Revolutions

The governments of the three most powerful countries in the world today, which are: America, Russia, and China all had violent revolutions, while there are different reasons for each of these revolutions, the bottom line was wars of independence were fought, lost, and won.  This most definitely proves the somewhat obvious point that in order for a violent revolution to overcome its opposition, that you need both men and weapons.  So that one in general can conclude that when those in power are in lockstep with the military and/or paramilitary of that country, that unless there is a coup within that leadership, or alternatively a tremendous amount of strategic help, arms, personnel, and outside assistance, that it would appear nearly hopeless for any revolution to replace those already in power.

Yet, there have in fact been revolutions that have occurred in which the regime changes from the hands of those in power and control of military forces and weaponry to the people that have demonstrated effectively against these particular regimes, such as in India, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.  This clearly demonstrates that revolutions can be successful through the route of non-violence, especially when the resistance is broadly base, with a strong moral force behind it, and with a high level of civil disobedience against laws, powers, and principalities that are both arbitrary and capricious.

This means that revolutions can be successful through either violent or non-violent means, while keeping in mind the very valid caveat, that revolutionary upheavals are also often unsuccessful in their violent or non-violent opposition.  In either case, whether violent or non-violent in their resistance, people's lives will invariable change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worst, which presupposes the very valid point which is that any opposition, that any revolution, should have a clear agenda of what they are trying to achieve and it is that agenda that they must live up to, as demonstrated In such seminal documents such as our Declaration of Independence.

 The thing about revolutions is that it is always far easier to destroy what already is, yet it is far more difficult to build up what should be.  That is to say, it is natural for people to have valid complaints, and further it follows that those same people believe somewhat simplistically that everything will be just fine if those certain people in power were removed.  However, often times the very problems that one thinks will be corrected by a regime change are instead found to be so intractable, so systemic, that there are no easy solutions to such to correct them, and virtually all the efforts in a revolutionary cause have come to naught, as the new boss is the same as the old boss (paraphrased from the Who).

It does take a strong man to face down the barrel of a gun and not to flinch in their vulnerable position, and often times to gather that strength comes from a strong, moral core, which understands and knows that non cooperation with evil is the basis of all that is good, and the opposite of such is treason

Refined Carbohydrates, Sugar, and Acne

There is plenty of advertising thrown about that either states or implies that your diet has little or nothing to do with the condition of your facial skin, particularly in adolescence, when so many people are prone to developing acne.  The thing is that your diet and acne most definitely have a correlation, we intuitively know this by virtue of the fact that diets that consist of a lot of refined carbohydrates and/or high sugar concentrations such as white bread and white pasta, most cereals and processed foods, candy bars, and most sodas, provide the body plenty of calories but also hits the body with insulin at a rapid rate which has a high correlation to weight gain, other physical ills, and the onset of diabetes over an extended period of time.  This signifies that your diet most definitely has a material impact upon your body, which logically would include the human skin and your face.

Treatments to take care of acne via over-the-counter medicines and prescriptions are big business for the purveyors of such, to which, these treatments are typically and fundamentally treating the symptoms of acne but not the underlying cause with media often selling the canard that the development of acne is simply a rite of passage, whereas like many things in life, you as individual, have significantly more control of it, than you might at first imagine.

In America, too often we are taught that in order to correct things, we simply need to pop a pill, or slap on some ointment, and so forth, whereas a lot of times through good common sense, and the proper understanding of nutrition, hydration, and cleanliness we can do much more to aid ourselves rather than spending our hard-earned money on things that don't do all that much for us, except to deplete our funds.

The thing about acne is its prevalence amongst cultures that have "advanced" to the point where instead of eating whole grains, fruits, and protein such as in meat or fish, they have migrated to the eating of foods that have been processed for ease of transportation, shelf life, and consumption -- the attendant result is that the corresponding incidence of acne has gone up considerably.   That is to say, studies have shown that in cultures in which the incidence of the westernization of the diet has not occurred, such as in the diet of the people on the island of Kitava, that there is no occurrence of acne, whatsoever. 

The modernization of America has on the one hand eliminated deadly diseases such as bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria, whereas on the other hand we have seen an increase in heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, all of which are debilitating and/or the cause of death.  Too often, we are under the wrong assumption that if something tastes good that it must be good, or at least, not bad for our body, but this is simply not true.  What we consume into our body does make a difference to our overall health, and when going through adolescence and the massive hormonal changes of that age, it would be wise to recognize that our skin tone and our complexion correlate strongly with our diet, and that an improper balance has ramifications that include but are not limited to the onset of acne.

Psalm 49: 6-7

We read in Holy Scripture that: " They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him." (Psalm 49:6-7).  America is perceived as a material world of which money and power most definitely are highly effective to those that are able to utilize these knowingly.  While, no doubt, there is a certain satisfaction in seeing money applied so as to relieve someone else from a particular debt or a difficult legal situation, signifying that money in of itself has value here on earth, it does not reach, however, beyond it.  This means, that no matter the power or riches that you have been gifted with, and/or the influence that you are able to display in this material form through this wealth, your wealth ends, when you or your beneficiaries come face-to-face with God at your respective judgments.

You cannot buy God, while that seems rather obvious to most, the lives that people live on a day-to-day basis belies this common sense knowledge.  For far too many people, that are used to seeing that their influence, their power, their money, or their knowledge, in conjunction with other attributes are able to change the course of events, believe that in themselves, that such power as this, can be called upon at any time for any situation, but it cannot.

The purpose of this above psalm is to remind each and every one of us that the true treasure that we earn in this world, will be with us upon our physical demise, so that it can be said, that in this world, although your reach may indeed be far and secure, beyond it though, your power is meaningless, without form and void.  God does not now or has ever been impressed with material wealth, especially with those that have determined by their actions and their mindset that the god that they will truly serve is the god of mammon.

The main problem with wealth is that so often it distorts one's view of the world, mainly because wealth is able to apparently resolve or ameliorate so many problems in this life, so that it may then appear that wealth is the answer to everything when in fact, it's never the answer, it is at best, a sidestep. However, those that take the bread of life, and bless that bread with the foreknowledge of He who is the benefactor of life, will discover that those loaves have often multiplied so as to provide an easing of the yoke that so many are burdened with, a continual blessing for those of the true faith.

Do not waste your precious time in the pursuit of material gain, as that is the illusion sold to you by the opposition, perhaps playing on your fear, or on your belief in the false security that money will provide all that you may ever need, but instead acknowledge that those that pursue God with an unending passion, have gain all, and drink of the living water that refreshes the soul and has no beginning and no end.

Individual Sovereignty

Each person should be sovereign over their own self, which would include not only our physical body but also our mind, yet in many ways today we are not sovereign over ourselves, as this sovereignty has been wrongfully taken by the State, other government authorities, family members, or possibly even our employers.  The most important document in all of American history, is the Declaration of Independence, which makes it very clear that each of us, by our birth, by our humanity, by our Creator, have inalienable rights, and that amongst these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The purpose of government, the purpose of society, the purpose of family, is for the opportunity for sovereign individuals to band together, so as to secure these rights, and that these entities that are joined together are instituted amongst man, deriving their just powers from the consent of those so governed by them, and further whenever any form of governmental or alliances in general become destructive of these ends, the people, as well as specifically individuals has the right to alter or to abolish them.

Unfortunately, in America, we have come a long way from these noble sentiments and now live in a country to which our individual sovereignty is under assault each and every day, on virtually every level that one can think of.  Not only are our powers to basic movement and the decisions that we make, subject to all sorts of arbitrary law, this present government in conjunction with certain favored industries, subject us to endless propaganda that are in direct opposition to the very principles of the founding of this great nation.

While it certainly makes sense when bands of people group together, that a rule of law be created, that rule of law itself must be impartial, fair, just, and sensible, and in sympathy with individual sovereignty.  It is not for the government to take upon itself, to be dictator of what we can or cannot do as sentient beings with our own mind and body.  It is one thing entirely to create laws that arbitrate between what one person has done to another, but it is an entirely different thing to create laws that punish what one person does, advocates, or does not do to himself.

While the State and the people should have an interest in you as an individual, that interest cannot and should not extend to punishing you for acts against yourself, that others somehow have determined to be worthy of some sort of punishment.  An individual, any individual should be entitled to do whatever that they want to do with their own body and mind, as that is part and parcel of having inalienable rights to begin with and as long as in so doing, they are not interfering with another person's sovereignty over their own bodies and minds or violating the property of others, they should be left free to choose the actions that please them.

The main issue that is far too common in today's society, is the overreach generated by so many people and governmental agencies; while it is true that on the one hand we are our brother's keeper, that duty is based on the love of one's neighbor and not aggrandizing to ourselves the right to punish those for whom we disagree with in regards to their doing and believing.

Abortion, Feticide, and Infanticide

Even though the law of the land signifies that abortion is legal under certain terms and conditions throughout America -- a woman's right to choose as to whether to abort her fetus is something that is still both vociferously debated as well as being a highly emotional and moral issue.  The ramifications of abortion of demand is fraught with medical controversy, as it is possible that the same medical doctor that you attend to for the birth of a given newborn child, is also the same medical doctor that performs abortions, to which, there is an inherent moral and professional conflict between these two distinct activities, to which one is about the celebration of newborn life, while the other is about the premeditated taking of life.

Of course, for a female to even consider having an abortion in the first place, that female must be pregnant, yet, despite the fact that never in history has there been so many ways to prevent pregnancy such as through options as in birth control pills, IUDs, injections, condoms and so forth, there are around one million abortions performed in America each year, to which it is surmised that very few woman having abortions, actually desired to be placed into the unenviable position of aborting their own fetus to begin with.  This would strongly imply that because abortions are legally available for females, that logical and straightforward steps to prevent an unintended pregnancy are forsaken, perhaps under the mistaken notion that pregnancy is always something that happens to the other female, not you.

A pregnancy occurs when upon conception an embryo is created within the woman's womb, which later gestates and graduates into a fetus, typically considered to be accomplished at eight weeks after conception, and this fetus will later be birthed at typically 37 to 42 weeks from conception, although fetuses as young as 22 weeks have been successfully delivered.   This means, depending upon the time table of when an abortion is performed, that the doctor performing it may be killing either a human embryo, or a human fetus (feticide), or even a viable fetus inside or outside the birth canal (infanticide). 

The semantics and politics of those that are pro-abortion like to spin things in such a manner so as to emphasize two points: one is that it is the woman's body and she alone, should have preeminence over it, and that the State or any moral authorities, should therefore step aside.  The other is that those that perform or participate in an abortion do not want to, or refuse to admit that an abortion is anything other than essentially aborting "products of conception", which sidesteps the real issue and is intellectually dishonest.

What is lost during all this abortion talk and action, is the fact that humanity and the sanctity of human life, itself, essentially takes a back seat to the selfishness of those that are alive at the expense of those that would have life.  Abortion is in essence, the euthanasia of the defenseless, it is feticide, it is infanticide, to which a great nation can never be a defender of, and instead the highest court of our land in order to be considered a legitimate authority must recognize that its chilling precedence has done more to destroy the fabric of this storied nation, than any foreign enemy America has ever faced.

TSA K-9 Units

Anyone that has to travel via public airlines, has as a part of that travel, to deal with security elements of airports, to which virtually all major airports in America, use the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and their primary duty is to make sure that at airports, cargo, along with its associated personnel and passengers, comply with all TSA regulations.  Of course, it isn't real clear that the TSA even understands their own regulations, as mission creep seems to be part and parcel of virtually any Federal agency created, and is certainly the case for the TSA.

Take for instance, the fact that airports now have TSA canine (K-9) units, which upon the first time that you see one, takes you somewhat aback.  Typically, most people associate K-9 units with actual police officers, to which TSA "officers" most certainly are not, which begs the question, if TSA agents are not police officers, why are they, as opposed to actual police officers, utilizing canines on behalf of their duties?

The answer given by the government would typically fall under that the canines are being utilized by the TSA to detect for explosives which is one of the most significant reasons for the TSA to exist in the first place.  If this is truly the case, though, this type of work seems beyond the scope of TSA agents, as a "positive" from a canine, would seem to necessitate taking actual action against a person or persons, to which having the legal ability to arrest, be armed, and a good understanding of Constitutional safeguards, all seem prudent for exactly this type of situation, because the fact of the matter is that most "positives" are not going to be real, actionable events at all and thereby need to be handled by those that have both the experienced and the training to deal with these situations in such a manner so as to not unwittingly upset the citizens that are supposed to be protected, but not unduly harassed without probable cause.

Another issue with TSA K-9 units is that the policy of where these units are deployed seems haphazard and logically inept.  For instance, there are security lines to enter into the actual airport terminal to which all personnel and passengers are subject to these lines in one form or another, but somehow you will find TSA K-9 units on the other side of the security window, that is to say, in the passenger debarkation and embarkation areas to which they will roam about, which begs the question, if you are going to have TSA K-9 dogs after passengers have already gone through security, what is the point of the security lines to begin with?

That is to say, once you decide that TSA K-9 units can go anywhere, than why not on the airplanes themselves before they take off, or while passengers are in the runway to board the airplane, or in the bathrooms, or the smoking rooms, or on the tarmac, or in the parking lot, or in the parking lots of facilities that are for longer term parking but are off premises, or at passenger's houses just before they get into their car. 

The bottom line is that TSA K-9 units are completely ineffective, all flash, no substance, a waste of the taxpayer's money and a disgrace to the principles of this great nation.

The Ticking Time Bomb Torture Fallacy

There are far too many people that watch scenes in movies and television shows depicting enhanced interrogation or whatever and believes gullibly that these stories truly reflect the realities of the real world, where in virtually all cases they do not.  In the movies, the producers of such, often want you to believe that for good to overcome evil, that good has to sometimes take a play from the bad guys' playbook in order to put him down, and that this action is of course justified, often because the bad guy has done all sorts of terrible, horrible deeds, that are far beyond what the good guy has done in return.  The result, is good triumphs and evil is defeated, and thereby all is good.  What rot!

The United States is a signatory to international treaties that specify that torture is forbidden, along with the fact that torture is outlawed in the country of the United States to begin with, yet America does torture certain suspects time and again, no matter what semantics it may use, and then uses their worldwide power, influence, and jurisprudence to argue that what has occurred isn't really torture, but "enhanced interrogation techniques" and other creative phrases that disgrace this country.

America sells the lie that torture is necessary against certain enemies because there are bad guys that do horrible things to America and its infrastructure, and thereby America needs to respond in kind, all in order to protect its citizens, its institutions, and its country.     The very fact that America endorses the torturing of anybody for any reason is the very test of a country's constitutional government to begin with and our ignoble failure to such reflects that America is itself, a rogue State.

Certain clever pundits like to propose, ridiculous scenarios, such as the one about a certain evil person who has been caught and he alone has vital information that if extracted in time, will prevent an atomic bomb from detonating in NYC or similar, so that even a pacifist, so to speak, would recognized that in this type of dramatic situation, that surely the violation of one bad guy's civil rights, would be worth the saving of millions of lives.  The problem with this type of fallacious reasoning is that America is trying to put forth the lie of "the ends justify the means", but in actuality the truth of the matter is, that the ends will reflect the means, so that those that believe safety lies in the torturing of others, will find that they have reaped what they have sow, when the blowback of such torture haunts them and their country to its very core.

The thing is that within any true justice system there is a road, that every country must have the determination to take, and those that veer from the straight and narrow path, to endorse circuitous reasoning, unequal justice in all of its many forms, aren't patriots, but are, in fact, the enemy within, and are therefore at mortal and moral odds with this last best hope of mankind. 

Life itself, may only give you one or two true tests of your real character, and those that fail those tests, have lost all.

The Hypocrisy of the Witness Protection Program

Many, many people struggle on a day-to-day basis simply finding the means to consistently pay the bills and to keep their lives in order, so that despite the fact that they work hard, their livelihood and well being is in constant jeopardy, until the very day that they breathe their last.  In fact, it is estimated that about half of American citizens have zero net worth, to which the majority of these impoverished people, are good Americans, just trying to get a taste of the American dream.  On the other hand, there are murderers, embezzlers, drug dealers and other assorted criminals, that get to enjoy their lives on America's dime, with a new identity, no less, simply because they testified against notorious low-life degenerates.

While many people are aware that there is a Witness Protection program in America, what they may not recognize is that besides the fact that these members of crime organizations or similar get new identity papers, a new location, U.S. Marshall protection, subsidized housing, they also often receive supplemental payments that as reported by howstuffworks.com: are "… on average of $60,000 per year."  Remember this very important point, these people that are getting "do-over's" are typically criminals themselves and/or part of criminal enterprises, yet they are getting a fresh leash on life, with all of the necessary ingredients to be successful, such as consistent monetary benefits, job training, new identity papers, at a new locale, whereas good citizens of the United States are treated as if they are the refuse of America.

The message that is clearly sent to the public is that crime most definitely pays, if you are willing to snitch on your fellow criminals.  The bottom line is that if you rat out your fellow crime-lord, America jurisprudence will protect you and reward you for having done so.  While it is claimed that these sorts of deals are necessary in order to convict criminals to whom without having the testimony of a former confidant, means that there isn't the means to convict someone, the truth of the matter is that this is faulty reasoning, and really just plain laziness or indifference on the law officer's part as there are myriad ways to penetrate and to unearth incriminating evidence without having to give up the company store to do so.  The thing is that people that are engaged in criminal enterprises don't have a lot of good options available to them when the pressure is on, so that, the American justice system does not need to provide them with witness protection, money, and significantly reduced incarceration or elimination of such to induce them to switch to the other side. 

The deal that is given to these particular criminals in exchange for their testimony is far too good for them and the benefit to America is far too small for the witness protection program to exist at all.  America should not be making deals with criminals which allows them to get off and to enjoy the good life at our expense, while good citizens that play by the rules, struggle each and every day.   This type of perverse reasoning is what is wrong with America today, as crime should not be rewarded by the State, it should, be punished for what it is.  Those that think that drying up the Witness Protection program, will somehow dry up criminals wanting to rat out other criminals in order to cut themselves a better deal when it comes to their particular punishment, don't understand human nature, because there are many men that will run to the American justice system, make whatever deal that they can make, when they believe that the alternative to them not doing so, is torture and/or death. 

America should not be in the business of rewarding those that would subvert its institutions, while ignoring those that don't.

The Exportation of the Armaments used for War, Conflict, and Terror

The world is full of armed conflicts, especially in the Middle East, Africa, and other Asian countries, to which in order to inflict damage upon their avowed enemies, arms are used by one party against the other, or one country against the other, or one ethnic group against the other, creating deadly havoc and destruction to all that lie in the paths of those determined sides that are engaged in warfare.  It is rather obvious, that the more lethal the weapons, as well as the more sophisticated the technology, the more destruction that will be wrought.  The thing is, somewhat lost in all the drama of these conflicts, is that weapons do not spring out of thin air, they must be manufactured by companies within countries that are skilled at this craft, bought, and exported/transported to those that have the means to purchase them.

While it is not particularly unusual for countries that are involved in armed warfare to have access locally to some weapons capacity, for the most part the best weapons and arsenals come from the most advanced military nations, themselves.  Additionally, considering that armaments more than mere words carry far more impact in the field of battle, all of these military and paramilitary groups are eager and desirous of getting armaments that are lethal, effective, and more advanced than their opposition, because more often than not superior weaponry is the telling factor than any other separate thing in battles.

The two biggest arms manufacturer exporters by far are the United States and Russia, which means, whether America has a direct or indirect presence in some of the conflicts around the world via boots on the ground or similar, for almost a certainty their weaponry most definitely is used by one side or the other, either by deliberate intention or not.  The thing about most weapons is that although they may be legally exported from America to the desired designated country, is that once these are sold and out of American hands, these weapons can easily find a home just about anywhere globally.

This means that American soldiers can be and have been wounded and killed by arms manufactured in America that are in the hands of those that we are in battle with, so that it can be said, that American weapons sold overseas have been used by our avowed enemies against American soldiers to kill them.  It is deeply disturbing that American weapon manufacturers, stockholders, and exporters of such are able to reap the revenues and profits of war, while ignoring that there is something fundamentally wrong with American soldiers having to face up against this very same American sophistication in weaponry turned against them.

The American government, likes to believe or purports to believe, that the situations in which our arms get into the wrong hands is simply the cost of doing business in a complicated world, in which, for instance, the arms were initially sold to one group or country, that had misrepresented itself or got defeated or corrupted or changed leadership, and/or the arms were sold to a legitimate country, but unbeknownst to the United States, additional arm trades were made so that the arms ended up in the hands of our opposition.  However, that it is sliced, none of this would ever occur, if instead of kowtowing to the military-industrial complex of America, that America understood the direct correlation of the more arms it sells and exports overseas, the more Americans will thereby be put into harm's way, and therefore the more Americans that will die, in a trade of their patriotic blood for true blood money.

The Death Penalty v. Law Officer's Deadly Force

From 1977 through 2015 there have been 1,422 inmates executed via the death penalty in the United States, which while regrettable, at least these victims were theoretically duly tried with an impartial jury and judge, permitted defense council as per Constitutional law, and were in due course sentenced to capital punishment as duly prescribed by law, with depending upon their particular circumstances also given the opportunity to appeal such a verdict.  It can be said that of those given the death penalty and executed within the United States, that they probably were afforded a reasonable opportunity to defend themselves.

There are virtually every day in the United States, suspects, if even that, and criminals, no doubt, that are for lack of a better word, executed by law officers in their line of duty.  By definition, none of these victims have been duly tried or convicted of whatever offense that they are alleged to have been involved in at that moment, and while there are specific rules in regards to the use of deadly force, it would seem, that those rules are permanently bent in the favor of law officers to do whatever that their discretion believes need to be done in these types of situations.  While, there is no argument that officers of the law, should be permitted to meet fire with fire, it should however be recognized that their overarching aim should always be to protect and to serve their constituents, and that they should not be permitted to be judge, jury, and executioner of suspects and thereby become their own law, thereupon trumping and negating proper jurisprudence of this great nation.

The fact of the matter is that http://www.killedbypolice.net informs us that law officers killed 1200 people in 2015, nearly the same amount of people that have been executed via the death penalty over the last 40-odd years.  Now, no doubt, the real world has some very bad people in it, people that put other citizens and police officers in harm's way, to which, one reasonable response by a law officer would be to engage that suspect in deadly fire.  However, that is one response, but typically, although not always, there are alternate responses to deadly force that could be used or should at least be considered being utilized.

The one thing that cannot be argued about today's police force is that the weapons that they have in their extensive arsenal are extremely lethal, while on the one hand, that might be considered to be a good thing, on the other hand, deadly force, is not something that can ever be retracted, so that it probably would behoove police departments in general, to seriously consider other viable options other than the most deadly ones.

It is not easy to be a good police officer, nor is it easy to exercise proper restraint and discretion in situations to which things are chaotic, unclear, frightful, and dangerous.  So too, it must be stated, that it is easy to second guess another person's decision, yet, quite candidly, true justice does not ever come at the barrel of a gun, or the end of a rope, or other lethal means, it never has, and it never will.

Sports Owners and Vertical Integration

The individuals and companies that own the biggest sports franchises in America are already an exclusive club of very rich and very powerful people, pretty much without exception.  This means that these individuals and companies have access to and take advantage of the very best lawyers and accountants so as to maximize their "investments" in these franchises.  Not too surprisingly, when you are use to getting your way, you pretty much are not interested in any obstacles that will negatively impact your assets.

The thing about sports is that you have the actual sports franchise, the stadium or arena for the events, ticket sales to the actual games, along with television and radio access to them, to which all of these things when integrated together create synergy and that synergy helps to create or to improve cash allocation and to increase net worth.  There are very large media companies that have owned sports franchise such as Disney and Comcast, as well as individuals that have owned their own teams along with their own network, such as Turner Broadcasting, in addition to sweetheart deals that have been constructed for sports owners and the actual stadiums that are built for their team to play in, such as Jerry Jones and the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The bottom line for sports ownership is that in one way or another, no matter how it is structured, they have an abiding interest in seeing that they as owners benefit the most, while sticking taxpayers and assorted governmental sycophants with subsidizing their grandiose dreams.  For sports owners, it is all about having total control or the abiding influence of the product that they are peddling to the public so that they can maximize their revenue while sticking others with responsibilities that don't negatively impact them, so if a stadium is built to house a particular sports franchise at taxpayer's expense, owners are wont to re-negotiate contracts in such a manner so as to benefit them, lest they find a better deal elsewhere, and thereby stick the taxpayers with a "white elephant" and unserviceable debt.

The sports owners know that a symbiotic, partnership, or ownership relationship with a leading media company, allows them to control the product for their benefit.  That is to say, when a media company has a vested interest in certain sports franchises this fundamentally means better and more complete exposure of that team, maximum control of content distributed throughout all media channels, so that dissenting views are never allowed the light of day, and the ability to apply leverage on advertisers of all sorts for the betterment of the sports owner/media company.

The franchise of the sports owner doesn't belong to the city, it belongs to the owner of such, which is why stadium and arena deals are often structured so poorly for taxpayers and are so beneficial to the actual owners of the team.  The media outlets need product, which in conjunction with the sports owner they are able to integrate in such a manner so as to benefit both parties, by having exclusivity to each other, and thereby freezing out of the market territorial upstarts.  This means for a fan that the control of your favorite local team is never in your hands, but that instead the content is brought to you as one carefully designed, slickly produced, and wholly integrated product, to which, the public relations of it all is to sucker you into believing that the product being displayed is your team, when in fact, that is the very last thing that it is.

Should you flush the Toilet every time that you urinate?

In an era in which we should show more consideration for our environment and the resources that we use, the flushing of our toilets each and every time that we use them seems to be both a waste of water as well as adding to the overall burden and expense of sewage. While there is something quite valid to be said about sanitation and cleanliness, the mere fact that we choose not to flush every time that we urinate, especially in regards to toilets that are not typically available to guests, or other people roaming around the house, seems sensible, and except for the possible odor or staining issues, seems practical. 

From an economic standpoint, the less water that your household uses, the less of an expense that you will have in paying your water bill, in addition, the less wastewater that you create, the more efficiently that you treat the environment, so that if you can overcome the possible issues of grossness or nastiness, the fact that you don't always flush after you urinate and/or make it policy to flush just once a day for your urination is beneficial both for your pocketbook as well as the environment.

The fact of the matter is that water is a resource, of which good and plentiful water is not always readily available to the public, as a significant amount of communities will have drought or drought-like conditions from time-to-time so that those that make adjustments in their lifestyle that really are relatively minor, should go ahead and do so, including when it comes to toilet habits.

Now it could be for certain people, that no matter how you address the issue, they simply find that each and every time that they urinate in the toilet, that they must flush, that is fine for what it is, somewhat understandable, so that perhaps while you may not be able to save water in that situation, perhaps there may be another area of savings that can be made that is agreeable to both parties.

The non-flushing of the toilet after urination, is one of those things that some people may never warm up to, unless under the most dire of circumstances, perhaps that is the way it should be, although logically one would expect to see some flexibility on the issue, such as, for instance, being able to urinate at night without flushing, and then upon the morning activities, taking care to flush at that time, as obviously a little bit of savings, beats absolutely no savings at all.

So the flushing of the toilet for urination, really comes down to individual and/or family preference, to which it must be added that the act of flushing really does use a resource, and that resource is neither free nor without capacity/maintenance upkeep or issues.  This means that this is a reasonable issue to have a discussion on, to which, some will be more amendable to it, than others.

Settling a Credit Card Debt--the Upside and Downside

In today's economy there are a multitude of jobs that just don't pay a real good salary to begin with, couple that with the inevitable problems that will crop up, such as car or medical issues, or an unexpected lay-off or termination, and people's budgets that were once tight and barely manageable, revert to unsustainable, and thereby unable to service debt for credit cards.  This means, that there are millions of Americans that fall behind on their credit card bills and become delinquent on them, each and every year, to which some of these people are eventually able to right the ship and make good on their credit card bills, whereas many others simply sink under a sea of debt, and have their credit card accounts closed, their credit rating decimated, and still be on the hook for their credit card debt, credit card interest, and credit card penalties.

The thing is, circumstances do change, and financial situations can improve, so that some people that were unable to make credit card payments find later on, that though their monetary circumstances while not robust, have improved to the point to which they can address past due credit card debts.  However, for most people, by the time this occurs, their credit card debt has been processed and sold at a discount to a "professional "debt collector so that now the consumer no longer owes their debt to the original issuer of such, but to a debt collector, that specializes in buying consumer debt at a low price, and applying pressure as well as the legal means to collect from debtors the full amount.

A given debt collector will try all sorts of means to collect on the debt, and not just limited to harassing phone calls or letters, they are quite adept at using legal means, such as the courts, to request and get rendered judgments against the debtor, in the hopes of ultimately placing a lien or garnishment upon your wages, or your home, and so forth.  Of course, in America, there are two sides to every story, to which every debtor, no matter how bleak the situation appears to be, must avail themselves of fighting back against the debtor by writing, or in court, or essentially by any means necessary, because if you do not do so, your rights will atrophy, and basically the court will rule against you, if you fail to assert your consumer rights.

While debt collectors strongly prefer for you to give in to their demands and/or ignore their court summons, they do respect a debtor that fights back and asserts their rights, so that, in these types of situations, they will look to mediate the debt amount in question with you.  Not too surprisingly, the absolute best and cleanest way for a debtor to settle is to do so at a reduced amount of the total debt, with payment for that amount made in full, so that all of the paperwork reflects that the debt is satisfied and closed at that point of time.

However, typically, most people do not have that extra sum of money sitting in their pockets, so that the next best thing to do is to settle your debt at a reduced amount, with a payment plan which is agreed upon by both parties.  While the basic terms of that settlement plan are usually quite straightforward, such as a payment of $50/month for 24 months, there is a very important caveat that debtors need to pay attention to which is that the debt collector representative is either a lawyer himself, or has standard boilerplate paperwork drawn up by a lawyer and it is those extra terms and conditions that can create significant havoc in your financial life, so that if you fail to meet your payment terms, this will legally create an avenue for the debt collector to collect the full amount of the debt, with penalties, against you, and thereby also gives the debt collector the legal power to place a lien or garnishment against you.

This essentially means, that when you settle a credit card debt at a discount with a debt collector, you as a debtor want to be very sure that you can fulfill your obligations to this legal contract as agreed upon, or else your situation will be appreciably worst than what it was when you first began the settlement negotiations to begin with.

Nicotine -- Not Carcinogenic

In far too many countries and media outlets of all sorts, nicotine is instantly associated with cigarettes, which is of course, associated with cancer.  That viewpoint is unfortunate, as nicotine, itself, is not carcinogenic, despite all the efforts certain medical and governmental authorities have gone to in order to prove something that is fundamentally false.  This means that nicotine, should be looked upon for what it is, a naturally occurring alkaloid substance which is a stimulant from the nightshade family of plants, which has far more in common with caffeine, than most people might suppose, yet, for the ignorant, is vilified as a dangerous substance in of itself, which it is not.

What is always amusing is the lack of discernment displayed by a significant amount of the population, which allows it to get duped by authorities over and over again, as if these authorities know everything, see everything, and are always right.  The simplest thing for authorities to say is that the smoking of cigarettes which contains nicotine as well as many other chemicals is that smoking is dirty, dangerous, addictive, carcinogenic, harmful, and nasty with no redeeming positive qualities, whatsoever, and to pass this one-sided misstated propaganda nonsense as gospel.  If all this was really true, then nobody would smoke on a consistent basis, because without some sort of pleasure or positive return from the act of smoking, one's interest would quickly and completely vaporize.

The fact of the matter is, that it is nicotine, that attracts people to the act of smoking and it is nicotine that provides the smoker of such, the stimulant that relieves apathy, increases dopamine, improves concentration, and suppresses appetite.  It's a shame that caffeine gets a virtual free pass as a substance that is fine to consume, whereas nicotine, which provides comparable effects does not, mainly because one is typically consumed in a socially acceptable way, as in drinking coffee, whereas the other is consumed in an increasingly intolerant way, which is smoking.

Beginning in the 1940s, doctors first theorized that the smoking of cigarettes lead to and was the major contributing factor for pulmonary disease, a theory which since that time has been conclusively proved, although even this proven scientific fact has exceptions to it, by virtue that the incidence of lung cancer for native Japanese smokers is substantially lower than American smokers, indicating that correlations of smoking cigarettes and the incidence of cancer are empirically more diverse in their relationship than is typified by governmental assertions of such.

It is unfortunate, that in the United States' rush to judgment on nicotine, that they have found this naturally occurring plant substance to be guilty of being a carcinogen and/or of being a blight upon mankind, whereas in actuality, it is not, and is in point of fact, beneficial in many respects to those that partake of it, as long as it is consumed in a manner that isolates nicotine away from other substances that are known or are strongly suspected to be cancer causing in of themselves.  This helps to explain why so many are drawn to smoking in the first place, despite virulent negative outcry, which is that the smoking of products with nicotine, provides positive benefits for the smoker, to which, it is hoped that nicotine will one day, be seen for what it really is, a natural stimulant, much akin to caffeine.

Facebook and Ratting your Own Self Out

Facebook is the social media site, used by millions upon millions of people each and every day.  One of the fundamental problems with life is that wisdom, if it comes, is something that typically comes with age, experience, and general intelligence, so that the fact that at thirteen years old you can have your own Facebook account is probably not such a good thing, because at age thirteen, or even older, you really don't have a good conception of exactly how your posts, your pictures, your likes, and your comments will follow you, seemingly forever, and can easily once posted, be essentially out of your control.

Some parents consider that Facebook is a wonderful platform for children to have because if gives the parents an easy opportunity to check on what their children are really up to by simply reading and looking at the posts and if so desired, following posts onto other children's pages and so forth.  It doesn't help that far too many people on Facebook have a strong desire to have a lengthy friend list and the longer that list is, the less control or understanding they will have of whom is really following you, friend, family, or foe, as the case may be.

The best way of looking at your Facebook account, no matter its public or private setting, is to see each and every post that you make, as basically being available for anyone at anytime, forever.  While this may not be literally true, depending upon your sophistication and settings that you have initiated, it is true enough, that it should make you think about it twice.  It is one thing entirely to send a picture or text message via a cell phone to a real friend and an entirely different thing to post it on Facebook.  Inthe first instant, this is a modern way of communication which pretty much follows traditional rules in regards to privacy and discretion, while in regards to the other case, you have literally opened up Pandora's box, perhaps unwittingly.

Most people have a strong interest in seeing that their relationship with their parents is a good one, to which, they will when pressed to tell the truth about an unfortunate event, they will often resort to lying to their parents, simply because they feel that the alternative to not lying is even worst.  The problem with Facebook in these types of situations is that Facebook will allow parents to get a very good perspective on who you really are, and what you are really up to, so that lying about not being at a certain party the night before, when you have pictures of the event on your Facebook page is a lie that will not pass muster whatsoever.  This means that in a sense, that Facebook becomes a social media site that will watch you, a little bit akin to a parent watching you indiscriminately 24/7, which may not be what you really desire or seek.

Perhaps you want to live your life like an open book, for all to know what is important to you and what you do each and every day, if so, Facebook is a wonderful format for doing so, because those that spend any given time on your page, will learn an incredible amount about you,  your habits and your mindset, probably way more than you really desire, of which it should be remembered that information is power, and he who has that power, has you in the grip of his hand.

TV Resolution Quality and Compression

There are plenty of people that get their main entertainment and news programs from television and consequently spend inordinate amounts of time in front of their TV.  Nowadays, televisions come in all sorts of flavors, to which, the state-of-the-art TV has far more capabilities than televisions of even a few years ago.  However, somewhat disappointingly, some of the features that consumers believe they are paying for, they aren't really getting in all of their true glory.  That is to say, it is commonplace for content providers to issue High-definition channels for you to watch, if your TV is capable of viewing them, and if you are inclined to pay the price of this upgrade. The problem with the upgrade to HD is that the viewing picture that you are seeing may or may not be truly as impressive HD picture as you might expect, and that problem does not rest with the TV that you own, but often with the content provider, itself.

The bottom line is that the data that is being sent to customer's TVs often times has to be compressed in order to free up enough bandwidth to the customer especially in regards to the final mile that reaches the consumer's TV and in order to remove any of the lag effect from the capacity of the content exceeding normal bandwidth capabilities in reaching its chosen destination, that content may be purposely compressed.  This means that depending upon where you live, who your content provider is, the channel that you are watching, and the overall resolution capability of your television itself, whether the picture is HD or even of a decent picture quality on non-HD channels is to a large extent, out of your hands.

In addition to the above, there are some television shows that are shown on different television stations, depending upon the time of day, so that you will commonly find that the resolution of the show varies considerably from one station to another, even though each station is re-broadcasting the exact same show.  The difference between the picture quality of the show comes down to the compression of the picture by that particular TV station itself, as the more compressed the signal, the less bandwidth, the less storage, and the less burden is placed upon the content provider's resources in general, rendering the cost of providing such content to be cheaper and easier to transmit.

The thing is, it is the height of frustration to spend the money to purchase a high-end television set, which is capable of providing an absolutely breathtaking picture, only to find out, that you will be in effect, cheated in that quality by your content provider.  The fact of the matter is, by cable providers offering their customers an endless supply of channels that are available at all times of the day, they have made a purposeful decision that you will accept content of a lesser quality to enjoy a more comprehensive choice menu, indicating that once again, quantity and quality are often found to be in conflict, with the customer receiving the short end of that stick.

There is no Death, Only a Change in Consciousness

In the western world, too often, we are brought up in the mistaken belief, that our lives, somewhat like a movie, have a beginning, middle, and an end.  That is to say, we are born, we live, and then we die, and upon out death that ends the story, but it does not. This wrongful thinking has enormous consequences because if you believe that your life, centers around your physical form to the exclusion of all else, you will have a strong tendency to want to do everything that you can to protect and sustain that physical form in the mistaken belief, that the choice has come down to life, even one of diminishing returns, as compared to complete oblivion, to a land that none ever returned.

It is this belief, that brings such a sadness to mankind, because the nature of physicality, is that it must grow, mature, and then ultimately decay and die, or in unfortunate circumstances, be injured or die before its time, because of physical disease or other circumstances.  While it may be quite tragic when anyone meets their physical death, that person that has left this physical world, is dead only in the physical sense, but alive in consciousness and in spirit.

Too often, people wrongly belief that death is the worst thing that can happen to them or to anyone else, but in fact, that is merely the play upon the cycle of life, the worst thing that can happen is in actuality to deny in whole or in part your divine connection to God and thereby to live a life that reflects an inordinate sense of selfishness which lives out in action and in words, which is damaging not only to yourself but to others, all for the joy of some temporal enjoyment, as if you, somehow, have gamed the universal system.

A great country has an obligation to bring the truth to its citizens, because wrongful thinking creates wrongful thoughts, so that the first step that any nation owes it denizens is that they should teach their citizens to think.  To ask the question, what is the meaning of life, is the question to ask, because those that believe that the answer is to eat, drink, and be merry, are going to find out to their dismay, that when you make the pleasures of your body and the lust for lucre, your main emphasis in life, that these treasures while providing momentary pleasures, have done nothing to provide you with wealth beyond this material plane.

While it certainly makes sense to fear the sword, for the sword will take your life, it must also be recognized that the life being sacrificed has not been obliterated, has not lived in vain, has not been destroyed, but instead has been transformed.  There is no death, your consciousness upon physical death, has been freed from the prison of its identity with the physical form, so that it must be understood, that this earth is not the end-all or be-all of life, but the proving ground of your soul's development, a divine test of your will and desire to seek the One that has no beginning, and has no end, is the same yesterday, today, and forever; forever patient in awaiting your return into the Light which has no end.

The Rise and fall of the Blue Collar Middle Class

Not everybody has the skill-set or the inclination for a college education, even if it was true, that by definition, a degree at an accredited college always leads to a good paying job, which alas it doesn't.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with having skills that are good for farming, or manufacturing, or building, and so forth, and as long as you are a person that believes in doing an honest day's labor for an honest day's wage, there should be a good job out there waiting for you in a country as richly satisfying as America.  There was a time when workers could make good wages at jobs that did not necessitate a college education, but since the early 1970s, those types of jobs have plummeted and in consequence are absolutely annihilating the blue collar middle class and shattering their dreams.

There are plenty of cars that are sold in America each year, to which somewhat surprisingly; vehicles such as the Toyota Camry, Honda Odyssey, and Toyota Tundra are considered to be "American" built cars because they are primarily manufactured in Kentucky, Alabama, and Texas.  The thing is though that these cars are manufactured by significantly lower compensated blue collar earners that do not come close to getting the unionized wages and benefits that once were commonplace in the greater Detroit area for car manufacturing but have since disappeared through jobs being eliminated, transferred, or re-negotiated for certain new workers so that they will not come close to receiving the previous pay packages of yesteryear.  This means that the labor and legacy cost of manufacturing automobiles in America has been reduced considerably since the 1970s, eviscerating the blue collar middle class in this industry.

According to the businessinsider.com: "Back in the year 2000, more than 20 percent of all jobs in America were manufacturing jobs.  Today, about 5 percent of all jobs in America are manufacturing jobs."  Of course, these manufacturing jobs often still exist, but they no longer exist in America, and instead have been exported to foreign nations so that the employers of such can take advantage of far lower wages and compensation packages without apparently any negative consequences to them; meaning that these multi-national corporations as a whole hugely benefit their bottom line and competitive edge, while American workers have far fewer options available to them in order to make a good wage and have virtually no earning power when it comes to accepting employment at whatever the prevailing wage might be.

The unions in America are at a huge unfair negotiation disadvantage and often cannot help their workers in achieving the type of fair market labor conditions, contract guarantees, and wage gains that they were previously able to successfully negotiate in the 1930s through the 1970s for many reasons.  For instance, many States are able to stymie unions by enacting right-to-work laws which effectively freeze out unions and thereby keeps labor costs low, courts have not been very helpful to the union cause in recent years, and critically the United States government on behalf of multi-national corporations has enacted virtual worldwide "free trade" laws which essentially means that workers in America must now compete against labor wages of peasants from around the globe. 

The days of labor being able to sit down at the same table with management and negotiate a fair wage deal are and have been in great peril, because as long as management has the option without penalty to simply export their labor needs to foreign lands, or to transfer jobs to States which give them free rein, they will avail themselves of those same options, over and over again, enriching themselves at the expense of the blue collar middle class.

Soda v. Juice

There are not any nutritional benefits in drinking your common sodas, whether diet or not, in fact, the drinking of soda is hands down not good for your health and never has been.  The basic problems with drinking soda are the fact that soda contains way too much sugar or sugar equivalent or sugar substitutes of which sugar in all of its various forms and flavors is debilitating to the body over time, especially in regards to weight gain, diabetes, and wreaking havoc on proper insulin production.  In addition, to sugar, phosphoric acid is commonly added to sodas to give the necessary "bite" to the taste- buds as well as reducing bacterial counts for good shelf life, however, phosphoric acid is not good for your teeth enamel, your bones, or your kidneys, and sustain use of such is typically detrimental to your body.

There are plenty of people that like to drink juice, of all sorts, whether that is orange juice, or apple juice, or various other fruit juices, because they somewhat wrongly believe that fruit juices are beneficial for your body.  Unfortunately, commercially soldfruit juices in most cases, are of dubious benefit, and can be quite harmful in the ways that soda is, by the simple fact that the sugar content in your typical juices is at the equivalency of soda drinks or sometimes even higher.  While it is indeed true that fruit in all of its many forms is good for the body, the main reasons for this being so is the fact that fruit is filled with essential vitamins, antioxidants, fiber, as well as the sugar which gives fruit its distinctive pleasant taste.  However, when eating whole fruit, you are consuming the fiber of the fruit at the same time with the natural fruit sugar, which means not only will this send signals to your brain that the fruit that is being consumed is filling your stomach up, it also means that the sugar contained within that fruit is being processed by your liver at a consistent and non-elevated rate that you are able to absorb it without any ill effects upon your body.

In addition, because of the way fruit juices are processed, packaged and sold, there is the misperception that you are getting all of the nutrients either naturally or added in that makes juice sort of like a liquid alternative to going through the trouble of eating the fruit itself.  The fact is, that the lack of fiber as well as  the removing of vitamins and other nutrients and the then adding in of flavors and other ingredients to give fruit juices a long shelf life and consistent tasting product is not the same as squeezing the fruit itself or eating of the fruit.  In short, drinking commercial juice, no matter its label, is typically far different and not the equivalent to eating of fruit, and the fact that many people believe that drinking fruit juice is de facto good for you, is unfortunate and mostly wrong.

To make matters even worse, or perhaps ironic, the biggest fruit juices in the world, such as Minute maid and Tropicana, are owned by Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola, respectively, which means that with so much money in play and the liquid refreshment market at stake, they won't willingly cede ground to anyone or anything, unless they are getting a good piece of the action.

Remembrance of Our War Dead

America has fought many wars and skirmishes throughout its history, some of them exclusively on American soil, while some of them have been overseas and far away from the American homeland.  Because the nature of war involves death, standards have been set up to properly bury and remember our dead that have been implemented over the years, so that at the present time, the overarching goal of our military is to see that each of our military dead is repatriated back to the United States, properly identified, and buried in a national cemetery, or in a private cemetery, if the next-of-kin so prefers.

That these soldiers deserve the respect and courtesy of their nation, for performing their duty is absolutely true, and a tribute that the living owes those that have paid the final price for the defense of liberty and their country.  While it is never easy to deal with the aftereffects of a solider that has lost their life too soon, it is of vital importance that there is a solemn acknowledgment that those that risk their lives, irrespective of their race, or their color, or their religion, that all have equally and faithfully bled the colors of the red, white, and blue.

America has been a fortunate nation in the sense that it has in recent years never had to suffer the effects of catastrophic war dead, making the processing of our current war heroes that have died in the line of duty, far smoother to effect.  However, there may come a time, when for whatever reason, perhaps because the killing machines of the modern age are so devastating in their effectiveness that America will be overwhelmed with war dead in a very short span of time.  Should this ever happen, America may not be able to immediately address, nor may it ever be able to effectively address, so many that have sacrificed so much, so soon.

It is in the most tragic and difficult times, that the true measure of a country and its people either rise to meet that occasion or fall short.  We owe those that have died in faithful duty to our country, our respect, our remembrance, and most importantly our duty to see that each of us lives our life in such a manner so as to honor these fallen soldiers as well as to uphold the very foundation of this American republic and the principles for which it stands.

Each of us must die, as this is the nature and cycle of the physical world, so that the legacy that we leave behind can only be gifted to our contemporaries and offspring that yet still live.  It is these values that they see in the manner that we live, our interactions, our generosity, our love, our charity, our duty and our faith, that we pass forth to one generation to the next.  These fallen soldiers are the frontline of that defense of the liberty and freedom that America best represents, and the last best hope of mankind, to which we the living, must stay united and keep ever bright the sacred fire of a God-fearing nation.