It's not ok

There’s an insidious prejudice that has become as socially acceptable as smoker bashing. Those who struggle (or fail) financially are regarded by a breed of self-righteous people as lazy, gluttonous losers that got what they deserved because they never learned to live within their means. I’d like to offer of a real-life scenario and I would welcome any solutions:

I’ll use the median household income in the U.S. is $46,326 as gross pay. Net pay would be around $3200.

Now the debits:
650 rent (cheapest they could find)
125 ambulance bill (financed in order to avoid wage garnishment)
285 insurance (car, life, rental)
250 heating
135 electricity
120 water
150 telephone, Internet, TV (basic package – waiting for contract to expire)
25 3 pay-as-you-go cell phones for emergency use for family
500 gas for two cars (live in rural area with long commutes; could move closer to jobs but would cost at least $400 more for rent so it wouldn’t save money) (cars are getting 25-29 mpg)
$125 little over minimum on credit cards (only emergency items were charged on the card, no luxury items)
80 student loan
50 Rx/supplements, etc.
50 car maintenance

This leaves $655 for groceries (not just food but things like toilet paper, etc.), clothing, gifts, vet and doctor bills, savings, etc. Even on a good month that leaves only $5 per day per person for food for a family of four. With this income level a family would not qualify for food stamps. Sometimes the months are not so good. Maybe someone had to go to a doctor. Maybe there was one of the multitude of fees due at school. Maybe someone had a birthday. Maybe it’s the middle of winter and the heating price was more than double what it usually is. Since this is based on median income there are many families who have less than this.

Now here are some suggestions from “experts” on “ways to trim your spending:” (I can’t fathom who these people are talking to but here we go…)
· Avoid paying ATM fees by using the ATM at your bank. (People do this?)
· Never shop for recreation. (WTF?)
· Before spending over $100 on an item wait at least 24 hours. (If I spend more than $25 I have to budget at least a month in advance.)
· Buy generic. (Who doesn’t?)
· Don’t buy new clothes until your current wardrobe is paid for. (That’s hilarious! My wardrobe is older than my kids except for the sale rack nabs.)
· Think twice before buying anything that needs to be dry cleaned. (Derp.)
· Own an economy car – preferably a used economy car. (Let’s see…one vehicle is 19 years old, another is 12 years old, and the last is 9 years old. Is that used enough?)
· Stop subscribing to magazines you don’t read. (WTF?)
· Vacation at off season rates. (What is a vacation?)
· Save spare change. (What is spare change?)
· Take lunch to work. (We often just skip lunch. Even food from home costs money.)
· Skip latte and take your coffee to work. (Um… yea.)
· Cut cable to basic. (Here’s a better idea—once the contract is over, cut the cable.)
· Don’t buy videos – rent them. (Here’s a better idea – check them out from a library.)
· Go to matinee movies instead of during regular hours. (I haven’t been to a movie during regular hours in about 30 years and the matinee showings are considered huge splurges that might happen four times per year.)
· Have hair appointments every six weeks instead of every four. (I cannot begin to fathom getting my hair cut every four weeks. I get my hair cut twice per YEAR IF I have the money. There have been years where I only cut it myself. It doesn’t look great but…)
· Do your own manicures. (WTF?)
· Color your own hair. (Say a prayer first. But if you can pull it off that’s great.)
· Avoid fast food. (Who can afford fast food? May as well get that latte. Actually you can get a venti brewed coffee at Starbucks for around $2 and if it replaces lunch that’s a pretty good deal.)
· Run the dishwasher and washing machine only when full. (I didn’t know that people did otherwise.)
· Set your thermostat at 68 degrees in the winter and turn the heat off at night. (Where in the hell does this person live? Turning the heat off at night in the winter in some places is lethal.)
· Plan errands to use the least mileage. (Derp.)
· Don’t carry PMI mortgage insurance unless you really need it. (Why in the name of sanity would anyone voluntarily carry PMI insurance?)

I do not know these people who spend money like this. But I bet many of them are the same people who think the homeless guy didn’t plan ahead or the people who file for bankruptcy are just irresponsible or the people who lose their homes to foreclosure were greedy and bought a bigger house than they should have.

One person said to me, “There are always choices. You could get government assistance.” Please give me a pie chart on how relying on government assistance is living within one’s means?
I want to hear from people with real solutions on how the large numbers of people who make modest incomes are supposed to never use a credit card, save money for retirement, eat decent food, get an education, and have a decent roof over their head. No more bullshit suggestions about skipping the latte and manicure. Let’s hear it.

Wisdom has Whiskers

I woke up on a snowy morning with one of our cats sitting next to me meowing. I petted her and she purred happily, rubbing her head against my hand. She was absolutely content and, like every other cat, exceptionally beautiful. Then I tried to pull her closer and she pulled back, resisting. Her message was “I’ll happily come to you as long as I’m free and choose to do so. Try to dominate me and our relationship will quickly sour.”

I could see the lesson.

The purpose of life is to be happy, grow/learn (spiritually), and perpetuate life all while treating others as you want to be treated. The Earth’s abundance is more than adequate to meet these needs. Yet, no amount of resources is enough to satisfy a populous driven by the desires to acquire, conquer, and control. Those are twisted desires that can never be satisfied. Greed is the cancer of the Earth.

When one disrespects or insults another person a seed is planted that you do not want to grow; but, like any seed, it has the tendency to do so. It doesn’t matter if it is a stranger or a loved one, damage is done. Spiritual maturity is not threatened by a different opinion or the freedom or success of another. Light is not afraid of the dark.

We, as a species, spend enormous resources (supposedly) in search of life outside of Earth. (I personally think it is really more about greed for resources again.) Earth is inundated with life – at least at the time being. The animals have so much to teach us if we would just pay the least bit of attention. No animal is confused about its purpose. They don’t have to decide what to be or do. They just be and do what they are. If they have food, water, shelter, and whatever social network their species requires, they are happy and life is good. Each human was born with talent and passion for something.

Many might respond with “but we’re not animals” or “but we’re superior to animals.” If you can’t see that you are an animal then you have a very long road ahead of you and I wish you luck because you are going to need loads. Some qualify that notion with the fact that we drive cars or write books or whatever. Yes, we’re tool makers. We are unique (at least on this planet) and we have great potential. But that doesn’t put us above our environment. Should we actually live up to our potential one might be able to debate whether or not we are superior to other animals. But so far (as a species) we have proven the opposite – our performance proves that we are inferior to other animals. The very need to refer to oneself as superior proves that one is not.

I think our greatest flaw is that as a whole we have allowed a sociopathic minority to hijack us. Maybe it has been out of an amalgam of fear and laziness. Maybe our innocence, wherever it existed, was simply used as a weapon against us. I am always amazed that humans, for all our supposed “intelligence,” act so Russian-Roulette stupid. I briefly toyed with the idea of making a list; but that would be redundant. The Crux blog is my list and my fodder shall not soon run dry.

But here is a tiny example: People argue endlessly about what constitutes the natural human diet. A lifetime could be spent reading the arguments and they get really ugly, sometimes threatening violence. Probably the most common plan of attack is to insult the opposition’s intelligence or education. Yawn.
Cats, like most other animals, make their own Vitamin C (super nutrient proven to cure cancer). That’s why they can thrive on meats alone. A few animals cannot make their own Vitamin C and must get it from their diets. They are primates (humans included, of course), guinea pigs, and fruit bats. What does that tell us? Don’t think too hard. It’s right in front of you. And no, it doesn’t mean that every single human should be a vegan. Look at the diets of primates – particularly the apes, and START there. Tweak to find your individual best diet. It’s not complicated if you just ignore the reams of stupidity that exist to brain wash us into buying Product X.

We are drowning in misinformation. Why is corn the primary ingredient in most dog and cat food? Give a cat an ear of corn and you’ll get that incredulous look that says “and you can drive a car?” The majority of everything man-made that you see is designed to influence you, not to inform you. Everything. Every magazine (not just the covers), newspaper, commercial, TV program including (and especially) news, movie, web site, non-fiction book, product label, store sign, logo, CD/DVD/game cover, flyer/brochure/business card, free “literature” from the government and non-profits, tons of junk mail, mannequins in store windows, blogs...everything. I hope to influence you to think independently even if you disagree with me. Dissonance can be revolutionary.

Today's Lesson Courtesy of Orange County Choppers: Sr. vs. Jr.

I occasionally watch “American Chopper” and have since it first aired. Most people who watch the show clearly see that Paul Sr. is a raving narcissist. Of course being a narcissist means Sr. will never see that truth about himself. Even if it comes down to Sr. vs. world he will adamantly declare that the world is at fault. It’s really hard to work for a narcissist and it’s harder to have one for a parent. Combining the two would be a living hell. Even if a narcissistic parent loves his child he will always love himself more. If he has to choose between his own success and his son’s he’ll promote himself and sabotage his son. There is no reasoning with a narcissist if their ego is at stake.

The tide of public opinion flows in Paul Jr.’s favor. However, he is often called spoiled and his work ethic is criticized. Viewers can see that Sr. is an old-school iron worker and Jr. is a creative designer. What Jr.’s critics can’t seem to put together is that creative types don’t approach work like builder types. They work best with a lot of freedom but they require a project deadline and a budget. It’s not a matter of right and wrong. If a job requires 40 hours to complete it doesn’t matter if that work is done at 8 a.m., 3 p.m. or midnight as long as deadline is met within budget.

Many old school builder types take pride in rising early, getting to work early, being “on time,” etc. They’ll put in their hours and their overtime as necessary but they are also the ones who insist on lunch at noon and insist it's time to go home at 6 p.m. because they've already worked "late."

It seems that many people have a myopic and archaic view of what it means to have a good work ethic. They seem to believe that hard work equals success. I suspect people cling to this view because it makes them feel in control and gives them hope for moving up in the world. I hate to kill the Easter Bunny for you but that’s just your indoctrination speaking. Your keepers want you to work hard. It profits them and distracts you. Most people who work hard will never be successful in the mold of the American ideal.

When I lived in Baton Rouge I interviewed a man I worked with for an employee newsletter. He was a fifty-something African American. He was married with children. He had not one, not two, but three jobs. Three. And this wasn’t a temporary thing. Two of the jobs were full time and one was part time. He had worked this way for decades. He told me he worked all day (as a forklift operator in a warehouse) then went home for dinner then left again and worked the second full-time job at night. He also had a job on Saturday. To say he worked hard is a gross understatement. I respect him because he was taking care of his family; but from outward appearances most would not call him a success. (White people who think racism is not an ongoing issue have their heads up their asses.) Can you be a success if you have to sell 100 hours a week of your life to simply survive? Can you be a success when you rarely see your children; or worse, have a bad relationship with them? Sr.?

As a homeschooling mother I can also attest that one could work themselves into an early grave and still have to declare bankruptcy along the way. The moral highway is not a lucrative path.

It’s far more important to work smart and treat people with respect than it is to work hard. Working hard (unless you are working for yourself) is spending your life as someone else’s beast of burden. It’s basic business 101. Business owners don’t start a business to make their employees money. They start a business to make themselves money and they need and profit upon the time and effort of their employees. Employees are like machines. Your value is mathematical. How much money do you make the company? The company wants to keep as much of that money as possible and pay you as little as they can get away with. You know that right? So if you make a company $100 per hour and they are willing to pay you $15 per hour how hard should you work? Ethically you should do the work you were hired to do and do it well but should you work harder? Should you push yourself to make the company $150 per hour and then ask for a raise and get $16 per hour? This is turning into an I.Q. test. Yea, this is why companies choose to get cheap labor overseas. It’s NEVER been about the worker. It’s always been about the profit. I’m continually astounded by people who don’t understand this and ask “but what about the American worker?”

Back to OCC, Jr. has the creative brain to assemble a team of talented friends and build the kind of bikes that put OCC on the map and do this on any schedule that is most conducive to their success. Sr. can show up early every day, be a hard ass, drive a team of brown nosers who pretend to toe the “hard work” line yet never build another bike anyone wants to buy. With every new shit bike they finish we get to watch Sr. barrel down the highway of failure for a test drive.

True success today relies more upon creativity, talent, skill, knowledge, an enormous amount of luck and courage rather than the work ethics of the industrial age. Giving the finger to corporate America is usually required. A successful person has freedom in their work; and if they are a parent they have a good relationship with their children. If you're a multi-millionaire and your kids won't talk to you then you are an embarassing failure.

I guess TLC will continue to document the crash and burn of OCC because, hey, it’s good for profit and it distracts us. Hopefully Paul Jr. will rise from the ashes.

Bullies Need a Good Bitch Slap

It’s 2010 and there’s a lot of talk about bullying at schools. People are trying to get laws passed against bullying anorexics… and bullying gays … and bullying special ed students … and bullying cross dressers. People by the droves are on Internet forums resolutely declaring that bullying is bad, shouldn’t happen and needs to be dealt with by the schools, the parents and the legal system. They write things like “How did children get to be so hateful?” and “Parents need to get involved.” And the piercingly astute “People need to grow up.” Where have these people been to be so perplexed? Have they never observed nature and human behavior?

In nature a bigger, stronger animal will bully another. For example, baby owls in a nest will bully the smallest to death and may eat it. Lions will take down a wildebeest right in front of the rest of the herd that never seem to intervene on the behalf of Willy #243,957 who is being disemboweled before them. There is something in nature that prompts bullying behavior. It’s like a test for weakness and an establishment of pecking order. It seems to be a part of survival instinct.

Take a look at human history right up to the present day. Why do we have nations? People would naturally want the best land for hunting and gathering or farming and a good water supply. Well everybody wants that. More people arrive. They’ll fight over the resources. Families stick together. They grow into tribes. They eventually grow into nations with their common language and culture. They defend their resources but they also want more. They want the resources that others have as well. The result is centuries of warfare. Without an internal moral compass for restraint people will take what they want if they can get away with it. Even reality TV clearly illustrates this.


The U.S. is no different. We’re spoon fed propaganda telling us that we are somehow morally superior but our behavior as a nation proves that we are not. This nation was founded upon bullying and it continues to this day. Slavery, the Trail of Tears, homesteading, income taxes …we are not in Iraq because of terrorism. We are in Iraq because we want oil.

We, also as a nation, don’t tolerate other nations bullying us – particularly if we think we can beat them. We’ll fight with Iraq and Afghanistan but we won’t fuck with China. The world is like a big school playground. When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor (and I won’t go into how they were antagonized) we didn’t fill out a form of complaint. We immediately went to war and in the end struck the killing blow by using more devastating bombs than they had and appeased our conscience with the ludicrous rationalization that the bombs saved lives. You slap me, I punch you, you shoot me, I decapitate you. Checkmate.

I guess that’s all fine and dandy as long as it is “them” who are bullied, right? It’s not supposed to happen to us and ours – our tribe – our family. Wah, wah, whine, whimper…

Then of course there are the parents of the bullies. Bullying behavior starts very young. Sometimes they do it because they are exposed to it and sometimes it just comes natural. How many times have we all seen some toddler raising hell in a store because he/she wants something the parent doesn’t want to buy? If this was nipped in the bud at home we’d rarely see a thrashing, screaming, manipulative display like that in public. But most parents start trying to negotiate. WTF? They’ll squat down to the toddler’s level for an eye-to-eye discussion (often getting kicked in the process). Or they’ll threaten the child with some future punishment, which to a toddler may as well be in the next lifetime. Or, my favorite, they’ll start counting … “one … stop it … do you hear me?... twwooooo … I mean it, settle down… don’t let me get to three…” A countdown is just allowing bad behavior to continue while you stand there looking like a dolt -- a really big dolt on an invisible leash getting the shit kicked out of you by a bully you created. Thanks for contributing.

I don’t claim to have all the answers but with my children whining not only did not get them what they wanted it was met immediately with losing something they already had and valued. Whining therefore never became an issue. Just didn’t happen. This applies to any unacceptable behavior (unless there is some underlying physiological issue such as an allergy or intolerance to a particular food ingredient. I’ve seen well-behaved kids go completely out of control a few minutes after drinking a glass of Kool-Aid.)

In regard to bullying at school a parent posted on the Internet that his/her teen-age daughter was told to 1) tell a teacher, 2) tell the principal, 3) defend herself. Nice try but this is bass ackwards. Number 1 is defend yourself. Verbal assaults require verbal defense. Physical assaults require physical defense. Filling out a form of complaint is as impotent as counting. The initiator of a physical assault should be expelled. If physical injuries are sustained by the victim then assault charges should be filed. We already have laws against assault. We don’t need a new one for each possible target. A lot of us seem to think that if there is a problem then a law will fix it. Again I state the obvious: you can’t legislate morality.

Cyber bullies should lose access to all electronic and computerized devices they used as weapons. No cell phone, no computer. If someone shoots another person we don’t allow them to keep guns. It’s not complicated. Give them an old Underwood typewriter for school work and a 1970s land line phone at home for a year … or two … or three depending upon how big of an asshole they were.

The solutions are right in front of us. But it seems we’d rather shuffle papers, wring our hands, and ask why rather than solving the problem. And BTW, the suicide by victims of bullying is nothing new at all. Every single one is tragic but history is full of suicides by people who were bullied. (For example research Christopher Columbus and Indian mass suicide.) The only thing that reduced the occurrence of suicide throughout history was the pervasive church teaching that eternal damnation was the price.

Parents, if you know your kid is getting bullied then put a stop to it. If you’ve got to pull them out of school and press charges, do it. The only thing worse than a bully is parents who won’t go to the mat for their kid. If your kid commits suicide because you were fucking around with formalities such as some 30-day complaint process about “corrective measures” then you are guilty of murder as is the bureaucratic imbecile who drafted such a tedious process.

When I was about 8 or 9 years old, I had two playmates (extended family members who were unavoidable) who seemed to take sport in bullying me. One was a year older and another was three years older. I told them to stop, to leave me alone… over and over to no avail. One day as I was sitting between the two watching TV and they were taunting me I’d finally had it. I hit the oldest one to my right hard and fast then turned and attacked the one to my left. They were shocked and said “She’s defending herself!” Bullying from one stopped then and there. The other required one more dose of ass kicking. One day she hit me and I hit her in the face so hard she fell backwards over a couch. She came up screaming and crying with a black eye. All it takes is one or two episodes of public self-defense and most bullies will leave you alone. Very few are willing to sustain injuries and humiliation from their intended victims.

Don’t start shit and don’t take it. Sounds patriotic, eh?

“Disposable Income” A Pound of Flesh

“Disposable Income.” What a perverted misnomer. Does no one think before coining a phrase and then unleashing it into American vernacular? Not only is it not what it says it is, apparently the people that use it are unable to agree to what it should mean. I’m not going to go into technical definitions. I’ll be certain to fall comatose at the keyboard and bruise myself. My point is that the term is a slippery little bastard that will inevitably be used against you in some form of legal plunder.

Let’s say you are involved in a severe car accident and an ambulance picks you up and takes you to a hospital. Then, while attempting to recover, you get the ambulance bill for, say, $4000. (It was just a little jaunt down the highway that should have cost maybe $1000 if you were feeling generous; but they, like every other medical “caregiver” get to make up the bills as they go along because you are in no shape to argue. Lucky them, you are in pain or unconscious. And woe unto you if they took you via helicopter.) So, you get this inflated monstrosity of a bill along with about 30 others because everybody wants to profit from your misfortune as much as possible. Let’s say you earn an average American salary which is around $46,000 per year. And let’s say you have a spouse and children. It’s going to be damn difficult to pay all 31-ish medical debts at the same time. You can call them and ask for patience. Some will work with you and some won’t. You can write to them but unfortunately the literacy rate has fallen so dramatically many won’t know what a letter is much less what it means. (I kid you not.) While you’re attempting to sort invoices out and pay the debts to your best ability, lo and behold, the lawyer enters the scene, sues you, wins, blights your credit score (shame on you for getting in an accident), then garnishes your wages based upon … “disposable income.”
They can (and will) take 25% of your “disposable income.” At face value a logical person might think disposable income is what is available after you’ve paid not only your taxes, but your mortgage/rent, utilities, food, etc. One might think that disposable income is what is left over after necessities have been paid and can be disposed of at one’s own discretion to eat at a restaurant or go to a movie or buy a CD. No. That would be logical. We are dealing with immoral opportunists here. For debt collection purposes “disposable income” is your entire net pay.

Let’s say from your income of $46k/year you bring home $3000 per month for your family of four to live on. (This is a national embarrassment already.) Even without any car, credit card, or student loan debt your bills, groceries, and gas alone will run a conservative $2500 depending upon your location, etc. This doesn’t begin to address the other medical debts waiting in the wings (probably preparing to sue you as well). Once they take 25 percent of your net pay you will be left with about $2250 per month. They’ve put you in a corner. Decisions must be made. Do you not pay the rent or mortgage and become homeless? Do you not pay the car insurance or put gas in the car and lose your employment? Do you not pay gas, phone, electricity, water, or heating bills? What’s left? Food and possibly medications. What’s it going to feel like when you look your family in the eyes and tell them your food budget has been cut 40 PERCENT for several months? Garnishment in situations like this literally takes food from children. (Of course with an income of $46k/year you can’t get food stamps so fuck you and yours.)

Nice system we’ve got, eh? And quite the career path that the debt collectors and their lawyers have chosen. I wonder if, as children, they aspired to be evil and prey on the pain and misfortune of others or they just fell into it by default – unable to earn an honest, respectable living and quite happy that legal doesn’t mean right.

I take great comfort in the universal law that you reap what you sow. It makes me very, very happy … gleeful in fact because I’ve never seen this law violated. I could write a book. (Maybe I will.)

To all you people (and corporations, governments and whatever entity you fester within) who prey on the innocent, do know that the money taken from them will rot your soul and eat your flesh so when your tragedy arrives remember that you planted the seeds for it yourself and I’ve rejoiced at your reaping. It might not be today or tomorrow. It might be decades from now but your crop of misery will indeed come in fruitful and multiplied. While blessings will rain in abundance on those who have sowed love, compassion, peace and beauty. It’s already a done deal.

"School First," chants wild-eyed Stepford Mom

My kids occasionally like to watch “Wife Swap” or “Trading Spouses” just to see how illogical and bizarre (they would say crazy) people are. Obviously since these shows are attempting to be entertaining they choose women from families with lifestyles that are in stark contrast to one another. Often they will trade/swap a creative or quirky wife with a very traditional, conservative wife; or trade a wealthy, materialistic, spoiled wife with one who is poorer, physically hard-working, and lacking luxuries. What fun. My children and I usually think that both women are quite on the fringe of going round the bend. However, the show does illustrate that people seem to make decisions based upon tradition and emotion and then fail to revisit those decisions unless forced to do so. That’s all fine and dandy unless you have children.

During almost every show at least one mom (guess which) goes on a tangent about how school must always come first before any other interest. Women also love to lay down the law as far as chores and housework go. During their rant they never actually back up their opinion with reasoning. Maybe an hour is just not enough time to make sense.

What should come first in a child’s life?

When my mom was growing up (in the 50’s) her parents insisted that chores come first. She had to do chores before school in the morning and before homework in the afternoon. (They didn’t have a TV.) She also had an enforced bedtime. Often, this meant she didn’t have enough time to do homework which in turn means she didn’t do too well in school. I’ve never understood how my grandparents, who were both intelligent and literary types, could put chores before education. It’s almost as though learning were a luxury and they sent their children to school because it was a requirement. It seems they had a Little-House-on-the-Prairie point of view.

What this translated into was a woman who’s greatest talent, her most marketable skill, was cleaning a house. Appearance became her priority. Not exactly a lofty goal. Sure, it made for an exemplary housewife and that’s all fine and dandy until her husband left her unwell at mid-life. Can we define “destitute?”

Then you have women who tell children that school always comes first before any other interest or skill. Some children have strong talents and passions for subjects such as art, music, theater, dance, a sport, cooking, gardening, astronomy etc., etc. Yet they will be told “school first” before allowing the child time to pursue their gifts. Why? Without being emotional or just regurgitating the SOS you’ve heard all your life, ask yourself “What is the purpose of school?” Is it to make good grades? Is it to keep a child occupied while mom and dad are working? Is it a place where kids are indoctrinated day after day for 12+ years to be “good” citizens? Is it a place to learn; and, if so, learn what? How to survive the social labyrinth? Algebra? The works of Shakespeare? These are extremely important questions. It seems the only people asking these questions are the people who have a financial interest in the answers. Parents seem too pre-occupied with the mortgage and far too trusting of the entrenched education system which they themselves were subject to.

Parents’ definitive responsibility is to raise their children with love and care to be independent adults. That’s it. That’s the job. School is a tool. Parents can use it to their children’s benefit and/or the system will use it to its benefit. What does your child need to know to be an independent adult? We could probably all agree that every person needs to be able to read and write. (We’re in trouble already.) Every person needs to be able to do basic business math. (Easy stuff with calculators and computers.) Every person should know basic world geography and have at least overview knowledge of world history. Every American should know what the Constitution says so that we all know how the government is SUPPOSED to work. Every person should have a general understanding of biology, health, and ecology. Every person should be able to do self-directed research. These are all basics. These things don’t take eight hours a day, nine months per year for 12+ years to learn. The basics, if done right, are a part-time, temporary gig. It's a foundation not a house.

To be independent adults children must discover and hone their talents in their fields of interests. This is the crescendo and climax of childhood. It is the purpose for which they were born. It is more important for a musician to practice their instrument than to learn algebra. It is more important for an aspiring chef to cook than to study Shakespeare. It is more important for a future chemist to study chemistry and experiment than to play basketball in gym class.

This life passes in a flash. School is not first. Chores are not first. The children themselves and the gifts they carry are first. Otherwise, all is lost.

Say... That’s a Nice Paper Sword You’ve Got There

If you read comments posted on forums regarding government (and basically the state of the world) you often see people state things like “We have the right to do ______ from document _______ section ______ paragraph ______.” These are usually the same people who consider the Democrat vs. Republican hydra a choice. Don't giggle. I'm serious. The people who write these things actually seem to believe them. Droves and herds and multitudes of people actually believe these things. They believe this because they were taught to believe them, conditioned to believe them without question. Look at it. The very “entity” that drafts these words doesn’t abide by them. The only power those documents have is the belief that the common people have in them.

The Constitution of the United States is brilliant – a work of genius. It’s a must read and it’s brief (which, in part, is why it’s so brilliant). Now the problem is that the “Powers That Be” NEVER play by the rules and this includes the Constitution. Right from the get-go the Declaration of Independence stated the reality of “all men are created equal.” I mean, really, if you need someone to tell you that then you already are a lost cause. Even the founders stated that it was self-evident. Yet the only people treated as equals were white, male land-owners. We all know that right? The heart of the beast never changed, only the paper clothing.

The powers that you believe are yours because they are written down somewhere are not real. Just as you can do research and spend time writing a business plan detailing your trajectory to success. Do pages of line graphs and positive statistics equal success? Or is it really nothing more than wishful thinking on paper?

People don’t really change. Have you noticed? It takes Herculean effort and a blessing from God to change even the smallest things about ourselves. If you are born with a short temper chances are very high that you will have to work hard to keep it under control all of your life. If you are a naturally untidy person you will have to put in much more effort to keep a somewhat organized house, car, or work area. If you tend to gain weight easily then you will have to work harder than average all of your life to keep your weight down. It’s just the way it is. Nations are the same. We can see with our own eyes what the United States did to the Native Americans. The U.S. wrote many treaties with the Native Americans and broke them with such consistency it seemed a sport. The U.S. government doesn’t give a damn about what it’s agreed to on paper. It wants land, resources, money, power and control. And it takes what it wants. Don’t delude yourself about that. If it wants your house, it will take it. If it wants your money, it will take it. If it wants Iraq’s oil, it will take it. If it wants Afghanistan’s heroin/opium supply, it will take it. It always has. But just to appease the masses it tells us from birth that this is a free country… the best country in the world… freedom isn’t free… we have the best medical system in the world... blah, blah, propaganda, blah. I mean really. Do we not have eyes to see? Can we not put two and two together?

The U.S. Government disregards the Constitution. Many in government don’t even know what the Constitution states. So, if we the people agree to and believe the Constitution contains the principles upon which our nation should exist then we have a job to do. Unfortunately this requires an educated and thinking populace. How’s that U.S. public education system working out for us, eh? Well, it’s working just as it was designed to work.

Wars are not created by the average citizen of Earth. If we all lived by the Golden Rule we could get along in peace. But war is more profitable to the Powers That Be. They have big guns but they’re not too bright. We all watched the towers fall with demolition precision and they thought we wouldn't notice. What’s pathetic is that although people did notice a large percentage didn’t question it. I guess they couldn’t put two and two together. Dumb confounds Dumber.

Over 2700 people died in the WTC that day. Everybody freaked out. Meanwhile over a quarter of a million people die each year in the U.S. as a direct result of our shoddy Best-in-the-World medical system and no one bats a lash. TV commercials alternate between fake food, drugs, and law suits against drug companies. Follow the money. You eat Franken food (no nourishment for you but big bucks for Big Agra), you get sick (big bucks for Medical and insurance companies), you take drugs (big bucks for Big Pharma), you go from bad to worse (hardship for you and your family), and then the lawyers want to “help” (big bucks for the ambulance and hearse chasers). Is anyone actually helping you? Does anyone with any influence or power actually have your best interest in mind? Do you really want the same government that allowed slavery, that robbed from and murdered Native Americans en masse, that wages war for profit to be in charge of your “health” care? There are quicker methods of suicide.

That’s a nice paper sword you’ve got there. Be careful not to get a paper cut as you go about your serfdom.