The Disgrace of the Confederate Battle Flag still flying

If there is one thing that you can say with a certainty in America, is that most Americans, do not much care about history, and consequently don't really know much about their own history.  That is a shame, because history has lessons that always can be applied to the present day.  When you ask people what symbol best sums up Nazism, most people would quickly respond with the swastika, although a few might respond by suggesting the "Heil Hitler" salute which is also apt, as both are powerful symbols, that are well understood to represent State control and State power with the attendant demand of absolute obedience to such. In regards to the confederacy, the symbol, that rivets one's attention most is the Battle Flag of the Northern Army of Virginia, later incorporated into the second national flag of the Confederate States of America.  This Confederate Battle Flag features a red background, a blue X in the middle of the flag, and 13 white 5-pointed stars running at a diagonal within the blue X.  The symbol is powerful, and while some in the South may see the Confederate Battle Flag as something that represents southern pride, southern heritage, southern rebellion, southern identity, southern hospitality, or perhaps even "stick to the man" type mentality, it also represents whether it is considered blatant or coded, southern racism.

Of all the many symbols of the confederacy, it is the Battle Flag, that is by far the most powerful and most recognizable as well as the most divisive of all the Confederate symbols.  Now I do believe that the Confederate Battle Flag has a place for those that wish to display it on their own private property and on their possessions and should be allowed to be sold on goods, if there is a market for such.  The line in the sand is crossed, however, when any State or Federal government institution incorporates the Battle Flag as part of their correspondence, or their website, or contained within their flag of their State, or their media, and so forth.   The civil war ended over 150 years ago, the South was vanquished, and the Battle Flag represents for far too many people a battle cry for a return to an era that passed away long ago.

War is a horribly cruel thing, and our civil war, was one of those things, of which many good men and women paid the final price with their blood, sweat, toil and tears.  Abraham Lincoln was a very wise and gracious President, who only asked that the South upon their defeat take an oath of allegiance to the United States of America, in which upon doing so this would incorporate the legality as well as being an acknowledgment by the South that the emancipation of those human beings once enslaved was now the law of the land forevermore.  It was Lincoln's belief that by doing so this would be the means that the citizens of this country could produce a just and lasting peace as well as ultimately becoming truly united as a nation.

The Confederate Battle Flag therefore represents defiance to hallowed ground and has no place as part of this nation's fabric.

Interrogation and the art of Negotiation

The most effective way to get information from someone that is being interrogated is not going to be through sheer might, although exerting intense psychological and physical pressure against someone is very likely to get some sort of response, but not necessarily 100% actionable information.  In addition, in all fairness, whatever coercive techniques are used to extract intelligence, means, that if the shoe was on the other foot, they would have a somewhat justified case to utilize the very same techniques upon you.  In actuality, the very best way to look upon interrogation is as a process in which we avoid the temptation to use "by any means necessary" and instead take advantage of our skill-sets, knowledge, and superior ability to correlate and to analyze information obtained.

Anytime that a conversation is taking place between individuals, there is a produced a slew of information, such as the actual verbal intercourse, body language, tone, and everything in-between.  Therefore, the department that takes copious notes, video records, watches, analyzes, adjusts to information derived or obtained, and at the same time is able to build a rapport with the person being interrogated is on a pathway to developing a successful negotiation.  The one big difference between truth and lying is that truth at its very core has but one story, and that story does not change; whereas lying builds upon a false foundation, that can easily collapse upon itself, so asking questions and then correlating and connecting the answers to those questions has an immense validity.  Another important thing is that the more a person talks, the more information that they will give up, inadvertently or not, so it is important to get a conversation going, and that conversation can begin with very banal things, that shouldn't be seen as threatening at all to one that is being interrogated.

Also, too, the more civil and respectful that you are to the person that is being interrogated, the better the chances are that after a period of consideration, a conversation can be induced.  While fear and pain, can often quickly get results, the problem with those results, besides the moral and legal issues, is that you may only get the tip of the iceberg, or you may get a mixture of real information along with misinformation that appears valid, as well as you may just hear what you want to hear, because you aren't actually engaging in a conversation.  An interrogation should be a negotiation, to which, a fair trade is exchanged, as there has to be something in it for the person being interrogated, even something as basic as respect, or you will not be able to make the connection that you wish to achieve.

Then too there must be the fundamental realization that not every interrogation is going to work out effectively, that is part and parcel of the business; you're obligation is solely to conduct your business in a professional and at a proficient level.  Also, it is of immense importance not to lose sight of the fact that despite the apparent exigencies of the situation, often times that urgency is not in actuality as grave as it may appear, in point of fact, sometimes through bureaucratic inexactitude and inefficiencies, your hard work will be all for naught.  Additionally, and of utmost relevance, it is no credit to yourself or to this nation, to undercut the basic moral principles that this country aspires to for sadistic short-term satisfaction.

God Will and Must Test You

Life is full of challenges and tests, all for the purpose of measuring the man.  In school, tests are relatively straightforward and one can judge their success or lack thereof, by simply looking at their score or their grade.  In the workplace, tests are held every day, in regards to the work processed and accomplished on behalf of the company that employs you.  In life, so too there are tests, on all sorts of levels, for all sorts of things, no matter whether you think so or not, to which these tests in aggregate prove the results of a given man through the trials and tribulations that make up all of life.

Our words that we profess to God are not enough to convince God that we are sincere in what we voice, instead we read in Exodus 16:4 during the journey of the children of Israel: "…that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not."   God knows that it is in our everyday deeds, proved out over longer periods of time, with challenges, setbacks, lessons learned and lessons lost, that summarize the growth or lack thereof in our lives.  It isn't good enough to simply state to God or to a close friend, that you have conquered your temper, or your lust, or your greed, these statements have a minute amount of validity to them, until they are truly tested thoroughly by the very hand of God.

There are way too many people that wrongly believe that the best days of their lives are days in which there is no conflict, no mountains or obstacles to climb or to avoid, but simply a day spent in quiet contemplation, serene and at peace.  While there is indeed something to be said and to praise about days spent in tranquil meditation that is though and never has been the primary purpose for living.  To be in this world, is to face and to challenge this world, for better or for worse, recognizing that the fate that lies ahead for us, is primarily determined by how we react and deal with the fortunes and misfortunes of life and its vicissitudes. 

God must test you, for how else will He know the true nature of your character; as well as how will you as a person, know yourself, and what you are made of.  These tests, whether welcomed or not, will come to you, as you cannot run away from your destiny, for like Jonah of Biblical lore, you will find out that in the end, you will have to face yourself and your purpose for being, with our without the aid of a great fish. 

Each and every day, you are faced with decisions, some great and some small, but as a whole, it is these decisions that define you as a human being.  Today, and every day, at every moment in the day, you can consciously determine what is that you will or won't do and then be about it.  These decisions most definitely matter, for it is you that captains your own ship.  God will help you, good friends can assist and guide you, but the steering wheel is in your own hands, and those that set their sights on the Northern Star will find that their travails often end quite satisfactorily.

Federal Marginal Tax Rates were once above 90%

You probably won't find many people that enjoy or want to pay taxes on their income, so, not too surprisingly the federal income tax marginal rate is one of those big issues that have a high degree of pertinence to anybody that makes actual income.  Because America has a progressive income tax, when discussing today's highest income rate of 39.6%, it is important to recognize that that rate does not kick in until, if you are filing as single, your income exceeds $406,000, whereupon all income above that amount will be federally taxed at 39.6%, but all income below that amount will be taxed at tax tiers associated with the lower amount brackets.  For instance, the income from 186,000 to 405,000 will be taxed at 35%, not 39.6%.  This means, that even when the highest marginal tax rate is 90%, that only the portion above the highest income, is taxed at that rate, and all income below that is taxed at their respective tax tiers.

It is somewhat surprising, to see that there were times in America's past when the marginal tax rate was over 90%, for instance, from the years 1951-1963 it was as high as 91%, which seems unfathomable, given that Eisenhower was the President from 1953-1961, yet indeed this was so.  However, as much as people want to soak the rich, there is something about a marginal tax rate that once it crosses the 50% plateau, seems inherently unfair, even to those that typically despise the extraordinarily wealthy.  Additionally, the rich have the best and brightest as their lobbyists, attorneys, tax accountants, and so forth, so when tax rates really do get up and into the stratosphere, while it might look good on paper, that the rich are really now being put to the test, in actuality, behind the scenes, they really aren't.

When it comes to taxes and tax rates, those that make the money, are typically not interested in sacrificing more than they have to, and additionally, with a world that has gotten smaller over time, while lawyers and tax accountants have become more numerous, will find a way, to pay less than what the tax law thinks that it is applying against them.  This means that the most effective tax rate is one that does a stellar job in appropriating taxes from those that make more at a rate that makes them a bit uncomfortable, but not so high, that it makes them look or to create ways to avoid them.

Another thing, which is often not recognized, is that some people only have one or possibly two really fantastic earning years, perhaps from stock options, or from an unexpected bonus, or some extraordinary event, to which they never again come close to scaling those heights.  In these instances, especially, a super-high tax rate seems quite unfair, since these are the very people that don't have the connections or the insights into how to skirt around super-high tax rates.

While there is talk about once again, scaling up the marginal tax rates to above 50%, no matter what you think about the 1% of the 1%, a tax rate that gives more than half to the government, just seems wrong, and in an era in which the rich know ever trick in the book, it probably wouldn't achieve that distribution of income desired, but instead would vacuum in only monies from the rich suckers, that either don't know better, or are blithely oblivious.

Credit Card Debt and Liens

Credit cards are exceedingly easy to apply for, to which for most applications, it is simply on the honor system, that is to say, you fill out your income, home ownership or rental and the monthly amount of such, identification, last four digits of your Social Security #, and then through the magic of computer processing, algorithms, and credit scores, the attending bank will make a decision in regards to your credit card and your credit limit or denial, often within seconds, online.  This means for those that are issued credit cards, that legally the credit card as issued to you, in almost all cases is classified as an unsecured credit line to you.  What this signifies, is that the credit card company has given you a credit limit which is secured against none of your assets, but simply secured instead, on your good faith, and the good likelihood that you will pay upon it.

However, despite the fact that most Americanshave not only good intentions to make good on their debts, but also plans to stay continually employed for thirty or thirty-fiveor even more years, these plans don't always pan out, even with the best of intentions.  For instance, you might get laid off and find that getting another job at equal or better pay to be difficult, or you might get injured or sick, necessitating high medical expenditures that are completely unexpected, or other unforeseen events might occur that debilitate your ability to make your payments on time or even at a minimal level.  Unfortunately, when these types of events occur, it can quickly degenerate into a downward spiral and the debt thus created becomes overwhelming and without the appearance of a good ending in sight for you as a consumer.

Not too surprisingly, the bank that issued you the credit card, does not really care about your problems or issues, they mainly care about receiving in full, the monies that you have borrowed and that are owed to them, but because the debt created is still yet unsecured, there isn't much they can do to collect on it, unless they either come to a legal arrangement with you, that is voluntarily entered into, or take you to court to sue you and thereby win monetary damages against you.  Until that time, banks are pretty much limited to legally harassing you, and/or having a collection agency legally harass you, but these annoying phone calls and pestering, can usually be kept at bay, because they have no legal judgment against you.

The real problem with credit card debt that is due and unpaid is when it crosses over to become a legal judgment against you and upon doing so this means that a lien can be attached to your legal assets, such as a home, a car, or as a garnishment against your wages.  However, in order for a judgment to be rendered against you, the credit card company will have to take you to court, and receive from that court a judgment against you, in which they are hoping that you simply won't show up, which means in most cases upon your non-appearance that a summary judgment will be issued against you, allowing the bank at that time to legally place a lien on your property to which when it comes time to sell or to transfer such property, you will forfeit those funds to the bank, subject to certain exemptions and rules.

The bottom line then is that credit card debt can become a legal lien against assets that you have, in which, based on your dire financial straits, often are assets that you cannot afford to spare to the bank.  This means, should you have a home, that either has positive equity, or the reasonable hope of eventually having positive equity, and that is not in foreclosure, you must make every effort to fight off the credit card debt collectors and should it come to court, you must make your appearance, and plead your cause.  There are several typical defenses to make against the bank such as: challenging, denial, requesting proof, and so forth, recognizing too that no matter what course your take, the very fact that you are standing up for your rights is almost certain to bring a judgment that is fairer and more beneficial to you, and will ultimately typically not mean the sacrificing of something so important as the actual equity of your home or similar.

Black Employment: Public v. Private Sectors

According to blackdemographics.com, 76.8% of black workers are employed in the private sector v. 79.2% of whites, whereas in the public sector 19.7% of black workers are employed v. 14.5% of white workers.  This means that in the private sector blacks are relatively slightly less inclined to be employed in this area, whereas in the public sector of government workers the percentage difference is quite significant as blacks have a nearly 36% greater participation rate in government employment than whites do.  This would imply strongly that it is the government that is at the forefront of equal opportunity laws and that blacks know that is the government that will give them a fairer deal than private enterprise.

This does not necessarily mean that private enterprise is discriminatory deliberately against blacks, as if this was truly the case, the differential in private employment between blacks and whites would be substantially higher, but what it does imply is that in private enterprise, it does matter and it is relevant, in who that you know, as well as your background, your similarities in life experience, and connections too are all quite relevant components.

Fortunately, for blacks, the fact that they are hired at such a high percentage of government jobs is most beneficial, as the days when government jobs were looked upon mainly as a self-sacrifice and service to the community, have been replaced with the knowledge that not only do government jobs pay at a competitive rate that compares well to private enterprise, but to a large extent government jobs with their guaranteed pensions are often far superior to the private sector's 401Ks.

Another very important attribute of government jobs is that the pay is often quite similar for all races within job classifications, that is to say, if you are a school teacher with a bachelor's degree and ten years of fulltime experience, your salary in the same city as another teacher with the same degree and experience, will almost for a certainty, be indistinguishable, irrespective of race.  When it comes to the private sector, however, people with similar backgrounds and experience, can have widely divergent salaries, not necessarily because of overt discrimination, because there are numerous factors that affect salary, but within those factors, there can be conditions that favor one race over another on subtle levels which aren't obvious or even noticeable, yet they most definitely are tangible.

As much as we like to think that each man and woman are given a fair shake in this country, irrespective of their race, creed, or background, the fact is if this was actually true, than it would not have been necessary to pass the Civil War Amendments, nor later the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws, but indeed this national legislation was necessary for fairness to be more equally and universarlly applied within this country.  Not too surprisingly, blacks recognized that some of their greatest progress has come from these great laws, of a strong federal government, and have in recent years, gravitated therefore to the government sector that has shown that its words actually have real meaning.

Associates v. Employees

Living in America, you can't help but notice that some of the big box retailers make it their policy to refer to their employees, as their associates, so when you are in Home Depot or Wal-Mart or some other similar retailer, you will invariably hear at some point, the verbal callout for an associate to help a customer or guest with something or other.  One would like to think that an associate working within an organization would actually mean something that signifies that this person is a true colleague within the work environment, whose voice or work assignments would be looked upon as worthy of respect and consideration.  Unfortunately, that often is not the case, and fundamentally within organizations in which all of the lower level employees are designed as associates, is most definitely not the case.

In point of fact, for whatever reason, the company doing the hiring has made a policy decision that the semantics of calling their employees, by the name of associate, helps to sell the illusion that the person employed by these retailers is really an important component within the organization, when in actuality, they are nothing more than pawns to be pushed around the chessboard for the greater good of the organization itself.

The truth is, as Shakespeare tells us: "that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet;" and that which we call by names masking the true nature of the work at hand, smell just as rotten as they always have.  These so-called associates at Wal-Mart often make a wage of just $9 or $10/hour, pointedly signifying that any association that they have with management must be of the traditional employer/employee relationship and hardly one in which the associate has even a marginal place at the table.

The thing is that there isn't anything wrong with being an employee of a given company, in fact, there is a lot to be said about being gainfully employed and working for a living, no matter the title or job position, as there is dignity in doing a job well and being respected and being paid for just that.  While there are plenty of good paying jobs in America, there are also in this service-based economy a lot of jobs that don't pay well and don't have a lot of prestige associated with them.  However, these jobs are a way to earn money, to develop responsibility as well as to stay busy and active, with perhaps windows of opportunity for advancement and promotion.

These big multi-national corporations that employ so many people have an inherent obligation to provide a fair deal to their employees, and that deal necessitates true candor and honesty.  Therefore, to call a man, something that he is not, is wrong, it is a lie, and it is not becoming of any corporation or its leadership.   In truth, companies hire people, these people hired are correctly known as employees, most of them upon being hired are not associates, because they are not at that time merited and valued members of the organization, and until such time that they become so, it is wrong to falsely label them as such.

Applications only Accepted Online

Back in the day rather than seeing a sign posted on a window stating that "only online applications accepted" you instead use to read on that window "applicants apply within". There is a very large difference between the ways applicants are often treated today, more or less quickly compartmentalized into a "go or no-go" scenario, as compared to way it waswhen the application as well as the person was dealt with face-to-face.  While there are advantages to either way in recruitment procedures, limiting people to just online applications, without exception, is inherently prejudicial to certain people without it necessarily being seen as overt in its effect.  That is to say, first off, that some people are people persons that want to engage another human being from across the table and that is their strength, and that strength does not lend itself successfully to an online application.  There is also a more sinister side to online applications, which is that there are a large percentage of people in America that are functionally illiterate, which often means that they won't even attempt to make an online application, or if doing so, will not understand the rules of the road so that their application will be rejected forthwith, even though they may be properly skilled at the actual job at hand.

So too another complaint about the acceptance of online applications only is that those that understand well the process of how these applications are looked at and handled, will best be able to put together the key words and their work experience in such a manner so as to make their application more likely to be accepted as desirable by the algorithm which has been programmed to search for certain traits and thereby in effect to segregate the job applicants into "acceptable or rejected" bins.    This means in effect, that a high percentage of people aren't even considered for the job, and by definition and implication, means too that the applicants making it to the next round, have been pre-molded into the type of "cookie-cutter" desirable background that the company is looking for which hardly bodes well for diversity.

While one can certainly understand that companies are well aware that time is money and that it follows that they often don't have the time or the resources to deal with applicant after applicant live and in-person, this does not mean that accepting applications only online is the fairest, best, or most efficient way to accept applications.  In fact, as a matter of course, responsible companies should mix it up a bit, and at least during certain periods of time when looking for future employees, they should accept applications in person, as opposed to just doing so only online.  

Life itself has proven again and again, that the best candidate does not necessarily have the best credentials on paper, but has those unseen substances and character that are the touchstones of success and advancement in life.  An algorithm and an automated process that simply rates people on a certain pre-conceived scale probably does a commendable job of eliminating those that are clearly unqualified, those that are questionable, but also some of those that would be most excellent, because their skill-sets often range well outside of the company's preconceived little box.

The Internet, Technology, and Choice v. Higher Education Costs

According to mic.com "In 2015, the average student borrower is graduating with about $35,000 worth of debt," and also, according to bloomberg.com:  "The expense of higher education has risen more than 550 percent since 1985."  Both of these above statements should be of massive concern to all Americans and logically when taking into account all of the hi-tech advances that have been made over the last thirty years, these statements should be seen as a source of real disappointment as well as a financial disgrace to those that are just trying to educate themselves to get ahead.

The fact of the matter is that there does not seem to be in effect, a policy in place that is determined to lower school costs and to make that an overriding mission.  Instead, while colleges have changed over the years in some fundamental respects, such as by allowing more students to have more choices in regards to how they receive their education and the tools that they use to do so, the changes to date, are not nearly dramatic enough, nor have they often been of a monetary savings to those that have minimal financial assets to begin with.

Higher education has done a massive disservice to students by simply not taking the time to look at the problem from the right perspective, and that perspective for certain students, should not be to provide all the bells and whistles, all the brick mortars, all the fringe benefits, and all the massive, convoluted, and redundant bureaucracy, but instead should have as the overarching principle to provide a focused curriculum which makes its very purpose, first and foremost, to competently teach students the subjects that they need to know so as to provide them with a degree in their discipline of choice, which will enable them to get meaningful employment. 

The biggest mistake that higher education makes is not scaling up their system so as to make the overall product more affordable to the students that wish to partake of it.  For instance, a live lecture within a fixed physical building, which has limited seats, along with mandated physical books, at a fixed location and time, is the most expensive way to lecture students.  Instead, an online lecture, previously recorded and edited, with additional information which answers the most common questions, along with adjunct professors or advanced students, providing additional online help, which would be essentially available for the most part to all students at any time of the day, through the internet and displayed on their laptop, is something which could be readily scaled up to handled a student body of considerably more people than can be contained within a physical classroom, yet the costs of this online setup, which is repeatable, is of far less expense. 

Further to the point, the cost of physical books, have been and continue to be a very sore point with students, but this can easily be mitigated, by not having any physical books at all, but instead having all books available online, which eliminates the expense and the inconvenience of print runs, as well as making it far easier to revise these books and course materials in the future.

The thing is the way that college education is looked at for a significant amount of students, is fundamentally flawed, to which I suspect, most college campuses, seem to be somewhat oblivious to the actual costs associated with education.  Instead, the way it should be, is to start with the premise that there is an absolute desire to create a curriculum for a bachelor's degree, to which the cost cannot exceed a certain fixed amount of money and then to plan such a course out in such a manner so as to achieve that noble goal.

If, in fact, that it is true, as Obama said, that America desires that we "…put a higher education within reach for anyone who wants it," than the only way this objective can be met is for price, convenience, and sensibility to be working together like a well-oiled machine.  The more innovation, the more imagination, and the more determination that we make in order to provide real choice for our higher education needs, the better the outcome will be.

School Teachers are Compensated Very Well

It does help to have strong union representation on your side, and school teachers throughout America, have two strong unions that represent them, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Educational Association. For some reason, there is a myth, that school teachers are not compensated fairly, are underpaid, have exceedingly demanding jobs, and are not appreciated, but in fact, in today's world, there are fewer and fewer good middle class jobs, that require just a Bachelor's degree, and that pay as well and have the generous benefits of a typical school teacher's salary.  It can be said, unequivocally, if you believe that you have teacher like capabilities or desires, that being a school teacher, is probably one of the very best jobs that you could aspire towards.

For instance, recognize that the salary of a school teacher, depending upon the State and country of residence, can range from about $40,000 to $84,000 per annum, depending upon experience and educational achievement, to which a school teacher has typically a commitment of only 190 work days a year, and might be entitled to 15-20 days off for sick and personal reasons.  On the other hand, employees working for private enterprise, on average work about 224 days a year, a significant and meaningful difference in hours and days worked.  Additionally, whereas a large portion of those employed by private enterprise are responsible for the funding of their 401K retirement plans, perhaps with company matching, while often receiving absolutely no pension benefits, school teachers are provided with very generous pension plans, of which the formula is based upon their highest three to five salaried years, depending upon their location, and their years of service being a school teacher.  As reported by theday.com, the average school teacher pension is: "…$47,386 for Connecticut retired teachers."

In addition, teachers are able to purchase through a program called "The Teacher Next Door" a HUD house for a 50% discount off of the list price, and further are eligible to apply for a loan with the FHA to which the down payment could be for said home as low as $100.  This important benefit, in and of itself, is absolutely massive, as there is no material asset that will cost more money for the typical American, than the purchase of their home.

Yet, for the most part, most Americans are bamboozled by the mass media, to believe that the school teacher's job is a job of woe, and of unlimited thankless service, to which school teachers are the suffering servants of the State.  In fact, school teachers, are extremely well compensated, especially given their salary, their hours, their pension, and the security of their position.  Additionally, school teachers as a whole, are accorded a fair amount of respect from the public. 

While the importance of having good teachers cannot be discounted, it would appear, that given their compensation and their generous benefits, that the school teachers of today, should be some of the most qualified and competent school teachers ever, based upon the fact that smart people gravitate to where the money is at.

Population Control

In America, adults do have the freedom to procreate, although the State for the most part sends out a clear signal that pregnancy is something that is within your bodily control and therefore you should take appropriate steps to control it, and if not, the State wants to help you to do so.  For instance, the State spends an inordinate amount of time and resources making readily available to citizens' its wide array of birth control aids, of which Americans have quite a few choices and options, to which the State hopes that one of these aids you might avail yourself of.  Additionally, abortion is legal in America, subject to certain rules and regulations; and with proper ID, morning after birth control or emergency contraception pills are also available to females which can be readily obtained from any major drugstore.  The result, even without a specific State mandated population control policy, is that procreation in America has dramatically dropped over the years, so that the birthrate in America has come down considerably from previous generations, filling one desirable goal of the State.

However much that you like to think the opposite, the fact of the matter is the State hates the concept that all should have an equal right to procreate as much as they so desire and all of this occurring without exceptions or restrictions.  In fact, it's quite fair to say, that without the religious influence that believes strongly in marriage along with valuing family life and the fruits of such, that the State would have a far more baleful influence than it already has in regards to family planning and procreation within America.  Fortunately, whether you agree or identify totally with a particular religious persuasion or not, the impact of those of faith impacts strongly how population control and procreation freedom is dealt with within this country.

While every country needs its citizenry in aggregate to have a desire to at a minimum maintain its population base and/or to grow it at a rate that is sustainable within the country, most every State wants to have a say as to what people are the chosen ones to reproduce at a higher rate than others. As demonstrative proof of this, hear Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., as he rendered his argument on the winning side in regards to whether the State could enact compulsory sterilization that: "… Three generations of Imbeciles are enough” . 

For some people, the inability to conceive is unbearable and also devastating to them and for their quality of life.  Additionally, for others, their capability to conceive was wrongly taken away from them by the State, itself, by means of forced sterilization, sanctioned by State agencies.  The State most definitely wants to control and to influence which segments of our population in general are encouraged to have children and which are actively discouraged from doing so. 

The battle between the State and the freedom of the people is an ongoing battle, to which the State has access to an endless array of resources that helps enable them to press forward their desires, yet, the people in whole, through it all, have remained resolute and unbowed.

Patrick Henry - Great American Patriot

There are few school children that cannot quote Patrick Henry's most memorable call to action: “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”, but the speech itself given at St. John's Church in Richmond, VA in 1775, is much more than just those seven indelible words.  For instance, it is important to note that Patrick Henry was a God-fearing Christian, and one that believed strongly in the faith, to which this speech itself, made it clear that the highest loyalty a man should have was not to an earthly king but to the "majesty of heaven".  Further, Patrick Henry stated that the cause now presented to those contemplating rebellion against English tyranny, was quite straightforwardly whether one was ready to stand for freedom or to submit to "submission and slavery".  These words weren't meant to be taken rhetorically, but were words demanding action, to which Patrick Henry's voice cried out that "the war is actually begun."

Patrick Henry was no equivocating politician, nor some double-talking lawyer, he was a man of the highest principal and of action, which is why he is so well remembered and revered to this very day.  Patrick Henry believed in accountability and in being true to the just cause of the colonies' rebellion, but even more than that, he questioned those of little faith, who complained that now was not the time, or that the colonies were too weak, or that a compromise might be reached between us and our English masters, however, Henry knew that it was fear that often held men back, and so too it was weakness of mind, as well as there were those that would accept limitations of their liberty for a compromised life.

Yet, when we look upon America today, we must ask the question as to whether we, as Americans, have sold out the ideals and principles of Patrick Henry, and the answer to that question clearly shows the needle pointing to the affirmative.  First, America at its highest jurisprudence level has over recent history, turned this country from being one that built its very foundation upon Judeo-Christian principles into a country that believes it has no need for the inconvenience of God and old-time morals, but instead can simply right its ship with the rudder of pure secularism.  Additionally, Patrick Henry starting with the infamous British stamp tax act as well as later with the vociferous debate over our Constitution, understood well that the confiscation of a man's wealth by taxation empowered the State, often to the detriment of the people, so that rather than the State serving the people, it was the people that were subservient to the State.   

Today, if Patrick Henry was alive, he would be dismayed over the awesome and awful State power that is wielded unfairly and intrusively over most of the common citizens of this country, as well as he would be quite concerned over the rise of the secular State and thereby theincreasing marginalization of our Judeo-Christian founding principles. 

Patrick Henry's memorable words should still ring true to our ears today, and as we look upon this nation, that question should still be raised, is this liberty or is this in substance the death of liberty.

Mandated Password Rules

If you use a computer, you will soon find that you are going to have to use passwords in order to access things such as subscription sites, financial sites, work sites, and email sites.  While it makes sense that your account should be unique to you and therefore that having a password associated with your account is a good way to make it so that other people, friend of foe, or phishing sites, or children, or whomever, do not have an easy way to gain access to your account, there are some basic problems attended to with password accounts.

For instance, different sites have different restrictions, to which those restrictions have changed over time, so that if previously your passwords were once six characters, now they have to be at least eight characters.  If previously you used all lowercase, now you have to use at least one character that is uppercase, and/or have one character that is not alphanumeric.  Additionally, as bad as those are in giving you the hope of consistently remembering your password for all the sites that you visit, the absolute worse are sites that either compel you to change your password every six months, or will not ever allow you to go back and use a password that you have previously used.  This means, if you are even a halfway busy person, you probably have multiple passwords for sites, with multiple rules, and while that might be good in the sense that you don't have one master password for all of your sites, it is both cumbersome and confusing for the user.

When it comes to passwords, most websites seem to have it all wrong, the password setup shouldn't really be to conform to whatever rules that they have, but should instead be something that is convenient for the user.  That is to say, if you as a user want to have stupid passwords, easily guessed at, that should be their choice.  Apparently too, many websites already keep track of the IP address that you have historically logged in from, and therefore it makes some sense to place some additional restrictions on access when that access point is different, by for example, having challenge questions. 

Also, when it comes to passwords and security, I'm somewhat surprised and dismayed that there are many websites that allow you to select or have preselected for you a box that keeps you signed in for two weeks, without having to enter your password again, often which is valid whether you later close your browser or not .  If you think about it, this should never be an option from a safety or privacy issue, since there are very few times when your computer is 100% under your control, unless you are the only one ever to have access to it.

Ultimately, because you do not go to every website every day, and because of the lack of commonality in regards to password rules and restrictions from site to site, you as a consumer, are forced to write down your particular password for particular websites, simply because there are too many to remember, and the consequences of not knowing your password will block you out of a website that you are trying to log into.  The fact then that your password is written down, does to a certain important extent, undermine a lot of why passwords are put into place to begin with.

Losing Yourself in Christ

Scripture is full of seemingly puzzling and paradoxical passages such as Matthew 16:25: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it," which on the surface seems to turn on its head, the typical meaning of life itself.  Yet, with any passage from Jesus the Christ, one must try to understand it, recognizing too, that with many passages, there are layers of interpretation or insight into its true understanding.  First, it seems natural, to want to save one's own life, as our whole being seems to be caught up in our work, our duties, our family and our friends, so that the desire to sustain our own life, would appear to be quite normal, and anything less than that would appear to be wrong.  Yet, when comprehending this passage, recognize too, that no matter how long, how hard, and how much you fight to sustain your life, ultimately, you will lose your physical life itself.  So the question now becomes not so much as to whether you can save your life, which you can, for a time, but instead the question becomes what exactly are you saving?

For, in fact, to save your life, any life, that also compromises the very value of life, in order to save it at that time, proves the point, that although you may have heard the Word, the Word never fully took root within you, and thereby you may have saved your life, while also sacrificing your eternal soul.  Christ makes it clear that he who loses his life, for His sake, will find the ultimate peace and redemption with Christ.  So that, those that do everything within their power, to maintain their temporal existence, as their reason for being, are, in fact, working at odds against Christ. 

This means that for way too many people, there is a fundamental mistake that is made twice over; the first mistake being that the greatest gift that you can apply is your own gift of individuality, that is to say, that your apparent mission in life, is to express yourself, in your own way, at all times, because in that way you are just being true to yourself, and thereby "to thine own self be true".  This, unfortunately, is a somewhat common mistake in a land that professes so loudly the merits of individual freedom, for being true in this instance, should mean being true to all that is right.  Then, there is the second mistake, which is not fully understanding the mission of Christ, to which, when given the opportunity to rule the world, Christ rebuked Satan; and later when Christ was praying in the garden of Gethsemane, He asked His Father for the cup of the cross to be taken away from Him, but at the same time renewed his commitment to acquiesce to His Father's will, which He did.

This then is what is meant by losing your life for His sake; it is an understanding that in His hands, you can never be lost, you can never lose, you can never die but to the physical death, a death that none can escape from, and to recognize that all who come to Christ, all, without exception, have chosen the better way, "and that has made all the difference".

Justice before Power

The most powerful country in the world is America.  Indeed, America is so powerful, both militarily and economically, to which that power extends far beyond all national boundaries. America is literally a world empire, in fact, it can be said, that it is also the greatest and most powerful global empire the world has ever known.  If it was once said, that the sun did not set on the British Empire, today it can truly be said that there is no part of this planet, to which, America is not the ring master of the greatest show on earth.  No country, no matter how big, or populous, no matter its religion, or its people, can be enemies with America, because to be truly at odds with America, will surely mean economic ruin and regime transformation of that country, should America demand that it must be so.

Of course, power is not justice, as power is at its most basic form, is simply force; whereas justice is the pursuit of doing the right thing, applied equally to all, at all times, and for all the right reasons.  To live in a world, to which obeisance must be given to power, and to power alone, is to live in a world without justice and that is the world that we live in.  Not too surprisingly, that has been the nature of the world since the time of man's falling, however, America was suppose to be different, as it was founded on the principle that man has inalienable rights given to us by our Creator and that thereby the primary purpose of our Declaration of Independence, was to declare that the only legitimate government was a government that aided and secured those same inalienable rights.

Instead, America has pursued relentlessly the siren lure of power, always power, because power need not bend to any man, power need not bend to any law, and power need not bend to any establishment, because all of the above must bend or bow to the throne and empire of power itself.  Today's America likes to wrap itself in the cloak of justice, but this cloak is indeed a false one; instead every man and every establishment is potentially subject to all sorts of tragic laws, meaning all sorts of awful things, of which, those in power determine the interpretation of such.

A country that puts power first, above all else, without question will ultimately decline and fall to ruin, because there is neither a moral compass to keep those in authority in check, nor is there respect given from one party to another.  The only thing that can temper power properly is justice, which means properly utilizing and applying the courage to do the right thing over the expedient or the wrong thing.  How many times throughout the history of this world can we ignore the blessed words of Matthew 16:26: "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"  For America to recapture its collective soul, it must now and forevermore renounce its obscene grabs of power and monetary might, and instead gravitate towards its foundational roots, of liberty, justice and equality for all.

Insanely High Limits on Credit Cards

When it comes to credit cards and their limits, there are two basic extremes out there, there are those that barely qualify for a credit card and thereby they are stuck with limits of a mere $300-$500, or enough to put an airline ticket on a credit card, or get a hotel room for a few days, or have available credit as an emergency spending backup and not much more; then there are those that have credit limits of $25,000 or $40,000 or even $100,000 or possibly even more for certain special credit cards that are issued without a preset credit limit.  Clearly, there is a wealth of difference between the two credit extremes, yet we know this truism, that banks are noted for extending bank loans typically to people that really don't need loans, so too this is true for those that are issued insanely high credit card limits, because the banks would not issue such high amounts, unless they had clear documented evidence that the person receiving such high credit card limits had the capacity for paying such.

One important thing to remember about credit cards is that the credit being loaned to the consumer is unsecured against any of that consumer's assets, which means, should things go terribly wrong for the consumer, and ultimately for the bank issuing such card, that in order to recoup their money, that bank will have to take to take active measures to recover those funds, through such possible means as phone calls, collections, and/or court.  All of those actions will cost the banks money, resources, and time, with little hope of collecting even close to 100% of the debt, making one wonder whether it's worth the risk of issuing such high credit limits without some sort of asset protection in the first place. 

The banks do have some protection for the amount of the credit default that they are subject to in the sense that even though they may issue a credit card to you for $40,000, there is often an implied understanding that you as a consumer, will never actually be allowed to "max out" the card to $40,000.  Whereas in most credit card transactions the purchase automatically goes through, in situations when your credit card is being used perhaps more than three times in one day, and/or for amounts that you typically don't charge, and/or in a location of a city that past history shows you are seldom or never at, the credit card spigot will completely y dry out, pending a phone call to that lender, and a conversation ascertaining exactly what you are up to.  So, for example, today  you are buying that super-expensive piece of jewelry and the bill is $25,000, in all likelihood, no matter how pristine your credit, there will probably be a conversation with your lender before the charge is authorizedand goes through.

This leads to the point that a significant part of the reason why high credit card limits are issued, is that the lender wants you to use their card, hoping that you will purchase things that you might not normally purchase precisely because of that credit card, and by doing so your credit card bank can make their merchant's fee on sales that would have never transpired without the higher credit limit.  The bottom line is that higher credit card limits are essentially given to people that have the capacity to pay off those limits, to encourage them to spend more than they might.

Freedom of the Press

Big government and big business make it their business to work together to control and mold the population to as much of a degree as possible, which is why so many of our individual rights of liberty are under assault, and will continue to be under attack for the foreseeable future.  The government-corporate State wants the public to believe that each issue only has two sides, to which they conveniently break it down for us into a liberal/conservative bias or into a right wing/left wing bias, and wish to present to the public the basic premise that one of these two sides must be the right side, so that whichever the selection might be, the State as a whole is satisfied. 

Although the government-corporate State has massive control in regards to the dissemination of news to the general public through cable, radio, TV, print, and the most commonly used online social media websites, they do not have complete control.  The fact of the matter is that no citizen lacks access to alternative viewpoints of all the news that is fit to print, or not fit to print, through all the common distribution systems within America.  As much as the government-corporate State wants to control and to spin news to the credulous public, it ultimately ends up being something akin to whack-a-mole, and it simply can't be done. 

While the consolidation along with the incredible power and influence of media outlets and distribution of such is most definitely cause for concern for lovers of liberty within America, viewpoints of virtually any and all possible flavors, are readily accessible to those that perform even a rudimentary search for it.  The government-corporate State wants to win the minds of all Americans and to marginalize as much as possible those that fall outside their clearly defined lines, but it can't be done, mainly because each American has a right, even a duty, to think, and thinking is the basis of free will which is anathema to State control.

A free press is not something to be taken for granted, as there are many totalitarian countries that make it their policy to control the information that is provided to their populace as much as possible, and in conjunction with that control, to penalize those that have the audacity to challenge those in authority.  A country that has control of the press, is a dangerous place, because it censors the press, which therefore means it censors the mind, and thereby creates two worlds, one that the State believes exists and it owns, and a shadow world of an alternate reality, to which denizens of such, recognize that just one wrong step, can cost them everything.

American citizens desperately want to believe that the government-corporate State treats them fairly, but time and time again, they see that this is not possibly true.  Further to this point, the government-corporate State wants to keep as H.L. Mencken states: "…the populace alarmed…" to which every little thing is a crisis that can only be resolved if the government-corporate State gets a little more power, a little more control, just for a little while, till this one little thing, gets resolved, because they, the government-corporate State really cares about you and they will protect you. 

The thing is though that mass hypnosis of an entire nation can only work, if everyone drinks of the same Kool-Aid, even 90% of the populace is not enough, even 95% is still not enough, for try as they might the government-corporate State can't get to 100%, fundamentally because freedom of the press still breathes strongly within our shores, let it ever be so.

Doomsday Clock

I suspect that most people have never heard of the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board" who are the people that move the hands of the symbolic doomsday clock, which currently reads at 11:57PM, or just three minutes to midnight and apocalypse.  The Board includes seventeen Nobel Laureates, so their scholarly attributes are certainly something to be admired but the doomsday clock which has been in existence since 1947, has never read anything earlier than11:43PM, so for nearly seventy years, we have been minutes away from the final apocalypse, but in fact, we are still here, and so is this planet.

While one can admire the board for perhaps keeping in the mind's eye that we live in a nuclear age to which atomic destruction is literally just a few logistical buttons away at any time, the fact of the matter is, if all you ever do is to put the public at their wit's ends, that the end of the world is just seconds away, but none of that ever happens, you have done a massive disservice to the world at large.  In point of fact, if it's almost always midnight, if we are always on the edge of utter annihilation, but year after year, nothing happens, than by definition, the doomsday clock is a false flag and utterly useless other than a pure propaganda tool.

We live in a world that has gotten much smaller over time, to which virtually any point on the planet can be visited by air or by sea, at any time.  While there are around 195 sovereign nations in the world, of which some of those nations are warring, there is no World War III, nor is World War III, even likely at this point.  What these eminent scholars get so very wrong, is a basic misunderstanding of the power of the world at this time, to which the most vested interest that any world-class leader of any world-class nation has, is to get along with others, because a world that destructs itself, is exceedingly bad for business. 

The doomsday clock makes too much of words, but not of actions, too much of speeches and propaganda, but not of deeds.  Every country as a matter of course, wants a devil to blame for its troubles, so is it no wonder, that east blames west, or north blames south, and vice versa?  What is missing from the doomsday clock scenario is an understanding, a fundamental knowledge, that the most powerful players in the world today are all talking to each other, because at the end of the day, while they may not see things or have philosophies that match the world eye to eye, they do see that there is just one world, and as long as they have some piece of it, they're okay with it.

Had the nuclear age arrived back in the middle ages, or in ancient times, when man often deluded himself into believing that he was a god, or that his country or his people should be the sole master of the world, and that all others therefore were non-believers and should be annihilated for the sake of the chosen people, or as a matter of ideology, than indeed, the doomsday clock would be correct in foreseeing imminent destruction.  In those times, certainly, someone may well have pushed that button of no-return, but fortunately we live in times when mankind is actually more civilized and communicates with those it disagrees with.

In reality, the doomsday clock should be set to something like 2:00AM, because that is the actual reality of the situation, and for that we should be thankful.

Witness Protection: Is it good or even right?

The Federal government Witness Protection program began in 1971, to which the purpose of the creation of this program was basically to protect certain criminals from being harmed or being threatened, in order for these protected criminals to feel safe in testifying against other criminals that they were previously intimately involved with so that by so doing this in a court of law their testimony would often convict these other lawbreakers.  The basic premise of the program is it often takes a criminal on the inside to take down other criminals because that is the only certain way that the prosecutorial arm of the government can obtain both the necessary evidence to convict but also have a prosecutorial witness that is considered to be both reliable and of pertinence to the crimes at hand.  Of course, another way of looking at it is that the government as a matter of course, rewards snitches and turncoats by providing them new identification papers and often a free pass to enjoy life, without suffering the consequences or penalty for what their former criminal actions would necessitate.  This means that the law most definitely treats criminals unequally with some criminals being able to get away with murder, in return for their valued assistance in taking down other criminals that have done the very same thing.

It is one thing to provide witness protection to the innocent bystander and/or the whistle blower, a person that has not done anything wrong, but wishes to see criminal actions punished for what they are, and it is entirely a different thing to take people that have knowingly committed heinous crimes and let them go not just scot-free but with new identification papers that allows them to become part of a community to which none of the other residents have an inkling or a clue that the person that lives next door to them is, in fact, a bona-fide dangerous criminal, himself.

As bad as that is, it gets even worse, when you consider that there are many thousands of Americans, good people all, that wish for a reset button in their life, a chance to start their credit history over, a chance to live in a new community with a fresh start, and a chance to let go of the past which has been a hindrance to them and to begin life anew.  Unfortunately, this opportunity is simply not available, because unlike the criminals that get fresh starts for turning against their former cohorts, these Americans are not part and parcel of criminal enterprises.

There is too yet another problem with the entire Witness Protection program and that is if the government has the power to give certain designated people all the identification as well as other necessary documents and further the wherewithal to make a living in a new community, who is to say, that this same power can't be used over and over again, for any individual that the government wishes to favor in such a manner.   The government, as always, often starts a program with good intentions, but too often programs morph into something completely different.   The Witness Protection program gives off the very distinct scent of corruption and gives away way too much for those that have sacrificed way too little.

The United States Makes the Best Military Equipment/Why Not the Best Cars

The United States spends far more on military expenditures than any other country in the world; they too are also by far the largest exporter of military equipment than any other country in the world.  Yet, when it comes to the manufacturer of consumer cars and trucks, the United States is not the industry leader in sales, or reliability, or on any other metric that could possibly be thought of.  How is it possible that America is so proficient and skilled in providing military equipment which countries all over the world readily use to protect and defend their country, but on the other hand are so easily surpassed in quality in regards to passenger vehicles?

One way to answer that question is to say that quite obviously the sophistication and knowhow behind military equipment does not necessarily translate the same for consumer cars, which is true, but what is also true is fundamentally military equipment must be reliable, accurate, and effective for its given task or its utility is suspect.  This means that the same care, testing, and redundancy so often put to good use for military articles should be part and parcel in regards to the manufacture of consumer vehicles.  This means that in reality, the cars manufactured in the United States, should often be industry leaders in regards to performance, sustainability, and reliability, but not in cost.  That is to say, in short, the very best cars in the world and the most state-of-the-art vehicles should be being built right here in America, to which our knowledge gained from stringent military testing and knowhow should in one sense or another be translatable into the cars that we sell and drive.

The United States spends an incredible amount of money on research and development for the military industrial complex year after year, to which no country in the world is even in the ballpark of our dedication to such.  While, no doubt, the bulk of such expenditures mainly have relevance for the military sector, there are also many items or new usage of materials that have immense crossover appeal to the consumer vehicle market in the sense of not only the sophistication of the instrumentation created but also the blending of materials and chemicals in such a way that strength is added while at the same time losing bulk or weight, so that these new amalgamations are a very good fit for vehicles.

The military industrial complex should have an obligation to more often spend time and share resources with our domestic vehicle manufacturers so that each may benefit the other, and ultimately so that the United States can consistently built some of the very best vehicles in the world, that encompass sophistication and knowhow that only can come from the combined efforts of our military equipment manufacturers and domestic vehicle manufacturers actually working together for that very purpose.

There is no reason why our tax dollars should not as a matter of course, help to benefit our domestic as well as our defense manufacturers, since strength comes not only from military might, but also from creating the best products that can be bought throughout the world.