Sailing around the world

In a couple of days, on October 4th, the 2008-2009 running of the Volvo Ocean Race Round The World begins.  This is ‘life at the extreme’, sailing around the world in the most advanced yachts in there are.  People have died during this race, and boats have been lost.  The race covers much of the globe, from Spain to South Africa, Australia, Brazil, the United States, and back to Europe for the finish.  From dodging iceburgs in the Southern Ocean to standing watch in shorts, the crews experience a wide range of weather.  In-port races provide action up close, while videos are recorded and transmitted from the boats during the 5and 6,000 mile long open ocean legs.

The race began as the the Whitbread, in 1974, the result of a challenge thrown down in an English pub.  Run every 4 years until now, the race is considered the Himilayas of sailing.  The boats are now built specifically for the race, at a cost of millions of dollars.  They are constructed almost entirely of carbon, using techniques developed in the aviation industry.  In order to allow sailing even faster, they have keels which can be moved from side to side.  The last race saw 25 whole days subtracted from the previous record, with boat speeds of 25 to 30 knots being common.  One boat covered 562 miles in a 24 hour period, setting a mark which still stands.

You don’t have to be into sailing to get excited about this race, because it is flat out, balls-to-the-wall action from start to finish, apart from the occasional windless days.  The crews come from all over the world, and are the best of the best at what they do.  This race is about using a knowledge of Nature, advanced technology, and the power of the human spirit to challenge the deep blue sea.  Check it out at www.volvorace.com.  They even have a web TV site, with highlights of past races.  I think that it is a lot better than watching cars burn up gas.

No more IOU’s, just cash from now on.

It cracks me up to hear the presidential candidates saying that they won’t raise taxes.  We are so deep in debt right now that we are probably going to see a longer work week sometime soon, just so that we can have something to take home after taxes.  Bailing out the greedy and the lazy will push us much deeper into the red than anyone thought possible just a few months ago.

What happened to the American work ethic?  When did it become disrespectful to work?  A great deal of the economic woe that we are facing now is because so many Americans were trying to get wealthy without having to work.  Not to mention the impact that having to pay a cash dividend every year has had on our industries.  Even when business is horrible, big companies have continued to hand out hundreds of millions, even billions, in cash to people who own their stock.

It used to be that buying stock was considered an investment in the future, because the payoff would take a few years, as the company gradually grew.  Somewhere along the line, somebody realized that they could sell a lot more stock if they promised to pay the people who bought that stock a cash payment every year, just for owning the stock.  In today’s world, large sums of cash can be hard to come by, resulting in companies having to get loans to pay the stockholders their dividends.

Even when that doesn’t happen, the profits that the company make are not being reinvested in the company, they are going to the shareholders.  Instead of developing new products, and more efficient methods of producing existing ones, companies are ‘outsourcing’ much, if not all, of their production.  This looks great on the balance sheet, but in the long term, it is suicide.  Who is going to buy the products that the company makes if everyone is out of work?

Everyone is getting all hot and bothered about the completely unrealistic levels of compensation that many executives have been getting, but all of their salaries and bonuses together would hardly be a drop in the bucket compared to the billions and billions that are paid out in dividends every year.  Those dividends are the future of our nation, the ability to grow, to innovate, to improve.  We are throwing those things away so that a bunch of lazy idiots can sit around doing nothing.

If the work week ends up being 50, or even 60, hours, than I think we should make it illegal to pay stockholders in cash any kind of dividend.  Make their shares worth more, so that all of us will be worth more.  The growth that we thought we were enjoying has turned out to be an illusion, a bubble that all of us helped to create.  Wealth is once again going to be measured by tangible things, not pieces of paper.

No matter how much the government gives the banks, the banks are not about to start loaning money out, because the bankers know that we are all broke, and they don’t want to lose any more of the so-called value that they are responsible for.  Because they will have to pay their shareholders with cash, not IOU’s.

Words for the season

HARVEST KING

AND

THE FESTIVAL OF AUTUMN

I am the Harvest King.
My colors are brown and yellow, orange and black.
I am the bounty of the land.
The death which brings life.
I am Change, and Sacrifice for the Future.
I am that which makes space for new life.
I will come for you.

In Death, we celebrate new beginnings,
As we cherish that which has passed on.
The Harvest King reminds us of the sacred nature of life,
And drives us together,
So that we may face the coming Winter.
The Life Force withdraws from the land,
And we gather to draw strength from each other,
And the memories of those who have gone before us.

We celebrate the Life Force which has died,
Cherishing the sacrifice made for the living.
We glimpse the full cycle of the wheel,
Life emerging from the residue of Death,
Growing, creating more Life, sharing in the harvests,
And then, joining the slumbering pool of Life,
Waiting to be reborn.

Scott P. Holman

Hey, buddy, can you spare a billion?

A landlord once told me that he was worried where he was going to get his next 1,000 dollars, which kind of put my problems in perspective.  For many major companies right now, figuring out where they are going to get their next billion dollars is a major concern.  America has become addicted to easy credit, from the Federal government down to the folks next door.  The term ‘bridge loan’ has nothing to do with bridges, but instead is an industry term for short-term financing to get through until expected funds become available.  It is kind of like a payday loan, but at much lower interest rates.

The state of California was used to getting bridge loans, a few billion to tide it over until tax revenues start coming in next spring.  Many companies borrow for a day, a week, or a month, at low interest, to cover payroll, for instance.  But it wasn’t always like this, which is why things are so messed up right now.  It used to be, companies kept cash in bank accounts to cover any conceivable expense, because credit was hard to get, even for multi-million dollar organizations.  States would borrow money, but only through bond sales, which were usually long-term instruments, often 20 years.  They had to keep their accounts in the black to cover day-to-day expenses.

Homeowners had savings accounts that often represented a year or more worth of income, to protect against a water heater going bad, or having to buy a new car, or somebody getting really sick.  The only way to get the equity out of a house was to sell it.  But most people had enough in the bank to see them through, so they didn’t need to borrow against what they had paid on their home.  Then, something changed, something which was a fundamental shift in thinking.

When people had spent all of their extra cash, they quit buying stuff that they really didn’t need.  This seems logical enough, but it meant that consumer spending began to decline, which hurt the profits of many big corporations.  In order to keep people buying stuff, an new idea surfaced.  Easy credit.  The credit card.  A homeowner was a sure bet, because their house would be their collateral for their debt.  Enter Monster Card, and its brethren.  In an amazingly short period of time, the United States went from being the largest creditor nation to the largest debtor nation, as easy credit spread from homeowners to big corporations to states.

Borrowing money used to be looked down upon, because good people paid cash.  Little by little, that stigma was erased, and replaced with a belief that we deserved what we wanted, right away.  Instant gratification became the standard operating procedure of not just teenagers, but adults, executives, and elected officials.  Of course, lending out money is a profitable enterprise, so everybody jumped on the bandwagon.  And, an obscure rule of accounting made it even easier.  If someone owes you money, it increases your net worth.  Accounts receivable are counted as an asset on a balance sheet.

The more money that is owed you, the wealthier you are, irregardless of the ability of the debtors to pay you back.  On paper, you can be worth millions, even billions, but not have two dimes to rub together.  Say, buddy, can you spare a billion?  I’m a little short right now.

Future shocking?

It amazes me that we are not hearing any straight talk about what lies ahead, as if things could somehow go on as they have before. Even though I have only a small education in economics, it seems obvious to me that the United States is going to have a huge amount of debt to pay off. This can only be done by working together to create things of lasting value which can be used by large numbers of people. Infrastructure. Trade cannot pay off debt, because nothing of lasting value is created in trade.

Consumer spending is based almost entirely upon trade, so consumer spending will have to decline. But how could consumer spending continue at previous levels if people are all broke? Something is going to have to replace consumer spending as the engine of the economy, and it will have to be big. Instead of building roads, though, maybe we should consider some new kinds of infrastructure. Like fiber optic cables to every home, and a combination data terminal/videophone in every house. A national high speed rail network. Upgrade the electric grid, and run transmission lines to areas where wind is plentiful. Insulate every structure in the nation. Not just spending money, but actually increasing our efficiency as a nation.

Demand for resources can easily outstrip supply if developing countries begin large-scale consumption. The resulting supply-side shocks cripple the economy, pushing up inflation at the same time that wages become stagnant. Greed overwhelms the markets, and a herd mentality emerges, where any profitable strategy is immediately copied, over and over again. One sub-prime mortgage is not a problem. Several million of them are. So markets will have to be guided into spending a portion of their capital on long-term projects, which will dampen the volatility in the short term, while providing guidance for investors as to where long-term growth will be.

Our future economic expansion must be based in increasing our net worth, not financial manipulations of value. Paying for this increase will mean working longer hours, so that the tax burden is spread over more earnings. The payment of cash dividends has got to be discouraged, so that corporations can invest their earnings into new means of production, training, and research. Military spending has got to be reduced, as that is money that disappears from our economy after one pass through it. Spending on space exploration needs to be increased, because it generates new wealth at a rate nearly unequaled, while engaging the high-tech military-industrial complex.

Saving has got to be encouraged, so that the government will have access to money to use for these programs. Payroll accepted in the form of U.S. savings bonds should be tax free, and the payroll value calculated in immediate redemption value, not the face value at maturity. Interest on savings accounts should be tax free. We are going to have to stop relying on foreign countries to carry our debt, because we are making our money worthless. Only by working together, and sharing the sacrifices, can we have any hope of coming out of this economic meltdown.

Better than term limits!

Do you ever get a little miffed that the person that is supposed to be serving you in some public office is instead spending their time campaigning for re-election, or, even worse, another office?  Both of the current candidates for president hold the office of U.S. senator, which should be their primary focus, in my opinion.  How has their candidacy affected their votes on the Senate floor?  If elected, would either person put the needs of the country ahead of their re-election?  Would either person be willing to take unpopular action, knowing that it would probably eliminate their chance for a second term?

How often have you heard that passage of critical legislation is unlikely during an ‘election year’?  If a person has choosen to make their career in politics, won’t they consider keeping their job the most important goal?  Many people have become disgruntled with the advantage than an incumbant has over a challenger, and various attempts at limiting the number of terms that can be served in a given office have been put forward.  Most have failed, because there is no agreement on the limits.

When this country was founded, getting people to serve in public office was a huge problem.  Often, it meant being away from one’s farm or business for months at a time, which could lead to financial ruin.  Now, we have legislators who have been in office for decades, who have hardly spent any time in the areas that they represent, who have developed close relationships with lobbyists.

I say, force people to step down when their term of office expires, and don’t allow anyone holding elected office, even if it is at the local level, to run for another office.  I am sick of mayors running for state representative, or county commisioners campaigning for state senate office.  I don’t want to see any more governers using their office as a stepping stone to higher office, because they have been elected to do a job.  When an office holder is campaigning for re-election, or election to another office, how focused are they on their job?  How likely are they to do what is right, even if it means displeasing the public initially?

No term limits, for any office.  But no incumbancy, either.  You serve your term, then you are out.  You can run as many times as you want, but, if elected, you have to step down when your term is up.  This is the only truly fair way to insure that we get proper representation in our government, as well as the only way that I can think of that important decisions will be made with the interests of the country in the forefront.  The term ‘career politician’ offends me, because a career politician is someone who has made staying in office their primary goal, not serving their country.

What is ‘normal’ for markets?

Over and over again, in reading about the financial/economic crisis, I come across the expression “when markets return to normal,” Do people really believe that we are going to go back to the dividend-driven, supposedly risk-free, immediate return seeking ways of the last few years? Doesn’t anyone realize that the wealth that was supposedly created in those years never really existed, it was just an illusion to allow a few people to benefit hugely at the majority’s expense? We artificially inflated our net worth, by bidding up the prices of everything, and paying ourselves huge bonuses for being alive. The money that was zooming around, being loaned out again and again, was a fantasy, with nothing to back it up. Just because someone claims that something is worth a certain amount does not make it so, no matter how hard we wish.

So we had better start adjusting to a new reality, one where wealth is again hard to come by, and is only created by work, not by manipulating numbers. We must accept that we cannot live off of our investments alone, because they are not going to provide the steady stream of money that so many have become addicted to. Stock dividends are going to become extremely rare, because the companies will be too hard pressed to come up with cash. Credit default swaps are not going to prevent risk, because too much has been invested under the false belief that it cannot be lost. The government cannot hand out trillions of dollars to keep investors from losing when the slowing of the economy stops the payment of debt.

The entire premise that being owed money increases one’s worth will have to be jettisoned, because too many accounts receivable are not going to be collected. A bank holding company may claim that it worth large sums of money because of all the debt that it holds, but how much of that debt will be converted into cash cannot be known in advance. Those companies that do not re-invest their profits into reducing debt and improving efficiency will not see their stock increase in value, unlike in the past. We have gotten used to believing that we were wealthy because we could easily borrow money. We never were wealthy, and we sure aren’t now.

Games people play

Want something new and different to do during the downtime at work, or when you are sitting around wishing that there was something worth watching on TV?  Try the Volvo Ocean Race Virtual Game!  Over 70,000 people have signed up to run a virtual sailboat in this ’round the world’ race, which follows the same course as the real Volvo Open 70 boats.  You don’t have to be a sailor, or even know anything about sailing, just be interested in participating in an online game.

http://www.volvooceanracegame.org/play.php  is the URL that will get you to the sign up page.

For those of you who are into sailing, the new 24 hour record for a monohull boat was set during leg 1, at 602 miles.  That is by a sailboat, folks, not a power boat.  Maintaining an average of about 25 knots, or 30 miles per hour, for 24 hours is quite a feat.  This is the Formula One of sailing, with boats built entirely of carbon, huge sails, and a special ‘canting keel’ which allows the boats to go upwind.  This is not NASCAR, with things going around and around, this is not football, with people hitting each other,  this is not any sport you have ever seen.  People have died during these races, and boats have been lost.

In an age when burning gasoline is becoming less than politically correct, sailing is a clean, green sport.

I’m so confused!

Here in the United States, we use a celebration of Death to kick of the celebration of Life.  What am I talking about?  Thanksgiving and the Christmas Shopping Season.  Although Thanksgiving is dedicated to the Pilgrams landing at Plymouth Rock, it is really a harvest celebration, just a little late in the year.  (I for one never believed that people ate outside at Thanksgiving ever! Especially in Massachuesetts.)  The roast beast, the trimmings, the goodies, the pies, the whole production is a celebration of the bounty of the land, and the sacrifice made so that Life can go on.  Everything on the table will be dead, and that is what the celebration is all about.  We give thanks to that which has died so that we can continue.

Unless you live in some place without electricity, you will probably notice that the sky glows at night a lot more than usual in the days after Thanksgiving.  Some people already are burning their Christmas, or Yule, lights, and the day after Thanksgiving in the ‘official’ kick off of the Christmas Shopping Season.  The Yule Tide was a celebration of Life, of re-birth, of renewal.  It started a few days after the Winter Solstice, and ran for days or weeks into January.  (What else is January good for, except partying?)

Because merchants want us to buy our gifts, instead of making them ourselves, as was done in the old days, they sponser concerts, public events, lighting displays, and anything eles that they can think of to get people out shopping.  Gradually, the Christmas season has swung around from the weeks after the Winter Solstice to the weeks before the Winter Solstice.  Inadvertantly, we have moved a festival of Life into a time when the LifeForce is ebbing from the land, leaving nothing for when the days begin to get longer.

To make things even more unsettling, late autumn has always been a time when people tried to conserve their resources as much as possible, by staying close to home, eating very little, and sleeping a lot.  For thousands and thousands of years, what food we had would have to last until Spring, at the earliest.  So, getting out and being extra active in late autumn just feels wrong somehow.

We must remember our instinctual heritage, what cultures practiced before written history, when analyzing our motivations and emotional responses to modern societie’s demands.  There are ample reasons for feeling confused and out of sorts in the weeks ahead, and some we don’t even acknowledge.

Have a wonderful Harvest Festival!

Saving a little money

Now that folks are starting to realize that it is not just them, we are all broke, maybe we can start changing some wasteful practices.  Such as paying one set of people to take care of our elders, and another set of people to take care of our children.  Both functions were part of the family experience up until about 60 years ago, the elders taking care of the children, teaching them culture, history, manners, and social skills, until the children were old enough to start taking care of the elders, when they became infirm.  Today, we seperate these two groups, so that many young children never get to know really old people, and our elders pining their days away wishing that they could spend time with children,  Any children.

Many of the people who have been placed in assisted living or nursing facilities are alert, active, and interested in what is going on around them, they simply are in need of care which family members can’t, or won’t, provide.  They are capable of spending an hour or two a few days a week helping to watch over a group of children.  Not by themselves, of course, but with the assistance of young, able bodied people.  And not in the common room of the facility catering to the elders, but in a special, home-like setting, perhaps not even on the same grounds.  Elders could be compensated for their time, and the proceeds used to help defray the cost of their care.

Somehow, a way should be found to utilize the free time, culutural knowledge, and historical background of our elders in socializing our youth.  Very young children love to please elderly people, and elderly people love to spend time with very young children.  When these two populations are allowed to interact, the results are often far more positive than when either interacts with any other age group.  It is a waste to keep them segregated.

You can keep Christmas, I’ll celebrate the Yule!

Many folks don’t realize this, but Christmas is a distorted echo of an ancient pagan, or witchcraft, celebration of the Winter Solstice.  The Yule, or YuleTide, was begun on or about December 25th, which is the first day that it is always possible, no matter which day the solstice falls upon, to measure the shortening of a shadow cast at noon.  The celebration lasted weeks, or even months, as the primitive people of Western Europe gathered together to face their greatest enemy, the winter.  The evergreen tree was a symbol of Life carrying on through the Death of winter.  Candles were symbols of the Sun, which made life possible.

In a time when nothing was taken for granted, and gods peopled the heavens and earth, the idea that the Sun could just keep going South was not uncommon.  To believe that the world could end up in eternal night gave great cause for celebration when it was determined that the Sun was coming back.  Because people had lots of spare time during the months of Autumn, they could make handycrafts, which they shared with each other when they gathered for YuleTide.  An animal would be slaughtered, the thinning of the stock to ensure that some survived the winter, and a feast would be held.

Thus, the traditions of the Yule have been passed down, but the celebration has been distorted by Greed.  In order to get people out shopping, buying the things that they can no longer make, decorations go up early, special occasions are held, and people are encouraged to spend money on their loved ones.  A countdown to the day is held, and the anticipation builds, aided by commercials.  When the day finally arrives, it is a let down.  Soon, people are unhappy with the whole thing, and decide to take down the festive lights.

Killing a tree every year was never part of the Yule celebration, only decorating one outdoors.  For one thing, there was no room in the huts that families shared for a tree, and the idea of killing an evergreen at that time of year was like heresy.  Gift giving was not a given, (ha ha) but no one was expecting anything.  An article that someone has worked on for hours has that persons energy in it, and it has power emotionally.  Simply handing out gifts would have diminished the impact that gifts had, I believe.

because the celebration of the Yule was so deeply ingrained in the native population of Western Europe, the Christian church gave up trying to stop the celebration, and incorporated it into the Christian calander.  Because the populous believed that the Sun was reborn at the solstice, the church held that the Son was born at that time.  (This in spite of it being generally believed by scholars at the time that Christ was born during the Spring or Summer.)  The emphasis was placed on the religious meaning of the Christian celebration, and the Yule was not mentioned.

To me, Christmas has come to represent the worst of American culture, with Greed being the major offender, followed by Materialism.  People have been lead to believe that the celebration goes on before the fact, not after, so that they will buy more.  I embrace the Yule, because it does not have the materialistic trappings, and it spans the time when it is first noticeable that the days are getting longer.  That is the promise of another Spring, and Life returning.  That, to me, is the Reason For The Season.

Space is the place for industry!

Probably, you have heard something about ‘global warming’, ‘greenhouse gases,’ and some kind of ‘carbon tax’.  These are symptoms of our growing awareness of the fragile nature of our planet’s ecosystem.  Even though ecology is now an accepted discipline, it is a long way from having a complete understanding of all of the things that affect our home.  Most people feel that we should err on the side of caution when it comes to protecting that home, even going so far as buying hybrid automobiles and compact florescent lamps.  Even though the human race’s impact on our climate is still controversial, there can be little doubt that we are not going to be able to expand our industrial base enough to provide everyone on the planet a standard of living equal to that enjoyed in the United States today.

Why?  Because the United States uses nearly one quarter of all the energy consumed every year, yet only has a population of about 300 million people, while there are over six billion fellow human beings riding this spaceship with us.  You can do the math on that.  We already have experienced what happens when energy starts getting really expensive, and all indications are that we ain’t seen nothing yet.  Does this mean that we are doomed to a future of declining standards of living, fewer benefits from technology, and conflict over dwindling resources?

Only if we choose so!  We have an alternative to polluting ourselves into another Stone Age, destroying the life support system of Starship Earth, and poverty from paying for energy.  We are in the midst of plenty, far more than we can conceivably use for many thousands of years.  All around us are mineral and chemical resources, and energy, energy, and more energy.  Where?  Starting about 100 miles over our heads, on the other side of the sky.  Space, which will probably not be the ‘final frontier’, but which will suffice for now.

Our local star, the Sun, produces millions of times the energy we consume worldwide every year, pouring out so much that we have to be shielded from it to avoid turning into puddles of grease.  That is one of the reasons for protecting our ecosystem, because without the ozone layer, tanning would take about 5 seconds.  Most of the plants that we eat would not grow, and strange critters would start showing up, the result of rapid mutations.  Almost all of the energy that we use today comes from or came from the Sun.  Petroleum is sunlight which was captured by plants, and then concentrated by the heat and pressure of the Earth beneath us for millions of years.

Hydro power, the kind that come from the dams that kill the fish, is a result of sunlight heating the oceans, which lifts water far over the land areas, resulting in precipitation.  Wind is a side effect of that process, so even wind power comes primarily from the Sun.  If we were to utilize that energy in space, it would be undiminished by our atmosphere.  And we would not have the by-products and waste here on our home that are a result of every material process, but outside of our ecosystem, where they can’t hurt us, or anybody else, for that matter.

No matter how expensive it is to make things in space, eventually it will be cheaper than making them here on Earth, simply because the penalties for using energy in large quantities will be prohibitive.  And I’m not talking about legal penalties here, but the one’s that Nature imposes upon us.  When we overdo it, Nature has ways of restoring the balance, without any regard for our welfare.  If we disrupt the ecosystem too much, it will cease to support us.

Rather than spending our resources and energy trying to figure out how to do things here on Earth in such a way that they will not have so much impact on the air conditioning, we should be learning how to do them outside, beyond the atmosphere.  Pumping carbon dioxide into the ground will work for a little while, but it is not a final solution.  The final solution is we stop burning stuff here on Earth.  Period. Buying an electric car may seem like a way of protecting the environment, but where does the electricity come from?  For most parts of the U. S., it comes from coal.  Replacing our gas burning cars with electric ones will mean building many, many new coal-fired power plants.

Unless we get the power from outside, and bring it in.  There are ways of collecting the energy of the Sun in space, and then transferring that energy down to the Earth’s surface, safely and cleanly, with much greater efficiency than any feasible collection system working here in the atmosphere.  Converting sunlight to electricity is not easy, unless you have lots of energy to work with.  We can cover vast stretches of the world with solar panels, or we can put a few solar power satellites in orbit, and build a few receiving arrays, and get our power from off-planet.  Most people don’t know this, but the batteries in electric cars wear out after a few years, and solar panels are only good for about 25 years.  So we are looking at making substantially larger investments to stay where we are, if we don’t invest in the future.

The future is off-planet, at least when it comes to energy-intensive, resource-hungry, dirty industrial processes, or producing large quantities of energy.  Our future is off-planet, because that is where the new wealth will be created after a few years.  And there could be something off-planet which will decide our future for us, if we do not have the means to deflect it.  Large rocks, some a mile or more across, are still floating around the Solar System, and running into one of those would make life much more difficult.  It might even kill us, just as one did the dinosaurs.  We can’t even see all the junk that is out there, and we often don’t realize that we are going to have a near-miss until after it happens.

To have a future, one that is certain, one that is brighter than today, one that is worth striving for, means getting off of this rock, and learning to live outside, to work, and to create the things that we need, outside of our ecosystem.  We are fouling our nest right now, threatening the future of our children.  We have a choice, all we have to do is think outside the box.

An open letter to our leaders

The American presence in Afghanistan is accidental, resulting from the terrorist presence in the remote mountains of the country.  The initial goal, the destruction of the Al Qaeda training camps, was completed amidst uncertainty regarding the ruling power, the Taliban.  When it was judged that the Taliban could be held responsible for the presence of the Al Qaeda, regime change in Afghanistan was decided upon by political, not military, leaders of the United States.  Military policy was dictated by political concerns, and violated several long standing guidelines.

With a new administration, the United States has an opportunity to recognize the mistake of past policy, and admit that mistake to the world, while withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan.  The establishment of training centers for the native population to bring forth its own military and police forces would be a method of serving penance for our mistake, while allowing us to maintain involvement in the country.

We were not invited, nor even asked, to invade Afghanistan, nor have we stated our goals in doing so in any meaningful way.  We have exhibited the same behaviors that we have criticized in other major powers, in the full light of world attention.  Our credibility is being weakened by our actions, our reputation diminished.  We have to acknowledge that we have been acting in error, and move to correct that error.

What has been spent on military adventures in the mid-East which have had no discernable benefit to us is staggering, dwarfing the cost of establishing a base on the Earth’s moon, for instance.  We have far too many internal difficulties right now to be acting aggressively outside of our borders.  We are creating the conditions which inspire people to decide that we seek the extermination of a religion, and so to choose to sacrifice themselves in an effort to destroy us

The excuse of national security is completely irrelevant to this conflict, nor can we claim to be enhancing the security of allies in the area.  Justifying what we are doing becomes increasingly difficult, which creates the impression that our leaders are irrational.  We must immediately withdraw our armed forces from Afghanistan and stop our persecution of the Taliban.  No other path offers any benefit to us.

Driving tips

After driving vehicles for a number of years, there are some things that I think are worth passing on.

Look ahead!  Watch what is happening down the road a bit, don’t just stare at what is right in front of you.  Be observant of people waiting to turn left, so that you don’t get trapped behind them.  Watch for emergency vehicles, pedestrians, people backing out of driveways, anything that might affect traffic flow.  By being alert to what is ahead, you can avoid surprises and unnecessary delays.

Try not to get ‘boxed in’, where you have vehicles in front of you, beside you, and behind you.  Try to keep an escape path clear if something were to happen in front of you.

Don’t stop!  Well, sometimes you have to, but on many occasions, you can avoid coming to a complete stop.  Why?  Because starting from a complete stop requires more energy than accelerating from a crawl.  Plus, it puts more wear on the vehicle.  If you are coming up on a red light, slow down before you are up to the waiting traffic, then roll forward slowly.  At a stop sign, slow right down, look both ways, TWICE, then move through if clear.  You will not be stopped by the police for failure to stop if it looks like you came to a stop.

When the roadway is really rough, drive at the edge of the lane.  Try to stay out of the ‘ruts’, the most heavily traveled part of the lane, because the ride is rougher, you will have more resistance to changing direction, and hydroplaning during rain is more likely.

When you are driving in winter conditions, avoid the black part of the lane when slowing down, because it might be glare ice.  If you are having trouble stopping, try to get onto less firmly packed snow and ice.  Slow down well before you need to stop or turn, so that you are less likely to lose traction.

If you are driving a vehicle with automatic overdrive, switch it off in town.  It will try to engage at even 20 miles per hour, resulting in delays before accelerator pedal input takes effect, deposits building up in your engine, and reduced mileage after a while.  When you come to hill on the interstate, shift out of overdrive before you start up the grade, so that your engine will be turning over faster when the load increases.

If you are starting out from a stop sign or signal, turning right onto another roadway, look for pedestrians and bicycles before giving it the gas.

If you are on a hill, at an intersection, apply the handbrake to hold the car, then give it gas until the engine starts to lug down and release the brake.  This will prevent the vehicle from rolling backwards.

When stopping a vehicle with an automatic transmission on slick roadways, put the transmission in ‘neutral’.  The engine is trying to keep the wheels turning whenever the transmission is in ‘Drive’, and vehicles with lots of power accessories often have the idle set very high.  But all vehicles with automatics will be easier to stop if the transmission is in ‘neutral.’

Shift down going up steep hills.  Many automatic transmissions will not downshift until the engine is lugging badly, which is bad for it.  If it is a long, steep hill, turn off the air conditioning, as it puts additional load on the engine.  If you are having problems with the engine overheating, turn the heat up all the way, and crank the fan to the highest setting.  The heater will help to cool the engine.

Learn how to stop the vehicle with the emergency brake, by holding the button on the hand brake, or pulling out the handle for the parking brake while engaging the brake.  This is a back up system to the regular braking system, which will work even if you rupture a brake line and lose all the brake fluid, or if the engine stalls and you lose the power assist.  You must be careful that the brake does not lock in the ‘on’ position, so that is why you depress the button on the hand brake, or pull the handle out for the foot brake.

Check your mirrors every few seconds.  It is important to know what is going on around you.  If you are stopped in traffic waiting for someone to turn or to back out, watch your mirror.  If you see someone coming up behind you who does not look like they are going to stop, put your head back against the head rest, and get ready to stand on the gas.  Having your vehicle moving 1 mile per hour at impact will lessen the shock as compared to being at a standing stop.

Turn your lights on when driving on the highway.  It makes it much easier for others to see you.

Don’t drive with your left foot on the brake pedal.  You can brake with your left foot all you want, but driving with your foot on the pedal often results in your brake lights being on all the time, because the switch that turns them on activates after the pedal is depressed the slightest amount.  Having your brake lights on all the time is like having no brake lights at all:  People can’t tell that you are slowing down, and rear end you.  And it will be your fault.

Leave plenty of room between you and the car in front of you.  You may have superhuman reactions, but even they won’t help you if you are following too closely.  Back off, and watch what is going on in front of the car in front of you.

That is enough for now, I think.

 

Legalize medical hemp!

Legalize medical hemp!  That is right, hemp.  Let’s quit beating around the bush and come clean with each other.  Marijuana is hemp, (well, okay, marijuana is the archaic Hispanic slang word for the flowers of the hemp plant.  But it is still hemp!)  Hemp has been cultivated by humans for thousands years because it is so beneficial.  For nearly that long, people have used it for its medicinal qualities.  Because smoking hemp alleviates a very large number of ailments, from pain to menstrual cramps.

In this day of high drug prices, many people can find help for their problems without having to spend large amounts of money, if they have access to medical hemp.  It may seem strange to think of smoking grass to ease a medical condition, but it works, and far better than any man-made drug, in many cases.  The biggest result of legalizing medical hemp will be the reduction in profits of the big drug companies, because hemp will replace many over-the-counter remedies as well as some prescription drugs.

The federal government, in the guise of the Attorney General, has announced that is no longer going to persecute growers and users of medical marijuana if they are complying with state laws.  This is a clear call for the states to establish enlightened laws regarding the use of hemp for medicinal purposes.   Hemp and all of its products were legal less than 100 years ago, and would still be legal except for the greed of a small number of powerful people many years ago.  Those people managed to win a propaganda war that turned the country against something which it had never heard of, marijuana, allowing the passage of legislation which made growing marijuana illegal.  Marijuana is hemp, and hemp was a major commodity at the time.  But, through legal maneuvering, continuing propaganda, and various other strategies, these people kept hemp off of the market, which is what their goal was.

The entire concept of marijuana causing extreme behavior was cooked up by this group, as a means of confusing the public.  If they had come out and openly called for a ban on the production of hemp, they never would have gotten anywhere.  So, our current beliefs and attitudes about marijuana are the result of propaganda.  We need to ignore the propaganda, and restore a wonderful drug to our medicine chests, one that will not cost us our retirement to use.

Peace through understanding.

Dick Cheney, angry that he is no longer in government, has been lambasting President Obama for being ‘wishy-washy’, and indecisive regarding the war in Afghanistan.  Perhaps this is because Dick Cheney exemplifies the kind of thinking that has gotten us into conflict with the Arab world.  He seems to believe that the United States can be protected from terrorists by sending our military to anywhere that seems opposed to our views of the world to root out the ‘extremists’.

This is the philosophy of ‘peace through strength’, which was the operational mode of the Cold War.  We were so strong that no one dared attack us.  Our huge military protected us from every threat.  Even though this type of thinking was seriously refuted during the Vietnam police action, many people have never given it up, perhaps because they see aircraft carriers as profit centers, not defensive weapons.

But we no longer face military threats, at least of any credibility.  Iran might threaten its neighbors, but it is no where near developing the technology to drop nuclear weapons on the U.S.  But we do face threats, from people who are willing to give their lives so that the American godless horde can be diminished somewhat.  These people can not be stopped by military might, nor are they likely to be stopped by technology.  Because they are a single individual among billions, identifying them is difficult.

But maintaining peace by threatening to blow up anyone who disagrees with us is an unsustainable course.  The more conservative we become, the more people we alienate.  The less willing that we are to change, the more determined people are to make us change.  The more tightly we police our borders, the less secure we are.

Few people seem to be aware of this, but one of the greatest reasons why the U.S. is reviled in the Middle East is because of our support of Israel in oppressing the Palestinians.  In spite of our hosting peace talks, we have never put any serious pressure on Israel to allow the creation of a Palestinian state.  We have not objected forcefully when Israel has allowed its citizens to establish settlements in areas promised to the Palestinians.  Nor have we exerted any effort to prevent the frequent military actions against the Palestinians.

So, we say that we support a Palestinian state, but we do nothing to bring it to pass.  Apparently, we actually do not care about the Palestinians, or any of their fellow Arabs.  All we are interested in is oil, at the lowest possible price.  We toppled a ruthless dictator, not because he was ruthless, or a dictator, but because he was preventing us from having access to his oil.  Before that, we blatantly threw out an honestly elected government, and put our puppet in its place.  When our puppet finally became too old to run the country that we had given him, that country rebelled, and took a bunch of Americans hostage for over a year.

These kinds of actions do not win friends.  They instill fear, anger, determination.  We need instead to be fostering understanding, accepting that we have made poor choices in the past, and expressing willingness to work with Arabs in addressing the Palestinian issue.  This may sound like betrayal to Dick Cheney, but I think that someone whose actions are creating enemies of the United States is betraying that country.

Can’t you feel the rage?

Seems like these days, when someone gets upset, they completely fly off of the handle.  Minor annoyances become life-threatening catastrophes, and driving is an exercise in combat avoidance.  People blow up for no apparent reason, then become distraught because they have over-reacted.  Polite conversation hovers on the edge of the abyss, threatening to fall into discord and conflict at any moment.  The intensity of people’s emotions can be physically difficult to tolerate when they lose themselves again in their anger.

Far too many people have bottled up their depression, frustration, jealousy, and anger, so that they can appear calm and reasonable.  But they lose control over their feelings when they repress them, and are easily overwhelmed when something triggers them.  It is almost like they willingly cast away any control over themselves for a few moments, seeking the single-mindedness of rage.

All too often, I encounter people who cannot even recognize their own anger and frustration, who are at a loss to explain their outbursts.  Watching them go from relaxed and smiling to screaming and thrusting their fists in the air in a matter of seconds truly frightens me, because I have so little control over myself when I get that mad.  I am afraid for these people, that they might do something that they have never done before, and so end up in trouble.

We are constantly under pressure through the media to live lives that are productive and happy, by buying things, spending money, pushing the economy along.  Yet, most of us have little extra money to spend, and we often are putting off purchases that we really want.  On the one hand, we are encouraged to spend, spend, spend, and, on the other hand, we are reluctant to part with one more dollar, because we have already spent more than we should have.

Tuning out the programming, avoiding the stress, requires staying away from electronic media.  Evaluating our goals and aspirations in light of what we have experienced is a hard come-down from the euphoria of youth, but we only set ourselves up for a fall when we continue to expect life to be filled with pleasure and distractions.  We have to understand that there are people who want us to chase those pleasures and distractions, irregardless of whether we can afford it.  Their affluence depends greatly on our pretending to be affluent, so they use every trick there is to get us to spend, including making us feel inferior if we can not.

The years ahead are going to be filled with unmet expectations and shattered dreams.  We came to believe that we were entitled to luxury and instant gratification, when we are not.  Much hard work will have to be done before the average American is going to spend freely on non-essential items, but the whole time people will be angry over what they think they are being denied.  Accepting ourselves as we are, right now, is essential to getting away from the rage.  We will always feel unhappy and angry if we don’t like who we are.

Survival is bad for business!

Reading about the debate surrounding U. S. Senate action on climate change, I kept thinking that there are people in this country who are willing to sacrifice the future in order to keep what they have today.  Not just their own futures, but everyone’s future.  To protect the profits that they are making right now, they resist any kind of change which could reduce those profits.

Denying change is a common attitude in people, but it is one which can not be allowed to exist in a business organization.  Maintaining profitability means anticipating change and preparing for it, altering methods as required, rather than trying to cope just for the short term.  American business has become so entrenched in its ways, so conservative, that it denies the future constantly.

Millions of dollars are being spent on lobbyists in hopes of prevent legislation from passing, because that legislation will hinder current methods of doing business.  But the intent is to try to insure that there will be business to be done in the future, instead of desolation.   Somehow, we must counteract the tendency in American business to ignore unpleasant facts until they bankrupt us.   What is needed right now is innovation, experimentation, not stubbornness and obstructionism.

Will we ever learn?

The Obama administration is trying to figure out how to deal with our involvement in the country of Afghanistan.  But Afghanistan has outlasted many foreign armies, including one of the most powerful in the 20th century, the Soviet army. So, we have a choice:  To either become the invader, raining death and dismemberment down on the Afghan people; or to become the loser, the next in the long line of military forces which have failed to subdue Afghanistan.

Apparently, we are unable to acknowledge that we have made a mistake, and that our continued presence in the region is only inciting further violence, because our military is trying to make preparations for more violence.

Our military power has been diminished by our willingness to use it to try to get our way.  Spending untold billions, and hundreds of billions, trying to bring ‘democracy’ to nations which believe that ‘democracy’ is a synonym for ‘Godless heathens’, is a waste of money we don’t even have anymore.

Getting involved in another war where the enemy and our allies all look alike is completely stupid.  Getting involved in another war that has nothing to do with our national security is completely stupid.  Getting involved in another war to justify being able to go to war is completely stupid.  We must learn from our mistakes, and stop throwing our military into every part of the world on pretenses.  We have lost the respect of most of the international community, and we are in danger of losing the trust of that community, if we have not already.

Fouling the nest.

Up until recently, a business could always find a haven from environmental regulations somewhere in the world.  Governments eager for growth would gladly allow a pit mine, smelter, blast furnace, or chemical plant.  But the leaders of nations today are more aware of the long-term costs of industrialization, and the whole world is waking up to the consequences of producing large amounts of carbon dioxide.

The technology that has become the lifeblood of our modern economy is beginning to threaten our existence.  Do we sacrifice the benefits of advanced technology to survive, accepting life without automobiles, computers, or  washing machines?  If making something means destroying something irreplaceable, what is the real cost of that product?  Currently, only a fraction of the world’s population enjoys the standard of living of the average American citizen.  Yet, we are producing greenhouse gases weighing billions of tons every year.  Energy consumption is nearly equal to the available supply.  What will happen as more and more of the world’s billions try to improve their standard of living?  Does raising the living standard of one person require the reduction in another persons?

If we treat our planet as a closed system, with finite resources, and limited ability to repair environmental damage, is there any hope for a peaceful future?  Greed and jealousy motivate people to take whatever they can, even if it belongs to someone else.  Will we let our cherished comforts be taken by someone else without a struggle, or will we fight tooth and nail to go on enjoying a shower every day?  Are we willing to sacrifice our solitary ride to work to allow someone in another country to survive?  Is there any alternative to treating our planet as a closed system?

Without the Sun, there would be practically no energy on Earth, because there would be no plants growing, no evaporation of water to make rain, nothing except heat from volcanoes and radiation.  So the Earth is not a closed system.  And the Earth exists in a neighborhood which is rich in material resources.  Everything from hydrogen, the lightest of all the elements, to uranium, one of the heaviest, exist in abundance in our Solar System.  There is unimaginable amounts of energy available, the constant output of the small star we call the Sun.

People perceive space exploration in many ways, perhaps as a search for knowledge of the origins of the Cosmos, or maybe as a quest for places to create colonies independent of Earth.  But one thing unites these perceptions;  the belief that they have nothing to do with everyday life, with the average person.  Nothing could be further from the truth, because space exploration is the only way that we are going to be able to continue the lifestyles we have come to take for granted.  It may take a few generations, but, eventually, all of humanity will sink back to primitive ways, as the resources needed for our advanced ways of life become prohibitively expensive.

In that same span of time, we can secure our future forever, by tapping into the resources all around us, and performing our industrial processes outside of the Earth’s environment.  Lifting our industries into space will only cost a fraction of the world’s annual income, while creating new wealth in excess of all that has ever existed.  People think of space travel as being hugely expensive, which it is, compared to travel on Earth.  But the actual costs are a tiny fraction of what is spent on the world’s military every year.  What is spent on cosmetics every year in the United States would finance the construction of a permanent base on the Earth’s moon in 20 years or less.

The solutions to the world’s problems do not exist in the world.  Only by going outside of our world can we solve our energy shortages, greenhouse gas production, and pollution problems.  We are fouling our nest, just as young animals do in nature.  But we must grow, as they do, and venture beyond our nest, into the outside.  Or we will die in our nest, destroyed by our own wastes.  Space exploration is not science fiction, it is not fantasy, it is here today, albeit in its infancy.  Lifting our industries into space will take many years, as we learn to move about easily in this new environment, and how to survive there.  But waiting to start will only make the starting less likely, as resources become even more precious.

Halloween plans?

Probably, if you intend on celebrating Halloween, you are making your plans.  What costume to wear, which party to go to, how you are going to get home, that sort of thing.  But there is another way of celebrating this strange pagan holiday, one which is much older than costume parties, Trick or Treating, and drunken brawls.

This is a good time to remember those who have passed on, the parents, grandparents, old friend, trusted advisor.  All about us, here in the Northern Hemisphere,  Autumn is taking hold, and the Life Force is withdrawing from the land.  So it is natural to think of the dead at this time of year, to remember them to others, to refresh our own memories, by reading letters, looking at pictures, listening to music.  Tell your children about your grandma, or uncle, and the things that you remember them doing.

And celebrate the fact that Nature is balanced, that there is some force which counter acts the incredible drive of the Life Force.  Because, without Death, there would be no room for new life, nothing for living things to eat, no change to make way for new, and possibly better, adaptations, mutations.

To many ancient people, this was the end of the year, when every thing hibernated, or became dormant, or just plain died, leaving behind eggs, or seeds, to great the next Spring.  This was a time of conservation of resources, because the long climb to when there will be food around is just beginning, with many months to survive.  After Halloween, people stayed indoors, and spent the few hours of light working on handicrafts, and thinking about the people that they loved, living and dead.

If you don’t feel inclined to go out drinking, or attending some huge costume party, remember that there are other ways of celebrating this ancient and strange (to us) holiday.