Foolish people, either too young or too ignorant to have read Lord of the Flies, might think they need no leadership, boundaries, controls or consequences for their actions. Those who are proponents of no governmental regulations are like the Lost Boys of Peter Pan, or like Oliver Twist with Fagin. There is always someone to lead the way...usually evading censure until what we would call 'too late'.
Such has our economic system been for far too long with not enough shame being felt by Greenspan for it. Osama bin Laden has promised he will break the USA economy and, while the common person has no way of knowing his direct influence on it, it would be foolish to assume he has had none.
Only macho men assume that power in is physical strength, greater ability to bully, and weapons that result in violence. More damage can be done in more surreptitious ways and have been being done without governmental regulations to stop it from happening. Brooksley Born was silenced by the majority of men who refused to think about her warnings or too selfish for their own financial gains to allow it to be heard publicly. These men do not have to pay for their mistakes. We, the people of the United States, are left to pay for their arrogance or greed.
We need governmental regulations and monitoring of the monitors. We have not learned from the government's mistake in hiring the best illegal hacker( for his knowledge of hacking computers) to watch over the security of consumers financial privacy. We do not need the phalanx of economists, who brought us to this terrible state, to continue. They will not make good; they will only continue to try to obfuscate their own tarnished reputations and misleading with poor advice. If they had known better then we would be in better shape. Why would we allow ourselves to believe they know better now? If they are advising better, there must be some wiser people around, from whom they have learned, who are free of conflicts of interest, who can put the economy on the right track. It is beyond me to believe that Greenspan, Paulson, Geitner, Bernanke, and Summers, et al from the past, have either in the past, or the present, been the sole men to have best managed our economy.
Greenspan, stupidly following Ayn Rand's policy to deregulate, should have proven he is a follower, not a leader. One should never put followers in charge because you never understand from whence their thinking derives. It seems we have been looking at the wrong causes and cures. You do not send a fox into the henhouse to discover why the chickens are missing....or is that what we have done, after all?
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
THE MERGER BETWEEN MICROSOFT AND YAHOO SEARCH ENGINE APPROVED HERE AND ABROAD
It is not clear why Microsoft is buying up Yahoo unless it is to be married to Bing to compete with Google. The European commission didn't see a problem, feeling it would not stifle competition....that sounds about as meaningless as anything that can be said! Apparently Yahoo's web page will use Bing's search engine and the two companies will share revenues. That will be interesting. After all, there is never a threat when one lets the fox into the hen house, now is there?
If you can't be as good as Google, then it seems right to use both hands! Bring out all the guns...power over brains.
There seems to be no benefit to the consumer. It will bring in more advertising and money to Yahoo and Microsoft who think they need it since the consumer is supposed to spend more time of their lives watching useless ads before they can get to see that for which they are searching.
Carol Bartz, Yahoo chief executive, said the two firms would be creating a "breakthrough search alliance". What is being broken through was never mentioned. I remain unimpressed as I cling to the rule (and continue to use Google), "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
WHAT YOU NEED TO BE TO GROW OLD GRACEFULLY
Most people are taken in by anyone claiming the fountain of youth exists in their product...instant non-surgical face lift, lengthen your penis, augment your breasts with implants or lifts, get rid of what you don't want on your body, take fat off with liposuction, and on and on the list goes. However, telling people how to grow old satisfied and happy doesn't sell...no one seems to want to grow old, as inevitable as that is for us all.
Just as the infant has to learn there is a time to give up the breast and replace it with a bottle, then give that up for a glass or cup, seniors need to learn that they, too, have to learn that you never stop growing beyond what might have been comfortable and possible earlier in life. While the child outgrows many needs, observing a child being toilet trained makes it clear that it is very difficult to give up even that part of yourself they will later learn not to want to claim as it gets flushed 'to feed the fishies'.
Just as the boys in Peter Pan refused to grow up, seniors refuse to accept the inevitable growing old. Elders need to understand that no matter what they do to themselves, they will never be or look young again. Witness more recent pictures of Michael Jackson, Joan Rivers, Zsa Zsa Gabor, or many others who may no longer have wrinkles, but they don't look young, either. It is not difficult to understand why men on TV want to wear toupees but off TV they are more difficult to maintain as a real enhancement. Vanity plays a large part in the resistance to growing old gracefully. If your identity was wrapped up in your appearance, sadly for you, it may be a greater demand for accepting change.
To grow old gracefully is simple. Accept what was as in the past and accept the limitations of the present whether they are physical, financial, or mental. The older driver whose vision is impaired but insists on driving is as dangerous as the drunk on the road. Denial does not belong during an assessment of current abilities. Just because you used to be able to do something doesn't mean you can or should do it today. If you need proof of that, play those electronic hand-held games with a child under 12 years of age. Reaction time is important to driving; reacting in an unanticipated situation; and whether your brain can quickly process information. It determines whether you can even follow the TV, since we are fed at a very rapid rate with no pauses, to get as much info to us as is possible, even if people can't read fast enough to follow the running tape feed on the bottom of the screen while listening to the newscaster speaking a totally different subject.
Accept the inevitable. Use whatever senses you have working. Keep modifying your life style to fit your current abilities. Sixty five years ago there was a postcard that read, "Don't be the old maid who waited so long for her ship to come in that her pier collapsed." Grab life where you can but don't try the impossible. Give up regrets, it takes wasted energy, as does plotting revenge. There are positives in most things....look for them.
Just as the infant has to learn there is a time to give up the breast and replace it with a bottle, then give that up for a glass or cup, seniors need to learn that they, too, have to learn that you never stop growing beyond what might have been comfortable and possible earlier in life. While the child outgrows many needs, observing a child being toilet trained makes it clear that it is very difficult to give up even that part of yourself they will later learn not to want to claim as it gets flushed 'to feed the fishies'.
Just as the boys in Peter Pan refused to grow up, seniors refuse to accept the inevitable growing old. Elders need to understand that no matter what they do to themselves, they will never be or look young again. Witness more recent pictures of Michael Jackson, Joan Rivers, Zsa Zsa Gabor, or many others who may no longer have wrinkles, but they don't look young, either. It is not difficult to understand why men on TV want to wear toupees but off TV they are more difficult to maintain as a real enhancement. Vanity plays a large part in the resistance to growing old gracefully. If your identity was wrapped up in your appearance, sadly for you, it may be a greater demand for accepting change.
To grow old gracefully is simple. Accept what was as in the past and accept the limitations of the present whether they are physical, financial, or mental. The older driver whose vision is impaired but insists on driving is as dangerous as the drunk on the road. Denial does not belong during an assessment of current abilities. Just because you used to be able to do something doesn't mean you can or should do it today. If you need proof of that, play those electronic hand-held games with a child under 12 years of age. Reaction time is important to driving; reacting in an unanticipated situation; and whether your brain can quickly process information. It determines whether you can even follow the TV, since we are fed at a very rapid rate with no pauses, to get as much info to us as is possible, even if people can't read fast enough to follow the running tape feed on the bottom of the screen while listening to the newscaster speaking a totally different subject.
Accept the inevitable. Use whatever senses you have working. Keep modifying your life style to fit your current abilities. Sixty five years ago there was a postcard that read, "Don't be the old maid who waited so long for her ship to come in that her pier collapsed." Grab life where you can but don't try the impossible. Give up regrets, it takes wasted energy, as does plotting revenge. There are positives in most things....look for them.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
UNSUNG HEROES
Cavers have discovered 11,000 year old bear bones. That doesn't sound so difficult now, does it? However like so many things we don't know how to do,
it looks easy to the rest of us. From a BBC article, "Cave divers spent 12 years wriggling through narrow spaces and moving soil to unblock entrances in their effort to recover all that they could of the more recent discovery."
Unlike the Taliban, who blasted to two Buddhas to bits, or the Americans and Iraqis who allowed history back to biblical times to just be lost, destroyed or stolen, there are those who go out of their way to preserve history for those who will understand it better later and maybe even avoid the stupid things that mankind has done to date. Thirty years ago when men made an artificial scarcity of silver and boosted its price, thieves stole priceless Franklin silver pieces and many other antiquities and melted them down, never to be admired by humans again.
There are those who risk their lives to save animals and aquatic species from becoming extinct while constantly fighting those who to not have the foresight to see what is happening on our planet; that once lost can never be retrieved.
The definition of an unsung hero (heroine, if you wish) is: ' a person who makes a substantive yet unrecognized contribution; a person whose bravery is unknown or unacknowledged'. Humankind has seen many heroes but there are so many who live and die without recognition, either because people are oblivious to their contribution to the world, or they lived before our history and media. Today, our media is beyond celebrating real heroes. It is too into TV ratings because good deeds don't make money. How sad. I find them far more interesting than the liars who are celebrated now or the manufactured fights between important people.
What is most difficult in writing this blog is that they can't even be named or their work explicitly defined, nor pictures of them posted...they are truly unsung and unidentified....but we know they are there, or were by what works or tales about them were left behind...or learn too late that they once were! So much has been lost...sometimes not even the equivalent of the wheel can be reinvented.
it looks easy to the rest of us. From a BBC article, "Cave divers spent 12 years wriggling through narrow spaces and moving soil to unblock entrances in their effort to recover all that they could of the more recent discovery."
Unlike the Taliban, who blasted to two Buddhas to bits, or the Americans and Iraqis who allowed history back to biblical times to just be lost, destroyed or stolen, there are those who go out of their way to preserve history for those who will understand it better later and maybe even avoid the stupid things that mankind has done to date. Thirty years ago when men made an artificial scarcity of silver and boosted its price, thieves stole priceless Franklin silver pieces and many other antiquities and melted them down, never to be admired by humans again.
There are those who risk their lives to save animals and aquatic species from becoming extinct while constantly fighting those who to not have the foresight to see what is happening on our planet; that once lost can never be retrieved.
The definition of an unsung hero (heroine, if you wish) is: ' a person who makes a substantive yet unrecognized contribution; a person whose bravery is unknown or unacknowledged'. Humankind has seen many heroes but there are so many who live and die without recognition, either because people are oblivious to their contribution to the world, or they lived before our history and media. Today, our media is beyond celebrating real heroes. It is too into TV ratings because good deeds don't make money. How sad. I find them far more interesting than the liars who are celebrated now or the manufactured fights between important people.
What is most difficult in writing this blog is that they can't even be named or their work explicitly defined, nor pictures of them posted...they are truly unsung and unidentified....but we know they are there, or were by what works or tales about them were left behind...or learn too late that they once were! So much has been lost...sometimes not even the equivalent of the wheel can be reinvented.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
THE REPUBLICANS HAVE MORPHED THE PARTY OF LINCOLN TO SOMETHING NO LONGER RECOGNIZABLE AS HIS
2/15/10 has been a focus on Washington and Lincoln, sharing this day to celebrate their birthdays. Bush, our 43rd President who started an immoral war in Iraq, quoted Lincoln (as an idol) who said: "A war without morality will destroy the country." Bush almost succeeded in doing just that. It reminds me of Osdama bin Laden's threat to break the economy of the USA and makes one wonder how many of his people have infiltrated our financial system, corporations, banks, and unions to do just that.
Kevin Whitelaw of NPR writes: "The nation's top intelligence official told Congress on Tuesday (2/2/10) that the U.S. government is making significant progress against al-Qaida's terrorist network, despite several recent high-profile plots, while separately he issued a sharp new warning on an alarming rise in cyber attacks."
Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, in his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, quickly turned to al-Qaida, which he warned still has the capability to "recruit, train and deploy operatives" for terrorist plots inside the United States. There is no indication that those terrorist plots will be violent. Even al-Qaida must know how destructive white collar crimes can be.
Leon Panetta fears the greater threat is that al-Qaida is adapting their methods in ways that oftentimes make it difficult to detect." Males tend to think of war, power and physical victory. Cheney and Bush, both bullies, could never think out of the box to see that power is not limited to physical strength. Many years ago we learned that bringing down the system of trash collection can essentially stop the country from functioning. We now know that cyber crimes can do the same.
When will the big boys in government learn that they only reflect their advancing age and limited thinking when they open their mouths these days. The worst of them are the Republicans in the South who are still living their unresolved Civil War....and who erroneously call themselves Lincoln Republicans.
For anyone who remembers bin Laden's threat to our economy as I have, and have written about many times, you should read this article.
Monday, February 15, 2010
MEDIA IS BLATANTLY TRYING TO START A FEUD
While ABC's This Week featured the Bush VP, Dick Cheney, Meet the Press on NBC followed with Joe Biden, the current VP. Though they appeared on two different channels, NBC headlined on their site: "Joe Biden Tears Into Dick Cheney on Meet the Press" That was an interesting way to put it since Cheney was on This Week earlier than Biden. I would strongly urge the reader to check out this site, where you can watch all the videos discussing this today.
One commentator called it an unprecedented attack on Cheney! Biden was tactful, a gentleman throughout and only spoke the truth. If one would take the time to listen to all the video clips on this site, you will see the twisting (worse than the old parlor game of telephone) so that there is no longer an honest description of what was said by Biden.
In fact, some of what he had said was cut out in one of the write-ups which indicated some pretty biased editing to me. As David Gregory worked to get Biden to blast back, Biden did not. He tactfully said that "Cheney is entitled to his opinion. He is not entitled to rewrite history. He is not entitled to his own 'facts'."Cheney used the word 'credit' to the Obama administration for its current action in Afghanistan. Biden said he did not think they should be given 'credit', but that it was their 'responsibility'. Cheney wants waterboarding back in and Biden says no. Biden said Cheney was factually and substantively wrong. He questioned that he was either misinformed or uniformed. My own view is that neither is true...he just lies to say what suits him and will misinform the public who might be uninformed to that point...or Cheney sees the truth as misinformation since it is not what he wants people to think.
It is fascinating to see just how far the media will go to twist words and meanings and try to get a fight going. Both men have a history of losing their tempers and saying things they might later have regretted. Is that really what interviewers should be trying to have happen just for ratings? Whatever happened to journalists who wanted to help bring the truth before the citizen's eyes and help this democracy work like one? Shame on David Gregory. Tim Russert must be turning over in his grave.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
EULOGY TO NEWSPAPERS IN PRINT
Since I'm not a right-wing biased person, I'm having a really hard time finding where the left wing bias is in the media. It looks awfully red state stuff to me! In an article the other day, Robert Parry wrote: The "fair and balanced" slogan of Fox News is itself a propaganda message, reminding viewers of the supposed "liberal bias" of the mainstream media.
One of the ploys used is to claim the media has a liberal bias which forces people to bend over backwards to prove this an untruth, thus making the media heavily weighted to the right...definitely not the left.
Chris Hedges writes: "Being 'objective is killing newspapers, but we'll be much worse off when they go out of business. Don’t blame the Internet. The bloodless and soulless journalism of the traditional media left newspapers on the wrong side of the growing class divide and their readers." For the full article, click here.
This last opinion will hardly be popular with the press, but most of us stopped bying printed papers, not to save trees, but because it was a waste of money to have to pay to get advertising and little else of value. Financial pages are already outdated by the time the paper gets there, I'm not shopping for a male friend or husband, a car, and do not like to read reviews before I see something because it jaundices me since few see life as I do.
What a pity that real journalism is a lost art it seems.
One of the ploys used is to claim the media has a liberal bias which forces people to bend over backwards to prove this an untruth, thus making the media heavily weighted to the right...definitely not the left.
Chris Hedges writes: "Being 'objective is killing newspapers, but we'll be much worse off when they go out of business. Don’t blame the Internet. The bloodless and soulless journalism of the traditional media left newspapers on the wrong side of the growing class divide and their readers." For the full article, click here.
This last opinion will hardly be popular with the press, but most of us stopped bying printed papers, not to save trees, but because it was a waste of money to have to pay to get advertising and little else of value. Financial pages are already outdated by the time the paper gets there, I'm not shopping for a male friend or husband, a car, and do not like to read reviews before I see something because it jaundices me since few see life as I do.
What a pity that real journalism is a lost art it seems.
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