Amalgamated Heavy Blog

Welcome to “Who Wants to Be President” America’s newest reality show where we bombard contestants with insipid questions from a panel of intellectual pigmies.  Watch these men and the obligatory woman pander to the audience and dance around the questions in the hopes of advancing to the “Popularity” round.  This initial phase consists of several “ranking” rounds wherein the contestants vie for position and funding potential.

Answers need not be relevant, must bash the current administration frequently; and must not disclose any plans (as if they really exist) to resolve current issues.  Contestants may pummel each other for any reason in the trump move called “self aggrandizement.”  Audience participation is discouraged however; the moderator may assist the contestant when he or she stumbles.  Contestants are free to interject comments while others attempt to answer their questions.   The official rules forbid interruption; we all know that the elected officials don’t follow any rules so why bother.

The first round determines which of these contestants advance to the “Popularity” round.  This round parades these selected contestants across the country where well meaning and totally uninformed citizens cast worthless ballots for their favorites based solely on looks and the candidate’s ability to strum the conservative strings of the constituents.  This all important round selects the contestants that advance to the “Convention” round.

If they survive round 2 they will be paraded before the nation in the “Convention Round” where the Masters of the Political Machine make the final selection.  The preselected winner will face off against the 2008 Champion and President of the United States.  It is vital that the public remember they have absolutely no bearing on the outcome of this contest. 

The winner is predetermined before the beginning of the program.  This is contest is designed to distract the public from the more important situation in this country and is meant to obfuscate not inform.

Friend, don’t miss a single moment of this riveting expose’ of American Politics and Power. 

 

Now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of their country.

I hope some of you can remember this sentence.  It is an exercise we all learned it in typing class.  It really is too bad that the meaning of this little saying seems completely lost in modern life; and especially in politics.  Of course there are a great many other things lost in modern politics not just the power of a simple sentence like the one above.  We have lost our direction and passion for this country as well.  We have lost our focus and our drive.  We have lost our national identity.  We are a nation of individuals all clamoring for their personal way and insisting that we are no longer Americans…  We demand to be hyphenate – Americans!

Regardless of your job, we all work harder and play less.  We have more of everything except time and money.  We live stressful lives walking on eggshells and hope none collapse under our weight.  We look hopefully for leadership for a path out of these trying times.  We look for answers and all we receive is more questions and restated problems.  Like most of you I think we are well aware of the situation in America.  We all know what’s wrong; we are looking for someone to help us find the answers and solutions to these problems.  We are looking for someone to lead us out of these dark days and into the light of reasonable action.  We know there are solutions and that these solutions will require our combined efforts to solve them.  It will take ALL of us to solve them just the working class, but the wealthy privileged classes as well.

There is a continuing drone from the talking heads reciting our problems like a Buddhist chant.  They remind us with their every word that we are in trouble and they point knowingly at other party in accusation.  It was not “me” that created this situation; it was the other guy or gal.  Well guess what… we are all responsible.  We sat on the couch watching the NFL or NBA or NASCAR or sports de jure’ while our country caught fire from within.  Each of our leaders has a bucket of water to douse the fires, but they are waiting for the media to film them throwing it.  They want the recognition for their pitiful and futile performances.

So far the circus of debates has bested Ringling Brothers for showmanship.  Not one of the contestants has any clue about solutions although they would have you think their plans will save the country.  When you stop to think through these weak dramas and the pitiful rationalizations they spew, you begin to realize that the fox is again looking to guard the hen house.  Clever proposal names like “9-9-9” sound terrific but in reality they will cost those with the most to lose the most to implement.  Those that profit will the rich and powerful.  Don’t misunderstand, I am not against wealth, I am a big fan, but with great wealth comes great responsibility.

We all know the problem.  We all recognize that there are some very, very smart people in this country but what is stopping progress, at least for now, are the enormous egos of these contestants.  They are jockeying for position in the greatest game of all… the American Presidency.  The most powerful job in the world, the President of the United States of America is up for grabs again and who are the contestants;  Some of the weakest possible leaders in the country.  I want to know why!  Why in a country of 313 million people can we not find a leader that will take us from the dismal situation we are in the correct direction?  The answer…  POLITICS!  Yes, Politics!

Our system of selecting the prettiest and sweetest and most appropriate puppet is broken.  I have written about this before so I will not launch down that rabbit hole.  Suffice it to say that we are in trouble and we need REAL Leadership.  Not some pretty boy or girl that satisfies the political power brokers and placates the populace and not someone that will take the orders of the extremely rich and powerful.  We need someone with the backbone to do what is best for the country; not some egomaniac bent on self aggrandizement.  We need someone that will take us forward, not someone to keep us in the quagmire of rising debt.

We have pissed a fortune for the glory of a few carefully selected men and women that sold us out to the highest bidder.  We elected a half black president that cannot hit the floor with his hat.  This clone is bent on the socialization of America; if not the Islamization of it.  The bone head he followed could not even run lumber yard or a professional baseball team.  The one before him could not keep his Johnson in his pants.  Can you see the pattern here?  Every one of the past several presidents, all the back to Eisenhower, was a worthless piece of shit that was more interested in self than in this country.  Oh sure, they looked good on paper and even better for the media and TV cameras, but the truth is that they all had one thing in common they worked for special interests and for themselves.

Our way of life hangs in the balance and all we do is clamor for more reality TV.  Our Rome is burning and Jet-Set BHO offers solutions that will bankrupt this country in a few years.  All of the programs that existed before him will disappear in his next term.  Social Security; Americas Ponzi Scheme is almost bankrupt.  Medicare and Medicaid are equally in trouble.  We have 50.1 million people on Welfare: that is almost 20% of this country.  The real unemployment figures in June of this year were calculated at 22% not the 9% advertised by our government.  We are expected to cheer for an unemployment reduction or 0.4%.

Our government lies to us regularly and we suck it up as if it was our last drink of clean water.  We look at blogs and internet publications, and recoil as if these are all blatant lies.  We sit on the couch with the big screen blasting away ignoring the impending disaster.  I continue to reference ancient Rome in these letters.  Here’s the reason…

The Roman Coliseum was built to keep the populace entertained.  Why?  So they people would not notice the eminent demise of their Empire.  Rome was failing quickly so the Emperor built the biggest show on earth.  There were hundreds of festivals each year to keep people entertained and to divert their attention from the facts.  They didn’t notice that their way of life was crumbling because they had REALITY at The Coliseum.  Our current media choice it the Big Screen TV in High Definition with hundreds of Satellite Channels all pumping Reality TV up your lazy asses.

Some time ago I wrote about the Wizard of OZ and the corollary to modern times.  Boys and girls we are right there today.  Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain – the one pulling the strings.  Just watch the pretty show, the flashing lights, all the pretty colors and let the wealthy and powerful take away what little you have left.

America is following Rome right down the toilet.  Rome collapsed because they could not support the cost of the Empire.  The Wealthy would not pay higher taxes to support the rabble.  Instead they bought armies to protect their wealth and property.  We are following in lock step with the Romans.  The result was complete collapse of the system.  Almost everyone lost except for the wealthiest.  Our current financial situation is untenable.  We cannot even afford to pay the interest on the debt let alone the principle.  We are headed off the cliff and no one is at the wheel.  The leaders all bailed at the crossroad.

How much longer will we sit stupidly in our faux leather family rooms lamenting the eminent plight of our Nation?  How much more can we afford to lose before we stand up to this broken machine and demand changes?  How much worse will it get:  Much, Much, Much worse.  You cannot imagine the problems to come.  If you are following the situation in Greece you are watching the previews of coming attractions.  Watch as the Euro takes a dump even after the massive infusions of cash from the richer nations and the World Bank.  Watch as European countries fall like dominoes from the burden of social programs and entitlements they can no longer support; but their people refuse to relinquish their entitlements. 

Enjoy the show folks…  ‘Cause as PT Barnum said so eloquently…  There’s a sucker born every minute – and America has 313 million of them.  Pass the Popcorn!

 

Notes:

http://usawatchdog.com/9-unemployment-rate-is-a-statistical-lie/ Unemployment Figures

http://www.numberof.net/number-of-americans-on-welfare/ Number on Welfare

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States US population

I am tired to the bone of those that use God as a lever to rationalize and justify their actions.  Not even Cecil B Demille killed as many people as we have in God’s name.  Some religions like Islam continue to subjugate the believers with Shariah Law which places men well above the status of women and condone all manner of atrocities in the name of this cult.   Women are subjected to beatings and murder regularly.  In Pakistan 80% of the women are beaten and one is murdered daily.  All that is required to convict a woman of heresy are two men to accuse her.  One woman is in prison awaiting hanging for arguing with two such men.  They accused her of heresy.  She awaits her fate.

Here in America our Republican presidential contestants are using religion to pander to the religious right in the hopes that this tactic will propel them to the front as it has in many past contests.  This self-righteous excuse for inappropriate actions and murder sickens me.  We turn belief into justification for everything from abortion to xenophobia and accept this as acceptable behavior because it is in the name of religion.

We red line our Constitution to fit our political needs.  We ignore the section regarding religious neutrality to support and to elevate the contestants in the greatest fraud on earth.  No one questions the motives of these “Christians.”  No one looks for the truth in the claims.  They are blameless because of professed belief in the Christ regardless of motive and certainly without thought to the implications of forgiveness for past actions. 

I firmly believe that when religion enters politics it is a business and taxed appropriately.  The founding concept in this country is religious freedom and neutrality.  This God Lever flies in the face of reason.  What gives anyone the right to associate his or her political aspirations with religious belief?  What gives anyone the right to use religion as a political tactic?  This is such an abomination, and a strong indicator of our sad national condition.  If we actually accept these deluded claims we are missing the point completely.  Our faith and our beliefs should be manifest in our actions, not in our rhetoric.  If these political contestants are so righteous, then let them be examined on the stage before a jury of their peers, not just in the court of public opinion.  Let them demonstrate their beliefs.  Let us see if they can really stand the tests.

It appears that personal integrity, ethics, morals, and ideas are no longer adequate for pandering to the masses.  They now must enlist God’s help to win the ultimate position of deceit and fraud.  How will they rationalize the unfulfilled campaign promises?  How will they justify the accusations against each other?  So far the evidence and behavior they exhibit is contrary to the biblical concepts they all espouse.

I can hardly wait for the attack ads next year.

I have been pretty quiet for the past several weeks thinking through many of the things happening in the world and our current situation in this country and in the world.  Our globalization makes it imperative that we live our lives as members of a larger collective and less as individuals.  Individualism is a right that we all have and should enjoy personally, but as is applies to the collective we need to be mindful of our impact on those around us.

As we wander through this life we impact everyone and everything we encounter. We are no longer an island adrift in a sea of self indulgence and secure in our own little world.  We are like the rest of the world connected by our global political and financial decisions.  We have become one world.  As we consider our direction as a country and society we must be mindful of our affect on others; not just in America but in the world around us.

Politically we still act as if we are big brother to the world believing that our might makes us right and the one with the biggest stick will always win.  We must acknowledge that our efforts in the Middle East are suspect at best and the effect is uncertain if not deleterious.  Yes, we eliminate a despot in one country and cheer the overthrow of another, but they are not really better for our efforts.  In fact we created the Al Qaeda forces to battle Russia and those very same “Freedom Fighters” are now ‘Terrorists’, our nemesis; their reach increased to our own shores.  This should tell us that we are meddling in places that we should not.  In fact our incursion into their fight has created new ways for our own government to garner additional control over us in the name of security.  Maybe that’s the crux of our current situation.

Our government created the TSA – whose reach increases daily with impunity.  They now call the tune to which we all dance.  Call it what you like; the unfortunate truth is that they now control our lives in the name of national security.  Do you really feel safer?  Is groping a pre-boarding passenger really keeping us all from harm?  Is intercepting cell phone conversations and scanning email really promoting national security?  Does an examining library book request serve a real purpose?  Does detailed analysis of bookstore purchase really matter or even provide a window to the buyer’s intentions?  What happened to the FBI and CIA?  Weren’t these organizations supposed to prevent the catastrophic events that befell our country recently?  They were arguing about who knew what and whose job it was to intervene!

Our way of life, our society is right for our people.  It is NOT the answer for everyone.  We live this way because we of how we are socialized and understand our limits and freedoms.  Forcing our social and political structure on another country and society is futile.  We cannot expect anyone other than an American to understand our form of Democracy.  Our efforts to indoctrinate the world to our way of thinking is absolutely wrong and certainly a waste of time.  History proves this; yet we ignore this lesson.  I wonder if we ever will learn that tolerance is far better than insisting that the world adopt our ways.  Can’t we just accept that other countries have the same rights to sovereignty as we?

Financially we are a monkey with a machine gun.  We spend like we can just print all the money we need: and we do with horrendous results.  Our fiscal policies indicate a complete ignorance of how money works.  We provide social programs for the less fortunate at the expense of working people.  Our current policy fosters a two class system: those with and those that want it.  Those with means can support some of these programs, but not all of them.  If we are to ever emerge from the hole we are in we need to change the fundamental thought process of those that now expect the country to provide them a comfortable living.  When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work, because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.  This is where we are today.

We are facing tipping point economically.  We carry a $15 trillion debt with no way to make the payments, and now we raised the debt limit to continue our spendthrift ways.  The two political parties that will make the decision insist that their view and policies are correct.  In 10 short years we have blown through a $215 billion surplus from the year 2000.  The projections at that time showed an additional $1 trillion increase.  Our national debt was paid down to $233 billion.  We now face an insurmountable debt that if divided among the people of America equals almost $46,000.  The median income in the US is $46,326.  As you can see the debt equals the income.  Basically we are bankrupt.  There is no way to sustain our current spending versus our present income.  42% had incomes below $25,000 while the top 10% had incomes exceeding $82,500 a year.  That means that most people in this country are below that $46,000 threshold.  Scary, isn’t it?

What this means on a global scale is that as the number 1 earning country we have no concept of how our actions affect the rest of the world.  Here are the top ten earning countries per capita according to the World Bank’s Gross National Income (GNI):

1.    Luxemburg              $37,499.20

2.    Switzerland              $36,987.60

3.    Japan                         $35,474.10

4.    Norway                      $35,053.30

5.    United States           $33,070.30

6.    Denmark                   $30,191.50

7.    Iceland                      $27,437.80

8.    Sweden                      $25,105.50

9.    United Kingdom      $24,486.70

10. Austria                      $23,843.10

23. Israel                         $17,046. 40

Countries #35 through #104 make less than $10,000.00 per year per capita and countries #105 through #169 make less than $1000.00 per year per capita.  The remaining few don’t even register.

Many of these countries live well below our poverty level and would love to have our income.  They would relish the opportunity to live as we do and have our lifestyle.  Our problem is our convenient memory and our ungrateful attitude toward what we have.  We take all of this for granted and so does our government.  They forget that we make more than enough to care for the less fortunate, but not so much that they can squander our money on programs that benefit their own greedy interests.  We can no longer provide comfortable lifestyles for non-contributors and slackers.  We can no longer afford to be the dumping ground for the indigent refuse of the world.  Our pride is gone as is our national identity.

Partisan Politics is crippling this country.  It is more important for our leaders to cling to the party planks than to act in the interest of the country.  They abandon the people and serve major financial contributors and special interest groups that prove them power and recognition.  We suffer because the interests of these few outweigh the good of the many.  They should all be fired and replaced with more realistic and honest leaders.  They freely enact laws that segregate us from them and live above the laws made for the rabble.  It is our fault that these people lead us into oblivion and treat their responsibilities cavalierly.  We allow the self serving power brokers throughout this country to placing these people in office.  Please note that I did not say elected to office.  There is no electorate.  The election recount in Florida proved that those with the most to gain control who is placed in office.  The Shrub (Little Bush) is a perfect example of power run amok.

 

Multiculturalism destroyed our identity and fractured our society into ethnic camps with demands for recognition.  American’s no longer exist.  Everyone has a hyphenated identity; Chinese-American; African-American; Italian-American; Asian-American; Gay-American; Straight-American; etc ad nauseum.  Soon we will be subdividing these groups into subgroups that further define us by gender and age.  It will take no time at all before we take an entire conversation to define who we are; all the time losing sight of the reason this country exists.  We are here because America offered us an opportunity to join a collective that didn’t require more definition than being an American.  We were satisfied living and knowing that we were the greatest country on earth: a place where everyone was quite proud to live and being part of this once great and now failing experiment.

 

I call for a return to common sense and a spirit of unity and solidarity for this country.  We need to look deeply into our recent history and face the facts that we have allowed a few to dictate our future and destiny.  We are totally to blame for the events leading to our current situation.  Our ambivalent attitude and self interests killed this once great nation.  Corporate greed and pandering to investors for quick return and instant gratification destroyed our manufacturing strength.  Our desire for more, sent jobs overseas and our myopic view of education necessitated the importation of skills that were once secured our leadership.  We now rely on the skills of foreigners that are better educated, better equipped, and better suited to highly technical jobs than we are.

 

To regain our leadership position in the world we must change our focus toward stronger education.  We must consider the implications and impact of our financial decisions.  We must resolve to unify our society into one cohesive proud people.  We need to stand by each other not a safe distance from each other.

 

We are facing the end of the greatest country on earth, all because we wanted more and more and more and more for me with total abandon for each other.

 

Common sense tells us that unity is better than individuality, but something keeps us from moving in that direction.  History teaches us that the only way to prosperity for all is to sacrifice a bit of self for the common good.  History also teaches us that unless we learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it…  A cursory look at the present European situation should show us all we need to know.

 

Common sense also tells us that we ALL need to take personal actions to avert inevitable demise.  Our leaders will not do it, they can’t even agree on a balanced budget or how to reduce the deficit.  They won’t support it unless we demand it.  They work for us, remember?  We DO NOT work for them.

 

Common sense tells us that the only way to change group behavior is at the personal level first: lead by example.   If you need a powerful cause to rally the country… Try Bankruptcy.   That’s right!  That’s where we’re headed unless we all decided to change our direction and insist that our public officials begin doing their jobs, and not just keeping them.

 

Wake up America!  It’s time to get off you collective ass and do something for your country.

 

 

We no longer have a choice.  We are told what to accept and what to allow.  Special interest groups dictate our available choices.  Our Government is no longer interested in our desires; they now tell us what to like and what to accept.  We have no choice.

I want to preface this document with a few personal statements.

1.    I don’t care about your sexual preferences

2.    I don’t care about your religious preferences

3.    I don’t care about your ethnicity or national origin

4.    I don’t care what car you drive or about its color

5.    I don’t care how much money you make or how you make it

6.    I don’t care how smart you think your children are or where you choose to school them

7.    I don’t care how much hair you have or don’t have

8.    I don’t care about your personal life…  At All!

 

This came to light during a conversation with my wife about homosexuality and our acceptance of this alternative life style.  I asked my wife how she viewed homosexuality.  Her response was typical of her personal views… “I don’t care what they do behind closed doors as long as I’m not forced to condone or accept that lifestyle.”

I happen to agree.  I don’t care either.  My problem with this and many other of the items listed above is that we no longer have a choice or the opportunity to voice our opinion openly.  If I do voice an opinion I am immediately labeled as an Anti-(fill in the blank) person; racist, bigot, etc.  I no longer have a choice.   If I don’t accept or embrace it openly, I am judged to be against it.  The fact is that I don’t really care!  I do care about the label and the obvious connection to being against something simply because I am not for it.

I want to address each of these items individually.

1.    Sexual Preference:

I don’t care what you do, how you do it, or with whom.  Your choices are personal and none of my affair.  I you want to have sex with farm animals that’s your concern.  I don’t want to know about it nor do I wish to join in.  However, if for some reason you want to advertise your love affair with a goat; that’s your business.  Don’t expect me to accept your decision or to demand that you be able to marry that goat, or to demand fair treatment and equality for farm animals everywhere.  They don’t need my support for heath care, or pensions funding, of Social Security.  If you want to support them you do it on your own.  America does not owe you or your goat anything.  The same holds true for same sex marriages.  I don’t care how the government or church defines marriage, but I will not support your decisions with my taxes or with my vote.  These are not the proper forum for this situation.  If you want to marry another of your same sex, you should do it and be subject to the same laws and policies as the rest of us.  It is NOT an issue for The Supreme Court to decide.  It is between you and your partner.

 

Forcing me to side is taking away my rights to choose.  You are making this a public issue and when the public sides against you, your response is outrage.  You expect that just because you think it is right; everyone must follow, but when we don’t you’re incredulous and we are anti-gay.  Did you ever consider that forcing someone to choose puts them on the defensive?  Did you consider that most of America is not going along with your program?  We’re not against your choice; we’re against being forced to accept your decision as the only RIGHT choice.

 

2.    Religious Preference:

I have very firm beliefs about religion and especially bout organized religion.  I don’t care if the world is Muslim, I’m not and don’t want to be.  This is one area that I will fight for to the death.  I will not have someone dictate my belief or preference where my belief in god is concerned.  My god does not punish people for their belief.  He does not create natural disasters.  He does not hate anyone.  He is the Judge.

 

The perversion of secular writings, yes I consider the bible to be secular writing, is an abomination.  Any book can be considered a text for living.  I can misinterpret the text to allow any behavior.  The bible is a set of orally repeated moral stories, transcribed, published, and misused to control humanity.  Religion is all about control.  It is not about personal choice or belief; it is a club used to beat people in to submission.  This is not god’s idea… it was ours.

Any religious organization that uses the pulpit to support any governmental or non-parochial idealism should be taxed.  We included the separation of church and state in the constitution for a reason.  It’s time we started following our written social doctrine.  We fought several wars to secure control of our destiny; religious freedom is one of the primary tenants.   By the way, this includes a right not to believe in god!

3.    Ethnicity and National Origin:

Sometime over 350 years ago, people from Europe came to this continent to create a new life free from the oppression of European rulers and antiquated laws that kept them in poverty and under control.  They came here as many ethnicities and colors to form a country based on individual choice.  They were no longer interested in identification with the past.  They were interested in the future.  That future did not include ethnic identifiers and dialing “2” for their local language.  They adopted English as their new tongue and learned to use it to communicate.  Each ethnic group contributed to colloquial English, adding words that helped describe a unique concept.  They did not insist that this new world speak (fill in language) and accept it nationally.  Everyone learned English.  They we so proud of this country that many refused to speak anything but English to their children.  Now we’re lucky if the children speak any English at all.

 

My family came to America sometime after slavery was abolished.  We had nothing to do with it.  We do not support or condone it.  We were not involved.  Blaming slavery and bigotry on anyone is idiotic.  The slave traders were Dutch.  They purchase African slaves from other Africans.  They purchased Chinese slaves from other Chinese.  The Dutch brought these slaves to the Americas and sold them.  If you want to blame someone for slavery; blame capitalism.

 

If you come to this country legally, you will be afforded all the rights and honors this country has to offer.  If you come here illegally, you are a criminal and should be deported.  Illegal immigrants do not deserve and have no rights to the same support and subsistence guaranteed to citizens or legal immigrants.  You broke the law to enter this country; you are a criminal.  Anyone at anytime should be proud to prove citizenship.  If law enforcement requests my identification, I am proud to provide it.  I am here legally. 

 

Children born to illegal immigrants should not be automatic citizens.  This law is antiquated and obsolete.  It must be repealed and anyone that was considered to be citizen by birth should be forced to prove the citizenship of their parents.  End of story.

 

English is the national language.  Learn it.  Use it.  We will no longer transact our business in any other language.  If you can’t speak it, read it, and function with it, you and better enroll in a class to help you get with the program.

 

4.    Personal Possessions:

Your vehicle, purse, cloths, hair style, shoes, watch, etc do not afford you any special privileges.  Just because you chose to flaunt your wealth or debt does not mean that I buy into your show.  I know plenty of very wealthy people that drive VW’s and Fords.  Clothes do not make the man or woman.  It is an outward indication of who you think you are often more than who you really are.  The person in the cloths or car is what is really important.  I spent several years in the land of glitz and glitter.  I worked with some of the top people in many industries in LA.  Several were the CEO’s or owners of these top businesses.  They are the just the same as me, only much luckier and certainly richer.

 

5.    Wealth:

Money is not the root of all evil; the love of money is.  Some people will sell their souls for wealth.  Sadly the pursuit of this wealth causes people to ignore the potential good that can be done.  There is an interesting principle that states: “Give and it shall be returned to you 1000 fold.”  It is written in many texts and in many forms.  The idea is that giving for the right reason is the most important.  If you give without thought of return, you receive much more than you give.  Giving with the expectation of return gets you very little.  It’s the reason that counts.

 

Using money for control or for the acquisition of power is a very poor use of the tool.  Yes, I consider money a tool.  It can be used for good or evil.  It is way to trade goods and services; that’s all.  It is not an end unto itself.  Of course having a safety net of funds is important.  Savings help you acquire things to expensive to purchase outright.  I do believe in credit, but not in credit cards.  There are things that require extended payment plans; houses, cars, etc.  Living on a credit card only prolongs the inevitable day of reckoning.  Credit cards create profits for the bank, which prey on our need for immediate gratification.  The latest figure on personal credit card debt is $4,100.00.  The average income is $28,000.

 

6.    Smart Children:

Every parent believes their children are the smartest and brightest on the planet: Good for you.  The reality is that children like their parents have certain capabilities and certain liabilities.  They have gifts and abilities that should be identified early and nurtured into maturity.  This means that some children are suited toward math and science, some are best suited to manual labor.  There is nothing wrong with either.  The world needs doctors and engineers and much as it needs gardeners and brick layers.  Our educational system rewards the less suited to the determent of the brighter children.  I call this playing to the lowest common denominator.  Our current system dumbs-down the curriculum to allow these lesser equipped students to keep up. 

 

No parent wants to admit that their child should be a fast food clerk.  No parent wants to accept that their child is holding the class back.  They insist that this child is special and deserves the extra effort of the teacher to help them keep up.  Class sizes and limited resources require teachers to make value judgments for the entire class.  So the decision is to dumb-down the curriculum so that everyone moves to the next grade, but to the determent of the country.

 

Unfortunately this creates boredom in the brighter students and frustration in the less well equipped.  We test memorization of the students.  We teach the test to these kids, then measure how well the retained the information.  The information rarely includes contextual application or background.  It is merely fact.  I can remember memorizing historic dates and the events without understanding the importance of the events or dates.  When I finally realized the implications, I began to appreciate world history, US history, and how these events shaped who we are and how we arrived here.  It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  Our current situation in this country is a prime example.  A broader look exemplifies the world situation, as well.

 

There is a solution, but unfortunately it required us all to take a long hard look at the individual and to accept that the good of the many is more important than the good of the one.

 

7.    Hair – or the lack thereof:

I don’t need a full head of hair to be a good person, or to have a good job, or to have a nice car, or to have big boobed blonds at my side.  I choose to have a natural look: male-patterned-baldness and all.  Patrick Stewart was asked in an interview about baldness in the 25^th century.  Mr. Stewart replied “I would rather think that by then we would have gotten past the physical appearance and arrived at the person as the point.”

 

It’s not just about hair.  It’s about the advertising industry in general.  They are paid to find better ways to promote products for the manufacturer.  They are paid millions of dollars to create ads that entice us to buy that product: Whatever the promise either spoken to visual, think about the reality of the situation.  Will driving that new BMW really make you a better person or will you still be the same inadequate asshole behind the wheel.

 

We have either become so shallow or so deluded that we believe that an object can make us a better person.   We actually buy products for their image enhancing properties rather than for their functionality.  Look around the house for those things that actually make your life better and for those things that you hoped would enhance your life’s image.

 

8.    Your Personal Life:

No… I don’t care about your personal life.  I am not your confessor, your priest, your Rabbi, your Imam, or your confidant.  I don’t care.  I have enough trouble in my own life; I don’t need yours, too.  I am glad that I am approachable and easy to engage.  I appreciate my ability to obtain information and that I am easily befriended.  Please don’t mistake this for my caring about your problems.  Sure, it’s good to share our triumphs and failures.  It allows us to solidify and clarify the facts as they apply to us, but it is not license to dump on every person you meet.  It is not license to lay them at my feet.  If you ask my opinion, please be ready for the truth.  If you ask me what course of action to take with a problem, please be ready for my opinion on the best way to deal with it: Or Don’t Ask!

 

In fact, dealing with the select few friends I have keeps me occupied constantly.  Coupled with my own problems I have a full time job.  This leaves me with precious little time for enjoyment.  So… I DON’T CARE.

 

I don’t care if your grandparents were slaves.  I don’t care if you are Hispanic and the Europeans stole Mexico and California from you.  I don’t care that you are an American Indian and the Europeans stole this country from you.  I don’t care that you are an illegal alien and here to make a better life for your family: you are a criminal.  I do care that you came to this country for an opportunity, but take the steps to legalize your immigration.

 

I don’t want the refuse and politically oppressed from every other country in the world.  If they want asylum, let them apply, but they had better have skills that will support them when they arrive.  I Don’t care if your political views are not popular at home.  Mine are not to popular here.  Fortunately, I’m net being hunted or oppressed: Yet!

 

So, what does this all have to do with not having choices?

 

When did anyone asked your permission to amend the constitution to support same-sex marriage? 

 

When did anyone ask if they could dump millions of illegal aliens in your backyard, give them free medical care, education, welfare, childcare, rent, and the right to protest the laws of the state. 

 

When did anyone ask if they could overturn your laws in favor of a special interest group?

 

When did anyone ask permission to grope you going through a security check point and deny you access if you question them? 

 

When did anyone ask your permission to make education so poor that the only skill acquired in high school is the ability to use a calculator and ask “Do You Want Fries with that, or would you like to “Super Size” that order?” 

 

Why do we need to off-shore our call centers and customer service centers?  Don’t we have enough workers here to staff them?  When did anyone ask your permission to do this?

 

Why do even the pay-to-view channels inundate us with commercials?  Isn’t the subscription fee I pay enough?  When was I asked to be barraged with insipid ads extolling the virtues of body spay to make you more manly?

 

When was I asked my permission for any of these and other choices made for me?

 

My freedom of choice was removed systematically and yes surgically.  It was removed intentionally!  I had no choice in these and many other matters.  I was told that “This is how it will be…” for whatever contrived or implied reason; but I didn’t have any input.

 

I don’t hate homosexuals.  I don’t need to know or want to know that you are one.  I don’t care.  It doesn’t bother me one way or the other except when I am forced to acknowledge that it is now fashionable and accepted practice, and that it is flaunted publically.  The fact that I have a physical relationship with my wife, yes she is female, is not a matter of public information.  It is private and very personal.

 

I don’t hate religion.  I don’t like zealots or door-to-door proselytizers.  I don’t care that you believe there are 77 virgins waiting in heaven.  Robin Williams said that “anyone that has been with one virgin know that this is one too many, imagine having 77 virgins.”  I don’t care how you get there as long as your path does not involve violence toward me or my country: then we will become some fightin’ motherfuckers!  Keep it to yourself.  I don’t care and I really don’t want to know.  If you believe in the “Flying Spaghetti Monster” it’s up to you.  I don’t care.  Don’t expect me to sit quietly while you try to shove it up my ass.

 

I am an American.  My origin is English, Irish, and Scottish.  I am an American.  I live here, speak, read and use the language because that is the national standard.  When I travel I attempt to learn enough of the local language to function.  I do not expect or demand that they adapt to my inabilities to master their tongue.  When I work in a foreign country I expect them to continue to speak their language and that I will attempt to learn a functional command of that tongue.  I do not demand that they change to my ways and add “Dial 4 to speak Charlie’s language.” 

 

I didn’t enslave your grandparents: my family wasn’t even here.  I refuse to accept blame for something that your own people did.  I refuse to accept that there are no alternatives.  I am not keeping you in the ghetto; your own people are.  I’m not denying you any jobs: your laziness and inability to use common language are.  I’m not forcing you to live on welfare: you bought into the system and use it as a convenient excuse for your plight.  There are as many excuses as there are stars in the sky.  What matters is your self-worth and what you chose to do with your life.

 

I drive used cars, and wear clothes that I can afford.  I don’t expect anyone to treat me differently because I drive a Mercedes-Benz or Toyota; wear a suit or blue jeans.  I dress for the occasion and I dress appropriately.  Business casual does not include flip-flops, tank tops, and shorts.  The point here is beach or work: dress appropriately.

 

I make an excellent living.  I have enough money to live comfortably.  I work hard and take a load of shit to make this living.  I endure more assholes, jerks, know-it-alls, and morons than you can imagine.  I do it because that’s what I do to survive.  It’s none of your business how much I make.  It’s none of your business how I reconcile my actions to make it through the day.  It is none of your business and I don’t care how much you have, how you make it, or whose ass you kiss to get it.  I don’t care!

 

I don’t care that your child is special.  I don’t care that they have commencement exercises to move to the next grade.  If you child can graduate from school and contribute to the economy and welfare of this country, great.  If they are burden on this society; you failed as a parent.  It was not the educational system in this country.  I don’t care if your child is a nuclear physicist or a gardener: We need both.  When your vicarious life intrudes on that of your child and those vicarious needs dumb-down the educational system: I care because it affects us all.  I don’t care why or how you became so insecure or why you insist that this below average child is special.  He or she is not!

 

I don’t buy into all the advertising hype about hair, clothes, cars, etc.  I have a very solid sense of self, and I am very secure in that image.  Your image is not my problem.  If you actually believe that any product or service will enhance you in any way; the advertiser win.  If you find you self-worth in a product or service; you need a good self examination, and you need help.

 

What you chose to do personally is your business.  I don’t need to know and I don’t want to know about it.  Your problems are your own.  You create them: not your parents, not your boss, not the church, and not the government.  You are your own person.  It’s not my problem.  I don’t want to know about it and I really don’t care.

 

This all leads to the inescapable conclusion that we, you and I, created this situation.  The insistence and demands of special people, like you, have taken away my choices.  Just because you think you are special does not make it so.  Just because you choose to live and alternative lifestyle does not make it right for me or for anyone else for that matter, however your demands and insistence for recognition for this personal choice removed my choice.  Insisting that your existence on this planet grants you the right to direct other’s lives is deluded thinking.  Your inability to deal with the reality that you are NOT special, that you are just like everyone else and that your choices although right for you are not right for everyone.  Your zealous pursuit of your specialness is what cheats me out of my rights to choose.

 

I am angry that we as a society lean on excuses for our shortcomings. 

 

I am angry that I cannot speak out openly against the situations that I did not create and that I recognize but cannot change. 

 

I am angry that all of the things mentioned above, and too many more, have been forced upon me by the insistence of special interests, and the liberal views this country adopted. 

 

I am angry that no one in our country has the balls to stand up for this country the way is once one: Great, Proud and Powerful. 

 

I am really pissed me off when I think that so much is being expected from those that can ill afford it.

 

I am saddened because that nothing will be done to correct it.

I am extinct.  At least my way of life, morals, ethics, and business methods are extinct.  In order to survive I must adapt.  I must become what I never was; and act as I never did: or I will be extinct.

My epiphany happened today, actually this afternoon during a meeting with an adversary.  I have the tire tracks from the bus to prove it.  I had hoped that this person would be an ally but it was not to be.  Try as they might, my supporters could not save me or pull me from the path of that bus.  In their defense there was nothing they could do except to sacrifice themselves on my behalf.  I could not ask and did not expect it.

I was struck by a bolt of lightning; that flash of clarity that I’ve never had.  I realized at that moment that I was the dinosaur in the room.  Who I am didn’t matter: what I needed to become in order to survive did.

My situation no longer allows me to cling pragmatically to my values.  I am a product of my past physical excesses and spendthrift ways.  Either I adapt or go the way of the Dodo.  I do not relish the thought of becoming a museum exhibit; not yet anyway.

Modern Man… and I include women in this, too, must evolve and this evolution is neither pleasant nor pretty.  It is however necessary for us to change or become a museum exhibit.  I can see the sign under my glass case: “Ethical Man.”

Business today is nasty.  It’s cutthroat.  It’s mean.  It’s hard.  If I am to survive this change I must become what I have never been, and never wanted to be.   Must become just like everyone else.  Individualism be damned; drink the Kool-Aid!

It would not do for me to dwell on the past and extol the virtues of business up to the middle of the last century.  We are where we are for too many reasons. Everyone acknowledges this yet no one can change what is.  It is no longer a matter of right or wrong.  It is no longer a matter of proper or improper.  We are here and the big arrow points clearly to the path that we all must travel.  Stray from that path and the world will bitch slap you back to the new reality.  Things have changed and the new business world is what it is.  Ruthless!

Have I sold out, made a deal with the devil?  Maybe, but survival is better than extinction.  It is far better to sell your soul to the devil than to be fodder for the cannons of business.  It is better to adapt than to tilt at windmills; to hold dearly to the past ways and be run over by the hungry masses that will do anything to preserve their way of life.   Scream at the top of your lungs that you are right, and all you get is a sore throat.  Sure I’m right.  My ethics, morals and values tell me so.  That and $3.50 get you Starbuck’s coffee.

Now I understand how the German people felt as Hitler took power.  There was little they could do to prevent the change.  By the time the people realized the direction of the dictator, it was too late.  They had to adapt or become a line on the extermination list.  Is that worth my life?  I feel their pain and I understand.

I can see how we have gone from a country of freedom to one of oppressive pessimism.  We stand in the path of a governmental steamroller that had no care about the constituents, but has higher regard for those that will provide power and wealth.  Big business is like our government: those in charge care only for the return to the investors; The ROSE – Return on Shareholder Equity.  Workers are chattel; invaluable commodities to be used and discarded.  If you adapt to the new business model you may retain your job, if not: extinction.

In every life comes a pivotal time when you face the demon and decide.  I now face my own Spanish Inquisition.  Do I convert or die in the fire a proud and honorable man?  At this point I am too spent to fight the tide.

My initial thought was to lead a duplicitous existence.  This will take great energy and excellent concentration at first.  I would be Mr. Corporate Citizen during the day and the real me at night.  I am already struggling with the pressures of my day time career and my passion for musical performance.  Adding this to the soup will increase my stress and require full on concentration not to revert to the old moral and ethical me.   Unfortunately, this devil requires an all or nothing contract.  If I take the deal there is no returning.  I will lose myself to the bond and to business.  I will become what I like the least about our society.  I will become one of them.  The cost, is self.

I have walked the razor’s edge looking for the compromise between what I firmly believe and what I know I must become to survive.  There is no room in business for compromise: someone wins and someone loses.  Quaint and antiquated concepts like morality and ethical behavior have no place in this brave new world.

I guess it’s time to stop whining like a little kid with a skinned knee.  I’ll sign the contract and belly up to the bar to drink the Corporate Kool-Aid!

Bye, Bye Charlie.  Hello Mr. Corporate Citizen!

In past several decades I have wondered what has happened to America and the World we live in.  It seems that stupidity and insipid behavior have taken over where logic, common sense, and rationality once reigned.   We live in a litigious and licentious society with no boundaries and certainly no sense.  Everything is out of whack and there seems no possibility of our return to a normal safe and courteous world.  We are run amok.  We are stuck on a sand bar in an ocean of inane laws and ignorant actions.  Our ship is solidly aground.

I kept asking myself why this gradual change of pandering to the lowest common denominator?  Why are we litigating against companies whose produce have stood the test of time and are now considered very dangerous: so dangerous in fact that everything now requires a warning label to be sold in our stores?  After years of deliberation and cogitation it came to me.  It’s the bicycle helmet!

Consider that as a young child learning to ride a bike was a rite of passage and a sign of freedom.  We learned by falling down and having the occasional accident, but we survived.  We learned from our mistakes.  We got up and kept trying.  There were the unfortunate few that died in the process and removed themselves from the gene pool.  These few were often performing some idiotic stunt that would put fear in most, yet they would persist until they either achieved their goal or more often than not died in the process.  Parents of these not so bright children then brought suit against the bicycle manufacturer and won.  The result was the bicycle helmet.

This new invention protected these not so bright daredevils from disaster and death thus preserving the not so bright genes for procreation.   Since they were now able to pass along these “stupid genes” the world soon filled with more not so bright people who also continued to procreate and now we have the result: A society of really stupid people that insist that the government protect them from themselves.

The result is obvious…  There are teaming masses of idiots clogging the freeways with daredevil maneuvers and antics: cutting from lane to lane in a futile attempt to gain an extra car length in traffic or tailgating to make you go faster in parking lot traffic.  They drive at excessive speeds.  They use the carpool lane for passing and for travel because traffic in the legal lanes is moving much too slow for them.  They have an over developed sense of entitlement.  They are the only ones out there and everyone else is in their way.

Here are a few of the more common pursuits of the new stupid class:

Sports:

·         Bungee jumping:  Tie a rubber band to your ass and leap from a very high object for the thrill and bounce.  Sometimes it works… sometimes it doesn’t. 

·         Sky diving: jump from a perfectly good and flying aircraft with a piece of silk strapped to your ass.

·         Skateboarding: four wheels on a small board for side-walk surfing and doing amazing and really dangerous tricks; jumping over a moving car; sliding down the hand railing of some concrete stairs; riding down an steep incline to fly up the other side to flip and turn in the air.

·         Riding a bicycle down an even steeper ramp to perform the same tricks

·         Demolition Derby’s: take several very heavy cars and ram into each other to disable the opponents – and the last one driving wins.

·         Driving a motorcycle as fast a possible through a cactus filled desert.

·         Riding a bicycle down a steep mountain path as fast as possible – Mountain biking!

I think you get the picture.  All of these thrill sports were invented by bicycle accident survivors.  Then had to be the inventors: no sane person would do many of these things on purpose.

Warning Labels:

·         Do not use this curling iron in the bathtub

·         The contents of this aerosol can are under pressure – do not puncture.

·         This plastic dry cleaning bag is not a toy – keep out of the reach of children

·         This scooter moves when operated.

·         Poison – do not ingest – it may cause death

·         Contents are flammable – keep away from fire

·         Improper use of this helmet could be harmful

·         Taking this sleeping drug may cause drowsiness

·         The hot coffee in this cup is hot…

Oh Really!!!!!!

Now tell me that there is no correlation between rampant stupidity and these warnings.  What seems painfully obvious to most of us is a complete surprise to these people.  It must be or they wouldn’t need these warnings!  If you didn’t realize that taking an electric appliance into a bathtub full of water is dangerous and yes, fatal, then you need to be removed from the gene pool.

My favorite of all times is the addition of the calculator function to cash registers so the people operating them no longer need to perform those higher math functions like subtraction and completely screw up your change.  If you want a real thrill ask one of these rocket scientists to count the change back old style… 

It’s not just the rampant ignorance it’s that they have reduced the educational levels to that of lower elementary grades.  You don’t even need to read to graduate.  I was told by a close friend that her grandchild was fitting for a commencement gown for graduation from fifth grade! Commencement from fifth grade!!!

The bicycle helmet has more far reaching implications as well.  Take business for example.  How many really idiotic decisions are made in the boardroom of big companies?  You ask yourself, “What person in their right mind would do that?”   Huge companies have cut the work force to bare minimums but still expect the same productivity.  Why?  Because they know that the remaining workers will bust their asses to keep the pitiful jobs that they currently have.  The short-sighted decision makers look at the bottom line as a goal onto itself.  They don’t care about the more far reaching ramifications of the decision.  These are short sighted decisions made by bicycle helmeted business people.  They can’t think any farther than the next quarter’s profits.  That would require an enormous amount of brain power: power that they just don’t poses.  Bicycle Helmets kept these people alive as children and now we pay the price.

Then there is our government.  Every one of the people in office is there because natural selection was cheated.  The bicycle helmet is the root of our problems in this country.  We have multicultural diversity and ethnic tolerance.  There are more languages in this country than there is room on the signs to accommodate the additions.  English is no longer our national language.  We can no longer speak our minds; we must be politically correct.  We have laws that require child car seats to protect our small passengers from our own ignorance and selfishness.  We have to be told that drinking and driving is not a good idea.  We talk and text on cell phones while driving being total distracted and paying no attention to the job at hand.  We blast loud music on our car stereos or wear headphone to enjoy our music so loud that we cannot hear the sirens of the emergency vehicle.  It is all because the lowest common denominator was allowed to remain in the gene pool.  Natural selection was cheated and now the gene pool is so shallow that you can walk across without wetting your feet.

Every facet of our lives is changed to protect those that should have never been born.  Our charge in life is to protect those that need protecting.  Yes there are many born with less than optimal intelligence and they need protecting, but they should not be lowed to breed like rabbits.

The result dear friends, this is a country of low grade morons that litigate at the drop of the hat and insist on their rights to what everyone else has.  The really sad part of this is… we give it to them.  We don’t say no!  We just keep giving in and handing over more control and license to these people.

There is no solution.  There is no way out.  We are doomed to repeat the history of every country that has given before us.  We embrace a multicultural society rife with demands for their personal rights to change America into the third world country that they just left; and we let them.  We don’t say no.

We give billions of dollars to Arabic / Muslim countries that hate us and want to kill all of us infidels.  We call it foreign aid.  It’s really bribe money handed out but people that should never have been born.  And it’s all because of the bicycle helmet!

Obviously the reference to the bicycle helmet is a metaphor for the over protective actions we take every day to protect stupid people from themselves.  If an animal is to dumb to feed itself or to protect itself from predators, we call it natural selection – survival of the fittest.  When it comes to human stupidity we call it safety and charity.  We cannot seem to understand that we are also animals and subject to the same laws of nature.  We can enact laws to require companies to post warning on simple product to protect the morons for using an electrical appliance in a tub full of water.  We can insist that our government enact laws that protect idiots from harming themselves, but that doesn’t stop those creative idiots.  Einstein said that when you think you have made something idiot proof, they come up with a better idiot.  He’s right; but they didn’t have bicycle helmets in his day, did they?

How long can this continue?  From where I sit, the time is almost up.  We are headed toward the cliff at full speed and the brakes don’t work.  If by some miracle we survive, we can sue Toyota for a sticky accelerator and bad breaks.  Never mind our responsibility to keep that vehicle in safe and working condition.

Well… At least we have a ring side seat for the crash!

During a friendly hello call to Paul, he mentioned that oil was a topic of real concern for him.  I know Paul he’s a level headed fellow with a great guitar boutique in Cave Creek, AZ.  Paul like all of us is suffering from the economic catastrophe.  He is a true news hound so when he told me that the price of oil is expected to hit $200 a barrel because of the unrest in the Middle East, I took notice.  I knew it would go over $100 but not that high.  Being the curious about this I did a bit of research on the internet.  I discovered a site that had information about the top 15 exporters of oil to the US.

Here’s the list:

2010

Daily Mb

% of Daily Total

The numbers above represent millions of barrels per day.  As you can see from the list we consume 18.7 million barrels of oil per day.  We import 57.39% of our oil from these 15 countries.  That means that 42.61% comes from other countries not listed.  Look closely at the list.  Unless my geography is real rusty there are only two countries in the Middle East in the top 15: #3 Saudi Arabia and #11 Iraq for a total of 1.41 million barrels per day.  The basis for the oil price panic is the unstable political situation in this region.  If almost 60% of our oil comes from other places how is the political instability in this region driving these wild fluctuations in oil pricing?  It’s a lie.  There is no connection except in the mind of the speculators.  This is why the price of oil keeps going up for no apparent reason.  Saudi Arabia stated that they would personally make up the deficit in production to control oil prices.

Speculation is the practice of betting on the rise or fall of a commodity.  You can place orders to buy or sell your share of these commodities based on setting price thresholds.  The best way to ensure that your share of a commodity goes up is to create panic.  The speculators are gambling through the commodity brokers – bookies.  They all make money in these schemes.

We are in a situation we have seen all too many times before.  Someone drops a match in the Arabian Desert and the speculators start screaming FIRE!  This effectively drive the price of oil goes up, the guys who bought low sell high and make a ton of money.  Then these same guys that just made a ton of money bet that the price will go back down.  They relieve the tension they just created, buy more shares when the price drops.  Wash, Rinse, Repeat… 

The tensions in the Middle East now directly affect us here in the US.  There may be some prices changes but not to the extent that we’ve seen in the past few week; especially in gasoline.  Prices for February, 2010 averaged $2.90 per gallon; prices this morning were $3.59 per gallon – an increase of $0.69 per gallon in a year.  I’m certain that the price will continue to increase.  As the petro-barons speculate we may see prices over $4.50 per gallon or higher by summer.

So far no one can give me a logical reason that the price of gasoline in the ground at your local fueling location goes up every time some Arab farts.  OK so the price of crude fluctuates.  That is potential gasoline, not the product in the ground for sale.  Why did I see a $0.45 per gallon rise over night?  They didn’t extract the gas in the tanks and re-refine it.  They didn’t do a damn thing to it, but they have the right to raise the price because the product they may purchase in the future went up!  WTFO?  (Send me a private email for the code to this acronym if you don’t already know it.)

I though it was illegal to change the price of products on the shelf…  Well maybe for everyone but the oil companies.

It is time that we demand an explanation of how this works.  I am really serious about this.  We are being sodomized by the retailers and not even getting dinner or a kiss.  How long are we going to sit still after being buggered by the retailers?  There should be a class action law suite or some arrests for violating the Rico Act for racketeering.  I drove about fifty miles yesterday and there was only a 2¢ variation across the metro Phoenix area.

How is it possible to increase the price of items in stock?  I thought there were laws protecting consumers from predatory pricing.  If it isn’t illegal, it certainly should be.

At issue here are the long reaching implications of this increase in gasoline.  Every facet of our lives is affected.  Have you noticed the price of groceries lately?  Transportation costs are doubled, so the result is a commensurate increase in food process.  Other goods are affected as well.  All of the prices are climbing.  Why: because of the speculation on crude oil prices and the associated increase in fuels.

Something occurred to me the other day after a conversation with a Canadian friend.  His brother worked in the oil industry for many years.  It is said that Canada has one of the largest reserves of oil in the world.  That reserve extends into the Northern United States; far into it.  There is enough oil in this reserve to last the next 2041 years.  It’s called the Bakken Oil field.  There are others of smaller size up to 2 trillion barrels.  These are not misprints.  This is fact.  http://bakkenshale.net/bakkenshalemap.html  Why aren’t we using this vast reserve?

So what’s the game?  I can only guess but it does make sense so follow me on this.  Since the world economy is petro-chemically based and no one is seriously interested in the next fuel replacement.  It makes sense that the game is about power; and that power comes from oil.  When the Middle East and the rest of the world run out of recoverable oil, America will have the only reserve.  We will have the only readily available source of oil.  When everyone runs out, when they have pumped their last drop, we will have all the power.  We will have the oil.  The world will then have to dance to our tune.  They will have to pay our price.

The environmentalists are a convenient excuse not to start drilling in Montana, North Dakota, and elsewhere.  We curse them as anti progressive and overly cautious; but that is an excuse.  We could find safe ways to extract the oil without harm to our precious environment but that doesn’t fit into the long range plans of the oil companies and our government.  They both know that the power this represents is massive, mind boggling, almost unimaginable so they blame the environmental lobby; we don’t drill.  We pay premium prices for foreign oil to support the rich getting richer and gaining power at our expense. 

In January Exxon’s fourth quarter profits (Q4 2010) were up 53% over the last quarter; representing a profit of over $105.2 billion (for the fourth quarter).  Add this to the other major company’s profits and we are being hoodwinked.  The only people happy about this increase are the stockholders.

What to do?  There are several recommended boycotts and blackout days for buying gasoline.  There are recommended boycotts of specific producers.  There are even recommended violent approaches.  All this does is hurt the people that can stand it the least.  Two income families working minimum wage jobs and attempting to raise a family are impacted the most.  It is impossible for them to absorb the cost increase; yet there are no alternatives for them.  They need the fuel to attend the jobs so they can feed and support their families.  What we must do it to let our leadership know that we will not stand for this any longer.  Their anti-american practices will not be tolerated.  We will replace them with representatives willing to save America from the clutches of big business. 

“There is one rule for the industrialist and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible.”
Henry Ford

Unfortunately Mr. Ford is no longer with us and his sentiment and brilliance is lost on the profit at all costs generation running our companies and government.  People like Mr. Ford were true Americans in the sense that they were concerned for the welfare of the country and her people.  They realized that by providing quality products, good paying and secure employment their workers could afford to live and enjoy the products they made.  These industrialists understood the principals of making money through investment in the people and the business.  If you make a quality product and charge a fair price for it, people will buy it and you will make money.  Look how large Ford Motor Company was in 1970.  In fact all of the manufacturers in this country enjoyed a position of distinction. The only thing we make now is dept.

The only way to fix this problem is to replace the people in control with people that embrace the ethics of business, not ignore them.  We need people that will lead our country in the right direction; that is away from our multi-cultural debacle and toward a unified America for Americans.  What we have now is a fractured shell of a country, run by an elite group of pompous disconnected millionaires whose aim is to secure their futures at our expense.  They create an environment of chaos and tumult to keep us off balance and distracted while they create laws to pick our pockets.  None, none of our problems are insurmountable.  We can solve our difficulties through leadership willing to help us make the tough decisions necessary to correct our errant course.  We have the brightest and most creative minds in the world at our disposal; ready to correct our course and make us once again a proud nation.  All we lack is the leader.

Start by asking yourself…  Do we need another self-serving politician full of empty promises and an empty head or do we need solid business like leadership that has our country in mind.

The Zen principle is… Do what is right and all else will follow.  That means that doing the right thing for the right reason will bring in more wealth than concentrating on wealth alone.

I am an optimist, but also a realist.  I know that it is possible for us to weather this temporary storm if we really want too.  We can change this country if we really want too.  I also realize that too many people are looking to place blame and are not at all interested in the solution to the problems.

Personally, I am looking for the solutions through new and very different leadership.  I already know whose fault this is.

One of my dreams for as long as I can remember is to own a sail boat and sail the world; just my wife and I enjoying the solitude and beauty that this endeavor can offer.   There will be hours and hours of peace; just the wind and the water and the boat.  We would have plenty to keep us busy.  We would have great conversations about our lives and the friend we’ve enjoyed.  Maybe we would even bring them along on parts of the odyssey.

Today a very sad story broke in the US news about two couples that were minding their business, sailing peacefully in the Indian Ocean when they were attacked by some scumbag pirates that wanted nothing but trouble.  These lowlife maggots were after money and valuable possessions to further the power of their tribal leaders.  These young pirates are the willing pawns of some nefarious chiefs that want nothing more than money and power at any cost.

These two cruising couples lost their lives because the pirates knew nothing but savagery.  They murdered these four poor people to cover their tracks.  A few of these pirates lost their lived in the process.  Unfortunately, some of them were allowed to live.

The US Navy monitored the original attack and aided in the attempted negotiations with these savages.  The Navy’s efforts were unsuccessful at recovering these people alive.  When the Navy Captain heard short fired he raced to the rescue.  The pirates saw the Navy ship and shot these four people…  They shot these poor people; people who did them no harm.

We are told that these four people were sailing around the world to promote peace through a peaceful Christian message; they were distributing bibles to those that would accept them.  They were sharing their values with the people of the world in an attempt to increase peaceful relations.  They were spreading the word of god in their way.  They were met with barbaric treachery and savagely murdered.  They died for their faith and for no reason.

These two couples weren’t blowing up stores, or police stations, or markets, or killing innocent children.  They weren’t setting roadside bombs to trap passersby.  They were just enjoying a cruise on their boat and preaching peace.  Unlike the religion of the Somali thugs who kill for Allah to gain everlasting life, these were peaceful people.

I am not going to go into my feelings about the perversion of religion to control the masses.  I am going to recommend an Old Testament solution: An eye for an Eye.

We captured seventeen of these pirates so now they fall under the protection of our Constitution and laws.  They will be imprisoned and treated humanely; kept in clean cells and fed regularly.  They will be subjected to trials in our legal system and afforded the luxury of fair and equal treatment.  They will live in our system for years and years as we give them much more than they deserve.  They will live far better than they ever would in the Somali jungle or dirt villages under tribal laws.   We will support these lowlife’s in our prisons and pay for their attorneys, and care for them medically, feed them, and care for them at our expense.   We will spend millions of dollars to do the wrong thing.  We are creating and fostering a world of pirates.

We sent a message to the pirating world today: kind and fair treatment for barbarity and murder.  We will reap the harvest from this mistake for the rest of time.  We have ignored a prime opportunity to send the proper message to these maggots…  I apologize to maggots everywhere for comparing them to these worthless murderers and pirates.  Sorry maggots.

Our morals and ethics demand that we meet out justice according to our laws.  We feel that we must treat everyone regardless of the offense with all the respect we have; ignoring the severity of the offense.  In order to stop these transgressions against our citizens we must become as barbaric as they.  We learned this in Vietnam, but will never put it into practice.  That’s why this refuse continue to wipe their feet on us.  That’s why they felt obligated to shoot these four people.  They knew we would treat them far better than they deserve.

Here’s my solution:

Once an offender violates US property, and commits a violent crime: They are executed on the spot.  No trial, no jury: just the rewards for their criminal actions.  The officer in charge would condemn them for their crimes and execute them is a most painful way.  There are sharks in those waters.   The punishment fitting that crime would be:

• ·         Strip them naked

• ·         Slice them with sharp knives in several places

• ·         Start a good flow of blood

• ·         Push them overboard and feed the sharks.

The thrashing and the blood would eventually attract a sufficient number of sharks to do the job.  They would scream for help much like their victims did.  They would beg for mercy much like their victims did.  They would die just like their victims did: only much more slowly and painfully. A fitting punishment for this transgression.

Naturally this would all be filmed and distributed to the networks of the world, especially in Somalia.  What value is there in not sharing this with the world.  There would be an outrage in the world about our barbaric treatment of prisoners.  Maybe equal to the outrage I feel after reading this story.  The world would demand our apology for this horrendous treatment of prisoners.  We would simply state that we, the United States of America will no longer tolerate this action against our citizens.  Any further actions of this type will be met with equal measures.

It won’t take too long to recover the 50 ships and over 800 mariners held hostage by these thugs.  The world needs to take drastic actions to solve this problem.  We would have a little blood on our hands sure, but we would save billions of dollars in ransom and legal fees.  The sharks in the area would be well fed, too.

I understand sharks are indiscriminate feeders.  After all, Somalis taste like chicken to a shark, or so I’m told.

The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez and published in a Spanish newspaper on Jan. 15, 2008.
It doesn’t take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world.

REMEMBER AS YOU READ — IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER
Date: Tue. 15 January 2008 14:30

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz . We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe .

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000; that is ONE BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world’s population. They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1988 - Najib Mahfooz

Peace:
1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1990 - Elias James Corey
1994 - Yaser Arafat:
1999 - Ahmed Zewai

Economics:
(zero)

Physics:
(zero)

Medicine:
1960 - Peter Brian Medawar
1998 - Ferid Mourad

TOTAL: 7 SEVEN

The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000; that is FOURTEEN MILLION or about 0.02% of the world’s population. They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1910 - Paul Heyse
1927 - Henri Bergson
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 - Nelly Sachs
1976 - Saul Bellow
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1981 - Elias Canetti
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1991 - Nadine Gordimer World

Peace:
1911 - Alfred Fried
1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser
1968 - Rene Cassin
1973 - Henry Kissinger
1978 - Menachem Begin
1986 - Elie Wiesel
1994 - Shimon Peres
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Physics:
1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer
1906 - Henri Moissan
1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson
1908 - Gabriel Lippmann
1910 - Otto Wallach
1915 - Richard Willstaetter
1918 - Fritz Haber
1921 - Albert Einstein
1922 - Niels Bohr
1925 - James Franck
1925 - Gustav Hertz
1943 - Gustav Stern
1943 - George Charles de Hevesy
1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi
1952 - Felix Bloch
1954 - Max Born
1958 - Igor Tamm
1959 - Emilio Segre
1960 - Donald A. Glaser
1961 - Robert Hofstadter
1961 - Melvin Calvin
1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau
1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz
1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman
1965 - Julian Schwinger
1969 - Murray Gell-Mann
1971 - Dennis Gabor
1972 - William Howard Stein
1973 - Brian David Josephson
1975 - Benjamin Mottleson
1976 - Burton Richter
1977 - Ilya Prigogine
1978 - Arno Allan Penzias
1978 - Peter L Kapitza
1979 - Stephen Weinberg
1979 - Sheldon Glashow
1979 - Herbert Charles Brown
1980 - Paul Berg
1980 - Walter Gilbert
1981 - Roald Hoffmann
1982 - Aaron Klug
1985 - Albert A. Hauptman
1985 - Jerome Karle
1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach
1988 - Robert Huber
1988 - Leon Lederman
1988 - Melvin Schwartz
1988 - Jack Steinberger
1989 - Sidney Altman
1990 - Jerome Friedman
1992 - Rudolph Marcus
1995 - Martin Perl
2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics:
1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson
1971 - Simon Kuznets
1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow
1975 - Leonid Kantorovich
1976 - Milton Friedman
1978 - Herbert A. Simon
1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein
1985 - Franco Modigliani
1987 - Robert M. Solow
1990 - Harry Markowitz
1990 - Merton Miller
1992 - Gary Becker
1993 - Robert Fogel

Medicine:
1908 - Elie Metchnikoff
1908 - Paul Erlich
1914 - Robert Barany
1922 - Otto Meyerhof
1930 - Karl Landsteiner
1931 - Otto Warburg
1936 - Otto Loewi
1944 - Joseph Erlanger
1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser
1945 - Ernst Boris Chain
1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller
1950 - Tadeus Reichstein
1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman
1953 - Hans Krebs
1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann
1958 - Joshua Lederberg
1959 - Arthur Kornberg
1964 - Konrad Bloch
1965 - Francois Jacob
1965 - Andre Lwoff
1967 - George Wald
1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg
1969 - Salvador Luria
1970 - Julius Axelrod
1970 - Sir Bernard Katz
1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman
1975 - Howard Martin Temin
1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg
1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow
1978 - Daniel Nathans
1980 - Baruj Benacerraf
1984 - Cesar Milstein
1985 - Michael Stuart Brown
1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein
1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]
1988 - Gertrude Elion
1989 - Harold Varmus
1991 - Erwin Neher
1991 - Bert Sakmann
1993 - Richard J. Roberts
1993 - Phillip Sharp
1994 - Alfred Gilman
1995 - Edward B. Lewis
1996- Lu RoseIacovino
TOTAL: 129!

The Jews are NOT promoting brain-washing children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause the maximum number of deaths of Jews and other non-Muslims. The Jews don’t hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants. There is NOT one single Jew who has destroyed a church. There is NOT a single Jew who protests by killing people.

The Jews don’t traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels.

Perhaps the world’s Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.

Muslims must ask ‘what can they do for humankind’ before they demand that humankind respects them.

Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more culpability on Israel ’s part, the following two sentences really say it all:

‘If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel .” Benjamin Netanyahu

When the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps, he ordered all possible photographs to be taken and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

‘Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.’

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it ‘offends’ the Muslim population, which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving in to it.

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were ‘murdered, raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated’ while the German people looked the other way.

Now more than ever, with Iran among others, claiming the Holocaust is ‘a myth,’ it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.

This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center ‘NEVER HAPPENED’ because it offends some Muslim in the United States ?