Thankfulness

The Stoa has not forgotten Thanksgiving. I don't usually discuss holidays and such, unless there is a lesson to be learned from them, or a truth that requires deeper deliberation.

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays. First, I'm sure that everyone who reads my work knows how the holiday came to be. I'm also certain that you have thought about the Free-Market causes that permitted the first colonies to survive after their disastrous flirtation with colonial Socialism.

Secondly, this holiday means something, truly, to those really understand that it was a huge Thank You to God for showing them the way. The colonists offered up to Providence for God's bounty. I am currently living in the birthplace of that holiday. The ground I walk on every day is the same ground that Pocahontas and her tribe lived upon.

This holiday also marks the beginning of the end for the East Coast tribes of Indians. I doubt very much that there were enough Indian tribes left in the Tidewater region of Virginia to celebrate any holiday 80 years later.

Do I blame white Europeans for the genocide of the American Indian? Is there an argument against? Let's all be grown ups here. Yes, they did. Disease did much of it, but European expansionism finished it. If not Britain, then France. If not France, then Spain. The fate of the Indians was set once the first boat arrived off their shores.

It was a different mindset back then. Try to place yourself in their contemporary shoes. Europe as at constant war. Wars of Religion and Succession. The Plague was an ever-present threat to Europeans just as smallpox was to the Indians. There were the strong and the weak. The weak endured what they must at the hands of the strong. Life was, from the earliest, short, painful, and violent. Europeans had a dozen children and multiple marriages in the hopes that three or four children would survive into adulthood. The generations alive at that time shared similarities with our own, though shaded towards survival and expansion.

Those people looked upon North America as a paradise. The Indians were simply in their way. It was their escape from a Europe that was approaching the zenith of its cultural energy. The day would come where virtually no portion of the world would not have a European flag on it or near it. Had there been no North America these people would have vanished into the mists of time, ground under by the Establishment.

It happened. Get over it.

Today, I have much to be thankful for. I am healthy. I am employed. My family is healthy and I have friends. My brother, mother, and father are employed and living independently.

Driving in to work today, the weather was warm and sunny. Every morning I love looking out at the Navy Shipyards and feel pride in what they stand for. They protect all that I am thankful for. The Liberal idiots see only their narrow viewpoint of the world. They fail to understand just how vulnerable they are to the "old world". The world that is governed by the aggressive use of force. The world that never went away. That is the world held at bay by the men and women that use the equipment built in that shipyard.

People need to dwell on that for a while. Liberals, regardless of nation or culture, live in denial that such a world can touch them. They forget or never realize that it is others who permit them that denial.

My list of things to be thankful for looks and sounds rather short. It is, though not by design. Life has taught me, sometimes the hard way, what is important and what is not. A true Stoic would simply be thankful for another day to contemplate. I'm not that enlightened. My list is short as I have stripped myself of all that is unimportant to me. Those things that I will grieve over are those things I have listed. Nothing more, nothing less.

I regret little in my life, since regret only saps energy that I could be using to shape the future, to make my "now" better. I'm not perfect, though. I do find myself thinking upon failed relationships and what I have learned from them. An old girlfriend from high school and the friend that took her from me. A father that abandoned his family to hunger and possible eviction. The same father that tries to reforge those connections even as he lays the ground work for their dissolution due to his emotional dysfunction. A mother and brother who were far away even I lived only a few miles from them.

I don't regret those, for the reasons I stated above. I do take away lessons from that. I respect them for who they are and what they are to me. I can not foist my expectations upon them. I am ultimately responsible for my own attitudes. I cherish what I have and know that I will live more of my life away from my children then with. I cherish them and what they can be in the future.

Don't let that which is ultimately unimportant sap your energy. Don't let those things distract you from that which is important. You will have to determine what is dear to you. Be honest with yourself and true to your character.

Live well.

--Zavost

Finding our Way

Upon the Stoa this night, I contemplate the near future. Our travails started in earnest in 2008 and will likely continue past 2020. We have a lot to atone for. A lot we must learn and much more we need to relearn.

I have said before that war is a leveler. An act that sweeps away the old and renews civilization for new growth, without regard to "good or bad".

Sometimes war or major societal dislocations are required in order for the contemporary leaders to contemplate radical change and for the people to accept that change.

If the United States is to continue into the future as a positive force for technological and cultural innovation then it can not continue in its present form. This much is apparent. The proliferation of Federal laws and the inability of the common citizen to protect themselves to the same extent as they can against other laws simply chains us to an unelected bureaucracy. The proliferation on Federal Departments, agencies, and programs which drain economic resources from those who drive the before-mentioned innovation. The citizens of the Republic are fractured and courted for their use by the powers that be.

I'll start with a few examples and work my way down until I grow tired of doing so:

Monetary policy. We must move away from fiat currency. In fact, I'm not sure if this is a choice we will be able to make for ourselves. Gold and silver coinage will have to be our currency. Oh, it does not have to be the actual metal, but the currency, whether it is coin, paper, or digital money. Whatever our unit of currency becomes, it must be based on precious metal holdings. Hmm, I do believe that our Founders were of the same opinion as well. Says so right in the Constitution. Metal currency. Specifically, Silver currency. You can see how we drifted, ever so innocently over 175 years.

The Federal Government's place in our lives. Today, more than half of all Americans are subsidized by the Federal government in some fashion. And when I say Federal government, I mean the People as a Whole. Redistribution of wealth. The States used to be pre imminent and they must become that again. The Feds are in every aspect of our lives. They have invaded our bedrooms and they are looking into ways to invade our futures. A hundred years ago, the Federal government was minuscule. The citizens of the States looked more to their State Capitols than Washington D.C. It needs to become that again.

Our Founders envisioned citizen politicians. I don't mean to say that our politicians are not citizens, but that it was the duty of every citizen to serve their State or Federal government for one or two terms of their respective branches. This not not to deny a person a life of politics, but that one never serve more than two terms in whatever capacity they serve. Washington set the precedent, and it was not a bad idea.

The Judicial. There was a period of time where the Supreme Court sat around wondering just exactly what it was supposed to be doing. The Constitution was pretty clear. It was written for the masses and not the political elite. Things meant what they meant. Those of the first several courts lived side by side with the Founders. They understood the INTENT of every phrase and had no desire to parse the meaning or look for "penumbras" of meaning within the document. In the 1930's, when the legislators began to really get out of control by mandating what a farmer could grow or sell, the Supreme Court be can to fail. Upholding laws that would have made our Founders cringe. Once they "found" the right for abortion on demand in the Founding document it was time to sweep out the lot of them. It says what it says. Anything not specifically spelled out is left to the INDIVIDUAL states to decide. Period.

Things drift. The very continents themselves drift. Unlike the rocks we build upon, the Constitution was both self correcting and correctable by the People. We, the People. Politicians do not change it. WE do.

The Libertarians desire to turn the clock all the way back to 1787. I'd be happy to pull it back to about 1850. Drift. Drifting is what we have been doing for a very, very long time. If we wish to do this peacefully, we will have to drift back the other way.

War changes things, though. It add heat and acts as a catalyst for rapid changes. Will we become what the Libertarians wish us to be? Not overnight. Not even after another civil war. Can we turn the clock back to 1850? I believe we can.

Lets look at this like we would a computer that keeps crashing. You know, the Window blue screen of death. You make changes to the system and the system crashes. Simply go to a back up point and restore the system.

If we were to restore the Republic back to about 1850 then there will be many, many changes. No more Income Tax. No more Department of Energy or Education. No more FDA, Social Security, or Medicare. That will pull the Feds back down to manageable levels. The States will suddenly find themselves having to manage Interstate highways and orphaned government programs. We will, I believe, be much better off for it.

Things change, things drift. Right now we are moving off the cliff and into the historical abyss of human misery, autocracy, war and oppression. If we do not return to what we once were then this will be the only possible ending our experiment.

If war and economic ineptitude pull down the structures we are familiar with, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Socialism then adopting a prior version our selves becomes very possible. We will have already lost all of those things. It will be much easier to adopt individualism when individualism is all there is left.

I depart on this warm, November night.

Live well.

--Zavost

Foamy Awards for November 23, 2011

Ah, it is a warm, if wet night upon the Stoa. Water, water, everywhere. Wonderful stuff. Which brings me, in part, to the newest winners of the Foamy Award.

Yes, my daughter has located TWO more honorable recipients of the new award. I'm not at all afraid that she will run out of candidates if she keeps finding them this quickly.

The first award goes to the Department of Education and the Department of Agriculture. Honorable mentions also go to the variety of lobbyists who made it all possible.

Why, you ask? Michelle Obama has been the Food Czar since she was elected and has been mucking up with everything tasty, just don't get between her and a plate of ribs. New regulations that she ordered created will wipe the beloved pizza from the menu at schools all around the country. The very pizza that I grew up with and the pizza that my children now eat at their schools.

Oh, the uproar. How do we get out of the snare of our own making!

If you can massacre the language so that Black means Socialist, you can word your way out of this dilemma, right? Never fear, the lobbyists and their ilk are working over the government regulators who are set to enforce these stupid rules. Apply a generous helping of money, some political pressure and a dash of media polish and you get an ingenious solution to the problem.

That burnt dough, floating in a pool of its own grease is not pizza. What were you thinking? The cheese is class C quality and the "meat" is the main ingredient in a Weenie Tot. How could you mistake that for pizza. What you are really looking at is several servings of VEGETABLES! Yes indeed. The tomato paste, sauce, or whatever it is, will now constitute the major ingredient of "pizza".

Oh how we have fallen. Next thing you will have to swallow is that my SUV, a Nissan X-Terra will be called a light truck..oh, wait. Never mind.

This Foamy goes to you, you weenie tots.

The second award goes to the European Union. No, not for economics, though they can sweep the category cleanly. No, this is for yet another mangling of language. The legal arm of the EU has now stated that manufacturers of bottled water must never state on their bottles that, "the consumption of water will reduce the likelihood of dehydration". So lets get this straight. The wizards of smart in Northern Italy, responsible for this new regulation, are making it illegal to tell someone that drinking water will help keep you hydrated. Rrrriiiiiiiiiggggghhhhttt.

Let's ponder this for a moment. Water. Hydrate. Fire Hydrant. Hydro. Dehydration. Hold it, I think I'm onto something here. A person in the desert can die in a matter of hours of...dehydration. The loss of water due to sweating in an attempt to cool their core temperatures. Dehydration. Loss of water. Man, this is tough. So let's see. If I drink a bottle of water will I, A: live another hour, or B: die a horrible, delirium filled death. Hmmm, I think I'll drink the water.

Come on, really? In what realm of reality to you people over there occupy? You sit there with a straight face and tell people that drinking water has nothing to do with your level of healthy hydration?! Man, if I were Foamy I'd be jumping up and down with both fingers in the air. Hell, I'd even moon you! Enjoy your Foamy, you nimrods!

However, that is not dignified enough for a modern Stoic. I'll let my daughter do it. Well, except the mooning part.

I think I'll go do something else right now and get my mind off the idiocy radiating out of Europe these days. I wonder if those same folks are helping out the European economists?

Live well.

--Zavost

The Foamy Awards

The Stoa is being hijacked, yet again my by children who feel that their beloved, nasty, foul-mouthed Internet squirrel, Foamy, is not getting enough recognition for pointing out idiocy in all its forms. By the way, the Foamy looks like a rabid squirrel, with huge, judging eyes and a middle finger, sometimes on both hands, raised to the world in contempt.

I will attempt to faithfully reproduce the arguments and discussions that my children have with their brainwashed and hopeless classmates and teachers.

I will list a variety of Foamies in this post and then a few here and there as they are awarded in the future.

The Foamy is awarded to a person, group, or organization that displays an inability to tell the truth, tell fantasy from reality, or knowingly manipulate reality to their own ends.

The first goes to the NEA and the Department of Education: Many of our Founding Fathers attended schools with dirt floors, had tutors, and lacked books of any kind, yet they understood classical literature and founded a Nation. 90% of the money today goes towards pensions, benefits, and pay for the teachers; maintenance on buildings, and political indoctrination. Here you go folks, the first Foamy goes to you.

The next goes to both George W. Bush and Barak Obama. After the 2008 meltdown, W. famously stated, "I had to abandon the free market in order to save the free market system." Brother, that is a steaming pile. In 2006, Obama and his lapdogs in the press railed on Bush and the GOP for running $300 billion deficits. They said that these deficits are ruining the country and running the economy in the ditch. So, the DNC takes over, runs $1.5 Trillion debts and states that everything is working out fine. Better than fine, actually. Riiiiight. You did not just plow it into the ditch, you rocket sledded this car into a solid metal block at 700 mph, Mythbuster style. This one is for you, Obama, two fingers, waaaay up.

RINOs, this next one is for you. How do you know if you are a RINO? If you think that you have a better chance of getting elected by running as a Democrat, you might be a RINO. If you think that nationalized healthcare can be made to work if it is run by the right people, you might be a RINO. If you fantasize about the Press writing a favorable article about you, then you might be a RINO. If the DNC and the Press say that you are the candidate to beat, then YOU ARE A RINO. The press and the DNC looovvve to say who their person to beat is. They play up acting AFRAID of the candidate who they can waltz all over, and save the vitriol for those that they truly dread. I give you Palin, Bachman, and Cain. The ones they act afraid of are the RINOs. I give you McCain, Romney, and Gingrich (the King of RINO). Well, stinking 4th establishment, this Foamy is for you!

The OWS movement, the 99%ers who are really the losers of life's lottery, protest against society while collecting some form of Federal or State aid. Remember, that aid does not come from nowhere. It comes from taxes TAKEN by those who earn it. Many of them protest while living in their parent's basement, or the dorm room that their parents, or taxpayers, are paying for. Ingrates. Don't bite the hand that feeds you, stupid.

So many idiots deserving of a Foamy. More will be handed out in the days to come. Stay tuned.

Live well.

--Zavost

The Irrelevant Debate

Upon the Stoa, I sit with hand on chin, marveling at the ability of some to deny reality.

I speak of course, of the the "Super Committee" and of the EU's inability to grasp the seriousness of their situations.

The Super Committee was doomed before it even started. Why? Simply because it was a microcosm of the whole. Whether you have Congress locking up on party lines or a Super Committee locking up on party lines...you should have seen it coming.

Then again, it is all rather irrelevant, is it not?

To explain what I just said, let us look to Europe as our instructional model. For most of the 20th Century, they attempted to build a sort of Social Utopia, founded on a Social Democratic model that promised everyone a place in society and comfort in their lives. Free from uncertainty and failure.

If they agreed to pay massive taxes on everything under the Sun, sunlight included, then "the Government" would grant you a pocket with money, a job if you wanted one, and a place to live. Clean transportation and national healthcare.

Europe liberalized its laws and immigration practices, offering those from war torn regions of the world to come and share in their bounty.

With Multiculturalism and Transnationalism at full strength in Europe, they could not seem to foresee the swarming of their nations by people who were running from one hellhole in order to create a new hellhole in a new part of the world. Multiculturalism prevented these new influxes of refugees from integrating into the host successful and stable host culture. In other words, if women ran from Sharia Law to Britain, very quickly they found themselves bound by it again as a squishy British legal system backed off imposing native law on immigrants.

Lets do some word-math. You have a declining native population. You have a swelling immigrant population that is adding more births to your registry than native births. You have 20% unemployment, and a virtual trampoline of social benefits. Hmmm, sounds to me like very quickly you will have more people consuming than producing. Its not rocket science.

Europe is dying. It is dying as surely as if it had put a gun to its own head.

The issue right now is not Greece. It is not the Euro, nor is it the EU. It is their mentality of cradle to grave entitlements. There are only three things in the Universe that expand forever. One is the Universe itself. The second is compound interest, and the third is entitlement spending. Who could have seen that coming, Europe.

The United States faces its own, similar problem. In Europe, they continue to feel that if you throw money into new bond-buying, then somehow they will get OUT of debt. Scratch the chin on this one, folks. I owe a billion dollars, so if I borrow 2 billion dollars I can pay off the first guy and spend the rest. Then borrow 3 billion to pay of the second guy and spend the rest. You can not do this forever. Whether they are talking about national bond sales or a pan-Euro bond, it is still debt; no matter what fancy name you give it.

It is no wonder that each attempt at "containing the contagion" fails. The entire Union is ill, just some parts are more ill than others. The core is failing. Germany sees it, but too late to prevent it. They want to hold onto they money they have now and not see more of it get flushed.

Margaret Thatcher said it best, "Socialism works great until you run out of other people's money". Well said.

The situation is beyond them, now. They will have to suffer the consequences of promising what was never in their power to deliver in the first place. Happiness. You can not legislate happiness and contentment. Sometimes, contentment is reached through the struggle of living. If you play every game in "god" mode then it gets boring real fast.

Our "Super Committee" was truly doomed to failure, regardless of what they decided in the end. Shaving $1.2 Trillion over TEN years does nothing to keep you from going over the cliff if you are running a DEFICIT of $1.3 Trillion EVERY YEAR FOR 10 YEARS. The debt levels are already unsustainable. The situation is already beyond them. Truly.

The price must be paid. Reality must be satisfied. Debt must either be paid or defaulted upon. Government must shrink back down to about 8% of GDP if we even want a chance to survive in the near future. 48% and counting is what is causing this failure on a systemic level.

Don't put any faith in Congress to do the right thing. They have failed us for 75 years. Over a hundred if you include Theodore Roosevelt. They only thing they can do is make it worse. Of that I have full confidence.

Live well.

--Zavost

Known by their Deeds

From the Stoa this morning, I want to think about those parasites, the OWS "movement" and its proper placement within history.

Yesterday, former President Bill Clinton voiced his approval of the OWS movement as it drew much needed attention to the plight of the poor and the vast, growing gulf between the rich and poor in this nation. As if no one has ever, ever, talked about this before...how about that.

Care to give up some of your book royalties? How about decreasing the cost of your speaking fees, Mr. Ex-President?

Current President Obama has also tipped his hat to the movement, encouraging Unions and other like minded groups to work together...

I have to ask, Mr. President...work together against whom? The rich? The powerful? The "man"?

You do realize that you are all of those? Hmmmmm?

Sure you do. You and your ilk try to channel and direct this odd blob of malcontents to accomplish your ends. Your ends are the punishing and bullying of your political opponents. Occasionally, the movement causes liberal collateral damage, but all of that is acceptable to their kind. Then again, they have yet to visit Mr. Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE...

Squishy GOP like Bloomberg fawn and pamper the mobs and wring their hands about the rights of the protesters. Bank managers, the gainfully employed, and the innocent are accosted by this mob; but only those they are directed agains (most of the time). The crime, disease, drugs, etc that go on in and about the camps can not be ignored. This not a political movement like the Tea Party, this is a person trying to jump start a full blown revolution. Showering sparks on tinder of their own making.

When Bill Clinton swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, did it include fomenting rebellion against the same? When Barak Obama swore his oath, did it have anything to do with the FORCED redistribution of wealth?

No.

You have Anarchists, Socialists, Communists, Fascists, and the useful tearing up the fabric of an already decaying society. The EPA and its "Green" Reds pulling down dams and hydroelectric power stations, causing the death of hundreds of towns and cities that rely on those dams and backed up water for their economic livelihood. They are ravaging the middle of this country. The conservative core of this nation is being picked apart with hundreds of thousands placed on unemployment or government welfare. Conservative dependents on the public dole, powerless because they don't tend to riot like their liberal slaves.

We know you by your deeds, not your name or your title. When one takes an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, you protect what the Constitution stands for. You are not sworn to protect the People. The Constitution protects the People.

Think on that last sentence very, very, carefully. The Constitution was designed to limit the power of government and its ability to strip the citizen of their rights. The role of government is not to protect the people directly. Their role is limited by the Constitution as developed by We the People.

The biggest barrier to full government seizure of citizens' rights is that pesky old document. Liberals feel that it has outlived its usefulness. Not at all. We need it now more than ever.

The forces of authoritarianism and anti-republic sentiment is in full swing. Not since FDR has the American people been so threatened.

I'm all for calling things as they are. We are less free then we were in 1965. Our currency has lost 99% of its value since 1911. We no longer have the ability to launch humans into orbit, instead we have to rely on a political adversary and 1960's Soviet era technology to get there. We are limiting access to health care already due to massive government intervention since 1965.

Only the rich can seem to get elected these days. Only those who scream the loudest are heard any longer. Those that speak of sanity are silenced. Fairness and legal rights are now purchased or granted.

I know people always say that the next election is the most important election, but this one really is. We skid towards anarchy and rebellion. The loudest 5%, yes I said it you Fleabag losers, is causing all of this. Do not be misled by that low number. The Soviet Union was raised up on the backs of less, enslaving the other 98%. It has happened and it can happen.

The question will be: are we the people we want to be or will we be the people we are told to be. Simple enough. Freedom or slavery to the new political Oligarchs.

Live well.

--Zavost

Crony Capitalism

From the Stoa this day, I see the orbits of fate beginning to come together. Threads of action are converging and bundling that will shape our future for a hundred years to come.

Remember, fate is not destined or pre-ordained at all. We make our own fates as individuals and as a collective, be it a family, nation, or culture. We may not be able to choose our larger fate, but if enough of us push in another direction, we may be able to mitigate the effects.

The other day I saw a multi-billion dollar purchase of IBM stock by the government-lauded, vetted, and loved, Mr. Warren Buffett. Mr. Buffett has a history of not liking IBM. Not liking tech stocks in general. So why the huge turnabout? Makes me wonder.

IBM has not done anything to warrant, in my opinion, such a move by anyone, let alone "Wizard of Smart" such as Mr. Buffett. IBM ditched the PC market years ago and has moved into software that services large companies and organizations....what was that? They moved away from the PC and got into software and service for large organizations. He paid high for the stock despite the preferential treatment. More than he would have paid for any other deal of that size...so what does he see that the rest of us do not? What is his "Return on Investment"? Perhaps it is not money but influence that he has purchased.

Wonder if they are going to plug into the government for all the tracking software and hardware they are going to need to properly control a large, 300 million+ population. Cradle to grave healthcare, CTG welfare, CTG interventionism. Interesting.

I think we all need to pay attention to IBM for the next few years and see exactly what they are up to. Heck, I read that the SEC even gave IBM a waiver for reporting these large stock purchases as Mr. Buffett was purchasing them so the price was not driven up by his activities. Kept his purchase price low. Favoritism? Naw. None there.

GE has lead the way with Crony Capitalism. They push for the elimination of incandescent light bulbs even as they are building new factories in China to produce the new CFLs. They shut down all their American production and put thousands of American out of work. Immelt is named to all the important Federal committees and steers things in his direction. Shame on us for not yelling about this.

GE Health shows a 57% increase in profits from the year prior and pays ZERO Federal income tax on this revenue because they are able to use accounting rules and foreign holdings to shelter the income. Not illegal, but very favorable to them. Something I can not do, for sure. This happens even as the IRS hires thousands and thousands of new agents to dig ever deeper into the pocket of the common American. This is not smelling very well.

While I'm at it, I've got another gripe I want to air out. Scientific projects are being cancelled to make room in a shrinking discretionary portion of the Federal budget. Projects that have run for a decade or more to the tune of $10 billion for the entire decade. $80 billion for the 30 year run of the space shuttle; only to be cut. Yet at the same time I hear about the government throwing about $300 billion here, and $250 billion there. Simply ridiculous numbers. And that is for a SINGLE YEAR!

TRILLIONS of dollars down the Crony hole, the populist hole, the agenda hole. Money that can cure cancer, launch Man to Mars, explore the Solar System for natural resources (preserving the Earth) an such, yet we hose it down a black hole that will only grow larger and the dependent folks continue to multiply.

Crony Capitalists will only multiply. Look at Wall Street Banks. They were the darling of the Obama administration during the last election cycle. Now they are eeeevil. The Feds will feed, but they are loyal only to their own ambitions. Companies will continue to court the Feds knowing the risks because the payoff is HUGE...nothing less than the public tax trough.

Look to the late 1800's for a historical example. It took the Feds to break down the monopolies that emerged at that time. Now, if you think that this was done in the interests of the people then you are sadly mistaken.

The monopolies were broken up because their power became so great that they began to challenge the very power of the Federal Government itself. Once broken up they were more easily regulated. Regulation does not seize the methods of production, but it does set the ground rules for their production. This is a de facto control of those industries. The Feds actually had to take a BAILOUT from Mr. JP Morgan (yep, that guy) to keep the government going after a financial crash. How humiliating to be propped up by a private individual.

Watch IBM. Watch Microsoft. Watch Apple. Watch Government Motors. There are eddies and currents in the fabric of our society right now that should be greatly concerning people these days. Watch the Occupy Wall Street folks and look for the strings that are jumping that puppet. The strings run through Obama and into those pulling Obama's strings. A massive matrix of like-minded and similarly governed NGOs and "non-profits".

Keep an eye out and prepare. Tough times are right around the corner.

Live well.

--Zavost

More Random Observations

The Stoa has been on the road the last two days. Death in the family and all. These are good opportunities to re-evaluate your own life, as you ponder the ending of another.

While traveling, I frequently have to wait for connector flights. These can sometimes take hours. Many would see this in a negative light, but not me. It gives me a chance to watch the seas of humanity pass by, chatting about their lives and what is important to them in this frozen slice of time.

It also allows me to ponder things that have only been half-pondered in the past. For instance:

Every one of those people passing by have extended family trees. They all have grand parents, parents, siblings of some kind. They laugh and they wont. They tell jokes, and cry about the funerals they are en route to. I'm not much different then they.

Ethnicity does not come into play. I see Chinese fathers playing with their one daughter. I see a Korean mother counting to three before she is going to punish her son. I see black families, yes, families, move orderly through the airport. I see white dopers, stupid caps on their heads and everything, iPod buds growing out of the sides of their heads. I wonder how they paid for that stuff if they were always so high...

Seeing those people makes me think again on what it means to be a sentient human. I know I must be stealing from some classical writer here, and I apologize ahead for this one:

The part of us that makes everyone us is a spark. An energetic point, right between the eyes, for lack of any better geography. The body is simply the vehicle that allows it to move about within our material plane.

I feel that, like old worn-out cars, we eventually have abandon our bodies once they break down. We move on, perhaps finding a new vehicle later on. Another "model" to roam about in for the next 80+ years. It does not sound all that bad.

Perhaps we make arrangements on the other side before birth, deciding and selecting the model of vehicle we wish to tool around in. White, Asian...each has its own advantages, each has its own challenges. We pre-select based on our wishes. Ethnicity is no different then Ford, Chevy, or Nissan for instance. I must have selected based on size and durability. A svelte model was not in my cards.

As I helped to carry my Grandfather from place to place, finally ending up in the cemetery, I was struck by that symmetry. He was 90 and just wore out. It was time for him to move on and find another vehicle. I hope he spends some time with my grandmother, who has been waiting for him to join her for the last 5 years.

I see all of the extended family, many of which I have not seen since the last funeral. They are all older, and several are noticeably missing, having passed or being too ill to attend. There was a time, after seeing a slide show of his life, where his generational cohort were kids. Slicked hair and cocky attitudes. Pictures followed showing a young man courting a woman nearly 4 years his senior. Odd for the day. At that time he still had his own grandparents. His own parents, and his uncles. Over time, they began to pass, one by one.

Eventually, he was "dad" and "uncle". People came to his house to celebrate the holidays. The older cohorts were still around, though the vital webs of familial relationships had begun to break down due to deaths deletions. Then he was "grandpa", perhaps traveling to see his children and grandchildren. The focus was shifting from his cohort to that of his son's. Eventually, his friends and relations begin to age and die, joining those who had gone before, like his parents and uncles.

Today, with his passing, a complete chapter has now been closed. My father is the "patriarch" of that branch of the extended family, though the focus has already shifted away from him. The focus is on my generation now. His generation has already begun to fade. The GI generation hung on for so very long.

I am the patriarch of my family branch, though I am only 42. Odd, that. My focus is on my family. My children do not have this extended web and are poorer for it, I believe.

My daughter was born in 1997, my son in 1999. Both of them met my grandfather, their great grandfather, and my daughter actually remembers him. This man was born in 1921. My father in 1946. Myself in 1969, my children in 1997 and 1999. My son's eyes took in the memories of this man and will carry those memories deep into the 21st century. As long as we remain in the living memories of our descendants then we don't truly die.

My great grandmother was born in 1898. I remember her as she lived to be almost 100. My daughter has a vague recollection of her. This woman, who was born in the 19th century, is being carried around in her descendants, like my daughter into the 21st. There is something profound about this and it requires much time to ponder and to appreciate.

I am sure he is in a better place now, reuniting with friends and loved ones decades past. It was a wild ride and he was in the thick of it all. I'm sure he has much to discuss with them.

I wonder which model he will pick next time?

Live well,

--Zavost

The Passing of Family

Atop the Stoa this night, I ponder the passing of family from this world.

The generational links that bind us form at birth and dissolve upon death. Those around us imprint something of themselves at every encounter. In my case it is the passing of a grandfather. His imprinting upon me differed, of course, from the rearing of my father. I saw him only infrequently before I became an adult. A year or so would pass as a child, and many years would pass as an adult from meeting to meeting. Eventually, we met only at the funeral of an extended family member.

He was a good man. A kind man. Intelligent, hardworking, WWII veteran. He raised three children and tolerated a powerful wife who wanted to see that he would return from the war before she committed to marriage. She worked at Studebaker for 20 years and at the University of Notre Dame for 19 years.

I saw him as a man who was serious, but able to smile when appropriate. My father's recollection of him is that of a father, who was stern and unable to give him a confidence-building pat on the back.

Regardless of his impact on others, I always looked upon him with a detached fondness.

Family is like that. Each one touches the others around them differently. My grandmother (his wife) was not very fond of much, or of me. The feeling was mutual, though I did have a lot of respect for her. When she passed in 2006, I studied her life with the eyes and mind of an adult, and not that of a child. She was a remarkable woman, though apparently cold and distant to her grandchildren. Looking at them as a pair, I can not be surprised that my father's life took the course it did, given how they shaped him growing up, though he did, of course have a choice.

The grandparent that made the most impact on me was my Grandfather on my mother's side. He passed in 1979 when I was only 10, and much of what I remember of him has to highly romanticized. Knowing that people are not all good or all bad, I can still accept him as the great man I remember him to be.

My other grandmother (his wife) is still alive at 92 and impresses me still. I find it strange that from my grandparents I see traits that I want to emulate (or learn from), and from my parents, traits I wish to shun. My grandparents remained married, each for more than 50 years, while my parents had a messy divorce when I was 20.

My grandparents saved for their retirement and their future. They bought much of what they owned without debt or long terms. They endured the great depression, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and all the other political upheavals of their times. Yet, they were still upbeat and productive members of their society.

All four of them volunteered with the church, served the poor and helped their community. My parents have been less altruistic. It is not a knock on my parents, they are who they are and I accept them for what they are. I am who I am today because of them, so any negative attribute I assign to them is something that shaped me into the virtuous individual I try to be today.

The generation above us shapes us. The generations about us shape us. Our relationships with our grandparents are shaped by their upbringing 50+ years ago, translated through the generational lens of our parents, shaped more than 20 years ago. We are shaped by our grandparents as surely as we are shaped by our parents, whether we notice it or not.

We shape our children and will help to create the next "culture" in which they will in turn raise their children. Generational influence, hundreds of years up and down the generational chain.

Think about that when dealing with your children or your grand children. Your words, actions, laughs, smell, chocolate chip cookies...all of it becomes part of the memories that will pack down through the decades. Children, a century later may use an idiom or a hand gesture that would seem so in place a century earlier.

Good stuff to ponder, the next time you interact with a family member. Enjoy them while they are here, since it is much harder to interact with them when they are gone. Bite back the angry retort at Thanksgiving, allow them to mend a fence if they wish. Ponder this, class, for I will continue to ponder the passing of my grandfather for a long time to come.

Live well

--Zavost

Ongoing Language Deterioration

From the Stoa this night I once again shake my head. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Words mean things.

It irritates me that one political party or the other feels the need to mould and shape a word and it's meaning to mould and shape an electorate. No, that is being generous. They demean our language to dupe a public who, for some silly reason, thinks that a word and its meaning does not change in one's lifetime.

Two items have my attention tonight. The word "black" in relation to race, and the word "starvation".

Centuries ago, the indigenous peoples of Africa, well, most of them, were called "Negros", a derivation of the Greek word for black. There was no seemingly negative connotation to that phrase, and I would assume that it is still appropriate to use today. People did create a negatively connotated word, but it was not Negro. Later, during the civil rights movement, they demanded to be known as "Afro-Americans" or "African-Americans". Funny, I never wanted to be known as a "Slovak-American" or a "German-American", though negative words do exist for each of those populations of people, despite their "Whiteness".

Bill Clinton in the 90's was given the title, "black" for his policies. That, somehow, despite is affluent white upbringing, he "understood" the black condition. Forget for a moment the powerful black leaders who needed him to keep the race enslaved to welfare and big government.

Then, along comes Barak Obama, a man who is the product of a white woman from Kansas and a Kenyan from Africa. Technically, half white and half "black". However, the media trumpets his blackness at the expense of his whiteness. No matter that he grew up in affluent Hawaii. We should all be so lucky. Somehow, he passes the litmus test for being "Black". Though the word "blackness" should be used, I believe.

Herman Cain appears on the stage and the media and the black leaders proclaim that he is not really "black". How about that? The word has completely morphed in a few short years from "black-race" to "black-beliefs". This is wrong on so many levels. How can someone who was born of a black man and a black woman not be considered "black"?

Black now has nothing to do with color or race, it is now a code word for someone who believes in a certain political mind-set. A belief in victimhood on a planetary scale.

I believe that this is reason enough for me to shake my head. White Red-Neck from Arkansas is black. A spoiled rich boy raised in Indonesia and Hawaii, half rich white and half rich African is an authentic American Black man. A self-made black man who does not prescribe to victimhood is NOT black.

On to the next word. Starvation. I saw a sickening commercial on Hulu yesterday that said that starvation is not about food, it was about power. Power that affects woman and children the most. "Woman and children hardest hit!", is all I can hear in my head.

This ad went on about how food is being used to control and demean women around the world. Hogwash. Bunk. Manure. Why are there more women on a diet then there are women in the world? Does hunger exist? You bet. Are men to blame? I can definitely agree to that. Though it is not done as tool directed AT women. It is a side effect of corruption, rebellion, and outright war. When men are fighting and killing for a cause they are not planting a field. When men come upon a village that is not their own, they WILL act up. Food is not a tool of oppression.

Starvation is the absence of food. Hunger. If you wish to be honest, just tell women that you want them to sign up for your organization so that you can get more of whatever you want at the expense of those weaker than you or your group? In the name of "social justice" for your "group" you will seize those same rights from others who have done nothing to wrong you, despite what you are told.

Ignorance, idiocy, lack of self-worth. These are all things that plague us in our modern day. If you are so worried about the oppression of women, then perhaps you need to address your Islamic compatriots. As a religion they are mandated to oppress woman. Allah ordered it through is pedophile prophet.

Why not look at that last sentence and take it for face value. Are more woman oppressed by men holding back a slice of pizza or are they being forced to wear a bag over their heads and obey the men of the household. Which is it?

I retire on this fine, wonderful night.

Live well.

--Zavost

The theater of the absurd

From atop the Stoa this night I sit upon a step, chin in hand. Europe, oh Europe, what have you done?

The EU draws up a new "bailout" that is actually a transnational power grab and then wonders why the Greeks don't meekly accept their fates. Their Socialist Premier decides to put the issue to the people to see if this was ok with them. How about that; the SOCIALIST was more democratic than the EU.

The Germans and the French throw an absolute conniption and make some threats behind the curtain and the Premier buckles. Authoritarian practices sweep the field.

The only country that has figured out the only way to survive this situation is denied a lifeboat...pulled back on deck to go under with the rest of them.

You can not undo a BASE jump once jumped. The markets are collapsing faster than any government can react, not that this could have been avoided even if they had reversed course in 2005.

I will continue to watch from my Stoa and take care of my friends and family.

Live well.

--Zavost

Just Perhaps...

From the Stoa this night, I look out upon the Shipyards of the Republic with some guarded optimism.

This morning I came across a video showing an ex-Representative that connected the Communist dots from his college days to his time as a Representative. In college he went to a Communist rally simply to cover it as a minor undercover journalist. What he heard made him shake his head at the lunacy of what they were going to do to undermine the Republic and put it out of his thoughts.

Fast forward 25 years and he recalls the rally, looks about him and realizes just how much of that agenda they did accomplish. He writes an article while in office and then has to put up buckets to catch the hail storm of fury directed at him. Someone sends him a book from 1958 detailing how a similar Communist rally was going to undermine the Republic and then he truly sweats.

Only then, after reading that old book, did he realize just how deep the roots of Communism sank into our Republic. He saw, spread out before him their blue print that would carry them to 1992, the year of his rally. Then he sees how far that 1992 rally has gone.

Society had been so rotted from within that in 1992 he didn't think the Communists had done all that much in the intervening decades. He thought that Communism was something of his generation to fight. How wrong he realized he was.

The light turned on for him, and he has been trying to turn on the lights of all those around him, as I do every day. Arguing against Communism and Socialism is self-defeating. You CAN NOT reason a person out of a position that they did not reason themselves INTO. You must teach them how to think. Don't think for them, that is what has gotten them into this mess.

Help them think for themselves. They will come to their own conclusions, if they have a good heart and spirit. No one willing wants to take what is not theirs, not deep down. Guilt is at variance with our normal state of being. To deny that guilt is to lie to themselves, which to me is the only kind of lying that is truly inexcusable.

Just perhaps enough people are waking up. Just perhaps the Tea Party has solidified it roots. Just perhaps the common American citizen can comprehend what they have given up. Just perhaps they will take responsibility for the mess their collective ignorance has inflicted upon this great nation.

Yes, it is your fault, just as it is mine. However, we must not dwell overly much on how we got here, but on how to get "there". We must get back to our solid, common sense roots. We must rekindle our religious roots and our solid distrust of big government. We must re-value the family while we revalue our dollar. We must educate our children, on mud floors or at the base of a Stoa, it does not take a lot of money. Two people talking is all it takes to educate.

Just perhaps it is not too late. We will come from the crash that is coming, the massive crash that was only delayed by the 2008/9 financial bailouts. The time of reckoning approaches, for it has only been delayed at the cost of trillions. From the ruins we will have an opportunity to shed all the fat and sloth and be reborn as the America we once were. In other words, those willing to work hard to put everything back together again will be in the positions of power. Hopefully, those will be the right people.

Good night from the Stoa. It has been a pleasant night and I trust that you will ponder what has been discussed this night.

Live well.

--Zavost

Not all change is good change...

From the Stoa this night I wish to muse aloud about all the change that has been going on lately.

The mis-named "Arab Spring" continues to grind along. Egypt's President is in prison. Tunisia'a President is cast out. Libya's strongman is dead at the hands of the rebels. Assad is clinging to power in Damascus. Saudi Arabia is angry at Iran. Iran wants to nuke everyone, despite being downwind from everyone.

Putin is the virtual Czar of Russia today, for good or ill. China flexes is muscle even as it falls apart from within. Vietnam seeks closer military ties to us to warn off the resurgent China. Change abounds.

Obama has the worst Presidential ratings since they were recorded at the 11th quarter of service point. This despite the fact that he has the MSM covering for him. Think about that. George W. Bush had a rating more than 10 points higher than Obama at the same point despite having 99% of the media feed on his every cough.

Change for change sake is not good. This is unplanned change at best, intentionally destructive or self-serving change at worst. You would hope that someone with the power of the Presidency would use this as a change agent for good. Instead we have a President who viscerally hates this country and everything it has ever done. Funny that, for if we had not "grown" as a nation, a half-white, half-Kenyan would NEVER have become mayor, let alone President. Funny if you really think about it.

His change is purposeful and personal. Regardless of our historical track record of success (our acts speak for themselves) he wishes to remake us into nothing more than another moribund Europe or a hapless third world nation. His "change" was never our "change". It really was his.

Is it a good change to see Ghadafi dead? Well, yes, he was a very bad man. However, the absolutes of philosophy fail us when discussing the real world. Ghadafi was indeed a very bad man. He ordered the deaths of thousands outside of Libya, and thousands more within. He sponsored terror and developed chemical weapons. He was also tamed over time. After Reagan bombed him the 80's, wounding him and killing one of his children he realized that he was in a game that was over his head. All the defenses he purchased from the Soviet Union were dissolved as if they were wet tissue. He was on the path towards normalization and acceptance into the society of nations. He even renounced his nuclear weapon project after seeing how quickly we disposed of Iraq and Afghanistan. American strength was once again to be feared.

Now, as part of the "Arab Spring" the time is ripe for a radical islamic to take power, as will happen in Egypt shortly. Just as Jimmy Carter created the weeping sore that is Iran, Obama will out-do him and turn the entire Middle East into one.

This "Occupy Wall Street" is neither new nor youth driven. It is just another Communist rally, no different than one you might have seen in St. Petersburg in 1918, Berlin in 1922 and 1933. You are seeing it in Greece today. They are the disaffected, the incompetent, and the lazy. Some are in it for the easy women and cheap drugs, but most are simply unwilling to risk personal failure in an attempt to be successful in life. They call themselves the 99%'ers, but they are unwitting pawns in a game that Lenin and Goebbels would have found comfortably familiar. No joke. These will be the mis-guided muscle that will focus the attention away from the real group of people attempting to seize power. The rabble can be dispensed with once they have the power, since they don't care about restraint in the way that most governments care.

Change needs to thought out. You must have a goal fixed in mind and direct the change to minimize the "un-intended consequences" of that change. Unfortunately, the folks sponsoring the OWS movement know exactly where they want this change to end up and they have plenty of unthinking, lazy, fools to help them get there.

It is time to retire for this day. There will always be a tomorrow, even if I am not around to enjoy it.

Live well,

--Zavost


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