Category Archives: Government
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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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
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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“War Powers Act” Repeatedly Ignored by Presidents
Article I, Section Eight Clause 11 of the Constitution says that “The Congress shall have power… To declare war…” In Article II, Section 2 the Constitution says “The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States…” Clearly the authors of the Constitution intended that Congress should have the sole responsibility for declaring war and that the President would have the power to command the troop once war has been declared, a clear division of power regarding war. Over the years the presidency has gained more and more power to engage in military actions independent of Congress primarily because a single person can response quicker to military emergencies. Towards the end of the Vietnam conflict Americans had enough of police actions so Congress pass the War Powers Resolution (Act) in 1973. Continue reading
“Gettysburg Address” – a Wake-Up Call
Somehow chills always run up and down my spine every time I hear the Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln recited. This speech did not receive great attention when given to commemorate all the soldiers who had given there lives during one of the bloodiest battles of the bloodiest war this nation has ever engaged, the American Civil War. But a newspaper man had written the speech down and published it. It was one of the shortest speeches ever given by an American President, consisting of only 3 relatively short paragraphs spoken in less than 5 minutes. However its significance sunk in after its publication and is now considered one of, if not the greatest speeches ever given in this nation. Continue reading
Vision for a New Nation
It doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to agree that our government has strayed far from the vision our Founding Fathers had for this nation. So what can we say was the vision of our Founding Fathers? Some wanted a government that somewhat resembled British rule and others who wanted the exact opposite. The Declaration of Independence and the framing of the Constitution and Bill of Rights amendments express the consensus conclusion that the new government should have distributed powers consisting of very cleverly conceived checks and balances allowing no single person or branch of government too much power. The other consensus was that the government should promote the best overall well being of all citizens through elective representative who would do exactly that, represent the best interests of their constituents. Continue reading
Do American Juries Dispense Justice?
One major problem is that most jurors are by in large ignorant of the technicalities of law and trial procedures. Both the prosecuting and defense attorneys know this and try to use this ignorance to their advantage. They often appeal the the jury’s emotional sense rather than the legal merits of the case. It is a judge’s primary responsibility to make sure the two lawyers follow the technicalities of the law when the other attorney raises an objection. He does little to enlighten the jury of such legal technicalities leaving it to the two lawyers to spin the case in their favor. There are obviously better lawyers than others, so depending upon the ability of each lawyer a case can be won or lost based upon his or her skill at outmaneuvering the other lawyer and influencing the jury. Continue reading
Free Expression by Personal Wealth
Last week, on April 2, 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in McCutcheon v. FEC that a single donor can give up to $3.6 million in one election cycle, money that political parties and other political organizations, PACs, and Super PACs can now funnel into aiding individual candidate who still have campaign limits as well as to ballot initiatives. This is a 30 fold increase over what an individual could previously contribute. I have a larger problem with large political contributions being a 1st Amendment protected free expression. Protected free expression implies expressions publicly expressed without consequence. In order to protect the expression of donations as in the 1st Amendment there must be something needing protection. Continue reading
Inequality for All
The other day I viewed the documentary “Inequality for All” by Robert Reich for the first time on NetFlix. I was struck by its similarities to articles I have written in past posts such as The Economic Power of the Middle Class March 19, 2013 and Prosperity is with the Masses September 16, 2013 in terms of the disparity in income between the very rich and the typical middle class as well as the parallel conclusion we both drew that the well being of our economy depends largely upon the ability of a large middle class to spend on goods and services. As a matter of fact our mutual conclusion seems quite self evident so I fail to see why so many people don’t realize this. Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Government, Inequality, Social Issues
Tagged American workers, conomic growth, goods and services, higher upper class taxes, inequaties between the rich and middle class, lower middle class taxes, Middle class, middle class spends, more money for the middle class, rich invest, upper class
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The Job Terminator
We are already experiencing the subtle impact of job terminating technology today. Our tech savvy technologist are turning out new technological innovations at an ever-increasing rate. New generations of cell phone come out ever six months to a year that are each smarter and cheaper than the previous. Other gadgets are being created constantly to satisfy our insatiable appetite for gadgetry and convenience. Ask yourself what can people do that computers are unlikely to do other than screw thing up. Through artificial intelligence computer can learn to get increasingly smart and they never forget anything and some can constantly think billions of times faster than us without rest. So unemployment is no longer as a result of the 2008 crash. It is as a result of outsourcing and automation. Continue reading
Immigration Myths
The President would like to see the passage of an immigration reform bill which would allow many undocumented immigrants to gain legal status. This is strongly opposed by many conservatives and Tea Party members who claim that illegal immigrants take … Continue reading
Posted in Domestic Issues, Government, Legislation
Tagged cheap labor, deport, illegal aliens, immigration, immigration reform, minorities, undocumented
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U.S. Public Transportation Failures
America’s love affair with their cars continues unabated as auto sales continue to increase making that industry and oil companies richer each year. Cars are among our most expensive and cherished possessions. But there are costs associated with car ownership … Continue reading
Is Pro-Choice Biblical?
Anti-abortionists say that Pro-Choice means you are pro-abortion and are for killing fetuses. For many Pro-Choice advocates nothing could be further from the truth. Pro-Choice simply meant having the right to choose to have an abortion or not to have … Continue reading
Are Jobs Gone for Good?
Job recovery since the 2008 economic meltdown has been sluggish and lagging other economic indicators. Yet industries are making record profits and the stock market has significantly exceeded its highs prior to the economic collapse. Executives are making record salaries … Continue reading
How Blind is Justice?
Wealth is the root of all power. Mega wealth corrupts absolutely. Our civil justice system is supposed to be fair to all parties. This was the foundation of a justice system that equitably rendered civil judgements fairly and impartially (justice … Continue reading
Posted in Crime & Justice, Government
Tagged civil trials, justice, power corrupts, powrful corporations, the average citizen
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Citizens United – Giving Corporations same Free Expression Rights as Citizens
I read the following article by Laura Bonham, a small business owner, which mirrors my sentiments upon the Supreme Court’s ruling on Citizens United which has enshrined corporations the same “rights” as ordinary citizens in the Constitution. I don’t do … Continue reading
The Big Disconnect
There seems to be a big disconnect between formal education and real life. This is no less true than the discussion for the very low turnout of young voters in America. A possible solution to this low turnout problem is to lower the voting age to a level such that what all children lean about voting in school can be related to the actual voting process while still in high school. Continue reading
Posted in Domestic Issues, Government
Tagged congress, lower voting age, mess in congress, more voters, registered voters, Voting, Voting age, young voters
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Freedom of Choice
Our nation was established on the principle that all men are equal and endowed with the fundamental right of freedom of choice. This is expressed in the Declaration if Independence as well as the Bill of Rights. That is what … Continue reading
Capital Punishment
Capital Punishment is a topic that I have personally struggled with most of my life. If a person were to deliberately take the life of one of my loved ones would I want vengeance? One of my core values is … Continue reading
Posted in Crime & Justice, Morality Values, Social Issues
Tagged an eye for an eye, capital crime, closure, compassion, execution, forgive, killer, love, murder, New Testement, Old Testement, victim's loved ones
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ouR Social Conscience 