoiled.

We look around and cannot find any “good” candy.

We look to the street as we don’t want to be in the candy store no more.

Is there any place to go?

“Depression greater than the Great Depression,” George W. Bush

WASHINGTON (AP) — President George W. Bush underscored how dire the economic crisis has become when he told world leaders that he had agreed to a $700 billion rescue plan for financial institutions only after he’d learned the U.S. was at risk of sinking into a “depression greater than the Great Depression.”

Source Yahoo.com

Everyone knows it is bad but “depression greater than the Great Depression”?

What aren’t they telling the guy on the street?

That bail out was approved not that long ago.  AIG went back to the trough recently as the money allotted to it wasn’t enough.

If the above statement is theatrics, it is one thing,  but I don’t think so.  There is too much fear there.

It all hinges on the GDP

I am finally starting to understand why world leaders are so concerned about the current economic crisis.

GDP is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within the country in a given period of time (usually a calendar year).

In 1950, America’s debt was much higher than today in respect to GDP,  94.1%.   Normally this percentage since the the 1960’s fluctuates between 40% and 60% and is quite manageable.

The last estimated figure for 2008 is at 72.5%.  Still manageable as compared to 1950.

However, as we can see by the dramatic downturn in housing and auto sales in the last two years, the GDP is starting to shrink quite rapidly but the debt isn’t.

For every dollar made in America the percentage owed to debt increases as the number of dollars represented by GDP shrinks.

That is akin to having $1,000 total monthly debt payments and your income is $3,000 per month.

If income drops to $2,000 the $1,000 debt is still there and needs to be paid.  If utilities, food, fuel and clothing is more than $1,000, you are in major trouble.

Now I understand the urgency for Americans to spend.

The problem is most Americans are in the same difficulty in respect to debt as their country is, so it is an urgency which is difficult to relieve.

This is only my understanding of the situation and I stand to be corrected.

It was an interesting read this morning, I started by reading about the US Public Debt in Wikipedia and kept on clicking links from there.  I was impressed with the way it was presented and how understandable it is.  There is so much information it is difficult for any one individual to assimilate all the pieces of the US economy and how it fits together and it relates to the current economic situation.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

That is one great gift to all men and women on this planet.

Without this truism there would not be 6.6 billion of us here.

It is comforting to know that whoever and whatever you are and no matter what people think of your appearance, someone is going to think you are the apple of his or her eye.

All you have to hope for is when he or she finds you that you will find he or she as the apple of your eye.

Life is wonderful, isn’t it?

They called me Moses and I still can’t figure out why

I fell (figuratively speaking)  into their beach party.

I was young, in a good mood and cocky when I saw her.

Absolutely gorgeous.  If God ever made a woman that was perfect to behold, this ebony goddess was it.

She turned and when she saw me she said “hi Moses”.

My heart stopped.

I looked more like an Ichabod in those days than a Moses so I have no idea where she got that in her mind.

I sauntered over.  Her mom and dad and brothers were all there and I eyed them from the corners of my eyes as they were big, mean looking suckers.

Then her father said “Hey Moses, sit down a spell.”

I had a great time that afternoon and made a whole family of friends, including the ebony goddess.

We drifted apart after a few months, all it was, was a friendship.  They taught me much, the experience was unforgettable.

They never knew my real name.

They only knew me as “Moses”

He was sitting in a wheel chair when the Pope walked on the stage….

…then the wheel chair victim rose and walked.

The newspapers and television reporters were excited about the miracle Pope Paul had wrought.

Upon investigation the person in the wheel chair was an electrician talking a break after finishing some last minute details and happened to be there when the Pope arrived.

If people weren’t aware of this final discovery, what are they thinking?

When I was young I prayed for fame and millions and never got it. Why?

My intentions were to help a lot of people and live the good life.

They told me if I had faith that I could move mountains.  I didn’t want to move a particular mountain and the life of a philanthropic jet setter appealed to me immensely.

Upon reflection I am happy it didn’t happen quite the way I wanted it.  I am scared of flying so jet setting is not for me.

I am glad I am not famous because no one will leave me alone if I want to go to a restaurant or bar somewhere.

I made enough money in my life and lost it a few times, so it tells me I would have squandered the millions anyway.

But the prayers didn’t work.

I am not disappointed or angry, but some people truly believed everything one prays for will be granted.  Like a Genie in a bottle who exists solely for ones’ ego and desire.

God didn’t work that way for me.  Maybe I had the wrong name.

Faith Within

Someone asked me what I meant by that and here goes.

There were times in my life I ended up in situations where I didn’t know what to do or say, if anything.  Fear was palpable in many but not all of these scenarios.

I’m just a normal person and have done the “wrong” things on many occasions.

Yet when it really mattered somehow, something inside took over and overcame that which would have controlled.

It gave me the strength to walk away, say no to something that wasn’t right, stand in the face of certain defeat and rise above for the “right” reason.

These are small occurrences in any man’s life, but upon reflection you ask yourself, where did that come from?

When someone is in need my hand went out to help.  There was no thought behind it, it came from within.

I am squeamish when it comes to the sight of blood and I shudder, yet when I came upon accident victims that squeamishness was gone.

I am no hero, far from.  No angel either, far from.

But there is something within that prevents my from jumping over the edge and murdering my own conscience.

What that is, I don’t know.  I have learned to have faith in it.  I do not have faith in myself as I found that I am not infallible.

It is not an easy thing to admit, that I am not perfect.  I looked at myself in the mirror more than once, not liking me, but something within made me aware that it’s OK, you’re learning.

We didn’t come with instruction manuals so other people invented them.

Pretty ridiculous isn’t it?

Here we are, arriving on planet earth through the female species and start seeing a light sometime after birth.  We have no clue why we are here or what is expected of us.

It is a full time job just surviving.  We can’t do anything for ourselves so we suck a nipple and sleep a lot until we get stronger.

As we age, we have lots of questions.  We want to know why we ended up on earth in a hell hole when we could have been born on Cancun or along the Mediterranean or on the Riviera somewhere.

We discover books and listen to people who know everything there is to know.

Being naive, we believe it all as we have not known lies yet.  Except for when someone catches us with our hands in the cookie jar.

Later on, it occurs to us that these experts and the books they wrote are by people just like ourselves, born the same way.

How do they know all that stuff?

Did they make it up?

“Please, sir, I want some more.”

The great quotation from “Oliver Twist.”

It appears that is a dominant theme in today’s world by people who don’t need more.

And the ones that do need more are ignored.

I, the clone

I have a social security number.

When I used to go to work like all the other clones I had to wear a “suit” with this stupid ribbon around my neck called a “tie”.

I was encouraged to be more clone like every day.

It doesn’t matter where you go in the world you see more and more clones, all talking into their cell phones trying to look important.  They live in homes which all look the same and like to drive cars that all look the same.

Most of them purchase with credit as that is what they are taught to do.

Clones take away something from the fabric of life.

Clones are nothing more than robots with the ability to procreate.  Clones don’t like to have their world disturbed.

Clones like being clones.

I love the diversity that once was.  Who wants to go to another country to eat at a KFC or McDonalds or stay in the same hotel as at home?

Cultures are disappearing because of this clone disease.

We are able to be different and still get along.  Who needs clones?

“I was no chief and never had been, but because I had been more deeply wronged than others, this honor was conferred upon me, and I resolved to prove worthy of the trust.”

The man who spoke these words is known as Goyathlay a Chiricahua Apache leader who resisted the U.S. government policy to consolidate his people on reservations by leading a series of raids against Mexican and American settlements in the Southwest.

The world has known him by the name of Geronimo.

He was also known for saying the following:

I was warmed by the sun, rocked by the winds and sheltered by the trees as other Indian babes. I was living peaceably when people began to speak bad of me. Now I can eat well, sleep well and be glad. I can go everywhere with a good feeling.

I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures.

When a child, my mother taught me to kneel and pray to Usen for strength, health, wisdom and protection. Sometimes we prayed in silence, sometimes each one prayed aloud; sometimes an aged person prayed for all of us…

“I had no weapon, nor did I hardly wish to fight, neither did I contemplate recovering the bodies of my loved ones, for that was forbidden. I did not pray, nor did I resolve to do anything in particular, for I had no purpose left… I was never again contented in our quiet home.”

“The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of the Indians.”

“Late one afternoon when returning from town we were met by a few women and children who told us that Mexican troops from some other town had attacked our camp, killed all the warriors of the guard, captured all our ponies, secured our arms, destroyed our supplies, and killed many of our women and children… when all were counted, I found that my aged mother, my young wife, and my three small children were among the slain.”

It appears that the history of the countries in the New World is tainted with much wrong doing if the words of the chiefs are to believed.

There is no reason not to believe them.

I burned my Bible today

I hadn’t read it in years anyway and discovered I didn’t miss it.

In walking through life I learned from others and from my own experiences.

Life doesn’t require a book to have faith in something unseen.

Faith does not require words.

Faith does not require organization, proselytizing or religion.

Faith does not require martyrdom or man gods.

Faith is freedom and freedom is faith.

Faith is life.

Faith is within.

“This nation is like a spring freshet; it overruns its banks and destroys all who are in its path.”

A famous Chief and Medicine Man uttered those words, Tȟatȟaŋka Iyotȟaŋka was his real name and he was also referred to as Sitting Bull.

The above words are appropriate.

When the Americans decided that it could no longer live with the Sioux or keep its promises to the Sioux they sent soldiers after the people who were defending their own.

Sitting Bull was not about to go away without a response so he taught the US Army a little lesson when he defeated Lt Col Custer at the battle of the Little Bighorn.

The Sioux looked at life a little differently than the people who stole their lands.

He made some observations about his enemies and a few other notable comments:

I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle.

If I agree to dispose of any part of our land to the white people I would feel guilty of taking food away from our children’s mouths, and I do not wish to be that mean.

If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man, he would have made me so in the first place.

Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country?

Only seven years ago we made a treaty by which we were assured that the buffalo country should be left to us forever. Now they threaten to take that from us also.

Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possessions is a disease in them.

There are things they tell us that sound good to hear, but when they have accomplished their purpose they will go home and will not try to fulfill our agreements with them.

Therefore, I do not wish to consider any proposition to cede any portion of our tribal holdings to the Great Father.

They claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their refuse.

What treaty that the whites have kept has the red man broken? Not one.

What white man can say I never stole his land or a penny of his money? Yet they say that I am a thief.

What white man has ever seen me drunk? Who has ever come to me hungry and left me unfed? Who has seen me beat my wives or abuse my children? What law have I broken?

The disease that is causing problems today was recognized by the Sioux for what it was years ago.  The man who spoke these words was one of the few in history who had a noble heart.

Aside from wisdom, Sitting Bull was known for his generosity.  It is told he would give money to poor white people in the big cities so they could eat.

It is worth going back in time and seeing what other cultures thought of our culture.  I can’t honestly say Sitting Bull was wrong, can you?

The marriage license is absurd

A license is defined as “ Official or legal permission to do or own a specified thing.”

There are areas of practice which I believe licensing is required for the health and safety of the general public.

In a free democracy, why should one need the “permission” of big brother to live with someone and declare they are married or not?

That is akin to having a “license” to breathe and eat.

Marriage should only be determined by the individuals who want to proclaim they are married to the world.

A license is ridiculous.

If it doesn’t work out between the married people they should have the ability to walk away without asking big brother or hiring expensive attorneys.

If the married people want to go on record as being married, they should be able purchase a marriage proclamation for a nominal sum which records their union, like a will.  If they want to dissolve the proclamation, it should be just as simple.

Marriage is oft used to enslave or oppress one partner over another and Government interference makes that possible.  When everyone is considered as a free individual by the government, there would be less problems.

Government has no business in marriage, neither does religion.

“Don’t laugh, it’s paid for”

I saw that on a bumper sticker on an old car running down the Interstate one day and I smiled, how true that is.

We all tend to look down upon Third World Countries and they have their problems, but one thing I am aware of,  those people own what little they do have.

They don’t live in McMansions, have new vehicles and don’t owe any coin.

When there is a holiday, they pool their resources, get together and have fun.  Money is no object.

Refreshing isn’t it?

They don’t worry about tomorrow or retirement because they may not be there.  So they take what they have and use it for today.

There are pros and cons to both systems but you can see which one went too far.

There are many people in the US making six, seven or eight figure incomes who aren’t worth what they get paid when someone in a distressed country with the same capabilities and education makes a fifth of that.

And they own what they have.

I perceive a new world order is about to develop if this situation continues.

It will be controlled by the ones who have it paid for.

“No!” and Insanity

A simple, albeit, unpopular statement.

In a recent MSNBC article the GOP tells the automakers “No” to bailout.

They have been telling people in the finance or insurance business “Yes, Yes, Yes, here is more”.

This is due to not having any leadership or sense of direction.

I am not in favor of bail-out to anyone.  But now that they have started this little exercise in futility and spending who knows how much of taxpayers’ money, I question their sanity.

Every one of these firms have no one to blame except themselves.  They got themselves into this mess.  Other companies appear to be holding their own and that is due to having leadership that was worth the millions they paid for.

However, the auto companies are a little different than the finance companies.

General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are real brick and mortar companies that actually make something besides pushing paper.

Around the world there are dealerships with millions spent on showrooms, support, real estate and such.

In Timbuktu, the dealership contributes to the local economy, hiring locals, advertising in the little local newspapers, buying insurance, supporting support industries, all the way to the top.

A collapse by GM or Ford will send a shock-wave through the world.

Yet it is “OK” to let one of them go.

The only reason they are supporting Wall Street, AIG and banks is because of foreign money.  The USA doesn’t want to walk red faced, hat in hand, to Europe, Russia, China and other countries and say, “Sorry, we f–ked up, your money is gone!”

They would rather kill the only machine that has any hope in hell of repaying this massive outlay.  American brick and mortar business.

It is time to end the politics and fancy words.

Now is not the time for collecting brownie points with a jaded and easily frightened populace.

It is time to get real and get results quickly.

It is time to get the best working on it, regardless of political leanings.

It is time to forget favoritism or personal vendettas.

There is a need today for truth, honesty and accountability.

It is time to build a new foundation, even if it will hurt for a while.

To build a new glass house on a shifting landscape will cause the ultimate destruction.

Bush accused Gore of fuzzy math and look what happened

The accuser is guilty.

Does anyone really know the actual numbers that are on America’s books and are they even reliable?

Numbers are bandied about left, right and center.

The war is financed outside of the budget.  Some people put the debt closer to $50 trillion and the clock in New York has it over $10 trillion.

These are just numbers as no one has ever spent or saved that much before other than the US Government.  No one has the equipment to print that much juice or the armament to protect the printing machine.

That is the only reason George W. isn’t brought to task like Bill was for his indiscretions or Nixon for his.

The crimes George W. facilitated were much worse in my eyes than Bill’s or Richard’s.

I don’t understand why America isn’t demanding justice or a “real” enquiry and not the charade Pelosi orchestrated.

There were millions that suffered due to incompetence or criminal activity.

Obama will not seek it either.

The body language and smiles between the two on Obama’s visit to the White House negates any chance of finding out the truth.

If it were anyone else, they would be called to task.

What kind of message is that the leaders of America is sending down the ranks.  It is OK to break the law if you are important but not if you are not?

For the government to regain respect of it’s citizens it must repair the damage of its past, and the current administration has a lot of explaining to do.

The seed that spawned the holocaust survives today…..

…we have heard of it in Africa, the Middle East, that which was once called Yugoslavia and we hear of isolated instances the world over.

The seed is being nurtured and is growing.

When it reaches maturity it will seduce all those who have no morals or conscience and make them as puppets to do its bidding.

It has happened time and again in mankind’s history and the conditions are starting to favor the seed of madness as it were.

If it is not identified and controlled it will be beyond control.

These are not empty words.

The German people are admired around the world for their discipline, engineering skills, work ethic and desire to achieve beyond and above.

They came close to winning the last major war and a large number of them followed the dictates of a leadership gone insane.  The German population was small compared to that which it unleashed its blitzkrieg upon.

If it could happen to people such as the Germans, it could happen anywhere to any society if the ingredients are there.

Josef Stalin was another who reportedly ordered the deaths of millions.  People did his bidding.

These events happened within the last century, not long ago in earth time.

This will be a challenge for the rulers of the free world in the upcoming decade.  It is a time for wisdom, compassion and strength, not only for one, but for all.

After all is said and done…this is a grand life isn’t it?

I was thinking about it tonight.  Taking into account all the highs and lows, loves and lost, having plenty and naught, turmoil and peace, and doing it all more than once and surviving, I would have to say life is exceptional.

We do not appreciate it enough.

We always want more.  We expect mankind to be better and are vocal about it.

We love the stable and secure parts of life and don’t want to change from stability and security, but how can you truly appreciate anything without knowing it all?

Change is what life is all about and learning.

Like a great comedy, there is a little pathos in it to give the humor something to reflect upon and stand out.

That is what our lows and depressions and fears are about, the pathos in the great comedy of life.

When we realize it for what it is then we can laugh about it.

That is the beauty of this existence.

It is like a game played over and over, and I for one feel fortunate to have had an opportunity to play in it this one time.  And I am not finished yet

“free public hanging”….

….on a sign in Vat, Idaho.  This was reported in a story on the unprecedented number of threats to President elect Obama on Yahoo.Com.

Is Obama to be the next John or Robert Kennedy or Martin Luther King jr?  A martyr before his time?

People are working around the clock to prevent it.  Are these hated filled individuals prepared to blacken their country’s image around the world by trying to assassinate the president?

In their demented minds, they do not care for America?

Their threats send a signal that there are a few in the US who are less than human.  What has Obama done to anyone to deserve these ugly messages?

I didn’t hear or read fact based accusations prior to the election.  All the dirt I read was based on pure emotion without any solid evidence to back it up.

This is the stuff expected from Nazis, Taliban, Al-Quada, KKK, skin heads and others.

We all know where these people reside on the scale of humanity .

These people make a mockery of the Constitution and may as well spit on the graves of Americans who stood and fought for equality and freedom.

The disease called Taliban

After reading about the fifteen girls who were sprayed with acid for wanting to go to school, I felt like puking.

The Taliban denied it but FoxNews.com reports that “Girls were banned from schools under the rule of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamist regime that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Women were only allowed to leave the house wearing a body-hiding burqa and accompanied by a male family member.”

Innocent until proven guilty is a good motto and should not be forgotten in this case.  As horrendous as it sounds, it is the kind of news story that benefits the occupiers, and in this day and age who can you trust?

However the Taliban has a history of hard line oppression and are known allies of Osama Bin Laden.

My question to the people intimidated by the Taliban is; did Allah create you to suffer oppression from people with the intellect and compassion of the common roach?  If Allah did, who wants to follow?

It is obvious that the people who follow religions that are as restrictive to thought or movement as the Taliban have been sheep for so long that when the fence is removed, they cannot recognize their freedom or what freedom means.

It is a sad situation that is common in much of the undeveloped world.  This is beyond ignorance as dogs have more compassion for their own as some of the two legged people who are not human do.

It is only money

Bail out, crisis, recession, depression, sub prime, bankrupt, analysts’ expectations, economists, experts and other words are bandied about to the point everyone is familiar with these terms today.

When you look at the reports from some of the fortune tellers they predict that the US economy may shrink 2.5% next year.

That is only two and a half cents on the dollar and that will give us untold grief?

It has been going up almost every year and when there is a tiny adjustment the “sky is falling” mode comes into play?

I can understand it if it were to drop 20, 30, 50 percent.  Then we know there is a major problem, but 2.5%?

As long as we can keep agriculture going, supply enough to heat homes and cool them in extreme climates and provide drinking water and sewage, who cares?

The cost of medicine is way too high for what is received in return.  Maybe we should bring that industry back down to reality.

There are too many insurances in this world.

Why should a person make more after his or her career is over than when they were working?

There is too much government regulation.

There is too much military.

There is too much borrowing by all governments.

There are a lot of areas we can adjust to make up the shortfall.

After all the 2.5% is only money.

After writing this post, I received the following comment which illuminates and disagrees with this post.  It is well worth reading and is penned by Kelso’s Nuts.

ICHABOD: Recession of 2.5% annually or even just stagnation is very bad in any country because it’s a much bigger number than 2.5c/$ when you know what people who know economics and finance know. For the “exceptional America,” it’s death on rye toast.

2.5% is merely one part of it. There’s the “alpha” or “drift” term, meant to capture the historical human tendency to advance and become more productive and efficient over time. That number’s around 4.0% annually. Generally speaking, no, there isn’t too much borrowing by all governments, there’s right now too much borrowing by the USA and the USA even has a crappy and regressive public sector to begin with. Most other governments have responsibly conservative fiscal and monetary policies with the purpose of attaining steady growth in the 4% range with as little variance as possible.

2.5% just got to be 10.5% pretty quick. Now compound 10.5% annually for a theoretical eight years — two terms of an administration, Democrat or Republican — under basic world industrial/technological conditions. That’s a net loss of national wealth and purchasing power of 68%!

All of a sudden, the self-sufficient semi-agrarian USA you posit as a worst-case scenario is necessary but not sufficient and the USA has become a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY. Countries small and large have been through these situations. Post-Versailles Germany and the USSR were two big countries in that pickle. Argentina and Chile were two medium-sized countries. El Salvador and Nicaragua were two little countries.

All six of those countries experience profound social distortion as a result of economic policy which wasn’t prepared to weather bad luck or randomness. Four of the six, remain as they are and have evolved and improved with time.

Of the six, it was the two big ones, Germany and the USSR with the temerity the USA shows these days to call themselves “exceptional,” and “model” nations which should be “examples” to the rest of the world. When faced with internal problems their belief in their “exceptionalism” led them further down the garden-path to chaos and it was the two big “exceptional” countries which had to make the profound changes. To do otherwise would have ended up in the partitioning not only of their conquered territory but of the native land as well.

So, combine systemic recession or stagnation with a sense of national superiority and you see where this goes. Very scary to think of the end game in a nuclear era.

Against the Wind

I have come to the conclusion I am a little different in the way I think as compared to the majority. There are others who think like myself, and I have met them and corresponded with them.

I am not the kind of person you will find in a mob or stadium or anything like that.  When the powers that be say sit or rise, I wonder to myself, who are they?

I admire people who question, create, live life to the fullest and love.

That is not always acceptable to many others.

That is why I feel and write against the wind.

It is hard to “believe” in anything nowadays isn’t it?

I am not speaking of things like medical or technological advances.

I am speaking about the stuff that we cannot see or hear or touch.

For every pro there is a con.  There is so much information out there in respect to faith.  There is evidence supporting and tearing down.   People who believe in both causes are not fools or uneducated.

They rely on history or what they glean from history and present it to the lay people such as myself and that leads to confusion.

I don’t believe God’s intentions were for us to be confused.

The people who lived with nature for generations without all the benefits the modern world had to offer also believed in a spirit God.

Their God was a lot less confusing than other faiths.

These people were not educated in schools but had a good handle on life.

Are they doomed or not?  Were they right or not?

Who knows for sure?

Meanwhile since mankind first appeared on this planet this has been a source of controversy through the ages, and there never seems to be an absolute correct answer.

Which is the way it is meant to be.

When faith lets you down, what do you have left?

Absolutely nothing.

For many, they may not have crossed this avenue in life but it happens.  It feels awfully lonely out there by yourself once that which you believed in is no longer believable.

However, after the initial separation is dealt with and time goes on something else takes its place.  A new awareness and another view on what is, was and will be.

We being human have expectations.  We expect a lot from God.  Food, shelter, health and love.

Some never get any of this at times in their lives.

The Jewish people who were caught in the horror of the holocaust must have wondered where God was.  So must the other six million or so victims.

In the Middle East, much of government and culture revolves around faith as in other parts of the world.

There is much trial and tribulation and there must be many questioning what they were taught or told.

Even Jesus cried out “Mat 27:46  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “

Maybe we are being taught something that is not true?

If we didn’t have false expectations from God we would not be disappointed or question God when we are in peril and there is no help.

Does this mean God doesn’t exist or we have an excuse to live amoral or immoral lives.

I don’t believe so.

But that is another subject.

Why can’t religion tolerate honesty?

They are plenty of different religions in this world but I am referring to the major cults out there who don’t consider themselves cults but have no trouble referring to others as cults.

Years ago when I was a bible thumping Christian I desired to join a church.  They said fine, we’d love to have you.

The conversation between the Pastors and myself went pretty much like the following.

“Are you baptized?” The pastor asked.

“No.” I answered.

“We’ll arrange a baptism,” he offered.

“Baptism by water is blasphemy,” I countered, “John the Baptist said he was the last one who would baptize with water and he who follows would baptize with the holy spirit.”

“Yes that’s what it says, but it is still necessary to be baptized with water,” the pastors both agreed.

“But you teach that if I accept the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, I will go to heaven.”

“That is true,” they replied.

“But I can’t join the church unless I am baptized with water?” I countered.

“No you can’t,” they answered.

“Well, if I am good enough for God to get into Heaven but not good enough for your church we have a problem don’t we?”

That was the day I started seeing the “light”.

I am “He”

I have wondered why most people who say they believe in God refer to God as He or Him or Lord as insinuating a male figure.

Why would God, the supreme entity that no one knows or sees limit the state of God to he?

Men have been taking advantage of the God is “He” aspect since time began and still do it.  The Catholic Church does it today without fear of recourse as does Islam because I haven’t seen any female Ayatollahs or Muslim Clerics or Catholic Priestesses.

Maybe this is a con job and I have evidence.  I looked into the word of God, the Holy Bible and I found something to support my case.

Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

Mat 6:9  After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Note in referring to God one statement says our and the other which.  No “He” or “She” is implied.

Being as it may that this book is used for the foundation of a number of life influencing institutions, it should only be noted that these contradictions do exist in the Word of God, King James Version, which has been proved to be a little off in some areas and other works supersede it.   Why would anyone need to supersede or edit the word of God?

God and Sex and Humor

I know a young lad who is being indoctrinated into a certain religion and he is into it hook, line and sinker.

It consumes him and now he is full of “thou shalts” and “shalt nots”.

Birthday celebrations and halloween are not of God and should be avoided.  Dancing is evil and any music that does not glorify God is pretty bad.

I am not about to ask him about sex because I went through that ordeal more than once in my life.

I wondered where this religion was getting this information from to establish its rules?

If they believe in God being the creator and master of all, God must have invented humor, laughter, joy, music as well as all the other emotions and experiences we share.

God also created sex.  Without sex, none of us would be here.  Man invented rules for sex.

Sex and birth control and being responsible parents are all different subjects.

I fear for this young fellow as so many I have known who were brought up under the strict rules of false religion ended up going over the edge and overindulging in life once they experienced freedom from the shackles of the unseen.

If everyone would take the time to clean up their own affairs before denouncing others……

….this whole world would be a better place.

They used to call this practice “hypocrisy” and I know of no one who is innocent of it.

My little life has taught me a few things and the lessons were not easy as I am stubborn as a mule.

I look inside myself a lot, especially after something happens in my life that is not pleasant.  Most of these unpleasant situations involve other people, loved ones and strangers.

I ask myself, what did I do to contribute to this mess?  Was I at fault?  Did they misinterpret my intentions and if so why?

I have learned to question myself as there are situations when I believed I was in the right and was not.  There were times I knew I was wrong and tried to convince others I was right.

It is also easy to criticize another for something you despise in yourself, and that is not right.

We are a work in process and many times we forget to work on the only person we have a little control over, ourselves.

If we don’t, we learn what it is like to be humiliated, whether we want it or not.

Which freedom will you cry for?

Sounds a little weird coming from a freedom loving individual, doesn’t it?

Freedom from government control and tyranny is one thing.  We should all be free to live in the manner which we choose.  We should be free from oppression and violence.  We should be able to have our say.

Yet there are other freedoms people take liberty with that I believe are an abuse of freedom and are against something greater than freedom.

Freedom to expose children to that they should not be exposed too.  They are too young to understand and differentiate between that which is detrimental to them and others and not.

Freedom to walk away from responsibilities and to leave dependents without recourse to food, shelter and the necessities of life.

Freedom to do to others that should not be done, using deception and legal coercion to fleece people of their hard earned coin or time.

Freedom to walk away from an individual who is starving, suffering from the elements or dying when you have the capacity to offer aid.

Freedom to impose your beliefs on another.

There are more freedoms people and corporations indulge in that should not be free.

There are things in life that should be free but are not.

When people cry for freedom, which freedom are they crying for?

Even monsters need love.

We let them get away with a lot, when they are young and cute.

They are pampered as little princes and princesses and could have anything they wanted to make up for guilt suffered by parents who weren’t there for them.

When school or child care encountered problems and tried to correct, the parents went on the offensive against the corrector.

The monster was in incubation period.  The little gremlins had not known love and discipline of the type to make them better people.  They were being raised according to the standards of people who did not know better themselves or were too selfish to care one way or the other.

When the gremlins started getting to the size that was causing the parents difficulty, it’s off to Nebraska, where they could leave them without fear of retribution under the protection of the Safe Haven Law.

The monster never had a chance.  Maybe life will be better for them and they won’t be monsters anymore.

These monsters are the only ones I feel sorry for.  Their creators created it, allowed it to happen and rejected it.

Even monsters need love.

Superstition is irrational or is it?

Every definition I have come across regarding superstition has the word irrational in it, for example, “An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome”.

Irrational means “Not endowed with reason”.

I wonder who matched superstition with irrational?

Most people in this world, about 99.9 percent are either superstitious or irrational which is almost the same thing.

According to the definition, belief in God is superstition for if it is without reason then the people who believe are irrational.

Therefore they are superstitious.

I have known people from all walks of life and cultures and they believed in God or a Creator or a Superior power.

For the most part they seemed rational to me.

There are people who don’t believe in God and they appear rational as well.

If one chooses to carry a rabbit’s foot for “luck” and appears rational for the most part and he or she wins the big Lotto, is that irrational, superstitious or plain luck without reason?

“A congressman in trouble, that’s the time. A family member gets himself in horrible trouble, that’s the time. A preacher gets himself in awful trouble, that’s the time,”…….

…… he said, his voice rising to a near-shout.

Haggard said his family suffered severely for his actions.

“My wife — all my sin and shame fell on her. People treated her as if she had fallen,” he said. “And my children — they all went through carrying my shame. And I am so sorry that I did that to my family.”

Haggard said he became suicidal but eventually emerged with a stronger Christian faith and marriage than he’d ever had.

Haggard said church leaders missed an opportunity to use his scandal to “communicate the gospel worldwide through secular media.”

“We consistently blow it” when those opportunities arise, he said.

The above are excerpts from an article in Yahoo.com.

I thought about this a while before I decided to post on it.

Being a man with a little experience and having made some stupid mistakes in my own life which caused those around me and myself plenty of grief, I have to disagree with Haggard.

We are responsible for our own actions.  There are times when temptation is powerful and our minds are quick to reason a justification, but in the end it is just that, putting our own desires ahead of those who love us.

Accepting the responsibility is the first step.  Haggard attempted to justify by saying he was sexually abused at seven years of age.  Everyone has had something or another happen in life that is not pleasant, but does it give us an excuse for our own actions?

Not really but it may make the guilt a little easier to bear.  Pride is dangerous as it leads one to believe that he or she is above it all until something like this happens and a world comes crashing down.

There is only one cure.

Learn from it, make it right where and if possible and don’t do it again.  That is if the desire to live as a better person is within.

If not, you’re screwed.

Doorway to Hell?

Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke waged a battle to have a $700 billion bail out passed for certain purposes.  If it wasn’t enacted at that time for the purpose intended there would be hell to pay for the economy.

I am led to understand a good portion of it is gone and not for the purposes it was meant for.  We are seeing the door of hell to the economy opening wider.

At first the architects of this bail out had much credibility and respect for reacting so quickly.  Now a few months later and in retrospect, it appears that they had no clue what do do besides follow the lessons learned from the Great Depression.

It may be they were unaware of the extent of the crisis , yet the European banks such as Fortis, Barclay’s and Royal Bank of Scotland were ringing the alarm bells about America’s true state of the economy since June.

All one has to do is sit with a calculator to put this into perspective as the fundamentals are all the same.  You owe, you pay.  You can’t pay more than you earn and you need to have a little extra to survive, regardless whether it is an individual, corporation or government.

If the US wasn’t carrying the debt it was before this crisis, it may not be so bad.  With the way things are going, what is the landscape of America and other nations going to look like five years from now?

US Bail Out Cost…$530 for every man, woman and child in the world

Don’t take my word for it.  There are approximately 6.6 Billion humans on this planet. The old, young, poor, rich, employed and unemployed.  According to the Tech Ticker in Yahoo Finance there has been $3.5 Trillion spent trying to avert this “crisis”.

That is a lot of money in an attempting to survive without any additional benefits except for keeping the “status quo”

That bail out will buy 7 million, $500,000 homes.

Do the leaders really understand the magnitude?

Is all this “good” money being lost after “bad” money?

This is only what the US is into it for, not including the massive amounts the rest of the world is throwing at this crisis.

I no longer have confidence in the system or the players who want to fix it.  Do you?

When all the facts are presented.

A few facts I am aware of.  A cup will fall off a table if pushed. That is gravity.  The sun appears on most days and that means I am alive and the night is always dark.

Other than that I am pretty much ignorant.

No matter what one writes or speaks about nowadays, someone has facts to prove you wrong.

Global Warming is a great example.  There are facts proving and disproving it.

Psychology is another subject that “facts” run from one spectrum to another.

We read and hear “facts” every day of our lives it seems.  Someone always knows better about something.

How do we determine whether these facts are authentic and who can remember them all?

We can’t.

That is why the rules of life are simple.

For people like me who know not much more that the power of gravity.

The Charismatics

We have all encountered charismatic people in our lives. I refer to those possessing an extraordinary ability to attract; “a charismatic leader”; “a magnetic personality.

They are on television pushing wares, making opinions and hosting news programs.

On stage they speak about things that motivate, how or what to believe, how to make a million on real estate without spending a dime, make cash at home without selling and have the good life without lifting a finger.  All you have to do is “buy” whatever it is they are “selling”.

On a personal level these are the people everyone wants to be close to.  They are influential, funny, seem to be caring and are popular.

Charisma is an ability I believe a person is born with and not easily learned.  There are many people who believe they have charisma but they are only fooling themselves and it is obvious.

They are very convincing, these people with charisma.  The old adage “selling a refrigerator to an Eskimo” is appropriate when describing their capabilities.

There are a few who use their “gifts” for good and many who use them for purposes of manipulation only.

Then there are the ignorant charismatics.  Those who have no clue what they are promoting is destructive or they may be cognizant of their evil and promote anyway, as in the case of Hitler, to use an extreme.

It wouldn’t be such a serious issue if many of the non charismatic people weren’t so easily influenced by the charismatic ones.

They can get away with “murder” and have done so.

Nations have been led astray by charismatics for good and evil.  Their power is vast if the subject they promote is appealing to the ears of their followers.  Throughout time people love to hear about that which they hate.

When the attraction or message is that compelling, it is often best to remove oneself from the messenger’s influence and think about the message for a while, to evaluate whether it is in fact true or not.

Panhandling

To approach strangers and beg for money or food.

It is not yet common place in the United States although who hasn’t seen the people at intersections with their cardboard signs “will work for food”?

I lived in a place where it is common, to the point that children are used for begging.  After all who can refuse a child?

For many it is a way of life.

With the uncertainty that is spread about the economy these days and corporate giants on the ropes, I wonder if we will see this practice becoming commonplace.

A quick tour through any city or town and observation will tell a person more about a local economy than any news outlet.

Right now America is on the ropes, according to what I read.

It will be the panhandlers and the numbers of them that will give an accurate reading as to whether the economy is as bad as they say it is.

Making Organized Religion Accountable

The Scopes trial made headlines in its day when John Thomas Scopes was accused of violating a Tennessee state law by teaching evolution in high school.   Scopes was initially convicted but the verdict was overturned later.

There are so many religions and dogmas in the world today proclaiming truth, when it is in reality not truth. I wonder how much damage they cause an individual or society by their teachings?

I suppose the end of the world prophecies cause much stress for some people.  Other people discriminate based on scripture which they were told was the Word of God, or Holy.  A few countries have religious police that impose restrictions on people based on religious works and how they interpret them.

The last few years have illustrated the fanaticism and extremes that followers will go to in the name of religion including suicide and mass murders.

When you are young and the people you love and respect are caught up in this web, we are also inclined to fall into the same pattern of thinking and adopt the same attitudes as our parents and those in authority.

For those who know better and are in charge of the religious bodies that propagate this to innocents, I was thinking that a legal challenge may bring out both sides of the argument and the truth would bear out in a court of law.

If the accused religions could not make their case, they should not teach as fact something that isn’t.  It would be proving their materials to be deceptive and misleading.  The books should be classified as fiction and all the books have that boldly printed on the covers, like novels.

This way religion can still carry on business as usual, but those who don’t know better will have the opportunity to have been warned prior to indoctrination.

We are so consumed by our quality of life, every ingredient in anything we put past our lips must be known.  What about that which we allow into our ears and eyes?

It would be an interesting trial, would it not?

The other side of the coin.

Many heterosexuals have been accused of homophobia by the Gay community and some rightfully so.

I for one do not know what it is to be Gay.

I am a parent of a Gay human and I know other parents with Gay children.

I love all my children equally.  They all have different personalities and each one shines in his or her own right.

My own background, what I was taught and how I lived, required a bit of a change of attitude for me.  I had always determined that Gay was a learned behavior, a sin so to speak.

As a father of a Gay child I learned a lot and have spoken to many people, gays included about this subject and I have changed my opinion.

What I wonder about, and I know this is not unique to myself, is after going through the experience of understanding and changing attitudes to one of acceptance for our children, they choose to ignore us as if we don’t exist.

I have heard Gays speak of conflicts with parents that severed family relationships.

I wonder if that is always true.

I never intentionally humiliated my children or ostracized them.

Yet I feel ostracized as do some of the other parents I know.

I wonder why.

“You must be particularly on your guard with persons representing the press,” it says. “You must give no account of your experience in books, newspapers, periodicals, or in broadcasts or in lectures.”

Anthony Acevedo, a US Army medic who survived Buchenwald in the Second World War says “We had to sign an affidavit … [saying] we never went through what we went through. We weren’t supposed to say a word.” reported in CNN.com.

The terrible injustices that prisoners suffered in the Nazi concentration camps were aggravated by the treatment of some of the survivors after they were freed and arrived home.

Threats of punishment for telling the truth and false accusations of cowardice were some of the wrongs these people were subjected to.

His story is a commentary on how cruel society and individuals can be to one of their own.

If Darwin is remotely right in respect to his theory of evolution, one may hopefully assume that mankind may evolve beyond this type of attitude and behavior.

If Darwin is wrong, it appears the human race will continue to destroy what it creates in a never ending scene.

Sometimes it makes one sick of being a human being when faced with the reality of what evil we are capable of bestowing on others.

Ever get the feeling we all got conned?

Gas is now headed down to $1.50 a gallon and “sweet” crude is now around $60.

Five months ago we were hearing of $200 a barrel and the prices were getting close to $150 a barrel.

It was supply back then, remember that?  Just like the 1970’s.

Congress investigated and speculation was not the cause.

We don’t hear too much about the real cause of Wall Street’s woes, credit default swaps, derivatives and such.

And the “bets”.

No, it was all about sub prime and the notorious unemployed home buyers.

They don’t want us to know the truth so we won’t demand that the President order the Pentagon to nuke Wall Street.

You can’t believe anyone in the financial sector anymore can you?

And now there is “change” in the government with the same old faces implementing it.  Sounds a little too much of the same, doesn’t it?

They must think we are a bunch of dummies and we are because they keep on doing it to us.

Finally, a bank getting some common sense!

Citigroup to help at-risk borrowers stay in homes says the headline at Yahoo.com.

The article goes on to read, “Citigroup says it is imposing a moratorium on most foreclosures as part of a series of initiatives aimed at helping at-risk borrowers remain in their homes — making Citi the latest big bank to announce sweeping efforts to try to curtail losses from souring mortgages.

Citi said late Monday it won’t initiate a foreclosure or complete a foreclosure sale on any eligible borrower who seeks to stay in a home if it is the borrower’s principal residence, the homeowner is working in good faith with Citi and has sufficient income to make affordable mortgage payments.”

Now this is the way government bail out trickle down should work.  Citibank also realizes that all those empty unsellable homes aren’t doing anyone any good and the only people who have a vested interest in these places are the ones living there.

After all, the Morgage agreements are only paper.  Negotiation and patience will usually net the principle and some interest back which is better that 50% of principle.

$106.06 for every man, woman and child on this planet. That is only the $700 billion American Bail Out.

Considering that many people in this world have trouble earning enough to eat, I think it is a little ridiculous to say the least to keep a few financial institutions from declaring bankruptcy and letting the chips fall where they may.

If there is any doubt who the beneficiaries of the bail out are…….

Yahoo.com reports “Neel Kashkari, the interim head of the $700 billion bailout program, was cool to the idea of funneling the money to companies beyond banks and AIG. In a separate development late Monday, the Fed granted the request of credit card company American Express Co. to become a bank holding company.”

All we have to do to get bailed out is to be an insurer or become a bank and I qualify.

AIG is reported to be into the Feds for $150 Billion because they are an insurance company and not a manufacturer. That is $25 for every man woman and child on this whole world.

We have all heard of the Banks and Wall Street hi rollers getting billions.

Yahoo.com reports “Neel Kashkari, the interim head of the $700 billion bailout program, was cool to the idea of funneling the money to companies beyond banks and AIG. In a separate development late Monday, the Fed granted the request of credit card company American Express Co. to become a bank holding company.”

I owe money just like the above corporations.  I provide an allowance and save money for my kids, that is banking.

I also try and keep a couple of dollars aside in case of emergencies.  That is insurance.

When do I get my billion?

No matter who or what you think you are, someone out there…….

…..will be better educated, more intelligent, less intelligent, prettier, uglier, tougher, weaker, richer, poorer, healthier, sicker and so on.

I’ve met all of them.

Kind of keeps me humble and thankful for what I do have the privilege of being, me.

The only real problem this world has is us. There are too many of us.

That’s us.  Like the locusts portrayed in times of old.

We all need food, water and places to relieve ourselves.

A good majority of us require manufactured “things” made from raw materials which we have to discard eventually.

We use vehicles powered with fossil fuels and heat homes with the same.

For all of us, homes and roads take up a lot of the world’s real estate.

There are so many of us, no matter where you go including the moon, someone else did it first.

That takes the fun out of life.

“Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward”

That is a direct quote from the Bible.  It was found in the Book 1 Peter 2:18 of the King James Version.

When I read the sentence, the first thought that comes to mind is Adolf Hitler.  The Nazi War Crimes defendants could have used the Bible as a defense and this line in particular as they were being subject to their masters with total fear.  A good reason why they were so effective at genocide.  It would not have made a difference to the outcome of the war trials but would have illustrated some of the absurdities in the Bible which many people believe is the “word” of God.

I am not challenging God, I challenge the written words men have chosen to label as the “word” of God.

Sir Isaac Newton, a renowned physicist and mathematician, was voted in a 2005 poll by the Royal Society  to have had the greatest effect on the history of science.  Newton was deemed more influential than Albert Einstein.

His scientific fame notwithstanding, Newton’s studies of the Bible and of the early Church Fathers were also noteworthy. Newton wrote works on textual criticism, most notably An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture.source encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com

Einstein, on the other hand, believed–as did Spinoza–that a person’s actions were just as determined as that of a billiard ball, planet or star. “Human beings in their thinking, feeling and acting are not free but are as causally bound as the stars in their motions,” Einstein declared in a statement to a Spinoza Society in 1932. It was a concept he drew also from his reading of Schopenhauer. “Everybody acts not only under external compulsion but also in accordance with inner necessity,” he wrote in his famous credo. “Schopenhauer’s saying, ‘A man can do as he wills, but not will as he wills,’ has been a real inspiration to me since my youth; it has been a continual consolation in the face of life’s hardships, my own and others’, and an unfailing wellspring of tolerance.”source Time,com

“Their faith tells them they should read the Bible, but by reading the Bible they endanger their faith.”

A quote from Steve Wells, creator of the web site Skeptic’s Annotated Bible.

A site that offers a perspective in respect to the work so many refer to as “Holy”.

Beheadings and acid murders

The media makes much ado about “terrorism”. Most of it appears to be bombs in cars or people with explosives strapped around their girth running into crowds with suicide on their minds.

An older form of terrorism is taking a foothold in Mexico.

Beheading, acid deaths and torture.

Most of it is blamed on the cartels battling for supremacy in the drug trade.

Children and innocents are victims.

One would wonder with the body counts as of late whether these cartels would run out of employees.

Who in their right mind would work somewhere when the odds of getting murdered or tortured in your line of work is in the single digit range?

Most of them probably don’t think of the downside when presented with some green.

Not until it is too late.  What goes around comes around.

There is a war going on, it always has been and always will be a battle waged.

The war is mankind against himself.

Selfishness versus selflessness.

Greed against generosity.

Lies against truth.

Compassion versus cold hearts.

Humility against arrogance.

Knowledge versus ignorance.

A helping hand versus a slap in the face.

Love against hate.

The above and more are what humanity wages every single day, within oneself and others.

For some inexplicable reason we all are aware of what should be and we will not be.

Yet it is our destiny to at least try to be.

What are conscience wants us to be.

Why would a perfect God create people who fight over God and judge others to be inadequate

That is what seems to be a prevailing attitude. For people who believe in the Christian, Judaic and Islamic God, their God also created Agnostics, Atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Evangelicals, Jim Bakker, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Swaggart, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Martin Luther King Jr., Colin Powell, George Bush, Gandhi, Osama Bin Laden, Barrack Obama and so on.

Nothing besides God can create people, right?

Neither one of the many different believers and non believers have much respect for one another.

Which is terribly confusing, as God wants everyone to love another, except of course if there are honest questions asked and a person decides not to follow one line of thinking or another to go his or her own way.

He or she who questions is not wrong because who can honestly claim he or she has talked to God and are they truly sure it is God as the Devil is the master of deceit and no one has seen or spoken to either.

Then there is public “shunning”.

When a person doesn’t belong to a group in this old world, he or she is an outcast and a weirdo, even if he or she does nothing wrong.

Family relationships, friendships, societies and marriages have been destroyed because of peoples’ beliefs and arrogance thinking their way is the only way and best way.

As the other King said, “Why can’t we all get along?”

The Christian Right is Wrong

MSNBC reports : Conservative Christian leader James Dobson confessed he was grieving. Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State said religious right leaders “kept their own flock in line, but the majority of Americans were unmoved.”

But few are writing obituaries this week for the Christian right, which has been wrongly considered dead after setbacks like the demise of the Moral Majority and crumbling of the Christian Coalition.

“I don’t like the fact that a lot of evangelicals are taking this view of Barack Obama, that he’s the anti-Christ or something,” DeMoss said. “I’m going to disagree with him politically on probably a whole lot of things — maybe everything. But we ought to try to win on the strength of ideas.”

There appears to be a rush to judgment to the new administration.  It also appears there is not much said about the carnage in respect to the two wars.

While Christians are fighting about abortion and Gay marriage where is the grief about the wars?

DeMoss was right when he said “we ought to try to win on the strength of ideas.”

Slugging it out for Jesus, a Monk’s Dilemma

There was a headline that caught my eye “2 Clergymen Arrested After Brawl Between Monks Next to Jesus’ Tomb Site”

FoxNews reports, “Six Christian sects divide control of the ancient church. They regularly fight over turf and influence, and Israeli police are occasionally forced to intervene.

The feud revolves around a demand by the Greek Orthodox to post a monk inside the Edicule — the ancient structure built on what is believed to be the tomb of Jesus — during the Armenian procession. The Armenians refused, and when they tried to march the Greek Orthodox monks blocked their way.”

This is an aspect of Christians that really is the most confusing.  What these monks do is exactly opposite of what the Son of Man taught.

And they are willing to beat the “hell” out of each other to prove who is most Christian when neither fall into that category.

The solution for the World’s economy is not what the leaders propose.

If this economy is going the way everyone is thinking it is going, there may only be one solution, drastic as it may be, to kick start the world’s economy.

A clean slate.

“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”

Drastic?  Yes.

If this thing is going to continue sucking governments dry and lay employers of millions to waste, without recourse for the employee, then it may be worthy of consideration.

A worldwide bankruptcy.  Not just for corporations and governments, but for individuals as well.

Let us see how bad this mess truly will get.  No one is immune, not even those who think they have everything under control.

There will have to be a new system in place to take over once it is done.

Derivatives, swaps, bundling debt for resale must all become things of the past.

Is it doable?

Anything is possible.

The other side of inflation.

The new watch word is deflation.

In economics, a deflationary spiral is a situation where decreases in price lead to lower production, which in turn leads to lower wages and demand, which leads to further decreases in price. Since reductions in general price level are called deflation, a deflationary spiral is when reductions in price lead to a vicious circle, where a problem exacerbates its own cause. The Great Depression was regarded as a deflationary spiral.  This is according to Wikipedia.com.

The problem with everything going down in price is simple.  For someone who has no debt, it is great.  People owing on mortgages, cars and credit cards will find that their principle will seem a real burden if they are not making the same income as in prior years.

I already know of one company that cut salaries by 25% across the board in preference to laying off people.  They hope to weather this crisis and look beyond.

Many companies will resort to this knowing the job market is such their employees have no alternative.

The companies have no alternative as their revenues are shrinking.

This does not bode well for the beleaguered financial system.  Deflation will depress real estate and new and used car values.  People will declare bankruptcy or simply walk away.

Forbes list of billionaires will shrink.

If the North American Indians had a border policy, North America would not be as it is today.

Imagine Chris Columbus arriving on the shores of North America and encountering First Nations’ customs and border patrol officers.

“Passport?”

“I don’t have one.  I didn’t think we needed passports.  We’re explorers and you aren’t supposed to be here.”  Chris was a little surprised at this line of questioning.

“We are here.  Who are you?  Where are you from?  What is the purpose of your visit?”

Chris replied, “We are explorers looking for a route to the East. We come from Spain and Queen Isabella sends her regards.  We want to trade your gold and valuables for these trinkets.”

Chris thought they were heathen idiots because they wore loin cloths and feathers in their hair.

“Really?”

Chris nodded his head in assent.

“Throw them into the detention facility.   They must all be sick, look at those ugly pale faces.”

As they dragged Chris and the crew to jail, Chris cried out, “Why?”.

The guard turned, “You are just going to steal, rape and murder.  You illegals are all alike.  We are going to sink your boats and put you to work as slaves till you are too old to work.”

Barack and Dmitry.

FoxNews.com reports:

President-elect Obama spoke to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday as the future American leader had another round of phone calls with counterparts in other nations.

A Kremlin statement said Obama and Medvedev “expressed the determination to create constructive and positive interaction for the good of global stability and development” and agreed that their countries had a common responsibility to address “serious problems of a global nature.”

To that end, according to the Kremlin statement, Medvedev and Obama believe an “early bilateral meeting” should be arranged.

Obama’s office did not issue a statement describing the call.

A Bush administration plan for setting up a missile shield close to Russia’s borders has been a sore point with the Kremlin and has served as another dent in its battered relationship with the U.S.

This makes a lot more sense than aggravating each other, doesn’t it?

The missile shield will be a waste of money.  Who in their right mind would try and attack a country half way around the world bordered by the Atlantic and Pacific oceans with allies on the North and South borders.

Why provoke retaliation against the countries hosting the “shield”?

Russia is nervous.  Why not?

As one Russian notable said recently to the effect, “Currently Russia has no wars, unlike the United States and England.”

The reason there aren’t more women leaders is that the arms industry would go broke

I am not speaking of the “sell my soul and identity” female politician.

I am speaking of women like Michelle Obama, a mother and educated lady.

I am a man so I can say this.  Men have a low tolerance for bullshit.  Once our tolerance level is reached, we call the Pentagon and tell them to go to work.

Women would spend a little more time and solve it.  Women love their children and generally don’t want to have their kids heads blown off or another mother’s child either.

It isn’t because women are absolute angels.  I have discovered what the term “hell hath no fury” really means when it pertains to women.

Overall, women are better at keeping peace I think.  They are not as stiff necked as men in many ways.

Unfortunately, religion and man has kept woman to servitude status through much of history.

That is not saying much for religion or man, is it?

Is there a relationship between purging illegal aliens and the economy going to Hell in a hand basket?

This is a “hot” topic with lots of misinformation. According to many “experts”, illegal aliens come to steal social services, rape and kill Americans.

The illegal or undocumented “Alien” has become famous.

The Mexicans are the worst offenders because there are so many.

When I lived there, me and my friend, an American war hero, both employed illegals.

Mexicans.

They were responsible, didn’t steal and worked hard.  They were also compassionate.  One doubled as a personal care giver to my friend who took four years to die from an ailment thought to have been caused by agent Orange.

We couldn’t find an American to fill the positions.

Illegals worked on farms, construction, manufacturing, food processing, aviation, transportation, hospitals and so on.  Even Homeland Security had a few illegals working for them.  Many are educated.

As with all peoples, there were a few no accounts or bad actors, but they are in the minority.

Many illegals bought homes, rented apartments, bought cars and contributed to the economy.  Many had credit, just like the citizens.

Now they are gone and can no longer pay their obligations, who is taking the hit?

That is a good question.

Why were they illegal to begin with?

America has quotas and as with so many other countries, unless you have dinero, fame or something to offer besides yourself, they don’t want you.

They even issued a deportation order against President Elect Obama’s aunt.

The wannabe immigrant doesn’t have much choice if the majority of his or her friends and family live beyond the invisible boundary called the border, there is only one way.  The illegal way.

When you really “need” a fireman, cop or ambulance….

….do you care if they are gay or straight or married or single or Muslim or Christian or Atheist or illegal?

Probably not because you are more concerned with the reason they were summoned.

If you are a Jehovah’s Witness and are at death’s door and unconscious, will you sue the people who made life possible by giving you a blood transfusion?

If you are a Catholic will you refuse the aid of a cop who had an abortion six months previous or has been divorced?

If you are an Evangelical Christian, do you care if your savior is a follower of Islam or an Atheist?

There is no valid reason for discrimination or racism is there?

If a biker or Mafia enforcer or drug dealer puts you in the hospital…..

….or sells your kids dope, or rapes someone, is it really a bad guy or one of those “undercover” operators attempting to show the boss bad guys he or she is as “bad” as they in order to be trusted.

From the sounds of it, any agency that has permission to carry guns, can use “undercover” people, who lead a shadow life living in strip clubs, smoking joints and having a hell of a time until he or she has to “rat” out on the people who came to trust him or her.

After risking their lives, undercover agents are rewarded with a book deal and are comforted with the fact one or two bad guys went to court, but not necessarily convicted.

Did they ever pull out their guns when they were in the presence of a crime being committed and arrest or stop the perpetrator from doing it?

Is any organization who has to resort to “undercover” to be trusted.  It is a game of how far must one go to be justified in achieving objectives.  They can’t get close to the top without breaking laws and people getting hurt.

It is a catch 22 situation.  No matter what the justification or motive, the undercover cop becomes what he or she is trying to apprehend.

Are they worth the time and resources that are spent on them?

Anonymous or name withheld sources

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Gov. Sarah Palin denounced anonymous criticisms leveled at her by former John McCain aides as lies, including allegations that Republican lawyers were traveling to Alaska to reclaim her high-priced wardrobe and that she didn’t know Africa was a continent….. Yahoo.com

Is it true investigative reporting?

Would half the news even appear every day without these invisible, unknowable sources?

Do they even exist or is it reporting based on gossip?

Maybe the news would be more reliable if sources had to be named.  If a person isn’t willing to put his or her name as a source is it even worth reporting?

I think Palin was correct in denunciations.  What are the accusers afraid of?  That someone might call them on it?

Is God lonely?

God is up there all by God’s self.

God has no equal.  God created everything and God is eternal or immortal.

God’s intelligence would make Einstein appear as if he had the brain of an ant.

Doesn’t God want a little companionship?

Aren’t there other Gods around that God could take to Starbucks for coffee?

What about baby Gods.  There should be a woman God so God can get married.

I don’t think I would want to be God if God is all alone.

If your wife or children or friend needed your life……

……Would you offer it?

Would there be conditions?

What about a kidney?

Or some other organ?

How much are you prepared to sacrifice for someone you say you love?

Or would you try and weasel out of it?

It’s not an easy question to answer when you think about it.

He or she or me.

It tells us something about us doesn’t it?

It’s Bush’s Fault

George W. Bush, for many the Anti-Christ or Satan’s spawn.

Is everything his fault?  Was he manipulated into going to Iraq?  Is the Presidency so overwhelming to the point he couldn’t deal with it and  “they” took advantage of him?

We will never know will we, unless George W and the administration are brought to task.

If he is innocent he has nothing to worry about.  If he is guilty, why should he escape justice?

If he is not called to task, then we can assume he has immunity and if that is the case he is above the law.

If he is above the law, with who does it end?

Maybe Osama is above the law or Saddam if he was still alive.

George is a likable character otherwise he wouldn’t have been twice governor and twice President,

Then again, Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart were two evangelists who possessed charming qualities.  When they slipped the fall was great.

Bill Clinton didn’t get away with it either.  If it weren’t for his shenanigans he would be thought of as greater than he is.

If it weren’t for the suffering or the survivors in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan and the dead civilians, this whole post would be moot.

These survivors are witness to George’s command and that should require at least a formal investigation.

Everyone makes mistakes, but over 100,000 dead is not a mistake.  Is it?

100 Days….

….to fix the world’s financial system.

According to signonsandiego.com:

European Union leaders backed a 100-day deadline for world’s leading economies to decide urgent global finance reforms, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday.

“We are in an economic crisis. We have to take this into account,” Sarkozy said. “We have to react and we have no time to lose.”

“I’m not going to take part in a summit where there is just talk for talk’s sake,” Sarkozy told reporters after talks between the heads of the EU’s 27 nations. “We want to change the rules of the game in the financial world.”

The EU is calling for a second global summit next spring to flesh out changes to the way the world economy is governed. They want to see far more supervision of big financial companies and are urging governments to jointly monitor them.

They want to prevent a repeat of the Wall Street excesses that caused havoc in markets worldwide – and are bringing emerging economies China, India and Brazil on board for talks on shaping a new world economic order.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the Washington talks should be a “decisive moment for the world economy.”

One hundred days. What happens if they do not achieve their goals?

Don’t kid yourself, America is facing a dire economic future for years

Everything is pointing to that conclusion.

With every recession the length determines the severity.  Sound companies with solid management are making cuts to survive what they perceive and experience as a deteriorating business climate.

It is about survival.

The companies that were not properly managed or had considerable liabilities on their balance sheet are discovering that sources of cash are dwindling and that their liabilities make them a liability.

This also holds true for the individual.

The companies and individuals with excessive liabilities are not going to survive economically.

The damage to date has been too great and far reaching for it to be otherwise.

We can only hope that there are enough people and companies that can survive this crisis intact for when the carnage is history those are the ones that will create demand and get it going again.

The other people, there are many, are not going to like what they are facing.  They will wish they had never taken their current quality of life for granted.

This new economic reality will spawn the unpleasant side effects of masses of people who are desperate and angry.

There are too many side effects and not much time.

The Mormons vs Gay-Rights Advocates – A Holy War?

Yahoo reports: Outside the gates of a Mormon temple, Kai Cross joined more than 2,000 gay-rights advocates in a chorus of criticism of the church’s role in a new statewide ban on same-sex marriage.

Once a devout Mormon who graduated from Brigham Young University, the 41-year-old Cross was disowned by his family and his church after he was outed as a gay man in 2001.

“They are on the losing side of history,” Cross said Thursday of the church’s opposition to gay marriage. Cross and other protesters blame leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for encouraging Mormons to funnel millions of dollars into television ads and mailings in favor of Proposition 8.

The people who attend the church, and it is not only the Mormon church but most churches with foundations based on biblical scripture, believe that homosexuality is a sin.

For heterosexuals it is not natural that is why they are heterosexuals.  This mind set or belief will never disappear.

Homosexuals are desirous for complete integration and acceptance with Main Street America.

They have come a long way.  The persecution and judgments passed on to the people who are gay are not as pronounced or commonplace as one or two generations ago.

When two gays live together and share their lives they may do so in peace.

However, gays must realize that equality and encroaching on the foundation of marriage, are two different things.

This is not against homosexual unions as much as it is a preservation of a union which generally culminates in the creation of children and foundation for family, something that a true homosexual union cannot accomplish by natural means.

This is not about gay or straight as much as it is the right of people who believe in marriage under the traditional definition to maintain its integrity.

I believe that gays may have unions.  What two consenting adults do is their own business.

I also think that respect must be given as well as received.

Some things are better left alone.

California is $11.2 billion in the red. Compared to those little Wall Street Firms that is chump change

A state the size of California, which has about 35 or so million people living in it is running a deficit of only $11.2 billion.

After reading stories of all these companies doing deals and needing bailouts far exceeding California’s budget “crisis”, I am left to wonder how these firms can do it.

Thirty five million people will be expected to ante up the difference one way or the other.  California is having difficulty raising the money and may have to go to the Feds for help.

My thinking is the Fed should stop giving to those losers and help California a little and it will be money better spent.

Blogs – a quest for perfection

Many blogs are opinions.

Some back up their opinions with information.

Many criticize someone.

It appears that we are on a quest for perfection and are constantly looking for someone who is perfect.

We can never find it.

But then what is perfect?

Everyone has a different opinion.

There are not too many blogs out there that criticize the author of the blog.

“A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD”

Words from the Word of God.

if I read this right, if a bastard is reincarnated ten times on the eleventh time he should be OK.

If it means he marries and ten generations of his offspring are damned through no fault of their own, I suppose it doesn’t matter what they do, they’re screwed anyway.

If I have not always been a good boy, is it because in my past someone was a bastard and therefore I am not responsible for my actions?

It’s like a DNA thing that is never ending.

The problem with this is that many people don’t ever take the time to read the bible.  It has a few things in it that speak of love and compassion, but overall there is more damnation in it than anything else.

It’s like we are screwed.

Some have claimed that Jesus will save everyone who believes in him.  Jesus said much that made sense in respect to us getting along and how we should treat our neighbor.

He was a peaceful man who had much integrity.  He also showed people they could believe and have faith in God without resorting to a middle man.

However he also said quite clearly, “no one is good, not even I” and on the cross he was reported as crying out “Father, Father, why have you forsaken me.”

One does not have to go outside of the realm of the bible to find flaws.

However there is a strong theme in it that basically supports the idea that there are spiritual laws in this world and by breaking them their will be repercussions in life, which leads to turmoil.

By no longer breaking moral laws we can achieve peace.  Jesus and Ecclesiastes both said those things.

There may be some truth in those 66 books that make up the Bible, but you have to search and ignore a lot.

The bible should not be used as a foundation for society or government because it is too convenient for anyone with an agenda to use it to justify any action on this world, for good or for evil.  As I have justified this post with the words that are in it.

” And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

That is a strong statement and probably had more than one scribe or editor shaking  in their boots.

However the last part says “written in this book” which to me does not mean the bible but book of Revelation.

The other 65 books had no threats written at the end.

Now we have all these translations and versions of these separate books compiled into a bible for every whim and fancy and language.

There is evidence a plenty that many of the works published in the bible have been edited and changed and there are copies of copies all over.

Religions have based their entire existence using the bible as a foundation.  People who believe in the bible or religion aren’t necessarily bad people.

However to make the claim that  the bible is the Word of God in it’s entirety is not wise considering the evidence.

People who are religious will not accept any type of evidence that it may not all be the word of God.  The bible is absolute in their eyes.

Now if the devil were to have written a few pages in that book and he put the warning at the end of the book, wouldn’t that suit Satan’s purpose?

The little devil must be laughing himself sick

Sitting atop the world largest nuclear hococaust machine, they argue about fetus

That is ludicrous.

They have already deployed two of those bombs a little over half century ago. The carnage was great, obliterating two cities.  One fell swoop for each one.  Babies and children were fried and radiated.

Hundreds of thousands of innocent have been murdered in Iraq and surrounding areas.

The only industry with a rich future is weapons.

And the focus is on fetuses.

Every time there is an election Roe versus Wade is brought up.  It was decided years ago by the Supreme Court.  Live with it.

No one knows when life begins.  I can only remember as far back as two or three.  Never could remember my first year.  Why is that?

To my knowledge abortion is a relatively new phenomenon.  Prior to it being made legal, witch doctors were performing them in little outhouses and the mother put her life at risk and many died.

Regardless, they are going to do it anyway.  And many more who won’t do it.

What about the living?

Do we need countries to have all these assault weapons?  Assault is not self defense, is it?

Why do we not hear about that from the people who treasure life so?

What’s more important, Gay marriage or abortion or eating?

There is a challenge to California’s gay marriage ban in the works which will cost taxpayers to defend.

There is this never ending debate over abortion.

I am neither gay nor am I ever going to have an abortion and so these items that keep on taking so much energy and resources for a few are foreign to me.

What is not foreign to me are tough economic times and we are headed towards the worst one I have experienced.  The handwriting is on the wall.

Tough economic times bring about a whole new series of crisis.

Desperate people and countries do desperate things.

Crime will increase and chances of wars will increase.

Mexico is a good example.  Witness the daily carnage from the Cartel wars.

If two thirds of the population weren’t living in poverty, the temptation to lead a life beyond the law wouldn’t be as great.

People are starting to get laid off and companies and consumers are cutting back.  The auto industry is back to numbers of a quarter century ago.  People are making do with less.

This is going to change the world far more than 9/11 changed America.

Maybe we should prioritize where resources and focus should be?

“Our demand is that there will be no civilian casualties in Afghanistan. We cannot win the fight against terrorism with airstrikes,” Karzai said. “This is my first demand of the new president of the United States — to put an end to civilian casualties.”

President Hamid Karzai said airstrikes cannot win the fight against terrorism according to Yahoo.com

The Afghan president congratulated Barack Obama and called on him Wednesday to halt civilian casualties as villagers said U.S. warplanes bombed a wedding party, killing 37 people — most of them children..

It makes sense.  If my family were wiped out by indiscriminate bombing, who would the enemy be?  Who would I support?

There must be a solution and there is.

It requires negotion as this war will not be won by either side.

The Secret Service Challenge

The night of November 4, 2008 made history.

It is up to the Secret Service to insure that the history will continue and not be darkened.

The spirit of hope, inspiration and inward growth is upon us.

We will know America is truly great when the day arrives people, like Obama and his family, can walk Main Street America without guards and without fear of reprisal or threat to life and limb.

That is a huge challenge and it begins with the Secret Service.

Gifted inspiration…”Yes we can!”

Oratory…eloquence or skill in making speeches to the public.

I listened to Obama’s speech last night and he made me feel good.

The man has a gift and the ability to inspire.  Something I have not heard in a long time.

I thank him for inspiration and hope.

It is needed today.

It will not be easy and cannot be done alone.

He is right.

We Can

He walks on two legs

Like most of us do.

He is facing many challenges all at once.

A good portion of the peoples he will lead did not vote for him.

We must not forget he is but a man.

He will make mistakes, people all do.

My hope is that he is honest, sincere and does his best.

He has the tools, a fine mind and he lives right.

This is the beginning of hope.

Martin Luther King, Jr’s Dream is coming true.

He would be proud this day as so many others who have fought for true equality and freedom.

America has travelled far in the last 100 years.

This is it’s greatest achievement.

How Obama will perform as President only time will tell, he is only human.

But America overcame it’s inhibitions and gave him a chance.

That is the miracle.

Maybe now they can dispense with the color adjective before the name

With the historic win of Barack Obama maybe we can dispense with the color adjective.

After all we don’t call the loser a “white” candidate do we?

Congratulations America!

You have shown the world the stuff that made you great is still there.

The biggest challenge you have overcome will set an example to others.

You evaluated the two candidates and their choices for vice president and weighed what they had to offer and did not allow personal attributes such as color or name affect your decision.

The majority as far as popular vote is decisive.

It was an honest election in the fact there was no area uncovered, even when ugliness presented itself on occasion.

Reason prevailed.

America, sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow is another day.

I would rather starve to death than take another’s life for monetary gain

That is the long and short of it.

Killing for money is about as low as you can get on the human Totem pole of life.

To kill other than for the sake of self defense or defense of another is not justified or reasonable.

To kill to have a bigger home, food, more expensive cars and toys illustrates the disease facing mankind.

I would not kill for food.  If someone needs it worse that I, let he or she have it.

Many won’t agree, but there should be something to separate mankind from himself.

The killing fields

What kind of business requires the elimination of competitors and regulators to be performed by way of death and torture?

Who would want to buy goods from people such as those?

Serial killers under the guise of Cartel.

These people are not sane.

A country is gripped in terror.

There is no safety or protection.  Kidnappings are prevalent.

A beautiful place with a soul and history.

The violence threatens its future.

Is this “war on drugs” worth the cost in lives and freedom in Latin America?

The only reasonable way out is to legalize that which provides the murderers with income.

Take it away from the middleman.

The incentive to slaughter will stop.

Lay the responsibility of using on the user.

If I were Mexico, I would do just that because it will never stop as long as the rewards are there for the people who slay.

“This election has never been about me. It’s been about you”

A true statement voiced by a candidate for change.

Go vote for you.

Too many don’t know the meaning of fear

If they did, there may be different methods for dealing with disputes on this planet.

The media for all its high tech grittiness cannot convey fear.

The absolute heart pounding terror of being hunted.  Hiding in the undergrowth, unarmed.  As they search with their rifles, one still warm from firing rounds at you.

You become conscious of your body.  Your heart is pounding so loud and your breathing frenzied.  You attempt to calm yourself so the enemy doesn’t hear your heart or breath.

You try and shrink and become one with the ground.  Every sense is acute.  Adrenalin is flowing freely.

It is intense.  The wrong move, the slightest noise can mean your end.

I have known such fear.

You have to be there to understand it.

It is not an emotion you wish others to experience except as a last resort.

Those who have not known it are quick to dispense it.

That needs to stop.

If you haven’t felt Hell’s heat, how are you going to appreciate the other side?

I have often wondered how people can become psychologists or marriage counselors when they have never been married or have been in school most of their years.

It is difficult for an innocent person to relate to those who have not been innocent.

Giving advice is ridiculous and throwing phrases from a book does not work well at all.

There was a song out some time ago and a portion of the lyrics went something like this, “And got saved for the third time this week,”

It was about the homeless and what they had to go through for a bowl of soup.  So they played the game.

They were still homeless, but had a full belly.

Many times the preachers have not known what it is like not to have a home.

Imagination only goes so far.  It can’t fill in for the experience.

We listen but we don’t hear. We nod in assent but do not believe.

Those are not new observations.  They have been voiced from the beginning by a few to many.

There is much to be learned while on this planet and more to be unlearned,

It is the simple things that teach the most.

Life and death is simple.

Most of what goes on between is simple.

There are few rules to follow to gain peace.

There are many rules to follow to gain that which holds no importance.

Peace is preferable to those who have experienced both.

For those who have not experienced both it would save them a lot of time if they listened to the words of the wise.

Digital lives ruled by time

That is how many live, by the clock.

What an aberration to life that is.  I speak not of nature’s clock but man’s timepieces.

Those that rule the day and weeks and months till you die.

From sex to spending time with children to work, it is a clock ruled world.

We were probably better off without the time piece.

Everything is measured to seconds and nanoseconds.  Pay is based on time for many, not what one knows or produces.

How much time of our life is spent looking at a clock, waiting for a shift to end on Friday before the weekend so we can leave.

We have such an obsession with time we forget to spend the time we need for that which is truly important.

Technology, science and the study of old books do not instill wisdom

Wisdom is defined as the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight.

That is what life is about isn’t it?

Even the ignorant can be wise and a degree from the best University in the world cannot guarantee its students will be wise.

In this day and age, wisdom is disappearing, nearing extinction.

There are too many other things to concern one’s self with.

Very little of it has anything to do with wisdom.

What we give up in pursuit of what were are conditioned to believe is great.

That is sacrilegious.

Without wisdom we are as sheep under the control of the herder.

“When it comes time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home.”

Chief Aupumut spoke those words and the meaning is one that is and will always be true.

When I read the little of what remains of the cultures that used to prevail on these lands, I think to myself what have we destroyed?  Not we as people today, our forefathers, those who came before.

Fortunately a little survived.  What I have read is very profound, honest and understandable.

They lived with nature and as one with the land, exposed to the elements.

They have learned much from those experiences.

It is well worth looking into their past.

Their presence became known to me.

No, I am not crazy, at least I don’t think so.

It happened again yesterday and three times last year.

I have never experienced anything quite like it and it was not frightening or anything like that.

Every time it happened I was outside thinking about whatever I was thinking about and all of a sudden I “felt” something, but didn’t “feel” it.

It was like something touched my inner being and my mind became aware of ancients, the original inhabitants of this place where I lived.

The first three times there were three faces or beings each time.  Their faces were somber but not threatening.

The last time there was only one.  Somber faced but not threatening.

A feeling of peace settled in my being and one of purpose but I don’t know of what.  It was comforting.

The visions weren’t seen with the eye but felt within.

A mind trick?

I don’t think so.  I have been known to stretch my imagination but this was not something of my imagination.

The God Game

Most of us have played it one time or another and those who haven’t probably wished they had.

On the individual level, the God Game effects only the small circle of people that cross the lives of another.

For some who rise to the position of power, the circle grows with their influence and the God Game becomes larger.

The God Game is not a difficult game to play, even ignorant people have played it and some have become very famous playing the God Game.

The God Game is simple.  It is imposing your will on the life of another and using the tools provided to make changes in the other life.

The tools may be lies, manipulation, threats, aggression or charm.  One way or the other we will not lose because we are God for a moment in time.

Particularly so when it involves the end of lives.

Some love the God Game and the power they feel when playing it.

It makes them feel as if they were God.

That is why they call it the God Game.

President Dmitry Medvedev says U.S. to blame for global financial crisis

Many people probably have no idea who Dmitry Medvedev is. He is the President of Russia and this announcement appeared on the AP Wire.

I have only read a few things about him, but what he is reported as saying and how he said it makes an impression.  A positive one.

He is an individual who appears to rise above George W. Bush.

Medvedev is an educated, articulate person who was concerned about saving lives more than aggression in the Georgia campaign.

Most if not all of Russia’s troops are gone except for those protecting the independent states and there is no wholesale slaughter being reported.

I stand to be corrected as the media in the West tends to be biased and memories short.

When he made the statement pinning the blame on this economic fiasco on the US, it should be noted the world basically agrees with him.  Leaders from countries the world over  have been quoted making similar remarks.

Many would say who cares, without Uncle Sam they would have nothing.

That is not true.

I think that there should be a new face put on Uncle Sam.  A humbler, more truthful face.

I think it is time to end being the policeman of the world and do it as an equally participating team member with other countries.

Maybe it is time to look at what may be done to improve the quality of life for people within Uncle Sam’s domain.

The world will still turn as it has for thousands of years if there were no “Super Powers”.

I don’t think that the world will allow the dominance of one country controlling the bulk of the world’s investments after this fiasco is over.

I don’t blame them.  The taxpayers in many of the countries who invested in the United States make far less than Americans, so these losses hurt that much more.

I don’t hate America.

But when you observe injustices being done, it is time to say, “hey, wait a minute”.

He didn’t have a job, no home, no wife or children, he was a bum and they wrote books about him.

Can you imagine someone who didn’t get a PHD or make it as a sports or acting great or a CEO or World leader becoming famous?

Not 15 minute famous, just all time famous.

Whether you agree with him or not, or at least what was reported him saying or doing, is one thing.

He must have had something going for him.

If he was able bodied, had no education or job or responsibilities, you would think he was an ignorant peon, someone we wouldn’t take time to look at seriously.

We have enough of those in this world don’t we?

Even the people who study him a lot couldn’t cut his life style.

I believe it was spartan at best.

I wonder why so many people in this world would take a no account so seriously?

Are they easily lead?

I don’t know.  Albert Einstein thought he was remarkable and Martin Luther King thought very highly of him too.

Einstein was not religious or bought into everything that was told to him.

I think most of this world respects Einstein and King.

Even Muslims hold him in high regard.

He must have done something right.

The “Real” cause for global warming and the financial crisis….Sex

It’s amazing that after the scientists spent billions and Al Gore wasted time running around the planet, they haven’t figured it out yet.

I have.  I figured it out and it didn’t cost billions.

Three decades ago scientists were sending out alarm notices on overpopulation.

That is caused by having sex.

Everyone or most everyone does it.

Every couple has one, two, three or more kids.  And if they marry twice or more, that’s more children.

The kids nowadays expect more.  More cars, spray deodorants, McMansions and such.  They all pollute.  Seeing as they need credit to buy these pollutants, it causes the financial crisis.

The Catholics have got this one right.  The Pope and Mother Theresa never contributed to the future global warming or financial crisis.  They practiced celibacy.

If we don’t make anymore babies, the world will be a lot nicer two generations from now.

If we ban make up and sexy clothes, men may not be as inclined to do it as often.

Now where do I send my invoice for billions for saving the world?

Ever get tired of sex?

No one talks about that much, it must be taboo. The topic is a reflection of virility, male or female.

In the seventies, I read magazine articles proclaiming most young couples average sex two or three times a week.

In the eighties, I read magazine articles about people humping away into good old age.

What if you lose interest or if your partner doesn’t look or act like one of those porno stars?

Your partner may be old and wrinkled or smell or just doesn’t have what it takes.

Maybe you got burnt out on it from getting too much at a younger age.

Maybe you turn people off and no one wants to have sex with you even if you are willing to pay for it.

Then there is the other side of the coin.

How much is that sex costing you or how is the fine print is affecting you?

That could be a major turn off too.

This applies to both genders.

It’s my body and I can do what I want with it.

As long as you aren’t making anyone’s life misreable, why not?

Do you ever think how many controls there are in free country as to what you can or can not do with your own body.

You can’t put in it what you want.  That’s what the FDA and DEA say.

If you want to share it with another person, whether it be for coin or not, that is also against the law.

You can’t go where you want to go.  There are some places that are deemed not nice and if you go there you automatically fall under the “not nice” category, unless you are a lawmaker, which is like a super body.

If you say “I have had it and want to end it all”  they will try and stop you.

Yet they won’t think twice about using your body for their own purposes.

Scary, isn’t it?

Who is going to your funeral?

Ever wonder about that or care?

Is the funeral a gauge to the kind of person you were in life?

Or is it a means to  illustrate how successful you were at procreation?

Some people may be fantastic people, but lived in a sparsely populated area.  It would be a small funeral.

If you were a cop or soldier and died while in the line of duty you would have a large funeral.

I you were famous you would have a large funeral unless you were despicable in which case you wouldn’t have a funeral.

Would it be a “fun” funeral or a teary eyed funeral or a “boy I’m glad he is gone” funeral?

What if your funeral is preempted by another funeral?

Then there are funerals where no one comes.

I think about those the most and wonder why they were so alone.  There are probably more of those than we can imagine.

To those who won’t have anybody at your funeral, I am thinking of you

I forgive you

Three words.

There are two other three word sentences, “I hate you” and “I love you”.

“I forgive you” is used in conjunction with “I love you” to overcome “I hate you”.

The odds are always better that way and mathematically “I hate you” has a lot less chance of overcoming anything in life as compared to “I love you” and “I forgive you”.

“I forgive you” is not used as often as it should be.

There would be a whole lot less angst in this world if it were said by individuals, governments and religions alike and they actually meant it.

There isn’t an individual, religion or government that has a perfect record.

Knowing that, “I forgive you” is simple, profound and it works.

“We’ve seen a big increase in the number of clients because of the drug war, especially since September. It’s gone from a few (bodies) a week to one or two every day.”

Reported in Yahoo.com.

I suppose someone is benefiting from the drug wars south of the border. The funeral parlor owner is setting himself up for a kidnapping by advertising the fact he is doing well.

That is sad.

The article goes on to say, “About 4,000 people have been killed in Mexico this year as gangs vie for control of the cocaine trade amid a crackdown that has thousands of army troops battling drug cartels on their home turf.

Drug cartel hit men have killed some 160 people in the past month in Tijuana, once a party town serving Americans tequila and sex that is being devastated by the war.

Gun battles and gangland mutilations are also boosting demand for facial reconstructions. Funeral parlors can charge more than $1,000 to make the dead presentable for their wakes.

And because of the rise in decapitations in the city, undertakers offer to hold the body and wait for the head to be found before proceeding with the funeral.

For the average Mexican citizen and his or her family this is no joking matter.  It is a beautiful country with many fine people.  Their folklore, legends and accomplishments, then and now, are second to none.

The drug wars are a blight on this country, but its citizens will win out in the end.  The good always do.  I hope.

If a prophet existed on earth would we believe him or her?

Or does the prophet have to be dead for a couple of centuries before we even start to take him or her seriously.

We do have an advantage, we can film and record a prophet if one existed.  It will be pretty difficult to insert words that never existed or remove words that weren’t liked.

If they existed for thousands of years, why don’t we have one that appeals today?

I know, life expectancy is not all that good in the prophet business.

Besides, there is more money to be made writing about martyrs.

Even if one came out of hiding, would we believe the prophecies?

Not without a convincing display of other worldly power.  Maybe spreading the waters in the English Channel or have terrorists throw down their weapons and make peace.  Or have the countries who own WMDs, destroy them unilaterally.

Even if the prophet did those things we would attribute it to swamp gas and a scientist will put his name to that explanation.

Nowadays a prophet  is pretty much screwed.

Maybe that’s for the best.  Arguments between the people who believe in the prophet and those who don’t can get pretty ugly.

What are bloggers going to write about after the election?

This campaign provided fodder for every blogger, left, right and in between.  Even those who could care less had something to post.

For a while afterward people will speculate, cheer the winners and agonize that their choice didn’t make it.

Bloggers will have to find something else to write about.  After the last two years 2012 is too early to start for many.

I wonder if quantity of posts will decrease.

Maybe the new President will do things right and will get positive reactions from the blogosphere.

On the other hand he may screw up as bad as George W. or worse.  We don’t know do we?

That will give everyone new material.

A professional blogger is paid not to have writer’s block.

That must be a challenge.

Me, I don’t get paid so it doesn’t matter one way or the other.

Non-humans

They exist all over the planet.

They are not people with rights or freedom or equality.

These poor facsimiles exist and they are the only ones who realize they are human but no one gives them credit for that.

Even their own leaders take delight in oppressing these non-humans.

When they scream in agony or resist in defiance they are snuffed out like a cigarette butt.

They don’t eat much or take up a lot of space.  They don’t earn much either because there are no jobs.

Humans have no trouble ignoring non-humans.

Dogs and cats are higher on the scale of humanity than non-humans.

Is this a disease, a genetic flaw or is it a taught behavior?  You know, classifying people as non-people.

Has anyone seen a soul or spirit? Why not?

Do they exist or are they the stuff of imagination?

Has science discovered either one?  Is science looking?

Without a soul or spirit the stuff of religion is mostly irrelevant isn’t it?

If a spirit or soul is necessary to go to heaven or hell, why isn’t the government looking into this more closely?

Maybe the government doesn’t want to know.

That is understandable.

We aren’t going to eliminate death, so instead of spending that much money on ways to keep carcasses alive, why don’t we spend the money to find out if spirits or souls really exist?

If they do exist, it would have a major change in the thinking and attitude of a whole lot of people.

If they don’t exist, it will have a major change in the thinking and attitude of a whole lot of people.

The letter that inspired a love song.

I was told a story recently about a young Cuban man who fell in love with a young woman, his soul mate.

The Cuban went to a doctor about something that was troubling him.

The young man was infected with a terminal illness.

The Cuban left his loved one and his home.

He stayed in the hotel till he died some months later.

When they discovered his body they found a hand written letter to his love beside him.

I don’t know the words, they were in Spanish, but they must have made a tremendous impact to inspire the artists who immortalized the love shared between two people.

I can only imagine what it said.

Who am I to question?

As others would tell me later, “Ich you are no one.  These people know what they are talking about”.

Really?

The subject matter then was Christianity and I was a Christian.

I had a lot of struggles inside me about it.  Some of it I just couldn’t understand.

There were a few books or portion of books in the bible I thought applied to life pretty well, and some that were to me in the stratosphere of bullshit.

But, I let my intellect do the walking in those days.  I reasoned people who were far more intelligent than I and who went to school for years, wouldn’t waste their time.  Would they?

I discovered later my intellect was way off base.

When people pledged their allegiance to the Trinity I went along because it was the right thing to do, or so it seemed.  I did not want to be an “outsider”.

However, the more I got into Christianity, the more prone I was to doing something totally un-Christian during the week.

I wondered why that was.

Finally, when an event spawned that illustrated to me that the good experts really had no clue either,  I finally gave up on trying to be “perfect”.

Since then I think I have less problems and don’t do un-Christian things.  I don’t judge, steal, murder, slander, libel or screw around

Which is amazing in itself I think.

I am so used to living on the fringe anyway, being an “outsider” is preferable now than being a belonger.

That is freedom.  That is life.  That is what is intended for us all.

He was of no account, a boozer and womanizer….

…by all accounts he was a poor business man at best.

He possessed charm and was a good looking fella and used those attributes to the best of his ability to pursue his interests, ladies and fun.

Then one day the world changed.

He was in charge of a factory that employed people who weren’t human.

There was a purge going on against the non humans.

At first he appeared reluctant to give aid or solace.  He didn’t care for much for anything except himself.  One of the non humans detected something in him no one suspected he possessed.

A good soul.

He became the savior for thousands of these non-humans, in the end placing his own life in peril.

His name, Oskar Schindler.

There is a moral to this story.  No one should judge another as their day may not have arrived yet, to show the world what they are truly made of.