Just another report about American friction

Just last night about midnight on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee a friend of mine about age 24 was lambasting the current state of affairs here in America. I (age 62) had just awakened and so was full of senior energy to debate. Later I crashed, burned, and died, as did he. Then it was about 0200 locally.

What astounded me was his ignorance about the facts. What did not astound me was the reports of “his” facts.

I’ll only focus on one of his “facts”. It was that Gore was the legally elected president in 2000. I was surprised to hear this even now in 2010. When I asked him an historical question, like how many times this had happened before when the majority vote went one way, and the electoral vote went another way, he was embarrassed. He could not answer. He thought his passion was in his time and according to his beliefs. He was astonished to hear this has happened before, like three times if you include 2000.

My suggestion that he use the Amendment process to change the Constitution was accepted. It is a pain in the tail, by the way. But there are like 27 Amendments, so we can change our Constitution if we want to. He agreed with the idea of the rule of law, and taking an oath to an idea, vice an individual.

He had never even heard of King Louis 16th or the Weimer Republic. The idea of hauling in a wheel barrow full of paper money to buy a loaf of bread was simply silly to him. The idea of taking an oath to some individual (like Hitler), like what happened in Nazi Germany or is still happening in Iran with the Army of God, was new to him. The idea of paying a bribe just to travel was also new to him.

From there, I went on transmit, which is dumb. But I did. I made analogies to other forms of governments which I have experienced (lived under) around the world. Some got his attention, like what I did to keep from being assassinated in Istanbul a long time ago. Is that what we want here in America?

Last I heard, unbelievably to me, the old equivalence argument. In his opinion, the last 8 year president was so bad that to express my disappointment in the present president was also bad. I got my feelings hurt when he called me a Republican, and I reminded him for the umpteenth time that I was an independent.

So I guess there is much friction about. Some of it is based on pure ignorance. Some of it is based on facts.

In the end, I guess it is what the voters decide, good, bad, or indifferent.

Here is a guess about the Korean peninsula

The present leader of North Korea will die from getting old. Now by nepotism, he inherited his position from his father, and he was savvy enough to survive. Now will his chosen son inherit it in the same way; most doubt it. I agree.

What happens when the people who live in North Korea evolve in this case. Mostly most think they just want to live (like eat and have families), but other factors come into play, too.

Many will move to a better place, like South Korea, and some will move to China by the border area. All this emigration will cause much friction. In the meantime, normal Korean practices from the South will also begin to assert themselves. But in the same time, there will be a Korean uniting that will take decades to enhance. In all this there is hope.

The future debate to this westerner is how will it all sort out. My guess is just fine. There may be surprises along the way.

The idea is that Koreans are different than, say, Japanese, or any kind of Chinese.

Now there are wild cards. For example, will the humans who rule the present government in North Korea go nuclear in some way? Or will the USA government choose some military option response. Or will we just let it go?

What is important to Americans

Is it our quality of life we enjoy these days? There are many reasons to think so.

This idea includes our government getting involved in charity to take care and provide opportunity to our perceived American have nots. In the meantime, there is still much USA private charity going on. Even our dead beats seem to benefit, depending on where one lives. And what is so sad is that we also turned so many of our mentally “off” people out to the urban streets about 50 years ago, and now they have to survive as homeless people.

This these days is not too important to Americans, I think.

What is important is quality of life to most Americans.

And so many American politicians (mostly federal), mostly in the last two or three decades ago, passed things like NAFTA, and other free trades laws. I think the consequence was an improvement of our quality of life. An example might be the clothes we wear, or the electrical widgets we use today. So many common Americans are living like royalty in earlier times. This is good, I think.

Along the way, I ask a question. Have we Americans given up our independence to be ourselves. If the answer is yes, then there are two obvious answers. One is yes, let other humans tell us what is going to happen. Second is no, we are going to be Americans and new world, and we will sort it out. In this case, the sorting out will be normally human, which is pretty neat in the long run.

Now that may be expensive (as in quality of life), but so have other cultures and tribes gone through this process. We are probably new world better, I hope.

One more thought. How much quality of life can we afford? Where I live on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, using a hammer drill also requires “bits”. One stone sign project took two bits from China and one bit from Brazil. Later I went to a German bit which cost much more, but it worked in the end. You go figure.

So what is our quality of life benefit going forward to be? I would suggest to vote.

Our vote, at all levels, school board, county, state, and federal, will best suggest what is important to Americans. And in this is the way to our future we choose to go.

Trust and faith

Most Americans will accept about anything political. But if they lose trust and faith, then things will begin to change. We all expect to be ruled at all levels, and also expect to be represented at all levels. In our American past this idea has been to most citizen’s advantage, and they voted that way. Hence the trust and faith idea. And all levels means federal, state, county, and school board, for example.

The key idea to this voter is to be represented, and of course be able to vote. How else can I exhibit trust and faith in those who display these qualities I choose to vote for? Later paying the taxes for all this usually comes as I expect it will. Paying taxes is never an enjoyable experience, like in paying property taxes.

To follow this one line of logic, it is shameful that my daughter who lives in Charlotte, NC, has to hire private police protection on top of the local property tax paid police protection. Now that is a version of her local trust and faith. And you know what, she and her family are moving away.

If that is what it has come to in Charlotte, then voting will become a big deal in the next couple of decades. Paying property taxes is supposed to provide basic services.

Even paying other taxes, like federal income tax, is much the same. Having written one check to the federal government for over a million dollars in 2003 or so brings up the question of trust and faith, again. I don’t know where it went, and most importantly, how did I benefit from the payment?

Now there is much publicity, aka, news, about “spreading the wealth around”. Now many such good intentioned ideas have been tried before. Just where I live in Tennessee is such a recipient of these ideas, including hippie communes that migrated here. All, historically, fail in the end.

Why is pretty simple. It is a human kinda thing. Not all humans will tolerate dead beats, both males and females. One of the burdens in life is to have to work to support a family we choose to have. Now there are many variations of how we humans exist. All these variations include trust and confidence.

Now being manipulated by the best American advertising and political focus group efforts thrust to most Americans by our present media is just an advancement from the old time Nazi propaganda. The idea is pretty much the same, just more professional.

Now just how we will respond and vote is still unclear. The idea of human trust and faith, I suspect, will count a lot. Also organizing efforts like community organizers will influence things, too. But in the end numbers count, and the majority of Americans will vote based on their trust and faith.

Progressives in Putnum County, Tennessee

Things have changed up here on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. And we locals have elected these present local rulers, and their hired minions. While this is a pretty nice rural county in the USA, I think our elected leaders and their hired minions have become local rulers, vice local representatives.

Of course, this is a voter decision, in the end.

So what is important to us, the local county citizens?

Now I have my opinions, and most others who read this post have their opinions.

I just hope, and will vote this way, is to do the basics, like security (police), fire protection, clean water, and waste water stuff. Even public education of our children is also a big deal. All the other things our local governments have done in the past may pale, I think.

What I find interesting these days in local politics and rules is that local trespassers can complain to the police after I catch them invading my land, and along the way doing vandalism and damage to my land, and then complain to the police that I am being a pain.

Such is living in a progressive rural county in Tennessee. And I am still paying local property taxes for this “treatment”.

Just who is being in charge, or even represented?

I am just glad I can vote.

Another electricity update

There are two kinds of public electricity. One is called DC which was promoted by Edison. The other kind is called AC which was promoted by Tesla and is what we use today. AC won out a long time ago for good reason.

Now here In rural Tennessee, like Monterey on the Cumberland Plateau, we are pretty used to electricity on demand these days. Rural electrification occurred around the 1940’s or so, I think. So more to many, things like washing machines and refrigerators and freezers became very useful. So did telephones. And we bought them and used them.

So is electricity on demand a “right”? For example do we expect that the lights will come on when we turn the switch. Do we expect that our refrigerators and freezers will work 24/7/365? Do we even bother to understand where all this “energy” came from?

The alternatives, like oil lamps and candles, like we are taught Lincoln learned by, are not as good. In other words, rural electrification was a benefit to most rural Americans at the time, who both enjoyed the benefit, and probably voted for their benefit, too. And they probably spent their money at their time to even buy things like washing machines and refrigerators and freezers. They probably even hooked up a telephone, and paid for it.

In my experience, even my mother’s father had a telephone number like 7, later 7 and 22, in this then rural town called Franklin, Tn, circa 1930’s or 1940’s.

So which way are we common citizens going to go in regards our electricity usage?

It is a voting question

Do we Americans want to be ruled or just represented?

The question is a big deal to many. So many humans in the world cannot just be represented.

Now here in the USA there seems to be today a kind of “perfect storm” of the executive and the legislative working together to rule us. And we did vote for them, so be it. But we can vote other ways in the future, too, it seems. And even today we still are complaisant, as even paying all our taxes on time, local, state, and federal. After all, we did vote for these people, local, state, and federal.

As an old song goes by Bob Dylan, the times they are a changing.

My encouragement is to vote. That’s it.

Those who have organized their voters, as in community organizers, have done a good job. But in the future, the majority can still vote, too. There are alternatives, like what most voters think, and are willing to pay for.

The idea is pretty simple. It has been offered many ways over hundreds of years. Basically if the minority have nots finally figure out in a democracy that they can vote themselves incomes from the majority haves, then eventually, the whole system will collapse.

The obvious question is why would these minority voters do such things. The obvious answer is selfishness. Mostly in the short term, like decades, it seems. What’s in it for me today seems to be a human embarrassing tendency.

So just go vote.

The idea of the USA and the new world are so different from the rest of the old world still counts. That is probably why so many of our ancestors immigrated here. And being able to vote was a big deal.

The good news and the bad news

Guessing about our USA future is tough and mostly a waste of mental effort, I think. Most guesses still depend on where one lives and what they do, and of course, their experience in their lifetime. Now age seems to add to the seasoning in all this idea.

Yet we are still interdependent, and so what one does one place may affect me where I live, for example.

Here’s some guesses.

First the good news. We Americans in the USA are not too shabby. Like all other humans in the world, we will work, and use a goal of benefiting our family’s futures. And I suspect while most don’t think about the ideology, most will vote and even fight if need be to keep this good system going. Even our government and private support of our dead beat elements should benefit in the long run. Even our retiree’s in the present laws get a good quality of life. What a country.

Second the bad news. This wonderful country and underlying system may collapse for lack of funding. All these wonderful benefits, at all levels, like school boards, county, state, and federal, may exceed the ability to pay. If this happens, then the adjustments and friction is going to be painful. Anyway, if the money isn’t there, then it isn’t there. Now the borrowing option, which has been a last resort to so many politicians now for many decades, may probably come to an end.

So here’s a guess to our next 100 years future.

We USA Americans will in the end be ourselves, to include those we vote for. And we will be still America as a United States vice some “federal government” . Tribes and other such local ideas (like state and county) will still count. And I predict, compared to the rest of the human world, the so called “new world” will still attract a lot of humanity. The alternatives are worse it seems.

The family future idea counts a lot, too.

So much for the good news and bad news.

The coming political and voter decisions

Which way is it going to be? Are our local county and state governments going to provide basic services as a priority, or provide other priorities at the expense of basic services?

Now I define basic services as police, fire, clean water, waste water treatment, and reliable electricity for me and my loved ones.

The first patterns of behavior are slowly emerging, and it doesn’t look good for providing basic services as a priority. Said another way, if you can’t do it all, at least do the basics. And so many Americans work at providing these basic services do so well.

Now some governments do better than others. This can be construed as a local type of political and voter decision.

Now to abandon basic services is to invite anarchy, by the way.

There is an old saying that goes like this: “For lack of knowing what to do, we do what we know”. Those political leaders used to the status quo may end up like the dinosaurs who perished. Perhaps this analogy applies to some state and county governments, today. Perhaps it might even apply to some public school boards. It might even apply to our federal government.

I guess I wonder if it will finally take people dying to prompt the change to the present pattern of behavior. What a shame if this is what it takes. And this “taking” will last a long time, I think. Again, it did not have to happen, if it does.

What a shame.

Most of us just want to wake up in the morning and do a good job. Along the way some clean water and flush toilets help. So does knowing I can call a local police and fire force if I need too. And having the lights come on when I turn the switch helps too. And counting on the electrical refrigerator and freezer working is a nice plus in the preservation of my family's food.

The idea of change in our American future is what most Americans want.

So many that voted for Obama, and his party, was on the hope of change. After all, after now decades of the alternative Democratic and Republican Party choices, well, so many Americans just wish they had another choice. Said another way, Obama is not the one as it has turned out.

Now we Americans still have to live in the real world, including our American world. And our world includes other elections other than federal, like state, county, local, and even school boards. And they impose taxes, too. We just have to sort it out, like normal.

So how do we go forward in our American future?

I don’t know.

But I suspect change is still coming, all for our best, at least in future voter’s minds, at all levels, by the way.

The key point is being able to vote.

I suspect many hard times are coming, and may last for decades. I just hope the latest “crisis” does not become an excuse to transition to some kind of royalty or dictatorship government. I just hope we can still vote at all levels, and for what we think is in our interests.

Now at least the German voters in their time elected people like Adolf Hitler to impose himself and his Party.

But we are different, and their method back then won’t work today in America. We are so different, and hopefully our future votes will express it.

Where’s the professionalism?

It is hard to figure this one out as far as reporting goes. After all, most world citizens just want the “news”, as in reporting the facts, and that is good enough. Now things in western news seem to have gone off course, at least for a while. Now also we humans have some hope in the more eastern type of reporting, as in these humans are also OK.

Now I think most people wish for the best, and anticipate the worst, and use their news to help them along. Mostly most readers of the “news” just want to learn a business advantage or family advantage they can anticipate to enhance their family’s future. This is so human.

What is hard for this human who lives in the USA is to discern what is “facts” and what is “opinion”. Having been a professionally trained sales person (a USMC recruiter), I understand the idea of a “sales pitch”.

And there is also the rest of humanity, like the rest of the world. My example invokes India, who have I think has 400 million humans living without electricity, so obviously there is no electrically delivered news. Yet I suspect they get their news, one way or the other. And they count, too.

My western type summation is simple. A lot of our fellow humans are simply different from people not like us, like easterners, and they have families and values, too. If you follow this logic, then perhaps we can lead a new way to just reporting the “news”. How about “just the facts”, which takes a lot of work and time in western talk. This idea, in academic talk, would be a paradigm shift. It’s going to happen, just how is the question? What’s the local joke…do you want fries with your order?

Now easterners are no better, since they are humans, too. But perhaps we humans can exploit all this now long established, and latest technological means, to transmit information, to include the news.

What appears to me is that so many of our young people in journalism schools are being taught about how to deliver the news, and even how you look, is a big deal. Now this idea may work on parents, but I don’t think it will work on the world, including the USA.

Now this will take some professionalism to make things better. Ideas like oaths mean something will come into play.

Are the western educators up to this. I hope so, since I am a westerner. But if not, then I guess people like them will simply be superseded in time.

Would you like fries with your order?

Is there a privileged class in the USA?

The simple answer is no.

Now some may think they are from a privileged class, even an elite class. After all, they have been successful in their lives, and so should their children, who they will sponsor and pay for in so many ways. Maybe this happened to them, too. Maybe they even inherited money from some ancestor’s past.

And with so many children benefiting from all their parent's wonderful efforts and sacrifices, perhaps we can breed smart people, and then educate them in the higher schools that will enhance their lives, and hopefully, the nation. Along the way we expect these same children will gain the experience that made their parents so successful in their time. This sounds pretty human to most of us.

The catch is the “breeding”. Now every parent will help their kid most any way they can, and there are a lot of American kids out there who are born smart (through luck I would say), who will also offer good national, state, and local leadership based on their brains, education, and even minimal experience which will late mature over time, one hopes.

And a lot of these future leaders are not from what I call the present day privileged class. American is much bigger than this, much bigger than being a big “high school”.

Now it seems for centuries now, and for good reason I think, that the best schools for educating our young people are found in the NE part of the USA. I am from such a point of view, for example.

But the world has changed, and so have our schools of educating our children. Because the USA is OK, we now have many good schools for educating our children, smart, normal, or dumb. Now that is a parental problem to deal with.

I suspect there will be many years of friction as America changes, in this way, too.

Also. There was a book published, and an idea, about all this, many decades ago. It was called “The Best and the Brightest”, and I enjoyed it. But if this is what we have gotten, then I will shop elsewhere. Mostly the idea shopping around counts.

We in the USA have “bright” people, and should reinforce them in academic terms, and later in elections. We are way past the idea of the NE USA schools educating our young people.

Now if some of these “best” people ruled in their own way by their advice to those who appointed them, then maybe we are in trouble in our national future today. Said another way, can we find better political leaders to go forward?

After all, there are other courses of action, and other leaders we can vote on, also. And they are pretty best and bright, too.

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence

This old time phrase still seems to apply to today’s times. The idea is pretty human…we always hope for the best and expect other courses of action, i.e. the other side of the fence idea, applies to we humans.

And while change is constant, it is not always for the best, as in our future, as in our family’s futures. Sometimes change may make our human quality of life less.

Now I have been tempted to buy this older idea since we in the USA and the new world seem to have an OK quality of life. Perhaps we should reduce our quality of life, if that will “save the world”. But what if, like the facts, interfere, like make our futures worse, and on purpose. Like I said in the title, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

One for fact idea bothers me. I now hear organizations like the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) want to dictate to me, a land owner, how I should live and survive up here on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. First they don’t want to pay for their idea (like taxes), other than their own salaries. Second is that they want to maintain the “environment” in their vision, which is pretty much in the “eye of the beholder”. Now I even have sympathies, until I hear the definition of “what environment” the “eye of the beholder” wants this place to look like.

As a report to the reader of this post, much of this land when we Europeans came here was open land, with Eastern Buffalo (now long extinct) and Elk grazing in the pastures, kinda like “Little House on the Prairie”.

Even at the end of the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago, New York City was still ½ mile under the ice. Is that the objective, which is obviously silly? And if the objective is make it like the last 100 years, well that is silly, too.

Now we in the USA can discuss and argue until we are blue in the face. What seems especially frustrating is that anyone can “hang a shingle” saying they are an environmentalist.

Now let’s move overseas. My example is India. There are 400 million humans there in rural areas without electricity. And I also read they want electricity to improve their quality of life. So where is there a discussion in the western world about all this. Now if you are a local political leader in this India example, then there is much more discussion, including environmental kind of things. Yes, there is another point of view, depending on where one sits.

My question to myself today is simple two ways. How do how I try to enhance my family’s future? And so far, how much are we humans affecting our environment, as compared to how much effect does mother nature still have?

And I don’t think of myself as stupid. I went to GaTech on a scholarship, so I give myself some credit.

I just now wonder how green the grass will be on the other side of the fence.

Now we have many courses of action that will enhance our family’s futures in our own homeland.

So be it.

How do wars start?

It’s all pretty much human, in the end.

Now the famous expression that “war is an extension of politics by another means” makes a good point.

So far, humans have always started wars. And so often these wars are started by human politicians in regional powers. Now most of these human politicians do have regional power, and use their own good judgments. Now these human politicians have probably worked hard, sacrificed a lot, and been a little crazy or egotistical. Too many have been expansionist, as in to assert their personal or national objectives on their neighbors. That is just the way things seem to have been in human history.

Now in the last 100 years, there have been two world wars. WWII was started by regional powers Germany and Japan. WWI was started in a small region, Serbia. But one can go far past these terrible wars to our more distant past, and always it seems we humans start the wars, and too often it is the current regional powers that start these tragedies. If one just should focus on all the USA involvements throughout the world just since WWII, one can get a hint of all this.

Two questions are begged. Just what is a regional power, and more importantly, what is a world power? Of course the time frame makes a difference in how one answers.

A third question is begged, too. Can diplomacy substitute for war?

Most hope so, but in this the common problem of how do disparate regions and peoples talk in some common language? And how do values and objectives get recognized and “negotiated”? Here the idea of “unintended consequences” comes to mind. In this is the unfortunate idea of eastern thought versus western thought, and values. Today, we simply talk past our human selves, all too much.

Now it is obvious we humans in the world are different. We have different foods, different values, and different customs. Even men and women are different, too.

So in all this is the idea of why wars start. Mostly it is human, and our leaders on all sides have both started it and failed because it started. Good intentions in the west, for example, are simply not respected in the east. We humans just think differently. And I might think of a diplomat as a kind of “translator” who has failed, or at least disappointed the human politician.

So sometimes we have to fight. What a shame. But that seems to be the human way.

The pendulum continues to swing

Aren’t we humans amazing throughout our world. We all seek governments; and there are so many like republics, democracies, royalty, tribal, nation states, and dictatorships; and such subsets as fascists, communists, socialists, capitalists, parliments, religions, and self serving ideas for the rulers in charge at the time.

And then there are many ways to change our governments to include common citizen votes, voting with our pocket books, migrations, revolutions, revolts, and subterfuge. The use of assassination and even sanctioned murder come to mind…hang the guilty so-and-so comes to many minds. This almost invokes the lynch mob mentality which we humans have also resorted to, like the much advertised French use of the guillotine.

And all this leads to the New World. Like here in the USA. Here a couple of hundred years ago we humans had a chance to “try again”. Since then we have been “trying again”. And we right now can still “try again”.

Now the trying again idea comes and goes. Like the title says, the pendulum continues to swing. The idea is the future of humanity, which is always uncertain for the obvious reasons, like we are different. I think all would agree that men and women are different, too. And so is the rest of humanity.

If you buy this idea, then one should pay attention to what we humans in the New World do. The pendulum continues to swing. There is much friction about, mostly over our progeny’s financial future, and that is enough to keep the pendulum swinging.

And how we in the New World can swing the pendulum is also up for grabs, it seems these days.

Sometimes I think, too.

And I think I still have a vote, too.

And I know not to let my imagination get a hold of me. Said another way, my imagination is my worst enemy. Said even another way, we are our own worse critics. That is just where I am, today. Sleeping on things also helps a lot.

So I can think like anyone else. I can even use my imagination, and even worse case things. Now this is just me, and I think, also normal for most humans.

Now I am also skewed by my training in the nuclear side of things. What I was taught was to sense a pattern of behavior over time, and then make a judgmental decision. That logic I still apply today to when I am thinking.

What I sense disturbs me. I sense our present elected Executive and our present elected federal legislators, and their staffers, are both ignoring our USA constitution, and asserting laws that control us that maybe we do not want.

Back to the idea of the vote. We USA citizens can change all this if we want. Now it will probably take many years, but one has to start somewhere. And our Constitution has so many checks and balances to admit all our human foibles that the process is both terrible, and so human, also. Welcome to life in America. And welcome to how our ancestors handled our human tendencies back then.

Now if USA citizens don’t like their Constitution , then they can amend it to suite their needs. Now this is a deliberately painful process, on purpose it seems.

I just don’t want some “do gooder” doing their bit to rule us their way.

Any way, I think I can still vote and have it count, like at school board, county, state, and federal. If I am correct, then this is a good course of action, aka, I can vote

Then things will sort out.

The era of good intentions is over

Now this era has lasted for decades.

Fiscal accountability in promoting our American future will grow in influence.

After all, our size in number of people alone has grown, so why should not other things, like our elected public governments, at all levels, by the way.

The catch seems to be ideas like a tipping point in political terms, or a paradigm shift in academic terms, or just an old fashioned term like the straw that broke the camel’s back.

When all the good intentions start dragging down old granny, or me, or my kids, or my grandkids, then I am now motivated to vote and work for my cause.

The key point, to me, is I also count, and have worked for it. The obvious question is: should I keep working for it?

There are other alternatives that I prefer. I just wish I heard more about basics, like police and fire protection, or on demand electricity to keep things going where I live. Now all these things cost money, and I just wish to hear about more than pie in the sky talk by ill educated people.

Most of us have been through high school, and know about cliques and other such high school foibles.

My question to all is this the way we want to go as a country?

Now I can talk to I am blue in the face, so in the end none of this matters, kinda. What bothers me is that normal humans that loan us money will not loan us money in the next decade’s future, and then we will have to change to live within our means, which are very considerable, by the way.

Now there are also old time ideas that influence my thoughts. Back in WWII we actually had to have war bond drives to get enough fellow Americans to provide enough money to fight for their benefit. Now my thoughts today are they had their own problems, and to make “loans” (buying war bonds) took some sacrifice. Now it probably did not involve sacrificing “granny”, but there was a balance to it all.

In the end, there were no foreigners then loaning us money to prosecute a war in our behalf. Things were different then, and I think things are different now. Even the threat of inflation is scary to those who know about it, or have lived through it.

Like the title said, the era of good intentions is over. Nobody in their right mind would try buy a house with an 18% loan for example. This comes from Louisville, Ky, for example in the 1970’s. I preferred to rent at the time of decision. That was a better deal for me. And I was married with kids, so I was so influenced.

There is good news, a lot. We Americans are hard workers and do OK.

I suspect after much hard times now perhaps started by our present elected politicians that many fellow Americans and others in the world may die before their time. What a shame. What worries me more, yes I can have emotions and worry too, is that there were other courses of action that might have worked better, like much better.

Like the title said, the era of good intentions is over.

The sad part is that it is not all America’s choice anymore . The next couple of decades are going to be tough on future Americans. I suspect there will be much political bitterness. The good news is that I suspect our progeny will sort it out to their advantage. I just hope it doesn’t take a revolution, which I think our present political leaders may be setting up.

Good intentions are one thing, thinking about our present and future families is another.

The era of good intentions is over, I hope.

I always wondered what my ancestors thought during the times of the American Revolution

Now I was taught and accepted ideas like a distant imperial kind of English King and English parliament prompted what happened as an American revolution. The underlying idea then, as I was taught, was to mine our vast American people energy and land resources to promote business at home in England. Right or wrong, this is what I think today. There were many grievances, and also some good stuff. And I was also taught that most of our revolutionaries were in the minority, as in most American colonists were loyal to the King.

So fast forward to today. And I don’t believe any movie, as much as I also enjoy them, like the movie “The Patriot”.

So can one apply human experience and circumstances in their time to our circumstances and experiences in our time? Is there a common human kind of denominator that might help us today? I think so, since we humans are pretty much the same now as then.

So this voter thinks our present elected Legislature and Executive have imposed themselves on their ruled population. I accept all this, but what I fear is that the obvious reaction is not the vote, but something more akin to a revolt or a revolution. That is a bad course of action compared to the alternatives we have.

In the meantime, much of this is a moot point. When we as a country cannot borrow enough money to pay the bills, then federal politicians will have to do old fashioned kind of things, like set priorities and fight over spending. And all our taxes are considerable, both local, state, and federal. For example, what fellow human being would loan the USA $10 billion dollars for 10 years at an interest rate of 10%, or $100 million dollars; and then expect to get back $5 billion dollars in their principal in the end. Now the number will say $10 billion, but the spending power after inflation would be $5 billion. Now that is a bad deal. Since nobody knows what the future will really be, what would you do today?

And locally, are we to go without clean water supply or police protection to support the retirement benefits of teachers? Now these are the kind of reasons to vote.

Much friction is coming. Let us hope we go another route than our ancestors in the time period of 1776, But in the end, we will go our own route. And we also love our families and kids, and their opportunity for our American future.

Do you believe in the diamond in the rough idea?

Now there are variations which seem to still carry weight these days. Statistics like African American 70% out of wedlock births are too much ignored. And these are also fellow Americans, and their kids have opportunities also, I hope.

Now I think there is something cultural going on, as in the rest of America should both accept and embrace this latest African slave imported culture. Now all of us probably admit there are OK kind of things going on, but when one messes with our kids, then things will change. So be it.

This is simply America and our own American culture.

And will citizens accept poor performance and ignorance in the name of governing?

We in America are OK. And we will compromise to do our taxpayer bit at all levels, county, state, and federal. And I think we will do our version of charity with tough love delivered, to do our bit, also. What we won’t do is make our kids future less than anything we thought we could do. In this is the face of change.

I used to teach at Morris Brown College in Atlanta for three years. And you know what, some fellow humans were not diamonds, they were simply others.

It is the human factor that would impress this voter

Said another way, do people still count…as in all of us.

Now I presently live on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee, and for a lot of good reasons we have had more than a fair share of now historical utopian settlements, to include recent one hippie type settlement that is in a second wave of effort…the first effort from California failed.

What seems to be the common thread of past failures, as in people move off, is that the humans who work hard eventually get frustrated and later more emotional about their other human neighbors who are their local version of deadbeats. These kinds of people choose to denigrate themselves as a way of existence. That is just the way we humans are, it seems.

My imagination suggests to me that this idealist communal principle is part of our human nature. But my now old age wisdom and experience also suggests the need to temper my humanity with some practicality. After all, I am a human too, and I have children and their children to think about, too. As hard as it is to admit, some humans are deadbeats, and I cannot change this as much as I wish it so.

And here locally, I understand the idea of why some people are poor. Some are truly poor, as in circumstances, like their mom and dad didn’t even teach them how to brush their teeth with the local water. But they still made their babies like normal.

But there are so many other local people who are poor because they are deadbeats. Often these days drugs are involved, but this is both another story and another way to be a dead beat. Of course the question of where does the money to buy drugs come from and the local answer is both: stealing, and well intended government welfare. For example, a local gal gets a $25,000 disability check from Social Security, and within a month $15,000 has gone to drugs. And later her brother has to collect her nightgown body passed out in a winter yard, and his ancestor who tolerates this is not strong enough to collect her up. As sad it is to report, this happens all too much.

Now any fellow human can think anything they want, and will I am sure. But I also can think anything I want, and I think that that any kids that don’t have a mom and a dad at their home have a strike against them. Now, like most, I am more than familiar with modern day arguments that kids do better with a single happier mom, than a contentious marriage. I just don’t buy this argument. Kids do better for our American future with a mom and dad at a home that they live in. And moms and dads have many reasons to be married, to include having kids that they promote in their own ways.

All the preceding logic suggests many human factor things. Any reader can make up their own mind about their values, and what is important to them.

I’ve got my values and ideas, and you have your values and ideas. This is so American as long as we can vote.

Why do puppies play

Because they can.

Why do they when they can…I don’t know.

Spring is starting to spring on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. Maybe that helps? But also it is going to snow Sunday night or Monday morning, so much cold weather is still around. After all the humming birds left early during last September 2009 so I took that as a hint we humans and puppies may experience a long winter. So it seems to be happening around here.

Watching puppies play on this puppy warm spring afternoon is like watching an off-Broadway show, or a local play which is pretty much as entertaining, and thriftier. When I was younger I used to call my father cheap…now I call him thrifty. And he died in 2002, and I do still call him thrifty.

Today I and several others from all age groups spent more time opening a pit that may or may not work out as a cave. We used all legal means, just to cover my tail. Anyway, we hoped, in my words, to make it to China, but at the end we are still stuck in Putnum County, Tennessee. Teaching young men was the fun part of it today.

So it goes on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee on the time of the spring equinox. Perhaps we are more pagan than I imagined?

And the puppies are still playing. And it is still fun to watch.

I am a child of the 60’s, too

We had many courses of action then, and we still do, as long as we can demonstrate, and then vote.

What worries me is that some might try to take away my ability to demonstrate, and then vote. This worry is real to me, be it right or wrong. Any other means to take away my vote is also wrong. After all, I am an American, and I have rights.

My vote also counts in so many ways, to include city, county, state, and federal. Even school boards that spend so much of our property taxes in so many places allows the tax payers to vote about their kids and our future. Votes like for the County Commissioner come to mind.

Any attempt to take away my child of the 60’s ideals is simply misplaced, though I think it is going on. I am an American, too.

As a child of the 60’s I wondered then, and I wonder now, what went in during our ancestors thinking during the times of the American Revolution. I suspect much of these thoughts are going on today in our present day terms.

I am incredulous that I can even use my imagination this way. But things have suggested that I also anticipate all this.

The year 2010 is gonna be a bad year for all of us

And we, elected and we the governed, did it to ourselves. What a bummer and waste of good intentions. After all, we have our own families to support and promote. If our families will suffer then things will change, I think. If we adults suffer, then things will be more ameliorated. Lest I use a big word, then things are going downhill, and we people are doing it. The old expression comes to mind: screw with me once…shame on you, screw with me twice…shame on me.

Now because we are Americans, we will help out our fellow citizens, including those drug and alcohol addicted people. Here locally, this includes a 5 months pregnant woman. Now don’t forgot how our votes count. Most are local, like county and school boards, and in some places city. Some are also state, and then federal. As long as our votes count, then that is pretty good.

Now change is normal, and most humans don’t like it. But in the same vein, don’t mess with our kid’s futures.

Now I also hear to ignore the Constitution, or even improve it without offering amendments as written and I think understood.

What is so silly is the seeming naivety of our present federal leaders in the executive, and those that are also in the federal legislative. They seem to have their goals, and if it diverges with those of us who elected them, so be it. Their naivety is that we Americans have our own opinions, too. This smells of the old times of colonial times, to include King George, his Parliament, and his hired solders, like the Hessians. Standby for heavy rolls. In another way, perhaps we are living some momentous times.

All this could be, though I doubt it. Let us tamp things down in our time.

There are other courses of action, also.

Inflation 101

The title is a freshman college type course description. That is the approach this post uses.

The question is usual about what does inflation even mean since the subject is in the news so much. It is a good question. The experience level in America with inflation depends on one’s age, and so many younger citizens have simply never had the experience. And the question I hear often enough is “what does it mean to me?”

Of course what it means depends on you are, and your particular circumstances. But in the same vein, the common denominators apply to all of us.

The cost of living index is a good way to read the present calculated inflation rate. While the two numbers are different, to most the two impact our lives about the same. Anyone drawing monthly social security dollars knows all this, by the way.

Back to inflation and what it means to us, the common citizen. If inflation any given year is 5%, and our take home pay goes up 5%, then all is well. But if inflation goes up 5% and our pay is capped, as in no increase, then our quality of life decreases by 5%. To normal humans raising a family this means what their $100 dollars of pay for groceries now only buys $95 dollars worth of food that year. Bummer. And apply this idea any way you want to your quality of life and how you live.

Now one can talk about inflation another way. Let us say you have saved money for any reason, to include a “rainy day”. For example if you had $10,000 saved in a bank, and annual inflation was 10%, then in 4 and ½ years you could only buy $5,000 worth of stuff. Bummer. So many try to increase that $10,000 savings to $20,000 dollars just so in 4 and ½ years they are even. Bummer again.

Now there are also pros to this. For example, if you are paying a fixed mortgage you got when rates were lower, then inflation may help you in the short run. And ivory tower types apply this also to many other levels. But in the end, what do the voters in America think? Mostly, how does it affect them?

What seems shameful is for those in elected leadership seeming to apply their ideas of a commune to the whole USA country, using the federal legislature and federal executive to get it going again. Let me add in their hired staffers. Now many in our past have tried this with the best intentions, and all have failed in the end. Bummer again.

If what is going on today should bring back USA like inflation in our recent decades old past, then things will sort out in the end, and as always. It is the human suffering in the meantime that is so disturbing. It did not have to happen as will probably unfold.

The ends do not justify the means

There are variations to this human foible.

One goes along the line of the “tyranny of the minority”. In this variation one can think the 1776 revolutionists were the minority, and obviously had their way in making our USA we have today.

In other more modern variations in the USA there are examples of those who think they know best and usurp our votes in practicing political control. The era during the President Wilson times comes to mind, as does the present times. Now I don’t know what exactly went on during the Wilson times, though I do read about it. Now I do think I know about what is going on these days, because I am living it.

Alas, I decided months ago to try learn about what the English Parliament was thinking and doing during the time of our American Revolution, as well as what the executive, aka King George, was thinking. My ideal was to see how other humans in their times made their decisions given all their derisive times.

So far, I think that we Americans are still in charge of our destiny, good, bad, or indifferent. And we should be able to vote this way, as good or bad as the process is. Mostly, this means, the majority of citizens who vote should rule thru our elected politicians. Is that simple enough?

I think this is what America is pretty much about. Letting the people vote and rule, as good, bad, or indifferent as others may think about what they think is the way to go.

Simply said, the ends do not justify the means.

Now what is a shame is what seems to be what we are doing to our descendents, like our children and their children. In this is the potential for revolt. Just what would you do if expected to work for 6 months a year just to pay for your ancestors federal bills, long done and dead in their time. After all, our children have their problems to work through in their lifetime, too.

Alas, things may be descending these days. If our votes count, then most can live with the results. If votes don’t count, as if voters are ignored, then I expect things will change. If the executive ignores the legislative or judicial branches, or both ignore the voters, for example, then things will change.

Golly, I hope it doesn’t get to this point. After all, we are all Americans in the end, I hope.

Can some people impose themselves on others?

The idea of the consent of the governed always bubbles to the top. This is so American.

Now the consent may not always be perhaps a good course of action, but by golly, it is the consent. Perhaps over time that consent idea will change? That is what politics and votes are about here in America. People, humans, Americans, have their own ways to look out for themselves, and promote their future.

And most also believe and pay taxes to the many levels of governments that rule us. There has always been faith and trust in our new world future, I think.

Now I also think in our Nation’s continuing evolution, there are those who want to impose their ideas on the rest of us. Good luck!

As long as we can vote for all levels of our rulers, school board, city, county, state, and federal, then things will sort out as always.

If other Americans want to change this in their way without the consent of the governed, then the poo poo will hit the fan.

I, for one, don’t think this will happen. I sure hope not, anyway.

Emotionalism vs. rationality

The common uniter is our humanity. Just who do we trust with our American future, if anyone.

Now I also appreciate what a good deal we have here in America. Having lived overseas; there are worse deals. Try day on day off non potable water when you can get it, for example. Most don’t like the smell of overfilled toilets full of poop, for example.

And now we have a lot of people who think American rights and benefits, like 24/7 electricity, are normal. This these days is called the status quo I think. Of course this is normal to those who vote and make decisions these days, it seems. That is all they know. And they are so confident in their human illiteracy.

So let things go, as in people will die. In large numbers. Just let it go. Mostly this idea has to do with just being cold and hungry. My emotional response, and maybe rational response, to what is going on these days, is just to give up and let people die. Even when I see media TV things about battery powered “widgets”, to include cars, that suggest they are energy “free” just makes me angry because of the simple stupidity. Some of us know this has to come from electricity, like power plants. The current idea is called a longer exhaust pipe.

Now in my emotional rant, there are so many other ideas that are just presently promoted and just still plain suck. My idea is to promote my country, mostly local and state, so it can benefit our progeny. My rationality suggests my fellow Americans will do it in their own way. I hope so.

Now I have a friend who suggested about 10 years ago just to let things go. Nobody could screw up America, and all of us, in the end.

Now I wonder.

If only they had listened to me

Can we still vote?

Our USA Constitution reflects, I think, our ancestor’s recognition of our humanity, which is not all good.

And there are other alternatives. Many reflect paying attention to the “people” as they are today. For example, I admire the Chinese Communist leadership trying to change the representation to say the obvious in their country…over ¾ of their present population is very rural, and they will be ruled, one way or the other. In this is much friction which we should worry about. The leaders there do, also. To use a Gandhi line modified, if the ¾ rural don’t want to be ruled by the ¼ urban, then they won’t.

And the beauty of the “American” way of culture is that we made it, all of us, together. And like it or not, there are many influencers, European and British mostly, but also African from the slave trade, Asian from that slave trade, and now more than ever, Latino from that source. We even had an Italian slave trade into the South in the last century I think…and now I get some good recipes. Plus we exploited our resources for our own benefits.

My key thought is my ability to vote, which is so “American”. If other humans try to take that vote and idea away, then things will change in a bad sort of way.

In other words, the present friction is OK, as long as I can still vote.

The big collapse is coming

I would have predicted it would happen around 2016 not too long ago. Now it may be even sooner.

Here’s the good news. Our productive new world in America will be the way things end up for the whole world. Unfortunately, along the way, things will get very painful. Ideas like the status quo, and simple things like our collective governments providing police, fire, clean water, and waste water treatment will bubble to the top. Along the way, electricity to make light at night, and keep our refrigerators and freezers going 24/7 will also bubble up to the top. All this is so simple, but also so full of friction, and fog in political terms. The big collapse is coming, I still think. Just how we humans do as a response is up for grabs.

Just what happens is also up for grabs. My guess is that the ability to get loans, on a national scale for the USA will come to an end, or at least be difficult. We can get into all the various kinds of ivory tower theories, but if politicians can’t provide things like electricity, then things will change. Like I suggested in the title, the big collapse is coming. And we did it to ourselves. If all our present taxes, local, state, and federal, are not enough, then maybe our elected persons will revert to the old time ways, as in argue and debate over how to spend and prioritize our existing contributed tax monies. Of course this idea assumes we cannot borrow our way out of the present situation. And of course, we American humans and our politicians have made this situation.

We can shoot the messengers all we want, and probably will.

Much friction is coming.

The big collapse is coming. It will start when our federal government cannot get enough people to loan us enough money. It will end when inflation gets down to acceptable numbers (to the voter).

I still think in the end, all we strive for is to promote our families and opportunities for our kid’s futures.

This idea is not political in America. It is simply human in the world.

Another way to rule…American style

The recent discussion of who knows what is in the recent bills our federal legislative branch is voting on prompts this post. The obvious examples are the various health care reform bills that amount to thousands of pages. Who can read them in the time allotted, and then take the time to follow the arcane language of referrals and such that is in such a bill, which ever version and title. Does anyone even know what is in the latest proposal? I don’t, anyway.

Now some do. They are mostly “staffers”.

And these staffers are also fellow Americans, and do the most basic work any government employee should do, kinda like a Senator or Congressman should be doing. And I suppose that many of our elected legislators depend on what their hired staff says to do? Maybe I am wrong, but my “inside the beltway” experience says otherwise. Much federal money and other such things work this way these days.

Now all this “staffer stuff” is new in the last few decades. And so is who pays their salaries and benefits, which are good? Mostly we taxpayers pay their salaries and benefits, but it will take an investigative reporter to delve further. After about 30 google searches, I have given up for now.

For example, the present Speaker of the House I think runs several committees, each with its own staff. These staffs include, I think, the congressional staff, the speaker staff, and I think a Democratic Party staff. Now I just don’t know right now, and I really don’t know for sure who pays right now.

What I do know for sure is the quality of life of those staffers I observed during my time “inside the beltway”. One example galled me. The Congressional staffers had our elected congressmen build a $54 million dollar gym in a federal building just for them. Even Senate staffers were persona non grata. They had their own gym, too.

So who’s in charge in D.C. I really don’t know for sure. But for sure, we Americans are really in charge, in the end.

Cooking can be fun

Most of it is ego, I think.

Now preparing healthy meals is also an objective to so many. Also preparing tasty meals is an easy way to go. The “customers” after all are our children, relatives, and friends.

And tasty meals seem to sell here in America. And we seem to have a good deal here. Nobody is hungry, for example, at least right now

So making our friends and relatives and such to cook for is a good deal, I think. Mostly they are also willing to eat and live, and enjoy the human process.

Back to cooking. One idea, I suggest, is that one must be willing to experiment or try any kind of recipe or just a principle to feed whoever they feed. And they might even fail. So what. My test is how I listen to what the eaters say. One can apply their own experience to this idea, if they so choose.

Anyway, cooking can be fun…sorta.

Our future counts more than our past

What happens to our children and their kids is probably of more concern than what happened to us in our past. At least I think this.

Now many also think that the most recent past is a reliable way to predict the near future. Those who subscribe to this idea also may have a point.

And also many may know others who “carry the waters” of those who have gone before them. I suspect that emotion may play into this way of thinking, but I really don’t know. Anyway, in this scheme, the logic of our ancestors and their own problems in their times gets applied to us, today.

The last factor I think of is the “status quo”. The logic is that because it (whatever that is) has always happened, then it will always happen in the future. Now as a retired Marine, this idea is a hole I could drive a train thru, when given the opportunity, of course.

So what is our relatively near future to be? Who really knows?

And then there is one definition of happiness: good health and self-respect.

And so let me predict. This is always fun to do because there is no way to prove anything in any way.

But I predict we will promote our children and their happiness in any way we can. And any way we can may surprise us!

And I predict the future will be “American”, as in different from whatever other humans in our world do. I think we will be not too shabby.

In a perverse sort of way, maybe we will have made things better for our children, and their children.

There are so many reasons to think this. For example, many people think things are cold because the local weather is cold to them, and it is cold. But then speak with fellow Americans who bust ice in heated horse troughs in Nebraska, or simply put on more layers of clothes in New England, and the idea of American happiness becomes something maybe to brag about.

Or go without electricity during rolling black outs, and find out there are other ways to cook when the refrigerators and freezers fail to work long enough.

Anyway, while our “status quo” may be up for grabs, consider that our future may be much better. In other words, maybe our kids may be happy.

Another reason why I am nervous

Our present President and his hired minions are lightweights.

Is that simple enough?

Now my alert level went up during the campaign for many reasons. Here are some:
His famous statement that there are 57 states.
His bragging that he would create a new national defense service equally funded, manned, and equipped as the Department of Defense.
His alleged poor performance as the President of the Harvard Law Review. That this position was elected by his peers also says much.
That his visit to Hawaii after his election to the Presidency included visiting his dying grandmother, and he left his wife and his kids at their nearby vacation home.
That he said he would ruin a lot of families by his energy policies in Pennsylvania.

Since his election, his credibility, as in telling the truth, keeps coming up again and again. Now most of us want to believe anything our President and his minions say, but any crack in his credibility contributes to our nervousness. Is our nervousness fair or unfair?

And if it is fair, does it reflect some kind of personality defect?

Last, are his ideals and policies and practices going to get some of us killed before our time? Or is it already even happening?

The psycho-babble method

When many of us in our own ways try to interpret all we read and hear, many will also try to rise above the innate human tendency to attribute motives and intents to all people, both those we agree with and those we disagree with. Now most of we humans, are after all, humans, and we will necessarily use our own personal experience and knowledge to put ourselves into the shoes of others, and then proceed to say what we think the others are “thinking”. This is too often a waste of well-intended time, though we all do it, I think.

Now to support this idea of well-intended time, one should be aware of “studies” such as one in Scientific American Magazine decades ago that suggested normal human jurors were just as savvy as court expert psychiatrists and psychologists in trying to guess motives. I for one, invoked this idea and reference in trying to get “challenged” off of a court martial, and I failed. Though later I led the effort to condemn the guilty party to life imprisonment. He stomped a little girl to death.

So one can think and do as they like, and I suspect most will. Anyway, I will, too.

Now I can also report that there are other names and phrases for the psycho-babble method. I have heard pop-psychiatry, psycho-wacho, intents, and idealogy, to describe how other humans think. I am sure others have many more phrases like these.

Recently I heard another slightly different approach to this method’s problems that appealed to me. This approach was so human and so simple it caught my attention.

Suppose we think other humans are well intended, and wrong. Now that places both sides on dangerous ground, as in psycho-babble stuff. But, what was new to hear, was the consequences of being wrong. The idea of being wrong is what got my attention. Hence, I even entered the world of psycho-babble.

Here is where I crossed “capabilities” with my judgment of “intents”, and what I had listened to. Suppose other humans are well intended, but wrong?

I for one can live with that chance, until I think it will adversely affect my children and their children. Then I will rise up, which where I live on the Cumberland Plateau, means I will vote in all elections, school board, local, state, and federal. The alternatives like revolution and civil war, are so much worse, and silly to think about, but also worth mentioning as an example of my seriousness about the future of my children and their children.

So has this voter succumbed to the psycho-babble method. I don’t think I have. But maybe others have succumbed; that I just don’t have an opinion about right now. Sounds a little bit like “Forest Gump”, doesn’t it?

Spring has sprung

Hope springs eternal. Today on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee things were below freezing this morning, and now it may hit like 41F this PM. I might even wash off the salt from my made in Japan car (an Isuzu Trooper and a good car). Our local governments do a good job at keeping the roads open, but I also have to clean off the salt stuff so to keep the corrosion down. This is a known factor. All in all, a good report.

Now one, as I am, can “listen” to what the local animals do, as in listen to the local humming birds. They left in early September 2009, and I took this as a hint that here locally we may have a long winter, maybe even a cold winter. So far this seems to be happening.

Now, again, spring starts on the spring equinox date, which I think is March 21st. Basically it has much to do with our solar radiation and our earth’s time, but also is the date when daylight balances with darkness. It is predictable and usual.

Now, here, locally, I would not plant tomato plants until after the local normal freeze stuff happens, which is May 15th by the way. And, also, by the way, a long time gal already knew this, or at least suggested this.

Like I said, spring has sprung, or at least is springing.

Charity versus governments in helping our poor

My perspective is from where I live, on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee.

First my old time report. I no longer prefer to contribute to the United Way or any of its subsidiaries, like the Combined Federal Campaign.

I prefer to do charity and contributions the old fashioned way, like contribute locally. Mostly it is just needy people I hear about. And, unfortunately, I have had to differentiate between deadbeats and needy kids. Such is life up here. And of course it is always who I hear about. Christmas a year ago I gave presents to five young kids whose local teachers suggested them. That is what I am talking about.

Now recently I also hear about an older gal (like 35) that got a $30,000 disability check from social security. Now four weeks later after her payment I also hear she has already spent $15,000 of it on drugs. Who knows what to believe, but for sure I think I might want to help her more “locally”, as in even doing some tough love.

So how do we try help our poor who are poor through no fault of their own? Just for the record, I don’t buy that argument. Kids are pretty smart, and do the best with what they have. Now in the same vein, one also has to buy the idea of being taught, as in brushing one’s teeth, or cooking a safe meal, or cutting safely with a chain saw. I don’t think any of us are born knowing how to do these so basic things, and so many others, too. For me, my mother’s mother had to teach me how to cook, for example.

So back to helping our poor. There is a difference between truly poor and truly deadbeats, even when addicted. And locally the best way to sort it out goes to charity, vice our governments. For example, how do we handle a druggy gal 5 months pregnant?

I suggest local charity has a better way. At least that is my experience on the Cumberland Plateau.

Will the American way of human life go on?

Of course we have always had a way of life.

Now do you, the reader, think we Americans are different, or just old world humans doing our bit in our new world? And of course the new world we think about from our experience is North America, but there are other Americans also doing their bit. Now they may have different histories, like Spanish, French, African, or even Asian, but by golly, they are Americans, too.

Somehow, I think we lucked out with our mostly British traditions that we have multiplied to our USA country. Now that is just an opinion, of course.

Now I also think we humans have more in common than not. Mostly, to me, it means promoting a better future for our children, and even grandchildren. Now some don’t think this, it seems I am learning.

So I am guessing our American way of human life will predominate in the end. Mostly, it is about our kids and their kids. The obvious extension is that we from an older generation will bite the bullet if we think it promotes our families in the long run. That is so simple and also so human.

The obvious distress these days is the amount of fellow Amerians out of work. For those living through all this, it is not fun.

Maybe also this terrible situation has precipitated many thoughts about what might be downrange given what our governments are doing. Can things get worse, maybe?

When do we bite the bullet, so to speak?

The evolution of a new third party in America

Now I hear, read, and watch what our present political leaders and their minions explain to us, the common citizens. I listen, like normal.

Then I also hear that the new kind of “tea party” will inevitably split the Republican Party and therefore give the Democratic Party the election victory that will bring all the things most object too. By reinforcing the democratic candidate’s elections, this may all happen.

But there is a Plan B, also occurring, and most sense it. Basically it says we will vote, and let the consequences fall. In the short term the present executive and legislative types may survive, but in the long term, things will change. The transfer point is the 2010 election cycle, these days. Another more realistic guess is the 2012 election cycle.

And you know, maybe this kind of thought may happen, in the entire USA end.

The idea I think of is one idea that maybe the new third party, which I choose to call the American Party, may really happen.

Now I suspect, and would expect, that many from both the present two national political parties will predominate. They suggest normal friction.

And Plan B suggests many former Republicans and Democratic type people will also join this new idea and change their stripes. Only time will tell, of course.

What does default mean?

This question is often bandied about for both federal and state governments. This always bothers me as to how casual the meaning and impacts might be. Now in fairness, this is uncharted territory, and no one really knows what will happen. Neither do I.

In the end, I think, we voters at all levels, federal, state, and local, like county and school boards, will decide what it means. Mostly I think it will mean who we pay, who we don’t pay, and how we will try to muddle through the process. Now much friction will occur during this most painful process. Everything will be up for grabs, to include those making the decisions. Mostly we will try to honor our ancestors and their politician’s obligations because that also helps us.

The big rub will come when people get cold and hungry, and families move into common dwellings, and start to live another way. And all our fellow Americans, to include our entrepreneur class, will also try to survive this suffering. Now that is a wild card, to me.

I suspect much human bitterness will arise that will influence this action. The idea is that we did this to ourselves, and never again may be the motto. I think of this idea in the most basic American idea.

It is fun being an amateur historian because I believe that we can use the examples of our ancestors to guess what we will do now. Now of course these times and we humans and our circumstances are different, but perhaps our human reactions and thoughts and decisions have some commonality. After all, we all love our families and our children, and will always promote their futures.

The last wild card that may affect things, to me, is foreign affairs. Will we be dragged into another regional war, like the Persian Gulf, for their historical reasons. Many may die, especially if it becomes more global, and that idea makes me unhappy. Now appeasement works long enough to kick it downhill, but in the end humans will fight to preserve their way of life and their families way of life.

What a sad state of affairs that there are men and women who can do this to their country, and to us.

Anyway, what does default mean?

A question of faith

Do you believe anything our federal government President says? Many do, or want to believe what he says.

Many also do not believe what he says. They have their points, too.

Being cold and hungry and maybe poor has something to do with all this for so many. It is a cold and long winter, so far. But there is something else going on, too. It is a question of faith.

In human politics it is also called trust and confidence when we can vote.

And it is bigger than just our President and our other governments. Most voters want change in all that has gone on in the last many decades.

Now the votes begin, again.

Another idea comes to this voter’s mind. The idea is called “taxation without representation”. What we are presently doing to our future generations seems to fit this category. They are people and future voters, too. And so many parents recognize this in their own ways.

Now it is going to happen, as also many more things, again. Call it a question of faith.

The coming frictions

Only we humans could make these situations happen.

Any government of the consented citizens usually elects people that will influence their futures. I for one, can’t believe I am even thinking this most fundemental way. I never thought it would get to this point in my life (I am 62 and a child of the 60’s, too).

We may be screwing up. And what a wonderful country in the USA we presently have to screw up.

Not too long ago, people voted for representatives in the USA that seemed to promote laws and policies that benefited us, the citizens. The idea is pretty simple. Set up things in America that benefits us all, both now and in the future. And this idea has been both federal, state, and local, like counties and school boards.

And even we have figured out how to try balance things like: too many people in India and China, rainforest destruction in Borneo, and other human environmental type stuff.

What makes sense to me, a voter by the way, is that we can still vote in the USA.

Now I wonder what some of my grandchildren may do when they get to voting age. My imagination is that the idea, when the light bulb goes on, that they have to work a good part of their year just to pay our bills (from today because we could not), will think that a bad deal that they will reject. I would. This idea invites generation warfare, I think. And we USA humans set it up during our times. That’s what our politicians are doing today, I think.

There are other frictions, too. Do we as Americans and our elected governments want to promote capitalism or some other way? Now that is a friction we can vote on.

Much future friction is coming. This idea includes unsustainable debt payments, both interest and the basis debt (hoping fellow humans even will keep loaning us the money). But also we Americans in the USA are also humans that do a pretty good job, as compared to India or China. We are not too shabby. Alas, much friction is still coming.

We are setting it up, it seems. And we have been electing those that are doing it.

Planning ahead

Most of us do it. Some don’t. Either way, things we may not like are going to happen in the near future.

If others do not loan us money as a USA to finance all these wonderful things we enjoy, then things will change because we have to pay our bills, I think.

Now I think there are gimmicks and ways to extend all this, but in the end, we have to pay our bills. Why else would humans (USA or foreigners) invest in the USA. Nobody will throw away their money, I think. And only one match may set off the whole house of cards collapse.

Now at the level I live at, the idea of “inflation” is one that is coming back, I think. To me it means that going to Walmart, for example, will cost me more for the same things. That makes me unhappy!

Also, I think our future depends on ourselves, as in, in the end, paying off our debts that our two political parties have brought upon us. Again, after all, we are not too shabby, and love our families enough to promote their future.

So last on planning ahead, any citizen has two choices, to me. One is to go the survivalist route. The other is to go another American route, which means to me we survive for our children’s and our families sake. Either way it will be painful for all of us. Nobody wants to be cold and hungry.

For me, I am ready for tough love. And I will vote for it.

I too love my country

It’s kind of embarrassing to think that some fellow Americans may be bringing us fellow Americans down to their image of what they want us to be. What a shame that they, maybe, are messing up, for all the usual reasons. We in America are normally better than their vision.

We have other ways, like alternatives, that also make America a pretty good place for humans. After all, in the end, it is about us and our families. And “their” expectations may be different that than ours. And we voted them in, at least, for now.

Having to wait for new elections is frustrating, but also the American way. The alternatives are far worse, I think.

Now the other observation is that too many think that we are one Nation, as opposed to being like a “united states”. That is different, and only time will tell.

Capabilities versus intents

Another way to look at things is one the military teaches. Basically it says that judging other’s intents is both difficult, and often a waste of time. The alternative of just looking at other’s capabilities is more doable and reliable. A prudent person probably should stick to the latter idea, as that will guide their future actions in a better way. Obviously no one can predict the future, but there are ways to plan for the future and all it will bring. In other words, there are ways to plan ahead, and think ahead. And some ways are better than other ways.

These ideas can apply to human conflict as in war, but also politics at all levels, families at all levels, and even ideas like climate change. Just what do people intend is difficult to guess, and often wrong. Just what they can influence and change is more manageable. Either course of action is often painful. One can lose or win, including people, militaries, nations, and institutions.

Now winning, and therefore there is losing, is no longer a popular idea in the USA. This idea has been superseded by “feeling good”. But that idea often falls by the wayside in places and families where being cold and hungry becomes a factor. In other words, good intents like feeling good wane by real world things like being cold and hungry in the winter in the northern hemisphere. I mean this is a squishy way of applying the idea of intents versus capabilities to regular human life when trying to make things better, as in win for our families, and even our nation.

Now so many fellow citizens are becoming concerned that their American way of life may come to an end in the near future. Both the comfort we have brought about for ourselves, and the trust in the status quo, is now up for grabs. Who can we trust, with the best word being “trust”.

I suggest we use the ideas of capabilities versus intents to go forward. Other’s use religion, and that works for them, too. And the normal human response is to go local vice national. We humans have more in common locally (and tribal) than nationally. In all cases, “what’s gonna happen to me” seems to bubble to the top. And the suggested way to think about all this is “capabilities versus intentions”.

Everyone, in the end, will figure it out in their own way. And their family’s future, especially their children’s future, will usually trump all. This idea is universal by the way. Americans are unique in many ways, but we are also humans in the end.

So I look at capabilities first. I see those political leaders trying to impose their vision of our American future on us. Their intent, as to why, I have my ideas, but in the end I really don’t know. But their capability to mess up my way of life now gets my attention. They can really mess up things, as in hurt me and my family and my children. Now that is an attention gainer.

There are alternatives to the present capabilities of our elected leaders. It is called the vote.

And unless we are human stupid, we have to change things in politics to enhance our families, our children, and our nation.

And I suggest we use the ideas of capabilities versus intents to influence how we think.

And then vote.

I have children, too

The thought that some of my children and relatives will die for some other American’s ideals just drives me crazy.

As a now retired Marine, I understand more than a little bit about war. And in the same vein, I would not want to be a cop in the USA. At least in the Marines, I used to be able to shoot the bad guys, not arrest them (in the old days).

Now I think there are people in charge of our federal government, both executive and legislative, who think otherwise. Now my children engaged away from our country are being asked to be more like cops than soldiers. That puts them in harm’s way that makes me unhappy. These ideas are just silly and stupid. They have a mission to accomplish, and seem to be going a fine job.

The normal emotional response is just to think about these same politicians doing all this to their kids and relatives, or maybe even themselves. The more American response is to vote. Either way, one imagines, things will change.

And the other normal emotional response is why should my kid die for some good idea in some god forsaken place that does not protect me, an American. These days it is called “nation building” and “counter insurgency”, but I don’t think that is a big deal to most Americans. And I think most Americans understand the dilemma of following thru or bailing out of what earlier politicians have started.

We have more concerns at home, I think. We also have a nation to continue to build and maintain, and also have our own “hearts and minds”.

I am not giving up on America

Recently, like for decades, the trend has been to try do better with less resources that are exhausted by too many benefits we can’t pay for. And the treasury has been full and mined to exhaustion, until recently. Now it is exhausted.

And it sure seems like the voters are making the corrections that need to happen, in order to preserve our families, our family’s futures, and maybe even our USA futures. We Americans are not too shabby!

Now many humans buy into the conspiracy ideas, as in some people are plotting to do their bit. For me, I usually assume incompetence as a better alternative to explain what has happened, and what I might agree with or disagree with.

Now I have become worried more than normal. The recent federal elections reported so much have given some new direction to the way we as America should go as a USA. Alas, the present executive, the President and his minions, and too many in our legislatures, seem to have gone their own way. It is the pattern of behavior that has gotten my attention. So I am worried they (whoever they are) may try to take away our vote by any present legal means they can use. How about declaring another emergency, and going with marshal law, as an example. Like I said I am worried. And I have lived in the third world where this happens, all too often.

Back to Americans. We are hard working people who love our families, and work to improve things. And we live in a wonderful country. That is a good reason to be happy, as tough as self respect and happiness can be.

It’s just not right

It is a privilege in life to live where handshakes and words still matter.

And human intelligence is different from human education, for example. And ethics, like “it’s just not right” is also different. Most humans are not born with all this; most of us need to be educated on all this. Families are a big deal on all this also, I think.

Why discuss this. Mostly because ethics education seem to be suffering in the USA these days. Values and standards, American all, still count a lot. And most of us know it in our own experience and communities, including how our moms and dads raised us.

Now for whatever reason, more children than ever are being born out of wedlock. This is a sad state of affairs, I think. Here in America, I think kids will benefit by having both moms and dads at home.

It will probably take old fashioned ideas like “shame” to help make all this change to benefiting our children.

We Americans are OK. And we have a future, too. On this rests the National Hope.

A path to our future

I think most of us want to make things better for our families, and maybe at the same time, our nation. Now just how we do all this is for our vote, and most want to vote after going through their busy lives at all levels. Most trust their governments to do their bit, but if ever there is a loss of trust and faith in their governments, then things may change, I think. And governments are all levels, collectively, federal, state, county, city, and school board.

And the voters can change their elected American politicians, if they want to.

Less if even Americans denigrate things like local school boards, consider that the Gwinnett County School Board (in the Atlanta area) had a $1.4 billion dollar budget this year. This is big time I think, and hopefully some of the populace can influence the action. Who else should influence the action, by the way. After all it is our kids, and our future.

Now we seem to have light weight types who want to use their federal elections to rule us Americans in their vision. Is that what we want? I don’t think so. We have better ways to improve our families and ways of life.

In the meantime, the status quo is not too bad. After all, our ancestors (and their elected representatives) also worked for the same goals.

Let’s vote.

I’m proud of my local county government

The local main roads are as well kept up in the winter snows as one would hope. And all this took tax money and the efforts of so many county employees, and the equipment we paid for and they maintained. Good on ‘em.

I mention my pleasure and pride because all this good stuff from a county government costs money, as well as the hard work of so many fellow Americans. And now that times are hard, I expect less; the winter is only half way through. Welcome back 100 years, in the worse case point of view.

And right now I have rural electricity, and my lights are on, my satellite TV stuff works, my electric refrigerator and freezer work, and I can make frozen pizza in my electric oven later today for my family and even friends, and the public schools are open.

Now I do have a wood stove insert and also run off a now rare in America hydraulic ram using local spring water. One could just say I was Y2K ready then, and am now in 2010. And the water spring sources are also from local areas, I think, and hope. I have done the science, and think I am correct. I sure hope so.

Less I sound like some kind of survivalist nut, I just want to brag about my fellow Americans in my local county government who are doing OK for us, I think.

Good on ‘em in Putnum County, Tennessee.

A recalcitrant American report

Now in my mind a recalcitrant American is someone who thinks independently without peer pressure. In other minds a recalcitrant American is some old person who just doesn’t care for his own reasons. He has other motivations and has lowered his standards enough to do OK. The term “old fart” may be appropriate.

Now it looks like I could have my 14 year old daughter come up here from Atlanta to live with me at the Hemlocks near Monterey, TN, and even attend the local Burks Middle School this remaining school year. I am becoming to believe she really wants to do it. And she has been up here enough to know the good and bad, I think. It is the hormone thing we have all been through, and she is going through, that keeps all this gooey.

Now I don't attend religious worship places very often, since I think of myself more as a pantheist, which makes me a weirdo at Monterey. So like I do go to Roaring Falls for my Easter Service, as an example. A local friend's hikes and picture shows also are such things, I think again.

Also as a Marine, I know, or at least think, that most of us need some structure and routine, and religions and churches do a good job at that, I think. Here on the Cumberland Plateau, I think I should go with the local choices if I want to introduce my daughter to such local structure and routine provided by churches. Again, maybe I am a weirdo, and being overseas a lot has made me think more about values and Family and less about formal religions, which exist for good reasons all around the world.

Now here is one good response I have heard:

Clay, We have wonderful news, Sue's Sister Frances,(Senior Director) goes to the First Baptist Church, and she was just telling Sue what a great Youth Pastor they have and what a great job he's doing bringing the Monterey Youth to their Youth Group, she said there must be sixty or seventy of them, they have a music group with guitar, drums and three or four instruments, and they sing and play in Church and your Daughter will fit right in.
And who knows, some of this may rub off on ole Clay. Bill and Sue

End of report

Another Cumberland Plateau update

Today another young woman with a child died up here. The first report is that it was a drug overdose and she was sitting on the toilet at the time. Now gossip is just that, but the mother and the girl she was are dead, that is for sure.

Now life is full of low lifes, and that is nothing new. There is a self correcting aspect to all this. What a shame for the kids when their momma dies. But life goes on.

And somehow all we humans survive being kids and grow up. It is a tough transition, most think. Some don’t make it, by the way. And peer, like school pressure, is pretty tough. And the girls are just as mean as the boys. I think. So much for this report.

The times they are a changing

Change is constant. And most humans don’t enjoy change. For example, most humans have a need to plan ahead. And unfortunately, not all change is for the better for humans, even though we would wish it so here in America.

And here we are today watching change happen in front of our eyes. The change I think we see is normal in one way, but the pace has accelerated in another way. It is the pace that makes this old Marine a lot nervous. The burgeoning national debt is one example of change, and even in 2008, Moodys, the credit rating firm, forecasted US Treasury bonds which reach junk bond status by 2016. Now that date has even moved up.

It is the wildcard idea that is most disturbing. Imagining such scenarios of change as the collapse of the US economy because we can’t borrow enough money, and then we don’t buy enough from China that causes them their problems, and there becomes a witches brew. Add in a good natural disaster, like a good volcano in Indonesia, or Yellowstone doing its bit with a geologically periodic major eruption, or the Three Gorges Dam in China being cracked by a man-made earthquake from the weight of the impounded water, with the resulting surge of fresh water into the east china sea through Shanghai that changes weather patterns, and well, it’s a wildcard. Like I said, it is the obvious human fragility to seek some predictability which is so normal.

Now here is the good news. We Americans are different here in the New World. Ideas also count along with human tendencies. We can change as well as anyone, and also know we can vote to help the process along. We are different, and most non-Americans know it. Hence the immigration numbers and flow arrows. In fairness, other peoples are not too bad, either. One normally should live outside of America to recognize this. The basic idea is pretty obvious, most humans will promote their family’s future. And their solutions are not too shabby, either.

I have thought long and hard how to simply explain where we are today here in American politics. All the normal and expected attacks I think I know and recognize. And perhaps it is not too simple. But then perhaps it is more simple than most would like to think about.

Perhaps we have simply compounded too many laws over our two hundred years of existence to make sense with what we have ended up with today. And less I apply this idea to the federal government, the state and county and city governments may also have a part in this idea. We Americans may have to take charge from all the politicians we have elected, and begin to change things another way.

After all, the idea is to enhance our family’s future and opportunities. And then the Nation comes next.