The Great American Con Job

Todays America is a con artists paradise. Among the great American con jobs of this century has to be health care. You get it from all sides. Insurance companies pay off congress to tell you that they have your best interest at heart. Meanwhile they charge you ever more for the substandard care they are willing to authorize, and the medical establishment helps by coming up with ever more ridiculous reasons for you to seek health care. Among the greatest current boondoggles is "sleep apnea". You see, now its a major medical problem if you snore, snort, or fart during sleep. It requires a sleep study, which a panel of pulmonology specialists must study, to tell you that you don't sleep right. Then they fit you with a contraption that they must laugh themselves silly about called a c-pap machine which blows air into your mouth so you can sleep better and oh, most important of all, everybody involved except you gets paid.

First they said that obesity is a major indicator of sleep apnea, then they discovered that the same number of people who are not obese get sleep apnea as who are, but yet they still use obesity as a risk factor to decide that you must undergo a sleep study while allowing the non-obese people who fall alseep on the job to carry on without interruption. This used to be called discrimination, but no one cares if you discriminate against the obese, after all who likes fat people?  I am 6 foot, 280 pounds with more stamina than almost any of my co-workers, yet I am a risk factor for sleep apnea because my neck is too big. So if you are killed by a driver who falls asleep whose neck is less than 17", don't expect sympathy because that person was not considered obese.

The Day The Music Died

It is with ironic sadness that I report that the end is indeed near. Humankind, at least the way we know it is soon to pass away. It is inevitable. Just as it was certain that dinosaurs would eventually eat, produce waste and waste byproducts to the point the earth could no longer sustain them, so will it be with humankind. Of course, prevailing wisdom, (more aptly described as hope) is that humans will outsmart mother nature and that technology will ultimately save the day.

The biggest problem with humankind is that the problem is not simply eating through the earths abundance or the enormous amount of waste we leave behind. Add to this our natural predisposition to destroy each other through war and others forms of violence. Add also an ever growing sense of panic (sometimes known as greed) that pushes more and more of us to abandon any reasonable relationship with integrity in an effort to have more for ourselves. The more obvious it is that we have doomed ourselves, the greater the numbers of those who conclude that the only reasonable strategy is "every man and woman for himself". When you realize and accept this ever growing consensus among the people, you began to understand both the confusion that grows daily among people who are not sure what they support or believe, and the popularity of the conservative mindset which would be much more aptly named if it was called preservatism rather than conservatism. There really is little conservative about the actions of right wing conservatives, it is largely about self preservation and is a by product of the fear that people have when they think they are forced to live with those inferior to themselves and genuinely believe that this situation will ultimately bring them down.

Among modern preservatism  you have those that call themselves social conservatives. And while they would have you believe their beliefs are based on sound fundamentals of faith, look deeply enough and you see that there is little faith evident. In fact the strongest element that you can see among them is a general lack of faith in humankind at all beyond the concept of themselves as the chosen few. In the 70's we called it what it really is, a God complex. The belief that God must favor them and only them and therefore they have a unique insight into what is right and what is wrong, and any discussion of flexibility of viewpoint is at best foolish and at worst downright evil. Especially ironic when so called Christian social conservatives are considered, because they cling so tightly to a notion totally the opposite of the fundamental principles taught by he who they claim redeems them.

Unfortunately conservatives are not the only ones who are dedicated preservatists, many so called liberals  move back and forth daily between opposing extremes of emotion often based on what the individual issue is of  and are generally no less confused about what integrity actually is and when to apply the given principle. The only real redeeming factor that moves me to consider myself a liberal is at least among us there is an ongoing dialogue and this willingness to at least consider other thoughts and ideas separate us from those with the God complex. Among real  liberals our greatest weakness is the fact that we cannot help but constantly re-examine how we feel and ask ourselves if we are doing the right things. Ironically, this is also our greatest strength and the most redeeming factor in our favor.

Our end is clearly near, or at least the end of the way we have known it to be because we have come so close to the edge and there is no turning back now. In America the preservatists have begun to feed on each other and the rest of us. And the world all follows in their own ways. The all out attack upon the rights and freedoms of the middle and lower classes, while not really new, is unprecedented in its scope and the amazing support it receives from so many who will ultimately suffer most is a clear indication that a level of awareness has been lost. Ignorance and confusion has always been humankind's greatest weakness and never before have so few had the ability to mislead and confuse so many so easily.

It is said that what goes around comes around and I see clearly in America a return to the racist and social revisionist principles that so nearly destroyed our nation repeatedly before. The saddest thing about America today is the many young people who have no clue or respect for the price that was paid for their freedom and the blinders that have been put on by those who should know better. The young are in grave danger of losing it and being returned to a time that was never as good as some would have you believe. Having so little understanding of the true nature of humankind, they cannot conceive of that which many around them long to return to. Freedom is not free and history shows clearly that when you do not respect where you come from, you have no future.

But it does not really matter because we are approaching the edge of the cliff at remarkable speed and and overall change in the way life will continue to exist upon this planet is inevitable. We are much like fleas on the back of a dog. The dogs masters try everything to kill or wash us off, yet we hang on thinking we are winning. But inevitably we simply insure the coming of the final devastating conclusion, and only God knows who or what will survive and what that will be like. Enjoy your day. They are numbered.

Red Tails comes at a Good Time To Be Reminded About Our Soulful Journey

As I proudly observe the renewed interest in the story of The Tuskegee Airmen that is the result of George Lucas new film Red Tails, I am reminded of how much we as Americans have to be proud of that is either a direct or indirect result of the scourges of slavery and segregation. For so many years the main focus of slavery and its aftermath has been the negatives. I would like to see a renewed focus on the positive things that came as a result of or in spite of one of America's most  infamous times in history, especially for the sake of the young who grow ever more distant from any memory or understanding of what Americans have faced together and overcome. It can be said that we as a people are as much a product of what we have triumphed over as anything and in America, we have triumphed over many difficult times in our history, slavery and segregation being only two.

I personally would like to believe that if Americas young people had a better understanding of the pride and determination so many of their ancestors maintained despite suffering through indignities that most of them could not even imagine, they would have more respect for each others lives, and the lure of gangs and drugs would be at least a bit easier to resist. It is with great pride that I urge all Americans regardless of ethnic origin to go and see Red Tails. And I hope it will promote a conversation among families and friends about other examples of Americans overcoming their circumstances to triumph in pride and glory that are closer to home. What better time could there be than now when our nations future seems so tenuous, when we are a people strained by the worst depression in the nations history and divided against each other over ideology and even religious beliefs as we search for answers to restore what in reality has never really been. The problem for Americans is that each generation tends to not understand that Americas history is one of struggle. When the economy flourishes, and when it is in decline, we struggle with many of the same issues that divide us today. The only real difference is who is suffering most at any given time and how we collectively perceive what the solutions are.

As a child growing up in North Central Texas, raised by a poor mother who grew up in East Texas, I heard over and over the stories of the pain and difficulty of living in a place where the Ku Klux Klan flourished. Lynchings, beatings of innocent people and the daily humiliation that was a natural byproduct of segregation was not some distant memory or stories in a book. I watched my mother cry with the pain only someone who had to support her children by devoting so much of her life to cooking, cleaning and raising the children of people who required her to take her meal breaks on the back porch where they fed the dogs. Yet what I remember most about my mother was the forgiving spirit she had. Her faith in God. The way she insisted that all people were not bad and that most racists were in fact victims themselves of the ignorance promoted by those who profited from maintaining such a climate. I remember my Great Aunt Maude, a proud woman of Native American and African American mix who told me stories of unthinkable atrocities in the area of Oklahoma where she raised her children at a time when it was worse to be Native American than African American. I treasured the stories my Great Aunt told me because her sister, my Grandmother, died at a young age due to the racist policies of hospitals of the area at that time, a subject that was so painful to my mother that it was never discussed in our house.

Among my favorite things to do when I was very young was to sit and listen to the elderly Black men who gathered daily at the neighborhood grocer where they sat outside during nice weather and talked about everything in the world and their view of a world that even after they had served in world wars and worked them selves to the bone for meager wages still subjected them to sickening insulting treatment daily. Yet these men didn't speak with anger, they spoke with pride about what they had survived. Proud that despite all that was done to take away their dignity and self respect, they had made it through and could still hold their heads high in the knowledge that they had helped to insure another generation would have an ever increasing chance to set things right.

Enemy Expatriation Act is itself an act of treason

Throughout America's history, after every great challenge; the civil war, World Wars I & II, The Great Depression, part of what helped America recover was that America felt it clearly saw it self and recognized who it was. But the America of today has its greatest challenge in  that when it looks in the mirror it does not recognize what it sees. Since the end of segregation, because of immigration coming  from all over the world, thanks to the result of years of oil profiteering, America no longer resembles to power wielding conservatives the country they wanted to believe they lived in. This is why they are now willing to gut it. They want to rip it apart and remake it in the image they want. Only a fool believes this will benefit anyone who believes in freedom and democracy for all. And I think this problem will define how history judges America of this current time period.


 I think historians will say today's Americans lived during the last gasp of a great society. That America became a victim of itself. Like a fat, ignorant, greedy child, lost in the woods surrounded by predators anxious to eat it, the most dangerous of whom we thought were friends,  we put on blinders to what was really happening around the world and allowed ourselves to be seduced by ideas like Amercian Exceptional-ism, even as we saw a steady decline in the nations quality of education, health system and the very idea that a free market should be inclusive and reward all who contribute to its success, not just those who get themselves to the top. Like every accomplished society in history, our decline was made inevitable by an ever increasing focus on greed that inhibited our ability to see the forest for the trees.

Against the backdrop of these times,  our government debates the legislation being promoted by Joe Lieberman and Charles Dent known as the Enemy Expatriation Act, it is clear that we are facing one of the greatest attacks on the very foundation of the principles of the constitution of the United States in our lifetime. No matter how innocent these supporters of this bill claim their intentions are, it is clear that this will ultimately become a tool for those who would silence any form of dissension of US citizens aimed at any part or member of the US government. Is it merely a coincidence that this legislation should be proposed now, when terrorism, which sponsors of this legislation claimed this act is designed to deal with, is actually on the run, but more and more Americans are awakening to the erosion of their rights by those who would break unions and give ever increasing power and benefits to the conservative elite.

I feel that the most powerful thing America's founding fathers did was to assert that the citizens of these United States should always have the right to protest the actions of their government and further, if they found that this government no longer served them, to change it for the best interest of the majority. The Enemy Expatriation act would clearly be most effective at limiting the number of people who can participate in their duty to oversee their government and supporting it is no less than an act of treason. It is time Americans take a long look at people like Lieberman and Dent and others who would propose legislation designed to limit the ability of ordinary Americans to participate in their government. They need to be removed from their offices and banned from ever holding a leadership role in American politics again. 

The fundamental foundation of a free market system is the win-win situation.

One of the things that concerns me most about the world we live in today is the way the concept of free markets has become interchangeable with the idea of anything goes. As much as any single thing this frame of thought has contributed to the decline of morality in the way business is done, oddly enough most often seen in those who constantly claim to be filled with integrity.

I believe that the concept of free markets are based on the idea that when markets work, everyone who contributes has a fair chance to earn. And that the dynamic of having as much participation in the markets as possible by competing forces keeps them honest and contributes to the vitality of the markets. Throughout history this idea has been proven to work when markets are in development and are free to grow without interference. But in our world today, there are those who would insist that regulation is the chief culprit that stymies the effectiveness of free markets. Problem is, an honest examination of history proves otherwise.
Almost without fail, when markets thrive, someone will eventually become greedy and start to look for ways to gain a greater share of the markets by creating unfair advantages for themselves. They use their wealth, power and influence to try to shut the door of opportunity on those who would compete with them, and by doing so they become the force that inhibits the natural order of a free market. As this perversion of the markets grow, the markets become less and less free and the result is a market controlled by the ruthless.
The most effective tool to combat this occurring has been responsible regulation overseen by those who have a vested interest in keeping the markets free, and by the ability of those who work for these competing forces to be able to level the field for themselves through collective bargaining. When the people whose labor helps to make the difference between success and failure are no longer able to bargain for a fair wage and instead they are forced to work for wages that will not fairly sustain them, the markets are not free and the offending business is not successful, because  ultimately these businesses suck the life out of a community rather than contributing to their vitality. That is why once the vitality is sucked out of a community, the offending business feels it has no choice but to go someplace else and begin the process of sucking the life out of another community somewhere else. In today's world we call that out-sourcing. In the beginning, the new location of these blood sucking businesses welcome them and laud them as progress, but without fail in time they will be seen as a pariah when it is understood that they will pack up and leave as soon as they find someone willing to do the job cheaper and allow them less regulation. They tell us regulation, again is the bad guy, ignoring the fact that without rules, too many simply cannot be counted on to make a long term commitment to the vitality of that community. When America thrived in the past, it was because owners of business felt a need for their own good to make such a commitment to the communities they operated in. They understood that if people could not afford their products, they would not thrive. This was a dynamic of the free market concept that became somewhat obsolete when small and medium sized local businesses began to disappear in the wake of the mega-corporation. Ironically, the people wanted them. They wanted cheaper prices and convenience, somehow not realizing, or not caring that they were contributing to the perversion of the free market system by removing its most important ingredient, competition. And by contributing to the decline of dynamic localized competition, they set the stage for the loss of jobs and their rights to negotiate fair wages and benefits.

Glad Tidings of Great Joy

Greetings and Happy Holidays to all who take the time to read this post. I hope whatever your religious beliefs that this is a wonderful holiday season for you and your family. After all, it really is all about family. Those of us who are Christians insist that Christmas is our celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and for many of us it is still an important element. But anyone truly paying attention would have a hard time denying the fact that this holiday has become most representative of an all out explosion of consumerism, so intense that it even contains elements of violence as evidenced on black Friday. It is clear that too many have no true sense of what the spirit of Christmas is. One of the saddest displays of how acceptable this attitude has become, in my opinion, is the television commercials the Best Buy retail chain ran this Christmas in which the very notion that Santa Claus was the benevolent symbol of Christmas cheer was challenged in favor of the idea that Best Buy would empower the consumer to out do Santa. I found it crass and tasteless, yet I heard no one else express the disgust I felt.

On the other hand, there were many examples of those trying to remind us all what Christmas is really about. Many expressions of love and benevolence worldwide. Among my favorite was the many "secret Santa's" around the country who went to places where struggling families had layaway's and paid the costs for those who seemed to most be in need.

If I could have had my wish come true, it would have been to have my family; mother, brothers and the rest all together again one more time as it was when we were growing up. Knowing that this can never happen again helps to bring perspective to what Christmas is really all about.

I suggest that if Jesus were among us today, he would say that while he appreciates the outpouring of love and affection for him that we say we have; and the honor of having his birth remembered, he would feel most honored if we would show love and compassion for each other, and remember that we must cherish every moment we have with each other, because just as we are all born in simplicity, so shall we return. And what matters most in our lives cannot be found in any retail outlet.

Change must begin in our minds.

It is encouraging to see Americans taking action against the class war that has been raging in America. It is time because up to now, this war has been primarily waged by the right wing conservative movement in America against the average working class people of this nation. It has been ongoing and relentless. Most Americans would be amazed at the many ways this war has touched their lives. The loss of jobs that pay living wages, the assault upon individual rights to privacy, the way companies have been able to approach everything from collective bargaining to debt collection, banks and profiteers abilities to package and sell off everything from home mortgages to your personal information, have all been an effect of the slow erosion of individual liberties and general well being of the American people. It is indeed warfare on many fronts, and its end game is clear, to return America to its pre new-deal state, socially and economically.

This war began in earnest during the Reagan administration. In fact I predict that future history books will point to the Reagan administration and its efforts to remove regulations everywhere it could as well as Reagan's actions concerning the air traffic controllers union as the seminal time in understanding when America began its greatest decline and most destructive period as regards individual rights and opportunities for prosperity for the average citizen in America.

What has been most interesting while being amazingly effective is how once again America became the victim of the manipulation of media. I cannot help but be impressed with a strategy so simple yet so effective; Say whatever you have to, no suggestion is too outrageous if the insinuation benefits the cause, outright lies are encouraged when cleverly wrapped in half truths or widely accepted assumptions. repeat, over and over again until even those who should know better began to accept this mental programming and start to reflect through thoughts and actions the totally surrender of common sense and decency.

Over and over, through the worlds history this manipulation of the mind has proven effective, from Emperor Constantine and his successful co-opting of the message of Jesus of Nazareth, the campaigns of Napoleon, the amazing way the simple citizens of the southern U.S. were convinced to squander their lives during the civil war for a cause that would not benefit them at all, to Adolph Hitlers seduction of Germany, we have seen this strategy successfully employed.

But decent people have had their moments and what is really great is understanding that for the most part decent people generally prevail, although at times it takes so long and so much is sacrificed as a result.  This is what I think of when I witnessed the phenomena now taking place referred to as the 99% movement. As a person who grew up a witness to America's civil rights and anti-war movements of the 60's, I am proud to see the decent people once again rise up and speak out against tyranny and injustice. And it must become the spark that ignites the fire that flares brightly and refuses to be extinguished by ignorance and greed.

Truth will always prevail no matter how long it takes or what the sacrifice is that is required. This is the proof that God lives.

Think right and all things are possible. So today I would like to suggest a few basic principles designed to reverse years of right wing brainwashing, for without strong clearly defined principle there is no integrity:

Be kind to each other. Only through shared sacrifice can the decent people prevail.


Entitlement is not a bad word, if you are entitled to something, it means you have earned it.


Neither racism nor intolerance are  family values.


If you have an idea for a business, but your business plan will not let you succeed if you pay your employees a living wage, your business should not exist. Your plan is a failure. You must find a way to be fair to those you must depend on to help you to succeed.

Your labor is a commodity, if you do not have the ability to negotiate fair compensation for your labor, you are in bondage. 


Free markets only remain free if we all agree to protect them, only the greedy and those lacking integrity benefit when markets are left to be controlled and manipulated by the unprincipled profiteer.

This has to become the mindset of the American public if we are to reverse more than 30 years of indoctrination that has been forced upon the American people that began with the deregulation of media.

I long for the golden days of media, when people like Walter Cronkite only reported what they believed to be the truth and the attempt to influence how you felt about it was kept to a minimum.

I dream of an America where the citizens do not tolerate any elected or appointed person who does not put the best interests of the majority first, but instead sells out to the highest bidders.

We must release the tendency to put up with the greedy and dishonest, thinking that someday we will be rich too and we will want those same advantages. If we don't begin to support each other fewer and fewer of you will ever be prosperous on any level, and the few who do will be upset to find out they live in a world where it means far less than they thought it would.

We can go there. The world belongs to the decent people, don't forget that.