The Opium Hypocrisy

The usage of the opium poppy for pain tolerance and its general euphoric effects has probably been around since the consciousness of mankind was first formed.  Even though, the opium poppy is still cultivated and used today legally through pharmaceutical companies that produce opiate drugs such as oxycodone or vicodin or hydrocodone or codeine as well as methadone or morphine or similar, the opium poppy and its derivatives are for the most part demonized by the United States Federal government as a Schedule II narcotic which is regulated by the government.  This means in a nutshell that the usage of opiates is managed and controlled by the US Government in conjunction with medical authorities so that any abuse of the above products is subject to penalties, civil fines, and/or criminal prosecution. As for heroin this is considered to be a schedule I narcotic and is illegal in any of its forms in the United States with significant penalties associated with its illicit usage.   

The hypocrisy of the United States can be essentially demonstrated by the fact that the opium poppy is fine to be utilized as an appropriate medicine if it has been prescribed to you by a medical authority, but if on the other hand, you should try to utilize the opium poppy yourself, without prescription, you are in essence, a criminal, even if there may be mitigating circumstances for your usage of opium.  The basic reason why this is hypocrisy is the sheer quantity of Americans that are prescribed opiates in the first place, as reported by abcnews.com in 2011: "The United States makes up only 4.6 percent of the world's population, but consumes 80 percent of its opioids."  What this really tells us, is that opioid prescriptions in America are undoubtedly overprescribed, abused, and are readily available to certain segments of the population for specious reasons, and ultimately profit for the pharmaceutical companies.  While it is certainly true that opioid prescriptions are necessary and of immense value to patients as a whole, the corollary is also true that deceitful patients do take advantage of their ability to receive access to the opioids whereas others on the outside are essentially heavily penalized for their apparent inability to "game" the system and thereby suffer the consequences of that failure.

It appears that when it comes to the opium poppy in the United States, that governmental authorities recognize the importance and strength that opioids provide to the population for pain control, pain relief, and general blissfulness, so consequently legal opioids are both heavily marketed as well as distributed in America through approved governmental sanctioned regulations.  Additionally, pharmaceutical companies recognize the great profit that they can make from the selling of these drugs, to which IMS Health estimated that:”In 2011, U.S. sales of prescription painkillers amounted to $9 billion."  All of this essentially means that while on the one hand, the United States spends a considerable amount of money attempting to eradicate, interdict, and to destroy the opium poppy in countries all around the world, on the other hand, it maintains its own opium poppy distribution chain in order to synthesize the chemicals necessary to create derivatives from the poppy that ultimately produces the painkilling prescription pills that its denizens consume at record levels. 

So it would appear that as long as our government, its agencies, and its multi-national pharmaceutical companies make their coin, and unauthorized countries and individuals do not, that we have paid proper homage to "the business of America is business."

Residential Streets

Different communities have different rules when it comes down to residential streets, all dependent on so many factors that there is a lack of uniformity.  That, however, doesn't mean that there shouldn’t be an ideal standard for residential streets now and into the future.  When it comes to residential streets, there are several factors that come into play, things such as the speed of the vehicles along with safety of the pedestrians, parking on the street or not, and sidewalks, to mention some of the largest issues.  Another very important factor, is the fact that land costs money, so from a development standpoint, if one can develop residential streets that are, for instance, 32 feet across, rather than 36 feet across, the developer of the residential community will be able to be more efficient in the usage of that land, and in all likelihood, be able to pass along to its consumers the cost savings, thereof, so that the width of streets most definitely has a cost factor involved.

When it comes to residential streets, at a minimum those streets must be able to allow traffic to flow in both directions, as one-way streets in residential sections is simply too restrictive and undesirable.  Additionally, there must be a discussion as to on-the-street parking, to wit, allowing cars to park on either side of the street is most desirable, since it favors neither side, and also depending on the location of the residence, it may be necessary to mandate parking permits in the neighbor so as to cut down on unsolicited visitors from using residential streets as their preferred free parking location, for work, for school, or whatever, as well as encouraging the residents themselves to park their vehicles in either their garage and/or driveway so as to leave the street essentially free to true residential visitors, only.

Additionally, with very few exceptions, there should be sidewalks within a neighborhood, because without sidewalks, those walking, running, walking their dogs or whatever, will be walking out into the street, and/or possibly trespassing on a neighbor's lawn.  In order to use space efficiently, though, only one side of the street needs to have a sidewalk, as one sidewalk should be sufficient to accommodate pedestrians.  Also, to cut down on the speed of vehicles for the protection of pedestrians, some neighborhoods like to use speed humps, which ideally should never be used on flat surfaces but only in cases in which the road is sloping downwards in order to slow down the vehicle as necessary. 

An ideal residential street would be one with one sidewalk, parking on both sides of the street, and wide enough that two cars can easily pass each other on the street when there are no vehicles parked on the street, but, however, when there is a car parked on the street, one car must yield the right of way to the other.  Today, with the cost of land so high, there isn't a need or justification for two sidewalks, nor for a street to be so wide so as to easily accommodate traffic flow in either direction, even with cars parked on either side of the street.  The fact of the matter is a narrower street will for the most part allow residents to be about their business without any noticeable downside, yet still providing all the desirable things that a good residential street should have, all with the understanding, that for the vast majority of the time, there won't be any undue inconvenience.  

Mandatory Retirement Age

In an era to which more and more people are working for government agencies, it is important to recognize that in some of those government jobs, mandatory retirement is a fact of life.  Not only will good and experienced individuals lose their employment, solely based on their numerical age, but the overall age for mandatory retirement, in an epoch to which people are living longer and longer quality lives, is ridiculously low.  For instance, state and federal police, firefighters, air traffic controllers, and airline pilots are all subject to mandatory retirement between the ages of 55-60, even though the continued life expectancy at that age is approximately another twenty-five additional years.

While it is true that the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) does not permit mandatory retirement of workers in the private field, except under very specific conditions, that does not mean that in function as well as in action, that these workers too aren't subject to discrimination and/or pressure to retire at an age earlier than they so desire.  The problem that older workers have when they are laid off, replaced, or encouraged into early retirement, is twofold; one is that they will normally continue to live for a considerable period of time and if they do not have the savings, and/or affordable healthcare, and/or enough social security or pension benefits, they will not have the necessary income to sustain their lifestyle; also the additional issue with older workers is despite all the laws on the books about the illegality of discrimination against elder workers, the fact of the matter is, most older workers after losing employment, will not be able to find a suitable or replacement job at or near their previous employment salary, despite their years of experience, reliability, and wealth of knowledge.

All people do not age at the same rate, nor do all people have the same maturity, work ethics, vision, health, wisdom and other attributes, so that to arbitrarily take a certain age, and to declare to that person, that they are no longer of worth to a particular company or agency is hypocrisy.  In general, there should not be a mandatory retirement age in any job or any sector, although it is reasonable to assume in some jobs that involve the maintaining of safety for others, that a periodic testing of the applicable skills of a given employee in order to sustain their current employment would be reasonable.  Additionally, just because an employee fails a test, should not terminate that employee, as there should be reasonable access available for another position within that governmental agency, that could still utilize that particular person's experience and skill but without negatively impacting the quality of the service provided by the overall government agency as a whole.

While it is true that most people want to reach a time or an age when they can walk away from their employment so as to enjoy their sunset years, most of those employees do not want to be compelled to do so before their time, especially considering that they have the experience, the knowhow, and the mindset to provide good and competent service to their agency on behalf of the people.

Guardian Angels

It doesn't matter what your religious belief or faith is, or whether you consciously have faith in a higher being or not, or where you were born, because in all circumstances for everyone, in every case, there are guardian angels that are there with us, to comfort us, to guide us, and to succor us.  This does not mean that guardian angels run our lives, our make our decisions, or rule the world, because God has gifted each one of us with free will and that therefore we are not automatons, so that our free will, our decisions, truly trumps all.  However, God, out of his great love for us, never abandons us alone to our own devices, instead he sends out to each of us guardian angels, that help to guide us and in truly exceptional cases directly come to our aid.

For many people, there is a suspension of disbelief that any unearthly power at any time could possibly influence or be a part of our lives, but that is simply because their vision is trapped within the deception that all there ever is -- is physical.  The best way to look upon our guardian angels is to equate them to a great teacher or to our loving parents.  The fact of the matter is our earthly parents cannot be with us 24/7, yet, they truly want us to be protected by them at all times, whereas our guardian angels have no distractions, and have no need for sleep or rest, so that they can monitor and aid us at any time of the day. 

Your conscious mind can drive away the voice of your guardian angels at any time, at any juncture, but often you will feel the tugging of conscience at yourself for having done so.  An even easier way to push aside your guardian angels is to enslave yourself to substance abuse, so as to drown out their voices, or to give in to temper tantrums, or to your ego, or to selfishness in such a manner as to ignore voices of reason and love.  Man, ever can walk away from light, even to his own destruction, as that is the nature of man's law.

Each of us has a purpose here on earth and our guardian angels are forever assisting us in trying to maintain and to achieve our objectives, as they wish for nothing more than to see us successful in our endeavors.  The best way to listen to your guardian angel is through calmness and the incumbent desire for their infinite wisdom, as their voices are never silent; we only have to truly open ourselves to hear their words and to act upon them.

There are too extraordinary situations where guardian angels will save you from physical damage or harm, often without you being consciously aware of it, as it actually happens, but only upon quiet reflection will their actions begin to be felt deep within your being.  A guardian angel can do nothing for he who would jump off a high cliff, with the mistaken belief that God will catch him; whereas, for someone through happenstance, should stumble by a high cliff in such a manner as to bring the possibility of great physical harm, may find themselves saved at the last moment by a branch that just happens to be in the right place at the right time.

Our guardian angels are ever with us, never judging us, and are reflections of God's unceasing and unyielding love for those that He created in His image.

Eyesight

Probably the most common handicap that people have is the need for eyeglasses so as to correct our vision so that our vision is clear.  It is estimated by the Vision Council of America, that approximately 75% of Americans need some sort of vision correction.  As you might well imagine, for those over 50 years old, that percentage increases appreciably, to somewhere around 90%.  While there are many theories put forth as to why so many of us need glasses, such as the vision stress of modern day technology, in which so often our eyes are glued to computer screens, or smart phones; as well as the nature of our work, which instead of being of the 'hunter-gatherer" type, we are alas too often stuck with jobs performed under artificial lights, and thereby the necessitating of the constant focus on objects that are near to us, as opposed to taking in the panorama of the outdoors world.  For whatever it is, the amount of people necessitating vision correction is staggering, and it is a blessing that we have so many options to help correct, maintain, or to improve our vision available to us.

While it is said that exercise is good for the physical body, we probably need to more carefully look into the proper care and maintenance of our eyes.  For instance, some optometrists recommend a simple routine of for every twenty minutes of up-close focus that you perform, that you should then take a twenty second break and focus on some distant object, so as to keep your eyes more limber in their focusing ability.  Additionally, it is important to practice consistent blinking so as to not dry out unnecessarily the moisture for your eyes and unduly strain them.

It is amazing, how much that we take our eyesight for granted, when if you think about it, the productivity and lifestyle of so many individuals would be damaged significantly without the aid and usage of corrective lenses.  The invention of aids to improve one's vision has apparently been around since at least the 13th century probably because those that suffered from poor vision recognized that they had a need to improve that vision in order to successfully function within society, and subsequently were able to discover that convex-shaped glass was able to improve one's eyesight.

In today's modern world, the lack of corrective lenses to improve your vision is extremely debilitating as so much of what is required from us on a given day, necessitates the ability to focus on objects close to us so as to manipulate them or to properly utilize them.   It is extremely fortunate that corrective lenses are available to us at such a low cost for what they provide to us in return, because an inability to focus and to see the world as it is, negates our powers of observation, and truly handicaps us.

As the truism goes, you truly don't appreciate something until you lose it, and those that use corrective lenses to correct their vision, certainly appreciate that aid, perhaps spending little time though, truly appreciating just how absolutely vital that it really is.

Dual Income Married CouplesToday vs. Two Generations Ago

According to TED: The Economics Daily, for married couples: "53 percent had earnings from both the wife and the husband in 2011, compared with 44 percent in 1967. Couples in which only the husband worked represented 19 percent of married-couple families in 2011, versus 36 percent in 1967."  This means that from a percentage basis that in 2011 there was an increase of just over 20% of married couples in which both partners were working than was previously seen in 1967. Additionally, in comparison of 1967 for married couples to 2011, the husband was the sole earner at nearly a 90% greater rate than 2011.  If we were to simply look at this information, and nothing else, our conclusion would be that because that there are more dual-income married couples today, that the material worth and/or the disposal income in constant US dollars of these couples must be better than their 1967 counterparts, but in actuality that isn't the case.

In point of fact, rather than looking at the increase of dual income married couples as being of great benefit for the couples themselves, from both a financial as well as a self-worth perspective, it is too often been, more often a perceived necessity for these couples that both adults work just to make ends meet.  What has occurred in the interim from 1967 to 2011, is several-fold, for instance, both the size as well as the price of housing has gone up considerably since the 1960s, so that the amount of money being needed to budget for a home for rental or purchase has increased markedly.  Additionally, two-income families have had to spend considerable more money on vehicles and their incumbent insurance, because usually both workers need to have their own car.  If, these couples also have children, they then need too to pay for childcare.  Also, because the income tax is graduated, the more that you make, the greater that percentage that has to be sacrificed for federal as well as state taxes; in addition to tax rates overall having gone up, this should also include the increases for both sales tax as well as property tax rates.  Furthermore, the access to easy credit, as in credit cards, is considerably higher than in 1967, signifying for a considerable portion of married couples, additional bills and interest payments that were pretty much unknown two generations ago.  Finally too, healthcare as well as college costs have soared from 1967, with often married couples, having to budget their funds to pay back their college loans that have reached staggering amounts exceeding the high five figures or more.

While there are many married couples that have no interest in returning to a time when the man was traditionally the one to be the breadwinner and the woman stayed at home, that option, in any variation, for many married couples, isn't even available any more.  Today's married couples need both incomes just to keep their heads above water, meaning that if either worker loses their job, that they are up against it; whereas years ago, with one adult held back in reserve, there was always available to that married couple, the opportunity to increase their wages seasonally, periodically, or in times of urgency.

Today's married couple's work harder than ever before, but too often their harvest is paltry.

America's Free Press

The 1st Amendment to our Constitution permits Americans to have both free speech as well as a free press.  This right is of critical importance because if the government or its agencies determines what is or is not printed, than the public is not being served with the information that they need in order to formulate valid decisions.  For instance, before our revolution, papers printing news that was damaging or critical to the government or its authorities were subject to the charge of seditious libel, which meant imprisonment or fines or both.  Samuel Adams stated in 1768 that: "There is nothing so fretting and vexatious, nothing so justly TERRIBLE to tyrants, and their tools and abettors, as a FREE PRESS."

At the time our 1st Amendment was enacted, modern devices such as the radio, television, the internet, smart phones, and the like, didn't exist, and along with the fact that the transportation and distribution of newspapers or pamphlets was for the most part, both difficult and expensive, this meant that  the news printed was typically local just within the community, and that therefore that news had to be both pertinent as well as accurate, because the readers of said paper would know the difference.  That may have been then, but that isn't necessarily true today.

Today, we proudly proclaim that our press and mass media are still free and protected by our 1st Amendment, while the distribution of news throughout America is, in fact, range bound by the two dominant political parties of America, as well as having to be in accordance for the most part with governmental and corporate desires.  While the NY Times proudly displays on its masthead:  "All the News that's fit to Print," this statement is an absolute absurdity.  The NY Times is known for its liberal bias and deliberately promotes this agenda in contradistinction to conservative viewpoints.  

In fact, whether you get your news from a major television network or newsprint or a magazine, in all and each of these areas, there will be for a certainty a deliberate bias in favor of providing and confirming the political viewpoint desired by that particular media outlet.  The business of the press at this point, is not at all to provide all the news that is fit to print, but to provide just the news that fits within the mindset of that outlet.

The information that we receive from the press today, is filtered and given to us in such a way, as to be most pleasing to the corporate ownership of the news organization, which needs to satisfy its advertisers in order to receive that much needed monetary boost from them, as well as the power brokers of its ownership, which must do its best to enhance its stock price, and ultimately sees the public that is buying into its wares, as mindless consumers, who must be and are easily manipulated.

For those that are truly desiring of a free press, unfortunately, you will not find that in any of the mass media outlets of today, who exist primarily for the purposes of selling you propaganda, but instead you must seek it through alternate sources, such as individuals that you respect, bloggers, some books, radio, and other print media, as well as a personal willful determination to both question authority and to dig beneath the surface.

Abandonment and Divorce in America

In pre-Civil war times, marriage was often seen as an institution that was subject to the invocation of Mark 10:9, to wit: "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder," and consequently divorces were not given for frivolous reasons nor were they easy to obtain by government or religious authority.  This means that marriages of earlier generations were quite often until "till death do us part," unlike today's "no-fault" divorces and the more relaxed mores of modern society.  However, while it may be an absolute certainty that divorces have increased substantially in America since those times, there were ways to effectively divorce in the 1800s which did not involve the trouble of necessitating official documents to reflect this fact. 

For instance, in the 1800s it was far more common, even the norm, to essentially live within the bounds of your local community for your entire life, so that those that traveled far enough away from their birthplace, and that might only be 100 miles or even less, could begin their life anew in a different community, and under different circumstances than their previous livelihood.  This means, that for some husbands, trapped in an unhappy marriage, or simply not wishing to remain in an undesirable situation, that the abandonment of one's wife and his attendant family responsibilities, was an option that some men took advantage of, which, in effect, accomplished the same purpose as a divorce but without any of the backlash of religious or societal condemnation.

So that when studying the statistics of divorce from generations ago and comparing them to the divorce rates of today, one must understand that there was a significantly higher degree of what was in essence the equivalent of divorce by abandonment, along with in all probability, a much higher incident of bigamy, to which one party would typically not be completely aware of undisclosed peculiar circumstances.  Consider that Andrew Jackson, our seventh President of the United States, unbeknownst to himself "married" Rachel Donelson in 1791, only to discover rather inconveniently that his wife had not been legally divorced from her husband who had separated from his wife, previously, whereupon ultimately a legal divorce was finalized under the grounds of adultery, and they were legally married in 1794.

Another important fact to remember, is that the law in regards to divorce, was much more amendable to those that had the money, connections, and the time to effect changes as they might desire back in the 1800s, as compared to most people of that day that were consume with their work and family duties, so as to not have any excess monies available to pursue a divorce, even under reasonable grounds such as adultery or desertion or similar. 

The no-fault divorce laws of today, makes it fairly straightforward to get a divorce from your spouse, if that is your desire, even if your spouse is adamantly opposed to it; whereas in earlier times, a divorce for the common man was often not easily achievable, and had its incumbent society ill-after taste, so that often times, it would be much more conducive to simply abandon your spousal duties and move on to another town so as to begin anew, which essentially served the purpose that you had aspire to have done in the first place, for better or for worse.

Why Trading is So Vital

The typical way that most people in America are compensated for work is by the payment of cash or cash equivalent.  While there are people that will claim that they never trade at all, in fact, trading is part and parcel of our everyday life, for example, we trade the money that we make to purchase goods and services.  Although most people look upon this as not being a trade, it is a very basic form of trading, where we are exchanging one thing that represents value for another thing that we need or desire.   Trading is a very vital part of American life, because the efficiencies and logistics of America, allows certain industries and locations to effectively produce goods at prices that are substantially below what some other part of the country could provide, if they were even able to provide the good or service at all.  The overall arching reason why goods are so affordable in America is the fact that "the invisible hand" of capitalism makes it so.

Nowadays, of course, the world has become a much smaller place, so that international dealing and trading is vital for any country of real worth.  For instance, a lot of the economic growth that has been achieved by Southeastern Asian countries is fundamentally because they are exporting their goods to rich countries such as America.  Americans are the beneficiaries of this trade because they receive goods at a cheaper price than they could be produced domestically and the foreign countries benefit because they are able to keep both their countrymen employed as well as the being the recipients of additional monies into their country.

In an ideal world, the best trading is done from strength to strength, that is to say, if the particular climate and technological knowhow as well as the labor forces are favorable to produce agricultural products within a particular geographic center of the world that is probably the right thing to do.  At the same time, if another area of the world has large mineral wealth, than that part of the country would best lend itself to maximizing the worth of those natural resources.  So that, if can be said, that it is typically of more economic value to specialize and to work upon the things that you are best suited for, as compared to trying to be all things to all men.

However, we don't actually live in an ideal world, and natural resources, brain resources, monetary resources, weather and geographical locations, have not all been equally provided to all countries in equal amounts.  That is why some trades are inherently unfair, such as the trading of precious metals for trinkets, and other nonsense from generations ago.  Yet, the nature of man doesn't change, so those that have knowledge and foresight typically have the upper hand over those that have neither of these, and consequently those that get the short-hand of the trading deal, suffer for it.

The way that trading should work, is that both parties should clearly benefit from the trade, that is what makes trading so vital and so good for the common welfare.   A good trader has an obligation both to be fair as well as to be honorable to the other party, anything less than that degenerates into a "hustle", which isn’t right or just.

The Importance of Regular School Attendance

It's fair to say that those who are of compulsory school age and do not attend school on a regular and consistent basis are on the path that will take them away from good employment prospects and opportunities, leaving them instead with few real good choices and a life derailed.  Each child in a country as rich as America is entitled to a good education and this education should provide to that future adult the ability to read, to write, to understand right from wrong, and to process basic mathematics, so that their education on a fundamental level permits them to be able to function at a literate baseline level in society.  It almost goes without saying, that if you don't bother to show up to school, and/or don't attend your classes in school, as well as taking the demands of school seriously, than you will not do well scholastically at school.

While there are plenty of laws and rules that demonstrate how the State is omnipotent and can make students as well as their parental authorities made to suffer for their lack of diligence to school attendance, that type of "tough love" isn't necessarily productive.  There are already way too many people that are well aware that getting onto the wrong side of governmental power is not the place that you want to be, and this does more to build up resentment as compared to corrective behavior. While there will be intransigent students and it is good to identify them early so as to possibly rectify that behavior, punishment is seldom going to be the route that will be most effective for all involved. 

As the saying goes, "a stitch in time saves nine," and with the powerful ability for governmental agencies to process and compute information, school agencies should avail themselves more often of these very tools.  That is to say, every student should be tracked to their attendance, and every absence should be duly noted and followed up within the shortest possible period of time.   So that, if a student is absent that day, parental authorities should be contacted that very same day notifying them of that absence, in conjunction with this the school system should provide absentee students with some sort of student aid mentor to help to keep them "on point" in regards to their attendance.  In addition, it's too easy for school systems to just accept any excuse as to an absence; every excuse should be scrutinized and correlated against that student.  The school system should make it vividly clear that while they understand those children that are medically sick, should be excused from school, not every student that misses school, will be found to be truly medically sick.

Over and above all things, schools should try to get to know their students, so that rather than just seeing students as one, big anonymous blob, they are instead dialed into students specific habits and proclivities.  Although schoolwork is demanding, most students, at least, initially, are willing to step up to that demand, if given the right toolset to deal with it.  The bottom line is that most students that miss school do not fill that vacuum with anything of real value, but rather fill that absence with frivolity or worse.  The schools should make it their point, to do their best to not leave anyone behind, and at a minimum provide these young charges with at least the basics to deal with the reality of a world that is far more cutthroat and foreboding.

The Anti-Smoking Joy Killing Crusade

Those that are adamant non-smokers often believe wrongly that the mere hint of tobacco smoke will kill them, or injure them in some way, and consequently this thought process gives them the moral high ground to eliminate smoking and any visages of smoking from the community at large.  The fact of the matter is that most smokers are polite; they don't deliberately blow smoke in your face, they don't deliberately go out of their way to annoy you by smoking, and most smokers are content to just be in a place where they can enjoy their cigarette break without any undue hassle, and/or to be in a place to which cigarette smoking is permitted as a matter of course.  The fact of the matter is, most smokers are respectful and simply want to enjoy their cigarette, but the unjustified crusade against them never seems to stop.

The problem with the anti-smoking crusade is that not only do these crusaders refuse to share the road with smokers; their belief is that the road of life should not contain any smokers at all.  Somehow, over time fanatical non-smokers have aggrandized to themselves the right to believe that they should make your personal decisions for you, and smoking is just one of those rights that they should decide for you.  The bottom line is people would not smoke if they did not derive some sort of pleasure or comfort or stress relief or similar from smoking, and the decision to smoke or not to smoke should be left up to the individual and not to State agencies, killjoys, or annoying do-gooders.

Life is full of all types of people, to wit, some will give you their piece of mind without any prompting whatsoever, and some will take it further and insist that they have to control your life, without ever having the common decency to understand who and what you are and not really caring about that as long as you obey them.  It is a fact, that we are individuals, and further that some individuals gravitate to certain things that might offend or bother other people, but that is their prerogative, that is their choice, and that is their lifestyle. 

Certain people complain all day about smokers and how nasty and dirty that they are, but there are endless things to complain about.  For instance, perhaps one doesn't like the smell of certain foods, or of your breath, or you have too much hair or not enough, or too much perfume, or you just smell bad, or you'rebow-legged, or your clothes don't fit right, or your accent is annoying, or your opinions are just plain wrong, and so on.  Our civilization is based on the fact that each of us has the right to be ourselves and to live the life that we want to live, and unless somehow we are breaking a meaningful law, to just be.

The anti-smoking crusaders are really just a cover for busybodies that aren't satisfied with giving unsolicited advice and warnings, but want the arm of the law, to strike smokers down, all because they believe they know best and just want smokers to shut up or to crawl into a dark hole and die.  The anti-smoking crusaders are control freaks, misguided, bigoted, prejudiced, destructive, and intolerant of the freedom of choice.

Sunday Blue Laws

Since colonial times, "blue laws" were part and parcel for a significant portion of our founding communities and towns in America.  For the most part, the purpose of these laws was to encourage the people to recognize that the Lord's Day was a special day of thanksgiving, to which, the community spokesman believed  that the Sabbath should best be spent in a worshipful attitude and demeanor, and subsequently activities that were counter to this mindset were frown upon or punished.  Today, there are still States as well as communities that do have "blue laws" on the books that are applicable to the population as a whole, irrespective of their religious persuasion or lack thereof.

While it use to be, that blue laws monitored or restricted traveling, sports activities, work, blasphemy, public displays of affection, and other assorted behaviors, nowadays, for the most part, blue laws restrict the purchase but not the consumption of alcohol, as well as the mandatory closing of certain stores on the Sabbath day, although some stores are voluntarily closed as a matter of their own policy in regards to the Sabbath.

The purpose of blue laws back when they were created and the purpose of blue laws today, are pretty much the same, which is to set aside one day of the week for worshipful prayer, church attendance, contemplation, quietude, or similar, and for that day not to be a day spent in lasciviousness or drunken activities.  That is to say, that six days of the week were set aside for mankind to accomplish and perform the activities that he so desired or were necessitated, but our Lord, asked only that we set aside one day to remember and to honor Him.

Incredibly, even the Christ was castigated for healing on the Sabbath day, but He ultimately responded with these profound words, "... The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath…"  This does not mean, that the Christ would have been against blue laws, or that He didn't appreciate the necessity and need to have periods of quiet contemplation and solitude, as Christ himself, understood that He needed to set aside specific time and places to pray.  What our Messiah was saying, in regards to the Sabbath, is that we shouldn't let the letter of the law rule over us, but only the Spirit of it, for the Sabbath or the spirit of the Sabbath was created for the benefit of mankind, and not because God mandated our blind obeisance to it.

The fact that blue laws are still in effect in some communities and even States in America, is a reminder to all, that we are not here on our own, that above us, is a loving God who wishes at all times to remind us that we are not just of the material, but that we are indeed Spirit, and made in His image.  Mankind too often speaks of his right to freedom, but seldom of his attendant obligations to his fellow man as well as to his Creator.  Blue laws should be seen as a touchstone to remind mankind that he is not here alone, and that no matter his place or particular position, God welcomes him at any hour, at any time, and appreciates when he renders sincere honor to Him.

Internet Service Provider (ISP) Spying

There are few people that would welcome someone spying on them 24/7, monitoring all their conversations, all their movements, and all their activities, as doing so would not only be a broad breach of someone's right to privacy, but also the activity of a de facto police state apparatus in action.  Yet today, it has never been easier to track someone and their proclivities, even in their own home, which certainly appears to be a direct violation of our 4th Amendment rights to be protected against "…unreasonable searches…"  Yet, in a nutshell, when we connect to the internet through our Internet Service Provider, we are, through our IP address which uniquely identifies our account with the ISP, are being tracked as to the websites that we visit and this information is kept on the ISP server logs, long after you have forgotten what websites that you visited on a given day.

There isn't any doubt that if you know the web addresses a given person visits day after day, that this information in conjunction with other "public" data about you will allow the recipient of those details to be able to construct a very accurate representation of your characteristics and your habits, and thereby to know you in a way that in the wrong hands could easily compromise or embarrass you.  Of course, your ISP will be quick to point out to you that as a condition of you using their service, you have agreed to certain Terms and Conditions, but those Terms and Conditions do not mean, that they are right, that they are legal under all circumstances, and further that the divulging of this information to government or other agencies, is some sort of nebulous benefit to our country that somehow trumps your individual constitutional rights.

Media companies have become quite annoyed at the reduction of their revenue through the illegal downloading of their copyright materials, and have taken steps to track back IP addresses that have been seen to infringe upon their property through peer-to-peer network sharing, so that they have taken upon themselves to provide this infringement information to the ISP provider, whereupon that ISP provider then sends an email "alleging a copyright violation", to the IP address on file.  This given policy seems fundamentally flawed, that is to say, if the media company knows for a certainty that a particular peer-to-peer networking connection contains their copyrighted material, they then should either seek an injunction against this activity or interdict the connection or something of a similar nature.  Instead, after the fact, they accuse the IP address holder of having copyrighted material solely based on alleged internet activity without actual verification that this is indeed true.

The bottom line, in fit and function, is that your ISP is either directly monitoring your internet activity, and/or implicitly has the power to do so, and/or implicitly gives itself the power to forward such information to government or other authorities, all as a "condition" of you, utilizing the ISP.  It would be one thing, if the ISP provided you internet connectivity free of charge, and as a condition of doing so, you voluntarily gave up your privacy rights, something akin to the usage of Facebook, but in point of fact, you are paying them good money for a service, and they are in essence, spying upon you, and, in some cases, placing you in a position, that your monitored activities will theoretically incriminate you.

How good is A Treaty?

Treaties have been a part of American life since its founding, to which the American government, for example, has signed treaties with its own native Indian tribes as well as signing treaties between sovereign nations, for all sorts of different things and with all sorts of conditions.  Unfortunately, despite a treaty being willingly signed by all signatories, it is amazing how often that the treaty itself ends up not being worth the paper that it is written upon.  The main problem with any treaty is that if a dispute within that treaty isn't mediated by a truly neutral party with the power to make and enforce a binding agreement onto all parties, than treaties will be subject to the possible abuse of degenerating into a case in which, the side that has the power, wins the dispute, and effectively nullifies the treaty and its original purpose.

A case in point is the treatment of the United States government against native Indian tribes in America, where in case after case, treaty conditions were ignored or nullified by our government, all in the overriding purpose of manifest destiny, greed, or convenience.  It isn't fair nor is it a credit to America's greatness, if treaties or agreements are ignored, simply for expediency, so that the law of land is always overridden, when it is in the perceived best interests of the State to do so.

If the United States of America will not honor or live up to its obligations in regards to legally binding agreements or treaties, how is it possible to expect honor and respect from its own citizens.  Unfortunately, too often in our treaties the United States has played a game of "might is right", so that this represents a total negation of what this country is suppose to stand for, which is equal justice equally applied to all.

America has a tendency to look around this great nation, and to essentially state: "look what we have accomplished by bending or breaking the rules, so that the end truly justifies the means," but that isn't the hollow ground that America was founded upon.  Sadly, this appears to be the biased theorem that America rests upon, which if played out on a global basis, essentially means that agreements, treaties, and understandings between two or more parties are at best, guidelines to be considered, and at worse, to be actively subverted.

The whole point of a treaty or an agreement is for all parties to abide by it in principle and in its effects.  If that isn't the case, than there isn't any real good reason to go through that exercise in the first place.  The point of rule of law, is not that it only applies when you want it to apply, but that it applies equally at all times, whether you like it to or not. 

A treaty is only as good as the honor and the respect of the signatories to it.  Those, without honor, will deceive those of good faith which is a significant reason why we continue to live in a world, of strife, war, and injustice.  The first step towards justice is the recognition that we are all in this, together, and the sooner that we recognize this, the sooner that we will find lasting peace.

Financial Legerdemain

Most people consider business to be fairly straightforward, that is to say, if the cost of your product is $6 and you sell that product for $10, you have made a profit of $4.  Of course, they have failed to take into account such things as rent, labor, equipment, overhead, and so on.  In any event when a business successfully turns a profit we believe that we have seen the best of capitalism, with the invisible hand of the marketplace benefiting all parties involved.  However, there is one fundamental component of business that is sometimes loss in all that activity, which is the medium of money, itself, which is virtually the only constant between one business type to another, and from one entity to another.

The fundamental thing about money is that you and I are not allowed to issue our own currency, and that the currency which we utilize on a daily basis isn't even government issued currency in the first place.  If we take a careful look at our actual money, the dollar bill, states that it is a "Federal Reserve Note", and while that might imply that must be government issued money, since federal and government seem to go together, the fact of the matter is the Federal Reserve is actually a private consortium of banks that lends money to the American government.

As you might imagine, the issuer of our currency, has massive advantages over those that have to utilize the currency in order to conduct their day-to-day business.  For instance, the stability of the value of money is not constant, so that those that are more aware of possible inflation or possible deflation, of interest rate increases or decreases, will be ever able to take advantage of this inside knowledge to their aggrandizement.  Further to this, our banking system is able to take advantage of rules made for their benefit, for instance, the banks are allowed to leverage their deposits on file, so as to create loans and to circulate money, so that if there are $100 million in deposits at said bank, they have the ability and the power, subject to certain conditions, to loan or to invest 20x that amount, making it fairly straightforward for banking agencies to mint themselves a very nice profit.

Americans are fortunate too, because the dollar represents the reserve currency to the world, that is to say, because of our size and wealth, the dollar is the de facto standard for financial transactions throughout the world.  This means, that most financial transactions are conducted in dollars, or subject to dollar conversion, or loaned in dollars, and ultimately measured in dollars, to which these banks can benefit and make money by the charging of various fees, conveniences, and services for providing this liquidity to foreign banks.

All of the foregoing essentially means, that banks, despite their protestations to the opposite, in essence make their money off of the labor of other people and companies, by on the one hand being that medium of exchange and subjecting those that must utilize money to conduct business a fee(s), and at the same time "gaming" the system, so that they can maximize their profits at the general expense of the public.  Unfortunately, making matters ever worse for the general public, when certain member banks have a very bad day at the office, they are considered to be "too big to fail" which translated means that the public is stuck paying for the banks ill-advised gambles that have failed.

Be Still and Listen to God

We are taught to lead an active live, to be about something and to work hard and to accomplish things but while this has its place, there is also a time that must be set aside to simply be still and through that stillness to allow the voice of God to be heard.  From Psalm 46:10 we read: "Be still, and know that I am God…" which can only come about by being calm, by being receptive to God's word, and by being willing to listen.  In the cacophony of modern life, we may seldom be still, or seldom to have the opportunity to be still, but just as we need time to refresh ourselves for the day's activities, as well as having time to give thanks and prayer to our Lord, there must also be a time specifically set aside where we tune out the sounds and activities of life, and quietly and serenely calm our mind so as to receive the wisdom of God's voice.  It is like this, if we do all the talking, if do all the thinking, if we have little or no patience, than how is it possible for God to speak to us, if we are never in the position to just serenely listen to His wisdom.

Each one of us, rich or poor, of any religion, of any race, of any political persuasion, can avail themselves of God, and His infinite grace, if we only desire to do so.  Of course, in America, we are a nation that demands results, immediately, but while that may be the way of mankind, it is not God's way.  God's heart is always open to us, but our Lord wants to know that we are sincere in our affection for Him.  If we do all the talking, if we do all the preaching, if we do all the demanding, God will patiently listen to us, until we are finished, but too often our minds and hearts are not prepared to be receptive to hearing in return the voice of God, because of all the confusion and static that we have created on our end.

Anything of truly great merit is worth spending the time and effort to gain it, which often necessitates dedication, consistency, learning, and the correct processing of information.  To listen to the voice of God, sounds very simple, but it requires an obligation of the devotee to sit quietly at the seat of God, without the ego demanding anything of God.  God knows your needs before you do, God knows you better than you do, and if you are truly receptive to His ineffable wisdom, you will receive from Him what you have asked for in your heart.

Mankind is caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, believing that all he is doing is not only necessary, but right.  Yet, deep within most everybody, is a certain dissatisfaction, that all somehow is not right, that there is something especially vital that is yet missing.  What is missing is that voice of God, it's there, it's always there, it will never leave you, you have only to be still, to be quiet, to be receptive, and then want, want without ceasing, for the peace that surpasses all understanding to enrapture you, and take you to that faraway place, which restores your immortal soul.

Bait Car-- Law Enforcement Hypocrisy

I recently watched a couple episodes of "Bait Car" a TV program in which the police "bait" a nice looking car by placing it in an area of the community in which it is claimed that there has been a high incident of car thievery, by leaving the keys in the car, the door open to the car, and it appeared to me, the engine running.  Inside the car are cameras to record both audio and video, and nearby to the bait car, are a few cop cars, to track the car if it should be "stolen", an offsite audio/video command center to monitor all the action, and a helicopter up in the air, to track the car.  Within this TV program, there are several fundamental problems, which I will address in the following paragraphs.

First off, the entire concept of catching criminals by setting up a bait car is a total sickness displayed by the police authorities.  The reason it is sick, the reason it is wrong, is that the car is placed purposely only in minority neighborhoods, deliberately to induce the lowest lying fruit of the neighborhood, who are impoverished for lack of opportunity, to take an impulsive action, which they will invariably do.  The fact that the car is ultimately "stolen" shouldn't surprise anyone, since the police have done everything within their power to say, "come get this nice looking car," and the police really honey the pot by leaving both the car door open and the engine running to encourage those in the neighborhood, to investigate the situation which may initially be from a perspective of concern, especially if the car is parked at a weird angle or in an unauthorized parking spot.

Additionally, while the police authorities charge those that take the vehicles with car theft, at worse, they are taking out the vehicle for a "joy ride", as at no point are they ever in position to actually steal the car, as it would be one thing, if the car was simply left alone, abandoned, and it's an entirely different thing for the police to be able to control this "stolen" car in such a manner that they can disable the engine as well as lock the doors from the inside so that the driver cannot even exit it.  Also, in the real world, anyone that abandons their vehicle, along with leaving their engine both running and their car door open, is culpable themselves in any criminal activity that occurs, since they have not performed normal and prudent actions to protect their property, especially in an area that is suppose to have a high incident of car thievery.  In addition, none of the bait cars taken have been broken into by force, or jerry-rigged to get the car started, or anything that would normally occur if someone was a real car thief, and stealing a vehicle.

Furthermore, the cost of this "sting" operation in regards to the expenditure of monies on police personnel and their equipment is absolutely a total waste of the community's money.  The police have not in actuality caught any criminals, they have at best, manufactured people that are impoverished and impulsive as criminals, but without the baited car, there would not have been a crime, so the police have not done anything positive for the community except to harass and to in essence, demonstrate that some people are susceptible to temptation.

In fairness to the community at large, for every "bait car" episode, there should be a "bait cop" episode, in which real undercover federal agents play the role of being neighborhood drug dealers, to which, when they see a real police car rolling up on them, they scatter to the wind, accidently dropping money, drugs, and other paraphernalia, all properly baited for tracking purposes, and all being recorded via drones up in the air.

Aircraft Carrier Landings

There are plenty of people that have a fear of flying, but heck, that is flying on normal, commercial aircraft which is statistically seen as the safest mode of traveling for passengers, so the fear that certain passengers have is basically unfounded.   On the other hand, you have military aircraft that must take off and land onto aircraft carriers, and in a time of war, also take care of delivering their military payload onto the intended target(s), or whatever assignment that has been given to that particular aircraft pilot.  The sheer audacity of aircraft landing onto a moving aircraft carrier that is situated on an unstable and moving surface, which is an ocean, on a runway which is both short and unforgiving is absolutely staggering, yet it is done, time and time again, successfully.

Even the taking off on an aircraft carrier is an exercise in precision, as an airplane needs appropriate velocity in order to take off successfully, unlike commercial airports, the runway on an aircraft carrier is not long enough, so there are two basic things that are needed to aid an aircraft in taking off; the first is the speed of the carrier itself, which helps to generate necessary wind speed, and along with a special catapult utilized depending upon the carrier, and with an airplane track to both help guide and to assist the plane into reaching the velocity needed for takeoff, the actual takeoff is accomplished. 

After the mission is accomplished the aircraft must land back onto the aircraft carrier.  The first step towards a successful landing is lots and lots of simulated landings, the second step is lots and lots of practice landing on a special auxiliary landing field over and over again, and the final step is the actual landing onto a real aircraft carrier.  As you might imagine, despite all the practice, despite all the technological equipment, despite all the instruction, the actual landing is intricate, involving not only the pilot, the aircraft, the aircraft carrier, aircraft equipment, but also specific personnel on the aircraft carrier that work in conjunction with the pilot to assure that the landing is successful, to which you as a pilot have to not only slow your aircraft down to a sustainable speed that will not stall your plane out, but also to a speed that will allow you to successfully time your landing of your craft onto a moving aircraft carrier. 

Because the world is about 70% water based, an aircraft carrier is of invaluable assistance because of its ability to get to just about any area of the world, and thereby allowing the aircraft onboard to deliver their payloads or accomplish other tactical missions, especially in places to which there are no nearby land or naval airbases.   The mobility of our aircraft carriers as well as the aircraft that they contain, allows the United States, to provide a meaningful presence in virtually any corner of this globe, as having preeminent control of both land and sea is a key component towards providing security through strength.

The Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem

The second great Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was originally commissioned in the 6th century BC, and was used as a place of worship for those of the Jewish faith for those many years, but it was not until the time of Herod, around 20 BC, that the temple was expanded greatly and became truly not only a site of great religious significance but also a true wonder of the world.  The sheer size of the temple was massive, it has been said that the temple had thirteen gates, probably signifying the twelve tribes of Israel, plus God.  The temple was used for both morning as well as evening offerings, as well as for all Jewish holy days.  We find that according to biblereasearch.com, Herod the Great commenced the rebuilding of the second Jewish temple to which: "…it took 46 years to complete the main building and another 36 years to finish the entire Temple complex."  The temple's creation was attested to also by the great ancient historian Josephus who wrote that: "The outward face of the temple was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and at the first rising of the sun reflected back a very fiery splendor."   Further, according to jewishvirtuallibrary.org the "…structure was built of stones weighing up to 400 tons and capable of accommodating up to one million people."  Even if we were to admit that these above passages probably suffered from hyperbole there is a compelling amount of historical evidence and religious testimony that the Second Jewish Temple definitely existed and that the edifice was both massive, of great religious significance, and quite impressive.

Today, there is some controversy about even the exact location of the Jewish Temple, to which, for a structure of such size and grandeur, you would think that this would not be an issue, but in 70 AD, the Romans laid a siege upon the Jews in Jerusalem and the temple was ravaged through battering rams, through fire, and destroyed, following through on the prophecy of the Christ who said: "… Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (Mark 13: 2). Therefore, it follows that the archeological unearthing of the Second Jewish Temple would be of immense importance not only historically but in particular to those of the Jewish faith, as well as Christians and to Muslims, yet, that probably won't occur anytime soon as the Temple mount site suffers from the controversies and sensitivities of these religious faiths, and at the present time, the Temple Mount is maintained by the Muslim religious faith.

We live in a time to which archeology has advanced to such an extent as to be able to re-discover places and things that we have previously learned of only from historical documents and through religious artifacts, however we now have the capability and the skill to be able to re-create what transpired before in such a manner as to better appreciate and to better understand ancient civilizations and their historical times.  The Second Jewish Temple existed in the time of Christ, it contained too the Holy of Holies, making the Second Jewish Temple one of the most sacred sites in the world as well as being in its time a structure that was unparalleled, it certainly deserves to beunearthed for the glory of mankind.

The Disadvantages of Paperless Billing

In today's world when it comes to billing that you receive from your credit card company, or your mortgage company, or your utility company, or your cell phone company, in almost every instance, these companies want you to either change over to paperless billing, or will default you over to paperless billing, or will do whatever they can to convince you that paperless billing is in your best interests.  While, on the surface, this may seem like a good thing, especially if you really don't desire or need paper statements, there are downsides to paperless billing such as:

                1. You may not received their email in your inbox because it goes to spam instead

                2. You may have too many messages already in your inbox so you ignore or miss your billing    statement

                3. You may not bother looking at the actual bill but simply pay the bill sight unseen, without verifying its accuracy

                4. Additional usernames and passwords need to be created and to be remembered

For instance, most people have a main email address which is typically inundated with plenty of email messages to which for issues of expediency, if the subject matter or sender doesn't initially pique your interest you will delete the message, sight unseen.  Additionally, for whatever reason, with today's spam filters, that in general do a good job, your billing message from your credit card company might be routed into your junk mail and you will simply never see it and thereby suffer the consequences for having failed to pay your bill in a timely manner.

Another very bad potential problem with paperless billing is the human tendency to when it comes to bills, just reluctantly pay it without ever investigating it, just simply because it falls under the category of "out of sight, out of mind," so that you wrongly believe that the bill from said company must always be right and accurate but that isn't always the case.  For example, if you use your credit card often enough, somewhere along the line you will have a billing dispute to which the amount isn't correct, or the company billing you isn't correct in doing so because you canceled that trial service, or you may have interest, late charges, or penalties attached to your bill without you being conscious of it.  When it comes to utility bills, by just assuming that you can't fight a utility and blindly paying it, you may not realize that you are possibly paying a bill that has been "rounded up" so as to provide some extra money to some worthy cause, but not necessarily a cause that interests you, or much worse, you may find yourself having been defaulted into a variable rate plan, as opposed to a fixed plan, to which you are paying much more in natural gas costs than you imagined that you were, simply because you never bothered to check into it.

The fact of the matter is, for the main part, the reasons that all these billing companies are interested in switching you over to paperless billing is not really for your convenience, and not really to save a few trees, although that may well happen, but primarily to save themselves money, thereby helping their bottom line so that they are the true beneficiaries of this change, not really you.  So, do yourself a favor, and verify that paperless billing is really in your best interests, because ultimately it is your decision to make.