ON THE BRINK

How foolish can we all be?

A father involved in a custody suit throws his 3-year old son off the top of a`50-story high rise, and then jumps off himself.  Four thugs stole a young man's car in a NJ mall, and killed him for no reason.  These`are not isolated cases.  THEY HAPPEN EVERY DAY, EVERYWHERE.

Politics has taken over our newspapers and radio and tv news stations.  You would think that everything will be just rosy if we get Obamacaare and NSA surveillance problems resolved.  Thems the only two problems we have.

But 'taint so.  We are living in stressed-out times that affect all of us.  We have more and are enjoying it less.  Racial hatreds seem at an all time high.  Gangs are more commonly to be seen on city streets.  Violence between people, between nations, is every day headlines. Nuclear war rhetoric is common.  Lying at the highest levels of government is prevalent.

We have lost our moral bearing, and our heads are in the sand.  I do not know if civilization itself is threatened, but it may be.

We need a renaissance. or we will all pay...some how, some way.

And we need it quickly.

THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE

There are a thousand glib sayings about time...about how time is the master of our lives, about how not to kill time or it will kill you, etc., etc.  But there is one that to me says it all. It was said by Israel Gevant, the greatest, in my mind, unknown philosopher:

      "The best time to do something you want to do is when you are alive."

In the misbegotten name of progress, we humans, we of the super-animal intelligence, have enslaved ourselves to Time.  We are a clock-driven species.  We waken by the clock, we sleep by the clock, we work and eat and play by the clock.  We have come to generally agree that now is not the right time to do this, you must wait for the right time, the best time, the only time.

When we bought into the Industrial Revolution for the benefits it promised, we paid for them with the currency they were not worth:  our time.   Don't want to work today?  But you must or you will lose your job...that is, your freedom to choose how to spend the time of your life.  And without the job, what have you?  Our ancient forebears were smart.  They had no jobs, other than to go out and do their hunting/gathering thing when they wanted to, with whom they wanted to, where they wanted to, for as long as they wanted to.  The common denominator:  wanted to.  How many people want to go to work?  I have often wondered why primitive tribes dance and chant a lot, and seem happy with so little.  Error.  They have a lot...of time to do what they want to do.

Unshackle your life from the bondage of time...and begin to enjoy the time of your life.

THE SHAME OF GETTYSBURG

RAPTURE: ARISTOTLE

THE RAPTURE OF BEAUTY EXPANDS THE HORIZONS OF OUR SOUL

IN ALL THINGS OF NATURE, THERE IS SOMETHING OF THE MARVELOUS 

HIGH CRIME

So, the deputy consul general of the Indian delegation to the U.N was arrested the other day, strip-searched and held in a cell with drug addicts. She has claimed diplomatic immunity; the U.S. says immunity does not apply to non-diplomatic functions.  Her alleged crime: filing a visa form saying she was paying her Indian housekeeper in New York the minimum wage when, in fact, she was paying her less $3/hr.  India is irate about the way she was treated, and has revoked certain privileges accorded U.S. diplomats in India.  The U.S. says she was treated no differently than any other accused.  The potential sentence if she is found guilty: 15 years in prison.

1.  Get the U.N. out of the U.S. and the U.S. out of the U.N.  It is a useless organization and it subjects America to international laws we ought not be subject to.

2.  Diplomatic immunity is unconscionable.  Foreign diplomats have literally gotten away with murder under its irrational protection.  The only reason we accord it to foreign diplomats here is to get the same protection for our diplomats in foreign countries.  Stupidity to match stupidity.  If our diplomats would not otherwise be treated fairly and with justice, we shouldn't send them there.  And if a foreign national commits a crime here, he ought be prosecuted and punished as any American would be.

3.  We ought have no minimum wage.  It is a clear violation of freedom.  An adult ought be free to work for whatever wage he or she wishes...and is an unconstitutional intrusion of the government in the economy.

4.  Strip searches may be appropriate for those accused of crimes involving the use of force, but not for the nonviolent crime alleged here.

5.  Fifteen years for "underpaying" the minimum wage.  Must be a damn serious offense that threatens the very survival of our country!

The whole thing is a pile of horseradish...or something.

RESPECT 101

So, the high school senior walked up behind his teacher and hugged her for a moment. It appears from the video that another faculty member was in the room.  The teacher says he had done that before and she had warned him that he  would be punished if he did it again.  The student denies the prior incident.  The school suspended the student and postponed his graduation for a year.

A lurking error in the story.  If, in fact, there had been a`prior incident, the teacher should have reported it to the school, and the school should have set up a meeting with the student's parents.  The object being to teach the student respect for other people's lives, and the consequences of inappropriate behavior.  That ought be a part of the school's curriculum, ought it not?  Learning why each of us is entitled to peaceful co-existence is a critical prelude to civilization.  If the student then repeats the offense, punishment is warranted.  A one year suspension seems a bit excessive, but punishment is not calculable by a mathematical formula.

When two young men at a mall in New Jersey yesterday wantonly shot a young man in the head and killed him for no apparent reason, it is clear that they too had not learned respect for other people's lives.  The Pythagorean theorem alone doesn't teach it.

RAPTURE: ELIZE and AMIRA

THE RAPTURE OF BEAUTY EXPANDS THE HORIZONS IN OUR SOUL