Why things will not change

The political party system is an unreliable method for determining a candidate’s ability to reason effectively but a very efficient method for concentrating power within a democracy. Political parties, like religions, serve a dogma that represents the favored rules and standards of behavior for Human Beings within a society. Political parties in this country stay in power because they have the infrastructure and fund raising capability to successfully elect their own candidates. The institutionalization of their power is used to discourage the emergence of new and potentially rival political parties. They also have a long history of positions on the policies of government. The number of choices and the complexity of decisions are dramatically reduced in the current system. Acceptance of political affiliation carries with it consensus for the dogma of the particular party. The constituency can vote for policies in a very comprehensive fashion. A Democratic vote for liberal policies and a Republican vote for conservative policies. This system satisfies the voting public in this country. There are no other political parties with the capacity for long-term successful candidacies. The large sums of money needed to achieve leadership roles would become available only upon wholesale desertions of the Democratic or Republican parties. The greatest efficiency in the use of money to influence public policy comes with investment in winning candidates. There is little hope of either a plurality of political parties or the demise of Democrats or Republicans as long as constituencies are reduced to liberal or conservative viewpoints. The strategy of political parties served an educational role when this country was largely functionally illiterate and the communication of ideas was a slow and limited process. At this time, however, political parties condense power by limiting the available choices. Candidates and policies arise from only two different sources. At this time our ability to communicate gives us the promise of multiple choices of candidates and uncompromising solutions to problems. The prerequisite is that the power vested in political organizations is decremented.

Discerning truth in a persuasive universe

Start with the idea: “Everything you know is wrong”. Contradict any statement made to you as truthful. Support any obvious lie or fabrication. Do this on a strictly experimental basis. While you will find yourself suspect among your acquaintances, you will also find out how often the ideas taken for granted in routine of daily experience can vary wildly in their accuracy. Just as it is possible to fly to the Moon using the laws of motion set down by Newton, it is possible to go through life fairly self assured with the laws set down by your particular society and your teachers. If however, you wish to be as accurate as possible, in life, or in moon landings, it is imperative to use the best information possible. Playing the word game described above will not only illuminate some of the inaccuracies in the language, but in the logic we us to express our ideas, as well.It is the practice of politicians, lawyers, advertisers, and priests to use the inherent logical constraints of the language to persuade others to their view. Persuasion is a particularly annoying aspect of the societal condition. In mathematics, in science, an assertion must be substantiated by proof. This is hardly the case in the public arena. Matters of public policy are frequently determined by some sort of debate. That is, sides are chosen after a particular question has been named. Despite the nature of the question, or the validity of the evidence, there is always a side to be chosen. For or against. A person who knows the inherent vicissitudes of the English language, or any language, is able to manipulate the language and its concepts to achieve an argument that, on the surface, seems to support the facts. Taking course work in debate is an introduction to these techniques. In formal debate, the opposing parties are prepared to present either side of the question put before them. In such a situation, the debate is won or lost, not on the best empirical evidence, but on the ability of the participants to use the language is such a way as to convince others of their point of view. It is this compromise of truth that occurs daily in courtrooms, legislatures, and in the various media providing news and information services.

Moral and Legal values

Our moral knowledge and societal values are taught in very much the same way as we are taught math or English. A set of rules is set down which are meant to apply to certain situations in real life. To act in any way not stipulated in the rules is equivalent to immoral behavior. Life situations are rarely so easily distinguishable. The vast arena of Human interaction is played out in the gray areas. Christians are forgiven for their transgressions against their own rules. If this were not the case, none would reach their heavenly reward. I cannot think of any person known to me of legal age who has not committed a crime. I doubt if there is such a person. Most transgressions of the law are minor, though transgressions nonetheless. With the myriad of laws that have been enacted, it would simply be too burdensome to obey them all. Fortunately, while laws are written to be black and white, their enforcement is very much in the gray. Yet, we still act as if there were absolutes of right and wrong and as if their parameters were clearly defined. While it is easy to discern the parameters of a geometric problem, the Human condition is astronomically more complex. While there are thousands of federal laws to govern our behavior, hundreds more are signed into law every year. One might expect that with so many laws covering the Human experience that each year would see a reduction in the number of laws enacted as the gray areas of Human activity are slowly covered. In fact, the opposite is closer to the truth. More laws are enacted every year because growth of change in the Human condition is expanding the gray areas of Human experience faster than legislatures can fill them in. There is a term in law called the loophole. Stated simply, a loophole is that circumstance or set of circumstances the lawmakers failed to recognize when writing a law that would allow someone to act in some way the law was designed to prevent. Loopholes regularly put felons back on the street. It is an act of pure optimism to think any legislative body could put together a simple set of rules governing the behavior of its citizens by using language to describe them. But like the search for truth, we try to get as close as we can, recognizing that the language we use as the principle tool is flawed and our efforts are expected to achieve only partial success.

Debt part 2

I am still in awe at the debt this country is carrying. We would have to have budget surpluses of $500B a year for 32 years to pay off the debt. It's not going to happen. It's immoral and should be illegal. The people are oblivious and the politicians are insatiable swine feeding at the public trough. I just hope the whole thing doesn't come apart before I die. It's going to have to come apart before the salivating masses wake up.

neural cleansing

30
I remember all to well these things:

the summer shade of an orange tree,

the winter sky at night,

the feel of blue denim cotton.
Some are renewed on a regular basis,

others,

I hold inside for safe keeping.

The rest have been lost like a child's mitten, or they have died slowly.
At night, so quiet, a promise that stands in waiting to be kept,

fulfilled,

and brought to light.

I pass and smile in courtesy.
Promises and dreams and hope and aspirations crowd around me when I have time to spare.

A book of poems will not allay their voices.
I think I will take or leave them as I choose.

Smiling, when I walk with a careful step and wondering if a memory is a wonderful thing to lose.

The Three Tenets of Existential Terrorism
Words are not things or actions. They are vibrations of the air molecules or squiggles on a page. Mistaking words for reality is the mistake that puts politicians in office and sells all of the products, religions, and systems of government on the planet. Saying "Tree" is no more a tree than saying "I love you" means that someone loves you. To perceive reality as it is, one must accept that words are a vehicle for the transference of our perception of reality, not reality itself.
God is dead. I killed him (it, them, her, et al) on November 5th, 1991. Justifiable Homicide. The idea that the universe is run by some cosmic supra-hero concept of ourselves is absurd and unproven. The idea that the creator of the universe put us here in these bodies to satisfy some moral experiment is offensive. The God question; "What are we doing here?", may or may not be valid. At this time, we are here because the physical laws of the universe are not completely against our existence. Our short time of consciousness would be far better served ensuring our survival rather than posturing before some misanthropic cosmic deity.
The only government, the only rule of law, is economics. However our societies are structured, whatever religion or ethnicity, we have all decided that those with relatively more assets have better lives than those with less relative wealth. All measured value is economic value in this system.

One of the missing issues

One of the missing issues from the presidential campaign was population. We don't have and no one discusses population policy. Understanding the consequences of an increasing number of people and providing the resources they need to live at our current standard of living should be a role of government. Like the national debt, it is simply ignored by politicians and the voters. But not here. At this point in our evolution, it has become apparent that a lack of foresight by past generations has preempted solutions for this time. Unchecked population growth and an ignorance of the intricacies of the ecosystem have been the greatest moral failure of past several hundred years. We are at this time looking for answers to questions not solely of progress, but of maintaining the level of affluence we have already achieved. The greatest threat to our level of sustainability is the issue of population growth. The geometric expansion of population during this century is the source of the most difficult problems we will have to solve in order to ensure our survival. It is imperative that we reduce our population growth and eventually reverse the trend. Under the present economic and government systems it is clear that the physical resources of this planet and our own inventiveness are insufficient to give every person on the planet a standard of living equal to that of most industrialized Western nations. It is an immoral act at this time in history to have a large family. It was an immoral act fifty years ago as well and we are currently encumbered with results of that collective action. Yet, there are no restrictions on family size in this country. People are allowed to have as many children as they can produce. The set of moral values that equates population growth with prosperity still exists despite the evidence to the contrary.

There is no convincing evidence for gods, ghosts, life after death, extra sensory perception, visitors from other planets, astrology, fortune telling, or any of the myriad of belief systems that pervade Human culture. Yet these beliefs remain viable and prosper within the most advanced societies. They will continue to do so as long as we teach our children and each other that knowledge is ethereal. We continue to this day to face the consequences of the lack of insight into our own nature. We can carry with us the myths and stories that have propagated through generations of Human Beings. If we use them as a guide to our survival, that survival is left to the vagaries of chance.

first black president

Obama is called  first black president. Big fat hairy deal. There is no such thing as a Black, White, Hispanic, or Asian race. The terminology, although prevalent, has not be quantified. Nor can it be with today's technology. That would require genetic sampling of millions of individuals to determine the make-up of a particular race. If such a thing could be done, it would turn into a taxonomy rather than a few selections on your employment application. It would require thousands of sub-species to exemplify the myriad of arrangements of what is called race.

The problem is that ethnicity is defined in geographical terms by point of origin. Human Beings have been traveling and intermingling for quite some time, millennia in fact. The rate of movement and migration has increased rapidly in the last 400 years and geometrically in the last 100. Human Beings are constantly recombining with people who were geographically isolated centuries ago. This mixing of populations has diluted any possible structure or meaning to the term "race". What specific set of data makes someone Black? I have no idea. Certain large scale tendencies between ethnicity can certainly be found. Blacks have a much greater chance of sickle-cell anemia than do whites. What that means to the individual is uncertain. Environmental and economic factors also play a role independent of race. What is necessary to define one's medical propensity is an identification of the genetic markers for a condition and an understanding of the environmental factors that contribute to its expression.
Having people mark a broad category of race on a page is not a scientific endeavor, but rather a political one. Race defines a plethora of political issues in this country despite the inability to define it. Race is a popular social touchstone, but it is not in any contributing to either healthier lives or better Human relations. To suggest that this information is accurate, meaningful, or rational is to make oneself suspect.

revolution

The time has come for a revolution. The time has come because the highly perishable memory of the voting public is still fresh with the collapse of the economy. It is now that the weight of the official misconduct is greater than the inertia of business as usual. The time will soon come, however, when the malfeasance of their elected officials will be either eclipsed by a new catastrophe or mitigated through apathy and resolute acceptance of the status quo. Despite the voters’ propensity for short-term memory loss, the damage done in this round of delinquent governance will stay with us for a very long time. The debt we incur, nationally and locally, will remain a burden for the current generation and beyond. It will remain a burden unless decisive corrective action is taken to dispose of the politicians who spend public money without regard to the present or future, the needs of the people, or the responsibilities of government.
The people have to stop hiring used car salesmen and professional obfuscators and start hiring accountants, problem solvers (managers) and engineers. We pay enough taxes to fund government. Our money has been, and will continue to be funneled away into special interests, above market wages for government employees, and programs outside the purview of government. The people we have hired squandered the public resources and because the majority of representatives are re-elected, have no accountability or remorse for their incompetence. The two-party system has failed. Whether Democrats or Republicans control the legislature, it is only a re-shuffling of the special interest deck chairs on the Titanic. If there is no clear majority, there is stalemate and compromise, but no fiscal responsibility.
The $412 Billion spent on the interest on the national debt in fiscal year 2008 is a testament to the fiscal degradation and moral ineptitude of the people we have hired to run our government. That $412 Billion will fund nothing but the illusion that we are fiscally sound. The various bailouts will fund nothing but companies and individual’s inability to make sound financial decisions. Those of us who played by the rules must now fund the excesses of those who did not.
The American electorate is the worst offender. They are steadfast in their resolve to maintain the two party system which is now draining their economic potential and the potential of their children and grandchildren. Fortunately, a bloodless revolution can occur through the ballot box. Unfortunately, the future depends on it. We cannot continue down the path of fiscal irresponsibility indefinitely.

Justice

The recent bailouts for the private sector, both individual and corporate, will give additional pause to anyone who thinks playing by the rules is to their benefit. Those of us who have lived within our means will subsidize those who have not. Companies that made well reasoned fiscal decisions will be subsidizing those who could not compete. What are we to make of a government that rewards incompetence and greed? The best conclusion is that the government itself is incompetent and greedy and sees nothing wrong with those actions in others and actually seeks to perpetuate their malice. The managers and executives at AIG and other financial institutions have benefited from their short-sightedness and have not been punished for it. Before their dubious lending practices failed, they received and have kept their bonuses and inflated salaries. When the financial markets recover, the incompetent will rise again to visit their avarice on those of us who d0 our fiscal duty. Like the marauders of Genghis Khan, they will acquire wealth from the labors of others. They are protected by like-minded politicians. We will support their avarice until there are there are no resources to plunder. The only alternatives are to join the corrupt or live in poverty.

Debt

Everyone, in the legislative branch should be removed from their office and never allowed to have fiscal responsibility for fiscal malfeasance. With a debt of $16 trillion, we have crossed over into a fiscal abyss from which there can be no return. The debt is four years of federal budget. The service on the debt is the third largest budget item. The salivating masses are incapable of discerning the problem or taking action to remove these people from office. The sentient minority must therefore remove these carpet baggers from office by other means. The current economic crisis is only the beginning of the decline. these economic meltdowns will become more severe and frequent in the coming years. The United States is on its way to becoming another Russia, with the emerging eastern powers taking up the slack. In a democracy, we get the government we deserve. Our gullible and apathetic electorate has doomed us all.