Fardog Media

Defining moments

2010-04-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

The worst car I ever purchased, I bought from a buy here pay here lot, long many years ago in Denver. The best car, or one of the very top, I also bought from one of these lots. It was a 1973 Gremlin; clean as a whistle, plain Jane, metallic mint green, black wall tires and beauty rims.

I saw it from the street, and I had to get close. The salesmen came up behind me with the keys. I started it, and once I did, I had to drive it. V-8 powered, and no doubt about it. When I drove it, I had to buy it. Three speed on the floor and power enough to pin you in the seat. It would do seventy before getting out of second with your foot in it.

I did some minor modification. Twin pipes with glass packs and a four barrel carb, but I kept looking straight. I drove that car until some one stole it while I was at a movie one night. I never got it back.

The worst car I owned was 1972 Vega wagon; black. I came onto the lot with my hat in my hands and I was happy enough to be driving away in anything that ran. Trouble was it only ran for a short time. It had a four speed standard that became a two speed; second and reverse. I salvaged a tranny from a junkyard and spent a weekend replacing it. It took a dive a week later. You can imagine how much I wanted my money back, or at least another car, but that was the last thing the dealership wanted. Caveat emptor. I was faced with a dilemma, fixing this car which wasn’t that great to begin with, walking away from the loan or toughing it out.

I toughed it out. You might call looking to the future. I might want to buy another car sometime, but you might call it ethic. That’s what I call it. I’m the one who bought it and I couldn’t blame anybody but myself. I rode the bus for months while I paid off my loan and bought another car afterwards. I put myself higher than someone who would sell a piece of crap like that to someone, and I certainly rose above anyone who would steal a car from another.

Life has defining moments. What are you yours?

Into The Fray, and Out

2010-03-01T13:25:00.000-08:00

I began selling used cars in mid 2007, and did very well until mid 2008. With the economic melt down business faltered and the lot where I worked went out of business in March of 2009. I had no other career to fall back on. Think buggywhip maker. I spent nearly a year unemployed, trying to find some suitable sales work. In mid January of this year, I was hired to sell on a new car lot (Nissan) in my little home town. That lasted about six weeks. I am unemployed again.

When they hired me, there were only three other sales people. Then they hired a woman who spoke Spanish. They intended for business to increase, but it did not, much. Most of the sales still went to the three veterens, as they had the inside on the internet and phone leads. Ups (customers) on the lot were sparse. Competition was fierce, and I have to admit to not being the quickest.

Things were tough, and then got tougher when they hired another veteren, with whom some of the crew had worked previously. That was my death nell, for all intents and purposes. I may have made it yet, had any of the few customers I did get were ready and able to buy. I ran into a three week stretch of nothing. I turned everyone (passed them off to another sales person) but still none of them were buyers.

I got the axe for non production, though I know the bosses saw what was happening, and it is not entirely rare in this business for someone to run into a bad luck streak. In the end, I think it was more that they did had a guarenteed salary, which I did not surpass, and that I did call these other fellows on hoarding. Maybe next time I just keep my mouth shut and not work for a guarantee. If there is a next time. Times are tough.

2010-01-15T11:59:00.000-08:00

Three years ago, I locked the keys to my car in the trunk. It’s not something I am prone to doing, and it could not have come at a worse time. I was on my way to a job interview. Try as I may, I could not get into my car. It ended up costing me $70 to have locksmith come out and get me into my car. I had to reschedule the interview and did not end up getting the job.

I later found employment selling used cars and the incident was forgotten, marked off as an anomaly until one day last year. I left my keys in the pocket of a jacket and locked them in the car. I didn’t have to pay to get them out this time, because it happened in my home town. It only cost me an entire afternoon, riding the bus home to get my wife’s keys and going back to retrieve my car.

Twice was enough. That same afternoon I had duplicate keys made and bought a magnetic box to go on the car. I could not have predicted the outcome. It is now a regular occurrence that I lock the keys in my car. In the back of my mind, I know I have help. I have come to depend on those keys being there.

In a way, I am diminished. I no longer have to depend on my own awareness, and there is no way back, but this is the point. How many times in our lives, do we pick up a crutch, put on a bandage, wrap ourselves in blankets and just hold on to them until we no longer are able to fend for ourselves.

There are times in a life when everyone needs help. We must just be aware of that which would ensnare us. It takes greater courage to break the shackles of bondage, than to remain free.

The voices

2010-01-08T12:45:00.000-08:00

I have a unique voice. Anyone who knows me, would never mistake me for another. Not all voices are as easily discerned. A machine can identify a voice so accurately it can be used as security. The human ear is not this sensitive.

I am tuned into voices more than most. The unusual quality of my wife’s voice was one of the first things that attracted me to her. I can usually pick out the voices of people I know from a crowd. Still, I am far from flawless. It makes me wonder about something I have noticed.

In regards to recording artists, I find far more truly distinct male voices, down through history, and today. Is this just a perception? I could be more sensitive to the differences in male voice, simply because I am a man. It may appear there are more unique men’s voices because there are fewer women recorded, but is this true or simply another perception. Did it used to be true in the past, and not today? If so, why, and why have I not noticed?

It is true my own preferences run to the male voice. If there are fewer female voices recording, is it because the greater portion of the population agrees with me, or is it another aesthetic? Any market for art usually rewards the unique, ore uniquely refined. Is it true, then, that there are less truly identifiable women’s voices? If so, is it because the human ear has difficulty picking up the fine distinctions at that higher register?

So, we come full circle, and many of you might be asking, so what? You are right… So what, but this is my point. The most innocent thought can provoke my brain to explore a circle of almost unanswerable questions, any one of which is less significant than a single drop of rain. It has become a major problem in my life, and I wonder. Is there medication for this? I certainly lack the capacity to curb the obsession on my own.

Fools Never Learn

2009-12-25T15:29:00.000-08:00

"I fixed that (%#^f*!) sink!" I said this for a week, to anyone who would listen, including the dog, after recently replacing a kitchen sink. It took me an entire afternoon to do it and several days later to find and fix all the leaks.

Such is my mechanicl aptitude. I lack the the 3 T's. The Time, the Tools, and the Talent. I don't why I persist in trying. Maybe I think something will change some day. Maybe it's just foolish male pride, or the Scots in me. Some times I feel as if I have no choice.This is the case in my current debacle.

I have a 1994 Ranger PU. It's a second vehicle, I kept parked on the street in front of my home. It has always been a difficult starting vehicle. One day it just refused. I wasn't towing it in anywhere and paying commercial rates. I didn't have the first clue how to diagnose the problem. I called a mobile mechanic.

I live in a small market and the options were limited. The first guy I called out spent two hours working on it, and didn't even manage to diagnosis the proplem. I called a second, who at least had the right tools. It took him about a half hour to discover that my fuel pump was the problem. I authorized him to do the repair, as it required removing the gas tank. We pushed the truck into my carport, displacing my nice little car, where he began. He did not get far into the job when he pointed out to me a "Stop". The fuel fill hose would need replaced. It was a factory item and he was not certain he could get it, as it was Saturday. Two weeks passed, and I didn't hear from him. He was one of those angry old guys anyway, and I guess he lost interest in the job. I reconciled myself to tackling the chore.

Temperatures have been rising to the high thirties in the afternoons. I would wait until then to begin working. I started on a Monday. By last thing Thursday, I had the tank out and the pump replaced. When I figure out how to replace the fill hose I destroyed taking out the tank, I can begin putting the thing back together. It will probably take another week of afternoons.

I can understand how someone might not want to tackle this chore, but I am a talentless ametuer. I might have been been better off having it towed in and paying the price of a real professional. I would just not have had the satisfaction of saying "Yeah!! I Win!" I would also not have had the opportunity to learn this one thing. I will never do anything like this again!

Yeah, right.

2009-12-18T13:52:00.000-08:00

Things that are different; light and dark, up and down, cats and dogs. I like the light better than dark, and being up more than down. I prefer dogs over cats. I don’t harbor any ill will towards the cat. I have had both creatures. I just find the cat a little unnerving.

There has gone on for as long as I can remember a great debate about these creatures, not the least of which is their intelligence. I think I can safely say they both possess the attributes thereof. Science has some interesting things to say about them.

Our human brain is made up of thirty percent pre-frontal cortex. That is the part where we do our thinking, at least most of us. It is our intelligence. The dog brain has ten percent pre-frontal cortex. Yes. They have the ability to reason on some small level. The cat brain has almost no pre-frontal cortex. What can we say about this? If they have no native ability to reason, and yet they seem to, from where does that come?

It has been held by some cultures and sects that cats channel, or act as medium, to some intelligence beyond our physical universe. Perhaps this is what I sense about them that unsettles me. In the famous words of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Sherlock Holmes “When we eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how unlikely, is the truth.”

Do you Think!?

In The Ebb

2009-12-11T09:01:00.000-08:00

My last meaningful employment had me selling used vehicles. Among the many things I gained was a modicum of superstition. I would not have thought that possible. My life has made me fairly grounded. Only when my success or failure hinged on things I could not qualify, I had to take a serious reassessment.

There were times when a vehicle would come onto the lot and just stick around. There would often be no apparent reason why. People would look at it and drive it. Some would even try to make a deal, but it would not sell. The longer it stayed on the lot, the worse it would get. Many times the price would drop below the profit line, in an attempt to be rid of it before sending it back to auction. Sometimes nothing helped. I began to refer to this phenomenon as the car getting a Stink on it.

The economy interrupted my burgeoning career in the automotive industry. The dealership I worked for went out of business in March of this year. I have been looking for work since. I did my turns applying to new and used dealerships. I applied to numerous other sales and customer service positions, as well as others. I have many transferable skills accumulated through my first career as a professional in the offset printing trades.

Through this process I have had a fair share of interviews, which is more than a lot of professional people I know can say. Some of them went quite well, in my opinion, but I have yet to be hired. There is no qualifyable reason I shoud still be out of work. I am afraid I have a Stink on me.

2009-12-03T10:02:00.000-08:00

I remember working for a couple in the nineties. It was one of the better employments in my working career. After seven years with them, the woman received a diagnosis of breast cancer. She took immediate action and had a radical mastectomy. Only, it was too late. The cancer had already spread.

The cancer developed into lymphoma. She set out to battle it aggressively, with all the treatments available. At a point they even did a super chemo, where afterwards they had to reintroduce her own fortified blood back into her system to keep her from dying of the treatment. None of it worked. She developed bone cancer, as well, and after nearly a two year fight she fell prey to the disease.

After her death, her husband fell completely apart, tore up from the floor up. I have never witnessed such a total meltdown of a man. Shortly, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was dead mere months later.

This left the business to their twenty-four year old son. He managed to keep the business running only another year before it failed. Five people lost their jobs. The community lost a tax paying business.

It is not clear whether this sequence of events would have fallen they way they did if the woman had received an earlier diagnosis. I just know she was only forty-nine at the time they began. I don’t know the wisdom in the recent recommendation that women under the age of fifty do not need regular mammogram screenings. Perhaps statistics prove there is not a high incident of positive diagnosis under the age of fifty, but what of it. Lives are still lost. Is that not still important?

I haven’t heard the greatest outcry against this. Maybe no one is taking it serious. I just fear this recommendation will eventually lead insurance companies to not pay for screening of women under fifty.

Two Sides of a Coin

2009-11-20T10:55:00.000-08:00

I can not call myself a religious man, but I am not entirely mindless of the spiritual either. I am just of a belief concerning religion, that if triangles had a God he would have three sides. Most people claiming to be religious assign attributes to God in line with their own beliefs. Evidence the vast number of different religions and cults, and the denominations thereof. If there is indeed a supreme being, we have fragmented him along human lines.

Most of these religions and cults are maladaptive and do not take into account that we are human, and that we are tied to the earth by our physical existence. Who among us is without human frailty? Can we thrive when our beliefs deny the fact that we are physical beings and seek to make us guilty for it? Can we survive as a people by acting with impunity in regard to the concerns and welfare of our fellow man? These are the extremes to which our religious doctrines subscribe.

As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The Eastern philosophy of Yin and Yan comes closest to my own personal belief. The physical dimension is inextricably wrapped with the spiritual; two sides of a circle. It is law of physics that nothing may exist with out its opposite. We can evidence this all around us. What is hot, without cold? How do we know far without near? These are quantifiable extremes we can measure, without which we could not define either.

This same principle is applicable across the whole of life. Every emotion, every belief, every action or practice is tied to its opposite. How can we define love without hate? Can there be nurture without harm? Is there any freedom without responsibility? Measure for measure, every amount of responsibility we surrender, we lose that much freedom. We can witness this in our own culture.

This is a country founded on freedom. We talk as if it we still possess it. The trouble is that we have forgotten the other side of that coin is responsibility. We have laid the responsibility for our lives on government and others. Because we have disregarded our responsibility to ourselves, our families, our neighbors and our communities, we have an unmanageable set of laws and regulations, poorly written and randomly enforced. We are no longer truly free to manage our lives or decide what we tolerate. If you think I’m wrong, gather some of your friends and disrupt the business of your local bank in protest. Fail to pay your assigned taxes, fees and levees. See how long it takes for a reprisal. Try to go out and buy a handgun to protect yourself and find out how many hoops you have to jump through.

Our crucible on earth is to reconcile the Yin and Yan of our existence. We could do a better job. When we lean too far to one side or the other, we unbalance the circle of life Nature is such as that it will try to center itself. It is another immutable law of physics that for every action, there is an equal an opposite reaction.

Can we continue to fight against the natural laws of the world in which we live in and survive as humans?

What Do You Expect

2009-11-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

I had been seeing a truck in the parking lot of my local Borders book store. It caused me to wonder to whom it belonged. It was a not quite ancient Toyota 4x4 with a bad case of cancer. There were two large holes, eaten in either side of the bed. In these were placed large and nasty looking rubber rats; a front end and back end sticking out on either side.

It was a fairly unusual decoration, and something I expected from a rough hewn man, maybe the concrete worker type. Imagine my surprise when I come out of the Borders one day to find a woman getting in this beastly looking ride. And not just any woman, either. She was a fairly tall, mature and attractive woman with tightly drawn graying hair. She wore a well tailored business suit, with skirt, and feminine, yet professional shoes.

Her, beside that truck, standing nearly alone in this parking lot, was just the sort of incongruous juxtaposition I consider art. It was one of those times when I wished I was the type to carry around a camera. I have not seen her or this truck since. It made me wonder why. Some lesson?

I think this. I have been a person, in my life, to be driven by my expectations. It has made me less than flexible, and that has proved to be a fairly sizable handicap at times. I expected this truck to belong to someone it should. Someone who I had assigned.

This woman and her truck could just be one of life’s curious incidents, but it is not the first time recently that I have had cause to think my expectations.

A Little Appreciation

2009-11-06T09:56:00.000-08:00

I will never eat an apple again without thinking of my mother-in-law. For many years of my life, if I wanted to have an apple I needed to cut it in pieces. This is my own fault.

In my youth I suffered from a mental condition I like to call Terrier Syndrome. You will not find it in any psychiatric desk reference, but it doesn’t mean it is not a legitimate mental health problem.

I named Terrier Syndrome after the dog of the same breed. Terriers are a small breed of dog born of a peculiar nature that assumes they have been put on the earth to be king. They do not shy from asserting their belief, and to a certain point have ability. Only, it goes just so far. The average Terrier weighs about twenty pounds.

Because I had this same temperament, and comparatively no more lead in my pants, I became unnaturally removed from a number of my incisors. For many years afterwards the best I could manage was partial plates; commonly referred to as flippers. They are good for making you look less toothless, but are practically useless otherwise.

Some time back, my mother-in-law sold an easement to the city. She has a good deal of property. With a portion of the money, she gave a gift to her offspring and their spouses. She has only one son and a daughter. With my share I was able to afford bridgework. I have biting the hell out of stuff ever since.

My mother-in law is a warm, wonderful person, able to look beyond our human faults. I am fortunate in my life to have her with me, and no less, her daughter. I am thankful every day. I just felt compelled to express my appreciation, coming into this thanks giving season.

Funny What You Can Find By Exploring

2009-10-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

I am a member of Toastmasters, an international association dedicated to teaching better speaking and leadership. I participated in in Table Topics this week, as I usually do, . For those unfamiliar, Table Topics is that part of the program where members get to practice their impromptu speaking skills. A topic is chosen and kept secret by the meeting's Table Topics Master. Members are chosen at random for each topic by the Table Topics Master. They then must deliver a one to two minute speech on the topic.

The theme of our Table Topics this week was cartoons. I was chosen for Wyle E. Coyote. For any one not familiar, Wyle E. Coyote kept meeting with horrendously violent self destruction as a result of schemes to catch a roadrunner. I began humoruosly, that I believed Wyle E. Coyote was a suberbly brilliant creature for creating these intricate plans for overcoming his natural speed deficit. Only, that his proplem apparently stemmed from product failure. He kept using "Acme" products, which never performed properly, leading to his continuing disaters. Then came the seque.

I suggested that the coyote didn't understand his power as a consumer, and neither do we as Americans. Just like good ol' Wyle E. Coyote, we keep giving business to companies that do not serve us, are irresponsible, and do not respect us, the environment, or the rules. I made it clear that the same fate as the coyote awaits us if we do not wake up.

Not every Toastmasters group allows rebuttals in Table Topics. Rebuttals are add-ons or a different take on the subject by another member. Ours does. A woman followed me, and tailgaited on my point. Yes. Wyle E. Coyote kept using Acme procucts, and that was not smart. Only, how did he purchase these products in the first place. He had no visible means of support. Yet, Acme kept allowing him credit. She parallelled the fact that this is us also. We have no visible means of support, yet they keep giving us credit. Vis a Vie; the sub-prime debacle, still mounting credit card dept and government deficit spending.

I ended up wining the contest for my presentaion. Much of Toastmasters is contest and performance oriented. Still, these were both valid parallels, drawn in humor and impending doom. I don't think the original creators of Wyle E. coyote thought about these, or were they considerable problems at the time. It's just wonderful what you can find, though, when you bother to turn over a couble of rocks

2009-10-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

I read an AP Article in my local paper last night. It pointed out how Democrtatic Senator Patrick Leahy, VT, announced the posibility of stripping the insurance industry of their anti-trust exemption as a part of any health care legisltation that might reach the floor. This coming after a 20-9 vote of the house judiciary commitee in favor of the idea.

I like the idea of ending the exemption. I think it is unconscionable they have it, and they have had it since 1945. I just question whether it might not pass muster. This health care bill, in any of it's possible generations is going to be a hard fight. It is far from a slam dunk. The republicans are mostly going to vote against any bill with stiff regulations or a public option of any kind. The Democrats have a majority, but some of them have been marginalized by the party, and others are facing strident concerns of reelection in their home states, for a variety of reasons. They are walking a tight-rope. Asking them to tow the party line in their situation is not reasonable request.

I can imagine the insurance companies won't be pleased with any legislator voting to end their boon. They donate a lot to campaigns. Do you think this might sway the opinion of any lawmaker forced to make a decision on how he'll vote?

_________________

Also in this same article, a bill designed to stop the current plan of cutting medicare payments to providers by 21% and raising fees by $247 billion over the next decade, failed to pass.

Granted, these fees spread throughout the vast number of providers over a ten year period is not astronimical. A pay cut of 21% is a big bite, though. Do you think that might discourage providers from accepting new medicare patients?

Reform the Reform.

2009-10-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

With health care reform virtually around the corner, what do we really know. What can we know. The thing as it, is a tome. Who among us can understand any of it. What we might know is likely to change before it's finalized.

Some things are pretty clear, and there is enough where we can do some deductive reasoning. It appears that the insurance companies are not in favor of it. I think they might be in a position to understand the body of the legislation, and can see a potential problem in less profits. It just doesn't seem to make a great deal of sense when you take into account that the government set into motion last april, a multi-million dollar ad campaign promoting health care reform, funded by the industry.

The whole thing appears now like some sort of a shill game, but if it is not, and reform ends up costing the insuarnce companies money, what then? Here's what I see happening. Smaller and weaker companies will fail. They, their assets, and their clents will be absorbed by largere more profitable companies. A consilidation of power, which we have seen too much of in this economy. I just don't think it bodes well for us as the consumer.

Then as time passes, these insurance companies will find a way around the laws meant to help us have affordable, effective insurance coverage. It is inevitable, and I think we have plenty of historical evidence to prove it will happen. To our rescue comes the public option; government run healthcare for those squeezed out by the insurance giants. So in the end we are all forced to pay for whatever lousy coverage we can get. And we will be forced. It is achingly clear that it is an integral part of the plan. It is mentioned time and time again in the media, as if it is a done deal.

I can only see my two greatest fears coming true out of this push. I will be forced to purchase insurance, and the governement will be providing health care. The only real power we have in this country any more is as consumers, and they seek to take this away from us. Then we have the government insurance debacle. Don't think I'm exagerating. The government is patently incapaple of administering insurance. Case in point. I have to go no further than the latest issue of Readers Digest. A department piece, That's Outrageous, points out how innefectively the govenment has managed medicare. They lose countless millions to fraud every year. I magine that going broader. You think we're in dept now.

Now, don't just paint me as a naysayer. I just now the nature of man. I know the nature of government, and I know the nature of the corporate world. It doesn't inspire a lot of trust. We need reform, but it needs to come as requlatory legislation alone. What we are looking at now has a lot of baggage, and I fear it is there to carry our money away.

By
W.K. Jones

Calloused Lips

2009-10-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

President Obama has worked just hard enough, and long enough, to get calloused lips. Yet. he has now won the Nobel Peace Prize. Shows you how much of an Icon this man has become, or how low our standars have become. Shows me, yet again, how insanely sick we are.

We are dancing on the edge of a bottomless precipice, with the ledge crumbling all about us, and what do we do? What do we talk about? Anything to ignore the problems. Anything to make ourselves feel better.

We are engaged in two wars, which we are losing. We are in the middle of a legitimate economic meltdown. A flu pandemic is looming on the horizon. There is global warming, changing the environment at an alarming rate, the worldwide food suply hanging in the balance, with honey bees fighting for their very lives. Yet, we can take the time to make frivoulous laws, and anything else that makes us feel like we are doing something important.

I am reminded of a case recently where a man was being prosecuted for having imagery of pit bulls fighting as a part of his documentary. The law under which he is prosecuted stems from a legislator who was appalled that there was no law to prevent a certain "smut" found on the internet.

It seems that certain people take sexual pleasure in a well dressed woman's leg, stomping on bugs and pinkies. When all is said and done, this sort of paraphellia is harmless. I don't think there is a shortage of crickets and newborn rats. We buy them to feed to our snakes and spiders. No one should care, except for a few sexual repressives, like this legislator. Thus a broader law for animal cruelty. Whereby we are spending time and resources prosecuting a man who has done nothing wrong. The footage he had came from China, where the sport is legal, and the dogs better cared for.

Opinions from the high court have already intimated that the man was within his first ammendments rights. That doesn't matter, right? As long as we pretend we are doing something important, and continue to wink at the real problems, it's all good.

If we're that stupid, maybe we deserve the slow horrible death steamrolling towards us.

2009-10-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

I have recently returned from a two day writer's conference in Edmonds WA. Write On the Sound (WOTS). This was the 24th annual event. It turns out there is a very strong writers community in the NorthWest. Edmonds, itself, is a wonderful little art community, nestled on the Pugeot Sound. One of the persons on the conference steering committe is a local art commisoner. This was her 17th consecutive year of involvement with WOTS.

It was a wonderful event, there was something of interest for evey writer. I attended eight seperate workshops in the two days, and learned a great deal. Much of what I found, I was already doing intuitively. I now just have a better grip of how to understand and apply them. Some things I learned were completely new to me.

One of the best moments was the Keynote speech. Here I was extremely fortunate. The original speaker was unable to attend for health reasons. Brian McDonald stepped in and filled his shoes. He had information I desperately needed and will remember, always. Brian McDonald is a Film Maker, Screen Writer, and novelist. He is a story teller and that was the subject of his speech. "The Power of Story"

Stories have been with us from before we had the word. They will be with us forever. We crave them. He explained that stories, beyond their ability to entertain, contain survival information. This is the core reason we crave them.

Along with outlining the structure of the three act play, he broke down the basic elements necessary for a story. It's just this simple. "Once upon a time, and every day, until, then because of this, and because of this, until finally, and ever since."

I wish you all could have been there. it was an experience.

Job Security

2009-09-21T11:07:00.000-07:00

If someone gave you a job, would you turn around and disregard the employer's wishes and expect to stay employed? No you wouldn't. How can you expect your elected officials to be any different?

Too bad I'm not talking about our vote. Our elected officials take a great deal of money from private interests; the Banking Lobby, the Insurance Lobby, the Law Lobby, Unions, ETC. They take this money and use it to convince us we should vote for them. When they succeed, guess who they serve? Not us. We're easily minupulated. We're not invested. We have short memories. We don't hold these peoples feet to the fire,... and they know it.

The interests who give politicians money are a different breed. They're invested, hard money, and they expect results. If they don't get it, they don't reinvest in the individual. They'll get another horse. Our politicians know this. They serve who bought them the job. You'd do the same. You wouldn't have a choice if you wanted to stay employed,.. and boy it's a nice job. Lots of perks.

Look at the problems we need to solve right know. The economy. Had we better regulations of industries key to the economy, we would not be in this mess. What we need to shore things up, is better regulations of these industries. It's not going to happen. Our politicians take too much money from these interests.

Let's talk about health care. What we need is health care requlation, insurance regulation, and legal reform. Don't count on it happening. Folks from both sides of the aisle feed from that trough.

Our government should be in the business of protecting us. They don't. They can't. Instead, they make their job in trying to provide for us. They don't really do a good job of that, either, except to pacify us. Nearly half the people in this country do not make enough money to even pay tax. I expect the number to grow.

We've allowed ourselves to be duped, to become complacent, to become weak. We surrender our freedom for a false perception. I don't expect anything to change. Apathy is king in America.

We're Helpless

2009-09-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

It's just appalling. With all of the mind numbing, life threatening, socio-economic and cultural problems facing the world today, why do we waste our time on celebrity. Christ!! OBAMA, the President of the once most powerful nation on the earth feels compelled to comment on the behavior of some celebrity , Kayne , who I don't find that talented.

I just don't get it. I'm up to my ass in alligators. Why should I care about these people. Patrick Swazee was a fine actor. I liked his work. I don't need to see his death played out before me in the media. I've lost a lot of fine people in my life to cancer. I didn't invite the world to suffer with me.

We have just got our heads screwed on wrong. This Cult of Personality we've nurtured has pervaded and disabled our psyche. We are a crippled people, who can no longer take care of ourselves, and we know it. It is why we increasingly ask the government to do it for us.

Cultural Presonality Disorder

2009-09-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

Psychologists recognize five separate personality disorders as most common, Narcissistic, Histrionic, Avoidant, Psychopathic/Sociopathic, and Borderline Personality Disorder.

Narcissitic Personality Disorder: Individuals with this disorder do not exhibit an overdelevloped love of themselves, but an overwhelming love with their image. These people cultivate and image of themselves, which they portray as flawless to themselves and others.

Histrionic Personaility Disorder: People with this disorder require constant attention from others and will attempt to receive it by creating drama or conflict in their lives where none exists. These individuals will often see themselves as victims.

Avoidant Personaility Disorder: This condition is characterized as having great fear of judgement and rejection from others. People suffering from this disorder often have a poor self image and constently feel as if they fall short in the eyes of others. They will avoid interaction with others in an attempt to keep from looking foolish or receiving rejection. They often suffer from accute performance anxiety.

Psychopathic/Sociopathic Personality Disorder: People with this disorder find themselves disconnected from others. Other individuals are seen as objects. They are known to harm or take advantage of people with out concern for how it impacts the individual. In extreme cases, they will kill to meet these ends.

Borderline Pesonality Disorder: People with this disorder live in constant fear of abandonment. They seek constant reassurance, yet seldom accept it. They can never be secure in a relationship, testing and challenging the other individual’s commitment. In extreme cases they can behave in a manor that can alienate and drive away a significant other, creating a self fulfilling prophecy.

Many of us will exhibit some of these traits in our lifes. It can be considerd normal. It is considered a disorder when it becomes an overriding pattern of behavior. One infallible proof of a disorder is the lack of an observing ego. People with these, and other disorders, lack the ability to step away and see the behavior as a problem. In their minds, they are completely normal. They will go to great lengths to defend themselves.

I think we as a country suffer from a personality disorder. It is a combination of the above five and many of the other less prolific, including Pschizophrenic and Paranoid. I call it Cultural Personality Disorder.

I can look around and see how sick we are. There are many with me, who agree. Just, what are we to do about it? By and large, most of the society thinks what goes on is acceptable. They think we are completely right and normal, and will vehemently strike down anyone who disagrees with them.

We are Sick, Sick, Sick!! If you disagree,… guess what? You’re part of the problem.

A Crazy, Crazy Nation

2009-09-03T13:58:00.000-07:00

In Nevada, where I live, sixteen is the age of consent, meaning any person over the age of sixteen may consent to have sex with whomever they please.

Here, a man of forty carried on an affair with a seventeen year old woman. You may say whatever you wish about the morality or ethics of this. It is entirely legal. Everything is good until the young woman decides to take some rather indelicately intimate pictures of herself and send them to her lover’s cell phone.

By some circumstance, the pictures were discovered by some disapproving person. They were reported to the authorities. Because the young woman was under the age of eighteen, the pictures were considered Child Pornography. The man was indicted, prosecuted and convicted.

Let’s forget for the moment, this young woman was never charged for producing and publishing this perceived pornography. Where is the mens rea? This man had no intent to commit a crime. He was in a legal relationship with the woman of whom he had these pictures. He did not request them. She volunteered them, a person of legal age to consent. How does this become a crime?

Could we be any more crazy in this country? It’s frightening to think about. When People like Phillip Garrido (Jaycee Lee Dugard abductor) receive inadequate supervision because the system is overburdened, we go out of the way to create more sex offenders. For a thoughtless act, we are willing to ruin the life of a man who had no previous criminal history. Do we have any idea what a felony alone can do to a life, let alone having a sex offense that will never go away?

Do we have any idea how crazy we are? Can we step back for just a minute, and see? I don’t think so.

2009-09-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

You would think someone of my age would learn to step a little carefully. Not always so. My impetuous nature and unwillingness to seek advise has once again lead to me stepping in it.

I have written a fiction novel, and am working on two more. I have been actively seeking an agent for the completed work, and have recently found one. Too bad I didn't bothr to check up on him before I accepted his representation.

He is not an active scammer, but seems to have little experience and has little track record of success. I am unsure as what step I am going to take next in this adventure. Whatever it is, I will have to wipe the shit from my shoe before I do.

Maybe someday I'll learn.

Unjust and Ineffective

2009-08-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

We have nearly 700,000 registered sex offenders in this country. The number is added to quickly, with a hundred or more new sex offenses adjudicated every day. We spend an unconscionable amount of rescources in closing the barn door after the horses have fled. Department of Justice numbers reflect that nearly 95 out every 100 new sex crimes are committed by persons previously unadjudicated.

Serious sex crimes do exist, but what passes for a sex crime in this country today is scurrilous. Punisments for lesser crimes , and those which should not be sex crimes in the first place, far exceed the offense. Many of these interventions are permenant and socially dibilitating. The problem has deepened to the point where any one of us may be no more than two degrees of seperation from some one who has been ground under the wheels of this modern day witch hunt.

The fact remains that sex offender registries, more laws and stiffer penalties have not reduced the tide of offenders. Proper treatment has proven more effective in reducing recidivism than registries. Meanwhile, top clinicians in the field argue that sex crimes are predictable and preventable, with better education and understanding of the subject.

Can we continue to spend billions of dollars and countless hours of man hours on unjust practices which fail to address the problem? A well respected conservitive magazine has spoken out on the question. http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14164614

Certain Magical Moments

2009-08-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

There are certain days in our lives that are magic. We can’t predict them, and we can never duplicate them.

I lived in Denver for the whole of the Eighties. One year there, I had the pleasure of making friends with a man, several years my senior and a disabled Viet Nam Vet. Once, he invited me to join him for pizza and beer at a place he knew. I wanted to pass. Times were a little tough. I didn’t really have the budget for eating out much, but he said he had coupons. I relented. An evening of pizza, beer and conversation with a politically astute man was appealing.

The Organ Grinder pizza parlor was a Denver establishment. I passed it routinely, though had never been in. Once inside, it reminded me for the most part of any one of a number of corporate cafeterias in which I had worked; modestly comfortable tables and chairs on a vacuous linoleum tiled floor. For the other part, it was extraordinary. One entire wall was covered in brass pipes of various sizes, floor to ceiling in some places. On a suspended platform, and around, were other instruments; drums, xylophone, harp & etc. In the center of this spectacle stood a giant organ. White pearl and ornate gold, it had four key decks and a dozen or more floor pedals. It stood high on a platform with a matching bench.

We sat and ordered our food. It was a Saturday night. A decent crowd had assembled. Shortly, the entertainer arrived. He was a boy, no more than fifteen, slender, blonde, not tall and imperially dressed. He sat at the bench and began to set the evening on fire. The sound was magnificent. Full and pure, it filled the room air driven by an enormous pump, accompanied by the auxiliary ensemble of instruments, which seemed to play of their own. The child played like a master at the controls of this behemoth machine, wielding perfectly the classics, ragtime, big band and marches. It seemed a delicious irony, an artful juxtaposition that a boy so young could accomplish dominance over music that had passed out of fashion before his parents had been born.

The artist took a break and we decided to stay. I could not leave. He took up again in a short while, picking up where he left off and propelling into even greater accomplishments. Then when I thought it could not get better, twenty or more chaperoned girls arrived. They ranged in age from about eight to fifteen, I guessed, dressed identically in black shoes, white ankle sox, plaid skirts, white blouses and black sweaters. When they were seated and ordered food, the manager dutifully informed us, via the P/A system, they were visiting from Auckland New Zealand. They quickly began to win the hearts of the crowd.

They talked and laughed. They sang and danced like they were born to the music our master boy magician played. When they had finished eating they got their heads together and stood up, formed a line, and began dancing around the room, tallest to shortest. They began across the floor in front of the gathered crowd, and then began weaving their way through the tables, encouraging the crowd to join them. Many did. Who could resist the charm of such exuberant youthful girls? We stayed sat. My friend was bound to a wheel chair, and I was too glory struck to take my eyes from the event.

The music played. Girls danced in perfect rhythm, leading a gathering of ordinary souls on a magical journey. Too soon they sat. The music played on and the girls still sang and talked, and laughed. Our youthful orchestra leader eventually had to take a break. The girls took their leave, giving their gracious good-byes to the crowd. The air went out of the room with them.

My friend and I left before the third set. We talked about that night for a long time afterwards. We never returned to the Organ Grinder. We knew that night could never happen again.

Now, Denver is nearly twenty years in my rear view mirror. Occasionally, I still go back in my mind, longing to retrieve that experience, only to find a pleasant ghost.

Time to Readjust

2009-08-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

We live in a cult of personality, where the true meaning and importance of heroism has been obliterated. No where has this been more detrimental than to our male population.

Heroism has been replaced by celebrity. We strive for notoriety and align ourselves with those who have gained it. Few of us will ever truly achieve it for ourselves. In the dark solitude we all must face, association with the successful pales in comparison. Yet the need remains.

Men are born to action. This is an undeniable truth. The most natural paths for this energy are to heroism or villainy. Barring either of these, the man becomes a ghost.

For the long history of man, we have been encouraged to heroism. It has been the paradigm by which we have thrived. Nothing has changed the nature of man. When we frustrate the man in heroism, he can easily become the villain.

Should it then become any surprise we incarcerate more men than any other country in the world? Is it any wonder are boys turn to gangs? Random acts of violence by men have become so common we are rarely shocked by them.

We seek to hire heroes to protect us. For years we have. For years the public safety empire has grown. For as many years it has failed. We are no more safe today, probably less, than years past. We create villains daily. What we have lost in our society is the every day hero.

The man whose everyday life and small sacrifices, who enriches the life of his family, friends and community, still exists. Our numbers are dwindling, but could be restored by returning the respect and reward to everyday heroism. It is just a matter of perspective.

Let us stop making villains and ghosts. We can be in the business of creating heroes. Let us start raising our boys to the ideal of true heroism, equip them, and then reward them when they respond. No other path will save us.

2009-08-17T15:53:00.000-07:00

I was speaking with a young person I know who is taking economics as part of her college curriculum. She revealed to me a fact I had long suspected. Adjusted for inflation, we are earning 8% less now, as a people, than we were in 1978.

The questions I want to address is, how did this happen, and who got away with the money? Is it a coincidence that Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980? Despite his popularity, continuing in history, he is most responsible for the trend of deregulating commerce. This he did, obstensively, in an attempt to create wealth, so that everyone might better share. "Trickle Down Economics", "Reaganomics", whatever you wish to call it, it has been followed in every administration since. What he and all who followed have failed to take into consideration is that greed and apathy are fundamental traits of the human condition. In short, the wolves have been minding the flock, and for the most part we have failed to recognized we are slowly being devoured.

In three decades we have all but lost the middle class. Nearly half of the population does not earn enough money to pay taxes. We have become a nation of divided largely into working poor and the wealthy. Personal debt is at an all time high. Our government spending has continued to grow, astronomically in the past two administrations. We operate at a trade deficit, and accumulate debt we may never absolve.

The problem is so complex, I have no idea where to begin in taking back our country, and our dignity. We can solve it together, but we must first recognize the problem. Unless we learn to take responsible on ourselves, for ourselves and our families, and to our communities, no change can happen.

We can not rely on our government alone to fix a problem we allowed them to create.

2009-07-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

Amid the worst economic down turn in recent history, Ford Motor Company managed to turn a profit last quarter. How'd they do that?

Undoubtedly, their conservative business model has helped. Because they were not over-branded(too many different products), and did not over-market(too many stores), they were more profitable. It helped also they sold more to foreign markets because of their off shore brands(Jaquar, Volvo, and Mazda), and that they work hard to produce and market solid fleet vehicles.

What goes unnoticed is that they spend less cash. Ford Motor company barters for advertising, as well as travel and many other expenses associated with business. Any business can be more profitable by trading. Corporations, like Ford are big enough to manage the task for themselves. For the rest of us Trade Exchanges can be our best option.

Trade Exchanges, are effectively brokarage houses, who can broker barter across a wider spectrum than most of us can manage for ourselves. Research for your self. If it makes sense for your business, contact a local exchange and talk with a representative.

In the greater Reno/Sparks/ Northern Nevada area see us @ www. renotradebanc.com Kelly, Art, or Stephen.

2009-07-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

Barter. The word conjures up an image of two old farmers, trading goods over the fence. While technically, the word does represent the concept of trading goods and services instead of using currency, it is a little more sophisticated than trading over the fence.

Trade banks and organizations are a world wide business, and while they cannot completely replace currency as a way of business, they can be a legitimate way of enhancing a business' cash flow. It is especially useful in difficult economic times, like we are experiencing now.

Argentina's economy collapsed in 2002. they reverted to a system of bartering to help stasbalize the economy. They are still using it today, as trust in the currency has never fully recovered.

There are local trade groups you can join, most are tied into nationwide and world wide organizations, giving you unlimited options. I encourage you to look into bartering today.

2009-07-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

Interesting news recently in The Week magazine. Since the beginning of when we have been compiling records on such things, a recent study shows that at no time have American women been less happy than now.

Right now, more young women are entering and graduating form college than their male counterparts. Currently, women are the dominant wage earner in seventeen percent of households with both spouses working. There are Women in the office of CEO's at major corporations. The right woman could be president of this country. There is literally no place left where a woman can not succeed in this country.

At a time when the women's liberation movement of the sixties and early seventies has reached fruition, why are women so unhappy? The goal of equal opportunity for employment has not had the anticiapted value. The whole concept was base on the incorrect assumption that men and women are basically the same creature.

Men have always, and still do, base their self esteem on their accomplishments. It is not the same for women. They value thmselves more on the quantity and quality of their relationships.
The economic shift in power in this country over the past fourty years has exacted a great toll.
Women are working harder and longer. They have greater economic freedoms than ever before, but it has come at the cost of their relationships. Relationships are work. They take time and sacrifice.

Conversely, the changing balance of power has to a great extent devalued career for men as a means of esteem. It has greatly effected the balance of reward to sacrifice in the male paradigm. There is no longer the compensation commensurrate with the struggle there once was. In accordance, the rate of divorce, crime, crimes against women and children, alcoholism, and drug abuse have all risen. They will continue to rise, no matter the efforts of the public safety empire. No amount of laws, no amount of enforcement officers, no amount of prisons will help.

The trouble I see is, that cat won't go back in the bag. So, what do we do now?

2009-06-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

"A person loathes his country and his countrymen, if he is any kind of an artist."

Independance Day arrives shortly. I can't say I am thrilled. We, as a country, have steadily let ourselves slip in to dishonor and disrespect in the eyes of the world for the past half century. Yet every fourth of July we wave the flag and chant the pledge, proclaiming our independance, bravery, and servitude to a cause greater than ourselves. When it is more the truth we are a nation of self involved, self serving cowards, who seek to make others responsible for our own provision and safety.

We are neither free, nor brave, nor united. We have surrendered all for a false sense of security and convenience.

More evidence

2009-06-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

You need to read this first.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_med_unattractive_babies

This news does not surprise me. I have long believed the maternal value of women has been over emphasized, over valued, and gone untempered for too many years in this country.

Beginning in the early part of the twentieth century, the courts in this country adopted a concept known as the "Doctrine of Tender Mercies". In short, it outlines that children are best left to the care of their mothers. Thus, our children have increasingly fallen into the exclusive care of women, to our great detriment.

Numerous studies have shown it is true of both girls and boys, children thrive better and achieve better as adults in every quality of life category, when raised by their fathers. It is especially true when they are raised exclusively by their fathers.

It is time in this country to forsake this "Doctrine of Tender Mercies", and put the care of our children back in the hands of responsible men, before there are none left.

Know thine adversary

2009-06-19T16:02:00.000-07:00

While perusing the magazine rack at my local Borders, a woman's magazine caught my attention. It is not an uncommon event. I like to keep up with what the other side is up to. It is amazing how unified the feminine gender is in their thinking. Too bad we as men are not.

This particular magazine I picked up is a small publication, titled for their target market. I opened to an article lamenting the male icons presented to us in films. Common ground? As a man, I too am discouraged in the images of men portrayed in media. It didn't take long to get to the gobbledegook. I put the magazine down when I came to the part when the article started preaching one of feminisms favorite core beliefs. Men would be better men if they were just more like women.

The real problem is that we as men have bought into this falsehood. The article stated that Hollywood has started to reflect this trend. Its true, and it is bad news. The battle becomes harder when the news reflects defeat.

I do not give up the fight. The truth is, and has always been, that men are different than women. Our chemicals make us different at conception, both physical and mental. We have different strengths and weaknesseses than women. It is a natural design and put in place for a purpose. Our training in the past has reflected this. Not so much now. It has had far reaching and detrimental effects on our culture.

While it is true the world has changed, and we need to address a new pardigm for the coming age, it does not mean women have the better view. It just seems that way. This culture has adapted itself to the feminine world view at great consequence.

I am not saying there are not things we can learn from women. This is always been true, but it is also true we have always tempered women. This is part of the reason we come together. It makes us more complete. We can not achieve completeness if we are both the same.

2009-06-17T11:49:00.000-07:00

I am not where I'd like, or really need to be in my life. I do have a picture of where I am going now, and am a fair piece down the road to getting there. I have two major changes in attitude to thank for this.

First, I had an irrational belief I would only be happy by achieving success. I didn't even have a clear picture of what I defined as success. It just wasn't what I had. Then I look around me and see so many seemingly successful men are not really happy. I have come to realize the first step in being happy, is being happy. Success will follow if I am alright with who I am. If I can know my strengths, accept my faults, be honest and improve, I can set goals and overcome obstacles based on this knowledge.

Second, I have realized I am by my nature a combative person. It has not always been my best asset. It served to a degree. Only, No matter who we think we are, there are fights we are just never going to win by fighting. I have learned to be more diplomatic, when needed, to get what I want.

2009-06-09T15:55:00.000-07:00

“This is idiocy!! Penaties for not subcribing? What has happened to our libeties!? Get a rope! It's time to stretch some necks. ”

AP sources: House Dems favor insurance requirement (AP)

I am posting this in case you missed it. Write your representative and twll them how much you hate this.

2009-06-09T15:46:00.000-07:00

“This is idiocy!! Penaties for not subcribing? What has happened to our libeties!? Get a rope! It's time to stretch some necks. ”

AP sources: House Dems favor insurance requirement (AP)

Iam posting this in case you missed it. Write your representative and tell them how much you hate this.

The Weather is Just Rude.

2009-06-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

In Northern Nevada, my neck of the woods, we had temperatures in early May, climbing well into the ninety degree range. Now it's June, and we've had thunderstorms and days only in the sixties. What can I do about it, though. The weather is just rude.

It says to me, in a bronx accent.

"You don't like what I do? You don't have to. I don't care. I dont care what I did last month, or last year, or ten years ago. I don't care what you think. I do what I do, today. You live with it. You gotta problem w'dat? You wait. See what I do next."

It talks to me just like that.

2009-05-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

I found this quote by P.J. O'Rourke, journalist, author. I think it is appropriate for our current Socio-Economic state.

"For the people in government, rather than the people who pester it, Washington is an early-rising, hard-working city. It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of moneyt throught inefficiency and sloth. Enormous efforts and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money."

2009-05-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

I got shot in the butt! Happened right at the clinic. Big white woman bent me over, stuck me with a needle filled with antibiotic. The syringe was a quarter inch in diamater and at least four inches long. I'm still limping.

I had to go because I'd been ill with some bug for better than two weeks. Turned out I had strep throat and broncitis. The strep is unusual for me, but not the broncitis. It happens more often than I like. You see, I have what I like to call an American immune system. Technically I have an autoimmune condition.

For those who may not know, an autoimmune condition is when a person's own immune system attacks the body, thinking there is a conatamination, which there is not. Two problems with this. First it can have adverse affects on the body, ranging from inconvenience, to death. Secondly, the immune system is so preoccupied with fighting a percieved intrusion, it is less effective in dealing with the real problems. This is why I like to refer to my condition, as having an American immune sytem.

Here in America we do this exact thing. We focus on some percieved threat, which we convince ourselves is real. We dispatch a solution in the form of an ever growing public safety empire. The process has crippled us to the point of having almost no liberty and an ever burgeoning prison and ex-felon population. Meanwhile we ignore the real problem. People! We have industrial disease.

2009-05-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

There ar two groups of people I wish to address today. Excuse me as this is specific to Nevada where I live. It may as well reflect your position.

First, employers. In 2006, you were going down to the river, trying to recruit bums, winos and drug addicts to work for you. Now you must nearly have an MA just to pour a cup of coffee. There are a lot of good people out of work through no fault of your own, and you play games with resume's.

Second, local leaders and politicians. Thousands of protesters, who have grown tired of your tax happy ways, showed up at your door step to voice their displeasure on April 15th. You have dismissed them as a bunch of hateful lunatics, not nowing what is best for them. You have ignored two balanced budgets, in order to re-fund, at thier expense, programs that don't work or are not needed. Every body out here has sacrificed except you.

To these two groups, I have this one thing to say. We Will Remember You!! Oh, Yeah!!

Problems on the Y Chromosone

2009-05-04T11:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome to America.

We number little more than 5% of this planet's human inhabitants. Incarcerated within our borders are 25% of the world's prison population. Ninety-six, of every hundred prisoner; are men. Four out of five suicide victims are men. Men account for 80% of all alcoholism. Drug addiction rates for men are twice what they are for women. The number of homeless women is minuscule in comparison to men. Incidents of serious mental illness requiring hospitalization are also incomparable

Men are five times as likely to suffer from ADD or ADHD than women. In the general population the diagnosis rate for these conditions is 5%. In prison it exceeds 50%. Felons are the least educated demographic in the country. Most of these men were unemployed or grossly under-employed at the time of their convictions. On average, men in prison have a higher native intelligence than their citizen counterparts.

In homes with both partners working, 17% of the dominant wage earners are women; by $5000 or more yearly. More boys drop out of school than girls. More young women are entering college than men. More are graduating. The jobs that a man can get without an education are disappearing from the landscape every year. Those that remain pay less.

These are just a random assortment of facts. Make of them what you will; I have. I don't have any answers. What I find most disturbing though, is that no one is talking about this; as if there were not some sort of a problem.

2009-04-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

If you don't train a boy to a noble purpose, he will find another as a man.

2009-04-27T11:47:00.000-07:00

I have long believed the laws governing the physical universe, apply as well in large part to the mental, emotional and spiritual realms.

Without going into detail, one of these laws describes where nothing exist without its opposite to define it. In example, how can we understand hot, if we do not know cold? This is the basis for the eastern philosophy of yin and yan. I assert that responsibility and freedom define one another.

We can not have freedom unless we are responsible for ourselves. We can not receive freedom unless we act responsibly. It is evident all around us if we care to look. We are wending our way, inextricably, to a central government that provides to us and dictates to us what we have and what we may do. This is not freedom, and it has come as the price we pay for shirking our responsibility, to ourselves, to our family and friends, and to our communities.

2009-04-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

An early twentieth century feminest author once wrote "While it is true the woman's work at home greatly increases her husband's opportunities for success,... but so does the horse."

For those who may still find value in this statement I write "Our prisons are overflowing with unsucessful men. I see no signs the trend is abating. This is only true because we have ceased attending to the success of our men."