FEEDING THE HUNGRY US ECONOMY

The Bush Administration gave tax benefits to every tax payer in the hope that the money would be spent to boost the American economy. Those that figured that out were about as 'right on' as they were about the war in Iraq paying for itself with Iraqi oil and about our soldiers being met with flowers and thanks. It is certain that there are a few philanthropic people still in the US though what we hear mostly is of the entertainers, sports, and the billionaires from the technology boom who spend their money in Africa, India, China and many other places other than in the needy US. I suppose that we can count those who buy merchandise, like the hottest Christmas item for Christmas in 2006, (the $100,000 diamond studded dog collar), a boon to the economy but, in fact, it took few people to make them and will feed few.

The poor, who will get the pittance of $300 from our overly generous (but heavily indebted) government. They are hanging onto their lives by a thread and will probably stretch that money (if they don't need it to pay taxes) by spending it in places like Walmart, in which case they might just as well have mailed it directly to china.

US bank Bear Stearns has got emergency funding, in a move that raises fears that one of Wall Street's biggest names is on the verge of collapsing.

JP Morgan Chase will provide the money to Bear Stearns for 28 days with the Federal Reserve of New York's backing. Call me incredibly high-finance naive, but I do not see how bailing out an investment firm has more merit than bailing out the companies that went under and put so may people out of work (who have not been able to find jobs since). I remember a saying: It takes money to make money. The United States has long since maxed its credit. It will be a long time before it has much to invest in education, health care, infrastucture, its children, or its people. How sad for what was once a country of which we all could be proud.

THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD THAT SAYS 'SHOULD'

There is a Shoenberg atonal voice in my ear that rasps, "You should not write a blog tonight" Suddenly a Chopin romantic melody is heard sweetly tinkling, "You deserve a night off." Shoenberg discordantly repeats , " D*O*N*'T", hinting that what I write is as grating to him as his music is to me. That makes me pause for a moment.

Brahms sees that I am sleepy, too tired to write and thoughtfully plays a lullaby. Ah, sleep covers my consciousness........off I go to dream up tomorrow's blog .

THOUGHTS TRIGGERED BY A MAGAZINE

Years ago I used to subscribe to lots of magazines which I rarely had time to read. I now realize that part of my problem finding time to read them is that most magazines don't interest me.

The Internet has so much information that it lessens the excitement of waiting for a magazine in the mail to learn some of the new things contained. Tonight I was in a Library, trapped in a chair listening to music without my iTouch or anything with which to keep more senses engaged. At intermission I went out of the room and found numerous magazines from which I selected one. Since I am not interested in decorating my house, cooking exotic dishes, sports, racing vehicles or other of the myriad subjects available, I chose Technology Review, an MIT enterprise. Jason Pontin wrote a stimulating editorial on Innovation, defining it as: 'needing to be valuable, meaning it must exist in a market or some more generic social context.' He believes that understanding technology is easy, but thinking creatively about it is not. Innovation is not inventing but improving something already there.

Needless to say, since innovation creates new ways of doing things, there is great resistance by institutions 'whose function is to promote continuity and stability', a quote from the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation Development. ( The OECD brings together the governments of countries committed to democracy and the market economy from around the world to: • Support sustainable economic growth
• Boost employment
• Raise living standards
• Maintain financial stability
• Assist other countries' economic development
• Contribute to growth in world trade The OECD also shares expertise and exchanges.

You can tell that the OECD has not been present in America our nation flunking all 6 of the points made.and the fact that Organisation is not spelled with a 'z'.

Traditionally, big cooperations have squelched innovators by buying their ideas and then letting quietly die on the shelf. Unions are not often interested in improving ways of doing things better, or even at all, if it means that it might cost a worker's job. Churches have little reputation for encouraging change or innovation. Our political structure is a bastion of rigidity, fighting change on most levels.

In 2006, Fortune Magazine wrote an article on Fighting Innovation Stagnation. It was a pleasure to read Science Fiction when we could only dream of some of the things that have become a reality. Reading Technology Review was like reading Science Fiction that might have been written in the 50s.

PROSECUTORS MAKE ENEMIES

What could the Hon Eliot Spitzer have been thinking. Did he let himself become as vulnerable as Bill Clinton had by trusting that if you think you say you are a good guy, everyone will believe it? One could make all sorts of psychological speculations. He's in his late 40s. Is it male menopause? Did success go to his head? Was his meteoric rise too much for him to maintain? Did his wife freeze him out? Did Daddy spoil him too much? Was this a substitution for childhood temper tantrums? I'm sure I'll never know though, it is wonderfully amusing to listen to the 'talking heads' enjoy their feeding frenzy with something other to talk about than Clinton/Obama .

There are those who are suspicious of the government. Jane Hamsher has written:

"All kinds of questions arise here:

1. Why would the bank tell the IRS and not Spitzer himself if there was a suspicious transfer? Spitzer is a longtime client, a rich guy and the governor. We're talking thousands of dollars here, not millions. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense that they spotted a "suspicious transfer" made by the governor, and that this is how things began. It's possible it was just ordinary paperwork the bank had to file with the government whenever some particular flag was raised, but if that's the case, why did the DoJ go to DefCon 3?

2. What is a USA doing prosecuting a prostitution case? This isn't normally what the feds spend their time with.

3. Mike Garcia is a Chertoff crony. Sources familiar with the investigation say that he sent a prosecution memo to DC two months ago asking for authority to indict a public figure (Spitzer). Which means they had their case made long before the wire tap of February 13. Why did they then include this line from that conversation in the complaint?"

Read the whole article for more detail. There are as many opinions as people asked, apparently. If one could trust the media, the truth might be known, but that seems highly unlikely, at this point, to happen soon.

The NY Times' Nicholas Kristof writes on Prostitution and the Law and asks the interesting question: Is it worse to pay for sex than to have an affair? Should prostitution be illegal. In Sweden the most success is from arresting the men who seek the prostitutes but the law leaves the women alone.

Meanwhile, all eyes turn away from our servicemen and women being killed in Iraq. The war is perceived by the media as a 'ho hum', apparently, these days. Why not? Sex is more fun than war; and war on sex gives it all!

ARE COLUMNISTS CAPABLE OF TOTAL OBJECTIVITY?

Columnists usually believe themselves to be objective and non-biased. Sometimes their denial is massive. Today, Stanley Fish in the NY Times wrote about his reasons for writing. I read and reread these particular few sentences: "When, for example, I wrote three columns criticizing the atheist tracts written by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, I was motivated not by a belief in God — which I may or may not have, you’ll never know — but by what I took to be sloppy, schoolboy reasoning that was passing itself off as wisdom. I could have been an atheist myself, and I still would have found the so-called logic of these books weak and risible."

Having read much from all three of these authors, I fail to see the 'so-called logic' as weak. Much of their 'logic is based on inconsistencies in the Bible that can be proven so by science as compared to that which writers on religion say must be taken on faith. There may or may not be a "God" (as in some power higher than man) but man was probably not created in his image and is not the God that has been described as omniscient and omnipotent, who hears all and sees all, a point on which few Atheists would disagree. Their arguments are usually aimed more towards religion as practiced and preached in churches, temples, mosques or elsewhere.

In reviewing many of the columns that appear on the Internet, I began to wonder what happens when they are written that differs when the columnists become guests on media panels and interviews where responses are not given time to be edited. I realized that those same columnists speak quite differently when they are allowed to express their biases in agreement with the host moderator. Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune is one such example. His columns are beautifully written in the manner of an excellent trained journalist, representing facts rather than opinion. He frequently appears on MSNBC with Chris Matthews (who is clearly anti-Hillary). It saddened me to watch Clarence Page being drawn into exposing himself as biased against Senator Clinton on that show. It wouldn't have been so offensive if he had been only biased FOR Obama. Matthews has often said that he can't understand why all 'black ethnics', mislabeling race as ethnic, wouldn't vote for Obama, one of their own kind. If that is a criteria Matthews thinks is sufficient to choose a president, I'm shocked! He dishonors not only Blacks, but his own race as well.

What makes it all worse is that the media execs are reported to be dictating positions to be taken by pundits on their channels. Apparently political loyalty and retaining jobs are more important than truth or what is best for the country. It is a clear position that is taken in the Administrative, Legislative Branch, Judicial Branch, and media. That lack of integrity has permeated our culture. Power begets power, When used to keep the less powerful in a helpless position through any means, life in the good old USA is no longer balanced

WHAT CHILDREN LEARN AND SENIORS FORGET

Today I watched a program about developing human brains. The presenter described all that a child has to master early in life...the world around it, balance, finger and hand dexterity, safety, locomotion, logic and all those wonderful things they are too young to tell us about as they are going through their paces. We, as adults, have forgotten all about what it felt like to climb into chairs whose seats were up to our necks, try to eat ice cream with a spoon that slid around and couldn't pick up much only to learn that fingers don't do the job either. Learning to use flatware for a child must be as troublesome as a senior with arthritic fingers trying to learn to use chopsticks.

This whole concept, being shared by all the brain research being done today, made me think of the 19th C beliefs that children have no feelings, that they have 'good blood' or 'bad blood'. But children do have feelings and must learn frustration tolerance and endure feeling ill and in pain.

They need to know when they are sad and later to learn sources of comfort to gain the tiniest bits of independence. They have to learn that Mom cannot always be there for everything. Sometimes children must comfort themselves and they require the proper equipment. Sadness is great, indeed, when you are without your pacifier
in time of need. (Look below)

Soon after, children are taught how to go out into the world and beg for candy. This teaches them that they are special but, (thank goodness) for only one day a year
(except for Valentine's Day, when the Easter Bunny comes, when the tooth fairy visits, on their birthday, on the birthday of all their friends, when doting relatives arrive, and on Christmas.) (look below)


Begging for candy is an equal opportunity
sport for children








Getting around is an early problem to get solved. Later
he will learn physics, what makes wheels go around,
and hasten his desire to have his own car, motorcycle, or
any other mechanical conveyance possible.

This is early practice for becoming a 'big wheel' socially. Children must explore their world and both construct and de-construct as well as learn to avoid total destruction. (see picture below) This is their second lesson in physics (after they discover the law of gravity) which happens primarily in conjunction
with feeding time and requires

the household to be wrapped

entirely with waterproof fabric
as the little ones develop their pitching arms).





The great outdoors is a big challenge. Since children use their mouths as the laboratory for testing all things, gardens are safe places to teach them the joys of raw vegetables and where to find good fiber sources for when they are as old as their grandparents. (see below)









Along with having to learn to recognize safe people, who are friendly and who are not, children also have to learn all about animals, reptiles, birds, and all the rest of Nature. This is taught them by spending many long hours and days in Zoos, Aquariums, on Farms, and all other places in which they can observe animals while being somewhat contained by professionals who assist exhausted parents.

There are two varieties of children. There are those who are easily frightened and those who seem to have no fear. It is nice to have the former as you will endure fewer stares from people in public places who look ready to report you for cruelty to your child. In fact, the child is probably being far more cruel to you by screaming and throwing a public temper tantrum....all the while looking totally angelic (a clever ruse to keep everyone believing your parenting is inadequate.)

No childhood is complete without being exposed to the arts and music.
Early training in keyboard is an excellent way for a child to master some
theory and get their ear trained. The first great challenge is to be able to climb up to the piano bench. The second is to be able to put fingers
on that white wiggly surface and find
pleasant sounds without some nagging
adult saying , "Please be gentle on the keys."

This brief description barely covers a few of the formidable hurdles young children must pass before they are dragged off to Day Care, nursery schools, pre-kindergarten, then kindergarten to get ready for 20 more years of education so that they can afford to buy their own McDonald's rather than eat or work in one.

Despite the pressures of the world, such as their parents, grandparents, teachers and all the other adults who advise them constantly, these cherubs often do grow up to be rather decent adults and show promise of becoming admirable Seniors one day.