Author Archives: fgeefay
The Value of Life
There is a belief that every life is priceless. Our culture at home is built around this belief. Murder is considered one of the worst crimes with the harshest punishment. Suicides are illegal and considered murder and unsuccessful attempts treated as mental illness. On the other hand we have no qualms about sending our young troops who have great prospects for a future in harms way to, if necessary, die in the service of their country and deliberately attack and kill human beings made of the same flesh and bones as ourselves other than living abroad and believing in a different religion. So in truth life is not priceless. Continue reading
Negative Political Campaigns are unDemocratic
Somehow negative campaigns turn me off as I am getting older but unfortunately I see how effective they can be. But they are very distracting and confusing as political campaigns tend to be. With PACs and Super-PACs and now the ability of rich individuals and corporations to contribute almost endless amounts of money to their favorite candidates, parties and voting issues as part of free expression political campaigns are very big business. And as such candidate hires very pricy spin-doctors whose job it is to make their candidate look godlike and their opponents look like pure evil campaigns get uglier and uglier. This is truly a tragedy that Democracy is no longer about the truth about candidates but about winning. That is why we have a Congress that is so inept. Continue reading
Anger, An All Too Common Response
In the last few days we heard news of a mass student shooting in a school in Washington and two policemen killed in a senseless shootout in California due to anger expressed through the barrel of a guns. Every day in the U.S. an average of 289 people are shot. But gun violence is only one of the many acts of anger. Expressing anger is far too common a response when confronted with situations we have difficulty dealing with. When we can’t resolve a situation to our satisfaction we act out. It seems we need to humble ourselves and stop getting so angry both as a society with so much gun violence and as a nation of so much war. Continue reading
Posted in Life's Lessons, Personal Perspective, Social Issues, Society
Tagged acting out, aggression, anger, gun violence, hate, injustice, love, peace, violence, war
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Ebola: Fight-or-Flight
Survival by flight when confronting an unknown threat or overwhelming foe is one of man’s strongest survival instincts. In the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa there are many who demand that the only course of action is to contain this deadly disease by isolate the nations where it is ravaging by closing boarders and ban flights from these areas or even the entire continent of Africa. On the surface this seems reasonable. Closing the boarders to Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will simply cause people in fear of contracting Ebola to cross the borders to other African nations illegally and spread it unchecked not knowing where it is coming from or going. As it rapidly spreads throughout there were be not enough world resources to contain and treat it from spreading throughout the world. Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government, Personal Perspective
Tagged deadly, disease, ebola, fatal, survival, underground
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Taking So Much for Granted
We all do many things throughout the day without giving much thought as to how convenient they are. Often we do them automatically without recollection of having done them. Take a very simple act of filling a cup of drinking … Continue reading
Time to Embrace Diversity
Though social and ethnic diversity has always been part of the American landscape it hasn’t always been generally embraced. Much of this nation is still struggling to recognize the richness and contributions that diversity inherent brings. Majority groups often feel threatened by the intrusion of other social influences such as members of the LGBT community or the physically or mentally handicapped or the Black community. This nation was created with a vision mirrored in the Constitution reflecting the openness, freedom, equality, and diversity so lacking under British rule. The Bill of Rights further embraces and protects the diversity of man to believe as they wished, speak their mines freely, and peruse their dreams and aspirations. The founders of this nation were extraordinarily perceptive in their vision for a perfect nation. They realized that the diversity of citizens would make this nation great. The diversity of each ethnicity, culture, lifestyle, and beliefs in a free environment in totality makes for a far more enriching society. Continue reading
Really Clean Nuclear Energy for the Near Future
After all the bad press nuclear power received after the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in March 2011 the world community has become paranoid about the use of nuclear power in spite of the rarity of nuclear accidents. But there are several old but newer technologies for generating nuclear power that are even safer. I have already written about breeder reactor technology. Another developing nuclear technology called Fusion emits a modest amount of radiation only while in operation and produces no radioactive byproducts. Two deuterium atoms, a heavier isotope of hydrogen having two neutrons instead of one, fuse together (Fusion) to produce ordinary helium gas releasing millions of times more energy than the most powerful conventional explosive. Lockheed Martin believes it can have an ultra-compact 100 megawatt Fusion reactor and generator that could be transported on a semi-trailer flatbed operating in ten years. This would generate enough electricity to run a very large aircraft carrier or thousands of homes. Continue reading
Obama’s Weakness and Failures
My favorite presidents are Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson. What these presidents had in common were a very turbulent presidency, the skills to work behind the scenes with an often hostile congress to barter for legislation important to them, and figuring how best to get very difficult things done. When President Obama was first elected he had a much less hostile congress to work with. He was able to pass the Affordable Care Act, something other presidents had failed to do. But he was not an especially skilled politician familiar with the art of negotiating. His skills were far more adept at going out to the public to ask for their support. This won him the Presidency in two elections. But this alienated him from Congress. Legislation is at the heart of making government work which Congress owned. Continue reading
Mixing Religious Moral Values with Government
The 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights to the Constitution of the United States clearly states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …” This is referred to as the Separation of Church from State and Freedom of Religion. Interestingly the separation of church from state is the very first Right of all rights listed in the Bill of Rights. Unfortunately some fundamentalist Christian groups still do not believe in the separation of church from state as defined in the 1st Amendment. They believe that the laws of God takes precedence over man’s laws. Continue reading
Values Encompassing Expressions of Love
The following are my personal values encompassing expressions of Love, not what Love is. There are several different definitions of Love but the one I am focusing upon is an acknowledgment of all the Love and good I have experienced in life and my desire to enable Love to my fellow man throughout the world. My Home page states four primary values of Love by which I try to live. Love has little value unless expressed in actions. Love for me is all about caring and being engaged and invested in making this a better world for all. Continue reading
Posted in Morality Values, Social Issues
Tagged aggressiveness and competitiveness, all inclusive, compassion, do no harm, empathy, equality, happiness, love
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Terrorism: Pure Evil or a Matter of Perspective?
According to the dictionary terrorism is “the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.” Wikipedia expands upon the definition as “those violent acts that are intended to create fear (terror); are perpetrated for a religious, political, or ideological goal; and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants.” Most ordinary people living in Iraq simply want to be left alone to make a humble living. They don’t know what freedom means nor is it important to them. They simply want to be left alone to live out their lives. Being shot at and bombed terrorizes them to death. So there are some who hate us and want to rid their nation of these foreign terrorist who killed and maim their family member. Some have lost their families and have nothing to live for so are willing to fight evil Americans to the death. So they join al-Qaida or ISIL and practice that form of jihad against American terrorist. Regardless of who is terrorizing who on whose homeland people who are being terrorized will consider the other side terrorists and pure evil. Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government
Tagged Al-Qaeda, American troops, evil, hate, intimidation, ISIL, ISIS, matter of perspective, political aim, ruthless, terrorism, terrorist, violence
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What Makes Science so Creditable?
I cannot stop being amazed at what modern science has accomplished in just the last 150 years. Just about all that we use and take so much for granted today were discovered or invented less than a century and a half ago. So what exactly is science? What makes science so compelling and globally accepted as the language of universal truth? Science is actually a methodology or process of discovery, experimentation, verification, and pear review to gain scientific consensus of its validity. In spite of the rigors of this scientific process it is often not exact. Science usually develops incrementally. Science is occasionally very wrong but it has a better track record than any other discipline and continuous refinements get closer to the ultimate truth. Sometimes people who know little of science try to discredit it for self-serving reasons. But Science is highly credible and cannot and must not be ignored even if revealing an inconvenient truth. Continue reading
Harnessing Greenhouse Gases
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is the primary Greenhouse gas that contributes to Global Warming around the world. What if this CO2 and other Greenhouse gases could be captured and turned into something useful to man so that it doesn’t get released into our atmosphere? In fact there is some research being done around the world to see if this can be done but not much funding or public press is given to such research. Having a manufacturer process for capturing and using most of the CO2 released by power plants for example would have a significant impact on Greenhouse gas emissions and thus Global Warming. Continue reading
Education Failures Ripe for Vouchers
U.S. ranks among the lowest in math and science literacy in our public schools among developed and developing nations yet spends more per student on education than anywhere in the world. The question is how is this country to continue its leadership in technology and as an industrial nation as other nations quickly catch up and pass us by? For decades we have been arguing over how to increase the literacy and graduation rates of our public schools. While we have made some modest progress Asian and European nations outpace us in education and are on the verge of surpassing us as innovative technological and industrial nations. Since public education is failing to serve the needs of the next generation I think it about time we give serious consideration to school vouchers to give our public schools some serious free-market competition. Continue reading
Upward Flowing Economic Prosperity
The Trickle Down Economic theory proposed by the rich has it all backwards. It theorizes that tax relief of the rich will spur them to move their equity around which will stimulate economic growth. Perhaps it will stimulate further economic wealth for the wealthy but it will have little effect upon improving the standard of living for the average wage earner. The greatest factor for economic growth is consumer spending, not individual prosperity or investments. The more people spend on goods and services the greater demand there is for consumables and products. More demand means expanding businesses. Expanding businesses means more demand for jobs. Continue reading
More Consumer Power to Realize Our Dreams
The U.S. seems to have strayed from Dr. Martian Luther King’s “I have a dream…” in the 1960’s to only the very rich can afford to dream in 2010 after the Supreme Court rulings on Citizens United and in the 2013 ruling on McCutcheon. It is bad enough that the almost powerless middle class and the powerless poor have progressively less purchasing power and almost no political power but the extremely rich are now able to lend their enormous wealth towards further influencing votes and our legislators to rule over the nation in their interests. Continue reading
What People Do in the Name of God
Throughout the history of mankind wars have been fought, people have been persecuted and genocide has been committed in the name of God or against those of differing religious beliefs. What I do object to is the way religions practitioners often practice it. One thing I am convinced of is that if there is a creator of the universe who is infinitely wise and knowledgeable (omniscient) then one can only rationally conclude that all of creation must be exactly as it was intended. For the creator to say to man that he condemns the actions or belief of certain people and that his believers should punish, destroy, or outlaw their actions in his name is to say that God made a mistake. Continue reading
Posted in Religion, Social Issues
Tagged Creator, God's judgment, God's will, judgement, rational science, sin, vengence
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Much Ado about Going Nowhere
Cars are the primary mode of transportation in the U.S. even for short distances. But there are alternatives to the use of cars if we are willing to get off our seats and use some human power to move ourselves from one place to another. Ironically the U.S. has one of the greatest stores of transportation energy in the world but all we do is accumulate it to great excess. That energy is our body fat which is embarrassingly abundant and a major cause of medical complications such as diabetes, heart and coronary disease, skeletal problems, and added weight that our bodies are not designed to constantly bear. Continue reading
The Price we Pay for Gas in the US
Since the price of oils is a commodity it is fixed everywhere around the world, so the difference people worldwide pay at the pump is based primarily upon the taxes imposed by each state or nation. In general the more wealthy the people are of a nation have the higher the taxes imposed upon fuel. The single most blatant exception is the United States where we have by far the lowest tax rate on gasoline of all the developed nations and most developing nations. Fuel is considered a luxury everywhere else except the United States. Currently the United States federal tax for gasoline is $.0184 per gallon vs. for example Germany where the tax is around $3.50 per gallon or about 20 time higher than the U.S. Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Government, Social Issues, Society
Tagged air pollution, better public transportation, developed nations, gasoline tax, gass guzzling cars, high speed rail, inconvenience of car ownership, oils is a commodity, standard of living, US has lowest gas tax, walking and biking
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Terrorist and Terrorism
When one hears the word terrorist one usually conjures the images of Osama bin Laden or Al-Qaeda Islamic extremists suicide bombers blowing them selves up and killing many Americans such as at the Twin Towers on 9/11/2001. The problem with our view of terrorist is that we have been brainwashed by our government and media (news, TV, and film) to think only one dimensionally about this subject. As a matter of fact Arab Islamic extremest such as the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda are not the only ones to employ terrorism. Looking at this through the eyes of many Arabs the U.S. is the terrorist. Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government
Tagged 9/11, Al-Qaeda, civilians, intimidation, invation of Iraq, Islamic extreamist, Taliban, terror, Twin Tower
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Is Al-Qaeda bent on Killing Americans?
There are those who see Al-Qaeda as a militant group of mad Taliban jihad terrorist who are out to kill all Americans at any opportunity. That may sometimes seem the case on the surface but if you really pay attention to what they do and especially what they don’t do you might come to a somewhat different conclusion as I have. First of all it would be a gross underestimation to assume that the leaders of Al-Qaeda are crazy madmen. They are quite sane and very rational people. They may hate us but their actions are very measured and well planned and executed to gain the greatest effect of demoralizing us. Continue reading
Posted in Foriegn Policy and War, Government
Tagged 9/11, Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, demoralize, Homeland Security, Islam, jihad, Near East, suicide bomb, Taliban, terrorist
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ouR Social Conscience 