THE VERY RED LINE

There is a lot of talk these days about a red line and whether the use of chemical weapons in Syria crossed it.

It was crossed years ago when Syrian and other dictatorial regimes wantonly and brutally killed millions of innocent people.

It was crossed when the Muslim Brotherhood undertook a world holocaust, swearing  to kill all those who do not obey its religious tenets.

It was crossed when terrorists beheaded those who confronted them, and, yes, when the youngest of those terrorists chose to become suicide bombers

It was crossed on 9/11…and on many other times in world history.

The red line is THE LACK OF RESPECT FOR HUMAN LIFE.

It is riding furiously around the planet on the backs of those four horsemen, it can be found in the dung heap of lies and underhanded connivings of political leaders, including our own.  And it is nurtured by a head-in-the-sand pervasive do-nothing attitude, and our failure to properly teach our children what truly comprises human decency, and about its endearing beauty.

It is indeed a red line, painted as it is by the blood of its victims.

And unless the good people of the world wake up very soon, they may never wake up again.

NOT CEDE, SECEDE

Supervisors of Suskiyou County in northern California have voted to secede`from the state and form a new county called Jefferson County, with laws that conform to the Constitution.  Under existing laws, secession would require the approval of the U.S. Congress and the State Legislature, which is not likely.  An absurd concept:  having to get approval from the political entity you are seeking to separate from.  23 states have at one time or another had unsuccessful attempts by counties wishing to secede.

I would take it one step further:  secede not just from the state but from the country.  And the state can secede, as well.  The United States is just that:  a collection of individual sovereign states, each with the retained power and authority to decide whether or not it wishes to continue to be affiliated with the other members of the United States.

What a wake up call that would be to the self-impressed, power-wielding, overbearing politicos in Washington, D.C. Shape up, or we ship out!  Think of it as political divorce. Obey the Constitution, or we don't complain, we leave.  We did not, do not and never will agree to the imposition of unConstitutional laws and bureaucracies upon us...and we will not reward you with our sanction...we will not let you do to us as you wish, impose unlawful burdens upon us, and limit our response to ineffective verbal complaints (which will likely achieve nothing).  We are ready to take effective action now. 

In other words, we will learn and implement the lesson taught us by our Founders.

UNDER WHO?

A lawsuit in Massachusetts asks the court to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance recited in public schools each morning on the grounds it discriminates against non-believers.  The attorney for the schools claims there should be no objection to those words since children aren't required to recite the Pledge.

Really?  So showing a picture of Adolf Hitler and having the children raise their right arms and shout "Sig Heil" would be just fine as long as the kids can opt out of doing it?  "Those are fully grown mature independent-thinking 5-year olds," you say, "who can choose not to do something that violates their fundamental beliefs, so what's the problem?"

What, indeed?

The court before which this case will be heard is the same court that made Massachusetts the first state to allow same sex marriage.  There is hope sanity will prevail again.

THE COMPETITIVE EDGE

It would be nice to think that organizational efficiency and competence and superior products emanate out of personal standards and pride and the drive to achieve excellence.  But, in fact, that isn't so.  They primarily stem from a desire to retain financial income in the face of the possibility of losing it.  In other words, they are the result of competition.  Absent free market competition, the level of performance generally sinks into the abyss.

Think of government agencies and why 80% of the governments of the world ran on deficits last year.   Think of business monopolies.  Think of why totalitarian regimes limit, if not prohibit, foreign travel.  Think of why the quality of education at  public schools does not generally measure up to that of private schools.  Think of why virtually all athletic records are set in competitions and not in practice.  Think of  how differently people deal with each other when dating and when married.

If you need a concrete reason why the government should get out of our way, keep its hands off our business, literally and figuratively, and why freedom rules the roost, there it is.

Benevolent competition is not a fight to the death but a striving for excellence and the glory of life.  Our competitor is not our enemy but an ally in our quest to bring out the best within us. 

TO PORN OR NOT TO PORN

A proposed law in California would make it a crime to post nude or semi-nude pictures of someone on the internet even if the person in the picture consented to the picture being taken in the first place.  Prosecutors would have to show that the picture was posted with the intent to inflict emotional distress, and that such distress was felt...two facts extremely difficult to prove.

I am opposed to the proposed law, not because I think its hunky-dory ok to post nude pix of someone without their permission...but because I am sick and tired of our looking to the government to solve all our problems.  Should we have a law that makes it a crime if the picture is not posted on a porn site but is merely shown to one other person?  What if there is no picture but your private parts (hate that term) are described in detail on a blog?  All can cause distress.  Hell, I felt distress when a girl turned me down for a date (rare as that was).

We have a million laws on the books, and we are still a crime-ridden society.  And the reason for that is we are not ready to take full responsibility for ourselves, and not ready to take care of ourselves.   That is a prime reason we have overbearing federal and state governments in our country.

Don't want nude pix of yourself flashing around the world?  Don't take them with anyone you cannot fully trust.  If you are not 1,000% percent sure of the person holding the camera, keep your clothes on.

One other thing.  Why are we as a society so skittish about nudity?  The human body can be a most beautiful thing..and if yours is, feel unabashedly good about it.

THE IR CURSE

The industrial revolution in the 1800's and pushing into the 1900's .was, at one and the same time, the biggest enhancer, and the biggest destroyer, of the quality of human life.

Industrialization triggered the invention and production of an avalanche of new products in virtually every aspect of man's life.  The products brought increased safety, capabilities, variety, and pleasure to man's life.  There can be no denying this.  It is the reason why IR is considered by many to be man's signature achievement.

But it also brought with it unseen and unimagined forces and influences that have`remained to the present, and, in my view, have seriously and significantly desecrated the beauty and glory of human life.

IR promoted a seemingly insatiable desire for more and more concrete goods and, for many, attaining them falsely replaced relationships and thoughtful, pleasurable activities as the popular keys to happiness.  In addition to their cost, the goods brought a host of ancillary expenditures, including fees for warranties,  delivery charges, premiums for property insurance, and more.  And costliest of all, came the  perception that a bigger government was necessary to regulate the new expanded economy (which soon  meant: to regulate us)...a burgeoning bureaucracy to be paid for via a host of new and increased sales, income and other taxes, charges and fees.

A worshiping of the almighty dollar needed to meet all these costs, quickly followed.  That led  to man's working longer hours, often at jobs that did not interest him...and leaving him less time to spend with the people and the hobbies and activities he loved, or by himself in quiet reflection.  It led, too, to unspoken and constant competition for the accumulation of wealth.  Friends and neighbors became competitors.  A person's standing in the community was to some`extent gauged on that standard:  How much wealth have you accumulated?  Those not faring well by that standard, for one reason or another, often felt and feel inferior, unsuccessful, and unworthy, and suffer the psychological problems that those feelings can engender.

IR brought a repetitious lifestyle because mindless repetition was found to equate with the efficiency of factory assembly lines.  It also brought overcrowding and a congestion of people.  Crowded cities with towering apartment buildings housing workers and their families sprung up close to the huge industrial factories needed to produce the new goods.  Traffic became stifling and slow.  Public schools became crowded, and personal attention and education declined.  Man couldn't breathe.

Do you need`all these IR goods?  Absolutely not.  Man lived for tens of thousands of years  without them.  Perhaps ideally it would be good to have them, or some of them, if they didn't bring with them the negatives I have mentioned`above.  But so far, man...most men...have not been able to achieve that. 

What man needs is the time and the opportunity to relate to the natural world of which he is a part.   What he needs is for his spirit to soar to far away imaginations.   (Ever wonder why virtually all of the greatest thinkers, artists, musicians, composers and sculptors lived before IR?)

What he needs is the space`and the freedom to "live with his arms driving upwards".  And if  you are not quite sure what that means,  then you, too, are a victim of IR. 

GOOD GOLF

So, minutes after meeting in the White House with key government officials and announcing his decision to ask Congress for its approval to attack Syria, Obama (and  Biden) went golfing.

I applaud the Prez and VP for sending a clear signal to the dictatorial Syrian regime and to the world that Americans will not stand idly by when scores of youngsters are permanently denied the opportunity to ever play this wonderful game. 

One thought:  Why not have O and B go to Jordan right near the Syrian border, and loft some golf balls over into Syria...maybe for a day or two?  That would send an even clearer signal of what we are ready to do when evil regimes don't play ball with us.

And the public's voice should be heard.  A recent poll indicates 68% of the American people do not think the Prez and VP should yell "Fore" to warn the Syrians of the incoming golf balls.

Agreed.