U.S. Refuses to Ban Cluster Bombs

I was reading a story that tells of how 111 countries have decided to ban one of the most indiscriminate and long lasting explosive devices man has ever devised, besides the landmine. Cluster bombs incorporate many smaller bombs inside one tube used as a delivery devise that is designed to break apart in flight to scatter hundreds of smaller bomblets over an 18 square mile area. They do not all explode upon impact. Therefore, there is a very great danger that long after the conflict is over, these unexploded bombs are left to be found by children who then pick them up with horrible results.

As I was reading this story, in the back of my mind I was thinking, I’ll bet the United States did not sign this ban. And sure enough I learned they did not. Neither did Russia, China or Israel. Why am I not surprised that the four biggest users of this inhumane device not sign the ban? For one thing I am American and therefore know firsthand that this nation will never easily give up anything that earns them a financial profit. Even if it means indiscriminate killing of innocent children.

I am appalled that with the vast array of killing devices these four nations have available to them that they still choose to continue what the International Committee of the Red Cross has called a "persistent humanitarian problem."

The U.S. even had the temerity to imply that the ban on clusters would prevent it from undertaking or participating in humanitarian operations!

If these devices were being dropped on American soil you can bet they would sign that ban in a heartbeat. This is just another instance of military powers thumbing their noses at smaller countries who don’t have the power to stand up to them. And it further exemplifies why other countries hate us so much.

Vatican Men’s Club Tries to Maintain Purity??

Being able to teach religious ethics and morality is not dependent on testosterone. In fact, in almost every situation, too much testosterone is detrimental to teaching anything worthwhile. The Vatican, by threatening to excommunicate any woman priest and the guy who ordained her, seems to have allowed their self imposed celibacy to cloud their logic.

A priest is a priest is a priest. Being able to teach the word of God only requires a thorough knowledge of the Bible, a good heart and moral character, and a willingness to speak to large masses of people.

How can they with any clear conscience demand human rights throughout the world and then deem a person unworthy to be a spiritual leader because that person has breasts?

My experience, through attending several different churches of different faiths, has taught me that religious teachings, in the Catholic religion in particular, is riddled with hypocrisy. To see these delusional old men who decorate themselves in ecclesiastical vestments in an attempt to convey that they themselves are the only chosen few worthy of spreading God’s words, formally ban women from their exclusive club, only illustrates their small-mindedness and willingness to divide church membership just to placate their ego.

The long list of atrocities that have been committed against humankind in the name of God, under male leadership, proves that men are not stalwarts of morality. They have failed miserably.

It is unconscionable that church leadership would serve up pedophiles as examples of morality than to welcome the natural nurturing ability of women who are willing to offer their services in God’s name. Again, hypocrisy at its finest.

This in-fighting just to maintain control over that tiny piece of real estate called the pulpit will only limit the number of persons willing to take on this important social need.

Perhaps they are afraid of having to build separate dressing rooms. Maybe they don’t want to have to put the toilet seat down. Or, do they think only men look good in those gaudy robes?

We need all the moral and ethical teachings we can get from anyone with the ability to get people to listen. Spreading the word of God is not exclusive to only those of us who can pee standing up.

Fox News Goes Over the Line, Again

Fox News is quickly becoming famous for spinning it’s own brand of sensationalism on any and every news story that crosses its desk. All in the name of ratings.

Their ratings chase went too far again this past weekend when political pundit Liz Trotta stepped once again into the realm of poor taste by jokingly admitting that Barrack Obama be assassinated.

She had first "mistakenly" referred to Obama as "Osama" while discussing theories that Hillary Clinton's recent comments about the RFK assassination was in fact a suggestion that someone "knock off Osama." When she was corrected and reminded that she meant "Obama," she then said, "Well, both if we could."

Fox News needs to show some ethical leadership and come down hard on Liz Trotta and her foolish, lame attempt at “humor”.

Assassination is nothing to make light of and if Liz Trotta and Fox News had any inkling of the immorality of making such comments they might aspire to be a valuable news service instead of the lesser entertainment venue it is. But evidently in their reckless attempt to entertain they have become desensitized to how heinous the crime of murder is.

It is unconscionable for Hillary Clinton to link any connection about the RFK assassination to a running mate, it is unethical and contemptible for a purveyor of news, such as what Fox News is attempting to be, to present the story in any other fashion than for what it actually is, a news story.

Humans Can Be Disgusting, Selfish Animals

Humanitarian aid workers and United Nation peacekeepers are sexually abusing children in war-ravished and food-poor countries, a leading European charity has said. Children as young as 6 are among those who have been forced to have sex with aid workers and peacekeepers in return for food and money, Save the Children UK said in a report released Tuesday. After interviewing hundreds of children, the charity says it found instances of rape, child prostitution, pornography, indecent sexual assault and trafficking of children for sex.

These individuals have abused their power and committed disgusting, filthy, degrading acts against children under the cover of humanitarian aid. Humanitarian my ass. These are foul vermin of the worst kind and should be eradicated from every society on this planet. There is no amount of good that these people can do to override the damage they have perpetrated on these children and themselves.

These people will lower themselves for their own selfish pleasure because they think they will not get caught. Self-governing morality is lost to these people.

I do not understand what drives a man to think that if he has something someone needs, especially if it means the difference between life and death, he envisions himself in control of that person. This is the crux of the problem and needs to be addressed immediately and effectively. Morality and human dignity mean nothing to these scumbags.

Human rights will never be attained for everyone as long as this filth is allowed to roam free and these actions are allowed to continue. As far as I am concerned, these individuals have given up their rights to be a part of this worlds’ society.

Putting more humans in the role of “watchdog”, as is suggested, as a means of controlling this behavior is just allowing more filthy pigs to be in power which will most likely lead to further abuse.

Police State 2.0: Soon To Be Released

Rolling Stone Magazine recently published a story of such tremendous import that every freedom loving American needs to read it. We are slowly being lulled into a surveillance society so complete that privacy will be something you can only read about in history books. There is big money to be made in high-tech surveillance so don’t be fooled into believing it cannot happen here.

London is under constant surveillance via CCTV cameras o every street corner, China’s internet has become a conduit through which Chinese authorities can monitor internet sites in real time and identify both the site owners and visitors, America’s police departments are salivating at the possibility of having drones and other high-tech security toys they can use ‘for our protection’. Homeland Security wants national ID cards that can track everywhere you go, the FBI wants massive databases on every American complete with every bit of biometric data they can get their paranoid hands on. Corporations have been tracking employee email. The NSA, under the direction of a very paranoid White House, has already used telecom companies to spy on our cell phone calls and internet traffic, and it is only a matter of time before banks and credit card companies will fall under the same directives.

How far away are we from having facial recognition software that can match a human face to a database within one second? We are less than one year away. Why is this ability being developed? Where is this ability being tested and perfected? China. Right now. You think they won’t sell this technology to any country who wants it? It’s all about money and control.

L-1 Identity Solutions, based in Connecticut, already has a stake in China’s development of software they, L-1, developed. L-1 is a one-stop shop for biometrics. Thanks to board members like former CIA director George Tenet, the company rapidly became a homeland-security heavy hitter. L-1 projects its annual revenues will hit $1 billion by 2011, much of it from U.S. government contracts. Licensing their software to any Chinese company is against U.S. policy, but it obviously didn’t concern L-1. Like I said, it’s all about the money. And the government contracts that L-1 is thriving on is of course our tax dollars.

Many other U.S. companies are charging into China, eager to make a profit from helping China spy on its citizens. The risk of violating the law does not deter these companies from helping the Communist Party spend billions of dollars building Police State 2.0. As long as they make big profit, they will do it. This isn't an unfortunate cost of doing business in China: It's the goal of doing business in China.

Taken from the article:

As The New York Times recently reported, aiding and abetting Beijing has become an investment boom for U.S. companies. Honeywell is working with Chinese police to "set up an elaborate computer monitoring system to analyze feeds from indoor and outdoor cameras in one of Beijing's most populated districts." General Electric is providing Beijing police with a security system that controls "thousands of video cameras simultaneously, and automatically alerts them to suspicious or fast-moving objects, like people running." IBM, meanwhile, is installing its "Smart Surveillance System" in the capital, another system for linking video cameras and scanning for trouble, while United Technologies is in Guangzhou, helping to customize a "2,000-camera network in a single large neighborhood, the first step toward a citywide network of 250,000 cameras to be installed before the Asian Games in 2010." By next year, the Chinese internal-security market will be worth an estimated $33 billion — around the same amount Congress has allocated for reconstructing Iraq.

All of this activity in China is just a run up to what we can expect to see here in the U.S. Every Chinese security firm is hatching some kind of plan to break into the U.S. market.

The Defense Department has already attempted China’s grand experiment with something called Total Information Awareness, a virtual, centralized grand database that would create constantly updated electronic dossiers on every citizen, drawing on banking, credit-card, library and phone records, as well as footage from surveillance cameras. Although Total Information Awareness was scrapped after the plans became public, large pieces of the project continue, with private data-mining companies collecting unprecedented amounts of information about everything from Web browsing to car rentals, and selling it to the government.

Empowered by the Patriot Act, many of the big dreams have already been put into practice at home. New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., are all experimenting with linking surveillance cameras into a single citywide network. Police use of surveillance cameras at peaceful demonstrations is now routine, and the images collected can be mined for "face prints," then cross-checked with ever-expanding photo databases.

We condemn China for human rights violations and yet we have Guantanamo Bay. Our constitution prohibits illegal search and seizure yet police departments and the federal government find ways around it all in the name of fighting crime, immigration and terrorism.

China is becoming more like us in very visible ways (Starbucks, Hooters, cellphones that are cooler than ours), and we are becoming more like China in less visible ones (torture, warrantless wiretapping, indefinite detention, though not nearly on the Chinese scale).

There are a lot of people in our federal government that would do what China is doing in many of its cities, if they could. And we already have proof that they are not intimidated by the law.

Racism Threatens Us All

The news media reports that racism is alive right here in modern day America. Unbelievable! Northern states, like Indiana and Pennsylvania are showing their ignorant, bigoted and ugly side to the world. This is 2008 for God’s sake. Why is this backwoods, white-trash, red-necked attitude still alive today?

This ignorance is abhorrent. I am from Indiana, and some of my fellow Hoosiers are an embarrassment to educated, enlightened Americans. They embarrass themselves by hanging on to old tired stereotypes.

For someone to make the statement “I’ll never vote for a black person” belies the progress this country has made in maturing into a nation of tolerance and acceptance.

This nation is suffering from a president with the lowest approval rating ever achieved by a president and whose economic, environmental and foreign policies have almost ruined this nation. We are now faced with three choices, a black man who wants to change the direction in which this country is headed; a white man who wants to keep it going in the same direction; and a white woman who has a history of lying, theft, legal scandals, associations with lawbreakers and will stoop to any dirty tactic to win.

To these bigoted, self-centered, under-educated, rednecks there is no way they would choose the one person who could reverse our downward slide into economic ruin just because he is black. It is amazing, how far these ignorant people will drag this country down in order to serve their own selfish desires.

The self-ruinous hostility sickens me and the underlying reason for it saddens me. Ignorance and the blatant refusal to overcome it is a cancer that needs to be surgically removed. Most whites from Indiana and Pennsylvania don’t deserve the label of racists or bigots, which only intensifies the ugly contrast of those who do.

The statement was made that "White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people." This person is missing the point of being American. He is so wrapped up in his own personal prejudicial hatred that he has drifted away from the true American spirit. This close-minded view is an embarrassment to true Americans. The sad fact is that there are whites as well as blacks who feel this way. But there is hope in knowing that this sentiment is becoming more and more isolated. The fact that it gets media play, reminding us that the scars from a darker time in our history are still felt, brings it out into the open, can somehow, hopefully, help to stamp it out. Maybe by seeing this ridiculous statement in print this person will realize how divisive this belief is. If this evil remains in the dark recesses of America’s consciousness it has no chance of being addressed and obliterated. This person has to realize he is in the minority opinion.

I am encouraged to know that this black American, this American, named Barack Obama has enough class to stay above this type of juvenile trash. Educated, enlightened adults don’t speak like these heathens and thankfully they no longer represent the majority in this society.

We have come a long way in race relations in this country, but apparently some choose to stay behind.

It is amazing to me to know that some people are still classified based solely on skin color and not character. Humans have a lot to offer each other, and skin color has nothing to do with it. People who close themselves off to that fact, choosing to hang on to the belief that they are superior to anyone who does not look like them are doomed to extinction, and quite frankly it can’t happen soon enough.

Irena Sendler True Hero

Everyone take a long look at this photo. This is the picture of a true hero.

Irena Sendler risked her life saving 2,500 Jewish children from Nazi Germany’s gas chambers. She passed on of pneumonia on May 11, 2008 in a Warsaw Poland hospital. She was aged 98.

I have always marveled at, and thus been in awe of, what the human spirit can force someone to do under extraordinarily evil situations. This lady is an example of how a good heart can triumph over one of the darkest and most sinister eras in mankind’s history.

Between October 1940 and April 1943, Irena Sendler, a social worker with Warsaw’s welfare department, along with nearly 20 others, smuggled the children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and gave them false identities.

The Nazis burned the ghetto, shooting the residents or sending them to death camps.

She went into the ghetto under the pretext of inspecting the ghetto’s sanitary conditions during a typhoid outbreak, Mrs Sendler and her assistants went inside in search of children who could be smuggled out and given a chance of survival by living as Catholics. Babies and small children were smuggled out in ambulances and in trams, sometimes wrapped up as packages.

In hopes of one day uniting the children with their families - most of whom perished in the Nazis' death camps - Sendler wrote the children's real names on slips of paper that she kept at home.

When German police came to arrest her in 1943, an assistant managed to hide the slips, which Sendler later buried in a jar under an apple tree in an associate's yard.

Some 2,500 names were recorded.

Anyone caught helping Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland risked being summarily shot, along with family members - a fate Sendler only barely escaped herself after the 1943 raid by the Gestapo.

The Nazis took her to the Pawiak prison, which few left alive. She was tortured and was left with permanent scarring on her body - but she refused to betray her team.

"I kept silent. I preferred to die than to reveal our activity," she was quoted as saying in Anna Mieszkowska's biography, "Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Story of Irena Sendler."

In 1965, Sendler became one of the first so-called Righteous Gentiles honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem for wartime heroics.

Poland's communist leaders at that time would not allow her to travel to Israel; she collected the award in 1983.

Despite the Yad Vashem honor, Sendler was largely forgotten in her homeland.

Only in her final years, confined to a nursing home, did she finally become one of Poland's most respected figures.

Why Do We Support Human Rights Violations?

Profits from companies based in the United States, France, Thailand, Australia, England, Canada, China and Switzerland, among others, help support the brutal and repressive military leadership in Myanmar.

The world condones and supports this behavior and consequently we all shame ourselves by allowing it to continue.

Any government would realize that a natural disaster is not something they can control. Yet when the May 3 cyclone devastated their country, killing up to an estimated 100,000 people, the ruling party in Myanmar viewed it as a personal affront to their ability to protect their citizens. The extent of the damages are unknown due to the suppression of journalists and internet access. Then when the world comes to their aid, their paranoia, or is it an intense (and petty) desire to not uncover what is really going on in the country, won’t allow these ‘uninvited intruders’ into their country. They would rather allow their citizenry to starve to death, or die of their injuries and the resulting diseases from rotting corpses to take its toll than to allow outside help.

They use this disaster as a propaganda tool to ‘show’ their people that the ruling party alone is providing aid. I don’t think humanitarians care about who gets credit for providing aid, but the fact that the junta is propping themselves up as humanitarian only cheapens themselves and they aren’t fooling anyone. Myanmar’s citizens know first hand of the brutality of this military regime.

The military junta came into power in September 1988, by killing thousands of unarmed demonstrators. Then, in 1990, they staged a ‘show of democracy’ by allowing multi-party participation and then blocked the results when they did not win. The leaders of the winning opposition party were placed under house arrest or were exiled.

In December 1996, students demonstrations were forcibly suppressed and universities were closed.

When Buddhist monks marched in Yangon, the countries capital, to protest the repressive military regime’s treatment of monks during a September 5, 2008 protest in Pakokku, thousands of supporters joined them. The military used tear gas, guns and clubs to disperse the crowd. Reports of 10 to 30 protesters had been killed, monasteries were raided and many monks were beaten and arrested.

The rest of the world knows of their brutality as well despite repeated attempts to prevent outsiders from being privy to internal conditions. Their refusal to allow aid workers into their country to help their own suffering citizens should remind the world that this highly repressive and petty regime should not be allowed to remain in power.

Journalist within Myanmar’s borders have to work in secret because they are under threat of imprisonment for stories that would offend the ruling party. And it doesn’t take much to offend them.

We condemn human rights violations on paper, we actively protest human rights violations during public events, yet we purchase products from the very corporations who are supporting (or are) the violators.

Myanmar has been pretending to be democracy advocates for 20 years and it is time the world take a stand and punish them as well as their supporters for their human rights violations.

Corporations should face stiff penalties for financially supporting such a hateful and repressive regime.

Unocal is the single largest American investor in Myanmar through a 28% interest in a pipeline that will pump gas from offshore fields through Myanmar to Thailand. The French company Total will build the pipeline, and the Thai and Myanmar Government energy companies also have stakes. Texaco and Arco also recently signed deals to drill nearby.

“Companies doing business in Burma argue their presence is constructive and will benefit the Burmese people, but they have yet to condemn the government’s abuses against its own citizens,” said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Keeping quiet while monks and other peaceful protesters are murdered and jailed is not evidence of constructive engagement.”

While foreign companies doing business with Myanmar are guilty of supporting this country, people who purchase products from these corporations should be ashamed of themselves. Profits ease the corporate conscience but what about the conscience of those individuals who buy these corporations’ products thereby providing the support funds?

What Choice Do We Have?

John McCain

John McCain hired a lobbyist, Doug Goodyear, whose firm once represented Burma’s repressive regime to manage his GOP convention this summer. Burma (Myanmar) has been strongly condemned by the Sate Department for its human rights record and remains in power today. He is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients.

McCain has portrayed himself as a crusader against special interests and yet hires a special interest advocate. Much the same way ex-NY Governor Eliot Spitzer ran a campaign on ridding the city of white collar crime and was caught as a client of a high-priced prostitution ring.

He admits the war in Iraq is for oil and then back pedals. Will he have a chance to backpedal while in the presidential office? What ramifications will we see then? Judging from the media, not much.

McCain voted against passage of Martin Luther King as a national holiday and when confronting constituents who wanted the passage he backpedals yet again and said he was wrong.

He, along with John Edwards, authored a Patients’ Bill of Rights in an effort to crack down on the tobacco industry. He said he never back down from legislation to regulate the industry. He has since changed his mind.

McCain’s position on abortion flip flops apparently depending on what time of day you speak to him.

He supports the war in Iraq but won’t give soldiers expanded GI Bill benefits because he thinks they will not re-enlist so they can take advantage of the benefits.

His campaign is deeply embedded in hypocrisy. The message is clear, if you don’t like what John McCain says one day, confront him on it the next and he will go through the motions of apology and appear to change his mind, just to appease you.

The news media has already made its choice by choosing to downplay McCain’s involvement with xenophobic, homophobic, bigoted evangelical John Hagee while serving up a relentless campaign against Obama for his association with Reverend Wright, even two months after Obama dumped him.

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton resorts to dirty politics, lies and scandals in an attempt to win her nomination. She insulted an entire race of people who has been undyingly supportive of her husband by saying that since Obama is black he cannot cut it with hard-working white Americans. She insulted white Americans as well with this poisonous rhetoric, by inferring that most working-class white people are unwilling to give an African-American candidate a fair hearing in a presidential election.

The Clintons are no strangers to scandal. Mrs. Clinton’s brothers, Tony and Hugh Rodham, had lobbied the president on behalf of criminals who then received presidential pardons or a sentence commutation from Mr. Clinton.

Bill Clinton did have “sex with that woman” and then lied about it to the voters and investigators.

They took furniture and rugs from the White House collection that had to be returned. And they received $86,000 in gifts during the president’s last year in office, including clothing (a pantsuit, a leather jacket), flatware, carpeting, and so on. In response to the outcry over that, they decided to repay the value of the gifts.

Bill Clinton has been under investigation of drug use, threats against women for testifying to his numerous extra-marital affairs, improper influence in judge selection to hear cases potentially harmful to Clinton, allegations of a cover-up involving the deaths of two teenage boys while Clinton was governor of Arkansas.

A trail of mysterious deaths surrounding some involvement with the Clinton’s have yet to be satisfactorily solved.

She is desperately trying to count votes, from Michigan and Florida, that were knowingly illegally cast and were therefore ruled to be void by her own party chairman.

Hillary constantly tries to smear Obama through associations with controversial people for their questionable activity while she herself was investigated for her actual involvement in the Whitewater Development Corp. affair. Her associations with the type of people she is trying to connect Obama with are well documented.

Her campaign is deeply embedded in falsehoods, deception, divisive rhetoric and hope that the nation will forget about her past ‘indiscretions’.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama is calling for diplomatic solutions to Iraq, a path I have long been supportive of. He has shown me to be a thinking man’s answer to politics as usual.

He was criticized for no longer wearing a lapel pin of the American flag, his response was that wearing it had come to feel like “a substitute for true patriotism”. He is correct, simply ‘showing’ patriotism through the display of some materialistic item does not prove patriotism, actually doing something shows your patriotism.

Obama has tried to get more people involved in the process by not playing dirty politics, by presenting himself as human by admitting to past mistakes, and by acknowledging the rights of people to make their own choices about how they conduct their lives. His honesty and openness to questions about his past has garnered great respect from voters.

His campaign has been one of respect and many voters have taken to it because we are tired of the ugly, dispiriting campaigns that have so defined political races in the past. He is persuading younger voters in record numbers to participate in the process.

I believe he knows that by demonizing his opponent he is actually demonizing himself. It is refreshing to find someone who is willing to shun conventional belief and stand by what voters are searching for, a clean campaign where the actual topics are center stage instead of what the other person did to or for whom.

How his demeanor will be taken in Washington as president is yet to be seen, and I don’t foresee him as able to come out of it without all the good being boiled out of him. Which is too bad.

No Vote

This has long been an alternative to choosing between the ‘lesser of two evils’ that has lead to widespread apathy among voters in this country.

I don’t want to have any part of putting another George W. Bush into office and I am tired of rich, old, white men thinking they have a monopoly on power in this country.

I don’t want to be a party to endorsing dirty politics as a viable and acceptable tool for campaigning. It’s high time we prove that gender does not dictate leadership ability, but this woman is bad for this nation. She has way too much dirty laundry and has proven too many times that she will sink to any devious, underhanded method to get her way, and I don’t believe there is enough room in her heart to put America’s best interest ahead of hers.

It is also high time we show the rest of the world that America’s race relations has come far enough that a persons race has no connection as to ability to be commander in chief. But I believe that anyone who thinks they can survive unscathed from participating in the partisan, scandal-racked, special-interest-backed political arena of the federal government without succumbing to its temptations while being looked back upon as a great president is truly naïve.

We either flip a coin or don’t participate. What are you going to do?

Our country is falling apart

Literally, the physical structures that hold this country together are falling apart. The nation’s highways and bridges are in disrepair and road crews are short billions to get them up to safe conditions. Our aging sewage system is breaking apart and finding money for repairs has become a major challenge. Our military barracks and hospitals are crumbling and money is being lavished on an illegal war and the American contractors who want to keep it going.

Roads and Bridges

Our nation's bridges, highways, and other transportation arteries are old, outmoded, and under tremendous strain, and we are not spending enough to maintain the existing infrastructure, let alone expand it for a growing population. 73,518 bridge-spans, nationwide, have been identified by the Transportation Department as "structurally deficient", in poor condition and needing repair but not unsafe. Not unsafe? It is cheaper to rate these bridges “not unsafe” on paper until another fatal collapse like what happened to the 40-year-old Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis that broke apart into the Mississippi River on August 1. Only after a collapse will the experts say ‘well, I guess that one was unsafe”.

The Department of Transportation's inspector general last year criticized the Highway Administration's oversight of interstate bridges, saying that flawed calculations of weight limits could pose safety hazards. The Highway Administration agreed its oversight of state bridge inspections needed to be improved. So, even the 73,518 number might be inaccurate.

This nation has a chronic underinvestment problem which has created a huge backlog of maintenance projects. Federal highway spending this year is set at $40 billion, Pete Ruane, president of American Road and Transportation Builders Association and other industry groups put the 2007 cost to improve existing highways and bridges at $155.5 billion. Over the next five years, the American Society of Civil Engineers says it will take $1.6 trillion in capital investment by all levels of government to keep the current system up to date. That's almost six times the $286 billion in federal funds that the 2005 highway bill provided to the states for transportation construction and repairs through 2010.

Here’s part of the problem: politicians, like Minnesota Democratic Rep. James Oberstar, who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, who sit behind their big desks writing new legislation designed to magically fix everything. He wants to establish a new trust fund for bridge repairs. Why, Mr. Oberstar, do we need a new trust fund? This amounts to busy work on your part. What we need is leadership that will direct funds into the existing trust fund to get these repairs done.

The trust fund that finances the federal highway program through fuel and other highway-use taxes faces a $4.3 billion shortfall in two years, according to the Office of Management and Budget. Unless Congress plugs that hole, the government will have to slash more than $16 billion from the $43 billion in aid that the states were promised for 2009.

Due to the stellar job our federal government is doing in managing the economy, the trust fund's purchasing power has declined by 30% so the country is spending less today in constant dollars than when federal fuel taxes were last increased 15 years ago. Strong global demand for building materials like steel and concrete have pushed up prices of those raw materials. Higher oil prices have raised the cost of asphalt and the diesel fuel need to power road-building equipment. Why do we allow ‘strong global demand for building materials’ to increase prices to our nations transportation departments? Why must we pay higher global prices when the materials are coming out of our own backyard?

Some possible ideas to address providing more funds for repairs include ending state and local governments' gas-tax exemption; crediting the trust fund with interest; combating tax evasion by organized crime and, two of my personal favorites, placing a higher tax on gas-guzzlers (low-mileage vehicles) and raising gas tax which has remained at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993.

Taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel provide nearly 90% of the trust fund's revenue, which clearly is not enough. Congress proposed raising the tax by 4 cents a gallon, but the measure died when the White House threatened to veto any highway spending bill that included a tax increase. State gasoline taxes are levied based on volume, not price, revenues have not increased even as the price of gasoline has risen sharply. As high pump prices promote conservation, lower sales volumes of gasoline mean even less money to support road repair.

The health of our entire economy depends on our roadway system. About three-quarters of the $8.4 trillion worth of commodities delivered each year nationwide is carried by trucks; delays in that supply chain reduce the productivity of American businesses. At the same time motorists spend 3.7 billion hours a year stuck in traffic at a cost of $63 billion in wasted time and fuel costs, according to TRIP, a national transportation research group.

Military Infrastructure

The recent stories of rundown facilities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. stirred up interest in how the federal government has not been keeping up with physical plant maintenance.

Reviews of VA medical facilities across the nation have found the presence of rodents, bugs, chronic leaks, and dilapidated furniture.

Army barracks across the U.S. require immediate repair to combat mold and moisture–related damage to structures. According to Army inspectors, “30% of our existing barracks are World War II and Korean War-era and require large investments to extend their life until replacement facilities are constructed." Army official have redirected $250 million from other funds to get the repairs done immediately. They gave this breakdown of how the funds will be divided among the barracks that need repairs:

• Fort Polk, Louisiana, $166 million.

• Fort Gordon, Georgia, $49.7 million.

• The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, $9.3 million.

• Fort Lewis, Washington, $7.4 million.

• Fort Stewart, Georgia, $6.2 million.

• Fort Bragg, North Carolina, $2.9 million (in addition to the $2.6 million spent in response to the initial reports).

• Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii, $1.7 million.

• Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, $1.2 million.

Sewage Systems

America's aging sewer systems are dumping human waste into rivers and streams, despite years of fines and penalties targeting publicly owned agencies responsible for sewage overflows.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data shows that since 2003, hundreds of municipal sewer authorities have been fined for violations, including spills that make people sick, threaten local drinking water and kill aquatic animals and plants.

Any heavy downpour of rain immobilizes areas of cities due to inefficient stormwater drainage systems, some combine with aging and cracked sewer systems to allow bacteria laden sewage to flow freely onto beaches and roadways.

We spend over $3 billion a week on the war. Money that is better spent here in our own country on our own citizens safety. Instead George and his cronies have devised a method of feeding themselves first. KBR, Haliburton and other American contractors are all getting paid extremely well for what they do in Iraq. And George blanket-vetoes any spending that Democrats come up with to increase spending for public safety.

But writing new legislation is not going to fix these problems, getting politicians off of the gravy train of earmarks and other inappropriate use of tax payers dollars will free up a remarkable amount of money to fund these necessary expenditures. Once we slough off all of the lobbyists and other self-interest leeches that are bleeding this country dry we may find that we don’t need to raise taxes at all.

What price increases?

How many of you have noticed how companies are fooling us into thinking that we are getting more for our money by buying their products?

I noticed about a year or so ago when ice cream makers began putting their products in smaller packages and kept the price the same.

I figured it was just a way to keep prices down. When in actuality, they were raising prices but selling us smaller amounts. Isn’t that considered deception?

Now, I’m am not naïve enough to think that companies have never resorted to deception before. But this is a new type of deception.

Since learning of this new sleight-of-hand packaging I began looking closer at quantities and found disturbing evidence that this practice is wide spread.

Mouseprint.org follows deceptive advertising and recently posted their finding that Country Crock 3-lb margarine is no longer 3-lbs. When questioned about this quantity change, Unilever Foods, makers of Country Crock says they apologize for ‘the inconvenience our recent packaging change has caused.’

When corporations apologize for ‘any inconvenience caused’ it is corporate speak for ‘damn, we got caught and now we have to cover our butts’. Then they give a long, drawn out carefully measured and worded spiel about how increased costs of raw materials and ingredients and of course extra precautions on their part taken to protect you the consumer forced them to raise their prices. They go through all of this whitewash only after being caught for resorting to sneaky price increases. Everyone expects prices to increase, but to lull consumers into believing their favorite product is not increasing its price only to give you less is just underhanded.

So the next time you see a product has redesigned packaging chances are good that the quantity was lowered and you will actually pay more.

Another more prevalent and insidious type of deception is lowering the quality of what you get for the same amount of money.

This is especially true in ads where pictures are used to show you what you will get for your money. Fast food restaurants are perfect examples of this. You will never get a sandwich that looks like its ad. It doesn’t matter what you are willing to pay for it, it will never happen. This site offers a perfect example of what I am talking about, although I am sure almost everyone has fallen victim to this deception already.

Cereal and fruit juice ads are almost as bad. They tell you that you are getting something healthy for your kids when there is way too much sugar in them and way too little nutrition to ever be deemed part of a healthy breakfast or snack.

Here’s another product deception that you need to look out for. First of all the larger size of a product is not necessarily a better deal. We have been lulled into believing that buying in quantity offers a per ounce bargain. This is a lie! Check the per ounce price before reaching for that larger size. Also, look at the ingredient quantities. Mouseprint.org also found this deception. The larger 33 oz bottle of ACT mouthwash actually has less than half the strength of the smaller 18 oz bottle therefore you are actually getting less quality.

To be fair, if there is such a thing is advertising anymore, these products tell you to read the directions and all labels. In those directions they actually tell you how to appropriately use these products but they count on consumers to not read the directions and therefore get away with sneaky little stunts like these to actually get more money for their products.

Who needs to raise prices when consumers are willing to fall for these little tricks and not be the wiser?

As Tom Waits said it in his song Step Right Up ‘The large print giveth and the small print taketh away’.

We only have ourselves to blame for letting corporations get away with these deceptions. Be a smarter shopper and read the labels.

Beautiful day for a parade

Russia brought out its tanks for a parade to celebrate their victory over the Nazis in World War II. They also brought out posters with the sickle and hammer insignia of the old communist regime. Are they returning to their old pre-cold war ways? It was a time when Russia felt more in control of their destiny even though it was, and still is, a failed idealism.

Should we view Russia as a threat to the U.S.? As a potential threat, yes. Maybe not in direct military conflict but Russia sells military equipment to Syria, Iran, China and Venezuela. It supports the development of Iranian nuclear technology and blocks Kosovo independence. It has cut off gas to Ukraine, imposed economic sanctions on Georgia and launched a cyber war against a NATO ally, Estonia.

Even though Russia rolled out tanks based on equipment designed decades ago, and their current military force is nowhere near communist era levels they have been busy formulating plans to replace nearly half of its hardware by 2015 with newer more sophisticated equipment such as a new generation of intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines and possibly a fleet of aircraft carriers. Every nation has the right to modernize its military for defense purposes, as newly elected president Dmitry Medvedev said in the celebratory parade’s opening speech "the true purpose of weapons and military equipment is to give reliable defense of the homeland."

The danger of having a large military for the purpose of “defense” is that military leaders get tired of playing war ‘games’. They want their military prowess to be tested under ‘live conditions’ and in the wrong hands that military can be used for offensive purposes. Just look at how George W. Bush used our “defense” military against Iraq.

The fact that Russia is returning to the tradition of showing off their military in a communist era show of military might raises concerns that Russia has aggressive ambitions.

Putin cemented his central authority over regional leaders by undermining their authority, independent media, both houses of parliament, independent political parties and civil society. At the same time, he increased the role of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB, in governing Russia and has arbitrarily politicized such state institutions as the courts, tax collectors and the police. Putin's regime also made it increasingly difficult for U.S. business and nongovernmental organizations to operate in Russia. As Russia's retreat from democratic values increasingly becomes a source of tension between it and the West, Moscow, in turn, sees less value in trying to cooperate with NATO, the European Union and the U.S.

Putin’s shift away from Russia’s new found democracy is placing the United States as Russia’s No. 1 enemy. Russian state-controlled television is showing how the U.S. is surrounding Russia with military bases, fomenting pro-American revolutions in countries neighboring Russia and seizing Russian natural resources.

In April, Putin warned, "There is a growing influx of foreign cash used directly to meddle in our domestic affairs. . . . Not everyone likes the stable, gradual rise of our country." In May, Putin said that threats to Russia from the West "are not diminishing. They are only transforming, changing their appearance. In these new threats, as during the time of the Third Reich, are the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world."

Today, The U.S. is bogged down in unwinnable wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and morally discredited in the eyes of the international community as a unilateral, interventionist power and violator of human rights. Thanks to George W. Bush’s mishandling of foreign policy Russia believes that only hard power, not values, matter in international politics.

We go into countries with a holier than thou attitude and preach to them about human relations when right here in America New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are still in a shambles, our economic system is failing us, our government is spying on us, there is a disproportionate number of blacks in prison, we are making a huge deal out of possibly electing the first woman or first black as president in our 230 year history and we back our foreign policy with military strength.

Is it any wonder Russia views us with suspicion? Should we be surprised that Russia wants to do some saber rattling of its own as a warning to the U.S.?

Relations between the two countries has been strained due in part to Bush’s insistence that a new missile defense system, purportedly to defend against long range missiles from Iran and North Korea, be installed within range of Russia. Putin believes the real target of the missile shield is clearly Russia and its vast nuclear arsenal.

In 2002, Mr. Putin and George Bush signed a treaty obliging both sides to cut strategic nuclear weapons by about two-thirds by 2012. Installing a new European missile defense system sends the message that we don’t trust Russia to keep up their end of the bargain. Russian-U.S. ties have since worsened steadily over other disagreements on Iraq and other global crises, and U.S. concerns about an authoritarian streak in Russia's domestic policy.

Recent expulsions of military attaches to the Russian Embassy in the U.S. led to Russia’s response of expelling two U.S. military attaches from Russia. Neither side will comment on reasons behind the expulsions but one can’t help but wonder if cold-war era spy games are returning.

Putin’s adoption of a new military doctrine that names the USA and NATO as potential enemies indicates a step up in the preparation for conflict. Much like what Bush is doing towards Iran.

A Russian Tupolev 95 bomber recently flew directly over an American aircraft carrier twice in the western Pacific at an altitude of about 2,000 feet while another one circled about 58 miles out. Such Russian bomber flights were common during the Cold War, but have been rare since. This is further indication of Russia’s growing animosity towards the U.S.

But really, what has Russia to fear from the U.S.? They do have all of that oil and the U.S. has shown it is not above invading a sovereign nation to ensure continued access to oil.

The bottom line is that we have done this to ourselves. And we have George W. Bush and his paranoid cronies to thank for it.

Legalized Barbarism on America’s Doorstep

Do you like that little ivory trinket you adorn yourself with? I’ll bet the elephant that gave up his life for it was pretty fond of it too. Do you care that you are supporting organized crime by purchasing that cute little black market item? How about the possible extinction of elephants just so you can show off your trophy?

Sure, look the other way and contemplate your rationale for why an elephant had to die for your selfish pleasure.

Up to 5 percent of Africa's population of elephants was killed by poachers for the year ending in August 2006, said University of Washington biologist Samuel Wasser. That amounted to more than 23,000 elephants, which yielded an estimated 240 tons of ivory. Photo credit: Benezeth Mutayoba

A kilogram of high-quality ivory sold for $200 on the black market in 2004, but the price tag for that quantity ballooned to $750 last year, Wasser said.

The tusks are sought after in some Asian countries, sometimes in the form of hankos, round cylinders of ivory on which some communities in China and Japan carve their personal seal for use as a prestigious signature stamp. The creamy tusks also are used to carve cane and knife handles and other small objects. The price of high-quality ivory has created a black market, with commodity speculators driving poaching to never-before-seen levels, Wasser said.

"This is serious business, and if we don't open our eyes to the problem, we can kiss our elephants goodbye," he said.

In fact, elephants have been poached to extinction already in Senegal and to near extinction in Guinea-Bissau, said Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, a biologist at Columbia University.

The key to poaching prevention for African elephants lies in enforcement of a 1989 international trade ban which was highly effective immediately after it was enacted, but is no longer because governments withdrew funding for its enforcement, Wasser said.

So, that tells the rest of the world that governments don’t care if the elephants do become extinct. There must be more pressing problems than to worry about taking a valuable piece of the animal kingdom off of the charts. Sure, that’s it, there are more important matters to be concerned with, like making money from the slaughter of this doomed species.

China and the U.S. are the top two importers of ivory that fuels a black market that is growing at an alarming rate due to organized crime. And guess what? The law says it’s okay to do it. Sure, you can bring in ivory tusks from Africa, but only as long as they are trophies. Wow, how trusting of the Customs Service to believe that all of those ivory tusks are for trophies only. It sure was thoughtful of our lawmakers to show the world we are tough on poachers and then give trophy hunters the okay to contribute to the elephants extinction.

What are we doing to our children?

A U.K. study shows that children in America and the U.K. are increasingly being given anti-psychotic drugs to treat a myriad of problems, most commonly autism and hyperactivity. This increased dependency on drugs to solve or control these problems could be jeopardizing the health of these children. We don’t know for certain because long-term effects of these drugs are not tested before being administered!

Here’s the side effects we do know of: weight gain, nervous-system problems and heart trouble. There is little long-term evidence about whether these drugs are even safe for children. Weight gain alone creates additional risks including diabetes.

Once again we go for the immediate quick and easy answer. We use our children as guinea pigs because some pharmaceutical company’s ad hawks their latest creation as the answer we have all been praying for.

What is the root cause of hyperactivity? Why is a pill the only answer to address this problems?

There has been a great deal of focus on Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder as a cause of hyperactivity. Other conditions can cause it as well. Normal young children can be very lively and may or may not have short attention spans. Normal teenagers can also appear hyperactive; puberty can cause it. Children who are bored, are suffering from mental conflict, or are having problems at home — which may even include sexual abuse — can be hyperactive. The disorder has a large range of effects on children. Some have learning disabilities, while others may be very gifted, or both. None of these conditions warrant the use of drugs.

Hyperactivity can also occur because of problems with hearing or vision. Overactive thyroid, lead poisoning, atypical depression, mania, anxiety, sleep deprivation and a range of psychiatric illnesses are some of the potential causes. These conditions can all be addressed by treatments without using drugs.

These are the issues that need to be researched before resorting to any response from pharmaceutical companies who will push any pill that earns them money.

Thioridazine, sometimes used to treat hyperactivity in attention deficit disorder, was one of the frequently used early medications that was halted because it was later found to have heart-related side effects. This was only learned after children had been given the drug.

Doctors themselves are adding to health risks. For example, atypicals are a new generation of antipsychotic drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration for adult schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (manic depression). None of the six drugs — Clozaril, Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Abilify and Geodon — is approved for kids, but doctors can prescribe them as "off-label" medications. Why are doctors allowed to prescribe these drugs to children as long as the drugs do not carry the original label? Why do doctors prescribe these to children knowing they are not approved for children?

Research on how the drugs affect children is sparse, and experts increasingly are concerned that the drugs are being prescribed too often for children with behavior problems, such as attention-deficit disorder and aggression.

In a USA Today interview, John March, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, prescribes the drugs to kids in some cases of serious illness when he thinks the benefits outweigh the risks. But he says prescribing them for behavior problems alone may be a mistake. "We have no evidence about the safety of these agents or their effectiveness in controlling aggression," he says. "Why are we doing this?"

A study of FDA data collected from 2000 to 2004 shows at least 45 deaths of children in which an atypical antipsychotic was listed in the FDA database as the "primary suspect." There also were 1,328 reports of bad side effects, some of them life-threatening. Are parents so desperate to get relief from the burden of a hyperactive child that they resort to drugs with these side-effects?

The FDA's Adverse Events Reporting System database captures only 1% to 10% of drug-induced side effects and deaths, "maybe even less than 1%," says clinical pharmacologist Alastair J.J. Wood, an associate dean at Vanderbilt Medical School in Nashville. So the real number of cases is almost certainly much higher.

We need to break free of conventional medicine’s dependence on drugs. This whole culture of take a pill to solve your problems needs to be stopped. Pharmaceutical companies placing ads pushing their latest miracle drugs need to be banned. The FDA needs to more thoroughly test these drugs before they are prescribed.

There are several alternative treatments to medication for the hyperactive child, but be absolutely certain you consult only a registered and qualified practitioner.

Osteopathy:

Osteopathy treats the musculo-skeletal system. It concentrates on gentle manipulation to restore and maintain the proper functioning of the muscles and bones. It is particularly useful for treating problems with the ligaments and spine. It improves lymphatic drainage and breathing which, in turn, can be very effective in treating hyperactivity in children. Cranial osteopathy also relieved many of the symptoms of hyperactivity such as headaches, dizziness and lack of concentration.

Nutritional therapy:

Much of our modern diet is highly refined and lacking in essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients. Nutritional medicine aims to redress this balance by adding essential nutrients to the diet in such a way that the body is able to absorb and utilize these nutrients. A nutritional therapist will recommend a system for diagnosing and eliminating any foods that are likely to trigger hyperactive behavior in the child.

Homeopathy:

The homeopathic approach is growing in popularity as an alternative treatment for hyperactivity in children. Homeopathy is gaining recognition in the conventional field of medicine and has been subject to many clinical trials. Homeopathy works according to the principle of “like cures like” where substances that cause certain symptoms can also be used to cure them. However, used in conventional doses, these substances would be toxic, so homeopathy dilutes them to miniscule levels in order to make them safe but, at the same time, retaining their effectiveness. Because homeopathy adopts the holistic approach, the child’s medical history, lifestyle and temperament will be assessed before treatment is prescribed. Hyperactivity is considered a complex problem by homeopaths. It is, therefore, essential that you consult a recommended practitioner rather than trying to treat the child yourself.

Acupuncture:

Acupuncture is based on the principle that well-being depends on the balance and flow of energy (called “Qi”) through the body. The acupuncturist will correct the flow of Qi by inserting thin needles into certain points in the body. Because some children are afraid of needles (acupuncture needles, incidentally, are painless), massage or acupressure will be used instead. However, most acupuncturists treating children will only use the finest of needles and only leave them in place for a few seconds. The acupuncturist will take a full history of the hyperactive child and then concentrate on the points where he or she believes the energy channels are being blocked in the individual child. Acupuncture has proved a very effective remedy for hyperactivity in children.

Herbal medicine:

Herbalism is probably the oldest form of medicine. Whereas modern medicine often relies on extracting one active ingredient, herbal medicine uses the whole plant. Herbalists often point out that symptoms may get worse at first but then a marked improvement will follow. Many herbal remedies are particularly relevant to the treatment of hyperactivity in children. A herbalist will be able to pinpoint the remedies which are best suited to the individual personality of the child.

At least try some other form of treatment before subjecting your child to the crap shoot that pills have become.

Where Are We Going?

Do we have a direction for this country? What are America’s goals? After living (stumbling) under what passes for “leadership” these days, I feel this country is more lost today than ever.

Actually, we are headed in several directions. We are headed for a second great depression, according to economic experts; we are headed for war with Iran, according to U.S. News and World Report and according to the rhetoric that our paranoid, war-hawkish ‘leaders’ are spouting; we are headed toward environmental disaster, according to environmentalists everywhere; we are headed toward third world status, according to our downward trend on the list of information technology rankings. Our increasing illiteracy, our increasing waistlines and our vanishing chances of having a workable and equitable healthcare plan has us decreasing in the rankings of the world’s healthiest nations. We are leading the world in number of incarcerated individuals, a dubious honor at best.

In a recent poll, 70% of respondents to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey say things are going badly for this country.

We are told as individuals that we should have a 5-year plan, a 10-year-plan, and beyond. Can anyone tell me what those plans are for this country?

The U.S. has become more dangerously polarized through our blind impassioned pursuit of terrorist (that we certainly have had a hand in creating) and we are antagonizing them even more with each sip of oil from foreign wells.

As a nation, we have lost our sense of what is right and wrong, fair and unfair, just and unjust. George Bush’s gang thought it right that we destroy a nation to protect our interests and access to oil. They thought it just to use telecoms to secretly gather information on millions of Americans in their pursuit of terrorists that, oddly enough, has not led to any arrests. They thought it fair to hold hundreds of those who they consider to be ‘enemy combatants’ for years without a trial. They thought it fair to place unqualified cronies in such high government positions as the head of the U.S. Attorneys Office, Director of FEMA, Commissioner FDA, Chair of Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Administrator of Medicare & Medicaid Services. But ask any individual you come into contact with throughout your busy day for their opinion on any of these topics and they will give you a very different version of what is right, fair and just.

Our emerging world market economy is creating an ‘every-man-for-himself’ value system. Traditional morality, i.e., selflessness, altruism, sharing and cooperation, is the glue that built our society and it is crumbling.

This is the key factor behind much of the social unrest globally, according to George Matafonov, author of a new book entitled Fire & Water: Market Morality & Civil Society. "While the threat of terrorism and multiculturalism are often convenient and easy scapegoats, the root causes of social unrest globally lie in the experiment in trying to model the moral core of society on economic theory, rather than traditional human values," said Matafonov. "While economic theory results in efficiency in competitive markets, it has no place outside the market," he added.

As humans, we have been living in societies for tens of thousands of years and have developed values and a sense of morality to enable us to live in peace, harmony and prosperity. In the space of less than 50 years, economic theory has turned all this upside down by insisting our chief value should be competitive self-interest.

Religion has taken a beating by people who lack the incentive or the inclination to give it a ‘test drive’ and by reports that prove clergy are humans. Catholic church sex scandals have become legendary. Evangelical church leaders become involved in sexual immoral conduct, tax evasion, extramarital affairs, shameless theatrics to raise money, and infighting. Christianity has taken on so many different doctrines that there is no longer one central belief. Even the idea of God holding dominion over earth as its creator is no longer acceptable to a growing number of people. Supreme Court decisions that ban recognition of God in public life have the effect of abolishing Christianity in public life and discrediting Christianity in private life. These Supreme Court decisions are driven by organizations such as American Atheists, the group founded by Madelyn Murray O'Hair in 1963, the American Civil Liberties Union and many others.

Family values are deteriorating through moral decay that allows adulterous relationships that in turn increases the divorce rate. The resulting increased divorce rate increases out-of-wedlock pregnancies that are costing taxpayers more than $112 billion annually. The unfortunate side effect of divorce is a single-parent family that is subject to a life filled with early pregnancy, school dropout, and delinquent behavior. Children who grow up without a father present, even when adjustments are made for income, are 375% more likely to need professional assistance for emotional problems, twice as likely to repeat a grade of school, and more likely to suffer a wide variety of other disorders including anxiety, peer conflict, and hyperactivity. While television and the movies gather headlines as the motivation behind teen violence, school administrators blame "family breakup" for violence in the schools. As a result of economic pressures to work longer hours or multiple jobs, children of single-parent families find themselves unsupervised. They can’t help but have feelings of abandonment even if they understand why they are left alone.

The idea of a democratically elected government has become a joke. Our elected officials are guided more by whichever corporation has the most lobbyist who gets the most attention with the most money as opposed to what the taxpayers really need in their struggle to survive. Super delegates have a disproportionate voting power and can back any candidate they want regardless of who their peers vote for.

As we search for alternative energy sources in an attempt to wean ourselves from fossil based fuel, the very symbols of what we are fighting against, big oil, is busy developing a corporate environmentalism designed to appeal to green consumers, while fighting tooth and nail any legislation that would interfere with their financial bottom line. This hypocrisy is nothing more than an overt attempt to maintain their influence, and product brand, over a society that should be focused on finding alternative energy sources.

David Suzuki, a noted environmental activist, author and host of CBC Television science magazine, published a post on guardian.co.uk on how humans have lost the vital skill of forethought. He asks why we choose to ignore the warnings from the worlds leading scientists and Nobel prize winners of the coming ecological disaster. We have the capacity to alter our current course of ‘the degradation of our very life support systems - air, water, soil, energy and biodiversity’ and yet we choose to devote our attention to ‘every antic of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears’.

All in all, this is a pretty dismal picture of life in America. As long as this nation is devoid of strong moral leadership we cannot hope to focus our many talents and our creativity towards finding equitable and viable solutions that will benefit everyone.

What lies ahead is anybody’s guess. Somehow, just making more money seems pretty unfulfilling. What do you think?