Thursday, July 28, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Un-United States
It is appalling that so simple a concept - to spend only up to the amount taken in - can be so contentious. Of course, nothing is simple when it involves a government that has the power to tax and to print money. Then the equation becomes complex for it involves policy, like economic policy, taxing policy, defense policy, social policy and balanced-budget policy to name a few, and politics.
I am a fiscal conservative. That means I am a social conservative by default since nowadays the Unites States is no longer rich enough to be a social liberal. The United States is in debt. Even in debt, the United States is still giving out freebies. This is not the way to run a country, even though it can print more and more money to pay the interest on a bigger and bigger debt, for more pieces of paper will end up costing everyone in the form of inflation and the devaluation of the dollar, unless there is a corresponding increase in economic growth but there is not. There is no free ride, whether it is an individual, a business, a country like Greece which does not have its own currency or for a country like the United States which does.
Until the United States can collect enough tax revenue without taxing its economy into a deeper recession than it is currently in, it must stop spending and not go further into debt.
Some would argue that the seniors and the poor will suffer from spending cuts because they would lose their benefits. They are right, but what is the alternative? Continue to incur more and more debt so that the next generation of seniors and poor can bear the burden? What will this next generation of poor people and seniors do? Incur more debt and pass it on? When will this transfer of a bigger and bigger debt stop? At some point, when the debt is so huge, can it even be stopped? The dollar will have to depreciate. Will the borrowing stop when bread then start costing $500 a loaf or will the government borrow even more to buy bread for the hungry? Which generation of seniors and poor people will stand up to put a stop to this madness and stand for what is right?
Perhaps none. People have become so selfish and so short-sighted that the next generation seems like another species, unrelated by blood and dispensable. The "me" generation and the baby boomers have become the "me now - hell with everyone else" voting bloc. Sadly, the liberal politicians are catering to them.
I am with the conservatives this time around. In fact, I will go one step further. I will raise the debt ceiling by an amount enough to cover the next three months, making sure spending does not exceed receipts. The amount of debt ceiling to be raised will be evaluated quarterly, making sure that the United States debt is not getting bigger but being trimmed back steadily.
I am a fiscal conservative. That means I am a social conservative by default since nowadays the Unites States is no longer rich enough to be a social liberal. The United States is in debt. Even in debt, the United States is still giving out freebies. This is not the way to run a country, even though it can print more and more money to pay the interest on a bigger and bigger debt, for more pieces of paper will end up costing everyone in the form of inflation and the devaluation of the dollar, unless there is a corresponding increase in economic growth but there is not. There is no free ride, whether it is an individual, a business, a country like Greece which does not have its own currency or for a country like the United States which does.
Until the United States can collect enough tax revenue without taxing its economy into a deeper recession than it is currently in, it must stop spending and not go further into debt.
Some would argue that the seniors and the poor will suffer from spending cuts because they would lose their benefits. They are right, but what is the alternative? Continue to incur more and more debt so that the next generation of seniors and poor can bear the burden? What will this next generation of poor people and seniors do? Incur more debt and pass it on? When will this transfer of a bigger and bigger debt stop? At some point, when the debt is so huge, can it even be stopped? The dollar will have to depreciate. Will the borrowing stop when bread then start costing $500 a loaf or will the government borrow even more to buy bread for the hungry? Which generation of seniors and poor people will stand up to put a stop to this madness and stand for what is right?
Perhaps none. People have become so selfish and so short-sighted that the next generation seems like another species, unrelated by blood and dispensable. The "me" generation and the baby boomers have become the "me now - hell with everyone else" voting bloc. Sadly, the liberal politicians are catering to them.
I am with the conservatives this time around. In fact, I will go one step further. I will raise the debt ceiling by an amount enough to cover the next three months, making sure spending does not exceed receipts. The amount of debt ceiling to be raised will be evaluated quarterly, making sure that the United States debt is not getting bigger but being trimmed back steadily.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
A Very Smart Jewish Man and the Raising the Debt Ceiling
When I was young, a very smart Jewish man and I had a conversation about the money I lost in the stock market. He told me not to spend time brooding over what I had already lost, but that I should spend my time working on making it back.
The United States is bleeding red ink. It should take the advice of this brilliant Jewish man. Instead of raising the debt ceiling, the President and Congress should and think of ways to make money to pay the debts of the United States and continue with handouts to the poor, lazy, and/or stupid.
So rather than cutting spending and raising taxes, the federal government ought to invest in the best companies in the world and become the biggest illegal drug grower, maker and dealer on earth.
The United States is bleeding red ink. It should take the advice of this brilliant Jewish man. Instead of raising the debt ceiling, the President and Congress should and think of ways to make money to pay the debts of the United States and continue with handouts to the poor, lazy, and/or stupid.
So rather than cutting spending and raising taxes, the federal government ought to invest in the best companies in the world and become the biggest illegal drug grower, maker and dealer on earth.
Revisiting a Prayer
In April, I wrote a prayer that I just re-read. Re-reading it was worthwhile because it states a sin (the betrayal of truth), the effect of betrayal (anger and torment) and the need for divine intervention (the prayer).
Dishonesty is not limited to individuals, it is part of business, it is in politics, in the government bureaucracy, in the laws of San Francisco and in the enforcement of its laws.
Just like a party to a contract who would intentionally and unethically breach a contract knowing that the cost for the non-breaching party to litigate the matter is higher than the cost for breaching party to fulfill its promise, the City of San Francisco has unjust and unconstitutional laws that have nothing to do with the public good in order to serve certain special interests, knowing full well that an individual unwittingly trapped by such a law would rather pay an unjust fine than to challenge its constitutionality.
I see the corruption of man and the corruption of his institutions and that infuriates me. May God grant me calm and inner peace while being tormented by the realities of sin.
Dishonesty is not limited to individuals, it is part of business, it is in politics, in the government bureaucracy, in the laws of San Francisco and in the enforcement of its laws.
Just like a party to a contract who would intentionally and unethically breach a contract knowing that the cost for the non-breaching party to litigate the matter is higher than the cost for breaching party to fulfill its promise, the City of San Francisco has unjust and unconstitutional laws that have nothing to do with the public good in order to serve certain special interests, knowing full well that an individual unwittingly trapped by such a law would rather pay an unjust fine than to challenge its constitutionality.
I see the corruption of man and the corruption of his institutions and that infuriates me. May God grant me calm and inner peace while being tormented by the realities of sin.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Knowing How to Halt Evil that Penetrates and Overtakes the Good Within
I have been given a range of tools to survive. To varying degrees, I excel in using some of them but just as certain, I am deficient in my ability to use others. Evil capitalizes on these deficiencies, amplifies them then uses them against me every chance it gets. As soon as I am caught up in these deficiencies, I am driven to obsession, itself a deficiency. Then I become overwhelmed by a rapid succession of ever increasing crescendos of mental agony, resulting in actions that are exaggerated, unnecessary and later regrettable.
It is critical that I need to recognize my deficiencies immediately every time they start to destroy my inner peace, preventing me from doing good work and disposing me to injury to myself and others. I must STOP what I am doing or thinking immediately and PRAY. Praying to God will arrest the progression of evil and, within moments, end the agony and allow me to be in peace. Will alone is not enough for it had already been captured by evil in its weakened state and immobilized.
Since evil acts without warning but with absolute accuracy every time, preventing it from ever destroying good is not possible because I cannot be continuously vigilant in the same way I cannot be continuously praying. If one could, one would be an even more challenging, tempting and desirable target for evil to destruct and own. I know that God will save me from evil by prayer for every prayer and every moment spent praying strengthens God against evil.
I wrote the previous three paragraphs last night and edited them just now after getting back from Easter Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. These thought were echoed by Monsignor John Talesfore's sermon today. He said that God is most effective when we are at our weakest and have the humility to accept our weaknesses.
It is critical that I need to recognize my deficiencies immediately every time they start to destroy my inner peace, preventing me from doing good work and disposing me to injury to myself and others. I must STOP what I am doing or thinking immediately and PRAY. Praying to God will arrest the progression of evil and, within moments, end the agony and allow me to be in peace. Will alone is not enough for it had already been captured by evil in its weakened state and immobilized.
Since evil acts without warning but with absolute accuracy every time, preventing it from ever destroying good is not possible because I cannot be continuously vigilant in the same way I cannot be continuously praying. If one could, one would be an even more challenging, tempting and desirable target for evil to destruct and own. I know that God will save me from evil by prayer for every prayer and every moment spent praying strengthens God against evil.
I wrote the previous three paragraphs last night and edited them just now after getting back from Easter Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco. These thought were echoed by Monsignor John Talesfore's sermon today. He said that God is most effective when we are at our weakest and have the humility to accept our weaknesses.
On the fast track to sainthood – will JP II get there?
No sooner than a moment since I have posted my Good Friday blog, telling of my prayer earlier in the day asking for forgiveness of sins and a cleansing to begin a new year which ended with the crucifixion of Christ, I am compelled to commit a sin, despite my compunction.
Good Friday had passed and it is now Easter Sunday. My obsession with my judgment or perhaps more appropriately, misjudgment or prejudgment was compelling me to write about my unhappiness with fast-tracking John Paul II to sainthood. I have never found him to be particularly pastoral or holy in life, so how could I agree that he be elevated to sainthood after his death? How possibly could he be on par with Francis of Assisi and be in “communion” with him?
Regardless of the supposed miracles he was responsible for, the one that mattered to me was his utter failure to convince George Bush Jr. not to invade Saddam Hussein's Iraq. He could have gone to Iraq and stood with the Iraqi Christians to underscore his point but he did not, not that such an action would have prevented Bush Jr. from invading Iraq but would likely have caused him to delay executing his order lest he found it appropriate to injure or kill a Pope via collateral damage. In the time since the invasion were death, continual suffering and exodus of Iraqi Christians.
And if JP2 were so saintly, why did God not permit him to have his voice in the last days of his papacy? He wanted to but could not speak to the crowds gathered in front of St. Peter's square. He was silenced even though he was supposedly the mouthpiece of God. Having his voice back suddenly when he popped his head out the window to address the crowds would have been a miracle but that did not happen.
Perhaps the biggest miracle was the fact that he survived a gunshot wound but so did many, many others around the world for generations who survived gunshot wounds. Are any of them saints?
Finally, if he were to be elevated to sainthood, would he be the patron saint of acting because he was an actor? Or, would he be the patron saint of pedophiles as one writer suggested in his comment on the internet?
Good Friday had passed and it is now Easter Sunday. My obsession with my judgment or perhaps more appropriately, misjudgment or prejudgment was compelling me to write about my unhappiness with fast-tracking John Paul II to sainthood. I have never found him to be particularly pastoral or holy in life, so how could I agree that he be elevated to sainthood after his death? How possibly could he be on par with Francis of Assisi and be in “communion” with him?
Regardless of the supposed miracles he was responsible for, the one that mattered to me was his utter failure to convince George Bush Jr. not to invade Saddam Hussein's Iraq. He could have gone to Iraq and stood with the Iraqi Christians to underscore his point but he did not, not that such an action would have prevented Bush Jr. from invading Iraq but would likely have caused him to delay executing his order lest he found it appropriate to injure or kill a Pope via collateral damage. In the time since the invasion were death, continual suffering and exodus of Iraqi Christians.
And if JP2 were so saintly, why did God not permit him to have his voice in the last days of his papacy? He wanted to but could not speak to the crowds gathered in front of St. Peter's square. He was silenced even though he was supposedly the mouthpiece of God. Having his voice back suddenly when he popped his head out the window to address the crowds would have been a miracle but that did not happen.
Perhaps the biggest miracle was the fact that he survived a gunshot wound but so did many, many others around the world for generations who survived gunshot wounds. Are any of them saints?
Finally, if he were to be elevated to sainthood, would he be the patron saint of acting because he was an actor? Or, would he be the patron saint of pedophiles as one writer suggested in his comment on the internet?
Friday, April 22, 2011
Good Friday, April 22, 2011
Kneeling at St. Dominic's Church in San Francisco before a huge cross flanked by two smaller ones on either side, praying: Cleanse my sins. Starting today, may my years begin and end with Good Friday.
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