Sojka's Call

Here is my Best of 2013 list . Maybe it is too early to publish but I doubt anything will change for me in the next 3 weeks and thought this may be more interesting for people to read now. Best beer : Firestone XVII Anniversary . This is a blend of several Firestone beers and at $23 from the brewery is pricey but definitely worth the money. Nothing else was even close though the Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout was my second place pick.  Wine of the year - all of them! I was really struck this year by the amazing quality of most wines. You almost have to try to find bad wine these days. Of course, there is the very low quality bulk wines that are one dimensional and will give you a headache, but, almost anything in the $15+ range is of very high quality. Best music album: Classixx's Hanging Garden . This is like 80's dance music with the updated 21st century sound. Great beats and hooks. The Disclosure Settle album was a solid #2. This was maybe the best year ever for dance mu

This blog brings up many economic and political issues that are easy to construe as evil. And, figuring out what we can do in the face of seemingly insurmountable oppression and power that negatively affects our lives is why many of us continue to wrestle with understanding what is going on in the government and economy. What if the answer to these problems was already answered hundreds of years ago? How could anyone know what we would be dealing with now? The Chinese civilization is possibly the oldest surviving civilization on earth. They have been dealing with the issues of oppression by a ruling elite for a long time. So, while the specifics may be different now, the issue is the same. In an article posted on IMOS , a modern-day recluse summarizes the philosophical differences of Confucianism and Taoism. I like his analogy of viewing the two as the yin and yang of historical China. The genius of historical China rests in the oscillation between Confucian and Taoism, betw

A stupid analogy because I cannot think of a better one right now is that when you first heat butter it is milky looking and then starts to bubble and until the bubbling stops you cannot see the bottom of the pan. This morning I saw the bottom of a couple pans. The first one was thanks to a post over on Naked Capitalism where Yves Smith writes about one of the Right's favorite boobs and the left's Economic policy leader, Paul Krugman. The really interesting part of this post was the distinction between fiscal and monetary policy . Basically, Krugman and Summers argue in a NY Times article , for a couple things: First that since it is impossible to balance government spending we must inflate our way out of the budgetary mess we are in, and; Second, since there is no Real economic growth at this time, it makes sense to create economic bubbles. You should read the NY Times article Secular Stagnation, Coalmines, Bubbles, and Larry Summers so you know I did not make this up. B

This past weekend while bicycle riding along in what most people would call a very aggressive paceline at around 28 mph two guys right in front of me got tangled up and crashed. It looked like one of those peloton crashes you would see in a pro bicycle race when bikes go flying into the air, people are sliding across the road, and then there is the sickening silence of someone not moving. And, as soon as people know that everyone is going to live the blame game starts. Why? We had just left a regroup point at a local gas station, market and bathroom. There were three tandems and a group of about six riders on regular bikes who were pushing the pace. First everything is nice at around 21 mph and people are relaxed. Then it gets a bit more serous at 23 mph. The third tandem in line threw a chain and had to stop. That turned out to be the precursor of the crash - or was it really? A gap opened up and the group behind the third tandem now had about 50 yards to close. The front six bike

If you are reading this post it is probably because you used iGoogle for aggregating your news feeds and the various blogs and websites you regularly visited. It is/was quite handy for putting all the new posts and news from those sources onto a single page that was easy to scan and then pick which stories you wanted to read. Today (10.7.2013) iGoogle said 25 days to shutdown. I am assuming that you have exported you current iGoogle settings in a XML file and now are looking for a site to upload them to. Sounds easy, but this has been a few months for me of trying different solutions. Google stated that usage had declined and that was the reason they were pulling the plug. I really liked the ease of use and how it saved me time gathering updates from multiple sources. So, I looked at many, many blogs and websites that recommended various substitutes. After trying many of them and getting pretty frustrated by multiple issues like: 1) Google exports your iGoogle page as a XML file a

The latest from Brin and surprise - he is quoting a Fox News article and not to bash it! These are strange times. From Fox....   "'Compromise,' to these demagogues, is to mandate that Democrats scrap President Obama’s signature domestic legislative accomplishment, which was passed by Congress, signed into law by the president, upheld by the Supreme Court and ratified by voters who returned its architect to the White House last November." "Senate Democrats, of course, had been begging for a budget compromise for months – ever since the Senate passed its budget last spring. But Republicans rejected this attempt at compromise 18 times, refusing to allow the Senate and House of Representatives to go to a budget conference to hammer out a deal that would have put an end to this cycle of continuing resolutions," writes Julie Roginsky . If you watch the news the last couple days and listen to the Pubs complain about the unwillingness of the Senate

This is incendiary talk from David Brin : Despite all the pundit-ravings about a "civil war within the GOP," The 21st Century Republican Party remains (for now at least) the most tightly disciplined political force we have seen in American political life since the "solid south" of the old Dixiecrats, seventy years ago. Pundits tell us that discipline and the Hastert Rule are maintained by fear of Tea Party insurrections in next spring's GOP primary. Don't you believe the pundits. In fact, nothing happens in the Tea Party without say-so from Fox News. Fox is co-owned by Rupert Murdoch and several Saudi princes who have made their agenda clear. The government of the United States of America, which has functioned -- overall -- far better than anything else the world ever saw , helping to lead a consortium of other free nations and peoples to transform civilization for the better... that government and even the concept of "government" must be unde

While looking for something else on a website, I came across this video and thought  it might make a good analogy for what is going in Washington DC yesterday and today. Being "adrift" seemingly was a bad state of affairs in my mind. After watching the video I realized that being adrift can be a good thing. This took me back to the time in the late 70's when my wife and I first moved to the Bay Area and we saw islands floating in the sky when riding along Skyline Blvd and looking back over the foothills towards the ocean around the Page Mill intersection. It was one of the things that made that time in my life so magical. Adrift can be a peaceful place and full of joy. Let's enjoy adrift and let the fools continue on their time and not ours. Adrift from Simon Christen on Vimeo .

Today there was a post over on David Brin's blog asking people to reread the Gettysburg Address and ponder the last sentence. Here is the last sentence: It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. For most of us, the part resonating today is ...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Has it perished here in the USA?  When our politicians in Washington DC behave like they did yesterday it makes one wonder.

This seven minute video does a good job explaining why US healthcare costs are higher than all other countries in the world and busts some of the myths surrounding reasons and benefits of those high costs.

Now that SojkasCall readers have taken their own personal journey through discussing the original David Korten article, it might be time to see what the author has to say from a personal perspective. Very enlightening reading for me and shows the depth of understanding many, many people around the world are achieving. It makes me trust that everything is working out just fine. Check out The Personal Story Behind the Essay, “Religion, Science, and Spirit: A Sacred Story for Our Time”

Could it be that the problems we face have nothing to do with Obama and that he is only the current example of what we see as something wrong? Since whoever is President is the leader and example of our society in the US, I posit that when the system is malfunctioning then the public leader of the system will look like he/she is malfunctioning. It does not matter if it is W, Obama, Newt, Hillary, or whoever. We need to change our view of what is real. That means looking a lot deeper than most of us are willing to look. It is so much easier to blame everything on a scapegoat. Just host another one up on the cross. That will fix everything. Then we can remain arrogant and self-righteous and feel good we did something (just remember to wash your hands). So, vote for whoever is not in power and things will all be better. Right - and I have some "land" in Florida for sale........... This article by David Korten called Religion, Science, and Spirit: A Sacred Story for Our Time is

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!

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 adv

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?

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

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.