Dealing Without Power

Well, about five minutes after posting yesterday, my power luckily came back on, but for many in our area, neighborhoods remain dark.  I can walk one street in either direction and see no lights on anywhere.  For many people, power being out is simply an inconvenience, but for a few with medical issues necessitating the use of power, it could be a little more frightening.   When looking at the damage that this storm brought to our region, in fact most of the eastern seaboard of the United States, the power being out should be the least of people's worries.  Granted, hundreds of thousands of people are still without power and some could be without it for maybe another week, but when looking at the other damage and devastation that this storm has brought to the immediate coastline and rivers, people should count their blessings.  Looking at the news, it is now estimated that Hurricane Irene will be one of our nations top ten costliest national disasters.  If you look at the news even closer, a bigger issue than the power being out is the flooding that is still occurring as rivers try to drain all the excess water.  In some areas, rivers are still rising and the worst is not over yet.  Personally, my heart goes out to all those that lost belongings or even their homes due to this storm.  Perhaps the hardest hit area in our region was East Haven where 4 houses on Long Island sound were swept away and at least 25 were condemned.  When looking at the people who lost everything, it is kind of hard to get upset about the power being out for a few days or even a week.  I kind of expected to lose power because after all, it was a hurricane that blew through.  Yet when listening to the radio, most of what I hear is anger and frustration that it is taking so long to get the power back on.  Is it annoying? I didn't find it so, but some obviously can't deal without their TV, Internet, and amenities being available. 

My biggest problem with people complaining about their power being out is that everyone had ample warning that this storm was coming.  We knew for up to a week that this storm was tracking up the coast and would likely hit our region.  Yet despite the warnings, people obviously did not prepare for the worst and now are suffering.  So who are they to complain.  Connecticut alone at its peak had over 700,000 people without power.  Currently it is down to around 400,000, a remarkable turnaround in my mind so far.  On top of that, we have utility crews coming from around the country to help get all our power back up and running.  Yet people still complain that they have no power, can't take their showers, and their food is starting to go bad.  Its mind boggling to me that people can complain so much about their situation when they still have a roof over their heads and their belongings safe inside.  What about the people that lost a family member in this storm or had their house swept away?   Anyone who is complaining about their situation would do well to take a step back for second and put themselves in these people's shoes who lost everything.  Would they still be complaining?  Some probably would due to their selfish nature and inability to deal with inconvenience. 

So what do you do with your lives when you don't have power?  I personally relaxed.  There was nothing much to do except light some candles, play cards by candle light, and sit by a fire outside in the evenings.  I personally found it quite beautiful, especially when I was sitting by the fire, looked up, and was able to see more stars in the sky than I normally could because lights were out.  Having no power makes you appreciate power a little more when you do have it.   We all take for granted the fact that when we flip on a light switch, the lights go on.  I can not tell you how many times I walked into the bathroom with the power out and still flipped on the switch expecting light to come on.  Even just the fact that I couldn't make coffee made me appreciate power that much more.  I must be honest, the first few things I did when the power came back on were to brew up a pot of coffee, put my keg back in the kegerator (a little refrigerator for a keg with a tap on top for those that don't know), and take a long hot shower.  Being able to do those simple things was wonderful.  Even with the power back on, my wife and I spent the night outdoors last night, sitting by the fire instead of watching TV.  Why?  Because it allowed us to talk to each other and enjoy the cool brisk evening. 

I guess my overall message here is to be grateful when you do have power and when it is off, don't complain, but look at the bigger picture and look at those that lost everything.  Take the time without power to get back to the basics, the activities that don't require you to be plugged into the wall.  Can it be frustrating sometimes?  Absolutely.  (Trust me, I wanted my coffee really badly)   But in the overall scheme of things, a few days or a week without power is just a little speed bump that life throws at you to see how you handle it.  If you have power, be grateful, and if you don't, just deal with it.  There are many in this world for who power would be a luxury.  For us in the United States, it is a given most of the time.  Let us appreciate what we have and instead of complaining when we lose power, lets seek to help those that lost everything. 

Update

I just wanted to let everyone know that my posts will return as soon as I get power back. We have been without power since early Sunday when Irene wacked us. 83 percent of my town is without power and it will probably be another day or two before power returns. As it is, I am writing this little bit from my phone, not the easiest task. I will be writing again soon.

Down With Rick Perry

OK, so as much as people may not like to talk about politics, get involved, or otherwise pay attention to what is happening in D.C., I have to get back to talking about politics in this Friday post.  If you have been reading this blog, you probably know that I have absolutely no use for our current bunch of politicians.  I have been known to call them lying bastards (a couple of days ago) and other less than savory terms.  Well, to prove my point about them being lying bastards, I want to talk about Rick Perry today, the Texas governor who is now attempting to run for president.  According to him, government as we now know it is too big and that is the country's biggest problem.  Yet, if you look at the facts behind what he is saying and his current track record in Texas, you might see a different picture.  Currently in Texas, there are over 600 boards, commissions, departments, etc; most of which are unnecessary and are in fact a drain on the system.  Many of the appointed positions in these government areas have been given to financial backers of, wait, you guessed it, Rick Perry.  More than a fifth of the $83 million dollars that Perry has raised for his campaigns for governor have come from people in these appointed positions.  Its funny that when you donate money to the governor, you get a nice cushy, government appointed job.   Not really funny, I know, but what makes it even better is that if you have an appointed position, you must maintain loyalty to the governor or else he will replace you.  Sounds like bribery to me or a step back into the dark ages of serfdom.  For more of these depressing details about how Rick Perry runs his Texas government, follow this link.  If you want to track some of the money as it makes it way into Rick Perry's hands, follow this link.

Maybe its just me, but the way government in Texas is run seems highly absurd and borderline illegal.  Yet despite being borderline illegal, Perry has managed to skirt the system and keep himself out of trouble somehow.  All that this means is that he knows the laws about campaign finance and knows exactly how much he can do or not do to remain in office.  This is not an innovative man with plans to change our country, this is power hungry megalomaniac whose only purpose in life is to remain in public office and scam whichever state or country he works for out of more money.  Simply the fact that he requires absolute loyalty if you want to keep your job is utterly insane.  What makes this even funnier is that he calls himself a Christian.  Really?  To me its just another lie stacked on top of a whole shelf of lies that Rick Perry can pull down at will and spit out to the public.  A couple of weeks ago, Rick Perry actually held a prayer rally to pray for America in its time of hardship.  I'm sorry, but as much as America might need prayers, who the hell is a state governor to set one up and run one.  As far as I know, there is a separation of church and state, yet somehow Rick Perry figured out how to do it legally so he couldn't get sued (atheists actually tried suing him).  It seems to me that the prayer rally was just another ploy of his to increase his public exposure so that he has a better shot of winning the Republican nomination for president.  It would be better for America to rid themselves of this lying bastard and deport him to Mexico so he can run that country.  We have no use for him here.

Is there some sort of code that one must adopt upon becoming a politician that says, "I will lie to get where I am going, and damn it if someone gets hurt along the way"?  If you look deep enough at any politician, you will find something that they lied about.  Critics may say that everyone lies so what is the difference when a politician lies.  The big difference is that they represent more than just themselves when they take on the role of a politician.  If they lie in their personal lives, who cares, but when it comes to public life and representing constituents and citizens that elected them, there is no place for lying.  Granted, I am highly hopeful that something will change, lying will become a thing of the past, and politicians will become good people.  It seems that what we are running into when we vote for president is choosing between who lies the least and who will swindle our country the least.  Perhaps the worst of the lying bastards could be Rick Perry, although I haven't researched any other candidates so who am I to say.  All I do know is that Perry is no good for this country, has been no use for Texas, and for all intensive purposes, should convert to being a hermit and disappear into the mountains where he has no effect on anyone.  Am I passionate about this?  A little, but I can't stand when I hear politicians make claims that groundless, in fact, the facts go completely against them.  For everyone's sake in this country, let us hope that enough Americans realize the tragedy we would be inflicting upon ourselves if Rick Perry were elected as president.  I don't know yet who would make a good one, but he is not it.

Why Travel?

People generally fall into one of two categories when it comes to traveling.  Either a) they enjoy traveling or b) they would rather stay at home and venture no farther than the borders of their own state.  I personally belong to the first group, those that like to travel.  Ever since I was little I would always look forward to the next trip my family and I would take.  When I was younger, we never left the United States, yet even without leaving the states, we never got to all the places that we wanted to see and experience.  I personally don't understand why people wouldn't want to travel outside of the fact that it costs money and takes time out of their busy lives.  My own feelings are that those who don't like to travel would rather remain where they feel comfortable, where they know the people around them, and they feel secure.  I feel that by never really traveling,  however, you can never gain a full appreciation for where and how you live.  By living in an insulated world, things are almost guaranteed never to change drastically, and when they do, I feel that people will be less prepared for them.  Why?  Because they haven't pushed their boundaries.  Traveling requires a certain openness or ability to view other's and their culture objectively without pushing pre-conceived notions upon them.  Even if you travel 500 miles, you will deal with people that have different views of life and live differently than you do.   If anyone travels with a mind closed to other possibilities and ways of life, then the trip will have simply provided them with some good pictures and family time.  But by interacting with the people, experiencing a little bit of their lives, we can gain life long experiences that can help us at home to be more accepting of those around us.

Even within the United States, there are almost limitless mini-cultures that can be experienced, different lifestyles to witness, and bountiful natural wonders along the way.   People may say that simply traveling to view natural wonders is enough for them, but how do you really get a feeling of the area you are visiting if you don't interact with the people.  Don't get me wrong, most people when traveling are simply tourists viewing the sights and interacting only with their tour guide or hotel staff, no one else.  Just take a look at the buses full of senior citizens or foreigners that pull up to a natural wonder, file out to take pictures, and then file back on to be shuttled to the next spot.  What do they really get besides nice pictures?  Not much.  Becoming a true traveler requires interaction with the locals, popping into that small roadside diner or sitting at the local bar in the evening to shoot the breeze.  You would be amazed at how much people are willing to open up if you meet them on their ground and are open to simply talking.  I remember when my wife and I went on our honeymoon to Ireland, we didn't stay in a hotel or move around every day, we rented an apartment for the week in a town of about 40 residents.  From that one town, we spent the day venturing out to explore the landscape, but every evening, we could be found at one of the three local pubs tossing back some Guinness with the locals.  By the end of the week and after seeing the same group of people every night, they actually threw us a going away party.  I wouldn't trade that experience for any other, especially one requiring a different hotel every night. 

There are times while traveling when we may not want to come home.  The area we are visiting can be so inviting, warm and welcoming that we want to stay there forever.  However, upon finally coming home, however much we much miss travels, we have a new appreciation for things, are at least we hopefully do.  To travel is to explore, to open our view of the world and allow new cultures and ways of life to permeate our own.  We never leave everything behind when we come home from traveling.  We always take a little something with us, something that becomes part of us and enhances our own life.  Regardless of how you travel, I feel that it is important to travel period.  Even if you are simply the consummate tourist who has no interaction with the locals, you still gain life experiences while on the road.  Everyone builds their own experiences according to what they are comfortable with.  We can not just simply forget those experiences, but rather build them into our life.  It is part of what makes us well rounded individuals, the ability to take little pieces from wherever we may be and take them home with us.  Maybe it is time to travel again.  Time to pack some bags and just go.  Find a place, make it cheap, and go there.  Interact with the locals, experience the culture, and immerse yourself in a different life for a while.  Who knows, life may seem a little better when you return.

Colbert's Super PAC

There has been much debate and criticism over how politicians raise money for campaigns and the ultimate effect it has on the political process.  Some have likened campaign finance, especially through super PAC's, to political bribery.  Politicians can create almost as many super PAC's as they want, all in an effort to raise money for their campaigns, and almost anyone can donate untold sums of money to them, most hoping to sway the given politician to their side.  Well, if we thought the process was a big mess and on the verge of scandalous, then we were right.  I personally just found out about this, but Stephen Colbert the comedian applied to form a super PAC in this past May and was actually granted permission in June.  Now, to my knowledge, Colbert has no desire to run for president, he simply wants to make a mockery of the whole system and expose it for what it really is.  Well, my hat (which I never wear) goes off to Colbert.   If Americans can't figure out what is wrong with the system and have no interest in changing it, maybe Colbert will provide a little initiative and finally expose the travesty that is our campaign finance system.  His application and ensuing permission to form a super PAC shows that there is obviously something wrong with our system (no offense to Colbert).  When a comedian with no political interest except to poke fun at politicians and expose flaws in the system gets to form a super PAC, maybe we need to fix something, or then again, maybe it shows that any person serious enough about running for political office can actually find a way to raise money to run a campaign.

The story of Colbert's super PAC, named Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, came from a NYTimes article.  The biggest impact that Colbert's super PAC seemingly has, is its ability to get airtime on radio stations for Colbert's own political commercials, mostly lampooning those who are actually trying to run for office.  My hopes are that he exposes more of them for the lying bastards that they are bring them back down to earth from outer space where they seem to be residing currently.  Maybe by providing a voice of satire, one that exposes flaws and weaknesses, more Americans will get serious about changing the system.  Currently, most Americans don't know that much about how super PAC's work or who gets to donate money to them, etc.  I include myself in this bunch.  Maybe Colbert will actually cause some good to come out of this besides his comedy.  If Colbert, the persistent comedian, can promote change in this country to systems formerly thought untouchable, then maybe he should run for president.  If he did and won, I might actually watch the president's address to the nation or actually pay more attention to what is going on.  Perhaps what we need is someone to get in there and rile up the mass of seething politicians in D.C. and force them to become accountable for their actions.  Who better than a comedian to do so?  Granted, there would be some issues with Colbert as president, but I wouldn't mind a change of scenery from these last few presidents.  Maybe with Colbert's satire in office, exposing the flaws of the entire system, we could institute some change. 

Why am I actually suggesting that Colbert become president?  Probably because looking at the last few presidents, and the promises they made for change, I can see that they like to lie through their teeth and paint a glossy picture of how things are.  What about some truth for a change, not mangled in long distorted speeches, but succinct and to the point so the average citizen can understand.  Truth, alas, is hard to come by these days, especially in D.C.  Maybe Colbert, as satirical and lampoonish as he is, actually looks for the truth and in his attempt to bring the truth to light, exposes the lies and flaws of other media outlets and politicians.  In any case, for now we will have to deal with our politicians being who they are, lying bastards with their own personal agenda or that of a given corporation attempting to win our approval through more lies and fake smiles.  I've said it before, and I will say it again, down with the Republicans and Democrats, and oh yeah, those Tea Party screw ups as well.  Its time for a new political party, the American Party, dedicated to truth, simplicity in politics, and economic growth (not the supposed growth we have now, actual growth).  Its time to shake things up and make a change.  Lets take a hint from Colbert; get your own super PAC and run for office, it can't be that hard.  Lets find someone who is willing to take on the big guns, speak the truth, and start things off on the right foot.  Any takers?

The Importance of Vacations

What has happened to the vacation in America, those weeks sporadically taken throughout the year to rejuvenate, relax, and most importantly to get away from it all.  It seems that for the most part, vacations have gone by the wayside; not entirely, but mostly.  If you look at the European culture, vacations play a much bigger role in their lives than they do in ours here.   People in Europe are accustomed to taking almost twice as much vacation time as we do here in the States.  Perhaps its because they realize the importance of spending uninterrupted time with family or simply the importance of getting way from the black hole that is the work place.  Vacations, either a week, or simply a few days away, are necessary to maintaining our sanity and well being.  If we continually stay around work, connected to all that is going on, we will inevitably build up the amount of stress in our lives which will eventually lead to health problems down the road.  Taking a vacation is akin to turning off your cell phone or computer every so often so it can wind down, re-boot, and revitalize itself.  For some people, it is extremely hard to leave work behind, even on vacation.  Over the years I have seen too many people, on vacation, tied into work via their laptop, cell phone, or some other mobile device.   That's not vacation, especially when you are with your family.   People would be better off to turn their cell phones on silent, or better yet, leave them at home and bring a watch with them to tell time.  If you are on vacation and your employer knows it, there is no reason to bring a cell phone or laptop, simply a camera.

Talking about vacation, it doesn't have to be a week spent on a beach in the Mediterranean, all it has to be is a place that is not your home and is not connected to the world (preferably).  For myself, a quick vacation entails a 3.5 hour drive to Vermont where luckily, there is no cell phone service at the campsite, no electricity, and no people.   Everyone has their idea of a vacation, and we should all take more of them.  Ideally, I would think vacation would be a relaxing time away.  Some people like to fill their "vacations" with activities from dawn till dusk, running themselves ragged just as they would at home, often times with even more stress because of hotels, planning, etc.  (Trust me, I have been part of this type of vacation).  There is something to be said, however, to getting away and not doing anything.  Sitting on a deck overlooking a mountain lake with a book all day would be perfect, or simply staring at the lake day dreaming.  Our brains and bodies need down time, a time to unwind and let the stress of the world drift away, at least for a little bit.  For some people it is tough to get away as they are always concerned with work, who will do their job when they are gone, or how will things be when they return.  Work doesn't matter.  As I heard a good friend put it quite succinctly last week, "We are all replaceable when it comes to work."  I think he hit the nail on the head.  There is always someone else who can do our job when we are not there, maybe not as well, but they can do it.  However, when it comes to family, we are irreplaceable.  No one can do our job in terms of family the way we can nor would anyone want to probably.  Time invested with your family will pay far larger dividends than time invested in work. 

Vacations.  I know that I don't take enough of them myself.   But I see the value in them, the value in doing nothing for a period of time to bring a sense of peace and calm to my body and mind.  I am sure that everyone reading this has hit a time in their life when they don't know if they are coming or going, what day it is, or what they need to do next week.  This is a sure sign that it is time for a vacation.  We would all do well to get more in tune with ourselves and realize when we need a break, some time off, to get ourselves back together.  Too many of us these days forget to take care of ourselves.  We are too focused on everything around us that our own health and family become a blur in the background.  This is our stability that gets us through the work week.  If we continually push ourselves to the point of exhaustion, there will be nothing left for us to fall back on or we won't know how.  A big part of taking a vacation is remembering how to let go of everything and not worry.  If we can re-teach ourselves how to act like a child, be more concerned with the simple things in life like the sun coming up every day, or the ants marching across the deck in single file, vacations will be easier to take and work will hopefully be less stressful when we get back there.  Today, think about the last time you went on vacation.  Is it time for another vacation?  It very well might be, even if it is a long weekend away from every day life.  Relax, unwind, and get yourself back together.

A Baby In This World

So I am going to radically transition from politics to a little bit of my life and views.  I mentioned about a week ago that I am a soon to be father.  At this point, I feel nothing but excitement, but to be perfectly honest, before my wife became pregnant, I had vastly different views about bringing a child into this world.  Our soon to be child was a surprise, not expected, but my wife and I had discussed over the winter attempting to have a child about six months down the road.  Well, about a month after our discussion, we found out she was pregnant.  I guess our child didn't want to wait six months.  But up until that discussion, and even during that discussion, I raised my concerns.  The standard one that I think every father brings up at some point is that I was not ready, financially or otherwise.  I came to realize, however, that I probably never would have been completely ready, so in a way I am glad that it happened like it did.  My other concerns came, however, with the kind of world that we would be bringing a child into.  After seeing society seemingly slide down the tubes a little more every year, apathy growing in every household in terms of child rearing and community involvement, and stability around the world faltering in every corner, I wondered why anyone would want to have a child and raise them in today's culture.  To me it seemed as if everything was going wrong in the world and nothing was being done to address it.  Whenever I looked around me, I saw little brats under the age of ten ordering their parents around, doning cell phones and the latests tech, and almost all of them carried around a personal gaming system so that not one minute of their lives would be filled with boredom.  How would I be able to raise a child and have them succeed if everyone around them was behaving differently? 

I think part of the issue I was experiencing was that I was seeking out the negative to support my reasoning for not bringing a child into the world.  I neglected to see the small pockets of good that came around, the children that actually behaved and listened to their parents.  There is good being done in the world, you just have to seek it out and unfortunately it seems much harder to find these days.  A good part of my mentality could be that I never really looked around before at what was happening.  I lived my life, heard the news, saw what went on, but never really took the time to see if everything that I heard was true or if I could find something good out there. So I felt trepidation, fear, unknowing at becoming a father in a day and age when the scales seem to be tipped against you.  How was I to raise a child contrary to popular belief that the best punishment is sitting the child down and handing them a video game.  I know that I wouldn't do that, but there were plenty of parents out there who did and how would my child react upon figuring out that their punishment was actual punishment as oppossed to other parents implied consent as their children's punishment was.  But things change, people change, mentalities change.  Did my view change in a split second after finding out my wife was pregnant?  Absolutely not and I would be lying to say that I felt instantaneous joy upon finding out she was pregnant.  In reality, it took a few days for the news to actually sink in and for me to wrap my head around the what was actually happening. 

I had heard other parents say that you raise your child irregardless of society and the norms that they portray (these are parents I respect).  It took me a while to grasp that notion and actually realize that a child's life fits into yours as oppossed to your life fitting into your child's.   Put a little more simply, a child knows only what it learns and sees from its parents to start out with.  If I can provide a good foundation for our child to grow off of, then that is all I can do.  I have come to realize that despite what is happening in the world, a child knows nothing but their little insular world around them.  Not until they reach their twenties do they start to fully grasp the fluctuations that happen in the world and are able to process them.  The best I can do is give my child the tools it needs to process the world later, and live in the world now.  Needless to say, my views have changed about bringing a child into this world.  I no longer fear how well I will do as a father, I will just do it and raise our child to the best of our ability.  The world will do what the world will do, society may be completely in the gutter by the time my child comes of age to deal with it, but I can only hope that I give my child the tools to change it and maybe drag society up a notch.   Hopeful? Yes, but sometimes all we can be is hopeful.  The only thing I hope for now, (despite an end to world conflicts, an end to hunger, a revived economy, and politicians who don't lie) is a healthy baby with ten fingers and ten toes (although if it had 12 fingers and 12 toes, I would be cool with that as well).  Excitement is the name of the game now and I have no time to worry about the world, its vices, and its vitriol.  The baby's room is done, furniture is put together, and I can now not wait to help usher a sparkling new life into this world. 

Republican Garbage

OK, so I don't like to talk about politics too much, but after reading an article about the Republican candidates, I had to dive in and criticize.   The article in the NYTimes talks about how almost all the Republican candidates for president are casting the EPA (Environment Protection Agency) as a demonic curse set upon our government to kill jobs and waste money.  Some of the biggest complaints are with the EPA's attempt to put in regulations on the output of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other large industrial plants.  Michele Bachman has vowed to shutter the EPA's doors and start anew in Washington while also claiming that global warming is a hoax.  (To view the whole article and other comments in full, please follow this link.)   Where are these candidates living because I sure as hell don't think that they are living in the world we know.  Perhaps they are aliens sent from a different planet to take over the United States and rule the world.  OK, so maybe they are humans, but they are severely out of touch with reality if they think that getting rid of the EPA will bring about more good than ill.   Instead of having the EPA monitor oil and gas giants, some candidates would have these oil and gas companies regulate themselves.  Really?  Since when has self regulation done anything but harm? Where is the incentive to actually follow a regulation if you are regulating yourself?   Getting rid of the EPA would be one of the worst ideas I have yet to hear from the Republican party.

Government has grown too big, I will not deny that, but at the same time, we can not just go in and cut every single regulatory agency or department of government and hope that things will turn out all right.  Maybe we should start with the entitlements that the representatives receive.  Lets start by getting rid of our representatives' secretaries and make them do some of their own leg work for a change.  But no, the Republicans would have you believe that the EPA, in charge of keeping our water and air clean, should go.  They are claiming that all the new potential regulations regarding emissions, cap and trade programs, and other environmental protecting plans will kill jobs.   It will only kill jobs if people do not look for alternative ways of producing power and invest in technology that will keep emissions even lower.  There is an enormous industry in clean energy waiting to be tapped if we only felt like it.   But no, Republicans would rather stay the course, increase drilling, and perpetuate our problems by focusing on keeping fossil fuels as the de facto choice for power production.  The saddest part is that people are actually buying the crap that is being spoon fed to them by these candidates.  Just because a candidate hails from a particular party, it seems as if anyone associated with the party will support them regardless of what they say.  Maybe Republicans should attack the real drain on our system, Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.  I know, horrendous topics, too large to tackle, oh and wait, too touchy of a subject. 

Lewis Black the comedian said it perfect when he said, "We have a two party system in this country; the Republican party, which is a party of bad ideas, and the Democratic party, which is a party of no ideas."  How long will we keep on listening to the garbage that the Republicans and Democrats keep dredging up?  When will we step out of our apathy and start caring what is going on in government?  It seems when you try to talk about politics, the dominating view is, "why bother, nothing will come of our discussion anyway."  If we keep shoving politics under the door mat and refuse to work on our broken system, people are absolutely correct, nothing will come of our discussions.  If people want a rude awakening, let the Republicans have there way and shutter the doors of the EPA.  I want to know when people are unable to swim in their favorite lake or river, fish in their favorite spot, or have clean air to breath.  The EPA has its purpose and while it does overstep its bounds every now and then, it has done much more good than harm.  With our population continually growing, there needs to be some sort of check to the amount of pollution that is being generated, both on the personal and corporate/industrial levels.  Is it any wonder that many of these Republican candidates are backed by the oil and gas industries?  I think not.  If they are receiving unreported amounts of money to support these companies, then why not bash the EPA.  Its all a load of crap.  I'm surprised the candidates can even walk anymore with all the crap filling their pants.  I mentioned this yesterday and I will re-emphasize it today; we need to clean house down in D.C. and start anew.  Our two party system has run its course and its time for a change.  Breathe your clean air today and drink your untainted water for if the Republicans have their way, we will be swimming in garbage and breathing more smog. 

The Campaign Trail

Is it just me or does the president of the United States still have over a year left in office to do work?   To me it seems like he hasn't really done that much work while in office and the work that he has done has ticked off one group or another and hasn't really made much of a difference.  Last time I checked, a president is in office for 4 years which means he should be working for 4 years, not 2 and change if he has managed to even work that long.   So what are we the taxpayers paying him for?  Is it to pass unrealistic health reform bills, pass out stimulus money that ran out and didn't make much of a difference, or finally to pass a budget deal with Congress that will probably hurt our country more than help it?  And then he goes on the campaign trail because his approval numbers are low and in order to stay in office for one more term he has to start incredibly early to start gathering support from the masses.   To me it would be like a person employed by a corporation who, knowing when their last day of work was going to be, decided to spend their entire time and effort searching for a new job instead of working at their current one.  If it was two weeks, I would say it is understandable, but over a year away from losing his job and running what used to be one of the most powerful countries in the world, Obama decides to put his work on hold to campaign?  Give me a freaking break.  What we should do in situations like this is take the amount of money he makes during the year ($400,000) divided by 260 (the amount of work days in a year) and deduct his daily income ($1538 ) for every day he doesn't work i.e. campaigning, traveling, etc from his yearly pay.  In my mind, if you are going to be president of the United States, you should work your butt off to ensure that the country stays on the right track and to ensure that everything is running smoothly.  

With all the perks that the president gets during his term in office and following his term, you would think that they would devote a little more time to getting work done.  What happens if Obama wastes all this time on the campaign trail just to get booted out of office in 2012?  That would mean we lost all those days that he was campaigning and wasn't getting things done in the White House.  It is absurd at how little a president actually works these days.  When the president is working, most of his time is spent arguing with congress about the minute details of bills going through or budgets attempting to get passed.  No one in the capitol, the president or our representatives, has a notion of what reality is.  Those positions were originally set up to be spots for normal citizens to be able to hold in order to adequately represent their constituents.  All we see at this point is the wealthy who are able to afford to pay for their campaign making it into any public office in D.C.  There needs to be changes made to the system to make it more accessible to the general public and to curtail needless expenditures.  As it is, either as a president or elected representative, they all get lifelong pensions paid for out of our pockets.  The president's pension alone is based off of the cabinet secretaries income which in 2008 was $191,300.  Tell me that's fair.  If you are in office, especially for four years as president, and receiving these benefits (the pension is only one of them) when you leave, then you should be working hard as we the citizens of the United States are the ones who are paying.

Our government needs an overhaul.  Not just a little tweaking here and there because that has been proven to make things worse rather than better, but an actual cleaning of the house.  Any representative in office today should be fired, cleaned out for their useless wrangling and replaced with someone who will actually listen to his/her constituents and be willing to compromise to get things done.  If the new round of representatives doesn't listen, then fire them to and repeate the process until we have suitable representatives that we are happy with.  Policies need to be changed.  For one, lets start with eliminating the pension for all representatives along with their guaranteed health care package.  Second, lets set a limit on how long they can serve in office because as of right now, we could probably eliminate half of the seated representatives who have been their too long and just need to go.  In terms of the presidency, maybe we should set the limit on serving to one 4 year term.  If half of a presidents first term is spent campaigning for his next, then what is the use?  If he were a good president, Obama could be working on a lot of major issues right now, but instead he is on his "campaign trail" seeking to work for another 4 years as president and inevitably send our country even farther down the tubes.  What we need to do as Americans is get ticked off and stand up for our rights.  We put these vermin into office and we can take them out if we wish.  They serve us, not the other way around and the sooner we realize that, the sooner we can take back the government and form it in the way it was supposed to be as visualized by our founding fathers.  Don't just read this blog and agree (or disagree), but do something about it.  Our government has grown too large to be sustainable and is dragging our country out of its sphere of influence.  We need change, and we need it now, (and it will not come with Obama). 

Lessons From the Recession

It is pretty clear now that our economy never did start to recover from the recession.  Despite positive outlooks, reality has set a different tone.  We have had very little growth in terms of jobs or cash flow, housing prices remain depressed or still sinking, and we have a dysfunctional government that is completely ineffective and useless.   There were a number of factors that led us here, but they all stem from money problems, whether it be the housing bust, over-extended debts on families, or insecure financial institutions.  So what lessons can we learn from this recession and take with us into the future.  Well, before we look at the lessons we can learn, we must first look at what it was like before the recession hit.  Before the recession, many families were already drifting apart, each member going their own way, not keeping in touch or simply disregarding his/her family.  (This is not universally representative, just seemingly a norm).  As families drifted apart, individuals began to rely solely on themselves for financial stability, often borrowing against assets to fund their lifestyles and accumulating debt at an alarming rate.  And where has this gotten us all.  No where really.  Those people who accumulated excessive debt have ended up isolated from their families with houses full of useless garbage or for that matter houses that they shouldn't be living in to begin with because they couldn't afford it.  In short, our society has become extremely materialistic over the past few decades and this materialism has eventually led to our demise.  By seeking to acquire the latest gadget or toy, we are willing to spend more time at work making money than we are at home spending time with our family.  In seeking to fill our houses with "stuff", we have forgotten our own families and how to spend time with them and appreciate who they are.

The biggest lesson that I think we could all learn from this recession is that money isn't everything.  The people who were not hard hit, still have their houses, and still struggle to provide for their families may say I am completely off the mark.  But try talking to those who lost everything; their houses, their jobs, their security blanket of "stuff" and see where the quest for money and material possessions got them.  Most of them now are probably partly reliant upon their families for support and if not, it is most likely because they pushed them away and now have nowhere to turn to.  By focusing our efforts solely on money, we take away time and effort that could accumulate vast reserves of family resources.  Yes, we all need money to live, there is no doubt about it, but there are still many of us who work longer than we need to in order to sustain our current lifestyle and avoid giving up any of the luxuries we may have.  There may not be many luxuries left to have, but I guarantee that most of us have at least one luxury in our life that we could eliminate and possibly save money in doing so.  It is simply a matter of whether we are willing to give that up for more time with our family. 

 There is a friend of one of my friends who recently got married about 4 months ago.  This young man has a well paying job that requires many hours of work.  In addition to that, because he works so hard, he is up for a promotion but feels that he must put in even more work in order to secure that promotion which means he will be making even more money in the future.  Yet with all his efforts focused on his work, meaning 60+ hours a week, he has almost completely neglected his new wife who now feels lonely and is questioning why she got married in the first place.  She is even considering a divorce because as it is, she rarely sees her husband.  So is this promotion really worth it if it will separate the two of them and leave him with nothing but more work to do?  Just because he gets the promotion does he think that he will be able to work less hours afterwards?  Usually, when you get a promotion, it is because of the quality of work that you do and the amount of time you spend in the office.  If you slack off after you get a promotion, you most likely will not be keeping the increase in salary or the promotion itself.  So maybe it is worth it sometimes to pass up that promotion in order to maintain a shred of sanity or more importantly, family unity. 

Trust me, as much as I write about working less and giving up the luxuries, I struggle with it as well.  There are times when I will work 12-14 hour days for weeks straight before I realize what I am doing and back off.  Luckily, I am self employed and work only as much as I need to.  If I don't work, I don't make money, but there is no one to fire me or take away my pay.  For someone in a corporate environment it may be more difficult to cut back, especially if they have been putting in 60 hour work weeks.  If they all of a sudden stop working as much, management will probably not be happy.  It is a vicious circle, but in order to keep our heads above water, maintain sanity and overall health, we must look at what is really important and focus on that.  The economy will eventually recover, it is just a matter of time.  We would all do well to focus more of our time on stabilizing family bonds and worrying less about money.  I know its not easy, it never is.  Consumerism and a focus on money has been ingrained into our consciousness to such an extent that it is almost impossible to get rid of it.  Yet if we can manage to at least balance it out with family time, then I think we can go a long way to maintaining family unity.  Today, look at where you are in life.  Do you spend enough time with your family?  Do you work to much?  The only thing that really matters in life is those we spend our lives with, so focus on them and everything will turn out just fine. 

Birth Reductions

Since I recently wrote about pain, labor, and birth, I figured I would follow it up with an ethical discussion about birth reductions.  Actually, it wasn't planned this way at all, I just happened to recently read an article on birth reductions and felt the need to discuss it.  The article, in the NYTimes magazine this past weekend, discussed the increase in pregnancy reductions from twins to singletons.  Although this procedure in which a doctor goes into the mothers womb and injects a fetus with a needle full of potassium chloride had previously been done to reduce multiples to twins, it has now become an avenue for women to decide if they want only one child instead of two.  For the most part, this procedure is utilized in women that have used fertility drugs, artificial insemination, IVF (in vitro fertilization), or some other method to get pregnant when nature wasn't taking its course.  Up until recently, the procedure of reducing multiples to twins was done to increase the safety of the mother and her unborn children, but now it has become more of an elective procedure.  Some will still argue that having twins carries more risks than carrying a single child, but according to doctors, the increased risk of carrying twins versus a single child to term is negligible.  Most women who have twins have uncomplicated births and both children and mother come out healthy in the end.  At this point, electing to have a reduction of twins to a singleton is more of a lifestyle choice more than anything else.  Women claim that they could not support twins, or that it would require to much energy, or some other reason.  Accordingly, a lot of doctors will support these women in their reductions, but conversely, there are a growing number of doctors who are refusing to reduce from twins to a singleton simply because a woman wants to.  And personally, I applaud these doctors who are refusing to do this procedure. 

Here is why I applaud these doctors.  If a woman can not get pregnant and resorts to alternative fertilization methods to impregnate herself, then she should be willing to deal with the consequences of her actions.   One of the consequences, which the woman knew going into the procedure, was an increased likelihood of having multiples.  If a woman was not prepared for the possibility of having multiples, then in my mind, she should not have made the choice to get pregnant artificially.  At a time when a woman has almost unlimited choices in what kind of sperm donor she wants to receive from, be it race, hair color, intelligence, eye color, height, etc, woman now have the choice to eliminate all but one fetus in their womb, tantamount to having a partial abortion in the womb.  I find a problem with this.  There was a point in the article where one doctor said that "Ethics evolve with technology."  I feel that this doctor is misguided in his reasoning regarding ethics and technology.  If you follow what he says, then with the constant improvement of technology, there will eventually be no need for ethical considerations because technology will be able to make all the choices for us.  Reductions to singletons wasn't done much until recently because the technology wasn't there to ensure that a full miscarriage didn't happen or that some other complication arose due to the reduction.  However, now that technology has improved, miscarriages have been reduced, it is now ethically OK according to this doctor to eliminate all unwanted fetuses down to one if desired by the mother.  Where does this end?  Women already have the choice to eliminate their fetus if it has down syndrome or some other genetic malady that will "drain the parents" resources.   So what will happen when we can get a perfect look at how our unborn child will turn out, their future intelligence, their future looks, and we don't like what we see, will it become ethically OK to terminate that pregnancy as well?  It seems as if we are taking natural selection into our own hands and playing God, deciding who will live and who will die.  It may be a morbid view of what takes place in these reductions, but that is essentially what happens.   In a study that was done on reductions from two to one, if there was a choice between eliminating a girl vs. a boy, most women chose to eliminate the boy. 

I personally think that pregnancy reductions are simply ludicrous and a just another choice for women to utilize to remove some of the responsibility for their actions.  I know I will probably be hated for my next statement, but if a woman can't get pregnant naturally, then maybe she shouldn't get pregnant at all.  Not all women were meant to be mothers.  If a woman can't get pregnant, there is a reason that she can't.  Just because there is a desire to be a mother, in my mind, does not mean that women should go beyond the natural process to get pregnant.  If they do decide to use artificial methods to get pregnant, then they should be willing to deal with the consequences of their actions.  Ethics, as opposed to the doctor's point of view, should dictate the development and utilization of technology, not the other way around.  If we completely disregard ethical considerations when it comes to improving technology, then we will eventually head towards a society completely void of ethical considerations.  What happens when our children grow up, especially those that could have had a brother or sister, and find out what really occurred?  It will do nothing but teach them that they can do what they want without regard to moral or ethical obligations, because they got lucky.  Their mother chose to let them live over the others in her womb and as such they can now decide who lives and who dies.  A little extreme point of view?  Yes, but at the rate we are going, not entirely unrealistic.  To sum this all up, we must live by ethical standards, ones that dictate what is right and what is wrong and be able to live with the consequences of our actions.  If we can not figure out how to do this, then I fear our society will be heading down the tubes.  In any case, today just be glad that your alive and you weren't singled out for an injection of potassium chloride while you were in your mother's womb.

Why is Birth Painful?

So I am going out on a limb writing this because I am obviously not a woman and will never have the capability to carry a child within myself or have the wonderful opportunity to give birth to a baby.  However, as I prepare for a child to enter into my life, it seems that these days, despite many mothers opting for more natural births and trying to shy away from pain medications, labor and birth are infused with pain.  From the second that a woman gets pregnant, others will start telling her of how uncomfortable she will be (which I can't argue with) and how painful the labor will be once she is ready to give birth (I can argue with this).  When a woman starts to near the end of her pregnancy,  she begins birthing classes and talks more frequently with her doctor, pain seems to come to the forefront more and more often.  Did you know that as of 2007, 31.8% of all births were by c-section?  More frightening to me is the fact that somewhere between 50 and 70% of all women make use of an epidural during their labor.  The criticism I am most likely going to receive here is that labor is supposed to be painful.  Yes, because that is what everyone tells women when they become pregnant, labor is painful, deal with it.  But why is it painful, why is it that only women in Western societies and the developed world experience pain during childbirth?  Why is it that women in Africa or some other undeveloped region have no pain while giving birth?  The answer is not a simple one, rather, it is one that must be traced through history to find its source.

Birth is a natural process which until about 4-500 years ago was devoid of pain.  It wasn't until women started to be demonized by religious figures and essentially turned into second class citizens that birth became painful.  Women were ostracized and labor became a curse that women were meant to go through in order to have their children.  Fear of the process started to be infused into the mentality and consciousness of women in European countries.  As such, it has perpetuated to the present day and most women still, at least on a subconscious level, fear labor and giving birth as the most painful times of their lives.  It shouldn't be painful.  Why would a process by which we grow our family and extend the human race be painful.  If you look at birthing classes and the medical profession, everything about labor is essentially based on pain.  Even the most natural birthing instructors will tell you, "labor is painful so your going to have to deal with it."  Medical professionals seek to push their medications to reduce pain at any point possible.  Lets look at an example of how repetition of certain aspects of an event can affect a person.  If you kept on hearing horror stories about bungee jumping and how it was the worst experience people could ever go through, would you go bungee jumping?  Probably not, but if you heard from the same people that it was the most liberating experience ever, you would most likely entertain the thought about going bungee jumping, maybe even be excited to try it.  How is birth and labor any different.  If you go into the whole process expecting it to be painful, it will be.  Fear and tension cause the pain, not the actual process itself.  Yes, there may be discomfort at the way a woman's body has to adjust to bring a baby out of the womb, but if a woman is in a relaxed state, fear has been eradicated and tension is non-existent, then labor will not be painful. 

The mind is an amazing mechanism that can be utilized to reduce pain.  Take a look at hypochondriacs.  By believing that they are going to get sick or that they always are sick, these people are more likely to become sick because of the way they act and mentally approach things.  Or take a look at professional athletes who sustain an injury and are capable of playing out the rest of the game because they are focused on the game, not the pain they could be experiencing.   I am not the authority on labor and pain, but it seems to me that once you start doing some research on giving birth, its origins, and the fact that we are the only species of mammals to experience pain while giving birth, it starts to make you wonder if in fact, labor should be painful at all.  I am not by an means saying that it is as easy as telling yourself that labor will not be painful.  There is much work to be done to ensure a completely relaxed state void of fear and tension, especially when giving birth in a hospital where everything is based upon pain and how to avoid it, not how to give birth without it.  I feel that women, especially those that fight for women's rights whether it be in the workplace, politics, or religion should take their fight to the personal realm and fight the notion that labor is painful.  You would think that women would want to give birth without experiencing pain, but apparently most simply try to deal with it or push it away with meds like the epidural or narcotics.  If women want to fight for freedom, they should fight for their right to be free of the fear and pressure that society puts on them to experience pain during birth.  It doesn't have to be that way.  Do some research for yourself and see how birth can be a wonderful experience, not one that is encroached upon by pain.  Call me crazy, but from a man's perspective, I would think that more women would want a pain-free birth than one surrounded by fear and tension. 

Are Your Children Too Happy?

I just finished reading a fascinating article in the Atlantic magazine titled "How to Land Your Kid in Therapy".  It was written by a psychologist after witnessing an increasing trend in her private practice, young adults in their 20's to early 30's seeking therapy because they are not "happy".  Previously, these young adults would have had some issues with parents when they were younger, either living with a single parent, not receiving enough love or attention, or dealing with some other issue from their youth.  However, the new trend was puzzling to the author because these young adults came from perfect families where their parents loved them unconditionally and they felt like their parents were their best friends.  In essence they came from families that continuously sought to ensure their children were always happy.  This is proving to be a problem.  I know, how can ensuring you children are happy all the time be a bad thing?  Well, after reading this article, it makes complete sense.  These young adults, perfectly happy as children, were essentially unprepared for the real world that is not continuously uplifting and full of happiness all the time.  By the parents keeping their children happy all the time, they robbed them of the real world experience and feelings of dissatisfaction, unpleasantness, and pain.  Too many parents these days can be seen attending to their children the second they get hurt, or compromising on promises made to their children just so that they are happy, or even re-arranging their schedule constantly to make sure their children can do everything they want to do.  Their treatment of their children is in no way based in reality.  Contrarily, instead of creating happy adults, they are creating narcissistic individuals who are totally self-absorbed, have a skewed view of themselves, and feel the whole world should bend to their wishes (after all, that's what their childhood was like).  In the end, by ensuring continual happiness for our children, we are essentially sentencing them to the therapists couch when they get older.

The article goes into much more detail than I just did about raising children with too much focus on the children.  I heard it put very well from a gentleman that I talked to the other day.  He said that children fit into your life.  They get accustomed to your daily routine, and they essentially mold themselves to your life.  It is not the job of parents to re-arrange their whole lives to accommodate a child, rather, the child needs to fit into the parents' life.  After all, a child is usually in the house for only 18 years before heading off to college, a little longer if they are studying closer to home, but 18 years is only 22% of our lives if we live to 80 years old.  So after the children are gone, what do parents do if they have re-arranged their lives around a child and then there is no child?  I think that parents need to realize that children do need love, they do need support, but they also need to be able to figure things out for themselves.  Parents are not meant to be the best friends of their children.  Children should absolutely hate their parents from time to time whether it be from a punishment they received or simply for making them follow the rules.  It is absurd that children these days get away with so much.  They have come to feel entitled rather than privileged.  They feel the deserve the latest toy on the market, ice cream every day, or to have a say in the dynamics of the household.  Allowing children to have this much freedom when they are younger inherently dooms them later on.  The article at one point talks about a growing number of children at college who are being referred to as "teacups".  The moment something goes wrong, anything, they break down and don't know how to handle it.  Without mommy and daddy their to pick them up, they can't figure out how to deal with issues on their own. 

To me this trend is quite disturbing.  If this trend grows, and "helicopter" parents are on the increase, then we will essentially be creating a generation of indecisive, self-entitled brats who do not know how to cope in the real world.  Children need to be able to fall down, skin their knee, and figure out what went wrong before being attended to by their parents.  This is not to say that parents should just let their children suffer ad infinitum, but there is a middle that needs to be found between immediate attention and complete abandonment.   Parents can not hover over their kids continuously and completely forsake their own life.  Children need to be able to learn and we are preventing them from doing that.  One surprising discovery in the article came with the amount of choices parents present to children.   A group of children were given three crayons to draw a picture with while another group was given 24 crayons to draw with.  Once completed, the pictures were given to judges with no knowledge of who had how many crayons to choose from.  The group that had only 3 crayons created remarkably better pictures than the group with 24.  This shows that if we provide too many choices to children, they become more indecisive in the long run.  Why do parents feel the need to provide their children with every possible toy?  Fewer toys will be better for them in the long run.  If you are a parent, how do you raise your children?  Are you one of the parents who feels the need to ensure continuous happiness for your children?  If so, you might want to check out the full article linked up here and maybe keep your child out of therapy later on.  For me, when I become a parent, I know that I will do my best to keep my child out of therapy.  It may be hard seeing my child in pain at times, but pain is part of life, along with unpleasantness, dissatisfaction, and suffering.  If children do not learn these things early on, they will be in for a rude awakening when they grow older. 

China's Intervention

China, as we all probably know, is known for sticking its hand into the business of everyone of its citizens, even those that don't fully recognize Chinese authority.   From arresting dissidents to censoring the Internet to having the final say on religion, the Chinese government wants to control everything.  Now, they seem to be pushing for more control over Tibet's religious figures in an effort to gain their support.  The main figure in Tibetan Buddhism is the Dalai Lama and as the Dalai Lama gets older, a Panchen Lama is eventually named, according to Tibetan Buddhists, a child who is thought to be a re-incarnate of an earlier Dalai Lama.  The Dalai Lama already had a Panchen Lama anointed years ago, a young boy who will follow in the Dalai Lama's footsteps when the time comes.  However, China swept the Dalai Lama's anointed successor and his family into "protective custody" 16 years ago and named their own Panchen Lama to be the successor to the famed Dalai Lama.  Although atheist by proclamation, the Chinese government says that only it has the authority to pick top spiritual leaders.  Almost all Tibetans do not recognize this new Panchen Lama, holding firmly to the memory of the original Panchen handpicked by their spiritual leader.  China now wants to send "their" Panchen Lama to a monastery in Tibet to study and hopefully gain recognition by the Tibetan people.  To simply this whole ordeal, this situation would be like the United States government stealing the Pope and naming their own "Pope" as the only legitimate religious leader in Catholicism.   No one would accept that, so why would the Tibetan people accept China's hand picked successor as their spiritual leader?  It just doesn't make sense.  (For more details on this story, follow this link to the NYTimes article.)

There is a reason that the United States decided centuries ago that it was a bad idea to allow religion and politics/government to be tied together.  The ultimate reason is that it is bad business.  A governmental body can not and should not be able to meddle in the affairs of any religion and once they start with one, they invariably discriminate against other's and that leads to feelings of discontent and alienation.  The Chinese government claims that they are atheists (which I believe they are), so how then are they able to legitimately know what constitutes a good spiritual leader for a religion that they do not even recognize?  To me, it is merely a bogus act to try and garner support from the Tibetan people who mainly want freedom from Chinese rule.  China has done everything in their power since the 1950's when they invaded Tibet and took over to garner support from the Tibetan people and incorporate them into the Chinese way of life.  To me, this all says that the Chinese government is out of touch with reality.  How can they possibly think that this ploy of theirs will work?  They think that by making people disappear and putting someone else in their place no one will notice.  Ha.  That's like making the governor of Connecticut disappear and replacing him with someone else.  (OK, bad example because I wouldn't mind that happening, but you get the point).   The Chinese government, if they really want to garner the support of the Tibetan people, would release the original Panchen Lama from "protective custody" and find out what the main concerns of the Tibetan people really are. 

So I know that the Chinese government will do nothing of the sort, but if they did, it would be an enormous step in the right direction.  However, the government over there seems to do what they want, when they want, with no regard whatsoever to the effect it has on the people living in their country.  They are driven by growth and numbers and not by the human factor.  Unfortunately, it seems that the political parties in the United States (especially the Republican party) are becoming increasingly tied to religion, Christianity in particular.  This is bad business and will eventually be the demise of the Republican party.   While it is not an issue to be a Christian and be a Republican, the two must be kept separate for a Republican official is there to represent a variety of people, not just Christians.  What we all must do is keep an eye on our government to ensure that they do not get overly involved in religion the way China has.  To do so will be to alienate all other religions represented in this country and essentially create a fractured society.  Unfortunately, there is not much we can do about Tibet and China.  Especially living in the United States, which owes China over 1.5 trillion dollars, anything we say will be immediately disregarded by anyone in authority in China.  The only thing we can hope for is that the people there see what is going on and fight for change, (as unlikely as that will be).  But in the end, we must focus mainly on keeping religion separate from politics in our country to ensure ultimate religious freedom for all those living here.

Society and Conforming

It seems to me that over the past few decades society, and for that matter the media which promotes what it feels are societies' ideals, has become overly imbued with fear.  When you read through the news, most of what you hear sets your heart spinning, the stock market is tumbling, economies across the world are floundering, there are increases in child abductions, and no one can be trusted.  That is all without mentioning the sex scandals and idiotic trials that are treated with such fanfare you would think a new queen was about to be crowned.  I'm sorry, but what kind of message is being portrayed and pushed on society?  The more we as a individuals read and absorb the news stories and events around the world, the more the media and society are pushing us to conform to their ideals that we are weak, there are killers out there, and we should follow what everyone else is doing.  It is a cycle that is in a downward spiral, perpetuated by our need to see blood and negativity on the TV or in the paper.  The more we crave it, the more the media will give it to us.  Is it out there?  Yes, but it was out there 50 years ago as well and yet it didn't have the effect that it did on the people living in the 50's as it does on our current population.  Granted, technology has changed and there are endless avenues for us to keep updated on the latest news clips and information, but it is our decision to utilize these technological devices to perpetuate this cycle.  No one is forcing us to pick up our BlackBerry or iPhone and check the latest news clips or stock market cycles.  We have invariably been conditioned to think that unless we keep up with the latest sex scandal or political debacle, we will fall behind and society will leave us in the dust.  People, it seems, have forgotten to live their own lives.  They feel the need now to be connected to everyone and everything, regardless of the toll it takes on their mentality and well being.  What this amounts to is a larger and larger number of people conforming, sometimes unwittingly, to societies ideals and messages, and knowingly or not, transferring those ideals into their personal and professional lives. 

This is not to say that we should not keep up with the news or what is happening in the world.  I feel that it is important for us to know what is going on in the world.  However, there is a fine line at which the news about the world comes to have an effect on us.  It is one thing to read about the news, it is another to transfer that message into our own lives and let it affect how we live our daily lives.  If we let the news instill with us a sense of fear about society and the economy, then are lives will become depressed and hinged upon what happens tomorrow, next week, or next month.  What few of us have come to forget is that none of us are guaranteed to be here tomorrow.  For all we know the apocalypse could happen tonight and half the world will vanish.  (Trust me, I don't buy into that, its just an example).  We could get hit by a car and pass away.  We never know what will happen.  So when we buy into the ideal that we should live our life by what happens down the road, we will invariably live in fear because the future is uncertain.  This is what society and the media want us to believe.  They want us to live our lives in fear so that we conform to those around us, hunker down in our living rooms and flip on the news in the evening to see if the world will be OK tomorrow.  Once you open the door to fear and negativity, it has a way of slipping in, grabbing hold of your consciousness and maintaining a grip on you that is incredibly hard to rid yourself of.  The more we live our lives in fear, the more we all lose a little bit of our uniqueness and succumb to the parasite that is society.  Look around you every day, you can see it in the faces of the majority of people.  They are not happy, they are increasingly self-centered, and they aren't really living. 

The only day we are guaranteed is today.  Society would have us believe otherwise, but we have at least today to live.  So why not start living then?  Stop concerning yourself with tomorrow and how society will affect you.  The only thing you have control over is your own mentality and the way you choose to live your life.  If you choose to conform to societies' ideals, then by all means, go ahead, my message will have fallen on deaf ears.  If by chance, though, you choose to live today for what it is, then start making a change in your perception of things.  Not everything is negative in the world.  The media and society may cast the world in an increasingly negative hue, but it is how we respond to it that makes a difference.  Are there are lot of horrible things happening out there?  Absolutely, I read a few articles this morning about rioting in London, double-dip recessions, market turmoil; and I could have written a response to any of those (trust me, I had some ready), but I chose not to.  Why?  Because as much as I enjoy writing a response to those issues, today is not a day in which I choose to let the negativity invade my life for any second.  It creeps in every now and then, but I know when I can handle it and when I can't.  If I let it in today, my whole day probably would have been a downer.  It is all in how we deal with what we read and see that makes a difference.  I struggle with it on a daily basis.  It is not easy to keep the negativity out, but it is possible.  All we need to do is actually make an effort and not give away our backbones to society.  Today, as negative as the news may be about the world, live your own life.  Appreciate those around you, enjoy what the day has to offer, and don't even think about tomorrow.  We are never guaranteed two days in a row to live, only one if that.  Every moment in our lives matters and I for one would much rather live my own life than conform to society and live my life in fear and anxiety.  What will you choose to do?

Eliminating the Unthinkable

Over the weekend, the United States experienced something that nobody thought would ever happen, our credit rating was downgraded by one of the three credit rating agencies from AAA to AA+.  While in reality this will not mean all that much, the effect it will have on markets and consumer attitudes is the real test.   The biggest reason for this downgrade happening is because of the indecision in government and their inability to agree on anything or compromise effectively to move our country forward.  Spending cuts are good, but without tax increases, which polls show are now supported by the majority of Americans, nothing good will happen.  One of the areas which no politician wants to even discuss or for that matter address is the ever increasing cost of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.  If these social programs keep on increasing at their current rate, they will eat up the United States' entire GDP by the year 2025.  That means that all the money the United States takes in in revenue whether from taxes or some other form will go entirely to funding these social programs.  In my mind, these programs should never have been put in place to begin with, but now that we have them, they need to be addressed or else we will face dire consequences in the future.  I have talked about this before, but in light of a conversation I had yesterday and our current economic situation, I feel that they need to be addressed again.  So what do we do?  There is no effective way to scale them back without upsetting someone so what I would propose is entirely ending the programs.  From this point forward, no money gets put into either Social Security or Medicare/Medicaid.  This means that for everyone who put in money up to this point, they would receive their allotment when they retire whether they be 50 or 25 currently.  They would receive a certain amount, but that amount would never increase.  Is this fair?  Some people would say no, but it is the fairest way to address the issue.  People simply continue receiving what they have been if they are retired or receive what they are promised to date in the future, but nothing more. 

If we look back to the Great Depression, the worst economic time period in the history of this country, there was no social security or other social programs.  It became very hard for people to survive, but being Americans, they drew upon their inner strength, the strength of their families, and most survived through that period learning hard lessons in the process.  What has changed today?  Americans seem to have lost their inner strength, their ties to their families, and have become increasing dependent on others to support them.  We do not know how to support ourselves anymore and as such, when calamity hits, we freak out and look to the government for help.  Just because culture has changed, people have become less religious, spend all their money, and don't have family to support them, does that mean they can look to the government to help them survive?  If Americans are going through a crisis, that also means government is going through a crisis and as such should not be the shoulder for Americans to lean their head on and get support from.  If Americans are making less money and fewer of us have jobs, that means that government is making less in tax revenue and can't support the same programs that they used to.  I feel that it is a show of weakness for Americans to run to the government for help.  Just because cultural norms change does not mean the government should increase in size and help out more helpless Americans.  We as Americans have become a debt-riddled society that likes to spend every penny we make without looking to the future.  Why should it be the boon of the government to support all those people who did not take into consideration the fact that they would not be able to work one day and would need some sort of income to support them.  I say shame on them for not saving.  No matter what income level you are at, there is always the possibility to save money.  It may mean making do with less, changing your lifestyle, and curtailing certain activities, but it does not give you the freedom to look to the government for help.  Assistance for those in need should come entirely from the community and religious programs.  If the community and religious programs do not have enough funding to help, it is not the fault of the government, but rather the fault of the community that has become disengaged with their own community and religious programs.  People need to start learning lessons the hard way again and as much as I hate to say it, suffering a little.  We need to stop looking to the government for help, for if we keep on looking there and they keep on getting the assistance, then we will all sink into a deep pool of crap. 

What we need is for people to start growing backbones again and taking responsibility for their actions.  If people wracked up debt beyond anything they can pay for, then they should suffer the consequences.  If people were unable to look to the future and put money away for their retirement, they should also suffer.  Sorry if it sounds cruel, but its reality.  The only people we should be able to rely on for support are our families and community.  But with everyone becoming disengaged from their family and community, they are unable to do this when the need arises.  Maybe they will finally see that they should have invested a little more time with their family and community or put some money away for the future.  I personally have no problem helping my family if the need arises, offering food, shelter, and any support I can if the need was truly there.  I do have a problem however, with supporting someone across the country who abandoned his family and have spent every last penny they have.  No offense, but my problem is my family and my community, not someone elses'.  If there is no one their to support them, then perhaps they should have strengthened the bonds with their family and community instead of separating themselves from everyone and living their life in relative isolation.  We need to regain the strength that we as Americans embodied during the Great Depression.  We need to find that inner gusto and resolve and stop relying on others to fix our problems.  We need to take a stand for ourselves and take responsibility for our actions.  The time is now to move forward with a backbone of resolve, not a limp body looking for pity and assistance.  Enough is enough.

Why Bother Complaining?

There are two kinds of people in this world; those who complain, and those who take action.  Where do you fit into the mix?  Considering our current global economic situation with stock markets plunging again and talk being revived of a double-dip recession, there is much that we could complain about.  There is also the fact that job growth is sluggish and people don't seem to be making as much money as they used to, but seriously, why bother complaining about it?   Complaining serves absolutely no purpose except to bring down the person listening to your complaining to your own level of misery.  Why would you want to have that effect on someone else?  Some people unfortunately know no other way.  They were raised by parents who complained about everything, from their lot in life, to the daily weather, to the Red Sox losing the game, and as such they now complain about their own lives.  If you believe in determinism then complain away, because you are have no choice about where you are going in life or what happens to you.  However, if you buy into the whole theory of free will as I do, then it would do you good and all those around you to try and find the brighter side of life.  There is always something positive to find to focus our attention on instead of the negative and by finding the positive, it reduces the possibility that we will continue complaining. 

One of the biggest complaints that people have is about their lot in life, where they are, and how they can't seem to get anywhere, change anything, or move up or down the ladder of life.  Well, I have news for you (except you determinism folk out there), we are all in charge of our own lives and unlike India in the early 20th century, there is no caste system to hold us in a particular place or prevent us from utilizing our brain to improve our life and reduce some of the pain and anguish that we might be experiencing.  Our lot in life is purely temporal.  There is no permanence to it and if we start to believe that there is, then we will start to lose hope that we can make a change.  If you invested heavily in the stock market, you should have been well aware going in that there could be some drastic changes with huge swings in the indexes causing huge fluctuations in the money that you have invested.  Similarly, anyone who has a job (any job) should have known what that job entailed going into it and if you don't like aspects of it now, there is no one to blame but yourself.  That is of course unless new duties were piled up on your docket without prior knowledge and now that leaves with you two options; a)quit or b)suck it up and do the work.  Complaining about what you have to do at work will not make one lick of difference.  Do you actually think that your boss wants to hear about how you don't want to do something?  Probably not, and the same goes with the people around you in your personal life.  They probably do not want to hear you ramble on and on about your miserable job and how you hate your boss.  If that is the case, quit. 

The more we complain, the more we dig our heels into our current situation and begin to cement that situation into permanence.  Complaining becomes a habit to the point where if we don't have something to complain about, we begin to think that something might be wrong and then we start looking for things to complain about.  It is a vicious endless cycle that can only be broken by forcing ourselves to look at the changes that we can make within our own lives and acting upon that knowledge to make those changes.   I have a friend (a dear one at that) whom I have known for decades that complains about something every time I see him.  He doesn't realize how good he actually has it compared to millions of others.  He just bought a house (but its not in the right town, its too small, and there are too many bugs in the yard), he has a job (but he has to commute, and has too much work), and has a fiancee (but she nags him, and won't budge on certain issues).  Do you get the point yet?  We all have so much positive in our lives that once we start looking for the negative, it starts taking over and we find ourselves unable to look for the positive, celebrate it, and use that to keep us motivated in life to make a difference and not get stuck in that proverbial rut.  I have no sympathy for anyone who complains.  I do it myself sometimes, but I try not to.  It is much easier to sink into a rhythm of complaining that it is to sink into a rhythm of action.  Instead of reacting to events in your life and complaining about them, act and create the effects you are looking for.  Don't wait for life to be handed to you on a silver platter, go out and forge the platter, place your life on it, and reward yourself. 

We all have the possibility of doing anything we want, at anytime, for whatever reason (as long as it falls within the confines of the law of course).  The sooner we can realize that we are in control of our own destiny, the sooner we can improve our lot in life if we so choose.   Don't get me wrong, there are people who are happy with where they are and see no reason to do anything about it.  Good for them, and for a lot of them, they are happy and don't complain.  My push is for those who complain about their personal situations and don't think they can change their own life.  Don't let yourself fall prey to complaining and misery, pick yourself up and do something about it.  We all have the power within ourselves to change, all we have to do is find that power.  For some it is harder than others because they have been conditioned to inactivity and preservation of their current situation.  Regardless of where you are currently in your life, see if you are beginning to fall prey to it and its hardships.  Are you letting life force you into a mentality of complaining or are you using those forces in life to move yourself to a different playing field?  The choice is entirely up to us how we proceed.  But why complain, do something about it.

Starvation in Somalia

We can complain all we want about our economic situation in this country and that of the developed world yet nothing we are going through compares to famine that is wreaking havoc in Somalia.  Perhaps one of the most destitute countries in the world, Somalia has been without an effective government since the early 1990's and has yet to establish one that can survive the seemingly entrenched fighting that permeates every corner of the country.  Warlords battle constantly for supremacy while the rest of the population suffers.  Children die every day from malnutrition, disease, and lack of adequate medical attention.  If you look at pictures from the country, it looks like you were transported to the future in the movie, The Terminator, where everything is destroyed and no hope seems to be left.  The worst hit area is the southern region of the country which is largely controlled by the Shabab Islamists, a group of insurgents that does not allow people to leave their region and controls almost every aspect of life.  In some instances, they herd those that are suffering and starving into "camps", not allowing them to receive any medical attention and essentially signing their death certificate.  What's even worse is that these insurgents control access to water, often diverting to use by farmers and not allowing people to use the water to drink.  I posted a link yesterday on FB to the article in the NYtimes, but I will post it here again and I urge everyone to at least click through and look at the pictures.  Famine in Somalia. 

One of the biggest issues with getting aid to the starving there is that there are few aid groups willing to venture into the country.  Warlords and militants have killed a number of aid workers and most of the time, take much of the food for themselves leaving very little to be spread around.  Currently it is estimated that there are 500,000 Somalis on the brink of starvation if they are not there already.  How can we possibly help them with so much danger imminent upon our arrival?  There is no easy solution.  We tried to go in and help them in the 90's, yet due to the intense violence, we were eventually pushed out and I don't blame anyone for not wanting to go there now.  Yet there has to be a solution.  If something is not done soon, hundreds of thousands of people will die over there and the news I am sure will go largely unreported.  In the western world we like to focus on the plight of our own economy, which as bad as it is, does not compare to Somalia's.  There in lies the issue.  With our own country stagnating and more European countries on the brink of defaulting, how are we suppossed to find extra money and aid to help the starving.  It makes one feel utterly helpless when you consider how bad those in other countries have it.  And people can argue here, "well what about the hungry and homeless in our country?"  I am not denying that we have a growing number of hungry and homeless people in this country, especially since the recession hit, yet we can't just focus on ourselves.  We must do everything to ensure that people in our own country are fed, yet we must go beyond and look for ways to help those in more dire need elsewhere.  We can not rely solely on our governments to provide for us.  They have shown time and time again that they can't figure out basic problems and if they do it takes excessively long with an enormous price tag. 

What we need to do is step up to the plate ourselves.  The bulk of the wealth in this country is held by less than one percent of the population.  There are a few in that realm who are philanthropists and seek to help others with their money, yet the number seems to be dwindling every year.  For whatever reason, they feel that they shouldn't contribute to society or to causes that might help the starving in other countries.  What they forget is that without the rest of the population in this country, many of them would not have the money that they have.  The consumers and the employees of the corporations they run make them their money.  Granted, if everyone stopped buying a certain product or if every employee in one of these corporations suddenly quit, they would probably still have enough money to live out their lives, but that shouldn't make a difference.  Everyone needs to give back to their community, rich and poor, within their means.  I still maintain my stance against socialism and a controlled economy by the government because I still feel that it eliminates incentive to succeed and prosper.  If socialism has any place within society, it is at a personal level.  While we can not force others to give of themselves, there is nothing preventing us from doing so.  The world's problems can not be solved by force or by governments, they must be solved by the average person seeking to make a difference in the lives of others. 

While we may not be able to do much in Somalia right now, if we improve the plight of those within our own country, we can then start to focus our efforts elsewhere.  I believe that if enough people rally behind a cause, a difference can be made and change can be affected.  Too many of us these days are complacent and ineffectual except to our own benefit.  This mentality needs to change or more people will suffer, starve, and eventually pass on.  A grim post today?  Yes, but every now and then we need to be awakened to what is actually going on in the world.  As much as we focus on ourselves and improving our own quality of life, we need to take into consideration those that do not have the means that we do to improve their quality of life.  While I have said before that the power is within all of us to change ourselves, there are some who need a helping hand and a friend upon whom to lean their head.  We must do more than focus on ourselves, we must move past ourselves at some point and focus on our community.  Life is complicated, but if we take it one day at a time, work on ourselves and others, then we can improve the lives of many people.  Idealistic?  Yes, and also optimistic, for what is the use of being pessimistic?  It does nothing except perpetuate depressing ideals.  I choose to look at the bright side of life and the positive impact we as humans can have on this world.  Let us all make a pledge to improve the world around us and by doing so extend that mentality across our borders to those that need more help than anyone we have ever personally known.