the news is good wal-mart is cutting prices again . sam walton must be singing in heaven . , but wait there are flies in the ointment . why is wal-mart cutting prices on christmas toys so early ?was it wal-marts relentlas push to cut costs that lead to the lead in the chinese made toys ? are these the toys that wal-mart is discounting ?
richard nixon had no idea what he was unleashing on america . when he opened up china to trade for his corprate masters . the french knew . france watched its textile industy disappear to hong kong in the early sixities . by the way every president since nixon has done their best to make sure chinas door to our markets stays wide open . we lost the war in vietnam and as a bonus the chinese turnrd south vietnam into one huge factory making goods for the american market . who knows maybe that what the war was for .
walk into any of the retail chain stores . the shelves are groaning with the weight of the merchindise . that has to be sold to make room for the next shipment ordered automaticaly by the computer , brought by the just in time warehouse on wheels . so the robot like sales people can make nice over and over all day long .
how many tools , house gadgets and consumer electronics can the american house hold ? what happens when there is no more room , the credit card is maxed and there is no more equity left to borrow ? when even the advertising that is eveywhere pulling those emotional triggers can not over come the reality . that we have enough .
if one wants a clear view of how much all this stuff would cost if it would if it was made in america . look at autos and houses . there made in america . cars for the past 10 years have been so expensive people can only afford to lease [rent] them . houses are so big and expensive that the banks had to get " creative " to make the mortgages on them . when does this train run out of track .
it is ironic that it is all this psycho consumption that fuels the R&D for even more amazing gadgets that are almost unbelievable . it is like sci-fi come to life . it produces light speed advances in the technolgy that keeps us healthy , wealthy and wise . i can hardly concive of the technolgy we will all see in the next 30 years .
i challenge everyone to not buy anything but gas and food for just 30 days . to only pay the rent on our nessisties car, cell phone service , internet and satalite tv . not to stop to start any kind of anti consumption revloution . but just for 30 days step out of the rat race of consumption . step back and enjoy all that we already have . see a whole new perspective on blessed we truly are .
Monday, October 8, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
cleaning out the gene pool or police state
everyone likes the police . we think they do a good job keeping us safe from the criminal element . but if the police are such fine fellows why do people always want a lawyer with them when they talk to the police . people with money hire lawyers to mounter the police investigation and hire pathologists to do an autopsy after the police are done . independent labs do a brisk business with people who do not believe the police did a complete job with the forensic evidence.
TV shows like csi Miami are really soap operas of clashing personalities with a murder thrown in and some forensic science . shows like forensic files and cold case deal with " just the facts ma"m as Joe Friday used to say . the police work long and hard to catch criminals . it seems to me that DNA has been as effective at keeping the police honest and curing legal tunnel vision " guilty until proven innocent "as it has been in convicting people who should be in prison for a long time .
what about those people in prison . most states have the three strike law so people who are serving long sentences have earned them by habitual criminal activity . these people are also not reproducing . which is good . if there is a criminal gene it is not being passed on . there is a large African American population in the nations jails men and women . what will the effect be on on the African American population ?
have we made so many laws that it hard not to break the law ? we have the right to own a hand gun , but the law says it has to have a trigger lock and be locked in a gun safe . this pretty much makes it useless for the purpose it was purchased for .
if you have one drink in new york then drive you are legally drunk . same with seat belts . it would seem that the law is making more of our behavioral decisions for us . will we eventually lose our right to make any decisions ? are we moving towards a police state ? how many of us make our choices out of fear rather than hope ?
it will be interesting to watch over the next 50 years with the rapid development and deployment of electronic monitoring devices in our , homes , cars and work and public places . how will our lives will be shaped . we have lived in a machine society for a hundred years . we have become very machine like ourselves . we admire people who are stable and regular . you could set your watch by the time the leave and come home from work everyday . just like a machine we make the most efficient use of our time and energy . at the cost of human relationships and our own spiritual journey .
TV shows like csi Miami are really soap operas of clashing personalities with a murder thrown in and some forensic science . shows like forensic files and cold case deal with " just the facts ma"m as Joe Friday used to say . the police work long and hard to catch criminals . it seems to me that DNA has been as effective at keeping the police honest and curing legal tunnel vision " guilty until proven innocent "as it has been in convicting people who should be in prison for a long time .
what about those people in prison . most states have the three strike law so people who are serving long sentences have earned them by habitual criminal activity . these people are also not reproducing . which is good . if there is a criminal gene it is not being passed on . there is a large African American population in the nations jails men and women . what will the effect be on on the African American population ?
have we made so many laws that it hard not to break the law ? we have the right to own a hand gun , but the law says it has to have a trigger lock and be locked in a gun safe . this pretty much makes it useless for the purpose it was purchased for .
if you have one drink in new york then drive you are legally drunk . same with seat belts . it would seem that the law is making more of our behavioral decisions for us . will we eventually lose our right to make any decisions ? are we moving towards a police state ? how many of us make our choices out of fear rather than hope ?
it will be interesting to watch over the next 50 years with the rapid development and deployment of electronic monitoring devices in our , homes , cars and work and public places . how will our lives will be shaped . we have lived in a machine society for a hundred years . we have become very machine like ourselves . we admire people who are stable and regular . you could set your watch by the time the leave and come home from work everyday . just like a machine we make the most efficient use of our time and energy . at the cost of human relationships and our own spiritual journey .
Monday, September 24, 2007
anthony robbins where far out thou
for those who do not know, Anthony Robbins was a success guru . Anthony ran his seminar on paid programing late at night and early in the morning for a few years . the main idea was you would use your charge card to buy his course in success . it worked pretty good for ol'tony he is a wealthy man now .
this illustrates a reality we are all facing or will face . in 1974 when the government created IRA s . it spawned a host of other vehicles 401k , 403b, . to name a few and now our government wants to throw social security on the open market . where money magically grows .
what has really happened, a lot of people have been sinking their money into mutual funds for decades . and the money grew slowly but surely . than in 2001 it stopped growing . most people are just now back to where they were in their retirement portfolios . if you ask most people 50 and over if they can retire at 60 . many will shake their heads sadly and then smile and tell you how much the love their careers and do not even think of retiring .
the wall street smoothies have created a sales scheme over the past 30 years that George Orwell would have been proud of . we were told our money would be put in a market basket of stocks , where it would grow into a money tree that we could start harvesting when we reached 60.
these words describes a scene that is just as safe as being in your mothers arms , words that invoked feel good images , that were the complete opposite of how the stock market really works . the same with the housing market people have been seduced into buying homes they can not afford . on the assumption the value of it would rise and they could sell and buy a real castle instead of a starter castle .
this is where Anthony Robbins comes in . it is smoothies like him . who will tell you how great it is to work until your 72 , think how successful you will be by then , think how rich you will be by then , think how dead you will be by then .
the smoothies can turn any negative into a positive , make any situation a win-win situation , but it does not change the fact that everybody is tapped out and tired . everyone is tired of pretending that someday that their 401k will have a million bucks in it and they will be living in luxury , when that statement they get in the mail every quarter is telling them . " this is it "
this is the best you will ever live . the cruelest part of this is we are all living pretty good , but we have been made to believe it is not good enough . that is our fault , our fault alone we have not achieved the success we were promised .
the bad news is that the only way the smoothies can make all this work is to inflate the currency , which will make it possible to attract more suckers to the dream they have created for them . long live the Anthony Robbins maybe when we are all in our 80s and have one foot in the grave . he can tell us how to be a success by dying .
this illustrates a reality we are all facing or will face . in 1974 when the government created IRA s . it spawned a host of other vehicles 401k , 403b, . to name a few and now our government wants to throw social security on the open market . where money magically grows .
what has really happened, a lot of people have been sinking their money into mutual funds for decades . and the money grew slowly but surely . than in 2001 it stopped growing . most people are just now back to where they were in their retirement portfolios . if you ask most people 50 and over if they can retire at 60 . many will shake their heads sadly and then smile and tell you how much the love their careers and do not even think of retiring .
the wall street smoothies have created a sales scheme over the past 30 years that George Orwell would have been proud of . we were told our money would be put in a market basket of stocks , where it would grow into a money tree that we could start harvesting when we reached 60.
these words describes a scene that is just as safe as being in your mothers arms , words that invoked feel good images , that were the complete opposite of how the stock market really works . the same with the housing market people have been seduced into buying homes they can not afford . on the assumption the value of it would rise and they could sell and buy a real castle instead of a starter castle .
this is where Anthony Robbins comes in . it is smoothies like him . who will tell you how great it is to work until your 72 , think how successful you will be by then , think how rich you will be by then , think how dead you will be by then .
the smoothies can turn any negative into a positive , make any situation a win-win situation , but it does not change the fact that everybody is tapped out and tired . everyone is tired of pretending that someday that their 401k will have a million bucks in it and they will be living in luxury , when that statement they get in the mail every quarter is telling them . " this is it "
this is the best you will ever live . the cruelest part of this is we are all living pretty good , but we have been made to believe it is not good enough . that is our fault , our fault alone we have not achieved the success we were promised .
the bad news is that the only way the smoothies can make all this work is to inflate the currency , which will make it possible to attract more suckers to the dream they have created for them . long live the Anthony Robbins maybe when we are all in our 80s and have one foot in the grave . he can tell us how to be a success by dying .
Monday, September 3, 2007
both a curse and a blessing /1962-1972
It always makes me chuckle. When the conservatives blame the hippies for the counter culture that has ruined American family values. The hippies were nothing but a straw man . Let us look at some of the events the hippies were not part of .
1. The assassination of JFK, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy .
2. The race riots in American ghettos and forced busing
3. The war in Vietnam and draft riots .
The hippies were dope-smoking , tie-dye wearing , bead-trading Gypsies with no political power because they refused to vote. What was really going on?
1962-1972 was a blessing in the fact that the average American enjoyed a standard of living unparalleled in history. For me it was cars and music. There has never been such a diverse and creative period for cars and music . It was in this ten year period that so much great stuff happened. It also was the period of national tragedy, the country was coming apart at the seams. There was a real fear the government would collapse .
The military industrial complex was had just finished in Korea and was looking to keep the war machine going in Vietnam. Lyndon B Johnson like Geo. Bush Jr. was - committed to a war that could never be won for the same reason, so the military corporate machine could keep making record profits .
We gave away our electronics industry in the 1960s to the Japanese because the American electronic industry was and still is making so much money doing Dept. of Defense work .
Richard Nixon in 1974 abolished the draft which put a stop to the the military industrial complex creating wars and drafting young men to die for their profits and for his efforts at change he was impeached and disgraced.
Fast forward to Bill Clinton - he tried to cut defense spending, calling it the peace dividend. He wanted to spend the money to improve education and universal health . For his efforts, he was impeached and disgraced. Like rust - the military industrial complex never sleeps .
So 1962-1972 was at once a wonderful euphoric 10 years , but at the same time there were national tragedies occurring with a frightening speed and intensity . It is no surprise drugs were so popular .
Which brings us to Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton. I know Republican conservatives hate Hillary Clinton with a passion that is beyond belief and I always wonder why . Hillary is so locked into the Washington power structure that she is not going to really change much. She is certainly not going to challenge the military industrial complex. Every president since Bobby Kennedy was assasinated has been a shill for the military industrial complex. They all knew which side of the bread the butter was on .
Barak Obama is a different story. He has a destiny that is undeniable. He wants to really change our bought and paid for form of government . I fear for Mr. Obama. If he elected the next president of the United States, will he share the same fate as the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King ?
1. The assassination of JFK, Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy .
2. The race riots in American ghettos and forced busing
3. The war in Vietnam and draft riots .
The hippies were dope-smoking , tie-dye wearing , bead-trading Gypsies with no political power because they refused to vote. What was really going on?
1962-1972 was a blessing in the fact that the average American enjoyed a standard of living unparalleled in history. For me it was cars and music. There has never been such a diverse and creative period for cars and music . It was in this ten year period that so much great stuff happened. It also was the period of national tragedy, the country was coming apart at the seams. There was a real fear the government would collapse .
The military industrial complex was had just finished in Korea and was looking to keep the war machine going in Vietnam. Lyndon B Johnson like Geo. Bush Jr. was - committed to a war that could never be won for the same reason, so the military corporate machine could keep making record profits .
We gave away our electronics industry in the 1960s to the Japanese because the American electronic industry was and still is making so much money doing Dept. of Defense work .
Richard Nixon in 1974 abolished the draft which put a stop to the the military industrial complex creating wars and drafting young men to die for their profits and for his efforts at change he was impeached and disgraced.
Fast forward to Bill Clinton - he tried to cut defense spending, calling it the peace dividend. He wanted to spend the money to improve education and universal health . For his efforts, he was impeached and disgraced. Like rust - the military industrial complex never sleeps .
So 1962-1972 was at once a wonderful euphoric 10 years , but at the same time there were national tragedies occurring with a frightening speed and intensity . It is no surprise drugs were so popular .
Which brings us to Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton. I know Republican conservatives hate Hillary Clinton with a passion that is beyond belief and I always wonder why . Hillary is so locked into the Washington power structure that she is not going to really change much. She is certainly not going to challenge the military industrial complex. Every president since Bobby Kennedy was assasinated has been a shill for the military industrial complex. They all knew which side of the bread the butter was on .
Barak Obama is a different story. He has a destiny that is undeniable. He wants to really change our bought and paid for form of government . I fear for Mr. Obama. If he elected the next president of the United States, will he share the same fate as the Kennedy's and Martin Luther King ?
Sunday, August 26, 2007
the dream martin luther king never had
everyone has a dream . a lucky few get to see their dreams come true . it is ironic that our dreams never come true the way we expect them to. martin Luther king had a dream and that dream has come started to come true but not as Dr king had imagined it.
a recent documentary [beyond the color line ] shows that successful , professional blacks are moving back to the south . Atlanta Georgia is the hub of this migration . wealthy African American professionals are living in expensive , suburban enclaves where the all the residents of these gated communities are black . this is also occurring in Birmingham Alabama . is this what Dr king wanted ?
i would suggest that it is just natural for people to want to live with people like themselves . many inner city African Americans who could afford to move to the suburbs do not . these folks talk about racism being the reason , but is it ? perhaps these folks just like living where they live . does anyone believe in the year 2007 you can force people in America to live where they do not want to ?
it is interesting that when people from India, Asia , the middle east, or Latin America decided to live in neighborhoods together . that is fine . from the 1880s there has always been a china town in new york and San Francisco America has always been segregated by ethnicity . it was an accepted and natural fact . the modern suburbs have been the true melting pot in America . by virtue of common beliefs and values .
another phenomena that has occurred in the past 40 years is that the harder the government has tried to force integration of the schools the more they have segregated the cities and the suburbs . is integration something that can be forced ?
we have all been told since we have been children that it is wrong to label people and stereotype them . this is very good advice but this is the way our brains organize ,store and retrieve information . without this system of mental organization . we would not have the faculties of wisdom and judgment . is it nature or racism . is it really racism or have we just pasted that label on a natural process .
with all due respect to martin Luther king . perhaps his dream has come true , just not the way he expected . perhaps people are happier this way .
a recent documentary [beyond the color line ] shows that successful , professional blacks are moving back to the south . Atlanta Georgia is the hub of this migration . wealthy African American professionals are living in expensive , suburban enclaves where the all the residents of these gated communities are black . this is also occurring in Birmingham Alabama . is this what Dr king wanted ?
i would suggest that it is just natural for people to want to live with people like themselves . many inner city African Americans who could afford to move to the suburbs do not . these folks talk about racism being the reason , but is it ? perhaps these folks just like living where they live . does anyone believe in the year 2007 you can force people in America to live where they do not want to ?
it is interesting that when people from India, Asia , the middle east, or Latin America decided to live in neighborhoods together . that is fine . from the 1880s there has always been a china town in new york and San Francisco America has always been segregated by ethnicity . it was an accepted and natural fact . the modern suburbs have been the true melting pot in America . by virtue of common beliefs and values .
another phenomena that has occurred in the past 40 years is that the harder the government has tried to force integration of the schools the more they have segregated the cities and the suburbs . is integration something that can be forced ?
we have all been told since we have been children that it is wrong to label people and stereotype them . this is very good advice but this is the way our brains organize ,store and retrieve information . without this system of mental organization . we would not have the faculties of wisdom and judgment . is it nature or racism . is it really racism or have we just pasted that label on a natural process .
with all due respect to martin Luther king . perhaps his dream has come true , just not the way he expected . perhaps people are happier this way .
Sunday, August 12, 2007
it is all wrong , but it is all right
Everyone likes to talk about corruption. At one time newspapers made it their main business exposing corruption in politics, labor and business. That was a long time ago most newspapers carry 70% advertising and 30% news taken off of a news service . Investigative reporting is history. Propagandist rush Limbaugh and his cohorts at Fox News like to cry about the liberal media ruining this country, but they are beating a dead horse. The news media is really just entertainment dressed up as the truth .
Literally tons of books have been written by ex-presidents , presidential advisers and cabinet secretaries about what went in their administrations. It is all very revealing and can give you a real insight on how government really works. Ralph Nader has been talking about it for years .
There are plenty of documentaries exposing the injustice and the inequity in our system of government. They are very good and sobering .
I would suggest a different view. We all know big money controls government, but what we fail to realize is that this power is constantly shifting. Real president Dick Cheney and the oil companies are running the show now but there power is slipping. At one time big tobacco money ran the show but that too faded . There are many examples - the railroads , steel and auto industries all had their golden era of buying influence in government .
It is because of the political system we have that the reins of power are always shifting . One industry gets everything it wants and fades, and another takes its place. Our leadership is changes frequently it is this that prevents a dictator from ever taking over . It is the system we have that constantly makes today's champs into tomorrow's chumps quickly . There is no stagnation or inertia in our system of government . The corruption is constant.
Consider this - Richard Nixon was probably just as bad as history makes him out to be. But by abolishing the draft in 1974 he kept us out of a lot of future wars . If this had been done after world war 2 there never would have been the Koren or Vietnam wars. Enlistments for the Iraq war are way down . Because there is no moral justification for us being there. Not having to join the military is a more important right than most people realize.
The next time you feel angry or depressed about government or corporate corruption -remember it is all part of the flow of events that results when the needs and wants of 300 million people are trying to be balanced and served .
Literally tons of books have been written by ex-presidents , presidential advisers and cabinet secretaries about what went in their administrations. It is all very revealing and can give you a real insight on how government really works. Ralph Nader has been talking about it for years .
There are plenty of documentaries exposing the injustice and the inequity in our system of government. They are very good and sobering .
I would suggest a different view. We all know big money controls government, but what we fail to realize is that this power is constantly shifting. Real president Dick Cheney and the oil companies are running the show now but there power is slipping. At one time big tobacco money ran the show but that too faded . There are many examples - the railroads , steel and auto industries all had their golden era of buying influence in government .
It is because of the political system we have that the reins of power are always shifting . One industry gets everything it wants and fades, and another takes its place. Our leadership is changes frequently it is this that prevents a dictator from ever taking over . It is the system we have that constantly makes today's champs into tomorrow's chumps quickly . There is no stagnation or inertia in our system of government . The corruption is constant.
Consider this - Richard Nixon was probably just as bad as history makes him out to be. But by abolishing the draft in 1974 he kept us out of a lot of future wars . If this had been done after world war 2 there never would have been the Koren or Vietnam wars. Enlistments for the Iraq war are way down . Because there is no moral justification for us being there. Not having to join the military is a more important right than most people realize.
The next time you feel angry or depressed about government or corporate corruption -remember it is all part of the flow of events that results when the needs and wants of 300 million people are trying to be balanced and served .
Sunday, August 5, 2007
unexpected peace dividend /thepopulation bomb
60 years with out a major world war . the longest recorded era of peace in history . there has been an unexpected dividend from all this peace and wealth building . the population explosion . oh not here in suburbia . we baby boomers have managed to replace ourselves and that is quite a lot of people , but our Friends around the world have been quite busy .
Africa is interesting, since the collapse of colonialism . the continent has fallen into anarchy . except south Africa , but since the dutch have been thrown out. it is well on it way to the bottom . it seems that the Africans have a lot of children most of their civil wars are really different war lords taking all the farm , grazing lands and water . the government than tries to take them back for its own use . an endless cycle as evidenced by all the infomercials soliciting money for all the starving children in Africa . this is a brutal form of population control .
the middle east . the Arabs have controlled their population for a millennium thru war among each other . the Arabs have alot of children , and life is hard in a desert . especially when the sheik drills for oil instead of water . so Islam is used as a reason for tribal warfare , which is why American democracy will not work for them . it would result in to many people and not enough resources . to bad Mr. Bush can not understand this .
china another interesting scenario . the red menace has defeated America with out firing a shot . thru trade and manufacturing . unfortunately all this peace and prosperity has left them with over a billion people . an odd culture . women can only have one child and female fetuses frequently aborted in favor of males . which has resulted in to many men and not enough women . it is a good strategy if you want a large army . but there is no war to fight . 200,000 people a year die of starvation . china fields a 200 million man army . perhaps this army is to prevent the collapse of the government when the food runs out .
India . i think these nice people will probably starve to death or die of plague . but will be happier in their next reincarnation . maybe they are right .
south and central America and Mexico . these people produce children at a fantastic rate . they are forced to try and get into the USA . because their are no jobs or food and their is not going to be any because of their corrupt governments . it is no surprise Hugo Chavez is so popular .
so back in 1970 Alvin toffler . Mr. future shock was right about the population explosion . war has always been a natural population control mechanism . brutal for sure but effective . so is another global war inevitable ? or can the world make peace share resources and let everyone live a decent life ? if so other countries and cultures are going to have to stop having so many children . if history repeats itself were looking at Armageddon . hopefully we can change history and make a new world .
Africa is interesting, since the collapse of colonialism . the continent has fallen into anarchy . except south Africa , but since the dutch have been thrown out. it is well on it way to the bottom . it seems that the Africans have a lot of children most of their civil wars are really different war lords taking all the farm , grazing lands and water . the government than tries to take them back for its own use . an endless cycle as evidenced by all the infomercials soliciting money for all the starving children in Africa . this is a brutal form of population control .
the middle east . the Arabs have controlled their population for a millennium thru war among each other . the Arabs have alot of children , and life is hard in a desert . especially when the sheik drills for oil instead of water . so Islam is used as a reason for tribal warfare , which is why American democracy will not work for them . it would result in to many people and not enough resources . to bad Mr. Bush can not understand this .
china another interesting scenario . the red menace has defeated America with out firing a shot . thru trade and manufacturing . unfortunately all this peace and prosperity has left them with over a billion people . an odd culture . women can only have one child and female fetuses frequently aborted in favor of males . which has resulted in to many men and not enough women . it is a good strategy if you want a large army . but there is no war to fight . 200,000 people a year die of starvation . china fields a 200 million man army . perhaps this army is to prevent the collapse of the government when the food runs out .
India . i think these nice people will probably starve to death or die of plague . but will be happier in their next reincarnation . maybe they are right .
south and central America and Mexico . these people produce children at a fantastic rate . they are forced to try and get into the USA . because their are no jobs or food and their is not going to be any because of their corrupt governments . it is no surprise Hugo Chavez is so popular .
so back in 1970 Alvin toffler . Mr. future shock was right about the population explosion . war has always been a natural population control mechanism . brutal for sure but effective . so is another global war inevitable ? or can the world make peace share resources and let everyone live a decent life ? if so other countries and cultures are going to have to stop having so many children . if history repeats itself were looking at Armageddon . hopefully we can change history and make a new world .
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