Month: April 2013

Civility

I am one of those people who will talk with just about anyone. When I go to the store I “chat up” the cashier, call them by name and make certain that I tell them to have a good day. The same is true for any restaurant, even if it is the drive-thru at some fast food place.

Once when I did this with a cashier who was sullen at best, the person with me was amazed by the visible transformation in the person to whom I was talking with. This person actually accused me of working “magic” on that person! It was not magic, it is simply recognizing that they are no different from me and disserve my complete attention and the best manners that I can muster.

Places that I frequent, when spotted, their demeanor changes immediately. Guess what, I get better service because of that “magic.” I would like to think that my “magic” makes their day a little better as well. Smiles are contagious!

The doctors office is another place that the demeanor of the people working behind those glass windows change as well. Everyone behind that glass greets me with a smile unless they are new and by the time that I leave, they know who I am as well. One lady who left years ago asked about me when calling one of her friends that works there still; and that fact was relayed to me on my next visit. Can you imagine how that made me feel, my magic made an impact on someone that has not seen me in over two years.

In some cultures it is impolite not to haggle with someone over the price of an item. The logic behind that is that the person who you are dealing with is not worth spending time with if you simply pay the advertised price. While in this country you are not going to “haggle” for a better price but, a little polite conversation, using their name and telling them to have a wonderful day is polite, and I think lacking somewhat from our culture.

On my last trip to Manhattan I started talking with people in the elevator, just small talk like the weather or something; when I actually spotted fear in this person’s face. What kind of a country is this when you can’t talk with someone in the elevator? I guess the norm for Manhattan is don’t talk with me, keep your distance, don’t look at me, and all will be cool. Really, is this the best that we can do?

I was saddened by her look and for that matter the look on the other occupants of the elevator. They all looked at me as if I were crazy or something for commenting on the weather; not complaining by the way. Later I was told that people who live there think that it is their god given right to complain! Is that true?

If you’re that damned miserable where you live, why are you still there? One of the reasons that there is not a “one size fits all” answer for any of the political issues of the day is we are not a “one size fits all country.”

Air travel has made the world a smaller place and I would argue that the internet has made it even smaller. Everyone who has access to the internet has access to the world. Other than a few communist countries where just about everything is blocked, we as a people have access to so many different peoples and cultures. One would think that we would all be the richer and better for it. The sad truth is that while people should be looking for commonalities (where we agree,) human nature is to look for what makes you or them different and take it out of proportion.

As an amateur radio operator for the last 30 plus years I have spoken with people from countries that no longer exist. One of the “government rules enforced by the FCC” is that when communicating with peoples in other countries that the conversation be limited to weather or that of a technical nature.” While that rule still stands today, I see it broken all of the time. With the internet I can talk with people about any subject that I so choose.

Once I had a conversation with a Russian lady who was a great photographer. She had captured something really strange in her photo and I simply asked her how she did it. When she said “I will let you in on a little secret” I just knew that people from our government and their government had read that exchange.

While I would proffer that the conversation whether it be spoken or typed would be about as private as the radio; I am not limited, and neither are you. We are actually in fact ambassadors representing our country, as are they. The bottom line here is to treat people “talk to people” the way that you yourself would like to be treated or spoken with. Don’t focus on the things that differentiate you from them, but things that you have in common.

-Best to you and those that you care about!

“Offer only good to new subscribers”

“Offer only good to new subscribers”

Customer loyalty used to be important to companies who offered subscriptions to whatever it was that they sold. This could be a magazine or cable TV.

How many times have you seen a cable TV ad offering the same service that you have for less money , “for new subscribers only?”

I had been with my cable TV provider for 16 years when I realized that by switching I could get faster internet, less expansive phones service with free long distance and oh yes, every premium channel offered for half the cost of what I was currently paying. This included offers that expired in 12 and 18 months but even after the promos expired, I would still be saving $100 or more.

There are other services like satellite radio. If you call up and use the magic word “cancel” you will you will transferred to “retention specialist” who has the flexibility to make you a better deal. Why don’t they offer you a better deal to begin with?

There are other subscription services that I pay for where special deals are offered to new customers, including books. Truthfully I would like the book offered but I am already a supporter / subscriber so, too bad. I would guess that if I were to call and cancel and then sign up again, I could get the book but that is rather disingenuous, not to mention a lot of trouble.

My power company on the other hand contacted me about the time my contract with them was to expire and offered me a better deal to re-sign up with them. Had I done nothing, it would have stayed with them by default so, if you want a good power company and cheaper electricity contact me via comment.

While I realize that “offer only good to new subscribers” has become the default way of doing business, I for one think that it “stinks on ice.”

-Best to you and those that you care about !

Life

Life is more than a box of cereal, or a board game that one might play on a rainy afternoon.

It amazes me that people will rise up and take on animal cruelty in such a vehement manner but, when it comes to human life, we seem more lackadaisical or indifferent.

The dichotomy that exists between animals and people are plenty.

A fetus is out of sight, not furry or cute and quite frankly treated like a disease.

Baby animals have some redeeming quality, even if they are some sort of featherless bird.

We will push our lawmakers to adopt strict laws on any sort of cruelty to animals but when it comes to human life we politicize it. All of the sudden a fetus becomes a political football used to paint the other side in some sort of negative light. This is anything but a proud moment in history and I truly believe that somewhere down the road we will be judged for this. It may simply be in the history books and unless the trend of re-writing history continues, our grandchildren will look back at this generation and ask, “What the hell were they thinking?”

A few days after insemination (about the time the women misses her period), a fetus has a heart beat and its own unique blood type. I would argue that this is when life starts. Birth control ok, morning after pill ok, termination up until the fetus has a heartbeat I could live with. After that it is simply killing a life that you don’t have the right to kill.

The simple facts are that your choice in this process is to “choose” to have protected sex or not. Whether your decisions produce a baby, or infects you with herpes or aids is now out of your hands. Choose to practice safe sex or know that there may be consequences for your actions.

The other issue that needs to be aired out is “death with dignity.” Currently if you or a loved one has some terminal incurable disease, you are pretty much left to die of “natural” causes. This is anything but natural in that you are deprived of food and water and your organs have to literally fail, one by one, until enough toxins build up in your body to cause the heart to stop. Since we have no idea what the person is feeling “as they can’t tell you” I would argue that our treatment of the ill needs to be changed. These people could last several days in this condition. Since we can’t talk with them, we have no idea what they feel, what they are thinking or what is going on!

We treat our damned criminals more humane than this!

The criminal is strapped to the gurney where an IV is installed. Through this IV at the time the order is given to execute the person, a chemical is given to sedate the person ( a general anesthesia). He or she is put to sleep much like you would be put to sleep for a medical procedure. After the person is asleep, more chemicals are given “paralytics as well as chemicals which stop the heart.” I stress that the criminal is not there for that procedure. Anyone who has ever been put under knows that the scariest parts are the unknowns and anticipating the procedure. I would suspect that the criminal’s worst part of this is taking that last walk into the death chamber, and being strapped to the gurney.

The argument is that death with dignity “could” become a slippery slope, in that anyone could elect to die whether they were terminally ill or not. If someone wants to die there are many ways to accomplish this and a loophole in some law should not stop us from offering assisted suicide to the terminally ill.

There is another argument in that these “death panels” that are actually in this unaffordable health care act, could be expanded to terminate a life that has reached some arbitrary cost to keep alive.

No person should have this power to decide for another if they are to live or die. Unless the patient assigns someone as a medical proxy; giving them the power knowing full well that they will let you go if the situation is that grim. If you create a living will and in that document your desire would be to die with dignity “morphine drip” that should be legal and allowed. With enough morphine the respiratory system shuts down. By the time that happens, the person has long since drifted away.

If no such document exist than the doctors should do everything in their power to keep you alive. I am referring to coma patients who cost a lot of money to take care of. We know that many people if given time will come out of a coma.

Medicine in the most general terms is a practice and why drugs work as they do or people live who should be dead is a mystery. Often times your doctor will prescribe medications to you that they have no clue how they work, they just do.

Until our medical acumen progresses to such a state that we understand much more, we should always error towards life.

As far as cruelty to animals…; I am vehemently against it. Hopefully Dante has a special place arranged for those who would harm animals.

-Best to you and those that you care about.

Taming Madness

While I try to keep in mind that life is about the journey and not the destination, often I find my-self in the perfect juxtaposition of chaos and tranquility. It is all about choices.

Do I engage the foolhardy, tilting at windmills, or do I take time to enjoy the serenity of the moment and not engage their madness and make it mine as well.

Life is about moments. When looked at as a whole, the task of determining your path is daunting. When however you realize that from one moment to the next, there are decisions; which determine how the next moment will play out.

Feeling that tension well up within your soul is a message, which bears paying attention to. Paying attention to details such as this can add years to your life and makes that life worth living. Ignoring them, conversely the opposite is true. All too often we feel that our destiny is in the hands of our circumstances. This is a lie that we tell ourselves in order to rationalize the decisions that we make. It is easy to place blame on our fellow travelers but you know in your heart that is not the case. You made the decision that put you where you are, not them.

From one moment to the next, pay attention to those choices. Is it madness or serenity which you seek? When in doubt, simply stop. Remove yourself from that environment and allow your mind to go blank for just a moment. The path ahead has many detours speed bumps and potholes. Not all roads are made of gold. If the road you chose turns out to be the wrong one, admit the error and turn around. Many of us fall into a trap of not wanting to admit the error and blindly plow ahead, doing the same thing day after day expecting different results. Turn Around..

While some religions and philosophies will argue that we have many lives and that we come back again and again until we get it right; I would argue that you are here, now, lets get it right this time, just in case this is the only time that you get. Turn around!

What I call mirror time is simply a way of examining yourself, not physically unless that helps you but more importantly your heart, the actions and decisions that you have made which have you in the place that you are in. When you take ownership of your actions, and your circumstances, then and only then can you dissect the minutes and decisions ahead to make course corrections. Own your stuff…

-Best to you and those that you care about.

Nobody Wins

We live in a world today that is much more hostile than yesterday, “speaking figuratively.”

We have an economy that is literally based on a house of cards for a foundation. The Feds are printing $40B a month ($1.1trillion a year) saturating our economy, devaluing our currency with every dollar that they print. With oil based on the US dollar, is it any wonder why gas cost so much? The “booming economy” is most certainly the same today as the dot com fiasco of a few years ago, when Enron was in the news.

We are not the only country playing this game, others including China are as well.

The economy is based on fabrications and we might as well try and spend monopoly money as that is what your greenback may very well look like in the not too distant future.

Those who survive this will most likely be that small subset of humanity who “lives off the grid” as it were. The people who live in the inner cities and who depend on the government for their existence will be in trouble when this house of cards falls. The Farmers in this country and others may survive as they know how to live without going to the local grocery store every other day for something. They also see the inside of a restaurant far less than the folks in the inner city as they simply don’t enjoy the disposable income that others do. When the bible talks about the meek inheriting the earth, one can’t help but wonder if he is talking about the farmers.

On top of the shaky economy we have small countries with the keys to Nukes! There are no winners if someone drops a nuke. Our defenses have most certainly been hardened to sustain an EMP, and a retaliation of biblical proportions would most certainly follow.

This exchange would involve other nations who have nukes as they will have certainly picked a side. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” While I have full confidence in the American Military and their ability to intercept any missile headed this way; the following actions would have serious repercussions worldwide.

Any exchange of missiles with the US would not only devastate the offending country (s); I am certain it would also trigger an economic meltdown worldwide. Everyone looses. Never mind the radiation that would be released to poison every man women and child in the entire world, as well the animals and vegetation.

I can visualize that last man standing, holding the key to a spent nuke, standing next to the shell of building, scorched from fire, with dead creatures and plant life all around him, with radioactive ash falling from the sky, declaring victory; as the blisters from radiation sickness bubble up on his body. We are truly that foolish! Nobody Wins!

When E=MC2 was discovered, Einstein wrote an impassioned letter to the president urging him not to use the bomb. That letter and is German heritage earned him a one way ticket out of the program. Oppenhiemer and others took over, and of course the rest is history. A nuclear device of a relatively low efficiency was created and dropped on our enemy, twice. If those were of a low efficiency, can you imagine what is around today?

An alliance of the superpowers is critical to keeping the peace, and our current administration does not seem to embrace that. Foreign policy is critical at this stage of the “game.” America needs to sort out who its friends are relatively quickly, and form that alliance that was so strong under previous administrations.

In retrospect, what is important to you? Is having a lot of money in the bank important? Is having a lot of gold in some small vault in your house important? What about food, water and guns? Add whisky and cigarettes to the food and water and you may have something. Why? That may very well be the new currency, if this comes down badly. Keep a good supply of your personal medications on hand; several days if not weeks of fresh water, and having some gas stored somewhere may not be a bad idea either. If they are that stupid to launch nukes, it really doesn’t make much difference. There will be no survivors, other than the cockroach. Mutually assured destruction, either by nukes or the economy or both; is not a cheery outcome.

While it is my fervent prayer that no one is stupid enough to pull the trigger, North Korea continues to be very provocative in its talks with media and other news outlets. Today they gave the Brits till the 10^th to get out of their country. What will be the spark?

-Best to you and those that you care about!