Eventually the rock will drop (#1886)

When what is in your head about the ideal is finally exposed to the reality of what is actually happening can we hope that an understanding will occur. As time continues to tick and we continue to get further into our finite lives, the thought should occur that we have to change our realities now. There is a dishonest broker in our politics and for whatever reason, be it disillusion with the process or inability to see the "big picture" or an "I don't care" attitude, Republicans are benefiting from it. Before I rail on about the vote, which is our method for relief from Republican policies, I have to go back a step and remind all of us why we need to vote them out. They are the ones who are blocking the hope for our future. What do I mean by that? Simply put, they don't want us to have a world class education, only one our individual families can afford, which is code for only the wealthy. they don't want our retirement years to be fun and secure, instead they want us to be susceptible to market forces as a crap shoot. Think about it, relying on your retirement from the hands of Wall Street capital managers. Most of us cannot save the kind of money to even gamble on this approach so again, it only MAY work if you are wealthy. They want us to have only health insurance or health care if we can afford it. How inhumane is that? Enough said on that subject! They want us to work in poverty level occupations since they don't want to improve our infrastructure that creates good middle class jobs. For my final example is the one that boils my skin the most, they want to deny us the liberty of voting by restricting it and making it difficult everywhere they can. I didn't even touch on the disrespect they are leveling against our women, veterans and disabled. When the rock drops and your eyes are opened to what this dastardly Republican party is doing to our nation I just hope it is before November when every single vote we have will be needed to upend their strategy and send them home out of work like they have done to most of the rest of us.

Liberation from our fears (#1885)

It's okay to know that you are afraid, it is not okay to stay in the fear once you realize it. I know, easier said than done, but there it is anyway. All of us honest souls eventually find out that anything in life worth having will always be hard so shirking off our fears is just another step in life we take. The importance of finding liberation from our fears is that it allows to be who we are instead of making us be who we are not. Fear is like that, it changes how we think and how we react. It diminishes our confidence and steals from us our courage. Fear does another horrible thing to us, it closes us off from our curiosity as fear most often shuts down our objective panoramic perspective to a shallow acceptance of something far less human in nature. We are not beholden to those who apply fear to our lives and treat us with the disrespect that is inherent within fear. We are all amazing data processors in our own human way and for those who would subject us to limited thoughts and actions I say shame on them and shame on those who allow themselves to be fear-mongered. I have lived in fear that my life would end soon and that I would offend someone who would make me pay for it with physical harm as well as social harm. But I grew up out of that fear and decided that living my life on my terms was more important than any threat I may perceive concerning my freedom to exist on my terms. I still have some fears I am fighting to overcome but the key is that I am fighting to overcome them, not cowering back and accepting my fate as a lesser than.

Segregation by skin color is racism (#1884)

When the "content of their character" is not a higher priority in determining someone's value than the "color of their skin" we have truly failed at being human. Some or even many may not care that equality is being dismantled as long as their fears are soothed, despite the lack of any honorable principle. The quotes above are Martin Luther King's from his "I have a Dream Speech", given in the 1960's. Here we are some 50 years later still struggling to accept the logic of his words. I am dumbfounded by the lack of our society to do the right thing when it is so obviously the correct thing to do. It truly shows a disdain for struggle and a disrespect for those who gave everything to overcome it. It is a pitiful reflection on our American society when segregation is so prevalent after so much has been done to disprove all of segregation's vile arguments. Treating another human being as a lesser is supposed to be in our past and even the conservative Republicans on the US Supreme court have shown a blindness to the existing segregation by cutting down laws that actually protect against segregation. Yet here we are still some 50 years into the future from Dr. King's amazing transformation for our society and little has changed from then. While the public act of segregating has been reduced, it has nonetheless gone to ground and is now festering in the quiet quarters where the light of day is less conspicuous. If some or many want to continue to segregate based upon skin color then be aware that you are choosing to be racist. Yes, you are a racist if you  judge a human being based on a physical appearance and then deny them rights all human beings have a duty to protect for each other.

When cowards call bravery cowardice (#1883)

I have had it up to here with the cowards that dwell among us. Especially those cowards who have profited off of others in nefarious ways and think that their unearned wealth now gives them a voice in how all our lives should be run. I can identify a coward very easily, they say things that harm without any conviction to the harm they cause. They are greedy and selfish with their defining words and their actions. Sadly our nation, America, at the moment, is full of such cretins. They show no duty to the society they have manipulated and they curse those of us who see duty to our nation as a vulnerability to be taken advantage of. They would no further help in a disaster any one but themselves since they only see our society as there for the reaping, not the sowing. I have an anger within me at those who are this way, cowardly egoists with the principles of a psychopath. I could care less about the risk of calling them out since it would be so easy for them to hire someone else to make my life miserable or make my life disappear. I don't care either way since living in a world run by cowards is not worthy of my existence! In the meantime I will continue to call the slimy slugs the cowards that they are and with relentless fortitude I will do it from the rooftops if that is all I have left. Nothing in life is worth living under the thumb of someone who is callous and uncaring enough to disparage bravery when bravery is one of the greatest human sacrifices we can make to each other. I honor bravery in whatever shape or form it takes and it humbles me to see it displayed. I cherish this aspect of our humanity and those who dishonor it will surely answer to me if I ever get a chance to answer.

Doing what is right never goes out of fashion (#1882)

We all know what is right but we tell ourselves whatever we need to hear in order to make putting ourselves first happen. It is wrong of us to keep thinking that if we don't take every advantage that comes our way to enrich ourselves regardless of the cost/benefit, we are somehow missing out. Things really are simple when you consider doing something for others first. Life takes on a whole new meaning and not putting yourself first becomes a badge of courage worn with true humility. It doesn't matter at all what others may think or do in a similar situation, what matters is what we do. I don't have to live in the skin of those who compromise doing right in order to satisfy their own glorification at the expense of others. I have a happy heart and good conscience about my awareness and that my friends is what brings a smile to my face regardless of the circumstance or situation I am facing. Nothing in this world was as scary to me as the first time I realized that others didn't care about whether I lived or died. Nothing! It shocked me and then began to be the basis for my own foundation for living. I will not be like that to others who also know that life is supposed to be an experience that is fulfilling, not demoralizing. I have little in the way of the world's thinking when it comes to materials of value. But what I do have is a heart for life and for all of existence's creations. And that my friends is a value that no one can ever actualize with a price. So have a merry day all and remember that when you do for others as a goal you often find that somehow, someway you find fulfillment returned to you in the most unexpected ways.

Separation of church and state (#1881)

It all boils down to separation. If a church wants to intermingle it's assets into the marketplace then it should expect to be subject to marketplace norms. No one is forcing religious institutions or religious individuals to chase after capital, but when they do they are no different then non religious organizations or folks who likewise chase after capital. Same with politics, if a church wants to express it's desire to influence elections and policy through it's capital, it is subject as well to laws that govern political giving. If a religious institution wants to preach from the pulpit influences that convey their particular desire for how their parishioners vote then they lose their status of solely being a religious organization and the benefits that go with that. Faith in a supernatural being is sacred in our society but so are the laws we have established to not only protect the faiths from government but to protect government from the faiths. The delineation is clear, separate religion from commerce and politics and the rights we give religious institutions is rock solid, however deviate from that separation and then those rights cease to exist. Remember, faith is a belief system, not a universal fact of existence. Given the many religions the world over we should have no trouble at all understanding that faith is more to do with comfort and hope and less to do with fact and logic. Both faith and non belief can co-exist in our society and for many of us a permutation of some sort of this co-existence has been our reality. The question is clear here however about what we do as a functioning society and the laws we live by and the need to find solace in our far from understood existence. 

My spirituality evolves with each new scientific discovery (#1880)

What is so fascinating to me is the knowledge I get to accumulate. I have said here so many times that one of my main natural instincts is to be curious and learning new information is like breathing for me. That said, I am also caring, my other main natural instinct. Which brings me to my spirituality. I have a sense about where and how my caring derives, it is founded upon my feelings of emotion and intuition. I cherish these emotions and intuition because they have brought out in me a satisfaction of being good that is like no other sensation I experience. All of this to segue to my statement in the title, that my spirituality evolves with knowledge. I am not historically a religious person. I had been involved with religion at times in my life but not in the way that dispels any doubt about it. I have come to realize that despite not being bound to a religion, I am nonetheless a spiritual being. I don't hold to dogmas and rituals that enable myths and superstitions as a replacement for the unknown, instead I welcome the unknown as another part of the way I understand my own spirituality. As my mind adds and subtracts opinions, theories and facts, I remain in a constant state of knowing that life, time and space are beyond my own absolute understanding as I am today. This is my truth about this existence and my place within it. There has only been one enlightened idea that I can say with certainty, and that is that my natural instincts are the foundation for who I am and how I live. I must, as the law of being me, continue to learn what I don't know and care about all that exists. That is my spirituality and this life has given me more than I will ever realize in my own mind given the shortness of the time I will have here.

Most Republican Governors deny their citizens Medicaid expansion (#1879)

For the first 3 years of the medicaid expansion under PPACA, (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act), otherwise termed "Obamacare" states pay nothing as the federal government picks up the tab. Going forward after those first 3 years the government pays 90% of the cost of the expansion. Historically, Medicaid has been able to pay doctors less than what they have been getting from Medicare, but under this new law, Medicaid payments have been raised to match Medicare payments. This is the upside to the law, the payouts increase for Medicaid while the social benefit to millions of citizens is critical. Not only are uninsured costs in emergency room visits passed on to the insured in the form of higher premiums without the expansion, but the ability of the uninsured to get insured through medicaid expansion allows for them to get preventive diagnosis which reduce costs overall. That is a cost benefit analysis but the human factor is much more important. We improve the health of our citizenry who otherwise could not afford health insurance by expanding the coverage to include those 138% above the poverty line, by insuring them through medicaid expansion. We give citizens the ability to lead more productive lives when they have solutions to the ailments we all experience. So in summary, the cost/benefit analysis favoring Medicaid expansion is supported primarily through the federal government, leaving states little fiscal responsibility for insuring 10's of thousands in each state. There is also the cost states will be liable for in not expanding medicaid and it is the higher cost of care they must pay for their uninsured citizens who use emergency room services. The social benefit is enormous as a healthier society is a much more happier and productive society. Republican Governors, quit blocking Medicaid expansion to your citizens!

http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacares-medicaid-expansion.php

The intellectual dishonesty Republicans further as policy (#1878)

Until the Republican party is crushed into little more than a memory, I will have plenty to write about in their continuing quest to destroy the rise and growth of the American middle class. How can it be that a political party can have any relevance when the majority of Americans identify with the middle class as a station in life or a hoped for place to exist? The answer is simple, they turn us against ourselves by playing to our fears and by leaving little on the table so that we must fight against each other to get a share of it. The reason they are able to do this is because the long history of the Republican party has come to be a part of the fabric of American life. Though if we looked at the political makeup of the Republican party during the times of great achievements we would find that either liberals or progressives were the makeup of the Republicans during those times of success. Conservatives have practically no record of defense and growth aimed at the middle class but somehow they have manipulated too many into believing they are their champions. What makes all of this even harder on our ability to distinguish the "good guys" from the "bad" is our first amendment to the constitution that has not been refined enough through judicial discretion to eliminate willful misrepresentation. We protect the right to "lie" as a value. Consider that for a moment, it is legal to lie to folks as a right guaranteed by our constitution. US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has been a conservative champion of construing the constitution strictly which the conservatives have embraced when it benefits their agenda. Since conservatives have a slim majority on the court at this time, we will not see any change to the "lying" aspect of free speech anytime soon.

Republicans help cause pain and suffering and then ask us to die defending it (#1877)

I have no other conclusion I can draw. Not only are Republicans against anything that structures a civilized society but they like to involve us in wars when their ego's get bruised. The problem is that Republicans don't like to fight wars themselves, they want the "dirty masses" to do that horrible detail for them. The thing is that Republicans are people who were hopeful children at one time who didn't want people to hurt. Somewhere along the way they bought into the idea that it is okay to trample and stomp others if it meant an advantage for them. The survival of the fittest unenlightened mindset that allows for greed and lust to fill them with a foundation. Well, I can only hope that they turn back into people who care about other people but I won't hold my breath. We have to get them out of power as fast as possible in order to turn around the damage they have done to several generations in a row. I am sick and tired of the media treating them with respect when the inverse from them is not to be found. The Republican party has become a wasteland of incoherence and harm and should not be tolerated any longer. They only want to keep themselves in power for the sake of using our country for their own benefit. Republicans talk about everyone having a shot at the American dream but they have so rigged the process that it is only an illusion coming from their deceptive mouths. My blog postings have turned form talking about the nature of humanity to focus instead on the lack of humanity Republicans endear.

Republicans are about to let as many as 17,104 people die under their "leadership". (#1876)

(1) "Predicted national-level consequences of states opting out of Medicaid expansion are displayed in Exhibit 2. We estimate the number of deaths attributable to the lack of Medicaid expansion in opt-out states at between 7,115 and 17,104". It astounds me the callousness these Republican politicians have toward those of their constituents they deem unworthy of living. In contrast, Republicans rail against our President for the tragedy at Benghazi that he had little to no influence to change and 4 deaths occurred. Yet now, These Republican politicians, who with as simple an act of a stroke of a pen in most cases, could stop thousands of American deaths right here in our own country. They have not been willing to sign into law medicaid expansion that is being offered to them because they have an ideological difference of opinion about whether health care is a right or a privilege. Well I have had enough of the Republican "game playing" with my fellow citizens lives in this gravely serious respect. Not only will I continue to devote this blog to highlighting the tragedy Republicans are forcing Americans to suffer but I will also continue to highlight their hypocrisy when they try to blame our President for their inept and life crushing decisions. I am utterly, and I damn well mean utterly, shocked that these Republican politicians are not being run out of town on a rail after being tarred and feathered. The American people deserve to have politicians who are working on their behalf, and instead what we have with Republican politicians is a disdain for all their constituents in order to service only those citizens in their jurisdictions who "pay for play". Enough! This November let us vote every Republican out of office who is running! 

(1)  http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2014/01/30/opting-out-of-medicaid-expansion-the-health-and-financial-impacts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=opting-out-of-medicaid-expansion-the-health-and-financial-impacts.

Knowledge trumps riches (#1875)

When will our American wealthy brethren finally figure it out that wealth is not the answer in life? Knowledge Is! We have within us a need to know not a need to to be greed driven. Our desire to accumulate is based upon the unknown not the lust of glitter and gold! Why is it that we would readily hurt ourselves and others with a false illusion of grandeur? It is because we are not being instilled with our own true sense of worth. This consumerist society we have created should never be the means to our end. It is just a method for modernity to evolve, nothing more. We should all be participating in the remarkableness of the ingenuity mankind is continually discovering. We are a team against all other unknowns that surely will be discovered in time if we can survive our own internal cancerous behavior. That the bigger picture is not being taught as a primer is to our species' detriment. We act as if we are secure in our species' safety when we could not be further from deluding ourselves on this point. Yes, we try to guard against devastation from attacks within our own species against ourselves, but that is just indicative of our own failings to each other, not to the bigger picture of our overall species survival. What we have now is the idea that most don't care about the future in the sense that outside of our own sphere of living little else matters. Now I am not saying that most in their hearts don't want what is best for our future generations but what I am saying is that we don't care enough to actually do something about it!

Taking our place (#1874)

Every one of us has a place in life to occupy and no amount of distraction, denial or utter disdain for reality will keep us from being defined one way or another. Shall we instead define who we are to others so that they then will need to question their own values? I am one who would rather laugh in the face of time and space since time and space are the parameters that allow me to exist. Surely I am reverential for having a life but the odd thing is that this life has little meaning unless I make it so. I have two dynamics that define me to myself. I am curious as all get out and I am happy through humor or just being positive because I care. That is who I am and all my thoughts and actions will convey those influential qualities. I have learned over some time that I am not in the herd in the normal sense of the thought. Yes, I am human and I do believe in a communal society that interacts and shares in thought and deed. However I am in my own space, and convention, although necessary for some foundational activities, is not my hallmark. I was rightly accused of being a contrarian on many occasions not out of some sense of generally being disagreeable, but because I have different ideas about the foundations that we accept as life pathways. I usually want to tip convention on it's ear and approach how our civilization has evolved with a skeptical eye generated by our allowing uneven policies of behavior to guide our progress. "Occam's Razor" for me. I want to establish a living of life paradigm that has essential justices, equalities and opportunities as the foundation, not the haphazard system we have accepted through mainly ulterior motive manipulation. To take our place we must all take our stand and decide how we will be defined..

Exposing the liars (#1873)

I have seen so much lately coming from Republicans about how they are reaching out to women, seniors and minorities, with just those words while their actions are completely the opposite. This is why I call them liars. It is a harsh term to use but nonetheless accurate. With all the advertising the wealthy can do it is quite certain that their lying deceptive statements will resonate with many who are otherwise ill informed to the real intent of the Republican party. They have denied extended unemployment benefits to over 2,000,000 million previously working Americans and their family members leaving this class of folks with no income and little prospect of work. The reason being is that Republicans have also blocked all efforts by the Obama administration to create work such as opportunities for veterans and much needed infrastructure work. Republicans have also denied women the right to equal pay for equal work. A fact that has kept women in a financial second class system. Republicans have blocked all efforts to raise the minimum wage which effects women more than any class of people. Republicans have cut education to the point where minorities are effected more by their actions since minorities have had a harder time climbing the ladder of success. Republicans have decided that the still unequal society we currently live in needs to give no further aid to those who are still struggling. I won't even go into the broken promises Republicans have decided to break with our veterans who served their country and upon returning home have found the Republican party unwilling to serve them for their duty.

On my Parents computer (#1872)

Today is an odd day in that I am at my parents place typing out this blog on their computer. I am fortunate because my sister is reworking my computer trying to get it operational and I am without a computer. I write this blog post everyday and not writing it today because of the problem I am having was eating at me. I am surely tied to writing about some subject everyday as a necessary compulsion and I was definitely going through some real physical trauma. lol. But here I am writing my daily post and feeling the anxiety slip away. Not having my Internet has shaken me in the sense that I couldn't sleep last night trying to rationalize some way to fix my computer or find some way to purchase another as fast as possible. I have come to know that not being on the Internet has caused me to realize that I have come to be attached in a very personal way. I am no longer satisfied in life not having information at my fingertips. I feel like when I am not able to access information when I want I am somehow hollowed by the lacking. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I am not in my normal zone for writing my blog but happy that during this interim period of not having my own computer to write on is possible. Enough for now and I hope to see you all on my own computer tomorrow. :)

When arrogance leads to ignorance (#1871)

More common than not is my view. Arrogance rarely is right. Yet we have so many who cannot dazzle with brilliance so they try very hard to baffle with bullshit! Mainly this is in our media now since our media is the next best thing to being a neighbor to millions of folks without actually having to be a neighbor. When one talks with confidence, about a subject regardless of whether they know much about it at all, it does come across as an unimpeachable fact. yet when we research these claims we find that they are spoon fed propaganda orchestrated by those who have an ulterior agenda to achieve. It is much easier to distort and falsify facts in order to get your way especially if your presenter of information comes across as trustworthy or believable. Why we have such a society today is a scourge on our overlapping generations. We are continually stuck with the egoists who have little communal pride and instead they are prone to delving into the sake of their own pocketbook. Their propaganda presenters are also lacking in authenticity and critical understanding so they more than make up for their "lacking" deficit through illusion and their willingness to be controlled like puppets. We all lose when the inability to think critically and justify conclusions through logic, common sense and honest, imaginative intuitiveness is lacking. It isn't hard to be an elitist who defies the principles of equality, justice and fairness, but it isn't right either and although we have these dynamics now we don't have to have them in our future. The first step to rectifying our current paradigm of damaging media incoherence is to recognize it as such.

The continuum of time and space (#1870)

One of my most regrettable moments will be when I am no longer here in existence. I don't mean to be depressing with this post but rather I am coming to grips with the idea that I won't be able to see and experience how our human life sorts itself out in the far distant future should our species survive our immediate future. Just being a part of the little bit of life I am allowed has only temporarily sated my thirst for more. I want to have the experience of living far into the future just to satisfy my own insatiable curiosity about what is and what isn't. It will not be so however and coming to grips with that is a lifelong enduring realization for me. I suppose by the time my time comes to an end here in existence I will have settled it with myself at least that is my hope. From wherever if anywhere I came from to get here, and to wherever if anywhere I go afterwards, I won't be here for the duration of our species' survival and that is too bad. I want to push every boundary that exists to see where the next boundary is or if there is another boundary beyond our existing boundaries. I want to spend all my time being fascinated by what I don't know and captivated by what I do learn. It is a shame that we all have a sovereign that rules us, it being time. Time will not allow me to remain in this complex mix of logic and emotion that extracts from me every sensation born within me. Time will not allow me to bathe in all of space to my desires, and for that I am truly saddened. I will take what little this existence allows me, but know this, it will never be enough for my curiosity is greater than the time and space given to me.

Making life hard and blaming the victim (#1869)

My Republican rant! It is spurious that Republican politicians and their mouth pieces have been railing against the poor and those who are struggling mightily to stay out of poverty all the while making it hard for any of these folks to improve their lives. It seems Republicans have no shame or are borderline sociopathic. Not only are they advancing the greedy desires of their wealthy donors but they are also baffling the electorate with their dishonest messaging. They also employ a sometimes subtle and sometimes not subtle message of division centered on race distinction. They are playing to the electorates trumped up fear, another Republican strategy, of each other in ways that destroy the American idea of a melting pot in favor of division. This keeps them from having to expose the real intent of their policies and keeps voters favoring them over others who want to unite our country with the truth of things. This blaming the victim technique is a tried and true method for those who cannot stand in the light of day with the exposure of their policies for all to see. I try to expose them to people and family I know but all I get back from some of them are the talking points the Republicans have supplied to divert and deny the truth. I shake my head and walk away frustrated that some people in my life would rather allow themselves to be racists or haters of others for the sake of their own cowardly fear. It is disheartening to watch Republicans harming our country and our countrymen standing up for them. As if doing harm is now a virtue and not the disgrace it should be penalized and punished for doing. I hope someday in the near future liars are not held in esteem and truth tellers are elevated to being the heroes they truly are.

Ignorance, fear and selfishness (#1868)

When combined, these three outcomes present everyone who experiences them a disservice. There is no hope for truth, honor and respect to flourish. the key here is the ignorance dynamic. Why we allow ourselves to become pawns to others because we can't find our way to research and develop our own opinions is an individual colossal failing. It is so easy nowadays to look up arguments on both sides of a question and then derive what may be the best outcome on our own without prejudice or ulterior motive. Fear is the next in line to deny us the ability to recognize what is honorable in our society. When we are made to be so afraid too even consider what is making us fearful then our ability to challenge the fear within us and stand tall for a redeeming option that has more honor than not, we have succumbed to fear as a default without ever putting up a fight for honor. We have given over our right and duty to fight for honor with justice at our backs. It is cowardly to give in to the pressure some would strategically put upon us for their gain. Remember, we live one life and if living it is in fear then what does that say about our character? Then there is selfishness. When ignorance and fear are our closest allies what we do within our psyche is justify a flawed character trait that assuages our conscious with the idea that doing right by ourselves is always good regardless of whether in the big picture the "right" we are doing is harming us overall. As long as we remain ignorant and full of fear, we might as well focus on the selfishness of our own gain without worrying about the expense it costs everyone else. The problem is that being a cowardly patsy and settling for greed is not a legacy any of us would ever be proud to exhibit to eternity.

The struggle is hard (#1867)

There is so much truth to the saying that anything worth doing is going to be hard. Especially when there are those out there who don't want anything worth doing, done. I have had my share of setbacks and disappointments. They started when I was young, from the assassination of the greatest hope of my young lifetime, President Kennedy, to less than a year later the death of my biological father. It continued with the loss of my two permanent front teeth in a neighborhood rock fight, onward to the assassinations of Martin Luther King then two short months later to assassination of Robert Kennedy. The continued fighting in Vietnam to many more disappointments that continue to this day. I have so many times wanted to chuck it all in and just ignore reality and live out my life without caring, I did for a spell of time until I finally realized that regardless of my ignoring reality, it still came back up to bite me in the ass. A turning point finally registered with me that I was part of the problem because I wasn't part of the solution. I have since vocalized my participation to dedicate myself to the great ideals the great assassinated men of my youth espoused. Regardless of the setbacks that are inevitable and that hurt my physical self as well as my soul I continue to persevere. The struggle is hard and when I see us so close to capturing the day in the struggle to redeem our best instincts and then see it slip away I am crushed but not defeated. I don't do what I do for me, instead I do what I do for all of us. Because that is who I am.

The truth does set you free (#1866)

In my early history, my childhood, I felt the need to lie so that I didn't have to feel embarrassed about whatever it was that I was either doing or was being done to me. Most all of us have had the experience surely. When I got into my teen years I lied in order to get something or get out of doing something, again, nothing new here. When I became an adult I lied because telling the truth all the time was not instilled in me as a principle and thus my false pretenses turned me into a partially hollow person. It wasn't until I decided that my life needed a foundation from which not to go below that I realized that telling the truth to the best of my ability was my new pathway forward. In that simple decision I have found myself again and filled in those previous hollow spots. Living a principled life. Now don't misunderstand me, I am still a work in progress and rough around the edges of civilized behavior, but I am not intentionally prone to being devious or dishonest. I am otherwise prone to being open and honest about all aspects of my life that have some possibility to be helpful for others. I am also willing to learn something different from what I already know and when I am wrong I am willing to admit it and apologize to others where appropriate. I am okay with being human, which is making mistakes, but I am more than okay with improving from my mistakes wherever and however they come to me. The benefit I get from this is that I don't begrudge others who have the good fortune to get those things that are beyond my reach. I have found peace within my soul and from that peace I am able to stand and fight for the better and best we should all experience out of life.

I laugh at the liars (#1865)

I guess it is because since I have matured into a strong minded soul with a strong physical form that I do have the ease of laughing at those who would try to take advantage of me. I don't necessarily get angry but instead try to shame the liars when they expose themselves. It saves them from my wrath and saves me from a court appointment. lol. Another neat trick is to laugh and then ignore them as if they are invisible. That one works really well since most liars crave attention. Obviously they need an audience since they have intentionally and strategically set about with their lies in order to con someone to their advantage. What is most important here is to know when you are being lied to. In order for me to stay ahead of the liars, I need to be informed of not only the current events of the day but of the recent and distant past as well. I need to keep myself aware of the world around me and accept nothing at face value unless it is something I am quite informed about. I don't take shortcuts with knowledge. Surely I do draw wrong conclusions from time to time but never do I disregard the criticism or correcting when it comes and believe me when I am wrong the correcting comes at me quickly. I am decent enough a human being to humble myself to my mistake, correct it and move on. Remember, trial and error is a form of learning but should not be the primary way of learning. Liars are everywhere in life since they have figured out how to make money and receive power by being successful at it. But here is the deal, we don't have to let them cheat us, we can take our own responsibility to know into our own hands and then expose and laugh at them as we will.

The hardest thing in life (#1864)

The hardest thing in my life has been to experience loss of life. My heart still breaks and tears well up in my eyes when certain lives are remembered. It is so hard to find ones who are willing to share life with you and give you unconditional love as a free gift. The longer I live the more I will experience this hardest thing in life. I have been blessed with friendships and family that have inspired me to be who I am because of the precious examples they have set. If one needs to wonder how I am structured with respect to my principles look no further than the outcome of beauty and wisdom that have been shared with me. Is there any wonder why I fight so hard to keep them in my thoughts and their motivations as my catalyst for action? I am the sum of those who have gone on before me along with my own sense of care and wonder. I have often said here in this blog that life is not about personal aggrandizement, it is about communal aggrandizement and that is my impetus for living. Nothing more is required for me. Think about that. The love we have within us cannot logically be given to ourselves, it must be given to others. For that love to have any significant effect, it must be real, so that the ones receiving it know it's validity. The only way I know for sure how to give love to others is to remember how love was given to me and pass that along the same way. This is so hard to write for me because I am experiencing the emotion it is bringing out in me. I should also remember that I have been loved and shared life with some amazing souls. That they are gone is not as unhappy with me now because I do get to remember them and what they gifted to me.

Are we stronger than hate? (#1863)

Time will tell on this one in our current era. Here in America we have as a whole become less involved in our society's structure and more involved in our own concept of self-gratification. We do this at our peril since there are forces out there who are not modern nor are they reasonably civilized. They have a thirst for power and control that cannot be sated. I will tell you here that these abominable forces are embedded within the Republican party and they are pushing their agenda through such deception that even some who pay attention cannot comprehend their subtle power play against us. By us I mean regular ordinary American folks who not only want better for our own lives but for the next generations that follow. All of us need to stop thinking about our own situations so much and start thinking about the big picture of our society. We cannot just trust that leaders in our country are fighting for us. A lot of them are instead fighting for a small faction of wealthy people who wish to subvert our democracy in favor of their "cure" for our lives. They have the added sense of privilege that sustains their efforts whereas all we have is our voice and our vote. But if we activate our voices and our vote we can combat their hatred for democracy in favor of a privileged plutocracy. Have no doubt that the good we feel inside us is not shared by their smiling faces with a metaphorical knife behind their backs, waiting to attack us. They would promote division through their own hatred to divide and conquer us but will we let them? That is the question of our age and it has yet to be determined.

The egotistical ignorant (#1862)

What a shame that so many of our citizenry are arrogant in their limited view of reality. I am both heartsick and angry as hell about too many people who can only see into their pocketbook and nothing beyond. They conveniently ignore the misery all around them and instead complain about not having enough! They focus on their own little world of pleasures and diversions as an example of how we should live while the world all around them is crumbling. They have no empathy toward others where they have built this paradigm of blame that suits and justifies their taking. For them it is about living life to their fullest as their own self, not as a part of a larger whole. They find that their knowledge has reached it's end about who we are as a people and how we should all act within their idea of society. Nothing anyone can say will move them that has an opposing view to their arrived at understanding regardless if it destroys the logic of their arrived at understanding. It all boils down to who really has a heart and soul for reality and who would rather not consider such things. I continue to divest myself of such ones as a measure to control my own sanity. I will not associate with those who see differences in folks based upon nothing more than all of our current dilemmas. It is a shame for our country to be seen as a caring and giving country while our citizens reflect the very opposite of that. I know I live up to that ideal and continue to apologize to the Universe for my fellow citizens' thoughts and actions but I will not let them steal from me the identity I know is right and good. Our self determination requires that we relentlessly study the facts of reality, not change them to fit our own narrative of reality.

American slavery of Africans (#1861)

I like to title my posts after the running number of my posts when it seems like a significant date, this is one of those. 1861 brought us the first fighting between the North and the South. Upon President Lincoln's election in November 1860, he had declared that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free...". (1) With his election and subsequent intent to free America from slavery, the South rose up and declared a secession from our Federal Government and thus began 11 southern states fighting for a Confederacy while 21 Northern states fight to keep the whole union intact. (2) The fighting that started nearly four years to the day is finished in 1865 when the South surrenders. Less than a week later President Lincoln is assassinated. (3) All this to break the fever of slavery and an intent to return all men to the dignity of self-determination. The past behavior of our nation should serve as a reminder that the struggle to self-determination has been hard fought with lost life and limb as it's vessel. Those who still see the concept of slavery as a means for production have not given up the ghost in that area but instead have tweaked their ambitions toward lesser forms of slavery that still serve their greedy and lustful purposes. Although the war between the North and South ended with a Northern victory, the South has not been easily weaned from it's intent to treat some as less or more than others. The South may be a more common example of this but let's be clear, everywhere there are some who think the notion that race is still unequal in it's privilege. However, what I will say is that there are more who think that what Martin Luther King Junior said in his "I have a dream" speech is still the morally correct ethic: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

(1), (2), (3) http://www.historyplace.com/civilwar/

When politicians embrace the losing logical argument (#1860)

I have been shaking my head for years now at the Republican party. Not that the Democratic party is perfect, but that the Republican party is just so bad! Like I state in my title, When politicians embrace the losing side of the argument as the way forward I again am dumbfounded. Surely these politicians, most all in the Republican party are not illogical human beings. So what is it that makes them follow an illogical path? I can only surmise that they are driven by some wildly complicated theory that requires destroying society as we know it or that they are being manipulated by someone else or they have sold out. Either way they have it wrong!!!!! Now that is one part of the problem, the other part are the voters who continue to elect them into office. What is their motivation for tearing down what has been built over centuries to be replaced by what? And, why don't they instead want to build on what we have to make things even better? Surely I could go back to education being the problem or some generational prejudices being forwarded through culture but even those seem incomplete in explaining why too many want what is worse over what is better since we all have to live in the time we share? The only general conclusion I can come up with that explains most of this is that in America we don't have laws against news organizations telling lies. We have what is supposed to be the deterrent to lying called the market place, yet lies can be so subtle that the market place isn't enough to stop the dishonor. We need to have strong laws that punish lies in media, while protecting truthful first amendment rights of free speech, and then maybe we will all get the truth from which to decide to follow the winning logical arguments.

Life should be fun (#1859)

I don't care about those moral ethicists who think that hard work is the only way we should be living our lives. I do care about everyone having as much fun out of life as possible. All these ethical equivalencies with work and denial is archaic and disheartening to our spirits. I am saying that work, hard work is good for us to accomplish things but work is the means to an end, not an end unto itself. "Nose to the grindstone" is not a way of life but a necessity at times within life. What is a necessity in life is having and enjoying the fun in life. We live for a very short average time, with many who live even shorter than average. What we do in that time will register very little in the overall scheme of things but in our own lives will register mightily. The best of life is in the joy of having fun. I will not be like so many puritanical souls who find the solace of self denial as a model for living, while I also will not find being a court jester with no conscious acceptable either. There is middle ground between staying busy with our time and making that time productive in our lives through having fun. We do this already as we try to vacation with our families or just spend quality time when doing ordinary things together. However we must not let the concept of work dominate our time as a requirement of society, but only as a requirement based upon our own sense of how to create fun opportunities. Fun is my goal and work is my way of making fun more enjoyable. So let's stop being so severe on ourselves about material things and start being proactive in establishing more opportunities for ourselves to have fun.

We are all worthy (#1858)

Often times when I was growing up I felt that I wasn't as worthy as others. Like I was less because of things I thought or were part of or didn't stop from happening. I thought it was just me who was incapable of being a model citizen. What I learned over time is that I am not alone in this fearful unworthiness thinking. We all go through times in our lives when we feel less than we should have been. We all make mistakes, even when at the time, the mistakes weren't apparent. It is the nature of our species to learn through trial and error when we cannot reason out or are not given the solution to so many choices we have to make. Thus like all of us at some or many times in our lives we realize and humbly accept our regret for not being what we wish we had been instead of being who we were at the time. I cannot go back and change anything about myself but what I can do is accept that I am worthy of being alive and in that make a better effort to be a better person. It is my choice to be a better person, no one else has the right or the duty but me. All the influences around me cannot make me choose, only I can choose and live with the results of my choice. That is where I am now and the difference in now as opposed to back then is that I live through my principles. I have embraced a right and correct way of rationalization onto action that serves me in not only how I feel about what I think and do but sets an example for others to follow should they so desire. I was worthy of life then, even when I was wrong about some things, because like all of we humans, making mistakes is one way we get to learn. In many ways how we actually learn from those mistakes and devise a rationale for not making mistakes in defining who we are is where we hopefully will end up.

The price of ignorance (#1857)

So you don't care about what is going on around you because your experience has been that nothing much changes. Well that is correct if you don't know what you have. Being ignorant to how our system of government operates and it's purpose is probably the most destructive failing in our society. If all you do is occasionally listen to what others tell you about what the "facts" are you are really doing a disservice to yourself and those whom you come into contact with. Even listening to me here tell you that being ignorant to politics has a price, should require you to question my hypothesis and inform yourself as to whether I am right or wrong. Generally though you should be able to understand that being uninformed allows for things to happen to you that you don't have a say in. I am not saying you need to be an expert on every subject out there in politics but I am saying that you need to know the basic facts of policies that have a direct impact on your life. Don't you want to be part of what effects you? Of course you do but you have to pay a price for it. Yes, you have to take some of your valuable time and spend it on learning the logic of why our society exists. What is a democracy and what should it accomplish in this day and age? Simple enough to start and you will curiously find that this stuff is interesting and it also allows you to talk with other folks who are interested also. We have a commonality of purpose beyond our goal of living life in a carefree way that sates our appetites. We have to live in this world well beyond our youth and what kind of policies we understand and support will carry forward with us throughout our lives.

Civilization or barbarism (#1856)

For me, the coming election here in America this coming November will define which type of society we want, either to build or tear down toward. It is simple really, some want us to have the barbaric days before we first started coming together in which each individual or group would call it's own shots about all things in life. A vision that relies totally on self reliance without regard to circumstance or frailty. This type of world view has at it's core the idea that selfishness is a virtue and should be protected at all costs to which one can afford. A strategic idea that pits us against each other for the coveted slot of actual king of the hill. Now the winners in this type of society will always trumpet that they deserve their exalted place in society as they outworked or outsmarted everyone else. This would be true if everyone started out from the same place but that is not the case so anyone who does say that they are entitled to their accomplishments above others is making a false analogy. Now the other side of the upcoming reality will be whether civilization is valued above the gunslinging ideas of barbarism. Civilization requires rational thoughts with generally acceptable reasoning to decide how we include all in our policies. Which is why democracy works so well. When democracy is applied equally we find that policies must allow for opportunities to be fundamental. We carve out exceptions to help those who are unable to participate equally, but for the most part we design our policies to effect as many as possible without regard to prejudice or privilege. Civilization will not build itself forward into our existence's changing time and space, that is our responsibility. So this coming November will tell much about the psyche of the American voter and our overall vision for the future.