Like being at the top of the roller coaster looking over the cliff

Okay lets be honest. We didn't get to this fiscal cliff scenario all of a sudden. And we are all to blame. We have been accepting the same crap out of our politicians for years and now we want immediate action. Who put them there? We keep electing the same people, well maybe the names change, but basically we elect self serving crap every election and now we wonder what is going on.

We have squeezed a Hemi 5.0 in a Ford Pinto and expect to ride out this dive over the cliff. We have all this power, but no frame to support our madness. So here we go pressing the accelerator as far down as possible to go screaming hundreds of miles an hour over the cliff hoping that as we drop someone will figure it out. And we blame who?

switching gears

I am a big believer in diversifying our wealth. We continue to put up with companies consolidating and becoming more powerful and wonder why we have a problem with how our Congress is influenced. Yes if you read my blog and have read some of Barry C Lynn's work you might wonder if I attempt to mimic him. I am not full fledged into large monopolies are our problem, but I can see his points. And you can also see the bigger problem. And something Mr Lynn wrote in the preface to his book CORNERED talking about Monopolies I think also applies to our problem in general with Congress. He stated: "The solution lies, as I hope to make clear , not in getting the details of regulation right but in getting the politics of ownership and responsibility right." Excluding the part about regulation, his point is correct for our complete picture heading into the cliff. We need to get the the politics of ownership and responsibility right. It is appropriate for what he wants us to realize in the book, and for us in general. Our Congress doesn't need to constantly come up with rules for us to live by, but to create policy that directs the nation. And we don't hold them accountable to what they need to do. We live our lives with our head in the sand hoping they will do right.

The fiscal cliff that is so popular in our media is really just the beginning. And yes the debt ceiling coming up is the next level down, but we are headed further and further to a much larger cliff. In previous blogs I have mentioned ways to compromise to stair step our way down. I am not saying my ideas are the complete solution, but offer possible suggestions to land softly and then work to get us back on track. Are they the best answer,my ego would like to say so, but at least I am offering ideas. And so are many others. So it is truly scary that if people like myself can ramble on in a blog and be more productive than our Congress what do we expect to find in mid air having thrust ourselves as far out over the cliff in our Pinto as possible. Momentum can carry you over the edge, but sooner or later gravity takes over. The crash will be one mean bitch.

I would like to blame others. I can put out my juvenile kick at you since I have not voted for a Republican or Democrat in decades, but I am just at fault as you. And yes if you are wondering I do vote and that means I have voted for a wide range of candidates from Lyndon Larouche to Ross Perot to Ralph Nader. And even wider bunch of third party candidates for the Senate and House. And if you think I have wasted my vote, well no more than you have for not finding better candidates from the two major parties or else we would not be in this mess would we?

So I cling just as desperately to the seat belt in the Pinto as the rest of the country. This seat belt offering no more protection than the anti trust laws not enforced Mr Lynn talks about or the banking regulators that never did their job, pushed aside by greed fed into our Congress by lobbyists with no conscious or concern that they threw our country into this debacle. Only hoping we buy into some more of their manipulation so the few leaders of the economic oligarchy can keep their way of life at our expense.

To win this fight we have to take ownership back of our country. It is more than one or two ideas. It is more than this problem or that problem. It is a conglomeration larger than the largest monopoly. This means achieving something the citizens of the greatest Republic on the planet haven't done since the beginning of our great experiment and that is truly get involved. This cliff scenario is just a literary reference to what is truly going on. Our media talks about the fiscal cliff, but that is only part of the picture. The Grand Canyon wasn't dug out in a day. It took time to create something so spectacular. It took time for our country to get to this point so it will take time for us to get it back. And any deal drawn up this weekend or next month will not solve the problem. It is Congress' inertia in solving the problem that is accelerating us faster over the cliff and further out from the edge.

My suggestion is: what do you want to do. We can keep pushing on that accelerator or we can demand more from our Congress. And it means more than a deal this weekend or next, it means holding them accountable for actually solving the debt problem, the spending, the taxation problem, the trade problem, the undue influence of lobbyists, the concentration of wealth in a few (doesn't mean socialism, but supporting true
entrepreneurship),regrowth of the middle class, yes even some smart regulation to protect our interests financially and as consumers, and not being distracted by sensationalism and demagogy.

You choose or not complain when you realize that Pinto was never meant to support the insane amount of power we have shoved into it without the structural integrity to hold us together at the speed we are approaching the cliff.

Wishing you a

Pozdrevlyayu S prazdni kom Rozhdsetva

Feliz Navidad Chung Mung Giang Sinh

Nadolig Llawen God Jul Sung Tam Chuk
Ha Navim Godom Kung His Hsin Nein bing Chu She Tan

Mo’ adim Lesimkha Chena tova
Gun Tso Sun Tan’Gung Haw Sun

Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar

Joyeux Noel Nollaig Shona Dhuit

Buone Feste Natalizie Srozhdestuem Kristouym

Shinnen omedeto Kurisumasu Omedeto

Frohe Weihnachten Kala Christouyenna



Merry Christmas
And a Prosperous New Year

Looking over the edge of the cliff

For some strange reason while reading the news and comments about the fiscal cliff lately, the Grateful Dead's Casey Jones kept playing in the background of my brain. So I pulled up the lyrics, something about verse 2 and 3 are strangely eerie

Driving that train, high on cocaine,
Casey jones is ready, watch your speed.
Trouble ahead, trouble behind,
And you know that notion just crossed my mind.

This old engine makes it on time,
Leaves central station bout a quarter to nine,
Hits river junction at seventeen to,
At a quarter to ten you know it's travlin again.

Driving that train, high on cocaine,
Casey jones is ready, watch your speed.
Trouble ahead, trouble behind,
And you know that notion just crossed my mind.

Trouble ahead, lady in red,
Take my advice you'd be better off dead.
Switchmans sleeping, train hundred and two is
On the wrong track and headed for you.

Driving that train, high on cocaine,
Casey jones is ready, watch your speed.
Trouble ahead, trouble behind,
And you know that notion just crossed my mind.

Trouble with you is the trouble with me,
Got two good eyes but you still don't see.
Come round the bend, you know it's the end,
The fireman screams and the engine just gleams.

Okay so crazy night preparing for Christmas, but what is going on in Congress nowadays seems much more depraved than anything anyone did at a Grateful Dead concert.

Sleep tight, apparently our Congress is while on vacation.

It's deeper than we seem to know

I really don't want to comment on a horrific tragedy like the one in Connecticut, but there is some much discussion as to why. In this discussion I just don't see what I think is the full answer. And what is the full answer, that seems to be the problem. We don't know.

So lets break down what we do know and what is being said to try and find where we can actually begin to do something to prevent these types of incidents.

There are many reasons being offered as to what caused this young man to do what he did. Some of the ones I have read about are the obvious such as we need gun control laws, he was mentally ill, or had a personality disorder, we need to do something about our culture of violence, plus other ideas. I haven't read the news since Saturday morning so I am a bit behind. I don't want to either.

I am going to touch on a couple of things here first. Gun control always seem to be the first knee jerk reaction. Granted the average household doesn't need a bunch of semi automatic weapons laying around, but the issues that cause these types of incidents go deeper than outlawing guns. I usually read the posts after the stories and for this story the first day posts were good discussions about causes, no blame of guns. There was also a story that day about a massive stabbing incident in China. The story even mentioned that there were laws controlling the buying of large knives in China. One post I read did make the comment in a righteous tone that control laws don't work. Overall in the posts I read most people were pretty civil in their discussion. Now I did hear a news story about a gun control advocate getting mad because the President or any other politician didn't bring up the need to talk about gun control saying if today is not the day to talk about it then what day is. To me this is politicizing the issue. We have grieving families to worry about for now. Talking about any and all solutions really does need to be for another day. (okay me posting makes me a bit guilty here)

Some people talk about mental issues, or personality disorders. How much this affected this situation is hard to say, but I think everyone would agree that this person at very very deep levels was disturbed about something. We may never know exactly at what level. It is definitely part of the equation though.

Now some people talk about our culture of violence being a part of the problem. I am going to talk about that, but this is just another part of the whole.

In Saturday's Mass the Priest made some good comments. And one of the comments was that we seem to have left God in the back of our society. I am paraphrasing here, he really talked about we leave God in the back like we leave our trash out back in the alley. And yes this is part of the problem, but like the culture of violence being part of the problem, no God in this person's life is not the complete answer here either. And I am not saying God is not important and isn't an integral part of the solution, but rather for us to say God needed to be there, means we have to have a better understanding of what God being there needs to be. Its like the mental illness aspect, one person commented that there must have been something going on for awhile and that negative thoughts starting feeding on negative thoughts to the point where this person had lost all perspective. So saying God needed to be there is correct, but God needed to be there to develop a healthier outlook on life and that is just the beginning. Basically it is how God is in their (and ours) life that is important

Lets back up a bit to help understand how all of the above comes together to help start to find the solution to this horrible problem our society seems to be facing nowadays.


First we have to realize we cannot say we have a unique culture of violence. Yes all the video games and violence in movies and TV exists and is new to the human race. What we have to remember is that violence fills human history. All throughout history mankind has done horrible and unspeakable acts of violence upon itself and actually continues to do so. Look at Syria and all that is being accused of the government. That is just one example and these examples are at all different kinds of levels. We, as humans, walk a very thin line it seems between being civilized and barbarianism. There is cruelty by leaders to their people, war and the continuous development of technology to kill ourselves, there are incidents of mass suicides by cults, even atrocities done in the name of God (which make that even worse) and of course our modern problem of mass killings. And based on the China story this really isn't unique to the United States. And this is where we start.

We have to first realize who we are as humans. We need to constantly learn to improve ourselves and our understanding of who we are and what causes us to be violent, at any and all levels. We need to know why we are fascinated and motivated by violence. Once we understand that this exists, we then can begin to realize why we fail creation and our God. God is our moral compass that we never use. It has been given to us, but we fail to realize that just because we say we believe in God doesn't mean God can help us. We have to understand how God can help us. And I fear we don't. Many people will dismiss this post just because I mentioned God. Yet in all of human history the only time we reach something close to civilized behavior is when we do put God first. Like it or not, God exists. Yet saying this person needed God is a failure to realize how this person needed God. God gives us everything. We fail on learning how to use the gifts.

And in this case what are some of the gifts. There are many. First of course is the science of understanding the human conscious. We actually have many studies about mental illness, depression, personality disorders, and like I mentioned earlier I haven't read anything today so I don't know if there were any known issues. And if there were, that is just a starting point. The second issue is what engagement did the family have with these problems or if unknown why weren't they more aware of a developing problem. And at this point, you can look at society as part of the problem. We, not as United States, but has humans, alienate ourselves too much. This includes alienation with our families. And family is a gift that we don't always use. Many times we disengage with family, friends, and people. We need to learn to recognize developing problems and help each other. We tend to back away from problems. And one of the issues we back away from is mental issues ( all types). Again our society is at fault. We stigmatize these types of problems and then wonder what went wrong in places like Newton.

Another gift is we can learn from our mistakes. And yet we continually ignore what is in front of us. Over and over again people have problems, do horrific things, and we wonder why didn't we see this coming. Another gift put aside.

We have the ability to see a big picture, but in almost every post and the few stories I read, every answer was based on a singular cause. I am sure there are people discussing the whole picture, but in general we always want to make things simplistic. We want to put it into a context that as an individual I can put my arms around it and solve the problem.

So what is the big picture. First we have to admit to ourselves that we aren't as evolved as we think we are. Violence is still on the edge of most of our lives. From the individual having a short burst of rage to widespread atrocities carried out by governments and groups violence is in our daily lives. And if you read my blog regularly you know I think we are under achievers when it comes to education. And I think this lack of developing higher reasoning skills keeps us from stepping above our roots with violence and becoming better people, but this alone is just a step.

The true first step is finding our moral compass. Sounds out of place here, but we have to decide to be better people. This means accepting we are created, created for a higher purpose and start putting that into place. This is the foundation to build on.

Next we learn about ourselves and learn to recognize, admit, and accept some people struggle with dealing with internal demons. And those demons come in many different shapes and sizes from true evil to chemical imbalances. Our brain is so complicated and so intricate. So much goes on inside and we are just scratching the surface. On a side note it amazes me that people will use something as fantastic as our brain to try and talk away God. How can people not see something that functions like our brain is not a fluke? Anyway the internal workings of the brain is still way beyond our comprehension. We have so much to learn that we truly shouldn't be shocked that we don't understand how far into despair this person may have gone. We can work with what we do know to get people to be aware of problems and not be afraid to deal with them. We have got to accept mental illness issues as something that needs to be addressed like we address cancer or other major illnesses.

Next is human interaction. Yes this means family is much more important than we let on. True there are some good families out there, unfortunately though they seem to be in the minority. We need to increase our education on how to be parents, how to interact with each other in a positive manner. Goes a bit back to the culture of violence. We have to stop even casual violence in the home as an accepted way to behave. Serious education here is needed. We revert back to our base behaviors way too much.

So I have touched on a few different topics to try and get people to realize to prevent what happened is going to take much work. We are so far removed from where this person landed inside his head to him thinking about these events to actually doing them. And I will make some infantile attempt to outline going forward.

Put God first, and again it is how we put God in our lives. Many people go to church, but are depressed as hell. It goes back to my right to life argument, teach people that life is precious even if they don't accept God, get them to realize what they have is special. Its a better start than trying to force people to believe something they are fighting against. Second admit we have a violent history, that we need to learn to rise above it (also see step one). We aren't going to take violence away by turning off the TV. We need to educate something better and instill into ourselves more rational behavior and thinking. Third, admit we are clueless when it comes to the workings of the brain. There is so much going on that to even make a statement this person was mentally ill is still elementary or maybe even preschool. And along with that destroy myths about mental illness, improve perceptions, and help people get help. Fourth, do we know each other? Make the family the central part of our lives again. And not just biological family, include friends, neighbors etc. We need to learn how to socialize and engage with each other. Create connections that we share. Think about the sports bar, here people that don't know each other, get along and enjoy each other's company for two hours, then disappear from each other. We should carry the interaction beyond the event. Simplistic example, but think about it for a moment. Just because the game ended doesn't mean we ended as people.

Also give up the concept we can legislate these types of problems away. This person was going to do something, sure guns made the carnage much more than it might have been, but he was going to do something. Gun control laws in this conversation are sorely misguided. Honestly I am not a fan of guns, but trying to dominate the political landscape because of these types of incidents is missing the boat on the real problem here. If you go back in history you find many instances of horrible atrocities that have nothing to do with a gun. There is always some way to do damage to each other. Remember for good or bad our brain can think up a whole bunch of stuff.

And even the paragraphs above are still simplistic answers to the problem we face. Once we learn how ineffective we are, then we might start finding the answers to truly prevent these monstrous events. Until then we are searching on a dark planet for a light switch that doesn't exist.



And to the many families grieving in Connecticut and around the world, I pray that you find the strength to move forward, for now grieve, get it out so anger doesn't consume you. There is nothing I can say to make you feel better. I know that. I just want you to know that I agree it wasn't fair, you shouldn't have lost your loved one, however, you need to go forward, get help if you need it, and don't be afraid to look to God to find answers, even if that doesn't makes sense to you right now.

a side issue compromise for past the fiscal cliff

I have been advocating that we need more wealth building in the middle class and upper middle class. Democracy is always stronger when more people have resources.

And I have presented this idea before, but with the fiscal cliff and all this talk about tax compromise I hope that we could get some positive change.

We need to put a temporary stop to a few people making a ton of money on short term movement in the market and rebuild the market as a savings tool. So as part of all the compromise going on, lets add a significant rate increase in the short term capital gains rate for corporations that trade in the market and decrease the long term capital gains rate for individuals that buy and sell in the market. This could be on mutual funds too as long as the individuals benefit. I really don't see this as a way to raise revenue. The investment banking and hedge fund will find their avenues to avoid too many tax hits, but more of a way to send a signal to people to invest and save. The same rate reduction could be applied to long term savings accounts and other fixed income investments that seniors use for income.

We still need to raise our revenue, and some increase in general tax rate, some deductions closed or reduced, should be the focal point, but we also need to encourage reinvestment in our future. Changing how we use the capital gains tax to benefit individual investors would be helpful. I have thrown this idea out before, but since there is some much talk about what we need to do next year, not in just preventing the fall off the cliff, but what we need to do going forward I thought I would mention my idea again.

There is much opportunity in what we can do as a country once we decide to start making good decisions and accept some compromise is needed.

And I have said this before, if the conservative element in this country wants to regain momentum we have to be the first to show the country we are willing to work forward. This means compromise, this means leading by example, and being positive. Stop the blame game and gamesmanship. You have to give something to get something. We need to lower spending throughout much of the federal government, but we won't get it if we aren't willing to take the bull by the horns and make the first move.

This country is much more important than lobbyists who represent only themselves and their interests.

Being conservative means conserving what we have and building on it.

There is a difference between being conservative and being extremist.

Some rambling late night thoughts on the first real winter night here in Big D.

Finally condolences and prayers to Jerry Brown's family. May he find peace with the Angels.

And now is not the time, but soon we need to discuss the culture at Valley Ranch where people who should be focused are out and about to the point where someone loses their life. Grave state of affairs going on with my Cowboys.

Does anyone have a fiddle

Reading through all the posts and blogs out there we seem to be headed over the fiscal cliff fraught with hysteria. Both sides of the aisle both inside and outside the beltway are blaming each other and the verbiage is all doomsday hatred. Folks we aren't Israel and Palestinians are we? This is the US and two political parties, not multi generational enemies built up over thousands of years. How did our country get so divided? Or where are we really. Reading through everything though, you can tell that reason is not the Kool Aid flavor of the day.


I know I sound like a broken record, but the Democrats and Republicans are constantly proving my point that they don't represent the majority of this country. These are not your parents parties. Most of this country is ready for some rationale sane compromise. The majority of the middle class seems to have a much better grasp that some sacrifices by all is needed. And if we all make a bit of a sacrifice then it will be less of a burden on us all, but noooooooooo.

Folks we can stair step our way over the cliff and I have discussed this before. And even use the basic conservative philosophy of not raising taxes too much to get this done. Yes some taxes and some spending cuts a bit at a time to get started. We need to really do some budget cutting eventually, but we need to be careful. You just can't cut to cut. We are still facing some serious issues that need to be addressed and random cuts without careful consideration of impact could be as damaging as going over the cliff.


And then there is this infamous pledge, well at this point, some Republicans are making noise they might forego it, but we will have to see. I don't want my taxes to be raised, but reality is reality. So make smart choices now and we can win back tax reform later. And another point; all this talk about closing loopholes is a sham. We are so use to these loopholes that this is a tax increase to close them. Just simplify the code and get rid of a bunch of loop holes even the ones for the high and mighty super rich. Way too much garbage is written into the tax code that only benefits a few.

Okay to stay on track, that pledge has to go, no one person should have this much power over our elected officials. I have read some talk that this is treason, etc,, but really our elected officials should be held accountable to the people, not lobbyists and special interests. This shows weakness on our elected officials to be bent over by this pledge. It may not be treason, but can we recall the whole govt at this point. Lets put back accountability to the people into the process and this means we need to fix problems and no solution should be off the table, or at least no rational solution.

And yes we can keep some deductions in the tax code. I still believe in the charitable deduction. We could make it more accountable. Charity is always a good cause, church, food banks, Red Cross, Cancer organizations, higher education, etc there are strong charities/organizations to contribute to, but we need to hold ourselves more accountable in what we deduct. Another words we need to better prove what we contribute when we fill out our taxes. The mortgage deduction I am 50/50 about. It helps home ownership, but a simpler code and the fact we can take a standard deduction could be re written to make this a more balanced deduction. Either having it or not having it is fine with me, as long as it truly reflects a housing deduction. And there are some other deductions we might keep, but truly most of us would like a more straight forward code. Most of us want to pay no more than our neighbors so keeping it simple and standardizing rates within the range we are in now I think most people would be okay. This is what can be discussed once we got started on just stopping the madness now and then the madness of our growing debt.

The other major steps are getting jobs back with livable wages, ability to save, getting our trade imbalance in line, we need revenue flowing our way,and new technologies to create long term growth. This is another part of the solution to start to help ease the debt crisis.

And again I say, we need new blood in Washington. The current ingrained system of special interest dominance, two parties that answer to a minority base, and no real voice for the majority of this country is killing us.

The above is just some quick ideas of a much broader program to really put us back on our feet. If we could get the middle class to retake the country, demand better, and especially better education we can continue to be the greatest country on Earth, but if we don't, please find me a fiddle, its time to start playing while we crash and burn at the bottom of the cliff.

Random reflections, sort of

A few thoughts starting with the most superficial

If you want to have a well appreciated event, you know the type where you bring in some real good talent etc,and have them perform don't make your main audience a bunch of pseudo rich, pseudo culture trendsetters. Warm rounds of applause just seem to be too much for these types of people. Went somewhere the other night and the crowd just seemed to let the performers down, and there was some really nice performances for free.

I am getting a little tired of the phrase "the reason for the season" and of all things you would think that would be the phrase to rally around each Christmas. Nowadays though it is becoming over used and yes commercialized. Was out and about this weekend and someone handed me a card, on it was the discussion of putting Christ back into Christmas and Bible verses etc and at the bottom was www.__________catalog.com, yes it was a catalog for buying merchandise telling people to put Christ back into Christmas and there was no mention if it was a non profit or anything sponsoring it. And as the kids say "really" REALLY?!

If you go to Downtown Dallas, please don't park in any lot owned by Platinum parking. I have a major bone to pick with them and it is mainly about customer service. If you pay for parking you shouldn't have to pay for their made up fines. And if you want to dispute they ask you to follow certain steps. I did. They are their own judge and jury on the matter and still wanted me to pay for part of their fine,(which is pretty hefty) even though I had a receipt showing I paid. The reason they still wanted part of their fine is because someone had to write their ticket. First of all the person is checking the lots anyway so its not like he got called out there, and then when you pay, well you've paid. What kind of crap is it to charge people just to charge people? Anyway please avoid them. Businesses shouldn't take customers for granted.

And that leads to the next point. As much as possible this holiday season, no matter which holiday you celebrate please support local and small businesses as much as possible. I know this may be hard because certain popular products will only be available certain places, but where you can try to make an effort to support local businesses. And this is made even harder sometimes because local businesses can't offer the discounts the big places can. Do make the effort though. The large corporations will get theirs, we benefit more by buying local, or from products made here. Yet don't be afraid wherever you go to expect customer service. If retail makes most of its money this time of year, large or small company, they need to treat you like you mean something. Reference back to my parking complaint. The other day there was much more on the brain, but today it is late. I still wanted to get something out there though on supporting small and local business and paying attention to what type of customer service you receive.

I am a big believer in enjoying the holidays, even shopping a bit, so get out and about, see people, visit places, and spend a bit of each day reminding yourself, even if just a minute or two, what we are truly preparing for when we make our holiday preparations. Take time each day to be thankful for what we have and what we will have, reflect on the wonders given to us here on planet Earth, appreciate the moment, and don't forget that Christmas is not just December 25th, there is a Christmas season to enjoy. Take time to prepare now, not just the material things, but the spiritual and be able to have true Joy this Christmas season. I always tell the kiddos, don't think that buying presents is Christmas preparation, that is party preparation, Christmas preparation is solemn reflection on who is coming.

Some lingering thoughts on a way too warm December evening here in Big D. Gotta love living here though.

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE





I wish everyone a great day.

First of all we have to thank the fire, police, and back up staff that have to work; nurses, doctors and other hospital staff working today; some transportation workers still working so many can get home to family; IT workers so people like me can get on; other emergency type workers; and any others that perform necessary work to get us through the day. And starting with the last few groups mentioned, where do we draw the line. Today is Thanksgiving and many of us will go to mass, church, synagogue, or some type of service to give Thanks to what we have, but overall Thanksgiving even though rooted in a religious tradition is not necessarily a religious holiday and the one time of the year we should be able as much as possible to get together to spend with family.

A little bit remiss for some people, it seems that we spend so much time worrying about the trivial that many people don't get to spend time with their families. There are so many people working today that don't actually need to be working. I know it is good that people have jobs to go to, and that business needs to make money, but at what cost. It seems a real shame that we can't keep the tradition of one day a year being solely dedicated to family for everyone. Some people will say I am old fashioned, out of touch with today's world, but that is where I want to make my argument. I am not arguing against change, but keeping what has value to us as a society. We don't value what is important like redeveloping family relations vs going out and buying something we can get every other day of the year. A little planning ahead and we don't need grocery stores open, even convenience stores don't really need to be open, nowadays you can get gas at the pump if you have to go out, but like I said a little planning ahead and many of the things we might need could be had. Then there is the retail people who have to be at work at some un Godly hour, making minimum wage or just above to do what. Really, we can buy the same item on sale at 9 or 10am, just as easily as 4am. How much can you push a sale? People even have to work that don't need to so I can watch my beloved Cowboys.

I can't think of everyone who might be a necessary worker to thank for giving up the day and I can't think of everyone who is working who absolutely doesn't need to be there so others of us can enjoy extra creature comforts and fulfill selfish desires, however, why is it so difficult to think what is important, define them, and let everyone else get together with family and friends to enjoy one day a year with people. People wonder why our society is so disjointed nowadays. Modern Thanksgiving to me is just one example, major example, of why.

Well as we prepare our meal, chop and cut, measure and stir, wash the turkey with the tequila, etc then sit down to borderline gluttony, let us remember to give thanks to the hotel worker, transportation worker, grocery store clerk, along with the police, fire, hospital staff and everyone else working today that allow us to enjoy our day.

God bless and hopefully you have a great Thanksgiving if not today at some point this weekend.

some post mortem comments on the Republican blame game

Always seem to be thinking of stuff way away from a computer, maybe should get one of those tablets, much easier writing on one of those instead of the smart phone when I am not home.

Anyway, I really hadn't thought I was going to write on the Republican self back lash or blame game or whatever you may want to call it and most people are already moving on, but I have heard a few things, seen a few things, etc that made me want to say something. Really, between Jon Stewart's segment on the topic that I thought was really good, to something I heard in church, to another presentation by a historian in the church, and some other things made me think maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I threw in at least a penny's worth of it all.

First I do need to say I rail pretty hard on the Republican party, jumping on what I have been calling the elitists and the extremists. And it is these two segments of the party that is dragging it down and making it ineffective politically, however, the main body, the middle and upper middle class that makes up the large segment of the Party has some blame for letting these two groups hijack the party. And I don't think me saying this is unique. Part of the conversations lately (conversations beyond Fox News) are touching on this I think.

And still even before I get down to my few points, I do want to make a point about the elitist segment and some warnings to people. To begin I have a thought and I haven't taken many economic classes, but I feel that Wall Street, as an institution, should be a trailing economic indicator. This might be a bit strange, but give me a sentence or two on this one.

Wall Street, as what most people think of traditionally, is suppose to reflect how business is doing. Another words the market would go up or down depending on the overall health of the economy and how companies are doing. And it still puts on those appearances, but the current reality is Wall Street now exists for its own profit. Yes occasionally a company's performance does have a direct bearing on its stock price, but rarely for the long run. Two things are going on, first companies seem and it is commented often to be pandering to Wall Street and make business decisions that do not benefit the long term health of the company. Second and more scary is Wall Street as most know can make money and lots of it especially nowadays with all the sophisticated traders with very small movement in the overall market. Wall Street doesn't need companies to be successful for it to be successful. It has lost what technically was its primary purpose to exist which is the ability of investors to share in the capital growth of our economy. I don't think this is radical news to most, but it has to be taken into consideration when I refer to the elitist wing of the Republican party, which is primarily made up of people profiting off Wall Street as its own identity. I mention this because I want the mainstream Republicans to realize that economic policy dominated by this group under the guise of being part of a conservative economic policy is a sham. So if you look at how Wall Street is suppose to be viewed traditionally then it should stick to being an investment vehicle to help people grow their wealth. And if you read my posts regularly you know I am firm believer that for democracy to be healthy, wealth needs to be spread out and not concentrated. And I mean real wealth, many strong companies and small businesses doing well, which we seem to be missing nowadays. This is hurting democracy. Wall Street should be a trailing indicator because it would reflect in market movement what has already happened to the overall business climate and people would invest on future potential. The fact that the market can be manipulated by events and market movement without any basis on how the actual company is doing is dangerous. And I do mean by events not like wars or disasters where a company has no control, but man made events to manipulate the market and this is what I fear, the elitists are now able to create events and manipulate the media to influence the average investor to go one way and Wall Street takes advantage and makes outsize profits on just the movement itself. Again I don't think this is new news, but a rather long paragraph to make a simple point.

Back to the original topic. So what happened, first take into consideration historic perspective, this country always seems to overcome all the changes that have happened over the last 200 plus years and we have kept on growing. Even a few depressions and more recessions, a few wars, etc, even when we have new groups becoming part of the country and a nod to Mr Stewart's point about the immigration that occurred in the 19th century. We became stronger, much to the chagrin of the elitist groups of that time. The immigrants were blamed for all sorts of troubles that could come about. And again the country got stronger. I have heard some other points similar, but the one by Mr Stewart is something you can go verify as a back up to my point that not only do the Republicans have only themselves to blame, the groups they are deriding that helped Obama win are the groups they should be trying to win over. And seriously telling people they are bad because they didn't help you win isn't going to help your cause in the long run. The extremists and elitist through Fox have been shooting the future of a true conservative agenda in the head. They are killing it. It is becoming more and more difficult to present a rational conservative argument in a conversation with people with the idiocy these people are spouting. And for them to denigrate different voters as the future downfall of the country, well thanks a &^%#)%&#) bunch.

They are going nuts over this, and some of these groups would be the conservative movements best allies. For example, many middle class Latino groups have a history of hard work, working themselves up to get where they are, and have strong family value backgrounds. The basis of any generic conservative ideology in this country, yet the elitists and extremists look at this group as a detriment of the future of the Republican party. They talk about how America is changing, well it always has and always will, but to take away any future of a true conservative agenda by belittling other groups is plain idiocy. They act that because there are less white males to vote for them, the country is going to hell. Plain stupid. The country can continue to be great, but you have to educate why your values are good for the country and with their attitude it will take some doing going forward.

I have always said a good education helps democracy along with my earlier thoughts on wealth. Now with many new immigrant groups etc, plus the rise of women in our business and political landscape it is not the end of this country as the Fox News pundits are acting like, but rather an opportunity to expand the basis of why conservatism still has a better outlook for the long term health of this country. Well a true conservative agenda, that relies on strong economic growth of business not wall street, family values that incorporate better education for our children, faith based values in our society, concepts of civics and citizenship shared among all the people, a government that isn't over bearing and oppressive in size, more balanced budget that is realistically managed. People believe in these values, Most people in this country are moderately conservative, and to what seems to be utter amazement of white fox pundits this includes everyone in the country.

So to the Republicans in general, time to either take back your party or look elsewhere or everything you believe in will be gone, not because Obama won and took the election by using all these different groups, but because the conservative leadership failed to engage them at a crucial time in our country.

Anyway a little more rambling that I wanted to be, but I tend to do that, cut through the rhetoric and I hope the general point is made.

And just in case I don't get back to this blog before Thursday, have a great Thanksgiving. Even if you have to find something to be thankful for, find it, acknowledge it, and go from there.

The fiscal cliff

Okay, is it me or what? There are so many obvious compromises why can't we get a deal done? I know some of the crap now is just political posturing, but it is getting lame.

And we will never get a decent conservative agenda if the current group of elitist and extremist Republicans don't make some moderation. We need to reduce the size of our government. Just the size alone will force taxes to go up. We need to work our way through this mess so we can realistically reduce the size.

First obvious compromise, raise taxes a small amount across the board a bit more of an increase to the top bracket. Also create a small percentage reduction across all of the govt, more of cut budget, not programs cut. Basically look at the fiscal cliff as having stair steps each year. The goal is if you can start the turn around on the deficit it might help the economy.If the economy picks up and employment increases you may not have to raise taxes next year because more people working brings in more taxes. Also gives you a year to make honest effort on reducing spending even more. Again focusing on spending cuts not program cuts and as you are doing this you can begin the process of how you can combine programs to reduce waste and redundancy.

Now we start year three of the stair steo. Wuth minimal to no increase of taxes in year two, drop in actual spending based on allocating less across the board you can begin the real work of recreating and combining like mentioned before our social programs to do more with less. As I have mentioned before in other posts we cannot ignore poverty, it will cost us more in the long run . It is how we address it that must change. Getting started on reducing the deficit allows us as conservatives to show we are serious about solving the deficit which gives us the support from the people to change the way we do things. We need to be ready to be flexible.

Once we change the dynamic of the conversation politically we can implement more private public partnerships to continue rebuilding the economy. Once the economy gets strong again we can look at certain tax reductions or targeted tax reductions to encourage development of new industries where can export more to help leesen the impact of our drbt.

Just some quick thoughts to show things can get done without being dranconian. There are many compromises possible that can lead back to a conservative solution to our economic challenges. We need to start the compromises so we can shape the dialogue going forward.

Anyway trying to type this on a bus plus keep my thoughts organized with a two inch screen is maddening. I did want to start a dialogue though. And for conservatives the sooner the better.

So bring back the Progressive Conservative Party.

Finally I have seen some random posts on creating a national water policy some with drought and flood planning. If we built the great seaway in the 1800's we can certainly do something in this century. This is something we can definitely use more of a public private partnership rather than having this all done by the federal govt by itself.. Again we need to moderate the size of the government so as conservatives we need to get out in front of this.

Have a great evening, going to learn more about the seven deadly sins, lust is the topic and I only bring this bit of trivia up because of a certain General in the news. Too bad he messed up his life over something he should have known better. Head of the CIA and he thinks he can hide something. Shesh


And oh yeah behaving himself a bit better.

some randomness

This topic has probably been beaten to death, but I am curious as to how frustrated coaches and players get with all these sports fantasy leagues. I really don't pay much attention to them, but you got to think some players are tired of hearing how they blew a fantasy game after they may have just had a grueling bad day. I cannot imagine how pissed I would be if I got harassed from some idiot who put the fantasy league ahead of me trying to win the real game. Just curious what the players think.


After the election my youngest daughter ( I have a few) asked me if we were rich would we be Republicans. After all I rant about including with the family just more proof positive that kids don't listen to their parents. Now this is the daughter that once asked me how much we would get if we won the lottery. I explained to her the amount after taxes were withheld. She became an instant member of the Republican party. I keep telling its okay to want to be conservative, but there is more to life than lower taxes.

We had our Veteran's Day parade here in Dallas today. Somewhat chilly for Dallas, but a pretty good turnout. And to those that served or serving. Thank you

down for the count

Did I just hear Pat Caddell on Fox news say Americans want something better. Does that mean I get to say "duh". This race goes to show any half decent moderately conservative candidate could have won, but as long as the Republican leadership only think of their wants a true and good conservative platform won't happen. Again a poor candidate came close because all the polls show we are moderately conservative, yet we can't find a candidate to stand up to the economic oligarchy and do what is right for this country. Anyway congrats to the President at least you ran a smarter campaign.

Folks its time to start looking for the right candidates. Have a good night.

Counting

They should poll the people who didn't vote and ask them why. Especially if this election is close. Or ask people if they are happy with their vote.

some pre election comments part b

Trying to write a post on my smartphone and for some reason can't fix the mistakes. Previous post is a bit butchered so please excuse. Main idea though is to realize there is more than one issue to this campaign and to hold people to this fire can be counter productive. Education is key. You can't convince people with argument. Life is something people have to learn to appreciate. And the religious protestant right goes way overboard on trying to beat this issue into law. They just won't succeed with these tactics. Try to tell them that and they act like you cut off their foot. When we are better educated as a society we have a better chance to prevail. For some this sounds counter intuitive, but it will work. Put God first not religion then the pieces start to make sense. Religion sometimes gets in the way of God and those mistakes are hard to overcome.

Anyway I got way off track here, have much more to say,but late

The other point is more straight foward.

Real quick platform stmt here before the election for what I consider to be the progressive platform.
Education not what we accept but one that challenges our children and sets higher standards not just in,math and science, but also arts, philosoohy, critical thinking. Somewhere amongst my previous posts is a rough draft idea based on child development and all around education I think we should use.

A real war on poverty. One that doesn't rely on handouts, but attacks the multi generational poverty our current welfare system created. Instead of hand outs we need to create wealth, will need to start with re education and rebuilding family to get started.

Reward the people who invest in our country with tax breaks. We cannot give tax breaks arbitrarily. Economic policy should be based on two key factors...rebuilding a more diversified wealth base and developing products we can export. Helps with jobs, trade imbalance, and develops new technolovies.

We need a diversified energy policy. Whether you believe in global warming or not we need to make sure we aren't dependent on one to two sources of energy, plus there is so much advantage if we, as a country, lead the way into
this century. Every country that develops new energy always benefits for decades to come. History is full of examples.

We need to balance the budget. See above for a start and add working on poverty. Poverty has hidden costs that will derail any budget if not addressed.

We need to develop a national water plan. This shouldn't be a govt program but a coalition of public and private investment. Part of my plan to shore up social security involves these projects.

Okay enough for now, have a great evening and never try to type this much insanity on a smart phone.

I just feel this election,is an,exercise in futility. No candidate or party that realizes we need new solutions for a new time.

And someone wake Congress up. They have got to quit living off of special interests or we are just screwed.

Some pre election comments

Not much left to say anymore. For some of us this election is an exercise in futility. Not a big fan of government solving our problems and don't feel the Republicans really have the best interests of the country. Or at least the current Republican leadership. The rank and file are just too willing to accept what has been thrown,at them.

It seems they are dancing with the devil because the devil is playing their song.

I think this for many reasons, but especially for one issue. Can anyone really trust him on this I do not know. Maybe he will stay the course, who knows. And there is a small group or maybe large group hard to say making this a one issue race.

I am somewhat libertarian and govt. shouldn't legislate social issues, but can't support the libertarian party because the party platform seems by default to support a bunch of issues I am against. By saying govt shouldn't get involved shouldn't be defacto support to the issue.

Anyway for pro life it shouldn't be a one pony race. There are better ways to support life than by trying to base an entire election on this issue. It is the responsibility of the Church to spend as much time on educating than legislating. I am a firm believer the more people are educated the more they would actually understand the power of the gift of life. Even better secular education in general is good because an educated person tends to ask more questions and wonder where do we come from. Once people are aware they exist the more they want to know.

Also truly educated people can see the futility of the argument of pro choice of what a woman does in private is her business. Which you can say, but it allows for further argument that if a woman self mutilates in private it is okay because its her choice or kills herself, prostitutes herself, does pornography. Yes she can do this in private and it is her choice, but is this truly the best for her. Or even for men. You can say you have a choice but where does that choice leave you.

And this is also why the Church should direct its energies to education not legislation. You can't force people to believe something, it is better if they come to realize the truth. And in this case, it is the understanding that we are created and that all life is precious. Even the unborn.






































And then you don't argue stupidly about life because of rape but because of a better educated populace you work on the issues that cause rape. Getting people to,appreciate all life and respect each other leads to protecting women from real problems like abuse and rape. Again education leads to a better understanding of the value of all life vs trying to pound a viewpoint down p eoGUIple's throats. People resist being told what to

How big is my insanity

First of all what is insanity, is it the same as insane, and how is it applied? Or the term madness? Are they the same or interchangeable?

Just a few crazy questions this morning. I have been thinking about this for awhile, what is insanity, and what is going on in this country for this election and for more than this election.

I think most people have heard Einstein's famous quote about insanity which is something like: insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

In comparison I was watching a repeat of CONAIR the movie the other night and the craziest psychopath character defines insanity has having the same job for decades then retiring to a home and doing nothing else for the rest of your life, or something like that. Okay it was somewhat late at night so hopefully that was the gist of it. And I wonder if I am there.

A couple of divergent definitions of insanity. Where does all this leave us now though?

I typed the word insanity into Google and there were 83,500,000 results. I typed insane and got 215,000,000 results. Some of this is duplicate entries from different sources, but with so much out there no one really has a handle on insanity etc.

And how we treat it in popular culture seems to lessen its impact. People say things like oh my God that is insane, or other trite statements. Or where does a joke like: what are a redneck's last words...hey bubba watch this or even the movie Jackass, haven't watched, but heard about and seen ads, could you not consider this insane?

Is insanity a mental illness like bi polar disorder? Or is it being addicted to drugs, alcohol, or pornography? Or is it unable to conform to social norms? Is it all or none of the above?

Everyone seems to view insanity differently. What I consider normal to many maybe insane. I ramble on occasionally about the need for a new political party, yet most people seem quite content with our current parties. Does this make me insane? And is that the definition, if I don't like what you are saying,then you are insane. There seems to be much of that attitude out there.

Or if we can't define insanity, can we define normal? And yes even with flipping the terms we still get the same answer. Some people's norms are different than others. So is this bad? And that could depend. I think we can define some clear truths or norms to a large degree, most people consider killing to be against some type of norm. Rape, Stealing, general violence, destruction of private property, and you hope you could put treating others with respect in this sentence, but I am not sure nowadays, you should be able to, but boy just listen to the world and wow.

Norm v insanity. Is that an argument? Are they diametrically opposed? So what got me to the point to actually writing something today? Get to that in a second, because it actually scared me what I read.

First back to my general arguments about the continued acceptance of our current political parties and their policies. We, as a country seem to accept that this is the only path, we choose one or the other and that's it. And you can say the modern Democrat and Republican choice has been going on for centuries now, but do they offer us the best solutions. (see Einstein's quote above) We seem to be missing the true problems facing our country. We have multi generational poverty, failing education system that has nothing to do with how many teachers or even the quality of teachers, well good quality helps and we do have good teachers, it is the whole education system that is flawed, healthcare debate is a shambles, no one trusts the other sides' interpretation of the facts, and this debate really shows two of the problems, a lack of trust and the ability to actually view facts and make informed decisions. And I say this is a great example of our failed education system. Everything the democrats and republicans have done over the last fifty years or more has led us into the current political mire we have attained. Yet we see them as the only feasible choice. We make no effort to find something better. And I have made this argument before, not in this context, but before so I won't spend too much time on the idea that it is time to find new ideas. We do need them and every now and then I try to write some ideas down to give a different perspective on how to deal with our problems. Our economic quagmire is another example of decades of bad policies run amok.

And maybe I spend too much time on CNN, Yahoo, etc reading all the posts to the different stories out there, but the posts are starting to scare me. First there is the hate being posted on a daily basis. Much of it is towards our current president. Fine if you don't want him as president vote for the other guy. What I fear is this hate emboldening people to take action. I was reading an article about a threat from the infamous terrorist organization, not named on purpose, and there were so many posts basically accusing the president of virtual treason. Wild accusations that just made no sense. Yet here they were over and over again. Is it insane to think these people are dangerous? Am I paranoid ( a mental illness or insanity?) that action could take place by these people or because of these people. It amazes me that there is so much. I would think this isn't the norm, but once it grows to a certain point does it become the norm? And that is one reason I started this whole post. Where do we keep a handle on what we consider the norm and prevent these people ( and is it insanity or worse) from developing into a norm?

If you have a Democracy and allow free speech, you will get some extremist thinking, we have to accept it to a degree. Is this speech though acceptable? For some obviously. What happens when one extreme group uses another to accomplish their goals? Could this be happening now? How do we define what is acceptable and what is dangerous, or where does it become dangerous? Back to my general arguments, we accept the democrats and republicans, but both are diverging away from the center. Especially the Republican leadership. Most Americans are centrist to moderately conservative, yet we don't stop this leadership take over of one of our parties. Is this insane? Why can't we not move back to the center ( in reality, and yes I admit I don't trust Romney's so called move to the center as his real intention as president). What about the Democrats taking a social policy that is extremely left of the center. And again no expectation of change by the majority of the country. You cannot keep expecting new results without changing what you are doing. Oops got off too much on this aside again.

Anyway where does all the hate discussed above lead us. This worries me. Then I read this post on Yahoo from the article I mentioned about the threat:

"If anyone hasn't realized that Revelations is speaking of this issue and what is coming, look again. 7 heads are 7 leaders of 10 nations of these people. Anyone who doesn't see this in Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan,Afghanistan, Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Turkey and all the breakways Russian republics known as "stans" needs to wake up. Fortunately, these subhumans don't win in the end. Let the hate begin."

quoted exactly as written. Again what is the definition of insanity? First just the fact that he is trying to paraphrase something from the Bible and ends the statement with the phrase "let the hate begin" is what, insane?. Just the fact that someone is that off base alone scares me. And then there is the potential for so many misapplied concepts from the Bible to be used by this person or others. Revelation is hard enough to understand without someone going to town with a statement like the above. Or can I say what does it all mean and leave it alone? Obviously I cannot. And I don't know if this is a one off situation or does this person reflect a growing religious right's true attitude. And to the situation of the growing religious right in our country, wasn't Jesus thumping the scrolls at the same type of people thumping the bible at us nowadays?

And what is the norm nowadays?

So if a person believes in a norm that most people don't see and think that this should be the norm, what does that mean? Whose norm is correct? And who determines what is a better norm? Or if I believe that we can make changes, good ideas are out there, but cannot get anyone to listen, how big is my insanity?


Much to do about nothing or are you ready to think. Then some finallys ( I always have finallys)

First to all the people in the Northeast I hope you are prepared. One heck of an insane storm coming your way. (bad pun intended). Truly though take care, take shelter, evacuate, whatever you need to do to come out on the other side. I think most "normal" people are praying for you safety.

And coming from Dallas, you know where conspiracy theories abound, does anyone get the problem in our country. It seems the uneducated heathen who have never read Mein Kampf seem destined to bring that problem to our country. Remember it starts with bullying, hatred, and finding a scapegoat for our problems. Goes back to my statement where one extremist group uses another to achieve their goals. I really don't want that insanity for our country or can we save the constitution and common sense by being aware of who we are and how great we can be as a country by just making the small efforts needed to find the right solutions.

Wonderful fall day in Dallas, TX

Sunday morning

If you decide to choose the lesser of two evils does that mean you don't want to make the effort to find something better. I don't know if something like this or similar has already been said, but I wanted to put it out there. And what is better//worse choosing misguided good intentions or no intentions? It is a somewhat warm Sunday morning, coffee is tasting good, and it is quiet around the house. __________________________________________________________________________________ Wrote above and then read the news and found out George McGovern has passed. My Dad was a fan and even worked for him for a short bit. May he rest in Peace.

Relax?

Watching the debate just makes me mad, listening to both of them just drives me crazy. What are the facts and what isn't is getting too hard to determine especially when half the fact checkers nowadays work for the campaigns.This is not what I am getting ready to discuss, but when they talk about trillions of dollars, who can comprehend it. Shoot most people cannot comprehend a billion dollars even some of the people that have a billion or more really don't know what they have. Anyway lots of promises and arguments. Some of their points are valid, but I cringe when I hear half truths and misapplied facts. What I do want to talk about is a totally different topic. How can you relax? I was thinking about this and what helped me to relax and three things came to mind. The first if I say it you will assume a whole bunch of things, but yes sex helps you to relax, but realistically it has to be intimate relationship sex. People who just run around really cannot get satisfaction etc from casual sex. That is why they keep running around trying to find something they cannot find because they are looking in the wrong area. To really enjoy love making you have to be in love,with someone you care about so you can enjoy the whole aspect of being with someone so you can truly relax. The second item is being with family. I see this in rich and poor people. If you have a good relationship with your family money doesn't matter, you can enjoy the time with them. You can see the happiness and smiles in people if they are out having a good time with their family. Their faces are relaxed, smiles come naturally, laughter is uninhibited, and stress is non existent. I may be a bit biased towards this because growing up I didn't have much family, but now when I am with my family and we are just doing things or hanging out, even watching our sports team lose overall we are happy, everyone finds humor in things, cares melt away even for awhile while we are together. If you don't have a good family dynamic my advice is to create one. I did and it has been a great blessing for me in times of stress and especially in good times. And sometimes you do have to create the dynamic, but don't be shy about it. And for third thing, I find reading and writing relaxing. And most people don't, especially writing, yes writing can be a chore if you feel forced to it,however, if you just write to write what you like or things you are passionate about it can be relaxing. I think the problem is most people grow up with reading and writing as homework so it becomes a chore, not something to be enjoyed. This is another one of the reasons I want to change our education system. Reading and writing shouldn't be a chore. There is great pleasure in expressing yourself. I know I recently said I admire writers that are prolific, and that I have a hard time doing the tiny bit of writing that I do, but when I get into it, when I can lose myself it becomes very relaxing. We need to use education to encourage people to desire to read and write. Now there are more people who do like to read, but both should be encouraged. I think once people can break the barrier of thinking of it is a chore they will find joy in the art of it and then can also find peace or being relaxed from the satisfaction of being able to express yourself. I never really edit myself so I avoid the chore aspect of writing, but even when I do when I am in the mood I don't find it to be too much of a hindrance to the satisfaction I feel once I have written something that excites me. Anyway since the debates stress me out, I thought I would try to avoid the crap and enjoy the evening. I am going to go watch the rest of it since I have been listening to it in the background, but now I am not so bothered by it all. And finally I don't go and look at my blog, but I did recently and lately for some reason my posts seem to run together. The paragraph breaks I make are lost once they post. So am I sorry these posts are somewhat difficult to read since it seems to be one long thought. And visually it isn't very appealing either. Goes back to that chore comment, hard to read when it seems all bunched up. Anyway I don't know if there is a setting or something I clicked on or if I can find to fix this, but I will work on it if possible. If you did watch the debate I hope you enjoyed it, or at least got the answers that might help you make a decision. My mind is made up. I will vote third party, and wish I was a type A personality so I would start to walk the walk of the talk about creating a new progressive conservative party I ramble about every now and then. Nice cool fall evening here in Texas, well cool for Texas. Cheers.

maybe a bit trite or sappy but...

It seems more people support the Potters of the world over the Baileys of the world. Maybe it is just me, but it seems every where you turn greed and hate seem to dominate. Or do I just read too many of the posts on CNN, Yahoo, to their news stories etc. Man there is a ton of crap on those posts. And what about how people get treated. I know everyone knows the phrase the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I don't see why we can't change that and treat the people that treat others with respect and get them taken care of. We have conditioned ourselves as a society that the only way to get anything done is to yell and scream. Sad state of affairs when if you do the right thing, you are put at the back of the line, or even if you yell you get placated, but the problem never gets solved. It would be great if you had a problem,you go in, explain it, work with someone (they don't even have to care as long as they do their job),and boom it gets taken care of. Yes I know it seems I am short changing the people who do their job well whether someone is yelling at them or not, but there is too much avoidance of responsibility, acceptance of okay the only way to get something done is to yell. Treating people with respect seems to be of little concern to too many people. And another beef, I try to keep my feelings about religion etc out of this blog, but they do show up here and there, but one thing I hate is when people try to use religion to do business. Using scripture in an ad or saying how they are Christian so they are a better business. This attitude that because I quote God I am better. It just irks me. Is this the money lenders in the temple,maybe not, but there seems something non Christian about using Christianity for personal gain. And I am not talking about the businesses that might advertise in a church bulletin or Christian store. People do have a right to advertise even to other members of their or any church, but it is the ads that state hey we are Christian so our business is better or makes being Christianity the selling point. You can advertise to a Christian etc, but you shouldn't profit off the concept. And yes I said this is going to be a bit of a sappy post. And I am pretty pissed right now so maybe take the second paragraph above with a grain of salt. It may not be as bad as I feel right now, but there is a problem. Somewhere in some previous posts to this blog is some sort of community bank idea, that is something I think that needs to be developed as one of my ways to start working against the spread and growth of poverty in our country and get that turned around. Using business to rebuild our infrastructure instead of our government is a way to cure more than one problem. Use government to develop the policy and framework and give the incentive to business to participate, much better than the government spending tax dollars on something that produces no long term business. It does take a mind shift though for most businessmen/women to buy into this so the incentive has to be good. Oh yeah I also talked about giving the tax breaks the businesses want to the ones that participate, hmmmm Oh well, there is one more sappy idea I had this week, but I cannot remember it, trying to type for a few minutes to see if would come back, but to no avail. Anyway hot and muggy this evening here in Dallas, OU and Texas at the fair tomorrow, so people are making money in the Big D tonight. Take Care.

Why should the rich give money to the poor..

Well technically... Lets face it, the current way we handle welfare is failing the people it is suppose to help. We are creating a multi-generational problem. What the people who say why should I give my money to the poor fail to realize is that the problem doesn't go away just because they stop giving to welfare. And the problem with poverty in our country is so ingrained that even with 12 million new jobs it won't go away without a whole bunch more. Imagine having cancer, growing internally so you don't see it and then don't do anything about it till the ugly sores are all over your body. Then the cost is huge to fix if it is not too late. This is what is going to happen to all the people that may have it good right now, but fail to realize the cancer growing. This is what poverty is to our country right now, a hidden cancer. And I have put this in a post previous, but the issue came up again and I wanted to re address it. Again the current welfare system isn't helping. And again you cannot ignore it. And this is one of the reasons I am trying to develop the idea of progressive conservatism. We need to take basic conservative principals to address the problem, but we have to address the problem. Ignoring it will only cost us more in the long run. And I will say this again. ignoring it will only cost us more in the long run. Like trying to cure cancer once it is past stage four. I have also posted some ideas on how to address it. I talked about rebuilding core areas of poverty not with federal money, but within the community. The importance of education is tantamount, and I mean more than just a high school education or being technically trained for a job, this helps, but with the problem being multi-generational there are whole new levels of education needed, including basic things like eating well (healthy). I could go on, but for this evening I just wanted to address this topic and get you to think. And this is one of the reasons I think the democrats and republicans are failing us, neither has the intestinal fortitude to tell you the truth. This problem exists and if you are honest with yourself you know it does. And since they won't talk about it they can't tell you workable solutions. (did you hear this in the debate) There are hundreds of good ideas out there that don't involve the federal government continuing to just hand out our money. We need to find the leaders that know the importance of implementing them. Conservative principals that show people how to become self reliant, not calling them moochers but teaching them a better way. Yes I am calling this Progressive Conservatism, taking an old idea and updating for the 21st century. And this is just one issue to me that needs this type of approach. So technically the rich don't have to give to the poor, but if you care about our country you need to realize you have to do something or don't complain when you can't cure the cancer anymore. Some musings while waiting to see if the Rangers can live another day.

The interest is out there

Read an article on Yahoo today about a surge in independent voter registration. How does a person connect all the dots. People are wanting change. And if I was a betting man, and I am at times, I'd say they are not radicals., but many who just are average folk wanting better representation. A true voice for their concerns. Anyway enough of that drivel. Glad to see the interest though but it's my eldest's birthday so Happy Birthday. Love

What did you think about the debate?

I hope you got a chance to watch. Did it make a difference to you? Were you expecting anything new? Did you hear anything new? Was there a game changing moment? What did you like, what did you dislike? Did you watch any coverage after the debate? Did the pundits change anything for you? Did you watch or read any fact checker stories? Or do any of your own? Have you decided on your vote? Do you feel either truly represents you? Or was it all white noise? If you read this blog regularly you know I am not a big fan of democrats or republicans. So I am not going to say anything for now. I could easily be critical of both or actually say nice things about both. If you plan on voting for either Presidential candidate I hope you spend the proper amount of time thinking about what each said, do your research, watch the next debates and be truly honest with yourself. ____________________________________________________________________________________ And then four years from now you will realize that neither can be successful until we do something about Congress. We need to change the game, not the constitution. And doing something about Congress will take work by all of us as citizens. I have nothing against Obama or Mitt personally, I just feel to keep us great as a country and world leader we need whole new ideas and both of them just don't have it, however, tonight isn't about me since I haven't put anything together to replace them I hope you do one better than me and if you are going to vote you start with my questions or your own, again do the research, comparison and study so you can feel good about who you vote for, and I am trying not to be sarcastic because I do have to be honest. If I want change and I want you to think about change I need to do more. So until I can generate the interest and resolve to get people to think about either a new party or getting the current parties to be more responsive to the people "YOU" I have to let you work with what we have. I don't like it, but again I have to let the people who are trying be given a honest chance of earning your vote. Any President that wants to be successful though needs more than a majority in Congress, they need you holding Congress accountable for what it does and how it votes on the day to day business of our government. For Washington to be responsive you need to respond. Otherwise nothing changes and our middle class gets squeezed out by special interests and your indifference. Not a positive note to end this one. and this won't be any better, but the freakin' Rangers are stressing me out. Okay I will be a bit honest, not much inspiration to write from the debate, frankly I was a bit bored by it which kind of scares me.

A tad bit of something you may not expect

I was hearing on the news this morning that Seth MacFarland will be hosting the Oscars. I think this is the same guy that created the show Family Guy. This normally isn't something I care about, but for some strange reason it caught my attention for a completely different thought.

This may show my age. I use to watch a show called Soap. This was a great show. It had great acting, it was well written, and it was a bit controversial. And it apparently touched some nerve with the Christian right of the time because they put some pressure on the sponsors and it was taken off the air. Serious shame because in my humble opinion this was a great show and downright drop down laughing funny.

 Now we have the creator of the most crass show ever created being picked to host the Oscars and some people consider this an honor to host. So what kills me is where is the righteous indignation for a show that should not be in primetime at all. This show is definitely adult humor only. The subject matter is borderline X rated half the time, but here we are a generation later from Soap and barely a whisper of complaint. And yes I know if you don't like it don't turn it off. The problem or what scares me is the large drop in what is considered unacceptable by society. Family Guy is not just crude it is downright baseless. Yet hugely popular. Just makes you wonder where we are as a society and a culture where something as tasteless as Family Guy is not attacked as strongly as something that actually had talent as the show Soap.

 I am Christian, but I am not a fan of the so called Christian right yet I wonder where we are going as a society. I think most of us still want a sense of decency in our society. We just can't find our way anymore because of a variety of factors. More on this hopefully another time. Lunch is ending so got to get back to the grind. And not a good day in Muddville yesterday for our local sports teams.

Salute to the real writers

I was thinking earlier today about how hard it is to write and no I am not trying to pat myself on the back. You read about how some people who have doctorates, have written many books, some academic,along with some other topics, etc.. have a pretty good collection going for themselves. OR there are writers like James Clavell , people who can weave a huge story, plots and subplots, more characters than you can keep track of in one reading. and what sucks for right now, I first started thinking about all this earlier today and cannot recreate what I was thinking. It made sense to me then.

 Anyway I was thinking about how people can write and be prolific about it. I write this blog and am trying to write a book, I barely can do a few pages at a time, now I will give myself the indulgence of saying, I have a full time job, do volunteer work, have a family, but even then I have down time, time I could be writing. So it amazes me how people can spend full time writing, putting out papers and books, yes it maybe tied to their job, like being a professor. Or a full time author, but they are able to put together their work. And that is one of the areas I am impressed. You just don't write, it is the prep work, the rewrites etc to make it better that really knocks me out. Just writing a few pages scares me to what other work is involved. Anyway earlier today I was thinking about writing and a ton of thoughts came to mind, but I cannot remember them now... But I did want to put something down about my admiration for their work. Must all be type A people, I know I am definitely type "L".


Every now and then I am suppose to talk about Dallas, I reread my introduction, and forgotten about it. I first wrote it when I was pretty angry at the world, started this blog after a year of the recession etc.. and it still amazes me the people that created the whole thing face no consequences. Yes a few companies are paying a few billion in fines or something, but in the big picture this doesn't affect them the way it affected millions of people who lost jobs, houses, dignity, families uprooted some even split up because of the stress and anger.

My first book idea was I was going to do an expose on those people, but there again, following through became a daunting task, because it involved not only writing but research and research I had no idea how to start. I don't mind doing research, but I need direction and I couldn't create it for myself. I eventually kept the idea of doing a book and have a few ideas and have one started. Goes back to how difficult it is to write. I can write a few pages, but keeping the flow from one time to the next is difficult. Or I will write a couple of pages that is just more about the book than the story of the book, like writing paragraphs about a character, but does it fit into the story just written down? Yep that is where the re writes come into play. Wish me luck, because I would like to finish, but no where near. The story is good I think, who knows. Eventually I plan on rewriting the introduction, but how I want it to read I have no idea yet.

 And for Dallas, it is hot, I like hot, but sooner or later a person does want change. First full week into fall and it is still 90 something with humidity so you get that infamous "feels like" temperature. And for us it is close to a hundred. Again I like it hot so I don't mind being out in July or August even doing a bit of yardwork in the heat, but I am ready for fall. And we may get a taste of it this weekend.

And if you have read my blog before you know how I feel about our local sports teams and yes the Rangers are looking good outside of the recent series with the A's I hope this just helps them get ready for the intensity of the playoffs. I have been avoiding talking about them, but it is looking good. I didn't want to jinx them. Got my texting buddies back on line so we can chat back and forth about the games in the playoffs without having to leave the living room. Yep I am a bit of a home body, along with the TYPE L personality. We will save the Cowboys for later. Right now got to push the Rangers through the playoffs. We have another chance to win it all. And lets hope I haven't jinxed them yet.

 And finally the State Fair of Texas begins this weekend. It definitely has something for everyone, still just about the largest fair anywhere. So if you have nothing to do and have never been to Dallas come next week to see the fair, temps will be in the 80's so really nice to be out and about inside the madness and wonder of our State Fair. Will last for three weeks, but next week weather is looking pretty good overall. Just some quick hits on this hot and humid night here in Big D. And still want to talk about my Social Security ideas and other tie ins, just can't make it exciting in my brain anymore. I think the idea is a nice framework though for what we can do as a country to be productive and innovative again. Stay cool. And I really don't know if there is a type L, that is suppose to be a joke (lazy)

Oops coming back to add this thought, as to writing I will add a comment on occasion to all the Yahoo and CNN blogs that go on, all the posts to different stories. Mostly I read the political stories, but other topics as well. I haven't been talking politics much because of all the hate and stupidity being posted. I don't know if a small minority is just sitting around posting all day under different names, or what, but if the hatred being spewed on the blogs and story posts is any indication of the mood of our country I am a bit fearful for our future. I like to be optimistic and proactive with solutions, but I found myself posting a bit of an answer to the hatred etc. Basically it is all stupid, but much of it attacks Obama. Waste of time, but the amount is incredible. Worrisome. And as a conservative how can you get anyone to buy into conservative solutions when these hate mongers seem to control the conservative dialogue and not just on posts. I am not voting Obama or Mitt, but I don't feel the hatred towards either that you read on a daily basis so it has toned me down on my own political blogging. Hope to see something better in the debates, but as you know, I don't think either is right for our times. Till next time.

well known thought of the day

If politicians never open their mouth they would never regret what they say

Uber rich economics, a strange analogy, QE what

I started thinking about this analogy awhile back. To me it is a simplistic explanation of how bad our economy is being manipulated. I do think it brings the point home. I was reading a tad bit about the Fed stimulus and I didn't have that in mind when I was thinking about this analogy, but some of it ties in and I will try to show that point after the analogy. It seems to me the uber rich pretty much have built their control over our economy for over a century. They use events to consolidate more and more of their wealth and prevent others from being able to create their own wealth. And if you have read my posts you know I am a big believer that spreading the wealth to many helps democracy thrive, conversely concentration of wealth is dangerous to democracy. Think about the board game Monopoly. Like every game you play for awhile and there is a winner and losers. At the end you either put up the game or start over ( for this analogy I am not talking about we have to start our economy over). Pretty straight forward, everybody loves the game, and normally it is just a game. Now imagine you decide you don't want to quit playing or at least the person winning doesn't want to quit playing. So you start adding features to the game. Usually the game ends because someone has most of the property and money. Normal economics says once that happens and for the game, pretty much there is nothing else to do. Once someone has all the money, you can't play anymore. If in real life someone was to have all the money then what would you do. Well in the game you now decide that you can keep going around the board and everytime you land on the leading person's property you just write down on a piece of paper how much more you owe that person. So basically you build unending debt. This person does keep it going by throwing the false bone that you still have a monopoly, you never know, we could keep playing and maybe I will land on your property enough times that you get back in the game, all the while you would have to avoid landing on his property so you don't build anymore debt. Even if there were four players, three all fighting with one monopoly more or less beating each other up, and continually landing on the person with most of the property. That person just keeps adding up the money coming in and the other three hoping they can become like him, but he gets bored. So he decides its okay now to have more than one hotel on each property ( if you know the game you know this is a major change). And since he already has most of the money he buys up more and more hotels to place on his properties. Now even more bored he says I want to create more rules (for his benefit) so he uses the paper money from what you and the other two players owe him to buy more hotels. All the while convincing you you still have a chance because you do have one monopoly. So you buy this,but now he decides he wants no consequences for his actions so he convinces you its okay to take out the chance and community chest card that charges fees for the number of houses and hotels a person owns. So now there is no risk to buying more, so he does over and over again till he is now playing monopoly, but having hundreds of thousands of dollars on paper that well is worthless because there is no way anyone could pay. The three other players keep trying to catch up with their one monopoly, but there is no way you can build wealth because any resources you get eventually go to the winning player because the deck is stacked against them by the new rules. Now think about the last recession. What was lost, people's savings, jobs, value in their house, etc, more of what they could build from has been taken away and the people who did it want to continue to change the rules for their benefit. The Monopoly analogy is simplistic, but think about it. It shouldn't take you long to figure out the game needs to be leveled again for it to be a benefit for everyone. And to tie in the QE 3 or whatever, now the banks have a guarantee of long term low interest rates. They can borrow money invest in oil, gold, volatile stocks, other commodities etc to make outsize profits with very little risk to them. They have hired the people that know how to play the game, whether the market goes up or down they have got it covered. They pay them bonuses to make them feel like they are super rich, but all the while controlling who has access or limiting to who can reap these benefits. And these bonds the Fed is buying are mortgage back securities, so mortgage investments now have lowered risk (again) supposedly. And this lowered interest rate money has no tie in to making people use it to benefit the whole economy. This is just one piece of a puzzle that has been going on for decades. If we want change we have to change the rules. Again I don't think we need to make everyone start over, but the rules have to be changed. And you start by holding the winners accountable to investing back into the game. If they do that you don't have to tax the heck out of them,their investments into real economic growth makes up for taxation, but if they don't help the economy then they need to be held accountable for their actions and what it truly costs society in increased poverty, decaying infrastructure, more prisons, (that is what they seem to think solves problems), moral decline and general loss of the concept of a free nation. Basically if they don't want to play then maybe they should pay.

Throwing stones in a glass house

Doing this from my phone so a bit of a struggle to type. Lately there has been some stories on the internet news about the struggles of.Muslim women. Many suffer death because of dishonor to their family or other punishments for some such alleged crimes. Pretty much a serious problem for women of that religion. And in the stories there are people posting comments. Many comments relate to the tragedy of it. The problem is many comments are full of vile and hatred. I am not a fan of the WA the Muslim religion is treating the women in,their lives. But who are we to criticize. Yes killing innocent is horrible and should be stopped. The abuse of these women should be stopped. Just how much better are we in the west though. Pornography runs rampant and we don't do that much about it. Young girls are all tatooed up like branded cattle. Just because we don't use religion as a pretext to enslaving women how much better are we? Again there is no excuse for Muslims to misuse their own religion to mistreat women. And just as much though we cannot criticize or condemn others till we get our act together and put a stop to the abuse of women by pornography and child pornography. Women abused in poverty or in ignorance. We have work to do ourselves before we blindly criticize others,even with merit. I don't like talking about social issues, or about religion much, way too inflaming of atopic. It is there is too much hatred in the news posts without us acknowledging our own lack of respect towards women. So instead of throwing stones maybe we should build ourselves a better house.

A bit of advice and a bit of a rant

Probably should have posted the advice before Labor Day weekend. Anyway when driving down the highway be aware of what the drivers around you are doing most especially when crossing new territory. You see caravans of people cruising along 15 or more miles per hour above posted speed and you decide to join them. Okay no problem there, but when about half the group slows down together you might slow down also. It always amazes me when people keep going and soon find themselves getting a ticket. Folks if you don't the terrain then time to do as the Romans. Slow down. When a few people slow down someone knows something unless they all exit. Stay with the crowd. And for gas prices....please wake up and smell the bile. We will continue to be manipulated by oil companies as long as there is no competition. Folks the free market means a free market. Honestly I wish I had a billion dollars to invest without having to worry about immediate returns or a brain where I could develop an alternative to gasoline. Gas prices will continue to push the high end of what they can get for as long as they can get since there is no competition for transportation fuel. I know everyone knows this, I just can't figure out how we can break this monopoly. New energy development is one of the better ways to break our economic impasse. Stay cool

a thought or two

I know it is 95+ degrees outside,but it is crazy to watch people cross the street and almost get killed just to get to a bus,especially when one comes by every ten minutes or so. Saw this multiple times today in downtown. People darting through cars and cars having to hit brakes as they come through traffic. Slow down and be careful so you can enjoy labor day.

People make a big deal about English as an only language, well that is impractical, but really you can rely on English being the primary language. I know a person who is of Latin descent and said hates it when people greet in Spanish. This is America and they should greet all even Latin looking people in English, now if the person being greeted prefers Spanish they can ask to speak in Spanish. This person feels even though many speak Spanish or whatever language the primary language should be the first offered in public situations. This person is actually offended and feels profiled ( their word profiled) because they are Latin looking when people immediately speak Spanish or presume Spanish. Yep folks everyone feels a certain way about any topic. Interesting that Spanish speaking people can be as ethnocentric as Americans... ha ha ha

I have always like Clint Eastwood and some of the movies he has directed I feel are really good. Unfortunately I missed his speech at the RNC last night, turned it on late. Sorry to hear all the talk about it.

Yes I am avoiding talking about the RNC and will do so for the DNC. Why give anybody credit for not doing a good job. The time for new parties is now. I will say this and this is only appreciated by a small audience. The RNC was so boring it made the Nixon Agnew events look like rock concerts.

Glad Issac wasn't too bad, still people did get hit, lets help where we can.