The small States of the Northeast and their Senate Power

There are fifty States in the union, but with our bicameral legislature, each individual State, no matter, how big, or no matter how small, are entitled to exactly two Senators in the Senate, whereas in the Congressional branch of legislature, the amount of representatives is population based, though, each State no matter how small, is still entitled to at least one congressional representative. 

The core of New England consists of these six States which are: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, of which four of those States, despite their very early admittance to the United States, rank amongst the ten smallest populated States in the nation.  Then, there are another five States, that are in the Northeastern portion of America, which are: New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, of which Delaware is also a State whose population ranks in the bottom ten of all States in America, so that, out of these eleven States, all located in the Northeastern part of America, five of these States are in the bottom ten in regards to population.

Not only is a significant portion of the Northeastern states small in population, but, the seven smallest States in land area of this union, are also in the Northeast.  This means, when it comes to the Senate, of our bicameral legislature, that small States in physical as well as population size have far more legislative power than other States in the union.  Further to the point, geography most definitely matters, so that, back in the era after World War II, and well into the sixties, when this country was liberalizing itself in regards to civil rights, the southern States united in delaying and precluding the ratification of such civil rights, because these States all had a common ground to defend, despite the injustice of what they were defending.

So too, whether good or bad, the northeastern States in their quantity, eleven out of fifty, which is 22% of the Senate, have a voice that often, though not always, represents the northeastern interests which may be at odds to the betterment and the good of the United States as a whole, for representatives of each State, have a tendency, to want to placate and to help their own geographical residents first, before the consideration of this country as a whole.

Keep in mind that Rhode Island, the tiniest State in the union, could fit into Texas, about 200 times, though each of these respective States, has exactly the same amount of United States Senators, two.  Though the bicameral legislature was made part of the Connecticut Compromise at the Constitutional convention, it clearly is undemocratic in its effect, as States with small populations have an outsized impact in regards to Senate legislative matters.  Further, the fact that Senators are elected to six year terms, as compared to Congressional terms of just two years, provides Senators with even more implicit power, for lobbyists of all sorts, prefer to work with the bird in hand, rather than having to re-introduce themselves to new congressional representatives that are vulnerable to not being re-elected every two years.

While there isn't necessarily anything wrong with each State having exactly two Senators, it is not a coincidence, that America did not create any more small continental States as it expanded out west, for those small  northeastern States, understood well that their continual outsized legislative power depended upon that very principle.

The Great Pyramid and the lesson it holds

Of the seven ancient wonders of the world, only one of these wonders, the Great Pyramid of Egypt, still stands, of which this amazing pyramid, was apparently built around 2584 BC, in a time in which the sophistication, brilliance, and mastery to construct such an incredible pyramid should not have been able to happen.  All sorts of theories about the building of the Great Pyramid have been put forth, of which, none of the conventional theories make sense for two basic reasons:  of which the first, is that the people of that day and age did not have the tools or knowhow that would necessitate even the attempt to build such a grand edifice, as well as the fact that the amount of laborers or slaves that would be necessitated to  tool, move, place, and secure these gargantuan blocks would have been a simply astounding number, of 10,000 or even more, all to build just one pyramid, in which apparently these laborers or slaves did so, without revolt.

The very first thing to realize is that great edifices of unheard of skill, knowhow, and insight, cannot be created, without those people being far more sophisticated and far more advanced that they are credited to have been.  The people that planned and thereby created the Great Pyramid are, no doubt, on virtually every level, not even surpassed by mankind, even of today, which signifies that they must have been far more adept, intelligent, and brilliant that they are given historical credit for.  For instance, the Great Pyramid of Egypt was the tallest manmade structure for nearly 4,000 years, and it also despite weather, earthquakes, fires, and any other natural disaster that could be conceived up, is still standing, though, of course, it has suffered some from the ravages of time, as well as the removal of the highly polished white limestone which once covered its outer surface.

In addition, the Great Pyramid as reported by ancient-code.com is "estimated to have around 2,300,000 stone blocks that weigh from 2 to 30 tons each," it is "precisely aligned with the Constellation of Orion," its "interior temperature is constant and equals the average temperature of the earth,", the "mortar used is of an unknown origin…" which "… is stronger than the stone and still holding up today." and further, it is "Aligned True North."    The list of amazing facts of the Great Pyramid can go on and on and on, of which, the only reasonable conclusion that an intelligent person can take from all of this, is that quite obviously the Egyptian population of that day was of far more sophistication and intelligence than they are given proper credit for,  especially considering that modern mankind is yet unable to figure out how it was that the Great Pyramid was actually really constructed and why, which signifies that mankind of today has fundamentally lost knowledge, that was once known by those ancient Egyptians.

Further to the point, in virtually any conventional rendering of how the Great Pyramid was built, the foundation that such a theory rests upon, is the inordinate amount of laborers needed to build such an awe inspiring pyramid, of which, many of these theories have designated those builders as slaves, whether literally or in principle, for these mass laborers are always depicted as nothing more than beasts of burden.  This would clearly indicate that mankind, today, has learned little or nothing of real history, for institutions built upon the backs and the unrequited toil of slaves will not only never stand through the ravages of time, but will be in their construction, fundamentally flawed or in error, for what the Great Pyramid represents is not and never has been, what forced labor can do for a King or Pharaoh, but rather that nothing is impossible for mankind, when mankind clearly recognizes that the earth and everything in it, is indeed their footstool, and thereupon puts forth the effort to demonstrate that by the greatest construction project of all time, unsurpassed by any other civilization, ever.

Healthcare and Education costs are breaking the backs of Americans

AEI.org has created a chart showing the USA price changes from 1996 to 2016 for selected consumer goods, of which, during that period of time the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased 55%, but this increase of 55% was not uniform for all items, so that, things such as TVs, toys, software, and wireless services were appreciably cheaper and actually declined in price over that period of time, whereas items such as new cars, clothing, food and beverage, and housing, were almost in-line with the CPI, leaving only textbooks/college tuition and childcare/medical care as the outliers that far exceeded the corresponding CPI increase during that time span.  In fact, college tuition was up an incredible 197% and medical care was up 105% during that time period.

The fact that college tuition has risen so fast in such a short period of time, basically makes no logical sense, as never has there been so many choices for students in regards to how they wish to receive their higher education, be it online, a hybrid of online and classes on campus, all on campus, and for profit or non-profit colleges. Further,   never has there ever been so many students taking college curriculum, and never have there been so many colleges in existence, so economies of scale should also favor lower pricing or should help minimize any price increases.  It would seem that with the growth of online colleges and the sophistication, bandwidth, and capability of online augmentation for classes that colleges should in absolute terms certainly not be getting appreciably more expensive, but rather they should be getting appreciably less expensive. 

This increase in education cost has to be borne by someone, and that someone is the actual students being educated, in which, if not actually earning a diploma, especially a diploma of real merit, they are stuck with incredibly high student debt that cannot be discharged by personal bankruptcy, and can easily burden them for decades.  This raw deal for students is conversely a great deal for said colleges, that somehow or another, have been able to increase their tuition tremendously, despite the fact that many of these higher educational institutions, are non-profit are State run.  So too, this is a somewhat obvious reflection that most students have neither the maturity to recognize a poor financial deal when they enroll at a given college, or are financial inept at basic mathematics, or both.  In any event, nonprofits and State run campuses have never had it so good, and the students, educated or not, are much poorer for it.

In regards to medical expenses, as well as to medical care, in general, the United States should lead the world in its efficiency of such care, because it has the best medical schools and the best medical facilities in the world, and while one could make the argument that the best of these things, should cost more, in America, it costs so much more than any other comparable country in the world, that American healthcare from a western nation perspective, is clearly an outlier, in addition to the very disappointing news, that those receiving such healthcare in America, do not fare better than patients in comparable western nations, and typically fare worse. 

It is a major disappointment, that this near doubling in cost over the CPI over the last twenty years in medical care expenditures has not resulted in healthier and happier Americans, but instead, has meant that more savings and that more earnings of Americans are devoted to the behemoth healthcare industry, which, itself, benefits greatly, while Americans are left poorer and often sicker.

Bankruptcy

Hundreds of thousands of people file for bankruptcy in America, each year, in which as reported by consumerreports.org, 1,536,799 filed for bankruptcy in 2010 and as of 2016 that numbered had dropped considerably to 770,846, which while those numbers are still staggering, the fact that so much improvement has occurred over the last six years is rather remarkable.

The two most prominent reasons why people go bankrupt are medical expenses and job loss, in which, during the recent economic expansion, job security has been improved, and the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, no doubt, was a very strong contributing factor to less bankruptcy filings, because medical expenses are typically very expensive, not budgeted for, and non-discretionary.   The fact that the ACA provides subsidies for low-income tax payers along with providing coverage for pre-existing conditions, has undoubtedly helped to substantially reduce bankruptcy filings.

Still, the sheer numbers of people that choose to file bankruptcy each year, reflects that there are an incredible amount of people that have expenses that are so large and so unmanageable, that despite the fact that bankruptcy will not only cost them real money to file for and will effectively torpedo their credit rating for seven to ten years, depending upon the bankruptcy category that the file upon, they have little or no choice but to go ahead and do it anyway.

While bankruptcy will discharge debt, it will not discharge all debt, so that, by far, the most important debt categories to be discharge for nearly everyone is credit card debt and medical debt, whereas, the debt that cannot be discharged, unless under the most extraordinary circumstances is students loan debt, child support debt, and most tax debts, of which, these debts can be and often are extraordinarily high to begin with, yet American law will not discharge them from a given individual's responsibility.

This means that bankruptcy which is pictured by most as allowing individuals a fresh start, is in actuality for many people, not a complete discharge of all debt, and hence, not such a fresh start, after all, yet, hundreds of thousands of people file for bankruptcy each year, because their debt load is so high, and their ability to pay such debt appears well-nigh impossible, that  they determine that their only prudent choice is basically to discharge as much debt as possible, in order to start over, to the degree that they can.

The fact that each year that hundreds of thousands of Americans find themselves having to declare bankruptcy is a true reflection of how many Americans are actually living on the edge of financial solvency, if even that, in which, when anything bad happens, such as a job loss, or overtime reduction, or incarceration, or unanticipated medical expenses, or the lack of a reliable vehicle, or garnishments, or credit card penalties and interest, or rent increases, or divorce, or reduced or eliminated government benefits, or tax offsets, as well as all other unforeseen expenses,  places them into a hole so deep, that they cannot reasonably expect to recover from it.

This would indicate that the governmental safety net has massive holes in it, for the sheer quantities of numbers of actual bankruptcies, reflects that a significant portion of Americans, are getting sucked under each and every year, in this, the richest nation the world has ever known.

The deception of high school graduation rates

America has over recent years made great progress in seeing that more and more young adults graduate from high school, in which, as reported by npr.org, "The high school graduation rate in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 83 percent in the 2014-2015 school year."  Of course, digging beneath those impressive numbers lies some very disappointing news, in which as reported by theatlantic.com, ” The World Economic Forum ranks us 48th in math and science education," in addition to America scoring poorly in reading, and mathematics.  Further, the ACT reports that, "76 percent of our high-school graduates “were not adequately prepared academically for first-year college courses.”"

All of the above, indicates quite clearly, that gaming the system, so as to have more "graduates" might sound good on paper, but even a cursory review of the real facts of the matter demonstrates that far too many Americans are graduating with skill sets that are leaving them woefully unprepared for college curriculum, clearing suffering from not mastering the basic subjects of English, math, science, and reading at levels that clearly demonstrate a lack of competency.

While there probably are plenty of places to lay the blame for such a woeful performance of so many high school students, from the schools themselves, to the teachers, to the materials, to the students, to the parents, and so on and so forth, the answer, most definitely is not to paper over our lack of valid high school achievement, by disseminating to the public that high school graduation rates are increasing as if this actually means, more and more graduates of high schools are now better prepared for college and have more competency than previous years, but rather the truth of the matter is that our graduates are, and especially shown via other countries, falling further and further behind.

This would indicate that whatever steps that have been taken to rectified our pathetic high school performance and to ameliorate our poor high school learning, have not been resolved and are not close to being resolved.  If, this national government, in conjunction with State governments, finds some sort of purpose in simply graduating students from high school who have demonstrated via national standardized testing standards that they are not competent, so be it, but that simply means, in effect, that those that have graduated high school, and are now looking for employment, or some sort of college entry, will instead be tested by those organizations on their own terms, to help those institutions to more easily determine the actual competency and readiness of those so applying or their lack thereof.

In point of fact, a nationalized standardized test law, for those graduating high school, must be passed, in which this law, stipulates that all high school graduates, need to pass this test, in order to receive a document, that states that they have mastered and passed the High School Qualification Completion test.  This test, will for all practical purposes, supersede any document that simply states that somebody is a High School graduate, as the successful passing of the High School Qualification Completion test will be demonstrative proof that such has indeed achieved education competency on core subjects.  Those passing ACT tests or SAT tests at a certain score level, would, as a matter of course, by default, earn the High School Qualification Completion certificate without having to take the test, by virtue of their successful scores on those nationalized tests.

There isn't any good point, in having a school structure, where everybody graduates, without actually having a meaningful standard to graduate to, at least with a High School Qualification Completion test, students, their teachers, and the school infrastructure, would now have a valid target to work towards, rather than simply passing students for essentially showing up and being able to spell their own names.

Low GDP and wage growth for Americans

The last time that yearly GDP growth in America was at least 5% was in 1998, and the last time that yearly GDP growth in America was at least 7% was in 1983, yet countries such as Ireland, Iceland, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, and Ireland are all able to grow their GDP at the rate of 5% or better.  Further, taking a look at United States household income, advisorperspectives.com reports that real income growth for the top quintile from the period beginning in 1967 was 91.0%, but was just 33.0% for the middle quintile, and the fourth and fifth quintiles were both under 30.0%.  Additionally, real household income for the fourth and fifth quintiles peaked in the years 2000 and 1999, respectively, and since that time their incomes have declined in inflation-adjusted dollars.

All of this indicates, what most people are fairly familiar with, that the rich have been getting a lot richer, and the poor have been falling further and further behind, not to mention that our great middle class of America, has been weakened considerably especially in stark comparison to the first quintile growth of household income.  These trends which have been in place for fifty years will continue until such time as real tax reform is enacted that rather than under taxing capital gains as well as other investment gains, taxes them appropriately.  Our convoluted tax code is purposely structured in a way, that the privileged are afforded special advantages of tax code loop holes that are simply not available for the common class.  This means the rich are able to get richer significantly because investment income is taxed considerably less than wage income while also being tax protected for long periods of time by simply following a buy and hold strategy which isn't tax at all, whereas those subject to primarily making their money from wages, are accountable to tax codes that they cannot escape from.

So too, when money is held in fewer and fewer hands, economies begin to stagnate or have their growth slowed considerably because very rich people spend only a fraction of their money that has been "earned", preferring instead to grow their retained earnings in passive investments such as in equity and bond markets, or similar, while also making sure that such investments are as tax protected or tax savvy as possible, so that their principle will not be negatively impacted.  So that, you get the dual combination, of tax revenues on a per capita basis, being suppressed because very rich people are very good at tax minimization and tax avoidance, along also with massive amounts of money and assets growing for the people that already have more than enough, and therefore aren't going to spend it, but rather are going to invest it, or save it, though, some of it is invested in the American economy to help it grow.

On the other hand, those in the lower income quintiles, spend a much higher percentage of their money that they earn, primarily because they need things like clothes, medicine, food, and other basic necessities and desires in order to live a proper life.  So that, the growth of a nation, comes down to not only the money that is earned and made, but also the velocity of that money, and people that have less money to begin with, spend and utilize it at a much greater rate, which equates to higher velocity of such money, and thereby to higher GDP growth rates.

The low GDP growth rate and the low wage growth rate for those in the middle and lower quintiles, reflects that this country clearly favors the rich in its tax policies and opportunities, and unfairly burdens the middle and lower classes by making them pay full value for the services that they need and utilize in order to live, while providing them with reduced hope, little fairness, and less opportunity to ever get out from under.

Smart devils

Never have so many in so many countries been as highly educated as appears in our world today.  However, as in many things in life, education itself can be and is a dual-edge sword, for way too often, education is separated from ethics and morals, or if ethics and morals are addressed, they are addressed in a manner that does not shed true light upon these necessary virtues and their immeasurable value.

From a state and business perspective, there are obvious advantages in employing people that do not have a moral code that would preclude them from performing their job duties, no matter what paths those duties might take them. This is most unfortunate, because mankind has advanced itself so far, that it presently has the capability through its machines and devices so created, to literally eviscerate the entire world in the span of less than twenty-four hours, with the only caveat precluding this from happening, being the restraint that some men have in not performing such actions.

While it certainly makes sense that we want intelligent and brilliant citizens, if those of the highest intellect are incapable of good discernment, or much worse, deliberately want to use their intelligence in order to aggrandize powers onto themselves as well as others of like mind, that thereby circumvents rational and moral laws, all for the purpose that does not take into account the long term consequences or even short term consequences of their actions, this will indeed create a hell on earth.

In point of fact, when mankind's brilliance gets ahead of its moral code, nothing good can come from it.  For instance, the development of the atomic bomb is one of those things, and whether such a development by America was exclusively done in response and fear of the German state or not, has its relevancy, but the upshot of such a successful development over an incredibly short amount of time, led to the bombing of Japanese civilians and the deliberate killing of over 100,000 humans that died directly through this bombing, and approximately the same amount that were severely injured, along with the suffering of the aftereffects of exposure to high radiation levels, yet those that developed this awesome atomic power had no vote as to its usage, for that was taken from them.

This means, that when people develop sophisticated killing weapons directly or the tools that will allow such weapons to be manufactured, that their participation, no matter what happens, is relevant and that these people have a responsibility for the ultimate usage of such, for it is inexcusable to stipulate with a straight face that "they have washed their hands of it all," when it was their hands and their mind that contributed greatly to the danger so created.

There are far too many people, that don't truly look or contemplate the ramifications of what they do and accomplish, which is bad enough, but then there are also people and organizations that deliberately encourage and pay well for things to be created for the sole purpose of doing great harm, or to accomplish these very things themselves, because they are driven for power or riches and believe that "by any means necessary" is the appropriate pathway to follow.  These smart devils are a real menace, for those that have no moral code or deliberately circumvent such a code, can wreak incredible havoc, and destroy and imprison massive amounts of mankind, but cannot accomplish such, without the necessary contributions of others, that are smart, but haven't bother to personally hold themselves accountable for what their talents end up actually doing.

"There comes a time when silence is a form of betrayal"

The above quote comes from the organization entitled "Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam", of which this sentiment was utilized most strikingly by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his speech of April 4, 1967, entitled "Beyond Vietnam" delivered in New York City.  Though, Dr. King's speech specifically addressed the unjustness of the Vietnam war, such a call that silence can certainly be a form of betrayal is as true today as it was during the time of the Vietnam war, especially in a country, that insists it has the right to intervene with military force, along with economic sanctions, and additionally with political machinations inside sovereign countries, and as much as possible, does so under the cover of "national security," has fully betrayed its own nation and what this nation truly represents through its Declaration of Independence, its Constitution, and a country of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The lofty words of justice and liberty for all, mean nothing, if such does not exist for wide swaths of Americans, that live under the conditions of a police state, as well as often being segregated into impoverished sections of American cities, are ill educated, are denied job opportunities, and are unfairly persecuted by draconian drug laws, enacted to criminalize behavior that primarily is self inflicted, of which, a just country would see to it that the conditions that create this sort of environment was addressed first, before incarcerating so many essentially for the joint crime of being poor and making poor lifestyle choices.

So too, middle America, too often has been fooled into believing the rot that this is their country, right or wrong, when, in fact, they should be quite concerned about what this country does rightly or wrongly here and abroad, and should be up in arms, when this country consistently does the wrong things, because  such wrong, can only be corrected by doing right, for every wrong act, must be rectified by the right act, for this is the very nature of justice in the first place, and when such a country has a laundry list of wrong actions performed over decades and decades of systemic induced wrong, than the people of this country should tremble to their very knees, with the understanding, that justice will not slumber forever, and that such justice, when awoken, will come upon them with the fury of a mighty cleansing river.

The reason that evil prevails so often is not because evil is powerful, though it may well be, and not because evil is so prevalent, though it may well be, but mainly because too many good men do not have the courage to take a stand and to therefore confront evil at its source, to call evil for what it is, and to make their voices heard so as to lead others to the cause in order to effect real, lasting, and meaningful change.  

America through and through does not now live up to its calling to be a country of justice equally applied, nor does it provide liberty for all, and it does not permit its people the free and unencumbered pursuit of happiness, but rather instead it has morphed into a country that says one thing, and does a very different thing, of which, fundamentally, way too often, its actions are akin to those: "…that call evil good, and good evil;…" (Isaiah 5:20), of which silence is not the appropriate response to such a betrayal of those that "… gave the last full measure of devotion," to their country, in order that such a country would actually live up to living the creed that all men are created equal, and are thereby equally entitled to justice and liberty.

Opium blowback

The misuse of opium and its derivatives, medicinal drugs, illegal drugs of all sorts, and alcohol, has destroyed the lives of so many in cities and communities throughout America and other western nations.  Quite obviously, the reason that such misuse of drugs has created such havoc is the pernicious addicting nature that many of these drugs have, though under good medical supervision, some of these may be necessary for particular patients under particular circumstances, they are often over-prescribed, overused, and ultimately debilitating in their long term consequences. 

The fact that there is such a plentitude of these drugs, illegal or legal, that are readily available in abundance, indicates that the manufacturers and distributors of these drugs, whether illegal or legal in their status, are benefiting monetarily from the sales and distribution of such, while the recipients of these drugs, of whom, no doubt, some of these drugs are necessary for their pain management, or stress relief, or other legitimate uses; obscures the most salient fact, that these drugs are too often abused by people that have no or little legitimate reason to utilize them in the first place, enticed by them because they enjoy the euphoric effect they get from these drugs or for other similar reasons, yet they partially or wholly discount their addictive properties and the harm that will ultimately be done to body and mind.

Incredibly, back in the 19th century, when Great Britain was the greatest economic power in the world, they somehow made the conscious decision, in order to balance their trade with China, to essentially export opium, manufactured within their English colony of India, to China, in lieu of paying for Chinese exports such as tea, silk, and porcelain with actual valued coinage such as silver, which England very well knew the value of, replacing that instead with opium.  As might be expected, China was none to please to receive opium in return, as it was against imperial policy, but bribed imperial officials allowed opium to become imported as well as the fact that China did not have the military infrastructure to preclude England from demanding or persuading such to have their way.

Still, the importation of opium and its devastating effects upon the Chinese population, did necessitate an armed and determined response by the Chinese, to defend their homeland and to protect their people, of which, in both opium wars of the 19th century, China was defeated, which lead to their ports being opened to foreign traders as well as Hong Kong being annexed to Great Britain.  While this worked out rather well for Great Britain and other western nations, times indeed have changed, and China, today, is no longer the footstool of western powers.

Additionally, today's China is a major powerhouse of chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, both legally and illegally, whether sanctioned or unsanctioned, and exports its production, wittingly or not, of these synthetic drugs to western nations, so that people within these nations are subject to the powerful synthetic opioid, known as fentanyl, and the even more potent substances such as carfentanil, amongst many others.  China is incredibly gifted in the creation of all sorts of synthetic chemical manufacturing, in which, these substances are rather small and even minute in size, but powerful in their ill effects upon the human body.  The importation of these substances are incredibly lucrative to those distributing them within western nations, so that bribing the appropriate officials is commonplace, creating the situation of dependent opioid users in western nations, suffering from the ill effects of such an addiction, not wholly unexpected, as a vibrant form of opium blowback.

This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private

When you take a look at your one dollar bill, it doesn't actually say "dollar bill" it actually says "one dollar" and further at the top of the bill, it literally states: "Federal Reserve Note", so the one dollar bill should really be known as the one dollar note.  Additionally, on the front or obverse of the dollar it states: "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private."  This wording is the exact same wording that is placed on all the denominations of Federal Reserve Notes, so obviously, quite clearly, all businesses and all transactions in America, must accept physical dollar notes as an acceptable form of payment for debts so incurred, but in actuality, that isn't really true.

For instance, on airplanes nowadays, most airlines do not accept cash whatsoever, and therefore the payment for a drink or other items must be made by a debit or credit card.  Then there are a small percentage of restaurants and other businesses that do not as a matter of their business policy, accept any cash, whatsoever, and this they make clear to their patrons before business is transacted.  In addition, there are establishments, such as gas stations, that accept dollar notes, but only up to the denomination of $20, and will not accept any notes, such as $50 or higher.  All of these transactions which limit or don't permit the usage of dollar notes, would appear to be against the law, especially since the dollar denominated note makes the statement that it is "legal tender for all debts, public and private."

The thing is that case law has already been established that private businesses, people, and organizations are free to set the stipulations of what they will or won't accept as a matter of their policy as an acceptable form of payment for those services, in which, consumers of such, must accept these terms or else conduct their business somewhere else.  This would appear to be discriminatory especially against those that do not have ready access to debit cards, credit cards, checks, or other instruments other than cash, but nevertheless, as long as such a policy does not violate the monetary laws within that State, there are no Federal laws that compels such a business or individual to actually accept cash as a form of payment.

This then sets up a very interesting situation in which cash may not really be king, and could, under certain circumstances, be of worth that is far less than face value, for when businesses and people already have the option to not accept cash as a form of legitimate payment, it doesn't take any real stretch of imagination to recognize that those that only have cash, or preferred to just utilize cash, are placed into the rather unfavorable situation in which they must trade or deal with their cash in such a manner that in order to conduct business their cash is subsequently discounted in value to obtain a substitute for cash that is readily accepted by businesses.  This means that the trading of cash for other forms of payment would be somewhat akin to money laundering, even though cash is actual legal tender, nevertheless, when it is no longer remains the preferred method of payment, its value must drop.

Stock manipulation and capital investment

In order for companies to continue to grow as well as to maintain and sustain profits, monies must be allocated to capital investment and improvement, or such a company risks falling behind competitors in regards to innovation, improvements, reliability and relevance.  However, upper management of publically held corporations have a very powerful vested interest in wanting to have their cake and eat it, because their pay, especially their stock options, and bonuses are frequently related to the overall stock price performance, so that, for many of these executives, the price of the stock and how to "goose" it or get it to perform better than the aggregate stock price average, becomes their primary focus.

The two most prominent means to prop up and to increase a stock price, excepting improved fundamentals, are stock repurchases and dividend hikes.  In regards to stock repurchases, the stock price to earnings ratio or P/E, reflects the earnings of the company via its current share price relative to its per-share earnings, so that when shares are repurchased by the parent company and hence retired, than the overall shares being held by the public has correspondingly fallen, signifying that with less shares in public hands, that the earnings per share, has increased, in which, the P/E ratio is one of those very important matrix points, that investors and pundits rely upon in evaluating the worth of a given company.  In regards to dividends, these are scheduled cash payments provided to the stockholders of record, of which, just for the loyalty of owning these shares, stockholders are rewarded with cash dividends for such a holding, which, all things being equal, are very important for those stockholders as receiving dividends are a real and present return of one's investment in the stock to begin with.

The foregoing might seem to be okay, in fact, studies have consistently shown that companies that participate in stock repurchases as well as increasing their dividend payments, year after year, have outperformed the market as a whole, and if the game is simply to see a given stock outperform such averages, it is rather obvious, that stock repurchase and dividend increases are clearly the things to do. However, there is one very important caveat, which is that stock repurchases are taking real capital from the corporation and utilizing that money not to invest in the company, but rather to allocate that cash to purchase and to retire some of its public shares.  So too, cash dividend payments are taking real cash from the company, and again rather than investing it in capital improvements, or R&D, distributing these monies to shareholders.

This then means, that when it comes to stock repurchases and dividend payments, a conscious decision has been made by the executive branch in conjunction with the Board of Directors, as to where and how to allocate monies made by that corporation, of which, most of those executives have a vested interest in seeing that decisions are made that will secure to them their lucrative bonuses, so that their mindset especially favors stock buybacks and to a lesser extent, dividend increases, as opposed to other viable and reasonable avenues.  So then, when capital investment is consistently short changed, and when the salaries for regular employees are unduly suppressed, favoring instead stock buybacks, executive bonuses, and cash dividends, than wealth becomes more concentrated, and labor productivity and its return eventually weakened, because of the lack of prudent and necessary capital re-investment.

Inequality in America

The early 17th century began the inception of slavery in America, with Massachusetts being the first colony to legalize slavery in 1641, of which, slavery was not banned throughout the entire United States until the actual ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865.  Unlike, Europeans that were essentially the conquerors of America, for primarily the benefit of Protestant white people, most blacks, initially came to America in servitude and slavery, of which, though these blacks have since then been wholly assimilated within America, so that their native language is English, alongside their habits and customs being in adherence to the prevailing mores of the day, including religious belief, it is frustrating to recognize that on many levels, many blacks are, even now, kept segregated from truly being at liberty, with freedom and equality within America.

For instance, in many communities, a sizable portion of blacks are segregated in such a manner that there are enclaves within those communities that are primarily black in their color, which, to a certain extent, might be okay, or even preferred, if such segregation had an infrastructure of good job opportunities, good educational facilities, fair application of the judicial law within that community, and basically all the accouterments that a good community has.  In point of fact, that isn't true whatsoever, as these communities suffer most sorely from the lack of mostly anything materially good and worthy, with the exception of the very people that live within this communities, which in their character and in their being, are good people.

Still, further to the point, it would be one thing, if black communities, were actually run by black people for the benefit of those people within those communities, in which, the legislative and judicial branches were black in color, and the businesses, schools, banks, parks, and community infrastructure were owned, sanctioned, and operated by black people.  At least in those sorts of circumstances, the dollars earned and spent would be spent by black people for the benefit of other black people, and such circulation of that money would help the community as a whole. 

In actuality, though, many businesses, banking institutions, and job ownership within those black communities, aren't actually owned by black people, but rather galling to many, they are run by those that live outside the community, or at the fringes of it, in which, these people, good or not, are not black.  That might be okay if what they brought to the community was beneficial, which, to a certain extent it is, but rather, far too often, what they bring are the twin evils of outright exploitation and the siphoning of the dollars from black hands into the hands of those that are not black and are often not sympathetic to the black cause, whatsoever.

It doesn't seem right, in fact, it appears to be outright wrong, that those that know not English as their native tongue, or are first generation "Americans", are somehow able to have or find the funds to open up businesses in black communities, but somehow, black people are not given those same opportunities of entrepreneurship or ownership within their own communities that they have been segregated into.   It's wrong, it's unequal, and it reflects clearly that real transformative change still has not yet occurred, but it most definitely needs to.

Civilians and indiscriminate bombing

America favors bombing countries in order to achieve military objectives, for a lot of reasons, of which foremost amongst them is that such bombing risks few American lives at the expense of the designated enemy.  Americans are the kings at using drones in which no American life will be sacrificed if such a drone is shot down, compromised, or to suffer failure; so too, countries without an effective defensive air force are virtually incapable of taking down our aircraft, for their anti-aircraft armory seldom is able to touch our aircraft which effectively rules the sky. In fact, the only time that those conducting such bombing are in any real danger is when bombers are called into emergency action in which they are needed to dislodge an enemy from their positions, so as to free up or aid our soldiers in their conduct of ground missions, or as in the aid of the successful retreat or evacuation from American positions which cannot be successfully maintained.

It is important to recognize that each American bombing mission is approved with corresponding objectives and goals by the respective commanding officer before such a mission is commenced.  This means that what particular air bombers are or aren't going to be used,  or whether drones are preferred, what type of bombs, the target for those bombs, and the overarching goal of such bombing has been confirmed before such a sortie is sent out for its given target.  This means that the bombing mission is known before commencement, though, there are contingencies made in order to deal with foul weather, or unanticipated anti-aircraft activity or enemy aircraft, that could indeed change the direction of a given mission, but none of the air missions are random in the sense that drones and bombing is done indiscriminately and without a particular object and target in mind, whether that be primary, secondary, or tertiary. 

All of the foregoing would indicate that in order to know whether such bombing is successful or not, that those that order such bombing must know whether such targets have been successfully engaged, and how successful or not those missions have been.  Additionally, it is of vital importance, that such bombing does not violate the governing laws of war, which specifically forbids "… the deliberate or indiscriminate attack of civilians and civilian objects," of which, it should be the objective of any country that is dropping bombs upon another, to do so in a manner that such bombing is actually necessary in the first place, while also taking into account that civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure must be minimized.

This signifies that when one country bombs another country, that each bombing sortie must be evaluated as comprehensively as possible, with independent oversight, so as to ascertain who and what has been killed, injured, and damaged by such bombing raids, so that, taking this documented information into account, a wholly complete picture of what has really occurred will be evaluated by independent sources, in which not only will such information, provide invaluable feedback for the countries doing such bombing so that they can learn from such, but that, If necessary, sanctions and war crime charges can be actuated, for egregious offenses against humanity. 

Those that drop bombs on other countries, have a responsibility for their actions, in which, if their purported goal was to specifically attack the enemy and the enemy's infrastructure, than they should not only welcome but actually desire real feedback as to the actual damages so done, in order to learn from and to amend their procedures going forward, which is, at a minimum, the responsibility and the duty that they owe their fellow man.

Understanding Anger

Some people lose their temper almost every day, whereas others are far more controlled in their response to things that may well set other people totally off.  The thing about anger, and losing one's temper, is that one's preference, all things being equal, should be to not allow that temper to get the better of one's personality and thereby to become individually destructive and/or to create problems for others nearby; for an uncontrolled temper, actuated by anger, can wreak havoc and can literally change a persons' life for the worst in a blink of an eye, as well as negatively impact all others that are caught in that maelstrom of that moment.

In order to better understand anger, it is important to break anger down to its most basic form, which is, that most expressions of anger, come from the feeling that "what is happening right now, is not what I want," and one's response to that event, and the intensity of that response, reflects one's disappointment and possible rage that one's desire, has been denied by something, some circumstances, or someone.  This would seem to reflect that anger has a lot to do with things not happening in the way that a given individual would want them to happen, unexpected or not, in which those suffering from such anger, have a viewpoint in which things, events, and happenings, should ideally revolve around their needs and desires, while not taking into account other people's legitimate needs and desires, by minimizing or ignoring them, which realistically is never going to be the way that this world will ever be.

So too, anger can arise, from the pure happenstance of life, of random events, of unexpected or unanticipated events, of things that just happen at a given time or moment, which are clearly undesired, but have happened nevertheless, in which, once again, one individual, cannot control the world, they cannot control nature, they cannot control randomness, and basically can't control all that much of all the myriad and multitude of things happening all around them, with the exception of having the option of controlling their response to events that are not desired and maybe are not warranted.

In point of fact, people are going to get angry for a whole lot of reasons, of which some of these are reasons that are actually quite legitimate whereas others have reasons that clearly are not.  The thing though about anger, is that one doesn't need to allow it to run riot, and should in most circumstances, endeavor to control it, for when a given person's actions, are no longer being constrained by general moral and ethical concerns, but instead are exploding into something that has a monstrous life of its own, nothing good will come out of it, and possibly much harm will be the result.

Rather, a much better way to understanding and with dealing constructively with anger, is to, while recognizing that what is happening right now is not what you desire or want, that a reasonable and responsible response to such a situation is to deal with it, as best that one can, as a mature and accountable adult, recognizing that sometimes bad things happen to good people, that sometimes things don't go one's way, that there is injustice, evil, and wrong in this world, and that uncontrolled anger is virtually never the right way to deal productively with such.

It is of vital importance to take control of one's anger, and not let anger take control of you, for those that have mastered anger, have gone a long way to mastering themselves in such a manner, that when faced with the stormy winds of misfortune and tribulation they will bend, but they will not break.

Regulations and favoritism for the largest corporations

Most people favor governmental regulations, especially when they are explained in a manner that strongly suggests that just such a regulation will provide a safer environment, or better quality control, or better consumer protection, and so on and so forth.  However, like many things involving governmental oversight and interference, there are ways, that the biggest and largest corporations can work hand-in-glove with such regulations, so that ostensibly it would appear to be of a real benefit to the consumer, but in actuality, such regulations are often structured in such a manner, that the largest corporations bear proportionally the smallest cost, whereas small and medium size corporations correspondingly are burdened with much higher cost and cumbersome bureaucracies to work themselves through.

None of the above should be especially surprising since, the biggest corporations in America, are not in the business of gambling with their futures, so in order to make things far more secure, a revolving door has been constructed between big business and governmental regulators, in which a quid pro quo has been initiated, so that those doing the governmental regulatory work, are able to easily find well compensated employment working for companies that they previously enacted regulations against, signifying that in the implementation of such regulations, they will be structured in such a manner that the biggest and connected corporations are well capable of absorbing this new cost of business, whereas smaller corporations are stuck with taxing, confusing, convoluted, and onerous regulations which appreciably increases their cost of doing business vis-à-vis their largest competitors, making it far easier for the biggest corporations to add and to extend their dominance over those that are attempting to take market share away from them.

All of the above, simply states a truism, which is, when specific corporations have regulations written in such a manner that the cost of such compliance with these regulations has less to do with the size of the corporation, but are essentially fixed costs in nature, than by virtue of the size of the larger corporations, those costs are more easily disbursed throughout the balance sheets of larger corporations, whereas smaller ones, have the onerous burden of having to absorb these costs while maintaining a significantly smaller staff to handle such as well as a more precarious balance sheet to take on these additional and unwelcomed costs, so that, in short, the costs of regulation are not only unequal, but clearly favor the biggest corporations, making them far more viable and profitable as compared to their lesser competitors.

Again, regulations in America, today, are not written in a vacuum, though it may be true that the principle behind a particular regulation is both noble and needed, the actual structure, the amount of pages, length, and clarity of such, and the effect of such regulations, more often than not, favor those that have the ear of the regulators, and favors not those that do not.  Not only does this mean, in actuality, that competition will be weakened, it also means because of the regulation itself, that the consumer of those products will end up paying more money for products than if the regulation had never been passed, which is great for the manufacturers of goods, and is a contributing reason why, the best connected corporations in recent years have been able to consistently increase their profit margins year after year

The temptations of the Christ

Too often, we place Christ up on a pedestal, forgetting for the moment, that though Christ was divine, He was also fully human by His incarnation on this earth, and being fully human, was subject to all the enticements and lures that all of us have felt at one time or another.  This does indeed mean, than when Jesus the Christ, had fasted for forty days and forty nights, that, no doubt, his body was extremely hungry, for the physical has a need for nourishment in order to sustain itself.  So then, when tempted to turn stones into bread by Satan, Christ was already at a physical low, and such a temptation was meaningful in the sense that His body did indeed need food, yet, Christ, would not relent and misuse His great powers, which were fully developed through His connection to the unlimited capacities of God.  So too, when tempted to throw Himself off of the highest point of the temple, in which Satan promised Christ that the angels would save Him, Christ indicated that such a testing was not sanctioned by God.  Then, finally, when given the opportunity to be the King of all the kingdoms of this world, that is, to rule it all, Christ, indicated that He came to serve and to serve only God.

While it is true, that in order to sustain our bodies that we need food and drink in order to do so, it is important to note that those that place the physical and make it preeminent and thereby above the spiritual have their priorities wrong, for in becoming overly devoted to the physical, we allow the physical to dictate to us our needs and desires, rather than using our mind and our great spiritual resources to tame the physical and to become therefore rulers of it, for though we have physical bodies, our eternal essence is not physical, and never will be, it is instead, spiritual, and therefore it is the spiritual that should lead and the physical will follow.

So too, an untamed ego can place us in all sorts of harm and troubles, for when we allow our ego to run riot, it will find all sorts of ways to take our focus away from being a good neighbor and treating each other with respect, and instead replace it with a belief, that we are better than others, and believing such, it so does follow, that we deserve more than others, because of our superiority, in which this feedback loop feeds upon itself, and thereby makes it fairly easy to come to a stage in which we accord to ourselves special privileges and immunities, whereas, in actuality, we are no more nor no less, than anyone else, though we no longer believe that.

Then, there is the lure of power, especially of the power over other people, in which, such power, brings forth the advantages of having it, such as the subservience and unmerited respect given to us as a matter of course, as well, as being able to demand and to get whatever we so desire, so that, the efforts and labors of others, are ultimately siphoned unto ourselves, because we have the authority to take what is not rightfully ours, by virtue of our position which allows us to assert ourselves against those that cannot prevent it.  All of this drives us well away from the spirit which should be our source of good power and growth, and instead feeds our willful mind, that luxuriates in worldly goods and privileges.

When challenged by Satan, Christ faced his challenges, one by one, and conquered each one, to signify and to solidify that He was fully aligned and in perfect harmony with His Creator.  Yet, these challenges are in one form or another, the same challenges that each of us must face, and thereby conquer, for if we do not, how we can say, that we are truly good children of the Most High God.

National well-being

We live in a capitalistic society, which has its merits and demerits, for in any society in which, in order to win, one must have a corresponding loser, than in such an environment, some people will develop into being quite exploitative of those that do have not the capacity or have not developed the maturity and wisdom, to comprehend when they are indeed getting the worse of an agreement, coerced or not.  In addition, when the rules of the road, and therefore the law of the land, favors one group that has the political ear of those that are in power, through its legislative and executive branches, as well as the judicial branch reasoning from a basis that supports the status quo, those privileged groups of people, most definitely will increase their power and worth at the expense of those that are outside those advantageous power positions.

The above basically describes America, which has structured itself so as to clearly favor and to enable these incredibly powerful elite of privileged peoples and organizations to effectively rule the road for the primary benefit of themselves and to the overall detriment of the people.  While, it is true that America in aggregate is a very rich nation, those massive riches are quite unequally shared, though, it must be said, the country has been able to hold itself together, primarily because of its vast diversity of the middle class, which has been able to achieve the American dream of owning their own property, having jobs of some satisfaction, and to appreciate vacations and the accouterments of success, though, many of those have recently been losing ground.

Regrettably, though, America disappointingly and unnecessarily also has a vast and persistent underclass, in which as reported by ucdavis.edu, "an estimated 43.1 million Americans lived in poverty."   This underclass is not getting smaller in number, and there doesn't appear to be any tangible plans that will correct or ameliorate the current situation to make it better or to provide a pathway of sustainability for those that are poor and disadvantaged to find their way to a reasonable degree of prosperity. 

The reason that the situation appears as hopeless as it really is, is that many businesses, advertisers, and certain individuals, understand that it is desirable to exploit other's ignorance and ineptitude so as to make money off of their given situations, rather than to see such developed into literate and mature individuals, preferring instead to see them subjected to the allure of drugs or alcohol, and/or their attendant suffering from illiteracy, sloth, dependency, gambling, and despair.  The bottom line is it always far easier to make money off of someone that doesn't understand or can't comprehend the value of money, or the true value of the item so being sold.

A nation cannot grow together into a great nation worthy of universal respect, when it is subdivided into so many camps, that are so fundamentally different from one another, that they do not congregate one with another, in which the schools, justice, and opportunities are constructed in a way to favor the few and well placed, while reducing considerably the fair consideration and fair opportunity for others, and sadly but purposely so keeping a wide swath of Americans, ensconced within a permanent underclass that is deliberately oppressed and monitored, as opposed to actually providing them with liberty and their promised fair pursuit of happiness.

There is a goal in life

Everyone should have a major goal in their life, though this goal may change from time-to-time, nevertheless, as we gather wisdom and maturity, the goal itself should be something tangible, real and actively focused upon. The reason that we need a goal is to have something to work towards, and to drive our interests and our endeavors so as to get closer and closer to that goal, for if we merely take life as it is, than we will find that not being centered upon a specific purpose, we are thereby tossed to and fro in the waves of life, never bothering to be master of our own domain.  

As in anything of worth, our effort, our intentions, and our diligence, makes a significant difference as to whether we make progress or not, so that, we must, as much as possible, not let the distractions of sense pleasures and sense enjoyments be our rulers, in which case, we are living for those temporal enjoyments and treating these as if they are of real importance, as opposed to being the master of our physical senses, recognizing that though the body has real physical needs, it should not crowd out the voice and spirit that actually actuates our very being.

That is to say, it is of vital importance to recognize that the spirit and the body are not one and the same thing, and therefore those that put the body first, have sacrificed their spirit, as well as their intelligence, to bodily needs and wants, as if this is the most important thing, when it most definitely is not.  So too, ego gratification, in which, we must be treated in a certain way, or recognized as a superior personage, or treated with obeisance respect, sacrifices our universal spirit and mind, to the service of a lesser god, that places us first amongst equals, as though we are all that, when in actuality, we are not.

There are many pitfalls and wrong turns in life, which is why we live in a society in which each member of such has a responsibility to treat each other as a true brother and a true sister, for all are part of the very same family, as we have been created by the very same divine hand.  This so does mean that we should want to have reflected back to us, the truth of all matter, and that we should be able to conduct ourselves in a manner in which we embrace having a dialog, that allows each to sharpen our skills and our mind with the other, so that we are able to maintain our focus and to apply ourselves successfully to the tasks at hand.

Life can be summed up as the pursuit of finding the source of it all, though there is nothing wrong with stopping alongside our journey to appreciate and to understand the beauty of all that is right in this world, yet, the objective of such a journey, ultimately, is to find ourselves face-to-face with the Benefactor of all that is good.  We should never be satisfied with something less than the ultimate best, for that is what we are made of, and therefore we must rise above all limitations that sidetrack us from achieving this, of which, sense pleasures, ego gratifications, and self-absorption, are the false paths that enchant so many.  Instead, we must recognize that our lives are never complete until we see and know in a manner which harbors no doubt, that what we have found has no beginning and has no end.

Police firearm cash program returns, seizures, and resells

Many major police departments periodically have programs that encourage citizens to trade in their guns and other firearms for money or gift cards, without any questions being asked, which has been successful in the sense that citizens do actually perform this act, voluntarily.  The problem though with this sort of program is that, as might be expected, the guns being returned by these citizens, aren't typically the type of firearms that these citizens want to own or to utilize in the first place, as they often are guns that either don't function, or don't function well, or are considered to be a rather poor imitation of a true stopping weapon.  In addition, depending upon the price being offered by a given police department, such a gun return, offers an opportunity for arbitrage, that is to say, if particular adept gun dealers or people that are familiar with firearms, are able to procure or trade on the cheap, guns that will be purchased by the police department in which these guns will be sold for a higher price than it costs them to so purchase, than a rather easy path of profit, has been created and taken advantage of.

The one type of firearm that most definitely will not be turned in on these voluntary community programs to get guns off of the streets is the type of notorious assault weapons that in the hands of criminals are creating the havoc and killing that the police departments are ostensibly trying to prevent.  This means, though the thought process might be commendable, basically, such gun buyback programs will not really make the community safer, it will simply provide funds to those turning in guns that really don't want those weapons in the first place, and would rather have cash or gift cards in return.  Additionally, the quantity of firearms voluntarily turned in, though it might sound high, such as 1,000 guns, is actually a pathetic little trickle of weapons being taken off the streets, for as bustle.com states: "The Washington Post estimated the number of firearms nationwide at 357 million."

At least, the foregoing is a step in the right direction, and in principle, sounds like a valid idea to enact, in addition, to making the public part of the solution to the sheer quantity of guns in their community.  On the other hand, though, most people, would be horrified to know, that guns that are seized in eleven States of the union, are subject to the police department, being able after the adjudication of a given case, or by simply by having possession of those firearms taken from a scene of a crime, are required by the law of their given State to actually sell these seized guns back to the general public.  The argument for this being legal is the opportunity for those in the law enforcement departments to actually augment their budgets by the money so collected by the selling of such firearms to the law abiding public through the sales of such.  Whether such an amount of money, actually makes a difference to any budget is missing the forest for the trees, for when any police department in a nation that has more than enough firearms in the first place, sells firearms back to the public, they aren't helping the situation, they are making it worse, and if such is actually considered to be a real "service and protection" for the general public, than why not make police departments a conduit for the public sale of firearms within the general course of their service.

When a firearm is seized, and then resold for money by the police department that seized the gun, in which, for whatever reason or whatever circumstances, that gun ends up in the hands of someone that thereby commits another crime, what more need be said.

The truth shall make you free

We read in Holy Scripture "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," (John 8: 32), so too, Pilate asked, "What is truth…?" (John 18: 38)  We should want to not only know the truth, but our highest good is to live to that truth, for anything that is less than truth, means that we are following a path that is either false wholly, or partially false, and anything that is false or any part of false, cannot ultimately be true.

We are told by the greatest philosophers to "know thyself," which basically means to know truth.  The very basis of everything that we deal with in our lives is built upon foundations that either are true at their core, or are untrue.  This means that all that is false, will not test true through the sands of time, and all that is true, will be true, forever, for if truth is not eternal, than all that purports to be that truth, must therefore, ultimately be false.

This signifies that the search for truth, should, in fact, be the primary search of mankind, for nothing can possibly be higher than knowing the truth.  How much time, and how much energy, mankind currently devotes to such a vital search, by research, by studying, by learning, and by contemplation, is actually rather pathetic, for far too many people accept that the way things are is the way things will always be, with progress coming here and there, and far too few expend the energy to actually pursue to its rightful conclusion, the truth of it all.

The fact that we do not pursue truth with the diligence that it so requires, is the very reason, that we look around and see so much of this planet, in abject conditions of economic poverty, hatred, strife, greed, injustice, war, troubles, and discord.  All of this is not so much the result of mankind asserting its will and its desire for freedom, but rather the misuse of man's intelligence in order to serve lesser gods, which provide temporal pleasures or powers, without taking into full consideration the ramifications of such a mindset.

This does so mean that false paths bring forth the spoiled rotten fruits of such a venture, whereas, true paths, bring forth the fruits of harmony, peace, love, joy, and kindness.   So that, the things that you are doing, the things that you are thinking about, the things that you are dwelling upon, and things that you create and interact with, will when all combined, tell the story, and ultimately those that bring forth more evil in any of its myriad forms onto this planet, clearly indicate that the path they are on, is by definition, false.  For false paths produce results that are in disharmony with truth.

On the other hand, those that seek true freedom, will not rest until they know the truth, and those that know the truth, will live up to that truth, for it is in the living, that bears out who and what we really are.  So that, truth discovered, but not lived by, is the calling card of those that know, but have fallen from such knowledge in order to aggrandize unto themselves, powers and principalities, of which, such knowledge, wrongly used, creates burdens and entrapments that cannot be escaped from, until such time, such wrong actions, have been corrected by the corresponding right ones.

While there is just One Truth, there are many tributaries and rivers that will lead to that One Mighty Ocean of truth, find it and follow it, through tides high and low, and all will be well.