Snarge

According to the liberals, Bush hatred and Obama euphoria are two sides of the coin reflecting political wisdom. What can one expect from people who can talk from both sides of their mouths at once? Also, liberals lie. Their passions trump reason. Why wouldn’t hatred and euphoria override common sense and rational thinking? Deluded liberal thinking is both a denial of reality and a belief in unreality ( like a dual imprint on a coin). Bird goo from an unfortunate interaction between avian and human flying machines is called snarge. I so like the neologism snarge; it’s sound and significance fits the residue of liberal thought.

Extra-terrestial

Locked here in Ohio ice, I can pretend I am in Antarctica as ice glistens - and I do mean glistens- in the sun. Tree branches, bushes, wire on fence lines, ground snow glazed over by the wind - my panorama glistens. I am awed by this environmental ice capade, this temporary, extra-terrestrial interlude. It’s read and it’s natural. An alternative universe, however, the one in Washington, is unnatural and surreal. How can politicians dream up a porkulus ( 900 billion spending package)? How can even one politician ( I heard) say that the bill "shelters the homeless and heals the sick" unless he’s living in an other world?

Citizen Paul, a resident of Quincy, Ill. wrote about baby boomers today: "Will this aging-yuppie narcissism never end?" He adds that the world will only change for the better when the last of his (boomer) generation is gone. Hello, Paul! If boomers disappear, some new, insane demographic will just take their place. Right now I must ask when the spending insanity will end. Political narcissism applies to the liberal, leftist, socialists in Washington led by our new President Obama. Since Obama’s followers choose to be like sheep, what they step in can be predicted. America is now in deep sh... because the concept of billions and trillions is in itself extra-terrestrial.

Freedom is the key word

Freedom is the key word. In Thomas Paine’s "Common Sense" in 1776 he observed that "Freedom hath been hunted round the Globe....Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! Receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind." Then along came our American Revolution.

Freedom is the key word. Straight-talking President Herbert Hoover in 1940, when two thirds of the world was at war, said that the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse ( war, famine, death and pestilence ) were joined by imperialism, intolerance, state-ism, atheism and hate. Their camp follower was revolution. Hoover also said that "Only the Western Hemisphere is free of the full violence of these Horsemen.... Reason and hope for the world call for the restoration of those nations who have lost their freedom." So along came our involvement in World War II.

Freedom is the key word. 2009 is planting time for the biggest budget deficit in American history, almost a trillion dollars as a result of the present stimulus (porkulus) package of our new President, Obama and his Cabinet. Obama has enough votes for passage thanks to a Democrat majority in both the House and Senate. Now is the time to remember the words of Paine in 1775. "Now is the seed-time of continental union, faith and honour." Along must come again a moral revolution against the usurpation of our foremost, fought-for freedom of self-determination.

Contrapunal

Cardinal companions, a red-lit he and a drab companion she perch on iced branches. A squirrel scampers up and jumps across the top limbs of two ice-coated trees. A woodpecker creeps unconcerned as the snow blanket deepens all around. Winter business proceeds as usual. But in Washington, the music of the spheres, is being re-defined. A stimulus, actually a porkulus, is a package full of spending, delivering dollars to losers so that the market economy cannot work.
Congress and the President feel the favored few are 'too big to fail;' the rest of us are 'too small to win.' I have no 'in' with the powerful and the corrupt. An abandoned victim of a winter storm, I provide birdseed to God’s creatures as Washington sows the seeds of a harvest of national discontent.

No Man Is an Island

Thomas Merton asks in his "No Man is an Island," "Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something that we would never want to be, if we only knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?

We cannot be ourselves unless we know ourselves. But self-knowledge is impossible when thoughtless and automatic activity keeps our souls in confusion. In order to know ourselves it is not necessary to cease all activity in order to think about ourselves. That would be useless, and would probably do most of us a great deal of harm. But we have to shut down our activity to the point where we can think calmly and reasonably about our actions. We cannot begin to know ourselves until we can see the real reasons why we do the things we do, and we cannot be ourselves until our actions correspond to our intentions, and our intentions are appropriate to our situation. ... It is not necessary that we succeed in everything.. A man can be perfect and still reap no fruit from his work, and it may happen that a man is who is able to accomplish very little is much more of a person than another who seems to accomplish very much."

Heads up Barry! Heads down Barry!. A little introspection could go a long way to expose your shallow, self-centered, hedonism and your false belief in re-distribution of wealth at the expense of those who produce wealth. As President you could accomplish much by doing little, by regulating less, by encouraging self-sufficiency more. For you, an examination of conscience - as we Catholic school children were told to call it - could go a long way.

Read up Barry, on Merton’s discussion of hope and despair. It is still not too late for you to mend your ways. Merton reminds each of us about "addressing God in the emptiness of a hope that may come close to despair.... perfect hope is achieved on the brink of despair, when instead of falling over the edge, we find ourselves walking on the air. Hope is always just about to turn into despair, but never does, for at the moment of supreme crisis God’s power is suddenly made perfect to our infirmity."

Barry and the Obambots

Remember Bill Haley and the Comets or Diana Ross and the Supremes? The newest group singing the old music of socialism and Thomas Paine’s revolution consists of our new President Barack Obama and the leftists in his Clinton, left-overs’ Cabinet. Congress, like a worshiping audience, claps for Barry and the Obamabots all the way through and after their songs about the new "era of responsibility." Investment in democracy, a code for socialism, sounds the notes about shared sacrifice and a fairer distribution of wealth in our society.

I recently listened to a misguided fool who is better looking than Obama and a better speaker too - Van Jones, a 100% black man with O% reason. His message to Americans and to Obama revolves around ending "ECO apartheid." His agenda already resonates with kooks from Oregon, California and ‘greenies’ who hear strains of environmental music. Mr. Jones hopes that Obama will lead America down "green pathways out of poverty." An appealing and capable speaker, Mr. Jones presents the same, present danger to traditional self-sufficiency and democratic principles as Obama. Lordy help us!

Tolstoy vs. Tolstoy

"Whether we like it or not, the future belongs to ... the shuffling mob of men of good will."

If everything in the world is empty agitation and vanity ( Socrates) , if the sole good is the passage from being to nothingness (Schopenhauer), if we must free ourselves from life ( Buddha) , why then asks Tolstoy, do the majority of people not commit suicide?

Tolstoy was always sad when he rejected God and cheerful when he accepted him like a child.

The Christian religion ( according to Pascal and Tolstoy ) " being a mixture of internal and external, is proportionate to all. It elevates the lowly within and humbles the proud without."

Tolstoy admitted that (his) present activities ( charity to the victims of famine) were not in harmony with his principle that a " good deed does not consist in giving bread to feed the famished, but in loving the famished as much as the overfed. Loving is more important than giving food.."

"The result of his sermons on love is that he lost all feeling for his own family, " wrote his long-suffering wife Sonya in 1895. "Fame, (is) that unquenchable thirst for which he (Tolstoy) has sacrificed everything..."

Sonya ( who bore Tolstoy 13 children) also points out that "he (Tolstoy) never sat for five minutes by a bedside to let me have a rest or sleep the night through or go for a walk or simply pause for a moment to recover my strength."

As a socialist Tolstoy affirmed that the rich subsist on the sweat of the people, consuming everything they possess and produce. His lifetime, internal struggle culminated in a philosophy of chastity, vegetarianism, abstinence from tobacco and alcohol, pooling of all goods and property and non-resistance to evil ( although he did not uphold most of these tenets ).

In contrast to Tolstoy’s socialist belief that those at the top should bring themselves down to the level of the people, Chekhov, the playwright, believed that the "level of the people should be raised by education. Chekhov wisely said that "there is more love in electricity and steam than there is in chastity and the refusal to eat meat."

Tolstoy pointed out the absurdity of the "revelry among the common people which always accompanied the official installation of a tyrant on his throne." He was referencing Nicholas II of Russia in 1896.

Observations from the life of a jerk of a man to a genius of a writer (Tolstoy) aptly apply today. America just crowned a self-centered leader espousing socialistic principles with pomp, circumstance and revelry from the common people (and the elites). History repeats itself.

4 thought

This is my 44th blog in my 4th year of blogging in the wilderness. 44th is also the position of our new President Obama in U.S. history. The thought occurred to me that he is America’s placebo. His harmless message of hope and change gave humor to hopeless citizens, flattered and pleased souls and psyches and provided the control in the experiment called socialism in America. The price of this pleasure (placebo) is an alternative reality; Obama is the alternative medicine for what’s ailing Americans. I noted too that a placebo in the Roman Catholic Church ( mine) is the opening antiphon of the vespers for the dead. Who could have guessed the appropriateness and irony of this definition? Obama - one of the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse - will be ‘responsible’ ( his re-defined word choice for socialism) for putting free market capitalism permanently to rest.

His bird

Joy finally snatched a tweety bird -
A joy that might have been unheard
Of in his teeny, jungle- tainted brain.
Granted, sparrow, having crashed a pane
Was dead. Still, the thrill of a head in mouth
Gratified a cat whose whiskers, at the thought,
Trembled daily during bird watching. Thus,
The white-crowned sparrow served as a plus.
Watched by God who rendered brief the pain
A domestic cat triumphed over winged strain.

Lie land

Are we now living in the land of the lie? Victor Davis Hanson eloquently and cleverly expressed the status of other countries around the world. Witness, he says, the "tribal dictatorships" of the Middle Ease, the "thugs" in Africa, the "creepy places" like Russia, Iran and North Korea and the "land of lotus eaters" in Europe. I’m considering whether America has become the land of the lie - because liberals lie. Liberals includes the media, journalists, Democrat politicians, Hollywood stars, sports heroes, entertainment icons and citizens who seek money, status and privilege while they simultaneously preach economic and social parity. A recent You Tube video portrays this sad reality beautifully and ends with these meaningless, feel-good, words: "Together we can, together we are, and together we will be the change we seek." Our new President Obama has inspired this cult-like, shallow anti-intellectuality, this service to a ‘master.’ Does our new President really represent this inanity and socialist change? We are witnessing an opiated populace, living out life in a land of appealing lies.

Reflection on the wall

This country was founded upon tripartite diversity. American colonies possessed royal charters, corporate charters or proprietary charters. When dissent entered our ranks by way of the sugar acts, the quartering act and the stamp act, colonists took retaliatory actions that eventually resulted in a war for independence and a victory for a new Republic. In 1767, John Dickinson (who wrote the Articles of Confederation) believed that "those who are taxed without their consent are slaves." White slaves, therefore, as well as black slaves inhabited this nascent nation.
We’ve come a long way to yesterday! David Ogilvy, an ad man, pegged ‘it,’ meaning the moment in our history when the first black President, Obama, took office. Advertising’s goal is to urge consumption of a product and Ogilvy warned about the "slippery surface of irrelevant brilliance." Glitter should not triumph over substance.

We’ve come a long way to yesterday because to a man and woman, each and every customer of Obamamania sees (and hears and speaks about ) only an idealized Platonic reflection flickering on the wall in the cave. Reality doesn’t count.

It's inane

It’s over and it’s inane - our 44th President’s inaugural speech. It’s obvious his governance will have a monopoly on force in spite of the fact that he calls for individual responsibility. Contradictions peppered his address. How will individuals combine their energies to live and at the same time be naturally self-governing ( as Rose Wilder Lane writes in "The Discovery of Freedom") if government is not seen as the problem, but the solution? Progress only involves the individual controlling the government that controls him; pure democracy creates an irresponsible tyrant. President Obama conjured up images of Americans’ inherent freedoms and battles for freedom, but he also contradicted this legacy with a liberal laundry list of political platitudes about re-fashioning our nation and its place in the world. Rose Wilder Lane would agree with our Founding Fathers, not Father Obama, that only restrictions on government permit individuals to exercise their natural freedoms.

Freedom's day

George Washington indulged an enthusiastic idea that "the period is not very remote when the benefits of a liberal and free commerce will pretty generally succeed to the devastations and horrors of war." In other words, freedom among peoples across the globe would replace war.

Ebenezer Fox, a soldier in Washington’s Revolutionary war also upheld the idea of protecting the freedom of the individual citizen, not only from outsiders, but from insiders - and especially from men in public office. He would have said that the federal, state, county and city governments must be set up as the servants rather than the masters of the people.

America’s revolution had no ‘leader,’ in Authority. Our revolution equaled hope because human freedom and human progress were personal matters, not dependent upon authority. Human energy left unharnessed changes and advances civilizations both morally and economically.

Take two examples: When the King’s troops (George III) advanced down the Hudson River in 1776, free people resisted them. When a commercial plane went down in the Hudson River in 2009, free men rushed to rescue their fellow human beings.

Our first President knew that only freedom, the free exchange of good and ideas accounts for progress. What does our new 44th President, Obama know?

MMP = NR + H x T

Man’s material progress depends on natural resources plus human energy multiplied by tools. This is the free market formula for the advancement of civilization formulated by Henry Grady Weaver in his wonderful 1947 book, "The Mainspring of Human Progress." With this in mind why should there be a centralized authority to control human energies and run things the way they ‘ought’ to be run? Only an individual can generate and control energy, his own energy, in his own way, to advance his own way of life which incidentally and simultaneously will improve the lives of his fellow human beings. Win-win? On the threshold of the historical elevation of Barack Obama into the White House, it’s fitting to remember that America enters a lose-lose era. Natural resources will be rationed, human energy will be curtailed by regulations and the tools in the work shed with which the work of human progress can continue will be limited. As I’ve noted before, America, "we’re s......"

4 analyses of the state of the world

"Look at me, I’m as poor as Job, I have no wife nor garden nor children, nothing - just a gun, a sparrow hawk and three dogs, but I have never complained of anything and I never shall, I live in the forest, I look around me - everything I see is mine. I come home and I sing a song." - from a Cossack from the Caucasus in 1851.

"Peasants till the soil, house-servants serve their masters, merchants do business, soldiers do their service, coppersmiths make samovars, priests say mass, and gentlemen do nothing." - from muzhik children of Leo Tolstoy’s school in 1861.

"Why are the beauty of the sun, the beauty of a human face, the beauty of a folk song, the beauty of a act of love or self-denial intelligible to all, without any special training.?" - from Leo Tolstoy who in 1961, felt people are sufficient unto themselves.

Fast forward to 2009 - how does a popular, political pundit, writer and analyst sum up the present state of affairs before the inauguration of our next President, Barack Obama - " Suspend disbelief." - These words are only possible when his leadership is suspected of being genteel and faith in his leadership is without content.

"Fuel of interest to the fire of genius"

Adults and children alike are helpless today. If someone doesn’t have money to drive to the office, we’ll help them over the phone; so says a director of a government program on jobs. The tobacco industry has been forced by litigation to fund a program for 6th to 8th graders on "life skills." On a healthier lives without tobacco. On resisting peer pressure. On the proper self-image which will save our children from cigarette use. On picking up butts as part of mandatory volunteerism to up the ante of the repulsion factor. Don’t count on it. Peer pressure is part of human nature. Young voters just facilitated the ascension of a new President Obama into the Oval Office. A smoker, by the way who does not resist peer pressure. Obama’s stimulus package and bailouts reinforce the conclusion that we’re all helpless today. Who said that America’s greatness was moving from the "fuel of interest to the fire of genius?" Who could have been no naive as to think that the soul and psyche of Americans would be totally consumed by that fire? That nothing would be left but the ashes. Oh, Abraham, no phoenix has risen as of today, January 16, 2009.

I'm out here

I’m out here! America needs me, the lone, conservative maverick. I call for a miracle of renewal of our national identity. I call for a party refashioned from traditional, conservative, moral principles because the Republican party has unfortunately been liberalized to include misguided compassion and unnecessary governmental spending and interventions. We need a contest to rename our party along the lines of a responsible freedom party representing liberty under moral law. I am your woman to lead. I need a donor to help me restore America to common sense, dependence upon free markets and entrepreneurial thinking. America’s drift to socialism must be slowed. I need a sponsor for my candidacy for President. Reagan was funded by $800,000 for his campaign speeches around the country; Obama has had billionaire George Soros backing him. These two ‘greats’ were only discovered with proper funding.

As President I would select my cabinet randomly from names in my local phone book. As President I would symbolize a return to a morality based and free-market based politics. Social security and health insurance should be privatized. Government social welfare programs should be eliminated. Insane waste of taxpayer dollars should be jettisoned. Recently I heard on local radio of two useless government programs. One is to "relieve the needs of student mothers (and fathers);" another is the re-named and expanded food stamps program, SNAP (supplemental nutritional assistance program). I am the forgotten woman, the normal nobody, a conservative with a conscience that Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and like luminaries hope exists "out there."

Something has happened to America’s four freedoms: to save responsibly, to spend wisely, to choose morally and to think logically in order to do what’s right for individual progress and national advancement. The public perceives no differences between the two parties of big spending and detachment in Washington. They demanded change but elected elitist Obama. Americans might have been tired of political rhetoric, but they elected Obama on the basis of his mellifluous meaningless words about hope and change. The Republican party needs a miracle of renewal and new name. How about the Allegiance party representing duty to self-improvement?
I’m out here! If it’s Sarah Palin and/or Bobby Jindal in 2012, I am needed as mentor. I understand that we must oppose higher taxes, left-learning judges, a weakened national security, socialized health care, the hoax of global warming, wealth re-distribution, misguided immigration policy, multi-lateral diplomacy, political correctness, cultural indecencies, uncivil discourse and repressed rights. My campaign slogan would be, "Yes, we can," referring to eliminating government programs, grants. bailouts, stimuli and spending and encouraging self-sufficiency.

I embrace this country’s goodness, traditions, constitutional guarantees and core decency. Call me. Test my credentials. In retirement, I have had time to consider America’s future. I obviously would be a political outlier who has foresworn the appeals of power, pork, perks and privilege. I have been blogging in the wilderness for 4 years at: tcminc.blogspot.com

Do you believe?

Do Americans believe in
A. the land of the free, the home of the brave,
B that life involves ups and downs to be faced, or
C. the pursuit of the impossible dream?
This question was posed this morning by radio talk show host, Glenn Beck. The answer will be played out literally and symbolically this year under the reign of our new President, Barack Obama. He requires motorcades to transport him from A. to B. or C. In contrast, a resident of Minnesota, even during 18 degree below zero snow storms, required only his feet to transport him jogging from A. to B. or C. In the coming year, I’m rooting for the average American, literally free and brave, bobbing on life’s waves and questing, not for a carpetbagger, Obama, from a distant shore symbolizing the hedonistic, elitist and spineless lifestyle of a European.

Short but bitter

I cannot pass by a few words of non sense. Short and bitter, not short and sweet, are the words I now quote from the local patois highlighted on local radio. A mayor referring to the economic stimulus package which is absolutely necessary because we must do ‘something’ rather than nothing: as "applied to get that goose going." A local basketball coach referring to a game: ... with "that side of numbering." An art museum director referring to an upcoming show from prison inmates: about "a wide variety of mediums on a basis." Lastly, the prison director referring to: "a love that they continue to do." A bitter pill to swallow - the massacre of English from mouths that refuse to close.

Dare I Speak?

Dare I speak until after the Super Bowl has been played February 1st? Does anyone care about serious questions until then? I have a few questions for our new President, Barack Obama, and my fellow citizens, about the new administration, but I fear that even after the January 20th inauguration, I still couldn’t be heard because nothing can prevent diehard Americans from a mind-numbing, soul-satisfying party.
First, I would like to question the validity of what reporters, politicians and our President-elect continually refer to as TET’s ( tough economic times). I’ve noted that coast-to-coast bowl games, playoff’s, local sports’ match-ups and practice sessions on a grand scale have not been canceled. Before academics in schools and short of death, athletics always go on.
I would like to ask Obama what he means by the "crisis unlike any faced in the history of this country." Are these TET’s if the new administration can afford to charge taxpayers billions for bailouts? The names of Obama’s programs sound like double speak right out of the novel 1984: the " Troubled Assets Relief Program" (TARP), the "Equalization of Opportunity Act," the 700 billion dollar "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act," the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act," and the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan now expanded to 1.2 trillion dollars. I think there’s a crisis when Obama talks about ridding politics of earmarks, but he just replaces them with special interest pet projects (pork) to the tune of a 1.5 trillion dollar stimulus package.
Dare I ask if 1.2 trillion dollars will be invested well? Here’s one example of planned reconstruction and infrastructure. A town of 194 people will be helped to the tune of 375 million dollars. That averages out to 2 million dollars per person. If each citizen received the money directly, he could be set for life (like winning the lottery) but no, the dollars will convert street lights to solar power, provide solar panels on the town hall, build solar panel re-charging stations for golf carts and cars and install water pipes under the road to soak up heat. And let’s not forget the Renewable Energy Museum. The town’s major approves. Do I the taxpayer? Other investments in Obama’s stimulus plan around the country include museums, water slides, walking trails, sports facilities and zoo exhibits. Government always seem to possess more money than brains. Even today on the radio I hear about a ‘program’ sponsored by a ‘grant’ to "relieve the needs of student mothers."
There is a genuine crisis when the anti-war candidate now plans to wage war on achievers. Those who strive to ‘get rich’ (earn over say $300,000), will be punished by higher taxes. Obama plans to retain the estate tax which discourages anyone from accumulating wealth because wealth will be taxed twice - once when earned, once at a person’s death. Dare I ask why Obama speaks about one America in which hard work will "again" be rewarded?
The media - to use a football analogy - has run cover for their man throughout the campaign games up to his election in spite of his vague message of hope. The media continue to facilitate his plans for change. Who would guess that the present economic crisis in sub-prime lending was originally conceived and enshrined by the Democrat party into law beginning with President Carter? Who knows that for decades the process of risky loans has been encouraged and expanded by Democrats (and wobbly Republicans) until now it’s like an iceberg. Today we see a huge iceberg, not just the tip, that accounts for the sinking of many economies around the globe.
Ayn Rand in 1957 published what would become a famous novel, "Atlas Shrugged." The theme of the story is that when profits, wealth and creativity are discouraged in society, they start to disappear, leaving everyone the poorer. Politicians in Rand’s book, invariably respond to crises, that in most cases they themselves created, with new government programs, laws and regulations. These often fail but they then inspire the politicians to create more programs and the downward spiral repeats itself until productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness. Does any of this sound familiar? Rand foreshadowed and parodied the economic carnage which will be caused by big government running amok. Ayn Rand’s big brother government would certainly not have been her choice for MVP.
For all Americans, Obamabots or not, change is around the corner in the coming year. After recovery from the Super Bowl, some voters may discover they have been deceived. Others who wanted to be deceived may disapprove of new, discarded liberties. Many Americans already understand that equality under the law is being redefined and re-engineered. It’s a long time until another big game day, election day, but not it’s not too late to ask questions.

Gay marriage

Even the title of an editorial by William Collins, "Gay Rights: Sad Progress ", January 10, tell us readers that an agenda will follow. Under the cover of a quote from our Constitution that everyone deserves "equal protection under the law," the Collins expects us to believe that the entire nation as well as his liberally governed Democratic home state of Connecticut favors gay marriage rights by a margin of 53% or more. Doesn’t he distort the concept of majority rule in our democracy? Unfortunately the author misinterprets the basic meaning of equal protection clause which guarantees all citizens equal legal protections to life, liberty and property under the Constitution and laws. Collins wants a new right, Gay Marriage, inserted into the constitution. Although a majority of Americans have already passed judgment, through laws or constitutional amendments, on what they believe to be an unacceptable lifestyle and marriage option, Collins wants to deny them their say. Collins knows that the private sphere has always been protected, but he won’t admit that the moral sphere has always been a part of politics. Like it or not, William, one inclusive, non-religiously based commandment, "love your neighbor as yourself," does not allow for false interpretation. What’s sad about proponents of gay marriage and a distortion of equal rights, like Collins, is that when the majority of the people speak, he and his minority will not listen.

My changes

With a trillion dollars on the line to help the economy and improve Americans’ lives, here are a few of my counter suggestions.

1. Cancel the public education system and remit to taxpayers $10,000 per household to choose a private school system. Each year ‘kids’ could be moved around by parents if learning was not a priority at a specific school, unless parents choose athletics over academics. Then so be it.
2. Offer a billion dollar prize for a high mileage vehicle consumers admire and crave. Who cares about emissions or size? Appearance and fuel savings must be the driving features.
3. More energy - electrical that is- can be found by building nuclear plants across the country. Forget about environmentalists and government regulations, go for 50 of them in 10 years. Then the ‘grid lock’ we often face today as power failures could be freed up for alternative uses.
4. Create a spray can of DDT and distribute it to every person threatened by the nasty mosquito responsible for millions of malaria deaths each year. If possible, mask the odor with a pleasant perfume, but do not lesson the efficacy of the insecticide.

5. Create and facilitate (tell the dictators they have no choice but to cooperate) de-salination plants to provide fresh water to the needy. One of the top two causes of mortality, lack of fresh water ( following lack of food) must be addressed. Water, water is everywhere, but many have not sufficient drops to drink.

6. Now to the food problem. Bioengineering should be turned loose to the biologists, chemists and agronomists. Rock concerts could be venues for food distribution. My word! Hunger should not be in any song lyrics of the 21st century.

7. Lastly, I want satellite reception like my urban friends. Since country bumpkins are deprived of choices in viewing entertainment, why can’t another dish be put into space to provide us access to our own special place in the sky?

Cato the orator knew about the "vast fund of stupidity" in human nature. The in-coming liberal administration aptly demonstrates this fact. Government is not the short-term solution to problems. Big brother just replays long-term, the mistakes of the past.

Orginal hope for change

St Paul the apostle of Christ first preached the hope for change. An expose by John Knox on Paul says that "Christ is not merely to come; Christ has come. The kingdom of God , the realm of the Spirit, is not simply an object of eager longing or of expectation, however confident; the whole ground of the Christian life lies in the fact that in the church, the kingdom of God is really, though partially, present, and that in the Spirit, which has already been given, we have a foretaste, an advance installment of the whole eschatological order of the Spirit."

Christ’s church, Christianity, is literally God’s new creation of both a community of the Spirit (God’s grace) and a community of love. Paul ably converted many people into believers that they might be justified and reconciled in Christ. A Christian literally is to be "in Christ." The promised land, therefore, of which we Christians now have a foretaste on earth, will not be entered when Obama takes the oath of office in January 2009. Alleluia! Hail to the true chief!

Market vs. morality

If a war were possible between the market and morality there would be a clear winner on the side of right. The market operates in its natural state of unrelenting self-destruction, its tendency to bubble, then to overcorrect. This is good, common sense, freedom of behavior. The current housing crisis offers an example of the possibility of a market vs. morality. Loans were issued to those who couldn’t afford them and outside pressures from government equal to blackmail, encouraged expansion of the unsustainable, unfair system. This was bad behavior. If we are "all one in Christ Jesus," as St. Paul the Apostle preached, we are all one in his call to goodness. Unfortunately, it just a call. Many are called; few have chosen to do the right thing.

Yes, no

Whenever I read about a spectacular museum exhibit, ancient of course, artifacts involve scenes of warfare and prayer to the gods. Animals, precious metals and gemstones also figure heavily in the art. Altimara, Spain’s Stone Age cave drawings involved a huge bison-like animal. An Egyptian helmet required 33 boars’ tusks in its creation. The headdress of an Egyptian queen utilized gold, glass, turquoise and carnelian. Imagining life in the civilizations from which these masterpieces derive is impossible. But taking away an understanding of basic human needs is not difficult. In the beginning, there were wars and gods. There was man and man among the animals. Man, god, war and animals, like spokes of a wheel, continually revolve together. Modern technologies have changed warfare, religious observances, metallurgy and veterinary medicine, but the basics of human endeavor have not changed. We need God, war, animal companions and creative expression. Inexplicable, yes. Deniable, no.

Yes, no

Whenever I read about a spectacular museum exhibit, ancient of course, artifacts involve scenes of warfare and prayer to the gods. Animals, precious metals and gemstones also figure heavily in the art. Altimara, Spain’s Stone Age cave drawings involved a huge bison-like animal. An Egyptian helmet required 33 boars’ tusks in its creation. The headdress of an Egyptian queen utilized gold, glass, turquoise and carnelian. Imagining life in the civilizations from which these masterpieces derive is impossible. But taking away an understanding of basic human needs is not difficult. In the beginning, there were wars and gods. There was man and man among the animals. Man, god, war and animals, like spokes of a wheel, continually revolve together. Modern technologies have changed warfare, religious observances, metallurgy and veterinary medicine, but the basics of human endeavor have not changed. We need God, war, animal companions and creative expression. Inexplicable, yes. Deniable, no.

Yes, no

Whenever I read about a spectacular museum exhibit, ancient of course, artifacts involve scenes of warfare and prayer to the gods. Animals, precious metals and gemstones also figure heavily in the art. Altimara, Spain’s Stone Age cave drawings involved a huge bison-like animal. An Egyptian helmet required 33 boars’ tusks in its creation. The headdress of an Egyptian queen utilized gold, glass, turquoise and carnelian. Imagining life in the civilizations from which these masterpieces derive is impossible. But taking away an understanding of basic human needs is not difficult. In the beginning, there were wars and gods. There was man and man among the animals. Man, god, war and animals, like spokes of a wheel, continually revolve together. Modern technologies have changed warfare, religious observances, metallurgy and veterinary medicine, but the basics of human endeavor have not changed. We need God, war, animal companions and creative expression. Inexplicable, yes. Deniable, no.

Yes, no

Whenever I read about a spectacular museum exhibit, ancient of course, artifacts involve scenes of warfare and prayer to the gods. Animals, precious metals and gemstones also figure heavily in the art. Altimara, Spain’s Stone Age cave drawings involved a huge bison-like animal. An Egyptian helmet required 33 boars’ tusks in its creation. The headdress of an Egyptian queen utilized gold, glass, turquoise and carnelian. Imagining life in the civilizations from which these masterpieces derive is impossible. But taking away an understanding of basic human needs is not difficult. In the beginning, there were wars and gods. There was man and man among the animals. Man, god, war and animals, like spokes of a wheel, continually revolve together. Modern technologies have changed warfare, religious observances, metallurgy and veterinary medicine, but the basics of human endeavor have not changed. We need God, war, animal companions and creative expression. Inexplicable, yes. Deniable, no.

Creative destruction

Economist Joseph Schumpeter in the 1930's coined the phrase, "merchants of debt," those who market debt to as many forms and to as many buyers as possible. The merchants have become more and more innovative over time and continue to ply their trade disgracing America in the eyes of the world. Yes, credit is the American way, without debt our economy could never have boomed or our standard of living increased, but ... Schumpeter also coined a concomitant phrase, "creative destruction" which means that companies or industries that are no longer competitive wither away, replaced by new businesses that are nimble, delivering what the public wants. Unfortunately, government hates ‘creative destruction’ and spends great amounts of public treasure bailing out and subsidizing uncompetitive dinosaurs.

Enter, the big O, the President-elect, trumpeting his zero-sum- gain tax credit plan named with a double entendre, "Making Work Pay." Tax cuts for the middle class and small businesses will simply be a "credit to offset Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes." What does this mean? The hand that giveth is actually taking away. Too bad politicians and the public refuse to (or through ignorance, are unable to) see that government still is a merchant of debt known to create destruction. America, we’re ruined - as usual.

ITT

Information, technology and innovation are keys to America’s future prosperity. If we made commitments to high-value-added manufacturers and exporters like Germany, Japan and Switzerland would some success be likely for our comeback on the world stage? Would abandoning our hubris of military and financial imperialism also help because both these postures represent drags on America’s future? The answer is no but a writer, pundit, politician and commentator with Bush derangement syndrome, (which escapes me because I think rationally) Kevin Phillips, says yes. He denies the possibility that progress involves change and evolution. From behind his liberal glasses which see the world upside down and inside out, what can you expect? All major premises from people like Phillips are flawed. I debunk Phillips’ two suggestions: first, manufacturing and exporting are past tense concepts which need not perpetuate themselves. ITI should be more important to America’s upward path. We are not Germany, Japan or Switzerland. Secondly, without America’s defense of freedom, her military presence (which most European countries depend upon) and her financial importance around the globe, the quality of life for citizens worldwide would not have gradually risen over the past century. Period.

Phillips likes to quote polls and surveys conducted in America and around the world to prove disapproval of the United States and her awful, arrogant past-President George W. Bush. Studies mentioned in his recent book, Bad Money are from: 2007 Strategic Survey of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Trans-Atlantic Trends 2007, the Pew Global Attitudes Project, 2007, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs Multinational Survey, 2007. Phillips bolsters his proof of our ‘fall from grace’ with a few precautions from: the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia, the Alienating U.S. Presence in the Middle East, and Argentina and Financial Bitterness at the United States. Each analysis proves we are hated. Period. Yet what’s good about a country like Argentina rejecting its debts and teaming up with dictators and bullies to restore "a degree of prosperity" through more populist economic policies? " The implication that we should follow the populist trend to isolationism, compromise and diplomacy ignores the fact that most Americans (and ½ of voters in each election) oppose the stance of do-nothingness or capitulation. The hope of Phillips and his liberal, leftist buddies is to re-make the American spirit into a European (dare I say French) model of insulated, socialist living. Each objection in his cited surveys, relies upon positions of anti-war, pro-environment, reduced global policing and anti-Middle East presence. If America followed the path of least resistence, all enemies of truth, justice and the American way would be satisfied. All dictators and extremist leaders would be delighted because they could depend upon our non-intervention in their ‘business.’

Wimps needs a scapegoat and the only beast willing to take on the bullies of the savanna is should expect to be vilified. Duh! Muslim bullies, Russian bullies, African bullies, Venezuelan and Cuban bullies, European wimps, Canadian wimps, don’t like America. Duh! Without us, wimps would lack the freedom to practice wimphood; bullies would ... bully.

New Year's resolution

As the notorious 19th century persona, George Sand wrote, "Life is a journey with life as its destination" - so she (he) lived. Even a few of her dying words reflect her upbeat love of liberty, her raison d’etre. "Leave greenness..."she said. Sand would have despised (her opinions were seriously held) the notion of hoping for change to enhance her freedoms. She enjoyed the present and embraced the permanent presence of past experiences. Sand had faith that all past lives and deaths remained alive in memories and feelings throughout life. For Sand, faith was like the rails on which she rode through time. Her journey alternated between Camelot and a valley of tears but she never lost faith and always sought equilibrium. Knowing herself (or himself) facilitated the search for the golden mean. George Sand’s resolution to pursue absolute liberty was lifelong. In 2009, America needs a wake up call, a resolution to also pursue the golden mean, the path of least resistance - not too extremely left, not too extremely right, but just right. Good luck!

HOLIDAY SCOLDS

Have the scolds taken the holiday out of the holidays? The scolds are those people, lobbying groups, government agencies and public service announcements devoted to finding the gloomy side of every situation and then scolding us less conscientious citizens for enjoying ourselves when there are so many bad things out there. Shame on us! A holiday once was defined as a festive, homey, joyous occasion that the populous celebrated. Today, the recently concluded holiday season, which includes Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year ( the gluttons for holidays also include Halloween), has become a time for the Politically Correct scolds to berate the populous with gloom, doom and guilt.

We old folks have a memory of a world that was, but the young today will only remember the scoldings they get for celebrating each holiday and the reasons they should feel guilt and not joy. Listen to the television news, read the newspapers and endure the government warnings on the radio. I would guess that for every joyous expression in the media there are twenty warnings of dangers or scoldings about something to be regretted or avoided. Halloween equals fear. Thanksgiving is now the holiday of hunger. The reason for the season of Christmas is to remind us of suffering and homelessness. And New Years Eve - holy hangover, Batman - you better heed the warnings about excess love and drink.

Halloween once was a holiday in which unsupervised children in costumes ran about the neighborhood gathering bags of sugar- laden candy. Cares and fears were thrown to the wind. Tricks like waxing windows represented the worse of the bad behavior of the little beggars (mostly of the male persuasion). A holiday of youthful exuberance, neighborhood friendliness and and sweet treats now is a holiday of fear, poisoned treats, kidnaping, dangerous costumes and rotted teeth. The scolds whip up a frenzy of imaginary fears into a national hysteria.
Thanksgiving once was a holiday to give the Lord thanks for all the blessings of our nation. It ended in a feast during which we stuffed ourselves on turkey. Instead, we get warnings of food poisoning, diets crashing, gluttony, waste and slaughter on the highways as a result of family visitations. Always there is the report from the animal rights group PETA that we are committing genocide on our brother, the turkey. The scolds assume we common people have no common sense or self control. The new meaning of Thanksgiving in the media is hunger. Gone is the Normal Rockwell picture, ‘Home for Thanksgiving’; rather we see pictures of food lines at shelters and news anchors intoning self-righteous sermons on how most of the nation wants and suffers as only uncaring hedonists stuff their faces.

Christmas once was a holiday for one and all that celebrated the birth of Jesus with church (dare I use the word?) and gifts, both useful and frivolous. Seizing upon the fact that Jesus was born in a stable and equating that with being ‘homeless,’ the scolds get their Christmas jollies by making the day into a media event of reporting on homeless shelters, showing the poor receiving free dinners and giving heart rending reports of families ejected from their homes by unfeeling bankers (and, of course, George Bush ). Try counting the few scenes of joy shown by the media as opposed to the multiple anguished reports of widespread misery gripping the nation. What was once a blessed occasion for family gatherings and gift exchanges now is an opportunity for the scolds to ‘tut-tut’ us about the dangers of materialism, excessive spending, imported Chinese toys, third world exploitation of workers for the sake of our economy and misuse of the earth’s resources. I actually saw one article titled "Is Christmas Bad for the Environment?" Does the crackling of a small fire to burn the ‘happy’ trash previously ripped from packages really sadden mother Earth because of the toxic fumes?

And lastly, New Year Eve, which was once a joyous event in which food and drink were used to welcome a New and hopefully better Year than the last. Partying is bemoaned and buried under dire warnings about police blockades, sobriety checkpoints ( " and you will be arrested ") and excessive revelry and reports on hangover recipes and fatal accidents. I think the a scold’s greatest joy would be if the 12 foot Crystal Ball dropping in New York’s Times Square actually crashed down on a drunken, hungry, homeless person who was fleeing in fear from an abusive relationship. What headlines and warnings could be spun from that. What a start of a new year! All news reports this past holiday season have included the words, "in these tough economic times." What can we expect for 2009?

Ho, ho, ho, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas must go. P.S. New Year’s Eve too.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009

Nature vs. nurture - which prevails? If nurture (culture) has the dominant effect on a person’s life, social engineering can be justified from the earliest years. If nature (genetics) has the major role, brutal selection can be justified in an attempt to improve the race. Because both factors diminish in significance as a person matures (thanks to free will), the debate will continue. But where do we as Americans stand in this controversy? Seems to me we are compromising the inescapable ergo in the biological syllogism of human beings. We are born with both a fixed nature endowed with free will and with a nurture constantly mutating but also allowing for free choice. Therefore, given the common denominator, humans’ lives can be what they ‘will.’ "Holy homo sapiens," as Robin used to quip. Each individual is a caped crusader capable of doing good or embracing evil.