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.