Hero

Charles Ramsey gives a great interview detailing how he freed Amanda Berry and the two other woman that had been held captive for years in a suburban Cleveland house. He also, inadvertently, gives a complex insight into America's race relations today.




This is rich and says so much about a man and a culture in a very short amount of time. Imagine 100 years from now someone opening a time capsule and watching this.

Back to the basics though - Charles Ramsey is your everyday man who became the accidental hero today because he walked through the door. Or, in this case - kicked it down!

What is Wrong With Pub Leadership?

The Republicans have seemingly given up on any kind of leadership on the US economy. Brian Wesbury puts this in perfect perspective. Wesbury is very much sympathetic to policies that promote smaller government and that will reign in spending on entitlement programs. Yet, he argues that the Pubs keep trying to bash the current economy and that jumping on every little negative economic number and ignoring that the US has been in a steady recovery going on now for about four years is hurting their credibility with voters as seen in the last election. The Dems have certainly shown that they are not going to lead on reducing the size of government and it is something that needs to be done. Unless the Pubs are willing to embark on a true strategy of leadership that acknowledges where the economy is at, the US is going to continue to see the discussion dominated by Krugman and his type of economic theory.


Hopefully, the Pub leadership like McConnel and Boehner will listen to this advice and start to act like statesman and not Fox News pundits who are looking for a sound bite to get a headline in next day's news. We need credible leadership on economic issues. That is going to take leadership being truthful in order to establish trust with voters. Today, the lies and half-truths have so alienated most voters that the average person does not believe a word almost any politician utters.

Asset Bubble, Bond Bubble, Is the Fed OOC?

Interesting discussion on Bloomberg. Check out this short video if you can stand watching these guys interrupt each other, especially Pento.


Wesbury makes the point no one on this panel disputes that PE ratios are not in the stratosphere. Pento does not think current market strength supports forward PE's (what I got trying to follow the conversation with all the interruptions) and that market conditions are going to finally cut into profits. Other analysts not on this panel (Hussman, for example) say the Shiller PE ratio is too high. With everyone believing treasury bonds are in a bubble does that mean they are the best contrary play right now?

Take Control

Can we truly feel powerful in our daily lives? When the news, day after day, paints this picture of a government out of control that wants to run every detail of our life and take away things we want and believe we need, how can we feel powerful?

We can sally worth with false machismo waving our weapon. We can stick our head in the proverbial sand through a variety of means like percoset, oxycotin, little blue or purple pill, marijuana, alcohol, etc. We can forward emails about the 28th amendment to our friends and threaten to boycott some business or product. We can even send money to the NRA, Sierra Club, or the Organic Consumers Organization.

Will any of those actions really change anything? They will probably make you feel better for a little while because at least you did something or you temporarily forgot about your perceived state of disempowerment. But when you do wake up in the morning and read the newspaper or that forwarded email from a friend or talk with someone about the daily events, the feelings come right back. You could become a hermit and just unplug completely.

The hermit's life does have a certain appeal. Maybe you could just be in a community of hermits who have completely unplugged from all forms of media. It could work but is a radical step especially if there are family members and friends you like to see, or you like to travel using modern methods, or you want to eat above subsistence level.

So, what can we do to take back our sense of power in the world today? We can Unplug From The Man as Dr. Sherry Ackerman advises. In her publications she advises us to adopt an everyday attitude of reducing our dependance on "The Man" and gain independence. She gives practical advice on how to gather wild food, recycling, and in general changing our mindset so that when the kitchen tool you always use breaks the first thought in your mind is not ordering a new one from Amazon, but how to substitute something else you already own for it.

Will gaining independence foster "taking control"? The definition of independent in Websters: a (1) : not subject to control by others : self-governing (2) : not affiliated with a larger controlling unit 

Does that answer the question?!

The other trait of those being independent is independent thinking in your own self-interest. An interesting essay by Jared Diamond was published recently. He talks about how humans constantly overreact to uncontrollable risks and underestimate ones we can control.

Studies have compared Americans’ perceived ranking of dangers with the rankings of real dangers, measured either by actual accident figures or by estimated numbers of averted accidents. It turns out that we exaggerate the risks of events that are beyond our control, that cause many deaths at once or that kill in spectacular ways — crazy gunmen, terrorists, plane crashes, nuclear radiation, genetically modified crops. At the same time, we underestimate the risks of events that we can control (“That would never happen to me — I’m careful”) and of events that kill just one person in a mundane way.

Mr. Diamond uses the example of falling in a shower as something that is actually much more dangerous to him personally at age 75 and much more likely to occur because he takes one every day, than any of the events beyond his control. So, the next takeaway is look for those everyday activities you perform and do them mindfully and reduce your own risk. That can be taking precautions when using power tools to eating well to reducing or eliminating other risky behaviors in your life like racing your car around that blind turn, taking illicit drugs of unknown strength and mixture, or a myriad of activities you know are risky.

Take control today! It is not difficult. Start with the small things and keep working on it everyday. As Ms Ackerman wrote in her Sticking It To The Man article:

Another form is something I call unplugging from The Man. Scott Nearing put it succinctly when he wrote that he:

"must reduce wants and even needs to a minimum; wherever possible, serve myself, raise and prepare my own food, wash my own clothing, do my own building and repairing, maintain the best of health to avoid the heavy costs involved in sickness, keep down such fixed costs as rent, interest and taxes; never borrow and take on interest slavery, but always pay cash; build up a capital reserve sufficient to cover a full year of unemployment, and be prepared for emergencies."

We may only do a portion of these, but, it does not matter. Every little thing adds up to more independence. And, following in the definition from Webster, that means less control of us by others.

Take Control! I salute your independent attitude!

Best of 2012

This is my list of the best and most useful places, ideas, things, etc of 2012. These are not necessarily new to 2012 but what moved onto my radar last year. Click to read on.

Eliminate This Unnamed Word

The word that shall not be named.

I really hate this word so much it pains me to even type it out for this post because it only empowers its' use. This word has become so overused especially in reviews of books. Maybe people think it denotes some kind of intellectual superiority or demonstrates their vocabulary knowledge.

But, as in this post which will take you to the offending word that shall not be named, I am not the only one who wants to scream every time they hear or read this word. And, if you use this word in a comment to the post, it better be really funny or I will delete your comment.

If you are ever tempted to say or write this word, look for something better - there surely is a better way to express yourself than this horrible word. Thank-you for your kind consideration.

And, if anyone knows how to have stupid words eliminated from the dictionary, let me know. I wish there was a word arbiter that someone could appeal to that would review your claim and if valid, strike the stupid word from all dictionaries.

How to Leave a Comment

Many people have a problem leaving a comment on Blogger when they don't have a Google account or do not want to sign in. Here is a procedure for leaving a comment with your first name (real or fictitious) or anonymously.

Global Warming is Anthropogenic

A leading scientist from the University of Berkley California who was one of the biggest skeptics of global warming and anthropogenic (human caused) global warming and previously funded by the Koch brothers has now reversed his opposition to both conclusions. I was one of those people who from looking at the data could agree that the earth was in a warming trend, but, thought there was scant evidence of anthropogenic causes. This new information is something that the educated voter and consumer should look at and decide on their own what to do.

What can we do? First, make up your mind about the data and conclusions. You don't have to be a scientist to look at data, analysis and conclusions written by a scientist. If the evidence is clear, you will be able to see this and make up your own mind. Don't let the "experts" make you think this is something beyond your understanding.

First, here is a video interview with Richard Muller the leading scientist who had previously been a big skeptic. His summary of the research is a nice starting point for the concerned person to have an idea where to get the new information and analysis just completed and why it is possibly ground-breaking.

What were Muller's previous concerns? These were also similar to my own.

There were issues of prior groups had highly selected the data. The U.K. using only 5% to 7% of the data, here in the U.S. using only 20% of the stations. It was a concern whether they had picked stations that showed warming and not the others. There were other issues, too, about the influence of urban heat islands. Cities get warmer, but that’s not the greenhouse effect. How do we estimate the greenhouse effect? There was the data adjustment, and then the huge computer programs that they used to make the attribution to humans; all of these things are deeply concern me, and I could not get the answers in a satisfactory way

What did he decide to do about his concerns? This seemed like an intelligent approach.

And the only way to answer this was to put together a program. So, we gathered a group of truly eminent scientists — people who were really good at analyzing data. These include Art Rosenfeld, who’s a hero in the energy conservation field, and Saul Perlmutter who, actually, last December, after working on our project for over a year was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics. Not for the work he was doing for us, but for prior work he had done astrophysics.

What did this group of scientists find?

We were able to show that the poor station quality — although it affected the temperature measurements, didn’t affect the temperature changes. We were able to use 100% of the data, not the 20% that others had used. We found the data selection bias didn’t affect things. We looked at the urban heat island. It came together — we concluded that global warming was indeed real. But then about three to six months ago, thanks largely to the effort of a brilliant young scientist named Robert Roady who we hired to do and use the best possible statistics in order to be able to use all the data — he was able to push our record back to 1753. That’s before the American Revolution, that’s back when the measurements in the U.S. were being made by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. With that long record, we could look for the fingerprints, we could see how much was due to volcanoes, how much was due to ocean currents, how much was due to the variability of the sun. We could do this much better than people had done before. I got to admit, I was shocked when I saw the results. The was short-term variability that was due to volcanos, essentially nothing to to the solar variation. Theoretically, that’s not too surprising, but I was surprised nonetheless. But the remaining curve, the rise in that curve, was dead on to human production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. At that point, the data had led me to a conclusion I would not have expected a few years earlier.

 Interesting information that no one should just take at face value. Pull the veneers off yourself and see what you find. Post back what you think.

What Do Hermits Say?

My passing interest in hermits led me to watch this documentary called Amongst White Clouds. If you have 5 minutes watch from minute 20 to 25 http://video.google.com/  This hermit talks about reality and nature and though he does not use the words of science like in the article below, I think the message is the same. Let me know what you think.

Reality doesn't exist; at least not in the way that we usually think of it. Dr. Jorge Martins de Oliveira writes,

 “Our perception does not identify the outside world as it really is, but the way that we are allowed to recognize it, as a consequence of transformations performed by our senses.  We experience electromagnetic waves, not as waves, but as images and colors. We experience vibrating objects, not as vibrations, but as sounds. We experience chemical compounds dissolved in air or water, not as chemicals, but as specific smells and tastes. Colors, sounds, smells and tastes are products of our minds, built from sensory experiences. They do not exist, as such, outside our brain. Actually, the universe is colorless, odorless, insipid and silent."  

Dr. Oliveira isn't a touchy-feely philosopher, a halfwit existentialist or the delusional leader of a religious cult. He's the Director of the Department of Neurosciences at an institute in Rio de Janeiro. According to Oliveira, each of us lives in a private world of our own perceptions. Speaking of this perceptual reality he writes, 

"Although you and I share the same biological architecture and function, perhaps what I perceive as a distinct color and smell is not exactly equal to the color and smell you perceive. We may give the same name to similar perceptions, but we cannot know how they relate to the reality of the outside world. Perhaps we never will."

Legislate Spiritual Experience

In the recent NY Times Op-Ed by Maureen Dowd, Is Pleasure a Sin? which highlights the current discussion of "Just Love: a Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics,” a book by Sister Margaret Farley — a 77-year-old professor emeritus at Yale’s Divinity School, past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and an award-winning scholar, we once again are confronted with organized religions attempt to control human activity that many argue is personal and not subject to religious laws. I would go further and say that this applies not only to sexual activity but the use of recreational drugs like marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, etc that all at least mimic spiritual experience and many would argue, actually induce real spiritual experience.

Why does the United States have laws against sexual acts still on the books of several states? It is still unlawful in many states for heterosexual couples to engage in certain sexual acts even if married and in their own homes. In some states, the forbidden acts (sodomy, oral copulation, etc) are only illegal if performed by same-sex couples. I would argue as Sam Harris does in his book End of Faith, that this state of affairs is the logical extension of The Inquisition which though now less barbaric and intrusive on daily lives is still the attempt of a Christian society to impose control over personal activities that have no impact on society.  Read this rather long excerpt from End of Faith if you want to grasp the full extent of how religiosity in the United States is maybe the most dangerous phenomenon facing us as a society. Here is one brief part of this section in case you passed by the link above.  

Under our current laws, it is safe to say, if a drug were invented that posed no risk of phys­ical harm or addic­tion to its users but pro­duced a brief feeling of spir­itual bliss and epi­phany in 100 percent of those who tried it, this drug would be illegal, and people would be pun­ished mer­ci­lessly for its use. Only anxiety about the bib­lical crime of idol­atry would appear to make sense of this retributive impulse. Because we are a people of faith, taught to concern ourselves with the sin­ful­ness of our neigh­bors, we have grown tol­erant of irra­tional uses of state power.

Yesterday while reading a book on Chinese qi gong I came across this passage by Dr Yang Jwing-Ming. He nicely summarizes the differences in Eastern and Western thought and lends some credence to those in the west who have adopted Buddhist principles in their lives and strayed from Christian ideals.

However, if we reflect sincerely on our past, we realize that, very unfortunately, we have also been seriously abused by many religions which have misled us to continue killing each other. I deeply believe that this was not the original intention of the teachings passed down to us from those wise holy men. For thousands of years, religions have been used as an excuse for killing and conquering. If you step into any European historical museum, you will discover that nearly 80% of the arts created in the past are related to religion and war. Our spirit has been channeled and misused by religion to fulfìll the wishes of those in power. Glory, dignity, wealth, and power have been the symbols of religion. I believe that this was a wrong turn.

Maureen Dowd, Dr. Yang Jwing-Ming, Sister Margaret Farley, and Sam Harris are all singing a similar tune that though the individual lines are different, it is part of the same song. Our irrationality born of blind faith is both killing us as individuals and our society as a whole. As Sam Harris points out in his book, we can see vividly what happens right now in the 21st century when faith overrides logic. The application of Sharia law in Islamist fundamentalist societies is abhorrent to westerners but is very similar to what was happening during The Inquisition. What is less apparent but no less important is how Christian faith has led our own society down an equally frightening path that since we are the frog in the pot of water with the heat turned on, we are less inclined to feel and  believe.

Get out of the pot. Read the Sam Harris book End of Faith. Open your eyes and try to see beyond the dogma we have been fed by society since infancy. You can be a self-proclaimed atheist and still carry around dogmatic beliefs without even realizing.

A Farting Horse Never Tires

An old New England saying is that a farting horse never tires. Could it be true for the economy as well? I was reminded of this saying when reading the article below by First Trust Advisors.

Maybe the fits and starts and hiccups the economy is seeing should be seen as good news and we should change our focus. What do you think?

The Plow Horse Rolls On

Turn on the television, pick up the newspaper, search the Internet and you will find story after story about Greece, JP Morgan, austerity, the labor force, student loans, California, the G-8, or the Facebook IPO.  Just about every bit of the coverage is negative. 

How to Fight

This link to an video interview with Dan Milllman has some very insightful words by Mr. Millman. In the past, certain friends have accused me of being a pacifist because of my opposition to various United States military operations in other countries. Try as I might to convince them that is not true, they continue to hold that mistaken belief. Mr. Millman summed up my basic philosophy at 6:40 into the interview. He stated the following.

Let me define the term Peaceful Warrior. All of us are seeking to live with a peaceful heart but there are times when we need a warrior spirit. If we have to fight, let’s fight for something and not against something.  There is a much different spirit in fighting for something than fighting against something, rebelling, angry – fighting against something.

I am not an idealist/pacifist.  In other words I would not let someone beat me to death, my family to death, because of my philosophy of non-violence. I believe in kindness whenever possible. But, if I were attacked, I would reflect back to the attacker the consequences of attacking another person. And, I would fight to the very best of my ability. So, I don’t advocate violence but I do advocate self-defense and having boundaries and self-respect for yourself because no one has a right to harm us or people we know and love. 

His distinction about fighting for something and not against is very profound. I have always felt that protesting different government actions was counter-productive because my actions actually empowered the oppressive activity. But what to do?

It’s Real Growth, Not Just Sugar

It’s Real Growth, Not Just Sugar 

Check out the link above, the data Wesbury presents and his argument about the role of new technology. My intuition says he is right but I have been fooled before.

No Man Is An Island

Politics in the US have gotten mean. It seems that more of the meanness is coming from the Republican side, but, then I see this study by Jesse Graham, Brian A. Nosek, and Jonathan Haidt at the University of Virginia that says most likely my liberal bias is blinding me to the caring nature of my conservative friends. They investigated the moral stereotypes liberals and conservatives have of themselves and each other and made an interesting discovery.

In reality, liberals endorse the individual-focused moral concerns of compassion and fairness more than conservatives do, and conservatives endorse the group-focused moral concerns of ingroup loyalty, respect for authorities and traditions, and physical/spiritual purity more than liberals do. 

They found out that both liberals and conservatives correctly identified the other groups values but exaggerated them. What a surprise?! The surprise was

When did our Politicians Stop Representing The Voters? Part 2

In When did our Politicians Stop Representing The Voters? Part 1 we discussed the Republican side and now in this Part 2 we look at how well the liberal side of the electorate is represented. To say that most liberals feel underwhelmed by President Obama is an understatement. Many feel downright betrayed. 

The Johnathan Chait article  in the New Yorker traces liberal disappointment with any Democrat residing in the Whitehouse all the way back to FDR! And, now it is not surprising to see the same disillusionment by the left with President Obama. There never really was a honeymoon for the President - the howling started before he was inaugurated.