What is the temperature of the water?

Everyone knows how good it is to jump into a cool pool of water on a hot day. And many times the water is actually not the cool. It is just your perception that it is cool because it is cooler than the air temperature. You jump in and it takes a few seconds to get “use to it”. You perceive it as cool. 

Now realistically the water could be cool and you know this because you do not get used to it immediately. In fact, sometimes the water can be cool enough that even in 90-degree heat outside the water stays cool on your body and you get cold. 

You are left with deciding if the water is actually cold or just appears cold. Of course, facts help. If someone tells you the water temperature is 60 degrees on this 90-degree day you will state with confidence that the water is cold. Or is it?

When the air temperature has been in the 30′s or 40′s how does 60-degree water feel? Is it warm? 

Or why is it when the outside temperature is 100 + and the water temperature is in the 80′s or higher that when you step out of the water and a breeze hits you, it feels cold. You stand there thinking, its a hundred friggin degrees out here, why am I cold? 

And the obvious thought is this is all about perception. How does a person perceive the world around them and the answer is yes. 

And this same perception exists in people evaluating other people’s political leanings. A very liberal person will say someone who exhibits moderate traits is conservative. And like the 60-degree water and the 90-degree air temperature, there is still some perception involved. Facts exist and are accounted for, but not always completely accepted in a person’s perception. 

And this has gone on since the dawn of political thinking. People interpret other people’s beliefs based on their temperature. 

As you know I call myself an independent conservative, how you perceive me as a conservative is based on how liberal or conservative you tend to be. And since I incorporate some liberal thinking you may not think of me as a conservative, but throw in some facts and it is more confusing. Some people may say I am classically liberal meaning my roots are from a different era where what I believe was very liberal for the time. I stress my conservative nature by saying I want to conserve those values, hence I am conservative in the United States because I want to conserve the values of the Constitution and our founding fathers. I also value the traditional family, hard work, belief in a higher being or creator and other beliefs that align with what some call the American ethic or more self-centered American exceptionalism.

My concern is right now the perception carries much more weight for a society to be healthy. Perception will always exist, but when a whole country or society is dominated by it and facts aren’t considered anymore then there is concern for the future of that country or society. Are we that far along? Has Trump turned normal hard-working people into a society that has no true idea of the temperature of the water and only perceives it to be what they feel without any regard to the actual temperature and how that should feel?

To me, we have reached this extreme perception and little on the facts tipping point. And I believe that both sides of the proverbial aisle perceive the water is a much different temperature than their air temperature. The discourse and animosity spoke daily display this paradigm. My hope is that I have stepped out of warm water into warmer air and the only reason I am feeling this coldness is because it is a breeze hitting my skin and that will die and the real temperature will be felt and things will normalize to at least some historical averages.

Cheers

It’s almost the election year so let’s talk campaign reform

And the space between the title and me typing is about as much as you are going to get from the people in office. You will hear some ideas from the people running against the incumbents, yet the incumbents will focus on other issues. Yes, you will hear about how great is the economy or about a coming recession or how the other side is the bad guy, we are the good guys.

You will hear much lip service, but nothing substantive about healthcare, social security, tax reform, balancing the budget, and maybe some talk about education or protecting the consumer or middle class.  Everyone will tell you how great is the country, but the other side is the enemy and is out to destroy the country. 

Yes, the voting will be real partisan this year which in the end means our robber baron election system will continue, incumbents, will stay in office and rack up millions in campaign donations for them to abuse and occasionally someone gets caught.  And on this note, I was talking about the two Congressmen who were caught with my youngest and the quote was “..the whole thing honestly isn’t surprising” and “it’s the basic politician scandal”. No surprise, no shock, no indignation, nothing...just a raw acceptance of the fact our politicians are crooks and we cannot even begin to expect anything better. And this is my youngest child. 

So why even talk about campaign reform. First off, we need it. Second, we should expect more from the people we elect to represent us. People are so jaded though I am not sure we can get what we need. Just in case though, here are some simple ideas to get started.

Citizens United has to go. We need transparency in who is actually donating money to candidates. If the last few years have taught us anything is PACs are an antithesis to democracy or representative government. I believe people can give to candidates of their choice, yet it must be open. Some people always want to limit the amount of donations and I am for that, however, it is hard to pick some random number for the limit. Also, the Citizens United decision opens the door to foreign money pouring across our borders in all sorts of disguises. Maybe we should build a wall around campaign bank accounts.

Second and I have also mentioned this before. We need to shorten the campaign season. This constant campaigning, raising money, etc.. is counterproductive to a truly representative government.  

The two above creates a contradictory problem. People spend so much time raising money so they can spend it all campaigning all the time. Yes, I exaggerate a bit, we do have years where the campaign noise is minimal. Overall we are subjected to this barrage of information about how much each candidate raises for their war chest and then they go spend half of it so they can hoard the rest till next time. Shorter election seasons and serious limits on how much people can donate will help some.

The real reform has to come from us. We need to turn the duopoly of the Republicans and Democrats on its head. They are so ingrained we cannot get realistic or productive public policy. Our politics are stagnant. This duopoly has no fresh ideas; they are stuck with appeasing their base; they cannot respond to a changing world, and to say the least, they reach new lows after every election. The hatred is endemic. There is no respect for each other. The pretentious left hides it better, the alt-right Republicans wear it on their sleeves. So if we want change, we the average American, the rank and file party member, the independent need to make the real change. Real reform is us, waking up and recruiting new leaders from amongst us to replace the party machinery at the national level. 

Overall you can create numerous policy statements, spout all sorts of ideas to reform our elections, but until you change the people you will not obtain real reform. There is no motivation for the people in office to change the rules of the game when it continues to allow them to win over and over again.

So.........................say it..............................say it.....................................

We need new parties.

Cheers

Living wage versus living condition

I have been on the “we need a living wage” bandwagon for quite a while now. A friend of mine recently pointed out the correct way to address many of the social-economic problems we face is more a living condition fight.

In some ways, they are just about the same fight, yet by saying living condition you encompass a much broader way to define what we need as the working and middle class. He did not have to say more than two words to get me to understand the term living condition can be a better rallying cry all around than the term living wage. 

I can use some personal examples to help this distinction. First, though I remind the reader that I am an angry old man. It took years for me to claw my way back to a respectable wage since the recession. And this probably still matters to many. So using that knowledge this example might make a bit of sense. 

Healthcare is always a great example to use since just about everyone struggles with paying medical bills nowadays. So a couple of years ago I had day surgery that I had been needing for years. I had avoided it because of the cost. Then one day I ended up in the hospital and used up my deductible, so I thought I could afford the surgery. Well, not so fast, but to make a long story short, even after using my deductible and paying a few hundred dollars down I still had a bill that is taking me two years to pay off. Essentially come next April we will be getting a small raise in our take-home pay. Now I just recently got my last raise so I had a second job for two years, not just to pay this hospital bill. We do spend a bit more than we need to live in a place we really desire to live. It is all about location location location... joyfully I am able to walk to work. Anyway the better half works, I had two jobs and still, our budget was tight. Having a higher wage has helped, but it still leaves it difficult to continue to pay all past debts and save money. If the recession hadn’t hit us so hard then our lives would be much less stressful right now.

I hope I am explaining this well, but this is the living condition we should have and that is other people’s bad financial decisions shouldn’t impact hosts of other people to the point where they cannot manage a reasonable lifestyle. Nor should people, in any circumstances be put in a position that cost of living or healthcare or paying the utilities puts a strain on a budget. We should be able to earn enough, and the amount of the “enough” is not as important as what we can obtain with the wages we earn to live a reasonably stressless life in a boring day to day fashion.

We cannot predict what will happen so the amount we earn should allow us to save, to prepare for what may come when life isn’t the boring day to day routine. Also our lives and when I say our lives I am speaking to the broader world. We are blessed in this country and what we have should be the generator of much of our foreign policy, or another words we should work hard to make our economic policies be something other countries want to import to help their own people. Anyway our lives and what we “earn” should allow us to generate savings to be able to invest, or build a business or invest in our children’s future. Yes, we may have to make some sacrifices if we want to step out completely and take a chance on something completely new, yet we should be able to participate in the broader success of day to day living. 

Nothing will be perfect, but with the wealth concentration of modern economics, we are doing damage to the human condition. People’s lives shouldn’t be held hostage so a few people can accumulate more and more wealth. There has to be a balance. A person obtaining wealth in and of itself is not bad, but when the only people allowed to be successful are the same people over and over again you eventually destroy the fabric of society.

This society needs strong eduction, strong middle class, strong culture, strong values to thrive, yet when this is taken away as what is happening in our country now sooner or later the piper will be called and someone will have to pay in ways we, nor the uber-wealthy really want. 

A living condition is a better term than living wage because if we argue about what the minimum wage should be or what income is middle class we lose sight of what is more important and that is the overall condition of each individual. One hospital bill or one accident or one death in a family shouldn’t put a strain on a family’s budget. We should all be able to deal with a normal amount of life with a regular income. 

It is when people are working two jobs to pay the rent, light bill and eat food that the living condition is suffering. If you are having to do that you have no time to help your children succeed, plan for retirement, save for a rainy day or to handle unexpected events or pay hospital bills even when you have used up your deductible. To me, a second job is for saving for luxuries or savings or something special so having one should be a bonus not a necessity. And then the opportunity of having a second job, especially if temporary, benefits yourself and creates more economically for all. 

I said I would stay away from political posts as much as possible till 2020 since that is the election year, however, pocketbook issues and balancing the wealth gap are priorities we should address with the people running for office. 

If you have read this blog regularly you know I have put forth many ideas to address these issues. And I will continue in this endeavor in my blog all next year. In 2012 I wrote a very verbose platform for a fictitious third party that addressed these issues. In 2016 I posted ideas throughout the year. In 2020 I hope to get back to a full platform, yet be much more succinct. 

We still need new parties.

Cheers

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you are blessed with being able to spend the day with your family and friends or at least sometime this weekend with them

We need to be thankful more than ever, time to celebrate our lives where we can. 

I know for many the holidays are difficult times so please take the time to check on anyone you know who may be spending too much time on their own.

As we head into the election year, pray for us to elect leaders who care about humanity, show respect to all, respect the dignity of life in all phases of life, and create policy that benefits the country as a whole. Also pray for and thank the people who have the type of jobs where they might be working today or away from family such as doctors and hospital workers, firefighters, police and military personnel or nowadays the service workers who have to work minimum wage jobs just so the rest of us can enjoy the day; or even the TV people etc... Pray that eventually we can re prioritize our greed where the family still comes first and there is not this exessive need to squeeze every dollar out of us by large corporations. Our values and our lives are much more important than making that extra buck. It is this greed that has eaten into the families of America and makes it harder for us to keep our sights on what is most important.

Enjoy the day, heck enjoy the football games, and remember we are a great country because people fought for our values so we can enjoy the fruits of our labors and days like today.

Cheers

Responsibility, motivation, discipline, maturity

What does it all mean?

Today on the radio station the better half listens to in the morning, they asked the question are you an adult or something similar. This got me to thinking, what is an adult?

Is it age? meeting certain requirements defined by society? achieving something? paying your bills? 

Some people call themselves adults who can’t even spell the word. Others spend more time correcting you than doing anything else. Does this matter either way? 

I think many of us have some type of concept of who they may call an adult. I do not think among these many people that it is all the same definition. Why? 

Or there are people who are called children at heart. Does this mean they are adults generally? And what is a child at heart? 

Does this mean most adults are stiff and boring if they are not children at heart?

When I was young I would listen to adults call other adults children because of their behavior. Yet, how often did these adults behave like children versus not meet the expectations of other people that called themselves adults? Sometimes you could see their point and other times it seemed they were just being critical. So growing up, what role models do people have so they understand how to grow up to be an adult? I fear many do not have an idea of who to emulate. And if you ever asked an adult what all this meant, you heard words like the ones in the title above. Yet, no one really explains how those words apply. 

And if this goes on for generations, what happens to being an adult? Is it a moving target?

I do not have an answer to what is an adult. I know I am older than many others, I have a job, pay my bills, act goofy, hang out with people my own age to college-age children, not afraid to stand up for what I believe in sometimes, ignore reality other times, take responsibility for my mistakes most of the time, try to teach others what is better even if I have failed in that endeavor, I have raised children to take care of themselves, try to avoid responsibility sometimes, do chores I do not want to do, every now and then take on something extra, yet with all this am I an adult? Who knows?

Yet in our society, it is important that people consider you an adult whatever that means or is defined. I don’t know but the local radio station dedicated morning call in time to people to call in and discuss if they are an adult or act like an adult so it must be important. 

To me, this represents one of the problems of modern society and that is we want to label people to fit our definitions of who people should be, yet make no determination if this person is a worthwhile person. And then that leads to another post on what is a worthwhile person. Well, there goes the evening. :-)

Cheers

Same tune, new more appropriate words?

It’s beginning to look a lot like commercialism                                                                                     Everywhere you go                                                                                                                                 Take a look at the dollar store, trinkets once again                                                                              with stacks of candy and aisles that overflow

It’s beginning to look a lot like commercialism                                                                                          toys in all the walmarts                                                                                                                           but the ugliest site you will see is the junk that will be                                                                           stuffed in all those carts   

A pair of faux fur boots and a pistol that shoots                                                                                      will be the death of Janice and Ben                                                                                                  Monster dolls that cackle and caw from Halloween movies                                                                         will be all that’s left in the end

It’s beginning to look a lot like commercialism                                                                                     everywhere you go                                                                                                                                there’s a tree in the fading mall                                                                                                                 a fake one down your hall                                                                                                                          a plastic one the children only know 

It’s beginning to look a lot like commercialism                                                                                        and soon the bells will toll                                                                                                                            for all -------   our -------  souls  ---------                                                                       

Okay okay, I love Christmas, but I get tired of how much crap gets thrown at us starting now. Yes, I buy my children and grandchildren presents and love hot chocolate and wish upon a star for snow in Dallas on Christmas so I am not a scrooge, yet we need to sit back and re-evaluate what we are doing.

This should primarily be a time for family and traditions and yes I said that because this is how a culture, society keeps its values and principles going. People stress themselves out and have no Christmas joy. I hope and pray that you spend more time between 12/25 and 01/06 (12 days of Christmas) buying and giving your presents, shopping together, eating together, going to movies together, and most importantly talking together. Get over your grudges, they are not worth it, forgive your relatives and smile. Breath in the true meaning of Christmas, feel the joy, listen to the music, reach out to old friends, and celebrate the blessings of our lives. Some years are better than others and yes some are tough, but if you put the joy first over commercialism, you can make it work. 

And yes I am not the only person who has said Christmas is overly commercialized, but that cannot be said enough until we put the spirit before the crassness completely. And it is okay to splurge some for your family and friends, but why are you splurging? Make it because you can and the giving is coming from your heart. Otherwise, do what you can and be happy that you did what you could. Don’t judge and don’t feel guilty, that is not the spirit of Christmas. Enjoy the holidays, smile again, and spend some time in reflection as to the fact that we are blessed (most of the time =-)).

Preparing for Christmas has nothing to do with shopping and decorating at Thanksgiving. It has everything to do with introspection and spiritually preparing for the coming of Christ.

And yes the Mavs laid an egg last night so I am glad I am keeping perspective about how good they are as per my previous post. Still optimistic, just cautiously optimistic. I may have said this before I did put $2 down in Vegas via a friend for them to win it all, so I am slightly optimistic hence the fun bet.

Otherwise enjoy your November, your Thanksgiving, any warm days you receive over the next few months since the cold is inevitable and hopefully we all receive a beautiful calm picturesque snow during the holidays.

Cheers

We all have to do the damn math, Mr. Gates

First of all I commend you for starting and building a very successful business. No one should deny your efforts.

The issue is you are now using wealth to build more wealth and manipulating the tax code to avoid the consequences of extordinary wealth. This is what hisses people off. Your math is much different than the vast majority of this country.

For most people it is trying to determine how much withholding they can stomach while trying to pay the lights, the doctor bills, transportation, shoot sometimes even deciding what is for dinner is determined by what is in the bank account. 

For Mavs fans, lets give them twenty games before we decide how good this team is really. A playoff team maybe? A top tier team, hmmmm?

It is fall, winter is coming and we are hoping for a bit of snow here in North Texas this year. It has been awhile.

Cheers