Decisions, decisions

The 2008 election cycle has begun already. I can't really think of a more depressing statement than that, but there it is. We have now almost two full years to judge people who are putting on a show and trying their best to be anyone but themselves. I think Hillary is a great example of that. When asked what her favorite movie is, she replied that her people would think about it and get back on that one.

So in the next nearly two years we need to consider and choose a candidate we think will represent our values while in office. This means we need to determine what our values are. The politicians will tell you there are many issues that distinguish them from eachother.

They look for people who aren't "single issue" voters. This is supposed to be some sort of insult, as if to say that having a favorite issue makes one "low brow" or ignorant. I for one am a single issue voter, and I'm not afraid to say what that issue is. It's the economy.

The economy weighs heavily on my mind, and I fear what the wrong person will do. At the turn of the century our economy was slowing down. In 2001 our economic center was attacked and our economy suffered because of it.

In 2003 tax cuts were enacted and they had the desired effect. Right now tax receipts significantly exceed expectations. We are at what economists consider full employment. The stock market continues to surge and reach new highs. The news outlets don't talk about that very much, but it is all true and can be checked.

So what I want is someone who won't screw it up. The Leffer curve works. When tax rates were lowered, tax receipts increased because we were too far to the right of the curve. So while I need to care for my family I want someone that isn't going to push us back to the right side of that curve. That will increase tax rates, lower tax receipts and increase unemployment. All things I'd like to avoid.

For those that espouse the domestic agenda of wealth redistribution (aka Robinhood syndrome of taking from the rich and giving to the poor) I offer the following observation. If unemployment is low, wages will necessarily rise and the poor will gain a greater amount of income. Wealth in our global economy doesn't need to be a zero sum effort. We can all win, with the right strategy.

The second item of concern to me relates to health care. But rather than demanding govenment regulations and price impositions, I'd rather see something done about tort law. Law suit abuse is one of the largest causes of rapidly escalating health care costs, and such abuses place America in as much danger as unions have as late. Unions had their place served America well back in the day. Today, I believe they are sucking American business dry. Lawyers are doing the same through lawsuits for hangnails misdiagnosed, etc. So tort reform is the second issue.

Sure, there are other issues; abortion, stem cell research, global warming. Those are all things I don't really care too much about. Yes, I have personal feelings, but the resolution of any or all of those items won't put a single scrap of food on my families table. If you can think of a solid reason I should move those items up on my list, please feel free to write me a note. Good luck, and may you choose something that doesn't screw things up for me and mine.

Moral Compass

I won’t go into the convoluted train of thought that brought me to this subject. I will say the topic came to me in my most cherished thinking time of day. This is a time when I wash the cares of the world from me and ponder whatever comes to mind. If you don’t have such a time, I highly recommend finding one. It can provide clarity to cloudy thought and enlightenment on abstract topics.

What occurred to me today was the metaphor of the moral compass. Since everyone should know what a compass is I won’t delve into that definition. The comparison to something related to morals and values seems obvious. A moral compass points in the direction indicated by one’s value system.

This gets especially interesting when I extend the metaphor and contemplate battlefield tactics and the ways one can be led astray. A compass is really only useful when used in conjunction with a map. Without a map it is a pointer. It points somewhere undefined. (In mathematics undefined is depicted as ∞, what we call infinity outside of math. I think that is interesting.)

There are many maps one can use, depending on the value system. For the sake of brevity I will stick to a religious map, scripture. Scripture is word from God provided to man could find his way back to God. Following the scripture should lead one back to his maker. But a compass is needed to navigate the map, a moral compass.

The moral compass is that which points in the proper direction. It tells us right from wrong. Scripture is sometimes thought to do this, but it doesn’t. Scripture delineates right from wrong, but it is the moral compass that “whispers” in our minds when something we are contemplating is right or wrong. This moral compass is also known by other names, notably the Holy Ghost, light of God.

Now back to the interesting part about battlefield tactics. An enemy will try to confuse and disorient in order to gain an upper hand. For example, since maps are readily had, as are compasses, I might want to set up a base near a large iron deposit. This would cause the compass to begin to point in the wrong direction. Since I wouldn’t want my enemies compass to point right at me, I’d put my base in the opposite direction from that deposit. I would know how to navigate, but my enemy wouldn’t and I’d have some surprises waiting nearest that deposit. I would also make sure there was a well worn path leading towards the deposit. This lulls the enemy into thinking they are on the right path and causes them to discard their map. Without their map and with their compass conflicted, they are now lost and ripe for picking.

So it is with our own moral compass. If we discard our map and rely solely on our moral compass, it can become disorienting with outside influences. Things we want, influenced by people we know, can cause our moral compass to point in the wrong direction. We ignore that voice in our mind because the voice of our own desire, screams louder. “Take the candy, you want it and you should have it!” “It feels good, so it can’t be wrong!” And soon we are on a well worn path, ignoring our map and following a deviate compass. We are on a path that will surely lead to destruction. We are ripe for picking.

We can rescue ourselves from this predicament if we recognize the error and correct it. It may take some work to extricate ourselves. The path back could be much tougher than the one that led in.

Our return is only as good as the information we have available. For example, were I to want to navigate my way to the North Pole, I could grab a map and a compass and begin traveling. However, what would happen is I would end up miles from the North Pole, and wind up at the magnetic North Pole. Without knowing the difference between magnetic north and true north I would be totally lost.

Scripture is similar in this regard. The canon we accept as the Bible, for those Christians out there, was established in the 4^th century at the council of Nicea. This was a group of men deciding if the writings they had in front of them were holy or not. Simply following it would lead us to a place close, but not our actual destination. We need the help of prophets communicating with God to tell us the difference between “magnetic north and true north” on our map. We have that today, and with the help of the Book of Mormon we can find our way to our ultimate destination.

Those are the thoughts I pondered in my thinking time. It was maybe a 15 minute thought journey. I’ll let you know of others as they occur to me; as long as they aren’t work related (I sometimes ponder work things in my thinking time).

Hubris Americana

Hubris isn’t anything that is singular to America. However, the American hubris is different in nature to that found almost anywhere else in the free world. The “American dream” isn’t really unique to America. It is more readily attainable in America, but is a dream shared by all.

Americans demand the right to be free from persecution, yet many feel justified in persecuting others. They put forth many arguments put forward in an attempt to justify this persecution. They are the same arguments that have been put forward since this great country began over 200 years ago to villify certain groups of people. These arguments have been used to oppress and repress peoples and relegate them to a position in our society where we can maintain our superiority. We need the labor these groups bring to fuel our economic growth, yet we hate them because we need them, and because they seem, in our categorical way of seeing foreigners, “so different.”

The current issue of “illegal” immigration is a perfect example of this. In our hubris, Americans have decided some transgressions are more egregious than others. Speeding through a residential neighborhood to get to the grocery store is OK. Leaving ones car in the fire lane while one runs in to grab a few groceries is OK. Crossing an arbitrary border in search of work is a vile transgression worthy of being hunted down, humiliated and deported. Never mind that the transgression is a violation of administrative law and not a felony nor a misdemeanor.

What is the fear of others that drives us to such passionate persecution? Were the Mormons or the Cherokee so evil it was necessary to run them from their homes and force them to march across the country so they could continue to live? Were the Irish all that bad, in the end? What about the Polish or any other eastern European nationality? In retrospect all these groups have brought good to our nation, despite coming in larger numbers than we wanted and none ever really threatened our national well being.

The truth be told, our segregation of peoples during times of immigration leads to more problems than if we just welcomed and accepted them. Gangs and organized crime often grow out of such segregation. Poverty and drug dependence among these groups are, in part, an outgrowth of this segregation. And yet we continue to segregate and discriminate in the name of national security and national “unity.”

In the end, we eventually come to accept these “strangers,” integrate their customs and culture into our own, and claim superiority over the rest of the world for our “melting pot” culture. We took pizza and made it an American staple. Sausages and sauerkraut are common at football game tailgate parties. Tacos and fajitas are now almost more commonly sought than hamburgers.

Many “solutions” have been proposed to rid ourselves of these new “strangers.” The most ridiculous and indicative of American hubris is a wall along our southern border. But those who call for this wall only want it on our souther border because illegal immigration surely has no provenance from a country whose citizens are mostly white and speak English.

A second solution isn’t really a solution at all, but maintenance of the status quo. This means we keep our ridiculous quotas on immigration in place and refuse to recognize the need for labor our economy has. A third solution has been proposed, one that radically changes the way of thinking – open the borders and allow a “free flow” of immigrants on a temporary basis and more orderly basis.

It is this last proposal that has the most chance of effecting any real change on “national security.” An open border policy shouldn’t be interpreted as allowing everyone to cross wherever they want. Instead checkpoints are established where a person can be checked. With computer databases and agreements with friendly countries we can verify a person isn’t a criminal before letting them in to contribute to our growing economy. Criminals and agents from unfriendly countries would be turned away. The only way for them to gain entry for whatever nefarious purpose would be through other, monitorable channels, such as are now used by all. By opening the borders through checkpoints, only criminals would try to cross anywhere other than the checkpoints.

The positive to this plan, other than the obvious benefit to our economy, is that it would reduce human trafficking. Though it would be an exaggeration to label all this trafficking as slave running, that does occur. Illegal human trafficking presents the lecherous with opportunities to abuse and mistreat those whom they are trafficking.

It is time to overcome our hubris and embrace our brothers to the south. We should accept their contributions to our economy, accept their taxes, and accept their food. We should reject the notion they present a danger to our security or our way of life.

Progress?

Siince the beginning of time man has been surrounded by crap. The first big step came with the realization that leaves work better than rocks. That was followed by digging holes in the ground to cover what was left behind. This led to indoor plumbing. However, one has to be trained to use indoor plumbing, and until one is trainable, a diaper is needed.
Diapers used to be cloth, with pins that poked the poor, tired parent who wasn't paying attention or who was struggling to keep things in the general vicinity clean. Not only that, but what was one to do with the dirty diapers? Rnse the diaper in the toilet and heap it with others in a filthy wet pile. After a period of time, the pile of filth moved to the wash machine. Then came the single greatest invention in the history of parenhood - disposable diapers.
Some have determined disposable diapers are not healthy! There are nasty things in the diapers, they say. No S@#%! Disposable diapers are made from things that don't decompose quickly and cause bad things to happen.
The progress made in the last 50 years is in jeopardy because disposable diapers are...disposable. Use the old cotton ones, they say, it is safer and healthier. Has anyone really put some serious thought into that? Festering piles of wet, used diapers in my house are safer than piles of diapers buried in the ground? How do we know all those oil deposits aren't from dinosaur diaper piles? The oil pipes don't get clogged with dino bones. Maybe 15 million years from now our disposable diaper dumps will be the oil our progeny live off of.
Diseases used to kill people because they didn't have good hygene. They would s#$% where they ate, so to speak. Then came indoor plumbing and waste treatment and diseases reduced. Disposable diapers came along, and further reductions. Now we are told disposable diapers are bad. Really? We should replace the festering piles of filth in our homes because some crunchy nut thinks the absorbent material is bad, or the plastic shell has some kind of something that caused cancer in rats when the rats were injected with it.
I think we need a study commissioned by Congress, to establish the health benefits and detriments to disposable diapers. Maybe a bi-partisan commission could interview the folks from Nature Valley to fully understand their claims. After all, who better than the politicians who are experts in s#$%. (Al Gore probably invented s#$%!) The CDC could be contacted for their opinion. Then we could be informed with substantiated evidence on the best course of action.