RANDOM THOUGHTS, RAMBLINGS,
A MIND AT WORK, OR PLAY


Here, I post thoughts, ideas, and other stuff that I have seen, read, or heard.  Feel free to enter your own comments, or to pass anything here along to someone who may be interested.
Comment:

If your credit card is ever compromised, and your finincial institution says they will issue a new card, do this: call them and  tell them you want a card with an entirely new sequence of numbers.  One of my financial institutions wanted to issue me a new credit card, with only the expiration date changed.  Naturally, I went up one side of them, and down the other.  I insisted on a totally new number sequence.  We'll see what this week's mail brings.  


Well, this week's mail brought a new credit card.  However, only part of the numerical sequence was different than my compromised card.  I specifically asked for an entirely new sequence.  Did this happen because of financiali institution policy?  Because I dealt with a  foreign call center?  Because of human error or stupidity?  Whatever the reason, it is no wonder that customer satisfaction is at an all-time low.  


It's Groundhog Day 2007.  A good time to consider forecasting and the future.  Now we have over a dozen men and women goosing themselves all over the country and in the media because they think they have what it takes to run this country.  All of them are wrong.  All of them are politicians.  IMHO, politicians run for office because they want positions of power.  They want power more than  they want to help the common good, their protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.  The people who really run this country are the evil corporate demons.  If you don't believe me, watch the movie "Network" and watch the climactic conference room scene where Peter Finch learns the bitter truth about how the world really operates.  The peoplel who help people the most and effect the greatest change for the better are those who make individual  and group efforts because they believe in helping people.  Period.  Not for glory, not for self-aggrandizement, not to be popular, not to be a media star or a celebrity.  The ordinary people who quietly help others with no thought for themselves are the true heroes, the best citizens.  



We do not hold onto every inhalation or exhalation.  Why then should be hold onto feelings or emotions we experience as though we were trying to possess them forever?  It may be better to let feelings and emotions come to us, become immersed in them and fully experience them - whatever they may be - and then let them go.  To possess anything, whether material or not, creates anxiousness and fear of loss.  Like each breath, experience the moment and then let it go and experience the next. 



I believe the essence of campaign finance reform is directly connected to answering the question of who actually is eligible to vote according to the Constitution.  The answer is that individuals are eligible to vote.  No
group of any kind is eligible to vote.  Beginning with Article One, Section Two, the Constitution uses two words specifying those who can vote:  citizens and people.  Although the general laws regarding elections are
state laws, I have found no law that gives any group the right to vote.  Only individuals may vote.

Therefore, Congress should compose a Constitutionally defensible law that specifies that only individuals may contribute a set amount of money to individual candidates.  Individuals could contribute a maximum amount to
more than one candidate if they desired.

No political group should be able to give money to any candidate, and no political group should be able to receive money from any other group or individual.

My reason for proposing this is my belief that all political parties and their allies have forgotten the basis this country was founded upon.  That is:  the freedom of the individual.  By corollary, the Tenth Amendment
expresses this philosophy the best:  limited Federal powers.

The Departments of Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, and Veterans Affairs are unconstitutional.  The programs administered by those departments can be
administered as efficiently by the states.  You may argue that if the states administered these programs, there would inequities.  But the promise of America was never equality, it was, and is,  freedom.  Freedom for
individuals to achieve their maximum potential by their own means.  Freedom for individuals to help the unfortunate.  To let the Federal government intervene in the daily lives of its citizens to the extent it now does is to bind them ever tighter to the chains of ever-increasing taxation and over-regulation.    The Bush Administration and its allies have called for temporary tax cuts, but have not called for the spending cuts that are concomittant to create sound economic policy.  They have called for deregulation of business, but have not called for increasing personal freedom.

The promise of America is that of a republic of free individuals who govern themselves.  Let us work together to free ourselves from the groups who buy and sell our government.  Contact your Congressperson or Senator today and let them know free men and women will take back their country.



We acknowledge a power greater than ourselves,
and ask for help from that power. 
We ask for help and guidance
that we may be more of the spirit than of the world.
We ask that we may think about others more,
and care and do more for others than for ourselves.
We ask that we may have what we need,
share with others what we can do without, 
and be thankful for what we have.
We ask that we may love all souls in the world.
We ask that we may find peace within ourselves.
 



When you leave earth's atmosphere, you are said to be "in space".  Or are you in "outer space"?  If outer space is the where the stars and planets are, would space be some part of earth?  Or is outer space a different part of the overall "space"?  Why is this area called "space" or "outer space".  Sure, it's a space, but couldn't it have a different name, like "celestia"? or something similarly poetic, or maybe something mythological?
 



Never lie, steal, cheat, or drink. But if you must lie, lie in the arms of the one you love. If you must steal, steal away from bad company. If you must cheat, cheat death. And if you must drink, drink in the moments that take your breath away


Recently, a national radio personality apparently made what some consider racially insensitive remarks and was taken to task for it.  In the recent past, whenever someone in the public spotlight says anything that be can interpreted as being insensitive or insulting to some group with a cause, agenda, or grievance, that person is raked over the coals.  I say, your sensitivity is out of control.  Realize that people will say what is on their minds, and it is up to you on how to interpret it.  For one, consider the source.  Two, consider the context.  Three, get over it and move on to making life better for all in your particular group.  In other words, grow up.


This is, or may be, the opening salvo in a campaign against ignorance, stupidity, and discourteousness.
 
Assume that you make a phone call to a business, such as a utility company, bank, or medical office that you frequently do business with.  You leave a message, whether voicemail or other type of message, giving your name, the nature of your call, and a telephone number at which you can be called. 
 
48 business hours pass and no one has returned your call.
 
How would you handle this?
 
I find unreturned calls to be increasing in number and I would like to hear how you handle such a situation if it happens to you, or what you would do if this were to happen to you.




 Not Politics, But Issues

There are numerous groups all over the political spectrum trying to advance candidates and positions.  More often than not, it appears these groups want to influence who is in government, rather than effect change in policies which affect most people daily.  Might we be better off if organizations ranging from Focus on the Family to MoveOn.org got out of the political arena altogether?  Instead, they could form one massive organization to tackle one issue, such as severely curtailing our dependence on the automobile and carbon-based fuel and bringing about a vast expansion of mass inter- and intracity mass transit.  Issues such as this one cry out for a solution.  You and I, the taxpaying citizens of this great country, can no longer wait for government to laboriously crank out halfbaked solutions to problems.  We need to forget about government being our saviour and save ourselves through our own initiatives and teamwork. 


What I Believe

I was baptized and raised Presbyterian.  Sometime in my 20s, during the 1960s, I began to question the beliefs of my youth.  I lurched from staunch belief to nihilism.  As time progressed, I spent little time in spiritual contemplation because I was working fulltime, learning the intricacies of marriage, and acquiring possessions.  Over time, I began to feel that I was drifting, floating in a boat of meaninglessness on an ocean of emptiness.  I had much I could touch and grasp, but I knew all that was temporary.  Indeed, everything I knew would end.  How then could I find meaning to my life, know why I was here, and know what I should do with all that I possessed?  I thought of how organized religions had evolved from the earliest caveman ceremonies to our times.  I knew that I could not live by codes of conduct formed by groups of people coming to agreement on matters earthly or spiritual.  I no longer believed in the theories of a god, salvation and the afterlife.  I became convinced that I had to live simply and contentedly, and that there were guides out there to help me achieve my goal.  I started reading books on Buddhism, and books authored by the Dalai Lama.  I am not a practicing Buddhist, but I do find much in Buddhism that is in tune with the spiritual life I wish to live.  One of the key elements of Buddhist thought is that all beings wish to be happy and avoid suffering.  I believe that to avoid suffering one must, as much as possible, put aside one’s own wants and do whatever one can to help alleviate the suffering of others.  The suffering of others is oftentimes greater than your own, and by helping alleviate the suffering of others, you tend to forget your own.  By the same token, helping others can cause their happiness as well as your own.  Finally, I have one belief that takes precedence over all others: I believe in optimism.  There is no better medicine for your spiritual ills than to know that they can be overcome and that the power rests in each of us to make the changes necessary for us to be happy and avoid suffering.  I believe we need not be concerned with what happens after our time here is over.  I do not fear death, but see it as a passageway to whatever may wait beyond.  What that may be I can only conjecture.  There will be no choice but to accept it.  I cannot compare myself to others or assign positive or negative attributes to them or to life’s events.  I believe we should fully experience every moment with mindfulness and then let it go.  Trying to hold onto is what creates suffering.  What matters most is how we all treat and help each other.  Our spiritual rewards come to us in this life.  They are the thankful smiles of others, their laughter, their hands shaking ours. 



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