Happy Father's Day

So here is a subtle joke loosely based on Catholic Doctrine


So you can't ever say God would be in a bad mood or sad, but today all the Angels and Saints and people in Heaven were noticing God seemed a bit put off. This lasted for most of the day, and eventually Jesus came by and God said to him. "Don't you know what day it is on Earth?" Jesus looks at God with a quizzical look, and says " not sure what you are talking about" God says "it is Father's Day, don't you want to say something?"

Jesus says " but I am you"

God replies "get over yourself"

Not sure if I had heard this or actually made it up, but three days without the family at home produces really bad humor to keep you entertained.

They are back so all is right in my world, hope it is for you also

Have a great day

How we think/not think Part two

There maybe a part three also, but for now I am breaking part two into A and B

Part A is just my thoughts around how we act sometimes. You see so many people who think they are tough by getting mad at something stupid that happens. We were at a restaurant the other day and some man was getting mad over something pretty simple to solve. My wife made the comment why doesn't he just say what he wants and get over it. Instead he went on and on about the same thing. And then he walked back to the table acting like he was some kind of tough guy or something. And you see things like this all the time. People getting bent out of shape over nothing and then bragging about how they handled the situation.

To me doing the right thing seems to be the toughest thing for people to do. Especially doing it on a regular basis. So when you see people do the right thing regularly and especially for others you are truly seeing a "tough guy".

Now about being practical, or how do we think/not think on a practical basis.

Last time I wrote that I had this great idea after Katrina for New Orleans so I am going to try and put it on paper as best as I remember. It is definitely a large project that would need buy in from all sorts of players.

We let New Orleans sit and fester and now we are facing another monumental disaster if another Category 4 storm hits.

Yet we were given the opportunity to do something completely different, in fact, even a model for the rest of the world to follow. We could have rebuilt New Orleans completely taking into consideration of keeping the historic city, but moving the practical city away from the coast. Since I am not an artist or cartologist you will have to picture this in your mind as I go along.

We know New Orleans is at or below sea level and on a major river. They built levees etc hoping that would protect the city. Obviously that failed.

Let's take the general population and move it away from the coast, build an infrastructure that protects the historic part of the city, the central business district, other established business areas, the river front, and the river/sea traffic.

You take the human component; the houses,the shopping, the general things we need for day to day living and put them onto I 10 or some other inland area and build large mass transportation systems to move the general population into the work area, the historic district, downtown, the Superdome etc.. Instead of building levees you build channels that the storm surge can go. Basically you cannot fight nature, but you can prepare for it and do things that alleviate some of the destruction. And you still keep the part of New Orleans that makes it such a wonderful place to visit. So instead of lives and livelihood being destroyed only property is destroyed and that is something we can replace.

Is this easy? No. Will it take time? Yes.

That doesn't matter though because there is a huge benefit to restructuring. First the rebuilding project would create a mini new economy. There is the potential for new technological advances as we work to build the channels for the storm surges, the mass transportation system, and other needs that arise to build this project.

And to go back to the point in my first Part of How we think/don't think, we don't use the federal government to do everything. The project would be better served if it is a public private partnership with most of the investment coming from the private sector and the federal government being the facilitator and paying for the research of what would be needed. The City is involved in planning and zoning so the local community has a voice in the final picture. The State in helping to reshape the surrounding area so the City could move into currently uninhabited or sparsely inhabited areas. The private sector invests the money and receive two benefits. The first being tax breaks for their investments and two they get to participate in an expanding economy that offers large scale opportunity to do business. Insurance companies can also be involved by investing and then in the long run they benefit when there is manageable costs to the next storm.

There are so many types of industries that would benefit. Obviously construction companies receive a strong proportion of new business, but just about every type of industry could find some opportunity. Creative ways to build mass transportation would be encouraged so high tech jobs would be in demand. Lets say you build mass transportation that relies on alternative fuels or natural gas then another new industry develops. Retail would flourish as new opportunities creates new jobs so people would have disposable income. And there would be opportunities for new companies and small businesses to develop. This could be made part of the overall plan. Basically corporations fuel the investment to start the projects and reap the rewards as the project comes into fruition. This avoids a tax nightmare for the whole country. There is a direct risk/reward factor and the government/taxpayer doesn't pay the risk and corporations get the reward. The role of the government would be to facilitate to help it be successful. So yes there is government oversight, but once the city is rebuilt the need for oversight is over. The local governments would then be in charge as they are now. Or you could expand the project up and down the gulf states so hurricanes don't create the destruction they do now on people's lives, but the population as a whole can enjoy the benefits and beauty of life on the gulf. You still have tourism and fishing for example, but the impact on overall life and livelihood is minimized. Of course there is much more to this project, but hopefully this gives you a picture to start.

This is forward thinking. Prepare for the inevitable without taking away our way of life and what we enjoy. Is it perfect? No. You cannot prevent natural disasters, but you can mitigate their impact with the right kind of thinking. It is how we think as a society that matters. Or do we continue not to think?

Another example is something I have discussed before in a post. This is definitely a National project and that is long term water planning. I talked about using our interstate system as the guide to create a series of national canals to move water around as needed and to alleviate potential flood problems. You can't completely prevent floods, but with the right planning etc you can open canals in anticipation of heavy rain events to start the water moving out of rivers into canals so as the rain develops the river levels are already adjusting in advance. Will it prevent all floods? No, but will lessen the severe ones. And the other benefit is the multitudes of businesses and industries that could develop or have resources needed to flourish. And the overall benefit is we have a regulated water system that is protected and flexible. The Federal government isn't required to build the whole thing. Again a public private partnership is developed where our government's role is to facilitate and pay for the research, but the industries that benefit help pay for the infrastructure to begin. Secondary benefits are we turn large areas of the desert into new agriculture, help with droughts, and even industries like fracking for oil or natural gas have the water they need without usurping water for people. You can take the run off from flood water and use that for non potable projects and then use the canals to filter the rest of the water for people and agriculture. It would take some work to create all this, but well worth the investment when you look at what has been happening over the last few years.

Another aspect of the above is use of Social Security benefits to help fund the project, but as investment money to create more income for the social security program. If the Federal government removes SS taxes from the regular budget and keeps it separate like it is suppose to do, then you can invest part of the proceeds each year in local bonds that earn interest so going forward you have interest income and payroll taxes keeping the social security system alive and well. This is dissimilar to Wall Street investing the money because it has specific purposes the Federal government can hold people accountable for their actions. And water is such a needed resource that there will always be practical ways to get the income from water development.

Another way to think or do we continue to not think.

Some ideas that have been tossed around in some shape or fashion by different groups, think tanks, and people, however, we never take the action to plan ahead. If we are to continue to be the greatest country on the planet we need to rethink how we do business in our country. We have the opportunity to show the world a whole new way to plan just like our constitution has given us a whole new way to govern. Let us take advantage of what has been given to us and show the world what really can be done if you think about it.

And finally we need to rethink our education system. I have discussed this before so will let it go for now, but there are much better ways to educate children than what we do now. The research out there is tremendous. It is time we started reshaping the future.


Some thoughts on a hot and muggy night here in Texas. And if you watched the game, it looked like San Antonio was dragging around in this heat instead of playing the Heat.

Part II momentarily interrupted

Still plan on finishing my post from the other day, but do need some sit down time to finish.

Saw the news about the government getting phone records. So they have been doing it for seven years, still doesn,t make it right Senator Feinstein. Just because a law was written is not an excuse to abuse the Constitution. I am writing this from my phone on purpose. My little piss ant way to protest for the day. As much as I rail against both political parties its not the same as railing against the Constitutiin. No political party is guaranteed in the Constitution. So lets go Progressive Conservative Party and put the people back in charge of our country.

Have a great evening and Go Spurs. Got to love the DJ city of San Antonio, the river walk, and the hill country.

How we think/not think Part one

You fill up your glass of water and put it on a wobbly table or chair. A few minutes later you bump into the table and the water spills all over the floor. Some people will say this is bad luck, not their day, shoot even say it is part of God's plan.

You wash your hair in the sink. This goes on day in and day out until one day the sink backs up. Again some people say this is bad luck, not their day, they are cursed, etc...

I know you get these two situations are the fault of the person, one for not being aware of their surroundings and the other for not planning or paying attention to the long term consequences of their actions. Especially for the second scenario we tend to ignore what we are doing because we cannot see the consequences until it is too late. And for both scenarios once the damage is done we go into reactive mood. We clean up the spilled water and call the plumber for the sink or if blessed with mechanical skills we fix it ourselves. Do we fix the table though? Some might. Do we change our habits and not wash our hair in the sink? Or at least clean out the sink every now and then. Some might.

Now how does a larger group handle the situation? Does everyone in the family wash their hair in the sink? Do they stop or do some stop and others go on. Who has to monitor the sink to keep it clean? Or does it back up again and the family goes into reactive mood to fix it? And once it backs up again, does the family learn from their mistakes? Do they put into place a cleaning schedule to prevent this in the future? Or find a new place to wash their hair and avoid the problem altogether? And if they make a change do they think about it and wash their hair in an environment that avoids potential future problems.

What we can see is that the smaller the group responsible for actions the better the chances the next disaster can be prevented. Why can't we take this to the next step and do it for a much larger group such as a city, state, or even at the national level. We can see problems, we can fix problems, but when we rely on people we hire to take care of problems we rely more on a reactive mood than do any planning to prevent problems.

First off, the tragedy that is occurring in Oklahoma is terrible. Anything we can do to help is wonderful, but when the mayor of Moore Oklahoma the week after the tornadoes struck says why didn't we have basements in our homes and proposed a new city ordinance saying all new homes will need basements isn't he failing the people he is suppose to be leading. Now, that is harsh, everyone there is going through some terrible days right now, but I want to address how we think/not think. Tornadoes have been part of the landscape in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc for long before we showed up and started living in these states. And in many rural homes there are tornado shelters. In the Wizard of Oz everyone, but Dorothy makes it into their shelter. Yet here is someone that probably grew up in Oklahoma, has become Mayor and only when there is a disaster does he address a most fundamental need. And this is not his fault. This is how we think. We fail to realize how to plan at large levels. Or is it because we can't find the will to plan at large levels? And is this a failure of society? Or a failure of political leadership? Or of ourselves?

I am talking more than just the tornado situation. (and by the way, please give to the disaster relief organizations helping out there and everywhere that a disaster occurs. We cannot prevent what nature does, but until we get it right we have to help our fellow man.) This type of situation prevails in our country. We wait until it is too late then bemoan how bad our luck, or that we must have offended God, or because so and so got elected and not somebody else. We know the truth, we can see the truth and reality, but we fail to acknowledge it. It is up to us to plan and by us I mean us as individuals and us as a society. Yet another disaster will occur, be it nature or man made such as what happened in West, Texas and we will blame everything but what we know to be the truth. We failed.

I first thought about this when Katrina struck New Orleans and was listening to all the chatter about what should we do to fix New Orleans. I have to brag. I thought of a real dynamic fix, one that lets us enjoy the history and culture of New Orleans, but removes much of the element of human risk. (unfortunately this happened before I started writing this blog so I have no proof.) I heard so many ideas, many like mine, talked about long term solutions, And yet, even with such a horrible disaster, the short term reactive mood became the fix. Many people blame President Bush for the immediate disaster becoming much worse than it should have been. His inaction in leading a federal response was a failure on his part. What happened afterwards though was a failure on our part. We watched on TV a very deteriorating situation and then did nothing to plan ahead. We saw the horror, the lives lost, the city lost, but today the same disaster could happen again in New Orleans or, well lets say, New York.

And when all this happens, we see many solutions. The mayor of Moore knew the answer, we need a better building code, one that addresses the reality we live in. What will be interesting to watch will be; can the building code become a reality that saves lives in the future or will it get bogged down by bureaucracy or special interests trying to limit what they have to do. The answer to this question is a long time coming. Do we wait and learn from this or do we act now.

My answer is to act now. When I first started this blog I said I would try to be positive and offer solutions to the problems I see and discuss. So with the backdrop of some horrible events I propose that we plan ahead and make it our way of life politically. Lets learn to be proactive.

Right now there is a monumental amount of finger pointing about the situation in West, Texas. Who should have known that there was a problem? What bureaucracy was responsible for preventing this disaster? Who should be held accountable? And again, unfortunately, the answer is everyone: the company, the city, the state, etc. We know that when you mix certain chemicals they are volatile. We have laws that are suppose to recognize these situations and certain government agencies are suppose to act. Does it ever happen? West, Texas is the answer.

And again we need answers, we need the right mind set. These situations aren't bad luck, karma, God's plan, etc, they are us failing to use the brain God gave us. We live on a dynamic planet that we can use the resources God gave us to thrive or we can blame everything that isn't at fault to make ourselves feel better. Life on this plant relies on what was given to us, some of it is knowledge and using resources productively and some of it is knowledge and dealing with what we know happens. To create life a dynamic, ever changing planet was created, one that has powerful forces at work. We can ignore all this and continue to bemoan our bad luck or we can learn to work with it, understand it,and adapt.

I suggest we choose to adapt, to think ahead, and understand the resources and use them productively. I know this is possible. We don't have to intrude on anybody's rights to plan ahead. In fact as a conservative I feel it is imperative we act. The more we plan ahead the less we can rely on government, pay less taxes, open up new markets for commerce, and generally enjoy this wonderful planet given to us. You know that old phrase" life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." So in that mindset I have some ideas. And with all my ideas I prefer that we use a public private partnership moving to private enterprise to solve the problems. We do not need excessive federal action, the government should be more of a facilitator, driver of obtaining knowledge, and then letting the interested parties do the work. It costs us too much to rely on the federal government to solve our problems. The last fifty years should be the visible example of why over reliance on government does not solve problems. We need a federal government because we are a large dynamic country and one of the responsibilities is to protect rights of individuals, not intrude on them. The government though should not try to be the end all be all. With these basic thoughts in mind, let me suggest a few planning ideas. And since I keep talking that we need a new conservative party, here is a bit of what would be the platform and policy of this new party. Or at least my ideas. This is the start of what we need to do to continue to make the United States the leader throughout the world. And this is at home, goes back to another old saying: best to clean your own house first.

1) Nature exists, lets deal with it. You don't have to believe in global warming to realize we have hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, etc. And if you read my posts regularly you know I am a huge proponent of a diversified energy policy, but global warming is not the driving reason for dealing with nature. We have had nature since the planet was created. We know what nature can do. We just saw it in Oklahoma. So in areas where there is regular events such as tornado alley and the Gulf of Mexico, lets plan our cities around protecting people and still keep them thriving.

First example will be New Orleans. And this is a dynamic project.

Okay its late and I have to work tomorrow, well looking at the time, today.

so to be continued.........

And for all the sports fans out there, Go Pacers on Monday night. Its not that I am against any of the Miami players personally, but when the big three got together and had that over the top press conference I have been an avid fan of anyone, but Miami. Luckily my Mavericks did me a favor. Now I am hoping that Indiana can step up. When Miami put that much talent together, they should have been humble and self confident, not over the top and flamboyant. I am a real big believer in respect of human dignity and they just blew that concept out the window that day. If you say God gave you all that talent then listen to what God says about being humble. It is good to be self confident, it is not good to be egotistical. A self confident person understands what he can do and does it quietly. The accolades come when the job is done.


A nice quiet cool evening on a June night in Texas.