Category: Social Behavior

The End of the American Empire?

As horrifying as the thought may be the theory of “manifest destiny” may have been correct in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Just as the evolution of man himself perhaps the nation we built was just going to happen no matter how badly or well we managed things.  After all our founding fathers really weren’t different than many other men of their time.  George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson all had their own personal issues.  Other people of that time could certainly have stepped into the roles those men played.  History books support this understanding.

“What’s good for GM is good for America” was a mantra of big business throughout the 20th century.  General Motors (GM) was founded on September 27, 1908.  Just one hundred years later the company found itself asking for government aid to stay in business.  It isn’t just GM that has faced serious decline; many other companies that had been considered permanent parts of America have seen their life end or seen their fortunes fail dramatically.  U.S. Steel, Circuit City, Zenith, A&P are all examples of companies that either no longer exist or are significantly dwarfed from their previous size.

Apple, Xerox, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and DuPont are examples of companies that have turned back from potential failure.  Ford Motor Company has faced collapsed on more than one occasion and returned to success.  

So the question asked by Jim Collins (author of How The Mighty Fall) to 12 U.S. Army generals and 12 social sector leaders was: Is America renewing its greatness or is America dangerously on the cusp of falling from great to good?  The response was a great debate.

When you consider how the United States has coped with the world since 9-11-2001 it is easy to see where the nation has failed at what most of us thought about our nation.  We are the only super power in the world.  Russia invaded Georgia and has thumbed its nose at America.  Iran and North Korea have been successfully doing what they want without regard to the American government.  However, America was stunned but not defeated by the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The United States went forward to defeat its enemies.

No superpower nation has withstood the test of time.  Is the United States riding the crest of a wave?  There are many indications that this is the situation now.  General Motors may be an early indicator or maybe not.

Right now we lack the FDR or Abraham Lincoln to lead the way.  History has shown that a new leader will appear.  I can’t believe it’s all over.

Sonia Sotomayor May Be Opposed to Abortion Rights

Robert Gibbs, the president’s press secretary, told reporters that the president did not specifically discuss abortion with Sonia Sotomayor.  I do not believe that report for a second.  This is one of the most hotly disputed issues in the Supreme Court’s history.  Obama knows the impact that overturning of Rowe Vs Wade would have on this nation.

In today’s Washington Post the article Abortion Rights Backers Get Reassurances on Nominee it was reported as follows. “The president’s advisers could not point to a specific basis for Obama’s belief that he and Sotomayor share the same view on the issue, other than their general conversation about judicial philosophies. In nearly 20 years as a district judge and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York, Sotomayor has not confronted constitutional questions about the issue.”

As a very strong supporter of the Roe v. Wade ruling, I am not reassured at all.  To the contrary, I am very concerned about the possible overturning of that ruling.  Senator Barbara Boxer is quoted as saying she feels comfortable with the nomination but what is the basis for her comfort?  I  know of none.  Sotomayor is a Catholic.  Won’t her religion influence her opinion?  Of course it will.  

Supporters of the Roe v. Wade ruling need to call their senators to pressure them in their questioning of Sotomayor.  If there is any hint that she would overturn the ruling then she cannot be seated on the Supreme Court.

You Don’t Like America, Go Home

Roxana Saberi, a 32-year-old dual Iranian-American citizen, was released from an Iranian prison after being accused and found guilty of spying for the United States government.  She was born in the U.S.  How did she become a dual Iranian-American citizen?  Why is she so focused on Iran? 

Recently a dissident, Zhou Yongjun, from the Tiananmen Square demonstrations was arrested in China after being in exile since that event in 1989.  Why would he return to a country that sought to arrest him? Zhou was a permanent U.S. resident.

Latinos in Los Angeles have had many demonstrations in support of illegal aliens living here.  They demonstrate their love for the U.S.A. by waving the flags of their native countries.  Just to tell us they love America they have stickers and banners on their cars that say things like, “I love Guatemala.”   

Why are so many immigrants in the United States so focused on their previous home?  Further more, why have the children of immigrants been encouraged to focus on the country they left behind?

My grandparents were born in Romania and the Ukraine.  I was born in Canada.  I am a naturalized citizen of the United States and my focus is on America.  After all this is where I grew up and this is my home.  If you love those other countries so much why are you living in the United States?  After all no one forced you to move here and no one is holding you hostage.

Don’t Knock On My Door

About every three months the Jehovah’s Witnesses send a group of four people down my street.  The want to leave their Watchtower magazine and they actively try to discern anyone who might be a convert.  In addition there are other Christian groups that send their members into the neighborhood trying to obtain converts.  My wife sends them away with a nasty set of words.  I like to engage them in discussion for the purpose of encouraging them to think about their beliefs.

I view religious beliefs as a personal thing. It’s wonderful living in the Untied States because the nation honors everyone’s right to believe whatever they want.  There is no state sponsored religion.  “In God We Trust” appears on all of our money.  We can conclude that the nation does believe there is a God.  Other nations are not so open minded.  Arab nations base much of their law on Islam.  Israel identifies itself as a Jewish state.

My complaint is the visit by the Pope to Jordan and Israel.  Perhaps the Pope believes he can heal wounds between Catholics and Muslims or between Catholics and Jews.  What could he possibly say that will change anyone’s views?  I am happy with my religious beliefs.  His visit to my neighborhood would be greeted with about the same response that I give to those Jehovah’s Witnesses.  I am really not interested in your views and beliefs.  In the name of peace in this world don’t try to convert me and don’t spread hatred.  After all, God may be watching.

EMPATHY

Understanding, sympathy, and compassion are all synonyms for empathy.  I feel your pain (said with emotion in my voice) and I bite my lip.  Bill Clinton was so good at doing it.  He really made you believe he meant every word.  This has nothing to do with anything else but connection with the other person’s life problems.  We all have some serious issues.  Some are truly sad situations.

The law deals with facts not emotion and certainly not feelings.  The U.S. Constitution is the basic law that governs our nation.  It is the one set of rules that guides our government.  It was written in 1787 and officially ratified in 1789.  There is no reference to empathy in the Constitution.  That document does provide rules for amendments and there have been 27 to date.  None of them are about feelings.  All of them define rules and regulations.

Now President Barack Obama says he wants to appoint a new Supreme Court justice that has empathy.  Is he suggesting that a new member of the court ought to decide cases based upon empathy for the pleader?  Does “feeling your pain” justify a different ruling than not sympathizing with someone’s dilemma? I find the idea of appointing someone to the Supreme Court based on their feelings not in accord with facts. 

Can the president appoint a liberal Supreme Court judge even if he or she has no empathy?  Absolutely!  Liberal interpretation can be made for many things in the 21st century without empathy.  Equal rights, gun control, abortion are all hot button issues that require recognition of the impact of the new technologies and greater appreciation of human behavior versus those of the 18th century.

To Big To Fail

Bill Moyers Journal had two experts on the economy and the laws that regulate it on this week’s program.  Michael Perino a scholar of Law and Securities Regulation and Simon Johnson, former Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund.

 

This one part of their discussion needs to be repeated here.

SIMON JOHNSON: I think the banks have control of the state, Bill. Not the state control of the bank. If the state had control of the banks, the banks wouldn’t be able to turn around and say, no on your Chrysler deal and no way on modifying the rules about mortgages and allowing bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages in bankruptcy. These are two hot issues this week. The banks are saying no to the government.

BILL MOYERS: Here are these people receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer money who are now raising fees on credit cards, who are resisting any more regulation of credit card interest rates, who are, you know, saying, “We’re going to get out of the game if you insist that we do something about executive compensation.” What is going there as you see it? Both of you.

SIMON JOHNSON: I think there’s an arrogance of power. They think they won, Bill.

BILL MOYERS: Even now–

SIMON JOHNSON: And actually they’re pretty confident they won…

BILL MOYERS: So, they’re not hearing any of this clamor? This rage? They’re not hearing this–

MICHAEL PERINO: I think they are hearing it. I don’t think it’s reached the level that it reached, anywhere the level it reached in that period that we’ve been talking about in the 1930’s. So, maybe it isn’t quite strong enough yet.

 

In this discussion was the talk about “to big to fail” and the attitude that the banks, investment houses, and auto manufacturers have held that belief.

 

Their view happens to coincide with mine.  We cannot allow companies to grow to the size that they must be protected by society. “To big to fail” is too big to exist.  

Elderly Road Trip

While on a road trip, an elderly couple stopped at a roadside restaurant for lunch. After finishing their meal, they left the restaurant, and resumed their trip. When leaving, the elderly woman unknowingly left her glasses on the table, and she didn’t miss them until they had been driving about forty minutes.  By then, to add to the aggravation, they had to travel quite a distance before they could find a place to turn around in order to return to the restaurant to retrieve the glasses.

 

All the way back, the elderly husband became the classic grouchy old man. He fussed and complained, and scolded his wife relentlessly during the entire return drive. The more he chided her, the more agitated he became. He just wouldn’t let up one minute. To her relief, they finally arrived at the restaurant.

 

As the woman got out of the car, and hurried inside to retrieve her glasses, the old geezer yelled to her, ‘While you’re in there, you might as well get my hat and the credit card!’

An End to the Drug Smugglers

Illegal drug consumption in the United States has remained consistent for many years according to government reports. Chronic users of Cocaine were over 3 million people in 1994 and had dropped to 2.7 million in 2000.  The number of occasional users had increased from 2.9 million to 3 million people in that same period.  Similarly the number of Marijuana users was 11.6 million in 1998 and had grown to 12.1 million users in 2000.

 

The conclusion that I make from this White House report is that we have a consistent non-growing group of Americans who are determined to keep using drugs no matter what the cost in dollars, relationships, or jail time.

 

The similarities to America’s fight against alcohol usage are overwhelmingly obvious.  Gangs were promoted by our banning of alcohol and today gangs are promoted by the ban of drug use.

   

As George Will pointed out in his February 23 Newsweek column, “Banning Sunday liquor sales pleases Baptists – and also pleases bootleggers by increasing demand for their services.”

 

Most of us will agree that the use of tobacco and alcohol is damaging to our lives but we do not ban either of those substances.  Instead our state and federal governments apply substantial taxes to both products but not enough to stop the revenue stream.

 

Many people will say we must not allow the use of Marijuana and Cocaine because it addles the brain and those effected will harm the rest of us when driving a car or operating machinery.  Those people are charged and convicted under DUI laws.  Many lives have been lost by the actions intoxicated people.   Obviously our laws have not deterred the users.

 

We are not solving the problem of Marijuana and Cocaine addiction.  The statistics support that fact.  We are now losing lives in the United States as the result of the drug smuggling.  Reports of slaying far from the Mexican border are becoming common place events.

 

The solution is simple and it will put an end to the cartels that are becoming an international problem.  We must legalize the use of all the currently illegal drugs.  Instead we should apply taxes on the sale of those currently outlawed drugs.  The benefits to this plan are obvious.  We reduce the impact of gangs in our cities, drug smugglers are put out of business,  our government has a new source of revenue,  and the killing is stopped.

T.E.A. Parties

Taxes Enough Already!!  We don’t like taxes!   Let’s do demonstrations to tell the government our views.  There is of course a few small details that the organizers of T.E.A. Parties have overlooked.  Lower taxes means we won’t have the where with all to provide all the services we want.  A few that come to mind are:

  • Money to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
  • Money to pay for the FAA, FCC, FDA, and the many other important functions provided by the government
  • Unemployment insurance payments to all of those who have been laid off      
  • Public schools
  • Highway maintenance and construction
  • Police and fire protection

 

The list is too long to recite here but there is a myriad of services provided by our government.  Some are provided by local agencies and others are provided by the state or federal government.

 

At the beginning of April the federal government actually lowered withholding on our paychecks and lowered the actual income tax rates.

 

The complaint about our government ought to be about waste and inefficiency.  There are too many bureaucrats that do nothing to but add to the morass of functions that do not provide any worthwhile services.  Here in Los Angeles the city says it will have a $500million shortfall in its next fiscal year.  The solution will be in the elimination of unnecessary commissions and departments that provide very little to the welfare of most citizens.

 

President Obama has discussed improving the purchasing functions of the federal government.  Defense Secretary Gates has proposed eliminating unnecessary projects.  But wait, these actions will result in the loss of jobs. 

 

Everyone complains about the cost of government and “pork barrel” projects until the project is in their community.  Suddenly it’s not pork.  Oh yes, one other thing.  The Boston Tea Party was about taxation without representation.  If we don’t like our representatives we can vote them out office.

Mis-fits Get Media Attention

 

The Media (Accidently?)
Missed this one!!!!

 

Don’t  know  whether  you  heard  about this  but  Denzel Washington  and  his family visited the  troops at   Brook   Army Medical Center ,  in  San  Antonio ,   Texas (BAMC) the other day. This is where soldiers who have been evacuated from Germany come to be hospitalized in the United States, especially burn victims.  There are some buildings there called Fisher  Houses.  The Fisher House is a Hotel where soldiers’ families can stay,   for little or no charge while their soldier is staying on base, but as you can imagine, they are almost filled most of the time.
  

While Denzel Washington was visiting BAMC, they gave him a tour of one of the Fisher Houses. He asked how much one of them would cost to build. He took his cheque book out and wrote a cheque for the full amount right there on the spot. The soldiers were amazed to hear this story and want to get the  word out to the American public, because it warmed their hearts  to hear it.  The question is – why  do mis-fits like Britney Spears, Madonna, Tom Cruise and others make front page news with their ridiculous antics and Denzel Washington’s charity  doesn’t even make page 3 in the Metro section of any newspaper except the local newspaper in  San  Antonio.