Son of an Automobile Mechanic

Son of an Automobile Mechanic, 12/3/13

I see much of the world through my father’s eyes.  I see some of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines and feel the pain of leaving others behind in fleeing the island.  I feel the prejudice he felt of being a half-breed; I suspect I still feel some of the sorrow of the Trail of Tears.  I feel his hope in growing up in America where tomorrow looked better than today.  I feel his commitment to education when he would hold up his hands, gnarled and permanently greasy, and then point to his head and say “make your living with this, not these” while holding up his hands again a little closer to your face where you could smell the grease.  

My strongest identity in life has always been, “I am the Son of an Automobile Mechanic”.  When I showed up with a billionaire in Monte Carlo without the proper attire to a five star restaurant, my social class was obvious.  All those management meetings where I sided with the employees (not often enough in retrospect), that was my identity crying out for fairness.  When I point out Congress taking care of themselves and giving the crumbs to the common man, that is my identity demanding justice.  

I have modified my identity, mostly through education, but even my dad would understand that.  I’m agnostic with a simple moral code that demands honesty, kindness, and courage.  I have joined with a partner that embraces diversity and cherishes personal freedom such as: the right to be gay, or to form relationship of your own design with one or more other persons, or to be a hermit for that matter.  But, I carry on the family traditions of working hard, being my brother’s keeper, and the desire to be a better person tomorrow.

I am a son of an automobile mechanic. 

Rafael and Ted Cruz Are Not Evidence Based Humans

Rafael Cruz: LGBT rights and evolution are communist brainwashing lies to kill God

By David Edwards
Monday, November 4, 2013 15:00 EST

Rafael Cruz, the father of tea party-backed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), has warned Americans that equal rights for LGBT people and the theory of evolution are essentially communist lies that are being used by the American government to destroy the family and control the population.

In a June presentation to the Dean Bible Ministries Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Cruz encouraged attendees to become part of the political process.
“You know, communism or socialism, whatever you want to call it, what is happening in this country is not different than what happened in Cuba,” he explained. “It is about government control of your lives. You got to realize how Marxist, how socialism works… When you hear all these things about homosexual marriage, this has nothing to do with homosexual rights. Did you know that?”
“The whole objective is the destruction of the traditional family, it has nothing to do with homosexuals, they could care less about homosexuals, they want to destroy the family,” Cruz added.
The Republican senator’s father went on to say that marriage equality was “just like evolution.”
“I’ve met so many Christians that tell me, ‘Evolution is a scientific fact.’ Baloney!” he exclaimed. “I am a scientist, there is nothing scientific about evolution. But you know something, Karl Marx said it, ‘I can use the teachings of Darwin to promote communism.’ Why? Because communism, or call it socialism if you think communism is too hard a word, necessitates for government to be your god and for government to be your god they need to destroy the concept of God.”
“That’s why communism and evolution go hand and hand. Evolution is one of the strongest tools of Marxism because if they can convince you that you came from a monkey, it’s much easier to convince you that God does not exist,” Cruz insisted.


Really? Is god so weak?

Where does one start with someone that has knowledge from a century ago.  We expect such in countries like Iraq, or the poorest parts of South America or Africa.  But, how does someone in America avoid the knowledge that is readily available on the Internet ... admittedly, a lot of it is faulty, but it is not that hard to sort out what the smartest and most educated believe and why they believe it, i.e., the evidence for their beliefs.

To dismiss something because it is called a theory, i.e., the theory of evolution is to completely misunderstand the basis of a scientific theory.  A theory embodies, or attempts to embody all the evidence on a given subject in a consistent story.  Atomic theory lead to the atomic bomb that blew up two cities in Japan and to nuclear power plants that furnish about a third of the electricity in America. Theories can be pretty powerful, no?

I know the way humans have been raised, especially in America, it is hard to believe that two of the great apes, Chimpanzees and Bonobos have less than 2% genetic difference with a human.  They are more than 98% the same as humans.  From Wikepedia:

Similarity to humans[edit]

Bonobos are capable of passing the mirror-recognition test for self-awareness,^[56] as are all great apes. They communicate primarily through vocal means, although the meanings of their vocalizations are not currently known. However, most humans do understand their facial expressions^[18]and some of their natural hand gestures, such as their invitation to play. Two bonobos at the Great Ape Trust, Kanzi and Panbanisha, have been taught how to communicate using a keyboard labeled with lexigrams (geometric symbols) and they can respond to spoken sentences. Kanzi's vocabulary consists of more than 500 English words^[57] and he has comprehension of around 3,000 spoken English words.^[58] Kanzi is also known for learning by observing people trying to teach his mother; Kanzi started doing the tasks that his mother was taught just by watching, some of which his mother had failed to learn. Some, such as philosopher and bioethicist Peter Singer, argue that these results qualify them for "rights to survival and life" — rights that humans theoretically accord to all persons. (See great ape personhood.) 

An argument commonly posed is that there are missing links between these two great apes and humans.  Bonobos will soon be extinct becoming another species to disappear leaving gaps in evolution between the species that survive and us humans. Of course, fossil remains of pre-humans are somehow dismissed as qualifying as evidence. Admittedly, I am not an expert on evolution but the information to become an expert is there for anyone to examine.  Short of that, one can do like I do and trust fellow human scientists who have studied it all their lives and accept them at their word.  An alternative is to believe tens of thousands of scientists over half a dozen generations have conspired to deceive us for some common cause, per Rafael Cruz and perhaps Ted Cruz. 

So, why do we care what the Tea-Party fanatics think? Because fanatics always lead the majority away from common sense solutions to our social(e.g., gay rights, racial, marriage, etc.) and technical problems (e.g., stem cell research, robots, shorter work weeks, etc.) and slow adoption of needed reforms by believing people are inherently evil, especially the ones that do not agree with them.  And in believing humans are inherently evil, they distort our nation's response to those that are weak, needy, and in need of our help for whatever reason.  


For example, those that believe man is inherently evil blame those on welfare for not working when the more serious problem of anemic job creation is destroying the middle class.   They cut food stamps when more people than ever in my life time are starving and homeless in this country.  They push against gun control and even counting dead bodies in this country and let the children involved in mass shootings pay the price.  They don't recognize the leading cause of violence is violence, instead it is evil people responding inappropriately when they have their friends killed. 

In short, people that take fanatical stands like Cruz are not evidence based people.  They are self-righteous people that believe they are the chosen people who own the truth.  They are very dangerous people in our society.  They are very similar to the religious fanatics in the Middle east.   

Jobs and Idiots

Buy American Video

The above video seems to imply that the lost jobs all went to China, India, etc.  But look at this Article, More Jobs for Machines not People.

Yep, the entire world is losing jobs to computers and robots. Is it a problem only because humans are inherently greedy and when we get greedy we turn stupid?  

Option #1: We can evolve into those with jobs being the haves and those without being the have-nots, the greedy route.  In this route, the ones with jobs guard the jobs by working long hours to keep anyone else from getting their job, say 60 hours a week, and then go home to tired to enjoy the stuff their money has bought them.  Since there is a shortage of jobs, then you can expect things to get worse as the years go by ... worker harder and harder, get less and less.
The number of consumers also decline so the cost of goods increases as volume of sales declines.  This is the WE ARE HUMANS and WE ARE GREEDY IDIOTS ROUTE. 

Option#2.  We can work less hours, share our jobs allowing everyone who wants to work, work.  We let those tireless robots do their thing and we cheer them on.  Work your asses off robots, we love you.  Now, we have lots of consumers and the volume of sales increase and the cost of good decline.  So, we can continue to work less hours, have more stuff, and best of all we have time to enjoy our lives.  We can even let the robots work for the disabled, the discouraged, the needy etc. that have not found their way yet.  This option is known as WE HUMANS ARE REALLY SLOW TO PICK UP THE OBVIOUS ROUTE. 

American Deaths Count More

In the war in Syria, future American deaths weigh heavily in the discussion.   We don't want Americans to die in the conflict, we don't want body bags filled with American remains.  There is an implicit assumptions that American lives are more important than Syrian lives.  Shouldn't we be asking if our presence in Syria makes the lives of Syrians better? Will our presence result in less Syria deaths, less Syrians being displaced from their home.

We also believe that people born north of the Rio Grande are more important than those born south of the Rio Grande.   Really?  A baby coming out of the womb is more precious to us if he is born inside our borders.  If he is born somewhere else then carried inside our borders, he is less precious, he deserves less of our resources to care for him.  We begrudge as Americans having to care for a child born on the wrong side of the Rio Grande.  In our many wars, we only report American deaths.

A thousand years from now how will more enlightened humans see this view of life.  A view of life that finds the circumstances of one's birth to determine their value.  Country, wealth, class, race, sex, etc. at birth is part of what establishes one's worth in our society and in all societies that I know of on this planet.

I can imagine a world in which each child at conception is a joy for all of us.  Imagine as they grow up them spending time in multiple homes for extended periods of time where they are loved and cherished as the most important thing on the planet.  Sharing them with others to broaden their outlook and deepen their sensibilities so they can cherish the next generation of humans.  And this sensibility spreading to all that is around us, the sky, the birds, the trees, the plants, the microscopic life forms under our feet.  Crazy, hey?

The U.S.'s Success in Religious Wars

Is it accurate to say all the wars in the Middle East are religious wars?  

I have often heard it said that oil is our main economic driver for the middle east wars, which one can easily build a case for even with Afganistan.  The region needs to be stable to avoid a disruption to oil flow.  That being said, as fracting increases our oil reserves and production the economic pressure will decline. But, why are they always fighting among themselves?  
When they talk about sects in Iraq, Iran, Afganistan, Egypt, Syria, etc. that is just code talk for different religions with their various attached cultures.  Each religion seems to be attached to an irrational ethical code that each Sect has developed over the ages.  Wikepedia has a good breakdown of the religions in Syria, and also their segregated geographical distribution.  

The muslim brotherhood (fundamentalists) are just more convinced they are right and willing to force others into their religous (irrational) views than most of the other sects.  But, dare I say if they are like all religions that I have had a chance to know personally, each is convinced they hold more truth than the rest of us.  They are more rational, more holy, more rational and know what is good and what is evil.  For example, your birthday suit worn in public is wrong, a sin, etc. under any of these sects I would guess.  A nudist colony would probably not be allowed in Syria.  (Oh yea, it is not allowed in most of the U.S. because various religions would protest, but that is different, right?)

A 100,000 people have been killed in Syria.  1000 perhaps by chemicals (more dead and more awful than bombs we are told).  In Iraq perhaps a million civilians have died, but our military was told not to count bodies.  Lucky they were killed as the result of the good guys (Us, as in U.S.) invading their country.  We would hate to be thought of as just another self-serving South Baptist religious sect with bigger guns.  We are after all the good guys.  And who cares about the casualities in Afganistan, after all, one of their terrorists killed 2500 of us and they deserve to die.  Besides, we are there to help them now; death tolls of civilians don't matter.  We don't even bother to count them.  Too much trouble.

We have not been able to stop the killing in Iraq or Afganistan, why do we think we can stop it in Syria.  Let's drop some big bombs, not counting the civilian deaths, and see if that stops them from killing.  It worked so great in Iraq and Afganistan.  So what is different this time.  Pretty much the same religious sects, same good guys and bad guys, all lining up to push their religion on others, guns included. 

Yes gas weapons are ugly.  But so is a drone wiping out an entire wedding party.  Or a U.S. soldier going on a rampage and wiping out several families.  Lucky they are being killed by the good guys ... it doesn't hurt as much.

Walmart and Jobs

Washington DC just passed a Living Wage Law and Wal-mart is threatening to walk away from Washington DC.    The deal is this, any retailer with more than a billion dollar a year in sales has to pay a super minimum wage of $12.50 an hour.  Businesses already in D.C. are grand fathered into the older, smaller minimum wage of $8.50 an hour.

We have discussed Myth #27 that Capitalism is Good For Workers.  Well, actually we have discussed how capitalism optimizes corporate profits but since workers around the globe are in over supply their costs (wages) are minimized.  Computerization and automation is increasing the supply of available (unemployed) workers as machines take over the jobs done in the past by humans.   Detroit is an example of how the story ends if we stay on this course.

I don't like this particular Living Wage Law because it does seem to be targeted at Wal-Mart and it does give their competitors already in the area a legislated advantage.  But, a Living Wage Law that treated all retail businesses equally would not unduly affect any one retailer.  Small businesses could be exempt, say mom and pop companies, and retailers up to a given number of employees in a given store, or below a certain level of annual sales.  Since Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world it is very easy if one comes from the top down to specifically target Wal-Mart; that is unfair and will probably not hold up in the courts. 

So, old school capitalists don't like any tinkering with the market place, but considering the present system is run by the good old boy club both from a political and big business perspective, we need some counter-forces to level the playing field.  If capitalism is to survive, we have to for now save as many workers as we can, pay them as well as we can in order to have consumers to keep the businesses and the whole system functional.  If all retailers in a given area play by the same rules, then competition still can flourish.  There are also no advantages or way to move most brick and mortar businesses overseas. 

Perhaps one unintended consequence of such a law is that there will be more pressure to replace workers with machines (automated tellers, cell phone payment systems, automatic surveillance systems, automated shelf stocking machines, automatic or semi-automatic inventory control systems, etc.).  So wide-spread adoption of Living Wage Laws would help in the short run, but on the long run, they are also doomed by the smart-machine-age.

In the long run, we have to change our culture and recognize that there are not going to be enough jobs for everyone and that we can not let everyone starve that does not have a job.  Working will be a privilege as it is already becoming.  Machines will provide all of our good and services, we simply have to set the output to a high enough level to take care of all the people.  

I know, this sounds like science fiction but it is happening all around us, The End of Work.

College Students Pay for More Border Control Agents?

Well, the House has just passed a bill to double the number of Border Patrols from about 20,000 to 40,000.    Is it what the Border Patrol asked for?  Of course not, who cares what they want.  It is simply a bill to make the Republicans look tough on Border Control so they can vote for the immigration bill.  That's all.  Does anyone think it will stop the flow of drugs into our country?  Does anyone think terrorists are going to stop coming in through the southern border ... oh yea, never mind, they fly in on an airplane from Europe mostly.  Does anyone think it will stop the flow of drugs from Mexico, see Our Drug War is the Definition of Smart.

By the way, much of the pot on the street now comes from California ... medical marijuana is considered the good stuff with good quality control.  That is reducing the pot from Mexico more than the border patrol.  

Where do the billions come from to pay for hords of Border Patrols.  Simple, the Republicans are letting the interest rate on the trillions of dollars of student loans double on July 1.  As I understand it, they are asking the Democrats to come up with savings in other areas to off-set the lost revenue from the students.  So, are students, yea the ones with too few jobs in this economy, going to pick up the tab for Border Control Agents?   That should endear the Republicans to the youth of this nation.  And, what about savings to off-set the billions of dollars proposed for more Border Control Agents?  Of course, it would be too easy to just decriminilize Pot; that would be stupid, think of all the drugs lords that would be jobless.  

 H.R.3116 (Department of Homeland Security authorization Act for FY2012) - would authorize programs and appropriations relating to border security. Among numerous provisions, this legislation: requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to present a 5 year comprehensive plan for “operational control” of the border; authorize no fewer than 21,300 border patrol agents, including 2,200 agents assigned to the northern border; establish the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) to collaborate and share information between federal, state, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement; conduct a GAO review of border patrol training; allow Customs and Border Protection to patrol federal protected lands including the use of motorized vehicles and tactical infrastructure; commission science and technology experts to pursue new border security enhancements; deploy canine units at the 5 busiest northern border ports of entry; initiate a six month pilot program for unmanned vehicles on the border; and require in person interviews for those applying for student visas from questionable nations. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) is the bill’s main sponsor. 
Cosponsors

Meet America's Future: Detroit

Jonathan Dalar: The Dystopian Reality Around Us

Detroit defaults on up to 18.5 billion in debt to avoid bankruptcy, at least for now.  

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr, appointed by the State of Michigan, is putting a plan together to avoid bankruptcy.  But, city pensioners and the debt holders will all have to take pennies on the dollar to keep the city out of bankruptcy. Too many people have to agree, bankruptcy is almost certain.

Detroit will be the largest city ever to go into bankruptcy.   

In 1909 it required 303 man-hours to make one car; in 1929 the time had been reduced to 92 man-hours, today it is 32 hours. The maximum production was reached in 1925-6 with 8,000,000 cars, now Detroit produces less than half that number. Use Google Image search to look up slums in Detroit.  The slums in Detroit remind me very much of the slums in Lima, Peru where I lived once upon a time.

So, what is the connection between how many people it takes to build a cars and bankruptcy in Detroit.  Try taxing the unemployed, the hopeless, the disenfranchised.  Then try to pick up trash, provide police and fireman, etc. using those taxes.  Then ignore the reality and borrow money trying to keep the city going, hoping for a miracle.  

Of course, salvation doesn't come, because the core problem is being ignored.  We no longer need many blue collar workers and of course, we need less white collar workers to manage the machines than we did the workers.  In the blog "If They Don't Work Neither Shall they Eat" , we look at how the entire system breaks down when we lose workers, who were also consumers, but are no more. 

Yes, there are still parts of the city, where the "Haves" live, versus the have-nots, that are beautiful including
the huge Cultural Center, freewheeling Royal Oak, posh Birmingham, the Ford-town of Dearborn, nearby Windsor, Ontario, and the college town of Ann Arbor, a short drive west.  Christmas, see below, is still celebrated in parts of Detroit.

Rochest in Metro Detroit ...

And parts of Detroit still believes in God, which is a mystery to me, see below.

Heidelberg Project Detroit, Michigan |

If They Don't Work Neither Shall They Eat

MICHELE BACHMANN: ‘IF ANYONE WILL NOT WORK, NEITHER SHOULD HE EAT’ | GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann promised to significantly lower funding to social safety net programs during a speech at the Family Research Council this morning, going so far as to suggest that people who can’t work should not eat. “Our nation needs to stop doing for people what they can and should do for themselves,” she said. “Self reliance means, if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.”

Hers is a misquote in spirit to the Biblical quote found in 2 Thessalonians 3:10:  "For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either."

What if someone is willing to work but there are not enough jobs to go around.   This is not the future, it is now and it is going to get worse, much worse and much faster than you can imagine.  Moore's law will insure the rate of change in our society will remain mind boggling. 

We are at a fork in the road in this country.  This fork is more significant than any fork we have faced in my life time.  Since World War II,  we have not had a decision to make that could lead us to continued prosperity and an abundant life, or to a prison state with the have and the have-nots. It all hinges on whether or not we can change our cultural biases and absorb the fact that we need less and less workers with every day that passes -- and it is going to snowball, very very fast.

Some have called it the New Machine Age, some have called it the End of Work, some claim there is no solution for the upcoming mass unemployment..  Machines, computers, robots, networks, simulators, automatic controls, neural networks, automated answering services, Watson the Computer, automated warehouses, software than learns, cell phones connected to the cloud, the cloud, etc. are all taking jobs that used to be done by humans.   We can produce all the good and services required to feed and cloth our country, and even the world, with less and less workers every year.  Yes, we have the capacity to feed and cloth the entire world with our technology.  Technology is not what stands in the way, it is US.  

We do not have a problem with production side of the equation.  We can produce as much of anything that we want to produce.  But, we need less and less workers, so we have less and less consumers.  And with less consumers, we turn down the output of the factors another notch and we need less workers ... less consumers, etc.  (The smart ones should have gotten it by now.)

There are two possible futures:  in one, the machines (and computers) feed and cloth the world, in the other, the machines are used to make the rich richer and the rest of the world scrambles for the crumbs.  Surprisingly, the rich are even richer in the first scenario, the egalitarian state, than the second, the prison state, because of economies of scale, i.e., the rich have a middle class to sell the goods and services created by the machines.  But, in the second, much of the resources of society is engaged in a police state, a prison state, where the poor and desperate fight for the crumbs like many in third world countries.  It can't happen? It is already happening:  capitalism is no longer lifting everyone, it is only lifting a small and shrinking elite to the top.  We are one or two generations, a dozen iterations of Moore's law, before a worker will have little to no value.  See American's Future : Detroit.

If we follow people like MICHELE BACHMANN and reduce the social safety net -- as we are already doing -- then our ultimate path to a have and have-not society is insured, and it is only a few more steps to a third world country.  All the guns in the world will not change that when we no longer have money for food, clothes or bullets.  Bachmann assumes that man is inherently bad, lazy, good for nothing.  If that is true, then we are doomed anyway, but if you believe man has an indomitable spirit that strives to achieve, to accomplish, to grow, then keep reading and reach out a hand, believe in people and help keep the social net in place.

The irony is that by installing a safety net that includes food, clothing and basic housing our machine age can flourish and people will be freed to do the types of things this new machine age will require: creating, entertaining, teaching, networking, coaching, encouraging, and most of all, learning and adapting to a new way of life where working is a privilege.  We will need to find purpose in our lives, we will no longer have the sole purpose of surviving that has driven man since they first stood upright on two legs and threw a stick at a tiger ten times their size.  Imagine having a safety net that allows you to pursue your dreams.  We are not talking about having everything with this social net, but at least some food and a roof over your head.

If you need to be reminded how wealth is being created in this world, just look at Apple.  $400 billion of cash in the bank.  American industry alone is sitting on trillions of dollars of cash.  They are not investing because their factories can produce all the IPhones required without less workers each year.  IBM just announced layoffs.  Microsoft just announced it is laying off 16,000 (2014). Apple and Microsoft are companies that helps other companies use technology to reduce their labor force and be more profitable.  As our prisons fill American companies have no where to use their trillions of dollars of cash generated by the new machine age because as the number of workers decrease the number of consumers decrease.  They also run the government via PAC's and the good old boy club, so their wealth is not likely to be taxed away -- nor will that alone solve the problem if that money is not used to create the social net or create some jobs.

Here is another sad thing about this police state we are headed toward ... it will destroy all that we have accomplished in individual rights, including those freedoms we have fought for around sex, race, and religion. This is serious stuff.  I realize I have not made a complete case on how we move from trillions sitting in corporate America to the police state, but perhaps I have given you enough doubt that you will start challenging your own belief system.

We can have the new machine age create a Utopian world, or a hell on earth.  It is our choice.  We either see and adjust to the new reality or we will spiral downward. Right now, America is behind the rest of the world in seeing this looming tidal wave.

A Carbon Tax Will Destroy Our Economy

The idea of taxing carbon-based fuel by charging for every pound of carbon put into the air has been dismissed by Congress and the American public without much thought of the possible benefits and exaggerated claims on what it would do to our competitiveness. 

The typical fee quoted is about $30 per ton of carbon, although there is nothing sacred about this value.  At this fee level it would cost perhaps a trillion dollars a year.  Or, put another way, it would pay off about a trillion dollars of debt a year.  What the tax level should be depends on what we are going to do with the money, what other countries charge, and how serious we are about setting an example to the world on minimizing climate change.

Okay, the biggest argument is that it would make American business non-competitive.  First, competitiveness does not depend on absolute costs but relative costs.  If every country had a carbon tax, no advantage would accrue to any nation.  Perhaps, those countries that use less energy per capita, would have to pay less, but in general they have less.  So, it is a tax that is automatically prorated according to the ability to pay and the efficiency with which the energy is used.

With regard to competitiveness of the U.S. with a carbon tax we have to look to China first, are they likely to pass a carbon tax.  China is drowning in pollution, the air around its biggest cities is atrocious.  A carbon tax would be a first step in fighting pollution in China and they are seriously considering a carbon tax.   Of course, there major concern is competitiveness with guess who, us.  A chicken and egg problem. 

So, we negotiate with China the phasing in of a carbon tax in both countries.  Europe, Australia, and most of Asia will probably follow as America takes a leadership role in global warming.  America could phase in a carbon tax, say $5 per ton, and wait for the world to follow us.  When the major players commit to $5/ton, we go to $10/ton, etc.  It's called leadership, it was what America used to do.

Now, here is some inside scoop.  America has the cheapest natural gas in the world and even with a carbon tax the U.S. is positioned as the global leader with energy intensive projects such as making fertilizer, ammonia, urea, electricity, aluminuim, magnesium, silicon, solar panels, titanium, etc.   The problem is not our compeititive position in America, our problem is that we are destroying the middle class and with it the customer that keeps the market place humming.  

If competitiveness is not an issue, then what should we spend the money on?   Paying off the debt seems like a area where we would get across the board acceptance.  Perhaps some large energy projects such as intelligent power grids, solar and wind farms, energy research, more efficient and electric cars, public transportation, improved train freight initiatives, intelligent traffic control, and perhaps education, especially in the math and sciences.

Another option would be to phase in a carbon tax while phasing out corporate taxes.  If we want American profits to stay in America the corporate tax, which encourages nothing but going aboard to countries with low corporate taxes would be replaced by a tax that was at worse incrementally higher than our competitors (China) by the staged approach above.  And given that a carbon tax encourages energy efficiency and reliance on substantiable forms of energy such as nuclear, wind, and solar, it is a win-win.  (Calling Nuclear Power substantiable is another blog.) 

All Student Deaths are Equal

Ever heard of Harper High School?  Ever heard of the 27 children killed there last year?  You didn't because they are not important like the rich white kids at Columbine High School.  Just poor black kids shot in the neighborhoods around the school. Gang shootings.  If you want to survive, you have to be in a gang.  Your gang protects you, other gangs kill you.

We just sent Pakistan $240 million to help them secure their country.  Is that right?  How much goes to Chicago to secure the neighborhoods around Harper High School.

When I lived in Peru, I always felt safe in downtown Lima because a soldier stood guard on all the key intersections with a machine gun, probably an assault weapon, I'm not a gun man.

 I once went to a beautiful waterfall in the Amazon forest.  A soldier with a machine gun waved me into my parking spot.  More soldiers lined the top of the mountain ridge as I walked down a path for a few miles on the way to a glorious waterfall.  I was told not to go beyond the waterfall because the Shining Path still controll that part of the jungle.  (Cocaine funds the Shining Path, so again, thank you America for the market.)  People always react when I tell them of such stories with shock on their face and with comments, I would never want to be in such a place.

Guess what?  I would gladly go back to Peru instead of hanging around in the neighborhoods around Harper High School, or in most big cities after dark.  A white man, after dark in a gang controlled neighborhood of Chicago.  Get real, a white man stupid enough to be there after dark is going to die.  I suspect policemen are not going to be caught out alone at night in those neigborhoods.  Peru would care enough to secure the neighborhoods, but in America we send our troops to a 150 countries around the world to secure the world, forget poor black neighborhoods.  Forget our pathetic Congress taking on such issues.  No election is ever going to be won by addressing security in poor black neighborhoods.  

There are two Americas.  The one for rich Americans, like Lehman Brothes CEO who walked out with about $500 million in cash as his bank collasped and his country got plunged into the second depression/ big recession.  And a second America that exists in the slums where unemployment runs 25 to 50% and children try to stay alive long enough to get out of the neighborhood.  Our government meanwhile sends serious  money to Pakistan and Eygpt to buy friends and sends in troops all over the world to secure our financial interests (oil, etc.).  

And as Americans, we don't give a shit.  Screw Harper High School kids.  We can't even pass background checks even though 90% of Americans favored the act.  Congress works more for the NRA than us, accept it. Will Congress do anything to stop gangs from controlling streets in America?  We don't even officially track the deaths (again thanks to legislation backed by the NRA).  

In the America I grew up in at the age of eight I road a bus down town (without a cell phone) in El Paso, walked a half mile from the bus stop to the YMCA.  I lost my nickel sometimes for the ten-mile ride home, but the bus driver took me home anyway because I told him my mom would give me an extra nickel to pay him the next time I went downtown.  Where did that America go?

Accepting Death with Courage and Compassion

In 2010, my wife ended a two year battle with cancer.  The cancer won.  My daughter who tried to help me with the ordeal had an emotional break down and is still struggling with the after effects.  My wife fought well, she fought death with courage, but we as a family never had the compassion to let "her accept death with courage."  We never got to the point where we said enough of the painful chemo and radiation treatments.  Enough fighting battles in a war that is already lost.  We didn't have the compassion to let her know it was alright if she wanted to accept death and enjoy the end as best she could.

I blame a lot of this on our medical profession who has not learned to face death with courage much less coach their patients to do so.  Of course, euthanasia is deemed immoral by most religious groups and therefore forced upon me (in the land of the not so free).  But, even short of euthanasia, there needs to be coaching/therapy to the patience, family, and friends.  It doesn't happen in this country from my experience with my wife and a few friends.  No time is set aside to accept death and say our goodbyes. 

On a bigger front, a significant amount of our growing medical cost crisis comes from keeping people alive at all costs for as long as possible.  It is legally challenging to let someone die even when they have a living will.  To begin preparing someone for death at the beginning of the treatment cycle for critical diseases might be seen as giving up on someone, but the price we pay is that we do not make rational, informed, and caring decisions on how to live our last days.  And, we can easily run up millions of dollars of medical bills for our society and hundreds of thousands of dollars for our family above what insurance will cover. 

I have always said I hope I get to live my last days well and then die in the woods.  I mean that a little metaphorically, but the spirit of what I am saying is this: "I want to live well and then, when it is time, accept death with courage."  I would like the support of my family and society when it is time.

No Honorable Way Out

Guantanamo Bay.  Ugly situation.  89 of the 160 prisoners there have been cleared for release by the military.  This of course does not mean they are innocent, because in the military system you are guilty until you're proven innocent -- except of course you don't ever get your day in court to prove your innocence.  So basically, once picked up you always guilty.  So, some of the guilty ones have been cleared for release ... perhaps a form of less guilty.

Ignore the 100 prisoners whose hopelessness has turned into a hunger strike, or the 27 that are being forced fed to keep them alive.   Let's just think about the 89 that have been cleared for release, some of which are on the hunger strike.

Will the 89 less guilty prisoners (where do they get the term detainees, is that supposed to make us feel better) ever be freed.  Apparently, it takes action by Congress to make that happen; at least to finance their move back to their native country.  Yea, in reality, it is probably bribes paid to high officials in the other countries to accept the return of these prisoners.  Any one in Congress that takes up the cause of the prisoners is probably not going to be re-elected.  It is not accident that Obama did not push too hard on Guantanamo Bay issue in his first term.  So, a Congressman doing something just because it is the right thing to do ... fat chance of that happening.  (Look at immigration reform and see how well Congress is doing.  NOT.)

So, what is going to happen to the prisoners.  Simple, they are going to die for the most part in prison.  The military is currently building a cardiac care building anticipating caring for these prisoners as they age.  And some will be successful in killing themselves despite the military's efforts to stop them.

In all there is no honorable way out for America, at least none that we are likely to take.  Or perhaps, there is no honor left in America? What have we created?  The best recruitment tool for terrorism since the Iraq invasion.  We have created 160 martyrs for the cause of Jihad.  We have also decided that security is more important than our principles.  We have gone further than that even, we have shown the world how callous and uncaring we Americans can be.  

Just Let Them Die -- Guantanamo Bay

Imagine that you were taken prisoner by a foreign government.  Perhaps you are visiting the Middle East and get caught up in a riot and are swept into custody with the mob you find yourself surrounded by.  You are moved to a prison far from the scene of the supposed crime without being charged of doing any wrong.  You are kept in a small cell for ten years.  You lose hope of ever seeing your family again.  You have children growing up that will never know their dad.  At some point, you give up hope and stop eating, a hunger strike.  But, you are not allowed to die, you are punished for trying to die, they tie you to a bed and ram over sized feeding tubes up your nose, but neither do they give you any hope.  They take all possessions away as further punishment, even your tooth brush and all reading materials.  You have a mattress and bed.  And periodically you are dragged to chair especially designed by the military for force feeding  upon which you are tied and then force fed with oversized size 10 tubes.

Of course, that is very similar to what WE have done to 160 people at Guantanamo Bay.  We do not even try to make their life better, or negotiate with them, or in any way treat them as humans.  

I am sure some are as guilty as hell of whatever you want to imagine, but I also suspect that some of them as guiltless as you as a reader ... and as innocent as the scene imagined above, i.e., being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

WE as AMERICANS are doing this.  Is this justice?  Justice for what?  Can our fears justify such actions against fellow humans.  What could they believe or think that could justify such treatment.  And obviously, we don't of anything WRONG THEY HAVE DONE or we would have charges against them.  So, we think they might of been guilty of something.  We even have three children we are abusing.  If we as Americans allow our country to do such things, are we good people?  Are we proud of belonging to such a country?

The entire world is lining up on the side of the PRISONERS not us.  Every international organizations including the UN are saying forced feeding is not humane.  Every person should have the right to deny medical treatment --- the concept behind a living will.   We as Americans simply do not care what happens to them as we have proven for ten years.  The humane thing to do is to let these people die. But, can we even be humane. 

Myth#14: Justice is Enough

Of course we want justice, and even vengeance perhaps in our hearts for what happened in Boston.  It is hard, as a knee jerk reaction, not to blame Muslims in general for this crime.  And there are those that are professed Muslims that are turning out terrorists, driven by revenge for real and imagined crimes against Muslims.  They are not the majority of Muslims or even a significant minority, but a small group.  We would call them a radical hate group perhaps if they were Americans on our soil, for example, if they were White Supremacists.  

Muslims can easily point to things like three wars in the Middle East, the killing of innocent people with drones, backing Israel in their denial of statehood for Palestinians, profiling of Muslims (however incompetently it was done), our right wing almost hate propaganda against Muslims, pushing back against Turkey's entry into the European Union, our treatment of enemy combatants, our continued abuse of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, etc.  Who wouldn't want to hate a country that has the power to do all these things largely unopposed.  The instinct is to fight these with the only weapons they THINK they really have, home made bombs, crude missiles sent into Israel, largely ineffective resolutions in the United Nations on Palestine statehood, and suicide bombers.  What else do they have to fight with, sticks and stones?  But perhaps, there are more weapons with the right allies.  

So, our gut reaction is revenge against all Muslims for the crimes of a few, their gut reaction is to oppose the Military Industrial Complex that runs this country by any means possible. 

Perhaps Muslims should realize that many Americans feel as helpless and frustrated and even outraged by America as our likeminded Muslim friends.  We are a minority for now that truly grasp that PAC's and not Americans run this country, that Congress's number one job is getting re-elected.  We also realize that America as a land of opportunity and a strong middle class is disappearing which is fueling a lot of desparation and eventually hate -- hate to be directed at Muslims and other minorities, gays, Hispanics, etc.  We realize that our government is non-functional but still very powerful and dangerous. There are a lot of Americans who see the same problems that Muslims see.  Our biggest crime, our apathy in losing control of a once great nation. 

This reminds me of a screen in War Horse the movie where Germans and Americans are in foxholes separated by a field covered with bobwire.  A horse runs through the bobwire and becomes entangled.  Both sides can see the horse thrashing around in the wire.  Both sides ache with the pain the horse is enduring.  Both sides agree to a cease fire to save the horse.  A beautiful scene that fills my eyes with tears from the love and humanity shown in that one moment.  But so often that humanity and love is missing when we become so afraid of a wounded 19 year old terrorist that shut a whole city down. 

Perhaps the Muslims can join with Americans that want to take our country back and base our actions at home and abroad on our principles, the principles that our father's died for in some wars that really were against injustice in the world, not for oil.  Good Muslims have the same principles from their heritage.  Because they are not principles created by our  fore-fathers, they were simply recognized by our fore-fathers.  They are principles inherent to all good people  based on fairness, a hand out for those weaker and those in need, kindness, acceptance of differences, tolerance, diligence, perseverance, courage, etc., etc.   

We should be united against the autrocities being committed from vengence, intolerance, and hate.  We need to seek ways to unite as good people against those of us that would seek to make us enemies.  Justice should include correcting the patterns of behavior leading to the conflicts between us.

Myth#5: We are safer after three wars and spending trillions of dollars.

Are we safer after three wars, expansion of many security agencies, spending trillions of dollars, and losing many personal liberties? Is there anything we might be doing that makes people hate us?

We have now fought three wars in the Middle East, spent about $4 trillion in wars, expanded security to about fifty agencies and government departments and created homeland security.   We have caused a quarter of a million people to die and displaced about 8 million people from their homes.   I am sure the world loves us for these accomplishments, but are we safer?

If anyone doubts our persistence in killing, then we have the ongoing drone attacks.  If you want to see how the Arab world views these drone attacks, read this article on Drone Attacks in Arab News.   Again,  I am sure people love us for killing their families, but are we any safer?

And of course we favor countries getting their independence and establishing democracies, so it is ironic that we are one of nine countries (all U.S. buddies) who voted against Palestine in taking the first steps in being recognized as an independent state via the United Nations.  The 138 countries that voted for it and the 41 that abstained (afraid of the U.S.?) of course don’t know anything about creating democracies; they must do it our way to be correct.  Surely, the world will soon recognize the error of their ways, but are we any safer by opposing statehood for Palestine?

Our constitutional rights have been abridged for our safety.  You can be declared an enemy combatant and scheduled for a drone attack without any due process of law … or you can just be put in jail without trial.  The Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act is very similar to McCarthyism were you could be destroyed for real or imagined links to the communist party.  Doesn’t this make you feel safer, by golly!

So, the FBI is saying there is no evidence there is a broader plot in Boston marathon attacks.  First, there is no evidence either way.  I suspect that this was said just to make us feel better.  But, let’s summarize.  We have killed many more innocent people and continue to do so than the innocent people killed on 9/11.  Do we expect people to love us? to help us?  

The way you stop a bomber is from tips from people that are sympathetic to the U.S., not people that have lost friends and families to our military and our drones.  Have we increased the number of people that want to help us by the wars?

How much good could have been done in the Middle East with say $4 trillion dollars.  Let’s see we could have given 80 million people in the Middle East full scholarships to U.S. Universities.  What impact would that have on human rights in the Middle East, in the U.S.  We could have built and operated thousands of hospitals, or Universities, or Walmarts in the Middle East.  In short, we could have improved the lives of millions of innocent people.  But, we had to revenge the deaths of the 2000 people that died at 9/11.  But, funny how we have ignored the 100,000 deaths in the U.S. from gun violence over the last decade, many of them children, much of it gang related.  (NRA keeps us from keeping good records, really, but another blog.)   Who gets vengeance for them as we flounder around with the most powerful and most expensive military force in the history of the world.  

WE HAVE BOUGHT INTO A PLAN THAT WE CAN USE MILITARY FORCE TO CHANGE THE HEARTS OF OUR ENEMY.  I guess we think we can scare them into obedience.  Do you think this makes the U.S. safer?

In any case