Why Aren't State Income Taxes--Progressive?

In America, the Federal Income tax is progressive and graduated, meaning that the more taxable income that you have in a given year, the higher the overall tax bracket that you will be subject to, so, for instance, if your filing category is single and you have $25,000 in taxable income, you would be liable for a 10% federal tax rate for the first $9,075 of your taxable income, with the balance of the $15,925 being taxed at a rate of 15%.  If, on the other hand, your filing category is single, and you have $500,000 in taxable income, you will be subject to paying federal taxes for each graduated bracket percentage amount, at the rates of 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%, until you reach the threshold of $406,750 to which the income above that amount, which would be $93,250 would be taxed at 38%.

Seeing that the Federal income tax is both progressive and graduated, one would think that in the natural course of things that the State income tax for the State that you reside in, would, in fact, follow the same format, but it does not, in virtually every State of the union.  First off, there are seven States that do not have any State income tax whatsoever.  Out of the remaining forty-three States, there are pretty much only three States with truly meaningful progressive and graduated income tax rates, which are California, New Jersey, and Vermont.  If you are single in California, and have taxable State income of $25,000, you would be subject to a 1% tax rate, graduating to 2% at $7,582 and maxing out at 4% for the balance of your income.  If, you made $500,000 in taxable State income, you would eventually be paying State income taxes at the rate of 11.3%, without even hitting the top rates of 12.3% and 13.3%.  This makes California the closest in structure to how your taxes are treated by the Federal government, meaning that California has the fairest progressive and graduated tax rates in the nation, in the sense that those that earn more, pay considerably more in their percentage rate for taxes.

However, in virtually every other State of the union, and taking $25,000 as the threshold example of income in comparison to income of $500,000 in nearly half of the States, you will be paying the exact same percentage as your tax rate.  That is to say, for instance, if you live in Mississippi, the maximum State income tax rate is 5%, and that maximum is achieved for income at $10,000 and above.  Yes, that is right, in Mississippi and some twenty-odd other states, individuals making $25,000 and above are taxed at the exact same percentage as somebody making twice or twenty times the amount of money that you are making.  Also, with the exception of the three States previously mentioned, all the other States of this union, pretty much tax their constituents at essentially the same basic rate with very modest increases in percentage based on income, or in essence, a flat State income tax.

While most States do have on paper what would appear to be a progressive State income tax, in actuality, the threshold in most of these States to be subjected to the highest income tax rate in the State is held ridiculously low, and/or the percentage increase in graduated tax rates is as modest as simply going from perhaps 5% to 6%.  This signifies that most States have little or no interest in taxing their residents at real progressive rates, which benefits the few at the expense of the many.

We Don't Need More Laws; the Heart of Man Must Change

Since its independence from Great Britain, and the institution of its ratified Constitution that applied to all the States of the union, America has become a nation of laws.  We have laws that cover what would appear to be every conceivable thing, to wit, we have local laws, State laws, Federal laws, consumer laws, environment laws, tax laws, usage laws, and so forth, so that this is truly a nation of many laws.  We have so many laws in America, laws that contradict or even override another law, and laws that are outdated, senseless, or aren't even good law to begin with, that there is not a single person or a single entity within America that knows, understands, and can comprehend all of our laws.

But be that as it may, each year, each month, each day, the judicial system creates even more laws, for a lot of reasons, both good and bad, as if the mere creation of a given new law, will somehow correct, alleviate, or fix some perceived wrong without any unintended consequences of such a law.  It would be one thing, if the fundamental foundation of America was inherently flawed, but in fact, America's Constitution is a legal document, the Supreme law of the land, that is exceedingly well written and thought out.  This means, for the most part, what this country doesn't really need is more laws, what it truly needs to do instead is to take to heart the philosophy that we ought to treat our neighbor as our self, and also that our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, come from our Creator, that we should also indeed honor as well as love.

The Constitution as it stands today has all the principles that we really need, in order to live a fair and quality life. We require only that the institutions that are set to apply law have the courage to do the right thing and to apply it equally to all, which is why the Supreme Court motto is "equal justice under law".  Unfortunately, throughout a lot of American history up until this very day, justice has not been applied equally, although we would like to believe as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated that: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."  That bending of the arc towards justice can only come about, not from still more laws, or new interpretation of laws, or this law or that law, but instead from the changing of the heart of man, himself. 

All of the justice, all of the change, that a reasonable person wants in America, is available to all of us, if instead of looking upon our neighbor, as something or somebody to be struck down, or hindered, or cheated, or fooled, or any of a thousand wrongful things, we instead look upon our neighbor as a fellow brother, worthy of our love and respect that one human being is obligated to give to another.  Most people, inherently recognize the difference between what is right and what is wrong, but few are willing to live by that code attributed to John Wesley to: "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."

We desire to be perfect, because God is perfect

There is no score that can be higher than someone correctly answering all the questions on a given school test, which equates to a score of 100, or 100%.  There is no higher achievement in your life work than performing your work at such a high level that this work is recognized by your peers as outstanding, or a virtual perfection.  Although many people believe that a score of 98% is almost the same as 100%, it is and it isn't.   A score of 98% cannot be the same or the equivalent to 100%, because there is room for improvement on the lower score, therefore there is error, and any error by definition means an achievement of less than 100%, and consequently is less than perfect.  Yet we hear day by day, that the pursuit of perfection or to be a perfectionist, is somehow an Achilles heel and to be avoided at all costs.  While there is some truth that even a great virtue, taken to an extreme, can become a flaw or even a vice, the desire to do your utmost, the desire for accuracy, correctness, and rightness, is well worth pursuing and is almost always a cardinal virtue of any great discovery or accomplishment made by man.  The pursuit of perfection is why mankind was able to fly, orbit, and to land a spacecraft onto the moon and later to return our astronauts safely back to earth, because without the scientific pursuit of excellence which gave no quarter to mistakes or substandard reasoning, the result could quite easily have been disastrous.

Then there is the fact that our Creator is perfection itself, and as his created beings in His image, we have an innate desire to be perfect, just as a child has an inborn desire to please his father.  In Matthew 5:48 we read: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."  At first glance this seems to be a rather unfair burden to place upon a mere human, but everything is indeed possible in Christ, or we would not be instructed to become perfect.  The way of perfection, is however, a path not often trod by those of a material inclination, and this pursuit can only be accomplished with the mindset which recognizes that there is a higher power, beyond our mind as well as our limiting ego and it is to that power that we must surrender ourselves to.  

It is indeed unfortunate that so often man limits himself only to the usage of his five senses as if the material world is master of it all, yet we intuitively know that this cannot be so, as the highest order of being, cannot possibly be that which has a known beginning and a known end.  Even our great sun, we are told by esteemed scientists, has a finite life, of some estimated ten billion years, so invaluable to our material life as the sun is, it is not perfection, nor ever will it be.  The perfection that we seek, the perfection that we must know, is in God, and we can only find this by having a deep abiding desire to know this Truth, no matter the false steps and missteps taken along the way.  The material life that we live in is darkness tempered with artificial light, whereas God is absolute light, and when we as the seeker align with the true temple of our Lord, our transformation will be instant, because when darkness meets light, the surrender of darkness is instantaneous as if it all was just an illusion to begin with.

The Rockefeller Dynasty

America claims it is a meritorious society, somewhat true, somewhat not, but unfortunately when it comes to money and power it seems that most people who obtain lots of it, have an innate tendency to behave in such an undemocratic manner so as to believe that their vision, their power, and their money, should never end, because they and their legacy surely know what is best.  America was suppose to be a refuge for those seeking religious freedom in which it is a basic tenet of Christianity that you cannot serve both God and mammon as we read in Matthew 6:24: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."  This implies quite strongly that those that have immense monetary power within this country are inherently inclined to have principles that are inimical to America.  Walter Huston in "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" said it best, "I know what gold does to men's souls."

While America has plenty of dynasties, such as the Du Pont's, the Mellon's, the Busch's, the Hearst's, and so forth, there is just something particularly compelling about the original John D. Rockefeller, who as reported by forbes.com was at one point: "… reigning over a monopoly that refined as much as 90 percent of America’s oil."  John D. Rockefeller along with his brother William Rockefeller and four other notables, created Standard Oil, which ultimately was dissolved under the Sherman Antitrust Act and split into 34 separate companies.  Yet, years later, Exxon, formerly Standard Oil of New Jersey, as well as Mobil, formerly Standard Oil of New York, would merge into ExxonMobil, and become the most profitable multinational corporation in the history of America, in fact, the five most profitable years for any corporation in American history, are all held by Exxon/Mobil.

The Rockefellers' rose to great temporal power, for instance Nelson Rockefeller was Governor of New York from 1959 through 1973, and later Vice President of the United States from 1974-1977.  Winthrop Rockefeller was Governor of Arkansas from 1967-1971.   Jay Rockefeller was the Governor of West Virginia from 1977-1985 and later the United States Senator of West Virginia from 1985-2015.  In regards to banking, Equitable Trust Company to which the largest stockholder of such was John D. Rockefeller was acquired by Chase Bank, to which Winthrop W. Aldrich was chairman, and himself the brother-in-law of John D. Rockefeller.  David Rockefeller began working for Chase bank in 1946, to which Chase later merged with the Bank of Manhattan, eventually becoming Chairman of the Board of Chase Manhattan for twenty years, which ultimately was merged into JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in America, with over $2 trillion in assets.

The Rockefeller name is well known throughout America, with the Rockefeller Foundation as well as the Rockefeller Center, being their most recognizable standing institutions.  The Rockefeller dynasty has been empowered for nearly 150 years, to which the Rockefellers' have been able to pass along their money and their influence to generation after generation, without any recognizable end.  This means that if you are so fortunate as to be born into the Rockefeller dynasty than you can take for granted things that most Americans will either never have or on the other hand have to obtain by their own merit and hard work.  Sure, the Rockefellers' should be entitled to pass along something for their progeny but not so much that the Rockefellers' become a perpetual aristocracy within America; because remember that a country that will not dip its national flag, not for a king, and not for another country, should certainly not do so for the likes of a Rockefeller.

The Purchase of a Car Isn't What it Use to Be

Today's American automobile manufacturers, both domestic as well as foreign, are typically only about the basic accomplishment of one thing, which is to extract as much money as they can from the public.  The cars being sold today are presented and priced in such a manner so as to maximize profit as being the primary objective, with everything else presented as so much smoke and mirrors.  While it can be said that the cars that are manufactured today contain some wonderful features, are reliable, durable, and perform their functions admirably, it cannot be said on the other hand that they are priced to benefit the consumer.

There was a time in America, to which led by Henry Ford and his assembly line vision, that the objective as explained by Ford was to: "…. build a car for the great multitude….""… constructed of the best materials, by the best men…" "… The simplest designs that modern engineering can devise…"  In 1909 when the Model-T was first introduced, a total of 10,666 cars were sold at the price of $825, but with diligent improvements in assembly, labor, and economies of scale, by 1925, there were nearly two million Model-T cars sold, of which the basic Model-T sold for $260 and the touring version of it sold for $290.  The per capita GDP in 1925 was approximately $800 and a car selling for $275 in 1925 would be sold today at about $3,725, inflation adjusted.  However, there aren't any new cars for sale at that price in America, with the Nissan Versa at about $13,000 being pretty much the lowest cost new car available in America.  This signifies that despite all of our advances, in technology and knowhow, labor improvement, and whatnot that the individual cost of buying a vehicle has gone up considerably in America.

While times have changed, and while obviously cars of today aren't the same in features and performance as they were back in Henry Ford's day, the principle of car manufacturing has also changed and changed for the worse.  Henry Ford's objective was to make an affordable car for the people, one that could be purchased by an honest hard-working America, as opposed to providing transportation just for the privileged of America. Ford believed in giving his customers the greatest utility value possible for the dollar, whereas today's manufacturers too often believe that they should instead do everything possible to maximize their own profit by any means possible.

In India, they have a city car, which is the Tata Nano which in its most economical configuration sells for about $3,132.  While to date the Tata Nano has not been the success that Tata imagined, the basic concept is sound and a throwback to a different era when the objective was to build cars that were both useful in their function as well as affordable to the common man.  In America, those of the millennial generation are often stuck in a frustrating cycle to which they have both massive student loans as well as disappointing job prospects, signifying that the income that they make barely permits them to scrape by.   What they really don’t need, however, is a car payment that is too large for their salary, lengthy in time, and just serves to increase their financial burden, as they suffer endlessly the ill effects of too much debt.

Prayer

Just about everyone prays to God at some time for some reason, with some people praying only in the most dire of emergencies, whereas others pray at particular scheduled times and/or events, while still others prayonly when they feel the need or desire to do so.  When it comes to the actual style of praying, there is quite a variety of prayer used, to which some people merely request God's beneficence and wisdom in their life, others simply pray the Lord's Prayer, still others make specific requests of God for themselves or for others, and so forth.  It can be said, that prayer to our Lord in all of its forms has its merits and that every prayer offered to God has its place.  Yet, it can also be said, that few take the words of Matthew 6:8 to heart which reads: "…for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him," signifying that if we do all the talking during prayer, rather than instead petitioning God for His wisdom and love, we err in our prayer to our own detriment.  Simply put, if we present to God a laundry list of things that we believe that we need or desire or want to occur, this signifies to God that we perceive that our wisdom is greater than His.

Of course, you could then argue if God already knows what we have need of, why pray at all, since it would already appear that God has this covered, so to speak.  The primary reason to pray to our Lord is to submit to Him that we are able, willing, and ready to communicate and to receive his wisdom into our lives, into our thoughts, and into our actions.  In order, though, to be in that receptive mood, we first have to condition our mind as well as our body to listen to our Lord, which means that we must empty our mind as much as we possibly can of our own desires, of our own will, of our own ego, and present ourselves in a manner of supplication and surrender to our Creator.  In Luke 5:16 we read: "And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed," even the Christ, knew that distractions, interruptions, and the normal busyness of everyday life would all act as interference to the reception of the channel of the Godhead to his heart.

The most effective and valid prayer comes not from the mere reciting of prayerful intonations but instead that prayer must come from deep inside of the heart of the petitioner, to which there should be a palpable sensation that in your quiet contemplation you are now reaching out to touch the very source of all wisdom, itself.  There can be nothing greater in this life than a true connection with God.  The Bible is full of stories of great prophets that have spoken to chosen disciples, as well as those who have heard the voice of God Himself.  To hear God's voice, to feel it in your very being, is possible for all of us, but first we must quiet ourselves, surrender ourselves, and yes have within us a great, ineffable longing to touch the very finger of Creation, itself.

Integrity and Dishonesty

Anytime, that a person perceives that an organization is unfair to them, another person is unfair to them, or life in general is unfair to them, there is an inherent and natural tendency to want to make things right.  So that if you feel, for example, that you are underpaid there is a certain predilection to want to perform your work duties in such a manner that you appear to be working harder than what you really are.  If, for instance, another person clearly takes advantage of you in a personal or business affair, there often is a desire to want to get even with that person, one way or another.  Further, if life is treating you wrong, there is a strong wish to see that things are rectified, somehow or another.   In all of these things, your opportunity to present yourself as a person of integrity, despite being in circumstances that are unfair or uncomfortable or biased against you, is often pushed up against your desire to strike back, frequently, without taking into full account the ramifications of doing so.  Too often we are quick to judge, quick to react, way too quick, and an action in motion, good or bad, cannot be taken back. 

Many people are quick to point out when they see that a certain person or company is corrupt, but often are rather slow to admit or to recognize their own shortcomings.  But the fact of the matter is, we seldom can control other people or organizations, but we do have the power to control ourselves and how we react to various undesirable things and circumstances.  We have all heard it said that "two wrongs don't make a right", yet how few of us really believe this in our actions.  In order for anybody to become dishonest, there is at some point, a conscious decision to do something that clearly is wrong, with perhaps the justification that this is payback, or a form of justice, or liberty, or whatever.  Yet, having taken this action you have not actually resolved anything in a manner bespeaking a person of integrity.

Bad things are going to happen, and while life is not about being a floor mat for people to walk and trample upon, it also isn't about always retaliating against those that wrong you.   So often people want to justify their response to a perceived wrong or slight, as if that self-made justification will somehow make it all seem right, but oftentimes it really does not.  When one person drops to a low level of cheating, backbiting, gossip, and hurtful words, you do not need to directly respond back to it, you do not need to add fuel to the fire, and often should not do so.  Rather, look at the actions taken against you as a challenge, as a puzzle, to be solved, through rightful actions and careful contemplation.  Always try to give yourself the opportunity to rise above the fray, to put yourself in the other person's shoes, to recognize that someone that is slow to anger, that can maintain emotional control of themselves, is a person that is master of himself, and often a man of real integrity.

Cursive Writing is Obsolete

In 2010, Common Core standards, no longer required the teaching of cursive writing in elementary schools.  Since that time, many school systems around the country have dropped cursive writing and replaced it with something of more pertinence, such as keyboarding. While on the one hand, the fact that cursive writing is no longer being taught in most public schools, seems like a good thing, since, for instance, most everything that you view in either print media or on any of your online media devices is virtually never in cursive; on the other hand though, the two most important documents in American history, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both written in cursive. This means, that when viewing a replication of the actual document, today's youth will have great difficulty in reading: English!

While it is understandable that we live in a digital age and that we cannot teach everything to our children, the dropping of cursive writing may be a mistake, as the difficulty in obtaining decent cursive skills both of writing as well as reading is not something that is all that strenuous, and the learning of this skill has its value.  For instance, although we may never read the original cursive of the Constitution, we might have a desire to read old letters from our parents or of our grandparents that were written in cursive.  Also, we would probably like to develop our own signature so as to sign legal documents and the like.  Additionally, in an era when native-born Americans seem only to be able to speak English and no other foreign language, it seems a shame to degenerate even further to such a degree that we can only read print characters, and not cursive.

While we can appreciate the gift of being able to effortlessly type in characters with our keyboard, so that learning good keyboard skills most definitely has value, it is a fundamental mistake if in so doing, our ability to print actual letters from our hand to a piece of paper is impacted, negatively.  That is to say, if cursive writing is dead, to which virtually all cursive writing is done with physical pen onto paper, than what is to say, that at some near point in the future, that actual hand printing will too, become obsolete.  It is imperative, that our children know how to form and to write their own letters and words onto a physical piece of paper.  The accurate writing and formulation of these letters are critical to formulation of developing a good vocabulary, as well as leading to the proper construction of sentences and overall clear thinking.  Today's word processors are very powerful and with their automatic spellchecking ability they can correct effortlessly, for the most part, each and every error that you make in the spelling of words, but while this is beneficial, it is also a crutch.  Additionally, the effort of physically writing words integrates both cognitive as well as language skills into a graphic art form.

In America, it appears the days of cursive writing are pretty much dead.  On a lot of levels, this is probably unfortunate, however, it's somewhat understandable because most people spend very little time either reading or writing cursive.  Nonetheless, we must be careful to recognize that the skill and value of being able to accurately print and write our own characters and subsequently words and coherent sentences, must first be accomplished using a real pencil onto paper, in order to properly formulate and develop our own cognitive abilities.

Church, State, and Life

Recent history and judicial decisions have strongly favored a separation of Church and State, so that America is devolving into a secular state, which in principle is a wholesale rejection of our Judeo-Christian heritage.  While there are many that applaud such a separation, this should be tempered with the wisdom that one should be careful what they wish for.  For instance, should America become a country that completely marginalizes religion, that would mean in effect, that our fundamental and inalienable rights would no longer be considered legally or otherwise to have come from our Creator Himself, but from the State, and what the State provides, it can also take away.

For those that love the fact that America has become essentially a secular state, they should take into their hearts a significant warning, that with God conveniently pushed out of the way, this now permits everything within reason for the State to set the rules of, without the worry or inconvenience of the moral and ethical authority that trumps all that God brings to the table. 

Most people would consider the greatest power that any government can hold over its people as being the power of life and death. There has not been a draft initiated in America since the Vietnam War, because America has been able to fill all their recruitment needs with volunteers.  The fact that America's military is able to get all the recruits that are necessary for their personnel needs has probably more to do with the state of our economy, the poor employment opportunities for so many young Americans, and the overall good benefit package provided for those that serve in our armed forces. 

The United States takes its military needs quite seriously, which is why, even today, with an all volunteer force, males aged 18-25, are required, by law, to register with the Selective Service, to which these aforementioned designated males, would be the first to be subjected to a draft call-up, if authorized by Congress.  Should a draft be re-instituted into America, very quickly, there would be a certain segment of those eligible for conscription that would try to postpone, defer, or to be exempt from such service, all with the basic attitude that they did not want to risk their lives on behalf of their country.

This means that there is an inherent hypocrisy for at least some Americans that support a secular state. Because when God is marginalized from the public square, and subsequently certain citizens are required by their government's law to put their own lives or their children's lives at risk on behalf of their country, they will then call upon a higher or alternate power forsome sort of exemption to this compulsory service.

The problem with exemptions, deferments, postponements and other excuses for not fulfilling your compulsory duty to serve your country, if called, is that the government has an overriding obligation to see that all citizens are subject to equal application of law, and not that some citizens should be able to circumvent these laws at their convenience. 

A State without an omnipotent God, allows the State to become as if it is god, which ultimately means that your life is sacrificed to the State as they best see fit.

Cell Phones are the New Nicotine

There use to be a time when smoking a cigarette was an accepted part of everyday culture, to which you could smoke at your desk, inside your house, at your leisure, in the park, at a restaurant or bar, and even incredibly on an airplane, but those days are either long gone or have been compromised significantly in many respects.  Nowadays, often we find smokers huddle together in hidden and dark crevices outside of office buildings, as if what they are doing is obnoxious, dirty, or vile, which is what many non-smokers often believe.  Although, cigarette smokers still smoke for the pleasure and comfort that it gives them, especially too treating their cigarette as a reliable and unquestioning friend that helps them to sooth away their frazzled nerves, as well as to deal successfully with the stress and disappointment of everyday life, it just isn't quite as good as it was back in the day, before the smoker was ever branded as some sort of disgusting pariah.

Yet, when we fast forward to the present day, we see that although cigarette smokers are on the defensive, often furtive in their smoking habits, we find that those that have the makeup of what would have been a smoker in the past, are in a figurative sense, smoking, but it isn't tobacco, it isn't nicotine, they are instead using their cell phone as a proxy for the whole cigarette smoking experience.  It seems that the way that so many people use their cell phones today are quite similar in nature to the way that people use to smoke cigarettes, back when smoking was socially accepted in America.

For instance, one of perceived cardinal sins in America, is to ever appear to be alone, or lonely, in just about any social situation.  Well, that can be easily rectified by simply having a cell phone and either blithely texting away or chattering away to another person, which is proof positive that you are an important and valued person.  Also, when you are bored in school, or at work, or just about anywhere, whereas previously there may have been a tendency to light up and smoke, now you just need to tap a few keys on your cell and you're in touch with a friend, or the internet, and all is well.  Of course, too, if you want to prove to your peers what a great time that you are having, you can effortlessly snap a picture with your phone, post it immediately, making you feel as if you are on top of the world.

There is also too a social aspect to cell phones which is quite similar to smoking, although it isn't quite as easy as asking for a match or to borrow a cigarette, but you can just as easily start a conversation with someone, by asking them if what they have is the latest this or that phone, or do they have the latest this or that app, and the social experience is eerily similar to two smokers, interrelating to one another.   So too, are cell phone users branded much like smokers, dedicated to a certain operating system as well as a particular cell phone manufacturer, to which they all have to have the coolest and sleekest phone, because that defines them.  No longer are they stuck pretending to be riding a horse, independent and strong such as the Marlboro man, they are instead today's iphone men, so beyond cool.

You cannot hide from God

We are use to talking to people through words, verbal as well as written, but communication between one to another often times encompasses many more things than just the words themselves, such as: the tone of our voice, the exaggeration of our words or actions, exclamation marks, our body language and our disposition and so on.  Good communication can become a problem because some people will tell us one thing with their words, but the intent that they want to get across is nearly the opposite, such as “you don’t care about me,” to which the translation may well be that “you don’t care about me in the manner that I desire you to,” and so forth.

When it comes to God, however, there is absolutely nothing lost in the translation, in fact, God knows you to your very being, to your very soul, much more so than you think that you know yourself.  Further to this point, while in the material world you can fool some of the people some of the time, and most of the people most of the time, you cannot fool God at any time, ever.  The knowledge of this fact should be disturbing for some people, because they rightly fear that the foundation of the lies and deceits that their life has constructed may will ultimately become their eternal prison to extricate themselves from.

The fact that you cannot hide from your Lord, and further that you cannot keep any secrets from Him, should be a source of comfort for most people, because this makes your Heavenly Father, your Father confessor, your Spiritual Guide, and your rock to build good character from.  The fundamental difference between God and fallen man, is that although your Creator knows you through and through, for instance, He knows all your weaknesses and all your foibles, He is ever there to help you, to guide you, to aid you, and always with your best interests in mind, whereas even your best earthly friend, could turn on you; God will not.

It must be said that you are never alone, not even in your darkest moments.  You are never forsaken, you are never forgotten, and you are never unloved, because no matter where you are, no matter what you are, you are loved, no matter what.  While some needlessly fear that God will annihilate them for what they have done or thought this simply is not the case, nor will it ever be the case.  Too often we attribute male characteristics to our God, and not often enough do we attribute female characteristics to our God and thereby it certainly behooves us to conceive of our Lord as our eternal protecting Mother, and we are Her children, so that no matter how we behave, our loving Divine Mother will nurture us, and perhaps sometimes scold us for our own good, but She will always wish the best for us, always knowing that through our trials and errors that one day, we will do right by Her, and that day will come for all of us, without exception.

Every day our Divine Mother watches over us, with a smile on Her face, knowing, even if we don’t, that whatever pleasures or miseries that we have here on earth, are transient, but her Love for us is not.  Hebrews 4:13 says: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight…”  God knows us all, from the beginning to the end, She is that eternal Light, ever vigilant, our new Colossus, beckoning us to the lamp of all lamps and entrance through the golden door.

The Unintended Consequences of the Birth Control Pill

We live in a man's world, and if that has changed somewhat, we still live in a male-centric world to which certain long-standing rules and standards are far more favorable to males as opposed to females.  One of the most important aspects of humanity, is having control and self-direction of one's own body to which when it comes to sexual intercourse a man need never worry that he, himself, can become impregnated, whereas a woman without any sort of birth control or access to it, recognizes that anytime she engages in coitus she may become impregnated, whether that is or is not a desirable outcome for her or the couple.

While there has always been some form of birth control that has been utilized or performed by one partner or the other throughout history, their reliability has almost always been put into question.  Additionally, despite the fact that dependable cervical caps as well as diaphragms had been created in the 1920s, because of the puritanical and religious background of America, laws, and the reluctance of the physicians to insert/implement these birth control devices, woman in America, were still significantly underserved in regards to being able to control their own body in regards to procreation.

The modern day birth control pill was theorized, developed, and ultimately created in the 1950s.  In 1957 the FDA approved the pill for severe menstrual disorders, and in 1960, it was approved for contraceptive usage.  The primary advantages of the birth control pill for woman were that its effectiveness was nearly 100%, it didn’t necessitate a physician's appointment to insert a birth control device, it was relatively inexpensive, and it also allowed the woman to control her ability to conceive without having to notify anyone.  This meant in the 1960s, many women for the first time, felt as if they were truly in command of their reproductive system, meaning that they now could enjoy sex without having to worry about the possible consequence of becoming pregnant.

If the birth control pill, remained a woman's little secret, and completely unknowable to man, its unintended consequences, may well have been mitigated, but point of fact, once men became aware that woman could now have sex and not get pregnant, it produced a fundamental shift in the sexual relations between man and woman.  While, on the surface, it appeared that the reliable birth control pill, freed up forever, the woman's fear of unintended pregnancy, which it did; the other shoe dropped, because sexual relations morphed into more of a free-for-all, pleasure seeking escapade, where men now too recognized that they could have as much sex as they wanted, with as many partners as they wanted, because they need not worry about impregnating anyone.

So while on the one hand, woman have escaped for the most part from "shotgun" weddings, as well as becoming mothers at an early or unwanted age, or having more children than they desire, along with having the ability to enjoy sex without having to unnecessarily worry about become impregnated; they have lost from many men their commitment to a long-term and meaningful relationship.  In an era, when it would appear that everything is allowed before marriage or a true meeting of the minds, it isn't surprising that so many men will simply walk away from anything that even hints of responsibility.

The Supreme Court and the destruction of our Judeo-Christian Heritage

The Federal Supreme court is the highest judicial body of the land, to which the nine justices, have the privilege of deciding what is and what is not Constitutional law in this country.  This means that their rulings whether right or wrong, are effectively treated as lawful, often times superseding State or local law, and any of those people that disobey implicitly or explicitly the Court's rulings will be liable to the full force of law.  Because all humans are fallible, the Supreme Court justices do make error in law, and have done so since the inception of the Supreme Court and will continue to do so as long as this remains a Constitutional country.   Additionally, the prejudices, the mores, the background, the politics, and the actual appointments of Supreme Court justices themselves most definitely impacts what is and what is not made to be the majority opinion, so that it is an absolute truism that the supreme law of the land is absolutely contingent upon the makeup of the Supreme Court itself.

The First Amendment is an important amendment to our Constitution, which somehow seems to be manipulated to favor whatever decision a court wants it to favor.  The First Amendment clearly states that the Federal government is prohibited in establishing a designated religion, which has been construed to mean in recent history that essentially prayer, the Bible, Christian and other religious professions of faith, have no part in public educational schools as well as other public or governmental forums.  Instead, the Supreme Court would have one believe that the creation of America, its founding, and its Constitution, was secular in nature, and that the intention of our Founding Fathers from day one, was that there should be a wall of separation of church and state, and that thereby each of these institutions should not interfere with the other.  The thing is, most reasonable people would see prayer, and the learning and cultivation of scripture as part of a sound moral foundation which aids in the necessary good character development an individual needs, understanding well that the absence of God would entail the issue as Dostoevsky wrote:  "If God does not exist, everything is permitted." 

The Government and the Supreme Court are absolutely determined to do everything within their power to knock down the foundation of our Judeo-Christian heritage and to replace with Federal power, secularism, atheism as the authorized federal religion, and governmental paramilitary and police forces to control the masses.  This means that the primary reason for the Supreme Court to rule against God and prayer, so as to create a secular state in purpose, laws, and function, is so that the common citizen would now no longer see God as their liberator, protector, and savior, but instead they would now see the Federal Government and its entire apparatus as their rightful benefactor.

God and State are forever at odds, to which the State, so often, takes on the guise of liberator, but in fact, is the annihilator of human liberty.  America was created with the knowledge that our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness were our rights as given to us by God, Himself.  Today's Supreme Court, and today's Federal Government, wants instead to erase any vestige of that past; why else, would they fear something as innocuous, for example, as a desire by an individual or a group of individuals or a school to pay homage to He who created it all.

The Beaten South

As soon as Lincoln was elected in 1860, the southern States began to secede from the Union, with South Carolina being the first State to secede, and with Tennessee being the last and the 11th State to secede, although, in fact, the Eastern part of Tennessee remained staunchly pro-union.   These eleven States took up arms against their own Federal Government, repudiated Federal debt, conscripted its citizens, and brought on war against their own country, even though Lincoln had made it known in his first Inaugural address that: "The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."" The south, though took it upon themselves that if they could not legitimately win by the ballot, and even though Lincoln had assured the south that he would not: "…interfere with the institution of slavery…" none of this prevented the south from taking war into their own hands against their own fellow countrymen.

If would be one thing if the war between the States had been a war of just a few months, and a few thousand deaths, but it is an entirely different thing that the war was instead four long and bloody years, with an incredible amount of destruction of material wealth, along with the deaths of 620,000 men, and countless injuries both physical as well as mental.  The South did everything within its power to try to win their "freedom", to create their own country, to make their own Constitution, all without a legitimate and valid reason to do so, while also keeping a significant portion of their fellow human beings in abject poverty and chattel slavery.

Fortunately, for this country, the South was defeated, to which Lincoln was gracious enough to offer to the South, his terms of surrender and the re-admission to the Union, which essentially was permitted when 10% of the population of a given State had pledge both their allegiance to the Union as well as their adherence to the principles of the Emancipation Proclamation.  As for the military officers and soldiers of the beaten south, with the exception of certain tribunals set aside for prisoner of war camp abuses, most everyone else was let go on their own recognizance.  This meant that no Confederate general, no Confederate politician, such as Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, suffered the indignity of a trial, of punishment, or execution.

The upshot of confederates not being severely punished was that even though they had been defeated, what we found was that within a very short period of time, it was if the South had never lost the war, as the planter aristocracy asserted their power and influence throughout commerce, law, and politics.  Additionally, those that had formerly been slaves with no rights, were now in the South simply slaves in principle, if not in name.

We will never know what would have happened, if instead of the South being treated as errant sons and prodigals, embraced by a loving father; if it had instead been subjected to the full wrath of the American government which was never unleashed, to which if it had the vanquished would have been held accountable for their war crimes and sentenced appropriately for it; as well as undoubtedly we would have seen the commensurate destructionand the evisceration of the Southern aristocracy, which was the real cause of the war, once and for all.  This would have left a different South, humbled and occupied, never to rise again on its own undemocratic terms.

Prisoners Should Guard Prisoners

The United States is a country that believes strongly in the necessity and in the effectiveness of incarcerating all sorts of malcontents in federal, state, and county prisons and jails.  It is estimated that there is approximately two million Americans that are imprisoned at the current time, to which it is further estimated by abcnews.com that "The average in state and federal prisons is one officer per 5.6 prisoners."  This means that the taxpayers throughout this country are responsible for not only the payment of the facility incarceration structure itself and its incumbent infrastructure, but also the labor costs of compensating the staff necessary to guard and to maintain order in these prisons.  As reported by chron.com, "As of 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that correctional officers earned an average of $43,300 per year."  Additionally, while the skill-set needed to be a correctional officer does vary  it is basically sufficient to have a high school diploma or better, with a professional certificate in criminal justice or equivalent also being desired. 

While, on the one hand it may seem insane to have prisoners guarding other prisoners, in point of fact, the technology and the security of modern-day prisons, clearly allows a hierarchy of labor in regards to the duties and functions of correctional officers.  This means that while the integrity of the security of a given prison must be maintained by professional correctional officers, this does not necessitate that everyone serving in the capacity of a correctional officer, needs to actually be one.  People are in prisons for all sorts of reasons to which the majority of these prisoners will one day be released from prison.  If, we do not allow these prisoners the opportunity to show their maturity and responsibility while in prison, their chances of success outside of the prison, are thereby minimized.

While many Americans wrongly believe that only the worse of the worse and thereby the most violent and incorrigible are incarcerated in America, the fact of the matter is that most prisoners are in prison for offenses that are non-violent offenses.  It is therefore these non-violent prisoners that could have the capability to become guardians of other prisoners, to which I suspect that a meaningful portion of them would have an abiding interest in any opportunity to show their worth and would welcome the challenge to demonstrate that they could perform their duties in a professional and effective manner.

In America, too often, when it comes to our disgraceful amount of humans that are incarcerated, that the basic attitude can be summed up into "out of sight, out of mind", but all that really does is two things: it just kicks the can further down the road without resolving anything, and it is an unnecessary waste of the taxpayers' money. 

A policy to which you treat a man as if he should be broken down into a docile animal, does not make for a future, good and viable citizen, it instead does more to break the spirit of that man, and his self-esteem.  Under the right conditions and under the right programs, prisoners could indeed guard other prisoners, giving these men the chance to demonstrate courage, conviction, responsibility and negotiation skills.

Only One Dual Purpose NFL Stadium

There was a time when it was fairly common for NFL franchises to share the stadium that they played in with a MLB team, the greatest number of NFL teams to do that according to footballgeography.comwas: ”In 1971, 17 of the NFL’s 26 teams shared a stadium with a MLB team.” That was then, and this is now, so that the only NFL franchise that currently shares a stadium with a MLB team is in Oakland, and that is it.  While there are perhaps another 10 NFL franchises that share their stadium with a collegiate football team, the rest of the NFL franchises are standalone stadiums, to which the NFL season consists for most home teams typically of two preseason games and an additional eight regular season games, with no further games guaranteed unless that NFL team makes the playoffs.  The fact that millions upon millions is spent on the construction and the maintenance of these stadiums, it would seem that logically that there should be an incumbent duty upon the envisioning and construction of these stadiums to consider the overall utility of the project at its inception.

To make matters worse, and probably the most significant reason, why so many coliseums are built with the purpose of only glorifying the NFL, is the fact that it is estimated by Mark Fabiani, special counsel to the San Diego Chargers that: “The average subsidy in the NFL is about 65 percent of the costs of a stadium is paid for by the public.” It is a truism that one spends other person’s money differently that one spends their own money, after all, if one can fleece the public and get a large group of people, that is to say the taxpayers of a certain community, to foot the bill for the so-called “greater good” of creating a stadium solely meant to be used for NFL games, it will be done.

While there are many good and valid reasons why it is senseless to build expensive state-of-the-art stadiums which sit basically unused for virtually every day of the year, it is a real tragedy that in many major cities the NFL could avail themselves of sharing their stadium with a MLB team, which would make the overall building proposition logically more cost-effective and fairer to the taxpayer who is left stuck subsidizing some of the richest men in the entire world.  The fact of the matter is that the technology and experience today needed to create a successful multi-purpose stadium is far greater than back in 1971, yet we have gone in the exact opposite direction and the stadiums built in the present day are the most expensive behemoths on record.

It’s bad enough that out in the real world, that there is mega division between the truly rich and powerful in comparison to the common American, what makes it even worse, is to take America’s most popular sport and instead of offering the taxpayer fair entertainment to soothe his psyche after another week of drudgery mix with frustration, we instead, empty his pockets out, figuring him for a sucker, because, well, he is.

Judge the saved by their fruits

The world is full of professed believers in the religion of their faith, but a significant portion of those self-professed believers do not come close to measuring up to their faith.  In point of fact, it is difficult to believe in a risen Savior when those that claimed to be born again, or to have been saved, or reformed, or redeemed by His blood, appear to be the same as they ever were; perhaps with the exception of such modest changes as the blessing of their food before they eat it, or a portion of their money being given to charity, or a general more pleasant countenance.  While we can always be grateful for any change that is made that improves the character of one’s fellow being -- true believers are rather in short supply.

I am not here speaking of fanaticism when it comes to religious faith as being the apogee of it, because fanaticism can be the very worse aspect of any religious faith, for unreasoning faith can easily degenerate into demagoguery, oppression, narrow-mindedness, and bigotry.  The religious faith that I am referring to, is the type of faith that truly changes the character of your being in its actions, in its goals, and in its thoughts, or for those that were already on the good path, it strengthens and encourages them in their convictions and allows them to become a better vessel for God’s handiwork on earth.

The great avatars of this world incarnate again and again to serve as the prime exemplars of what man can become if he but turns away from his wickedness and selfish decisions.  The change that so many people cry for, starts within us, because God is not our puppeteer, He has instead given us free will, and with that will we can either take steps forward onto the straight and narrow path: “ Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matthew 7:14) or suffer the results of our willful meanderings.

Each person should ask themselves, this one fundamental question, who is that I respect the most out of all the people that I have met in person, and the answer that you will find upon contemplation, will often be the person that walks the path of conviction in his actions, and in his ways, in his achievements, and in his advice.  You cannot possibly be a man of real religious faith if it does not make you a better man for having done so.  This faithful man will give drink to the thirsty, will feed the hungry, assist the stranger as well as the sick, and minister upon all of them, without hope or desire of receiving compensation or necessarily gratitude from them in having done so.

The mark of a man of real religious faith is someone that respects and loves his Lord, as well as proving this tenet by treating his neighbor as his own, because he recognizes as few do, that the One beget many, but all of those many, all of them, must one day return to being just the One.

Government Spying Agencies

According to businessinsider.com the: "… U.S. intelligence community is vast, composed of 17 distinct organizations each operating under its own shroud of secrecy".  Additionally, businessinsider.com estimates that the classified budgets of these intelligence agencies may be as of a 2012 estimate: "… pegs the cost at about $75 billion…" which is an astonishing monetary figure.  While, in theory, these various spying agencies are accountable to someone or somebody or some government oversight committee, and in theory, operate strictly in accordance with United States Constitutional law, the truth lies far outside these boundaries.  While we can take some solace in great organizations such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, whistleblowers, certain citizens, certain blogs, and various media outlets, as well as the Freedom of Information Act, for the most part the general public, the citizenry of this United States, is basically left in the dark in regards to domestic spying which is either unwittingly or deliberately performed against them.

Because of technology, there has never been a better time to be a spy, and the government thereby has very little interest in walking away from all its capabilities of learning just about everything of actionable value against any citizen or groups of citizens as it pretty much desires.  If would be one thing, if the government had the best interests of its citizens in mind, when it performs its domestic spying, but in actuality, primarily, the government tries to place itself into a position to which they can argue, somewhat successfully, that all this data, all this intrusion, is necessitated by their concern for the welfare of the country as well as its citizens.  Francis Bacon said long ago that: "knowledge is power," and this government absolutely knows that this is true.

When the government essentially knows everything about you in the sense of where, why, and how, then they own you, lock, stock, and smoking barrel.  When you play a game of cards and you cannot read or see your opponent's cards yet they can read and see yours, preferably without you knowing it, you cannot hope to win.  That is the situation that our citizens are in, in which, they are effectively having their Fourth Amendment rights to be secure violated in that we read: "… in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…"   Today's government relishes the fact that their extensive intrusion electronic devices in conjunction with their massive databases allows them to search, to correlate, to analyze, to track, and to document just about everything that has an electronic footprint for their own purposes.

The legitimate government of this country is meant to be for the people and by the people, but this has been subverted over time to simply mean, that the government knows best and woe unto he that should question this wisdom.  There was a time, when J. Edgar Hoover, was perhaps the most feared man in the USA, because of his position as the director of the FBI, a post which he held through Democratic as well as Republican administrations, for nearly fifty years.  Hoover was legitimately feared because he had information, lots of it, so we can only imagine what Hoover would give to be alive today with all this advanced technology at his disposal, but unfortunately for us Director Hoover is dead, yet the legacy of Hoover lives on today in the specter of all our government spying agencies, which are far more menacing, far more diabolical, far more destructive, and far, far, far, beyond the pale.

Do not be Ashamed to be Christian

Some people, wear their Christianity as a badge of honor, some do not, and some profess their faith only amongst those of a similar faith, whereas some do not, and further some when giving the opportunity to testify for their faith simply remain silent, whereas some do not.  While it is true that many of us are not gifted in our ability to proselytize or to testify about our faith, it is a form of hypocrisy to change our habits and our being in order to conform to certain social orders or to not rock the boat, or other assorted reasons of convenience.  Christianity is not meant to be convenient, Christianity is not meant to be hidden, Christianity is not meant to be testified to only when you are in some place of safety, and Christianity is not something to be turned on and off like a light switch.  You are either a Christian, a real Christian, or you are not, and those that feel shame when given the opportunity to speak truthfully of their love for our Savior, have done immeasurable harm to themselves as well as to those that weren't able to feel the warmth of their witness.

Unfortunately, too many of us live lives of conformity, to which we want to be polite, to not stand apart, to not be a bother, so consequently we adjust our habits and mindset to match perceived social customs of the day.  That type of wrongheadedness does not produce a man of real worth, because only a person that is alive in the spirit can go against the flow, whereas those that are dead have no choice but to go with the flow.  While there is nothing wrong with being humble in your faith, or shy in your countenance, a true Christian should always have the resolution that when something abuts up against their faith that they will not abandoned it out of mere convenience or cowardice. 

The essence of being a Christian is that you do recognize that you are beholden to a Higher Power.   We read in Mark 8:38: "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed…"  A Christian cannot have it both ways, either you are Christian and your faith is a true foundation to build upon, or you are shifting sand, lukewarm, and an abomination because of your hypocrisy to the faith.  True Christianity is not a "get a free pass to Heaven" card; it is instead an eternal commitment to Christ in spirit, words, and in action. 

As a Christian, you are given the responsibility to be accountable for your actions and deeds, both implicit and explicit.  While there are some so-called Christians that turned their back on Christ, when really put to the test, there are many others who abandon Christ through thousands upon thousands of little, minute missteps, always intending to do the right thing at some unspecified future date, but never getting around to it, all because of convenience, or possibly because you are caught up in this world, or really because you believe that you are a Christian, but not one of those kind of Christians, where you have to be a servant to anyone, because, for example, washing an impoverished person's feet is something that is disgusting, even shameful.

“The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor.” -- Voltaire

According to Wikipedia.org: "In the 29th annual List of global billionaires, a record 1,826 billionaires were named with an aggregated net worth of $7.05 trillion…"  Whereas according to globalissues.org: "Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day."  The fact of the matter is, wealth cannot be created out of thin air, while it can in many countries and families be passed rather easily from one generation to another, and/or be taken from other people or organizations through outright State-sponsored theft; wealth does not create itself, it is created by some sort of labor, and most probably financial legerdemain.

Those that have become extremely rich by creating something of value like to fool themselves by contending or believing that we live in a world that consists of "an economic invisible hand" that somehow produces a fair equilibrium in regards to products and pricing, to which they, these particular skillful game players, are able to profit fairly from.  While it might be comforting to believe that each person is given a truly equal opportunity to be successful, in actuality a significant amount of people born into this world, have virtually no hope of ever rising from the abject poverty that they are born into.

In one way or another, the rich depend upon the abundant supply of the poor so that they can utilize them and to exploit them, which allows them to become rich in the first place, or to maintain their wealth, if they already have it.  There are very few people in this world that are entirely self-sufficient, that is to say, each of us needs food, shelter, clothing, electricity, plumbing, and well, the internet, of which none of these things just appear out of nowhere, as if by magic.  Because a lot of what we utilize can simply be purchased, a disconnect is created between the real cost of these goods in sweat labor, in comparison to what they simply cost us in ready money.  This means that the creature comforts that we often take for granted, often consist of millions upon millions of poor people behind the scenes, unknowable to us, and/or their resources that have been either exploited or simply just taken.

The reason why the moneyed elite do not have a vested interest in the elimination of poor people and/or people that is dependent upon their largess, is because their wealth would dissipate quickly.  The access to cheap labor and also cheap or undervalued resources are absolutely critical in keeping the superrich--super-wealthy.    This wealth also allows these privileged people to essentially rule their domain as they best see fit, and to become untouchable, and sometimes even championed.

The wealth of a country such as America, in so many instances, is based upon the outright exploitation and the taking of labor as well as resource wealth from countries around the world, often having regimes that are easily placated or soothed so as to allow this plucking to take place.  The rich understand the value of living to the adage that you can shear a sheep many times but you can only slaughter it once.  The poor of this world are those sheep, often ill-educated, ill-fed, ill-sheltered, but typically given just enough to live another day, and given too just enough hope to believe that meaningful change might actually come,  never suspecting that their end has already been pre-determined from the beginning.