Inspiring Videos

You can waste time surfing the net, reading about murder and mayhem, or..... you can choose to watch a short, inspiring video to get yourself energized.  Sort of like psychological vitamins to augment your daily spiritual routine...

Youtube is full of inspiring videos.  To make it a little easier to find them, hear are a few sites, in no particular order to save you time.  This is obviously anything but a complete list.  Please comment on your own favorite videos!

1. Free inspiring videos: 

here1 and here2 and here3 and here4 and here5 and here6 and here7 and here8 
and here9 and here10 and here11 and here12 and here13 and here14.

Perhaps--with your help--we can add to this and also add some web sites corresponding to inspiring quotes, inspiring stories, inspiring pictures, and inspiring music.

2.  Free inspiring quotes:

The greatest derangement of the mind is to believe in something because one wishes it to be so.. et.al.

The only disability in life is a bad attitude…Scott Hamilton

3.  Free inspiring stories/online books:

4.  Free inspiring pictures:

5.  Free inspiring music:

6.  Philosophies:

It doesn’t work to force compliance through restraint.  Compliance is gained through trust.  When one is caused discomfort or pain, they may not remember “why”, but they will remember “who”.

We usually get back some of the treatment that we give out.  One can never go wrong with kindness.

*Those with schizophrenia cannot control their thoughts thus behavior, and cannot be expected to comply.  They may need restraint with kindness.  Mr. Unknown

Possibly one of the greatest evils is to manipulate others using religion.  Could this be taking the name of our Lord in vain? Anon

"Occupy Wall Street" and the Jobless

I get bored while jogging on my treadmill or stationary bicycle, so I often watch educational DVDs or listen to audio books.  Perhaps a lot of you have seen the highly acclaimed documentary "Inside Job".  It's an excellent, easily understood (and shocking) documentary that describes how the 2008 financial crisis happened.  It's a must-see DVD, and is likely available at your public library.


One lesson from the documentary was that deregulation of the banking industry (coupled with human nature) was a major root cause of the financial crisis and subsequent recession.  But guess what?  Our legislators have yet to do anything substantive about it.  They are still drinking the Koolaid that "less government regulations are always better".  Even Obama has done next to nothing to either restore the banking regulations of the previous 50 years or to punish any bank executives for fraud.  Most of Obama's (and Bush's before him) financial advisers are unfortunately the very same people who led the Wall Street firms that created the mess in the first place.  Another reason for the inaction is the massive clout (read financial perks and donations) Wall Street has on Washington.


A recent article has a lobbyist for U.S. banks proposing to undermine the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters.  Some may say, why should we even care?  They're just a jumbled up assortment of street people, wackos, pot smokers, idealistic and misguided students, rabble raisers and...unemployed people, right?  But most people also know--deep down--that these people are the canary in the coal mine.


Actually, the lack of jobs is not the fault of either political party...and there is no political solution either.  The disappearance of middle class jobs is the result of advancement in technology and offshoring.  And, I would add, our inability to stay ahead of other countries in terms of education.  According to a recent report, out of 34 countries, the US ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science, and 25th (below average) in math on the 2009 exam.  We may not be getting a lot dumber, but other countries are getting smarter.


We have millions of people who know how to do clerical, security, or industrial assembly jobs that don't require years of specialized education--but those jobs are either being sent to China or India, or they have been taken over by computers or robots.  As this trend continues, we may find we have to use bread and circuses to pacify the majority of our population whose lack of skills render them economically "useless".  In other words,  this group of people could get a whole lot larger.  And they could change from Tea Party wackos to radical socialists overnight, as their stomachs begin to growl.

Freak Show 2011...sigh...

F R O N T   R U N N E R S :

HERMAN CAIN:  "I positively do not remember that woman!!  I also do not remember most other things either..."

Bill Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky seems quite innocent in comparison to Sharon Bialek's claim (backed up by her former boyfriend) that Herman Cain not only made crude sexual advances to her but also implied that sex was a prerequisite for a job.  The saddest part of this is that--despite similar claims from and legal awards given to several other women who filed suit--the Republican party does not seem to care about this moral failing.  In addition, Cain appears clueless on practically every political or foreign relations subject.  For instance, Cain stated that "China is “trying to develop nuclear capability"--something they've actually had for 45 years.  This is only one of many, many embarrassing (and even scary) gaffs that make him sound less intelligent and informed on current events than a 5th grader.  Cain claims that Democrats have brainwashed 80% of the American people, and that he "feels like Moses".  When he can't answer a simple current events question, he makes the excuse that he has "all these things swirling around in my head."
 

NEWT GINGRICH:  "I just won't go away!!  (Except when I'm on a luxury cruise with my latest wifey.)"

Newt has apparently made family values a core platform plank, knowing that this will naturally strike a chord with most of his constituency.  Yet, consider this:  Newt dumped his cancer-stricken 1st wife. When his pastor criticized him for not supporting his two kids, he left the church. Newt dumped his 2nd wife after cheating on her with the Congressional aide who is now his 3rd wife. The scandal sidelined Newt in 2008.  And Newt's latest wife?  Based on the latest reports, it appears that she'll stay married to him during his run for the presidency now that he's given her a million dollar necklace and a cruise among the Greek Islands.  Shifting to the financial side:  Newt Gingrich's consulting firm received between $1.6 million and $1.8 million from Freddie Mac.  (At first it was only $300,000.)   Newt claims it wasn't lobbying but "historical and financial advice".  He claims he was not a Washington insider.  Two Freddie Mac sources who worked at Freddie Mac in 2006 claim otherwise.  They said Gingrich was hired to help Freddie Mac build alliances on Capitol Hill, and to burnish Freddie Mac's reputation. They said he also met with donors to the company's political action committee.  Most people have long forgotten that Gingrich was censored for ethics violations by a near unanimous House of Representatives when he was Speaker of the House, and payed a $300,000 fine.


RICK PERRY:   "Hyuckity yuck.................................heh heh..............................oops."
Rick Perry promised to eliminate 3 federal agancies--the department of education, commerce and energy.  (He couldn't even remember the third one.)  Aside from this painful gaffe, what does Perry really want to do?  Is he proposing to dump the already woefully underfunded U.S. Patent office, or the agency that protects U.S. nuclear weapons from accidents or terrorist attacks, or all of the dozens of other sub-agencies?  Which parts of these agencies does he want to eliminate?  Assuming he can't even remember a sound bite consisting of the names of three government agencies, do we expect him to have seriously analyzed this?  These and many other political gaffes have stoked the common perception that Perry--like Cain--is too dumb to be president.  Of course, there are other issues such as "camp niggerhead", his infamous debate with Romney, his speech while inebriated, his physical attack on Ron Paul, etc.

MICHELLE BACHMAN:  "Either you're for the U.S., or you're not!  We need an investigation!"

Michelle Bachman's gaffes are also numerous, and in this case, intentional.  If the other candidates are accused of being stupid, Bachman is accused of being just plain crazy, or alternatively, the Senator McCarthy of 2011.  Bachman's signing of a declaration that implies Blacks were better off under slavery is just one example of her poor judgment; another was her statement implying that the HPV vaccine caused mental retardation.  The list goes on...and on.  Like many of the Republican candidates, Bachman's all-too-frequent "Gospel of Capitalism" assertions (eerily in the vein of "Atlas Shrugged" by the atheist Ayn Rand) makes one doubt whether her version of Christianity is one's own.  Bachman frequently points to recent natural disasters as being messages from God to Washington, and soon after such a comment, her press secretary does damage control by quickly telling the press it was just a joke.  Bachman frequently indicates that her decisions (such as running for president) are all personally approved by God.
  

MITT ROMNEY:  "Lets put your SS and Medicare money in the stock market, and let's pay those CEO's more money!  I know all about business!"

Mitt Romney is probably the least radical and least crazy--and the most intelligent--of the Republican candidates, with the possible exception of John Huntsman.  Romney's gaffes are less bizarre than those of most of the other candidates.  He is in the enviable position of being able to watch his Republican challengers make fools out of themselves while he attempts to look presidential.  Romney is a Morman who has made $250 million on Wall Street.  In his consulting work at Bain Capital, he played a real part in the trend towards out sized CEO salaries and stock options, not to mention an emphasis on shareholder value above all else.  Some would say that he did not create jobs while at Bain Capital; instead, as a private equaty firm, he bought companies, eliminated jobs to make the bottom line look better, dressed them up nicely to resell, and dumped them for a fat profit.  Romney wants to partially privatize Social Security and Medicare--something that will undoubtedly make Wall Street love him even more.  The wall street elite are now bankrolling his run for the presidency against Obama.  Romney knows business, and he's a problem solver in this respect--definitely a good thing.  The real question is, will he take the country in the right direction?  I.e., will he work to re-ignite the American dream or will he further increase the class warfare that's starting to manifest itself as a result of burgeoning income inequality?

A L S O    R A N S :

RON PAUL:  "I'm the most sensible sounding candidate, except when I say that all government should be abolished."

Ron is a well-meaning, elder statesman, whose sincerity seems like a breath of fresh air compared to the other candidates.  However, he unfortunately happens to be an anarchist--no public schools, no police, no anything, all private competition, competing according to their own rules. In this way, he is similar to Marx or Nietzsche, who proposed their own "good-sounding" ideas of communism or Nazism that nevertheless turned out to be disastrous in the real world.  Trouble is, in Ron's case, the world has already experienced many violent upheavals and subsequent "dark ages" that served to prove just how well anarchy works in real life.  No need for more experiments here.  We also already know what de-regulation did for Wall Street--and deregulation is only partial anarchy.  My personal observation is Ron's most avid followers tend to be naive and know little about history.  To be fair, Ron does often has good, sane ideas on such things as foreign policy that deserve a healthy debate.  However, one or two disastrous ideas is still a disaster, even if it is mixed with other very good ideas.  Perhaps this is why Ron is getting the silent treatment from the media.
  

RICK SANTORUM:  "Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the most radical conservative of all?"

I shouldn't waste too much time on this guy, since he's not one of the front runners, but I can't resist talking about a wacko.  Based on his NWS bill, he appears to be a "paid lobbyist" posing as a congressman.  His flap with the school board over refusing to pay $100,000 based on residency issues also begs the question of his honesty.  He also believes that "schools indoctrinate our children to like Obama and Socialism."  Santorum's voting record puts him on the extreme right, as he competes for the "more conservative than thou" distinction.  Rick accused Romney of being more liberal than Obama, accused Herman Cain of being "pro-choice", and accused Rick Perry of being soft on illegal immigrants.  In the category of saying one thing and doing another, he presented an ill-timed award to Jerry Sandusky.  Rick also gets his own award for being the biggest whining professional victim.  If you want to identify the worst, most brutal leaders in history, these are the ones with the most paranoia.

I N V I S I B L E   C A N D I D A T E S :

JOHN HUNTSMAN:  "Gee, I forgot to wear my clown suit!!"

Huntsman is a moderate Republican who worked as ambassador to China for Obama, so he has no chance.  Again, I won't waste time on him for this reason. For anyone who wanted a reasonably intelligent Republican candidate who was capable of working in a bipartisan way, sorry.

BUDDY ROEMER:  You say big money corrupts politics?  Whoa, there!...not so fast...

Buddy who??  Buddy has been excluded from every televised debate and most polls. His name won't appear on key primary ballots in Florida, where the state Republican Party opted to leave him off, and South Carolina, where his shoestring campaign couldn't swing the $35,000 filing fee. Why?  His signature issue is "how big money corrupts American politics."  His presidential theme is "America Needs Buddy".  Need I say more?  Not a chance for this poor guy.  Perhaps he should switch parties.


GARY JOHNSON:  A classic conservative?  No kidding?  Quick, get the specimen jar!!

Gary who??  Gary's campaign web site says "Gary Johnson has been an outspoken advocate for efficient government, balanced budgets, rational drug policy reform, protection of civil liberties, comprehensive tax reform, and personal freedom. As Governor of New Mexico, Johnson was known for his common sense business approach to governing. He eliminated New Mexico's budget deficit, cut the rate of growth in state government in half, and privatized half of the state prisons."  Obviously not radical enough to win.

There is something revealing about the "invisible" candidates---it shows what the Republican party is NOT about--i.e. bipartisanship, anti-influence peddling and efficient government.

HONORARY FREAKS:  Sarah Palin and Donald Trump.  They showed the way to perdition.  

Shocking Facts About the Cost of the Iraq War

Note:  This article is now a bit outdated, but worth a read.  The cost of the 

wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan is now estimated to cost upwards 

of $4 trillion--all money we DIDN'T have.

SHOCKING FACTS ABOUT THE COST OF THE IRAQ WAR

1. The Iraq war since 2001 will have cost between $900 billion and
$3+ trillion, depending whether and to what extent indirect costs are
taken into account. This author will use the congressional budget
office estimate of $1.9 trillion—which includes some indirect but real
costs--as a basis for all the following facts. [1,2]

2. At the outset, the Pentagon estimated the Iraq war would cost
$50-$60 billion, which, in retrospect, was off by a factor of at least
30. Lawrence Lindsey, a White House economic adviser, was a bit more
realistic, predicting the cost could go as high as $100-$200 billion.
Donald Rumsfeld called it “baloney”. President Bush subsequently
fired Lindsey. [3]

3. The $1.9 trillion war cost translates to $6200 per U.S. citizen,
or $16,100 average per household. [4]

4. Had we instead donated this money to every household in Iraq
(assuming 6.4 persons per household), this would have amounted to a
gift of $386,000 per household. (No, this is not a misprint!) [5]

5. The Iraq war was (is) the most expensive war in our history,
besides WWII, which cost $4.1 trillion in inflation adjusted dollars.
It is the longest running war in our history, with the exception of
Vietnam (so far). [6] It cost us 209 times as much as the Gulf war, in
which we liberated Kuwait from an Iraq invasion. [21]

6. If we had instead invested or deposited the $1.9 trillion war cost
in a bank in exchange for yearly interest payments at 4% of this
amount, we could have funded $76 billion per year in foreign
humanitarian aid for the next 1000 years, which is 33 times the net
yearly amount of $2.28 billion we are currently spending on foreign
humanitarian aid. [7]

7. This $1.9 trillion has “purchased” the deaths of 50,000 enemy
soldiers or combatants. That’s $38 million per head. “Fortunately”,
we got a 3-for-1 bonus deal, though. For each Iraq soldier or
combatant killed, two civilians were killed, for a total of 150,000
deaths. (We won’t talk about the number maimed, tortured, raped, and
pillaged by various factions in the ensuing lawlessness.) [8]

8. In contrast, the going rate for attacks on U.S. forces and
personnel has typically been in the range of $50-70 per head. [9]
It’s not hard to guess who’s going to run out of money first. A
February-March 2007 poll showed that 51% of the Iraqi population
approved of the attacks on Coalition forces. The same poll indicated
that over 90% of Arab Sunnis in Iraq approved of the attacks. In any
case, it’s also not difficult to guess who was going to run out of
willing combatants first.

(In truth, it’s not quite fair to quote these statistics. We had some
disadvantages. We were the aggressors; they were the defenders of
their country from invaders, and the defenders of Islamic Sharia Law
against western style democracy. Our military couldn’t easily identify the
enemy and they weren’t supposed to shoot indiscriminately; in contrast,
the Quran instructs Muslims to fight all infidels, and Jihad warriers streamed
in from many neighboring Muslim countries. Finally, our soldiers were
juxtaposed between rival religious, ethnic and tribal factions unleashed
by the power vacuum to make war on each other. If you were counting,
that’s three strikes against us. [22] )

9. War has become an extremely profitable business for a record
number of contract companies (mercenaries) involved in Iraq. For
example, Halliburton pulled in $13-16 billion worth of revenue related
to the Iraq war. [9]. To put that figure in context, $13 billion is much
more than the net cost to the U.S. government (in current dollars) of the
entire 1991 Gulf War. After he became Vice President, Dick Cheney
received $33 million in backdated pay from Halliburton. That was the
exact amount that Michael Jordan made the same year. [9]

10. Total U.S. government debt has recently jumped dramatically
[11]—in large part due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Public
and private foreign debt is now so large that foreigners would own the
equivalent of every other home in the United States, or $10.7 trillion
[12], assuming they “called the loan” and were willing to take them as
payment. We have, in effect, greatly furthered the selling of
ourselves, our children and our grandchildren into indentured
servitude to foreign masters for the privilege of making war.

11.  A devil's advocate view of the war on Iraq, written by a former 

commissioned officer in the marine corp and appearing in the Reader 

Weekly on Sept 20th, 2001, proves very prescient today.  Written only a
a few days after the emotionally-charged events of September 11th, its sober 
assessment pointed to the difficulty of fighting against a shadowy enemy
with no national identity.  And it warned that Bush's challenge to other
countries that "you're either for us or against us" increased the danger that
the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would become a proxy war waged by other 
Muslim countries against us.  So then, how was this viewpoint so entirely missed 
by the president's defense and intelligence advisors, by the majority of the 
active and retired military heirarchy, by congress and even in all the quiet 
diplomatic conversations with foreign countries?  The only possible answer 
to this is, it wasn't missed at at all.  Bush (or his handlers Cheney and 
Rumsfeld) simply didn't listen.

12. It may shock you, but up until 1992 (while Saddam was still our "friend",
even though we knew he was psychotic), we secretly sold him helicopters and

various munitions purely because it served our own interests to use
Saddam to "wear down" Iran in their war. We also gave Saddam chemical and
biological weapon ingredients, including anthrax and other germs. We also gave
him a small amount of nuclear development instrumentation. He subsequently
used our helicopters and our poison gas technology to gas the Kurds,
as well as for other horrible crimes against his own people--all of
which we were aware of at the time and didn't say anything about.  A month

after the Kurds were gassed, we were still shipping him more weapons.
So what was the name of the secret envoy who arranged all this? Donald
Rumsfeld. Yes, that Donald Rumsfeld.  If the U.S. government had not secretly
engaged in this questionable behavior, some argue this might 

have completely avoided the circumstances (or perceived circumstances)
that led to the Iraq war in the first place. Talk about a high ultimate cost resulting
from a little bit of secret weapons dealings!  Since you may find this too 
shocking to believe, here are some internet links:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0908-08.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2002_cr/s092002.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/dixon06172004.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/nimmo0919.html

13. We may have reignited a new and far more costly arms and
technology race—one that we cannot afford this time, considering that
countries like China and Russia are booming or are flush with oil
money.

The argument goes like this: Iran was labeled as part of the “axis of evil”
by the U.S.and subsequently shown an example (in Iraq) of what we do
to our enemies. Its rulers decided to beef up their military capability.
While Iran only spends 2.5% of its GDP on its military (as compared to
4% for the U.S.), it now has a 500,000 man, well-trained army. As
recently as January 2009, it successfully launched a
domestically-engineered satellite and is thought to have “Shahab-6”
missiles capable of reaching Europe. [13] To address this Iranian
missile threat [14], the US recently signed an agreement with Poland
to begin construction of an anti-ballistic missile shield in Poland
and the Czech Republic. According to a senior pentagon official,
“this anti-ballistic missile shield will cover all of Europe by 2018.”
[15] In November 2010, NATO agreed to this missile shield at a cost
of $273 million over the next 10 years. [16] (Note that it cost us
that much to shoot just 7 enemy combatants in Iraq.) So far, no one
has challenged the $273 million estimate, although it is interesting
to note that in 2009, the military spent $11 billion on missile
defense R&D alone. [17] Of course, the escalation doesn’t stop here.
Moscow views the shield as a security threat designed to undermine
Russia's nuclear deterrent. "We will be forced to respond to this
adequately. The EU and US have been warned," Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev said last month…) [18]

A similar story can be told about North Korea, which is building up
both its nuclear and rocket capability. A joint U.S.-Japanese missile
defense program being built by Raytheon is now slated to cost $3.1
billion, $700 million more than expected…this is a sea based leg of an
emerging U.S. anti-missile shield [19] for the purpose of protecting
South Korea and Japan from the threat posed by North Korea’s ongoing
rocket testing. [19] Naturally, China doesn’t like this, but they
are even more incensed that the U.S. has been selling Patriot air
defense missiles to Taiwan, which they consider a “slap in the face”.
At least partly in response to this, they recently completed a
successful test of a land-based missile defense system of their own.
Writing in the newspaper Study Times, Maj. Gen. Jun Yinan said China
had the power to strike back. “We must take countermeasures to make
the other side pay a corresponding price and suffer corresponding
punishment,” wrote General Jun, a professor at China’s National
Defense University. [20]

These comments are especially poignant, coming from the
representatives of countries that are effectively propping up our own
tottering economy by loaning us trillions of dollars.


We don’t learn from history. Even 100 years before the Vietnam war,
old Abe had some advice we might have heeded:

“Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall
deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so
whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a
purpose—and you allow him to make war at pleasure.”
–Abraham Lincoln

“Military glory—that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of
blood—that serpent’s eye, that charms to destroy…”
--Abraham Lincoln

“Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.”
--Abraham Lincoln

“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.”
--Abraham Lincoln

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and
lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
--Abraham Lincoln

SOURCES:

[1] $900 billion spent or approved costs:
http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/IraqNumbers.htm

[2] $3+ billion estimate including indirect costs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_cost_of_the_Iraq_War

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/business/17leonhardt.html

[4 U.S. population of 307 million and 2.59 persons per household, 2000
census: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html

[5] Based on Iraq population of 31.5 million, and average household size of 6.4

[6] Cost of WWII: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22926.pdf

[7] U.S. Government spends $2.28 billion yearly on humanitarian
foreign aid: http://truthmonk.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/does-the-united-states-spend-too-much-on-foreign-aid

[8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War

[9] $50-70 price per head, and Halliburton/Cheney Information:
http://www.carnegiecouncil.org/resources/transcripts/5287.html#

[10] February-March 2007 Iraqi poll:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_insurgency

[11] Explosion of public debt:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

[12] Total foreign debt of $10.7 trillion:
http://www.political-analysis.org/ww/id8.html

[13] Iran military buildup:
http://worldsavvy.org/monitor/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=471&Itemid=900

[14] “…system was intended to protect against future missiles from
Iran, such as the alleged Shahab-6…”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_missile_defense_complex_in_Poland

[15] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1266492/U-S-vows-100-cent-cover-Europe-anti-ballistic-missile-shield-2018.html

[16] http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2010/November/20101120130310elrem0.4205241.html

[17] http://www.issues2010.com/pdf/Missile_Defense.pdf

[18] Russian opposition to missiles:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hOUimCJ4vK08igzVeFrts-owNltw

[19] US/Japanese Defense Missiles:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0352811220090803

[20] Chinese opposition to missiles:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/world/asia/13china.html

[21] $9.1 billion net cost of gulf war:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War#Cost

[22] Problems predicted by CIA:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-25-senate-report_N.htm

GOP's Demise

SURE, I'M A REPUBLICAN--A PROGRESSIVE REPUBLICAN LIKE LINCOLN, TEDDY ROOSEVELT AND EISENHOWER...

I used to be a Republican.  I'm now an independent, voting (lately) more often Democratic.  The Republican party has changed.  The progressive Republican party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower is, alas, long gone.  It has only gotten worse, though, lately--it has now become the party of populism, ignorance, fascism, bigotry, with both Ayn Rand style atheism and religious extremism, and pandering to powerful lobbying interests such as the gun lobby, wall street, the super-rich, and the military industrial lobby, which Eisenhower himself warned us about.

1.  I'm financially conservative.  In contrast, the Republican party no longer cares about deficits, and has a record of doing the opposite of what they say.  It supports subsidies to rich "welfare queens", i.e., weapons exporters, corporate farmers, ethanol, oil companies.  It supports continued tax cuts without spending cuts.  It pretends that tax increases are "evil".  It's a good thing Republicans don't try to operate a bank or credit card company.

2.  The U.S. has historically record low tax rates on the super rich, even discounting the ultra-low capital gains taxes.  Income inequality is the greatest among industrialized nations, comparable to France prior to the French revolution.  The Republican "solution" is to further reduce taxes on the rich, scale back environmental/pollution controls, and further subsidize the oil industry--as if more pollution equates to more economic opportunity.  I do not agree with this stance.

3.  I believe that waterboarding is torture.  The Khmer Rouge and the Spanish inquisitors would agree with me.  So, apparently, did the U.S.--in 1947, the U.S. charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S. civilian.  Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.  George Washington prohibited torture during the revolutionary war.  The advantage of waterboarding over other forms of torture is that is only leaves psychological scars--no burn marks or severed body parts that would serve as damning evidence.  We might wink at this but other countries take it seriously.  If we were a small, powerless country, we would be ostracized by the community of western civilized nations.  Even Josephus spoke at length about Herod the Great's use of torture and its ineffective and disastrous results.  History has repeated itself.  The United States is now an official member of torture-practicing nations. We share this distinction with such kindred spirits as North Korea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Burma.  The Republican administration supported waterboarding, calling it "enhanced interrogation".  I do not agree with this.

4.  I do not support the NRA in their efforts to legitimize any and all sorts of firearms, including full-autom­atic weapons, lubricant-­coated rounds that can penetrate Kevlar (The "cop-kille­r" bullets), and more.  The Republican party apparently does.  The gun lobby has come to expect the Republican party to toe their line.

5.  I'm a Christian conscientious objector who does not believe in killing people as part of a "nation-building initiative", or for wars whose justification is based on false pretenses--especially wars in which the rest of the world had not been threatened.  History tells us the middle east is the "graveyard of empires," and Afghanistan is no exception.  Republicans refuse to acknowledge their role in two disastrous and futile proxy wars in which 150,000 innocent civilians were killed and nearly $4 trillion was wasted.

6.  I no longer support capital punishment, after our own previous (Republican) governor put a stop to it upon finding that DNA evidence exonerated several people on death row in IL.  I believe the U.S. should join virtually all the other civilized countries in the world who have already banned capital punishment.

7.  I do not like abortion, but I do not think "anti-abortion" is the defining issue of today, as some Republicans do.  I believe it is a cynical, hypocritical sideshow to paper over a predilection for starting foreign wars costing many innocent lives and terrible bodily and emotional harm, for torture, for export of deadly weapons for profit, and for indifference to massive starvation and genocide in other countries that "coincidentally" do not have petroleum resources.  Not to mention indifference to physical and psychological abuse of unwanted children who often suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome, drug related abnormalities, and aids infection.

8.  I believe very strongly in separation of Church and state, as did our founding fathers--which our previous Republican president did not believe in, unfortunately.  As government starts giving government money to the Presbyterian, Lutheran and Catholic charities, it will also be obligated to give money to Muslim charities.  Government has no business funding religious organizations, nor should they inject religion into the war effort by employing "Christian" propaganda to encourage killing.

9.  I believe our healthcare system is in deep trouble.  We spend twice as much on healthcare as other developed countries and end up with inferior health care and worse health statistics.  Instead of working in a bi-partisan partnership with the democrats, the Republicans have united in an effort to gut any meaningful parts of "Obamacare", ensuring its failure.  Their political strategy is to label it socialized medicine and therefore part of a communist conspiracy, as if all the other developed countries in the world apparently have "communist" health care.  I do not agree with this destructive, irresponsible and cynical behavior on the part of the Republicans.  I am also concerned by their acceptance of outsized campaign contributions from drug companies, hospitals and health insurance companies.  Worst of all, the Republicans have absolutely no plan of their own, other than cutting Medicare, which they now say is off the table.  (Incidentally, guess which party created Medicare?)

10.  I believe the climate is changing, as do 97% of climatologists.  The other 3% get on TV and mock the 97%, basking in the media attention.  Some have correctly pointed out that global average temperatures have been rising rapidly for the last 30 years, but have since leveled out a bit.  However, the last 11 years are still the hottest on record.   Even if climate change has nothing to do with global warming, our profligate use of natural resources is hideous compared to other nations, and it also has had a huge effect on pollution of our planet.  And even if we care for none of those things, we SHOULD care that we are bankrupting our nation by buying oil "on credit."  The Republican party opposes alternative energy, opposes a gas tax hike, and consistently opposes fuel efficiency regulations.  Meanwhile, our transportation infrastructure is crumbling because we don't have the money to maintain it.  I do not believe this is responsible behavior from a political party.

IN CONCLUSION:  When the stock market was about to tank, euphoria was at its highest, and people predicted DOW 40,000.  Politics is similar in that way--Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were shocked and surprised (despite the "obvious" historical hindsight that we now have) when the French revolution started--they were insulated from reality.  They thought France was doing fine, except for poor people who were "lazy", and they even thought they could afford to help bankroll the American revolution--talk about naive and ironic (but fortunate for us)!  There are a lot of people insulated from reality today.  They do not believe America's moral standing among the rest of the world is important.  They believe they are safe from social turmoil, and do not notice disturbing trends happening right in front of their noses.  They've learned no historical lessons from the crusades.  They are shallow thinkers who listen to populists as they pander to our paranoia, greed, selfishness and self-delusion with paid-for politics.  They are suckers for the oldest trick in the political playbook--create an enemy to distract us from the real issues whenever their political support starts to get shaky.

The Democratic party seems to have taken up the mantle of reform while the Republican party seems out of ideas and is content to be reactive and cling to the status quo.  The Grand old Party isn't so grand anymore.

--Anonymous

Knowledge

Web Sites
Everything you should have learned in school but probably didn't!
http://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.factmonster.com/

 Free online courses
 https://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

https://www.coursera.org/   

What to do if stopped by the police (In North America)

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/what-to-do-when-you-get-pulled-over-by-the-police/

Learn Computer Basics
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/COMPUTERBASICS

How to search using a browser
https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-advanced-search-operators/

Everything you may not know that is happening in the world!

https://www.newsmax.com/links/

Wonderful photos of early 1940's across the nation followed by other Plog links

https://www.denverpost.com/2010/07/26/america-in-color-photos-1939-1943/

Museum Collections
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?searchField=All&showOnly=openAccess&sortBy=relevance&offset=0&pageSize=0
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner

Live cams:  Some of these have sound 

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/norge/nordland/lofoten/henningsvaer.html

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/zambia/eastern-province/mfuwe/african-animals.html

Some beautiful Desktop Themes
http://www.nextofwindows.com/new-official-windows-themes-for-both-windows-7-8-from-microsoft

Lost your favorites?  Start here:
http://www.100bestwebsites.org/

Lost your friend?

http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesearch/tp/peoplesearch.htm

Some free information: https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/

Best TED Talks
http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsMydMDi3rI

Fun stuff
flightradar24.com

Strange Unexplained Mysteries – Unexplained Mysteries, Aliens & Strange things

100,000 Stars

Ancient History Encyclopedia

Big Think
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R8ZS-EHJUc
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/

http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20140702-the-best-onboard-footage-ever
http://www.digicc.com/fido/
http://www.richstevens.com/weird.htm

Vim Hof

http://www.highexistence.com/the-wim-hof-method-revealed-how-to-consciously-control-your-immune-system/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaMjhwFE1Zw

Blind Post

Q: Why don't blind people skydive?
A: It scares the heck out of the dog.

Skydiving
A blind man was describing his favorite sport, parachuting. When asked how this was accomplished, he said that things were all done for him: "I am placed in the door with my seeing eye dog and told when to jump. My hand is placed on my release ring for me and out I go with the dog."

"But how do you know when you are going to land?" he was asked. "I have a very keen sense of smell, and I can smell the trees and grass when I am 300 feet from the ground" he answered.

"But how do you know when to lift your legs for the final arrival on the ground?" he was again asked. He quickly answered: "Oh, the dog's leash goes slack."


There are no dogs allowed here
A man goes to a bar with his dog. He goes up to the bar and asks for a drink. The bartender says "You can't bring that dog in here!" The guy, without missing a beat, says "This is my seeing-eye dog." "Oh man, " the bartender says, "I'm sorry, here, the first one's on me." The man takes his drink and goes to a table near the door.

Another guy walks in the bar with a Chihuahua. The first guys sees him, stops him and says "You can't bring that dog in here unless you tell him it's a seeing-eye dog." The second man graciously thanks the first man and continues to the bar. He asks for a drink. The bartender says "Hey, you can't bring that dog in here!"

The second man replies "This is my seeing-eye dog." The bartender says, "No, I don't think so. They do not have Chihuahua as seeing-eye dogs." The man pauses for a half-second and replies "What?!?! They gave me a Chihuahua?!?"


Are the pilots flying blind?
One day at a busy airport, the passengers on a commercial airliner are seated waiting for the pilot to show up so they can get under way.

The pilot and copilot finally appear in the rear of the plane and begin walking up to the cockpit through the center aisle. Both appear to be blind; the pilot is using a white cane, bumping into passengers right and left as he stumbles down the aisle. The copilot is using a guide dog. Both have their eyes covered with sunglasses.

At first, the passengers do not react thinking that it must be some sort of practical joke. After a few minutes though, the engines start revving, and the airplane begins moving down the runway.

The passengers look at each other with some uneasiness. They start whispering among themselves and look desperately to the stewardesses for reassurance.

Yet, the plane starts accelerating rapidly, and people begin panicking. Some passengers are praying, and as the plane gets closer and closer to the end of the runway, the voices are becoming more and more hysterical.

When the plane has less than twenty feet of runway left, there is a sudden change in the pitch of the shouts as everyone screams at once. At the very last moment, the plane lifts off and is airborne.

Up in the cockpit, the copilot breathes a sigh of relief and tells the pilot: "You know, one of these days the passengers aren't going to scream, and we aren't going to know when to take off!"

A blind man vists the state of Texas
There once was a blind man who decided to visit Texas. When he arrived on the plane, he felt the seats and said, "Wow, these seats are big!" The person next to him answered, "Everything is big in Texas."

When he finally arrived in Texas, he decided to visit a bar. Upon arriving in the bar, he ordered a beer and got a mug placed between his hands. He exclaimed, "Wow these mugs are big!" The bartender replied, "Everything is big in Texas."

After a couple of beers, the blind man asked the bartender where the bathroom was located. The bartender replied, "Second door to the right." The blind man headed for the bathroom, but accidentally tripped over and skipped the second door. Instead, he entered the third door, which lead to the swimming pool and fell into the pool by accident.

Scared to death, the blind man started shouting, "Don't flush, don't flush!"

There is a blind man here to see you
A nun in the convent walked into the bathroom where mother superior was taking a shower. "There is a blind man to see you," she says. "Well, if he is a blind man, than it does not matter if I'm in the shower. Send him in."

The blind man walks into the bathroom, and mother superior starts to tell him how much she appreciates him working at the convent for them. She goes on and on and 10 minutes later the man interrupts: "That's nice and all, ma'am, but you can put your clothes on now. Where do you want me to put these blinds?

Blonde Bar
A blind man and his guide dog enter a bar and find their way to a barstool. After ordering a drink, and sitting there for a while, the blind guy yells to the bartender,
   
      "Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke ?"
   
      The bar immediately becomes absolutely quiet. In a husky, deep voice, the woman next to him says,
   
      "Before you tell that joke, you should know something. The bartender is blonde, the bouncer is blonde, and I'm a 6' tall, 200 lb.blonde with a black belt in karate. What's more, the woman sitting next to me is blonde and she's a weight lifter. The lady to your right is a blonde, and she's a wrestler. Think about it seriously, Mister. You still wanna tell that joke?"
   
      The blind guy says, "Nah, not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times."



Going Blind
Darryl and Harold were in a mental institution. The place had an unusual annual contest, picking two of the best patients and giving them two questions. If they got them correct, they were deemed cured and free to go.
   
      Darryl was called into the doctor's office first and asked if he understood that he'd be free if he answered the questions correctly. Darryl said "yes" and the doctor proceeded. "Darryl, what would happen if I poked out one of your eyes?"
   
      Darryl said, "I'd be half blind."
   
      "That's correct. What if I poked out both eyes?"
   
      "I'd be completely blind." The doctor stood up, shook Darryl's hand, and told him he was free to go.
   
      On Darryl's way out, as the doctor filled out the paperwork, Darryl mentioned the exam to Harold, who was seated in the waiting room. He told him what questions were going to be asked and gave him the answers.
   
      So Harold went into the doctor's office when he was called. The doctor went thru the formalities and then asked, "What would happen if I cut off one of your ears?"
   
      Remembering what Darryl had told him, he answered, "I'd be half blind."
   
      The doctor looked a little puzzled, but went on. "What if I cut off the other ear?"
   
      "I'd be completely blind," Harold answered.
   
      "Harold, can you explain how you'd be blind?"
   
      "My hat would fall down over my eyes."



How to Deal with Sighted Persons
People who use their eyes to receive information about the world are called sighted people or "people who are sighted." Sighted people enjoy rich, full lives working, playing, and raising families. They run businesses, hold public office, and even teach your children.
TRANSPORTING THE SIGHTED
People who are sighted may walk or ride public transportation, but most choose to travel by operating their own motor vehicles. They have gone through many hours of training, at great expense, to learn "the rules of the road" to further their independence. Once that road to freedom has been mastered, sighted people earn a "driver's license" which allows them to operate a private vehicle safely and independently.
THE TRAGEDY OF LIGHTING
Sighted people cannot function well in low lighting conditions and are generally completely helpless in total darkness. Their homes are usually very brightly lit at great expense, as are businesses which cater to the sighted.
BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION WITH THE SIGHTED
Sighted people are accustomed to viewing the world in visual terms. Thus, in many situations they will be unable to communicate orally and may resort to pointing or other gesturing. Calmly alert the sighted person to his or her surroundings by speaking slowly, in a normal tone of voice. There is no need to raise your voice when addressing a sighted person. Questions directed to sighted persons help them focus on verbal rather than visual and gestural communication.
HOW BEST TO ASSIST THE SIGHTED PERSON
At times, sighted people may need help finding things, especially when operating a motor vehicle. Your advance knowledge of routes and landmarks, particularly bumps in the road, turns, and traffic lights, will assist the "driver" in finding the way quickly and easily.
Your knowledge of building layouts can also assist the sighted person in navigating complex shopping malls and offices. Sighted people tend to be very proud and will not ask directly for assistance. Be gentle yet firm.
HOW DO SIGHTED PEOPLE READ?
Sighted people read through a system called "Print." Print is a series of images drawn in a two-dimensional visual plane. Because the person who is sighted relies exclusively on visual information while reading, his or her attention span tends to fade quickly when reading long texts. People who are sighted generally have a poorly developed sense of touch. Braille is completely foreign to the sighted person and he or she will take longer to learn the code and be severely limited by the dominance of his or her existing visual senses.
HOW DO SIGHTED PEOPLE USE COMPUTERS?
Computer information is presented to sighted people in a "Graphical User Interface" or GUI.
Sighted people often suffer from hand-eye coordination problems and poor memories. To compensate, people who are sighted often use a "mouse," a handy device that slides along the desktop to save hard-to-remember keystrokes. With one click on the "mouse" button, the sighted person can move around his or her computer screen quickly and easily. People who are sighted are not accustomed to synthetic speech and may have great difficulty understanding even the clearest synthesizer. Be patient and prepared to explain many times how your computer equipment works.
HOW CAN I HELP A SIGHTED PERSON?
People who are sighted do not want your charity. They want to live, work, and play alongside you. The best way to support sighted people in your community is to accept them for who they are. These citizens are vital, contributing members of society. Conduct outreach. Take a sighted person to lunch.


http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/1199/sighted.htm