Our slavish devotion to our body and willful ignorance of our soul

Not too surprisingly, since we can see and feel our body, many people are convinced, and focused upon themselves as that physical presence that they see in front of their self, each and every day.  Making things even more complicated, even for fairly religious folk, is that the fact that it is well nigh impossible to ignore the physical body and its demands to be fed, to be cleansed, its need to be exercised, its desire to present itself in a positive manner, and its need to sleep, amongst many other duties.  All of the above is okay to a certain extent, as long as there is knowledge that we are not just our body, in point of fact, our body encases our soul, and our body that demands so much of our time and effort, is, by definition, temporal, and will eventually, sooner or later, be no more in this life, no matter how diligent or lack thereof we are in taking care of it.

So many people spend inordinate amounts of time in the taking care of or concerning indulgences of their body, which is fine and necessary to a certain extent, but they do this almost to the exclusion or ignorance of their own soul.  How hard is it to remember that the time that is spent with the treasures here on earth, that rust, that decay, that return to dust, will not travel with us upon our departure from this good earth, so that, if our lives reflect our slavish devotion to our body, while ignoring our spiritual needs and forgetting that we must nourish the most important part of our being, our soul, we will not have grown in this earthly incarnation, so that, for the most part, our soul, unrecognized by our focus upon bodily needs, will essentially become atrophied from this neglect.

While there is a lot to be said, or to even to be commended, for those that take care of their things that they have earned or have been gifted with, which would, of course, include one's body, still, to lose focus on the big picture in order to take care of the little picture, is to miss the forest for the trees.  Our holy scripture reminds us over and over again, to focus our attention on the things that are eternal and not therefore on the things that are temporal.  Our adventure here on earth, is to make life here on this planet, better for our having been here, but in order to do so, our concentration must extend far further than upon bodily needs and bodily desires, it must clearly embrace something that is both universal as well as truthful, which signifies that those that live as if their body is all that there ever will be, have veered off the straight and narrow path, and are thereby the lost sheep that need the good shepherd to bring them back into the fold.

We are spiritual beings, we have a soul, if this was not true, than the crucifixion of our Savior, would have rightly be seen as a tragic defeat, for Christ's material body did indeed die on Good Friday, yet, He rose in a re-constituted body to show physically that we are not the body, that we are instead, immortal beings, each with our own immortal soul.

Playboy and Social Mores

The first Playboy magazine came out in December, 1953, to which, back then, the social mores of this nation were significantly different than they are today, and truly that is a monumental understatement.  In 1953, pictures of young ladies in magazines that were topless, were not socially acceptable, in addition to the basic fact, that the amount of attractive young females even willing to have pictures taken of them, in which they were topless, was an incredibly low percentage, so that in the time of Playboy's inception, the pool of women that were willing to be photographed was very limited.  Yet, Hugh Hefner, the founder and publisher of Playboy, was able to over a period of time, prove that there was a market for a magazine like Playboy to exist, and that rather than be known for "dirty" pictures, would be able to present itself as a sophisticated fantasyland of pretty woman, along with providing good literature, meaningful commentary of current events, and so forth to create a magazine persona that had not existed in the open before.

Nowadays, with pornography so prevalent and seemingly every possible angle of human sexuality available at the touch of a finger, Playboy looks as if it is out of style, out of touch, and irrelevant, but to get there was a process that involved a fundamental change in the viewpoint of provocative pictures, laws in regards to the publication and displaying of such being challenged and overturned often through the clever usage of 1st Amendment rights, and the liberation of women to decide what they did or did not wish to do with their own bodies, freed from the constraints of both men, but also of the laws that precluded their monetizing their images without suffering unfairly for it.

The upshot of all this change, was that magazines such as Playboy, went from a situation in which previously they had struggled just to find pretty females to pose for them, all for what would be considered today to be relatively tame topless poses, into a world transformed into the anything goes philosophy that is displayed graphically in living color, each and every minute, in just about any format that is available for viewing such in today's society.  This change was so fundamental, that young ladies wishing to pose for Playboy in the present day barely registers much of a reaction from most Americans, can almost be seen as mainstream, especially when seen against the background of everything else that is going on.

Whether all of the above is a net good for America, or is a net good for woman in general, or is a net good for those perusing such things, is definitely debatable, but the bottom line is the genie has jumped from out of the bottle and thereby isn't going to be put back inside anytime soon.  This is the brave new world that we live in, where people are no longer constrained for the most part by social mores or legal laws, which preclude them from doing or pursuing the things that they wish to accomplish.  However, with more freedom, comes more responsibility, so that, when no longer restrained from doing things that they want or think that they want to do, decisions are made, which, because of the nature of the medium, last far longer, than envisioned at the time of their consent, for better or for worse, it is what it is.

Casino Cell phone Slot Machines

In the gambling world, slot machines in major casinos typically count for as much revenue as all other casino games combined, along with being much more profitable and less labor intensive than all other casino games, signifying that slot machines truly are the money machine that runs the casino end of the business.  While there are a lot of reasons why slots are so popular, certainly amongst the reasons are the convenience of not having any sort of game theory to figure out, along with the non-embarrassment and non-intimidation factor because slots are an individual interaction, as well as the pace of the game playing is under the patron's control, amongst other reasons that vary from individual to individual.

Slot machines have become much more sophisticated over time, so that, for instance, some slot machines offer a user's choice of what game to play in the first place, as well as the fact that a replacement of a board or chip inside the machine can easily upgrade or modify the game in its play or configuration, in addition to the detail that physical coins have been replaced with scrip, or dollar bills, so that machines no longer need to be filled with coins, nor is it necessary to have personnel around that are required to make change for those playing such machines.

The thing about slot machines is that overall they take up a fair amount of space, as well as using a fair amount of energy, along with the fact that these machines, robust as they might be, are subject to both downtime as well as abuse.  On the other hand, cell phones and tablets are essentially mini-computers, so that applications can easily be created that are able to replicate what a slot machine looks like onto a cell phone, so that if the programming is done with skill and acumen, a slot machine that the patron can interact with in their hands could be constructed, though there are some logistics involved.

The first big hurdle to overcome is that a handshake must be made between the patron and the actual casino so that, the casino is able to pre-verified, the age, the identity, the loyalty card, the specific IP address, the location, the recording of each spin correlated to that individual for review and confirmation, along with being able to process a form of monetary exchange, in which, all of this is secured and specific to the person engaging the app within a controlled space at the casino.  The next hurdle to overcome is that on the surface it might appear to the player that their cell phone has turned into a slot machine, but the real inner workings of such a slot machine, would actually be held on a server or a cloud, and only the necessary graphics in order to sell the illusion that everything is being conducted in real time would be displayed on the cell phone, meaning the result of each "spin" would already be determined, moments before, via the processor which is connected to the casino's server or cloud.

Obviously, the biggest advantage to the casino is that having a lounge set aside for patrons to play slot machines on their cell phone or tablet, would not only take up less space, it would also privatize the game even more, as well as cutting down on real machine maintenance issues and real machine inventory, so too this would be another feather in the casino cap, and would allow patrons to do all the things that they love doing with their cell phones, including playing the slots.

Student Loans: this Bubble will Burst

According to newyorkfed.org, as of quarter 1 of 2016, the highest consumer debt, is held in mortgages at a total of $8.37 trillion dollars, with the next highest consumer debt which has been growing by leaps and bounds, actually being student loan debt, at $1.26 trillion dollars, making student debt a higher debt in value than either credit card debt, or incredibly, auto loan debt.  In the case of both housing and auto debt, these assets are secured by the physical asset of the actual home and vehicle, respectively, which helps in setting a reasonable floor to these real assets; as regards to credit card debt, although this debt is unsecured, the banks and bank-like instruments issuing such credit, are quite good at it, to wit, they control or have major influence on the prevailing interest rate so charged, penalty fees, how much credit is issued to a particular individual, and most importantly control of credit limits which can be adjusted drastically in exigent circumstances.  On the other hand, student loans, in reality, aren't secured by anything, though wages can be garnished, the bottom line though, is that you can't get blood from a stone, so that burdening young people with humongous loans that literally overwhelm them at such a young age seems irresponsible on both parties and ultimately unfair especially to the students receiving such massive amounts of money loaned to them with minimum due diligence mandated.

America is all about making money, so institutions are only too happy to take something that may initially be of benefit or even play a role in the greater good, and then turn it simply into both exploitation of the young, credulous, and vulnerable, as well as gaming the system, while sticking the ultimate bill onto the taxpayers of this great nation.  A significant amount of people taking on student loans, aren't even student material in the first place, but with good paying jobs for people without educational degrees being on a long-term downswing, the lure of a "free" college education that will solve all their problems and make them into successful people, is an easy lure that works time and time again.  Unfortunately, in far too many cases, school doesn't work out for them, so now their life plans are essentially the same as they were before but with the added burden of loan payments that they are obligated to make good on or try to extricate themselves from.

In addition, there are students that take out loans and do successfully complete their studies and thereby receive their undergraduate degree only to find out that this degree doesn't actually equate to a job that matches the very things that they studied and applied themselves for, yet, they are stuck with paying the bill for their "educational" attainment.  So too, for other students that complete their educational studies, the sheer size of their loan commitment is a great weight upon their budget each and every month, effectively closing the door or narrowing such a door in their pursuit of basic desires that most Americans have, which are owning their own home, and/or owning their own vehicle, free and clear.

While governmental officials lead the cheering about how wonderful it is that so many at such a time are getting educated, the end result isn't any sort of salary bump, isn't a country that is richer for it, but in actuality is a country that fleeces the most vulnerable and monetarily ignorant, to satisfy the greed of the money lenders, and ultimately sells these "loan assets" to the government, which unfortunately will have to, sooner or later, take a "haircut" on these loans that simply won't be paid back because the income isn't being generated to do so.

Don't do unto others what you don't want them to do to you

In Holy Scripture we read at Luke 6:31 the words of our Savior: "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise," which is one of Christ's two-part commandment, with the other part being to love our God with all of our heart.   Previously, Moses gave us the Ten Commandments as dictated to him by the word of God, in which, most of these commandments are in the form of a negative, such as: "Thou Shalt not…", in fact, even a commandment such as "Honor thy father and mother," implies within it, that "thou shalt not dishonor them".  While there is validity in presenting a commandment as a positive affirmation as compared to a negative prohibition, perhaps with people being as stubborn and difficult as they have a habit of being, a negative commandment, carries with it, more weight, and thereby is perceived as more definitive with far less wiggle room, for those that like to perceive laws, even God-given laws, as shades of gray. 

In point of fact, there is something to be said, in taking Christ's great commandment, and re-translating it into "don't do unto others what you don't want them to do to you," because the positive affirmation of doing unto others as you would like those to do onto you, could be conceivably interpreted in a somewhat self-serving manner, whereas the commandment with the negative connotation, leaves far less opportunity for evasiveness.  For example, if you don't like people that lie, cheat, bully, and steal, then don't be those very same things, yourself.  On the other hand, if you don't mind someone that has a little larceny in their heart, not so much because that's what you want or want to do, but because it's amusing and intriguing to see people get fooled, including yourself, as long as it is in a good-natured way, it's a little bit harder to get that to fit into do unto others, whereas, it fits okay with the it's okay to fool someone, as long as it's done in an entertaining way and has no real or dire consequences.

When the don't do unto others, becomes a mindset within a person's personality, it does great wonders, because it forces that person to actually think through the consequences of their proposed actions, and thereby encourages them to see the world not just by their own eyes, but also through the other person's eyes; so too, it eliminates the "eye for an eye" mentality, for there are few people that believe in actuality that wrong actions should be answered in kind, as opposed to at least considering that there are other more reasonable responses that can help to ameliorate a given wrong. 

It is important for people to start with the right attitude to begin with, so that a statement as straightforward and as reasonable as to not do the things to others that you would not want done to yourself, is something that virtually everyone, even at very young ages, would understand, along with the fact that it is something that should be taught and practiced by all, for if this philosophy is lived in reality, the world, in response, would be more caring, more loving, and a better place overall to be a part of, for truly we are all in this, together, desiring that all receive justice and fairness, equally.

Wall Street Trading and Sales Tax

Governments run on taxes, and if they don't receive enough revenue via taxation, they run up deficits, and while there are not a lot of people that enjoy or appreciate being taxed, the bottom line is that in order to have a functioning government taxes are imposed.  It certainly makes a whole lot of sense to tax people where the money is at, with Wikipedia.org indicating that the "… average daily trading value was approximately US$169 billion in 2013," for stock trades in America, this would strongly imply that imposing a reasonable sales tax upon stock transactions would have its place, as currently while buying and selling of stocks in America, consumers of such are only subject to a commission and a fairly innocuous regulatory transaction fee which in almost all cases is even lower than the commission to make the trade in the first place.

The thing is, when you purchase a car, you pay a sales tax, when you purchase household items, you pay a sales tax, so it isn't any real stretch to believe that when you purchase a stock, the person or entity doing so, should be subject to a small sales tax.  When it comes to establishing such a sales tax, it seems fairer to impose it only on the initial buy of the security and not on its sale, which would serve the dual purpose of reducing somewhat the rapid trading in and out of securities, as well as impressing upon people, that an investment should be more about making a decision and holding onto it, as opposed to the higher volatility of hyperactive trading.

There isn't any necessary reason why the proposed sales tax should be equally applied to all, since, in fact, the income tax is progressive in nature, and in consideration of the fact that equity and bond investments are a real source of passive income to those that have considerable assets, the sales tax should only be imposed for those buying stock investments that exceed perhaps $50,000 in any one trade, in which the sales tax begins at the $50,000 number and above, with the additional component of having a sales tax "wash rule" so that those buying the same stock or security within 30 days in which in aggregate the total buying of that security is greater than $50,000 would be subject to that sales tax.

Wall Street is an incredibly powerful force in America, and no doubt, wouldn't see any benefit to such a sales tax, but one must also keep in mind that Wall Street is currently subject to capital gains taxes, and carries on just fine, signifying that if the sales tax was low enough to generate good tax revenue but not so high as to spoil the stew, than all would continue to be well, with the additional benefit of tax revenues so generated.

 Most assuredly, there are seasoned economists that could take a look at the numbers and determine what price-point would be most effective in producing tax revenue without unnecessarily interrupting the business as usual crowd with Wall Street, especially considering that the dollar volume of trading being so high, that one would think the sales tax percentage proposed wouldn't need to be much higher than somewhere in the range of .10% to .25% to generate tax revenues of real meaning from those that obviously have the money and the means to pay their fair share.

Secret Spy Agencies, Secret Budgets, Secret Contracts, and Secret Actions

The United States has many spy agencies, some that just about everyone knows about, such as the FBI, the NSA, and the CIA, as well as other more obscure agencies such as the Army Military Intelligence (MI), in addition to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).  In all, as estimated by Wikipedia.org "… in 2001 to 2013, the government has spent more than $500 billion on intelligence," with our latest budgets for these intelligence agencies being over $70 billion dollars per annum.  While, there is a real purpose to having a great intelligence capacity for the protection of this nation, the fact, that the oversight of such is not available to the public, and basically our intelligence community has little oversight by the legislative branches of the highest level of federal government in this country is very bad policy for a whole slew of reasons.

In point of fact, when public monies are spent on public institutions, even such institutions which concentrate on intelligent activities, the budgeting of those monies, the expenditure of those public monies, the contracts so initiated, the salaries, the assets, should as far as practical, not only be disclosed, but should be carefully audited by independent agencies that do not answer to the intelligent community.  Those that squawk that the issuing of such information would somehow compromise the very intelligence that we utilize or are gathering, are basically utilizing national security as a smokescreen for their inability or non-desire to be transparent with monies spent.

The thing is, when business is done behind closed doors, subject to little or no oversight, those in that business, no matter how honest their intents may have been at one point, will over time degenerate into the type of business in which each side gets a little something extra from the other, because not only do the doors revolve between private contractors and their government overseers on a continual basis, but those that conduct such business, want their budgets and contracts to increase in amount each year, because in governmental "speak" size equates to power, profit, and influence, whereas those that are overly efficient in their usage of their dollars are seen as impediments to realpolitik.

It is quite unfortunate, when governmental agencies hide behind the door of "security this" or "security that" so as to not have to disclose important and pertinent information as to how much of the public's money is being spent and where it is being spent, in addition, the people's representatives, their legislators deserve to know what our intelligent agencies are up to, what they are trying to accomplish, and whether in whole, this is the most appropriate policy for America to take.  It is truly a sad day for America, when things are done in secret, that carry the imprint of America, but are inimical to what America should stand for, and it becomes then for present-day as well as future generations of Americans their unfortunate fate to have to deal with the blowback from intelligent operations gone horribly awry. 

When these spy agencies do not answer to the public, and do not answer to the legislators, than they are a power onto themselves, bound by no one, subject to no constraints, in which everyone knows, that the dirtiest of deeds are always done where there is no light, but only darkness.

Constitutional Rights and Public Assistance

Each year the government in all of its many forms, local, State, and Federal, becomes a bigger and bigger component of everyday life; whether that be via direct employment, or assistance, or whatever way, desired or not, big government plays a role in your life, for better or for worse.  American citizens, for whatever reason, in modern times, have ceded whether by conscious volition or not, more and more of their rights in trade for the perceived necessity of governmental protection or governmental handouts or governmental assistance in all of its many forms.  What many people fail to take into account, though, is the old saying that "there is no such thing as a free lunch", which basically means that everything costs something, that indeed, material things do not and cannot simply be produced out of thin air, therefore everything has a cost associated to it, and those that receive those free lunches, may find that the tradeoff is not nearly as beneficial or as benevolent as originally imagined.

For instance, there are many people that need public assistance for housing, for health, for food, for education, and for various other things, in which, probably, those people would ideally just want to get their benefits without having to provide much of anything else in return, however, that isn't the way that bureaucracy works in this country, for, in fact, bureaucrats want to know everything about you, ostensibly argued as a way to help you, but in actuality, as a way to control and mold you.  It's one thing, to gather pertinent information about families that are utilizing public assistance, but it is an entirely different thing when a quid pro quo is set up, so that public assistance for housing, requires that you not have contact with ex-felons, even if these ex-felons are blood relatives, or such assistance, means periodic drug testing, even though, you have committed no crime.

So too, when continuous public assistance, means that the government has the right to enter your place of residence, at a time of their choosing, to investigate, to check, to test, to interrogate, those receiving certain benefits from the government, this essentially means that those receiving such public assistance have sacrificed some of their Constitutional rights, specifically, their 4th Amendment rights, which are a vital protection for the people to be secure in their persons and houses, and replaced it with arbitrary power aggrandized onto governmental agents or proxies.  There are many taxpayers that believe that this is a fair tradeoff, for, after all, those receiving free lunches, should be subject to some reasonable checks and balances.  The fallacy, though, with this type of thinking, is that clearly, those that believe that this is correct, somehow have failed to realize, that this creates two Americas', one in which full rights are given to those that are monetarily secure, and lesser rights to those that are impoverished, which is a bastardization of what this great nation really represents, and what this great nation should want to represent, for either we are all in this together, with equality and fair justice for all, or some of us have been made to become children of a lesser Constitution.

Two Countries: One Rich, One Poor

The United States shares a border to its north with Canada and to its south with Mexico, to wit, with no other information available, one would have a tendency to believe that these two countries, Canada and Mexico, should be able to basically equally benefit from having the most powerful and the richest country in the world as its contiguous neighbor, but clearly, as demonstrated by their respective per capita GDPs, Canada is the far richer country with a GDP per capita of approximately $43,248 as estimated by data.worldback.org as compared to Mexico's rather anemic $9,005.  Both countries are gifted with great natural resources, yet, one, clearly is far richer than the other, and, in fact, its living standards are close enough to the United States, that people that visit or live in Canada, equate it to about the same level as America, with some, believing that Canada overall is superior.  On the other hand, Mexico, is a country that has had millions of people leave its native land over the last few generations to come to America, just to find gainful employment, which while paying not all the well per American standards, is able to sustain them well enough that it is estimated by npr.org that over $20 billion dollars is sent back to Mexico via remittances each year.

While there are many differences between Canada and Mexico, one of the most significant is seen in their tertiary education levels, in which the Canadian population participation rate in tertiary education exceeds 51%, whereas Mexico's population participation rate in tertiary education barely exceeds 20%.  This lack of advanced degrees for Mexico equates to less economic earning power as education is a key component in earning power and knowledge in countries and the lack thereof, has meaningful consequences.  In addition, the rule of law is clearly under assault in Mexico and has been under assault in Mexico for generations, in which, corruption as reported by wikipedia.org shows that Canada ranks in the top ten for honesty and integrity, whereas Mexico ranks #123 out of 176 countries signifying its corruptness and lack of integrity.  Also, the median wealth in Mexico ranks extremely low, indicating, that the middle class in Mexico is both low in number as well as low in wealth, representing a massive divide between those that are very, very rich, as compared to those that have little or nothing, with little or nothing to look forward to, and little or nothing that will change their circumstances; whereas the median wealth in Canada is quite high, indicating a strong and vibrant middle class.

In short, the structures of Canada are reminiscent of the structures found in America, whereas, the structures in Mexico, serve to remind people, that those that are privileged are treated differently, as well as in order to conduct business in Mexico one must often pay tribute to criminal or quasi-criminal enterprises, or face the consequences.  In addition, for generations, one political party ruled Mexico, which was great for those rulers and those that benefited from such, but bad overall for the general public, bad for fair law, and bad for fair business; for, in order for any country, to create wealth, those that make it their policy to exploit others can only make so much money, because non-incentivized workers will not put forth the effort and ingenuity that are needed for real growth and future progress, which is a significant reason why there is such a great divide between these two nations.

When is a Crime, Not a Crime?

In the cyber-wars of today, all sorts of things occur of dubious legality, or outright illegality each and every day, of which some of these things are done by hackers, clearly working on their own agenda, whether for a so-called greater good, or for exposure of corruption of all sorts, or whatever, and the other big player, being governments of all sorts and for all sorts of reasons that have certain agendas that they like to see get accomplished.  In some governments, hackers are actively recruited to serve government interests, specifically to obtain or to compromise information from dissident groups within their country, or to infiltrate targeted countries, in which, these hackers are basically deployed as state-sanctioned agents with immunity for things that would most definitely be considered crimes, if they were, in fact, acting outside of such state-sanctioned protection.  So too, in the United States, hackers of great renown, or skill-sets, are actively recruited to work on behalf of the government, in plying their trade, in which, sometimes the recruitment is basically straight-up, that is to say, a lucrative offer is made to individuals that have demonstrated both skill and initiative, and sometimes a deal is made in which because a particular hacker has violated some law, they are essentially co-opted by a government agency to work for them, in return for charges being dismissed, reduced, or dropped.

There are several basic contradictions in the world of hacking and how it is treated in which, quite basically, hacking that is done on behalf of governmental agencies, which have received overt or covert permission by the authorities so regulating them so as to spy, to interdict, to disrupt, or whatever, are all activities that unless some sort of egregious behavior which has been embarrassingly exposed occurs, pretty much anything goes.  This essentially means, that things that hackers do that would clearly be crimes if they were acting on their own or with some other agency not sponsored directly or indirectly by government forces, are not crimes.  It then follows that to hack into a foreign government's computer system in order to obtain documents or information, if done on an individual basis, is a serious crime, whereas, to do so as sanctioned by your own government, is often well compensated, and the people doing such, pretty much have immunity from the prosecutorial arm of the state, if not outright eligibility for rewards on particular jobs done expertly.

So if a particular hacker only has the best interests in mind, such as to release information that shines a light on governmental or industry practices, that are of questionable value, or clearly inimical to Constitutional law, to do so, is often considered to be a crime; whereas those special ones that are actually committing overt acts that endanger this country, or interfere with other countries or other people or other industries, are pretty much immune to any trouble, especially if position papers have been created, somehow justifying this sort of activity, or a quid pro quo has been initiated, in which,  the justice department's arm has been stayed, everything remains okay.

A world in which, on the one hand, certain actions that you as an individual take are subject to the penalty of the full weight of the law, whereas, the same actions or even worse, when state-sponsored, are not, signifies that this isn't a country of the people, by the people, but a country instead that serves faithfully those in positions of authority, and those that try to infringe upon this, suffer for their audacity or ignorance.

Liar Loans and Liar Profits

The 2007-2009 mortgage crises has many reasons for its occurrence, in which, pure greed and intentional deception would have to be amongst the foremost of those reasons.  In order for mortgage lenders or for banks to make money, they must either create loans, and/or have investments which will materially improve their bottom loan.  When it comes to initiating loans these become upon their inception both an asset as well as a liability for a bank, however, although many banks and mortgage lenders create loans to consumers and businesses, a much smaller subgroup actually keeps those loans on their individual books, with the majority of such, packaging their loans and selling them in securitized packages to investors, here and abroad.  Not too surprisingly, mortgage loans that are not sold, are typically looked at more carefully and scrutinized much more since the lender of such, must make a profit on these loans by being in a position in which their cost of money is less than the monies that will be received from the loan, while also budgeting for a certain percentage of bad loans.  On the other hand, lenders that make it their policy to sell and package their loans are in almost an entirely different business, which is essentially packaging their loans in such a manner that the selling of them will generate a nice profit.

Investors of all types, whether individuals, businesses,  or pension funds, need to or strongly desire to make money on their portfolio of investments each and every year, and in an era of historically low interest rates, this is quite problematic to do so when investing in basically bond-like investments, which mortgages typically represent.  Therefore, when a securitized mortgage portfolio is put up for sale, with a return that appears to be rather good, along with the basic understanding or premise that home prices don't ever seem to fall, along with mortgage defaults trending at low rates, the easy conclusion to make is that the investor making this decision to buy these securities is going to make some good money with a minimum of risk.  The problem with this theory, goes back to the very beginning, which is, if housing prices do fall because of a recession, or leverage that is imprudently high, or whatever, that presents a significant problem, along with the additional problem that if the people owing money on their mortgages are not credit worthy or are problematic to begin with, that securitized loan is going to be a very poor investment choice with disastrous consequences.

The basic issue that you have with mortgage loans, is if the mortgage broker, or the mortgage lender, or the loan officer in general, is making his real money via commission on the value of the loan and/or fees involved, along with the fact that their management also gets a percentage of the business so generated, it takes no real stretch of imagination to quickly realize that more loans will be issued with lower qualification points being necessary from applicants or even outright fraud, especially if the accountability is obscured.  This makes for wonderful bonuses for loan originators, and wonderful profits and bonuses for banks or their equivalencies that are creating the mortgages, but a disaster for those buying such loan packages, and a disaster for whomever is the person or entity holding the bag when it all collapses which it inevitably does. 

When money incentives are setup in such a manner that the more "work" that is approved and loaned, without any apparent direct blowback for lies or deceptions or prudency which creates the loans in the first place, the more liar loans and the more liar profits will be generated, ultimately ending rather poorly and dramatically for those not in the know.

Judicial Rights and Judicial Wrongs

People are arrested all of the time for various things, in which, at the very beginning, heck, even before an arrest is contemplated, the policing arm of the state makes a determination often on and substantially based upon profiling the subject. That is to say, police as supported by the prosecutorial arm of the justice system, are given a very wide berth in whom they are allowed or not allowed to question in regards to probable cause or reasonable suspicion, so the area of town that you are in, the car that you are driving, the clothes that you are wearing, the people that are congregating around you, and so on and so forth, are all germane to the stop, frisk, and questioning to begin with.  This means that if you are part of a group or look that appears respectable in every way, you probably won't be bothered nearly as much by policing agencies than those that appear to have the accouterments and behavioral patterns that the state has implicitly or explicitly designated as targets to harass.

One of the main problems with being stopped and frisked, or stopped and questioned, is that if police officers just don't really like you, or whatever, some very bad things can happen to you, to which, the beginning of those bad things begins with being arrested, so that even if, no formal charges are ever actually applied to you, your freedom and time has been curtailed, and things get progressively worse if formal charges are made.  On the other hand, those that are seldom stopped or never stopped, don't have to worry about such things, and not surprisingly, since they aren't harassed except under the most extraordinary of circumstances, have a tendency to follow the adage of "out of sight, out of mind".

Those that are actually arrested and charged with a crime, will next have to face the determination of their bail, and it is this setting of bail, that truly demonstrates that the Constitutional rights that we believe all citizens are entitled to, are in fact, structured under today's justice system, into a stark and bleak situation, to wit, if you have money, access to money or credit, and your crime is relatively minor, as most arrests are, you will probably be set free via bail, and although there will be many more hurdles to overcome, you are able in most circumstances to get back to your everyday life with a relatively minor dent to your everyday life.  On the other hand, if you are indigent, or unable for whatever reasons to post bail, even if the bail amount appears fair to the judge, the lack of being able to post bail, means that you will be effectively sentenced to jail time for a crime that hasn't even been adjudicated.  This often means, the lost of just about everything that you had of substance to begin with, such as your job, your apartment, your possessions, and so forth, in which, had you the money or had you not been arrested in the first place, none of this would be happening.

In America, there are many wonderful rights that are supposed to be equally applicable to all, but in practicality, there is a monstrous divide between those that have or have good access to things that will aid them, and those have not, and can't access much of anything.  This signifies that being poor and/or living in poor neighborhoods is effectively a crime, and America makes those that live under such conditions pay for their lack, by being placed in jail against their will each and every day.

What Church should be

Churches represent all sorts of things to all sorts of people, in which, some churches are absolutely beautiful edifices and/or have beautiful grounds, whereas other churches are rather humble, or even in a bit of disrepair, along with everything in-between.  The thing about churches, is that each church should be cognizant of its real mission, which while including imparting knowledge and an opportunity for people of the faith to congregate together, it should also be seen as an outreach to those that need to hear of God's love for his people, as well as a sanctuary for those that need to have that space so as to deal with the inevitable trials, tribulations, and troubles of everyday life.

Going to church is an opportunity for those that are hurting to be healed, a refuge that is necessary to have, in order to help build up the strength to handle things that are and have been too overwhelming for so many, as well as presenting an opportunity to grow and to do well to others.  While it is important for a church to have a message for its congregants, it is as important if not more so, for that church to really know its flock, so as to thereby be able to lend a helping hand to those that really are in need.

If some people that attend the church, do not appear to have any problems, so much the better for them, but life really isn't about the celebration of a particular life that has gone so well, because that is celebration enough, but rather that we have an obligation, to see ourselves as part of a greater whole, and therefore it is our duty to take those weakest links and through our efforts in conjunction with our neighbors uplift those that need that helping hand, which helps them, along with making us better for having done so, and thereby helps to actualize God's word.

A church should also be seen as something akin to a big family, a family in which the congregants practice in their actions and in their behavior being a good family member to one another, or else, we have fundamentally missed the very meaning of what life should really represent, which is that we all are in this thing, together, one family, one God, one Savior.

Those that lead us at church, must make the church inclusive, not exclusive, must lead by example, not just by words, and certainly must help us in renewing our strength, our faith, and our devotion, so that we are better for having entered our sanctuary, and the people within that church, are better for us being there with them.  A good church should challenge us to become a better person, and as iron sharpens iron, churches need to be the instruments for our growth, and our advancement, as opposed to encouraging our complacency that we're okay just the way that we currently are. 

Those that think that they are good and perhaps feel that they don't really need church perhaps shouldn't be at church, for churches aren't really there for those that have perfected themselves, or for those good people who have no faults, but for those lost sheep that want to get back to their flock, and thereby return to that narrow path led by their shepherd back to our Creator.

The civilized and the uncivilized

Man believes that because he has seemingly conquered the world through his mastery of so many remarkable things, such as food, water, shelter, rule of law, and so forth, that he, by definition is now civilized.  But one only has to look around and step outside their domain to see that without question, that man's inhumanity and that man's injustice still reigns supreme in many, many ways.  In point of fact, how is that the richest country in the history of the world, these United States, also has the highest present-day per capita rate of incarceration in the world?  So too, the highest per capita gun ownership rate is also held by these same United States.  In addition, to the fact, that theguardian.com reports that the top 0.1% of the United States holds as much wealth as the bottom 90% in America, seems, almost unfathomable on the surface, but is also unquestionably true.

All of the above, would point out inexorably that in these "civilized" United States, there lies deep divisions of the haves and those that have not, in which, quite frankly, the haves have cloaked themselves into the guise of appearing civilized, while treating those that do not bend or conform with their desires, as something less than civilized, or why else, the need for such an abundance of weapons, of prisons, and of economic might to keep the people in line, and in check. 

In point of fact, a people are not truly civilized, if in order to get along, one party or one clique or one segment of that population, pretty much dictates to the masses, what they can or cannot do, while making sure that the legal apparatus as well as the enforcing arm of the state, supports them in their actions against those that need to be tamed.  As long as a government of the people does not truly treat all of the people with the same equanimity and fairness of the law in actuality, you do not truly have a civilized society or even rule of law.

As long as mankind insists and acts as if not all human beings are made from the same Creator, which is in opposition to our seminal Declaration of Independence, than mankind will continue to exploit and dehumanize man.    In actuality, the proposition before man is the very same proposition which has not changed from the beginning, either we are all created equally or we are not.  Man acts far too often in a manner in which "some apes, it seems, are more equal than others," which is very beneficial for those select few which are given that higher status along with the tools to oppress those that are less equal, but that is not in keeping with the spirit of the one true law, a law that man must answer to or else continue to live in a world in which in our most honest of moments we are horrified at the systemic brutal manner that man so often treats his fellow man. 

In reality, we are all in this world, together, and together, united, we must live up to and adhere to the better angels of our nature, as to do otherwise, is to turn our backs upon true justice and nature's God.

Machines and the Decline of Blue Collar Wages

In America, more and more productivity is augmented by robotics and machines of all sorts, which is absolutely wonderful for the productivity of producing all types of things, which allows buyers of goods to purchase much more for the dollar than they would be able to without the machines or robotics.  On the other hand, wages do have a strong correlation with skill sets, and those who function in an environment in which the machines that they utilize appear to provide the more meaningful "labor" component, are in no position to demand wage hikes or to achieve wages that families basically need and depend upon to live their lives.  In particular, machines are very beneficial to the owners of businesses, for the fact that these machines do not go on strike, are operational essentially 24/7, keep companies very competitive, and the machines essentially act as proxies to keep wage demands by laborers quite quiescent.

While there is no doubt, that profits are being made in America by well run companies, the division of the profits and bonuses is becoming more and more skewed and unbalanced each and every quarter, with the lion's share of the salaries, bonuses, stock options, and meaningful benefits going to those of upper management and those that brought to the table the capital needed and utilized by the business, whereas, those that are looked upon as just cogs in the machine, are left further and further behind.

This technological revolution has been a significant contributing factor to the suppression of wages over the last couple of decades in which many businesses are producing products which are either being sold at cheaper price-points while still maintaining their gross margins, and/or are offering more bells and whistles to the consumer of such, with the biggest elephant in the room of exception to this general rule, being the health industry.  This seems almost inexplicable, because not only is healthcare incredibly expensive in America vis-à-vis comparable countries, but it would appear to be an area in which this should not be true, because America pretty much has the best of everything, and this includes the tools and accouterments within healthcare. The implication of the above would imply strongly that healthcare, whether because of governmental oversight, governmental interference, industry regulations, industry collusion, lack of transparency, or whatever, appears more to be run essentially as a cartel, something akin to OPEC, rather than a competitive industry.

While overall, the benefits of machines and robotics are rather obvious, those that have had their jobs marginalized and opportunities curtailed, recognize that their life choices are rather limited and their future at best, mediocre, and at worse, rather bleak.  The era of machines has its winners, and its losers, and the blue collar laborer is most certainly on the short end of the stick.  However, even those that have spent the money, and done their part in getting their advanced degree, are not immune to wage suppression, as the more and more your employment is merely clicking keys and pushing buttons, with correspondingly less and less utilization of one's cognitive thinking along with human processing, then those that think that they are in the white collar workforce will find sooner or later that their collar is inexorably turning blue.

Law enforcers cannot be law breakers

Civil authorities constantly impress upon the population that they should obey the law, in which, most citizens believe that such a policy is very sensible, as their perception is that if the general population does not obey the law, than chaos and anarchy will quickly reign.  While this sort of mindset has its place, this obedience to law, counts on two very important and fundamental factors, of which, one is basically that laws should be clear, reasoned well, and applicable to all; the other is that those that are working on behalf of civil authorities in the capacity of implementing the law, whether they are the enforcing arm of the police, or the prosecutorial arm of justice, should also be subject to the very same laws, and not above it, or alternatively having the ability to sidestep it at their convenience.

For instance, prosecutorial agents have an obligation not to seek convictions at all costs and at all times, but actually to ascertain the truth, which means that information that may not be beneficial to the prosecution but is germane to the case, cannot and should not be oppressed, in addition to the fact, that it should always be the mission of the justice department to utilize the weight of the justice system in a manner that is equitable and fair to all, as opposed to utilizing state resources to pressure those that are least able to defend themselves, such as the poor and indigent.

While it is one thing to do things in a manner in which the 4th Amendment which secures the right of the people to be secure in their persons and possessions unless there is probable cause takes precedent, it is an entirely different thing to constantly have workarounds which clearly violate the spirit, if not in actuality, the 4th Amendment, because the state has determined for whatever reason, valid or not, that certain people must be prosecuted, at all costs.  In addition, there are the stealth resources which are utilized again and again such as surreptitious surveillance as well as going "undercover" in order to build up a case against criminal elements, or undesirables.  So too, it's rather hypocritical when undercover police agents engage in illegal activities so as to not blow their cover, basically signifying that some people for the greater good or whatever, are allowed to participate in criminal enterprises as long as they have been sanctioned to do so by the state.

In actuality, law enforcers of all stripes, and of all areas, have by virtue of the fact that they are exemplars of the law to the public that they serve, must, be held accountable for their actions, and those given such privileges by the public, most definitely, should know right from wrong, and thereby show clearly know and apply the law fairly and equitably at all times.  If, on the other hand, law enforcers are given wide berths and are not held accountable for their actions, we have set up, in effect, two worlds of justice, one in which the public is subject to the law and its attendant consequences, and the other in which privilege members of the law enforcement arena and their cohorts, are not.

Helicopter Money, Depression, and deleveraging

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, famously quipped, "In theory at least, helicopter money could prove a valuable tool," in reference to the fact if the Federal Reserve was to simply print money and then dump it from helicopters down to the ground to consumers, that doing so, would stave off debilitating deflation, and bring back a healthy dosage of inflation to the pricing of goods.  In recent years, the Federal has printed money like a madman through its various quantitative easing programs, but all this, hasn't really produced the desired effect of inflation, for the most basic of reasons, which is, if the money so generated does not pretty much go directly into the hands of consumers, it rather than being spent or being utilized for productive things such as factory improvement and capital investments, will actually gravitate towards equities, in which because the cost of money is so low, investors can make money by literally doing and risking little or nothing, by simply performing passive investing, which resolves little or nothing.

In point of fact, when economies stagnate, the most natural of states is deflation, because workers that do not earn more money, and businesses that do not make more money from the items that they sell, are stuck in the same boat, which is deflation, because producers of goods do not have the pricing power to raise prices, and consumers do not have the extra money to pay for the higher prices of goods, so the basket of goods that they do purchase, is of a lesser quality or a different mix of goods in order to stay afloat.

The reason that governments fear deflation so much, is that anytime a country degenerates into deflation, there is the distinct possibility that it can also disintegrate into a depression, because if consumers know that prices are in a freefall, they will spend less now, in order to acquire more later, and if businesses recognize that sales are slowing at their current pricing structure, they will cut prices sooner or provide more bells and whistles for the same price now, so as to recover ready money in order to invest in products that will sell to the general public.  In addition, businesses that are being squeezed for profit, often look to reduce labor by laying off personnel, and people that are unemployed or are fearful of being unemployed prudently reduce spending so as to be able to maintain as long as possible their current assets in life.  However, once money gets tight, they will be forced to sell off hard assets in order to survive, and these assets will be sold at distressed pricing, inflaming further the cycle of deflation and depression.

So too, in this era of easy credit, people and businesses have debt that can only properly be served with appropriate income and profits, and if they are not able to achieve such things, then those in debt, must somehow deleverage themselves from the debt that they are in, which, in a time of deflation, creates an incredibly vicious spiral, which can lead to a very bad and devastating depression.  Debts always are easier to pay with money that has devalued itself over time through inflation, but not too much inflation so that the money itself becomes questioned as a reasonable storage of value, but just enough to keep the belief going that all is basically well.    This government wants you to believe that they have everything under control, but, the reality of it is that it is a monetary house of cards, which cannot stand in its current form, forever.

Computers and Credit Card Validity

People use credit cards all day, every day, in which most transactions, but certainly not all transactions are done in person, and hence the actual credit card in the consumer's possession is actually used, but the advent of the internet shopping age, has meant that a fairly large number of transactions are done each and every day via the internet, using a given person's credit card information, and while some of these transactions utilize the same credit card again and again, as this credit card has been previously entered and thereupon saved as the default card, there are plenty of internet sites that the consumer is utilizing for the very first time, or desires to use a new credit card, or doesn't have their credit card previously saved, and thereby the customer must enter the pertinent digits of the given credit card by hand, meaning that humans can mistype or mistakenly type in the wrong numbers, and do so, probably by the thousands each and every day.  The most incredible thing about this, is that computers are able to instantly recognize the validity of a given credit card within a second or two, which many people take for granted, but actually it's quite impressive that this is accomplished within such a short period of time, as opposed to an order having to be canceled because a valid credit card was mistyped by the customer.

Theperplexity of this feature would be that since there are literally millions upon millions of credit cards that have been issued, that a crosscheck against all of these credit cards would imply a massive and constantly updated database containing such, which would seem to be a somewhat daunting task, as credit cards are issued by banks, by stores, and by all sorts of vendors and access to such a database that includes all credit cards would seem to be the mother-load of valuable information for those that are involved in credit card scams and fraud.  While it is conceivable that such a massive coordinated database exists, in actuality, credit card issuers follow a format that has been carefully constructed so that there is the ability to apply a relatively straightforward algorithm to test the numbers that have been entered, in addition, to the fact, that the numbering convention format helps to identify the issuer of the credit card, in which as explained by stackoverflow.com, the first six digits of credit cards represent the Issuer Identification Number, so if that does not match any known vendor, the card is invalid.  Then the following digits are the actual account number of the given person's account, and the final number is the checksum, in which these numbers in aggregate are tested using the Luhn algorithm, a relatively straightforward algorithm, which will be able to within the blink of an eye, determine whether the credit card number is valid by such a check.

All of the above, pretty much doesn't mean much of anything to the average consumer, because like most things accomplished on a given day, they sort of just take it for granted, but it's actually quite impressive, it does its job, because mistyped entries occur over and over again, each day, only to be instantly flagged as such, and then corrected by the customer.

Civil War and Civil Elections

When Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860, America was at peace, and despite Lincoln stating repeatedly that he would not interfere with the institution of slavery in the South, for he believe that he did not have the Constitutional authority to do so, the southern States seceded anyway.  Even with such succession, Lincoln stayed his hand, yet, when the South took it upon itself to fire shots against the federally owned Fort Sumter in South Carolina, forcing its surrender, Lincoln's hand was forced to bring the southern States to heel for their rebellion, so as to re-unite these United States and thereby restore the Union, and to make vividly clear that those that lost elections through sound democratic methods via the ballot box, could not and would not then as the losers of such, win via the bloodshed of the battlefield, so the fight was joined.

In America, Presidential elections are held every four years, so by the time of 1864, the rebellion, our civil war, was still in effect, and unlike virtually any government that preceded it or succeeded it, of any stripe, and of any type, in America, a free election of those States that were still part of the Union was held as scheduled, in which the incumbent, Abraham Lincoln faced off against the man who was once the general-in-chief of all the Union armies, George McClellan, before he was relieved of such in November of 1862.  Lest one think, that McClellan had no chance, he was extremely popular and well known throughout America, and was considered to be a formidable opponent, certainly capable of winning the election and thereby, since he ran as a Democrat under their party platform of being the so-called peace candidate, the course of history of how the war would have been conducted or concluded under McClellan, might, in fact, left slavery as an institution permitted within the southern States in return for the peaceful submission by those States currently in rebellion.

This means that the stakes were incredibly high in 1864, in which, Lincoln could have, and certainly did have, the Executive wartime power as well as the most reasonable of excuses, to postpone such an election, because the country was in the midst of a bloody civil war but Lincoln did not postpone the election, and had he been defeated, he would have left office and been replaced by a new commander-in-chief.  The foregoing demonstrates conclusively the great character of this President, who took the Constitution as well as our Declaration of Independence, not as documents to be subverted, not as documents to be ignored so as to aggrandize unto himself powers not given to the Executive office, but to, even in this darkest of hours, to work within the Constitutional powers to reunify this nation without becoming a dictatorship, or suspending any laws unless absolutely necessary.

This world is filled with countries that suspend Constitutional or governmental law, replacing such with dictatorships, or military juntas, or leaders who take upon themselves executive powers for life, whereas, Lincoln did nothing of the sort.  How many others during a civil war that tested core values of what it meant to be an American citizen, what it meant to be a nation, and what it meant to be these United States, would risk a free election, yet, those of great character and those of great integrity, will willingly do so, because Lincoln was no summer soldier, and no sunshine patriot, he was a determined man, made extraordinary by the testing of his character in this crucible of this most trying of times, our civil war.

The real Purpose of a College Curriculum

I suppose that with the price of education being what it is, you can make a somewhat successful option that the participants in such an education, should be afforded a fairly wide berth of subjects to study upon with minimal interference by collegiate administrators.  That type of viewpoint seems to be more and more the prevailing opinion, as never have so many students, had such a wide choice of curriculum to choose from.  Of course, there is this fundamental disconnect, which is that students are primarily in school in order to learn how to think and to be taught by those that have wisdom, as opposed to already knowing what they should be thinking, and acting as if they have already been taught.

It certainly makes more sense, that college administrators would administer their colleges in such a manner that certain coherent aspects of becoming a thoughtful and constructive citizen would be part and parcel of the educational institution, as in order for any country to continue to progress and to be vibrant, citizens must have knowledge, truth, ethics, and civic virtue as part of their constitution, because if these things are lacking from the most educated and most intelligent of our citizens, where will then will it be found?

While it certainly is beneficial for students to work hard to achieve that diploma in a subject field or specialty that means something or makes sense to them, so too, it is important that each student ask the most basic of questions, as to who and what they are, and thereby what is the purpose of life, or even of society in general.   For while it is all to the good, that students learn something, it is a disservice if students are unable to learn fundamentally that truth, justice, fairness, goodness, integrity, selflessness, as well as righteousness are all necessary characteristics of citizens that one should aspire to be, rather than actually believing that moral codes, as well as right and wrong, shift with the times, or are subjective, or are dictated to us by governmental authorities.

All of the above strongly indicates that each college should and must have a core curriculum, but not just a somewhat arbitrary one, but one that deliberately is thought through so as to inculcate in its students that privileges entails responsibilities which is all part of being a good citizen of these good United States.  Our forefathers made great sacrifices and took great risks in their fight for their freedom from Great Britain, in which, it is at a minimum, the responsibility of the best and brightest, to represent well the very things that the fight was for such as: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to petition the government, and freedom of assembly. 

There are many, many things that people do not necessarily want to do, but some of those things are things that they ought to do.  No country can remain great if its citizens are not great, and great citizens typically come forth from great learning institutions, in which these institutions impress upon the young minds: how to think, and that therefore it then follows that what you think does matter, because thoughts begat actions, and actions are the result of those same thoughts: correct or not.