I hear all the time about how the American Public only cares about "Bullshit" and who is screwing who, like Rev Wright, Monica Lewinski or the sniper fire in Bosnia or lack there of.
Here is why we do care about "Bullshit". When the candidates talk seriously about issues we think --- I don't believe an f---ing word. We have heard all the lies before. The president is not a king who can do anything he wants. The president responds to National issues and tries to set the national agenda. He does not do a lot law crafting and can only approve or veto the budget. He can propose laws all day but they are always modified by the House and Senate. 99% of the things said on a campaign trail is designed to sound like something I want to hear while not pissing off too many people. It's all manufactured and carefully crafted. It's all dishonest!
So we are looking at the fringe of what they have been up to in the past to try and gleam who the person is really. Not what is the carefully crafted image we see all the time. But who is the person really. How do they really feel and how will they really react to a 9/11 or a pearl harbor or a mortgage crisis. The only way we have to discover who the person is really is find out what they are up to behind the scenes when the camera is off and they think no one will find out. And that is often sordid and awful. It's often about people they surrond themselves with.
What choice do we have when no one is really honest about who they are? When you can't trust anything a politician says, we are left with inuendo and accusations.
Mark
Friday, March 28, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Whale Explodes! Shop Keeper waters it!
A 56 ft, 60 ton beached while dies in Taiwan. During the transfer for autopsy purposes gas builds up and the Whale "explodes". The following are pictures of the event. My favorite picture is the Shop Keeper in his surgical mask and one glove pouring a ridiculously small stream of water on this giant mound of rotting whale guts. I love this guy because he is trying to make a difference. Instead of complaining or calling the Gov't to fix his problems. He gets out a water house, a glove (I can't get over that single glove) and a mask and begins to spray water on it. How long does a small stream of water take to move a few tons of whale guts into sewers of Taiwan?? I can't tell if this is the bravest man I've seen in a long time or one of the dumbest. Maybe there isn't much of a difference!!!
This man doesn't curse the darkness, he lights a candle! Of course there also happens to be a hurricane going on at the same time.
How would you like to be the owner of the scooter and explaining this event to your insurance company. I really wanted to photoshop out the picture of the whale and change the blog title to "Man on Scooter Explodes!!!!". Now that would be cool!!!
Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama
Pastor Wright is the person who lead Obama to his Christian faith, the person who was his spiritual leader for 20 years, the person who married him and his wife and baptized his two children. Pastor Wright also said things from the pulpit like "God Damn America for all the things it does," or "America created the AIDS virus to kill people of color" or "America deserved 9/11" and a whole host of crazy things you can see on you tube.
So what does this mean. Obama admits he does not have the experience that Clinton or McCain has but that he has the better judgment and that is what being president is all about. I'm wondering how effective his judgment is to send his children to this Church every Sunday. It's one thing to join the biggest church in the area, especially if you are running for office. It's another thing to send your children to a place where hate against America is promoted from the pulpit and cheered for in the audience. Maybe every Sunday they don't bash America, however, the fundamental underpinnings of this kind of thought is taught there every day. So I'm left with two options here, Barack Obama has poor judgment when it comes to caring for his children's spiritual well being or the political value of that church comes before his families spiritual well being. Either way, not a guy I'm liking much right now.
So what does this mean. Obama admits he does not have the experience that Clinton or McCain has but that he has the better judgment and that is what being president is all about. I'm wondering how effective his judgment is to send his children to this Church every Sunday. It's one thing to join the biggest church in the area, especially if you are running for office. It's another thing to send your children to a place where hate against America is promoted from the pulpit and cheered for in the audience. Maybe every Sunday they don't bash America, however, the fundamental underpinnings of this kind of thought is taught there every day. So I'm left with two options here, Barack Obama has poor judgment when it comes to caring for his children's spiritual well being or the political value of that church comes before his families spiritual well being. Either way, not a guy I'm liking much right now.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Florida and Michagan
There is a lot of talk about what to do about the fact that Florida and Michigan are not allowed to seat delegates in the Democratic Convention. Basically the State's of Florida and Michigan moved their Primaries up to a date that was not allowed by Democratic and Republican National Committee rules. So the Democrats disallowed the states delegates from having a voice in the convention and the Republicans allow the delegates to vote but cut the number of delegates to half. Sounds like the Republicans are acting like adults here. The democrats also requested the candidates to take their names off the ballots in the offending states and to not campaign there. Every one did that in Michagan except for Hillary and the other learned their lesson in Florida and kept their name. No one campaigned in Florida for the Dems.
So what should we do. Should we follow the rules set forth when the election began and ignore Michigan and Florida. Should we say no, all people who want to vote should have the right to vote and their vote should count. This in many ways is a lot like Florida in 2000. In that instance I felt the right thing was to follow the laws as set out originally and end the election. Here I feel differently. What is the difference. Well the people of Florida got to vote in 2000, and the official count of the vote was used to decide who the president was. They voted, it was counted and the results were what they were. In this situation, all votes are being thrown out. Their is a time to follow the rules and their is a time to fight those rules. When people begin discounting votes a whole state, then it's time to fight those rules and see them changed.
I also want to talk about the 2000 election. I find the anger of Democrats over the 2000 florida incident an embarrassment. Was it awful, yes. Why was it awful, it was the Democrats. Here is why I have a problem with it. When the vote was so close, there should have been a recount. And Al Gore and the Democratic National Committee had a chance to do the right thing and ask for a complete state wide recount. But they didn't. In an effort to ignore the will of the whole state, the Dems cherry picked the three most democratic counties in the state and asked for a recount there only. Dade County then proceeded to recount only the Democratic precints. When it was obvious to the Dade county Officials that more counting would actually increase Bush's lead, they quit their count. The Dems also tried to have the absentee voting thrown out because absentee voters tend to be mostly military and they tend to vote republican.
After the 2 and 1/2 counties were counted, the time to request a recount expired and Bush's lead had grown. According to state law, the vote was certified. Then the Dem's sued. Eventually the Florida Supreme Court got involved and decided unwisely to have another recount but wisely insisted that it be state wide. Which is what it should have been from the beginning. However, the law had been followed, the votes has been allowed, counted and delegates assigned according to that law.
For me the difference was that there was a good faith effort to cast and count the votes in 2000. In 2008 there is an actual democratic policy that throws out all the votes of two of our most important states. One did unintentionally miscount or possibly cause the intent of the voter to not be understood but that was purely unintentional and it effected the votes of a small minority. Here it is intentional and it effects all Dems in the two states
I also want to say the manipulation of a national election for president being forced down to a recount of three Heavily Democratic counties in Florida was the worst, ugleist, most machivelian, tainted politically move I've ever seen in my life. Worse than Nixon and watergate, worse than Reagan and Iran/Contra and worse than the Monica Lewinsky tragedy.
So what should we do. Should we follow the rules set forth when the election began and ignore Michigan and Florida. Should we say no, all people who want to vote should have the right to vote and their vote should count. This in many ways is a lot like Florida in 2000. In that instance I felt the right thing was to follow the laws as set out originally and end the election. Here I feel differently. What is the difference. Well the people of Florida got to vote in 2000, and the official count of the vote was used to decide who the president was. They voted, it was counted and the results were what they were. In this situation, all votes are being thrown out. Their is a time to follow the rules and their is a time to fight those rules. When people begin discounting votes a whole state, then it's time to fight those rules and see them changed.
I also want to talk about the 2000 election. I find the anger of Democrats over the 2000 florida incident an embarrassment. Was it awful, yes. Why was it awful, it was the Democrats. Here is why I have a problem with it. When the vote was so close, there should have been a recount. And Al Gore and the Democratic National Committee had a chance to do the right thing and ask for a complete state wide recount. But they didn't. In an effort to ignore the will of the whole state, the Dems cherry picked the three most democratic counties in the state and asked for a recount there only. Dade County then proceeded to recount only the Democratic precints. When it was obvious to the Dade county Officials that more counting would actually increase Bush's lead, they quit their count. The Dems also tried to have the absentee voting thrown out because absentee voters tend to be mostly military and they tend to vote republican.
After the 2 and 1/2 counties were counted, the time to request a recount expired and Bush's lead had grown. According to state law, the vote was certified. Then the Dem's sued. Eventually the Florida Supreme Court got involved and decided unwisely to have another recount but wisely insisted that it be state wide. Which is what it should have been from the beginning. However, the law had been followed, the votes has been allowed, counted and delegates assigned according to that law.
For me the difference was that there was a good faith effort to cast and count the votes in 2000. In 2008 there is an actual democratic policy that throws out all the votes of two of our most important states. One did unintentionally miscount or possibly cause the intent of the voter to not be understood but that was purely unintentional and it effected the votes of a small minority. Here it is intentional and it effects all Dems in the two states
I also want to say the manipulation of a national election for president being forced down to a recount of three Heavily Democratic counties in Florida was the worst, ugleist, most machivelian, tainted politically move I've ever seen in my life. Worse than Nixon and watergate, worse than Reagan and Iran/Contra and worse than the Monica Lewinsky tragedy.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Change We need to understand II
Another Excerpt from Mr. Obama's speech:
It's nice to see that Mr. Obama is only motivated by altruism and he decided to run for president because of a chance meeting with a complete stranger who gave him a sob story about losing her house. It's hard to believe his motivation for running for president is a serious of chance meetings with young single mothers who are down on their luck. I'm also wondering what a married father of two is doing hanging out with random single parents who are down on their luck. (sorry about that but I took a page or the New York times "reporting style" there)
So what is the action Mr. Obama is suggesting here. "She needed us to crack down on predatory lenders ". Interesting dilemma here. As far as I know sub prime mortgages are legal and have been for some time. They are not a great idea unless you plan to refinance your house before the high interest rate comes around, that is why you don't ever take one with a high penalty for early payment. So if I read this right, Mr Obama wants to take legal action against a company that did not break any law.
This is my problem with Mr Obama and liberals in general. They think all injustice must be righted by the Gov't. Instead let free enterprise and capitalism takes it's course. If anyone is paying attention, these predators are quickly going out of business and the idiots who bought these loans are losing money hand over fist. I would be very surprised if any Loan purchasing company will ever buy a mortgage like this that was given to someone with bad credit. If they do, then they should go out of business. But not to jail unless we want to make those kind of loans illegal. Then once it is illegal, all loans after that should be prosecuted. But prosecuting organization that gave out those loans in a legal manner, hmmmm....
Then he suggests we should provide relief. What is relief. Hillary wants a moratorium on foreclosures. So now they can stay in their house for another 6 months to a year with out paying rent. What happens after that? IF they can't afford their loan then what is going to change. Should we now pay the rent of anyone who didn't understand what they were getting into and can't afford their house. That sounds good to me. There is a $750,000 house I've got my eye on. I can't afford it but maybe they will give me a sub prime loan and in a few years I can't get the Gov't to pay for my mortgage. It's painful but it's time people took responsibility for their actions. Being Tricked is a poor excuse. There are tons of documents you are strongly encouraged to read before signing and tons of information on the Net and lots of advice you can get. This is one of life's little lessons that people need to learn from. Be careful when you get a loan or buy a house. Understand what your obligation is under the law.
Barrack is promising change. However, I don't see how keeping people from suffering from their mistakes is change from what the Liberal Democrats have been promising for years. However, to prosecute someone for a law that was made after the person committed the crime would need a change to the constitution. That is against the Constitution. So that is change, I don't think it's a change I want.
We're here because of the mother in San Antonio that I met just today, just this afternoon. She's got 2-year-old twins who are legally blind. She somehow entered into a predatory loan and saw her mortgage payments double in two weeks and has paid thousands in fees to try to stave off foreclosure.
She told me she was on the verge of packing and didn't know where her family would go next. She needed us to crack down on predatory lenders and give relief to struggling homeowners who were tricked out of their dream. She needs change today.
It's nice to see that Mr. Obama is only motivated by altruism and he decided to run for president because of a chance meeting with a complete stranger who gave him a sob story about losing her house. It's hard to believe his motivation for running for president is a serious of chance meetings with young single mothers who are down on their luck. I'm also wondering what a married father of two is doing hanging out with random single parents who are down on their luck. (sorry about that but I took a page or the New York times "reporting style" there)
So what is the action Mr. Obama is suggesting here. "She needed us to crack down on predatory lenders ". Interesting dilemma here. As far as I know sub prime mortgages are legal and have been for some time. They are not a great idea unless you plan to refinance your house before the high interest rate comes around, that is why you don't ever take one with a high penalty for early payment. So if I read this right, Mr Obama wants to take legal action against a company that did not break any law.
This is my problem with Mr Obama and liberals in general. They think all injustice must be righted by the Gov't. Instead let free enterprise and capitalism takes it's course. If anyone is paying attention, these predators are quickly going out of business and the idiots who bought these loans are losing money hand over fist. I would be very surprised if any Loan purchasing company will ever buy a mortgage like this that was given to someone with bad credit. If they do, then they should go out of business. But not to jail unless we want to make those kind of loans illegal. Then once it is illegal, all loans after that should be prosecuted. But prosecuting organization that gave out those loans in a legal manner, hmmmm....
Then he suggests we should provide relief. What is relief. Hillary wants a moratorium on foreclosures. So now they can stay in their house for another 6 months to a year with out paying rent. What happens after that? IF they can't afford their loan then what is going to change. Should we now pay the rent of anyone who didn't understand what they were getting into and can't afford their house. That sounds good to me. There is a $750,000 house I've got my eye on. I can't afford it but maybe they will give me a sub prime loan and in a few years I can't get the Gov't to pay for my mortgage. It's painful but it's time people took responsibility for their actions. Being Tricked is a poor excuse. There are tons of documents you are strongly encouraged to read before signing and tons of information on the Net and lots of advice you can get. This is one of life's little lessons that people need to learn from. Be careful when you get a loan or buy a house. Understand what your obligation is under the law.
Barrack is promising change. However, I don't see how keeping people from suffering from their mistakes is change from what the Liberal Democrats have been promising for years. However, to prosecute someone for a law that was made after the person committed the crime would need a change to the constitution. That is against the Constitution. So that is change, I don't think it's a change I want.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Change We need to Understand
Barack Obama is promising Change. I do believe things need to change but I'm not convinced his kind of "Change" is what we need. So I got hold of a transcript of one his local speeches and I'm going to analyze it.
Excerpt
I'm not sure how NAFTA (A free trade agreement between US, Canada and Mexico) sent equipment and jobs to China? I thought that was a cheap shot. I would agree we need better protectionist legislation with China but not Canada or Mexico. However, lets be clear, Free trade did not send jobs to China. Cheaper wages, lower taxes and significantly decrease in operating costs sent those jobs to China. Why is it so expensive here, well that is easy, Labor Unions, Outrageous amounts of legislation, unfreindly tax systems and lets not forget the squeeze Insurance Companies and lawyers put on operating costs here in the US. So the Change is ignore the real problem which is friendly to the Democratic Party. So honesty when it actually hurts is not one of the changes we will be looking forward to.
Secondly, I really hate Income Tax. Not because I don't want the gov't getting money. I want to pay taxes and get the benefits of those taxes. The problem I have is the gov't deciding how I should live my life or run my business. They do this by creating tax incentives and tax punishments. Why does someone that buys a house have the right to lower taxes. Why is that the Gov't business. Or if someone decides to offer benefits and a pension, why does the Gov't have to get in that person's business. Stop manipulating society through the tax code and let it be what it needs to be.
Excerpt
We're here because there are workers in Youngstown, Ohio, who've watched job after job after job disappear because of bad trade deals like NAFTA, who've worked in factories -- who've worked in factories for 20 years, and then one day they come in and literally see the equipment unbolted from the floor and sent to China.
They need us to end those tax breaks that go to companies that ship jobs overseas...
(APPLAUSE)
... and give them to companies that invest in jobs right here in the United States of America, that pay well, provide a pension, provide health care. That's the change they need.
I'm not sure how NAFTA (A free trade agreement between US, Canada and Mexico) sent equipment and jobs to China? I thought that was a cheap shot. I would agree we need better protectionist legislation with China but not Canada or Mexico. However, lets be clear, Free trade did not send jobs to China. Cheaper wages, lower taxes and significantly decrease in operating costs sent those jobs to China. Why is it so expensive here, well that is easy, Labor Unions, Outrageous amounts of legislation, unfreindly tax systems and lets not forget the squeeze Insurance Companies and lawyers put on operating costs here in the US. So the Change is ignore the real problem which is friendly to the Democratic Party. So honesty when it actually hurts is not one of the changes we will be looking forward to.
Secondly, I really hate Income Tax. Not because I don't want the gov't getting money. I want to pay taxes and get the benefits of those taxes. The problem I have is the gov't deciding how I should live my life or run my business. They do this by creating tax incentives and tax punishments. Why does someone that buys a house have the right to lower taxes. Why is that the Gov't business. Or if someone decides to offer benefits and a pension, why does the Gov't have to get in that person's business. Stop manipulating society through the tax code and let it be what it needs to be.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Where does hope come from
I've been reading a blog called "Attitude of Gratitude". It's a beautiful blog. It's honesty is a wonderful thing to experience. His art is pretty impressive.
http://sippiambrose.blogspot.com/
He asked the question "Where does hope come from". That is a powerful question. One I want to explore. First lets talk about the difference between wishing and hope.
One day two men were golfing. One we Dr. John Townsend. One told there other that he hoped to marry his current girlfriend. This confused Dr Townsend because it is quite easy to get married. So he asked him why hasn't he already married him after 5 years of dating. Well the woman was quite controlling. So Dr. Townsend asked him how controlling. The man shared some very horrifying stories of a very controlling person. So Dr. Townsend asked the man about what the couple and the woman was doing to change this behavior. The answer was nothing. So Dr. Townsends said this man was not hoping for a change in behavior, he was wishing for it.
The point here is that hope, real hope is based on getting connected to the reality of their experiences. If we look at the 12 steps we see the first set of steps is connecting to the reality of their situation. Realizing that all the lies they told themselves is hurting them and justifying all the bad things they do to themselves and others. The first step to hope is feeling bad about the horrible thing you do. But feeling bad is the act of killing that part of you. It must be grieved and let go. But to make through "the valley of the shadow of death" the grief process we must have a vision of what it will be like. That begins with people who have made it. We borrow the experiences of others and set our sites on those. The seeds of hope come from those with the 6 month's of Sobriety, or 12 months or 5 years or even 20 years. When those lost in hopelessness and pain can see someone who has made it out and living a life worth living, the seeds of hope are planted.
But the seeds have to grow and that comes from working the program and experiencing the change in their lives. Seeing and experiencing relationships that are honest and caring at the same time. Seeing the change that those relationships bring. Knowing that those relationships that they have, have also been where they were. It's the love and honesty from those people that is the water and light that feed the seeds of hope. Every new day spent away from the Drink or drugs or food or meaningless sex is the act that strengthens our hope. Every small step away from the horror of that past life builds our hope.
I met with a friend several weeks ago and she was depressed. A horrible marriage, a bitter custody fight ongoing with a previous marriage, Her mother recently passed and he father knocking on deaths door and poor physical health had her with out hope. We met over coffee and talked. My advice to her was find a reason to hope again. Find a reason to live. She met with her brother and he encouraged her to move in with her Dad and help him in the final stages of his life. She called me that next day, bright eyed and hopefully. She had a way out and a way to rebuild her life. She also had someone to care about. This is where so much of our life's meaning and purpose come from. Caring about others. When we care about others we find purpose. We find meaning. I think this is an important place to find hope. When we have a purpose in this life, we have something to hope for.
http://sippiambrose.blogspot.com/
He asked the question "Where does hope come from". That is a powerful question. One I want to explore. First lets talk about the difference between wishing and hope.
One day two men were golfing. One we Dr. John Townsend. One told there other that he hoped to marry his current girlfriend. This confused Dr Townsend because it is quite easy to get married. So he asked him why hasn't he already married him after 5 years of dating. Well the woman was quite controlling. So Dr. Townsend asked him how controlling. The man shared some very horrifying stories of a very controlling person. So Dr. Townsend asked the man about what the couple and the woman was doing to change this behavior. The answer was nothing. So Dr. Townsends said this man was not hoping for a change in behavior, he was wishing for it.
The point here is that hope, real hope is based on getting connected to the reality of their experiences. If we look at the 12 steps we see the first set of steps is connecting to the reality of their situation. Realizing that all the lies they told themselves is hurting them and justifying all the bad things they do to themselves and others. The first step to hope is feeling bad about the horrible thing you do. But feeling bad is the act of killing that part of you. It must be grieved and let go. But to make through "the valley of the shadow of death" the grief process we must have a vision of what it will be like. That begins with people who have made it. We borrow the experiences of others and set our sites on those. The seeds of hope come from those with the 6 month's of Sobriety, or 12 months or 5 years or even 20 years. When those lost in hopelessness and pain can see someone who has made it out and living a life worth living, the seeds of hope are planted.
But the seeds have to grow and that comes from working the program and experiencing the change in their lives. Seeing and experiencing relationships that are honest and caring at the same time. Seeing the change that those relationships bring. Knowing that those relationships that they have, have also been where they were. It's the love and honesty from those people that is the water and light that feed the seeds of hope. Every new day spent away from the Drink or drugs or food or meaningless sex is the act that strengthens our hope. Every small step away from the horror of that past life builds our hope.
I met with a friend several weeks ago and she was depressed. A horrible marriage, a bitter custody fight ongoing with a previous marriage, Her mother recently passed and he father knocking on deaths door and poor physical health had her with out hope. We met over coffee and talked. My advice to her was find a reason to hope again. Find a reason to live. She met with her brother and he encouraged her to move in with her Dad and help him in the final stages of his life. She called me that next day, bright eyed and hopefully. She had a way out and a way to rebuild her life. She also had someone to care about. This is where so much of our life's meaning and purpose come from. Caring about others. When we care about others we find purpose. We find meaning. I think this is an important place to find hope. When we have a purpose in this life, we have something to hope for.
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