Missing From Ben Breedlove’s Final Words

My last entry this morning on Ben Breedlove was written from a positive point of view because I was mesmerized by Ben's positive and wholesome outlook on life. That was unintentional for I had wanted to point out what Ben had omitted to tell us and write from a negative point of view, but I had forgotten to do so because my thoughts went toward God’s peace and within it, there is no pettiness.

While thinking of God's peace, my wandering mind attempted to revisit the moments of divine peace that I personally experienced. As much as I wanted to relive those moments, I could only recall having the peace but could not feel it. Apparently, it is not the kind of peace that is available on demand.

Far away from God's peace, I am able to post an entry that will disappoint many and will risk being labeled as opportunistic by taking such wonderful and wholesome events in Ben Breedlove’s life and turning them into weapons of mass accusation. They would be right to criticize me and deservedly so.

Perhaps after writing this, I will learn from Ben Breedlove that I would be better off by not dwelling upon the negativity of others and but by concentrating on the gifts that I have and the gratitude that I owe.

Hopefully this will be the last time I will be negative but I am not optimistic.

Ben said that as he learned more about his heart condition, that it had scared him a lot, that he hated that feeling and that he was never allowed to play all the sports that his friends did. He said, “It kinda sucks that I missed out on that part of my life. I really just hoped that I could be the same as everyone else.” [1]

What Ben did not do was ask for a heart transplant, assuming his family could afford one, and if they could not, Ben did not write to President Obama or go on youtube to plead for donations. Ben also did not show any self-pity or disappointment that he had not received a heart transplant or any anxiety if he had to wait for one. Instead Ben was calm and at peace, and he told the world about God, the very God Who gave Ben less than He gave others, a fatal heart condition [2], but Ben accepted his humble place on earth and in return, God loved him.

God loved Ben Breedlove because Ben knew first hand and accepted the inequality that he was dealt. It sucked, but he had hope. He was scared, but he was not bitter. I surmise that Ben did not have a lover (although he had mentioned on youtube the manner in which he asked Devin to go to homecoming with him [3]), but he had God’s love when he was on earth and he is with God now.

In stark contrast to Ben Breedlove, many people who have been dealt less than what they believe they deserve are angry and embittered. They demand from those who have been given more to equalize God’s inequalities. The most arrogant and/or greedy of them have even killed in God’s name. Ironically, it is not with might but in humility is one able to discover that God’s scale of justice is tempered by love and errs on the side of forgiveness and compassion which is very different from man’s scale of justice that quantifies even the unquantifiable and errs on the side of bias and corruption.

When Ben Breedlove stood in front of God’s mirror [4], what he saw was what Francis of Assisi probably had seen, the beauty and perfection of humility internalized and God's scale of justice consumed entirely by God's love.


[1] http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalRandomness512
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wozwf2i0x4Q&feature=related at approximately 1:36 – 2:27
[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxlrk7zcX2o&feature=related at approximately 3:40 – 3:56
[4] http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalRandomness512#p/a/u/0/a4LSEXsvRAI

More Thoughts On Ben Breedlove’s Final Words

To recap: Ben Breedlove, 18 years old, died on Christmas Day, December 25th , 2011. On December 18th, he told us on youtube his other-worldly encounters in two parts. I reflected on Part 2 in my last entry. Today, new thoughts came up. I quote below, in part, from Part 1 of his youtube upload at http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalRandomness512:

“All my life, I’ve
had a heart condition
(HCM) short for
Hypertrophic cardio-
myopathy
It is a very
serious and dangerous
condition
As I grew older
I learned more
that it is dangerous
It has scared me a lot,
and I hate that feeling
I was never
allowed to play
all the sports that
my friends did.
It kinda sucks
that I missed out
on that part of my
life.
I really just
hoped that I
could be the same
as everyone else.
The first time
I cheated death
was when I was
4.
I had a life
threatening seizure
scary right?
My blood sugar
dropped to
14
I don’t
remember too
much from that
day.
Except one
thing that I
will never forget
I was being
wheeled down this
hall on a strecher
The two nurses
that were pushing
it, and my mom
running along side
There was this
big bright light
above me..
I couldn’t make
out what it was
because it was SO
bright
I told my mom,
‘Look at the bright
light!’ and pointed
UP.
She said she
didn’t see anything
There were
no lights on in
this hall.
I couldn’t take
my eyes off it.
and I couldn’t help
but smile.
I had no worries
at all, like nothing
else in the world
mattered.
And kept
smiling…”


Ben Breedlove was 4 years old when he saw a bright light as he was being wheeled down an unlit hospital hallway by two nurses but no lights were on at the time. His mother was beside him. His mother did not see the light and apparently neither did the two nurses, but Ben could not take his eyes off that light and “couldn’t help but smile.” He said, “I had no worries at all, like nothing else in the world mattered.” He kept on smiling.

I am not a child psychologist and cannot imagine what worries Ben had at 4 when he did not know HCM was serious. He found that out later. He said, “As I grew older I learned more[,] that it is dangerous[.] It has scared me a lot, and I hate that feeling[.]”

Yet, at 4, he felt peace in the presence of God’s light, assuming he had much to worry about, a burden too young to be carrying. Even if Ben did not have the burden of life's worries, this feeling of peace so completely filled Ben that it kept him smiling.

Ben’s experience tells much about our ability to sense things, that a child as young as 4 is able to differentiate between divine peace and a regular earthly peaceful existence, and that once a person has experienced divine peace, a gift from God, it is not easily forgotten and cannot be duplicated by human means. This peace is perfect in every way and the moment it arrives, you know what it is, it is something you desire and will always desire. Only God has this peace and only He is able to share with you this peace.

On December 6, 2011, when Ben was unconscious, he found himself “in this white room. No walls, it just went on and on… There was no sound. But that same peaceful feeling I had when I was 4.” [1] On Christmas Day, 2011, Ben left this world at the invitation of God to celebrate peace and the birthday of His Son, Jesus.

What a gift! What a blessing!

[1] http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalRandomness512#p/a/u/0/a4LSEXsvRAI

Final Words Of Ben Breedlove

Ben Breedlove, 18 years old, died on Christmas Day, December 25th , 2011. On December 18th, he told us on youtube his other-worldly encounters in two parts. In Part 2, he talked about the third time he cheated death about two weeks before on December 6th, 2011. It was during his temporary absence from this world that he had the following vision:

“I then looked at
myself in the mirror,
I was proud of
MYSELF,
of my entire
life, everything I
have done.
It WAS THE
BEST
Feeling.”
See http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalRandomness512#p/a/u/0/a4LSEXsvRAI
(Part 1 is at: http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalRandomness512)

In closing, he asked:

“Do you believe
In Angels or
God?
I DO." Ibid.

I do too, Ben Breedlove, but I am not ready to share on here my visions even though they are real to me, they would seem incredible to others. I have, however, confided them to a few friends who were kind enough to lend me their ears.

I have been given decades more in life than you but do not have the same proud feeling standing before my mirror as you had when you stood in front of God's. One day, when I see God's mirror, I hope to be able to say your words and feel that feeling and not be scared or ashamed.

Please pray for me, Ben.

Thank you.

2011 Year-end Reflections – Disappointments And Loves Forgone

This is a year of personal awakening, venturing out of my make-belief world into one full of disappointments, inhabited by certain people existing under the guise of progressive liberalism while acting out their relentless passive aggression in petty power trips to benefit their own self-serving interests. Their abundance of envy, bitterness and/or hypocrisy together with their unforgiving nature in life may earn them a place in a Dantean-like inferno upon death, eternally watching the wasting away of their maggot-rejected bodies cheapened by the disdain they continuously and willfully harbored against God’s other children.

While few, if any, are completely selfless, unconditionally loving and free from sin, those with the compunction to self-examine one’s inner cruelty and the heart to exercise a modicum of humility and compassion and pray for God’s grace to grow in His image may one day see their prayer answered. [1]

This is also a year of personal realization, among the many lesser disappointments is one of the greater, regretting my youthful years when I wore a coolly confident exterior, leaving a trail of broken hearts while wallowing in inexplicable depression and coping with intractable anguish from the unfathomable depths of anxiety. For I had not loved well, enough or at all, I am now punished by an unfulfilled desire to know how my life would have been enriched had I lived wisely and learned patiently rather than judging harshly and prematurely. To the extent that I am able to seek redemption through prayer, I have, by asking Mother Mary to protect and love those who had given me the chance to love them. A chance to love is a gift so simple and so pure that I was, and perhaps still am, incapable of comprehending and accepting. While I am sure that Mother Mary’s love and embrace, even for a moment, would make up for a lifetime of mine, I remain regretful, even if I had been forgiven or forgotten. I am also certain that those beautiful souls for whom I yearn are far better off and their earthly lives far more happily lived without me. [2]

Another one of the greater personal disappointments, an on-going one and probably the greatest disappointment of all, is my refusal to answer yes to God’s calling because I am afraid of my certain failure to meet such high expectations. Instead, I have chosen not to fail by not trying at all, which in itself is a failure: the failure to try. Freely trapped between these two suffocating failures, salvation at once seems elusive even as salvation imagined seemed possible. [3], [4] & [5]



[1] For everybody, as well as for the reprehensible, this Fatima prayer is helpful: “O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who have most need of your mercy. Amen.”

[2] “Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

“Chorus.-For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.” http://www.carols.org.uk/auld_lang_syne_song.htm

[3] In Your infinite justice, please grant us Your infinite mercy. Amen.

[4] “O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who have most need of Your mercy. Amen.”

[5] Perhaps there is still time. Lord, please grant me the vision and the voice, the courage and the confidence, the strength and the stamina to do Your will. Amen.

Reflections Of Christmas 2011

What is Christmas?

Christmas is Jesus’ birthday, Jesus, the Son of God. He was born from the womb of Mary, the Virgin Mother, and in humility, among stable animals that would one day be slaughtered and fed to nourish the body, and He, paralleling their humble fate, too, would one day be crucified and fed, but to nourish the spirit.

Christmas is a season to be thankful for the gift of God, His Son, who walked on the same earth that we walk on, walked into history that we live with and showed us the way to eternal peace that some have rejected and others are struggling to follow.

Christmas is a season to admire the obedience and humility of Mary, the Virgin Mother, who accepted fully the shame of an unwed and pregnant mother to bear the blessed fruit of her womb, and the obedience and humility of Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, who took the already-conceived Mary as his spouse.

Christmas is a season to think of the Holy Trinity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, when they all took part in the greatest miracle of all, the virgin birth of Jesus, the Son of God. It was the God, the Father of humankind, Who willed His Son to be man, Who willed Mary, the Virgin Mother, to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and Who willed Jesus to be born.

Christmas is a season to think of the Blessed Virgin Mary who is the human daughter of God, the spouse of the Holy Spirit and the mother of God's Son, Jesus.

Christmas is a time to listen to Christmas carols. “O Holy Night” sung by Leontyne Price and recorded circa 1961 with Herbert von Karajan is a heart-felt performance that makes my eyes well up. In this recording, Ms Leontyne Price’s immortalized voice is spatially limitless and spiritually uplifting. Hear it on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8g5cpNUzyY&feature=related.

Above all, Christmas is taking time off from all the shopping, traveling, eating, drinking and partying to say a prayer of gratitude that Jesus has come so that each of us can feel safe even in the most scared, lonely and painful of times because He is here to help.

Poverty & Redistributing Wealth

Pope Benedict XVI Wants What?

This is truly funny for me. No sooner than just a few days ago when I posted an entry on poverty, this headline: “Pope Benedict Peace Message Calls For Wealth Redistribution” shows up at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/pope-benedict-wealth-distribution_n_1154798.html?icid=maing-grid7|maing7|dl1|sec3_lnk3%26pLid%3D121064. The first three paragraphs read: “VATICAN CITY (RNS) Noting a ‘rising sense of frustration’ at the worldwide economic recession, Pope Benedict XVI said that a more just and peaceful world requires ‘adequate mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth.’

"The pope's words appeared in his message for the World Day of Peace 2012, released on Friday (Dec. 16) at the Vatican.

"The message laments that ‘some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity.’" Ibid.

Perhaps the Pope himself is detached from the core of Catholicism and in desperate need of continuing education on the vow of poverty, Francis of Assisi, Holy Poverty and religious hypocrisy.

Holy Poverty & Avarice

I have wanted to write about poverty for quite some time but after reading the passage quoted below, I no longer feel the need to for the subject had already been written on and far more eloquently and succinctly than I ever could.

The topic of poverty is particularly apropos during the Christmas season when we are being reminded of those who are poor and deserve to have the things they cannot afford. While we must not forget about those who are suffering financially, it is also important to realize that society is continually brainwashing us into believing falsely that satisfaction or happiness can be had by possession of new toys or the latest electronic gadgets and that sin and guilt can be washed away by donations.

Below is an excerpt from “The Evening Sermon on Saint Francis Preached at Paris, October 4, 1262” by Saint Bonaventure:

“As the heavens are arranged in spheres of high, higher, and highest heavens, so there is a poverty borne in patience that is good, a poverty that is desired and longed for which is better, and poverty embraced with joy in which a person glories and rejoices, which is best of all. Poverty, therefore, is the reason why a person can be likened to the heavens, because it leads to the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord says: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Poverty excludes those who do not love it, or who malign it, from the kingdom of heaven, as Scripture says: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, that is, for a rich man who has set his heart on riches and placed his trust in them. Avarice drags a person down because those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. Take note that avarice casts a person into the depths. Poverty, on the other hand, uplifts a person to the state of heavenly life and, above all, that poverty in which a person glorifies and rejoices.” Emphasis original.




Bibliography:

Armstrong, Regis J. O.F.M. Cap. et.al. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, Volume II, The Founder. Pages 718, 722. New York: New York City Press, 2000.

Used Drone On Display In Iran

Impeccably cleaned and shiny with damages artfully covered up, a downed US drone is on display in Iran. See it at http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=I06OmspZlMQ. Like seasoned used cars dealers, the Iranians are showing off its inventory in the best light possible.

Here is a comment on the same youtube page that is pretty funny: "I bet there[']s an international auction going on right now. Chinese factories will soon be knocking these out for $200. Dubwise78"

Blessings In Disguise -- The US And The EU Debt Crises

While I believe it is legitimate to blame the debt crises on leadership incompetence and societal lethargy, pork-barrel spending and unrealistic entitlements, I also think that the current global economic slowdown is a temporary blessing. The alternate extreme is a race to own the last bits of natural resources left on this planet leading to an ultimate world war. It will be at the last moment that the arrogant in life will show their cowardice and the poor in spirit will finally have true peace. But it does not have to end this way. There is hope that this human race still has time to restore a symbiotic relationship with this planet and with one another but human nature does not usually change quickly or quickly enough to bring about a truly civilized world until it is too late.

Will Obama Start A War With Iran?

@realDonaldTrump tweeted on November 29, 2011, “In order to get elected, @BarackObama will start a war with Iran.” Although I am not always in agreement with Donald Trump, this was a statement that I feared would come true and with which I reluctantly concurred.

Today “U.S. military officials have confirmed with NBC News and The Washington Post that the American drone recovered by Iran last Thursday was an advanced RQ-170 drone flying on a secret CIA mission,” see http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/12/what-iran-can-learn-cias-fallen-drone/45795/.

In the last few days there had been articles online saying that Obama had planned to send troop into Iran to recover the fallen drone but that the Iranians had already taken it. Were that to happen and US troops to be shot dead by Iranian soldiers during the recovery process, there would be an uproar and a war with Iran would almost be a certainty.

When Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday, November 29, and made his strong allegation, he must have already known about the drone. Perhaps Obama jettisoned the drone because Trump's allegation, whether true or not, hit too close to heart.

In the international arena, I thought GW Bush was scary and Obama saintly. I am so naive.

Big Black Holes

UC Berkeley astronomers found two black holes, the largest yet discovered, each one measuring 10 billion times bigger than Earth’s sun. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/black-hole-scientists-discover-huge_n_1129727.html?ncid=webmail1.

Interesting. Now what? Or should the question be “so what?”

To be more productive, perhaps they should look for one 15 trillion bigger than the sun to absorb the $15 trillion US debt and another just slightly smaller to contain the EU debt.

Ferrari Pile-up In Japan

"Police and video reports say the wreck began when a 60-year-old businessman from Fukushima driving a Ferrari F430 attempted to pass a Toyota Prius, but instead hit the guardrail. That set off a chain reaction among the cars driving in a tight formation behind the lead Ferrari, eventually wrapping up seven other Ferraris — namely a 360 Modena, F355 and a white Testarossa — along with a Lamborghini Diablo and a couple of high-end Mercedes," see http://autos.yahoo.com/news/eight-ferraris-wrecked-in-million-dollar-pileup-.html.

Too bad there is not a live footage showing an uncoordinated 60 year-old geezer racing an outdated and likely poorly maintained Ferrari F430 (likely older than 60 in car-years) hit a guardrail when passing a Prius and causing a pile up of old sport cars probably also driven by his other uncoordinated geezer buddies. LOL!! Possibly having been exposed to a dose or two of radiation from the equally poorly maintained Fukushima nuclear plants did not help.


Update:
12/30/2011 - I am not proud of this entry but have decided to leave it published for readers to see the ugly side of me when I am in a punchy mood and being stupid (not that my ugly side is not already apparent). 1:40 AM

Tax The Rich - Sounds Good But Does It Really Work?

According to an article entitled “The World’s Billionaires” by Forbes, “[t]his year's list broke records in size (1,210 billionaires) and total net worth ($4.5 trillion),” see http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires. Taking away all their wealth would not pay off America’s debt of $15 trillion. Add to that “the combined net worth of the 400 wealthiest Americans, as measured by Forbes magazine, was $1.5 trillion; and the combined net worth of the poorer 50 percent of American households was $1.6 trillion,” see http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2011/mar/10/michael-moore/michael-moore-says-400-americans-have-more-wealth-/, the total would be less than $7.6 trillion (after subtracting out the wealth of American billionaires including Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, the Waltons, the Koch brothers, the Google founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, etc. to avoid double-counting) which is less than half of the nation’s debt. So even if the government confiscates the wealth of everyone person in the entire USA and the wealth of the rest of the world's billionaires, it would still be broke.

Tax the rich is a cheap battle cry for the bitter, black-hearted bohemians. If they are truly holy, let them follow the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi and live an exemplary life of Holy Poverty rather than the life of someone wholly hypocritical.

Change

When Obama spoke of change, I had no idea he meant that I was going to change from a liberal to a libertarian.

McDonalds Humiliates San Francisco

Under its police power, the City and County of San Francisco passed an ordinance that prohibits restaurants from including a free toy with its meals unless they have less than 600 calories, contain fruits and vegetables and include a beverage that is not too sweet or fattening. This ordinance is to prevent McDonalds from luring kids into buying and eating its high caloric Happy Meal to obtain a Happy Meal Toy since these Happy Meals toys are not only cute, but some have also become collectibles.

Since a low-calorie meal with fruits and vegetables and a vapid drink would not likely sell with or without a toy, McDonalds is unable to comply with this new, intellectually-crafted ordinance and still turn a profit. Instead, it neutered the law by offering the consumer a choice starting today to purchase a Happy Meal Toy separately from a Happy Meal for a dime with the dime going toward Ronald McDonald House children charity on the condition that a Happy Meal Toy can only be purchased with the purchase of a Happy Meal. This is a win-win for McDonalds and its charity.

This is also a win for parents who can use the opportunity to educate their kids that while they have the fortune to afford a McDonalds Happy Meal and purchase a toy along with it, there are kids who are unable to afford such a luxury.

Legally, this is also a win for the commerce clause and its supremacy over certain state activities unless of course the City and County of San Francisco, its mayor and its supervisors take McDonalds to court to see who is more powerful economically and intellectually and more constitutionally American and wins. That is a case I would like to see filed and go all the way to the United States Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, it would not happen. “Eric Mar, the San Francisco supervisor who sponsored the ordinance, called the 10-cent charge a ‘marketing ploy,’ but said he doesn't plan to make any changes in the ordinance to address the tactic.

“The goal of the law was not to micromanage fast-food chains but to raise awareness about the nutritional content of the food, he said.” See http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/1201/McDonald-s-skirts-Happy-Meal-law-by-charging-10-cents-for-toys

I wonder if there will be another law written to ban free fortune cookies that are handed out to consumers who purchase food at restaurants that sell unhealthfully greasy and overly salty foods so that they would be made aware of the risks of obesity and heart failure.

Penn State Sports News

After recent allegations that Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach, had molested or had sex with Penn State boys, AOL Sports News on November 22, 2011, came up with the headline “Ex-Penn State Official Says Players Get Off Easy” for an article claiming “'that football players were treated ‘more favorably than other students accused of violating the community standards as defined by the student code of conduct.'" To top it off, in the comment section, the first sentence of the first comment by Michael Carter reads: "Staight [sic] up this is sicking [sic]."

No comment by blogger.

The Vatican's Other Cheek

"[Benetton's] latest campaign, unveiled Wednesday, so offended the Vatican that it is taking legal action to prevent the circulation of a doctored image depicting Pope Benedict XVI kissing a leading Muslim imam." http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2011/11/vatican-to-take-legal-action-over-benetton-ad-featuring-pope.html In my opinion, the Vatican should have turned the other cheek instead of threatening to slap Benetton with a lawsuit.

Same-sex Marriage In California - The Litigation Continues

From the Associated Press at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/17/prop-8-decision-california-same-sex-marriage-ban-_n_1099550.html

“SAN FRANCISCO -- California's highest court says ballot proposition sponsors can step in to defend their initiatives from legal challenges if the state's governor and attorney general refuse to do so.”

For the highest court in such a liberal state to rule in favor of wealthy special interest groups giving them standing to defend their initiatives when the state is unwilling to do so is astounding. This ruling resulted from a federal appellate court striking down Proposition 8 and the refusal of the California governor to further litigate the matter. Proposition 8 is a constitutional amendment that prohibits same-sex marriages.

This decision a double win for California: It conserves the state’s legal expenses and encourages more litigation money to be spent in California to stimulate its economy.

The Nuclear Option

From the Associated Press at http://news.yahoo.com/russian-military-chief-war-risks-grown-140553975.html

“Gen. Nikolai Makarov, chief of the General Staff, pointed at NATO's expansion eastward and said Thursday that the risks for Russia to be pulled into local conflicts have ‘risen sharply.’ He added, according to Russian news agencies wires, that ‘under certain conditions local and regional conflicts may develop into a full-scale war involving nuclear weapons.’

“A steady decline of Russia's conventional forces has prompted the Kremlin to rely increasingly on nuclear deterrent. Its military doctrine says it may use nuclear weapons to counter a nuclear attack on Russia or an ally, or a large-scale conventional attack that threatens Russia's existence.”

Russia and I think alike. No one wants to be threatened and no one wants a war but if war is necessary, the nuclear option is cheap, quick and effective. This is not good news for any country that thrives on a war economy.

J. Edgar

Leonardo DiCaprio is one of my favorite actors. In J. Edgar DiCaprio captured Clint Eastwood’s persona but not the depth of J. Edgar Hoover’s homosexual tensions with his companion Clyde Tolson or fully his subservient relationship with his mother. Had DiCaprio’s talent in J. Edgar been utilized as well as it had been in The Aviator in which DiCaprio portrayed Howard Hughes, it would be difficult for me to pick between him and Brad Pitt in Moneyball for an award as best actor. Overall, Clint Eastwood directed J. Edgar well as he had done in Changeling with Angelina Jolie and in The Grand Torino, another of my favorite movies, in which he also acted.

Funny Obama Jokes

"America once had Johnny Cash, Steve Jobs and Bob Hope. Now we have Barack Obama, no cash, no jobs and no hope.
Tip o'the hat to Joachim" [1]


"Top Twenty Five Features of ObamaCare

...

1. Medical degrees from Devry.
2. Mandatory organ donor cards.
3. Lighters used to sterilize syringes.
4. Stomach stapling done at Office Max.
5. Coin operated morphine dispensers.
6. Tap water is a plasma substitute.
7. Homeless people all have only one kidney.
8. Free cremation with any major operation.
9. Bunkbeds in the Intensive Care Unit.
10. Your first dose of narcotics is free.
11. Special "showers" for the elderly.
12. Tongue depressors taste like Popsicles.
13. None of the nurses speak English.
14. The hospital cafeteria failed its health inspection.
15. Ambulances have meters.
16. Hospital walls are infested with "lab" rats.
17. Do-it-yourself heart bypass kits.
18. Wind up pacemakers.
19. You make up your own hospital bed.
20. Anesthesia comes in a bong.
21. Patients' meals are MREs.
22. Leeches make a comeback!
23. Hospital TVs are all turned to MSNBC.
24. Sears surgical tools.
25. A visit to the hospital will automatically cancel your life insurance policy." [2]

{1]http://sites.google.com/site/barackobamajokes/
[2]http://sites.google.com/site/barackobamajokes/thebarackobamajokeswebsite-obamacarejoke

Making A Difference – Part 7 – Final Thoughts

Something that sounds simple is seldom easy to accomplish.

In his commencement speech at Stanford on June 12, 2005, Steve Jobs said, “I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do” but people still take jobs they do not love and stay married even after the love is gone.

Circa 1982, a little schoolgirl in Oakland raised her hand and asked Mrs. Nancy Reagan what to do if someone offered her drugs. Mrs. Reagan responded that she was to “just say no” but 29 years later the war on drugs is still ongoing.

In my recent search for God’s truth, the pursuit of which would automatically lead to good works that cure acedia [1], the revelation was simply love but knowing it has not transformed my life.



[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 434. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003. This is where the translator wrote that “[a]cedia … is not simply the failure to perform good works for others, though it readily involves that failure. It is, more specifically, the failure to pay enough attention to the good, to make enough demands upon oneself. Were one to give all of his energy and attention to the pursuit of God’s truth, good works would follow automatically [emphasis added]” and where my inspiration to seek out God’s truth came from. John Ciardi continued to state that “[a]cedia may consist in being too torpid to arrive at a vision of the good, or in achieving that vision but neglecting to pursue it.” This I disagree with because I believe that we are born with a vision of the good. It requires no effort to achieve and torpidity does not prevent it from existence. Only when one freely allows oneself to be contaminated by evil does one’s vision of the good go blind. In other words, to claim that a vision of the good is the result of a willful achievement is to suggest that evil predominates naturally unless free will replaces it with good. That is plainly wrong for life springs from all that is good and remains good until evil is permitted to destroy it.

Making A Difference – Part 6 – What Kind Of Love?

I think that in order for a deed to qualify as good works, it would require a kind of love that is uncomplicated with no ulterior motive, that is whole and wholesome, seeks no reciprocation and has no reservation and that is enthusiastic, energetic and inexhaustible.

This love, if permitted to prevail over a task no matter how trivial and permeate its every aspect, it will transform what is ordinary into something extraordinary. In other words, an action that is motivated by and carried out with such love is absolute: its quality can neither be enhanced by popularity, recognition, awards, the breath of its coverage or the duration of its impact nor diminished by a lack thereof.

I am unable to imagine a deed integrally tied to this kind of love can have an ill effect on others and their surround but certain that its goodness can emanate beyond the recognizable or the immediate.

Making A Difference – Part 5 - Alive And Looking For God's Truth

Finding God’s truth [1] is a daunting task, requiring a strategy. It would combine an analysis of the words of various sages including Mahatma Gandhi, Khalil Gibran and Confucius aka Kǒng Zǐ and in religious books such as the Bible, the Torah and the Koran with an amalgamation of different definitions and descriptions of truth. Then God’s truth ought to become apparent as a result.

Wasting no time, I began googling. The task turned out to be excruciatingly tedious. Within two days I had lost interest and quit.

Unable to think of an alternative approach, I became obsessed. A prayer was in order. I said one and gave my mind a rest. It remained blank for a few moments or maybe even a day when preceded by nothingness the answer came. It was a single word.

The word was love. I was stunned and did not know what to think. How could love be equated with truth? There would be no sympathetic ear for my childish protests. It was decreed.

What followed was a writer’s disappointment. Love was not my next topic. In my amorphous plan for this blog I would ultimately address it but not until I have finished reading Dante’s Purgatorio and found inspiration in Dante’s Paradiso. It would not be anytime soon. The plan had been changed.

Had the concept of love not entered my consciousness, I would have nonetheless carried on despite obsessing over the lack of a “plan B.” In preparation for it, I had all my mental faculties fully sharpened, ready to discover God’s truth and state it in my own words. At the time I had no clue what to say but in retrospect I would probably have begun examining the issues of the day, to see if God’s truth could reasonably be found hidden somewhere among human sufferings. I realize now that that would have been a waste of time since God’s truth does not reside in the brain; it resides in the heart. Being told that love, not ever being cerebral, is God’s truth, God’s truth is therefore beyond analysis and superior to reason.

I now know that to make a meaningful difference, good works must be done out of love, but what kind of love?

[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 433-4. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Making A Difference – Part 4 – Where Is God’s Truth?

Knowing that God exists does not help with knowing God’s truth. According to John Ciardi, good works would follow automatically if one were to give all of his energy and attention to the pursuit of God’s truth. [1] I agree with him, so I need to find out where is God’s truth and what it is. Otherwise, how could life have even a scintilla of meaning when one tries to make a difference by doing good works that turn out not to be good works in God’s eyes? With God’s grace I would get to the divine truth.

There is no guarantee that grace would be granted, however. In that case, how could I be so arrogant as to think that I would find God’s truth and state what it is? But what is the alternative? The alternative is to live life without knowing or caring about it. Many are doing just that, allowing worldly matters to consume all of their energy and attention.

That is fine too. Free will permits each of us to choose what to consume and how much. Nonetheless, God’s truth exists. Despite its existence, the world has far more interest in the other kinds of truths, such as scientific truths, observable truths, undiscovered truths, partial truths, obfuscated truths and manufactured truths. The latter three truths are also known as fiction, or lies. All these earthly truths or lies, compared to God’s truth, are presumably unremarkable. Yet they are powerful, for all human decisions and lives are based on them, and so too, is the state of the world.

As a result, the world is not utopian. It is not unlivable either. Some, in fact, live quite comfortably and happily while complaining intermittently, even bitterly. Therefore, to no one’s surprise, everyone seems to be able to imagine a better place, and a worse one. The fact that people have such visions suggests that life on earth may not be all there is with nothing preceding it and nothing afterward, and that an existence could very well take place beyond our planetary sphere and our earthly lives. These imaginary places are not just places but also states of mind. At one extreme is heaven, a place of peace and complete fulfillment, at the other, hell, a place of torment and unquenchable desires. I think God’s truth would be clear at either destination. That does not help since I would already be dead and it could be too late.

Earlier I was thinking that it would be great if I can know God’s truth but it would not be a tragedy if I did not. The paragraph I just finished changed my mind. Now I am dying to know God’s truth. I just hope that I do not have to die first to find out.

Life cannot be that ironic, can it?


[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 433. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Making A Difference – Part 3 – Finding God

In a Dantean world, a good person who stands idly by has committed the atoneable sin of Acedia, which is a purgatory away from the ideal. The gap between simply being good and being ideally good is bridgeable by good works. According to John Ciardi, “[w]ere one to give all of his energy and attention to the pursuit of God’s truth, good works would follow automatically.” [1]

John Ciardi did not provide a list of those good works nor did he elaborate on God’s truth, but I have to know what good works are before I can decide if I am capable of accomplishing them so as to make a difference. Since knowledge of good works can be clearly known by pursuing God’s truth, hence the first step is to find God.

Man has spent centuries on this topic, still he is not done, even as societies across the planet are trending away from a contemplative toward a consumerist life, from accepting a divine plan to designing one’s own and from embracing the eternally holy and spiritual to idolizing transient fame. In this environment, God is invisible in everyday life and the good that is everywhere is a thankless entitlement and taken for granted. Therefore, if the good, like the air, is not considered a part of God’s creation, then God cannot be found.

Living with the absence of God is easy, but I have never been content with an easy life. That would be boring. I cannot stay intrigued for long by the limits of human possibilities when an unlimited number of other worldly possibilities can be realized.

It is on my terms, in the simplistic world that my mind lives, that I make this log, not so much to add to the countless words on the topic of God, but to find my own way toward a limitless space of physical impossibilities and an endless journey of exploration.

Getting there is a challenge. With imagination, or miracles, it is possible. Over the course of my life, I have been on a few trips, sans drugs of any kind, some asked for, most given. It does not matter whether such experiences were truly real or imagined, they were real to me. Thus, with absolute certainty, I know God exists. It is that simple.

Beyond what I had seen or felt there must be more. My imagination is not powerful enough to take me there. Until God adds new tours to my itinerary, I am left to recall those I had been on before. As unbelievable as those experiences were, they were just tours, not a road map of truths. I have to find that out on my own.

It is by writing here that I hope to be illuminated by grace, that I may find God’s truth.

[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 433. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Scary News

The Iran Terror Plot is in my opinion as credible as Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.

Making A Difference – Part 2 - Being Good

Is being a good person, without more, good enough? No, at least not according to Dante Alighieri. Simply being good and rationalizing that things eventually change regardless of the good work, if any, that is done is not enough to get into Paradise without a period of atonement in Purgatory. Through Virgil, Dante said:

" ' That love of good which in the life before
lay idle in the soul is paid for now.
Here Sloth strains at the once-neglected oar.' " [1]

In the notes to these three short lines, John Ciardi explained that sloth “must not be understood as physical laziness or slovenliness but as torpor of the soul which, loving the good, does not pursue it actively enough,” and that central to Sloth is Acedia. “Acedia, however,” he said, “is not simply the failure to perform good works for others, though it readily involves that failure. It is, more specifically, the failure to pay enough attention to the good, to make enough demands upon oneself. Were one to give all of his energy to the pursuit of God’s truth, good works would follow automatically. Acedia may consist in being too torpid to arrive at a vision of the good, or in achieving that vision but neglecting to pursue it.” [2]

Like everything in life, there is a choice. Having almost surrendered to my fears of failure and success and frozen in my status quo, I can only go so far in being good but not doing good works. If that means a lengthy purgatory but no eternal hell, still it would not be easy, I would need to die to truly regret it.

However, should I desire to shorten my stay in Purgatory, I must know what good means in order to pay enough attention to it and know what good deeds are in order to do them.

[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Canto XVII, p.430, lines 85-87. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

[2] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Purgatorio, Notes, p. 433-34. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003.

Making A Difference - Part 1 - What Difference Does It Make?

There are so many things I can think of doing that can make a difference in the lives of those who have big dreams but little opportunity, but I am a loner trapped in my fear of failure as well as of success. Such fears do not subside with wisdom or over time. Rather, they immobilize the will. Action cannot arise without an active will. Hence, status quo has reigned over me.

An acceptable status quo can be quite comfortable. As much as I would like to act on my impulses, a certain voice within has taken them away. Perhaps what I need is a “partner-in-crime” to free me from the shackles of comfort and embark on an adventure that is both uncharted and unpredictable.

The question then becomes whether I would enjoy being a dice-throwing mover and shaker? I think I might. Otherwise I would not be entertaining the possibility. [1]

What about having the best of both worlds, being comfortable in my status quo and engaging in action that could make a difference? I suppose that can be accomplished by existing vicariously in a fantasy world unrewarded by the depths of human interaction and the realities of passion. In essence, I would have to be an intellectual. There is a catch, however. An intelligent intellectual’s life is sterile and an unintelligent intellectual’s life is futile, neither of which sounds promising.

Not all is doomed. Intellectual dishonesty provides a silver lining. Using time as its friend, it concludes that things change with or without my doing. Even if my will could dictate an action that would alter people’s lives today, the people still living tomorrow would begin their morning unraveling and reforming what had occurred yesterday. So, what difference does it make?

In the end, perhaps it is not so much what we do but who we are that ought to be of concern.


[1] I re-read this paragraph on May 29, 2013, and I am in shock.  I was toying with the disgusting thought of being a mover and shaker?  How could that be unless the work was done in the service of God..  I would rather spend time in prayer and reading and re-reading the Divine Comedy by Dante, Confessions by Saint Augustine and works written on Francis of Assisi.  That is not Acedia, is it?

Peace - September 29

My mind devours me. Thankfully today it is full . Being able to exist in life's mundanity, that means doing necessary but boring things, is a welcomed relief. Therefore, I will leave this question for another day: Which is more heavenly, to engage in the repetition of life's tasks or to check out of life, if that were possible, and live in a mind full of dreams?

America's Infrastructure

America's physical infrastructure would look good with a facelift just as a dated home would be better after a renovation, except that renters or homeowners cannot even think about upgrading when they are in debt, but a broke United States can, and even move forward with it.

The rationale is safety. An example is the collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis that killed 13 people, but that was due to a design flaw, not its age. See http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/4245065

If money is going to be spent anyway regardless of the deficit, why not set aside those funds for rebuilding and use them after the next natural disaster? I forgot. There is something like that already called Social Security. It got robbed. Therefore, it is probably wise to overhaul the political infrastructure ahead of the physical one.

Obama Fundraising in the Bay Area 2011

"Sept. 26--President Barack Obama collected $3.5 million to $5.5 million at back-to-back fundraisers Sunday evening in Silicon Valley's toniest cities, on the eve of a town hall meeting on his American Jobs Act plan at the business networking site LinkedIn (LNKD).

"This is the president's second visit to the Bay Area in six months, and his sixth visit since taking office. He's here to take advantage of the generous fundraising support he receives: Contributors from the area's three major cities coughed up $35.5 million for his 2008 campaign, and at least about $2.2 million for his re-election as of June 30." See http://seekingalpha.com/news-article/1907714-obama-visit-to-the-bay-area-nets-millions

Even assuming that Obama raised $5.5 million this past weekend, the total contribution from the most progressive and one of the wealthiest regions in the country comes to $7.7 million so far, about 5 times less than his first presidential campaign bid. Although it is possible that he can make it up in the upcoming year (one), month (one) and change (puns intended) before the election on November 7, 2012, his advisers ought to be concerned when their goal is $1 billion as reported in the Daily Mail Reporter on April 5th, 2011. Someone thought then that it could be achieved: "'It's definitely within reach, as he raised three quarters of a billion last time,' said Michael Malbin, executive director of the non-partisan Campaign Finance Institute." See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1373178/Barack-Obama-launches-2012-election-bid-1bn-campaign.html

To be clear, 1 billion is 1,000 millions or 1,000,000,000. $7.7 million is 0.77% of a billion dollars. Therefore regions outside of the Bay Area would have to come up with 99.23% of a billion or 992 million 300 thousand dollars to help Obama realize his billion dollar dream. He could dream that Warren Buffet who is worth about $50 billion these days, who does not mind paying taxes and whose secretary is in a higher tax bracket than he would just write a check, an even billion to make it simple, to close the gap. It is 2% of his net worth. The estate tax is a whole lot higher. Besides, the remainder $49 billion is still good money. By putting it in a 30-year US Treasury bond, yielding 2.99 percent today, a year's interest on the $49 billion will come to 1 billion 465 million 100 thousand dollars ($1,465,100,000). So not to worry, Mr. Buffet would not be poor for long.

The Buffet check is not going to be in the mail. It is illegal. There is a maximum a person can contribute to a federal candidate (see http://www.fec.gov/pages/brochures/citizens.shtml). What Obama is getting is a dose of his own medicine, watching the hands that feed him becoming a little less willing, in order to save up for the taxes they would have to pay under his proposals. His best hope for a second term is having an idiot of a candidate run against him.

Moneyball

This must be acting at its best. Completely natural, with no hint of awkwardness, Brad Pitt took on Billy Beane's character as if it were his own. Comfortable in his own skin and notwithstanding the fact that he has lost a tad of his boyish prettiness to age, a very mature 47 year-old Brad Pitt exuded confidence as the general manager of the Oakland A's. He had come to terms with who he was, his station in life and what he wanted out of it without pretentiousness.

Brad Pitt gave an Oscar-winning performance, even though I do not believe that an Oscar is a credible measure of performance since many of the statuettes that were handed out over the years tend to favor members of a particular group, some of whom whose talents were average at best and lacking at worst. Brad Pitt is not part of that group. For that reason, whether Brad Pitt wins an Oscar for his role as Billy Beane in Moneyball is not important just as money was not important to Billy Beane when he rejected a $12,500,000 offer by the Boston Red Sox to become the highest paid general manager in baseball in 2002.

Options Available for the Socialists in America

One option is to let the pendulum swing violently to the extreme left. Then everyone is poorer because no one is likely to want to work when they can get the same benefits as those who do not care to work.

Another is to encourage the socialist politicians and their fans to move to North Korea. There they will not be stressed out by the capitalists around them, and they will breathe better, live longer and be happier.

Question for the Socialists In America

If no one works because there is no incentive to work, will socialist-minded politicians stop providing security for the country and welfare for the poor and unemployed?

My answer: Probably not since they need security themselves and want food for their jobless friends and relatives.

Too Soon For A PC Requiem

Eight calender quarters have passed since the article "The Death of the PC" dated December 28, 2009, showed up at Forbes.com (see http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1228/technology-virtualization-vmware-wyse.html).

I do not think the PC will go away. It will simply be more expensive relative to cloud computing for many of the same reasons as driving your car with customized options costs more than taking a bus.

Will cloud computing have a market share? Absolutely. A big one, especially in the developing world. It may even be subsidized by governments without freedom of speech to observe and control its people and by governments with freedom of speech to observe and control terrorism.

A Lesson In Writing

Oddly enough, my most memorable lesson in writing I had learned from physics teacher. That was decades ago when I was still in high school. Fr. Eugene said to write well, I had to write every day.

Every day? What was I supposed to write? Of course I did not do what he asked. It was not possible. I had nothing to write about.

Decades later, Fr. Eugene's one sentence writing lesson is being taken to heart. I finally understand what he meant. He was right. To write well, I have to write, and write and write. Writing does not come easy for me, these paragraphs included. If it did, I might find it boring very quickly, but I will never know.

Fr. Eugene Lauer, O.S.B, had the curiosity of a child and the patience of a seasoned fisherman. He was the best teacher I have ever had even though I really never learned physics, and still hate the subject.

Thank you for all the special lessons and the infinite patience you had given me, Fr. Eugene. Hope to join you in heaven one day. Pray for me.

Writing Frees Me

I am lost in a space with volume but without shape and lose track of time but not consciousness of a timeless existence. I no longer feel an obligation to conform to cultural traditions or societal expectations, or walk in lockstep with life’s clock. When writing, I am entirely free to create whatever that happens to be in my thoughts.

These days, more thoughts go through my head than I have time to capture and examine them and put them into words. There have been times when nothing comes to mind, and the periods between inspirations have ranged from days to years.

I wish I could abandon the confines of my life and the ways I am expected to live it, and ensconce myself somewhere to be enveloped by the grand expanse of nature and kissed by its beauty.

And so I dream. In this space it is possible, from this timeless moment to an endless time.

A Happy Moment of Realization – September 17, 2011

It happened earlier this evening. I was finally able to accept fully that I do have a passion in life, a passion to write. Knowing that I do not have to die without a passion has diminished two of my death’s fears, the purposelessness and uselessness of my existence. It was a happy moment.

No event contributed to or reinforced this realization. No award, no compliment or no delusion that I was talented. The satisfaction came because I had received permission to own my passion, a gift from God, one for me to work on continually so that I can bring it home more polished than when it was given, to show what was gifted was not given in vain.

Economics & Politics: A Brief Discussion

Postulates
1. Natural inequality is intrinsic to life.
2. Greed is intrinsic to capitalism.
3. Corruption is intrinsic to socialism.
4. Artificial inequality arises from the greed and corruption that spin the revolving door between the private and public sectors.


Conclusions
Both socialism and capitalism are evil. Capitalism gives more individuals an opportunity to do great things and therefore tips the scales of justice to its side. Even the less capable has a chance at winning the lotto.

Note here that good cannot be achieved by giving more people a chance to be greedy. However, if evil is inevitable, it is fairer that everyone gets a shake in having a good life rather than limiting it to those most articulate and charismatic who become politicians and those most organized and influential who put them into office.

Discussion
Politicians are beholden to a handful of voting blocs that put them into office. Their scared cows are fed at the expense of other voting blocs with different breeds lest they and their party lose the next election. Each voting bloc wants to have many cows in their field as they can in order to remain relevant.

This posting focuses on two major breeds, the socialists’ breed and the capitalists’ breed.

Socialist cows have low self-esteem. They are lazy. They get fat from government favors and handouts. They are overfed and underworked. Their keepers let them languish on their own as their fields become a vast methane-filled wasteland. The cows remain content as long as they are fed and cared for by the state.

Capitalist cows are fussy, but they are ambitious. They grow from eating better than what they have. Their keepers have to keep up with new and interesting enticements so that the cows continue to work hard for what they want before they become lazy with boredom and join their socialist comrades.

The keepers of socialist cows depend on political cronyism to satisfy their breed and are therefore corrupt. The keepers of capitalists’ cows are greedy for they always want more to placate their fussy breed; meanwhile, they continue to accumulate wealth beyond their ability to consume in their lifetime.

The socialist wants to spread this wealth around. He does so by taxing it. In other words, he wants the capitalist to work a percentage of their workweek for free to benefit those who are lazy. This is forced charity to support those who do not deserve it and supplants voluntary donations for those truly needy.

The capitalist realizes that he cannot take his wealth to his grave. He gives it away, willfully in life and unwittingly at death. Either way, the wealth is spread but not by the will of a socialist.

The socialist state does not see this kind of wealth for the incentive to produce is diminished by the dictates of the system. The only people who earn some money are the political cronies and the politicians they elect to office. The rest are treated as an expense of the state. When a person becomes an expenditure, he is no longer an asset that produces. He is therefore a wasting asset until old age when he turns into a liability. Not even a compassionate socialist likes to dig into his pockets to pay for expensive healthcare for someone he does care about or know. But this is the result of an artificially created inequality that benefits the same crony institutions by means of corrupt arrangements with a socialist government. To avoid having bitter socialists, a person at his prime should have been given the opportunity to work hard and provide for his family and own retirement.

Under capitalism, everyone has a chance to strike it rich, even the dim, for they have their dumb luck. Granted there is a built-in inequality among people, but it is precisely this inequality that drives a free society. Not everyone can be a genius and sit like Rodin’s Thinker. If everyone is a genius, then nobody is going to roll up his sleeves to do the work. Of course, greed, the fuel for capitalism, is not exactly a virtue. But let poison be poison’s cure with this simple Rx: Caveat emptor!

Class Warfare

Obama said in his job's speech, "This isn't class warfare." It is precisely class warfare otherwise there is no need to underscore the fact that he is not engaged in one. Therefore, I predict that the 2012 presidential election is going to be split between the Haves and the Have-nots. The latter group seems to be winning.

The Have-nots want a bigger government, despite the inefficiencies and corruption that are plaguing the current one. They are pushing for a federal infrastructure bank, a last step before establishing a national bank, like the Bank of China. With that, the government will have the power to decide what the private sector can or cannot do by controlling funding. As a result, corruption will replace innovation (Solyndra Inc.), apathy will replace productivity and economic activity will stagnate. Without a competitive market with plenty of choices, the Haves will join the Have-nots. Together they will have a low standard of living for the eager workers who produce good work and whose advancement depends on how well they do will become government employees who enjoy job and pay security and could care less about the quality of their output.

The future of the United States is not looking good. Its best days are over. If the Have-nots have their say, then the United States with its massive nuclear arsenal and lack of productivity will inevitably become very much like the "evil empire" that was once the USSR, poor and envious of those with vibrant and prosperous economies. That would truly be tragic.

On the bright side, United States has some good days left. During this time, more good days can be created with better ones to follow but draconian measures need to be taken quickly, from undoing the all mistakes of warmonger GW Bush and socialist Barack Obama to cleaning up the corruption and returning all the illegal immigrants to the immigration lines outside of the United States to start.

The Securities & Exchange Commission

I had long thought that the SEC was not doing its job along with FNMA and Freddie Mac when the mortgage backed derivatives were packaged and sold. I also think that it was improper for the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to permit such assets to be marked to market rather than requiring them to be accounted for traditionally at the lower of cost or market.

In my opinion, the incompetence of FNMA and Freddie Mac in buying the bank mortgages without performing due diligence is not in dispute. The SEC's illegal destruction of records came to light on September 13, 2011, based on the admission quoted in paragraph below. The FASB has yet to be implicated.

"The SEC's enforcement chief made the disclosure in a letter Wednesday to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. Grassley had asked about allegations by an SEC attorney that the agency illegally destroyed records related to thousands of preliminary probes, including investigations of Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Madoff." See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/14/sec-investigations-tosses-preliminary_n_963178.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec3_lnk2|95811

Clean up the government and the nation's debt problems will be solved.

But no.

President Obama want a bigger government, more new agencies including a national infrastructure bank and tax revenues to pay for all of this. In essence, he wants to transfer wealth from the hard-working folks in the private sector to the hardly-working public servants.

Let me recommend a less nuanced method: Force every taxpayer, dead or alive, to file an estate tax return for the year ending December 31, 2011. Assess a flat 80% tax on the wealth in excess of $200,000 with no deductions. Use that money to pay for Obama's socialist state, and before leaving office, Obama should change the country's name from the United States of America to the Communist States of America. The rationale: Give back to Ceaser what belongs to Ceaser.

Someone's Prediction Came True

When Obama was a presidential candidate and talking about change, some guy said all you'll have left is change in your pocket.

I thought it was funny because I did not think it would come to pass.

It's not funny now.

The Dawning of American Socialism

I am not a political scientist and not qualified to render a treatise on socialism in the United States, but simply believe that American socialism began after the fall of fascism under GW Bush (see http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/george-bush-is-a-fascist-you-wanted-proof-here-it-is/) shortly before he left office when the forces inhabiting Washington was on the brink of nationalizing banks in 2008 and delivered ObamaCare in March of 2010.

I also believe that socialism has ironically been made possible in the United States and palatable to Americans by the waning of Chinese communism and the outsourcing of manufacturing and pollution to China, the resultant expansion of its economy, rapid accumulation of wealth and the communists' purchase of United States capitalists' notes.

Palatable at first, but the road ahead will be painful, as if the pain is not already being felt, if the United States of America continues to go down the socialist path. Everyone will suffer and those whom the "bleeding heart progressives" intend to help will become neglected and suffer even more, for when push comes to shove, most people, progressives included, will adopt the "me and my family first" mentality. Even the powerful and corrupt will have to live with far less choices in the marketplace than under capitalism. And if a new disease breaks out, there may not be enough medication assuming a timely doctor's appointment is available, if there is even a medication for it under an incentiveless socialist state.

Look at Europe, it is not so bad, some people say. Perhaps not, but next time you go, get out of those Michelin-rated restaurants, the 4-star hotels, all the touristy places for the cash-rich Arab and the near-extinct credit-wealthy American and check out the grocery stores for the working folks. And talk to the locals about their healthcare. If a majority of Americans like what they see and hear, then be socialist Europe, but Obama may have already taken the United States into Marxist territory, or is it TERRORtory?

Obama Checkmated Himself

This is too funny: Just after Obama announced that he is about to go around the country to market his plan to create jobs, a plan that comes with raising taxes by slashing deductions for state taxes, mortgage interest and charitable contributions on Schedule A, Bank of America introduced its jobs package -- eliminating 30,000 jobs over the next few years and closing branches -- perhaps in part to save money to pay off the Obama administration's lawsuit against it and other banks filed on September 2, 2011, see details in this blog under "Obama Comes Full Circle" on September 2, 2011, and in part to prepare to realize a real loss on the bank's shadow inventory (underwater mortgages) because people would rent rather than purchase without the mortgage deduction.

With no housing recovery in sight, the shadow inventory will be dumped. That way, the property owners will get even richer because they can now buy cheap properties cheaper and rent it out for a healthy return, thanks to the mortgage deduction available to businesses and the depreciation on rental properties. That means less tax revenue for you to spend, Mr. Obama. Rich people may also enter into a sale and leaseback transaction, not that some of them are not doing that already.

Tax considerations aside, there will be no new housing with no end to recovery in sight with shadow inventory flooding the market. That means no new construction. Its rippling effect will lead to a triple-dip recession, one that maybe coined the Obama triple dipper.

The same sword Obama uses to cut off wealth to the rich has this other edge with the capability to cut him and his family off from any potential economic gain after he leaves office since a capitalist will not likely seek advice from a socialist and a socialist will not likely want to work very hard under capitalism since he/she expects the government to provide it all.

The evidence is in: By holding up his hot-off-the-press printed jobs plan and a double-edged sword this morning, Barack Obama demonstrates that he has no clue as to how capital works and apparently he is not paying attention to those who do, yet he needs a functioning and prosperous capital market to get him re-elected and more importantly, earn him a respectable legacy and some lucrative speaking engagements when he turns in his key to the White House.

Unless he eats crow and unravels his policies, this political chess game of jobs and spending is over for President Obama, and his presidency may very well end on January 20, 2013.

Heaven Imagined

You step into an empty amphitheater, as large as you imagine it to be. You are there alone. It does not matter where you sit, what look like or how you dress. In a moment you will feel awkward, self-conscious and out of place.

In the blink of an eye, the entire place is filled, packed with angels, with no air space in between them or in between you and the ones surrounding you. They are assembled in concentric circles, each higher and wider than the one above. You can tell that they are not just one layer deep but you do not know how many layers deep behind you they go. They are spirits; you are human. They are clothed in ethereal white. Perhaps you have on a t-shirt, a pair of jeans and some sneakers. You have never felt so foreign but no angel considers you foreign. Knowing that does nothing for you. You are not at ease. You want to shift your weight to get into a more comfortable position but you notice all the angels are remaining still in their places. You dare not move.

They start to sing. They sing in unison. You have never heard anything so beautiful, so perfect, so uplifting, whatever the sounds you hear and whatever you understand their words to be. You close your eyes. You know you are in heaven. You think to yourself: this is absolute perfection.

Just as it could not in your imagination get better, it does. A single voice penetrates and complements the chorus with a song, melodious and harmonious, a voice so pure and clear it cleanses you from the inside out. You imagine the effect to be the same had it been a cascade of cool crystal water from the very first rain ever, extracted from deep inside a glacier somewhere, frozen in time but melted for you to drink and bathe in to purify your body, mind and soul.

While you are being refreshed and renewed, the solo voice diminuendoes and merges with the chorus. You once again close your eyes, feeling lightness all over, unburdened by anchors of earthly concerns and the weight of sins. You become deeply entranced by the angelic voices surrounding you. By losing yourself, you join the angels and the music.

As you have imperceptibly transformed, so has the beautiful music subtly grown. It has become more layered, more complex, more encompassing, grander and more beautiful than what you believed to be perfection to start with. You open your eyes. The amphitheater has become bigger. Much, much bigger. You no longer see the top of it nor can you see the edge of the highest circle and you have no clue how many more layers it now has behind you, but you can see that it is packed with angels, far too many to even think of counting.

Your visual and auditory senses are overwhelmed. You close your eyes once more as the heavenly music continues to bring you total fulfillment. You feel lifted. You are lifted.

Abruptly, the tempo changes. You feel the gravities of earth, life and sins set in. You return to reality. In it, some of the noises you hear are lies, hypocrisy and rationale based on intellectual dishonesty and some of the things you see include those people who hunger for greed or self-importance and those who betray their conscience or pawn their souls to evil.

You pine to return to heaven. There are ways to get there.

The alternative is unbearable.

Obama’s Worthless Jobs Speech

Obama went on national television yesterday after the market closed to announce a plan to create jobs. That was another waste of time and a disservice to the economy. The DOW dropped 303.68 points at the close of today’s trading.

Obama once again demonstrated he is clueless when it comes to capital. Perhaps I am the one clueless. Nonetheless, let me outline:

1. Jobs follow capital spending.

2. Private capital spending creates jobs that lead to earnings which in turn lead to more new jobs and new tax revenue.

3. Government capital spending creates dead-end jobs. For example, modernizing schools and infrastructure renewal by the government are not profitable and will not create new jobs or new tax revenue after they are completed. Federal jobs program is a form of social welfare, an addictive drug that creates dependency on the people who feed on it.

3.1 Leave funding for schools and infrastructure to the states and municipalities by issuing municipal bonds. Let these decisions be made locally and not in Washington.

I sent to Obama's campaign office an e-mail a week or so ago, making the suggestion I had posted on this blog on August 13th under the title “Two Simple Fiscal Policies To Match Bernanke's New Monetary Policy.” The people there should read that carefully. There was no cheap $4,000 tax credit cap for hiring unemployed workers by businesses. There was a $100,000 tax credit cap by anyone hiring a new worker. Also, there was no restriction on hiring of new workers, whether or not they have been unemployed 6 months or longer because that is for the private sector to decide, not the government. This requirement is absolutely stupid because companies usually hang on to their best employees until the very last moment when they cannot afford them anymore. Nonetheless, Obama plans to send the recently terminated star employees to stand in the unemployment line in favor of second and third tier workers. Is this socialism? I suppose Obama does not support capitalism since he has been a beneficiary of the public sector for too long, has no entrepreneurial experience (oh "my bad," he wrote two books to raise money for his 2008 presidential campaign) and is likely intimidated by those who have. Apparently a majority of those in his cabinet maybe in the same category as well, see http://blogs.ajc.com/kyle-wingfield/2009/11/30/obamas-cabinet-this-graph-explains-a-lot/

Yet there is a contradiction. Obama wants good schools to provide a good education for Americans, so that the more ambitious, more educated, more talented and more capable can stand in line for work behind those less ambitious, less educated, less talented and less capable and watch them compete with the smartest in India and elsewhere in Asia? Brilliant.

I could go on and on and dig a deeper gutter for Obama's jobs plan but who am I to criticize and give advice to someone so charismatic and articulate? Barack Obama is the most powerful person in the world right now and he can do pretty much whatever he pleases.

I hear that on September 11, 2011, President Obama might be together with his predecessor GW Bush at ground zero. I ought to be able to tell them apart if I happen to see a picture but it is becoming more and more difficult.

Light & Shade

A discussion of light givers and takers in a previous post ("Giving Light" on August 30) is incomplete without identifying the shades. Shades are so consumed by evil that they have little redemptive possibility. Since the slightest possibility of redemption does exist, they are not quite evil’s surrogates.

Shades are by nature dark, as in lightless. They can be thought of as invisible 2-D shadows that depend on reflected light of the evil to give them 3-D shape. Reflected light is not divine light. It is just the opposite. Since it can be just as bright and virtually indistinguishable from true light, it is therefore absolutely deceitful.

When a shadow takes on reflected light, it assumes human form and like the reflected light from which it arises, the deceit is absolute and the entity is in all respects human even though it continues to have the character of a shade. In its human shape, a shade continues to absorb light. The more light it absorbs, the more attention it gets and the more powerful it becomes. A consistent betrayer of truth, a shade uses falsehoods to manipulate light givers into giving it light.

By the time the truth is known and light givers withdraw their light, the shade would usually have already wreaked havoc and done irreparable damage. To avoid being tricked by shades is to recognize them at the outset, but a light giver who continues to shed light on a shade to nurture its existence after its evil nature has been revealed is in the process of becoming a shade himself.

Shades stand apart by the intensity of evilness in the reflected light on which they continuously depend but telling which human is a truly a shade is not easy for even light givers are at times lit by reflected light for evil permeates all.

So what is reflected light? Think of it as a constant charge of evil energy from hell. And how does a shade use it? A hypothetical can illustrate this: a politician (a lightless figure) relying on the 9-11 disaster (through an act with enough evil energy and light to outlast human history) to be seen (becomes a hell-lit 3-D human shade).

On the other hand, a man of cloth using the crucifixion of Christ to preach to his congregation is not a shade because the crucifixion was not an act that was evil in origin. It was a preordained salvific event representing the death of original sin, the end of eternal death and the return to a place of lasting peace. Moreover, unlike a shade using an evil event to underscore its own importance, a sermon on the crucifixion does not draw attention to the speaker; rather, attention is directed away from the speaker toward the event giving it meaning, so that those listening might internalize its holy purposes.

However, in another instance, a man of cloth could certainly be a shade. When one talks ceaselessly about the need to give to the poor when he himself is adequately hydrated, fed, dressed, housed and insured, and comes under a religion that owns an impressive portfolio of real estate globally and priceless objects of art when there are still homeless people living with thirst, hunger and disease, he is existing in hypocrisy. Since hypocrisy is evil in nature, a preacher who is a hypocrite is therefore a shade, a 2-D shadow with hell's light shining on him giving him 3-D shape. [1.]

Although shades are often found among people with power or influence, including those making money or winning awards off various atrocities of human suffering past or present or created by them, there are shades that are everyday people. For example, a person who always finds the need to put someone down to gain an advantage, stab someone from behind to get ahead or betray someone's trust for improper gain, that person is a shade, for these are things that are either evil in origin or in nature and will therefore give the shade the necessary reflected light to sustain its 3-D constitution.

For any shade that is still in existence, it has a shred of redemptive possibility since it can choose divine light over reflected light to maintain its human form and become a light giver. There are countless ways to obtain divine light for there is no end to goodness but when these ways are ignored in favor of evil’s reflected light, the shade is continuing with its steadfast transformation until it is evil's surrogate at which point no redemption can occur.

[1.] An excerpt of a prayer by the companions of Francis of Assisi after his death seems appropriate here:

"Do not allow that those
who are like you by profession
be unlike you in life."

Armstrong, Regis J. O.F.M. Cap. et.al. Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, Volume II, The Founder. Page 392. New York: New York City Press, 2000.

Paix - 31 août

I am not one who is at peace. I can be doing nothing, thinking of nothing, being plain bored or simply day dreaming but I am not at peace. I know what it feels like to be at peace because I have been at peace before, but only momentarily, until two days ago.

That was the last day of August. For some reason, I felt it, an inner peace, not just for a moment, but the entire day. I saw myself in multiple situations where I would normally become agitated but for some reason was not. One of those situations stood out.

I am always in a rush to get to the gym and get impatient when there is a slow driver ahead. No different than any other day, that last day of August, at about the same time on the same road that I traveled on countless times before, going to the gym was, sure enough, an inattentive driver who was looking out his side window who did not move when the light turned green. On occasions such as this, my nature is to become impatient. I knew I had plenty of inner peace earlier in the day but was not sure if it had run out. So I was prepared to become impatient, kind of even wanted to experience impatience, but it never came. That was weird.

When the driver realized that the light must have been green for a while, he sped off. That was pretty funny. Continuing on my way, I thought to myself that the sky could have fallen on me right then and I would have been unflappable. Nothing mattered. It was an amazing feeling.

I realize that that was a gift and I was thankful.

I want to have more of those days filled with such powerful inner peace but sadly I have not had a moment of it since.

HP Touchpad Update

Below are quotes from a hp.com link at http://h20435.www2.hp.com/t5/The-Next-Bench-Blog/More-TouchPads-on-the-Way/ba-p/68749

"Despite announcing an end to manufacturing webOS hardware, we have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand."

Does that mean HP will stop making its TouchPad after its final run? I think yes if nothing else was said but read what followed:

"Q: Can you comment on whether HP had to manufacture more to meet the recent demand?

"HP will be manufacturing a limited quantity of TouchPads with webOS during our fourth fiscal quarter 2011, which ends October 31." (Emphasis added)

Does that mean HP may manufacture a Touchpad using another operating system or will no Touchpad phoenix arise from the ashes of the webOS Touchpad?

I still think a TouchDroid is a good idea. A Google-HP business deal is not antitrust, is it? Apple may think so though.

Obama Comes Full Circle

On a clear cold winter day in January 2009, Obama took office with by and large a democratic Congress, with two independents siding with the democrats giving the democrats a majority in both houses. After swearing in, President Obama could have challenged the law signed by GW Bush and led the nation to repeal the $700 billion bank bailout plan, but he chose not to do so.

Today, just short of two years and nine months later, there is news that the Federal Housing Finance Agency ("FHFA")under Obama has threatened to sue the very banks that received the bailout cash.

If I understand this correctly, the US government had bailed out the nation's largest banks, fearing that they would ruin the world economy should they fail. The Obama administration tacitly doled out $700 billion to aid the failing banks knowing full well that they had handed out mortgages to unqualified borrowers by falsifying their qualifications on their loan applications during a real estate bubble, and that these borrowers became insolvent when they lost their jobs during a normal economic slowdown.

The FHFA, claiming that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were deceived by the banks by selling them lies-backed mortgages, now plans to sue to get their money back, the very money that was lent by their boss, the United States President, with full knowledge of such misrepresentations so that the world economy could be stabilized.

I am in need of a reality check.

Reality check #1 -- a recap: The US government knew that bailout money was given to the banks based on the knowledge that they had made loans based on false and misleading information, and now the US government, wanting its money back, is planning to use its agencies, which by the way failed to perform their due diligence before buying these loans from the banks, to claim that they were misled by the same false and misleading information on which the bailout was approved and handed out in the first place? Give me a break.

Reality check #2: The world economy has not been stabilized. The US unemployment figure is still at 9.1 percent. To attempt to take the money away from the very institutions that are the backbone of the world's economy now is to replay the condition in 2008, confronting a possible collapse of the world's financial structure.

Reality check #3: The idiot index needs to be re-calibrated for new lows.

Let me propose a solution.

To all the CEOs of banks: Admit that you were greedy, that you overreached and are working to build a better, more stable economy by weeding out corrupt practices. Then tell President Obama, and Congress, that the financial markets or the economy ought not be pawns in the game of politics. However, if the politicians still insist to use them as pawns for political gains, then together, you should resign, hand over the responsibilities of running the world's biggest banks to Washington and walk off. Let everyone be poor and Barack return to his old job as a community organizer. That would indeed be a full circle for Obama.

Update 6:47 PST: The lawsuit is no longer a threat. It was filed.

One hour & 42 minutes ago: "NEW YORK (AP) — The government on Friday sued 17 financial firms, including the largest U.S. banks, for selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac billions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities that turned toxic when the housing market collapsed.

"Among those targeted by the lawsuits were Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JP Morgan Chase & Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Large European banks including The Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank and Credit Suisse were also sued.

"The lawsuits were filed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. It oversees Fannie and Freddie, the two agencies that buy mortgages loans and mortgage securities issued by the lenders.

"The total price tag for the mortgage-backed securities sold to Fannie and Freddie by the firms named in the lawsuits: $196 billion.

"The government didn't say how much it is seeking in damages. It said it wants to have the securities sales canceled and wants to be compensated for lost principal, interest payments as well as for attorney fees." See http://news.yahoo.com/feds-sue-big-banks-over-sales-risky-investments-000212787.html

It seems like the game has changed from shoring up the world economy so everyone can prosper to everyone for himself and get the money while it's still there.

So the question to ask now is: What about me?

I am a victim too.

Can I join the government's lawsuit to recover my lost wealth resulting from the 2008 financial market crisis caused by the mortgage-backed securities fraud? I seek restitution and legal fees, but have not decided whether to plead for treble damages and interest in the alternative. How about an investors' class action? That ought to be interesting.

Giving Light

Far less people than the many in the world are able to emanate light. Those who can sometimes do not. They have their reasons and any one is good enough. It takes an abundance of energy to give light. Intellect is a requisite, so is knowledge, wisdom and character but none of them is the equivalent of light, but light is all of that and more. They lie beyond the imagination, including the source, and are beyond description. Those who have light know it. It is uncertain if one acquires light or is blessed with it. Even those with it have their challenges.

Not all light is the same but all is desirable. It is doubtful that any single human has all the light. For this reason, givers of light are also takers. Light givers benefit one another when they take from each other. By doing so they become brighter together. Therefore, not all light takers are evil.

Undoubtedly some are. Like a black hole in the universe, these evil ones are insatiable vortices that capture light and extinguish it. Light givers know immediately when the energy that produces light is being sucked out by the evil one, or one of its immediate surrogates, leaving them totally drained if they are lucky enough to get out alive. Then there are those who are just plain vanilla suckers of light, they are the amateurs, who may even be seductive, and light givers who become suckered in would eventually come to a rather painful and perhaps even bitter realization after much tolerance and much time has passed.

Politician Defending Obama

A democratic politician questioned by Megyn Kelly on Fox News regarding Obama's lousy performance and low ratings quipped: Katrina, Irene and George Bush are natural disasters that take time to clean up.

The Timelessness of Time

I first heard of Einstein's Theory of Relativity in high school but understood none of it. In time, I believed it to be true, that the clock slows for the one who is traveling at the speed of light relative to another who is stationary on earth, and corollaries that point to concurrent planes of existence at every moment in the past and in the future. Now I realize all that is fiction and a waste of genius and that time simply exists as a whole without relative parts or planes, in neutrality without a beginning or an end and as a constant without change. And it certainly exists without being clocked. This realization has led to my conclusion that time is timeless.

Time has a past, a present and a future but exists only in the present moment. The past and future is each a view from the present. A moment in the present is the state of being, or time's present, and the instant and simultaneous aggregation of all that is past and all that is to come, for something that is now must necessarily be a distillation of everything that had been and everything that is expected combined with the current state of being. In other words, any present moment is the sum of time's past, present and future. Since time exists only in the present moment and is also an uninterrupted sequence of consecutive present moments formed by the past, present and future into an inseparable whole, time is therefore timeless.

Time, being a constant, is the same for an adult as it is for a newborn. A newborn exits the womb and exists in the present moment and therefore it has the current state of being. It also has the requisite past and future to form an aggregate that is its present. For the newborn, its past is only its DNA. Its future, limited by the lack of established thoughts and expectations, is its instinct to breathe the next breath and the drive to be fed and held, to observe and absorb. So the infant's state of being, a biological entity with all its permutations and limitations that is its present, together with its short past and future are the infant's present moment. For the adult, its developed character, its thoughts and expectations, both rational and irrational form the past and future, combined with its state of being, similarly defined as that of an infant, form the present, although its present moment is unenviably more complex than the infant's.

Recap: Regardless of the theory that uses time as a reference point, what is made to measure time, how humans spend, monetize or think of time and how things rely on or react to time, time is constantly there. It simply exists and it exists in the present moment, a present moment being defined as an integrated whole of what is past, present and future. When the past, present and future are one and the same in the present moment, time becomes and is timeless.

Out-of-stock

Nobody seemed to want a 16GB HP TouchPad for $399 but when HP decided to discontinue the product this past weekend after about 50 days on the market and marked it down $300, they were sold out around the world "within minutes" in the stores and online. How many minutes? No one is exactly sure.

Some people who were fast enough to grab one on sale but did not like the Palm OS that HP paid $1.2 billion for in April 2010 had replaced it with Google's Android. Now the world has TouchDroid but nowhere is a $99 HP TouchPad to be found. I could almost hear voices in HP's Palo Alto boardroom wondering what to do next.

Presumably, HP still has quite a few in inventory but is not releasing them. "Out of stock" is being indicated on the HP website for its Touchpads. I suppose nobody is truly prepared to write an official obituary on them just yet and believe that a phoenix is in the making. Will it fly off the shelf? At $99, I think so.

Life’s Puzzling Questions

During a moment of quiet my mind returned to matters more intangible and elusive from those more grounded in business and politics. It is in this metaphysical realm that a degree of equilibrium between consternation and clarity exists.

The basic question is not as dramatic as Shakespeare's “to be or not to be,” or to live or die. It is to be or to do.

The answer can either be (a) or (b) but does one necessarily have to precede the other? No, in the case of a trust fund baby who is able to grow up and live a pampered life without having to be productive. So the question is a real choice for the “spoon-fed” adult in the “Garden of Eden” in his prime having health, wealth and youth simultaneously. With these concurrent gifts, should he simply be or should he do something? Is it (a) or is it (b)?

Or, is it (c), neither, for this is not a dilemma for his free will, his parents or the wise but for time, fate or chance to mold its outcome? Can an answer be gleaned from the life of a saint and contrasting it with that of a sinner?

In the case of Francis of Assisi, son of a wealthy merchant, he simply lived, and lived simply. God spoke to him. He remained a humble and holy servant till death.

In the case of GW Bush, born to a wealthy and politically powerful family, he took life by its horns, and rode it as if it were a bucking rodeo bull. Allegedly God spoke to him. He is the current titleholder of Worst U.S. president, an unenviable recognition given to him by 60% of historians in 2009. See http://hnn.us/articles/48916.html

An answer may not be as obvious as one would like and may come as late as the moment of death, and maybe different for different people so that either (a), (b) or (c) could be correct as well as wrong. It would be correct if joy or peace arrives with impending death but wrong if fear or emptiness looms at death's imminence.

Seriously, Syria?

I believe the United States should get out of the business of being the police force of the world and asking for regime changes. Short of that, there should be a law requiring commentators and politicians, including presidents, their advisers and cabinet members, members of Congress and talking heads on television who advocate regime changes in other countries to give up their citizenship and move there to govern. That way, they put their money where their mouths are, and I wish them every success.

Polls, Press & Politics

The Presidential campaign season has officially begun in the midst of a national debt crisis, an unemployment crisis and a European economic crisis. One would assume that the President, the members of Congress, the candidates, the press and the pollsters would focus on the problems at hand and ways to solve them.

Instead, the pollsters are interested in a straw poll on the presidential candidates, the press in the characters that play them and the politicians in their vacations and their own campaigns. That brings to mind Nero who fiddled while Rome burned.

I must take life too seriously. I ought to simply skip the headlines and the news channels and ignore drama after drama that is being played out by those financially well-heeled and politically powerful at the expense of those that are poor since they are the ones who will ultimately bear the heaviest of burdens, not me.

My doomsday scenario is not pretty. Even though the rich and the powerful will lose a significant portion of their wealth, they nonetheless will still have their organic feed (no typo here), their healthcare, their expensive toys and their vacations.

Not the poor. They will work harder and have less, and when they become sick, even with Obamacare, assuming it overcomes all constitutional challenges, I imagine that they will not have quick access to good health care. Whatever care they will get will only be gotten after long waiting periods and excessive red tape that will cost society more in lawsuits than Obama ever imagined, even though Obama had argued that it will save money in the long run. As the saying goes, in the long run, we will all be dead.

Meanwhile, should we not attempt to minimize the damage that I believe will come?

If so, why then does the media not turn its collective lens back on the issues and ways to solve them instead of chasing after the latest political gaffe, sensationalizing it and ending up with nothing productive or worse, another GW Bush and more wars? In that case, Obamacare would be cheap by comparison in terms of dollars and lives spent.

I am so disillusioned.