Are We a Part of this Government Or Are We On Our Own?

I was raised to believe in equality for all. Several other things I learned growing up are that no one has the right to take anything from you, no one is better than me and I am no better than anyone else. I also learned through my friends that we stand together or we fall alone.

These life lessons have been passed down for thousands of generations, throughout the entire length of time that man has been on this planet.

The words written on a certain document and signed by a bunch of farmers, scholars, and businessmen reflect these same life lessons. They were written with the understanding that all who come after them would be inspired enough to govern themselves according to the spirit in which these words were written.

Is this the case today? Do we govern ourselves in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution? It is going to take much more than simply reading this document to actually follow what is written.

The only idea that closely matches what our forefathers laid out is the physical makeup of government. Three branches, designed to oversee the other so that there is no imbalance of power. And of course a two party system.

Ideology is the point of contention that divides us, and it divides us sharply. More government, less government? What is enough government? Should citizens lives be monitored and dictated to by government or should we be 'allowed' to sink or swim based on our own choices?

How much should we expect from our government and when should government step in and tell us we are screwing up?

An agreed upon definition of values, ethics and morality is necessary for the efficient exercise of government. Not just some lip service agreed to in an oath. Of course, the individual is key in making this a reality. But individuals in this country are being raised without the necessary ethical and moral upbringing that citizens in the past (long ago past) received. You can see it by the uncouth behavior taking place within Congress itself. You can see it in how politicians resort to mudslinging during campaigns rather than engaging in polite debate. You can see it in the lengths that Hollywood and the music industry goes to sell what passes for entertainment.

Efficiency and fairness being the ultimate measures of a successfully run government bounded by ethics and morality in order to benefit every citizen should be of the highest order but in the end we fall short.

When we all believe in and practice the same virtues, ethics and morals we all benefit. It is when any one of these break down that someone benefits at the expense of someone else. This is when we begin a long slide into chaos, which, if not corrected will tear us apart.

America has been on this downhill slide for a very long time. It has become standard for our government to favor some groups over others. Certain groups get more out of this system than others.

The currency of this favoritism is money and power. America's ideal form of government as laid out by our forefathers was born out of the only form of government they had ever known, a ruling class, detached from its citizens by convincing itself that it was elite and it alone was therefore the natural choice to own the power. During their time, the factor that determined elitism was birthright. Today, the definition of elitism is wealth.

Do we as a nation believe in equality for all? Do we still believe that no one has the right to take anything from you and that no one is better than anyone else? Do we still know that we stand together or we fall alone?

If Obama Cedes Ground to Cheney, We’ll All Pay a Heavy Price

clipped from www.commondreams.org 'Every government ­assumes deeds and ­misdeeds of the past," writes Hannah Arendt in Eichmann and the Holocaust. "It means hardly more, generally speaking, than that every generation, by virtue of being born into a historical continuum, is burdened by the sins of the fathers as it is blessed with the deeds of the ancestors." For Barack Obama this cuts both ways. Talented as he is, he looks much more so when compared with the man who preceded him he has inherited the scarred landscape of his predecessor's tenure. Bush's wars, banks, car companies, secret prisons and untried prisoners are now his Soaring ­rhetoric, however hopeful about the future, cannot erase the past, which has a habit of remaining with us The Obama administration's desire to concentrate on the future is understandable. But the past has a legacy and the present has consequences. By ceding the principle to Cheney now we will all pay for it later.

Excellent commentary by Gary Younge on why we need moral leadership.

Americans are sorely lacking in moral leadership.

For fear of being labeled unpatriotic, congress allowed an illegal war in Iraq.

For fear of being labeled unpatriotic congress is allowing torture, an affront to America’s core values, to go unpunished.

For fear of being labeled unpatriotic Americans are being forced to accept that patriotism is taking on a new face.

It has now become patriotic to follow our leadership into an immoral abyss.

It is now official: we rule out of fear rather than principle. If our founding fathers were alive today, this would kill them.

Do we have the choice to turn this situation around? Yes. Do we have what it takes to pull it off? I fear the answer is no, but I hold hope that someone will find the ability to make it happen.

Why the Caged Bird Sings

What is he up to?
1) he truly believes that torture actually works and that using it doesn’t dehumanize the user
2) he is defending the legacy of an administration he ran single-handedly for eight years
3) since he is no longer in the WH he can now speak as freely as he wants

So he is either 1) selling himself to the GOP because, you know, once you have tasted power you don’t want to give it up. Or, 2) as the author states, he is scared of the public damnation that will come out against him if the public learns the extent of the barbarism that took place at Abu Ghraib.

So, from his point of view, waterboarding is very minor in comparison to what he ordered take place there. Which means Obama has now allowed himself to become a party to the disgrace that has been brought upon the U.S. by simply refusing to prosecute.

clipped from www.truthout.org Dick Cheney has been doing a lot of talking lately. From his most recent barrage of public statements, we have gleaned that he loves Rush Limbaugh, doesn't much care for Colin Powell, believes President Obama is about to sell the Sixth Fleet to the Taliban for pennies on the dollar and thinks torture is a nifty and effective tool that saves lives and defends freedom Really, this isn't anything we haven't heard before from our growly, snarly, face-blasting former vice president. But it does beg the question: What the hell is he up to?

Time to find corporate billions kept offshore

clipped from crooksandliars.com According to the Government Accountability Office, nearly all of America's top 100 corporations maintain subsidiaries in countries identified as tax havens. As the GAO notes, there could be reasons other than avoiding the IRS to set up branches in places such as Singapore, Luxembourg and Switzerland, where taxes are light or nonexistent and keeping clients' illicit secrets is considered a matter of national pride. Goldman Sachs Group Countrywide Financial Wachovia Lehman Brothers Citigroup Morgan Stanley When the cost of these shenanigans was last estimated two years ago, the U.S. government's annual loss in revenue due to tax avoidance by major corporations and super-rich individuals was pegged at about $100 billion -- considerably more than a rounding error, even today. But of course that is only a rough assessment, as is the estimate of $12 trillion in untaxed assets hidden around the world. Nobody will know for certain until the books are opened and transparency is established.

Tax evasion is basically theft and can be secondarily considered treason.

The tax system is set up to benefit the general population through maintenance of infrastructure, paying the military, paying our politicians, etc.

American corporations making a profit from doing business in the U.S. and conducting their business through overseas subsidiaries to avoid U.S. tax laws are in effect stealing from the American public.

This leaves the bill for these government supported services to be footed by honest tax payers.

This is also an issue of morality and ethics. Corporations take and use all the benefits of living and working in America but don’t pay for the privilege.

These corporations need to step up and pay their fair share of being allowed to do business in America. Politicians will never force the issue because they are benefiting from these corporations doing business here.

We all need to raise our voices high and boycott those corporations that are stealing from

America Is in Need of a Moral Bailout

clipped from www.truthdig.com In decaying societies, politics become theater The elite, who have hollowed out the democratic system to serve the corporate state, rule through image and presentation They express indignation at AIG bonuses and empathy with a working class they have spent the last few decades disenfranchising, and make promises to desperate families that they know will never be fulfilled We kneel before a cult of the self, elaborately constructed by the architects of our consumer society, which dismisses compassion, sacrifice for the less fortunate, and honesty Success, always defined in terms of money and power, is its own justification our moral collapse is as terrifying, and as dangerous, as our economic collapse. unless we grasp the “societal play of forces that operates beneath the surface of political forms” we will be cursed with a more ruthless form of corporate power, one that does away with artifice and the seduction of a consumer society and instead wields power through naked repression.

Moral nihilism. The author of this commentary, Chris Hedges, has been able to put into words the sentiment I have felt about this nation for a very long time.

Our educational system has gone to hell in favor of supplementing corporations and the military, instead of producing thinkers addressing the larger moral questions of meaning and purpose.

We give ourselves too easily to the influence of reality television, mass media, and cultural assumptions.

Our capacity to be affected by human rights issues has been relegated to the occasional financial gift because it makes us feel better, if we bother to give at all.

We turn a blind eye to American corporations involvement with environmental and wildlife destruction as long as we get the latest new product we think we must have.

We subjugate our dignity to the never-ending thirst for more money, things, and power.

Where has our value system gone? What has it been replaced with?

Moral nihilism.

Israeli Army T-Shirts Mock Gaza Killings

clipped from news.sky.com The Israeli army is at the centre of a second controversy over the moral conduct of its soldiers in as many days. The revelations centre on t-shirt designs made for soldiers that make light of shooting pregnant Palestinian mothers and children and include images of dead babies and destroyed mosques. The t-shirts were printed for Israeli soldiers at the end of periods of deployment or training courses and were discovered by Israeli newspaper Haaretz. One, printed for a platoon of Israeli snipers depicts an armed Palestinian pregnant women caught in the crosshairs of a rifle, with the disturbing caption in English: "1 shot 2 kills". Another depicts a child carrying a gun also in the centre of a target. "The smaller, the harder," read the words on the t-shirt. According to a soldier interviewed by the newspaper, the message has a double meaning: "It's a kid, so you've got a little more of a problem, morally and also the target is smaller."

This is truly reprehensible. The sentiment displayed on these shirts serves to perpetuate the animosity and hatred these two nations have for each other. Anyone who condones this type of behavior is undermining any chance to seek a peaceful resolution to their differences.

Having said that, and judging from past behavior between these two, I don’t believe for a minute that either side truly wants to find peace with each other but to so blatantly display and promote the killing of pregnant women and children is beneath contempt for human life. And there in lies a major problem this world needs to deal with.

Porn and Politics

Dusty Storm, a ‘personality’ in the porn business, is being considered to run for political office in the state of Louisiana. Has the state of our political system gotten so distorted and fallen to such a low level of respect that this proposal can be entertained as serious? As if to say, “people we have elected to political office exhibit the same low-moral character of the porn industry so why not elect a person whose only qualifications are that she ‘rose to the top of her profession’.

Who are these fans but a bunch a men in a perpetual state of arousal.

If the political arena was not so riddled with corruption and ineffective personalities then candidates like this could never be considered. We have done this to ourselves.

Her backers say her ”real world experience and special understanding of the economic hardships facing Louisianans and Americans make her uniquely qualified to take on the tough challenges we face.” What a load of hogwash! Special understanding? Uniquely qualified? Please enlighten us as to what special understanding and unique qualities does having sex with anyone who breathes makes her think she is more capable than someone engaged in legitimate employment facing the daily struggle of putting food on their table and keeping a roof over their head.

Her backers claim she has a wide political spectrum of followers (I’ll bet she does) who think her philosophy of personal responsibility and the promotion of individual enterprise are enough to get her elected. This is the same philosophy of personal responsibility that pushes every law-abiding, tax-paying, blue-collar worker in America to trade their time for an increasingly diminishing paycheck in hopes of providing for their family. And these are the lucky ones who managed to hang on to their jobs after their corporate leadership has taken everything they can get first.

There is a dangerous undercurrent here that promotes promiscuity and breaks down family values. Let’s find out what her parents think of "her determination and talents to the professional level, becoming a featured performer in the adult entertainment industry."

Political careers have crumbled over promiscuous behavior. Families dissolve over promiscuous behavior. Is this symbol of an entire industry that considers monogamy as passé and turns the act of making love into a money making enterprise really a champion of family values or an example of morality and ethics? Have we become so jaded that we now expect so little of the process of writing our laws and protecting our rights that we can elect a porn star to take on these responsibilities?

Perhaps the time is right for porn to get into politics. Politicians have screwed us out of everything else we hold dear.

Showing Our Young How to Behave

We have had a recent ‘problem’ here in Utah revolving around underage students sending nude photos of themselves or others to other high school students. Is this problem as serious as adults say it is? Should they be punished as sex offenders and be classified as sexual deviants? Shouldn’t our attitudes toward sex lighten up just a bit?

The legislature is working on lessening the penalties that can be brought against these teens for fear that students are not being turned in due to the severity of those penalties. Many think the guilty students should go through the court system in order to ‘get help’ with their behavior.

This is all so medieval. Why should they be punished? Why should they have to go through the court system? They could be possibly counseled for their actions but to give them a criminal record is preposterous. Our attitudes toward sex in this country is positively antiquated. The actions these adults are taking in pushing for obtuse penalties for doing what they themselves did as teenagers is nothing short of hypocrisy.

Utah is not alone, Pennsylvania students were charged last week with manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography. Three high school boys found with the photos on their cell phones are charged with possession of child pornography. In Texas, a 13-year-old boy was arrested on child pornography charges in October after he received a nude photo of a student on his cell phone.

Gone are the days when a photo of a young girl conjured up images of an older male coercing the innocent young girl into something she doesn’t want to co. Authorities are learning more often that the photo is being taken by the girl herself.

Is it degrading to our value system to allow our children to share nude photos of themselves? In light of the lapses in ethical judgment our politicians and civic leaders commit everyday, the answer is no. Taken in conjunction with the number of crimes against humanity anyone can easily witness on the evening news and main-stream media every day of the year, the answer is no. If you want to hold our young to moral standards that we as adults can’t or will not subject ourselves to, then you can say yes but you would be blatantly and transparently hypocritical. And then how can you possibly expect our young to look up to us as the guiding principle of how they should live their lives?

They should be chastised for their moments of bad judgment instead of having to register as sex offenders.

Unethical and Immoral Behavior Hurts Us All

The most persistent and egregious problem we face today, actually, we have always faced it, is unethical and immoral behavior. The distrust and fear it breeds cripples and severely stifles production and efficiency in every facet of every society.

Every individual will publicly say that they abhor unethical and immoral behavior from our business and political leaders. These same individuals will tell you that those who abuse our trust in them should be removed from their position and punished.

We will all, at some point in our lives, find ourselves in a situation where our moral and ethical character is tested. I have met and spoken with thousands of people in my short life on this planet, and I can tell you that the vast majority of them are down to earth, good hearted people who would not think to screw over a friend. A few others, not so much. I can’t speak for how they will treat someone they don’t know but I have read many accounts where people have screwed over someone (or even committed murder) and then their friends say they can’t believe their friend would do this. So, what are we left to believe? Some people may pass a test of their moral character but succumb to constant and repeated tests. Very few will pass every time. So prevalent is this unethical and immoral behavior that we all know of some untrustworthy person.

If we are truly honest with ourselves we will recognize that the potential to be immoral or unethical is present in all of us. Such is the nature of the human being.

To protect ourselves from being taken advantage of, whether by politicians, business people, or friends, some of us never put ourselves in a position to trust them. Unfortunately, we cannot go through life without trusting at least one or some of these people. So, to keep an eye on our politicians and business executives we hire other people to oversee them, supposedly to prevent them from committing, or at least, getting away with committing, unethical and immoral behavior.

When these people who are being scrutinized commit unethical and immoral behavior, as they seemingly always eventually do, and then get caught we call for some sort of punishment for their wrongdoing that should also serve as a deterrent against future ethical and moral breeches from others. Yet invariably the punishment is toned down by the very people we hire to carry out the punish which results in leniency for committing what cripples us the most. The end result is that there is no real deterrent therefore the unethical and immoral behavior continues.

The root of this behavior, the driving force, always centers around money and power.

These two goals: to have more money than you can possibly spend, and to be the most powerful (whether it be over other people or over property), are the two most corruptible forces we will ever be faced with. We don’t possess the ability to obtain power and money, it possesses us.

Why do we continue to play the game of pretending to be ethical and moral to get ourselves into a position where we will be caught abusing ethics and moral standards? Simply put, because we are all we have. Sad to say, there is no methodology or deterrent that will prevent greed from rearing its ugly head and taking down another seemingly once moral and ethical person.

Why do we allow our principles to be compromised so easily? Why do we bow down to these masters? Any explanation we can come up with will only serve to become a rationalization which will further allow this behavior to continue. Each of us needs to constantly remind ourselves that empathy in relation to others peoples’ trust and money must be the rule for our conduct. We need to ask ourselves, if this was my money and someone else stole it from me how would I feel, instead of thinking how can I take this money without getting caught.

The motto “do unto others before they do unto you” has replaced “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Why? I don’t know. But stealing from someone because a third party stole from you does not balance anything. That behavior simply feeds an evil society that no one can possibly live in peace with.

We sell our souls to have more than what we have worked for. This moral dilemma can only be addressed at the individual level. And therein lies the problem. So far, we are doing a pretty miserable job at policing ourselves. The recent default of the economic situation plus the last eight years of the Bush administrations’ wholesale sell-off of corporate America and invading a sovereign nation based on lies, as well as a whole host of other atrocities and attacks on our personal freedoms should serve as enough proof.

If the predictions are correct, our economy is going to get worse before it gets better. This is going to create more pressure on us to be on guard against unscrupulous individuals who would rather steal from us than try to get by on what they have worked for. In the meantime, please remember that we are all suffering. Don’t make it worse on someone else just improve your position. You will only be breeding more hate and fear.

Fossil Fuel Profits vs Human Rights

On November 4, 2007, a Buddhist monk, writing under the name U Gambira, published an op-ed in The Washington Post advocating democracy for his Southeast Asian nation of Burma.

U Gambira wrote: "It matters little if my life or the lives of colleagues should be sacrificed on this journey. Others will fill our sandals, and more will join and follow."

As U Gambria wrote, the regime already had arrested his father and brother, holding them as hostages to flush him out. It found and arrested him on the same day that his article appeared.

Since then, U Gambira has been forcibly deprived of his monastic robes and tortured in Burma’s notorious Insein Prison. A half-dozen other members of his family have been arrested or forced into internal exile. At age 29, he has been charged with “crimes” that could bring years in prison.

What are those “crimes”? Leading a non-violent demonstration protesting the oppressive rule of Burma’s military leadership and asking for something we in America take for granted: Democracy and basic human rights.

On Tuesday Nov 4, we in America exercised one of our most cherished rights, to vote a change in leadership. The people of Burma don’t have this right. If they did General Than Shwe and his band of murderous, thieving, oppressors would be ousted and the Burmese people would once again enjoy the enlightened lifestyle of a free democratic society.

The brutal and oppressive military leadership of General Than Shwe and his policies have looted and destroyed sacred monasteries in his efforts to round up political and religious leaders. He has brought Burma’s economy to its knees. They have emptied what was once considered the breadbasket of Asia to the point that it cannot feed its own people. Burma, once known as a light for education and literacy now has closed its schools and universities.

Last September, the Burmese people spoke up against General Shwe’s rule and many were imprisoned, tortured and slaughtered for it. That bloodbath brought the world’s attention to Burmese plight but very little has changed. General Than Shwe has since sought to portray this uprising as a singular event, now over. A veneer of quiet has replaced the sounds of gunfire on city streets. Unfortunately, many in the international community buy in and actively support this propaganda.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his special adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, have taken steps to open a dialogue with Burma's generals but little progress is being made.

China and Russia continue to block the UN Security Council from facilitating a dialogue between democratic forces and the regime.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations have condemned the regime's actions but have done little else.

The world's largest democracy, India, continues to provide military assistance and trade deals that help finance the regime's war on its people.

The U.S. claims to be a stalwart of human rights and yet allows human rights atrocities to continue in Burma, Zimbabwe, Tibet, etc. and even writes its laws to allow a U.S.-based corporation to profit from it.

Chevron, based in California, has been making huge profits in Burma as part owner of a natural gas project and is therefore complicit in the human rights abuses through its investment. U.S. sanctions prevent most U.S. companies from working in Burma, but Chevron's investment there existed before the sanctions were imposed and continues under a grandfather clause. The message being sent around the world is “Profit trumps human rights”.

Chevron’s answer to the many letters of protest they have received over their part in Burma is to remove all references to Burma from their webpage.

U Gambira, and many others like him, is willing to die to gain freedom for his fellow countrymen. Chevron and the U.S. is willing to let him die at the hands of a tortuous dictatorial regime in order to make a profit. Now jump to Iraq where Bush’s lies led to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians to lose their lives in a scheme to enrich his buddies in the oil and gas industry. The main difference between Bush and Shwe is the U.S. Constitution.

Is profiting from fossil fuel worth more than human lives? Those of us who live under ethical and moral standards would say "of course not". But, ask Bush and the CEO of Chevron and we get a much different answer.

Bush feigned moral outrage over Saddam Hussein’s torture of his own people and so therefore felt a "moral obligation" to "save" Iraq from Saddam’s madness. Where is that outrage now against what the Burmese are suffering from? The only difference between Iraq and Burma is that Iraq has more oil reserves.

We owe it to our own conscience to stop supporting Chevron and any other company that makes a profit on the misery of any person.

It is easy to simply buy Chevron gas with our credit card ignoring the fact that in doing so we are aiding Chevron in their complicity in the suffering that the Burmese people endure every day. It is more difficult to think about our actions, tear up that credit card, drive past every Chevron gas pump and not aid and abet in their profiting from human suffering. But really, how difficult is all of that when compared to U Gambira being tortured in a jail cell for standing up for his right to be free?

Further reading:
Words of Power
San Francisco Chronicle

Megan’s Law not enforced in Pennsylvania

A sexual deviant, by the name of George Feigley, was released from a Pennsylvania prison Friday but won't be required to register as a sex offender.

He was convicted in 1975 on charges including statutory rape, indecent assault and corrupting the morals of minors. Authorities, at the time, thought this was enough bad behavior to put him behind bars, but evidently they now think it is not bad enough behavior to keep an eye on him, as the law dictates.

Feigley set up a religious group, the Neo American Church, which authorities have called a sex cult, operated a school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that police said was a front for sexual activity. And he still believes in the church’s manifesto: “We hold that the changes called creation and procreation are divine and that human sexuality is to humans the most available expression of that function of divinity," according to community activist Scott Portzline, who has researched Feigley's history and that of the group. "Sexual activity is the greatest act a human can do."

Activities that were brought up during his trial included beating children for letting anyone but fellow cult members see them, and their genitals were pierced with a lock to be controlled by Feigley, who called himself "The Light of the World." Children also were photographed in graphic sexual poses.

Prison authorities said he was attempting to direct sexual activity involving children by telephone from prison which means a prison term did little to nothing to curb his deviant appetite nor did it convince him that what he did was inhuman. In 1976, Feigley escaped from a Pennsylvania prison and was free for two years before being found living in West Virginia but escaped again from a local jail and was recaptured by the FBI. After all of this, Pennsylvania did not see any reason to extend his prison term. Now that he is free of prison, free of parole constraints, and free of legal surveillance of any kind, he can freely go back to his old ways, which there is every indication that this is exactly what he is going to do.

Feigley "never admitted what he did was wrong," said John Goshert of the Dauphin County district attorney's office, who interviewed him last week as part of a pre-release program.

Neighbors organized a protest against Pennsylvania’s leniency in front of Feigley’s Harrisburg home and the church headquarters, where is wife Sandra still lives. She was convicted in 1975 on one count of corrupting the morals of minors. She served a brief prison sentence, according to the Patriot-News and since then has operated a Web site ostensibly aimed at benefiting state, local and federal prison inmates. The site has a lengthy section with articles discussing sex in prison and elsewhere. Some of them are written by George Feigley, using his own name and some of his aliases.

Here is some of the trash that these people espouse: “Thanks to the Christian crazies who were and are so influential in this country, America has criminalized more sexual conduct than any other Western nation," says an article on the site, which does not name an author. "It's a neurosis. As a result, there are a lot of 'sexual offenses.' " Another article bearing George Feigley's alias of G.G. Stoctay, Ph.D., and included in Portzline's research says, "There is nothing injurious to sexuality. It's good and pleasant, not an evil. Children exposed to it are simply not injured."

Okay, there is nothing injurious to sexuality, in and of itself, and sex is good and pleasant, but these two twists have taken human sexuality between consenting adults and morphed it into something evil to be used to control children.

Megan’s Law, also known as Sexual Offender Act of 1994, requires persons convicted of sex crimes against children to notify local law enforcement of any change of address or employment after release from custody (prison, psychiatric facility). The notification requirement may be imposed for a fixed period of time - usually at least ten years - or permanently. However, Pennsylvania feels that any sexual offender convicted prior to the enactment of this law should not have to suffer under its rule.

According to Wikipedia, this law was amended May 17, 1996 to include provisions requiring community notification. Authored by Congressman Dick Zimmer, it required every state to develop a procedure for notifying the public when a person convicted of certain crimes is released near their homes. The law has been amended several times since the original bill, and different states have different procedures for making the required disclosures.

The letter of this law is clear. Pennsylvania, for some unknown reason, has taken the morally reprehensible action to ignore the intents and purposes of it and have wiped their hands clean of any responsibility for this subhuman.

Dauphin County Pennsylvania should be ashamed of itself for its actions, or rather lack of action in this case. Neighbors fear for their children’s safety, so, clearly the public is upset about this, and still Pennsylvania does nothing.

Your Personal Information is For Sale

According to experts, 128 million personal information data records were reportedly endangered by theft, loss, or hacking in 2007. That's more than six times the 20 million exposed records counted the previous year.

January 2008: Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Birmingham, Alabama, an employee's portable hard drive containing Social Security numbers of more than 250,000 vets and more than a million doctors went missing. The loss was not reported for three weeks. Does this have all the earmarks of someone who wants to protect the public or protect their own ass?

Less than a year earlier, another VA employee in the Washington, D.C., area brought home a laptop computer that held the names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers of 26.5 million veterans, only to have it stolen from his house. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Is this person still employed by the VA? Probably. This info was unencrypted even after “new” guidelines were set for the handling of portable computers, including the use of special encryption technology to keep unauthorized people from accessing sensitive data. You think maybe the person who took this computer home just callously skipped the encryption step because he was late for dinner, or maybe he wanted easy access to the data without having to go through an extra cumbersome step? Or perhaps he was paid a bonus sum by who ever he sold the information to if the info was not encrypted.

It is unbelievable that someone just happens to have broken into his home the very same day he took this computer home. This is not coincidence it is collusion. It is theft. This is the action of a person who does not give a damn about the security of anyone else’s personal information. He does not think beyond himself. He should not be allowed to have any access to other people’s personal data. The fact that he took it home and the computer was stolen was enough to fire his ass.

The fact that this government allowed this individual to continue his employment is proof that this government does not take the protection of its citizens seriously. It also shows how they don’t care what we citizens think of their actions. They believe they are working above the law and because they are allowed to continue this course of action proves that they are above the law.

This situation is intolerable.

Has any of this ‘lost’ information been compromised and used to secure credit or jobs for some low-life? Has this information been sold to thieves? Why have we not seen any reports of information on these individuals being used illegally? Surely, not every single instance of carelessness has resulted in not one person being harmed. This coincidence is also beyond belief. This would indicate a very large cover-up protecting higher-ups and any investigative reporter worth his/her career path with visions of winning a Pulitzer would do what they can to uncover such a cover-up.

So why do careless government workers keep putting our citizens at risk? Because we are raising a generation that thinks of no one but themselves. They do not care one iota about the safety or security of anything that is not theirs beyond what it takes to keep their job.

Identity theft is the No. 1 fraud complaint registered by consumers, according to the Federal Trade Commission. ID theft is no laughing matter to the individual who has been victimized. If the personal information of the person who took these computers home were to be broadcast to the public whenever their carelessness resulted in the loss of other people personal data I would be willing to bet these computers would stop being ‘lost’.

The theft of this type of data affects the entire credit system by forcing credit card companies to absorb the losses that these low-lifes generate which then gets passed onto us conscientious credit users in the form of higher interest rates and higher fees.

July 2006: A U.S. Transportation Department laptop with data on 133,000 people was swiped after a Miami-area employee left it in the back of his SUV when he went to lunch. Careless? Yes. Irresponsible? Yes. Enough to lose his job? Not bloody likely. Was the data jeopardized? As usual, the response from the people in charge is no.

November 2007: a South Bend, Indiana Memorial Hospital employee lost a laptop containing names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of more than 4,300 current and retired employees after reportedly giving it to a flight attendant to stow before takeoff. The security of this data was obviously not taken very seriously or this laptop would have remained in his possession at all times.

A 2007 Justice Department audit found that the FBI was somehow losing 2.6 laptops per month, many with sensitive or classified information. Unacceptable.

More than 1,400 Energy Department laptops went missing in a six-year period, according to another audit. So much for homeland security. Unacceptable.

If I was running these departments, no computer would be allowed to be taken home. If these people cannot get their work done in the office in the time frame authorized then find someone else who can or hire more people.

A February report by the Government Accountability Office found that only two of 24 agencies the GAO reviewed had implemented all the security measures recommended by the government. Isn’t this proof enough that these people don’t care about information that is not their own?

March 2007: retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshalls admitted that 45 million debit and credit card numbers had been nabbed from their computer systems by hackers who most likely got it all wirelessly. This also shows the lack of care or willingness to take the necessary precautions to safeguard other people’s data. This situation indicates that the problem is not just with our government but that it involves a general lack of care throughout our population.

If some congressman’s data or a corporate executive’s data was compromised in any of this carelessness I’ll bet you heads would roll and changes would be made. But for the common citizen, the everyday hard-working taxpayer, the low-man on the give a crap-meter who never receives any consideration except at election time and when taxes are due, what about us?

The Lesser of Three Evils Still Shines

We have a republican president who is buried so deeply in corporate pockets that he has effectively turned this government over to boardroom CEO’s. He has told numerous lies. He has instigated an illegal war and used the American military to facilitate the financial rape of a sovereign nation for the benefit of his cronies. He has mocked the very foundation of our government through the abuse of executive privilege. He has perpetrated countless cover-ups to protect his closest friends from criminal prosecution.

We have a republican candidate for president who clearly has memory issues and has flip-flopped on issues so many times that no one really knows what he will do in any given situation. Here are some examples taken from Jonathan Martin’s post dated May 28, 2008:

1. McCain doesn't even know who is in charge in Iran.

2. Iraq/Iran, Sunni/Shia: McCain doesn't know the difference.

3. McCain still thinks Czechoslovakia (which split into two countries in 1993) exists.

4. McCain wrongly claimed that Baghdad was mostly normal.

5. McCain called Baghdad market safe.

6. McCain can't even remember how little he knows about the economy.

7. McCain falsely claimed he never requested pork.

8. McCain falsely claimed that tax cuts increased government revenues.

9. McCain's claim to be untainted by special interest money is false.

10. McCain wrongly claimed he never supported amnesty.

We have a democratic candidate for president who has told blatant, easily contradicted lies in order to bolster herself as the best candidate. She has a documented history of using smear tactics to attack her opponent while avoiding issues. Her desperate and deceitful actions reveal her contempt for the democratic process. She has become a plasticized political shark devoid of most human qualities that will stop at nothing to get what is in her best interest, even tossing DNC rules aside if it will benefit her. Her nasty, low-class, leave-no-prisoners demeanor is proof that she will not be an asset to the presidency.

We have another democratic candidate who, while not being an experienced leader as the media loves to point out inferring that he would not be ready to handle the task of presidency, does bring the ability to work across the aisle to pull people together in working towards solutions instead of participating in the historical partisanship that congress is famous for. He has more experience in public office (8 years in Illinois senate and 2+ in U.S. Senate) than Hillary (6+ as U.S. Senator from New York). But this type of experience does not guarantee a qualified leader. After all, Abraham Lincoln served only two years in the U.S. House. In spite of being constantly attacked for what others around him say, and having been threatened with physical harm because of his race, he refuses to descend to their level and continues to focus on his goal. He doesn’t become involved in the divisive and hateful rhetoric that his opponent uses and he is attracting followers from both parties. This proves he has leadership skills.

We have GOP personnel supporting Obama. We have seen Clinton backers drop her in favor of Obama. Clearly, since these people who are closer to the presidential race than the majority of voters are jumping ship to support another candidate then that candidate must have something to offer.

We have people who will vote for a candidate just because that candidate represents their party never taking into account whether the person is truly qualified for the office. These people do not have the nations best interests at heart.

This presidential race has become a circus. It continues only because we have a two-party system that requires the republicans have someone on their ticket. Since McCain (McBush) is the best they can come up with then they are truly floundering as a party and can not bring themselves to face the certainty of defeat. McCain has proven on many occasions that he cannot handle presidential responsibility. He will have to rely so heavily on advisors to both keep his facts straight for him and to clean up this messes after he speaks without consulting his advisors first that we as a nation will become a bigger laughing stock that we are while under Bush. Or, worse, his misspeaking could trigger an international incident. Why would anyone want this person representing our nation?

McCain, Clinton, and Obama are serving in a political arena that is famous for corrupting morally and ethically weak individuals with its promise of power and untold wealth. Clinton has forsaken her sense of civic duty, McCain has more than likely forgotten his. Obama has not yet been tainted by this process causing many people to label him as naïve. This new blood may be just what this nation needs. Our best hope in redirecting where this government is headed is to have someone who can stand up to corporate lobbyists and deny them any further access to the political process. He may not be the person to do it, then again he has the potential. McCain is certainly not going to do it. Clinton is too politically savvy to turn down special interest money so she probably will not do it. And that leaves us with Barack Obama.

If I may use the analogy of nature, whenever some major natural catastrophe strikes nature has the ability to counteract it with fresh new growth in an attempt to recover what was lost. We are being given a chance to combat the damage of the wholesale looting that George W Bush and his corporate robber barons have participated in throughout his term. I may be considered naïve myself to think that one person and his team can correct these past sins against our democracy but the alternatives are clearly worse.

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.

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?

The State of Texas is Wrong

A community that works together for a common goal, supporting each other through times of need, sharing in each others joys and triumphs. Sounds pretty wonderful doesn’t it? Wouldn’t you want to live in a community with these principles?

Children raised to believe that God is their heavenly father, that people should be held to a moral law, that you support every member of the community, that crime is condemned and punished by a higher authority than man. Who among you would not want to be a part of this community?

Far too many families these days stay away from church. Their children are not being taught the golden rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. They are not taught to love thy neighbor. They are taught that trust is for fools and will only result in you being ripped off or exposed to personal injury.

Children in the FLDS community, as in other religious based communities, are being protected from the ugliness and sin that has so pervaded our world. Is this so wrong?

The main point that so many people object to with the FLDS sect is that one man can have more than one wife. And, of course, if you believe it happens, that girls are forced to marry older men.

Many stories we read from women who have “escaped” this lifestyle are told from the perspective of their own experiences based squarely in their own agenda. They use the word escape, which denotes imprisonment, and yet they entered these marriages voluntarily and stayed for some time. Marriages fall apart everyday. Wives leave their husbands for a variety of reasons. Did they say they were actually abused? No. But they leave us with the impression that abuse was a common occurrence. It is easy for us to believe abuse was common because we don’t subscribe to plural marriages and believe that it can only exist if a woman is forced into it. And choosing to believe this only satisfies our understanding of it. We only listen to stories from those who want to break away and we easily believe their version because our culture has been indoctrinated by mass media to expect only the juicy gossip, the more gory and demeaning the better. And allowing the assumption of abuse as the basis for these women’s escape helps them garner our sympathy. It is human nature to try to gain sympathy from others to help rationalize their actions as justifiable.

The wording of this statement: “young girls forced to marry older men”, is being tossed about by the Texas authorities as one justification for their raid because Texas law says it is illegal for any man over the age of 19 to have sex with a woman under the age of 16. It’s a good and proper law. Personally, as the father of four daughters I think the age of consent for the girl should be 18, but, that’s just me.

This picture of girls being forced into marriage is simply not true. Many women involved in these polygamist marriages deny that they were arranged or forced. They also say women are free to leave the faith if they want to.

It is true that they are raised to believe that it is acceptable for one man to have many wives. Is this brainwashing? Isn’t it brainwashing for the rest of us to be forced to believe that a man should only have one wife? Is it brainwashing to be taught to obey your parents? Is it brainwashing to be raised to believe in only one God? What about being raised to believe in “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”.

The state sees another point of contention, a closed community that does not need the state.

After the raid on this sect, the state of Texas must maintain that there was imminent danger towards these children in order to justify their actions in taking these children away from their mothers. They have to say they are acting in the best interest of the children because that pulls hardest at the public’s sense of justice. They entered this community based on a tip that has not been verified, has not been corroborated, and has not been substantiated. The caller has not come forward to get the help she supposedly claims she needs. So, naturally, the assumption is that the call was never placed.

Those of you who believe Texas authorities rightfully removed these children from their homes have the right to your belief. I am sure you are convinced that the FLDS followers were duped into a life of immorality which in your world is considered abuse and you base your belief solely on the fact that they don’t subscribe to the same beliefs as you.

We allow authorities too much leeway in the interpretation of what constitutes abuse. When they can come into a community, remove children from their homes, based on the idea that ‘in the future’ another fifteen year old will be ‘forced’ to marry an older man for the purpose of producing children then we have given the authorities too much power.

The FLDS community is not a criminal enterprise. They do not prey on members outside of their community, nor do they prey on each other, they do not ask for handouts from state welfare or anyone else. They are self-sufficient. They don’t need the outside world.

Texas rangers did not need to come riding in on their white horses to clean up a lawless town.

Many of you reading this may have formed the opinion that I must be a polygamist member or sympathizer with my own agenda for painting law enforcement as the bad guys here. Well, I confess, I do have an agenda:

I don’t believe law enforcement has the right to tear families apart without valid verifiable evidence.

I believe a law abiding community of like-minded adults has the right to raise their children as they see fit, if that excludes the state then so be it.

I do not believe in plural marriages, I am not a polygamist, I am not a member of the LDS church. I am Baptist, I believe in God and Jesus and the apostils.

I believe every child should be exposed to religious instruction for the purpose of learning morals.

I believe every child should be taught ethics.

I believe in the basic right of every human being to live his/her live in any way they see fit until they begin encroaching on the rights and livelihood of their fellow man.

I believe the state of Texas is out of line in this case and that they are justifying their actions based on simple religious prejudice.

That phone call or phone calls cannot be proven to have ever taken place. Texas is ripping these families apart based on their “faith” that future crimes will take place.

This is not my ideal of legal justice.