Happy Memorial Day

This goes out to all the men and women who have given their all so we may enjoy our life and Constitution here in the United States. Let us never forget who we are and what was given for our freedoms.

delicate, dangerous, and inflammatory

I am going to write about a delicate subject that can be dangerous and I don't want it to be inflammatory.

This is for everyone, but one of my target audience is the Muslim religious leaders who live in the west and say that all this radical hatred is not part of Islam.

I am also going to say things that some who hate the US may consider American arrogance. I state this in advance because I want to make a point and I don't want that point hijacked. Hopefully people will realize this is just a point, and maybe the people not involved with the West vs Islam conflict will see it as a point and nothing more.

I am not a theologian so I hate talking about religion. And I will be talking a bit about religion, but not necessarily about God. Sometimes people use religion to do things that have nothing to do with what God has taught us. And I don't like throwing Scripture around, but I am going to use one of Jesus' parables and direct to the hard Christian right here in the US.

So what brought about this post? There has been ongoing incidents of violence by hard line or radical Muslims against the West for a long time even pre 911. And I have spent the day thinking about this post and have probably over thought it. It started when I read the news story about the marches in London over the soldier who was murdered by what is labeled as Muslim extremists. ( I am going to try and be careful about how I label or identify people, see part about being delicate). This wasn't the first time I had heard of the story. It has been all over the news for the last few days. There were some comments by the hardliners in England in the story and in the posts by readers that follow the stories.

There will always be hard line so called Christian fanatics that will rail on and on about how evil is Islam. I can discount that to a point. On a side note, one point that caught my attention from the story and the posts that a hardliner brought was: When does it become real concern for your country to have to put up with these attacks over and over again versus some fanatic spewing nonsense? The point they were making is that there can be a concern and it is okay to voice it when your country is attacked and no you are not a right wing fanatic to voice this. There are liberals and some in the media that state the far right is acting as volatile as the extremist/terrorists that attack the west and any angst towards the Muslim community in general is not justified. My side note question is, maybe not and when does that line get crossed. There is nothing wrong with feeling you have been attacked and saying so. What is important is how it is addressed.

Back to the statement about Christian fanatics. There are some Christian fanatics, hard line right wingers, or whatever you want to call them, that are trying to incite and inflame public opinion from what the Muslim extremists are doing and saying. Do the Muslim's have a right to attack the west, no they don't.No matter what has happened in history there is not a right to continue violence, especially if you say you believe in God. This use of God to justify violence is contrary to God. Religious violence is brought about by people who want to carry forth a self serving agenda. So for the right in the US remember this from scripture, we know not the hour of return. We are suppose to be prepared like the seven bridesmaids that had oil for their lamps for the arrival of the bridegroom. We must wait. Only he who knows of the hour knows. We don't. So if you incite violence even against violence against us in the name of God then you are really being directed by the evil one. Only evil benefits from violence and hatred. If anyone tells you when the earth is going to end or when Armageddon is going to happen then run away fast. They are either clueless or have evil intentions. I was reading some posts by the same person and he kept quoting the Quran, especially the part that speaks to non believers of Islam etc, basically the parts that could incite anger from someone in the West. He posted these plus some other comments that led me to believe he is intentionally inciting hatred towards Muslims and has a hard right Christian background. Does he represent all Fundamentalist conservative Christians, no, but he does express an opinion you hear regularly from right wing fanatical hard line so called Christians, yes.

So where am I going? Now we go briefly for now to the target audience. If you say the violence and terror attacks are not Islam then you need to go back to the Middle East and start doing something about it. Why you ask? Because at some point there can be a cross over point. What cross over point?

There are some around the world who feel the US is weakening that we are not the super power we were once. Or that we never were one. And I have to be careful because I want to avoid the American arrogance label. The word you need to be aware of is "resolve". That small word holds great meaning. And resolve defines why I am trying to make a point to the Muslims in the West who try to convince us that the violence is not their religion. And yes I believe that is possible since I see in the West people using God to justify some of their own violence. They say it is for God, but frankly if you really believe in God you know the truth.

And I am not a war monger, but that word mentioned above is very important. And why is it important?

The Middle East has been around for thousands of years. And in their history when countries go to war, they fight till their is a victor, one side is completely vanquished. Some of these wars have a religious or Muslim influence to them. And most of their history countries are autocratic. There is no public opinion, what the leader wants the country does. The vast majority of the average person in most of the middle east and surrounding countries like Pakistan have no conceptual idea of what is democracy. They don't understand that people can play a major role in how a country behaves or what it accomplishes. And this misunderstanding is letting religious fanatics or countries led by autocratic leadership like Iran have misguided opinions of what they are up against when they attack the West.

I am talking about what they see now especially in the last few conflicts the United States has been involved. Yes, I mean Vietnam, the two Iraq endeavors, and Afghanistan. They think we feel this is American might, that this is what we can accomplish and nothing more. With their history of expectations that if you invade a country you are suppose to win and win big, take the country,hold everyone hostage and rule them. Yes I know this is simplistic, but I am using a generalization that does hold water to work through my comparison of why they don't understand what they truly must be wary. They see us flounder around, not really dominating the countries and conflicts and looking indecisive. And for these conflicts they are right, what they need to be aware is that this is not American might.

I come back to the word resolve. For a democracy that word is a foundation to really achieving something. We did not have resolve in Vietnam, Iraq, and well in Afghanistan we might have a bit since Bin Laden attacked us from there, but public opinion was so beat up by Iraq, real resolve never materialized. I could use a positive example of the word resolve and that is putting a man on the moon,. We, as a country, decided that is something we wanted to do so we did it. There was very little dissent. In the aforementioned conflicts, that resolve didn't exist and for Vietnam and Iraq there was much dissension. A country will not win a war with the way the whole public viewed it. And that is part of how democracy works. I think though a different example of resolve might be in order, and this is not American arrogance, but an example of why we don't want a certain line crossed over.

The Middle East and especially their leaders must ignore what has happened by the American military in the last forty years. Not because we cannot be successful, but because the country has had little resolve in these conflicts. On another side note and this is obvious, autocratic leadership tends to keep the public uneducated so it maybe a long time coming before the Middle East as a whole understands Western democracy and why they may want to avoid the religious extremism of their leadership. Unfortunately uneducated people tend to fall for their thinking rather easily. So what must the Middle East leadership understand and since this is about war they need to look more at what happened in the American Civil War and World War II. They may say that was a long time ago and true, but that word resolve is more important than time.

Our Civil War was not pretty. As Americans we glorify it to ourselves, but it was very bloody, war atrocities occurred, and one side did win big. What the Middle East needs to know, we were fighting ourselves and this was a country divided, but we fought hard. Both sides felt they had right on their side. Each side had serious resolve to win. That is why it was such a horrible war. So don't look at the recent conflicts, but study that one and forget the time frame. This is in the American spirit even today.

And they need to look at World War II. This was a major war and we won, of course with our allies, not because we had the better military or the NAZIs and Japanese were incapable of winning, it is because the country and allies as a whole resolved to win. This was democracy doing what it is suppose to do. The people came together when it needed. They were not led by a singular leader, but by the will of the people. I know the Middle East does not grasp that this is possible. Do the media thing and poll them, they don't get that this is possible, not because they could not have democracy, but because they don't know about democracy. We do make the ethnocentric mistake that we can push them into democracy, so we have much to learn ourselves, but they need to know what the US can accomplish when the people decide this is what the country needs to do.

And in the modern Middle East there is not anything close to the armies the NAZIs and the Imperial Japanese put forth in the 1940's. Yes this is a bold statement,but it is the truth. There is not one country or group of countries that comes close to what the Axis put together militarily And we won that with resolve. Now we have a much more technologically advanced military than then. Yes, there are countries in the Middle East that have some of the technological advances in their weaponry, but they are no match for the total capability we have here. And overall nothing there compares to what the NAZIs had comparably to ours in the 40's. Back then it was close, now, not so.

And resolve is the word that defines the line I have been alluding to in this post. Terrorists have upset the general populace, even created outpourings of public demonstrations like the one for Woolwich in London, donations and help to the victims, and even letters to Congress. This terror though has not crossed the line of resolve. They may think this is about being allies with Israel, this will not be the line. It is attacking us. All these terror attacks add up. You can only prick a sleeping giant so many times before it not only becomes annoyed, but decides to take action. The sleeping giant is not the religious right and political right in the US and England, it is the populace at large, and for now the populace has not wanted to go to places like Vietnam and Iraq. Don't make them change their minds. And to our fanatics, let our leaders start the debate, but let the people decide when enough is enough. This is not about the end of the world coming, we know not the hour, but doing what is right. Our will starts with our definition of what is right. Iraq has shown you can't force a war on the American people, but the Civil War and World War II show when we see wrong we act.

The Middle East may only hear the outcries of the right, our extremist groups etc, but one day there will come a time when the moderate Christians, the agnostics, and the general populace says enough is enough. This is the group they must be wary. Once the balance tips things will change in a direction the leadership of the Middle East knows not. What they think they know will be proven horribly wrong. I do not advocate war. I write this to try to prevent it. The autocratic and extremist religious leadership may feel emboldened with these terror attacks, little do they know they have not yet met America.

If what you say is true about Islam, then go home to teach it in schools, the streets, the Mosques, and in government. Show the West Peace comes from God, and hate is not a part of Islam because if you don't the giant will awake. And I am not talking about the end of the world, remember I said run, but rather a horrible war that can be avoided.

My own posts have been hijacked

I just say in my most recent post, certain words and terms that were hyperlinked to ads. Please do not click on those. I don't support any of those ads. I am not subscribing to any money making ads on this blog so if ads are being attached please do not support. Thanks

Recap and catching up

Saw an old "no child left behind" poster the other day. Made me think how we really have left children behind by trying to accommodate instead of challenging our children in education. We really hurt ourselves here as a nation. We constantly fail our future by not creating a great education system. One quick thought is why haven't we made child development one of the core pieces of curriculum development. Just one of the basics that we should use instead of using the same old tired system we have now.

The sequester is partially working. We had an opportunity to start a long term plan with tempering the original sequester. Now we have across the board cuts that will get diminished as time goes on. We still need to create a long term plan. It will take much work, but it actually isn't hard, common sense will take care of half the planning. We just need to start and find the political will. The political will definitely has to come from outside DC though.

Einstein once said something about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We have over fifty years of always backing the wrong horse in other countries affairs. And what is funny if we would back the people we would probably get better results even for all the greedy bastards that run our foreign policy. A a stable well educated populace does more to promote democracy and a healthy economy than trying to keep some tyrant in charge that is self serving. And a strong economy leads to more benefits for all and yes that includes the large corporations who think they know what is best in all affairs. Market capitalism basically should rule by the simple fact that a better economy produces more people who can participate meaning they buy more, which means more goods are produced, which means more jobs are created which leads to people buying more etc and for all the large, medium, and small companies that is just good business. The more goods you sell, the more money you make. It is when you try to manipulate markets that you hurt capitalism. Oh, but we love to let greed run our foreign policy. Greed is not capitalism folks. And of course the people who make the best product, who are the most innovative, who build in the best efficiencies, should be the ones that succeed. Unfortunately we are stuck with crazed people who think only they should be successful. We need to find a way to severely punish those that inhibit true capitalism.

Retirement planning, now that really isn't an oxymoron, but think about it for a moment. We need a new word that describes blind trust like oxymoron works for a contradiction of terms. Do we really want to trust retirement planning to the same financial institutions that gave us the last economic disaster? Yes people give us your hard earned money so we can use it to make us a fortune. We need more market participation so the swings we take advantage of with arbitrage and hedging bets work better for us. Oh yes we give a few hard working sales people a nice commission, but the real money is in taking advantage of market movement, not long term growth. Or they just give us misrepresentation or flat out lies. Saw an ad the other day for a stock now selling for .60, but it will be "x" by July and "x" exponential in 36 months. Just think if we really held people accountable for their lies we really wouldn't need to have so much government regulation. Throw a few people in jail for life with hardened criminals and many shysters will get the message. So many scum are given a pass because well they make money so basically they are okay people, nice plush sentences from judges who treat them like the bad boys at the country club. Madoff wasn't enough.

And it wouldn't be one of my posts if I didn't bang on the energy situation. I don't care how much oil they say we have, in the long run we need to move on. The geopolitical crap we have put up with so a few people can make a fortune from oil has got to stop. And it is not them making money that bothers me, it is the manipulation of markets and foreign affairs that has caused so much crap on this planet that has got to stop. New energy creates new opportunities to hopefully move us forward.

Kind of goes back to the education point. The better educated we are the better things will be. Of course certain elements don't want us well educated. They wouldn't be able to get away with the crap that they do.

We were given the ability to think and create, like life this is a gift. We need to cherish and use these gifts. Our failure to use these abilities is our own fault. We need to quit being led away from what we were given to be successful and to do the right thing for ourselves and for all of us. There is beauty everywhere, just because we don't see it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. By choosing to see only bad we are perpetuating it. Don't be afraid to open your eyes to the beauty given to us and to work hard to make it flourish.

But then, every now and then you get those creeping urges to listen to YES' Close to the Edge. Talk about being creative, that or Beethoven's 7th symphony 4th movement, and the joy of getting to hear it loud, oh what a wish for worn out ears.

Happy Mothers Day

I hope everyone has a great day.

I'll be cooking the Salmon for the Mrs. today on this beautiful spring day here in Texas

The noise is winning

The thoughts come kind of scattered for this post. Generally you look around and most people are pretty rational. They have simple lives, even people with money. I can't say for sure for the whole world, but overall I think most people want to have a family, provide for it, have a safe world for their children to grow up, want their children to have opportunities to do well etc.

Most people want to be able to enjoy life, some want to travel, be able to provide themselves basics, like roof over the head, food, comforts, etc, but for some reason the minority that wants to manipulate others always seems to be winning. And this is at all levels, whether it be your neighbor to leaders/dictators of countries.

People with the worst agendas always seem to push those on the rest of us. Why do we acquiesce? Even here where we can vote we accept crap most of the time. The people with the loudest bunch of crap always dictate where we are headed.

What I am trying to achieve is where can we, the rational majority, pull ourselves together and realize we actually have the power to stop this madness. This is one of those time immortal kind of thoughts, too. I know I am not the first lone wolf in the wilderness with this cry. Yet we march through time not overcoming the craziness that someone perpetuates on us.

I have been thinking about this for a few days and can't wrap my head around this yet, but I wanted to get people thinking. And I have some examples, but even those I cannot create a fluid discussion.

The title of the post is where I am trying to head, why is the people with the most noise, but least good for mankind the winner. The truth is we only have ourselves to blame, but how do we change the direction to put rational thinking as the noise. If you stop and think about this for a moment it is absolutely maddening.

So I will try and come back to this thought with some better writing and cohesiveness, but for now, took a vacation day for a special occasion, but things didn't work out so doing chores and trying to finish up some other work on this rainy spring day here in Texas.

And for you sports fan, one of our local sports talk "gurus" actually made the suggestion he would take Josh Hamilton back, not the contract, but Hamilton back if we didn't have to pay and believes Josh could get his head right again here in Texas. I think that is a bit of a stretch. We need a good young catcher more.

And I guess this is what a blog is for, getting something out of your head and hopefully maybe someone else can pick up for you if you can't put it all together. And today is one of those days. I want to be a writer, but sometimes it just doesn't work.

And coming to an E Reader near you my first short story. I am going to self publish something to see what happens. More to come on that. I have a few, but because of recent events in our society I am publishing a particular one first, (it will be a simpler story than the rest) then a few weeks later write a post here why I released this one first. Give everyone a chance to read it then understand what is my goal. I am actually just about done. Got to the climatic moment today so I have just a few pages of winding it down now to finish. I will let a couple of people read it to check for story continuity and grammar and then will publish. Hopefully very soon.