Military-adventurism

Military-adventurism just leads to more Military-adventurism, besides if they cut all the waste out of the Military they could cut the Military budget in half without touching it’s effectiveness. If you look at Governments that who thought Military-adventurism would make them safer from Alexander the great on have failed to make them safe and lead to more Wars. The United States more any nation have fought War after War to solve problems that could have been solved and should have been solved peaceably for example in 1775 the biggest debate was that freedom for all also meant the slaves. If they had ended slavery there and then there would not have had to fight a bloody Civil War ninety years later. We can’t change the past, we can only change the future, and we can only hope we get wise enough to solve problems peaceably.

Why Legalize Pot?

WWhen something doesn’t work, why continue to waste time and Taxpayer dollars on the “War on Drugs”. If you legalize marijuana you will at least cut into the profits of the Drug Lords which will bring down the border fighting along the US and Mexican border. If you legalize marijuana you will empty the prisons of the pot heads making more room for real criminals. If you legalize Marijuana you can tax it there by saving taxpayers money both on law enforcement end and the if you use it you pay for it end. We can fight Marijuana use the same way that we fight cigarette smoking and alcohol use both of which are more successfully than the “War on Drugs”

Conservatives Apology to BP

Conservatives want the American Taxpayers to apologize to BP and big oil in General for making them pay at least some of the money needed to fix their mess in the Gulf. 

The American over dependence  on oil started about a hundred years ago when the oil barons like John D Rockefeller decided for us that we go with the internal combustion engine instead of the developing the electric engine and destroying one of the best Mass transit systems in the world. So they could see better profits and it worked for them. The American people were kept happy with artificial low Gas prices After World War one and the Collapse of the Ottoman empire when the British and American installed puppet dictators in the oil rich middle east.

Well we are now paying the price in more ways than one.     

These are the best of times, not the worst of times

While doing Genealogy I have come to realize that my generation must be the luckiest ever born for my family suffered on the low end of Society for at least the last three hundred years. There were many branches of the Family Tree that go back to Ireland were they were probably Tenant Farmers living at the whim of their lord. Some moved on to Scotland to work in the factories and mills. There is plenty of evidence that until the latter part of the ninth century many of them couldn’t read or write signing their marriage certificates with an X. at least on my father’s side I think my grandparents were the first one to go to school for it wasn’t considered necessary for poor laborers to be educated until factory owners need them to be more skilled. Even after they were sent to school most only went to school until they were fourteen reporting the next day to the factories, mills or mines. My Mother told me that she left school at nine years old first working in the fields picking strawberries then in the wool mills of Alva Scotland. When she was about twenty years old her mother arranged for her and two of her cousins go to New York. The year was 1929 so they left one depression for another. They worked as Maids in Brooklyn, her two cousins getting home sick went back to Scotland. My mother stayed only because she met my father who had just arrived in New York himself. My Dad left Scotland because he was an Irish Catholic in a country that hated both and let my father know it. My brother, sister and me have had it easy compared to the generations just before us and I am sure the whole family hopes for a even better future.
I think most work class people have similar stories one generation trying to improve the lot of the next and our generation. Certainly we lived through best economic times due to the “cold war” and the industrial complex built up since just before World War Two. Now since the beginning of our nation the wealthier class has tried to keep the lower classes in check feeding them just enough to keep them quiet. We have been feed well enough in my life time to make a lot of people think they are middle class, but that was by exploiting working class people in other nations. The improvement in commutations first with Radio, then with Television and now with the Internet it is getting hard for the upper classes to control the information flow between the working people of the world. It is always hard to forecast the future, but if history teaches us anything it is that the lot of common people is very slowly getting better. It may not seem like at any one moment in time, but the working people of the world are more aware today than they ever were, they only have to listen to all points

Futile Gestures

A Texas man flies his plane into a Office building where the US Government’s IRS has offices, Senator bails out because the US Senate is a “Dysfunctional System”, Obama talking to Republicans all these have one thing in common they are all Futile Gestures and I know something about Futile Gestures I like hundreds of millions of people around the world in 2002-2003 protested going to war and killing even more people, you can see where that got us. It is hard to feel sorry for a Texas man with Tax troubles the fact he own a plane means he was better off than most people in this world. Lucky he did kill anybody except himself, as for the IRS he might have made the one office’s work a little harder and he got his 15 minutes of fame too bad he can’t enjoy it. Then there was Evan Bayh Quit the senate instead of staying to try to make it work better, from what I read he seems not to have a very good record in the Senate anyway, not everyone is cut out to be a Legislator so Evan don’t let the door hit you on your way out. It hasn’t matter how much Obama gives in to the Republicans they will stonewall him every time. We need to change our system of government from a Republic to the parliamentary System it is not perfect, but it might work better than what we got.
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Rambling on about Religion and Politics and so on

The views expressed in this blog are mine, which are contently under review, subject to change if some buddy has a better idea I listen. When you read the Bible did you ever wonder why Jesus didn’t write a Gospel? We have to read Mark, Matthew, Luke and John all written with a little different version of the same story about his message. Maybe Jesus wanted us to search out and learn how God created the world rather than telling him. If we read the Bible horizontally rather than vertically we see the differences and must use our own reasoning to understand Jesus’ message. Jesus’ message is or should the heart of the Christian religion. (not the Old Testament or Saint Paul) Jesus’ message to me is that we should all work to make sure that everyone in our society is provided with their basic needs, that everyone in society is equal. Just saying his name no matter how many times is not enough, reading his words, but not thinking about what they mean is not enough. I hope when people say they are living with Jesus that is what they mean. When the communist took over Russia I wonder why they turned against religion Carl Marx’s message is very much in sync with the message of Jesus, but a guess it was more about power and who has the ears of the Russian people mattered more. What I hear and read about Carl Marx is that he wanted to build on capitalism not replace it and some countries have done that successfully. It shouldn’t take a tragedy Like New Orleans or Haiti for us to realize the need of others, but we can’t change the past and we can only hope for a better tomorrow, but we can change the present which is not always easy. If we do away with sweatshops we will have to pay more at Wal-Mart. Now are we willing to do that and lower a own standard of living to raise another person’s standard so can feed and educate their children. I heard a story of a woman in Bangladesh that formed a union to raise the workers pay at the Shirt factory (Sweatshop) where she worked from a penny a shirt to two pennies a shirt so that they could give their children meat with their rice, but Wal-Mart who was the one buying the shirts said no and in fact would cut their pay to penny for two shirts or they would find another country willing to make the shirts for less. The people at Wal-Mart are not bad people to them it is just business “the bottom Line” they are doing what their customers want. So praying, going to church every Sunday is the easy part, living as a Christian is the hard part. Politicians don’t make that easy either they tell the people what they want to hear which is changed by the Media just to make it even more confusing.
I know some people will get offended by this blog so I am not going to put it on Facebook , just on my blog page and ancestry.com for in doing Genealogy I came to realize that I don’t know how these people thought and maybe if anyone in the future wondered that about me well here it is.

Money Talks, People Work

The latest ruling by the Supreme Court 5 to 4, that Corporations have the right to overshadow middle/working class Americans access to their government. This is misusing the First Amendment as they have even before the ink was dry on the First Amendment to the Constitution. The Framers our Government were all rich land owners who wanted to make sure that they always held the power over the working class Americans. They even kept the vote to themselves for to vote you had to be a Rich, White, a man and a land owner. Over the last 234 years the class warfare between middle/working class activist and Rich land owners/corporations, the activist have little by little gained the rights for different groups among the American people. The battles are between the weak and the powerful so the progress is slow taking generations and sometimes it may seem hopeless like after the big losses we just took, but if you look at history you see that we are gaining ground. We can gain more ground if we don’t stop for Tea Parties.

2009 a year that started with hope that wasn’t realized.

This year 2009 started out with a lot of hope with the election of our first African-American President, of who I have to say that I had my doubts I supported Hillary Clinton thinking she as well as John Edwards were more for Universal Health Care than Obama. Obama even then seem to be for too much compromise, I think the Obama took the saying “Politics is the art of compromise” too much to heart. The first issue that came up was what was called “Tarp” a 700 billion dollar bail out of the economy. So right from the start the bill had 40% Tax Cuts because the Republicans want only more tax cuts for the rich who they say will invest it in creating American Jobs, even though they same rich people spent the last decade investing the money in Chinese jobs. A lot of the rest went to Bailing out Wall Street with very little going to rebuilding the Electric grid, Transportation system, and renewable emerge which would put American to work doing jobs that needs to be done.
Then there was the Health Care Bill, Now do you think they started with Universal Health Care with a single payer system which would not only cover all Americans, but relieve businesses of having to providing health benefits to their employees there by again providing American jobs. I don’t think that Obama was ever really for Universal Health care so he and the Democrats start with a Compromised Health Care bill with a watered down “Public Option” instead. The only reason they even had that into in the bill was to play the Progressives along, they always intended to pull it out at the last moment.
The Stock Market recovered from 2008 somewhat, but had it’s up and down ending up around 10,000. What with Wall Market investors reacting to every rumor proving once again that Wall Street investors don’t know any more than anyone else. When Tiger Wood got into trouble the investors started to sell all the stocks of Companies he endorsed as if the only reason people buy their products is because Tiger Woods endorsed them.
America got more deeply drawn into Afghanistan while still occupying Iraq and eyeing Yemen and Iran there by keeping Military Complex going.
One good thing that happened in 2009 is that Yankees won the World Series

Government of the People

Whenever I comment on some issues with my mostly progressive opinions someone with a more Conservative view would give a list of “Government” failures like Social Security, Medicare, Postal Service and the latest one the Railroads usually stating that they don’t make money or are even losing money. I could and usually do answer how each is actually a success or more a corporate failure (which is the case with the Railroads). It came to me that people think of Government as some big corporate entity trying to run their lives, but just like buildings don’t make a church the People do, so it is the same with a Government, if we create a national community working together then our Government will be a success. Now of course government services needs to be within a budget that taxpayers can afford, but priorities have to be set to what serves the America people best. We should vote for Politicians who wants to serve the people and not a party or ideology, you can’t tell me that all Republicans think alike and just Democrats differ it is hard to believe there are so many narrow minded persons in Congress what are we thinking when we elect them I don’t know.
One thing I like about the history of working people is you can see how we improved generation by generation; a lot of this has to do with how we communicate with one another with the internet common people around the world can talk unfiltered. I believe we will grow into one global community with more understanding between people with different beliefs we will be more tolerant with no need for weapons.

We the Human Family

I posted a comment on the Huffington Post on Obama's speech in Oslo someone else posted a reply

Barack Obama's Oslo Speech: A Caption-Summary With Excerpts

Commented Dec 12, 2009 at 16:02:11 in World

"The Nazi's, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban were and are not from a Galaxy far, far away they are from this planet. We created them through our feeling that we are better than other people therefore justified to murder them (make a "Just war" against them) Obama made nothing, but excuses for war when there is none."

PodiumPerfected replied on Dec 12, 2009 at 17:10:55

"Who's this "we" you speak of?"

Who's this "We" may seem like a little question, "We" the Human Family have been working on the answer for thousands of years ever since we were a small group out of Africa over 40,000 years ago and have since filled Libraries trying to answer that basic question "who are we?" Now I have the idea that PodiumPerfected knows already who this we is that I am speaking about and maybe only joking, but I will try in my very small way to try and answer it. I am pretty sure that when our family was a small group fighting to stay alive there was probably some that wanted to take more risks than others, but also realized that as individuals they would perish that they need each other to survive. Since then our dysfunctional family has struggled to understand our world and our place in it. Over time our family grew very large spreading around our planet spiting into groups with different ideas.

    The Nazi's never had an original thought they used the ideas that were already there using the churches for their own purposes The Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are both using ideas grown out of Islam which grew out of Judaism and Christianity.

    When the only communication was through word of mouth the people that lived in the same area had similar ideas, but didn't get along with people in other areas. Then as communication improved so did peoples understanding of one another, writing, Telephone, Television and now the Internet. The pace maybe slow, but we will get there if our time doesn't run out first (Global warming) there will come a time when there is no longer a need for War.

Thankful for the good Time in which to live

I have to be thankful for the time period in which I spent my life, born in 1941 the Generation before me (like my parents) had to live through Great Depressions, two World Wars and the Flu academic of 1918-1920. My generation and the ones just after it lived their lives during the Golden age in west especially the United States thanks in large part to the cold war which gave birth to the Industrial Complex and Bank credit that gave birth to credit cards. Our Generations had a good time taken advantage buying big fast gas burning cars, building large tracks of suburban single home developments and eating fast foods. We certainly had a good time while we were the Global Market, but as companies themselves became Global sending jobs from the United States to slave labor nations there by lowering their cost, so unfortunately we spent for the now instead of building a nation that can compete in future generations. China is now investing in technologies for the 21^st century our congress debates about issues we should have solved 60 years ago.

The War to End All Wars

World War one ended ninety-one years ago today which as most war was completely unnecessary war between cousins, but cost the lives of millions of common working people. Generals in that war use the wrong tactics which against new technologies like the machine gun cost them so many men they had to send back first to London then later to Washington for more troops. If this sounds familiar it is for today's Generals are still asking for more troops which shows that in the view of Generals the Value of the common Soldier has not gone up in 91 years.

The Islamic Mind set

There has been a lot of talk lately about how the Muslims view those of other religions, who they seem to think it alright or even God's will for them to kill. They view the wars in the Middle East has wars between Christians/Jews and Muslims and not has most Westerners see it in non-religionist terms. The only way peace can come to the Middle East is for this mind set to change, but you can't change anybody's mind with bombs or occupying their lands. Now I am no expert on the Middle East, but it seems to me that there are more reasonable people of the Islamic faith that can live in harmony with the rest of the world community. If we help these more reasonable people have better live for themselves and their families the likes of the Taliban or Al Qaeda would fade away. It might seem a lot slower way to go than just bombing them, but it is the only way that might work while being safer for all.

Western Europeans' went through a similar phase from about the 1500's to today where a lot of people died for or because of the faith, we are now slowly evolving out of that mind set as the growing Anti-War Movement attest to throughout the Western World. The only thing we can do is to help this same respect for human life that is just now taken hold in our community will grow faster in the Islamic community.

    

Misconceptions

While I was reading today's installment of David Rohde's experiences of being Held by the Taliban he talked about his guards misconceptions of the West. David chalked their conceptions up to being uneducated that got me thinking that he was agreeing with their conceptions that coincided with his own conceptions, but disagreeing with those that don't agree with his conception. One of the misconceptions he says they have is that the Taliban guards think that all Americans are Rich. Now maybe from where they stand most Americans they see or hear about it is true. The Uneducated he is talking about have a High School or Junior High education and are not well traveled, well most Americans fit that description. What is meant by an educated conception is learning other people's conceptions and making them your own. We all have misconceptions, things we think are absolutely true that are not true. The only thing we can do is to challenge all our conceptions by hearing out other people, looking at the issue from where they stand using reason to decide between them.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

My first reaction is that it is a little early there is still two major wars going on and a couple of hot trouble spots. He did make a grand speech in Cairo Egypt for international understanding. I wonder if this is more about influencing the future than about what happened in the past. What will they do if he in fact does bring peace to the Middle East give him another Nobel Peace Prize? I think they should have waited for him to bring troops home instead of sending more to war.

Medical Care for illegal-immigrants

The President was right the Health Care bill states in plain English that even Joe Wilson should be able to understand that it does NOT cover illegal-immigrants, but Hospitals can't refuse to give medical care to someone who needs it now and the taxpayer already picks up the tab, which probably won't change.
American seem willing to take illegal-immigrants labor, but unwilling to pay them a living wage or even give them medical care. If the American people didn't exploit them to get something cheap they wouldn't be here in the first place.

Health Care Choices

Many of those who complain that a Public option takes away their choices don't really have any choices now, most Health Insurance companies are in the States with the largest population density such as Florida, New York and California, many other states have just one insurer now, so a Public Option would improve their choices and their Health care.
It seems that the people that would benefit the most from Universal Health Care are the one that are against it. The Public Option as it is called does not go far enough, but it is a start in the right direction. I personally might be more hurt since I had my Health Insurance paid by Verizon until I went on Medicare and now they pick up to secondary insurer, but I am think of my children and their children, the high cost of our present health care system as and drive companies out of the USA for it is the cost of Health care not wages that cost American jobs. What we need is a Single Payer Universal Health Care System.

Paying for Social Security and Medicare

The problem with SS and Medicare is the good times our parents had in the 1940’s and 50’s making us baby boomers and we didn’t return the favor, so now there are less workers than retired baby boomers. If you raise or eliminate the cap on Social Security and Medicare Contributions until we all die off the problem should either go away if you have a lot of kids or be someone else’s problem.

Healthcare should be paid for through single payer and benefits adjusted to those funds that would take the pressure off small businesses to hire more people at good wages, so there won’t be 40 million uninsured

Malpractice insurance is killing medical costs so must be reformed to be fair to both Doctors and patients

Sonia Sotomayor

One of the criticisms thrown at Judge Sonia Sotomayor is that she feels what effect laws have on people and not just deciding cases strictly by the law. What they really mean is a Conservative view of the law. How can any person decide a case without thinking the effects of that decision unless they are robots and who wants a robot as their Judge? When Sonia was a young lawyer said that as a Puerto Rican woman she has more qualified to be a Judge than many white men and many conservatives have jumped on this to call her racist. When you first look at this statement it looks like a racist statement, but when you put it in context, I think and hope she meant that being raised poor in the Bronx, losing her Father when she was only nine, that her life experiences mean she can Identify with more people than a White men from a rich family that had everything handed to them. Everyone views what they see by their past experiences no matter how little or how much education they may have. It can only be hoped that Sonia Sotomayor has the experience to be able to put herself in another persons shoes.

 

 

 

 

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Tax and Spend

Paul Krugman column in the NY Times on Monday May 25, 2009, The State of Paralysis in California saying that the problem with the California budget dates back about 30 years when the Voters of California Passed Proposition 13 a ballot measure that placed cap on property taxes. This leaves the California budget to depend on income taxes for most of its money and in a recession that money dries up leaving California in a big hole. Paul Krugman seem to say that putting a cap on property taxes is a bad idea because seniors are paying less taxes on their homes than younger home owners. Why can't the spending part of the budget be cut as much as I hate to agree with conservatives the income tax is the fairest of all taxes because people only pay what they can afford and doesn't throw them out of their homes. State budgets are by their nature harder to cut because they have more meat and less fat, the federal budget on the other hand has a lot of fat called the military budget. The Bush administration spent most of the budget on the military and building Iraq and cut the domestic budget to the bone. Now the Obama administration is spending on the domestic budget, but is still spending almost the same amount on the military budget so the balance between money coming in and the money going out is out of balance giving us a big deficit. If we as a country finally come to realize that we cannot afford an empire and close most if not all of our bases overseas, cut military budget in half (it is now 57% of the federal budget). We must move from a war time economy to a peace time economy then we will enough money for both federal and state spending.